Garrett's been busy this summer!  Fishing, birthday, cabin, football, learning to ride a bike!  Whew!  When does school start again?  I Need a break.

Garrett's 7th birthday at the cabin!  MMMM Chocolate

     

Ellie's 4th Birthday!  She is our Firecracker!

 Jessica is playing along with Ellie as she goes around taking random photo's of people!  I haven't had a chance to mention this, but I've got great news to report on Jessica.  We told the kids if they would keep their grades up then we'd take another disneyland trip.  Unfortunatly it took a funeral instead to get us there.  Jessica however lived up to her end by becoming Student of the Month for the WHOLE english department at American Fork High School!  Congrats Jessica, we are proud of you!

 

Nate and Natalie sharing some smiles!

 Who keeps bawling?  Yes, that would be Ellie!

 The kids with Pluto at Disneyland!  It was fun to see them sharing laughs together!

 

The Harold Hoyal family.  This photo was taken at Nate's grandfather's funeral.  What a sweet expierence this was to be apart of.  I'm lucky to be apart of such a wonderful family those who are here and those who have gone before us.

 Disneyland 2009.  How fun it was to be able to go with Nate's whole family.  We had such a BLAST playing together.  I can't wait to do it again!

Kata Competition

Kata is the different forms & routines. They give you points on addressing the judges with certain verbage, 

they expect you to be confident and loud, and your movements need to be sharp & precise! Garrett was very nervous with everyone watching and the room was very quiet!  I have to admit, I was dieing inside!

Garrett receives his trophy from Mr. Matt (his instructor).

3rd Place Winner for Kata is: 

Chombara competition. 

 Garrett is the Red Belt. The boy he was competing against is Autistic.  Afterwards, Garrett told me he was scared to hit him because he knew he was "special".  He didn't want to hurt him.

2nd Place goes to Garrett!

 

The Sword and Shield Competition

          

   

Garrett receiving his 1st place trophy for "Sword and Shield" from his Black Belt Superiors!

 Way to go Garr-bear!  

This is the reason no one will allow me to get rid of Sadie (the dog).   I've mentioned to Nate and the kids it might be time for me to find her another home.  But I get tears and shouts of how much she is loved by our family.  Who cares about the food she'll  jump and take right out of your hands to eat, the flower beds she digs up just moments after being planted, and the endless toys & shoes that get chewed to bits. I won't even bring up my carpet. Oh my poor, poor carpet!  What about the nicely wrapped Christmas present that were shredded this past holiday season while we were away? 

When I walked in and saw this I knew she was here to stay.

To have a friend who will snuggle like this is priceless!

Slap Cheek, aka Fifth Disease

We had "Slap Cheek" aka 5th disease at our house.  If anyone who has had kids who've "caught" this disease its truly crazy!  Garrett started feeling sick on friday after he came home.  It's now Monday evening and he's just starting to walk among the living again sort of!  His cheeks have been SO RED it look like he'd been slapped a good one! He's had a fever ranging from 101 - 103.  He spent a lot of time crying saying his legs ached.  When he wasn't crying he was sleeping which was kind of nice!  The funny thing is he was so out of it!  Many times he'd wake up saying random things like "You said I had a phone call?" and "I've been slapped!, I've been slapped!" or "Wow, who's flying that!"  You are supposedly supposed to get a rash with it, but we have yet to see it.  Unfortunalty there is nothing they can do, so we've just been watching him suffer threw it.  We are hoping he'll feel well enough to go to school at all this week.  It's very contagious so we'll post when Ellie gets it.  Maybe it will slow her down a bit!  Oh wait, this is Ellie maybe not.

okay, I know your wondering why I'm posting about my bread box!  I'm so excited about this that I had to share it. I bought this bread box on a "family outing" to the DI.  For odd reasons our children LOVE to hit the DI with their dad to find as much junk as they can fit in the car for a few bucks!  We were walking threw the isles when I found this.  I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before but if you can picture in your minds the 70's.  The VERY DARK stain they used for cabinets.  It also had BREAD written all over the front with a picture of wheat swirled around!  Anyway, I've been looking for a bread box but haven't been able to find one that looked like the old ones used too.  The new ones are so cheap looking, but cost a fortune and they barely hold 1 loaf of bread let alone two or three (which that's how much we usually have)!  Okay, back to the DI.  I'm standing there in front of this box thinking about how I can bring it back to life when Nate walks up.  He can tell I'm thinking.... then he starts to wonder how this ugly box might become one of his projects ... I'm still thinking... then the kids walk up... they can see I'm thinking... Now the whole family is standing there watching me debate over this ugly box! Finally I turned to them.  "Garrett grab the box! We're taking it home, I'm going to fix it!"  They all just laughed.  Nate replied by saying "What the heck, it's only a dollar, I can handle a buck going straight to the trash!"  Don't worry I wasn't offended because he had a valid point.  Well this is what Nate's dollar turned into!  I sanded the ugly box, I sanded the ugly box some more, I sanded that damn box until my fingers bled.  Then I painted the ugly box, I put stain on the ugly box, then didn't like the stained look it made the ugly box still ugly, so I painted over the stain, then started to sand the ugly box to give the antique look, then came the final sealer!  walla!!!  There you have it!  The box is no longer UGLY!  It's MY beautiful new bread box!  I'm so proud!  Now that I've done this, there is SO many other things in my home that need to be brought back to life!  Garrett's whole bedroom set, three other shelves, maybe even my cabinets!  Wow watch me go!  Okay maybe I'll start with the three shelves and see where they end up!

Garrett has taken Karate for 1 year now.  He belongs to Bushi Ban here in American Fork.  He is a little dragon and has advanced all the way to a Red/White Belt.  One more belt and he'll be playing with the big boys and working towards his Black Belt.   This is a competition he entered and took 2nd place. Way to GO GARR-BEAR!!!

The Peterson Family Christmas Eve Sledding Party 2008.  This will be one of my favorite Christmas memories.  

 

"Take my hand Ellie, I'll show you the way."

Ellie is our

youngest so far. She is also our firecracker! Literally! She came into our world on the 4th of July. She is FULL of energy and is always moving. She is very independant and can do anything on her own, according to her. Last week we went to the library and almost had to leave because she was using the book shelves as a jungle gym. She is a little nosey and enjoys getting into things. She is programed more like a Peterson and enjoys being on the go. She goes to preschool twice a week but looks forward to when she can go to school with Garrett. Mom sometimes looks forward to that moment as well. She enjoys dolls, dress-up, finger nail painting, my makeup & being with her Daddy.

A year after Nate and I were married, we got pregnant with Garrett. He will be 7 in July. He's such a sweet hearted little guy. He was a very good baby, and has grown into a very good little boy. He is true Hoyal. He is very smart, loves candy like his dad and loves to play on the computer, and Wii. A great day for Garrett is to sit in his underware and play the Wii all day with an occational trip to McDonalds for some grub and then back to the Wii. He is very easily entertained and loves quiet time with me. Everyday he gets older I wish for time to stand still with Garrett.