Christmas Eve

Just a couple of my favorite pictures from our Christmas Eve afternoon with the family. Mom and Aaron during the sibling gift exchange.

Grandma Petersen and Grandma Nichols after the program.

Meagan - the child that will NOT leave a bow in her hair, but loves sheep ears.

Halloween Ambers style

As you can see, Meags and I had a dashing time coming up with our costumes. At first we were just going to be tropical plants, but hoisting HUGE plants on our backs proved to be dificult(even with moms expertise). So we then resorted to being ivy. But since we did our make-up and hair all fancy, we apparently looked like wood nymphs, which is incredibly more intriguing. Leggings: $5, King size pillowcases: $7, Ivy: Free(because of course, mom just happened to have BAGS of plants stored away for occasions such as this. And i wonder why she keeps things like silk plants that are in scraps???) Basically the cheapest costume that resulted in the most original costume of all!! You may wonder why we are dancing in some of these photos--simple. Wood Nymphs enjoy frolicking, but its kind of tricky catching the magical essense in still frames. Climbing the tree and laying in the grass were mother dearests ideas, which ended up turning out the best shots. I hope you all had a wonderful halloween. Enjoy! I love you all :)

William's Birthday Party

We made the cake the night before and the boys (especially Burke, as you can see) really enjoyed it when I gave them a beater to lick. Burke just had this mischevous grin after he did this to William.

Will's friends Mads (pronounced mess), Olivia (Mads and Olivia are cousins). and Isabella. Isabella is actually the daughter of Don's cousin's wife's brother, so we have a family connection in Copenhagen--who wouldv'e thought? William loves all of his friends, and gets especially hyper with Isabella. Maybe because she also speaks English, I don't know. We think William thinks all the Danes around him are speaking in jibberish. When he runs and plays with his Danish friends and they speak to him in Danish, he'll occasionally yell something back in total nonsense syllables. It's hilarious.

We're calling it a Desi Sandwhich.

ITS A BOY! The little guy finally decided to reveal himself. Tallon is over the moon- "Its NOT a girl baby, the Doctor said so, its a BOY baby...IT IS!!!" I think he thinks we're going to change our minds.

PEACE!!

(PS Sorry to be such a blog hog)

Happy Mother's Day!

To our FANTASTIC Mom, and all of you WONDERFUL sisters who are also fantastic mom's. We love you and are thinking of you today!

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WITHOUT THIS

Beautiful Garden

Everyone calls yards gardens here. So here is our "garden". I guess President Engbjerg, who owns this house, had just finished landscaping this lawn when he was called to be a mission president. And everyone says it is probably a little hard on him to not be here to see it now. From what we hear, he was a perfectionist and would be down on his hands and knees to make sure things were perfectly level, and just so. We are definitely enjoying the fruit of his labors. He's even raised the back lawn up by 18-24 inches so that the ground would be drier. It does make an amazing difference. We were in the back yard of a neighbor and friend in the ward that live two doors down, and their backyard was kind of muddy, where ours is really pretty dry. It makes it nice for our boys to be able to go out and play. We just hope we can keep his gardens in decent shape for the Engbjergs while they are gone.

Tivoli

Tivoli is like Disneyland, Botanical Gardens, an outdoor Concert venue (every day), a state fair, a restaurant megaplex and the Bellagio Fountains, all wrapped together in a tiny package. It is pretty small relative to American entertainment parks, but they manage to pack a lot into it and it is beautiful and so fun. There are gorgeous flowers everwhere you go. There are 40 restaurants and food stands, ranging from hot dogs and hamburgers to expensive Italian or traditional Danish cuisine. You can also bring in your own food, which will be doing most of the time. Last night we ate there--hamburgers and hot dogs, drinks and fries for only $50! Yikes. There are beautiful places to eat or just to sit and enjoy the weather and surroundings, like below.

There is four or five really fun rides, comparable to Disneyland rollercoasters, and the Magic Mountain Free Fall. There are plenty of little airplane rides, boat rides, vintage car rides, bumper cars...things for our kids to do. There was a ride similar to It's a Small World at Disneyland. Will loved this ride (in the picture) with his dad. We thought he might be a little nervous because it went high in the air, but he loved every second of it. The little girl next to Don was so cute. I don't know where her parents were, I never saw them, but she did this ride atleast three times in a row, and that's just what I saw. She would get off, go to the back of the line (which was very short), and was able to get right back on. Then she'd just scream on the ride. It was cute to watch. There are also all sorts of carnival games (shooting a target, throwing balls, skiball) where you can win prizes.

This might have been my favorite part of the night. It is about 9 pm in this picture--amazing how light it still is. The orchestra was playing a medley from My Fair Lady and they sounded really good! It felt so cheerful. The stage and the flowers are so gorgeous, and the weather is unbeatable. About a five minute walk from this stage was another stage where a big band was playing the coolest jazz music. The atmosphere was just so charming. Don and I bought season passes, so my thought is we have really cheap date nights for the whole summer. Just come here and listen to these concerts. Both the band and the orchestra play almost every day, and from June-August there are daily concerts from a Boys Guard Band, also. There are rock concerts every Friday night. There is a light, water, laser and music show every night, but since it doesn't get dark until late, that show is at 10:30 pm. Hopefully our kids will stay up late enough at least a couple of times to catch the show. They have special engagemens, and the New York City Ballet will be performing here for six nights in September. There is a pantomime theater with shows every day. There is also a 100 foot long aquarium here (the longest saltwater aquarium in Europe) and you can watch them feed the fish every day. There is also just a big playground with slides and a long air filled bouncy thing. This place is amazing. From how long I have ranted about it, I am sure you can tell I'm pretty sold on it.

What a fun family!!

Desi is such a climber.
She loves the pantry and if I don't tip the ladder over, she manages to get herself into such precarious positions - as you can see!
A trip to Disneyland with Melissa, Amber, Audrey, Braelyn and grandma. Launch in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
and they were off on California Screamin'.

A unique use of the neck pillows I put in the backseat for napping. I think they were in some kind of "weird" concert.
Tallon LOVES his pasta!!

Angela came to pick up Tal and Desi for the day. She already had Alan's kids and the sheer number of little bodies in this car just called out for a picture.

Spring in Denmark

William is IN LOVE with his new dollar store sunglasses. Doesn't he look happening?

Spring is coming in Denmark! Yea! I know you all won't believe this, but the other day I took the boys to the park. We kept our hats and jackets on, but were very comfortably warm playing outside for about 2 hours. I came home and checked the temperature...it was only 45 degrees outside! I can't believe I thought 45 degrees felt warm. I thought I only had Arizona blood inside of me, but it looks like the Danish Petersen blood is showing through. You can see Burke's handiwork of all the petals he'd pulled off that flower, littered on the ground. We've got to keep him away from the flowers!

This is a picture from a geneology trip we took with Don's parents two weeks ago. This was actually a detour we took to see this famous point in a town called Skagen where every house and business and building is painted yellow. This picture is where two bodies of water, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, meet in a point. It was kind of cool to see the waves coming in towards eachother and meeting up.

Easting the Easter goods. I bought the only actual Easter candy they had, stuff that was shaped like eggs and bunnies. I didn't even think about what kind of chocolate it was. Later I realized it was the really good, expensive chocolate, like Lindor and whatever else. My kids better not get used to this, because when we get back to the states, we are going back to the Hershey's!

And for those that haven't heard--we are expecting a baby in October, around the 21st! These Danes are going to think I'm crazy having three kids so close. They space theirs out by three or four years usually. Anyway, sorry I couldn't tell you all in person, but we hope you check this, or hear somehow. We love you all and miss you!

Easter Egg Hunt

Here are a few pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt. It was a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous, the hunt was lots of fun and the food was perfect. We absolutely love getting together at the Petersens. Family is amazing. Thanks to Mom for all her work. It was a perfect day. We just missed Amy, Don, William and Burke.

Easter Egg Hunt