War Wounds

Here is a picture of my scrape I recieved at Zac's birthday party at
jumpin' jacks. Actual post of the party to come.

Some Funny Pictures

I realized I had a TON of pictures on my camera that I have been needing to put some on the blog. So there will be several pictures now clumped into one post. The first two are some pretty hilarious pictures of a house down the street from me. If you look closely you can see that the snow ramp they built, I'm assuming so they can snowboard off the roof, has been piled over the back of their car. And I thought Mom and Dad got mad when we jumped out of kitchen window onto the tramp. Can you imagine what their parents are going to say when they see this?

The next picture I just thought was pretty adorable. Riley is asleep, with his seatbelt on, mind you but I guess he just couldn't get comfortable unless he threw his legs over the side of his carseat.

Here is another one with Riley in the car. We had a white elephant gift exchange for my work Christmas party. I got a golden plunger for my gift. Lucky me huh? Well as it turns out Riley thought it was the coolest thing ever. Here he is getting it stuck to the window of my car. And here is the piece d'resistance: My wonderful artistic boy has been exploring some different mediums for his artwork. First the edge of my comforter...
And second, his Shrek doll.
Both of these occurred while Riley was supposedly sleeping. Hmmm. I guess he wakes up inspired. We will just have to work on him finding a better canvas to use.
Love you all!

Once there was a snowman...

Well we got dumped on by another storm here in Utah. Not so fun for those of us that have to drive in it or shovel our driveways but Riley has been having the best time. Riley woke me up this morning and told me that it was Christmas again because it was snowing and that we had to go into the basement and pull out all the Christmas decorations to put back up. Fortunately I was able to pesuade him that this wasn't the best idea. He sure loves playing in the snow. He followed grandpa around while shoveling, throwing snowballs at him. I tried to distract him by taking him into the backyard and building a snowman. Here is our attempt.

Grandpa didn't think that Riley would be able to look back on our measly attempt at building a snowman with pride when he got older so when the driveway was done, he came back and showed us how to really do it.
I have a lot to learn. :) But Mom assures me that Riley is young and I have many such winters ahead of me to practice. Love you all!

Would you feel safe knowing these people were on the other end of 911?

Just a few pictures from some of the girls at my work on Halloween. Enjoy!
Here is Katie, she is a backwoods Prom Queen. If you look really close you can see that she has a tooth blacked out. It is on the edge of her smile so its kind of hard to see. Also she is wearing combat boots.

Here are Megan and Kj. Megan made her Harry Potter costume herself. Pretty impressive huh? And Kj is Jack Sparrow. (She won the work costume contest.)
Here is Whitney. She is Super-Mom.
Hey, Gen! Wake up!

I've been tagged!

Kayla tagged me to complete my own alphabet. :) Ok, here goes:
A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Reed and Riley
C- Cake or Pie: Um... wow... so many choices... if it were pie it would be either apple or pecan pie, and cake, always, always chocolate.
D- Day of choice: Sunday. And mostly because I was born on Sunday and there was a poem in my room when I was growing up that always made me feel special. I won't write it all out but it is here if you want to read it.
E- Essential Item: Books. I love love love books. Cannot imagine what I would do without them. If I were ever imprisoned in solitary, I would entertain myself by writing them in my head.
F- Favorite Color: Green
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: Gummi Bears. I love the little guys.
H- Hometown: Santaquin, Ut
I- Indulgence(s): Buying books... see letter E
J- January or July: July. So festive, so warm, so many things to do.
K- Kids: 1 - Riley, my favorite little guy in the world
L: Life is Incomplete Without: Family (I left Kayla's answer in because I feel it is perfect)
M- Marriage Date: June 3, 1999
N -Number of Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples in summer, oranges in winter
P- Phobias or Fears: Spiders, snakes, werewolves, and being trapped in the rocks between two extremely large people while going through that small tunnel at mesa verde national park :) (remember that vacation family?)
Q- Quote: "The beauty of the human spirit when first recognized is something we must never forget." - Helen Keller (This was my official Miss Santaquin 1997 quote for the pageant.)
R- Reason To Smile: So many things to smile at. Family, friends, good books, good movies, sunsets, sunrises, shooting stars, I could go on and on. My favorite reason to smile though, is Riley. Almost everything that kid does makes me laugh.
S- Season: Spring, perfect temperatures and it is the beginning of warming up not the beginning of cooling down. It always seems like good things are on the horizon.
T- Tag Three: Adam, Rachel, Andrea (we have to get them to post somehow)
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I choose not to answer this so that I may remain the mysterious person I am. Haha! I actually can't think of something that the people at my work AND my family don't know. Sigh. Sorry.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Mmmm. Meat.. (Sorry Rachel and Adam) I will take chicken over anything else. In fact, I am convinced that manna from heaven is some type of celestial chicken, because everyone always says "Taste's like chicken." So I think it works in reverse. Manna is heaven's chicken, where it IS chicken but can taste like anything else you want.
W- Worst Habit: Chewing on pens. I have been labeled as the person who chews on pens at work and willingly admit it. I cannot stop. However, anytime anything appears to have been the object of obsessive tics (i.e. someone picking at the handrests on our chairs) I am immediately suspect and have to plead innocence to be believed.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I believe I have had each. X-ray for my broken ankle, ultrasound for Riley. But if I had to choose it would obviously be ultrasound because I would rather have a baby than a broken bone.
Y- Your Favorite Food: Chicken
Z- Zodiac: Taurus

Cinderella

Tonight, Mom, Dad, Reed and I went to the "soft" opening of the new Provo Arts Center, aka the result of all the construction above and around my work. "Soft" was how it was described by the individual doing an introduction. Apparently, the official "hard" opening of the Arts Center is in September. Tonight we watched the Utah Regional Ballet production of Cinderella. I loved it. I cannot express fully in words how much I love to watch people dance. It is as if I can feel their movements in my soul and I get lost in watching the incredible turns and steps. To see displays of grace and elegance through movement that can portray emotion clearly enough to tell a story stirs inside me some incredible feelings. So, needless to say, even though it was not THE most incredible performance I have ever seen it was enough to transport me into their world when the lights went down. And how can anyone not like that?

Fiesta Days! Ole!

Ryan and Natalie invited Riley and I, since Reed was working, to go to the Spanish Fork Parade with them on the 24th. Here is a picture of Riley and Livvie getting ready for the parade to start.
These two are just so cute together. They are complete opposites in every single way and yet they absolutely adore each other. When they get together they run around and laugh and copy each other. It is really cute to watch. They even switched sunglasses in the car on the way over. As you can see in this picture Olivia is striking a pose with Riley's red and yellow sunglasses in her mouth.
And here is Riley, making sure he remains properly hydrated, while wearing Olivia's pink sunglasses. It's quite the fashion statement he is making.

Here they are sharing my camp chair.

When the parade started, the first "float" was a giant camoflaged tank. It came rolling down the street and shot off some VERY loud rounds. (I don't know what they put in them to make it so loud but boy oh boy, it even made me jump.)
Riley and Olivia got scared and they quickly jumped to the nearest adult they could find and waited until the tank was completely out of sight before they would get down.

This next picture is of the cat in the hat. I know, I know, most of you probably do not need that captioned.
This is part of the entry for Spanish Fork's summer musical "Suessical the Musical"
I know that you are wondering why I would post a picture of this. Not too interesting, certainly not the greatest float of the parade.
Well the reason that I posted this, was to give a precursor to the picture below, blurry though it may be.

Right behind the cat in the hat was....
Megan and Chelsea (Scott's wife). It's pretty cool to be able to see your cousins in a parade. Sorry for the blurry picture. It was (in a sad testament to my photography skills) the best one where you can see both their faces.

Rounding out the pictures I am going to post, I thought that I would put on a few pictures of some floats.
Here is Payson's Queen's float. I thought it was an absolutely adorable idea that their float was a carriage like Cinderella's except that it was a giant onion. You know, since Payon has Onion Days. Very original, in my opinion.

And the float you have all been waiting for...

Santaquin's Float! Of course, I like my float from when I was Queen way, way back in the day better. And of course, I like Andrea's better as well, but as far as floats go this is a pretty safe third place for my favorite Santaquin float. Very creative. Good use of what makes Santaquin unique. (Much better than the confusing half-Hawaiian half-I-don't-know-what, themed float a few years after Andrea.)

All in all it was a pretty good parade.

Changes

Last Sunday I got a little bored with my hair and decided to have Andrea cut it for me. Here is a picture of my new hairstyle. I don't think I have had bangs since I was 12. I think the last documented photos of me with bangs was when we all had our lips painted with Easter egg candy and Rachel and I were sporting the fabulous south county bangs. :) I know this is a weird angle but that is because Riley took the picture.

I'm The Luckiest Girl In The World

Today is Reed and my 8 year wedding anniversary. I cannot believe that 8 years ago today I was lucky enough to get to walk into the temple with Reed, kneel across the alter from him and know that I was going to be able to spend the rest of eternity with him. The thought still amazes me. I feel truly lucky that I was able to marry such a good man. Not only is he my best friend, but he is an amazing father. He makes me laugh, he is my shoulder to cry on, my rock to gather my strength. He supports me in anything I could ever want to do, and every day tells me that I am special and that he loves me. I really don't know how I could have gotten so lucky. I feel amazed that Heavenly Father knew me so well that there could actually be someone out there for me who was so perfect in every way I needed. Because, come on, if I was going to design my 'perfect man' does anyone in the family really think I would have chosen someone who was so into football? And yet, I have found over the years that Reed and I are a better fit than I could ever have imagined or hoped for. He makes all my weaknesses better just by being there and I fervently hope that in some small way I do the same for him. I love you Reed. Thank you for choosing to spend eternity with me. Thank you for being such a good father and giving me the most wonderful little boy I could ever have asked for. Happy Anniversary!

Ray Ray
Here are the pictures from the Disney on Ice and the Birthday Party that you requested I hope that you enjoy them as much as we have.

I thought it was almost April

Driving home from work this morning, this is the sight I was greated with as soon as I got into Santaquin boundaries. The funny thing about it was that it was not snowing anywhere else but in Santaquin. When I left work in Provo, it was raining lightly. That rain cleared up by the time I hit Spanish Fork which was nice and clear if just a little wet. By the time I got to Payson it was raining lightly again but it didn't turn to snow until after I had passed the second Payson exit. In my mind I imagined the snow starting as soon as the freeway passed into Santaquin boundries though I cannot be sure it was that exact. But the minute it turned to snow, it had everything covered; the roads, the ground, everything. When I pulled into my cul-de-sac I was overcome with the desire to take a picture of some of the trees in my neighborhood so at 0530 in the morning I went tramping around snapping pictures of my neighbors houses. I'm sure if anyone saw me they would have thought I was crazy but this is the result. Look and laugh, all you people enjoying the true spring and pity those of us who have switched from wearing shorts and sunscreen at the beginning of the week (seriously, I got a nice burn on my face from trying to help put Riley's playset together last weekend - which is not quite finished and has been delayed until the weather cooperates) to having to pull sweaters back out of winter storage. Brrr. It's cold out here. - Heather

Introduction

This is the first post on the Peterson family blog. Since we no longer live in the same house like we did when we were younger, we started this blog as one way to keep doing things together. The idea behind this blog is that each month we are going to have a family photo contest. Each month will have different themes, and everyone will post a photo on the website in their interpretation of the theme. Dad wants the pictures to include ourselves in them so that it creates a chronology of our lives, easily accessible to each other. For example, one month may have a 'Where's Waldo' theme and we are all supposed to take pictures of us hiding but still visible. After everyone has submitted their pictures we will all vote on which one (not being able to vote for our own) was the best and the winner picks next months theme.