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I'm gonna be a Big Brother coming in September :)

Los Hermanos 2009

Every year my family gets together around my moms birthday. It is amazing how fast time goes by because I remember blogging about this just yesterday and yet it seems like forever sense I have been with them. We have so much to catch up on. I am sure that Los Hermanos wonders when we are ever going to leave. I think we were there for about 3 hours and could have stayed a lot longer. Maybe it was because it was raining out side and we knew that it couldn't be a Peterson good-bye in the parking lot.

I know I have said this a million times and I will probably say it a million more but I have the best family ever. I was so blessed to be born into such a great family. We all get along so well. There isn't anything that I wouldn't do for any of them.

We all took turns going around and updating each other about our families. It was fun knowing most of what was going on from reading every ones blogs....I love blogs. Besides I have the cutest nieces and nephews too.

This is my sister Colleen and her husband Craig. We are the closest in age (is it 28 or 29 now)? She just got put in as her ward Young Women's President. Those girls are so lucky! She will be such a good leader and example for those girls. The funny thing is is that she has about 90 young women in her ward. We have about 90 active young women in our stake. She is going to be busy.
They have 3 'beautiful' girls that I tend to call my own.

My sister Susan and her husband Mark. They have been serving at the MTC as 2nd Counselor in the Presidency. They have just been put back in as 1st counselor. So they will be at the MTC for a little longer. They are such good examples and each of their children are amazing too. They have 8 children (or should I say grownups)?
I didn't realize that I didn't get a picture of Chuck and Jim together. I guess I was too busy talking and eating. I'll do better next year. This is my sister Chuck (above in the blue) and her husband Jim (below in blue). These two are amazing. For those of you here in Magna, he was a seminary teacher at Brockbank a few year back. They both are such great teachers. I have done my share of running to them and learning so much from them. They are such humble loving people, I have so much to learn from them.
They have 4 great Sons.

My sister Janet and her husband Phil. They are always there. They live the furthest from us and yet I always know that they will be there. She is so amazing and I am so grateful for her. She takes after my mom is so many ways and my mom was a pretty amazing lady. They have 6 sons and daughters.

This is my brother Pete and his wife Colleen. Are they not the cutest!!! My brother the Knight. What more can I say. I could go on and on.....but I will just say he has the cutest wife ever. I had so much fun visiting with her and laughing about her daughters blog and how grateful we were when she finally blogged so that we didn't have to see those ugly teeth each time we signed into her blog. So if any of you need a good laugh http://beckyjohnson3.blogspot.com/ seriously funny! Anywho.....so Colleen wonders where Becky got her personality from, I would have to say from you Colleen. You have always been so much fun.

They have 5 daughters and 1 son. By the way Congratulations Andrew and Brooke. He is darling (#2 boy).

To the other Colleen (Diane) Thank you for getting us all together this year. I am glad that you are willing to take the lead. I had such a good time and I love each of you so much, word just cant describe.

My cute little man.....

For family night this past week we took the kids over to the rec. to swim. Look how cute he is all grown up in a swim suit.

This big girl went down the big slide all by her self. Who told her she could grow up anyway?

Stake Recognition Night

Each year we try to recognize the girls who have received their medallion as a stake. I hoped that it would encourage the girls to work a little harder on receiving it. This year we had 9.

With the new value......Gold for virtue, we decorated in gold. Kris even made us a gold flag.
Kristen Caldwell put together a DVD of the nine girls who talked about personal progress and bore their testimonies. She added some pictures and a little quiz about each person. It turned out so good. Kristen, you are still amazing. I still want to clone you.

The girls all brought tea cups and we had hot chocolate (3 flavors) and lots of cookies. The High Councilmen served the hot chocolate from our little tea pots.

Then we had great speakers. We were hoping to have David Archuleta come with our speaker Bro. Hales but he did not. That was okay. Morgan did a great job introducing the 2009 theme as did Bro. Hales. He talked about how David is a good example of the believers. We need more 'idols' to be good examples for our youth.

Each girl was to bring things that they had done for personal progress to display.
Here is the Stake table.

For our handouts we did a tile that said "Be Thou an Example" and a bookmark that had a quote from Sister Dalton on Virtue for all who came and the nine girls got a beautiful necklace with two stars.

It was a fun night. I hope if nothing else, those who attended felt the spirit and the love that our Heavenly Father has for them and of course, the love that I have for them too. I wish that I could put into words my feelings for these youth and leaders that are in our stake but there are no word that would describe those feelings.

Thank you Heavenly Father for allowing me to be a part of their lives.....

Meet the newest member of our ward

Our ward has been so blessed this past 6 months. We have so many great people move in and join our ward. If you remember my post not to long ago, the other five in this picture were baptised. They are now complete. What a great family.
With men like these, the Lords work will move forward quickly one family at a time.

Making Pancakes

Six year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes.

He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.

He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.

Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.

He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or in the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked!. Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away,knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky.

And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tear swelled up in Brandon 's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him.

Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process!

That's how God deals with us.. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can't stand our job, or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him.

But just because we might mess up, we can't stop trying to 'make pancakes' for God or for others. Sooner or later we'll get it right, and then they'll be glad we tried..

I was thinking, and I wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed,friendships that need rekindling or three words needing to be said,sometimes, 'I love you' can heal & bless! Remind every one of your friends that you love them. Even if you think they don't love back, you would be amazed at what those three little words, a smile, and are minder like this can do.

Just in case I haven't told you lately... I LOVE YA!!!

I love these girls!

Grandpas Boy

Derrik and Meagan stopped by the other night to use the computer and fax some papers. When it came time for them to leave I took Tysen up stairs to say good-bye to grandpa who was laying down. Tysen jumped up on the bed and laid down next to Grandpa.

Gave Grandpa five....

and would not leave.

He wanted to stay and watch TV with Grandpa.

So we left the two boys up stairs and Meagan and Derrik stayed for dinner and some games.

He even made sure that he had some of Grandpas pirate blanket on him.