Petersons Never Give Up: Christmas Day and New Years

A tradition in my house growing up was that Santa would leave a little gift right by our bed so as soon as we woke up we would know he came. Santa continued that tradition for Brett and Lana. He left a harmonica by Brett’s bed and a necklace by Lana’s=) The kids had happy faces as they saw that Santa had come!

This little Mickey car was what Brett has been asking for for 2 months! He was so thrilled, even though he wouldn’t pose in this picture for me.

Alana enjoyed 2 candy canes on Christmas day, she needed a bath after the second one=)

Brett and Kaden got matching Thomas train sets from Grandpa and Grandma P! We set up one of the sets and I was so grateful for Rebecca’s expertise since those setups are not for the faint at heart!

Alana looked so pretty after her bath =)

Grandma spending time with Kaden and Lexi

Christmas books

Alana and Jill =)

Alana and Michal =)

Building a lego temple:

A different kind of legos:

Awe Neil and Rebecca. Neil proposed to Rebecca several years ago on Christmas in White Rock =)

Brett watching Charley Brown Christmas

Alana playing with her new doll:

I felt like a mean person for asking for this picture but most the kids we going to be changing clothes and I wanted to get a pic of them in their matching jammies. I think Brielle was the only one not crying! Sorry guys!

More lego temple building and brotherly bonding:

Here is our family journal from this last week and then we will be all caught up=)

This past week was a fun week as we prepared for Sean to return to work. He started work on Jan 5 in the medical ICU. He has had nearly 2 months off and we have loved it! We spent Monday morning looking for a new bed for Mr. Brett. Since our long trip to Utah in November he has been wanting a bigger bed. We found a great deal at Kmart and found a great clearance mattress at a Mattress Firm. Brett and Alana were both so excited to practice laying on the mattresses as we checked to see which one we wanted to get. We arrived home just in time to have Jill watch the kiddos while I helped Brian and Sean carry in the solid bed=) We went to Wecks with Brian and Jill and went with them to old town for a few minutes before Alana was insisting on a nap. We left Brian and Jill to explore and came home to get Alana a nap and put together Brett’s new bed. Its being very well used for snuggling, sleeping, and reading on.

We spent the rest of the week cleaning, doing laundry, dusting, and preparing for Sean to go back to work. We had a very low key New Years. We invited the Elders over for some chicken wings and then put the kids to bed and rang the new year in a 10:30 after a game of Dominion and 20 minutes of Narnia =) Its no fun to stay up late when you still have to get up with kiddos the next morning.

We woke up to about 1/2 inch of snow on New Years day which was very exciting! Later that day we traveled to White Rock to help with unpacking and art placement. Sean also helped update Mom and Dad’s computer and took on the job of figuring out the new Quicken. We headed back home since Sean had a dentist appt on Fri morning. After his appointment he spent several hours researching different budget options for Dad and putting into place our final budget for the upcoming semester.

Saturday was spent playing together with Sean’s new wii! We also went out to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes =)

Sunday was Brett’s first day as a Sunbeam and he did great! This 1 o’clock church will be hard for all of us to adjust to! Since Sunday was fast Sunday Sean and I weren’t eating breakfast. Brett was so concerned that we would get hungry. The look on his face of pure terror and not eating when hungry was priceless and reminded me of how I often feel inside when fast Sunday is mentioned =)

Here is the mattress store: