Rocky Mountain Peterson's: 2011

So Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Our 11 year Anniversary, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter have all come and gone since my last post...Life comes and goes way too fast!

A little history of our last month. April has brought a bunch of new beginnings to our little(unless you live in Colorado, and a family of 6 is enormous)family. We signed Gavin up for Soccer on the New Castle Rec. U8 team, we were very disappointed at first to learn that the time that we had signed up for did not have enough players to put together a team so we were bumped to the later time of 5:30-6:30pm practices. Also, one of his best friends who was signed up is not playing. There was a mess up at the Rec. office and long story short, they won't let him play. So sad. We were very excited to have them play together. The first day of practice Gavin came home from school, put on his gear and ran outside in the backyard to run laps to "get ready for practice". I told him that he needed to conserve his energy for practice or he would be too tired for the actual practice! He didn't mind and went about what he was doing. Let's just say if I had as much energy as Gavin, I would be a bean pole like him :). He has done very well, we love his coaches Matt and Stephanie, and it is so fun to watch him play and the glow that radiates off of him when it is time for practice. Last Friday they had their first game. He was put in on the first rotation as a guard. As a Mom, I definitely get to be biased, but if I may say so, he is really good! The game felt like an eternity...it was freezing outside. The poor kids had shorts on and no coats and it had to be about 40ish degrees. They finally called the game with one rotation remaining. We won 10-1!! Way to go Orange Panthers!

Brayden has done project after project at school. They just got done with the CSAP (Colorado State testing). 4th Grade definitely has way more to the tests than 3rd grade. Two weeks ago the 4th grade had their annual spelling bee, which I was told not to go to that it was just a quick 5 minute ordeal, no big deal. Well, it turned out that it was a BIG deal. Brayden took 1st place in the school 4th grade spelling! I always knew that he was a smart kid!! Way to go Brayden!! After the school spelling bee, I received a phone call from Brayden telling me that he had won and that the next Thursday (last Thursday), he would be competing in the District Spelling Bee. I started to cry like a baby, told him that was amazing, and that I was so proud of him!! He came home and we celebrated with homemade waffles for dinner and banana splits for dessert!! From Friday on, he had a dictionary in hand asking me to quiz him with all of the words :)! On Wednesday night, he asked me again if I was going to be at the District Spelling Bee in Rifle at the Hospital, I told him I wouldn't miss it for anything! Thursday morning came and he and 3 other kids in the 4th grade loaded a bus and went to the hospital, in their conference rooms. I got there and found a seat, I think that I was way more nervous than he was! He is always so relaxed in these types of situations! The first round consisted of a written spelling test, which everyone participated in and there were no eliminations. The second round consisted of spelling lists that they had to go through and circle all of the words that were spelled incorrectly. After the second round, they took a break for about 15 minutes or so. The kids went outside into their sitting area and played on the grass. Again, the anxiety was quite unbearable, for ME, not him!! They were called back inside and there were only 13 spots out of about 30. All 4 of our 4th graders at Kathryn Senor had a spot in the oral round!! Woot! Woot! We have great spellers! Brayden was placed 5th place after the written round. Several rounds came and went...and then there were 4 remaining, Brayden being the 4th kid. He was given his word and paused, did not repeat what he had already said, and was told that he misspelled the word. So sad...he took it very well and sat down with a smile. I was so happy for him, what an accomplishment!! I told him that there is always next year and the next!! He has picked up the dictionary again!! He is bound and determined to make it to NATIONALS!! Way to make a goal for yourself, Bray!! Anyway, I wanted to take him to lunch before he had to be back to school, but was turned down to his friends...when did he grow up and decide friends were better than his Mom ;)!! I was happy to oblige. Miranda, Austin, and I went to the store and picked up some huge plastic eggs and made cards for all 4 of the kids. We celebrated with treats for all of the 4th graders, and certificates for the Great Spellers, after they returned from the hospital on the bus!! What a great PAYDAY for a Mom and Dad!!

Miranda, poor Miranda, just comes along for the ride. Where ever Mom has to go, she and Austin are right there! Whether it be for work or play, there they are!! Miranda is growing up to be such a cute little girl! She loves her dolly's, ponies, barbies, dress up, helping to cook anything and everything that mommy is making, cleaning (only when Mom is, never when she is asked to clean up after herself), Mommy's brand new make up (I don't love this one so much), and to be one of the gang!! She is such the little Princess, but yet she can be one of the BOYS right along side her brother's. Last week we had Kindergarten Round Up. Can you believe that come August 17, she will be in Kindergarten and going to school just like her BIG brother's?! She can't wait....Mommy can't wait!! She is soooooo ready. Did I mention that she is ready for school :)?! Miranda had quite an experience today while playing chase with Austin around the house today. Buck and I had taken the cover off of the crawl space(in the closet by our garage door in the kitchen, it is about 5 or so feet deep to the ground)Saturday to get out the decorations for Easter and had not put it back on yet. We both were prompted to put the cover back on last night and failed to follow that prompting. She and Austin were having a great time playing together while I was at the Kitchen sink doing dishes. The next thing I know (all in slow motion for me), she had run from the living room and into the kitchen to the closet that has the crawl space in it, she opened the door, and down she went. It happened so fast and my brain worked so slow that it took me a couple of seconds to realize what she had just done. Then the scream came...I knew exactly what happened. I raced over, thankfully she was standing up and I pulled her up and out. She was as purple as you could be with no air (she does this, it started a couple of years ago, Buck and I hate it), her eyes rolling in her head, I held her scared to death. I layed her down, hoping that she would not seize, and she finally came to enough to tell me what happened. "Mommy I fell and hit my whole face". I immediately was checking her out for blood, broken bones, and anything else you could imagine. I could not physically see where she had hit other than her back and hair from the sawdust that was on her backside. After several minutes of checking her out, I then moved her over to the couch to make sure that she did not have a concussion. Her eyes dilated like they should and she did not complain of needing to throw up or any pressure in her head. Tonight she is just fine with a couple of bruises to her right rear hip and to the back of her head. Let's just say that an angel caught her and she fell down the hole. There is a cement slab at the bottom of the hole to the left that she totally missed and the wood lips that hold the cover in place that she also missed. We could have had quite the disaster today. Have I ever told you that she and Gavin are our Dare devils! Gotta love 'em!

Austin is my sweet, sweet little boy! Definitely not a baby anymore. He absolutely loves balls and thinks that everything is a ball. Most of his vocabulary consists of bah, bah, bah! Super cute to see the little gears racing in his head. He loves being outside and playing with his siblings. He wakes up, if not already awake, everyday when Daddy leaves, saying "Daddy, Daddy", as he hears the garage door open. The same reaction is given everyday when the garage, again opens and he hears the truck (airplane) pull into the driveway! He instantly runs to the garage door and waits for Daddy to open it. He is trying his hardest to jump, so when Daddy walks in he lifts his little body from a squatting position to standing straight reaching for Daddy to pick him up! He LOVES his Daddy!! He loves, from a distance, dogs!! He loves to say woof, woof, along with bah, bah. He will stare out the window to see the dogs across the street in their backyard! Sunday, April 17 began a new chapter in our life, it was Austin's first day of NURSERY!! We took him in, thinking he might cling just a little bit. Nope, not at all, he walked in saw the toys and was in Heaven!! He has done awesome that last 2 Sunday's!! Let's only hope and pray it continues to stay that way!!

For those of you who might not know by now, we own our own Elevator Service and Maintenance business...the business is thriving and doing well. Let's just say for a first year company we were not at a deficit on Dec. 31, 2010! We are so excited to see how it will do and hope that by the end of this year to have hired an additional person for the Denver area so that Buck will not have to continue traveling East every week! I don't think that Buck or I ever thought that he would "Drive Truck" as much as he does! The business keeps us very busy. I work from home and do the books and the whatnot of the company, while Buck does the "Manual Labor" side of the business!! He is doing a great job! The kids and I are so lucky to have him!! I am learning to juggle all of the balls that are thrown at me...it is not always as easy as I think it SHOULD be :)! With Gavin starting Soccer, I have now officially become a "Soccer, screaming, sideline, Mom!!" I love to watch my kids learn new things and excel in all they do! I truly have the best job in the world! There are many days that are hard for me, but we definitely have plenty of PAYDAY's! Easter Sunday was one of them. We had the opportunity to have the Sister Missionaries, the Todd's, and Bro. Wolf over for "Dinner" (lunch). We had asked the missionaries a week prior if they wouldn't mind giving the FHE lesson, they agreed! It was an absolutely amazing message about the Resurrection. Along with FHE, I teach the CTR B's (those turning 8) in Primary and can I just say, I LOVE my primary class! I learned more about Jesus Christ and the Resurrection Sunday with my class and with FHE than I think I have ever learned. I had 2 awesome symbols pointed out to me by 2 of the kids in my class that I had never known before. The first being, if you take the picture of when Christ was laid in the tomb and covered with the white cloth after his body was being prepared, and cover his head you can imagine it as the Sacrament table and that is why we have clean, white linens that cover the bread and water, because it represents the cloth covering his body, it totally looks like the Sacrament table, get the picture and try it! The second being the symbol of the reason that we dye eggs on Easter. If you take the egg before it has been dyed and then dye it, you have the symbol of how we go from our mortal state to our immortal state (we have been changed and can never die again). What an amazing group of kids I have in my class! I absolutely love my primary class and am so glad for the things that they teach me about the gospel. I took what I learned and shared it with everyone I could on the way out of church and then again at our FHE! I am grateful for our Savior, for all that he endured for us, so that we could live with him and our Heavenly Father again, and be resurrected and live with our Families forever!! I am grateful for our trials to help build us up and make us better for ourselves and our families!

Bring on the Flowers!!! May is an exciting month, hopefully I will post before the next Winter season!!