The Miracle of Birth

This girl loves her baby horses!!  So far this year she has been able to see all but 2 of our foals be born.  She always wants to be right there with Chad as they are being born and this time he decided she was ready to help.  She was a little nervous at first but was pretty excited to help!  After wards she said it was a little slimier than she expected.  

Her Favorite Time of Year

Christmas

It was so great having all 5 kids home for 2 whole days!!  These people are our world and we love them more than anything!  

 We had a blast playing in the snow up at the cabin.  The kids all loved having their own toy to drive around.  

Christmas Eve Party

Every holiday at my parent's house is not just a simple get together.  The tables are always decorated beautifully, there is amazing food, a spiritual lesson by dad or mom and lots of craziness with 25 grandkids!!  I love it all and love being with my family.

Merry Christmas

Tis the Season

A few random pictures from the month of December.  Rylee had her first ugly sweater party at school, graduated from D.A.R.E. and decorated her own gingerbread house completely by herself!  Zach had to help Ry with her math homework one night and then he tried to teach her his homework.  And we have loved having Kourtney around over Christmas break - she has rediscovered her love for the game of Dragonvale!

If She Builds It, They Will Come

Her 2 temples completed!!  She had so much fun putting these together - great way to spend her Christmas break.

Karate Girl Fights On

Rylee has been working so hard for her next belt graduation and was so nervous the day of.  She gave it her all, but in the end she fell short of moving on to the next belt and was completely devastated.  It was so hard to watch her look so defeated and broken hearted.  We took her home and talked about how not everything always goes your way in life, and sometimes we lose or fall short, it's a bummer, but it's life.  We decided for the Christmas break to not dwell on it and come back strong in January to work towards her goal of a black belt.  She turned her disappointment into determination to build her 2 lego temple sets over the Christmas break and spent many hours on those.  They turned out awesome!

The Force Is With Me

Rogue One came out this month and of course we had to go all together - 23 of us Star Wars freaks all together for a great movie.  We missed Gunnar, Sabrina, Trinity and the Alaska Van Leeuwen's!  A few nights later the adult kids got together to make a music video to surprise mom and dad for Christmas.  It was so much fun to make complete idiots of ourselves and channel our inner jedi for one night!  

Light The World

Our church has encouraged us to do some kind of service each day during the month of December and we had an amazing time doing our best to follow through with this request.  It was so great to see the kids look for ways to serve others and then come home and share their experiences.  It was one of the best holiday seasons I have ever had.

 We also attended several Christmas concerts, plays and parties and I was able to work at the temple 3 times this month.  I feel the spirit so strongly through music, so for me these were the highlights of the season, as well as having all 5 kids home for 2 whole days!!  We loved the time together.

A Few Finished Projects

Checking a few things off our do to list this winter, unfortunately the list isn't getting any shorter

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Was a fun season to watch Zach play varsity ball and Chad and Gunnar coach, but it was also a rough season with some tough losses.  This picture is all the Sophomore boys, not great quality but we are looking forward to 2 more great years with all these boys!!

Our California Getaway

We were a little embarrassed when we realized we hadn't been on an actual vacation, just the two of us, since right after Zach was born.  So we look through the calendar and found some dates where we could both be gone and decided we were going to make it happen!  We had such a hard time deciding on where to go - we didn't have enough time to go too far so we eventually decided on San Diego.  We had so much fun together and couldn't believe we ended up going to Disneyland and Sea World on a kid-free vacation.  We loved every minute together and weren't quite ready to go back to the real world.

I Can Make That

This girls loves projects!!  She is always wanting to make and create things.  Jes taught her to crochet one night and then she surprised us all and finished the lego temple that the other kids had all tried to put together years ago and never could!!

Day of Thanks

Started the day watching the boys play football and then headed up to my parents for a great afternoon of food and laughter!  

Thanksgiving Concert

This was a great way to kick off the holiday season - listening to beautiful music from the Utah Valley Children's Choir.  We love our little singer!

Finally 16

This kids is as good as they come.  He has been waiting for this day forever - finally a legal driver!!  No big party,  but we celebrated with all his favorite foods, shopping and a new bed.  We love you, Zach to the moon and back.  Keep being awesome!!

Fort Worth

Chad & I took a quick trip to Fort Worth, Texas for our annual board of directors meeting for the Breeders Halter Futurity and were able to wrap things up by early afternoon so we spent the rest of the day at the famous Fort Worth Stock Yards.  They had some amazing shops and we had a great time walking up and down the streets there.

Rylee Jo

Just 2 days after Halloween Rylee got to dress up again for her 5th Grade Wax Museum.  We did a lot of reading to learn all we could about Amelia Earhart and Rylee made an amazing Amelia.  Mack is Jes' cat that Rylee fell in love with and really wanted to take her home, but Jes wasn't having any of that.  We love our Payson temple!!  Rylee can't wait until she is 12 and can finally go inside, but we wanted a picture for her room so while we were out of town my mom took Ry over and got these cute pictures.

Party Animal

Rylee takes her partying pretty serious!!  She worked hard planning for her friend party that has somehow turned in to a tradition - this is her 3rd one.  She made a practice batch of goop the day before and decorated all the cupcakes and made the jello the morning of her party.   When she grows up she will be a professional party planner for sure!!

Halloween Party Peters Style

We hosted the annual Peters Halloween party this year.  Chad and Gunnar were good sports to help me get the garage decorated, they don't love Halloween quite as much as I do, but they love me so they put up with my craziness.  We had a great time playing games, carving pumpkins and eating yummy food.

Big Spenders

Gunnar & Jes both bought their first cars about 2 weeks apart and it was so fun to go car shopping with them and watch as they made their first big purchase as adults.  Chad was happy to show them the fine art of bartering with a car sales man!