The Petersen Family

Yikes, I haven't blogged since APRIL!!! I continuously blogged for three years straight, and then this happened. Not sure how people with more kids do it, because my small little family keeps me crazy busy! I'm sad that I missed so much blogging! I have still been taking TONS of pictures, so I am going to have to back track as best I can. I think part of it was that my nice Canon camera broke...sniff sniff. My cell phone takes decent enough pictures, but I have really missed my camera! Anyhow, January is when I order my 2015 blog book, so I better get busy!!

Update on our family. Jaren is still working hard at Meldrums. He has been there 17 years, I cannot believe it. Time just flies! He is awesome at what he does, but it is an extremely stressful job. I cannot imagine dealing with death on a daily basis, I'm just not cut out for that. But, we are thankful that he is so good at what he does and works so hard for our family. Besides work, he's been working out a lot, and trying to get in shape...haha. I laugh, because I need to get in shape, not him haha. But, he will tell you otherwise.

Hailey....Hailey is doing very well in third grade. She has turned into quite the little reader. She LOVES to go to the library for "My Weird School Books". It makes me so happy when I go to look for her and she's reading!! She loves her teacher Mrs. Ramsey. She talks about her quite a bit, and tells us all the funny things she does. Hailey is a spunky girl, and I think she got a spunky teacher! Perfect match. As for her activities each week, we only have her signed up for piano right now. She is doing awesome, even though it is getting tough. Some days she wants to quit, but we tell her no of course, haha, and that she will regret it if she does. She had a really tough time with a particular song, so her piano teacher assigned her that song for the upcoming recital. She was so sad, and cried many tears over it. We explained to her why she assigned it to her, and she started practicing like crazy. The day of her recital, she did AWESOME! It was so neat seeing her be so proud of herself. She wants to do another activity, but it changes a lot, so we are holding off for now. She wants to do dance, acting, gymnastics and martial arts. She loves to play with her friends & cousins, and LOVES going to Skateland (she's hoping for some rollerblades this Christmas). She LOVES decorating and making crafts for holidays. Just after a holiday passes, she is making paper crafts to hang on the walls for the next one. She still loves writing stories & songs. Some of them are so funny, and some almost make me cry. She's such a creative girl, tender hearted girl.

Addy....Addy started kindergarten! We debated all summer long whether to send her or not, and we finally decided to give it a go. One of our main reasons for starting her was because she would start with her cousin Elsie. Looking back now, I wish we would've held off another year. Poor little Addy, she has cried every single day but one! The first day we had her do whole day, and when I was waiting for her after school, she cried as soon as she saw me, and most of that night. The next day, we switched her to half day. She has really bad separation anxiety for some reason, and drop off is always very hard for her. The first few weeks, she was afraid to ask for stuff in class, like if her pencil broke and she needed a new one, and she'd cry. Poor girl! Now, she cries at drop off, and then she's good after that. She was coming home when the rest of the class went to lunch, but then I started to eat with her. She wouldn't play or talk to anyone. Eventually she started playing, and now she goes to lunch with the kids, and I come when she's almost done, and then she plays and we go home. She's so timid and scared of everything! Poor girl. We have been trying essential oils and other things, but she still has this separation anxiety. It's awful for her and I feel bad that she has to go through it. I'm sure people think "just make her do things, she's fine", but she's my daughter, and it's more than that. She has a legit fear. They would like her to go full day after Christmas break, so we'll see. Other than school, she is taking a dance class. She loves it half the time, but just like school, she gets scared for me to not be out there with her. She has a recital coming up, so it will be interesting to see if she even makes it on stage. My gut is telling me she won't, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that she does!!

Me....I am just staying busy with two kids and a high energy dog. Yep, we finally got a puppy. He is a Vizsla, and his name is Remi. I really like him, and I really hate him haha! I'm totally kidding, he just is a lot of work. He is eight months old, and full of energy. I've been running a couple of miles a day with him, which is really helping me get in shape, so that's a plus! My weekdays usually consist of driving the kids to school, coming home and running Remi and exercising, cleaning house and doing laundry, and maybe prepping dinner. By then, it's time to go get Addy from school (man those three and a half hours go by fast)!! Our evenings are usually hectic with dance, piano, homework and dinner. The days seem long but weeks FLY BY!! I love being a stay at home mom. Even though I probably complain way too much, I know I am blessed to be able to be home.

The kids almost missed their Fall Festival again, but we decided against going out of town. Jaren isn't allowed to take off in November or December, so we usually end up going on vacation the last week in October. It's fun, but it means missing the Fall Festival each year, and the ward trunk or treat. I'm glad we stayed this year! The girls had lots of fun at their festival. Addy...poor girl. She takes SO long to warm up to new situations. She cried and was scared to go on the bounce house, silly girl. After a good thirty minutes of warming up to everything, she loved it! Hailey, of course, had a blast from the get go! They played games, ate junk, and didn't come home with new pet goldfish like two years prior, so I was happy haha!