July 2012

 

4th of July was kinda sad for me.  I had to be in Tucson and Derek and the kids were in Peoria.  I was so happy that he still took them to see the fireworks.  Here is one of the pictures Ashley took on my camera.  Pretty good for her first time at doing firework pics which are very hard to get good ones of.

 

WARNING Lots of Pictures from our Peterson Family Reunion:

So this year we had part of our reunion at Zion's National Park.  We all did part or all of the Narrows hike and had a blast being together.  The ones that did it all did 16 miles, this included Debbie, Glenn, Derek, Devan, Becky, Micheal, and Bradley.  The rest of us went from the bottom up and went as far as we wanted depending on what children we had.  It was hiking on river rock and for the 16 milers it was not good when they got back.  We actually didn't know for a while if they were going to make it back because the trams end at a certain time and we hadn't heard from them by that time.  We were really worried due to the fact that Debbie has diabetes and held a family prayer with those of use that were back at the Motel.  We decided then no more extreme family reunions and our prayer was anwsered when they drove up 1 hour later to us. We then all drove to Provo to Debbie and Glenn's house to hang out more together and did our traditional adult/older kids chinese dinner.  We loved being together and building our family bonds.



 

Motel we stayed at near Zion's National Park

 

 

View outside of the Motel

 

 

Other Part of the Motel

 

 

Cabin we  had at the Motel

 

 

Wyatt at the Visitor Center at Zion's National Park

We were getting ready to hike the Narrows

 

 

Elora and Draelen at the start.

 

 

Kent, Wyatt, Elora, and me in the Narrows playing

 

 

Linda and the kids splashing each other in the narrows. 

 

 

Wyatt and Elora on the path to get to the Narrows river

 

 

Kent and Draelen at the river where we can walk up it

 

 

 

A normal pouting session for Wyatt.

These are the Narrow walls it was so beautiful and I'm so glad I got to see them.

 

 

Driving back to Provo we stopped and looked at Cedar Breaks.  They were amazing.

 

 

All the kids in the car on our way home back to AZ.

 

 

Tanis turned 13.  I can't believe I have a teenager, where did the time go and I really am not old enough for this.  He loves computer/video games and is a big superhero movie fan just like his dad. He asked for an Avengers cake so we found one for him.  He is Deacon's Quorum President and during the school year will have leadership positions also.  He really had come out of his shell this last year and we are very proud of him.

June 2012

 I did it! I graduated from Sanford Brown and as Valedictorian. It felt so great.  We got to walk early as we still had about 2/3 weeks of class left but it was so fulfilling to be able to have this celebration.  My parents, my sister Kelsie and brother in law Branden, Derek, and my in laws were able to be there. I am so thankful for all the support they all gave me through this crueling adventure of school.

 

Our little princess turned 3 on the 5th.  She is in love with everything Minnie Mouse so we had a Minnie Mouse party.  She got lots of Minnie Mouse dolls and I made her cupcakes with Oreo's and Bubble Gum tape.  She is such a joy to have in our home.  Very drama but we love her. 

 

Tanis got to go to Boy Scout camp this year for the 1st time.  The stake put on a special camp that was called Camp Helaman.  The did lots of scouting but also had lots of gospel activities too.  They wanted the boys to have experiences like the girls do at girls camp.  I was thrilled with this, our Young Men need this and deserve it.  They were given challenges of mesmorizing scriptures, reading conference talks, mesmorizing the Young Women's Theme and pondering in nature.  I was blown away when they came into Relief Society and recited the YW theme. It was so powerful and brought me to tears.  I just pray that they all can gain those strong testimonies and lead our church in the furture.



May 2012

May signals the end of the school year for us here in AZ.  This year Wyatt graduated from preschool.  He was super excited and has done so well in school and with his speech therapy.  This boy sure keeps us on our toes. 

 

 

The other major thing that started in May was I became very ill.  There was about 2 weeks that I could barely even get out of bed from pain and multiple hospital trips.  I will post a separte post with all the details later though.

April 2012

 

Tanis pledging at NJHS ceremony

 

Recieving his certificate from Mrs. Liefer the principal

 

I just love this boy and he is growing up way to fast.

 

The Easter Baskets

 

The kids in their outfits

Tanis and Wyatt off to find some eggs

 



 

Elora getting her eggs

 

Ashley with the Golden egg and the prize

Tanis had the honor of being chosen for NJHS (National Junior Honor Society).  He got inducted a very nice ceremony this month.  We also had Easter.  I have this obsession with having the boy's ties match well let me tell you that is a challenge with how far spread out they are.  So I made them this year.  I also made the girl's flip flops that I found on Pinterest.  Loved them.  My sister Kelsie made their hair bows for me.  We had a very nice day and our friends Christina and Kip did an Easter egg hunt for the kids in my parents back yard.  Ashley was so excited cause she found the golden egg.  

March 2012

 

Wyatt with Wyatt Earp

 

 Playing on the swings

 

The signs for the business

 

My 5 beautiful kids

 

The horse drawn coach we rode

 

Inside the coach

 

Inside the coach

 

Derek and the kids with the Earps after the OK Corral Show

 

Baby D

 

My Elora

 

Beautiful Ashley

 

 

We decided for March during the kid's Spring break we would do something fun.  We chose to go to Tombstone, AZ.  Derek and the kids drove down to Tucson and picked me up.  We stayed in Sierra Vista for 2 nights.  Tombstone sure is a whole different world.  Wyatt got to meet Wyatt Earp, the kids played on the playground, we took an old fashioned photo, saw the OK Corral show, and rode on a horse drawn coach.  It was a blast and so nice to take a family vacation.

February 2012

 

Tanis with his group buiding a structure as tall as they could with a certain amount of blocks

 

 

What they finally came up with

 

 

Wyatt playing on ASU's campus during Tanis's competition

 

Tanis's main group that built a rocket.

 



 

Headed over to launch

 

There it goes

 

Opening up the rocket to check the astronauts to see if they survived

 

One of the 2 survived the launch.

 

Where I spend the next 20 weeks of my life.

 

 

 

The month of February brought a big change in our life. I started full time clinicals and was assigned to University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, AZ.  This meant I would have to travel during most of the week and not be home with the family.  I knew it would give me amazing experience for the future with it being a teaching hospital and the only Level 1 Trauma Hospital in southern AZ.  (This is the highest level of truama).  But I also knew it was going to be a big sacrifice for all of us.  Most weeks I would leave Sunday night and come home on Wednesday or Thursday night.  It ended up working out and in the end I don't think I would have changed it.  The other fun thing that we had was Tanis competed in Regional's at MESA (this stands for Math, Engineering, Science, Achievement).  His group built a rocket from a 2 liter soda bottle.  They had to protect 2 astronauts which were eggs and launch it to see how far it would go and if any of the eggs broke or cracked.  It also could only weigh so much.  It was fun to see him compete.