Introducing...

...our new little Dallin Reed Peterson. He totally ignored the given due date of July 24, deciding instead the 29th of July was a good day to be born, and arrived at 12:34 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces (same as Micah!) and measured 20.5 inches at the hospital. Five days later he measured 22 inches at the doctors office. We're going with the 22 inches, which explains a lot of the pushing on Mom's ribs and bladder at the same time for the last month and a half.

As you can see from the following picture, there were mixed reactions to his becoming part of the family.

Christopher is very pleased with his new little brother, and Micah may be wearing a grin, but it's pasted on. He is still warming up to Dallin. Every day though, he is willing to get a little closer, especially now that Dallin is more awake and looking around. Micah also starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks, so it's going to be interesting around here for a while. Change has never been one of his strengths. Lance is anticipating a few more years in the work force, as well as being mistaken for "Grandpa" instead of Daddy.

So, here we are... the Peterson Family...

...Christopher is starting his senior year of high school. Micah is starting kindergarten, and then there is the newborn. No, we did not plan it this way. Who in their right mind would? We are very grateful for the gift of one more child, though. Dallin is a gift, one we hoped for but didn't expect given our track record.

Now my days are sidetracked by a sweet little face that I sit and stare at for way too long, and a warm little body that fits perfectly to mine. I'm having a hard time getting much done around here. (Gee, really? He's almost two weeks old already, and you're just getting around to posting his pictures on your blog!)

Here are a couple more pictures. Aunt Laura came from California to help out for a week. Here she is with Dallin just before we were able to leave the hospital. The blue glow is from the photo-therapy blanket that we went home with to help him get rid of the jaundice. He spent the whole day Saturday in the nursery under the lights, which made for a long day for me. Laura kept me company for most of the day, which made it so much better. Thank you!

This last picture was taken at three days old. Check out those eyes! So dark you can't tell the iris from the pupil, just like Christopher's! I may be slightly biased, but this little boy is beautiful.

Addicted

Need I say more?

What D'ya Think?

I finally got the boys in for some pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

For those of you who want to know why you haven't been given any yet, don't worry. I'll have them in the mail as soon as I get them in...okay, maybe not as soon as I get them. You know me better than that. They will be coming, though!

What Did I Do?

Do you ever look around yourself and wonder "What did I do to deserve this?" When I look at my boys, that frequently passes through my head. It's a little hard to take that Christopher is only a couple of years from college and mission and moving on with his life. Micah is ... well, Micah! How can you not love that face!? We laugh together a lot. So again, I ask, what did I do to deserve this?

Best Friends - What would we do without 'em?

I'm only doing this because somebody got smart about it today-the fact that I haven't added to my blog lately. What can I say? That's what happens when you're only around 90%. So in response, I dedicate this post to my dearest, bestest friend.

Let me share a little about her. She cannot tell a lie. It makes her ill. No joke! She can keep a secret, even if it nearly kills her. I can share anything I want with her. I think Lance is the only person on earth who knows more about me than she does, and even then, it wouldn't be by much.

Even though her immediate family may not always think so, she is the BEST cook. Almost every good recipe I have came from her. To the embarassment of her husband, our family has become the place where her leftovers frequently end up, and we gladly take them every time. This week she shared some of her newly made raspberry jam. I ate so much if it, I made myself sick. One time, Chris was at their house and they had baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese for dinner. Before this, I could never get him to eat it, but after eating her's, hey, it's great stuff. Okay, enough - she's a great cook.

I wish I had her talent for creating beautiful spaces. Her home is gorgeous - inside and out. You go there and don't want to leave because it's such a comfortable place. She can put on quite a spread for a party, too. If she ever chose to go into catering or interior decorating...well Martha, get out of the way.

I got interested in quilting after seeing some of the quilts made by her. In fact, the first one I made would probably still be sitting around waiting to be quilted, if not for my wonderful friend. I took it over to her so she could work on it, and the next thing I know, the UPS man shows up at my house with a box from Idaho. She took it with her on a visit to her family, and they finished quilting it for me! Now there's a great friend.

Oh, one other story that will tell you about her personality. One year I decided to crochet some dish clothes for her, because I knew she loved the knitted ones. I didn't knit, so I did what I knew how to do. Anyhow, I made up a bunch of them for her. In my ignorance, I made them out of acrylic yarn, not cotton. I didn't figure out until much later that I had given her a bunch of totally useless dish clothes, but she never said a word. Just thanked me and used them in whatever way she could (if I remember correctly, one was used as a pad under a potted plant).

Speaking of thanking me, this woman is the most diligent person I know when it comes to sending a thank you card. I'm going to tease her just a bit here. Once, she and her husband were invited to a dinner party, and she had the thank you card in the mailbox before leaving that evening to go! Wow.

I could go on, but she's already thinking of diverse ways to retaliate. I didn't give her identity on purpose. I think a lot of you who read this will know who she is without a name, and anyone who knows her will agree with me about how great she is. Needless to say, when I grow up - I want to be just like her!

Am I the Last to Know?

Don't ask me why, but somehow I never got the memo on this one... I'm probably the last person to try this. It's a 3 Muskateer bar on steroids! Yeowww. One will practically kill ya, but you'll die with a smile on your face.