Ethan's 18!!! / Pre-Christmas Fun

Ethan turned 18 on Saturday!! I can't believe it. My little brother isn't so little anymore! Well, he hasn't been little for a long time, I guess maybe younger would be the right word. He isn't so young anymore!

The wonderfully delicious cake with the candles that kept falling. Not sure we'll use those ones again.

The birthday boy! Can't believe he is the big 1-8!

About to blow out the candles, think he can handle only two?!

Yay! He did it. I knew he could. ;-)

We had our Hayes Family Christmas party on Sunday, so that we could open presents before Jared and I left for our Texas Christmas Extravaganza. I have to admit, it was fun opening presents early! We had a yummy meal (Of course! What is a party without good food?!) and sat around and opened our presents. Below are pictures of the merry event and my siblings, who are crazy, but cool. ;-)

Bountiful presents!

My oh-so-handsome hubby

Ethan

Zach

Audrey

Update

We don't have anything picture worthy going on, but I thought I'd put a quick post up about the Peterson Happenin's in the last week.

1. Jared is in the midst of finals weeks. Yuck. He's a big stress ball and I can't wait until next Tuesday when the semester is finally over! Mostly I'm trying to stay out of his way. I'm also baking a lot, hopefully having yummy treats will make him feel better. He had drill this past weekend, so we headed up to Brigham City (northern part of Utah, practically in the middle of nowhere) and stayed with some friends and had a great time visiting. Jared's battery had a family Christmas party which was really long with incredibly unnecessary "briefings". But it was fun to meet some of the other guys in Jared's unit and put faces to the names. It's a really small unit, so it seems like everyone is pretty close knit. 90% of the battery just got back from Iraq as well, so they also have that in common.

2. Like I said, I'm mostly trying to stay out of Jared's way this week. I'm working and doing all of the end of the year filing and such. Not very fun, but.. it pays the bills. There are so many people without a job right now that I'm trying to remind myself to be grateful for what I have. The snow and cold finally hit yesterday and as much as I hate snow and cold weather, it feels more normal than the 50 degree weather we've been having! Last winter was a beast, but this one is turning out to be quite nice. I'm sure I just shot myself in the foot by saying that. Oh well. I have my lovely and oh so comfy Tahoe to drive around in when the weather gets awful. Love it! I don't know how anyone drives around in the winter w/o a truck or SUV.

Anyway, that's about it for the Peterson Happenin's for the week. Thanks for reading!

To Grandmother's House We Go!

Jared's grandparents live down in Fillmore, Utah (an hour and a half away from SLC) and over the Thanksgiving holiday we went down for a visit with Jared's parents and his sister (and my little niece!). Jared and his grandpa have a very special relationship, and we try to make it down as much as possible. We went down on Friday morning, stayed through the night and left Saturday afternoon. We pulled out some of Grandma's Christmas decorations and spent Friday decorating the tree and the outside of their house. It was fun to catch up, visit and listen to stories.

We had a really great discussion on the way home about time. Jared's grandparents are in their mid 80's, and while they have lived a long, full life.. anything can happen at any time. I am the queen of procrastination, but the process of perfecting ourselves and coming unto Christ is not something that we can put off 'til the next day. Our salvation is too important to procrastinate to the last day.

Anyway, that's my spiritual food for thought for the night. We had a great visit with Jared's grandparents and family and are looking forward to a Texas Christmas this year!

Jared, Grandma and Grandpa Peterson and Todd (Jared's dad)

Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's Christmas Tree

Jared and his dad decorated the outside of their house