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!

april 2017

April was a busy month full of fun things! First off, some neighbors from our old neighborhood moved into our new(ish) neighborhood which has been fun for Liv to have another girl her age living close by. They have a couple of rabbits and Liv was so excited to hold this bunny (her favorite animal, of course).

Liv loves playing with her cousins (especially when she has them all to herself). They played at the park one day and did sidewalk chalk together:

Hewitt has been playing competitive basketball with the YMCA. He is getting better all the time and is an awesome point guard. He is a great shooter and is gaining confidence and taking more shots. His high for the season was 26 points in one game. 

Truman was so cute before this game trying to follow the big kids doing warm ups (I love that Hewitt is smiling, watching Tru in this pic)! 

Little Monkey:

The Hepfingers (an awesome couple in our home ward, and Sue's hometeachers) invited us all over for dinner one evening. They have a pretty amazing backyard on the water in Pinelake. It was a lovely evening and we all had a great time.

A couple of cuties in the hammock:

Truman is pretty obsessed with fruit/veggie squeezies by the way:

Checking out their paddle boat:

We couldn't turn down the invitation to take the boat out for a spin (or two, or three):

 For Family Home Evening we wrote thank you notes for our activity, and I thought this was a sweet note that Hewitt wrote about the evening:

A new family (the Ellsworths) got called out to the branch in March and had us and other branch family (the Buyacks) over one Monday evening for a game of kickball, and ice cream sundaes/floats. I didn't take any photos (it was dark), but here is Tosh's note to thank them:

Truman loves helping with laundry, vacuuming, and taking the garbage and recycling to the curb:

I found this random note in Liv's room. So sweet to read:

Truman started doing this funny thing where he closes his eyes so you can't see him! 

Hanging out at the park for a bit during Tosh's soccer practice (Rob coached) before grabbing dinner together before Hewitt's basketball practice. Some nights are just really busy:

 

Some neighbors put together a big Easter egg hunt (the weekend before Easter) in our neighborhood with over 1000 eggs (donated from their church). It was a busy morning (Burke at a soccer game, and Hewitt & Rob at a scout activity), but we squeezed it in right before Liv's swimming lessons. Her friend Natalie stayed with us over the weekend (her parents were out of town), and the younger kids had a great time. 

The older kids were kind of in a big clump in the middle, and so I took Truman off to the side so he'd be able to get some eggs. He took his sweet time, picking eggs up, dumping them out, and mostly shooting them into his basket as if he were playing basketball. Too cute!

Rob helped the Singing Stars do some recording during practice. It was a fun experience for them.

We paused for a quick photo (Liv was pouting on the couch about something, so that's why she isn't pictured here):

Cute shot of Liv reading. Notice the clip-on earrings (bottom and top of ear):

A friend took photos from Liv's school field trip to the Science Museum and sent them to me. Liv on the bed of nails:

Cute kids:

The San Tan Branch got reserved seats at the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant for the Thursday before Easter. Rob and I have never been (!), mostly because it starts late and we don't love crowds. We got a babysitter for Truman which worked out well. There was a great turn out from our branch. Liv and her friend Gabi were really excited to see/pet some animals before the show started:

On Good Friday the kids didn't have school and we joined Sue (and the Readings and Alveys) at Mesquite Grove Pool. I thought Truman would be running around like crazy and in and out of the water, but he was actually pretty calm and didn't really like being in the water as much as I thought he would (which is funny because he'll stand in the shower with water pouring on his face!).  I got there right when it opened and it was great weather and not too crowded at all. 

Cute cousin train:

Sue and Tru:

Tosh stayed later with Sue (my other kids were ready to go by lunch time, and Tru needed a nap) and she sent me this cute pic:

Liv and I went out for such a fun date that Friday evening. We started off at the mall (dropped Hewitt off there to meet and visit with some friends at the food court), and I was planning to take Liv out to dinner and do some shopping for her post-baptism dress. She got so excited when she saw Subway at the food court and really wanted to eat her favorite (cheese only) sandwich--ha!

Liv stopped for a photo in front of Claire's (before buying a flower headband there):

After the mall we went to Nordstom Rack and found a dress that was just Liv's style at a great price . Liv loves shopping, it's pretty hilarious (I am not much of a shopper). I wasn't planning on getting her shoes, but she was like, "Well I need some shoes to just TRY with the dress..." and then when she saw these, she said, "Oh. Mom. These Steve Maddens are perfect!" Ha! And they really were. Happy Easter, Liv (they appeared in her Easter basket). Cute Liv in the dressing room mirror: 

The next day, Liv really wanted to stay after her swimming lessons to see August and Kiefer (their lessons started soon after Liv's ended), and she really wanted to show Sue her outfit (lol). She ended up staying with them to watch their lesson, and went with them to August's soccer game. Sue sent me this cute photo of Kiefer and Liv playing cards in the shade during the game:

Then, they dyed Easter eggs together!

I saw this cute dessert online somewhere and decided to make it for Easter (brownies with crushed Oreos and chocolate-covered strawberries):

Looking sharp on Easter morning:

Truman gathering some eggs before church... He was pretty excited about this new soccer ball that was in Tosh's basket. He pointed to it and said, "Blue!" (first time identifying a color).

Liv and I sang a duet of "Beautiful Savior" during sacrament meeting. Liv has such a sweet and good little voice. It makes me so happy to hear her sing. After we practiced it (either the night before or morning of) she said something so funny like, "I don't like the face Dad gets when I sing...it's SO EMBARRASSING!" Ha! Rob and I both like to hear her sing. I guess we can't help but look happy/proud too.

Truman blowing bubbles for the first time:

Rob moved our ping pong table to our back porch for a work dinner he hosted. We haven't really used this table since we moved (with the exception of a tournament during a family reunion), and so it's been great to see the kids playing again. Burke will even let me win sometimes, just to keep me playing ("Best three out of five, Mom.")

The night of Rob's work dinner, Liv, Tru and I hung out during the boys' piano practice and took a selfie to help entertain Tru (Truman does not look amused). When the boys were done, I dropped the kids off at Sue's, ran to the house to meet Rob's team, and visited with everyone for a little bit, before heading back to Sue's.

It kind of felt like a lot of work getting the house ready for the work dinner. We hung lights outside, made sure the yard and house were really clean, I bought some hanging plants (flowers) for the backyard, and put together this floral arrangement for my kitchen table. Rob had Buca de Beppo cater the dinner (yummy!). They ate outside and roasted s'mores afterward. Rob's boss gave us two $50 gift card to California Pizza Kitchen as a thank you for hosting, which was really nice.

Rob found this cute tricycle on Craig's list (Grandma's birthday money helped buy it) and Truman cruises on it!

He's just seeming so much older all the time! (sniff, sniff)

This is a super random photo, but I noticed that Liv is front and center on the facebook page of her old dance company.

Sue sent me this photo of a flyer she received (again with cute Liv):

Truman is acting and LOOKING older too. So handsome all dressed up for church here:

One of his very favorite places to play is in my bathtub (we never use it to bathe). Truman brings cars in there all the time and lines them up. It's great and keeps him very occupied while I'm getting ready.

"Counting" the cars:

Hewitt's preschool teacher (Miss Janet in Riverton) is ending her preschool, and one of the moms asked for all parents of (former) students to write a letter and send in a photo of their child from preschool so she could put a nice book together as a gift. I absolutely LOVE Janet and really feel that she helped Hewitt in many ways, and created such a loving and safe environment for him to really succeed. I love this  photo I found of little Hewie-doo from a preschool field trip. Man, he's so cute!

Truman is getting more attached to his monkey. It's rarely out of his crib, but he thinks it's the funniest thing to play catch with, or put sunglasses on as pictured here:

I gave blood for the very first time for an Eagle Scout project. I was a little nervous, but made sure to eat salty foods the day before as recommended. I felt fine and it was really no problem at all. Interestingly, I found out later that my blood was rejected and I don't think I'll ever be able to donate again, so I guess it's good I documented the one-time event.

The school year is wrapping up quickly! I taught my last Art Masterpiece lesson and then helped hang the displays for the Art Walk. Here is a photo (taken by one of my art partners) of  the display for Tosh's class from one of my favorite lessons. I don't think I'll be able to teach next year since Truman will most likely stop napping (I teach in the afternoons while Truman is napping and Rob works from home). Maybe in another year it will be easier to do it. I really enjoy it.

And that's a wrap for April!