Petersons Never Give Up: April

Sean:
Sean is doing his last rotation of medical school! He is helping with the Transitions block for the 2nd year medical students who will be entering their 3rd year rotations next month. He does tons of e-mails, coordinating, attends lectures, and teaches workshops. He loves the opportunity to teach and wonders if academic medicine will play some part in his future. His schedule has been really flexible again which has been nice, especially since he has been taking care of things like scheduling our moving truck, organizing utility cancellations, and playing with our kids =) He got his schedule for next year and is excited to start with OB in July with Gynecology in August. He shattered his phone screen last week, like really shattered it. How funny that you can drop your phone a hundred times and then one of those times it hits the ground just right. His phone was up for renewal anyway so we went to Best Buy that night and got a great deal on the next model up. He only paid about $30 for his brand new iPhone 5s =) I had seen a place in the mall where you can put your phone in a machine and it gives you cash for it. Since he couldn’t trade it in to Best Buy with the cracked screen we tried the mall ecoATM thing. It gave him $50 which was awesome! We proceeded to spend $10 on Auntie Annes pretzels with sweet glaze sauce-yum!!

Jennie
I finished my health challenge and have been reveling in my freedom to eat desserts! I ended up losing about 5 lbs with the challenge. I gained 1-2 back with an overabundance of jelly beans, but I am overall very happy with the changes in my health habits and eating. I don’t regret any of those jelly beans! Easter candy is my very favorite! All the candy is gone now, so I’m safe=) I got to do a really fun photo shoot for a family in my ward! The couple was celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary and so we took photos with all 9 of their children and some other family and friends. It was a lot of fun and I even got paid to do it which was really generous of them. I love taking pictures a lot and am thinking about putting together a little photography business. I’m just not sure if people would actually hire me, there are so many photographer moms in Utah. We’ll just have to see. I have been packing up slowly which has been really nice. I can clean out, declutter, and get rid of stuff as I go. Since we are moving in with my parents for awhile I am having to decide what things will go in storage and what things we will want in our space there. My parents are so generously finishing 2 bedrooms and a bathroom in their basement for us, Brett is most excited about getting to pick the paint color for his room! I’ve been running, listening to books on tape, trying to visit with friends, and playing with my extremely active kiddos. I also got a hair cut that I really love. I was a little more bold and went shorter with some bangs and I actually really like it. I didn’t even cry like last time I had bangs cut!

Brett
Brett is 3! Whoever named 2 the terrible 2s obviously had never had a 3 year old. He is so sweet and fun to talk to. His brain is exploding with knowledge and he is always asking about everything in the world around him. He is super independent. He gets dressed by himself, washes himself in the bathtub, loves to cook by himself and help with cutting and spreading jam etc, brushes his own teeth, does his own hair, and want to be as independent as possible! He has such a strong testimony! He loves to pray, sing primary songs, go to church, and read the Friend magazine. I am always amazed at the things he things to pray for. He gets to do the scripture in primary on Sunday and I am so excited! He has been practicing. He is a busy little guy, always wanting to be on the run, which drives me a little crazy. He loves watching Clifford: The Puppy Years right now and loves snacking on Goldfish. We took him to a buffet last week and he devoured everything in site. His appetite has sure increased lately! Back to that statement at the top, I think all these awesome amazing things are sometimes just too much to handle. His little body is just so full of emotions and sometimes he doesn’t know how to handle them, especially when it comes to being independent. We had a rough day yesterday with lots of screaming and crying and a grocery trip where lots of people looked at me with sympathy because the kids were so crazy. Today he was an angel though! He’s always an angel, sometimes he just forgets to act like one.

Alana:
Alana is walking. Alana is talking. Alana is eating. This about sums up her life right now. She is just the cutest little girl ever. I don’t think I will ever get tired of watching her toddle around the house with her little hair in piggies. She really started walking over Easter weekend and hasn’t stopped since. She loves the new freedom of being able to hold things as she walks around. She also loves to climb on stools so she can see whats going on. Her language has just exploded as well. I will now make a list of all the words she says that I can think of right now: car-car (said in a growly voice), ock (rock), uh oh, tank ew (with sign language), eeese (please, with the sign language), sh (fish), ees (pointing to her mouth either means brush teeth or string cheese), dadee (baby), look, yes, ball, bow, bubble, mama (refers to Sean, me and Brett), clock clock, gurt (yogurt), crack-uh (for either the Ritz or graham kind of cracker), and many more that she’s only said once. She loves to wave high, blow kisses, do high fives, and snuggle. She knows lots of parts of her body (nose, ears, belly, toes, hair, eyes, mouth, tongue, teeth) and insists on helping wash her belly in the tub. She loves to play with Brett and do whatever he is doing, although sometimes she wants her space and gives him a swift push. We recently decided she needed to stop using the bottle, and the tears have only recently subsided from that withdrawal. She refuses to drink her milk in anything but her beloved bottle, regardless of any Nesquik or what new container it may be in. Between that and her newfound walking, it’s no wonder she has gotten so ravenous! Her favorite toys are the little people and stuffed animals. She loves to sit and look at all the little things and snuggle the stuffies. She also loves cars like her brother and would spend all day outside if she could. She loves to blow bubbles on the front step and swing at the park and go down the slide. She is very feisty and very sweet and we love her a lot!
Alana looking cool in her shades at the park: