January Recap

You would think because I spent all of December and most of January laying in bed that I would have found time to blog.  But when you are feeling miserable coming up with things to write just aren't at the top of my list.  Towards the end of January I finally started to feel like life was going to return to normal.  I am feeling much better and am very grateful for that.  So here are some of the fun things that actually happened in January

For part of Christmas the kids received a gift certificate for Pirate Island.  It is a new theme based restaurant and arcade.  So we ventured out one Monday night for Family Home Evening.

The food was good and the kids had a blast.  We were all ready for some fun as a family again.

Jessica and Ashley had their first official Dance Competition of the year.  They had a parent from every school help with organizing and helping with it.  I sent Mark to the meeting and he came home with the assignment to help with the Gift Baskets for the Judges and other Professionals that help with the event.  Luckily the other parent helping was great about asking for a lot of the donations.  Though we did pull our own and got some good things for the baskets.  Then Mark, Jessica and I spent a Friday night assembling 11 of them.  Mark even cut out vinyl for the boxes.  They looked really good.

The next day the girls performed and they both did amazing.  

Ashley danced the Foxtrot and Tango.  And Jessica was chosen as the All Around Dancer for level 2.  That meant she didn't know which dance she would perform until she was on the dance floor and they pulled it out of a hat.  She ended up dancing the Cha Cha and the Merengue.  

I'm so impressed my girls are learning to ballroom dance and they both love it and do it well.

The surprise of the month was when we woke up to a winter wonderland.  We live in Utah, we get snow all the time.  But it doesn't look like this all the time.

Every thing was flocked in snow.  It was beautiful!

And we finished the month out by going to the Circus!  They come every year and we have gone in the past, but it had been a few years.  John really wanted to go, so when we found a great coupon in the newspaper I agreed we could all go.

We got there early enough to get some good seats.  We saw the elephants and tigers.

And some of the performers practiced right by where we were sitting so we got a front row view.

But John's favorite was definitely the motorcycles in the cage.

It was a fun night and all the kids really enjoyed it.

Bag of Flour

I don't know about you, but I always buy my flour and sugar in 25 pound bags.

Well, today I lost a bag of flour.  Okay, not literally . . . but the scale finally clicked over and I have officially lost 25.6 pounds off my body (again).  YEA!!!!!  I joined Weight Watchers (again) on Oct 17, 2009.  And after a little bit of a plateau in December with my 2 hernia surgeries, I'm back on track and losing again.

When I joined I wrote down several reasons why I was joining this time so when it got hard I could remember my motivation.  One of which was to wear my wedding ring again and I've been wearing it for about a month now.  The next goal I hope to see happen is having no more foot pain.  Even after my heel spur surgery in August I've had a lot of pain.  Standing or walking for more than 5 minutes makes my foot hurt a lot.  So I figure every pound I can take off my foot it will stop hurting that much sooner (cross your fingers).

I've found a few new foods that have helped me get to this point.  I thought I'd share for anyone else out there trying to cut calories.

• Sandwich Thins -- they look like smashed hamburger buns, but with the top and bottom they are only 1 point and they taste really good.
• Fiber One granola bars -- lots of fiber so they fill you up and have enough chocolate in them to satisfy my cravings.
• VitaTops from vitalicious -- Once again I have to have something chocolaty and these do the trick and add fiber so they are filling
• JollyTime Healthy Pop popcorn -- The kettle corn is really good and I love the small bags with just 1 serving in them.
• Yoplait Smoothie -- found in the freezer section.  I lived on these when I was on the liquid diet before the hernia surgery.  Great for breakfast and it gives you a fruit and milk serving for the day.

Now that I have publicly announced I'm dieting, I guess I'm going to have to stick with it!

Webcam

This is what happens when he finds out how to use the webcam when I'm not around.
It gets funnier the longer he goes.  Don't miss Sponge Bob Square Head and kissy kissy is just for you, Melissa C!

Merry Christmas

This Christmas has been a unique one this year.  We are ready to say good bye to December 2009 and move on to the next year.  My only goal for next year is to stay out of the hospital!  Did not enjoy having hernia surgery on Dec 3 and then having complications and having a second surgery on Dec 20.  Hopefully now I'm not the mend for good.

We have been especially grateful to friends and family that have been extra kind and caring for us this season.

For anyone who may not have gotten our Christmas card this year or we didn't have your address, here it is.  Photos were taken by my wonderful sister-in-law Kyleen.  She did an amazing job!

     Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!  As we look back on this year, we are grateful for so many blessings, especially having each of you in our lives.  Please know that we think of you often even if we are not able to communicate as frequently as we would like.  As we celebrate the birth of our Savior we are so grateful for the blessings of the Gospel in our life and the peace that we feel at Christmas time as well as throughout the year.

Jessica is 12 this year.  It is amazing to watch her grow into a beautiful young woman.  She is now participating in the Young Women’s program at Church and is enjoying making new friends.  Her greatest success this year was negotiating a later bed time to the disappointment of her siblings.  She is still fully involved with ballroom and has joined the Drama Club at school.  Jessica has started babysitting as of late and does a wonderful job.  Mom & Dad are grateful for her helpful and willing attitude.  She will be going to Jr. High next year.


Ashley is definitely the most sweet and tender child of the family.  She will turn 10 in March and is enjoying Fourth grade and will be representing her class in the school Spelling Bee this month.  She has joined Jessica in the Ballroom program and is enjoying learning new things.  She is still taking piano lessons and has improved a great deal this year.  She also loves time spent in the Church Activity Days program.


John is just as full of life as always.  We keep thinking he will tone down a little with age, but alas his volume button still appears to be broken.  John is 6 and is in school full-time this year.  He is a math wiz and loves reading anything he can get his hands on.  He also loves playing soccer with other kids at school.  He would spend all of his free time on the computer if he had his way.  He is really an amazing child and brings a great deal of joy to our family.


Christine has spent this year trying to adjust to no children at home during the day.  Oddly the free time she thought she would find, manages to fill up as quickly as it appears.  Her big accomplishment this year includes double surgeries (foot & hernia) (Update -- triple surgeries -- had complications after hernia and they had to go in again on Dec 20).  She has promised to limit her hospital visits in the future.  She continues to be involved with Pampered Chef and the Relief Society at Church.  She remains the Master Scheduler and keeps the family running like a well-oiled machine.


Mark’s year has been fairly uneventful.  He just celebrated 11 years working at Thanksgiving Point.  He is serving in the Elders Quorum in the Church and finds it both challenging and rewarding.  He loves spending time with his family and is constantly amazed at how quickly the children are growing up.


Our year as a family has been marked by some great times together.  We enjoyed a trip to Oceanside, CA for a Jesperson family reunion and a stop at Disney Land.  It was great spending time with Family.  We also spent time in Las Vegas, NV durring spring break visiting both Mark’s sister and Christine’s brother.  We enjoyed the blessing of being able to participate in the open house and dedication services for two new L.D.S. Temples in Utah.  We realized that this will be the last year our children will be in the same school, and suspect things will only get busier from here on.


We are so grateful for this time of year.  We pray you are all well and that you will have a meaningful and blessed Christmas and year to come.

Love,
Mark. Christine, Jessica, Ashley and John Peterson

Sensor Button

Wouldn't it be nice if we could put a sensor button on our children.  Know what they are going to say before they say it and then stop them.  John's latest funny . . .

I had hernia surgery on Dec 3.  I went from not even knowing something was really wrong to almost overnight not being able to eat.  My hernia had become incarcerated which meant from the time I really knew what was going on until the surgery I was on a soft foods/liquid foods diet.  That included Thanksgiving Dinner.  I enjoyed some mashed potatoes, squash, and stuffing.  But even that got me in trouble.  It is easy to stick to a soft foods diet when you know if you don't you'll spend hours on the bed in pain wishing it would just pass.

My doctor was concerned that it was going to be much bigger than they thought when they got in there, so no in and out surgery for me.  He had me plan on spending one night, but I got the privilege of spending two nights in the hospital.  I think he wanted me to stay another night, but the dollar bills were adding up in my head.

Just like any good church group, our wonderful Relief Society brought meals into our family for several days after I got home.  And the meals that were brought in were amazingly good.  At least the little that I tasted or smelled them.  I'm still not eating all regular foods yet.

Well, a week after surgery a sister in our neighborhood needed to pick something up from me.  I got it ready and gave it to Jessica to give to her since I still wasn't feeling fabulous.  The afternoon she came I was in the bedroom and both John and Jessica answered the door.  From what I could tell she was asking the kids how I was doing and if there was anything she could do.

THAT is when I wish I had a sensor button on John.  The next thing I hear out of his mouth is "You can bring us dinner."  At this point I grab my robe and decide to emerge from the bedroom.  By the time I reach the front room he is informing her that he does NOT like chicken enchiladas (the rest of us love them by the way) so if she could bring something else that would be great.  Now this is the type of woman that would probably have gone home and cooked something up and returned that evening with dinner.  Luckily I caught her before she left.  Mark's parents were actually at the house that afternoon to help me and had taken care of lunch and were planning dinner for us that day as well.

All I can say is out of the mouth of babes . . .  It only made sense to a 6 year old that every other woman who had come into the house that week had brought a meal, why not this one as well.

Family Pictures

My brother's wife, Kyleen, was once again kind enough to take our pictures for us. She did an amazing job.

 

They were angels for at least a few pictures

Jessica -- Age 12

Ashley -- Age 9

John -- Age 6

The men of the house

The Girls

October Recap

How is it the middle of November already? Where did the last two months go? How is Thanksgiving just a week and a half away. Good news is Black Friday is almost here and we can't wait for that! But before November is gone I thought I'd recap October.

We started the month in our favorite way. General Conference weekend we spent at a cabin above Sundance Resort. My mom's employer owes a couple of cabins and is generous enough to let us stay a couple of times each year. Because all my siblings are out of state we got to invite Mark's family to join us this time. We were able to catch the last of the fall colors. How would you like this to be your backyard?

Saturday morning we found a surprise.  Our little niece was getting ready and turned around to find this in the bathroom.

So Mark's Dad came to the rescue

And we released Mr. Bat back to his normal habitat

These three ladies were the lucky ones to share a bedroom with Mr. Bat

Paige, Carole, and JaCee were much braver than I would have been.

The rest of the weekend was not so exciting.  Just wonderful food, lots of family and sitting by this

watching General Conference.  It doesn't get much better than that!

The next big event of the month was the Stake Road Shows.  They had the youth in each Ward in the Stake perform a 12 minute skit.  Jessica was one of the sheep and delivered her line wonderfully!

We found some time during Fall Break to squeeze in our annual trip to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point

And even had Mark join us for a picnic lunch!

The girls were brave and concurred The Beast!

I was happy to stay outside and wait with John.





The kids had a blast on all the rides and I spent a lot of time watching them play. I'm still dreaming of the day when I can walk and stand without being in any pain.  Hopefully that day will come soon!

But the kids still had a blast even though we didn't go through the main corn maze this year.  Sorry we missed Larry Miller's head.

And of course we finished the month off with some pumpkin carving.

Our friend Lori came over and joined us one night.

And we got them carved in time for Halloween!

Here is our crazy bunch getting ready to head to school for some parties!

Happy October!!  Thanks for a fun month.

Happy Halloween

Mark was busy at work one day and created this.

Happy Halloween!  Love Us!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Pumpkin Patch

Grandma Pat has started planting pumpkins every year in her garden.  For the last several years we've been able to get pumpkins from her patch.

She had a good crop this year, even if they are small.

Ashley and John were our official pickers.

And we had enough for her, us and several others.  Thanks Mom!

Rocket Launcher

We have an amazing Primary Presidency.  They decided to have a Primary Carnival and the kids were able to earn tickets by saying their prayers, having Family Home Evening, etc.  They were very generous and my kids averaged about 50 tickets a week.  Our kids looked forward to it for weeks.  The day finally arrived and they were not disappointed.

The snow cones were a huge success, especially since it was a warm afternoon.  I was grateful my kids earned so many tickets so I could "borrow" tickets to get a snow cone myself.

But the biggest hit in our family was the rocket launcher.

Powered by the children's force.  They got to step on the 2 liter bottle which forced air through the tubing and launched the paper rockets they made.  Even Mark got into this event.  I've never seen him so excited about a project.  They determined we had to have our own.  So the next morning they headed to Home Depot to get the supplies and came home and started building.

All the kids got to help make it.

And the loved constructing it with Dad.

Somehow I don't have a completed picture (I'll post later)  But it is just as much success at our house as it was at the Primary Carnival.  Thanks Christensens for the great project!