Busy Busy!

A lot has happened in the Peterson household since I've last posted!  We put together the kid's new swing set they got for Christmas (thanks to all the help from Matt's parents), Easter, beautiful new floors (good bye hideous-new-stain-every-day carpets), and Aralyn's Willy Wonka birthday party!


We were thrilled to replace the cheap metal swing set Aralyn got for her first birthday with a nicer wood swing set she can actually swing on without the whole thing tempting to fall over.  We put it together when we had the tease of warm weather and of course it got quite chilly again so it hasn't gotten a lot of use yet but I'm sure it will be a favorite this summer.

Easter this year was SO much fun!  I took the kids to an Easter egg that the credit union holds each year.  With the help of Aunt Erin, Aralyn totally cleaned house!  They carefully planned their path for maximum egg gathering...serious business.

Aralyn had a blast looking for eggs.  Hopefully the Easter bunny steps it up a notch next year and makes it a bit harder because she is too good!  Even her doll Cici got a Easter basket this year

Munching away on candy

My little bunnies

Easter at my moms...she'll be THRILLED that I added this.  It was too good to pass up!

Our attempt at a family picture. 
Always a difficult feat when Aralyn whines, kicks, screams the whole time.

Uncle Mike, Uncle John and the kids

I am SO happy to finally have our new floors installed and our nasty carpet GONE!  I swear, if it wasn't Aralyn (or Matt) spilling something or Asher spitting up it was the cat making a mess on the poor carpet.  Our new dark bamboo floors will be much easier to clean...I think.  I'm of course obsessed with cleaning which is compounded by the fact that the floor is new so I've been a bit crazy with the constant cleaning!

If you ignore the mess, you can see the "before"

Again, ignore the mess...

After.  Ahhh much better.

Matt and Asher thought it would be funny to jump into my picture

Last, and certainly the most fun, was Aralyn's Willy Wonka birthday party!  My biggest baby turns three this weekend (May 5th) so we threw her party themed after one of her favorite movies!  Her favorite character is Violet Beauregarde who blows up into a giant blueberry so she got to dress up like her including a costume change into a blueberry!  Everyone dressed up which added to the fun!  The whole house was decked out -

Sniffable wallpaper
Aralyn Oompa Loompas
Candy jars galore
Golden tickets
Wonka bars

She even had a Aralyn-Violet-Blueberry cake!

From left to right:
Mike (lame and had no costume - j/k), Aralyn (Violet Bouregarde), Mom (Mrs. Bucket), Me (Veruca Salt), Asher (Mike Teavee - after going through the TV), Matt (Augustus Gloop), Erin (Willy Wonka), Mary (Oompa Loompa) Mike (Mike Teavee - before going through the TV), Grandma Bruss (old person in the bed? lol), Grandpa Bruss (Grandpa Joe)

Blueberry!

Aralyn won a golden ticket!

Loving up on Dad

Aralyn was pretty lucky - her Uncle John drove five hours just to come to her party!

It's been a great few months!

Daycare Fun Week

This past week was "fun week" in Aralyn's daycare class.  Each day had a different theme:

Monday: Mismatch clothes
Tuesday: Crazy hair
Wednesday: Hat
Thursday: Favorite color
Friday: Pajamas

I'm not sure who had more fun with this...Aralyn or me!  Aralyn was the most excited about pajama day and wanted to wear her pjs all weekend...and she would have if I let her.  We were able to get pictures for some of the days.

Mismatch Clothes Day

Crazy Hair Day

Favorite Color Day

Aralyn was so cute today playing with her babies.  She named one of them "CiCi" who she took care of all day long.  She even insisted that we put the baby down to bed (in Asher's crib) and turn the monitor on when we were down stairs giving her a bath so we could hear if the baby started to cry.  It's sweet to see how much she picks up on how we take care of Asher and mimics it with her babies.

Asher is growing so much and is starting to be more playful.  We busted out the jumperoo which he seems to like...in doses.  Otherwise he's typically in our arms because he can't stand not to be held.  High maintenance!  And so darn cute!

I love his bug eyes in this picture

Had to add this picture because he looks so darn precious

The Kids Lately

Asher just had his two month appointment and boy has he grown!  It was interesting to compare where Aralyn was at at this age...

                 Weight               Height
Aralyn      12 lbs / 86%       22.5 in / 55%     
Asher       14 lbs / 92%       23.5 in / 70%

Aralyn was sleeping through the night already at this age...Asher not so much.  Some nights he's up every 3 hours though the past two nights he slept 5 hours straight so that was a pleasant surprise! 
Asher is cooing and smiling a lot and is starting to bat at his toys on the play mat.

Aralyn is really into two movies right now - Willy Wonka and Bednobs and Broomsticks.  They have completely taken over our lives.  We are either rolling Aralyn to the juicing room because she turned into a giant blueberry or else we're flying around town on her bed and turning each other into rabbits.  She has such a wonderful imagination which is a lot of fun the first few hundred times we play these games! 

I have to brag about the one big thing I wanted to accomplish while I was on maternity leave which I finally got done - I've compiled all of our home videos, put them together into a movie and burned them to DVD.  YES!  I ROCK! 

P.S. Asher's Baptism has been scheduled for April 15th.  Invitations will go out shortly.

Update on Asher's Heart

Great News!  We had a follow-up appointment with the cardiologist today and he thinks Asher is doing great!  He's gained a lot of weight which is a key indicator that his heart isn't causing him any significant problems.  The doctor can hear a very faint murmur but thinks the holes have definitely gotten smaller.  Asher doesn't need to go back until he is one at which time they will do another echocardiogram to see if the holes have closed.  Even if the holes haven't closed up completely, Asher won't have any physical restrictions and won't require any medication.  Thank you everyone for your prayers!  Asher is doing wonderful!

Heart is great and looking darn cute too

Meeting Brother and Sister Bear

Matt and I bought a family membership this year to the Building for Kids which I'm really excited about!  Erin and I took the kids there today for story time.  Today's book was the "Berenstain Bears Don't Polute Anymore".  Aralyn LOVES the Berenstain Bear books...or "Papa books" as she calls them.  Aralyn got to take her picture with Brother and Sister bear!  We spent the rest of the morning playing in the museum.

On a side note, we witnessed a car accident in the parking lot just feet from our car as we were getting out to head over to the Building for Kids.  We were all startled, especially Aralyn who kept screaming "they crashed, they crashed"!

We couldn't get Aralyn to look at the camera...

Sister Bear, Aralyn, Aunt Erin, Brother Bear

Asher

Aralyn is in the "green home" using the energy efficient washer and dryer.  Now we need to get her to do this at home ;-)

Super Aralyn!

Eating the lunch Aralyn prepared for us in the "green home".

Aralyn getting ready to fight fires

Asher hanging out at the museum

Looking cute

Just Hanging Out



Aralyn loves her little brother so much!  She is always giving him hugs and kisses, sharing her toys with him and reading him books.  Here they are getting some "tummy time" together.

Sometimes she's a little toooo hands on. 

Here's Matt and the kids watching the Packer game all decked out in their Packer attire.



One of our new favorite things to do at home is having dance parties!  Aralyn always has to put on her new Dora dress she got from Great Grandma Cowan for Christmas and an ample coating or two or three of chap stick!

Aralyn getting her groove on.

And of course Asher's favorite thing to do is just lounge around and look cute.  He does a pretty good job at it.

Christmas

This was the best Christmas yet! Aralyn is at such a fun age and of course it was great to have Asher here with us!  Aralyn must have been a good girl this year because she got everything she asked for from Santa - tools and a hippo!

Erin took some wonderful pictures of the kids for Christmas!  Some of the pictures were used on our Christmas cards, but here are a few others you haven't seen.

We had a blast decorating Christmas cookies.  I think more of the icing ended up in Aralyn's mouth than on the cookies.   ...must have learned that from her mom ;-)

Here are some pictures from the many Christmas' we celebrated with our families.

Uncle John and Asher

I wish I could remember what was so funny!

Uncle Michael and Asher. 
See Mike, there was nothing to be scared about - you didn't break him!

This shirt is a classic John statement.

Aralyn got glow in the dark stars which we hung in her closet. 

Playing with her new drill from mom and dad.

Celebrating Christamas at Grandma and Grandpa Bruss's house in our customary pajama attire.

That's right - coolest shirt ever.  You're welcome Erin.

Grandpa "Snook"

Too cute!

We even got to celebrate with the Russells!