Saturday, October 17, 2009

Florida Fun

We got to spend a week in Florida hanging out on the beach. It was incredibly beautiful and relaxing!!! We stayed in a condo on Ormond Beach, 5 minutes away from Daytona Beach. All of the kids had a blast, especially Jake who is our family daredevil. He had a lot of fun catching the waves with his green inner tube. Megan and Derek didn't go out as far as Jake, but they caught their own waves with their boogie boards and Meg's pink inner tube. Overall, it was the greatest vacation!!!!




























Friday, October 9, 2009

Jake's Cakes

Jake is one lucky kid! When he got to school, a cutie named Sadie gave him a cake that looked like a giant blue cupcake. By the time he walked around for a couple of hours with it at school, it was covered with finger marks and all of the cute decorations had been eaten. His Spanish teacher made Jake and his cake stand in front of the class while they sang Happy Birthday to him. One teacher even gave him a fork. At some point during the day, he received a balloon bouquet which (surprise) didn't last long. He then got to check out of school for lunch at Cafe Rio with mom and dad. After school was a trip to a cell phone accessory store at the mall. The lucky kid then received another cake from a cutie named Emily. She made him a cake shaped and decorated like a swimming suit. Seriously, can a 14th birthday get any better????





Thursday, October 8, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY JACOB ALAN PETERSON! It was so fun to go back and look at the pictures of you growing up. You have always been the sweetest, kindest, happiest kid. You have always been an overachiever and the perfect student. My favorite thing to do is walk into a Parent Teacher Conference and tell the teacher that my son is Jacob Peterson. Teachers love my Jake! Apparently he is the perfect kid away from home. :) You are a great example to your brother and sister and a great example to your parents. It is an honor to have you as a son! Love, Mom and Dad

*Disclaimer...If you happen to see a scrapbook page, it is courtesy of my sister Melanie who was kind enough to put together many scrapbook pages for our family. Thanks Mel!

THE TOP 14 GREATEST THINGS ABOUT JAKE:
1) He has a big heart and would do anything for anybody.
2) He is a natural leader. We used to call him the Pied Piper when he was younger because he always had a group of kids following him around.
3) He is very disciplined at everything he does.
4) He is in better shape than anyone in our family. He swims an average of 6-8 hours a week.
5) He is an animal lover and takes great care of his guinea pigs.
6) He has had a 4.0 GPA since the beginning of 7th grade.
7) He is an entrapreneur...He once made $75 in a day running a neighborhood snack shack.
8) He can text really quickly and very accurately, even with his eyes shut.
9) He loves to build things out of legos, rocks, bricks, wood, snow, etc.....
10) His closet and drawers are immaculately organized. However, his room is usually a disaster.
11) He loves to be outside...trampoline, biking, walking with friends, hiking.
12) He and his cell phone are BFFs
13) He would rather spend time with his Aunt Melanie than anyone else.
14) He knows who he is and is very confident in who he is. He has never been one to cave into peer pressure or follow the crowd. He has always just done his own thing.






















Monday, September 14, 2009

Backyard BBQ

Alan hosted an Elder's Quorum BBQ in our backyard last Saturday. It was a perfect night for a BBQ! It was fun for everyone in the neighborhood to get together. I didn't do an official count, but I think there were close to 50 kids there.... All of the people in these pictures are the reason why we are still live in our little starter house. We LOVE this neighborhood!!!!













Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Our newest little neighbor


Meet Ashley Turnbow. She was born September 8th (her dad was really really hoping for a 9/9/09 birthday...so close). She is the fourth of the Turnbow girls who live next door to us. We LOVE the Turnbow girls, and I especially love that BreeAnne let me hold little Ashley for almost 2 hours straight. It was so fun!

Jake's million dollar smile


Well that smile didn't actually cost a million dollars...it has just seemed like it! Jake was pretty excited to get his braces off today. He couldn't stop smiling all day. He has a permanent retainer that you can't even see without really looking for it. Times have changed! Permanent retainers weren't invented in our day. At least we don't have to worry about accidentally throwing it away at McDonald's...remember that little incident Mom????