Family Home Evening

When Justin works the night shift we rotate our Family Home Evening schedule since he is gone every other Monday night. So last night we had FHE and when I told the girls I was getting the lesson ready, Alaina gathered up some blank 3x5 cards and told me she was going to get a scripture ready. She proceeded to write on them with her blue crayon, doing her best to write down all the letters that she knows how to write.

We gathered downstairs for our lesson. We started with the song and prayer and then Alaina said she had something she wanted to share. She ran to get her 3x5 cards then came back and stood at the front of the room, all business like and proceeded to read to us what she had written.

Then Katelyn wanted to read something too...


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Elisabeth 7 months

Elisabeth is now 7 months! The time is just flying by with her. She is so adorable! I know, I am biased (as it should be for any mother), but she's just so pretty and cute and chubby and delicious!

She still only has two teeth. I am kind of surprised by this since she got the first two at 4 months. I thought for sure she'd sprout a couple more by now. She rolls from back and front, she scoots and pushes herself all over the place. Today I found her halfway underneath the wing back chair. Justin has nicknamed her "scooter".

She loves eating and has quite a healthy appetite. She gets startled very easily. She always has. She is a great little talker and I love listening to her babble. She is getting better and better at sitting up, but isn't all the way there yet. I don't like to go too far when she's sitting up, unless I surround her with pillows to soften the fall when she topples over.

I think that Elisabeth is kind of a spaz....in a good way. The other day I was rocking her and feeding her and she kept pulling off of her bottle and then shaking her head back and forth from side to side. Such a spaz! To be quite honest, there have been a few times I have wondered about her...as in, does she have some kind of disorder or something??? Just a fleeting thought...

Yesterday I took her in the have her hips x-rayed. I think I mentioned before that her doctor mentioned her asymmetrical thigh skin folds. Sometimes it can be an indicator for hip dysplasia. They did two x-rays, which she was definitely NOT thrilled about. I'm hoping, and expecting, that they will come back normal.

little girls

Since the girls still had some money in their doll jars, I took them down to the bank and we cashed in their coins. They both ended up with $38 dollars to spend on what ever doll accessories they chose. Katelyn fell in love with this camp trailer, but I told her it cost $60 and she didn't have enough. When Alaina also decided that she really liked it, I suggested they pool their money together so they would have enough to buy it. They thought that was a great idea. So they got the trailer and then had enough for a little purse set each.

I think it's very cute and they are having so much fun with their new toys.

2014 A New Year!

Yay! We survived another year! 2013 was a great year. I got to work at Great Harvest for a while, I got to be pregnant, I got to GIVE BIRTH (definitely the highlight)! Boy did last year fly by. I'm looking forward to a new year of trying new things, having new experiences and enjoying my little family. 

So far we are planning on running in a Ragnar Relay (Justin and I) in July and we just decided that we are going to go to HAWAII!!!! Afterall, we will celebrate 10 years of marriage this year. We have been offered the opportunity to go with my Dad and his wife a few times, but this time it feels like the right time. I love having things to look forward to! 

I don't typically make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I decided to make 4 small daily goals to help keep me more focused. 

They are: prayer, devotional, read with my kids, do my foot exercises. That's it!

Happy New Year!

More of Elisabeth at 6 months

Today Elisabeth gagged on her first food. I gave her a combination of green bean and brown rice and she was less than impressed. Although, she still ate it.

She has really gotten to be so much fun these last few weeks especially. She is sitting up stronger now, though still not quite on her own. She sits in the highchair to eat now. She loves to talk and make cute noises and squeals. Over Christmas, she finally rolled from her front to her back for the first time, even though I think momentum and gravity helped out with that. When she is on her belly she can turn herself around in a complete circle. She can hold onto toys and just has the cutest little smile ever. She also likes to play with her feet (happy baby pose) and she has recently become very interested in her hands and fingers. Sometimes I'll catch her with her hands in front of her face, just staring as she moves her hand and fingers around.

Ward Christmas Party

Katelyn and Alaina got to be Angels for the ward Christmas party reenactment of the Birth of Jesus.

Visit from Santa

The girls had a very special visit from Santa Claus this year. We were at home one evening, when we heard a "HO, HO, HO, Merry Chistmas!" outside. Then the doorbell rang and to our surprise, it was SANTA!

He brought a gift for each of the girls (Elisabeth was asleep) and went off to visit more unsuspecting kids, I'm sure.

He gave Alaina a set of princess bracelets, Katelyn two princess statues to paint and...

a toy phone for Elisabeth

Such a cool Santa! (aka Todd and Becca Jones)

Christmas 2013

We spent this Christmas with my Dad and Brandi. We had a great visit that was extremely relaxing. It was nice to be at my Dad's for a change, since we almost never spend Christmas with them. On the 23rd, we had family home evening which consisted of reading from Luke 2.  We also read from a new book that my sister in law Gretchen sent us, called "I Believe In Santa Claus". It talks about similarities between Santa Claus and the Savior, such as they both wear red, have white hair, love children, give gifts. It includes scripture references from the Bible as well. Then it also talks about the symbols of Christmas, like the wreath, the star, the tree, candy cane, etc. After our discussion we let the girls open the presents that Grandma and Grandpa Peterson had sent, as well as the gifts from Erik and Gretchen's family (my brother and sister in law who had us this year).

On the 24th we loaded up all of our gifts for the girls and about half the house and left for Mt. Vernon. The trip went really well. We had great weather, the pass was clear and mostly dry and we only made two stops, which is pretty good considering we have a baby this year. She was a champ! We made it there by 4:30pm and at 5pm we went with Brandi to Bethany Covenant Church for a family candle light service. I really enjoyed it. There was mostly singing, a lot of which the congregation sang along with. There was a really cute video about the birth of the Savior and some of the Pastors took turns saying a few words or offering prayers.

At one point they invited all the kids to come up front to ring some bells. Katelyn didn't want to go up, but Alaina jumped at the chance. They then had the kids parade through the aisles while we all sang Go Tell It On the Mountain. Alaina had a smile from ear to ear as she marched through. It was awesome!

 

A very wiggly Elisabeth sitting on Granpa's lap

Later the girls got to open up their Christmas jammies before going to sleep to wait for Santa to come

The big deal for Christmas this year was that the girls really, really wanted an American Girl Doll. A few of Santa's Elve's helped us make their Christmas dreams come true!  I made the bedding and Justin made the beds. I just love how they turned out.  It took the girls a while to get to sleep before Santa could set things up. We couldn't wait to see their reactions in the morning. Here are a few pictures.

Katelyn's doll, Rebecca

Alaina's doll, Caroline

 Here they come!

 I love their faces! And although they were really excited about the dolls, they were very quickly side tracked by their stockings and got busy tearing through them before playing with the dolls.

Happy, chocolate stained face of Katelyn

When I found out a friend from church was heading to Germany, I asked him to bring me some Kinder Eggs if he happened across any. This is a fun memory from my childhood when we lived in Germany for a time. There was a German candy store not far from where we lived and I used to love getting these chocolate eggs that have a tiny toy inside of them. This went in all of our stockings.

Alaina enjoying her chocolates

Elisabeth helping Granny B open a gift

After the girls went through their stockings, we had a light breakfast. Then we opened the rest of our gifts and were joined by my Uncle Pat, my Dad's twin brother who lives there now. After opening the rest of our gifts, we had waffles and bacon!

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing and involved Starbucks, going on some walks with Brandi and Eli (the dog), eating lots of good food, watching movies and taking Katelyn shopping for some new clothes. I think she's had a growth spurt! By the end of the week the girls were starting to get a little stir crazy, so I took them to the mall the play on the toy and then we stopped by PetCo and looked at all the animals they had.

Elisabeth trying to get a taste of Starbucks

Taking Elisabeth on one of our walks

"angry face"

"silly face"

Here are the girls in their new matching dresses, making lots of silly faces.

Secret Santa days 7-12

We had so much fun opening our gifts from our Secret Santa. The girls especially loved it. Thank you again (whoever you are) for your thoughtfulness and kindness to our family this Christmas!

Christmas Card

Unfortunately, I am just not going to get around to sending out Christmas cards this year. But if I were to send one, this would probably be it! Just love my beautiful, sweet, talented girls :)

Thanks to Windermere in Kennewick, we get to take our girls every year for a free picture with Santa. The pictures are very nice quality too. Not only do we get a free picture, but they serve cookies, hot cocoa and cider and then the girls got a candy cane and a little stuffed animal to take home. What a great service!

I have loved all of the cards and letters we have gotten this year. Hopefully next year I will be back on top of things :)