New Years

Since we moved to Bountiful 5 years ago we started a tradition of staying up late with the Miner Sibs. We have rotated homes. The most memorable for me by far was the one that I spent pregnant, in my bed at my home, with a head ache while other’s partied (I was truly a great host- Ha!) Then Dave and I left shortly after and spent the night at the hospital and I was put on bed rest for 3 weeks until Anna was born.

Needless to say, I was happy to host again under more favorable circumstances. Our tradition is to share Papa Murphy’s pizza (our favorite is stuffed chicken & bacon…delicious!) Then bring appetizers, salads, and WAY too many desserts.  One year we all brought our popcorn tins given to us by our Aunt and Uncle.  Ha! That was hilarious!This year I wish I would have taken a photo of the spread.  We REALLY ended 2011 right!

These are the only photos I caught and this was shortly after midnight with the “stay up late” party. Others went home a little early which was fine too!

Anna was so excited to stay up with her cousins!

Anna jumping for joy… and almost loosing her pants!

This is our 13th New year’s Kiss. (We kissed for the first time on New Years). Back when we were lots cuter and skinnier. –okay 2011 was our fat year, 2012 we are going to rock hot bods! I think the next set of photos were taken by Anna… (and I must be insane for allowing myself to post them! oh well , cannot glamorize ALL blog posts right?!?)

Great job Anna. (:

I Am Published!

No, my friends I am not a writer, my spelling is often times incorrect (thank you spell check), I have lots of run on sentences or phrases that don’t make sense.  (heck that sentence was poorly constructed) But I try to get my thoughts out and share them with pictures, via my blog.  It is something I cherish, though I have slacked on it lately. This Christmas was fabulous (more on that in a different post) and one of my favorite and most treasured presents was a book of our 2010 blog that Dave put together for me.

 

It is so fun to read through it and see all we did that year.  I was a MUCH better blogger last year, sharing funny quotes of Anna’s, vacation memories, thoughts, events, friends get togethers, family memories, moving adventures and most importantly… feelings.  It is awesome to read through.  THANK YOU BABE!

So in efforts to make another incredible book for 2011 I have some catching up to do.  I hope to repost quite a bit in the next little while. I am trying to figure out how to do it best. I have been inspired by many other blogs that post just a few photos and thoughts.  But I have a hard time limiting things. Something I plan to work on!  It is better to have a little than none at all.

Love you Dave

Love you Blog

Love you Memories

30th Birthday Party….

Okay, really quick before the party. These are our sweet girls who are within a month of each other! Em, Bekah and I have been friends since Junior high. It is fun to see our little ones together. Perhaps one day we’ll all live in the same state again!

Okay onto the party. I am so mad we didn’t get a good photo like in the “old days” I should post of photo from then, but I am too lazy.  It was fun to be with each other and laugh again. Also we missed a lot of our friends that weren’t able to be there.   So here we are opening our gifts from Tori ( she gave us these amazing cookbooks complete with weekly outlines and shopping lists.  Amazing!  Thanks again Victoria!

Here is the cake I made for the party.  I had done so many “fun cakes” lately that I decided to try to be more “elegant.”I went back and forth on the color, I wanted to have something fun so I chose purple. It turned out QUITE purple. Also I tried to make this beautiful bow I saw in a cake book, but my fondant was a little too soft to set. I had a friend of mine print some old photos from a Christmas party and from Prom with edible ink on rice paper. I was fun.

 

A little inside joke on the back.  ( I was tempted to put a lot more things on there, but ran out of time)

Thank you Nicole for being the official “blower” since your birthday was next!

I made Lemon cake with a Lemon Curd filling. It was delicious, a change from all the chocolate we had had over the holidays! I wish I had cut it a little smoother and wish I was a “food photographer,” but you get the point.

Happy Birthday Girls, so some of my favorite people!! Love and miss you all!!!

More Suzy Snowflake

At a rest home.  Her smile was still fabulous!

Cute little Suzy’s all lined up.

Singing along with the music… always…

And this time she didn’t slip! (:

Even though  I caught her eyes closed, I love the smirk on her face. A proud little smile. (:

Anna and her flowers. My mom thinks she didn’t enjoy them, but she was just a bit overwhelmed when she got them. She LOVED having her own flowers and reminded me daily to water them!

Helping with the laundry…

Maddie LOVES to take things in /out of boxes or baskets.  Her most favorite thing is helping me with the laundry. You can see it makes a bit more of a mess than I would like with my clothes, but it can keep her content for quite a while.  Sometimes she’ll put it back in too.  Thank you helper!

The Kinnersley Santa Party

Family tradition! Is the answer to why we gathered together tonight.  We met at my Uncle Rick and Aunt Pam’s home with just their kids and grandkids and my family. (only half of the Kinnersley family).  We had dinner and a “surprise visitor” who brought each child (an almost 20 year old, Kjersti, included) a present. Anna was the first one called. She was so excited to sit on Santa’s lap, but didn’t feel the need to tell him what she wanted because     Oo-Dah, our elf, already has. Eventually though she told him a Dora Kitchen.   He gave her a "Littlest Pet Shop” with a bunny, dog, and cat whom Anna named that night. (: Maddie was tentative to sit on his lap, but didn’t cry like I thought she would.  She got a Mickey Mouse musical instrument set.  It was adored right away as well.

A bit of a history for Anna and Maddie to know the importance of this evening…

My Dad’s Mother was the youngest of nine children.  My dad grew up having parties with the “Peterson” side of the family and ALL the cousins.  He has very fond memories.  Once the family outgrew a home they began meeting at a ward building.  I grew up going to these large Peterson parties with over 125 people . It would always be earlier in the month of December.  We had to be all dressed up in Sunday best, hair curled tight and looking our best, why.. well to meet Santa of course! Actually that is just my Mom, she always wanted us to look nice.

There were 9 Peterson children and the defendants from each separate family took a turn hosting the event. I remember the years that the “Kinnersleys” were in charge. My mom and dad were busy making name tags and desserts.  We ALWAYS had WAY TOO many desserts, but besides Santa it was the one thing we looked forward to.  Name tags? yes, the family was so big it was a must.  One year each “family” (the original Peterson’s cousins and their families) had color coordinated- shaped name tags, like angels, candy canes, Santa's, bells, etc. My Dad had made a big poster to give all the info of which tag “your” family should have.  I don’t know why I remember that, but I remember my Dad trying to get them all organized and we cut them out.  Most of the time we would just go and sit by our own cousins, every once in a while we would talk to the others.  It got to that awkward, Family reunion stage, and we all voted to change to smaller families.

So now we get together with those of the Kinnersley Family that can come.  Even with just us, if we were all to get together, my “Nana,” Mildred, would have over 17 grandchildren and over 50 great grandchildren (I actually don’t have a full count, it could be lots more). So the sweet Peterson family has a wonderful legacy!

Family Photo Shoot

It was a freezing morning and we set out in bright colors for a Christmas card and some new photos for our walls.  We had not taken any “professional” family photos since Anna was born.  Mostly because Dave and I vowed we would be skinnier before we took one.  Well, that is another story for another day.  The weight was NOT coming off and we had a photographer. My friend Amber and I swap kids here and there and she said she would swap a photo session for us. 

The girls were freezing!  I am very critical of myself and my smiles so I wont say much, other than the best are at the bottom. It seems like there is a good photo of everyone… except one person.  We went to a church then to Layton park.   So this is the outcome of a cold winter morning….

Then we headed back home.  My actual favorites and the ones we used on Christmas cards were taken right here at home! I love these ones of the girls!

We decided to take some of the two of us, I love how they turned out!

It was a perfect spot on the front porch that we decided to try one more family photo.  Maddie is scowling, but I think it turned out great!