May 2017: Part One

May is always our busiest month. There's lots to cover so I'll break the month up into two different posts. Sue took this cute photo of Rob and Hewitt at a basketball game at the beginning of May. Hewitt had a fun spring season and will be starting up again for the summer season this week.

My friend (Kim) sent me this photo that she took of Tosh and these cute kids at school. Dylan and Lily live next door to each other, and right around the corner from us. The kids had their Arizona projects on display:

Our renters moved out at the end of April, and we took the kids over to the old house to check things out. The kids loved being in the house again and started a big game of hide and seek... Liv finally found Burke after a hint or two from us:

Tosh and Liv claim that they want to move back. We are hoping to sell it yesterday!

It has a new double oven in the kitchen...any takers? Silly selfie:

 I found a drawing of a pizza in the kitchen one day and figured it was by Hewitt or Tosh. When it was discovered that Liv was the artist, I told her how good it was and that I thought one of the boys had done it. Later I found some new drawings of pizza, that were labeled. It was so cute to me that she put "kid" on the paper. Love her.

My little "Singing Stars" had their very first show on May 6th at the Chandler Center for the Arts. We were invited to sing at a special needs fashion show put on by the cities of Chandler and Mesa. The fashion show was delightful! After all of the models walked the runway, the girls sang two numbers ("Can't Stop the Feeling" and "What a Wonderful World") before the finale. The girls (two of them not pictured here) did really great. It was an awesome experience for them to get to be on a huge stage with a large audience!

 

We took the kids to eat dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen (remember the gift card from my last post?) and had a nice time. The kids played with the outdoor games (at the mall) after dinner for a bit:

 
After dinner, we drove over to Intel to check out the new solar panels that cover the entire parking lot before hitting Sonic for their half-off shakes after 8pm!

Dog Pile!

Liv and her good friend Ella on a school field trip to see "Born in China"

Liv turned EIGHT on May 10th! She's been asking for one of these shoulder cut-out shirts for a while and was really excited when I let her open a gift the night before her birthday. She is so into clothes and accessories.

 Liv has been asking me to come and eat lunch with her at school forever now. Patti watched Truman for me so I could take Liv lunch (Subway) on her birthday. It was so fun to sit with some of her friends and even get to play the "Guess What's in My Thermos" game. We took a group selfie together:

Patti and the twins joined us for dinner (roast beef and mashed potatoes) and presents that night (Sue was out of town for work).

A few photos from gift opening:

 

 

 

 Group shots:

These four built a little bench out of blocks:

 And then took turns sitting in it:

These photos of Kiefer totally crack me up. It started to collapse on his second turn:

Truman snuggled up with Grandma to look at some photos on her phone. Be still my heart!

Liv requested homemade toffee bars for her birthday dessert! I think this is the first time we've put a candle in it. Side note: Truman loves the birthday song, and will say, "Happy You!" It's adorable.

Liv and I ran out in our backyard for about five minutes one evening to get a photo for her baptismal invitation. I intended to take her to a nice location (maybe by water?) and curl her hair all pretty, but every evening is so busy and it never happened. Liv was very particular about her hair anyway, and wanted it straight. During this discussion she said, "My hair. My baptism." Oh Livvy.

 

Liv was baptized on May 13th (Burke's 15th birthday). It was originally scheduled for that morning, but we changed it to 4:00pm because our branch had their "priesthood" (usually called Fathers and Sons) campout that same weekend. Patti was such a big help and spent Friday night at our house to help me with Truman, and to get ready for the dinner we had at our place after the baptism.

Grandma Helen sent Liv this book that we had guests sign on their way in:

Liv was baptized in the dress I was baptized in (that my mom made!). It was really special for both of us. Liv was so sweet and said, "I want my daughter to be baptized in this dress!"

 

Baptismal Services for
Liv Maryana Peterson
May 13, 2017

                                           
Pianist:                                                                                                 Rob Peterson
Chorister:                                                                                          Burke Peterson

Opening Song:                                                          My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Opening Prayer:                                                                                Hewitt Peterson

Talk on Baptism:                                                                                  Patti Peterson

Musical Number:                                                                              Peterson Family

Baptism of Liv Peterson
by Rob Peterson
Talk on Gift of Holy Ghost:                                                   Tamsen Peterson                           

Confirmation of Liv Peterson
by Rob Peterson

Remarks:                                                                                          President Herrell

Closing Song:                                                                           When I am Baptized
Closing Prayer:                                                                                      Sue Andelin

The only change to the program was that Rob's cousin Kurt Fisher gave the closing prayer instead of Sue. Poor August threw up right at the beginning of the baptism so Sue had to leave with him. (As a side note it felt so weird/sad to not have Sue there. I felt like announcing, "Can we postpone this or something?"). Alecia took these photos during our musical number (A Child's Prayer):

Patti and Kiefer, the Fishers (Kurt and Kennedy), Lybberts, Lundells, and Weeds (weren't able to make baptism) joined us for dinner after the baptism. We had pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, frog eye salad, potato salad (made by Patti), veggies, and fruit, and then sugar cookie bars and cheesecake with a strawberry sauce (all homemade!) for dessert. It was plenty of food! I did 20 pounds of pulled pork and Rob froze most of it to take to High Adventure camp with the young men. All of the salads made for great leftovers the next day for Mother's Day (Rob grilled chicken on Sunday). Burke was a great sport about sharing his birthday, of course. I purposely planned the dinner menu with Burke in mind (he loves the pasta salad and other foods). We made sure to sing Happy Birthday to him with our guests.

  

A quick snapshot taken on Mother's Day on our way out the door to church...
I sure love these five sweethearts!!!

 The branch presidency served the Relief Society sisters pie and ice cream during the third hour of church. We had a five minute lesson/thought and then visited the rest of the time; it was great. We had a group photo taken as well:

Liv gave me a bottle of soap with a drawing of our family on the front. She also decorated this cute bag. Sure love this girl:

Tosh gave me this cute "T" mug that he made at school:

Liv got a cute jewelry making set from Sue for her birthday, and we made bracelets together on Mother's Day afternoon:

And played games with Grandma (it was so fun to spend the weekend with Patti!):

Hewitt gave me this poem at the end of the evening on Mother's Day (I think he forgot that it was in his backpack or something--ha!). Needless to say, I felt very loved this Mother's Day. Grateful for my awesome kids!