I am blogging

Hello family!!!!

I'm sitting in Heather and Joe's living room, and Liz is confusled as to why no one is blogging. Because she would like something new to look at. :P So I'm blogging.
We are listening to Glee songs on James's phone/ipod thing. It's fun. Good songs. :D

Not much to say except we all really wish you were here with us Michelle and Bryce. JJ should be arriving in an hour and a half or so,(mom and dad left to get them), and we miss you guys terribly.

But, seems we are unable to be together, we wish you the happiest most fun New Year's Celebration ever! and we love you so much!

mmm....we had some delicious italian beef for dinner! mm mmm goood!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand..............................................................

i LOVE YOU!!!!!

Happy New Year Family!!! 2010!!!!

oh!
p.s.--I graduate this year. (tomorrow this year. new year this year. ) :P

Even more addicted

My new iPhone theme.


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Diana on her way home

The night before last, Diana received a phone call telling her her dad had had a heart attack and was in a coma. All the information we received before she left for Russia said he was still in a coma. She is flying Air France through Paris to Moscow, then to Ufa. Please pray for her and he family.

David's Blessing

This will be done on the third of January. We would love for you to attend of you are able.


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Merry Christmas

Just want to share our Christmas in Galesburg, Illinois.

Some Christmas fun

April broke out the Christmas cookie cutters and made everybody lunch.


Merry Christmas.

Ice

This is what we woke up to this morning. Yes, the roads looked like this too.

Another Day Gone By...

I find it ridiculous that I managed to somehow miss the day that carries three family birthdays... and this includes having talked to one of them this morning! Though I feel sheepish for getting caught up in life so much to forget three generation's worth of birthdays, I still want to wish you all a happy birthday! I love you all!

By the way, BYU was awesome tonight... 44-20!

Mis-Calculated, but Done!

The driveway, from road to garage in not 130' as indicated last evening. It is double that, right close to 260'. No matter, it is done. Once I got past the level portion I figured out a better way to shovel. When I got to the last half, I even improved on that. The last 40' was completed in about 22 minutes. Hard for me to not shovel side to side as you all know, but I am hoping for some warm weather and sunshine over the next two weeks. Time for some Tylenol and a hot shower.
This last picture of the sunset is to remind us all of the beauty of life and the world God created for us. Love you all, Dad

No More Pictures, yet...

I hit the drive at 07:45 and was able to get 40' done in the hour I worked. Guess I should admit that I am now only doing a path wide enough to get the car through. Church was canceled, yesterday morning but I didn't get the word. If I had not called to check on my families, I would not have known. Love you all and thank you for the concern about me being snowed in. Yes, until I had to start shoveling it was quite pleasant but also VERY lonely!

...QUIT ALREADY, Please!

OK, so at 5:00 PM it looked to be lessening and I knew I had to face the music sometime so, I bundled up and look my shovels and opened the garage doors and...

I had to think long and hard to determine if I really wanted to do this or not. I decided it would have to be done sometime . I shoveled for an hour and got 15'. It is going to be a long day tomorrow at 15' an hour on a 130' driveway!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it...

Thought I would share with you what it looks like at our home in Virginia. Yes, Virginia is considered a southern state. Just not today.

The top picture is the generator and the car. The second is from the front yard showing the shrub at the front of the house. The third is the plow, I think? And by-the-way, it is still snowing and no, I have not started shoveling.

And another

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David Verl Petersen

8lbs 14oz
21"
10:22am
Mom is doing great.





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The Greatest Christmas Decoration Ever!!!!

This is an awesome story...

"Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take my fake man down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was only one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard."

Quick survey question

I have to choose one month of vacation for next year and I think I know which one I want but I was curious what you all would choose and why to make sure we didn't miss a prime month. :) With that said the two months before and after will be lighter teaching wise but the other 7 months would be heavier. Just curious what you would choose! Thanks!

From Thanksgiving to Christmas...

Just thought I'd post this and show you what took up my last month. Finished it a week ago Saturday night at about 11:30 for our Sunday afternoon concert. I thought they turned out rather nice. I made the girl's hats, but not the men's. Oh, and the men wore their own pants and the girl's their own blouses...that's it. By the way, it was easier than I thought it would be. I felt accomplished.

More cake?

We had leftover cake and a ward Christmas party tonight. What else was there to do but decorate another. I have to say, Joe really enjoyed it.

Chloe's birthday cake

I finished this last night at eleven pm. I love it.









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The BIGGEST real Christmas Tree

Last year we settled for two one-foot trees to decorate our apartment. Last year we weren't here for Christmas. This year we couldn't settle for so little. We stumbled upon a beautiful tree for only $20! I just have to say that it is a good thing that we have vaulted ceilings!

Here are the specs:

9' 4" tall

6' diameter

1400 lights (including star)

Yes, Jodi got mad that it took me five hours to put the lights on, then another three hours to make the star (yes, it is homemade - made from copper that we had stripped over a year ago and had stashed in the garage, plus a strand of blue lights). BUT, it was worth it! Our tree is beautiful! You are all welcome to come and see it!

Because I can

So, it is Friday again! This means I get to post more pictures. Lucky me. This first one is April's birthday. Yes, we put all the candles on one piece. We have learned to keep the wax all in one place. It's kind of hard to find and take off of an ice cream cake. Yummy cake. No waxy flavor. Learned a new trick this time. Chop up your desired candy and mix it with the vanilla ice cream. Mmmm.
Collin lost his boot and April happily carried him in. It was cold, I wasn't going out.

Babies

I wanted to post a picture of Jaime's passport, because we got it in the mail, but then it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't be posting that kind of stuff on the internet. So, I came up with this for my photo Friday.

This is a picture of me when I was a baby, probably around Jaime's age, and here is Jaime:

Do we look alike?

Pictures from the Homestead (Honors Choir)

These are pictures we took after the choir sang. Just for you to see.

Ummm, HI!

I'm really cold. I just thought I would share. I'm also still very pregnant and miserable. That being said, I hope everyone is happy and well. I would sure love to know if you are.

Just a few more

Thanks for the snowman kit grandma!

Finally

April was pretty sure this day would never come. They enjoyed the skiff yesterday, but are loving the 8"+ today. Joe is working today at pretty much the only school that didn't close.

Chloe in a canyon

I thought this was cool.



Oh... and Ethan also.
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First day of substituting

And what do I get... Physical Education and three movies to show to classes.



Yes they are playing badmitton.

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You have got to read this post

Dave Barry and the woes of flying

Jaime

Sorry, but I couldn't resist posting another photo this Friday! I just love this one.

This is the face she usually strikes when she's being sat up to look around the world.

I am the only one awake in my home right now. Tomorrow is Justin's LSAT and he is making sure to get a good night's sleep. I am so glad he is sleeping. So far, he hasn't been able to take a practice LSAT without being completely exhausted. What else would you expect from him anyways? We're hoping the extra rest helps him focus and do his best.

Right now I am sitting in the office/nursery while Jaime is sleeping. I don't usually do this, but tonight I'm trying to make sure she's asleep for the night before I head to bed. Today Jaime got her first immunizations since her stay at the hospital. She cried for the entire appointment because she was unclothed and wanted to eat. Then, the shots came. I didn't think I would be able to handle being in the room and seeing her pain, but I did. I held her hand and kissed her forehead while they poked at her little legs. She cried. Hard. I cried, too. I soothed her, she slept, but woke up not feeling good at all. Can't blame her. Justin gave her a blessing and I held her until she fell asleep. I think I finally understand at least in part what it feels like to be a parent - we suffered with her today to hopefully give her a life free of disease. I suppose we will have many days like this, where we allow her to go through something hard in order to allow her to learn, grow, and be healthy and happy.

Collin sleeping?

We were at SAM's Club and Collin decoded to laydpwn on the 5lb bag of mozzarella.




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Photo Friday

The other day Justin and I were having breakfast together. I was having Honey Bunches of Oats with milk and yogurt and he was having pancakes with peanut butter when all of the sudden he looked over at my breakfast and decided to create the best of both worlds on his plate...so here you have it: the peanut butter, yogurt, cereal pancake.

Ultrasound

We had another ultrasound today. As far as we know, everything looks great. In fact, he is developmentally 1-2 weeks ahead on most measurements. He is currently around 8lbs 1 oz. They also said his foot is already almost 4" long. This would explain the misery in the general rib cage area. My induction is currently scheduled for the 17th. We will keep you posted.

HI

So, it's 5pm, dinner is made, the house is as picked up as I'm going to probably ever get it, the kids are watching a movie, Julia's wandering around making messes...(she's discovered the joy of the Christmas tree.), and so I'm taking this kind of quiet moment to blog...Good idea huh?!
I'm super sore today, because...wait for it ...I actually worked out. First time in a while, we'll just leave it at that. I decided I was getting too...I"m sure you can finish the rest. Anyway, I jumped on the treadmill ran 2.6 miles and then walked another 1.45 miles. It actually felt pretty good until Ella asked me to run at a ten. I couldn't resist the challenge, and now I can barely walk...seriously. After I jumped off the treadmill because I pulled the scar tissue inside my tummy (which caused lots of pain...understatement) Ella had the nerve to inform that "I did not do well at all and Dad could do way better." My children are way to honest. On top of that Ella has this new theory that boys are better than girls, (as you can guess Bryce supports this, and I obviously combat it ever time she brings it up...welcome to my way too traditional family), so my inability to run as good as Dad did not help.
On a brighter note I got my stitches out and now it just looks like a big scar, what do you do. At least it's on my hand not my head. I took pictures for you guys and some day I'll send them. I love you all, and I really love it when I get to talk to you. Bye

Thank you for humoring my addiction

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Collin in Christmas stockings

This was awesome. He was singing Christmas songs over and over. I blame the tree.





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A new TOY!!

We have long been planning to purchase a camcorder this Christmas for our upcoming adventures. We have spent a lot of time at Bestbuy talking with salespeople, looking up reviews online, and asking around. We had narrowed our purchase down to two cameras, either a non-HD, or an HD camcorder. Jodi had convinced me to take advantage of the sale on the non-HD camcorder ($200), but come Black Friday, she gave in and said I could get the HD camcorder ($500). Well, as you can see, we didn't purchase either! We spent two hours at Bestbuy on Black Friday morning looking at NICE cameras that also take video. We made a big jump from our little Coolpix camera to this, which has the best of both worlds: great pictures and HD video! Needless to say, it was a lot more expensive than our other options, but hope it will be worthwhile!

(Our Christmas)

(Our newest family photo taken with our new camera!)

BYU wins!!

It was another one of those nail-biter rivalry games. The tale end of the story is that we were 20-20 heading in to over time and won the game 26-23. Yes!

Justin was there too, but left early to go to the Jazz game with my brother. Poor him, right?

We had a little wager on the game. I predicted 32-27 BYU and he predicted 32-24 BYU and the winner gets back rub. We're having a debate about it - who wins?