Nov 20 and 21

Nov 20
1. I'm thankful for sunshine
2. I'm thankful for uplifting Ensign articles.
3. I'm thankful for a living prophet.

Nov 21
1. I'm thankful that I was able to get the house clean today.
2. I'm thankful Lexi is taking a good afternoon nap...in her crib even!
3. I'm thankful that we get a group rate and will be going to an indoor waterpark while in OR. Logan is VERY excited.

Gratitude Catch Up

Nov 16
1. I'm thankful that Logan is generally a very obedient kid.
2. I'm thankful that I live in a safe neighborhood.
3. I'm grateful for warm boots.

Nov 17
1. I'm grateful for a reliable vehicle to drive.
2. I'm grateful for airplanes - Garrick can travel to the other side of the country for work and be home the following evening. Wow!
3. I'm grateful for friends.

Nov 18
1. I am grateful for a warm coat.
2. I'm grateful that Lexi is a good little shopper. Logan is generally a good shopper, too, but that just depends...
3. I'm grateful for weather forecasts. It's nice to be prepared.

Nov 19
1. I'm grateful for the temple and the knowledge that I can be with my family forever.
2. I'm grateful for great babysitters that Logan LOVES to play with. Thanks, Jackie and Piper!
3. I'm grateful for leaves on trees. They are beautiful, especially when they change color. When they are on the ground, it gives me the opportunity to get some exercise in outdoor weather that I would normally not choose to exercise in.

Nov 14 & Nov 15

Nov 14
1. I'm grateful for the internet. Remember what life was like without it?
2. I'm grateful for appliances - dishwasher, washing machine, etc.
3. I'm grateful for great parents & in-laws.

Nov 15
1. I'm grateful for coupons. I love feeling like I'm getting a good deal.
2. I'm grateful for a healthy body that allows me to exercise.
3. I'm grateful for the steadiness & security of Garrick's job.

Nov 12 and 13

Nov 12
1. Saturdays...Need I say more? Even Logan knows that Saturday is the day that daddy doesn't have to work, and we just get to play.
2. A husband who loves playing with his kids. He is definitely Logan's favorite playmate.
3. DVR. So nice to watch a game with a fast forward button!

Nov 13
1. Bonnie Weekes - She took an assignment that I would've hated (calling people and asking them to do something), and she got it done and done FAST!
2. Warm cookies with vanilla ice cream. Probably one of my favorite desserts.
3. Great sacrament meeting talks and a little sacrament mtg humor. The organist thought we were done singing after 2 verses and just stopped playing. Oops. We ended up singing the third verse but not without laughing first. :)

Nov 11

1. I'm grateful that my children like to play outside.
2. I'm grateful for our country's veterans, esp my grandparents (gma Couch, gpa Couch, gpa Robbins).
3. I'm grateful for college basketball on tv.

Nov 10

1. I'm grateful that I get to cuddle with my little girl. She's not a great sleeper, but she sleeps really well on my lap. Sometimes this can be frustrating because it makes it hard to get things done. But, then I think of how lucky I am to have this sweet girl. Reminds me of a quote my mom used to have framed on the wall...

"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow For babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow, So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

2. I'm grateful for cell phones and Skype.

3. I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.

Nov 9

1. I'm grateful that Lexi slept long enough this morning that I could get dinner into the crock pot.
2. I'm grateful for crock pots.
3. I'm grateful for Tillamook's vanilla bean yogurt.

(Apparently I have food on my mind.)

Nov 7 and 8

I'm grateful for...

Nov 7
1. The means to be able to fly to Oregon to visit family.
2. Family home evening lessons, even if they are only about 2 minutes long.
3. Arctic Circle shakes

Nov 8
1. The opportunity to vote.
2. My inhalers. (Why would I develop asthma only while nursing a child? Weird!! Happened with Logan, too.)
3. Afternoon naps.

Gratitude Challenge

A few of my friends issue a gratitude challenge each November. Think of 3 things that you are thankful for each day. We email each other with our daily lists. I've decided to include my gratitude lists here as well. So, here are the first few days worth...

Nov 1
1. I'm thankful for good books to read, and for great people whose lives make great biographies. (If you need a book to read, try Unbroken)
2. I'm grateful for a husband who took both kids for a while this afternoon so I could finish a few things that needed to get done and take a shower.
3. I'm grateful for the funny things that 3-yr-olds say.

Nov 2
1. Last night I dumped a huge tupperware of red soup all over the kitchen floor, the fridge, and my pants. It was a mess to say the least. But, I got it cleaned up and changed clothes and everything was better. I rinsed the soup out of my pants and slippers and threw them in the wash. This morning I was looking for my cell phone and couldn't find it. I resorted to calling it, and finally found it ringing...in the washing machine. I am grateful that I threw my pants in the wash but didn't start the washing machine last night. Whew!
2. I'm grateful when the sun comes out, especially when it's cold. It sure makes it seem warmer.
3. I'm grateful for leaves to stomp on and to have leave fights with, even when they are leaves in my own yard that really need raking.

One more for today: I'm grateful for whoever found the library book that we left at church at returned it to the library for us. After checking the lost and found a couple of times and not finding it, I was pretty sure we were going to be buying the book.

Nov 3
1. I'm grateful that it felt warm out while we raked leaves this aftn.
2. I'm grateful that Logan still takes naps - without complaint and sometimes even voluntarily.
3. I'm grateful for good water pressure from the kitchen faucet. After at least a year without (long story), it's great to have it working so well!

Nov 4
1. I'm grateful that Lexi was so good at volleyball today because that meant I got to play several games.
2. I'm grateful I got to see Mandy (who's going through chemo) at volleyball today. She brightens my day.
3. I'm grateful that Logan sat on the toilet twice today. The results weren't so thrilling, but the fact that he sat on it without screaming, hey, it's a start.

Nov 5
1. I'm grateful for warm fires on cold days.
2. I'm grateful for Kate, a girl in my ward who really came through on a last minute assignment.
3. I'm grateful for yummy food. Tonight's dinner: chicken gnocchi soup and garlic bread.

Nov 6
1. I'm grateful that we didn't have a house fire last night. Before getting in bed I wanted to check the space heater in Lexi's room to make sure it was turned on. Garrick then said that he'd already turned it on but wasn't sure if he'd done it right, so I decided to check anyway. When I went into Lexi's room, it smelled funny (not really burnt funny, but just weird). The heater was warm but not on. The room was also warm as if the heater had been on. I unplugged the heater and as I did so, I noticed the plug was hot. One of the prongs was kind of black and then I noticed the plug was kind of melted. Yikes! That heater is going out with the garbage today. I don't know what happened - whether it was a heater malfunction or if something is wrong with our outlet (I'll look into it) - but I am SO grateful that we didn't have a fire start in little Lexi's room.
2. Inspired presidency messages in first Sunday RS.
3. Picnics by warm fires in fire places. (Logan's idea)

Time Out for Mommy

Last night I finished my dinner and was feeding Lexi in the front room (adjoining the dining area). Logan was not yet finished eating but was down from his chair and running around. He'd come back for a bite, run around, etc. I told him that he needed to sit down on his chair until he was finished with his meal and excused from the table. His response? (said kind of quietly) "Mom, if you say that again, you're going to go to timeout." Garrick about lost it and had to leave the room to control his laughter. I told Logan that mommy was not going to timeout, to which he replied, "If you say that again, you're going to timeout. Over there (pointing to the corner of the room)."

Too funny!

We Just Can't Get Enough...

...Dinosaurs.

Ok, so Logan just can't get enough. We took him to Ogden to the Dinosaur Park, and we had a great time. They had some moving Triceratops and a moving T-Rex inside. Logan absolutely loved them. They also had your regular dinosaur museum stuff - fossils, skeletons, etc.

We got to talk to a paleontologist, and it was quite interesting. He was telling us about all of the new dinosaurs they've been finding in southern Utah. I asked how much they have to dig, and he said they are fairly close to the surface. I wondered why they hadn't been discovered until now, and he said that the locations are very, very remote. He let us touch some fossilized dinosaur skin as well as an Allosaurus tooth. He showed us a dinosaur jaw fossil, and you could actually see where the tooth roots had been. I found it kind of funny that a few of the things that he told us were things that we already knew... because we've watched so many episodes of the cartoon Dinosaur Train. (One was that most dinosaurs lost their teeth and grew new ones. Another was that they've recently discovered a new dinosaur in southern Utah and named it Cosmoceratops.)

The park also has several acres of paths outside with lots of dinosaur replicas. Logan loved seeing all of the different species!



Don't worry, the Triceratops isn't about to eat us. They're herbivores. :)


I have to brag about Logan with this one. It was a Deinonychus. He knew right away that the Deinonychus was the one with the sharp claw. If you look closely, you can see his terrible toe claw.





We were super lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma Peterson join us for this outing.


Logan was so glad that his Aunt Jackie could come along, too!

Lexi's New Toy

We picked up a new toy for Lexi last weekend. (Too bad these baby toys take up so much room!) She really seems to like it. She still can't reach a lot of the toys, but she loves standing up, and she loves sucking on things, so this has been a hit so far. We took it to basketball one morning, and a bunch of the other kids liked it, too. I wish I would've had my camera. Little Lexi was sitting in the chair and was surrounded by 2 or 3 much bigger kids playing with the toys. I think she felt like she was getting a lot of attention. It was pretty cute.

Special Delivery

Look what came in the mail today. We spent at least 15 minutes with daddy and the T-Rex chasing mommy. Will this become a daily activity? Somebody's excited for Halloween!

Lexi's Blessing

We were thrilled to have family join us for Lexi's baby blessing over Labor Day weekend. My sister, Dawn, and her family were in town from southern CA. Garrick's grandma, his parents, his brother Travis and his family, and his sister Jackie also came down. Finally, my aunt & uncle, cousin Sarah and her family, and cousin ShaRene and her family joined us. Other than the fact that Garrick and I had colds and then Garrick had what he thought was an appendicitis attack (which turned out to be nothing...just gas?), it was a lovely day! Here are a couple of pictures of our cutie. A special thanks to Dawn for loaning us Kate's dress to use for the special occasion. We tried not to get spit up on it, but I'm not really sure that's possible with this little one.

Getting Braver...

Logan seems to have inherited my scaredy-cat tendencies. He's always been afraid of swings, slides, rides, etc. Some of that changed a few weeks ago. I don't know what caused it, but all of a sudden, Logan decided he could go down some of the twisty slides and tunnel slides as long as Garrick or I was with him. Before we knew it, he was even willing to go on his own, and he loves it! We have been on a park tour of Orem these last couple weeks. We're checking out the playgrounds, the velocity of the slides, the number of kids, the presence of shade trees, etc. Park play is so much more fun now. Yay!!!!

We bought some "Pass of All Passes" last year, hoping to get our money's worth out of them. I think we've probably accomplished that, but barely. With a new baby and Garrick's Achilles injury, we've only made it down to Seven Peaks a couple of times. (Maybe next season.) The first time we went, Logan would ride my lap down the "baby slides." The next time we went, he went down those slides by himself (over and over and over again) and even braved some bigger slides on my lap. I'm hoping that next year he'll ride on my lap on one of the tube slides. We'll see...

Logan and Deyce coming out of one of the bigger slides. I think he would have liked it much better if it didn't splash water in our faces at the end.

Logan going down his favorite little slide.

A more recent picture of Lexi. She's smiling now, and it's so much fun! We go to the doctor on Tues, so I'll have to let you know how big she's getting to be.

Laundry Mishap

Do you remember plastic pants? I bought some a while back to use as Logan's washable swim diaper. As I was taking the laundry out of the dryer this afternoon, I ran across this...



...stuck to the back of the dryer. Oops! Just in case you are thinking of washing your plastic pants, I thought I'd let you know that you should NOT put them in the dryer.

Mommy Got Your Not-So-Subtle Hint

Today was the day that I was definitely going to get around to cutting Logan's hair. He HATES haircuts, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to this. I decided to make Logan a deal. If he could get through the haircut without crying, we would go to the store, and I'd buy him Buddy (the T-Rex from the show 'Dinosaur Train'). Not a bad deal if I do say so myself. Well, it didn't work - at all. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say there was practically weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but we got through it - barely. Anyway, when we were finished, Logan said something about getting Buddy. I explained that we had a deal, and he didn't keep his part of the deal, so we weren't getting Buddy. A little later we were playing dogs and Logan's dog said to my dog, "We're going to the store to get Buddy." Was he trying pull a fast one on me by playing this out through his stuffed dogs? No worries, mommy caught your not-so-subtle hint.

I am a bit of a pushover, however. Logan did let me cut his hair (not really, but we got through the haircut - with him on my lap). I decided that he could earn the money to buy Buddy ($2.50). So, if he helps me sweep and mop the floors, we'll be making a trip to the toy store, and there will be one happy 2 1/2 year-old in this family.

Recent Happenings

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of what's been going on around here. These first two really should've been with my last entry, but oh well. The top one is a picture of me and Lexi, taken less than a week before she was born. The bottom one is a picture of me and Logan. I'm not sure when it was taken, but I think it was pretty close to his arrival as well. I think Logan wins the big belly award.

I just noticed that my belly wasn't the only thing growing over the years. We have a much bigger tv in the first picture than we did in the second. We can congratulate Garrick for that one!


This is Lexi at 13 days old. I was able to get her with her eyes pretty open. I put the big bow on her head this morning and then had to take a picture. She's doing well and hopefully growing. (We'll find out at her 2 wk appt). It is a bit of a challenge to keep her happy and to keep Logan entertained at the same time. I'm afraid I'm not real good at it but hopefully will get better.

Speaking of Logan, he's been blinking his eyes excessively lately. I finally called the pediatrician and talked to a nurse who suggested having his eyes tested by an opthalmologist. She said that if there were no eye issues, then we would look at behavioral stuff. Garrick looked it up on the internet yesterday, and we seem to think it is a tic (a repetitive motor movement that he has partial control over). Anyway, they say to ignore it and that eventually it goes away. Several moms wrote that it occurred in their 2-3 yr old children, and one or two even wrote that it happened after a new baby was born (causing stress in the child). Hmmm.... We have an appt with the eye doctor next week, and I guess we'll go from there. But, if you see us between now and then, it's best not to comment on the blinking in front of Logan. :)


These next couple of pictures were taken at the zoo last Friday. We had a great time. They have a Jurassic exhibit this summer, and we were excited for Logan to see all of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, they were a little too life-like for his liking. They were big, they moved, and they roared. Logan was scared to get very close to them, but he liked looking at them from a distance. We were happy to see that over the course of the morning, he definitely warmed up to them. In fact, I think he'd like to make another trip up there to see them. I'm not sure what my problem was, but I didn't take a single picture of the dinosaurs. I think Jackie got a few, so I'll have to get copies of hers.

The animals were much more active than last time we were at the zoo, so I got a few pictures of them (without any of us in the pictures?). What kind of a photographer am I anyway?




This last picture is of Garrick and Logan waiting for the Orem Summerfest parade to start. Logan was very excited to see the different instruments and some of the floats, but he HATED the guns going off (which happened to be at the very beginning). Garrick had to walk him away from the parade, Logan was so scared. We probably made it through about 2/3 of the parade before Lexi woke up and started screaming for food. Then we made a quick break for the car and enjoyed the rest of the evening at home.


Logan and I have a new game. I make a face of some sort, and he tries to copy it. Here's one of Logan's "faces."

Alexis Lee Peterson

On Friday, June 3, at about 1:15 pm, we welcomed Alexis Lee Peterson to our family. She weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 19 inches long. I thought I'd write a bit about our experience.

I guess we'll start a few weeks back. It was probably 3-4 weeks ago when I was at my OB appt that my doctor mentioned that we had the option of scheduling an induction with this pregnancy. (I guess they try to avoid inductions with first children, but if you're not having your first, they will induce you after 39 weeks.) Anyway, up to that point, I hadn't really considered an induction. I assumed that most were done only after the baby was overdue. I asked the doctor a few questions and told him I'd be talking it over with Garrick and would get back to him.

So, Garrick and I talked about it and decided that boy, it could be really convenient. If we picked the right date, Garrick would be done with school, Garrick's parents would be stopping by on their way back from MO, and the doctor that I saw the most would be the one on call. And what about the convenience of being able to schedule babysitting for Logan ahead of time? We decided that the conveniences were definitely worth it, and we got ourselves on the hospital's induction list for Friday, June3.

As this was still a few weeks away, it was interesting to see peoples' reactions when I would mention that we were planning on having our baby on June 3. I was told by a few that labor would be harder with an induction, and to be quite honest, I was starting to doubt a little if I wanted to continue with our plan. Hmmm.... What to do?

Even on Friday, the day of the scheduled induction, Garrick asked me one last time, "Are you sure you want to do this today?" I said, "Yep, at least I think I'm sure." The hospital called at about 8 am and asked if we could be there by 9:30.

We got to the hospital, they got an IV going, and the first drips of Pitocin started at about 10:15. (By the way, we had a nurse-in-training helping one of the nurses, and she was the one putting in my IV. It turned out ok, but I wasn't super thrilled about the situation.) After that, it all seemed to go pretty fast. Garrick and I just talked for the first hour or so, and then the contractions started getting pretty painful. I requested my epideral, and thankfully, the anesthesiologist was fairly quick to get to me. Once that kicked in, it was smooth sailing. We watched the contractions on the monitor. They had to decrease the pitocin at one point because my contractions were getting a little too close together. Before I knew it, I was feeling the tightening of the contractions in my lower body rather than in my abdomen. I mentioned this to the nurse when she came in, and she decided to check me (good idea). She said, "I can feel her head." I asked her what I was dilated to, and she said, "Oh, you're fully dilated. I better call the doctor." She called the doctor and started prepping all the baby stuff. Several other nurses came in and then it became a waiting game. Would the doctor get there in time? I'll admit, even with his office just two or three minutes away, I was a little nervous that he wouldn't. Thankfully, he did. I pushed through one contraction, and we were introduced to our new daughter. What a blessing she is!

A Great Break, Even If It Wasn't Too Springy

We had a wonderful spring break this past week; it was hard to see it end. Garrick only had to work one day, and we were able to just relax and enjoy the rest of the week. We went to the gym together in the mornings, we ran errands, we played cars, trucks, dinosaurs, and trains, and we had a great time. Logan LOVED playing with his dad so much that he started saying things like, "Not you, mom. Daddy." Gotta love the honesty of the 2 yr-old!

We did take one little vacation and had a great time. We went to Price, UT, where we toured the dinosaur museum, swam in their wave pool, and explored the petroglyphs of nearby Nine Mile Canyon (which is in reality more like 45 miles long). We stayed in a motel the first night and headed home after seeing the canyon the following day.

Unfortunately, we paid our museum entrance fees at the gift shop. Logan was so distracted by all of the toy dinosaurs, that all he could talk about while we looked through the museum was how much he wanted to buy a couple of the dinosaurs. Oh well. Again, that's life with a 2 yr-old. We planned on buying one of the dinosaurs for him, and we finally realized the sooner we bought it, the better the rest of the museum would be. We're learning. Slowly, but surely.





The rest of these pictures were taken throughout Nine Mile Canyon. You can see some of the petroglyphs, lots of cool rocks, and how much Logan likes playing with his dinosaurs. Let's just say that our hiking speed was SL-OOOOO-OOOOW. There was so much to explore and so many places to look for dinosaur food. Speaking of looking for things, along one trail we saw some deer poop and pointed it out to Logan. His new favorite thing was then looking for more poop. Kind of funny!

I just wanted to share one more thing, which isn't even related to this trip. Logan has some pretty cute phrases that he says. When you ask him something like "Do you need your diaper changed?" or "Do you want to eat lunch?" he'll often respond with, "No, I'm good." If you ask him a question to which the answer is yes, sometimes you'll get, "Why of course, daddy (or mommy)." I think that one is my all-time favorite.

I guess that's it for now.

Out with the Old, In with the New

This isn't a great picture, but I am glad that I remembered to snap it before this old light fixture made its way to the trash can. This fairly good-sized basement bedroom had 2 of these light fixtures, but only 2 of the 3 lights worked in each one. The fixture was ugly and the lighting made the room seem just a little dingy.


We recently had recessed lighting put in, and the room is so much brighter and better! Again, not a great picture, but you get the idea. The guest room is back in business and is better than ever!

A Muddy Mess

On Saturday between conference sessions, Garrick and I decided to get a little gardening in. We had purchased a nectarine tree at Costco the week before, and we were ready to get it planted. You might ask what we know about growing fruit. The answer is: NOTHING! But, we love to eat it, and the tree was only $10.99, so we thought, "Why not?" Anyway, we made a muddy mess, got the tree planted, and even planted a few rows of peas and onions.

We were excited to have Logan help us out in our garden this year, and Garrick was particularly thrilled (and I'm not being sarcastic) to see Logan get muddy and enjoy it. (He tends to freak out a little at the dinner table when he spills stuff. He's a, "wipe it, mommy" type of guy.) Hooray for Logan and his mess!