Life or Something Like It

 It's official...we bought a VAN!!!  We love it!  We definitely needed it, especially with me babysitting three days a week.  It's a Volkswagon Routan and it has everything we could possible ever need or want, which is great since I'll be driving it until it dies...which hopefully won't be for at least 10 years....so get used to seeing it :) ha!  We drove it up to Wisconsin for Chases baptism and it was soooo wonderful to have all that extra room.  Now we just need to keep filling it up with kids :)ha!

CLAIRE:

Wow!  What can I say......"Trouble! Oh, We got Trouble, right here in Rivercity! With a capital 'T'..."  Maybe that's just all I think of because I'm married to Justin :)  Anyway, this girl is a mover and a shaker.  She is constantly into EVERYTHING...well, except her toys.  She can't sit still, has to be moving (that makes sacrament meeting interesting), and she LOVES to climb, which I hear makes her just like baby Justin.  She is keeping us on our toes to say the least.  It's funny how she is the complete opposite of Ethan as a baby.  Anyway, she got her first tooth finally (front right, bottom), she is pulling herself up to stand, and that hair is still growing.  In fact, I french braided it one morning for sacrament, ha!  She loves to make noise, smile, and laugh, and will definitely let you know her opinion on things.  She is still completely in love wiht her Big Brother Ethan and laughs and smiles at him constantly, no matter what he does.  We've been supplementing with formula which has stopped her crying all day long, and given mommy her sanity back...apparently she was just really hungry for 8 months :(  Now that she's 9 months (today), we've completely made the switch to formula...donations accepted (JK!) ha!  We love our little Claire Bear or Clairiboo (Ethan loves Polar Express and they yell "caribou" so that has turned Claire into Clairibou) and can't wait to see what the future holds.        

Her french braided hair.

playing in the rice she dumped on my floor

playing in the potato flakes she dumped on my floor

bathtime...figured this would be a could blackmail pic when they're teenagers :)

ETHAN:

Oh my goodness, at the end of the month, he'll be 3 years old!!!!  He is such an amazing and funny kid.  He loves to learn and participate.  Still loves his puzzles, loves to sing and dance, loves to play with his friends and LOVES books.  His favorite book right now is "Grumpy Bird", which I'm pretty sure we're going to have to buy for him.  We definitely recommend it if you have toddlers.  He's also into "If you give a cat a cupcake" and that entire series.  He loves us to read to him, but now he "reads" back to us...it's hilariously heart-melting.  My goal is to get it on video (but they never "perform" when they know the camera is on)  We're still teaching him Spanish and learning as we go.  He loves to talk and says the funniest things.  He loves our new van, which he calls our van-car :)  He still enjoys the children's museum, but his new favorite thing to do is go to story-time at our local library where they read 3 books and interact with kids with little songs and dances.  He's really into Thomas the Train and we've finally started getting him wooden trains to fit his wooden tracks.   It's hilarious to listen to him play since now he makes up story-lines as he plays.  He seems to take after his momma, especially his need to organize and pick up...wow what a blessing!  

We let him color his pumpkin before carving it

finished product

Put Ethan on the potty. He asked me to leave so he could poo.  I come back to check on him , and this is what I find :)

Playing in the backyard, he comes into the house with daddy's glove on and says "Hi Mom"

Story time at the library

Weekend Getaways- Wisconsin

We headed up to Wisconsin for Chase's baptism.  It was a wonderful, too short, getaway, but a great chance for the cousins to get together and play in person...not just on skype.  We managed to visit Hartford's newly built library where the kiddos played and read.  Grandma and Grandpa P. even took the kids to pick our pumpkins together.  Mostly the kids just played...especially the boys with their trains, and we even managed to squeeze in a double date with Forrest and Heidi to Scoopdaville (sp?)...yummm!  It was wonderful family time leading up to the main event, Chase's baptism (I forgot my camera :(  But we are so excited for the choice Chase made to be baptized and following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We hope he will continue to "Choose the Right" and be an example to others.  Congrats again Chase!

Ethan picking out Claire's pumpkin for her

Love this pic :)

From the time Elan and Raegan arrived until they left, this is where you'd find all three of them

Fun at the Library

Fun at the Library

Conversations with a toddler

Ethan, with a throw pillow from our couch on his head, "Hey! Look at me! I'm a party!"
Me, "You're a party?
Ethan, "Yeah, on my head"
Me, "There's a party on your head?"
Ethan, "Yeah!"
Me, "Ok"

Well, At least he's not saying there's a party in his pants :)


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Playing outside in his playhouse, I bring Claire to his playhouse window and sit her in it.

Ethan, "NO CLAIRE NO IN MY PLAYHOUSE!!!"
Me, "Ethan, that's not very nice, she's your sister"
Ethan, "and my friend!" and then her gave her a hug...so stinking sweet!"

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Me, "Ethan, Can I call you Little Justin"
Ethan, pensive, "No"
Me, "Ethan, are you sure, Can I call you Little Justin"
Ethan, "No. You call me Ethan Michael Peterson.......(pause)....or Boy"

Family 5K....The family that runs together stays together, right?

Not too long ago I convinced my hubby to run a 5k with me.  Now I've always been the "runner" in our family and he's always been the cyclist...which is the nice way of saying, I'm pretty sure he's never run any sort of distance in his life :)  That being said, he also has a couple screws in his ankle and a metal rod for his fibula.  One night over a dinner date, he says to me, let's set a goal of running this 5k with 8 minute miles.  I just laughed because he wasn't even working out at the time...to which he responded, "you know I'm really competitive right".  I just said okay, knowing my goal was 9 minute miles...and that was pushing it.  Well, race day came, and both of us had been slacking.  I hadn't ran in 3 weeks, and Justin still hadn't ran at all.  My mom came down to watch the kids  and cheer us on while we ran.  We even had Ethan make a sign that said "Go Daddy!" on one side and the reverse side said "Run Mommy!"  He was so stinking cute and kept yelling "Go Daddy and Run Mommy Run " as we raced....and even after the race.  Justin did amazing!  Despite my pre-race joking that he should go ahead and give his insurance cards to the EMT's standing by.  He amazed all of us and came in 2nd in his age group with a time of  26.42 and I placed 3rd in my age group with a time of 28.37....not bad considering I hadn't ran in 3 weeks :)  It was a fun-filled family day full of physical activity (did you like that alliteration ha!:)  I told Justin, I've never met anyone who could mentally push through like he did and that he should quit his current job and become a professional athlete! :)  We finished off the day with some recovering that included a pulled pork dinner with friends and Coldstone Creamery icecream.  Hoping for more family races to come!

our cheering section gearing up for the race

Ethan and his Go Daddy sign pre-race

getting ready to cross the finish

getting ready to cross the finish

post-race smiles and trophies

Ethan, Growing Growing Gone!

Ethan's FAVORITE shirt!  We love it because it says Big Bro, but he loves it because it  has big letters and feeds his letter obsession.

Helping Mommy.  He's my big helper.  Whatever I can give him to help with I will.  This is Ethan helping me unload the dishwasher.  I take out all the knives but he gets to put the rest of the silverware away.  Great for learning small and big, small fork v. big fork, and "matching".

Not sure why he doesn't have pants on here, but Daddy and Ethan had some father son time and made a Tiger Mask together.  Ethan wore it all over the house saying "ROOOOAAARR"

You can barely see it in the pic, but we made a "countdown to homecoming game" for him.  It's in front of the line green paper on the fridge...with 11 days left.  We told Ethan that Mimi was coming up for the football game and every 5 minutes he was asking if we could go to the game now.  So, thought it'd be helpful if we made a countdown to football game with Mimi and each day he rips a piece of paper off.  Now he knows when it says "0" it's game day.   

Of course they stop right after I get the camera... always happens around here :)  but, Justin was playing Beethoven on the piano and Ethan & Christian start dancing to it, which meant shaking their booties.  It was hilarious...never seen anyone shake their booty to Beethoven :) 

Who Do You Think You Are?

We took a spur of the moment trip to visit my dad and kathy and ended the visit at my uncle bob's house.  they were so sweet and let us invade some of their old photos.   Here are just a few.

From left to right- My Grandpa Bradbury (who sadly I never got to meet :( he passed on before I was born), Uncle Wendal, Aunt Betty (my dad's sis), and my grandma Bradbury

Grandpa and Grandma Bradbury

Grandpa Bradbury getting ready to carve the Turkey with Grandma Bradbury

There are the young bucks, Grandpa and Grandma  Bradbury

Grandma and Grandpa Bradbury

That's my dad!  He was 8...pretty sure we have the exact photo of my brother somewhere :)

And there's my dad as a baby, looking just like his mom :)

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Doris with their 3 children.  They've been married 64 years!!!!  Uncle Bob is 18 years older than my father so most of my cousins are more my dad's age :) ha!

Weekend Getaways

Took a spur of the moment trip to Terre Haute on Labor Day to visit Pappy and Gma Kathy.  It was such a blast to visit everyone.  Ethan was having so much fun playing with them that we had to take his shirt off because he was getting so hot and sweaty...hahaha!  We also managed to swing by Great-Uncle Bob and Great-Aunt Doris's house for some pizza and more playtime and a little family reminiscing. 

Playtime with Pappy

Picking up shreds of paper that Pappy would put in his hand and then say "Ahh-choo" and release them into the air.  Ethan LOVED it.  Wanted him to do it over and over. :)  It's funny how things never get old to a todder.

Pulling herself up at Pappy and Gma Kathy's

Playtime at Great-Uncle Bob and Great-Aunt Doris's

Playtime with Great-Uncle Bob