Peterson POSROIT #101

Amy and Bridgette dancing together
after watching Barbie's Nutcracker

The girls in their new Christmas dresses

Bob the Builder:

Joy spent an unexpectedly large percentage of his time off after Christmas building shelves in our garage. It was worth it, though. They look great, they're sturdy, and they will provide crucial storage space as we prepare to finish our basement.

Kara has officially started tormenting her big sister, intentionally doing things Amy doesn't like (e.g. copying everything she says, calling her names, etc).

Brenda and Amy have started school at home again, after a December-long hiatus. It turns out that both of them are a little rusty, so they'll have to backtrack a little. Amy did really well at recognizing final consonants in words today, though.


Interesting stuff:

-Another good reason to learn to spell correctly

-The amazing final play of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl


QOSROIT: Can you believe 2006 is gone? How did you celebrate the New Year?


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #100

Amy helping Aunt Jo unwrap a present

Kara getting into Christmas

Here comes Santa Claus:

Amy and Kara really cleaned up for Christmas. Too bad we don't mean that literally. Anyway, Santa brought them the Dora Talking House to share, and Mom and Dad gave them some furniture for it. Unfortunately that means that they have been fighting over it ever since.

Brenda got a serger! She already has some projects in mind. Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah (evil laugh)!

Joy got a telescope from Brenda's family. He is looking forward to some clear nights for some good stargazing.

Interesting stuff:

-Man catches falling child

-7-legged deer

-A return to the medical dark ages

-Don't let this happen to you

-Real-life Buzz Lightyear


QOSROIT: What was the best thing that happened for you this holiday season?


With all the craziness Christmas preparations and projects (and fogetting to take our camera to just about everything), we didn't get a POSROIT out last week, so we wanted to wish you all a belated merry Christmas and hope you had a beautiful holiday season. We are so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior and the great gifts that He has given to all of us. We love you all.


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #99

The girls with Santa

This is what happens
when you allow your five-year-old
to watch home decorating shows
with you.

Mind your P's and Q's:

Kara and Amy were fighting at dinner the other night, and suddenly Kara shouted, "Don't tell me what to do...please."

Amy noticed that Aurora doesn't have her own Christmas stocking yet, so she suggested that we get some "fag brick" to make her one. Sadly, it took us a moment to figure out that she meant fabric.

Brenda is singing in the community choir/orchestra Christmas concert tonight. Wish us luck!

Joy has been working on putting together a Home Theater PC for us. After the initial investment in equipment, it will be cheaper and more flexible for us than the satellite/Tivo combination we have now. And he's having fun too.


Interesting stuff:

-Child arrested for opening Christmas gift

-Oldest person in the world dies at 116

-Reindeer hot dogs


QOSROIT: Are you doing any traveling for the holidays?


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #98

The girls helping to decorate our Christmas tree:

Amy, Amy, quite contrary:

Amy was very unhappy with something Daddy told her to do, so she told him, "I'm going to teach you a lesson."

At Kara's 2 year appointment in October, the doctor found a heart murmur, so he referred us to a pediatric cardiologist. We saw her last week. Kara had her blood pressure taken, had an ECG and was examined by the doctor, who told us that Kara has two innocent murmurs. One disappears when she lays down and the other when she stands up. The doctor said that she'll have them off and on until high school and after that should outgrow it. Nothing to worry about, no precautions to take.

Joy has been able to work from home for half the day for the last couple of weeks. People have been asking him questions and needing his help so much at the office that he was not getting any of his own work done. So he is officially sequestered in the afternoons.

Brenda has thwarted Kara's nighttime stripping practice with the miraculous parenting aid known as a large safety pin. Unfortunately, she didn't come up with this ingenious idea on her own. A friend suggested it. It's amazing how the simplest things can escape us.


Interesting stuff:

-A 201 point college basketball game

-Interesting new additions to census data

-Three year old calls 911


QOSROIT: What is your favorite holiday song?


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #97

The girls enjoying our first snowstorm of the year

Amy's cute new haircut

Come on, Cougars, it's up to you:

Kara's latest new phrase is "silly billy." We have no idea where it came from, but on Saturday she suddenly started calling everyone, especially herself, a silly billy.

We discovered the other night that Amy has been paying attention to commercials. She was telling us about a toy she would like to have, and she finished by saying, "Only at ToysRUs."

Joy and Brenda watched the most unbelievable football game on Saturday. After being behind the entire second half, BYU beat Utah 33-31 on a touchdown pass on the last play of the game.


Interesting stuff:

-Do you like brain teasers?

-Cost of the 12 days of Christmas is on the rise


QOSROIT: If you celebrate Christmas, when do you start decorating?


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #96

Amy helping Kara ride her bike

Kara and Dad just hangin' out

Some say tak, others merci:

Amy is most thankful for her kitties.

Kara is most thankful for her voice. She uses it constantly -- and loudly.

Brenda is most thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the gospel, her life would be completely different, and she wouldn't have her beautiful family for eternity.

Joy is most thankful for his girls. The way they get excited over just about anything makes him happy.


Interesting stuff:

-Stop global warming with smog?
-How much do you know about Thanksgiving?


QOSROIT: What are you most thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #95

Amy dancing in her new dress-up clothes

All you can see of Kara at meals
when she doesn't sit in a booster seat.

It is I! Captain Vegetable! (or not):

Joy saw his doctor a couple weeks ago and found out that his cholesterol levels are outstanding. The doctor told him to keep doing whatever it is he's doing. So Joy said, "It must be all those fruits and vegetables I'm not eating." The doctor said, "Well, keep not eating them."

Amy had a birthday party with her friends on Saturday. They all had so much fun that when it ended most of them asked their parents if they could stay and play longer.

Brenda survived the party with most of her sanity in tact.

Kara is learning her shapes and colors. So far she recognizes blue and pink (surprise, surprise) and triangles, squares and circles.


Interesting stuff:

-Why you should never try to mug a magician

-Incredible sand art


QOSROIT: Have you ever seen a live magic show?


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #94

Happy birthday to Amy!

The girls playing in Amy's new
dress-up clothes

You've had a birthday, shout hooray:

Amy gets to have 3 parties again this year. We celebrated with Dad's family in St. George over the weekend and then with Mom's family on Monday. On Saturday she has a party with her friends. Monday night, she gave Mom a big hug and said, "This is the best birthday ever!"

Brenda is going crazy trying to get ready for this friend party. How do we keep 12 kids entertained for an hour & a half without tearing the house apart?

Kara has appointed herself to the potty patrol. She's still not too interested in using it herself, but whenever anyone else goes to the bathroom, she announces it to the rest of the household (e.g. "Daddy go potty!").

Joy's sister's family adopted a baby from Korea, and this weekend they had him sealed to them for eternity in the temple. Joy and Brenda got to be there. It was an indescribable experience.


Interesting stuff:

-Strange what they consider to be a big family


QOSROIT: How many kids are in your family?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #93

Our fabulous Dora the Explorer jack-o-lantern

Dora and Boots ready to go trick-or-treating

We were working in the lab late one night:

Brenda finished the girls' costumes in the nick of time. Whew. Now on to Christmas projects.

We had our first snow last week, and Amy built a little snowman. Later as it got warmer, the poor guy started to fall over. When Mom pointed it out to Amy, she said, "Maybe he's doing the limbo dance."

This morning when Dad got out of the shower, he found Kara running around completely naked (except for her cool Dora slippers, of course). When he asked her where her diaper was, she said, "Wet."

Joy carved our beautiful pumpkin, in spite of the frustration of not having the proper tools. We wanted to use our Dremel and be real pumpkin professionals, but the bit that we had (which, by the way, came with the Dremel) was too small for the tool. So we had to resort to a paring knife. We wanted to do a BYU-themed, jack-o-lantern, too, but one was enough for Joy. We'll be better prepared next year.

Interesting stuff:

-Highest Scrabble score ever

QOSROIT: What was your (and/or your children's) Halloween costume?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #92

This week's pictures are from our first ever trip to a pumpkin patch:

Loyal, strong and true wear the white and blue:

Kara is teething. Mom didn't realize what was going on until she noticed Kara drooling on Friday, and when she checked, the bottom right molar was halfway in. It was one of those "duh" moments. No wonder she's been so cranky. Well, just 3 1/2 teeth to go, and she'll be all done.

Amy is a bit too honest for her (or her sister's) own good. Dad was trying to change Kara's diaper on a changing table at church, and Kara was really scared. Trying to reassure her, Dad said, "It's just like the one at home." Amy said, "Uh-uh. It's higher." She calls 'em as she sees 'em.

Joy and Brenda went to the BYU football game this weekend. We beat UNLV 52-7. In addition to the game, we got to go inside the Legacy tent, which is for the higher level members of the Cougar Club. Legacy members donate at least $10,000 plus $1000 a year, plus they buy the $100 game tickets. In the tent, they had a pasta bar and meat sliced fresh off the roast AND a chocolate fountain. At half time there was more food, and after the game cookies and hot chocolate and a live broadcast of the press conference with the coaches and players. All this because Joy fixed a friend's computer, which friend happens to be Assistant Director of the Cougar Club.

Interesting stuff:

-The real Rain Man

-The latest antics from Brenda's friend CJ's crazy brother Luke

QOSROIT: Did you/will you call Luke?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #91

Bridgette, Amy, Tessa and Kara
at the Harvest Moon Hurrah

Taz got herself stuck in a tree last week

Let's get it started in here:

Kara's latest favorite word is "uh-uh," as in the following:

Mom: Kara, please put your pajamas in the basket.
Kara: Uh-uh.
Mom: Kara, are you ready to get your teeth brushed?
Kara: Uh-uh.
Mom: Kara, please give Amy her book back.
Kara: Uh-uh.

Amy somehow learned to count by 10s while we weren't looking. While Mom was cleaning, Amy was dancing in the living room saying, "40...50...60...70...80...90...21...22... ."

On Sunday, Brenda played the organ in sacrament meeting, led the music in Primary and played the piano for choir practice. It was a very busy 5 hours.

Joy got to help one of Brenda's friends this week by writing a program to help import her ward directory information. Hopefully it made things easier for her.

Interesting stuff:

-Nobel Peace Prize winner
-An interesting take on tax refunds

QOSROIT: Are you going to vote on Election Day this year? What offices and issues are on the ballot where you live?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #90

The Nebo Chorale performing
at the Harvest Moon Hurrah.

The girls reading together

Big girls don't cry:

Kara had her two-year check up on Friday. She was 28 1/2 pounds and 34 3/4 inches tall (with shoes). The best part was that she didn't cry at all when she got her shot.

Amy has been saving her allowance for the last few months so she could buy a Dora doll stroller. She finally had enough this week. She is so proud of herself.

Brenda sang in the Nebo Chorale (formerly known as the Spanish Fork Regional Chorale, formerly known as the Spanish Fork Community Choir) for the Harvest Moon Hurrah, a new annual tradition in Spanish Fork. It's basically a fall arts festival. The choir performed for half an hour out of a scheduled 5 hours of music.

Joy is looking forward to having no more yard work for a while. Of course, it won't be too long before he gets to start shoveling snow.

Interesting stuff

What do other countries pay for gas?

QOSROIT: What is your favorite kind of music?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #89

Before

After

Happy birthday, dear Kara:

Kara had a fabulous birthday. She got pizza, cake, ice cream and, of course, presents. The first one she opened was her favorite: a new stuffed kitty. She liked it so much that she wanted to keep holding it, which made opening the rest of her presents quite difficult.

Amy is making progress with her reading and writing. We're using the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book, and we've worked on the long e, short a, s, t, m and r sounds, so she can sound out simple words with those sounds. She has trouble following directions, though. She tends to jump ahead and do things before she's told to do them. We've heard that comes from being a fast learner.

Brenda can't believe her baby is two. Just another month and her big girl will be 5. They've grown and learned so much. Being a mom is the best thing ever, even if it does make time go too fast sometimes (and much too slow at others).

Joy survived his trip to Cambridge. The meetings went pretty well, and the area looked really pretty from the air. He didn't have time to see much of it while he was on the ground.

Interesting stuff:

-American gas price map
-If you need a laugh

QOSROIT: Assuming you actually had some spare time, what would be the first thing you would do with it?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #88

Somebody turns the big number two on Saturday, so here's a Kara double feature:

Last year

This year

Crazy flipper fingers:

It turns out that Amy is quite the pinball wizard. She saw Mom & Dad playing Windows 3D pinball and wanted to try. She scored over a million points on her very first try.

Kara is very polite. She always says "thank you," she's pretty good at "excuse me," she's working on "please," and the other day when Mom sneezed, she said, "Bless you."

Joy left for a business trip to Cambridge, MA this morning.

Brenda is totally jealous. New England in the fall. Sigh.

QOSROIT: What is your favorite place to see fall foliage?

Interesting articles:

Too old for internet access?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #87

High-tech bonding

A naked, clean, happy Kara

Oh, yes. Not in D'Ni. They won't understand:

Amy is still enjoying school at home, in spite of Mom's limited patience. She is particularly proud of the flowers we made out of paper muffin cups and the brownies we baked Monday.

Kara got her very own "unnerwear," just like her big sister. It took her a whole two hours before she wet them.

Joy had some crises come up at work on Wednesday, and was at the office until 10:30 pm. Not the latest he's ever been there, but it's been a while.

While she waited for her husband to come home that night, Brenda actually spent some time playing a computer game. Her brother had given her a sort of sequel to the Myst games, and she passed the first level.

Interesting stuff:

-Miss Kitty adopts puppies

-How fast are you?

-A tribute to Utah towns

QOSROIT: Do you like to play computer or video games? What is your favorite?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #86

More of the girls at the Cougar Kickoff

Aurora lounging in her favorite chair

Hot, hot, hot:

Kara has learned to say, "I love you." It melts our hearts.

Amy has been so excited to start school at home. Yesterday was our first day. So far, so good. We did some worksheets and a reading lesson, learned about maps, and made popsicles.

Brenda survived a whirlwind trip to Arizona over the weekend. She was there for half a day and got to see a couple of friends before helping her mom drive a truck up to Utah.

Joy survived two days without his wife. The girls gave him a little trouble at night, but he got to do some serious Daddy/daughter bonding on Saturday.

QOSROIT: Do you have a favorite web site?

Interesting articles:

-Scientists Detect Single Thoughts

-Oh boy: Man Blows up Speed Camera

-This could be your big chance: Stephen Hawking Seeking Assistant

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #85

The girls with Cosmo, the Cougar mascot

A rainbow from our backyard. Yes, that means
we actually got some rain. A little.

Put your lips together and blow:

Contrary to Mom's concern that her girls didn't learn anything in swimming lessons this summer, both Amy and Kara were blowing bubbles in their bath water.

Joy had a bad enough cold last week that he stayed home from work for two days.

After being so successful at her two previous sewing projects, Brenda has become a little obsessed. She bought fabric and patterns for a shirt and jacket for herself and dresses for the girls for Christmas (Shh! Don't tell them!).

QOSROIT: Any big plans for the Labor Day weekend?

Interesting articles:

-Boy Charged For Meowing At Neighbor Lady

-A peculiar funeral tradition

-An unusual practical joke

-Mountain West Conference college sports fans are up in arms about recent changes in rights to broadcast games. A new channel, the Mountain, has exclusive rights to some games, and it is currrently only carried by Comcast cable. This poses a problem for satellite TV subscribers (like us). One fan runs call centers, one of which is located in the Philippines. Here is his attempt to get Dish Network to carry the Mountain (which, sadly, he abbreviates MNT).


Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #84

Amy's Super Soccer Kick

We took the girls to the Cougar Kickoff
again this year, and they got to play
with the BYU Women's Soccer team for a while.

Aloha:

Amy learned about Noah and the ark in Primary on Sunday. She told us that Noah obeyed Heavenly Father by building a boat to protect people from the waves.

We had a luau for our church activity on Saturday, and Kara loved the Polynesian dancers who were there to entertain us. So much so, in fact, that she was dancing along.

Joy and Brenda had quite an adventure last night. We opened the back door to let the cats out, and a dragonfly invaded the kitchen. It claimed a place on the ceiling to rest, and we had to use a broom to try to bat it back out the door. We found our baseball skills to be sadly lacking. Of course, baseballs don't usually fly around erractically near blinding light bulbs above the batter's head. The cats, of course, were no help.

Interesting articles:

Gotta wonder about some people.

QOSROIT: Have you been bitten by anything this summer?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #83

Kara climbed up on the table all by herself

Amy in her parade costume

Cat people:

Kara is very good at saying "amen" after prayers. In fact, in church on Sunday, she said it as loud as she could after both sacrament prayers.

Amy found another kitty wandering around the neighborhood. It doesn't have a collar, so we don't know if it belongs to someone, but it looks just like Taz. Mom's jaw dropped to the floor when she thought she saw Amy holding Taz.

Brenda completed two sewing projects in one day: shorts for Amy's Halloween costume and a hooded towel for Kara's birthday. Oh, and her duet went well, with a lot of help from the Lord.

Joy had to have the catalytic converter in his new car replaced. It affected our checking account in an unpleasant way.

QOSROIT: Are you a cat person or a dog person? Or perhaps a snake person?

Interesting articles:

We're adding an exciting new feature to our blog! From now on we'll post links that we've found interesting throughout the past week: news (geek and otherwise), tips, products, etc. Basically anything and everything that appeals to us. You can read them or not. You can comment on them or not. They are here for your entertainment. So, here we go:

Little League Team Refuses to Play On Sunday

Peterson POSROIT #82

Amy with her Primary class in their parade activity

Kara helping Daddy open birthday presents

Watch out for that tree!:

Amy asked Mom, "Can we get a new car?" Mom told her that we can when the one we have stops working or gets broken and can't be fixed. Amy's response: "Like if a tree falls on it?" (Refer to these pictures of our recent storm. The best ones are in the photo gallery.)

Kara has a new word for root beer. Whenever she sees the bottle, she exclaims, "weird!"

Brenda is approaching D-day: she is playing in a piano-organ duet on Sunday. Ack!

Joy installed a keyless entry system on his car all by himself.

QOSROIT: What is the best/worst/funniest/scariest experience you've ever had with a tree?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #81

This week we have a very special tribute to Dad:


Happy birthday, Dad

Way over the hill:

Joy turned 31 this week. His family came for a visit, and we enjoyed spending some time with them. We also had a little party, which, of course, included cheesecake.

Brenda substituted for an absent choir pianist for the last two weeks. Fortunately for everyone involved, we're just starting to learn two new songs, so most of the time all she had to play was one or two parts at a time. She learned that her sight-reading skills need some work.

Amy learned a new skill this weekend: Frisbee. She has trouble remembering which direction to twist her body and which hand to hold the frisbee with, but when she gets it right, her throw is pretty good.

Kara has started insisting that she have milk on her breakfast cereal. At first, Dad tried just a little, so she wouldn't make too big a mess, but apparently that wasn't sufficient. Her cereal has to be swimming, just like her sister's.

QOSROIT: How tall are you?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #80

Joy in the process of creating our own fireworks:
Mentos + Diet Coke = fun!
(See the pros do it here)

Part of the twice-annual
illegal neighborhood fireworks show

Boom!

Kara loved the fireworks for Pioneer Day. She sat in Dad's lap, looking up and saying "Wow!" and "Cool!"

After a day that included more than one time-out for her, Amy asked, "Mom, could you be a little nicer tomorrow?"

Brenda is looking for a way to get melted crayon out of fabric. After having gone through the washer and dryer, some of our sheets have become "embellished" with lovely purple streaks.

And the biggest news of all...

Joy bought a car. The one he has been driving has been falling apart around him for years. Last week he almost didn't make it home from work. He's been looking off and on for something else for a year or so, but with recent malfunctions and mysterious noises, he decided to step up the effort. After dealing with with some obnoxious salespeople and not finding anything suitable in Utah County, we prayed about it as a family. Tuesday morning Joy found a promising listing and headed up to Salt Lake City to check it out. That evening he drove home in a 2001 Chevy Prizm. It's in good condition and came in about $1000 less than we were willing to spend. And it has a CD player.

QOSROIT: What kind of vehicle do you drive?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #79

Kara's favorite use for a wash cloth

Daddy teaching Amy to ride her bike
and Kara tagging along

Don't get in my way:

Kara came to hang out with Mom and Dad on our bed. She wanted the pillow that Dad was lying on, so she grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head out of the way.

We used a paper doll with various outfits to teach a family home evening lesson on modesty. The next day Amy used it to teach the same lesson to her friends. Mom heard her say, "Is this modest? No, because it doesn't cover her shoulders."

Joy struck a yardwork deal with our new neighbor, Dave. Since we live in a twinhome, we share the lot, so now Joy does the edging and weed-spraying every week, and Dave does the mowing. It makes a lot more sense than alternating weeks doing all the work. Plus they get to do some male bonding while they work together.

Brenda made Amy another hat. She really wanted one made with Dora fabric (go figure).

QOSROIT: If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

Love,
The Petersons

Peterson POSROIT #78

"Ah...I'm so relaxed."

Kara found a toilet paper dispenser
almost as tall as she is.

And now a word from our sponsor:

Amy was cleaning her room and singing "big black hole and a cherry tree," with her very own melody, of course. Mom told her that it was "horse" and not "hole," and she said, "Yeah, but that's not cool."

Kara has learned to count to three. She's so excited about it, she wants to teach others. So she gave Aurora some play money, and demanded, "Count!"

Joy got to substitute in Kara's nursery class at church on Sunday. He really enjoyed watching her. It's amazing what you can learn about your children in situations away from home. Kara is the least stressed-out of all the kids in her class. She is really good at sharing, and even offered another little girl a toy when she was crying. Interestingly, she also has the strongest verbal skills in the class.

Brenda is not too thrilled about having to put on a swimsuit for the girls' swimming lessons, but Amy and Kara love going. Neither of them is particularly daring in the water, but they're having fun.

QOSROIT: Milk, dark or white (chocolate, that is)?

Love,
The Petersons