Bridals

 

Kenedy and Tyler had their First look, Groom and  Bridal pictures done in Utah. The same photographer who did their engagement pictures did these and they turned out amazing! It is a thing for couples to do wedding pictures before the wedding now and I love the idea. It takes a lot of stress out of the day and we know if the wedding pictures the day of turn out terrible that we have these which are perfect. Kenedy looks so beautiful in these pictures and Ty is pretty handsome, I would say they both clean up well:). 

Elder Peterson Week 83

  This week we had a interesting lesson with our friend named Betty. We brought President Ross with us to the lesson and we taught her the Restoration. She has very very simple faith and seems to take everything on face value and doesn't ask any questions. So teaching her was difficult because of that. But we committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. We also set a follow up appointment for Saturday. Well, Saturday rolls around and she isn't home. So we go about our day finding. We have to stop by Walmart real quick to pick up some medicine and as we pull up we see Betty just getting in her car! I made brief eye contact with her but she didn't even seem phased. So needless to say she probably isn't interested.  

     We also had Zone Conference this week on Thursday. It was great! The main theme of it was transforming ourselves into a new creature through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Our mission president used the example of a transformer and how it has to go through different steps in a process to change from one creature to another. 

     I also went on an exchange with Elder Sorenson this week. He is such a great guy! He knows a lot about Harry Potter. A LOT. He likes talking about it. We had some cool contacts though, I was able to use some scriptures I read during my morning study.

     And then of course we had Easter on Sunday. It was relatively uneventful but good. We had Church and President Harris(the Stake president) spoke about the Atonement and the Resurrection. It's always impressive to listen to him speak because he knows SO much about the Gospel that the things he shares are always enlightening. Bishops wife, Sister Fawcett, also spoke and she shared a cool story about how because Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, we all can as well. Then we had lunch with some members and also had dinner with some members later that day. But for dinner the members invited their non-member friends to eat with us. Basically the entire discussion was about missionary work. So we will follow up and  see if they would be interested in learning more.

     Today we went fishing and I caught 3 sticks... nothing else. I got a bite from what looked like a small catfish, but he was too much of a coward to hang on.

     Oh also random thought. While we were talking to one of the guys we were teaching he was sharing a little about himself and he was like, "Yeah, I've got drug dealers all around me. One over there and one over there… I stabbed that one 5 times in the face with a deer antler. He was trying to kill me with a machete." He said it so nonchalantly as if it were a passing phrase I looked at Elder Gale and we were both obviously thinking, "Did he actually just say that?"

     Anyways, Everyone have a good week! Jesus Christ lives! And you can know that for yourself, as I know it for myself. Prayer and scripture study (and keeping the commandments)!

-Elder Peterson

Easter Sunday

While we were in Utah visiting Kenedy's classroom we saw a lot of cereal boxes lined up on a shelf. The school was doing a cereal food drive and each class were collecting cereal for the drive. Avynlea and Rylee saw amongst the boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch mini and Trix mini. they thought that was so fun that the cereals were extra small. I was able to find the cereal on amazon and I ordered them each a box of mini cereal, who doesn't like tiny things?! I gave them the cereal with their Easter baskets. They also got other fun stuff in their basket but not a lot of candy. I have found that my kids only like some candy and even that they don't eat a lot of. I usually find candy they haven't eaten months later and it gets thrown out.  Kefford got an easter basket but he didn't get his picture taken. I was surprised to find a basket for me and was pretty excited by the Nike Jordans that were waiting in the basket for me. They are a teal and purple and look like Ariel colors which is fun, I love them!

We went to Nyssa for church because Mikell and Steve were in town blessing Baby Emily. They were passing through on their way to Seattle for a minor Heart procedure for her. Because of the upcoming surgery they were very careful top keep her away from people and germs and left church right after her blessing. When we got to Alison and Bob's house I found Mikell downstairs nursing Baby Emily and I was able to visit with her while she was feeding the baby. I am glad I did because she and Steve left right after she was done in order to get away from germs and get on the road to Seattle. They left the rest of the kids at the Farm which was fun to spend more time with them. Luke has become a little more social and obsessed with the swing. He was having a hard time with his Dad leaving so I took him outside and pushed him on the swing as a distraction so his parents could leave. I spent quite a bit of time pushing him and other littles who came outside and enjoyed talking and playing with my nieces and nephews.

I had Kylie take a family photo of us and Rylee grabbed Luke so he could be in one of the pictures with us, he is pretty funny.

Alison did an egg hunt for the younger kids and I went outside and sat and visited with a group of them while they were sorting their candy. I always enjoy being with my nieces and nephews and I enjoy developing relationships with them. I think they kind of like me also. Brit took a picture of the group of us hanging out without me knowing and I was pleasantly surprised about it when she sent me the picture.

Bob and Alison have a growing chart on the wall in their kitchen and periodically will measure the kids to mark on the wall when they request it. I don't think Rylee requested to be measured but we all love how tall she is and wanted her to get another marking on the wall. I had to laugh watching Bob, Alison and Kefford try to figure out the best way to measure her to get the most accurate measurement. 

Kenedy had Easter with my family in Utah and she made the traditional bunny cake! I love how cute hers turned out and love that the next generation is carrying on our family traditions.

She also got an Easter family picture with Tyler and Alyssa.

 

Grad Announcement

I like to give my Dancers an end of year gift and Ashleigh sent me a suggestion for one that I decided to use this year. I designed the cards on Canva and then was able to buy a bag of scrunchies from a website in China which made the scrunchies super cheap. I also bought some ribbon sticks for the boys and girls as well as bubble bracelets for the boys. They ended up so cute and I am excited to give them to my dancers at the end of year recital.

Rylee has been getting better and better at Lacrosse and it has been fun watching her. I am glad that she has found a sport she loves and it has been keeping her busy.

With Avynlea's input I was able to get her Grad announcement done. I love how it turned out and think she is so photogenic and just so pretty. 

 

Elder Peterson Week 82

 For those who don't know (probably most of you), Vidor, Texas is a forest. Basically. Look it up on a map or something, you'll see. Anyway, all of these trees had some kind of council and decided that it would be hilarious to rain pollen all over the place and, in effect, punch me in the face. Last Thursday I had absolutely awful allergies, probably the worst I've ever had from pollen. I was sick and could not do very much. To make matters worse, I was on an exchange! Luckily, not very much was supposed to happen on that day, but I was still really annoyed at my uselessness. Oh well, I still did my best.

     Since Thursday I have been on a slow recovery. I still wasn't able to be outside for very long on Friday or Saturday. That's where the miracle came in. Thanks to General Conference, I wasn't expected to be as active as usual. I was able to rest AND be spiritually edified. Every time I go outside I can feel the pollen slowly making my nose congested. It's wonderful. But on a positive note, I feel much better today and I still had a great weekend. Did you watch General Conference? If not, you need to go watch it! It was great! I especially liked President Nelson's talk Sunday morning. I have been working on being a nicer person and saying uplifting things, so it was an added boost of motivation. 

     We were able to watch the first session on Saturday with some members in our ward (they invited a bunch of us over, picture below). The rest of Saturday was watched at the Ross's. We then watched the Sunday morning session with our friend Rosemary. It was great because she's already really good friends with the Ross's. She loved the talks and when we were talking later she was super grateful we invited her to watch with us. For the Sunday afternoon session we watched at the church with a recent convert named Mitchell. After the session we started talking with him about patriarchal blessings. He is super interested and excited to talk more about it with Bishop. 

     That's really all I have to share. Like I said, I was sick more most of last week, so nothing super crazy happened. Well, last night we had a fantastic 1½ hour lesson with Micah where he asked all kinds of genuine questions. He admitted that his only problem with things we believe is prophets. He has a really hard time believing that man is trustworthy or righteous enough to be that close to God. We have a plan though, he will see. With the amount of genuine interest and desire we see in him, he will come to know the truth. He just needs to take his sincerity to prayer and start asking God. We look forward to meeting with him again.

     Now that's all I have. Go watch General Conference if you haven't!!

-Elder Peterson 

We also had Mission Leadership Council. That picture below is us on our way home. I look annoyed because I was trying to drive in Texas traffic (there are some absolutely awful drivers down here) and they wanted pictures.

Fierce Sacramento Competition

 Avynlea had two Fierce Competitions that we had to travel to, one in Sacramento at the beginning of April and one in Las Vegas at the end of April. I did not feel like we could go to both and so I asked my friend Tara whose daughter Hannah, Avynlea's friend, was on the team if Avynlea could go with them to Sacramento. Tara has an Aunt who lives in Sacramento and they were able to make arrangements to stay with her and have her drive them to the competitions. All I had to buy was a plane ticket for Avynlea. I was sad to miss the competition but Tara was good to send pictures and video for me. 

These club competitions are unlike High School Competitions in that they compete on two days. Saturday they did their routine and the team hit zero which means they executed their tumbling and stunts perfect so that they didn't receive any deductions. It was awesome that they did so good and everyone was super happy with how they did the first time hitting the mat for this team.

The second day they had one girl fall in her tumble pass and one of the stunts fell a little so they did not hit zero which was a bummer. They did not have anyone in their division to compete against so they ended up with first.

Avynlea is bottom row second from right

Hannah and Avynlea

Avynlea is back row first on the right

Tara's cousins daughter, Annabelle, really took a liking to Avynlea and spent a lot of time over the weekend hanging with her and Hannah and being with her. It was pretty cute to see the pictures Tara sent me of Annabelle cuddling with Avynlea, instant besties!

Kenedy and Ty were in Reno and California this week and while in Reno her future Grandparents-in-law gave her their old iPad. They get a new one every year and so this one was not very old at all and Kenedy was very excited to have it. On the drive home she was messing with some of the features and sent me this picture she did of Ty.

Penalty Box

Amy was complaining about the price of Graduation cards to Diana and I and said she spent about $250 on 100 cards for Paige. I told her she had overpaid and I wished she would have asked me before she did it because if she would have done it through Vistaprint she would have saved so much money. Cyndi has been letting me use her Canva account to do Instagram posts for Dance Connection and then I use it for whatever printing needs I have. I designed Kenedy's wedding invite with it as well as Avynlea's grad cards. I told Diana I could design Natalie's grad card and then she just needed to upload it to VistaPrint, Select Postcard and then go from there. It is way cheaper then any other options I have found. I did Nat's card and Diana ordered it through VistaPrint and paid about $70 for 100 cards, loads cheaper. 

I went to Rylee's Lacrosse game in Middleton and she did a good job playing. She has been getting some playing time every game and I am so glad that she is getting that chance to play and not just stand watching on the sidelines. Some of the parents on our side were not happy with the calls the refs were making and expressed their frustrations quite loudly. I didn't see anything wrong about it, I have sat through enough Football and Basketball games listening to parents yell worse then these few were so I didn't think anything of it. The refs apparently did not take too kindly to it and talked to one of the Middleton Admin at halftime and he told us if the yelling and complaining didn't stop they would end the game and send everyone home. It was a little aggressive in my opinion but they have their rights I guess.

A couple of days later we were playing Boise at Owyhee and Rylee got her first yellow card. She was defending and accidentally hit one of the Boise players in the head with her stick. Rylee didn't even realize anything happened the Ref had to tell her to go to the penalty box. I was pretty proud of Rylee, not because she hurt someone, but because she was actively in the game defending and doing her job. I texted to our family group chat that she got yellow carded and they were all pretty proud of her as well :). She spent her two minutes in the penalty box and then she was able to get out and play some more. She said her coach was pretty proud of her and excited for her that she got her first yellow card, she said she was taking pictures of her in the penalty box.