Isabelle's Blessing

Last Sunday Isabelle Marie Petersen was blessed. We followed with tradition and had the blessing at Blakes grandma Iris' home where all four of our daughters have been blessed.

Blake gave Bella a beautiful blessing and her special day went flawlessly. She looked beautiful in the heirloom dress that all the Fletcher granddaughters have been blessed in. Congrats Bella!

Fun around the house

We have been having a lot of fun around our house lately. Bella is such a fun addition to our family and has settled in quite nicely. The girls have been so good to take good care of her. Kally likes to feed her babies just like Mom feeds Bella, if you get my drift, and is always asking to hold "Baby Bella".

Abby heard her cousin Luke reading the other day, he is four years old, and decided it was way past time for her to start reading. We borrowed the workbook from Aunt Nikole and away she went. Every day she works on learning to read and she is doing really really well. She begs to do the lessons and if Mom dosn't have time she gets her sister Libby to help her.

Blake and I had a fun date the other night. Our ward hosted a formal dinner dance at our ward house. It was pretty fancy. We had prime rib for dinner and the cultural hall was decorated better than most weddings I have seen. There was a live jazz band and even a disco ball! It was really fun to see so many couples, young and old dancing the night away. I found Blakes old tux from Ascensions and he fit right into it!! I had my beautiful assemble from Melanies wedding that actually fit me so off we went. There were actually several men in tuxs and all the ladies were in formals. It was neat to have a place to dress up and go out with so many friends.

Introducing Isabelle Marie Petersen

Our Bella was born at 12:45 am on April 4.

She weighed 6lb 13 oz and was 21.25" long.

Tall and skinny just like her daddy and sisters!

Just hanging out

with Mom

After finally getting her in the right position (kudos to my amazing mid-wife Machelle and my awesome nurse Tiffany who had to roll me every 20 minutes for 7 hours) and 12 hours of labor (bless the person who invented epiderals!) Bella joined our family. It was a little scarey for the first few minutes because she decided to breath in some yucky stuff, but after some oxygen and a bath she perked right up. She is a very good baby. She likes to sleep 4 hours a night and is a big snacker during the day. She hates binkeys (I seriously do not know what to do! ) and likes her daddy to bounce her in the air. She has been a bit jaundace so we put her in the sun as much as possible and she loves it.

Libby and Abby came to the hospital early Saturday morning to meet Bella before they headed off to Mesa Verda Colorado on a fun trip with Grandma, Pog, Ashley,Mike and Ryan. They are such good sisters and are helpful to their mom.

Kally came later to meet Bella and it was love at first sight. She just loves "Baby Bella" and has not acted jealous one time. She told me "Mom, she can't go back inside, I love her". Kally did try and share a jelly bean but realized after Bella screamed at her that it wasn't going to work. "I guess baby Bella just wants your milk mom, geez!"

Abby Rides a Two Wheeler

Last Saturday Abby was determined to ride a two wheeler like all the older kids in the neighborhood. She convinced Blake to come out and teach her with out the training wheels. She just hoped on and after two tries down the road with Blake holding on she just took off by herself! She said, "If I just look ahead Mom I can't fall." Way to be Abby!

Kally's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Kally's 3rd birthday on Saturday the 21 with a fun cousins party at our house. We played pin the tail on the donkey and bingo. We also decorated party hats because all Kally wanted at the party store was the "I am 1" hat that had fur and sparkles on it. So we decided to make our own. We had a great time. She received some fun presents including her super cute hat from Gma Diane and a baby doll she named Cradle from Gma Judie, along with clothes and fun kitchen toys from her cousins.

The next morning this is what we found on the bottom of our bed. Kally had gotten up in the middle of the night and gone on a candy hunt! She found the bag that I hid in my room and helped her self to some and then fell asleep on our bed!

Libby's Piano Recital

Libby had her first piano recital on Friday and we thought some of you might like to see it. She played The Lion Sleeps Tonight. We thought she did pretty good for only having had 5 months of lessons. We are also proud of her for not giving up even though she hates to practice and wanted to quit. She now knows that it can be rewarding and fun to stick to something hard. Good job Libby!

Coming soon Kally's 3 Birthday!

Are you KIDDING me!!

So it is a very snowy day in South Weber and of course Erika did not plan ahead and go shopping for food to feed her three children so she has to go to the store to buy milk and bread and other essentials. Abby and Kally are starving and, as stated before, there is no food in the house so Erika promises nuggets from Wendy's if they can be really good in the store. They keep their end of the bargain so off to Wendy's they went. In the mean time it is still just dumping snow. Erika rolls down the window and pays the nice lady and she hands her the nuggets. Erika tries to roll up the window and nothing happens. What! So being a good citizen she pulls out of the drive thru and into the the right hand turning lane to turn onto SR 193. Still trying to pull on the window to get the thing to roll up, Erika sees TWO huge highway snowplows speeding toward her. Not judging there velocity and proximity to the car she yells, "Are you freaking KIDDING me!!" and promptly receives a mouth full of sludge, salt and gravel. As she slowly opens her eyes she sees the entire interior of her car is covered in the same concoction she is spitting from her mouth. It is literally raining road sludge on the inside of her van and the blessed nugget bag is sopping wet! So, still stunned at the satanic karma that has fallen on her, she pulls out onto the highway and realizes that there is snow whipping her in the face through the window and she can not see out the windshield because it is covered in droplets of sludge. Erika then pulls over and try's one last feeble attempt to roll up the stinkin window and she swears she hears the voice of the devil laughing as the *@#! thing flawlessly rolls up all the way!!

That is the most exciting part of my horrible awful day that started with Libby missing the bus this morning and ending with me cleaning chocolate tar poop off of Dianes carpet. I will add that I am at Dianes because my van got stuck in the snow in the middle of the road and Blake had to come home early to dig it out because I had to stop shoveling after 45 minutes due to consistent contractions! So That is my are you KIDDING me day!! Hope you all have a better one than me!

Our first blog

Well I did it! I have created a blog for the (soon to be) Petersen 6. I have been asked by at least one person a week for the last month "what’s your blog?" or “are you on facebook?” and I couldn't let my sisters show me up so I decided to sign on. I am also making a facebook page today so I am feeling very hip. I still do not have a cell phone, cable or the Internet at my house. We are fossils when it comes to popular technology. I was proud of Blake when he installed the digital antenna on our roof so we could get PBS kids and American Idol. I think he knew his marriage was more important than his aversion to technology. Of course he saw it in his heart to allow Santa to bring a Wii this Christmas as well.

Our most important news is the impending arrival of our fourth baby girl Isabella Marie in early April. The official due date is April 10. She was a BIG surprise for all of us, but we are eagerly awaiting her arrival to our family. The girls are excited for her to join the crew. We are breaking with tradition and plan on calling her Bella. She will probably be called Belly a few times too. We have gotten to see some pretty incredible 4D ultra sound pictures of her. We are taking bets on the exact day and time she will be born. I will post the official bets. If you want to get in let me know. I am going to give a treat to the closest guess.

Lets see what else. We had a pretty amazing Christmas. Blake’s Grandma Iris took the entire Petersen family on a cruise in Hawaii. We traveled to all the major islands and had a great time playing on the beach, snorkeling, and seeing all the sites. Libby and Abby went with Blake on an ocean raft adventure and saw great white whales and snorkeled with dolphins and turtles. They loved to swim in the ocean and ride the waves on the boogie board. Kally and I stayed out of the ocean, but Kally could not get enough of the sand. We also saw lava flowing into the ocean from the ship one night, pretty amazing. We also saw several perfect rainbows, a breathtaking canyon, and innumerable lush gardens and waterfalls. Deffinatly a once in lifetime to do it all with Blake's entire family. Good times!