Petersons Never Give Up: Lizzie's Birthday Parties and Closing on our HOUSE!!

Lizzie's birthday was on a Friday this year and Sean had the day free for studying for his board exam. A few months ago we went to Kid to Kid as a family and we found a Cozy Coupe at an awesome price! We couldn't pass it up so we bought it and have been storing it on our back porch for awhile. Lizzie could see it outside everyday and I would just tell her it was for her birthday and she would say ok. So when she came downstairs on the morning of her birthday to find balloons, streamers, presents, and her Beep Beep; she was so excited! She had a great time playing with her new car, minnnie stuffed animal, minnie flashlight, and ice cream and cake set. Brett went to school like normal and Brianna and Afton came over to play in the morning. It was hard for Liz to share her new toys and we ended up needing to put the Cozy Coupe up in our bedroom with Sean. Lizzie ended up sititng up there with him in her car while Sean studied. In the afternoon Brett's friend Carter came home with us and then in the evening the 5 of us went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. We all like the food there and I thought it would be a good fit because Lizzie LOVES busus and I thought she would enjoy the Trolley. We weren't able to sit on it, but they did get us a table near the trolley so Lizzie could see it and exclaim about it throughout the meal! A sweet grandpa came and made the kids some balloon animals: Lizzie a Mickey, Alana a flower, and Brett a dragon. We had our ice cream and Lizzie blew out her candle before we could even start singing =) We re lit and tried again =) It was a very fun night for all of us and a super nice way to celebrate our sweet 2 year old!

The birthday girl did a great job at sharing her car with brother and sister for very short amounts of time!

Alana did a great job blowing out the pretend candles on the pretend cake.

Brett, Lizzie, and Mommy at the Old Spaghetti Factory

Daddy and Alana at the OSF

Lizzie pointing to the trolley in the mirror!

She's a girl after my own heart going for the whole loaf of bread!

Sean held Alana's flower while the balloon man made the stem.

All through the moving process the kids had fun trying to make secret hide outs and forts among all the boxes. Brett made this particular fort behind the doll house and it was actually pretty big =) It was fun to see them make a stressful situation fun, they still got annoyed by all the boxes and stressed with so much going on, but still had fun.

Lizzie and Alana and I baked Lizzie's cake on Friday morning, then on Saturday we decorated it. I made a template out of paper the cut out the shape of the bus. I used store bought frosting to frost it yellow, then store bought black frosting to do the wheels, windows, and detail work. I printed the pics off the computer and covered them in packing tape =)

It turned out really cute and Lizzie was so excited to have Bus cake!

I guess we are really crazy and we really like to be busy, so we had a game day at our house that Saturday. We stuffed in a bunch of guys and had some fun treats and pizza. Brett and Sean played super smash brothers and had spiritual and philosophical conversations with the guys while Lizzie napped and Alana and I watched the Greatest Showman. After most of the guys took off Josh and Steffan stayed and chatted with us more.

We were planning to have the party at Mom and Dad P's house, but Mom ended up getting another small bowel obstruction and ended up in the hospital. She was home pretty quickly this time, but we moved the party away from her house to give her space to rest. Papa still came up and brought a lot of fun decorations. Neil and Rebecca weren't able to make it since they had several other obligations as well. We ended up just have Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, the Saffrons, and our family. We had frozen baby tacos and frozen hot dogs in a blanket, salad, strawberries, and chips. Lizzie opened her presents first and was so excited to get a singing Elsa doll from Grandma and Grandpa and a Wheels on the Bus book and puzzle from Papa and Mimi!

We played pin the wheels on the bus, then hot potato with a toy bus.

She LOVED her cake and waited till we were done with the song to blow out her candle this time =)

On Sunday we had our last week in Cottonwood Creek ward which was extremely bittersweet. I really love all the women in that ward and have felt so at home there from the first day we attended. Sean was released from his ward mission leader calling the week before so we greatly enjoyed having him home playing piano and helping us get ready for church!

On Monday I packed and packed and cleaned and cleaned. The boxes started to multiply. Sean studied more for his test and we packed and cleaned some more.

On Tuesday, Sean left early to pick up a breakfast burrito before heading off to take his last exam for 10 years! I took the kids to school then packed and cleaned more. Sean got home in the early afternoon reporting that he felt like he had passed but that the test was really difficult! We went and picked up Brett from school then headed to the trampoline park to jump for joy in celebration of Sean being done with his test. We have also been working to earn an outing with our healthy eating challenge. The kids were so excited to earn it and Alana has already asked if we can eat more healthy food so we can go back!

Special jumping socks!

Sean has been working more on his upper body strength and was able to do these rings in the ninja course, we were all super proud!

After jumping ourselves into exhaustion at the Get Air place, we drove out to the Pizza Pie Cafe. We all enjoyed some delicious pizza, pasta, and of course oreo and cookie dough pizza!

On Wednesday morning we woke up and got Brett to school then took the girls down to Orem to be watched by Papa and Mimi while Sean and I went to close on the house. The title company was right down the street from their house so it worked out really well. We signed a ton of papers, although it wasn't as many as I thought it would be, then we went and had some sandwiches at Mom and Dad P's. We drove back up to the town home in Holladay to do more packing, get Lizzie a nap, and wait for the loan to fund so we could get our keys. Mom and Dad P came up with us and played with Alana and helped pack boxes. We got a text from our Real Estate agent at about 2:30 that our keys were behind the trash can in our garage! It finally felt real to me and I was so excited! We packed up our van and Mom and Dad P's van with painting stuff and all the kids bikes, then went and picked up Brett a half hour early from school and headed to our new home!

Sooo many boxes!

Lets go see our very own house!

My parents came out as soon as they could and brought this hall tree for our mud room. Dad Z put it all together while Dad P took the kids to the park, Mom Z kept me company while painting, and Sean and Mom P went to get Costa Vida for dinner.