Sister Missionaries

Having sister missionaries come to our ward has been so much fun.  I love getting to have them over when possible and getting to know them.  It's much easier for me to bond with them instead of with the elders.  We got lucky enough to see one of them again after her mission.  Brandy Taylor stopped by our house while she was passing through town and I just loved getting to see her.

Later that same night though, we said goodbye to another sister missionary.  Sister Margot Christensen.  She started and ended her mission here in Show Low so we got to see her grow up out here. I made sure I was already friends with them on Facebook cause they feel like such good friends to me.

Cleaning helper

While we have chores for the boys to do, every once in a while they each want to do some of my chores.  I love watching them do my sweeping or vacuuming and they think it's fun too, but only when it's their idea.

Reading night

Nate's school celebrated Dr. Seuss night so we headed out to join him.  All the teachers were dressed as a different Dr. Seuss character.  Nate chose to be Mr. Brown and even made himself a mustache.  The little party they had was a lot of fun and Kayton got to do all kinds of activities. Happy Reading Week!  

Merrick playing with the decorations

Baby #3 is a....

Boy!

This is how we announced it to everyone.  

Merrick really wanted a little brother and totally got his wish.  Kayton didn't care either way. Nate was fine either way too.  I really truly thought it was going to be a girl this time and so when they said boy at the ultrasound all I could do is a laugh/cry/shake my head cause it just took me a while to wrap my head around it.  I guess we better get to finding a name for this little guy now.  The ultrasound showed that everything was great and measuring normal so we just feel so blessed to know that much.  I am now officially more than outnumbered in our house.

Our Valentines weekend

What a weekend it was. It started with our stake throwing a Valentines dinner for the adults on Friday night, and we were able to go.  We had steak and ate with friends.  There was dancing afterwards, but our little group decided to go back to a house and play games instead of sticking around for dancing.  All the husbands were excited to ditch the dancing.  We thought it was a great night.  

The next day, we got up and headed to the valley.  We went down to help my mom and step dad clean out Grandma Peterson's house to get it ready to sell.  There was a lot to do and we stayed there all day.  We were able to take home a few things like some instruments, books and pictures.
On Valentine's Day Sunday, we headed off to church with my grandparents and got to eat dinner with them.  Then, we had to leave their house for a little while so we went temple hopping.  We started at the Gilbert temple, finally got to see it in person and walked around admiring all of it.  Then, I really wanted to head to the Mesa Temple since it is my favorite one.  We got to hang out at the Visitors Center for a while and let the boys try all the cool gadgets they had there.  I loved watching them enjoy the church videos and seeing their love for going to the temple.  I thought that getting to be at the temple where our eternal family began was a great way to spend Valentines Day.

 

 

Kayton turns 6

Kayton turned 6. I just can't believe it sometimes.  He only has 2 more years until he gets baptized and it's making me a little sad.  He is such a great kid though, I don't know what we would do without him.  With my pregnancy making me so sick, I wasn't able to do as much this year as I wanted, but we started his birthday off with taking cupcakes to his school for his class.  They sang to him and ate treats and just loved getting to celebrate.  

His birthday was on a Sunday this year, so I made sure to pull out our banner and make him a yummy pancake breakfast.  

After church, we let him open the presents we got him. He got some games and a Transformers toy. 

Then, a few days later, we had a little family dinner and he got even more presents.  

and had cake and ice cream.  

He was really bummed he couldn't have a friends party, but he still had a great birthday weekend and we love getting to celebrate with him.  I love getting to watch his excitement every year.

Grandma Bonnie Peterson

Today we said goodbye to our Grandma Peterson.  It was a bitter sweet day.  She was an amazing woman and will be missed greatly.  She was struggling health wise and she is now home with her husband and Heavenly Father.  Since we joined the family later, I loved how I always felt welcome and one of the family.  

Most of our brothers at walking the casket

 

The children

 

Peterclans family

We were lucky that we were able to see so much family that day.  We were especially lucky that Tyler, Megan, Dallin, and April drove down from Utah so we were able to have some fun times together and see the new nieces and nephews.  

Ice cream night at Nelson's

Tommy and Felicity, it was my first time meeting them

Canadian Brass Concert

Nate can finally cross this off of his bucket list.  We finally got to use his Christmas present and go see the Canadian Brass.  The excitement on Nate's face was the same of a kid getting a new toy and I was so excited to go with him.  

There was one song where they came out into the audience and played a song together from different spots.  One was pretty much at the end of our row. 

The best was the end though where they did autographs and the tuba player, Chuck Daellenbach, was nice enough to let Nate take a picture with him.  This man is the only original member of the group left and Nate has admired him since high school.