Petersons Never Give Up: Mega Date and Mega Cake

Monday was a busy day with lots of laundry and cleaning. For family home evening we decided to let the kids do some shopping for each other. I wrote all 3 names on slips of paper and they drew a name after dinner. Brett drew Alana, Alana drew Brett, and Lizzie drew Lizzie (i'll need to figure out how to prevent that from happening). We first went to Seagull and then to Tuesday Mornings. Both kids had fun looking for each other. Brett understands shopping for someone else a lot better and took the task very seriously to find just the right thing for his sister. We gave them 3 dollars to shop with. We came home and wrapped the presents and got them under the tree. On Tuesday, Sean went skiing with the Residency. They do interview days that include skiing so the clinic pay for his pass and rentals, and dinner. He doesn't mind getting a half day off to ski for free! I made dinner for one of my friends who just had surgery on both of her feet. She is having a hard time recovering. I made her a yummy chicken and rice dish with steamed vegetables and chocolate chip cookies. It was actually really chaotic to make and the kids were falling apart basically the whole time. I was planning to take out a little for us to eat, but then she told me her parents were there so I decided I wanted to make sure they would have enough. We has pancakes =) I think Brett and Alana liked the pancakes better than the chicken dinner anyway. She thanked me so much for bringing them dinner and my heart was filled with the joy of service even though it had been a sacrifice. I was just grateful she had thanked me because it made me feel like our service actually helped someone.

On Wednesday morning, Brett was invited to an assembly to celebrate his entry into the Reflections contest. My mom came out and helped us at the assembly. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands to help hold the girls! Brett was so thrilled with his prizes (especially the candy cane and colored pencils) Brett was also honored as Student of the month on Wednesday with pizza and a cookie in his classroom. He was so excited to be chosen and said he was so surprised when he heard his name over the intercom. He works really hard in school and we are so proud of his dedication to learning!

After I dropped Brett off at school on Wednesday the girls and I went over to the church to help set up for the RS Christmas activity. Two of the ladies on my committee had already set up all the table decor and I just needed to prepare the food tables. I mostly took all the food I had bought there and put the hot chocolate bar together. The decorations turned out so beautifully!

I had sisters sign up to bring soups, then I bought rolls, cookies, hot cocoa, creamers, candies, caramel, and whipped cream. Another sister on our committee made several kinds of homemade biscotti to dip in the cocoa. It was so amazing! The theme of our evening was Angels Among Us. For several weeks before the activity I sent around little slips of paper asking sisters to share small acts of service that have either been done for them or they have done. We started the program with a beautiful piano solo of O Holy Night. We then watched a short film on the extraordinary things that RS sisters can do for one another. I shared my own feelings on service then read all the notes the sisters had turned in. There were simple things like a smile or wave and huge things like cleaning an entire house, or babysitting. It was very inspiring to think of all the sisters that do service in our ward and community and how they truly are Heavenly Father's Angels. The 2 sisters who did the decor also made a beautiful gift for all the sister of a gold frame with a pretty print with the word Joy.

Brett had been asking me to teach him to sew a blanket so on Thursday we got out fabric scraps and put together some blankets for the kids stuffed animals. It brought back so many sweet memories of doing sewing projects with my mom and grandma's fabric scraps. The kids had such a great time controlling the pedal of the sewing machine!

When we were on our way to take Brett to school on Thursday, Alana had a major melt down. She hates wearing coats and seatbelts and having anything that feels too tight. She sobbed the entire time in the car and the entire time at the Smiths where we needed to stop and get some produce. When we got home she had finally calmed down and fell asleep in my arms. I had just gotten Lizzie down for a nap, so the girls and I ended up napping for 2 hours that day! When she woke up and we went to get in the car, she said she wasn't going to cry about her seatbelt anymore and that she understood that it needed to be snug. It was a small victory =) I totally understand, I was the same way as a kid, I especially hated wearing coats!

Sean took the day off on Friday so we asked Neil and Rebecca if they could watch our kids. We started the day with a trip to the Provo City Center Temple. We did sealings for a few family names and sealings for many other families of someone in the same session as us. We had a remarkable sealer who shared so many wonderful insights. We were amazed to learn that he had 13 children when his wife passed away. He remarried a woman with 13 children as well, so together they have 26 children!

We went to the India Palace for the lunch buffet after the temple and really enjoyed it!

We went home to get changed then headed up to Alta to do some skiing!

I have never been skiing in my life and had actually decided that I didn't want to go. Then last minute on Friday we decided "what the heck" I borrowed some ski clothes from Rebecca. We were able to do this great deal called "ski after 3" where it only cost $10 to ski on the green circle courses. Since I am a clumsy person anyway and this was my first time, we figured this would be the best choice. I fell almost immediately! I was expecting to fall a lot, but I didn't realize how incredibly hard it would be to get back up while wearing skis that feel like they weigh 6 tons! We made it down the hill to the lift and got on. It was really pretty riding up the lift, but I was a little concerned about how far we seemed to be going. I fell immediately after getting off the lift and just kept falling. It was seriously hard and everytime I would pick up even a little speed I would fall down because I would get so scared. At one point I though we should go on this powdery part because it might be less slippery. I ended up getting stuck in snow half way up my thigh. I was actaully pretty discouraged and kept wondering how on earth we were going to make it to the bottom. Sean was so patient and sweet and kept helping me up. He even fell over a few times to try to give me tips on how to get up. I don't know what I would have done without him. There were a few times I just tried to slide down on my bum as far as I could go to get a little further a long. I was really terrible. I just kept getting back up since there really wasn't another option. Finally it was started to turn a little darker and a snow mobile showed up and offered me a ride. The man was incredibly kind and helped me get my skis off. Sean beat the snow mobile to the bottom, lol! I can't quite put into words the immense relief I felt when that snow mobile showed up. That morning in the temple we had talked a lot about the Atonement and I felt like this was such a fitting experience to help me understand how much we all need to be saved! I don't think I will ever be brave enough to try this again, but I had such a wonderful time with wonderful, loving, patient, Sean!

This was the view on our way down the mountain. The picture doesn't even begin to capture how beautiful it was.

We were going to go to Macaroni Grill but neither of us were very hungry so we thought we'd just get an appetizer and cheesecake at the cheesecake factory, but the wait was 80 minutes! We found ourselves at the corner bakery where I had amazing soup and Sean had a wrap and we had yummy desserts. After dinner we went shopping at Smith's Marketplace. I got new shirts, Sean got new shoes, and we finished up some Christmas shopping. We also got baby food because we always need baby food.

We came back to our house and cleaned for an hour, because we could. Then we slept ALL NIGHT LONG with no interruptions!!! I even slept in, it was glorious! I made some buttercream and cookie dough then we headed down to Vineyard to make a cake and get our kids. All the kids had a great time together and Lizzie didn't even mind us being gone!