Christmas twenty twelve

Merry Christmas! 
Nothing says "Christmastime" quite like my Mom's vintage pin: 

 

Burke's very first band concert was two weeks ago.  It was really fun to watch him play.  After each song he would hurry to switch percussion instruments.  He had a solo on the snare drum and wood block and did an excellent job.  It made me feel old to have a kid old enough to be in the band!

 

I wasn't sure if Santa was going to make it this year.  We've had some sketchy behavior around here:

Liv continues to show more independence all of the time.  I should add that she has a killer memory, although she isn't much of a secret keeper.  We bought a Christmas present for Rob last week and I told her several times that it was a surprise for Dad and not to tell him what it was... Well, the second Rob walked in the door from work she announced, "Dad!  We bought you a soccer ball for Christmas and it's a surprise." 

This photo of Liv shows that she helped herself to some pudding (did not ask permission) and used a measuring teaspoon to transfer the pudding into a little medicine dropper.  She is such a mess maker!  It doesn't phase her much when I get frustrated anymore.  She will just sweetly say, "I'm sorry.  I love you, Mommy!"  and go on her merry way.

I went to a "holiday" party for the fifth graders put on by a bunch of moms.  They did a "secret snowman" exchange and it was fun to see how excited they were to give each other gifts.  I was able to join a group of kids in a big snowball fight (with balled up paper). 

I was very happy when school got out to have a break from making school lunches!  No more for the entire year :)

Some friends brought us a big bag of "Chicago Mix" popcorn, and I must admit that although the caramel and cheese combo did NOT sound good, it has become my favorite new snack!  Check it out if you haven't already.

We've spent some good time outside this month.  I've been running about 3x a week, and am finding longer runs (6-7 miles) to be quite comfortable and even enjoyable!  I hope to do 8 miles this weekend (got to counter against all the treats!).

We met up with some neighbor kids at the park last Saturday and Rob taught the kids how to play "Mission" and then they played soccer tag.  Although I love me a "White Christmas," I really enjoy that the kids can do things outside all year here. 

I had to be extra sneaky to get photos of Burke playing both the piano and drums on Sunday morning.  He is getting so good!  He gets so bugged when I try to take his photo and chases after me. 

One of my very favorite traditions we have is to take the kids Christmas shopping for each other.  This year we decided to go to Target.  We divided up and gave the kids some money to supplement their own allowance money.  I should note that Hewitt was the most generous with his own money.  Each of the kids was so careful about looking around and deciding what to get each other.  I love this because not only do they learn about how great it is to give, but they become more aware about how much things cost! 

I had the kids take turns wrapping their gifts before church on Sunday.  Hewitt was so thoughtful (and funny) when picking out the wrapping paper for Burke's gift.  He said, "For an older kid that likes blue, this should do the trick!" 

We got these cute reindeer root beers from some friends and we told Tosh he had to wait until Christmas Eve to drink his.  It was a long wait! 

A drawback of living in AZ is that we aren't by our parents or siblings. I've had the thought, "If you aren't able to be with family then create your own!"  We have been so blessed to spend time with some great friends this week.   We got together with friends for dinner both on Christmas Eve Eve (Sunday) and Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Eve we went to dinner at the Lindahl's (have just moved to Gilbert) with two other families.  We had a big ham dinner and I brought two pans of "funeral" potatoes, jello salad, and a dessert.  The adults and teenagers participated in a 'White Elephant' gift exchange and we decided to frame this beauty of Rob (complete with signature) and give to give away.  Oh how we make ourselves laugh. 

The kids acted out the Nativity and Rob played his guitar while we all sang some Christmas songs. 

It was a fun, late night and Liv got an early start to her "visions of sugarplums" on the way home.

I was ahead of schedule this year (didn't wait until Christmas Eve to start my wrapping for once!) but we were still up late.  Love this photo (a little test drive around midnight).  Classic Rob.

The kids slept in on Christmas morning (I think Tosh was the last one up around 8:30).  We made a yummy breakfast of eggs, toasted English muffins, sausage, frozen peaches, and orange juice.  (Don't judge that we ate on paper plates!  I made chocolate mousse pies and sweet potato pie before breakfast and had just started the dishwasher...).

When we sat down to pray together and eat, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for our Savior and our little family and the many blessings we have.  (Rob and I both got teary during the prayer.)  I love these cuties! 

 



After cleaning up breakfast, the kids were allowed into the living room to see what Santa left.

A little blurry, but you can see the excitement about having her own "big girl" bike!

I took this next photo of Hewitt, but then realized how truly awesome Liv looks up in the corner of this photo (I zoomed in for you).  She is a pro on her bike!  I went with her to the mailbox today and she seriously FLIES.  It sort of scares me to death.  

The kids were so cute opening the gifts from each other.  Again, this is very blurry, but you can see Hewitt's reaction to realizing that he and Tosh bought each other the exact same thing!

 Lots of hugs! 

The kids expressed interest in some very practical things this year like new backpacks and electric toothbrushes.  Tosh got the exact backpack he was hoping for from Grandma Pete! 

Hmmm.  Sounds like Legos!

A sweet shot of Tosh and his new pillow pet:

 

This is random, but a few weeks ago I found this photo and have had it on our fridge all month.  This is me and my siblings on Christmas Day in 1984 maybe?  I love that Mark is playing with a puppet doll I got, and Mindy is reading my "Santa Bear" Berenstein Bear book.  Her hat and leg warmers are totally awesome!  It was so great to talk to my brother Todd and Dad yesterday (missed you Min and Mark!).

Tosh (well, his teacher really) gave us the sweetest gift!  A calendar for next year full of his hand prints.  I actually helped the kids with a couple of the pages (a leprechaun and turkey), but had no idea what they were for.  Such a wonderful gift (and made me cry!): 

 

I was so excited to actually have a few surprises for Rob this year.  He is really hard to buy for--mostly because he usually doesn't like what I get, doesn't want anything (doesn't want me to spend any money!), or we decide on something together so it's never a surprise.  Well, this year I surprised him with a few things including some new down pillows for our bed and had this picture framed of him and his dad: 

This was taken by Rob's Aunt Peg at our family reunion this summer and I just happened to think to look through all of the dropbox family files (for the first time!) a few weeks ago.  This was the last photo in Peg's "Peterson" folder and it was such a treasure to discover!  This is *so* Rog; taking an opportunity to teach--in this case at the archery range.  I like to think that he (and my mom) are still close by, helping us along by whispering instructions and advice to us. 

We invited our friends the Lybberts (joined us for Christmas Eve dinner two years ago) over for Christmas dinner last night.  We had turkey and stuffing and all the fixings.  They brought a ham and pretzel jello (new tradition) and it was a lovely dinner and evening including lots of carols at the piano. 

 

I certainly feel very blessed and appreciative of our dear family and friends!  I love you and pray for you and wish you the very best for the coming year.  Thank you for your generosity and for being part of our lives. 

It's December what?

So I'm sitting outside at Burke's soccer game yesterday thinking, it's December what now? Such beautiful weather and I've almost been too busy to enjoy it this week.

First though, I wanted to play catch up and post some photos that my awesome 'photo queen' sis-in-law took Thanksgiving week (I stole these from facebook) :

Cute cousins only 15 months apart (Burke may eventually be taller someday)

This one cracks me up!

Rob, Sue and me (sitting in the backyard watching the kids play)

Love this freckled, cute face!

T in action

Cutie-pies 

Livvy and me

Big squeeze (love that her eyes are closed so tight!)

Love my girl!

Aunt Sue painting Liv's nails (she LOVES this)

Liv helped me put up the Christmas decorations about a week ago.  I've inherited (OK, taken) a lot of my Mom's Christmas stuff and I have loved getting it out and having her things around me.  Writing Christmas cards, putting up stockings (the ones that she helped me make even!) and listening to Christmas music all reminds me of her.  The song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" seems to do the most damage (meaning makes me cry).  It is interesting how the holidays really make me miss her more, but it is all good and I feel at peace.

My favorite ornaments are the ones from my childhood and the ones that my kids have made.  This little gingerbread man (a Primary craft) has my picture from first grade and it is hilarious!  My mom had my hair permed like "Annie" and the volunteer mom there on picture day took her little black comb and combed out my tight curls.  I've always laughed at this photo (after I got over hating it) and thought it looked like I have "hat head" or something.  I posted this pic on Instagram and several of my friends have commented on how I look like Tosh's identical twin.  The funny thing is that Tosh's hair often looks like this quite naturally.  Ha!

So I found this box of candles on our tree one day this week (certainly Liv's doing).  I'd like to think that she was thinking about how Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth, but I'm pretty sure she was just getting into things as usual... 

Rob had all of his gear out last weekend to get ready for a practice and the kids had fun singing into the microphones.  Last year the favorite song around here was "Feliz Navidad" and this year it is "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney.  I have taken several awesome videos (on separate occasions) of the kids singing this song.  Too cute!

Rob and I were asked to do a musical program for our ward Christmas party that was last night.  I told them, "Well if you ask us then we are going to do it our way" and they were fine with that.  We got some different musicians and singers together and it turned out really fun and great.  We did about six songs including some songs with audience participaiton.  It is always fun to do a live gig with full sound and instruments.  The crazy thing is that I had a couple of solos and didn't get nervous AT ALL.  I am a mess if I have to sing in church; I guess it goes to show that this was right up my alley.  This photo was taken at the rehearsal last week:

Random shot of Tosh and Liv before church last week:

We are having the nursery kids that will be Sunbeams in January come and visit Primary for singing time this month.  Liv looked so cute sitting in her chair and she did great again this week.  Can't believe she is almost old enough for Primary.  This next year will be the only year that all four of our children will be in the primary program!

 

Liv saw me doing a Pilates video one morning, and as I was getting ready to jump in the shower I noticed that she had started the video and was doing some of the moves.  So funny!

I have signed up to do a Ragnar relay race (Del Sol in AZ) in February.  It is a team of 12 people divided into two groups/vans that run continually for 200 miles.  Each person runs three legs and tries to get some rest/sleep in between as you follow along in the van.  A little crazy, I know.  The whole thing takes two full days and one night.  Well the legs I signed up for were something like 8.3 miles, 5.4 miles, and 3.6 miles or something like that.  Well yesterday at Burke's soccer game I was talking to another mom on my ragnar team and we decided to look up the exact distances for our legs on the website.  My first leg has been changed to 13.5 miles!  That is over a half marathon people!  Needless to say that I will be swapping my position as they have changed all sorts of things around.  Now I think I am doing 7.5, 4.1, 5.4.  It's stressing me out that it keeps changing.  At any rate I ran 7 miles on Tuesday and have never done that before so I was happy about that.  I've paid my money and have made this public announcement, so no backing out now! 

This week was unusally crazy.  Hewitt took a tennis class this week (every night from 5-6pm) and Burke had a soccer tournament (games Friday and Saturday) along with the usual cub scouts, soccer practices and other things.  Rob provided guitar accompaniment for four vocal solos at our ward relief society dinner on Thrusday night.  The dinner and program were outside and it was a lovely evening--Rob's portion made it especially awesome (for reals).  I volunteered at school three times this week (much more than usual).  I normally go every other Monday, but helped Hewitt's class with their science fair experiements on Thursday and taught Art Masterpiece in Tosh's class on Friday.  By the time the Christmas party was over last night Rob and I were both exhausted and crashed on the couch--until the kids went to bed and then Rob ran to the store to buy some con queso and Drumsticks to celebrate that the week was over!

I dusted off my hardly-ever-used-anymore-camera this morning and thought that I'd try to get a photo of the kids in the front room before church.  I wanted to compare what they looked like to the photo I took of them a year ago at this time.  Remember this one?:

I can't believe how much older everyone looks--especially Liv!  Here are just a few of the shots I got(and it ain't easy, folks):

This last one is my favorite of the bunch, I think. 

Have a great week everyone!