At the beginning of November the boys had Career Day at school. Ethan dressed like a doctor, and Caden dressed like and entomologist. The little entomologist, who we loving refer to as our absent minded professor, was so excited about his magnifying glass and bug lanyard that he forgot about his shoes. Clark dropped him off in front of the school and he took a few steps before he realized he was barefoot. He ran back for his shoes and made it in before the bell.
Caden LOVES crafts! He was so excited to bring home a piece of paper with a turkey on it. The assignment was to disguise the turkey. Caden wanted to make his turkey floating away in a hot air balloon with his feather disguised as clouds. Of course! I think he succeeded.
The school had a fund raiser in November where they hired a company similar to build a bear to come in and the kids could make their own stuffed animal. Of course my boys really wanted to build an animal, so I told them they would have to earn the $17. They put quite a bit of money away one afternoon clearing the tumble weeds from our back deck area. It was unbelievable. The winds storms we get out here are insane, after being up all night thinking the roof was going to blow off our house we woke up to this:
Caden picked a penguin to stuff and Ethan picked an eagle. They got to put a "wishing star" in their animal before it was stitched up at the end. Caden told me he wished that our family can all be safe. Ethan told me he wished for an X-Box (at least he's honest).
Their Thanksgiving art from school reflects their personalities perfectly.
Ethan:
I love, love, love my calling to work with the Activity Day girls. We have so much fun! In November we had a Daddy Daughter Hoe-down. It was great. We had a great DJ that had all the girls up and dancing with their dads. Such a great night. I hope those girls can remember forever how much their dads love them.
When Weston and Erica came to visit for Halloween we had a few great adventures. Having visitors gives us a great excuse to see some new places around our new home.
While the big boys were in school one day we went to Royal Gorge Basin.
Weston was quite nervous as our tram car dangled thousands of feet over the gorge.
We found a new place called Bishop's Castle near Rye. All I can say about this is "wow!" A local man bought the property when he was 14 and has been building his "castle" brick by brick with his own hands for years. It is totally open and free for the public to come and poke around...enter at your own risk. Weston with his construction background felt like he was on fear factor as we explored a few of the turrets...no safety regulations here.
We had a fun time at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The kids loved climbing and exploring the red rocks. It is beautiful!
It was a great trip! We even squeezed in a few movie dates. Thanks for coming Peterson family!
My little side kick is 3! He was pretty excited for his big day! He woke up to his brothers at home, balloons to play with, and decorations. After discovering the Children's Museum was closed that day we hit up the Chick Fil A play area and a park. That night his little buddy Liam and his family joined us for a cake and pinata. Pretty fun day for our sweet little 3 year old...who will inform you he is not little...he is big!
He wanted a football cake. BYU vs. Broncos to be exact. BYU won on this cake.
After opening a present he would say, "taaa-da!"
This little cowboy was so excited for his new cowboy boots and his new bull swing!
Our little Quinn is so fun! He talks like he's 13. The other day we sat down to eat lunch together and he said to me, "how's your lunch honey?" He is fun and playful and smart and sassy! I can't wait to see what year 3 brings!
Blowing out his candles:
He immediately started dancing when he tried on his new cowboy boots:
He loves to tell cowboy stories, so I caught one on camera:
October 25, 2015
My boys are just normal kids, they pretend to be super heroes, they crack up when a dent in a pear looks exactly like a bum, they argue about which chipmunk they are (everyone wants to be Alvin and Quinn will NOT be Theodore).
But some days I'm reminded of who they really are. I'm reminded that in those cute little bodies there are powerful spirits, more wonderful and amazing than I can even comprehend. They are sons of God and they were His before they were mine. Today was one of those days.
We had our annual Primary Program at church. Both boys have been working really hard to learn their parts. Yesterday there was a dress rehearsal at the church. We took the boys after Ethan's basketball game and were planning on letting Caden stay just a few minutes and then taking him to his soccer game. When it was time for Caden to leave, he wouldn't go. He was so concerned about doing a good job on the program, it definitely took priority over his soccer game and I was fine with that.
The program was amazing and sweet as they are every year. There was a special spirit while the kids testified through their words and the songs about what they believe. They sang a new song called, "The Miracle," that I had never heard before. It is beautiful about the atonement of Jesus Christ. I loved watching Ethan and Caden's faces as they sang the song. They both sang with all of their hearts, watching their faces sing the words of the song I knew that they knew that everything they were singing about Jesus Christ as their Savior they truly believed! I felt the spirit testify so strongly to my heart that it is true, the miracle of the atonement of Jesus Christ rescues me too. Here is a video of the song:
After church I was talking to Caden about how much I loved that song. My sweet 5 year old told me his favorite line from the song is, "Jesus bled and died to save me, a price that I could never pay alone."
I asked him why that was his favorite. He said, "well in the first place if Jesus didn't die for us we could never be resurrected and then when we died we would just be a body all alone in the cold ground and that wouldn't be good at all. It also means that I can repent and be forgiven. He did something I could never do alone." I was pretty blown away by his response.
November 9, 2015
This song has brought up a lot of great conversations in our home the past few weeks. I feel that these conversations helped prepare and bless my family to overcome a trial that was just around the corner. On my birthday I announced to the boys in a fun birthday surprise that we were having a baby. They were all pretty excited and confused. Ethan was the most excited. Last week I had an early ultrasound and the baby wasn't measuring as far along as I thought I was. The doctor wasn't too concerned, he just thought I was off on my dates, so we set up follow up appointments for more blood work and another ultrasound. I was troubled after this appointment, but after a heartfelt prayer in the library parking lot I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. I didn't know if that peace meant that everything would be fine in the pregnancy or if it just meant that everything would be fine, but I felt it nonetheless. A few days later I lost the pregnancy. One of the hardest parts was having to tell our boys later that night. Our sensitive Ethan was heartbroken. He said, "what if something like that had happened to Caden when he was a baby. I couldn't imagine the world without Caden." He didn't understand why his prayers for a healthy new baby in our family hadn't been answered the way he wanted. We had a conversation about how our Heavenly Father sometimes answers our prayers by sending us peace and helping us get through sad times. Tonight we talked again about the ways our family has been blessed and lifted in the past few days. I acknowledge all of these blessings as miracles, and am full of gratitude for the blessing that the atonement is in my life. I know that He understands how I feel and will truly succor me in my time of need. I have felt that very profoundly the past few days. My favorite line of the song is, "Jesus is a God of miracles, nothing is at all impossible to Him. And I know this, of all his miracles, the most incredible must be, the miracle that rescues me."
