Ellie lost her first tooth!!!

Catch Up!!

I haven't been very good lately at keeping up with my blog, so I thought that I would do a recap of the last month.

This is Xander at 7 weeks old...he is getting so big and really a good and low key baby...he'll probably be just like his dad.




We went to the beach...it was very cold, but we still had a great time. Travis was so great playing with the kids in the sand. He dug a huge hole. Aeryn loved sitting inside the hole. They had a great time!!




Christmas Tree Hunting...first we get breakfast at Alice's and then went to the tree farm to cut down our tree!! It was so fun!

Halloween

Halloween was a fun time in our house. After changing her mind many times, Ellie decided to be Sleeping Beauty and Aeryn was going to be Genevieve from Barbie...12 Dancing Princesses. We got really cute costumes and the girls looked great. Xander was going to be the standard newborn pumpkin.

That night, I told the girls it was time to get their costumes on after we had carved our pumpkins. We were going over to Grammies house before we went Trick or Treating. At that moment Ellie told me she didn't want to be Sleeping Beauty anymore. She wanted to wear a poodle skirt that my mom had made for my sister Allison when she was young. So that is what we did. She put on the poodle skirt, a t-shirt, her sweater that she wears everyday, and then my mom found a scarf to put in her hair. She looked SOOOO cute. Like she was right out of the 50's. She was a perfect "poodle girl" as she calls it. It was very fun.

Here is a few more photo's of the kids on Halloween.

Silly Ellie

Ellie loves to wrestle with her Grandpa at night. She thinks it is the best thing in the world. We don't let her if it is really close to bedtime because she gets too hyper. The other night, she was begging to wrestle. Travis told her that she couldn't because she always "comes completely unglued." She quickly told her dad that she would stay "completely....glued." We all laughed so hard, and she got to wrestle for a few minutes...I mean with that kind of logic, who could sat no.

Xander and his dad!!

I just thought I'd post a pic of Travis and Xander!! Travis is definitely in love with his son! I know they will have a great relationship as they Xander gets older. Xander is growing so fast. I already miss the first week and how small he was. I love how they snuggle up in a tiny ball during that first week...then they figure out they have more space to move around and they aren't so snuggled up!! :) He is great baby and we are so grateful to have him in our family!!


What a cutie!! I am not biased or anything :)!!!



Our Future BYU fan!!!

Xander is one week old today!!!

After one week, we are still surviving the excitement of a new baby. Thank heavens that I have my mom and dad around to help me with the girls while Travis has been working and I have been trying to take care of Xander! I really couldn't have done it without my running the girls to and from school, girl scouts, gymnastics, and all the other activities that go on. My mom is also become the queen of doing hair (and that is not very easy with the amount of hair that Ellie has). I really can't express the gratitude that I have for my mom and all that she is doing for me. She never makes me feel bad for all the time that I spend feeding Xander, pumping, taking naps, and needing to sit and rest to let my c-section scar heal up!! I really love her and my girls do to!!

My sister has requested that I upload some more photo's of Xander. So here they are!!


Xander wasn't sure how he felt about his first bath at home!! The girls loved assisting with his bath!!



The girls love holding and being with their brother. They are sweet and gentle with him. They have had great experiences with babies while Gavin, their cousin, was also living here with my parents!!



Aeryn wanted to hold Xander tonight while we were all sitting and watching T.V. She actually held him for about 30 minutes. And he was awake the whole time. He just hung out in her arms. I kept asking if she wanted me to take him back, but she just wanted to hold him. She was sad when she had to put him down when it was bed time for her!!


Our little Pumpkin!! I know that he is quite orange/yellow! He is a little jaundiced and it is working out of his body. Not a big deal! He is so cute!! He really is such a great baby! He barely cries...when he is hungry, he just grunts!! He has a perfectly round head and I love it!! It is so cute!! I hope that you have enjoyed these pictures!

Xander John Peterson has arrived!!!

We are so thrilled to say that Xander John Peterson is finally here!! He was born yesterday, Friday the 28th at 12:39pm!! His vital statistics: 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long and a 14 1/2 inch head circumference!! He has a PERFECTLY round head with just a little bit of brown peach fuzz. Everything went wonderful. Ellie and Aeryn were so glad to see him and loved being with him. They were a little afraid of me with my IV and other tubes, but they gave Xander alot of big sister love. Here are some photo's. I'd write more, but we must get back to our little baby!! We will continue to add updates as we have new pics!!

Side Profile

My sister wanted me to post a picture of my profile so she can see the final belly size :) So here it is!! I think I am actually smaller than when I was pregnant with the girls....who knows....we'll see how big this baby turns out to be!!

Aeryn Started Preschool!!

Today was Aeryn's big day. She has been talking about starting school for months. My mom got her this really cute outfit for her first day of school. She looked so adorable. When we actually got to school, she had a major meltdown. Screaming, crying, hysterical. I ended up having to stay and sit in the corner of the classroom. I was bummed because I had all these plans for what I would do with my 1 1/2 hours. Oh well, I guess that is the way things go. Hopefully it gets better before the baby gets here, otherwise I don't know what I'll do!!

Feeling a little Emotional!!!

As I was driving home from work last night, I don't know exactly why, but I was feeling very emotional!! I should have been thrilled because it was my last day of work before the baby comes (3 weeks from today and I'll have the c-section). I was excited to be done with work, but was feeling a need to focus on important things in my life. I have been reading a book about opening your heart to other people which in turns help you to have a closer relationship with God. I've been trying that, maybe that is why I was more emotional. Anyways, I got thinking about my "Poppa". It has been 2 1/2 months since his passing and I was really missing him. He was really such a wonderful man. I love this picture. It is of me with my Nana and Poppa in Disneyland when I was 2 or 3 years old. I love this picture. We all look so happy. I am not sure how they were happy while hanging out at Disneyland with a 2 year old, but it must have been okay.


These are just some other pictures that I like. I really feel grateful to have had my grandpa such a huge part of my life. He was a great example and a I appreciate that. I always felt bad that he had to go through his battle with Parkinson's, but he never complained. I feel sometimes like I am kind of wimpy and get cranky, but I was reminded of his positive attitude with life.



I guess I just wanted to remember my Poppa today. I miss him alot and I am so impressed with the strength that my Nana has. She is continuing to live life, as Poppa would have wanted, and continues to be strong and graceful. Poppa...I love and miss you and I am grateful that my girls were able to know you!!

Ellie Started Kindergarten!!

Wednesday was Ellie's official first day of school!! She has a wonderful teacher who Ellie seemed to feel comfortable with very quickly. I think I was more nervous and anxious about her starting school than she was. I was able to go with her on the first day for an orientation, but then on thursday I had to drop her off. I thought I would cry, but amazingly I didn't. I did miss her and feel sad to have her gone, but I have to admit that I got a whole lot of things done with her in school. I forgot how much easier just having one child is. Aeryn will start preschool on September 11th, and for 3 weeks I will actually have 2 hours twice a week, solely to myself. What will I do? Probably clean the house :( !! Who knows, maybe a little scrapbooking! Anyways, back to Ellie. She very quickly made friends with a cute girl named Anna. They are both fairly shy and seem to fit together really well. They do most of the class activities together and play together during recess.

The morning of Ellie's first day, Aeryn woke up very sad. She wanted to go to school with Ellie. She wanted to even go to her own school. It is hard for her to understand that she still has to wait 2 weeks before she begins. She wants so badly to be a "big girl" like Ellie. But then sometimes she says she is a baby and wants to be "snuggled". I love this picture of the two of them. Ellie posed them for this picture. I thought it sure turned out cute!!

I hate bubblegum!!!

When i got home from work the other day...we got Aeryn up from her nap and she had a big wad of gum in her hair. No one has any idea where it came from. She didn't have any gum when she went down for her nap. Travis was a wonderful dad and got out the ice and very patiently got the gum out with very little cutting. i was ready to get the scissors at the start and cut out the gum. Thank heavens for Travis' patience!! He is a really good dad!!

Look at that disgusting blob of gum!!! ARGHHHH!!!

Playing with Paints

Ellie had been begging Travis to build her a bird house!! This weekend he finally did. I enjoyed teasing him because he didn't just throw some wood together, everything is to the square and measured exactly!! I love his perfectionism. While I was at work the girls painted them.




This is Ellie's birdhouse!! She was so proud of her bright colors!!


This is Aeryn's birdhouse! I was stressed about paints getting every where while she painted!

They also found some face paints and when I got home they asked me to paint their faces. I couldn't resist.


Ellie wanted to be a butterfly and Aeryn wanted to be a doggie!! The little doggie then chased the butterfly around the house!! I even let them sleep with their face paint....but the next morning it was church. We woke up late and still had to clean their faces before church....it was a little bit of a pain!!

Primary Temple Trip

We had a wonderful time on Saturday spending the day at the LDS Temple over in Oakland. We had a primary activity where the kids got a tour and were able to go in the visitor's center and watch a little video. Ellie and Aeryn had a wonderful time. They were so good and we had a wonderful family outing. Travis and I both went as well!! Ellie was able to be with her little friends from church and they love being together!

This is a picture of Ellie and her best friend Abby Richards in front of the temple. It was a gorgeous day and a lot warmer than we thought. I had the girls in sweaters and long sleeves, and they were dying of the heat !!

This is just a cute picture of Aeryn outside the temple. It was fun to tell them about the day that Travis and I got married, right there at the Oakland temple. They saw a bride coming out of the temple while we were there and the girls were in awe. They loved watching her!! It was a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday to Ellie!!

I am a little behind on the blogging. Ellie's birthday was on wednesday...the 6th of june...and we had a wonderful time celebrating. She had a wonderful pool party with our family and a few friends!! Ellie has been so excited to be 5 years old. She loves telling everyone how old she is!! She really had a wonderful time. She even wore her crown around for a little while!

Aeryn had a wonderful time swimming with her dad. The girls both loved the water. Ellie got really brave and ventured to the deep end of Nana's pool (with her water wings on of course).

Ellie blowing out the candles on her ice cream cake. I got this recipe from my friend Claire. It was sure a big hit. I don't know that I will ever make a regular cake again...these ice cream cakes were so yummy and such a big hit. All in all, it was a really a great day!!!

Another ultrasound!!

Today I had to have another ultrasound because they were getting some distorted images of the brain yesterday. I have this large piece of mesh in my abdomen from a hernia repair I had after Aeryn's delivery. The ultrasound tech and the radiologist were having a lot of trouble getting good images. They think they got what they needed today, but I practically had to stand on my head for them to be able to ultrasound around the mesh ;)

They told me that I was the first person that they have ever had to ultrasound through the mesh and it was causing some distortions. I was there for an hour yesterday and then another hour and 15 minutes today. But the great thing was that they felt bad and made me a DVD of parts of the ultrasound. I am trying to put a few on my blog to day so you can see.

Here is a photo showing that this is a boy. I hope you can see that this is our little boy. Today the girls have started calling the baby their brother!! Aeryn, this morning, was yelling into my belly button...."baby brother, baby brother, wake up!!!" It was very cute!!