only five more days of school!

Things have been fairly low-key and relaxed around here this week (especially compared to my last post).  Liv and I went swimming together every afternoon (except one) last week.  The water is the perfect temperature right now.  Liv is getting much more comfortable in the water and it's really a bummer that she still has tubes in her ears or we'd be taking her under!  She is very sensitive to water near her ears, but I think she's warmed up enough (and LOVES the water) to allow us to use plugs in her ears and be getting her really swimming this summer. 
Here is a fun pic I took with my phone of her floating in the shallow area one afternoon.  Love that she is covering her ears with her hands and just lying there all relaxed.  I have to admit that hanging out with this cute girl by the pool is a pretty great way to spend the afternoon. 

Another (phone) shot I took of Burke one night swimming after dinner.  He looks older to me here.

It's crazy to think that this is the last full week of school (our last day is the 30th, on Tosh's birthday).  Hewitt had some virus this past week and missed three days of school (had a fever and sore throat--not strep, and croupy sounding cough one night).  He was doing fine by Friday morning.  Hewitt has a book report and project due this Thursday.  He REALLY wanted to make a puppet (like Burke did) for his project.  I had him do a power point presentation on his own and then we also made a puppet (Hewitt wasn't able to do quite as much on the sewing machine).

This is Peter from Superfudge (Hewitt's favorite character from the book).  Yes, we also think he looks like he could be Stanley's brother.

 Hewitt with Peter:

Rob and I went out both Friday and Saturday night (rare for us).  I'm not sure if I mentioned that Rob and I took a Strengthening Marriage class that met Friday nights at the church this spring.  It was a fun and interesting class and we met some nice couples in our stake that we probably wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise.  Rob works with one of the guys that was in the class (this couple is from Hillsboro, Oregon and knows some other Oregonians, like Thomas Worsley) and we talked about how we should 'go out sometime.'  Well, Rob and Reed set up the entire evening (Megan and I had no idea what we were going to do).  It was so nice and I can't remember the last time that happened.  Anyway, we went out for Thai food, then made s'mores in Megan's parents' backyard in Gilbert, and then went to see The Avengers (really liked it--much more than most Super Hero Action flicks).  I should mention that it was also nice that we had free movie passes and our babysitter was free to us thanks to some friends for "buying" us a babysitter at a service auction.  Score!

Saturday night we went out to dinner with Rob and Alecia Lundell, then to our ward temple night, and then out for ice cream with a bunch of friends from church.  Fun weekend!

 

Rob subbed for our chorister in Primary and I taught sharing time so it was "The Peterson Show" for about two hours in church. 

 

I caught some cute photos of the kids over the weekend:

Liv was using a play mirror the other day pretending to be solving "mysteries."  She would hold the mirror up to her eye (like a magnifying glass) and then gasp and say, "I see a mystery!"  It was pretty cute. 

Some other great things to mention about Liv:
*   She says "aye yi yi"  and "oops a daisy"all the time.  It is hilarious. 
*   She wants to pick out what shoes to wear right at the time she gets dressed in the morning, like the outfit just isn't complete unless she knows what shoes she is going to wear on her feet. 
*   She folds her arms across her chest when she pouts (none of the boys have done this dramatic gesture).
*   She was introduced to Elton John on a "Muppet Show" episode and will recognize him on the radio.  She LOVES the song, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and sings the "ah, ah, ah" at the "road" part if you know the song and what I am talking about... Anyway, she sings this all the time.  Her pitch is great, by the way. 
*   She talks about my mom almost daily.  She brings her up out of the blue and most often asks, "Why Grandma in heaven?  Why Mom, why?"  I give her all sorts of answers that don't seem to satisfy her.  Yesterday, she randomly said something about, "Grandma in her castle in heaven."  I have never said anything about a "castle" in heaven or anything like that so it struck me as unusual.  I like to think that because children are so pure, that maybe she knows some things I wouldn't or has even heard Grandma's voice or has dreamt of her?  Hmmm.  Just a thought. 

I spent most of my day yesterday making strawberry jam (16 pounds of strawberries).  No photos, but you probably know what jam looks like.  Yum!

Rob and the kids went swimming after dinner last night.  Here are some pictures I got and a pretty cute video (notice Liv's cute legs under water and that she talks a ton!).  Have a great week!

what a week!

Wow, what a week it's been.  There is lots to cover so I'll get started.  First off, it was teacher appreciation week at school so the kids took something to their teachers each day (an apple, letter, flower, candy, etc.) and dressed up (ok, only Hewitt really did this) to follow the theme for each day.  Here is a cute pic of Hewitt on "Wacky Wednesday" before school: 

Rob would probably say that it was a happy food week around here as we had "company" dinner every night.  On Monday we took dinner to a sweet friend of mine that had a stillborn baby last weekend.  I'm jumping ahead here, but I was able to attend the graveside service for baby Jack on Saturday and it was very touching.  Here is a photo I took when the family released blue balloons into the air:

Tuesday night we fed the missionaries, and on Wednesday we were so excited to have our good friends, the Whitneys (my old running partner, Simone) here from Utah to play and have dinner.  We were planning to swim and I was so surprised when the clouds rolled in late afternoon and we had a huge rain and thunder storm!  The kids ran out in the rain a little bit and played inside until the storm passed and it was safe to swim.

Hewitt was thrilled to have his buddy Beckhem over!  These two "met" before they were even one year old and Hewitt has really missed his good friend. 

 The kids had a blast and I wish we would have had more time to hang out with them. 

On Thursday Miss Liv turned THREE!  Our friends (the Dommers) invited us over for lunch and to swim and so we brought cupcakes for the kids.  Liv is always so excited to go anywhere so it was a fun way to spend the day.

Liv's friends Bella and Addy (Lundell) gave her this little Belle doll that she loves:

 That night we ate Liv's favorite dinner of sweet and sour meatballs and orange mashed potatoes and hustled to open presents before all going to Cub Scout Pack Meeting at the church.  Liv was so excited to finally open presents (photos taken on the same day, Liv just changes clothes a lot)!

Liv loves dressing up in anything "fancy" if you haven't noticed yet...

 I could say a lot about my sweet girl at this stage.  Some highlights off the top of my head:
* I love that she calls me "Mama" 90% of the time instead of Mom.
*She is talking ALL THE TIME now, and is so bright.  She has a great memory too.
*She makes all sorts of cute faces including a funny little pout and a sweet shy look.  Her little face is so expressive!
*She loves her brothers and will close her eyes real tight when she gives them squeezes and hugs. 
*She loves animals and likes to play 'puppy' and will lick you on the cheek so watch out!
*She tries to wear heels whenever possible and has snuck her plastic heels into church without me noticing.
*She has a major sweet tooth but doesn't like donuts at all (I didn't either when I was a kid)
*She goes to bed like a charm (usually around 7pm or so) and will often ask to go to bed.  Love that!
*She is a sweetie pie and I can't imagine our home without her!

Liv and Burke's birthdays are only three days apart.  This year was Burke's year to do a 'friend' party and  he told me that he didn't want to have a party, but just wanted all of his favorite desserts (chocolate cake, mousse pie, brownie trifle, ice cream, etc.).  I told him that would be WAY too much dessert for our family and suggested that we invite a couple of his good friends and their families to come over for a party.  Burke said that he didn't want anyone to know that it was his birthday.  I told him that I would tell everyone that we were celebrating Liv's birthday as well and not to bring gifts.  He said that he liked the idea of having some families over but suggested that we call it a "Mother's Day Party" instead... 

I absolutely love how humble and thoughtful Burke can be (hello, he is only 10!).  This is just the kind of thing that my mom would love to hear about Burke.  He really is such a great kid and I am so thankful to be his mom.  I love you, Burke! 

So, we had our Dessert/Mother's Day/Birthday party on Friday night and it was a ton of fun.  I spent most of Friday baking and had all of Burke's favorites (previously mentioned) plus Neapolitan cookies (one of my childhood faves) and some fresh fruit.  The kids all swam and then played basketball, jumped on the trampoline, ate, swam again, etc.  Rob was able to "jam" for a bit in the garage (drums are in there) with some of the men and played basketball so he had a blast as well.  We didn't get our boys in bed until almost 10:00 that night.  A few photos:

Saturday was busy with an Eagle project, Graveside service, School Fair (the kids had things on display), shoe shopping for the kids, and then Rob and I helped chaperone the 'Mormon' Prom that lots of youth from the entire East Valley attend.  Rob and I were feeling exhausted by the time we left for the dance and Rob started really not feeling well just before we joined some friends for Thai food.   It is very rare when Rob doesn't eat much when we are eating out!  We ended up leaving the dance early when Rob started getting chills.  Rob was up sick all through the night and Burke was sick too--on his birthday, darn it!  Burke threw up Sunday morning and I banished Burke and Rob to my room to sleep.  They slept most of the morning and Burke was feeling pretty good by about noon on Sunday, well at least good enough to open presents. 

This was the first year that Burke didn't really get any toys (besides a soccer ball) for his birthday.  He was excited about the acoustic guitar (yay!) and was thrilled to get the only two things he asked for, "Cars 2" and an ice cream maker:

It's hard to believe that Burke made me a mother ten years ago!  We've been laughing about the fact that it must be bad luck for Burke's birthday to fall on Mother's Day.  This year, the guys were sick which really stunk, and if you don't remember hearing about the classic Mother's Day on Burke's fifth birthday, then please read about it here! 

Yesterday was tough emotionally, obviously I miss my mom like crazy.  I shed some tears a few times this week, once while standing in the card isle at the store.  I picked out the perfect card that I would have sent her...  I sent my message to the heavens and prayed that it would get to her.  I feel like it did. 

Our good friends Rob and Alecia invited us to join with their extended family for Mother's Day dinner last night.  It was such a sweet offer and I was happy to bring some salads and be included with their awesome family.  I felt major guilt about leaving Burke at home on his birthday, but I think he enjoyed having his dad all to himself and playing some chess and other games.  To make up for the lame birthday, we had Burke's birthday dinner tonight (BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs).  We still have so much dessert left over from Friday! 

I'm so glad that everyone is feeling fine today and really hope that no one else gets it.  Need I remind you that all of us (except Burke) had a stomach bug about three weeks ago.  I've been giving Rob a hard time that he was sick on our anniversary and now on Mother's Day.  Good thing I'll be out of town on my birthday next month!  ;)  I'm looking forward to a relatively quiet week! 

Happy Mother's Day to all of the awesome women in our lives!  We love you!

it's birthday month (already?)!

It's already May and I seriously can't believe it! 

A few highlights of the week:

Helping Tosh with his poster to be "Star of the Week."  I snapped a couple of photos of him for the poster (and had a little fun editing this one):

Liv and I made some butterfly bracelets one day.  She loves 'helping' me do anything and everything:

 Seems like I did LOTS of laundry this week and happened to wash all four of these blankets on the same day.  My mom gave each of her grandkids a pillow quilt for their third birthday.  Because she was so on the ball, she hurried to make Liv's last year and gave it to her on her second birthday instead.  I've mentioned before how much I see my mom all around me...this is an example of what I'm talking about (Burke's quilt is on the bottom, then Hewitt, Tosh, and Liv's is the one on top, obviously).   

 I just started a rather big project myself...  For years I've wanted to create a big family tree (to hang in our living room over the piano) that our kids would be able to look at and be able to learn the names of their ancestors.  My vision has been rather blurry, but I finally came up with something that I was excited about.  I bought a big piece of fabric canvas (about 4.5 x 5.5 feet) and have cut out a leaf to represent each member of our family.  Next, I will be stitching around each leaf and then sewing the name and birth year (with embroidery floss) by each leaf.  I am a little obsessive when I get going on a project.  I started this when I put Liv to bed on Friday night (the boys were at the Fathers and Sons campout) and worked until 11:30 or so and then started up again at 6AM on Saturday and skipped breakfast (yes, I need more balance in my life).  I am anxious to get going on it again and finish it, but this is a very busy week (two birthdays and a slew of other things) so we'll see.  I took a photo so I wouldn't forget how I had things laid out.  You get the general idea:  

Speaking of the camping trip, here is a cute shot of H and T that Rob took with his phone.  The kids LOVE this camping trip and look forward to it every year (Burke's second favorite day of the year, second only to Christmas Day). 

The boys came home from camping and swam and then we cleaned out the cars and house (and did lots more laundry).  Little photo of Tosh and me (yep, already hot enough that Tosh rarely wears a shirt unless he has to):   



I took a couple of photos of the kids before church today since I missed getting an Easter group shot this year.  I just noticed today that Liv's bangs are finally about grown out since she chopped them at the root almost six months ago:

These photos of the four kids ended up being cuter than I thought they would since no one was listening to me or following directions (this photo session was actually cut very short when Hewitt hugged/squeezed Liv's neck too tight and she started crying and Rob started yelling... Fun stuff):

After dinner tonight we listened to a tape I made when I was eight years old... It was of me singing and pretending to be doing a radio show (including groovy hits like "Tomorrow" from "Annie" and the theme song from "Fame"- yes!).  The kids thought it was pretty funny and Rob and I were literally crying with laughter (even funnier now that I'm a mom, for sure!). 
 
I think that's about it for now.  See you back here next week! 

thirteen years later...

Rob and I 'celebrated' our 13th wedding anniversary on Tuesday.  I use the word 'celebrate' loosely since Rob was hit with the flu on Monday and I got it on Tuesday.  I was thinking about all of the ups and downs we've shared over the last 13 years together, and feel very thankful that our journey together has mostly been filled with "ups."   I think I mentioned that we finally got around to decorating the walls of our bedroom--including some of my favorite photos from our wedding day:

Last week in my blog post, I wrote about how Liv threw up (just once on Saturday night), and then seemed fine--just tired and kept food down on Sunday morning.  Well Rob and I have been taking turns going to church since we've had someone sick for an entire month.  Our plan was for Rob to take the boys to Sacrament Meeting and then I was going to swap him in the parking lot so I could go to Primary--my turn to teach sharing time.  Well, Tosh gave his first talk in primary last week.  He did such a great job and was able to read the entire thing by himself while I held up different pictures of Jesus.  Rob watched him practice and made a comment about really wanting to watch Tosh give his talk.  We decided that I would arrive with Liv at the end of Sacrament meeting (I usually get to primary early to set up the room before Sacrament Meeting is over), and then Rob would watch Tosh give his talk (I was conducting and changed things around so Tosh could go very first) and then leave with Liv.  Well, I got to the primary room to set up and sat Liv on the floor at the front of the room while I started getting the room ready.  We had been there about 30 seconds when suddenly Liv (you guessed it) threw up all over the carpet!  I have never had a kid throw up in a public place.  It was madness.  I got her cleaned up and then sat her in the back by a garbage can while I scrubbed the mess up.  The Primary President was out because of knee surgery and the other counselor wasn't there the first hour of primary so I was sort of on my own, but I pulled it together and was able to get everything under control and cleaned up before the little kids came running in.  Most of the teachers told me (after church) that they would have had no clue about what had happened.  I guess my years of being on stage helps me hide how frazzled I feel on the inside sometimes :).  To wrap up the story, of course Liv never threw up again (thankfully).   I am happy to say our entire family is healthy (knock on wood) as of today!!!

Getting back to the week, it was overcast and rainy on Wednesday (I think?).  Tosh and Liv thought it was great that I let them put on swimsuits to go out in the rain, although the temperature dropped into the 60s so they were "freezing."  Tosh discovered that he left a toy water gun out in the rain and ran to grab it.  I thought this pic of him running back looks so funny--like he was pretending to be a soldier or something (he wasn't):

Cute Tosh with raindrops on his face:

The sun came out later that afternoon and our pool guy was here and fixed our fountains (we have had him replace all of our pumps and several thing on the pool).  The fountains haven't been turned on in about a year and a half maybe?  I don't think Liv would remember them ever working.  The kids were so excited to go swimming even though it had been cold that day and the water was VERY cold.  I got some fun shots though.  Burke was cracking me up and being very funny.  I have named the next few shots...

The Finish Line:



Singing in the Shower:



Guitar Hero:

Liv loves the water and didn't seem too fazed by the temperature:

Hewitt swam for a bit and then tried to warm up on the concrete.  I think this is such a cute photo--purple lips and all:



Each quarter Burke does a book report/project with oral report for his class.  This quarter he had to pick a Newberry Award winner, and chose the book "Holes."  I had read this with (to) him a year or two ago.  We went to the library on Thursday night and he had the entire book read before he went to bed.  For his project he thought it would be cool to make a Muppet-style puppet of Stanley (main character from the book) and then Burke will pretend to be a reporter and will interview Stanley for his class presentation.  Burke watched several videos on how to make a puppet and then we bought supplies on Friday night.  We worked on the puppet for a few hours on Saturday morning and Burke did a great job learning how to use a sewing machine.  I told him that using the pedal was similar to driving a car.  I love this photo of Burke working on the puppet:

We aren't quite finished yet, but meet Stanley:

This next picture says it all!  Look at Tosh's face when Stanley talks to him.  I love it!

Rob and I got a babysitter on Saturday and went out to lunch (we weren't able to eat anything on our anniversary much less go out) and to the temple.  When we got back the kids went swimming.  It was much warmer! I pulled out some new goggles and the kids were excited.

Tosh reminded us of Spider Man!

 Hewitt swimming with his new goggle mask:

 Liv got a little cold as you can tell...

 She was so excited about the "waterfall" and loved sticking her hand and foot in it:

"Spidey" jumps to the rescue (Hewitt is helping me write this now)! 

We ended up having a late(r) dinner after swimming and were finishing up around 7:00.  I asked Burke to check on Liv since I hadn't seen or heard from her in a while.  We laughed when we discovered her sound asleep right in the family room.  All that swimming will wear a girl out! 

One other funny thing:  When we gathered the kids together for family prayers before bed last night, Tosh asked what day he was born.  I said, "You were born on a Wednesday, Burke was born on a Monday, Hewitt was born on a Saturday, Liv was born on a Sunday, and Dad and I were born on Tuesday."  Tosh said, "No, what date was I born?"  Rob said, "You were born on May 30th--you know that."  Tosh said (in a shocked and very excited voice), "I was born on my BIRTHDAY?!?!"

So cute!  Sure love these kids of ours...