Our Kids

Will LOVES helping us water the garden, so I bought him his own little watering can. This picture was taken in May, actually, and our garden (which is in the yard of a farmer in the ward) is huge now. Nothing better than tomatoes from the garden, huh?

This was right after we cut Burke's hair a few weeks ago. Since then, everyone says he is dark blonde (I would have never thought anyone would think of him as a blonde--I still think of him as having brown hair) and that he looks alot like Don. Go figure! Before, he had brown hair and looked like me always.

Funny faces.

For his birthday a couple months ago, William got a Mr. Potato Head. He put these glasses on and didn't take them off for about 5 minutes. He looked so funny!

AAHHH!!

I was determined to post tonight, but for some reason I can't get the pictures on here. I can't keep trying because Brookie is crying and I'm really frustrated. (Not with her, this dumb post.) I loved Alan's post, though. It did make me rethink our decision to go camping this weekend. We'll see. Love you all. Maybe I can figure this out tommorow. -Ang

Murphy's Law

This story must be told from the beginning, so let us start there. Wait, happy birthday Amy even though it's a little late. Okay, where was I, oh yes, the goths were at the gate. No, that was the introduction to why I like peppermint patties. About a year ago, we made a purchase. For some reason, we decided to buy a very large tent online. We actually set it up in the yard and had a fun time "camping" 100 feet from a flushing toilet. Needless to say, life has been a little hectic with scout camp, priest/teacher superactivity, the national orthodontic residents convention here in St. Louis put on by the residents in my program, saturday and Thursday evening at the dental office, mutual every Tuesday night, well you see I haven't had much time to spend with the family. So, when Amy asked, "do you have anything this weekend?" my first thought was oh no, I've forgotten something. However, I looked at my schedule, and I only had two patients on Friday, and both in the morning. "No, I don't have anything," I said. "Why don't we go camping?" Now, I place a question mark there because it is grammatically correct, but if you would have heard it, it sounded like "Unless you are having a myocardial infarction, we will be going camping this weekend!" Did I say I didn't have anything, what was I thinking. I finally agreed because I would like to eat next month. I realized I have an overnight activity coming up with the mutual at which I am cooking a dutch oven meal of stew, dumplings, and cobbler, and I have never done that before. Naturally, I can't cook this without some dutch ovens, so off to Cabela's I went on Thursday evening. By the way, a good trick to keep from spending too much money in there is to go just 15 minutes before closing. As much as I wanted the 22" 29 quart dutch oven, I could not justify it, so two 14" 12 qt. ovens would have to do.

Enter Murphy and his law. My 11:00 patient did not show up until 11:35, and by then, the instructor was elbow deep in a treatment planning session. He got to me at 11:58. Why don't we LQ#K$^@#$L^L%LJ #$PTP#$U#jto3i 3i4u35yo354Y#$%Y^3yt. This makes as much sense as what I would have written. Anyway, I finished at about 12:40 when I thought I would be done by 11:40. On another note, please recognize when a hint is given. I told her, next month, you are my only patient on the 21st. Would you like to move a week earlier or later? OH, that's my birthday she says. Well, would you like to move it then? No, I'll come in then. (She completely missed the first hint). Okay, I've got all day open, so would you like to come in at 9:00? No, I'll come in at 11:00 again. (missed hint #2).

I get home, and Amy is working feverishly to get everything ready to go. We packed, picked up the kids from school and stopped for gas. It's a good thing we needed gas because in the five minutes it took to pump the gas, Mayor Glenn Welsch's remark comes true in reverse. You know what they say about Missouri, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes. Only we liked the weather. The skies turned black, and released rain- not Arizona rain. We headed back home for a tarp. Traffic was a mess, and we ended up arriving at the campsite at about 4:30. We set up the tent, got soaked in the process, and unloaded the rest of the equipment. The tailgate of a pickup is excellent at catching rain. The bed of the pickup was very wet, and consequently, everything in contact with the bed was wet. All of the sleeping bags and a couple of the pillows were soaked in enough places to be annoying. We debated our sanity, then questioned our judgement. (Here it is important to note that I was not the one who suggested going camping, so I'm not in trouble) Amy left with the kids to go back to town to see if she could buy a canopy/gazebo. I stayed and started the dutch oven cooking. About an hour later, Amy gets back and I open the truck door. She tells me there's a Super WalMart about 20 minutes away and I see a box labeled Red Gazebo Top. I look around, "where are the poles?" "Aren't they in the box?" Realization hits her. Well, it doesn't matter because the rain is letting up. I finished the stew around 9:40. Kids are not as good as adults are when it comes to ignoring hunger pangs. The stew was delicious as were the dumplings. The cobbler was golden brown, and Amy had made whipped cream, so that was great. Then that dang Murphy shows up again. Did you know that the rain fly on tents is not actually water proof? It is water resistant. On our HUGE tent, the rain fly has spots where it collects water until there is enough weight to force a drop of water through. It rained all night, dripping on us every 30 seconds or so. They should make air mattresses out of more durable material. Amy enjoyed a little more comfort than me because for some reason, my laying on that mattress increased her body to ground distance. I blew it up again when she got up to feed Darren. It seemed to leak faster the second time. Well, the next morning, we woke up and actually had a decent day. We had breakfast, cleaned up camp, then went on a tour of one of the caves in the area. It was fun for the kids for the first two minutes of the hour and a half tour. Mark and Bradley actually liked all of it, but Eleanor and Luke were ready to go almost immediately, and they couldn't see my mean face telling them to be quiet because it's dark in there. We got home okay, and overall had a great time. Mark wrote an essay for the principal and wrote about how it poured on us, we ate late, and it was harsh. See if I ever take him camping again. We hope all is well. We look forward to moving back in just 16 weeks.

Too Tired for Creativity

Okay, I've been going through past posts and I love reading all of them. I'm making a serious request that we resume this. Even for those of us who live near each other, we don't see each other often enough to relay all the cute and important things about our kids and families. And for those who live away, we're just being selfish not to share!!! I will start it by posting this weekend. Come on guys, this is really fun.
Love you,
Ang

1st Birthday

Sorry for the shrine to Desi...She had a great Birthday! Aric had night clinic on her birthday so we celebrated Thursday and Friday! Desi LOVES her stuffed animals Mom and Dad, THANKS! We also got her this little buggy to go along with Tallon's incoming birthday present. She LOVES it, she couldn't stop making this silly face that you can see in the pictures. Tallon would not let us push her either. (Until he bumped into the curb and couldn't get back on the road.) Tallon helped me make the cupcakes and I'm still finding sprinkles on the floor. He has declared that he would like pink heart cupcakes with white icing and sprinkles for his birthday, and he would like everything that Desiree got as well. What do you say to that?! Wish you all could have been here!

Cabin and Pool Pictures

The shot I got right before this one was Jency looking down at her new shoes, kind of studying them. It was cute, too. Looks like she liked this cabin activity!

I emailed these and more pictures to Alan's Amy. I think she is collecting all the pictures from the trip, then giving copies by CD to everyone, which will be awesome. But these were so cute, I thought I had to post them now for you all to see.

Cabin Pictures

They were all fascinated by this caterpillar that was climbing on the wall.

This was going to be a candid shot, but Bradley looked my way at the last second and gave this really great smile.

We finally had the kids pictures taken. They turned out really good-but please don't let them fool you (especially Tallon). These were the very first pictures of about 15 and the only ones that turned out. This was NOT easy. We had scheduled to get some pictures of the 2 of them together, but they would hear none of it. At least we got them on our first try!

I had to include this picture of Tallon which was taken after a long afternoon picnic with some friends. After he finally understood that he couldn't throw sticks on the BBQ grill, he went and played on the baseball diamond (a sand pit in his eyes) for 3 hours!! This picture really doesn't do him justice-he was SO-O dirty!

My Girl

Okay, I know she's mine, but really....isn't she beautiful??? We are loving having our sweet baby here. There's always a race to see who can hold the baby after school or in the morning (unless of course she's crying, which brings comments like "I held her last time she was fussy" and "I took a ten minute turn yesterday, it's your turn this time"). People say she looks nothing like my kids. I think she looks like a Petersen. Whoever she looks like, she's darn cute.

Easter at Grandma's (minus Aunt Barbara as the Easter Bunny)

Mom had us all over for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt. She mixed it up a little by putting money in some of the eggs, and making it a little more entertaining and difficult for the older kids by numbering their eggs and making them find them in order! We decorated egg shaped sugar cookies and had a great time, but missed all of you that live away. Couldn't you have come for the weekend?

Darren Noah Petersen

As some of you might have noticed, if you see his initials in the paper for a sports team, you will wonder if he ever played.

The Fonz has nothing on me

Which style will get me the most face time with all the cute girls? I'm trying that less is more attitude where you close your eyes while looking toward someone. All in all it's been a rough day. I used a diffuser to get a fuller look. The whole point of this is I would like you all to choose which style is best.

Happy Birthday

Bradley suggested we sing happy birthday to Darren when we went to visit Sunday afternoon. Yes, we have a new baby boy. He was born on Sunday. He weighed 8lb 7oz. 20.5" long, and as you can see, he already needs a haircut. Amy is doing great. She was amazing during labor. The doctor let me catch him. I really enjoyed that. I also gave the doctor a hard time about getting up in the middle of the night for the last 23 years. He just shook his head when I told him that when orthodontists get an emergency call, it usually ends with, "put some wax on it and come in tomorrow." Anyway here are the pictures.

Burke Robert Bennion

This is Burke right after they handed him to Amy.
Stats: 8 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 in
Will is figuring out how to share a Mom :). He loves to point and say BABY! or BURT! (working on the 'k' sound)
Nothing beats holding a sleeping newborn! 

Our Little Stunt Rider

William is getting more and more brave and adventurous, which is great in a lot of ways, but (as was proved the other night) doesn't always turn out well. He has this little bike/trike that he really has just figured out pretty well, and he rides it all over the house. The other night I saw him stand on the seat, trying to balance himself on the fridge. I told him he couldn't do that, and he got down. But sure enough, the next time I turned my head, he did it again. I saw him just as the bike went out from under him and he hit face first into the floor. Double bloody nose, bloody gums, and a Huge fat lip. Poor kid. I'm sure we have more adventures like this to come...

Why are the labels on my pants different?

Well, it has come to the time of year when the graduating class here is getting ready to leave. I have made some good friends, but I must take my rightful place at the top. It's a dog eat dog world out there, and I have one of those invisible shocking fences, so good luck. Anyway, we had our friends over for dinner tonight. I helped them pack their truck for a few hours, and we thought it might be nice for them to be able to sit down and have a home cooked meal with utensils etc. I promised them another delicious barbecue chicken meal. They think it's the best chicken, and they're probably right. I had timed everything (because that's what I do) to be done on time. I lit the charcoal, allowed time to burn down, and then placed the chicken on the grill. I then had what we in the barbecue world affectionately call a "flamey". Needless to say, I asked, "What?" as in what did I do to deserve this? Within a few seconds, Amy came outside to see what was the matter. Apparently, I exclaimed this to the entire neighborhood. She was concerned, probably one of those image things again. Boy have I got a lot to learn. The chicken turned out OK. No, who am I kidding? It was delicious.

I left school a little early today to help my buddy pack. We had a lecture from a guy who mistakenly thought I cared where he went on vacation last year. He also thought I was listening fifteen minutes later when the actual meat and potatoes began. Again, mistaken, for it was only the top of my head he did see. He went off on facial asymmetry, I went off on why they chose the always loveable Mark Linn-Baker to play Balki's cousin Larry Appleton in the late 80s hit Perfect Strangers. Oh the hijinks those two got into. Did you know that this show enjoyed 150 episodes spanning more than seven years? Anyway, two minds diverged in the lecture hall, and that is what made all the difference.

I am looking forward to spending some time with you all in Arizona. I can't wait to see the palm trees with Christmas lights. To close, I would also like to tell you that Amy keeps washing my shirts in hot water, and they are getting smaller. Some of my classic "blood donation" shirts barely reach the top of my pants now. Amy says I need new shirts, but they remind me of what I have eaten, and that feels good.
Later.