Abducted by Aliens on the 4th of July

Obviously all our pictures aren't on here but I think you can see that we had a great time....lots of laughs, lots of adventures, and most of all, lots of driving! We drove from Vegas to Albuquerque, NM, then to Roswell, NM, to Carlsbad, NV, back to Albuquerque, NM, and then back to Vegas.... crazy!!!!

Here is a snapshot of our trip:

Hanging out at the KOA halfway between Roswell and Carlsbad

They had a fun, free firetruck ride which Blake LOVED... It was a pretty cool old truck.

Storytime with Uncle Brian...of course! Brian makes up some pretty crazy stories though.

Swimming with Aunt Cindy

We did make it to the Carlsbad Caverns and they were pretty awesome. We went late in the afternoon...took the elevators down and HIKED OUT!!! Not a very good idea but the only feasible one at the time. We were able to stay and see the bats come out at dusk.

Blake hitching a ride on daddy's back... what a way to go!

Even with getting to ride the whole way up and down he was exhausted that night!

The whole reason for the trip was the 4th of July and of course that means fireworks... YES we kept Blake up to see the fireworks...and NO he was not impressed. Maybe next year.

Again it was a fun trip and we love to be able to make these great memories and share times with great friends. We know Blake won't remember these yet but we have pictures to share and
great stories to tell him and soon enough he will start to remember!

Grandma Holly and Papa Mike Visit

It's always fun when Grandma Holly and Papa Mike come to visit... This trip was nothing different. We were able to spend time together of course but we did a few extra special things too.

We took a trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay... and Blake was in heaven. He loved to see all of the fish and tried to scare them all.



He tried to get the sting rays...but he is still a little bit too short... Maybe next time.

No visit from Grandma Holly is complete without story time. Blake loved to have Grandma read book, after book, after book. Papa Mike even got in on the action every once in the while.

Saturday morning we headed down to the lake so we could enjoy the jet skis and the great weather. We all had a great time. Blake enjoyed the water and throwing rocks into the water!



It was a great weekend....that once again went by too fast!

Men at Work

Dan had a few things he was trying to do around the house one evening and Blake wanted to HELP! He loves to help his daddy and be involved in whatever Dan is doing. Dan thinks it is fun too that Blake is now at the age where he can be of "some" help with some projects... this one might not have been just that project but Blake thought he was helping for sure.

This made me only slightly worried when he decided to climb the ladder and had no fear... makes me think of possible trips to the ER that may be in our future. Fingers crossed they aren't any time soon.



This is him helping daddy with the vacuum. He is doing a great job holding it down in case it gets away.

Lazy Sunday

After church..where Blake and daddy wore their matching ties... we pretty much just spent the day outside playing..or reading..or napping...we had a pretty lazy Sunday. It was nice.

All dressed up and ready for church.

Playing with daddy on the slide.

Grandma, daddy and Blake reading.

Blake reading the newspaper at the table.

Grandma reading her book outside... and trying to soak up the sun a bit too.

Lunch with ducks

After all the train riding we had worked up an appetite so we decided to head just a few minutes down to the road and enjoy some lunch by the lake...and with a few ducks and fish!

My dad had brought home some popcorn from the theater so we had plenty of popcorn to feed the ducks and fish and thought it would be a nice way to relax and enjoy the afternoon...and keep Blake entertained as well.

A mid-throw shot of daddy feeding some of the hungry fish

Our lakeside table at the restaurant. We were all hungry and the food was good...

Checking out the ducks and fish

A train ride

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Holly came down for their annual March visit (Mike has a work conference that he attends which means a visit with us!) We hadn't seen them since Christmas so we were really excited and Blake was excited to show and tell them all the new things he could do.

Our first outing was out to Boulder City on Saturday to go and ride the Nevada State Railroad. Blake was probably the most excited about this but we all thought it would be fun and the weather was perfect.

All Aboard!!

Blake paid close attention when we were boarding and noticed he needed to give the man his ticket...so when he found an extra ticket he was DETERMINED to give it to the man. Pretty dang smart and adorable to watch.

Ready to ride the rails.

A boy and his daddy....

a GREAT visit

Great Grandma Petersen

Great Grandpa Petersen

Grandma and Grandpa Petersen were able to join us for a night on their way down to stay in Arizona for some time... and on their way back home! It was so nice to spend some time with them, even though it was short. It is also nice to see Blake start to recognize them and remember them. We love to have these opportunities for him and for us as well.

We just spent the time chatting away and telling stories. It is great to get together and hope to be able to do it more often...and again soon! Blake is blessed and such a lucky boy to have such wonderful Great Grandparents who love him so much.

2010 in a glance

Wow... I can't believe 2010 has come and gone. It has been a really great year for us. Of course we have had our struggles just like everyone else but we have also had some really amazing times too. This year we were able to enjoy things as a family of three!

January - The Cox family came to town and we took family pictures which now included Blake! Other than that we just continued to settle into family life.

February - We celebrated our 8 year anniversary. Dan took a little trip to Utah and went hiking with his friend Brian.

March - We had a few visitors this month. Auntie Laura came to visit for a weekend, and Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike were down for a week.

April - We celebrated Easter at home and were joined by Robert, Lisa and the girls. We also had a Families Supporting Adoption Education Conference.

May - We took a weekend trip to CA to watch Morgan and McKenna play a baseball game. I was able to celebrate and enjoy my 1st Mother's Day. We had our 6th and final post placement visit with our caseworker, and we also had a meeting with our lawyer for finalization of Blake's adoption.

June - Dan and I both helped out with Girls Camp for a few days. Auntie Laura visited for a weekend trip. Dan celebrated Father's Day.

July - We went to South Dakota/Mt. Rushmore for the 4th of July. We had all our family and friends here for Blake's finalization,sealing and blessing. Our friends Marvin and Maria came to celebrate Dan's 30th b-day. Blake and I went to Utah for the Stampin' Up convention.

August - We enjoyed the end of summer and stayed at home and relaxed!

September - Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike came for a final summer visit. Blake and I went to visit friends for a weekend in CA. Auntie Laura came for her final summer visit.

October - We made a trip to AZ so the girls could go to Time Out for Women. We celebrated Blake's first Halloween and dressed as a farm family... Farmer, cowgirl and cow!

November - Blake turned 1 year old! Took a trip to Park City for a little time away. I had my 30th b-day. Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike came to spend Thanksgiving with us.

December - Marvin and Maria were here for a weekend. We went to CA to celebrate Christmas with friends. We took Blake to Disneyland for his birthday - and mine too! Spent Christmas in AZ with the entire Urbancic family. Auntie Laura, Robert, Lisa and the girls were all here to ring in the New Year.

Christmas 2010 - AZ style

If anyone knows me...or my father-in-law...we take a lot of pictures. So I made a slideshow to help show what a great Christmas we had.

We spent Christmas this year with the entire Urbancic side of the family. Unfortunately Dan's dad had just undergone a pretty big surgery and wasn't able to travel anywhere and we all decided it was time to get together and spend our Christmas together in AZ. Steve and Amy (who had just moved to ID)were very excited to get out of the snow and come back to some warmer weather. It was wonderful to all be together and enjoy the family (as big and loud as we are getting!) There were 10 adults, 4 kids, 3 dogs, and two babies in bellies! It was quite a bunch.

We enjoyed our traditional (but less tradition this year) Christmas eve dinner and reading of the Christmas story. Things just don't seem quite as spiritual when you have three little boys running through Luke 2. We also enjoyed Christmas morning which seemed to go by in a flash...no longer did we do things in an orderly fashion. It all sort of went by in a blink of an eye and you opened something when it came your way.

I say all of this jokingly... Christmas is so much more enjoyable with the laughter and sounds of children in the house. There may be occasional arguments over certain toys and we might not all get along all of the time but the memories that are being made and the times that we spend together and starting to become very and far between and we cherish the times that we do have. We are so thankful that we were able to spend Christmas as a whole group and we love each other so much. It was a great time and the adults loved the evenings and naps when the kids were quiet and we could catch up on life too. Thanks mom and dad for hosting us all and letting us come and run through your house. We enjoyed it so much. Merry Christmas.

CA Christmas

For the past 9 years we have always gone to California and done a "California Christmas" party with our friends and family who are still there. This year we decided to keep it small and just had a small group of us get together for some dinner, presents and then we headed to see Santa! We found out about a great park out in Irvine and does a wonderful display and puts on a Christmas train that takes you to "the North Pole" to see Santa. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it (I think all of the adults did too).

It is always so nice to go and visit our friends and family in California and enjoy the holidays with them. It was really nice this year and do something just for the kids and have Blake with us and have him be able to get in on the activities. I think next year he will REALLY enjoy Christmas (oh no!)

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

I decided I wanted a break this year and was not going to do handmade cards for Christmas...plus we had this cute little boy that we could show off...so we headed out to get some pictures done that we could put on a card. Deciding that was the easy part... having an active 1-year-old participate in the photos...not so easy.

Our good friend Jenny was great and worked well with Blake...even when we picked one of the coldest days yet to go out and get the pictures done. But we were quickly running out of time and really had no choice.

We think we got a ton of great shots and love how the card turned out... hope those who got one did too!!! Merry Christmas!

Birthday Boy

The Birthday Boy....

The theme of the party was "B"...we had B everything... Balloons, Bundt cakes, and a "B" buffett complete with bugles, Baby Ruth, brownie bites, bubble gum, blow pops....

These are the "birthday bundt cakes"...instead of cupcakes. This was a great idea at the start until I was at home (with the help of Auntie Laura) making all of these on Friday...

Present time!!

Blake's yummy cake made by our great friend Sue.

Our way of saying thanks to all those who came to the "bash"... Bubbles from Blake

We had a great day and most importantly it was a way to spend time with family and friends and really just think about the past year. WOW! We can't believe that a year has come and gone already. A year ago we honestly didn't know when we were ever going to get that call....and then we heard that a little one had been born and they wanted to hurry and get that baby connected with LDS Family Services... Well thank goodness they did because four days later that little baby was in our arms. The amazing miracle of adoption. And then a year later he is a walking, mumbling, ball of energy and we could not be more excited and happy to have him as our ONE YEAR OLD!

One year stats:
walking since 10 months
says - mama, dada, ball, nite-nite, bye-bye, barks (for doggie), blows kisses, waves goodbye
27.5 lbs, 31 in
pacifier only for naps and bedtime