News Article on Jackie and Chad

Here is an article about my brother Chad and his Wife Jackie. If you are looking to do some good this holiday season, please think of them. They are the most wonderful people you will ever meet. Jackie has had the most positive attitude throught all of this. I'm so lucky to have her in my family.

http://m.heraldextra.com/news/local/south/springville/springville-mom-thankful-for-support-after-open-heart-surgery/article_a5d9af6d-2476-52ec-a685-1935f1023175.html

The People in my Life

I've been thinking a lot lately about the people in my life and how blessed I am to know such amazing people. The last month and a half has been so crazy and I have learned once again how great my family is. Last month when I miscarried my family was there for me. My mom dropped everything she had to take me in for surgery. My brothers and their wives brought us dinner a couple of times and helped babysit Allie. My sweet sister in law Jackie watched Allie for me while she was taking care of her own baby, a sick husband and homework on top of that. She proved to me that she would do anything for family no matter what. And now we get to serve her. (More on that later.) During this time I also had my cousin Cristina have us over for dinner and a much needed visit. My best friends were there for me with phone calls because they don't live close by. My friend Lisa was there for me when I needed to talk or have a girls night and Cassandra took the time to call me from Guatemala to let me know she cared.

Two weeks ago my sister in law Jackie went in for emergency open heart surgery. This was a huge shock to all of us. She is 26 years old and is one of the most active people I know. Both our family and hers have rallied around to help her and my brother out. My mom has taken their 3 month old baby and taken care of him for 2 weeks. We helped Chad move most of their stuff in their aparment out over Thanksgiving break. My Uncle Steve and his family came down to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and help her out in any way possible. Despite Steve's own disability, he always goes out of his way to help anyone and everyone. He broke his neck when he was in high school and has been paralyzed ever since. During both these hard times, I've been reminded once again that when you serve each other you truely learn to love each other.

Now I know there is really no point to this post, but I just really wanted to let everyone know of the wonderful people in our lives. We are so blessed to have such a great support system in our lives. From family, friends, nieghbors, ward memebers, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I pray that everyone really think about the great people in your lives and let them know how much you appreciate them this holiday season. Thanks again for everyone who has help out or family throughout the years.

Halloween 2011

This year we had such a fun Halloween. It was Allie's first year going trick or treating. She loved it, especially the suckers. Matt got off work early that day and we took Allie to go trick or treating down Main Street in Springville. She loved walking to every store to get candy. After that, we went to Matt's parents house and had some dinner. Matt's mom makes dinner every year on Halloween for everyone. We went out trick or treating again after dinner. We didn't go to too many houses, but we went to my mom's house and a few of her neighbors. After we hit those houses, we drove out to Payson to get churrios at my aunt and uncles house. They were super yummy. On the way back from Payson my mom called and said that my sister in law Jackie's mom had a little Halloween gift bag for Allie. It was so nice of her to think of Allie. Our final stop that night was back to Matt's parents house. We stopped in one more time to say hi for a minute. We were out for 6 straight hours. Wow, what a night. I'm so glad that Allie was old enough this year to have fun.


Allie and Gage.


Treat or Treating on Main Street in Springville.


With Cousin Max on Main Street.




Knocking on Grandma's door.


Showing Grandma her loot!

Thanks!

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for us the past few weeks. I am doing really good and the surgery went well. I didn't have any pain this time around. We were very sad about this little lose, but we will just keep trying. Thanks again to my awesome family for all of the help they gave us. We love you all.

Halloween Party!

Last Friday Matt and I went to a Halloween Party at Rosalyn and Braden's house. We pigged out on lots of junk food and played a bunch of games. It was a lot of fun to get out to a party. Here's a few pictures of some of us that were there.

Thriller

October 15th was Matt and I's 7th Anniversary. We went out that night to Thriller and to Red Lobster. My cousins Dan, Amber and Felicia came down from Idaho and went out with us that night. We had such a great time. I can't believe we have been married that long. Crazy!!


Felicia was scared of the zombies!


Matt and I


Dan and Amber


Felicia and I

Jakers Pumpkin Patch

Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch.


At the pumpkin patch


Matt and Allie picking pumpkins


Mary, Amber, Jackie and Felicia

My Broken Heart

This past week has been a very sad one for us. We were planning on surprising our families on Allie's Birthday in a few weeks that we were expecting. A few days ago I started spotting and to my greatest fear I found out I was miscarrying. I had been to the doctor twice before for ultrasounds and had seen the heartbeat both times. This last time was different. No heartbeat. I was completly heartbroken. We were so excited for our growing family, but its not going to happen right now. I am going in this morning for a D&C. This will be my 2nd time getting one. I had one other miscarriage before Allie. I have had so much support from my family and my friends. They have made it all better. I just want to thank those who have helped me and prayed for us at this time. When I am feeling better, I will post pictures from our Anniversary and the pumpkin patch from last weekend.

Danny's Blessing

Yesterday we went to my nephew Danny's Blessing. He is such a sweet little guy and it was awesome to see my brother give his first son a name and a blessing. His name is Daniel Ray Peterson. Jackie's dad's name is Daniel and my dad's name was Ray, so he was named after both his grandpas. It was such a wonderful day.


My mom and her only grandson.


Jackie and I in our new dresses. We had a fun day of shopping.


Jackie holding Danny and Jack. Little cousins born 12 hours apart.

Lately

Now that summer is ending, life is slowing down a little. We have still been pretty busy on the weekends, but life is more relaxing now. A few weeks ago Allie and I went to Park City with Lisa and Renee and the kiddos to shop while the weather was still good. I started babysitting a little guy everyday so it was the last time for me to get away with just Allie for the day. I am babysitting for a family friends sister. She has 4 boys, and they are angels! They live in Springville and I go to their house in the morning to get the 3 older boys off to school, then I bring the little one home with me for the day. His name is Gage and he is such a good kid. I also babysit our friends Jeremy and Jackie's little guy Gavin a few days a week. It's been really nice for Allie to have some kids to play with, and I actually get a lot of stuff done around the house.

Now that Fall is here, college football has started. Now, for those of you who know me, know that I HATE this time of year. I hate that Matt is gone every weekend watching the games. I like to spend time with him and football gets in the way! I really do love playing football and going to the games, but I hate watching it on TV. Well, last weekend Matt's parents had an extra ticket to the game so I got to go with Matt. It was a lot of fun. BYU played horrible and they didn't deserve to win, but some how they pulled it off. It was just fun to be there and to visit with my nieces. Amanda was in town from California and Ciara was also there. So it was fun to catch up.

We've got a few fun things coming up. Next week is our Anniversary and we are going to go to Thriller with my cousins. Allie's birthday is in a month also, so we have a few fun things to look forward to including the holidays!


At the outlets in Park City


BYU Game


Babysitting. Gage, Allie and Gavin

Two More: An Adoption from Ukraine

A family member of ours, Marsh and Alisa Morford, are trying to adopt 2 kids from Ukraine. They have started this blog to raise money to be able to adopt a brother and sister. I would love it if you would read the blog. They are wonderful and would be a perfect family to welcome these 2 other kids into their home.

My cousin will be having a yard sale in a couple of weeks if you would like to donate any items to sell or just come that day. All the proceeds will go to the Morford's for their adoption fund. You can also donate money to them through their blog or even by contacting me. When I find out the date of the yard sale I will post it on my blog for everyone.

http://www.twomore.blogspot.com/

Here is their blog. Thanks!

Rascal Flatts!

On September 9th we went to Rascal Flatts with our friends Rosalyn and Braden. I have been dying to see them in concert for years so I was super excited when Rosalyn wanted to go. We got to see Sara Evans and Rascal Flatts. There was one other performer but we were late and missed them. One of the funniest things of the night was the drunk lady in front of us that kept falling down on people. I just don't get why people would want to get that wasted and not enjoy the show. We had a really great time!


The 4 of us






Rosalyn and Me


Rosalyn and Braden

Our Vacation!

I'm finally getting around to blogging about our vacation. A couple of weeks ago we went on a 9 day vacation and spent some time with my sister Anna and her family. We had such a great time. They live in Hermiston Oregon. Matt's parents were planning a vacation to see Matt's uncle up in Washington so they said we could tag along with them and they dropped us off at my sisters. The first night we cut the trip in half and spent the night at my Uncle and Aunts house, Phil and Diane, in Boise. While we were there Phil made us shakes in the Diner in the basement. It is a really neat diner. He put a lot of work into it.

Once we got to my sisters house we spent a few days there before heading to Portland and the Coast. We went to Voodoo Doughnut in Downtown Portland. I have been dying to go there for a long time and it was so much fun. They have been featured on the Food Channel and it was awesome to be there. After that we had pizza at a place that I remember going to with my family when my sister had her wedding reception up there a long time ago. It was fun to have those memories. After lunch we headed to the Coast to Cannon Beach. Matt and I have been there once before when we were dating so it was fun to be back. Allie didn't like the sand at first but she finally got used to it and had fun.

After a long day of traveling we drove up to Aberdeen Washington to Kasey's (my brother-in-law) parents house. We stayed there for 3 nights. While we were there Matt's parents met up with us so everyone could watch the BYU Game. We also went to the beach. We had a ton of fun playing, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and eating dutch oven peach cobbler. Of course we can't have a fun time without something going wrong. When we were packing up to leave, Kasey and his dad were pouring water on the fire. Kasey's dad thought that he had moved all the hot coals from the dutch oven over to the fire to pour water on them. While they were putting out the fire I was holding Allie's hand and noticed her shuffling her feet. She was standing on some coals. Of course I freaked out. She ended up being fine and only burned the bottom of her shoes. It really scared me but I was so happy when she was okay.

After 3 days in Aberdeen Matt, Allie and I went up to Seattle for the day to meet up with my cousin Debra and her family. I had never been to Seattle so I was really excited to go. We went to Pike Market. It was pretty crazy there because it was Labor Day, but it was exciting to be there. After that we went to the harbor to walk around and have lunch. We ate fish and chips at Ivars. I was soooo good. I wish that we would have gotten more of it to eat. There were a lot of seagulls by Ivars so we took the kids to feed them french fries. It was fun to throw them in the air and have the seagulls catch them in their mouths. After lunch we went over the the Space Needle. We didn't go up to the top, we just walked around. We had such a great time in Seattle. I hope we can go back again and spend some more time there.

To finish off the trip we spent one more night at my sister house and another one in Boise again. While we were in Boise we took my aunt Diane out to dinner. Her son Jeff and his wife Tricia came along with us. It was so much fun to catch up with them. We had such a great trip and will always remember it. A big thanks to Matt's parents for letting us tag a long with them I know they had a great time too.


Grandma Sumsion and Allie.


Phil's Diner in the basement.


Allie in the phone booth my Uncle Phil made.


Yummy malts!


All the granddaughters.


Playing at Anna's house.


Some Falls along the way to Portland.




Voodoo Doughnut in Portland.


Kylee and Kasey.


Yummy!!




Weirdos!


Allie's first time ever at the beach.






Anna and Kasey






Hanging on the beach.




Kylee and Savanna playing with us.


Allie getting smashed in the hammock!


Anna and me.


Family picture in the hammock.


Allie and I playing in the hammock.


Allie playing on the beach with her cousins.




Fire on the beach.


Allie got into the chips and then the sand.


Allie flying her first kite.


Smores at the beach!


The view out of our bedroom window at Kasey's parents house. Doesn't it look like something off of Twilight?!


At Pike Market in Seattle.


We went on a carousel ride.


Allie loved to see the seagulls.


Family picture at the harbor.


My cousin Debra and me.


Feeding the seagulls.


The Space Needle in Seattle.


At Applebees with Diane, Jeff and Tricia.


Allie's flower at Applebees.