Michael's New Favorite Place to Play

One of Michael's favorite things to do is hide. There are two places Michael can typically be found when he hides. The first place is on our bed underneath our pillows. We usually see him try and sneak back to our room, but if he ever gets there without us knowing and we take too long to come look for him...he'll shout "Mommy (or Daddy), HIDING!!!!"

(I know I've posted that picture before, but I love it...)

The second and more recent favorite spot to hide is under or in these big buckets.

You can't even see him!




Check him out in action...



He's such a funny kid.

Happy Halloween!

When we were in Arizona for Kim's wedding at the beginning of October, Renae officially taught Michael the word pumpkin. Ever since then, he has been pointing out pumpkins all over the place and thanks to Lee (Renae's father, Jonathan's uncle, and my pseudo padre) Michael has also been calling people "pumpkin head." Every time we went to the grocery store, Michael would BEG for a pumpkin. Finally, on the 29th we went to Sam's Market and let Michael pick out a pumpkin. He was really more entertained by their decorations so we ended up leading him to one that weighed 26.34 pounds. (Which is just about 2 pounds more than him.) He was super excited about it. We carved it the next day after church.

Michael was a great helper, but was still extremely disgusted by the pumpkin innards. We finally convinced him to touch them a little bit, but he ended up just coloring on the outside of the pumpkin while we scraped the inside and cut the jack-o-lantern face on the other side.

This year for Halloween, we thought we'd try and dress as a family again. If you remember, last year Michael was a Zoo Keeper and Jonathan and I were elephants.

Halloween 2010:
We ran through several different ideas and finally decided on a Toy Story Theme. Jonathan and I were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Michael was our adopted Alien child. :) We were trying to go for the inexpensive costume route so I looked up some store bought and homemade costumes and decided I could totally do it by myself. I bought t-shirts for each of us, different colors of felt for the faces, yarn for Michael's hat, a visor to decorate for me, and a hat for Jonathan. All three costumes totaled just under $20 and took me just a couple hours to make.


I was a little worried Michael wouldn't want to keep his hat on, but boy was I wrong! I made Stephanie a hat for her Waldo outfit and after seeing her wear hers, he thought it was so cool!


Michael definitely enjoyed the concept of "trick or treating." We think he completely understood the fact that he was getting candy, but he didn't really want to eat any of it. He just wanted to keep getting more...and more...and more.


A friend of ours from the ward decided to go with the Toy Story theme as well and we did a little trick or treating with them at the end of the night. Their two boys were Buzz and Woody, and as I'm sure you can tell from the picture the father was Andy. :)


While they may not get along all the time, Michael really does love Emmett who is 2 months older than him. The two of them held hands as they walked...so darn cute.


Happy Halloween!

Jonathan's Graduation

Catch-up Post #2.

Jonathan finished his Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice & Criminology through Portland State University on September 2, 2011. However, while his classes and final projects didn't wrap up until the beginning of September, the commencement ceremony was in August. I think it's a pretty big deal that he graduated from college, so I definitely encouraged him to walk in the ceremony. Lucky for us, Paul, Jennie, James, and Sarah live in Beaverton, Oregon which just so happens to be a hop, skip, and a jump from Portland State University. We took Jonathan's super exciting accomplishment as an excuse to visit them in their cute new home.

When we got to the airport in Long Beach, Michael was beyond excited about hearing and seeing all the airplanes.
He stared out the window by our gate with Jonathan for a while and then ran around the small terminal to every other window to search for more planes. And when he was done doing that he found entertainment in jumping off chairs and running up and down one particular ramp...I'm sure the employees absolutely loved us. I know many other passengers were entertained by his enthusiasm. :)

When it was finally time to board the plane I was too chicken to ask if Michael could get a picture with the pilot...but of course Michael could have cared less. ;) He just wanted to get on the plane!



Michael did great on the flight.

On the drive from the airport to their house, Michael was very observant... "Trees! Trees! Trees!" He must have noticed there are quite a few more trees in Oregon than there are in Southern California.

The time we spent in Oregon was really nice. It definitely made Jonathan and I want to move there even more than we did before. Unfortunately, Jonathan had lots of homework to get done while we were there, so much of our time was spent doing that...but at the same time it was nice to just relax and play at the house. I'm completely bummed that I didn't really take any pictures of the house itself. These two pictures were taken in their awesome playroom. (Not pictured is one of the walls that is entirely a chalkboard. So cool!)
One of the days we were there, we went to Paul's office to have a nice picnic lunch. Afterward, Jennie, James, Sarah, Jonathan, Michael, and I walked around temple grounds. There were a couple brides being pictured, so we didn't stay long. We were also creeping into nap time which probably sped things up a bit too. ;)

Silly cousins.

The Commencement ceremony was on Saturday. Everything was set up outside, and even though we got there pretty early, all the seats were either taken or being saved. We were able to find a spot off the the side next to a set of bleachers with a fairly good view of where Jonathan would be receiving his diploma (or at least the cover...). Michael got a kick out of playing under the bleachers. I kept having these nightmarish flashes of the bleachers collapsing on him...but alas that did not happen.
Instead, he nailed his head pretty hard on one of the metal beams...

I am amazed we haven't had to make a trip to the ER because of one of his head bumps...thankfully him bumping his head on things is happening less and less, but STILL!

The speeches were short and sweet, but there were lots of names read. I managed to squeeze through the crowd and get a couple shots of Jonathan though :)

It took him a few minutes to get to us after the ceremony finished, so as his adoring fans, we took those moments to prepare to shower him with leis! (A HUGE thanks to mom for making all but one of the fabulous leis! It took me just as long to make one double lei as it did for her to make two double leis plus a single lei! And then she made all of the candy leis too!)


I remember going to Paul and Jennie's graduation at BYU and seeing someone with a toddler in a cap and gown with their parents. I thought to myself..."If I have a child by the time Jonathan or I graduate, I am TOTALLY going to be one of those ridiculous moms that does that!" And I was...

The trip went by way too fast...at least for me! Paul, Jennie, James, and Sarah were very hospitable :) and hopefully we'll be able to go out again sometime soon!

2011 Peterson Family Reunion in San Francisco

Catch-up Post #1 It'll be long, but I'll include lots of pictures to make it bearable. :) Here we go!

This year, the Peterson Family Reunion was planned around the Angels vs Athletics game on July 15th. We all made our way to San Francisco (except for Jonathan because he had to work) on the 11th and checked into our fun hotel. We stayed at the "Inn at the Opera." Michael was such a trooper during the car ride up and had lots of fun playing with Stephanie in the back seat. He especially enjoyed the spam musubi we ate for lunch...
...and being trained by Stephanie how to "smile like an asian."


That evening we went to a fun little pizza parlor and I found out that Diana was pregnant! :) She and Jeff are expecting a little boy this coming February. Woohoo!

The next couple of days we crammed in a bunch of fun touristy things. We went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield and tasted some interesting flavors of Jelly Bellies.

We went to Ghirardelli Square and had some delicious sundaes, and of course went to the wharf to have some Boudin sourdough and clam chowder. You can't see our bread bowls...but that's what Diana and I are eating here. :)

Sisters!
...tired looking sisters! ;)

The Oakland Temple was closed, so we made the trip out to Sacramento to do our traditional session as a family.
Michael thinks it's super fun to jump off of things right now...

Jonathan joined us Wednesday night and the last few days we were there we took advantage of public transit...


as well as the cheapest form of transit...walking :)

...there were lots of hills ;)

We went to museums,


...and China Town,

"Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil, and DO no evil" :)

...and Muir Woods,
...and of course, finished off with the baseball game.

Overall, it was a great trip! We were just about always on the go and I know while I was sad to say goodbye to everyone, I was excited to get home and get Michael back to some semblance of a normal napping schedule. I think we were all pretty tuckered out by the end.

:)