"Happy Birthday...

...just remember you are IN your thirties now." That's basically what Brad told me. I know he's just trying to soothe the irritating thought that he will turn 30 this year. Man, will I rub it in, too! He did, however, plan a very fun birthday date for me and made my birthday a special one. My day started off with the anticipated phone calls from my family (Triston, Dad, and the Lee Family Choir). I was invited to breakfast with my parents at Mimi's. Mmmm!

Then, we visited Brad's mom at school. Tess loved being part of the first-grade class and insisted on calling grandma "Teacher" the rest of the day. I also got to witness 25 first-graders speaking Mandarin Chinese. It was amazing! they understand everything their teacher was saying to them. They even sang "Happy Birthday" to me in Chinese. Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon of restorative yoga. Namaste! And then my "Night O'Fun" began. A bunch of friends met us at Asian Star for dinner. I forgot how delicious it is.

Then we headed to the lanes for some bowling. Brad and I joke about starting a bowling league with friends some day and after this it looks like we definitley need some practice first. I used to be such a good bowler (my claim to fame...sad, huh?). But, Brad and I did manage to pull off the high scores that night for our respective genders. Yeah! Any way you look at it, it was good ole fashioned, competitive fun!

Then, one last stop at our friends, the Francos, where we ate decadent, delicious, marvelous, cream-cheesy, chocolate masterpiece cake that sweet Brooke made for me! She's the best!

It was a great birthday! Thanks y'all! I don't mind being 31 if it's this fun! Brad, watch out, yours is comin'!

February...so far

Let the month of love begin!

Family Home Evening

Finally got something on Tess' walls!

Chewing on anything now!

Wafles & Juice...mmmm!

Little Mommy

In Heaven

Sample day at Costco definitely ranks up there with other favorite family activities. Kate joined in the sample tasting this time. I could barely get any shopping done.

Project 365

Along with my other 2010 goals (more about those later), I have taken on a challenge to take a picture every day this year. Wow...this will really help me to get my camera out and take pictures of our everyday events. I will be sharing them on my blog and on Flickr. It's been fun, but sometimes interesting trying to figure out what to take a picture of besides the girls (they are so cute!). Winter keeps me limited. I've also realized that some days it's hard to narrow it down to one picture because they don't always tell the whole story of our day. Hope you enjoy!

Here is a Flickr guest pass link to check out my photos.

Finally!

Okay, so I'm finally on my blog. Thought I'd never return? And I finally got around to getting Kate's birth announcement done even though she is 4 months old. Hey, the rule of thumb says I have until she is 6 months to send them out. My most talented friend, Amber, designed these adorable announcements. You know you all have a friend that can do anything and has a gazillion talents, well she is one of several friends I have like that. I would die to have an ounce of her brilliance! Anyway, check out her site at Doodlebloom. She does photography, announcements, and handmade baby items! For all of you who have babies in your lives or will in the future, I highly recommend giving her a call! Thanks Amber! You rock! I couldn't decide on the picture so here are both:

Meet Kate Lila Petersen

Kate was born on March 31st, 2009 at 10:38 PM. We were all thinking that she was going to be and April Fools baby, but I guess she had other plans. When she was born she weighed 7lbs 7 oz and was about 21 inches long. When she was born she was perfect, no bruises or stork bites anywhere. She came out with a full head of dark hair that in the right light looks like it may be highlighted. We can't go anywhere without people commenting on her hair!! It's pretty crazy hair!! When it's wet it looks curly but when it drys it sticks straight up and to the left (I think). You can't do anything with it except put a headband on. She came out perfect but she sure hasn't been quite as perfect as Tess was when she first came home. She had her nights and days screwed up for the first few weeks so we didn't get much sleep at first. Now she is sleeping at least 6 to 8 hours a night. Kate is already almost 3 months old and loves to smile and talk. She also has quite the temper and lets you know when she doesn't like something. As for Tess and her new sister, Tess is still trying to figure out how to not get too excited when hugging, kissing, or simply just holding her. Kate usually starts to cry when Tess comes around because she knows a beating is coming. Of course Tess is just trying to love her little sister, but it usually ends up that she squeezes a little too tight or tries to pick her up by her head. We have had quite a few scary incidents where we find Tess with Kate in her arms. Luckily we haven't had any mishaps!! Tess is all over the place and rarely pauses for more then a few minutes. So you pretty much are constantly chasing her and trying to keep your cool. We nicknamed her "Search & Destroy" because that is all she does is make messes and destroy things. Lucky for us she recently started watching movies which allows for a little time without havoc, but not much. She may be crazy but we sure love her!!! I'm personally excited for Kate to get a little older so Kate and Tess can start to play together and be friends. Let's just hope that they end up being friends. We are so excited and grateful to have our little Kate here with us!!! Kate we love you!!--Brad

Thanks Brad!

Normally, I wouldn't do this because I've been known to make fun of those blog posts that go on and on about how great someone's husband is.  But, I just had to publicly tell Brad thanks, especially for the past 5 months of me being pregnant.  He works so hard, keeps up the yard and house, and works on the basement in his spare time. Not only does he do all the regular man duties, but he cleans, cooks, irons, helps with laundry, takes care of our dog and child, and he BLOGS. Aren't I supposed to be doing all that? Sometimes I feel like a pretty sorry excuse for a wife because I can't even do my share of the work, but I know it will always be a little of give and take.  Thanks Brad for all you do!  Love this picture of you and Tess!

We're Pretty Sure

Well Mel worked again and checked to see what the sex of the baby was again. She is 98% sure that it is a girl. I'm really hoping that it's a girl because if it's a boy then he must not have much down there, if you know what I mean. It won't be any good for his self esteem if he has to get made fun of by his family and friends for the rest of his life because we couldn't spot anything on the ultrasound after looking numerous times. Sounds like a good old Adam Sandler movie to me where the kid always gets made fun of for the size of his manhood.

This has nothing to do with this post but I had to put this picture up. Isn't my daughter FREAKING CUTE!!

Who Knows!!

Well, my wife is slacking once again so i guess I will step in and give the latest update on the baby. A few weeks ago Mel peeked at work and thought she saw that it was a boy. She even had one of the doctors check it out and he also thought that it definetily looked like it was a boy. Well last week we had the ultrasound and when the tech went to check to see what the sex was she told us that it looked like a girl, but she wasn't getting a very good shot. So she kept on trying and then from a different angle she decided that it looked like it may be a boy. After quite a while of trying to make sure she decided that it looked like a girl again. So at that point she decided to ask another one of the techs to come in and look as well. The other tech was also having a hard time seeing what it looked like but was leaning towards a girl. So after over an hour of ultrasound we still weren't sure whether it was a boy or a girl. A couple of nights ago Mel went into work and was able to try to look again to see what the sex of the baby is and once again the baby was being stubborn (The baby must take after Mom) and had its legs closed. So after multiple ultrasounds we still aren't for sure on whether the baby is a boy or a girl. I will keep you all posted.

Happy Fall

Sure, Tess will pose for a stranger at the Scarecrow Festival, but not for her own mom! I wanted to share this adorable picture of her. I could just pinch her! We are enjoying this warm fall. I love this time of year.. the chill in the air, colorful trees, pumpkins, warm comfort foods and soups, the smell in the air, etc. Tess asks everyday to go to the "punkin patch". I wish it could just stay this way longer.

It's not official, but....

...it sure looked like a lil' winky to me. We're having a boy! I peeked on the fuzzy ultrasound machine at work.  We are so excited and Tess is now saying that she has a boy in her tummy. We aren't buying anything "boy" until we know for sure in a week at my formal ultrasound. We let my parents know when we invited them over for dinner and had these little babies with the labels "boy" and Gus" placed in the mashed potatoes and meatloaf.  Thought I'd let you all know and also make this my first post on my road to blogging recovery. Yes, I'm back!

Lake Powell!!

We just got back from Lake Powell and it was amazing!!! The water temp was like 75 to 80 (which is still to cold for Mel) and the outside temp was any where from 85 to 90 all week long. There was no wind so we could water ski at any time of the day, which unfortunately is only about twice a day now because I'm getting old. It had been a good three years since the last ski trip so I was a little nervous to get back on the ski but after the first time out I felt pretty comfortable on my ski. Mel also got out behind the boat once to show us all she hadn't forgotten how to get up on the slalom ski, but couldn't do a ton because she wanted to be careful because of the baby. Right before she jumped in she said that she wouldn't recommend skiing when you are 12 weeks pregnant. Apparently she doesn't listen to her own advice. Like I said though she was very careful and only got out there once just to show off a little. I was impressed that she got up so easy because she has really only been skiing like once or twice other then this time at Powell. We decided to take all the kids and the dogs on the trip with us which ended up being a little hard at times but still fun. Lucky for us the girls had nothing to do with the water and would only some times wade in up to their knees. Other then that they would scream every time you even tried to put them in the water. I was expecting Tess to be all about the water because she is crazy at the pool and has no fear what so ever. The lake must scare little kids because it is dark and they can't see the bottom because she didn't ever want to get in. I took Tess down the slide on the house boat on the first day and I don't think that was a good idea because I'm pretty sure it freaked her out. I just figured that she should at least try it to see if she liked it or not. She defenitely didn't!! Here are a few pics of the trip

Guess What!?

Mel is Pregnant again!!! We are so excited to have the next one on the way!! If only it didn't take so long, especially since Mel is already gettin way sick. We actually found out a little while ago that Mel is pregnant but Mel wanted to hold off on telling everyone until we had the first ultra sound to make sure everything was ok with the baby. Mel is about 8 weeks along now so the reason she already got an ultra sound was because she is doing a study about miscarriages. It was fun to go see the ultra sound and be able to hear the babies heart beat already. Tess went with us and she kept on saying "Baby goes, bump, bump, bump, bump," after she had the chance to hear the heart beat. Tess is quite the character and always makes us laugh!! Well for now that's all I got but I just wanted to let everyone know.

Brad Again

Well since my wife hasn't had a chance to update the blog since the last time I did I figured I would keep the blog going and add a few new things to it before people just give up on reading our blog and never come back. Not a lot new with the family as of now just been working really hard on the basement as of lately. We finished up the sheet rock and are hoping to start some of the painting in the next week or so. Then we will just be waiting to get the finish work done before we can finish the paint. After that we will be moving a lot slower because the cost starts going up once you start doing the flooring and all that fun stuff. I'm sure everyone that has ever done a basement would agree that it always cost a lot more then you think it will when you first start.

Other then that I started this new thing called Isagenix. I was a little skeptical going into it but thought what the helk I'll give it a shot to see if I can lose a little weight and feel better. For those of you that haven't heard about this product it is called a nine day cleanse. Basically for days 1-2 you take this liquid called "Cleanse for Life," with pills twice a day, drink a ton of water, and you get to eat these wafers that they give you, and that's it, no food for those days. After that you switch it up and on days 3-7 you replace 2 meals a day with a shake that they give you and eat one 600 calorie meal a day. Then on days 8-9 you go back to the cleanse for life and water with no food. I'm currently on day 6 and have already lost 8lbs. and feel really good. I'm not going to lie it has been a little bit hard but the results have been worth it. I'm pretty excited to have lost that weight because I had tried working out and a few other things but never seemed to get the results that I was looking for but this is definitely working. I will keep you posted as to how it ends up.

I will have to see if I can figure out how to post some pics on this blog so there is something to look at besides just my boring writing. I'm sure it's easy but this is my second time on one of these blog sites so I'm still trying to figure it all out.

First time

Well there's a first time for everything and I (Brad) decided to get in on this whole blog thing. I hacked into my wife's blog so hopefully she is ok with me adding a post for our family. I also added the link to get to her photography blog so go check that out as well. She is doing awesome in photography and did a fun little blog with some of the pictures she has been taking recently.

Other then that I just wanted to let my wife know how much I love her and what a great wife and mother she is. Thanks for all that you do for our family!!

Happy 4th!

We celebrated the 4th of July at the cabin in the Uintahs. I could stay there for days! It is gorgeous! I came across this cute picture of Tess taken on the 4th last year. She was so little.


And this year...still droolin'!

Kaycee

Here are some preliminary photos from the senior shoot I did today. Isn't my cousin gorgeous? Check out those eyes!

Meet Morgan

So, I couldn't wait to show these pictures I took of my adorable neighbor girl. Since I'm still trying to fine-tune my photography blog I'm posting them here.

This little bribe sure made this picture!


Ooops! Showin' the underoos!



A few vintage shots...




Cute through and through!





And... my very favorites!






WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE THE BEST?