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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

First weeks with a newborn and 3 other children


 With the past two pregnancies, the coming home was the hardest. Life was a huge adjustment. With Caed, our first, life was upside down. No more just Lauren and Jon. We had this little life to sustain now. The recovery afterwards for me was an unknown. It all turned out great, Caed fussed a lot, but we eventually got him on a schedule, and we enjoyed life with his mostly expected expectations. :) And my recovery went fine too. I remember that first pregnancy, my ob's office had me come in that week for a check up. It wasn't much, probably just mostly to make sure I was doing fine mentally. Then I went again about 6 weeks, and I was good to go.

Second pregnancy, with the twins, there was a lot of apprehension as well. We were coming home with 2! I am so thankful that with Caed we mostly did the Baby Wise way of the first year. (schedule...) It really set us up to be successful with the twins. I don't know how you'd demand feed twins...you'd probably be nursing/feeding all day! My recovery was good too, but this time, they didn't have me come in that first week. Instead I think it was 2 or 4 weeks. We tried to have things set up so Caed could help himself to basic things (sippy cup of milk in fridge, dry cheerios in a cup on the counter) and we didn't have to run out to school every morning. We also had set up months of help. Friends and Family would come in for a week at a time, and that was a lifesaver. I am still so thankful for all that help, in was invaluable.

Third pregnancy....I wasn't sure how it would go. I was thinking it would seem better since we just did twins. And pretty much it's been good. It's of course hard to parent 3 other children and have a newborn with so many needs, but for the most part the 3 older boys have been so good. My recovery seems to be good, my energy level is pretty good too. We just can't seem to get the schedule thing going exactly the way we want. It's hard when every morning you've got to start each day making sure that 3 kids are dressed and ready for school. Including that they use the bathroom and get fed a nutritious breakfast, have their shoes on and bags filled with the right items. Then we have the baby who in between needs to be fed, changed and happy. We're planning on returning to a better schedule, but right now we're making it work. Little Grayson is along for the ride....and we love this little guy so much. 


dad loving on G

Big brothers want to love on him too. Even in cowboy gear.

Auntie working her sleeping magic
Soon to be Uncle Tom loving on G too.


Uncle Andrew and Auntie Sally came to visit the newest little  boy too.

A and T keep busy with trains.

His first bath!

Some first days of school shots.







Friday, October 19, 2012

Welcome Peterson boy #4!! Grayson Russell

On October 2 we had our 4th little Peterson boy! What a blessing and a gift this little life is. We didn't expect (plan) to have a 4th child, and feel so blessed by his arrival. He is so sweet, and tiny....(well in comparison...) and healthy. That's all we really wanted, a healthy baby, gender didn't matter to us! We kept that a surprise the whole pregnancy and we were REALLY surprised!

He weighed in at 9lbs 3oz, and 20 1/2".


 Big Brother Aldan



Big Brother Theron (so in love with his little brother!)



Biggest Brother Caed. Doing a great job too!


Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Dairy Farm

One of my favorite things of all times is visiting a farm. I don't know why i find them so amazing, but I love them! We got to visit my SIL family dairy farm. Look at my kiddos! They were at first intimidated by all the mud...but then ran everywhere...! (I forgot they wore cowboy hats! how appropriate!)



The baby calves!


Nice Theron...cover your face!



This is one of my favorite cows!

Mud!

The kids! how awesome...it's like a movie...they all just stood for the picture and ran around dragging my kiddos too. it was AWESOME.

Love this!!

They got to ride in the tractor!!

We saw a snake too!

battery was dead in the toy tractor, so Aldan pushed Caed. What a good brother!

And worms!!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

A baby shower!

In March we went up to North Western PA to a big family baby shower for my BIL and SIL! We had sooo much fun! My SIL and her brothers significant others are all pregnant too, so they had a big party at once for all of them!! The boys had a good time too. Even though it rained, they played in the puddles, ran around and were soo good! We are so excited for our new niece, and for Sally's family! How much fun!! (of course the photo of Andrew and Sally wouldn't upload...sorry Andrew!)



The three couples sat at the one end of the room. (you have to have a big space for this family! There are so many of them!) :)


This is the blanket that my MIL made for Andrew and Sally. Gorgeous, isn't it?!?! She's made blankets for our three boys too, and they are so soft and cozy and wonderful!!



Caed took this picture.

The party was held at the Mennonite church, and all those quilts were made by church members! Awesome!

I think Caed took this picture too. 



The three sisters! 

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Cherry Blossoms 2012

This year we went down and we were still a little early for the blossoms, but there were some gorgeous trees anyway. I love these beautiful white (and pink) flowers that bloom all over the city in early spring. It makes everything look so gorgeous. Really they are a sight when at peak, and we don't have to plan a trip around their blooming! (which was early this year! not a single bloom still around for the Cherry Blossom Race on April 1st!)



Ha! Looks like Aldan is picking my nose. Silly kid.




Sunday, April 22, 2012

My Favorite Photographer

I have known Jan Michelle for a long time. I'd say at least 8 years. (have i blogged about her before?....) When I first met her she worked on the Hill, and then she decided to leave and pursue her passion, photography. Wow, was it cool to watch her talent and ability change and improve over the years. She's taken our kids birth announcement photos and our holiday pictures the past 2 years. I look forward to these intentional times of recording our family. This year we had the help of my sis and her BF since having three kids and getting them all to look the same direction was going to be a feat with no help...it was so worth it! She took their photo this year too- and I LOVE this one because Tom is a volunteer firefighter! check out her work: (and blog) here.







Tuesday, February 21, 2012

oldies..but not too old

Funny enough, I turned my computer on with my older pictures (the netbook I was dumping the photos on before hubby finally got the other 'puter to notice the camera as well) and I saw these from the summer. It was end of summer when my twin friends came for a visit over their birthday. They were with us during the day, so I had the kids...and we went to the zoo of course!

One sister actually photographs animals in Africa, so maybe this was a disappointment, but it was entertaining for the kids! Look at Theron:

we had just been to the gorillas, and we were walking further on the path and he started walking like them. It was hysterical. People were trying to get by him, and he just wanted to walk along like this, and since I was in hysterics, I couldn't get him to stop.



And cutie brothers, what a funny shot. love these kids!


Now I need to get some more recent stuff. But I guess when you're blogging from your kitchen counter waiting for the roasted chicken to make it from 149degrees, to 165, this is what you squeeze in.



Monday, February 20, 2012

watch out!

wow. almost a year. watch out. I may be on the verge of a change in this habit. It helps that I can now put photos on the computer that I would like to blog from. (it only took a year to get it done!) What a crazy year the two's are with twins....we're almost at three though...almost, which gets us closer to four...which I can only hope gets me to more sanity....maybe?

Here's the hilarious photo of Caed at Christmas. We got Theron a ukulele for christmas since he loves guitars. Caed was rockin' in out! (love the unzippered pj's like he's Steven Tyler or something...ha!)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

My encouragement

This was my encouragement when I ran the marathon. I was so thankful for the support I just wanted to blog it a little more. Along with the sweet faces of my hubby, mommy, auntie and wonderful sisters, and even friends! Grateful I had the chance to run my first marathon. Hoping to add more in the future!!