Jace's birthday and photobooks

We celebrated Jace's 3rd birthday last week. He loved all the fun and attention, exclaiming at the end of the day, "I love having my birthday!" He's got a lot of energy and definitely has a mind of his own, but we love that he's part of our family. He sure gives us a lot to smile about.




I have decided to do away with scrapbooking. It was too much stress and I got so far behind after Gage was born. It wasn't really fun anymore and the supplies are so expensive. So...I have taken up making photobooks instead. They are fast (well, faster than scrapbooking anyway) and easy and I only have to do them once a year. They are a little pricey, but you can almost always find a good deal somewhere. Here's a great deal for anyone who wants to do one themselves. Picaboo is offering a free photobook to new customers until March 31. They are originally 39.99 so this is a steal! You only have to pay 8.99 for shipping. I haven't received mine yet, but I'm excited!

Bubbles...

We are so excited for spring...we can finally see our grass and we pulled out the bubbles for a little fresh air fun.

What we've been up to...

This is some of what we've been up to...

Inspired by a friend's blog I decided to do more than a little ponytail in Katie's hair every day. We tried some fun ones, but it all lead her to say one day, "I wish I could live in a house where they didn't do my hair!"

We had some fun visitors in February including Auntie Erica, who is always a good sport to crawl into tiny kid houses, and Auntie Tia and cute baby Dallas.

We had a fun Valentine's party for playgroup one day. The kids passed out valentine's and we decorated sugar cookies. Yum!

Everyone in our family was sick in February at some point. Poor Jace got it pretty bad. Don't mind the yucky looking dinner. The breadsticks were bad, but the casserole actually tasted pretty good.
Gage got his first black eye. He walks all over the place now and has many owies from falling...as well as some Jace and Katie induced ones.
This is my favorite face he makes. We all think it's funny, including him. I also think it's funny that many of our pictures of him are in his highchair. I guess that's where we can get him to stay for more than one second.
Legos have been a hit at our house with people of all ages. It is a wonderful toy!And as a last note, I just signed Katelyn up for Kindergarten. Yikes! I'm so excited, so nervous, and so sad all at the same time. It will be a big change for us, but Katie's so ready. It will be fun to see her learn and grow and make friends.

The kids...

Last week was a very busy week for us, with something going on almost every day and every evening. This week looks a little more relaxing and I'm glad. I enjoy going and doing, but it's also nice to just be at home.

Now that Gage is getting a little older all three kids have been playing together. It's fun to watch them get along (and a little funny when they don't sometimes, too). Katelyn and Jace are great friends and he's going to miss her when she goes to Kindergarten this fall. Luckily Gage will be big enough to play by then so he won't feel so alone.Gage is hitting all kinds of milestones lately. He is ten months now and is totally off of baby food. He loves real food of all kinds and has finally learned how to drink out of a sippy cup. He got his first tooth about a week ago and two weeks ago he took his first step. He's already cruising around the house and seems to prefer walking to crawling.We got to visit Blaise, Tia, and new baby Dallas a couple of times last week. He is such a cute baby! Katelyn loved holding her new little cousin.
Now, off to check more things off of my to do list...it's a long one!

He's here!

My sister Tia had her baby on Monday...his name is Dallas Blaise Burns and he is such a cute baby! He weighed 8lbs 2 oz and was 21 in long. My kids are excited to finally have a cousin on the Peterson side of the family. Hooray!

Now that I'm 5...

Katie turned five last week! Has it really been five years? She all of a sudden seems so much older! And she must feel a lot older too because she is always saying, "Now that I'm 5, I get to ..." or "Now that I'm 5 I can ..." Pretty soon she'll be going off to school and she can hardly wait. It's a little sad to see her grow up, but it's fun to see her learn and grow and develop. She is such a sweetheart and is so giving and kind to others. She always is smiling and laughing and is a friend to everyone. We're so glad to have her as part of our family!

Her big birthday breakfast of Lucky Charms (her pick)!

We made a butterfly cake (so easy!) and she had a lot of fun decorating the wings with candy.We had a birthday party for her this year with her friends and cousins. It was not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be (thanks to help from family) and everyone had a great time!

Christmas 2009

Christmas was fun this year! I had a Christmas tree in my front window...I have been wishing for that for so long!

We made gingerbread houses at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Katie spent so much time and was so careful as she worked on her house. Jace just ate candy.
We didn't have an entirely white Christmas, but there was some snow on the ground. This was taken a couple of weeks before Christmas when we had a pretty decent snowstorm.

On Christmas Eve we ate dinner with my family and then had the Christmas story at our house. (Sorry, no pictures of that.) The next morning Jace woke up at 7 and asked for breakfast. He had forgotten all about Christmas! We put on some cartoons for him while we waited for Katie, but we finally went and woke her up at 8. I think she would have slept all morning! Katelyn and Jace loved all of their gifts and played with them non stop during the next few days. Gage thought his toys were okay, but loved the wrapping paper and ribbon. So easy to please! Later that day we went and had Christmas dinner with Scott's family and the kids got to play with their cousins. It was such a nice, relaxing day...and now we get to enjoy a whole week with Scott home on vacation. Hooray!

Merry (late) Christmas and Happy New Year!