The Petersons

Sandy Fun

2012-01-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

The weather has warmed up off and on here, giving us glimpses of our much-beloved spring soon to come! The boys and I decided to take advantage of one of these warm days and go play in the sand at the beach.

It was Cam's first time and boy did he LOVE it! Above is his first experience eating the sand...yep, that face pretty much sums up that experience! Bitter-beer face for sure!

And I love this face below, "Mom, have you seen this stuff??? This is so cool!"

Braden being a bulldozer :)

Doesn't Braden just look like a little sailor ready to go to sea?

Cam had no qualms about leaving us behind to go venture off in the sand - which is quite the thing for this little mama's boy who doesn't let me leave the room without him some days. He had a 30 ft crawling radius in about every direction, before I'd grab him and carry him back over to us, with no cares for whether we were coming or not. He was off to explore!

I really love this picture of him looking serenely out at the water

Yep, just giving the wood a little lick...you know, to because the sand tasted so good... lol

Beach time in WA

2012-01-24T11:24:00.001-07:00

On a sunny, cold day over Christmas we took a walk down to the beach.

Fun times were had wearing galoshes, getting chased by the waves, finding little crabs and throwing rocks. Too bad there weren't more sunny days for us to do this! It was so fun and beautiful!

Our fun 'tend' world

2012-01-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I have yet to post all about Christmas, but it will wait for another day because I have just had some of the sweetest little moments with these boys in the past week and I usually forget to write it all down - but not today! :)

Cameron just started to play pat-a-cake - well, he claps his hands for a bit and then puts them up in the air anyway. It is about the cutest thing ever. He has also started dancing - all the time. This little boy just loves to groove his little head to anything even close to music. Even if it is just his brother yelling randomness like, "Chee, chaw, hoo-be-doop-bee- noodle!!!" I will post video soon for his faraway admirers across the country and the globe. :)

And Braden is loving this drum we found on the side of the road and loves to practice his skills while Justin plays the guitar. It is my favorite! He is always saying the funniest things and catching me off guard. He has the biggest imagination and loves to talk about his 'tend (pretend) world.

Just today he told me during our Mac'n'cheese picnic on the kitchen floor - "Mommy! Mommy! Harley the Shark (his favorite pretend friend) is here! She's gonna eat macaroni and cheese too. Yeah! Harley the Shark and 'tend Raiyah and Malacki (real friends, but in their 'tend version), and SANTA! and his toys and his deer and little guys! They're all coming in to eat macaroni and cheese with us!" They proceeded to stay and eat with us for a minute, then they left to go to the store to get more mac'n'cheese, and then they ALL came back in with more boxes! It was quite the fun treat to have Harley the Shark, 'tend Raiyah and Malacki, Santa, his toys, and his deer all with us for lunch!

Then tonight as a sweet little moment to the end of my day, the wind was blowing quite hard and making a noise against the window, scaring Braden a little bit. He and I included in our prayer that he would be able to sleep well and that the wind wouldn't scare him. Then he told me, "Jesus can help me not be scared of the wind. Jesus can just lay next to me and then I won't be scared anymore!" It was so sweet and cute and made my little heart so happy. Sweet boys.

I usually forget to write some of these little sweet memories down. I love them. I love being these boys' mama. Especially on days like today when I remember to treasure it. :)

Birthday Braden!

2011-12-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

We had a ton of fun at the fire station for Braden's bday this year! We invited some friends there and they all loved it. They gave all the kids hats, let them hold the hose-nozzles, climb in the truck, etc. It was such a fun time!

Climbing up on the pretend roof! They thought this was an especially cool treat!

All the cute little fire-fighters!!!

Braden asked for a rainbow-colored cake for his birthday, so we went as colorful as we could!!!

My boy is just growing up and it is so amazing to see the who he is growing into. He most definitely has a stubborn streak and a mind of his own much of the time, but he can still be so sweet and kind. He is so loving and has a big heart. He gets worried whenever he thinks someone is sad, and he loves his little brother so much. In the morning Braden gets so excited when I tell him he can go in and talk to Cameron - he climbs into his crib and they play and laugh together. It is the sweetest sound and I hope they just keep becoming better and better friends. I love my little Brado boy, we have so much fun playing and going on adventures together. He certainly loves his mischief, but he wants to make us happy and loves being our big boy. He is so smart and so funny - always making us laugh, sometimes even when he is getting into trouble! Sometimes when he is amazed by something he'll say, "Holy Ghost!!!" (with the same voice of Robin on the old Batman show..."Holy Exploding Cats Batman!") - he really means "holy cow", but has gotten the phrases mixed up! I try to correct him...and it I would probably consider it sacrilegious in most other instances...but he is just so innocent and it is SO funny! I try to correct him, but honestly no matter how hard I try I just can't keep a straight face! Oh, I love this little boy!

I'm so glad I get to be his mom and share these wonderful sweet memories with him!

Happy Birthday Braden!!!

December fun...

2011-12-18T15:51:00.001-07:00

Some pics of some of the fun things we've been up to this month...

My last bouquet of flowers from our yard this year - they made me so happy. We still have a few blooming - it's been so nice and warm this December, a full week in the 70's!

While watching some big machines taking down a big tree on our street, a sweet, old man who lives by us brought over this big teddy bear to give to Braden! Both the boys loved it. I love when people are just so generous to us. It just touches my heart. Every time I look at this big, cute bear I just feel it again warming my heart.

"ginder-bread house!"

Amazingly cool train display at an arcade downtown - for free, which made it even better! Then we rode the "big train" around (lightrail) town. It was a fun train day!

And of course making lots of holiday goodies together (me and Brado) and enjoying licking the beaters together. It works out so well - one for each of us! :)

7 mos and on the Go

2011-12-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

Cameron is 7 months old and apparently he connected a lot of gross motor synapses between his 6th and 7th months of life! He is everywhere!!! One day he decided to crawl for real (instead of his funny fake wormy crawl - I have to be honest it was hilarious to watch!), which was so fun - particularly because Justin was home that morning when it happened from working an all-nighter. In the week after that he realized he can crawl most everywhere, push himself up into a sitting postion, learned how to pull himself to standing at almost anything, and started officially getting into everything! It has been hilarious to watch. Although 7 mos just seems a little too young to be able to get into the garbage and pull everything in it out!

He is one busy little boy, but he sure has fun! We are going to have to baby-proof the house a lot more than we did with Brado. We didn't think we could get a busier little boy than Braden around the house, but we were apparently wrong. :)

He is such a busy little guy that it seems he just burns off everything that he eats. He is in the 70th percentile for height, but only 15lbs, making him in the 5th percentile for weight. He certainly eats plenty, but apparently uses it all up really fast!

Look, Mom! One hand!

I love the "I've been caught!" look on his face in that one!

He is still so sweet and fun. He still loves to be held, sleeps pretty well, loves sucking his little thumb, loves food now, and is such a happy little guy! We sure love him!

I wish he'd stop growing up so fast so we could just take it all in. I just can't get enough of him and his sweet little self!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T22:05:00.001-07:00

I love Thanksgiving! Great people, great food, spending great time together all day long...it just doesn't get much better than that!

We had such a great Thanksgiving with the Goldades! They are so kind and have us over every year and it is so wonderful to spend the holiday with them! They are such great friends to us, always treat us to such amazing food, and the boys just love them too!

Justin was thrilled, as always, for his one day of the year he gets to play football. We dropped him off and stayed for a bit so Braden could see the big guys playing football. Justin ran a touchdown one of the first plays, so we were all happily cheering in the car. :)

The food was delicious, as always, and we feel like we are at home with their family.

Coulton was Braden's hero and took him out back to play ball and have fun in the leaves (the weather is still quite warm here, which we are loving!). Braden had us all running and jumping into the big pile of leaves and we were all acting like little kids again for a bit!

Cameron, of course, loved everyone - especially Janeece and Juston

(not to be confused with my Justin, lol)

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of Janeece, but this is Juston and Cam hanging out on the floor together and having quite the time!

So, we again are so grateful for our family away from family! Thanks for making us feel at home our dear friends! We love you!!!

Christmas Light Parade and Swinging

2011-11-27T21:54:00.001-07:00

We went to the Illumination Parade this year and had such a fun time! Braden has fallen in love with parades and thinks they are pretty amazing. He loves Christmas lights too, so that just made this parade even cooler. :)

We had a great time!

Cam is such a different little boy than Braden. It is so fun to me to see how they are the same and how they are different. They are both busy little boys, that is for sure, but one big difference is swinging. Braden, though a very adventure seeking boy, for some reason has always been a little skeptical on the funness of swings. In the past 6mos he has finally come to like them and think they are pretty cool, but he still takes a few swings before he wants to go high or anything.

Cam however, blew me away at the park the other day. I put him in the swing just for fun, seeing what he would do - expecting him to get upset like Braden would when younger. But no, not this boy! :)

He loved every minute of it and was going nearly as high as Braden the entire time with a big smile on his face!! It was so funny! Braden enjoyed Cam swinging, too, which made it even more fun. Although he seemed a little disappointed when I told him that Cam was a little too young for underdogs just yet!

I love how in even though he is going fairly high he still manages to keep those fingers in his mouth!

This little boy loves his fingers and thumb!

And, while speaking of new things for Cameron, he has his first tooth! He is just growing up too fast - eating real food, getting teeth, crawling, standing at the couch, trying to pull himself up to things....how do you get them to slow down and just be little babies for a minute???

Even though they are growing up fast, they sure are a lot of fun and the best thing in the world for me and Justin. Families are so much fun. Hard fun, but good fun. :)

Update overload...

2011-11-14T22:41:00.001-07:00

So...I haven't blogged...in a REALLY long time....so here are a boat-load of pics for those of you (ahem, grandparents) who have been missing your cute little boys on the other side of the country!!! :)

(sorry not all of them loaded right, but with that many pictures I wasn't about to fuss over the ones that didn't load!)

What have we been up to? Well, a month in WA, then a month home, then a month in UT, another month home, then a week in UT (for my brother's wedding!!! Yay!!!), and now home...whew!

A brief update on us all:

Justin - well into his third (and craziest) year of med school. He's doing great, loves surgery, and is sad that for the rest of the year he will not get to be in the OR anymore! He is working hard to become one amazing dr. He's a blood and guts kind of guy and is pretty certain that some kind of surgery is what he wants to end up doing.

Me: I am trying to make life slow down a bit! I am now a self-proclaimed expert at flying across the country by myself with two little boys. :) I have done it 5 times in the last few months and I can tell you some people are just angels in disguise!!! One sweet little angel was a sweet grandma from the middle-east who didn't even speak English - but she had a mother's heart and seemed to know everything I needed and somehow managed to tell me without saying one word of English. I fell in love with her. :)

I just got released as the YW president, so hopefully that will help with the life slowing down stuff!

To all my friends and family I got to see, Thank you so much!!! To those I didn't, I'm so sorry and sad and hopefully I will get to see you again next time!!!!

Braden: Has been loving all these airplanes and that is pretty much all he pretends about these days! "Mommy, come get on the airplane with me. We're flying on the airplane!!!"

He loves to sing all the time right now. My personal favorite is the Farmer and the Dale

"The farmer and the dale, the farmer and the dale, Fi Fo Fummy, the farmer and the dale!"

(a perfect blend of farmer's dale and mickey and the beanstalk...it is so funny and cute!)

Braden somehow has this amazing imagination and we are always running away from the "tend" (pretend) dragon or monster, taking rides in the car with his "tend" friends or making up some fun story

Cameron: Is 6 months old!!! So crazy! He is a sweet little baby who is learning all sorts of fun tricks and is now mobile! He gets around all over the place and is pretty content as long as there are people around him. He hates to be alone - must get that from me and Braden...

He loves to be held most all the time. Doesn't quite love food like I thought he would, but he tolerates it. :) He sits up for a little bit, stands at the couch for a little bit, tries with all his might to crawl, but can't quite figure out the arms, so ends up scooting everywhere and is just so cute and fun!

Braden made him into a "flower"

This is what happens when I go to the bathroom and Braden and cousin Katie are with Cameron

Braden and new Aunt Amy!!!

Justin and I go to escape to a hockey game. It was so much fun!!!

Braden decided one morning while I was asleep that he was going to dump out lots of things...namely two bags of flour, a bag of sugar, a box of cereal and a bag of cornmeal. (everything else had a clip on it that he couldn't get off) Needless to say I was aghast when I walked into the kitchen that morning!!!! It was quite the event. One that hopefully will never happen again...

Just like Grandpa Peterson!!
(Braden's words when he got in)

Fun at the Hunt Club farm!!!

Cam is a little thumb sucker. :) It is the cutest thing

Braden with his pumpkin (he hates taking pictures most of the time and this time just refused. :)

Justin's pumpkin with stitches...

Brotherly lovin' play time!!!

Curious George, the Man in the Yellow Hat, and a little bumblebee!

Perfecting his Downward Dog yoga move

And Upward Dog

Snow in UT!!!

Random pics from Justin's phone...

2011-08-14T22:13:00.005-06:00

The stack of papers Justin gladly threw into the recycling bin with a huge sigh of relief - DONE with classes!!! (His last two years of med school involve little class time, mostly all real-life dr stuff. He is more than ready to actually be doing something - not just reading about it!)

Climbing to the base camp of Mt. Rainier

Cameron's favorite position :)

Views from the hike

My boys!!!

Cousin time (ring-around-the-rosies)

Brother cuddling time

(every time Brado holds Cam now he says, "We might have to take a picture of that!" So funny)

Little angel boy sleeping

Videos For Daddy...

2011-07-03T01:54:00.007-06:00

Okay, so I have done a lot of posts tonight trying to catch up on the last few months (which have been pretty full of fun stuff, so there was a LOT to post about). In fact, there are 8 new posts. They don't even all fit on this page so you have to go to older posts to see them all. So I apologize for the overload of posts, but I figure if I don't just do them all now they may just never get done!

Justin has headed back to Virginia to start his 3rd year! He is really excited to get into rotations and get working and out of the classroom. After 5-6 years he is more than ready to do some hands-on work!

Since he is pretty much going to be gone all the time for the next several months, we decided it would be best for us if the kids and I stayed here for a while longer. (My parents have big hearts for putting up with us for this long!!!)

Anyway, here are some videos for Daddy. :)

Double Blessing Day

2011-07-03T01:38:00.005-06:00

While here in WA we blessed Cameron, and even got to do a double blessing day! Jeremy and Elisa (Justin's brother) just had a little boy too (about 5 weeks after Cameron) named Damon and they both were blessed last Wednesday night. It was so fun and neat to do it together! I'm so glad it worked out that way.

Elisa's sister Tyra is an awesome photographer, so she took some great family pics and I'll put those up when I get them, but in the meantime here are a few that we took.

Mom Peterson and Cameron

Snazzy looking brother. :)

Proud Grandparents with Damon (left) and Cameron (right)! :)

More proud Grandparents! :)

And a cute baby boy

My mom made his little blessing outfit (she is pretty much the best seamstress ever - sadly I didn't get those skills...sewing machines and I don't have the best relationship). In fact, she has made every one of her 4 grandchildren's blessing outfits! And it even had a cute little tag on the inside that says "Made with love by Grandma" :)

And our first family photos! Yay for a family of four!

Grandma and Grandpa Monson come to visit!

2011-07-03T00:54:00.007-06:00

My mom is absolutely amazing and came to stay with us for a month after Cameron was born. Justin was preparing to take the boards (and 8hr test that plays a big role in determining what kind of specialty he can get into for residency) and was gone from 8am-9pm six days a week studying at the library. I would not have survived this month in a sane state of mind without her!!! It was such a blessing and I'm so grateful for such an amazing mom who would willingly fly across the country and put her life on hold for a month to make my life better.

She is absolutely amazing.

I hope I can be a mom like her some day.

My dad also came out for the last week she was there and we tried to do some fun things while they were there:

The beautiful Botanical Gardens!

(I absolutely LOVE Southern Magnolia trees. Isn't this blossom beautiful?! It was about the size of a dinner plate!)

We celebrated my birthday!

My mom spoiled me all day with breakfast in bed, having lunch all together at the school with Justin, she made my favorite potato salad and even grilled steaks in the intense heat and humidity for dinner and to top it all off she made me the most beautiful, delicious cake!!

I'm telling you, she is just amazing! :)

We went to the Harbor Fest and saw all the cool Tall Ships

and played in the fountain of course.

Went to the Aquarium

Went to the Zoo

(Justin even got to take a break and join us for that one!)

And drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

(a bridge and tunnel by us that spans 20 miles across the Chesapeake Bay over to the Eastern Shore of Virginia)

Thanks Mom and Dad Monson!!!!

We love you!

Braden of late

2011-07-03T00:50:00.005-06:00

Well, besides the stitches (see post below) this is the fun Braden's been up to lately:

Looking studly :)

Eating plenty of goodies and chocolate at Grandma's

And doing lots of playing!!

Cameron

2011-07-03T00:37:00.003-06:00

I'm having to play a little catch-up from my lapse in blogging! Cameron is now 2 mos old and we just love him to death!!! He is the sweetest little baby! He is active and a little squirmy guy. He his strong (always got that head up and looking around and is starting to try to hold his weight with those tiny little legs of his when you stand him up), likes his sleep (he already sleeps for 6hrs every night - hallelujah for a baby that likes to sleep at night!!!), and gives us the sweetest little smiles!

The poor little guy has reflux. :( So he is in pain a lot and is about the gassiest little guy I've ever seen (or heard rather), and when he is in pain my shoulder (or Daddy's or Gma's or Gpa's) is his favorite place to be. He also loves to be in a swing. He's a bouncer baby for sure - loves to be in motion! I'm so lucky he's still a good sleeper at night even with the reflux. It seems to only be bad during the day - a tender mercy from the Lord!!!

So, all in all, we are having fun with this little guy. He makes us all so happy and I am loving re-discovering all the baby phases and new things they do! He has recently found his hands and is figuring out how to make them work - bat at things, put them in his mouth, bring them together, etc. Oh how I love this little baby!!!!

Gotta love the double chin, eh? :)

Look alikes...

2011-07-03T00:10:00.007-06:00

Braden looks so much like Justin as a little boy, and apparently Cameron looks a little like me as a baby. Above is Cameron at about 2 mos, below me at 4 mos.

First trip to the ER

2011-07-02T23:25:00.002-06:00

We have officially had our first trip to the ER. :(

Big bummer, but good experience to have under my belt for the future I suppose.

Luckily for me, we are in WA visiting my parents, so I wasn't alone with two little kids freaking out because I didn't know what to do. My mom was here with me and knew exactly how to handle things. I was able to stay calm, but I wouldn't have been stuck in a calm sort of shock not knowing what steps to take if she hadn't been here!

Braden was joyfully running towards the kitchen, stumbled and went falling head first right into the corner of a wall. It split his little forehead open right to the bone. I don't know that I will ever get that image out of my head.

Sadly this happened the day Justin went up to Mt. Rainier with his brother Zach to climb to Camp Muir. Of all the days. I was sitting there thinking over and over in my head, "Where is your father for this?!!!! Of all the days for him to be gone! This is his thing! He's all trained and prepared for this very moment!" :) He felt really bad that he wasn't around to help too.

So, as you can see in the picture above, Braden got his first set of stitches (I would bet that it won't be his last). 9 to be exact. The nurses in the hospital were so nice and found a stuffed moose for Braden to hold and keep. It was pretty tough going putting them in (it took 4 of us to hold him down while the dr put them in - he is one strong little boy), but overall he was a brave little champ.

Today he got his stitches out at Dr. Brett's house (a really nice guy in my parent's ward), who also happens to have chickens, dogs and cats! Pulling the stitches out wasn't much more fun than putting them in, but he got to feed the chickens afterwards which he thought was awesome!!!

Brothers

2011-07-02T23:15:00.002-06:00

Fun times being brothers. :)

Braden really loves his little brother and constantly wants to play with him or hold him.

My favorite is the way he says, "Hi Cameron Baaaby" in this cute high-pitched voice! I haven't caught it on camera yet, but it is pretty darn cute.

Braden is anxious for Cameron to get bigger so he can play balls with him and do fun things!

Pictures

2011-05-22T12:25:00.004-06:00

Cameron and I had a little photo shoot while everyone was at church today. :)

These top two are my favorite.

I really love this face! It makes me laugh so hard!

Birth story...

2011-05-15T09:28:00.004-06:00

I really love to hear other people's birth stories, so I hope this doesn't bore anyone too much, but I really just love how each little baby that gets here is always so unique and there always seem to be amazing things that accompany births. They are just a miracle to me and I love seeing the Lord's hand in getting these pure, beautiful little spirits here. So this is how Cameron came. :)

Tuesday - I wake up at 1:30am with contractions.

5:30 - I decide that I'm about ready for an epidural and we head to the hospital.

As it turns out, waiting until I was ready for an epidural backfired on me! They were full and had no room for me! :( So we hung around in a waiting room for a while.

6:15 -We walked into a little triage room with three beds separated by very little space and a very thin curtain and my heart sunk! I looked around and thought..."Oh please no. Please don't tell me I'm delivering a baby in this tiny room sandwiched between two other people!!! Can we go somewhere else????" Meanwhile the contractions are getting more and more intense and I am WAY past ready to have an epidural. They check me and I'm only at a 3-4! I couldn't believe it. I've been sitting at a 3 for the last two weeks and have been laboring for the last 5 hrs and I haven't gone anywhere?! How can that be?!

After starting to get me admitted, they to check me again and I'm already at a 6. So decide they better get things going and they give me the relieving news that they are moving me to a nice, spacious, private delivery room. I can't tell you how happy I was to hear that!

7:30 - Still waiting and still ready for that epidural. Sadly there are many people in higher need - a lot of emergency C-sections that morning. I try to be grateful that I'm not one of those needing an emergency c-section and keep breathing through the pain, but at this point I really just want to cry and tell Justin that I don't think I can do this anymore! I keep thinking of my mom and my friend Dana and keep telling myself, Breathe. Just breathe. You can do this. Breathe.

8:00 - The anesthesiologist comes in and I just want to kiss her I'm so happy she's finally there!!! I sit up and I feel the urge to push! I tell the nurse, but she reassures me it's probably just because I'm sitting up now and feeling pressure. I try to believe her. :)

8:15 - I really feel the need to start pushing. Nurse checks me and says, "Oh my. You are at a 9. The baby's head is right there. I'll go get the dr." Anesthesiologist says, "What?! You can't be at a 9! I haven't even put any drugs in you yet. We haven't even gotten the good stuff to you!" And she very efficiently gets the drugs going. I know it may seem silly that I even had an epidural when I was already at a 9, but I was so ready to not be in pain anymore I just welcomed it. I felt proud of myself that I had gotten that far without any drugs, but I didn't feel the need to continue any further. Maybe next time. We'll see. :)

In the end I was glad that I did have the epidural because I got to just relax and enjoy one of the most amazing experiences of me and Justin's life!

As our amazing dr, Dr. Rankins, got all ready, she turned to Justin and said, "Do you want to help me deliver the baby?" Justin was so excited!!! It was amazing!! I watched in awe as he got gowned up and put gloves on - it was so surreal. He starts his OBGYN rotation in July and will be helping deliver babies then, but I can't tell you how exciting it was that the first baby he got to help deliver was ours! She helped and coached him through it and he coached me with pushing and in 5-10 minutes he was holding our little baby boy! The look of joy on his face while he was seeing the baby's head and delivering the baby was something I will never forget. It was such an amazing thing to do together - like an amazing partnership in bringing this baby into the world!

8:38 - They brought the baby right over to me and Justin and I spent an hour with him before they took him to do all the measurements - the three of us just relishing this experience and enjoying our first moments together.

It was perfect. Everything about it was just perfect! What started out as a crazy experience ended up being one of the most amazing of our lives. It all progressed really fast. And now we have our family of four and it is the best thing ever! Definitely has it's challenges, but it really is wonderful! Life is just so good! :)

Cameron Jay Peterson

2011-05-06T20:20:00.003-06:00

(Cameron holding Braden's finger - so precious!)

Here is our little boy!!!

Cameron Jay Peterson was born @ 8:38am on May 3, 2011

7lb 8oz and 20in long

He has quite the pair of lungs on him (but luckily for us he doesn't cry much! :), he is so precious and sweet and he just sleeps all the time! A wise friend of mine, Dana, once said that you are blessed with the baby you can handle at the time. For us that is most definitely true!

Cameron is such a little sleeper. Justin and I don't know what to do with ourselves! He just eats and sleeps, all the time! Braden was definitely a good little eater too, but he was never a sleeper. It is quite fun to have a sleepy, snuggly little newborn around!

We are all loving it! Even Braden. :)

I will post more about the birth and things later, but for now wanted to get a few pictures up.

One of the rare moments with his eyes open! I thought I better document it. :)

At first I was amazed that I didn't find Cameron to look anything like Braden. Then I looked at a few newborn pictures of Braden and realized that I was wrong! They look way more alike than I thought they did. Now every time I look at Cameron I feel like I am seeing a little newborn Braden again - except he sleeps all the time and has hair in the back. :)

Above is Cameron at the hospital, below is Braden the day we brought him home. There are definitely a few differences, but a lot of similarities!

40+ weeks...

2011-05-02T19:43:00.003-06:00

40 weeks. We made it!!! The due date has come and gone and this little boy is just being so good to his parents! Justin has successfully completed one national exam and one final, and this little baby is just hanging out in there. :) One more final Wed. and another national exam Thurs to go!

I'm really amazed, because I've been dilated to a 3 for the past two weeks almost, and didn't think I stood a chance at making it this far! The dr. was also amazed I've made it thus far.

We'll see if he'll stay in there another few days, or if he just can't take it anymore and needs to come join us before then!

Justin played intramural soccer, as he always does, and it just gets more and more fun to go support him. His games were all pretty late so we didn't get to go to them all, but we decided to keep Braden up and go to the last few anyway so that he could watch his Daddy play soccer. The whole team loved Braden and are so amazingly fun and sweet with him! They call him their little lucky charm - they always win when he comes.

And it held to be true! Here they are as the champions!

It was so much fun to go and cheer them on and Braden ate it all up.

My favorite part of the whole thing was that when they went to take the championship picture the guys all said, "Hey, get Braden in here. He's our mascot! He's got to be in the picture too!"

Only 2 and he's already posing for soccer championship pics. :)

It melted my heart!

And we even had a beautiful sunset to top it all off. :)

Life is so great!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T13:09:00.003-06:00

Isn't he just so handsome in his little Easter outfit?!!! I love it. :)

I found the pants and vest at the thrift store for 69 cents each a few months ago! And the bow tie is the amazing crafty work of my sister-in-law, Elisa! She's so talented. It was just the perfect touch to his little outfit!

We had such a fun Easter weekend! Braden has been so excited for Easter all month long!

He LOVED dying the eggs:

(We took off his shirt so I wasn't so anxious about him spilling dye on it)

Then later in the week we had a little Easter Egg hunt for a few friends:

They were all VERY happy with their spoils! :)

The next day we went to our ward's pancake breakfast and easter egg hunt, which Braden was doubly excited about because he LOVES Easter Egg hunts and he LOVES his Curious George book, where Curious George goes to the pancake breakfast fundraiser. Braden thought it was so exciting that he was getting to go to a pancake breakfast, "Just like George!"

Sunday morning was perfect! I had Braden's Easter basket waiting for him in our room when he got up the next morning. (He always comes into our room and snuggles with us in bed while drinking some milk in the morning) But to my surprise, he didn't notice it at all! After a while I pointed it out to him and his face lit up and he just sat there, looking at it in awe. I finally persuaded him to go over and see what all was in it and his reactions were all "ooohhhhh" and "wow"!!! It was so fun to see how excited he was about some bubbles and some Easter candy!

We spent some time that morning watching some Mormon Messages about Christ, and playing while listening to some beautiful Easter music. He loves the picture of Christ stepping out of the tomb (but is always so concerned about how Jesus' one foot seems to be "stuck"in the tomb! haha!).

Justin had informed me that growing up they didn't hide the plastic Easter eggs, but always hid the boiled eggs that they had dyed. I thought this was a really good idea! So we hid them for Braden to find and then ate them with our breakfast. Braden loved it just as much as the ones with candy, so it was great!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate Christ and all things becoming new again with Spring. I loved starting some new traditions with our family, and having Braden old enough to participate and be excited about them!

Amazing Friends

2011-04-25T12:59:00.002-06:00

I have some amazing friends here in VA! Cami threw me a baby shower and we all got together and had so much fun! She is so creative and made amazing favors for all of us, decorated so cute and fed us delicious food! It was great to get together and spend some fun, relaxing time with friends. It was perfect.

Thanks Cami and everyone for a great baby shower!!!

I just love these guys!!!

Braden's thoughts...

2011-04-11T21:34:00.004-06:00

A few fun moments of Braden over the last few weeks:

Braden, upon seeing a picture of Jesus showing the nail prints in His hands to the disciples after being resurrected:

B: He got a scratch. Jesus got a scratch. (full of deep concern in his voice)

Me: Yes, he did. He got a scratch for us. He's showing His scratch to His disciples.

B: Yeah. They gonna get a band-aid for Him. So He can heal. They gonna get a band-aid for Him. Make him feel better. Yeah.

Justin and I were sitting on the couch. Braden comes in the room and announces:

B: "I just gonna go play baseball a little minute. Be back in little bit. I just gonna go play baseball."

Us: "Oh. Okay. That sounds fun!"

B: "Yeah. I gonna play baseball. Be fun. Be back, real soon." Then seeing the back door is closed. "Uhhh, I just need keys. I just need the keys so I can go play baseball a little minute. Mommy, daddy, I need keys go in the car."

Song he made up before church the other day. I listened from the bathroom as he sang this to his balls: "Goin to church....and this little ball goin to church...and this ball going to nursery....and we're ALLLLLL goin to church...."

Spring Break

2011-04-11T21:03:00.009-06:00

Mom and Dad Peterson flew out and joined us for Spring Break! It was WONDERFUL!!! We had so much fun having them here and it was a great and much needed break for everyone.

We hung out here in Norfolk for a few days, went to Jamestown and Yorktown for a day, and toured around DC for a few days. Braden LOVED having Grandma and Grandpa here and it was so sad to have them leave. We love it out here, but sure miss our families!

JAMESTOWN

Preggo and proud! Haha!

So serious. Looks like he could have just fit into the role!

YORKTOWN

Braden sure loved having his daddy around all the time to play with!

Showing Braden the techniques of skipping rocks. :)

Are they just so cute!! :)

This turkey was hissing again and again at us, and although the people working there said it wouldn't attack, none of us were so sure. The thing kept coming towards us and making this scary noise. I've never really been close up to a turkey before, and never thought imagined it would be this scary. Braden and I were both pretty jumpy around the thing!

WASHINGTON DC

Marine's Museum

I was all excited about these little stands...Braden not so much.

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

And this was the best! Every time they found a hill and had the chance Justin would run up it with Braden and teach him how to roll down. Braden never quite mastered it, but he sure thought it was a ton of fun! He doesn't get much practice around here. It's flat as can be in Norfolk, and the only hills of any kind around here are the ones built up for freeway exits/entrances!

Downtown DC

Braden got to hold a caterpillar, millipede and a few other fun bugs at the Natural History museum. It was one of the highlights of the trip for him. :)

Nap time on the go.

NORFOLK

Botanical Gardens

Mom and Son! How sweet!

It ended up being freezing cold (well, not literally freezing, more like 50 degrees kind of freezing - I know, I know, we're totally wimps out here!) the whole time they were here, so sadly it wasn't a very warm Spring Break. But we had so much fun in spite of the bad weather!

Love you guys!

Can't wait to see you again!

38 weeks

2011-04-10T21:41:00.006-06:00

Not my favorite picture of me, but it does the job of showing my belly...plus I'm just too lazy right now to take another one more to my liking. :)

So here we are, two weeks away!! So crazy! Lucky for me and Justin, no signs of anything yet. The contractions I was having randomly have stopped and the baby seems to be sitting content to stay in there for now. We'll see if he'll by chance just be the most patient and obedient little boy ever and stay that way until May 6th! Haha! I'm not counting on it, but there's always a chance, right?

I'm feeling really good - not swollen yet (which is WAY different than I was with Braden) and, although its hard to get up or bend over, not feeling overly huge and uncomfortable yet. I'm not sure why - with Braden I was so swollen by now and just so ready to have this baby. I'm taking it as a huge tender mercy from above!

I felt especially good about life today - started off with a 2 mile walk with Braden (in the stroller), we stopped to play at the park, I mowed the lawn (I know many of you are sitting in snow and thinking "mowed the lawn?!!", but spring comes nice and early here and this is the second time we've mowed our lawn this season), Braden and I had a picnic, and to top it all off it got up to 85 degrees with 50% humidity and I got a little (tiny) bit of color on my arms and face! Yay!

Justin was very unhappy with me when he got home and saw that I had mowed the lawn (He came in and immediately said, "Please tell me that our neighbor was extremely nice and came over and mowed our lawn today. Please tell me you didn't do that." I just smiled and told him that a lawn fairy had come. He just shook his head at me!)

In other things, Braden is very excited to have this baby come. He talks about all the things he's going to help do (change diapers, help give the baby a bath, give the baby blankets, show him toys, etc.). He loves going to the doctor's office with me and hearing the baby's heartbeat. It is so fun and cute. He'll randomly bring out his dr kit and get out the stethoscope and 'listen' to the baby's heartbeat on his own. I'm really excited to see him as an older brother!

Here he is "practicing" holding the baby and enjoying the baby's bouncy seat. He really had a good time in there!

We finally got serious about things and put up the baby's crib, put the room together, etc.
Nothing fancy or cute, but it still made me excited. :)

And in other happenings, Braden got to go to his third concert! He is so great and really loves music and we have really enjoyed taking him to events like this. Our friends/"family away from family" were so sweet and got tickets for us to come to their son, Juston's, concert. He plays the viola in an amazing youth orchestra, which gets the chance every year to perform with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. It was an amazing concert with lots of John Williams and other familiar music. Absolutely fantastic and Braden really got into some of the exciting pieces! He was literally bouncing up and down during the William Tell Overature (Lone Ranger Theme). It was great! I love making these little memories!

Thank you Goldades for keeping us a little bit cultured on our small student budget!

Braden and Coulton Goldade after the concert

And some random fun time at the Zoo! :) Two little monkeys together...

32 weeks and other happenings...

2011-03-02T21:16:00.007-07:00

I have been terrible at updating our blog lately, so I apologize, this is going to be a long one!

I had a realization this week that I am 32 weeks along!!! Ahhh!! So crazy! It just goes by so fast! I got online the other day to figure out how far along I am (things are just so crazy I don't even keep track anymore!) and it said that in two weeks the baby will be turning head down to prepare for labor. I immediately started freaking out and thought, "Wow, wow, wait a minute here! Who's getting ready for labor. There should be no getting ready for labor here. It's way too soon for that!"

I am really hoping that this little boy just wants to hang out in the womb as long as possible because on April 28th (my due date) Justin has a SHELF exam (a national exam that he can't miss or reschedule), then finals week continues until May 5th, on which day he has another SHELF exam. All in all it would be wonderful if this little guy could just hang out in there until May 6th! :) We'll see what he thinks of that plan.

So...update on me:

I am getting very big and pregnant, but feeling good. My hips are miserable and Justin laughs at me as I hobble around almost every night like a 75 yr-old woman with arthritis in her hips! It is pretty funny looking, even I have to admit that. :) Baby is very healthy and movin' and groovin' in there like crazy!

At the beginning of the year I got called as the YW president in our ward. It has been crazy busy, and more than a little overwhelming at times, but it is going well. I am learning a lot and the Lord is most definitely stretching me and trying to make me into more than I am. Poor Justin has to deal with me constantly in tears, but I am on my knees a lot and I know I am growing and Justin is always there to support me and give me a shoulder to cry on and I have been given a lot of help and a lot of wonderful blessings.

Update on Justin:

He is doing great in school! It is crazy and overwhelming - he is so busy and has so much on his plate but he is amazing and manages it all so well! I am really amazed as I watch him be so dedicated and balance life. He works so hard for us and I'm so grateful that I get to be by his side in all this!

Braden:

Brado is growing more and more independent and has most definitely hit his "two's". He is still my sweet little boy, just has a little added attitude and a very strong will of his own! :) He is so excited about this little baby and I can't wait to see him as an older brother! He loves to "listen to the baby's heartbeat" with his little pretend stethoscope and feel the baby move. He is so smart and funny and he has the most hilarious things to say! I need to be better about writing them down, but here is one that I remember:

Me: "The baby is moving"

Braden: "He's playing."

Me: "Yep, he's playing in there."

Braden: "He playing with his basketball!"

Me: "Oh! He has a basketball?"

Braden: "Yeah! He has balls! Basketball and soccer ball and football! Yeah, he likes balls!"

Braden has also started praying, which is just the sweetest thing ever to hear. Nothing more precious than hearing your child pray! I love it!

Some pictures of the last few months:

A fun afternoon at the zoo together!

Just snuggling with Daddy before bedtime.

Spring is here! Things are warming up and we have our first flowers!!! I love them!

Taking Braden and his little buddy Ainsley grocery shopping! It was so fun to see them interact in the cart! They are hilarious sometimes together and act like two peas in a pod. Other times they are more like brother and sister fighting over who gets what, but all in all they are pretty fun together!

Today we went to the park by our house and they had so much fun throwing the crunchy leaves that didn't get raked up in the fall. It was so cute and I love the expressions I was able to catch!

Braden has this fetish with "blankets" - washcloths, towels, dishtowels, place mats, blankets, etc. He loves to take them and lay them all out together! He is so serious about it, too!

Our little snowman! We got some snow last month and Braden and I both thought it would be fun to make a snowman! Apparently the idea was more fun than the actual task because after about 5 min he wanted to go inside because he was cold! He is just as much of a wimp as his parents when it comes to the cold weather I guess! Braden did love the snowman's "carrot nose" though. :)

And how funny is this?!!!! Braden wanted to hold this book while going to bed. I let him, and then poked my head in about 10 min later to see if he was asleep yet and I found him asleep with the book over his face! It was hilarious!!!!

Another Boy!

2011-01-30T15:10:00.005-07:00

Well, it is official that we are having another boy! And luckily there is only one! (the dr. had us scared for a week because she heard multiple heartbeats and wasn't sure what to think, but at our ultrasound there was only one baby. Whew! Good thing because I don't know that we could have handled twins!)

This sweet little boy was just posing for these pictures. I love looking at them. He just looks so sweet sitting there. I'm excited to meet this little guy in a few months.

He looks so much like Braden already to us. It will be fun to see if that is true when he comes out! He is certainly just as active in the womb as Braden was. So I'm guessing we'll have two little balls of energy running around together! :) I'm sure Braden will teach him everything he knows and before I know it they will be getting into all sorts of mischief together!
I'm really actually looking forward to it! Haha!

I just can't get over how detailed you can see his face in these 3D pictures! It melts my heart!

And this little foot is just so precious!!!

The rest of Christmas

2011-01-30T15:09:00.006-07:00

a whole bunch of Christmas memories...

Justin's dad is a manager for Fastenal and Brado got to spend some quality time with his Grandpa driving around and playing in the cool, big trucks!

He especially liked being up high in the bunk bed. :)

It was great fun! Braden had so much fun and loves big trucks even more now - if that's possible!

We played on Grandma and Grandpa's bed (doing the "elbow-drop" throw onto it by Justin - another favorite of Braden's)

Fun times opening Christmas gifts!

And Addi got Grandpa to wear the Princess Crown! :)

We went caroling with my family on Christmas day - one of my favorite Christmas traditions!

(Justin made me take him out of this photo because it wasn't the greatest picture of him. lol - he really did look like he had a Christmas hangover or something!)

and Braden discovered that juggling is pretty much the coolest thing ever!

He has a couple of uncles that are pretty proficient jugglers and can do cool tricks with balls that Braden was just in awe of!

It just made him SO happy!

Wonderful Christmas memories. I love being home with family!!! :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New BABY!!!

2010-12-29T05:13:00.005-07:00

We are having a baby!!!! We have kept it a secret for a LONG time (it was SO HARD!!!) in order to make it a Christmas surprise for our families! But they all finally know now so I can spill the beans here too!

We are so excited! I am about 23 weeks along. Now, I'm not quite so big as I look in the picture above...we had a family photo shoot since all my family is here for Christmas and we wanted a maternity picture so I stuck out my belly with all my might to make it look like I was further along. :)

We are most likely having a boy - at least it was looking pretty clear at our 13 week ultrasound - but that was pretty early to be telling so we'll get another confirmation ultrasound the end of next week when we get back to VA.

It was a bit of a surprise to Justin and I, but we are so excited!

To be completely honest we are quite nervous too, because this little baby is due not only in the middle of finals week, but also a month before Justin takes his Board exams (huge test on everything he has learned thus far to determine whether he can move on to the next year and also what residencies he can get into). After that there is a little break, but then the beginning of July Justin starts his 3rd year which means he's pretty much gone all the time. I keep looking at all that and going..."How?" - but I'll just have to trust the Lord. He thinks we can do this, so for now that will have to be enough for me. It's not going to be easy, but I know I will learn a lot and grow a lot. :)

The thought of having a little newborn in my arms just melts my heart and I'm so excited that our little family is growing!

Braden's not exactly sure what this all means though but he loves to listen to the baby's heartbeat in the doctor's office and see the ultrasounds. He's going to be a fun big brother!

This little baby is healthy and active that's for sure! Always bouncing around and doing flips. It feels very similar to how active Braden was, so I think we are in for another little ball of energy!
I have no doubt that they will have a great time running around and getting into mischief together! haha!

Not all the pictures from our photo shoot (done by the amazing Melissa Kilner) are edited yet, but she gave us a little sample of some of them. I can't wait to see the rest!

It's been a great Christmas!!!

My Growing Boy...

2010-12-21T15:15:00.004-07:00

I felt the need to write a novel about what Braden is like and what he's up to these days. I haven't done that for quite a while, so here it is. Feel free to skip down past this post and just jump to the birthday fun (It really is a long post but I promise if you keep scrolling you'll get there! Haha!)! So for myself or anyone else interested, here is what my little growing boy is like these days. :)

One thing hasn't changed - he is a little ball of energy!!! He gets it from Justin and I don't think it will ever change. I hope it doesn't. He has so much excitement and energy for life - it is a little bit contagious (and at certain times a little bit tiring, haha!) and you can't help but get caught up in that positive energy!

Braden just gets more and more fun! He is starting to get more and more independent (which has it's ups and downs) and likes to prove that he is a big boy! His excitement for balls, trucks, throwing things into water, trains, climbing and almost anything else boyish is so fun to watch! Oh, and chocolate...I can't leave chocolate out of the mix of his favorites! He was just meant to go to a chocoholic family! :)

He loves sports more than almost anything else and runs up and down the halls or rooms with balls exclaiming (in a breathless excitement), "I playing volleyball!" or "I playing soccer!" or "I playing football!" or "I playing golf ball!" or "I playing basketball!"

He has his sports vocabulary down - which is quite hilarious sometimes! Often when he trips and falls he looks up and says, "I got tackled!" I laugh every time! Justin has recently taught him about fumbling the football, which is equally hilarious when it gets thrown into his commentary on what is happening with the balls in the room.

Braden recently discovered Robin Hood (the cartoon version from years ago) and I think Robin Hood is one of his new heroes! Along with Tigger (because he bounces - Braden even imitates the "woo-hoo-hoo-hoo" sound he makes and will bounce around the house or the couch or the bed saying "bounce like Tigger!" It is so funny!), Bert and Ernie (Sesame Street), and Dory (Finding Nemo).

But my favorite of his heroes is Joseph Smith!

We have the Restoration dvd and Braden LOVES to watch it! It is the sweetest thing to hear him get excited about all the animals on the farm, Joseph and his brothers playing, Joseph going into the grove to pray and Joseph's father getting baptized. He points all of those things out to us every time! The first time pointed out "baptized" on his own was one of the sweetest moments of my life! And any time he is not wanting to be quiet or fold his arms for the prayer all we have to do is remind him that Joseph Smith prayed and almost instantly he is ready to pray because he wants to be like Joseph Smith! It is so sweet.

He is getting more and more social (to our great delight), but still is a shy little boy just like his dad was. And he is a little talker, just like his dad was when he was a boy.

When I was pregnant I prayed and prayed that if we had a little boy he would be just like his dad. I didn't realize how exactly my prayers would be answered! He is JUST like his dad in so, so many ways it is uncanny. Justin's mom even just looks at Braden and is amazed that it is really a little replica of her Justin as a toddler - from his looks to his personality and energy.

Sometimes I think I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into when I prayed so earnestly for this little boy to be just like his dad (haha!), but really I am so happy to have my own little mini-man! :) I wouldn't have it any other way.

One of my personal favorite things about Brado is that he is a touchy-feely kind of boy. He loves to be up on ours laps, loves to wrestle, loves to hug, loves to climb on us, loves to tickle and be tickled, etc. He loves even to be hugged or snuggled or have his back rubbedwhen he goes to sleep. He will still fall asleep in my arms when he's tired and I'm so grateful he hasn't grown out of all these things! I am a very touchy person, so it just fills my heart up when I get to spend moments being close with him - whether in play or in peace.

It's such a blessing! I hope with all my heart he never grows out of that, but part of me knows there is a good chance that he will - so I try to cherish all these hugs and tackles and fun, sweet times while I can!

Life in general is such a blessing, and having this little child in my life just makes it 10 times greater! At times it seems 10 times harder, but so worth the 10 times of greater life, love and happiness!

Heavenly Father sure knows us and knows what we need. And I am so grateful for it! At times I wonder that He entrusted us with this precious little boy, but I can't thank Him enough for giving us the chance!

Our little boy is 2!

2010-12-21T14:51:00.008-07:00

Two years have already come and gone with our little Brado boy!!! He is getting so big and looking (and acting!) more and more like a little boy all the time! I really can't believe it. On his bday he and I watched some videos of his 1st bday and I just was flabbergasted (how in the world do you spell that word?!) at how much he's changed in the last year!!!

We had tons of fun celebrating with the Petersons and the Monsons:

And, of course, as soon as the ball was open he was off to kick it and play!

And he had to show it to "Codo" (Cody is one of Braden's favorites! He absolutely loves him!)

Braden and Grandpa had a great time playing with his new toys and making faces and laughing together. Grandpa's are just goofy and a lot of fun!

Uncle Zach assembled Braden's new Lego Firetruck and the playing got even more fun!

Then there were more presents the next day at the Monsons.

He got a golf ball/club set and he was SO excited!!!

You might wonder why Braden has gloves on? Well, he has this little golf instruction book at home and it always has pictures of the players wearing gloves. He has long wanted to have clubs to hit the random golf balls we have around the house. He was so excited to finally have some clubs, but he immediately asked me for gloves!! I laughed so hard! Luckily, I had some winter gloves in his suitcase upstairs and they were enough to satisfy him and make him feel like a REAL golf player! :)

He and Grandpa had some fun sessions learning how to hold the golf club and hit the ball!

And then this week Justin was able to come and join us here in WA and we celebrated his birthday too! Braden, of course, had to help his daddy open the presents!

Yay for fun December birthdays!!! It just makes for a celebration all month! :)

Home for the Holidays!

2010-12-21T14:37:00.005-07:00

We are home for the holidays and we couldn't be happier!
Braden is constantly spoiled by his Grandparents (which he loves!)
And Justin and I are both just so happy to be home and with family again. We miss our families so much being on the other side of the country and we are so grateful that they make a way for us to get home!

Fun times throwing rocks into the little stream in front of my parent's house.

This is my mom all ready in a Christmas hat to go get a tree! I just love her! :)

You'll notice in a lot of pictures lately that Braden is never smiling - this is not because he rarely smiles, but actually because he, again, is just like his dad and has learned to hate the camera. He seems quite young to be so decided against it but every time I bring it up to take a picture he looks at me and grimaces or gives me his little "stink-eye" and gets upset at me. It makes picture time a lot less fun... but, just like his dad, he'll just have to learn to get used to it because I LOVE pictures! :)

Braden and Grandpa checking out the Christmas trees!

This was one of Braden's favorites thus far! I put the wading boots on him and let him go walk in the stream and rocks!

He thought it was pretty darn cool and was very disappointed when I told him it was time to go back inside because I was getting too cold!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-21T14:03:00.004-07:00

We had a fun Thanksgiving with the Goldades (a family in our last ward - they have taken us in and given us a family away from family!)! We love them so much and had a great time with their family. Justin and the boys all played football in the morning, and this year Justin didn't get hurt! Woohoo! (Last year he got a concussion, year before injured his knee, etc.) Justin looks forward to this tradition all year long! He loves to play football, but this is the only time during the year he gets to do it. I love it too because I know how excited he is about it and it can't help but make me happy, too!

Braden was so much more open and social this year, so he had tons of fun playing with the Goldades! They have three teenagers who all have a lot of fun with him and he LOVED all the attention. Plus they have stairs, so that automatically made their house cool in his mind. :)

All in all, it was a great break from school, great company, great food and an amazing day! We have so, so many blessings and I'm so grateful that there is a holiday to celebrate it!

Juston (Goldade) - so tired after the turkey dinner that he laid on the hardwood floor and used balls for his pillows!

The missionaries joined us for pie and we all had a great time!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving Goldades!!!!

Fire Station Fun!!!

2010-11-30T19:15:00.004-07:00

(Braden the Fireman - Fireman in Training! Just look at him driving that truck! Haha!)

This is a little late in coming, but I had to wait for pictures from a friend since I completely forgot to bring my camera! I was so glad someone remembered to bring one since this is probably on Braden's list of Top 10 highlights of his short little life thus far!

(Braden climbing into the truck to drive and turn all the flashing lights on with this great fireman's help!)

On Veteran's day, all our friends' older kids were out of school and I had heard that there was a really cool, big Fire Station that did awesome tours for kids for free. So I set it all up and WOW it was one of the best play-dates ever!!!

It was especially fun because, out of all the med student's kids, all but two are boys. So, needless to say, the boys were EATING THE WHOLE THING UP!

(This is Braden up in the cherry picker part of the truck. He LOVED every minute of it!)

I can't say enough good things about these Firemen. They just went above and beyond in my opinion to make sure that every kid there had an awesome experience. They had stickers, coloring books and suckers to real the kids all in, and then they did crazy things with them like let them "drive" the trucks and turn on the lights, use their walkee-talkees, try to hold their huge tools, put on their gear, look into their heat-sensitive cameras in the dark to see each other, and - Braden's favorite part -

climb up the ladder on top of the fire truck and walk across to the cherry picker!

All the bigger boys were jumping at the chance to do that. I knew Braden would be a bit small to go up there, so I took him over to the ladder thinking he could climb up a few rungs and then he would get down.

I was so wrong. The fireman helping the kids up saw that Braden would be too little to go up by himself, so he simply said, "Oh come here little guy, I'll take you up there." And he picked little Brado up with a big smile on his face and climbed up with him.

Braden LOVES to be up on top of things, LOVES firetrucks, and LOVES cherry pickers even more. (We have had a lot of cherry pickers randomly around our neighborhood cutting down limbs of really high trees and it is fascinating to him. I don't know how many kids under the age of two know the word "cherry-picker", but he has been obsessed with them for months now and always talks about them and pretends he is up high in the cherry picker.)

So with that kind of background I can' tell you how fun it was to see that sweet fireman make one of Braden's big dreams come true!!!

After they all came back down Braden just kept pointing to that truck and saying,

"Up ladder. Cherry picker. Up ladder again?"

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-03T15:59:00.003-06:00

Aren't they so cute?!!! Justin and I were sick this Halloween, which made for a kind of bummer Halloween for Braden, but we still tried to have a little fun! Justin hates dressing up, and told me he would only dress up if I found a "Man in the Yellow Hat" costume, from Curious George. He only said this because he didn't think I would ever come up with a totally yellow outfit for him, but he underestimated me. Haha! :) I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. He grumbled a lot, but was a great sport and dressed up.

Braden made the cutest little monkey! And he loved playing the part! After putting the costume on he even kept referring to himself as a monkey. When it was time to go to our ward's Trunk or Treat he kept saying to himself, "Come on, Monkey" "In car, Monkey" "Sit down Monkey" and "Let's go Monkey!"

It was so funny! It seemed the most natural thing to him to be playing a monkey.

He loved saying Trick or Treat and getting candy. And the next morning the first thing he did when he woke up was come into our room and ask for his milk and to put on George Monkey.

I was in a more-than-usually indecisive mood, so instead of picking and choosing which pictures to put up, I just put them all up.

I have to laugh at this one because it looks like he is professing his love to his banana!

He really enjoyed putting on the make-up...

He looks like a such a sad, lonely little monkey here!

He was almost a cow this year, but as you can see he wasn't nearly as happy about it as he was with the monkey. Plus his head is just really too big for the cow hat...

And we started a great tradition this year! He and I made sugar cookies!

I have never made sugar cookies with Braden before and he thought it was awesome!

He loved eating the dough and flour, and especially loved cutting out the shapes and putting them on the pan. He was really sad when we were all out of dough and wanted to take them all off and do it over again!

Then later I had him put sprinkles on them after I had frosted them. He loves anything that shakes, and loves sugar, and loves making a mess - the combination of all of these was like the best thing ever! He's been asking to make cookies ever since and I have no doubt that he will talk me into it one of these days and we will be making that great fun mess all over again!

Now we just need someone to eat all the cookies besides me! :)

Fun New Friends

2010-10-31T08:25:00.002-06:00

Braden has found a fun new friend! Her name is Ainsley. She is in our ward, just a few months older than Braden and I watch her occasionally, which Braden loves!

It is so fun to see him play with other little kids and start to get into that more social stage where he really gets excited to play with other kids.

Ainsley is particularly a great playmate because she is not too intense - she's pretty relaxed and happy. :) Braden likes to play, but he likes to have his space too, and it usually takes him a while to warm up. He can be pretty shy. But he and Ainsley are great little buds and just entertain each other and laugh so hard together it is hilarious! I love it. I get so much done when she's here too, because Braden has someone else to play with and keep his attention! It's a win-win situation all the way around and I really love that he has a sweet little best friend!

Just so cute!

And you can see from the picture above that Ainsley lacks no fear in trying anything Braden does. :) He started climbing up the TV and she was barely a step behind him. He seemed to think it was great that he had a little friend around to be a monkey with him!

Big Boy Bed!!!

2010-10-31T08:09:00.003-06:00

Braden has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since we moved to this house because we thought he was old enough to not be in a crib - but not old enough to be up very high yet - plus we didn't really have a bed for him yet. Then, we found the jackpot! Sometimes when people move around here they leave any stuff they don't want to take with them on the curb. The city comes and picks up whatever other people haven't already taken by then sometime the next week. It is basically a free-for-all. :) And we love anything that is free! So we found a really nice set of bunk beds, a great office chair, a banana chair and a few other random things. It was awesome!

So were a little forced to put Braden's bed together because of some unsavory bugs around the house (one found running across his bed!!! i was thoroughly disgusted and grossed out!). I wasn't sure of what he would think of it, but he LOVES it!!!!! He bounces on it all the time and thinks his big bed is awesome!

Preparing for a big jump!

And the jump was a little too big! His pants came right down! It was hilarious!

I love these shelves for decorating his room! Though I'm still working on finding good, cheap ideas for what to put up there...any ideas are welcome! :)

At the Zoo

2010-10-31T08:03:00.004-06:00

We took a little family break a couple of weeks ago and went to the zoo together. It was so much fun to just go and be together, spending time as a little family. :) Plus Braden loves animals so he was pretty excited about the whole thing!

Justin and I thought it was so funny that this elephant was just standing there with his back legs crossed!

Petting and feeding the goats was Brado's favorite part of the zoo by far!

Loving Fall

2010-10-31T07:56:00.003-06:00

We are all thoroughly enjoying the fall season here, but no one more so than Braden! I remember enjoying playing in the fallen leaves as a child, but I don't remember loving nearly as much as Braden does. The joy he finds in it is just contagious and I really find myself feeling like a little kid again playing with him and seeing the joy he has in everything! It seems like I am enjoying childhood 10 times more just living it through him. I just love his energy and excitement for life!

I was so bummed that this picture didn't turn out better - but you can still see the pure joy in his face even though it is dark :)

Date Night with Brado

2010-09-27T12:07:00.003-06:00

Wednesday's are becoming me and Braden's date night. :)

Justin plays soccer from 5:30 until 7ish, so I decided we should go out and have some fun, too.

This week we went to the Chrysler Museum of Art! It is free, welcomes kids and is a great place to explore. Braden had a great time. The museum is pretty big, so we didn't see nearly everything, but the rooms we did see he would walk into and go "oooooh" and point to things, then run to the next room to do the same thing. I think his favorite parts were the big panels of cloth artistic-ly hung from the ceiling (they were very colorful!) and all the big, castle-like stairs to climb!

Monkey had to come along for the trip, too. :)

The museum from the outside.

The view from the museum. It was a beautiful, warm evening, which made it even better.

These beauties popped up in our yard a week ago! It was so fun and random - they are not connected to a bush or anything, just random stalks that pop up the end of fall and make these beautiful, bright flowers! Thanks to the genius of my friend Linds, I was able to find out exactly what they were from the picture - Nerine Lily or Guernsey Lily. They are from Africa and do look quite exotic. I'm glad they grow here. :)

(Rachel - yes, that is the same Guernsey of the book! Supposedly a ship of these sunk right by the island and they took root there and started to grow. I was so happy I knew where Guernsey was and a little bit about it! I think we are going to have to go there someday. :) )

Monkey Boy

2010-09-19T21:02:00.003-06:00

Well, I guess I should say monkey boyS. We have moved to our new house - and are LOVING it - and Justin has started the lessons on how to climb a tree. Not that Braden really needed the added encouragement, but there it is nonetheless.

This is what we did for FHE the other night - climb trees together! It was great fun. Braden has fallen in love with Curious George - both books and movie - and talks about him all the time. Braden was already destined to be a little monkey, being so much like his daddy, who was a constant little monkey (and still is at heart) his whole life. Justin, by the way, also loved Curious George growing up.

Creative, mischievous, cute, and climbs on everything.

That sounds like my boys.

This is our new house. We got an amazing deal and we are in a very quiet, safe neighborhood. We have so much more room, too. And there is a little tiny park just a block away that we can always go play at.

We love these Crepe Myrtle trees that line our yard. They are my favorite tree out here (hmm...maybe tied with the Southern Magnolia, it's hard to say) and they are perfect climbing trees for Braden. They were starting to lose their flowers when I took this, but they keep blooming from July until September. And it is all we see when we are sitting at our kitchen table and looking up outside the window. We love it.

This is what I found earlier today. I was in the kitchen doing dishes and I heard Brado laughing and say "high, high, high". I figured he had climbed to the top of the couch or something. I came out and found him on top of the TV!

I just started laughing and grabbed the camera to take a picture. He can find his way to the most precarious spots! A little while ago I came into the living room to find him sitting on the table that is between our couches. It is round, very unsteady, and a foot or two away from either couch. I have no idea how he got up there without tipping it over and falling. I have since found him on there twice, but the camera was dead both times so I couldn't snap a pic. :(

2010-09-19T20:44:00.001-06:00

Megan, this is for you. :)

18 months old

2010-08-04T12:29:00.005-06:00

I haven't made a post in a long time, and there is much to catch up on, but at the moment we are in the midst of heaps of boxes and a mess of a house so the rest will have to wait for another day. Here are some oh-so-cute pics that my amazing friend, Melissa Kilner, took.

She is awesome and I just love her pictures!

Me and my Boy

2010-08-04T10:35:00.005-06:00

Yay for UTAH!!!

2010-06-29T00:38:00.004-06:00

We had a fun and whirlwind trip to UT! It was so wonderful to be with family and seeing people I love so much! We quickly saw a few extended family - I LOVE YOU ALL TO DEATH!!! - saw a couple of friends - thanks for catering to me guys! And I wish I could have gotten to see you all! I miss you all to death! - and had a great time playing with my parents, siblings and neice & nephew! I love my family SO much! We can all laugh together no matter what life brings.

They are simply the best.

While we were there we got to see my brother, Brian, get set apart as a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! It was amazing to be a part of. I love him so much and am so proud of him.

Braden LOVED seeing his cousins and playing with them. We all wish we could do that more often. :(

How can you not just love these cute little faces?!

Most of the time there was spent at a condo at Wolf Creek. It was a perfect little get-a-way. So beautiful and peaceful. We all love it up there.

The raquetball men

The cute couple!

And on the way back to WA we went through Portland for a business mtg my dad had. I hadn't been back to the Portland temple since Justin and I were married there 4 yrs ago. So my Mom was an angel and watched Braden for me while I went in.

I love this temple! I even got to stand outside the Bridal room and just look in and remember getting ready with my sister and my mom, I walked around all the places and remembered each little thing that happened there. It was a sweet walk down memory lane.

The only thing that could have made it sweeter would have been to have my sweetheart with me! :( Sadly Justin is working in DC for a month teaching high school students who are interested in medical school. We couldn't go with him so opted to stay with fam instead of just being home alone. We have never been apart for so long and it is terrible! Luckily I have my family around contsantly keeping me busy and distracting me from my loneliness. :) Thank goodness for wonderful families!
On a bit of a tangent, I just have to say that I have so much respect for the families - particularly the wives - of those who serve in the military. There are tons of military families around our area in VA and the people I have made friendships with astound me with their strength. I don't know how they do it. I called up my friend one day in Feb. and after talking for a little while found out that she had her two little kiddos alone since her husband had been shipped to Haiti for an undetermined amount of time. She had just got him back from being gone 6 mos when we first moved there, and then there she was again without him, not even knowing when he would be back this time. It might be 3 months, it might be 9 months.

Some people just have a strength that is beyond my understanding. I have met woman after woman that drop my jaw and leave me speechless at their sacrifice, as well as their husband's sacrifice, to give me a safe and protected home.

I am simply in awe of them.

home sweet home

2010-06-29T00:34:00.002-06:00

We have been here at home in WA with our families for a few months this summer and it has been amazing! This is Justin's only summer off of school so we have taken advantage of it to the fullest extent!

We have amazing parents who are really one of the main reasons we survive through it all. They spoil us - especially Braden! - and take care of us in every way. I don't know what we would do if we didn't have them!

So...bascially all there is to say is that we are in WA, having fun, staying busy having so much fun that there has been no time to post anything! :)

Ahhh....loving every minute of it...

Love Montana...

2010-06-28T23:50:00.005-06:00

We had an awesome trip to Eureka, MT (a teeny-tiny little town in the northwest corner of the state) to see Justin's extended family. His parents grew up together there. We loved getting to spend some time with them! They are a lot back-country, a little crazy, a LOT of fun

and just what we need in our lives!

LOVE the beauty - big sky country calling our names again

LOVE the time with family

Justin and Mom

Justin's Dad and Grandpa and Grandma Peterson

Braden and Gigi playing

The Guys

(Justin, his Dad, uncles, Grandpa and Brado)
(And yes, those identical twins in the back have 6-in long handle-bar mustaches - mountain men in EVERY way!)

Fun times with Grandma

LOVE the farm-life

Doesn't he just look like he belongs in MT on a tractor?!

Crazy Uncles Mark and Leonard working on their equipment

and Braden LOVED the animals!

(just a warning, Mark and Leonard are trappers and hunters to the fullest extent - you may not want to look at these pics if you have issues with seeing animals that have been stuffed. Their house is like a museum of them - they are everywhere - and Braden thought it was pretty cool that all throughout the house there were animals for him to feel and see. He learned all sorts of new words.)

Everyday Brado would come up to this one and say "kitty, kitty!)

We LOVE you and miss you Montana!

The Museum of Play!

2010-04-07T19:53:00.007-06:00

Rachel e-mailed me some pictures they took at the museum of play when we were in NY and I had to post them for the fam to see because they are just some fun memories!

Daddy and son driving the car together! Braden thought that was pretty cool. Justin, as you can see, was having a bit of a hard time squeezing into the child-size car!

These little beads provided so much entertainment! Who knew something so simple could be so fun. They ended up everywhere, too. Later that evening I was finding them coming out of pockets and Braden's diaper!

On the steps of Sesame Street!

This place was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It was a full on fake grocery store, with kiddie carts, where the kids could pick whatever they wanted and put it in their cart. Then they take it to the register, pretend to pay for it and go put it all away! Braden loaded his cart with every fruit and veggie he could reach - often taking every kiwi or cucumber there was. We actually never made it to the check out stand, he was too excited about putting things in!

Just pushing the cart along to the next item.

He looks like he's been caught red-handed!

Braden's first train ride!

He LOVES trains and always lets us know when he hears one outside. He and Justin got to take a little ride and he was so sad when he had to get off!

Making his little "choo-choo" action

(his arm moving up and down like he's pulling the whistle)

...And to top it all off, Summertime Fun!

2010-04-07T18:54:00.003-06:00

(Brooke and Braden sharing the kiddie pool toys)

Well, I know this is going to sound crazy, but summer is here! Although I'm sure it's going to go back to the 70's, the weather decided it was ready to jump forward a bit and we have had temps in the mid 90's all week! At first I felt like I had gotten whip-lash from the weather, but after a little time to adjust it's been great! Unfortunately I don't have many summer clothes yet for Braden - I thought I'd have a little more time on that one. All the med-student wives and kids got together at the beach today. We played and had a picnic lunch and life couldn't have been better! Braden LOVED the water and the sand and thought it was great to splash around. I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time at the beach this summer!

(p.s.-any and all visitors are more than welcome! We have a room for you and will provide the food! :) Come on, you know you want to be sitting on Virginia Beach, don't you?!)

Playing in the Sand

Cute little Maggie, about to do a nose dive into the water!

Rachel and Kade having fun in the sand.

Eastertime Fun

2010-04-07T18:30:00.002-06:00

Happy Easter! We had an amazing weekend - between conference and Easter is was perfect. Braden did quite well during conference and enjoyed the music particularly. We were a little bummed we didn't get to see a good close up of my brother, Brian (he is one of the newest members of the MoTab Choir!!!) but it was still cool to look and see the many dots of faces and know that he was one of them. :)
The morning of Easter we headed over to one of the other med students for brunch and an Easter egg hunt. Braden was a natural at the whole Easter egg thing. We didn't even have to explain it to him. I just pointed out that there were eggs, he went and picked them up and put them in the basket, then hurried off to the next one! It was so fun to watch!

He also got his first close look/touch with a snake! One of the boys found this little guy in the backyard after the Easter egg hunt was done. It was a pretty cute and harmless little snake. Braden seemed to like him, although I think he would have found him more exciting if he moved around a little bit more. All boy I guess...just like his dad!

A few days before Easter we dyed eggs! It was a fun first for us as a family! Braden was so excited about the whole thing, as you can see.

I would give him two colors to choose from, give him the egg...

and PLUNK he would drop it in.

Fortunately the dye stayed in the bowls and on the eggs - except for what you can see on Braden's hands that is!

Springtime Fun

2010-04-06T19:53:00.012-06:00

We are so happy that spring is here! It came a few weeks ago and it has been wonderful!

We've spent a lot of time at the park - almost every day and Braden has loved every minute of it. Except for the minutes when it is time to go home that is.

This is Braden's park buddy - Hayden. He lives pretty close to us and whenever we go to the park Hayden (3 yrs old) says along the way, "Two boys, Hayden and Braden!"

That is quite the face, eh? It always makes me laugh when he makes this face. Justin saw it and started laughing, saying that it made him look like Brain, from 'Pinky and the Brain' (Animaniacs cartoon). I had to look up the picture, and sadly...it is very true! Poor kid!

(Brain is the mouse on the bottom, just in case you couldn't see the resemblance.)

Off on an adventure!

One of the great things about this park is that it has a very pretty little garden area, a little pond with a bridge and lots of geese - Braden's favorite part of the whole park!

An accident picture which I think turned out pretty cool!

"Wow look at those geese swim!"

I was trying to get some pictures of him on this little bench, but in almost all of them he was just looking and/or pointing toward the geese with a look of concern that he was way too far away from them! He gets so focused, intent and serious about the things he's interested in. I love it. Hmmm....I wonder where he gets that from...like father like son I'd say!

New York!

2010-03-29T15:10:00.002-06:00

For spring break last week we took a road trip to visit Rachel & Jordan & Abigail in Rochester, NY! We were so excited to get away and have a break from school and lucky for us Rachel and Jordan let us come enjoy it with them! It was perfect. Upstate New York is so beautiful, and we weren't even there at the pretty times of the year - like spring or fall. There were so many things to do there!

Rachel and Jordan took us to the most awesome museum ever - the Museum of Play! It is apparently the biggest children's museum in the nation. It just kept going and going! It was like an inside Disneyland for kids. I don't have all the photos of that yet, so I'll post those later, but here are a few of the babies and Justin climbing up the side of a building. :)

Abigail and Braden watching for the chipmunks and wild turkeys in the backyard.
(Yes, wild turkeys. We even saw a few while we were there! They are huge!)

Jordan and his sweet girl.

Palmyra was only 30 minutes away and we got to see all the amazing sights there. The Smith farm and sacred grove with the temple just across the street were amazing. It was neat to be there around the time when Joseph saw the first vision. Obviously things weren't blooming like you imagine they were when it happened, but it was still amazing to be there and walk that ground knowing that Joseph Smith walked it also and think of the amazing things that happened on those grounds.

I love how you can see the Angel Moroni above the trees going into the grove. It must be exquisite when the trees are blooming and green!

Looking into the heavens

This is one of my favs of Justin and Braden. Braden loves riding on Justin's shoulders.

Beautiful temple! This window looks out to the Sacred Grove. Sadly, the temple was closed while we were there, so we didn't get to go inside. We were quite bummed about that!

Braden enjoyed the stairs everywhere we went. Especially the ones at Jordan and Rachel's place. We don't have stairs at home so that's pretty much all he wanted to do all week, go up and down the stairs again and again. :) Lucky for us he only fell down a few of them twice...though we did later notice that he managed to chip his front tooth. :( Justin keeps reminding me that it's just a baby tooth, so it's really okay. On the plus side Braden got some great teaching from Abigail at how to master going down the stairs backwards, so now he's a pro!

We went to the Hill Cumorah, Grandin Printing Press (where the Book of Mormon was first printed), and to the Whitmer Farm in Fayette. These pictures are from the Whitmer farm. The missionary couple there were so sweet! We were their only visitors all day and they were so happy to have us that they gave us special treatment! They were such a fun couple!

Next we went to Niagara Falls. It was incredible! It was a long walk - good exercise for sure! - but so worth it! The Canadian side was especially impressive.

My two boys walking down the street.

Me, Rachel and the kiddos

Braden was pretty slow to warm up to Abigail, but I think by the end they were better friends! Abigail is so cute and sweet - she jabbers all the time and is so friendly and social! Although Braden wasn't quite as social he did come back jabbering and sounding a lot like Abigail! It is so cute to listen to!

Taking some steps!

Having fun on the air mattress!

After that many hours in the car we all seemed to go a little bit crazy and lose our sanity. Just as we were reaching this point I gave Braden the can of Pringles chips to play with - yeah, don't ask me where my brain was. I was apparently desperate for anything to entertain him! After a few moments we heard a crashing of chips and a "uh-oh" from the back seat. I turned around and saw the chips everywhere and just burst out laughing. It was like the last straw of my sanity went out the window. Justin glanced back and saw the mess and said, "Oh my. Just don't look. Just pretend it didn't happen."
I love road trips! Something about the memories made when we lose our sanity like that just makes me happy! I had several of those moments growing up with my family and it makes me happy that we are creating some of our own.
Yay for family bonding! :)

Poor kid looks like we just picked him up off the street!

Thanks Rachel and Jordan and Abigail for the best spring break!

A few Random photos...

2010-03-29T14:47:00.002-06:00

Fun with my Hat

Poor kiddo was so tired...we never thought we'd see him tired enough to fall asleep at the table, but I guess we were wrong! He just kept trying to eat, but would fall asleep as he put the food in his mouth! I tried a few times to get him out so I could put him to bed but each time he got so upset and said that he was still hungry. It was so sad, but so funny!

rough day...

2010-03-09T18:09:00.002-07:00

Some days I am just an emotional basket-case! Today happened to be one of "those days"... I'm up and down and tend to view the world through those "what is WRONG with everyone else today?!" kind of lenses. After a rough afternoon/evening here's how it all ended:

Me: "What's wrong with me today?! I'm up and down and all over the place! I really hope this is PMS because I just don't even feel like myself!"
Justin: "Who do you feel like?"
Me: "Some crazy person who's an emotional nightmare!"
Justin: (with a slight smile on his face) "........ummm-"
Me: (trying not to laugh at myself) "-Don't you say a word."
Justin: "Okay. I better go do something." (leaves laughing)

Definitely two of the greatest gifts in my life are a very quickly forgiving and loving little boy and a husband who, instead of treating me like the crazy person I am sometimes, just loves me and helps me to laugh at myself! Heavenly Father knew what He was doing. Our 4th anniversary in on Thursday and I am so grateful for that day four years ago when we were sealed together! Poor guy is stuck with me for eternity and it is going to be the best journey ever! I guess even for a rough day, life is pretty darn good. :)

Fun stuff we've been up to

2010-02-22T20:51:00.006-07:00

(warning: this post is EXTREMELY long...sorry about that!)
We have been having a lot of fun this month and our Valentines day was great! Justin and I went on a wonderful date -(thanks to the Goldades and my parents!) it was so nice to get out for an evening together. Justin was so sweet and got me the most exciting gift! Here I was thinking he just didn't have any time to think of ideas of what to get me for Valentines day, so I gave him a list of things that would be easy and that I would enjoy - putting a limit of $5. He played along and "went out shopping" with Braden the day before Valentines day. As it turns out, he really didn't need any ideas at all because he bought tickets for us to go to a Michael Buble concert!!!!! I about died I was so shocked and excited!
He is so good to me - he doesn't even really like Michael Buble. But he knew that I would love to go so he got the tickets. How sweet is he?! (And WAY over the $5 limit, so I told him that is his anniversary and birthday present to me this year) The concert is in July, so I have a lot of time to be excited about it. ;) Justin takes such good care of me, even when he is stressed to the max with school and test after test.
Speaking of Justin, he is doing great and constantly amazes me at the amount of information he can cram into his brain. He studies so hard - and I am so blessed because he likes to study at home, so we get to see him and play during his little study breaks he needs every so often. I love it. I know a lot of the other students study at the library and are there at all hours of the night. I really am so lucky! I love my man! And my boy!
Speaking of that little boy, he is also doing great and my goodness is he ever growing up fast! He very quickly learned how to run, and thoroughly enjoys running away from us whenever we come near him with a diaper or clothes in hand! He has had a language explosion recently and says all sorts of stuff like "cracker, car, ball, up, quack, clock, shoe" etc. It is so cute and only recognizable to Justin and I, but we love every word of it!
So here are a few pictures of what we've been up to:

I had to try to capture a shot of his hair after his bath because that's the best time you can see his cute curls! I love them and I don't have much hope that they will stay (Justin and I have absolutely stick-straight hair. It doesn't come much straighter than the two of us. However, both of our moms have curls to their hair, so there is a chance!). I love curly hair and it makes me so happy that my little boy has some curls! I'm thinking it will be a long time before I can bring myself to cut those cute things!

One day Braden started pulling on his little stroller by the door. He apparently is also ready for the weather to warm up so we can go play outside! Since it wasn't looking very inviting outside, we took a little stroll around the house, inside. He had a great time and kept wanting more and more of it. I think he would have been glad to do that all day long!
So, if you look in his lap you'll see a little boy baby. I love this little guy, as does Braden - to Justin's utter dismay! The bishop's wife found this and gave it to Braden and he has loved it ever since. He gives it hugs, takes off it's hat and gives it to me to put back on, tries to put it's pacifier in...it is so sweet! In the picture below you'll notice another thing that Braden loves, his shirt! This shirt in particular. He is obsessed with it and it often sleeps with him. I don't know what it is about this shirt, but for the about the last 6 months anytime he sees it he grabs it and carries it with him everywhere. It's hilarious!
I love the look in his eyes in this one!

We start them working young here in the Peterson household! :) Braden thinks the broom is pretty cool and apparently doesn't mind that it is more than twice the size of him. It's so funny to see him carry this huge thing around so nonchalantly!

And in other big news this month we got another car!!!! YAY! We have been a one-care family for most of our marriage, but we finally got a second car and it has been great (thank you tax return!!)! The freedom has been wonderful thus far and Justin and I both love the new car. (I'll take a picture of it and post it later) So with the new car we needed another car seat, which Braden was pretty excited about!

And the best thing about a new carseat is the box, of course!

G.Q. in a box...

Snow Day!!!

2010-01-31T13:52:00.008-07:00

It snowed about 8 inches!
(That is a TON of snow for here)
It was a lot of fun and that snow shovel that we just happened to bring with us really came in handy! We were lending it to all the neighbors (who were outside using shovels - the metal kind you dig in the dirt with (not so great for snow)). Braden loves being on the couch and looking out the window and this morning he was amazed that everything was covered in white!
He has seen snow before, but I'm sure he doesn't remember it at all, so this was kind of like his first real experience with the snow. He wasn't sure what to think of it...but it was a fun new experience anyway.
It snowed Friday night and most everything was shut down until the Wednesday afterward. It was quite fun! Church was cancelled, schools were closed and the government offices were all shut down.

We didn't really have snow clothes for Braden, so we put together the few things we could find...

...and yes, those are oversized church shoes he has on! Ha ha! We just don't have anything boot-like for him! The most snow-resistant shoes he owns are a pair of church shoes that are too big. It was pretty funny!

"What is this stuff?"

He just stayed there in one spot and wouldn't move his feet. I think he thought he was stuck there!

Brrr....it's cold!!!

I think the snow made Justin miss his snowboarding days last winter (he worked at Beaver Mtn Ski Resort). I walked down the street a few blocks to visit a neighbor and her daughter and we made snow angels together. It was so much fun! It has been a LONG time since I have made a snow angel. Then the little girl asked me how to make a snowball. (they really don't get a lot of snow around here)

On a funny side note, I mailed Justin's snowboard to my brother last week (we are definitely not going to get any use of it around here - there isn't even a large hill anywhere nearby to use even when there is snow) and everyone who saw me lugging it around acted astounded. I got comments like, "wow that is one big skateboard!" "going skiing, huh?" "what is that thing?". Most other people just looked at me like I was pretty weird. It was really, really funny!

Just hangin' out

2010-01-31T13:50:00.001-07:00

Ice Skating

2010-01-31T12:53:00.005-07:00

EVMS sponsored a free night of ice skating for the first-year med students. Justin and decided that was a perfect (and free!) date for us to go on so we found someone to watch Braden. We had so much fun - as did Braden.
Justin and I had never been ice skating together before (it had been more than ten years since I had even stepped on the ice!) and we had a blast. Justin did a lot of roller-blading in his younger years, so he was a little more natural than I was and even managed some twirls. I tried my best and looked very ungraceful trying to spin around, but I was quite proud that I never fell on my butt! Yay!
It was outside and they still had the lights us from Christmas, it was such a cute atmosphere! I felt like it was a seen out of a movie - ice skating in the city with the lights around. To be totally honest, going ice skating with someone I loved has always been on my list of "totally sappy melt-my-heart romantic things I want to do someday". What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic. It was so simple and fun and sweet that I pretty much grinned the whole time we were there. Afterward we went to Starbucks and got some hot cocoa and caramel cider with a gift-card Justin had received. Free dates are the best! :)

I love the other two med students in the background posing! Haha! I didn't even realize it until I was posting this!

Reading Time

2010-01-31T12:11:00.002-07:00

Braden loves his room and is really into sitting on chairs these days. He thinks he so cool sitting in his rocking chair all by himself! It is really cute.

He loves this little puppy - he's had it since he was a few months old and always has it to sleep with.

And also in his room is his chair. It has been just sitting in his room since he was born waiting for him to be old enough to sit on it. He can't get up on it by himself yet, but he really loves it. He points to it, and bounces up and down saying "puh puh" (that is his "up, he just has it backwards, haha!). Then after I set him up there he points at his books and, after I give him one, he sits there and looks at it.

I'm so glad our little guy likes to read!

Christmastime with the Monsons...

2010-01-07T21:38:00.003-07:00

Christmas was so fun! We went home to Washington, had a much-needed break and spent some wonderful, quality time with family! I really can't describe how great it was. After some days of warming up to people and getting adjusted to west coast time, Braden had a lot of fun with Gma and Gpa! Justin and I even got to go on a few dates and to the temple - which was amazing! It has been a while since Justin and I got out without Braden, and it was nice to know he was in good hands and having fun playing while we were gone. It was heavenly!

Braden loved having stairs around to climb - Justin and I are very happy that we don't have stairs in our small little home to worry about! He constantly wanted to be on the stairs. Luckily he only fell down them once, and even then it was only a few. I thought maybe after that he would be a little more timid about them, but after a minute of consoling he grabbed Grandma's hands and started walking down them like nothing had happened. Definitely his father's child. :)
Grandpa was Braden's bud and would play one of his favorite games - get a ball and throw it down the stairs. Then sit and point at it and call out until someone downstairs came and got it and threw it back up to them. He did this for a long time, and Grandpa was just happy to be there for it all! It is a lot of fun to see my parents as grandparents.

Grandma and Braden snuggling before bedtime. They had a great time together - building block towers and knocking them down, dancing to the "clap-on" music box, and most of all eating homemade chocolates and bits of Oreos. It's a tradition in my mom's family that if you are a Grandma, you always have Oreos on hand. The tradition continues and I'm sure my kids will grow up loving it just as much as I did!
It was the best Christmas break! Thanks so much Mom and Dad for spoiling us all and making some great memories! We love you!

We took more pictures, but sadly they are on my parent's camera, so maybe I'll get them in the future and put them up. We did get some fun videos though: