Some Stuff Happened

Wow. I fell off the blogging train in a major way. Our life suddenly turned pretty crazy after I last posted in June of last year. So many things happened in the last ten months. See for yourself:

First, this happened:

So, I spent the summer battling first trimester fatigue and yuckiness. Dealing with an unexpected pregnancy while still nursing a 7 month old baby is a whole different experience than my other pregnancies. We'll just leave it at that.

Meanwhile, this happened:

It was the first time we attempted the drive down to Southern California, and it was certainly long, but we had a good time. We visited family, checked off two more baseball stadiums (San Diego and San Francisco), met Kathleen, went to a very special Angels game, visited Grace's grave site, went to Disneyland, and enjoyed our time together.

After a summer filled with good intentions and not a lot of adventure (see first picture), this happened:

I'm still not sure how it's possible that I have a kindergartner! James has absolutely loved school, and continues to blow us away with the progress he's made with his math and reading.

Also, because of previously mentioned kindergartner and impending baby #4, this happened:

Paul was hesitant to make this particular jump, but I can say now after having it for six months, it is pretty awesome. Yep. I've embraced the minivan.

In October, this happened:

It was a happy day! It was wonderful to be together as a family, and see the love and support coming to the Petersons and the Westbrooks as John and Kathleen got married.

Also this little guy turned one:

He liked his cake a little bit. ;) Samuel has been so joyful to have in our family. He is a happy and loving little boy.

And we had a band of little pirates for Halloween:

We had a nice holiday season where this happened:

I was grateful to have the opportunity to direct a piece at the PECO Christmas concert. It was so much fun, and I hope to be able to do it again.

We spent Christmas in Colorado:

I love being with my family. We had a wonderful Christmas full of good company, games, puzzles, food, and fun.

We came back to Oregon and this happened:

It hasn't snowed this much in Oregon for five years. School, work, and church all got canceled. It was lots of fun.

And then, on February 28th, this happened:

This is Ruth Aina Peterson. Our beautiful, not-so-little (10 lbs 8 oz!) girl joined our family on her due date. Detailed story to come. Time continues to fly by, and she's already been part of our family for a month! We have had many wonderful visits from family since she was born, and there are still more to come. We are a happy family of six!

I know I've left things out. And I know it's impossible for me to catch up on all this lost time. This little snapshot into our last ten months will have to do for now! Here's to renewed efforts at recording our life!

Opening Day!

If you know us at all, you know that we are a baseball family. If you know us more than a little bit, you've probably heard us complain that a soccer team took over the stadium in Portland and kicked out the Triple-A baseball team we used to have (We miss you, Beavers!). 

This year, baseball--albeit Single-A, not Triple-A--returned to the area! The Hillsboro Hops are the Single-A team for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and they had their Opening Day in their brand new stadium last night. Of course we were there!

It was a fun game. They killed their opponents, the Eugene Emeralds, 12-0. There was even a fireworks show afterword. Thanks to the Belnaps for inviting us and using your city connections to get tickets early!

So yeah...they may have a silly name (Hops, as in what goes into beer), and the concession lines may have taken longer than your average line at Disneyland (I'm not exaggerating)...but we are going to be loyal fans! Gotta keep baseball here! Go Hops!

Father's Day

Our Father's Day didn't go exactly as planned because both James and Sam were sick. We made the most of it, though! We all stayed home together and spent the day relaxing as a family and eating good food (if I do say so myself ;) ).

The kids gave Paul their funny little (dollar store) gifts that they picked out and paid for themselves. Everyone took naps except mom. We read books together. Paul and I talked to our own fathers.

I made a southwestern skillet for breakfast, which ended up being more like brunch. I made cranberry cola glazed ribs with brown rice, corn on the cob, and strawberries for dinner. And finally, I made french vanilla bean ice cream and brownies for dessert. The skillet was delicious. The ribs were tasty but dry (I'm pretty sure I overcooked them). And the ice cream was my best vanilla yet! I used a real vanilla bean for the first time. Thank you, Amazon, for the decently priced vanilla beans!

Ha ha, I'm link happy today. Too funny.

We asked James if he knew the song the primary kids were going to sing in sacrament meeting for Father's Day, and he said, "Yes! And I can sing it!" Here's a video of our little at-home performance since he was sick and missed the real thing (sorry to our family that has already heard him sing this):

Anyway, it was a wonderful day celebrating a wonderful daddy!

Baby Sam had a banana for dinner and he got it all over his clothes. But just look at that cute belly! :)

Thank you for all you do for our family, Paul! We love you!

Sam Crawls!

It's been rough catching a video of Sam crawling. So far, he doesn't really love performing for the camera. However, I just seized the moment when I realized that both Sarah and James were sleeping and Sam was in a good mood. The conditions were perfect!

And guess what? Sam performed for the camera!

He was so proud of his accomplishment that he ended the video with a triumphant burp. Silly boy.

But like I said in my last post, Sam is definitely growing up way too fast!

Growing Up All at Once

Skills Sam has decided to perfect (or in some cases attempt to perfect) in the last 48 hours or so:

1. Sitting
2. Scooting
3. Crawling (belly off the ground)
4. Pushing up to sitting from all fours
5. Growing his first two teeth

He's still working on the teeth growing one. I swear they are going to poke through any minute now. (PLEASE poke through any minute now!!)

It has been a crazy few days with this little guy. How many times do I have to yell at the clock to slow down before it will actually happen?

The Cutest Ponytail

Over Memorial Day weekend I got to go to a good friend's wedding in Phoenix. On Sunday morning, Paul sent me these pictures. Apparently Sarah asked Paul to put her hair in a ponytail for church. 

In case you don't know Paul very well, he definitely isn't accustomed to doing hair. I'm pretty sure this was his first pigtail ever. He did a pretty dang good job, no? :) Way to go, Dad!

Sarah Turns Three!

My little girl is already three years old. I'm not sure how it happened. I need to figure out how to slow down the clock. Seriously.

Sarah had a great birthday! It was especially fun because grandma was here to celebrate. We started the day out with the traditional treasure hunt. She got "pink clothes". (We asked Sarah what she wanted for her birthday, and she said, "Pink clothes!")

She was a very excited little birthday girl!

Her breakfast cereal of choice for her special day was Marshmallow Mateys. And for lunch we made a trip to McDonald's. (Thanks for the lunch, Bum!) While we were there, we reenacted a photo from more than two years ago:

First french fry...101st french fry? (Who am I kidding? The girl's clearly had more than 100 french fries.) The cheeks aren't so perfectly round anymore, but she's still got the bright, beautiful blue eyes!

For dinner, Sarah requested something with rice, so we had sweet and sour stir fry (Sarah especially loves the pineapple). Then, we had some friends over for dessert and present opening.

Sarah chose white cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles, as well as homemade chocolate ice cream.

Like most three year olds, Sarah was thrilled about opening presents. She especially liked the clothes.

One of Sarah's favorite things is singing Happy Birthday to people. You should have seen her grin when we sang it to her!

Happy birthday, my beautiful little girl!