Mr & Mrs Peters

What a year it has been! It brings me a lot of joy to look back on the year and all the wonderful blessings we received.

January

We visited Bryant and Amy in Utah and enjoyed the snow…

February

Bryant and Amy found out they were pregnant. Yay!!

Biola celebrated it’s 100th anniversary. My parents took us as their guests to the Centennial Gala.

March

Justin and I both had our birthdays… Our gift to each other was new couches!

Skyla enjoyed the nice Spring weather.

April

We celebrated Mom and Donna’s 50th birthday with a fun night at the Pirate Dinner Extravaganza and a party at our house.

My girlfriends and I celebrated Kelly’s birthday with a wine tasting mini-weekend in Temecula. Way too much fun!!

May

The entire (well, almost) Peters Clan met up in Oklahoma for a reunion. It was beyond amazing and we routinely think back to all the fun memories from that trip.

All the cousins at Chili's

Justin and Bryant visiting their Grandpa's grave.

Amy and me with Grandma

June

Dad’s Birthday!

July

Sheri and I threw a baby shower for Amy.

Justin and I had a great time at a wedding with friends on the 4th of July.

Justin built a wall in the front yard.

August

We flew to Utah to help set up the baby’s nursery.

Putting together the swing... only 2 months to go!

The boys building the crib in the living room

Jim & Stacey came to visit from Washington and we went to an Angel’s game with Jim, Stacey, Ben, and Chris.

September

Liz & Sam were married in a beautiful beach ceremony. We enjoyed goofing around during the reception with Justin’s former roomie, Jaime.

Jaime is still bitter that I stole Justin from him!

We celebrated our anniversary with a trip to a luxurious resort in the desert. (Thanks, Hilton discount!!) On to year number two of wedded bliss!!

October

On the 20th, our nephew Stone Creek Peters was born. We both cried hearing him scream over the phone. It was really hard to wait a month to meet him, but we were thankful for cell phone photos along the way.

On Halloween our Grace Group joined us for treats! Brayden, our nephew, dressed up as the world’s cutest skunk…

November

Finally, we got to hold little Stone in our arms!

For Colleen’s birthday we all made a trip to Palm Springs to relax, shop, and eat some great food! We all had such a wonderful time, and were sad to come back to the “real” world.

December

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season with family and friends…

We look forward to a wonderful 2009 and cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for us. We pray that you and your families have a safe and peaceful New Year’s Celebration!

Yesterday one of my dearest friends left for a trip that will take her far away from Cali for quite some time… (do you like how dramatic I am being??)

Chloe, or, (as many an old lady has mistakenly called her) “Cleo” is moving to Nashville for a 5 month internship at a local hospital. She has worked so hard in her journey to become a Child Life Specialist, and I am beyond thrilled that she scored an internship at one of the nation’s top hospitals! This does not lessen, however, the amount of my sadness I feel knowing that my life will be temporarily Cleo-less…

Who else will laugh at Kelly with me? (Well, that’s a trick question, because I could find just about anyone to laugh at Kelly with)
Who else will mock Megan and Kelly’s obsession with fitness/eating healthy with me?
Who will I gab about Jennifer Aniston’s latest boyfriend with?
Oh gosh, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that American Idol starts up again soon and now I won’t be able to fully discuss the weekly on-goings with her.
Wow, this is worse than I previously thought.

Cleo, come home!!

Oh, wait… I just realized that I can do every single one of the above items on the phone! Thank God for cell phones!!

I am fortunate enough that my office has its own heating and AC controls. Theoretically, I can make the office any temperature I want, and no one else can/will complain. I am a pretty easy person to make happy and therefore I don’t even really use the AC or heating… I just like knowing it is there. Today, however, I decided I would bump up the heat a bit since it is pretty chilly outside. I turned the knob thing to the low 70’s and waited for it to kick into gear. An hour later, no heat had ever turned on… I figured that it must not be as cold in my office as I thought it was. Later on I was freezing and thought, “Well, maybe I will try bumping it up to almost 80, just to see what happens.” Again, no heat came on.

Yeah, apparently these fancy heating contraptions have on and off switches. Oops. Once I turned the dial away from ‘off,’ the heater kicked right on.

I am currently sitting in the living room surrounded by a bare Christmas tree, boxes filled with ornaments that have no use until next December, and all the “normal” living room decorations that are waiting to be placed back in their spot of honor. Skyla is sleeping sweetly by the fire and Justin is away at work, making me money. Do you think I could find someone to pay me to clean up the rest of the Christmas decorations?

I spent the day with my sister and her husband, checking out their new apartment and going shopping. I made them dinner in their new kitchen and managed to spill food on the floor 3 times. (I like to think that they will invite me back, although maybe only if I bring them a new rug… Theirs may or may not have a stain thanks to a certain guest cook). Fran and I got some great deals on home stuff- candles and pillows and frames, etc. It makes it a little less sad to take down the Christmas stuff now that I have a few new additions for the room!

In just a few days it will be 2009. This year Justin and I are going to Mexico, learning to play tennis, and finally going to finish the sprinkler project (at last!). Justin will hit a milestone when he turns a certain age in March (I won’t say the number, but it rhymes with ‘dirty’).

I’m not in the mood for an official Sunday Six this time around, but I am so thankful for the wonderful Christmas Season that has just finished. Justin and I agree that it has been the best ever. Later this week I will share an embarassing moment from a gift exchange with ya’ll… Stay tuned!

When I left for work this morning it was 35 degrees outside, Justin was sleeping soundly in our nice warm bed, and I was desperately trying to remember why I didn’t request today as a vacation day. I still haven’t quite thought of a good reason, other than that I am trying to save up days for our trip to Mexico next year. I am sure I will be thankful when the trips comes that I was diligent about going to work, but right now all I can think is, “Screw Mexico… I want to sleep!”

On a more cheerful note, Justin and I had an amazing Christmas. We spent time with family and ate lots of yummy food. This is the very cute Miss Skyla on Christmas morning, enjoying her nap in front of the fire….

Tomorrow Justin and I celebrate and remember the day that our Lord and Savior came to Earth in the form of a little baby. Eventually, that baby grew up and in obedience to the Father, died a horrific death on the cross. In doing so, He took the punishment for every sin that you or I will ever commit. By dying on the cross, and rising from the grave three days later, Christ paid our debt and made it possible for us to be in Heaven for all eternity with the Father. What a gracious and merciful gift! All we have to do is believe that Christ is the Son of God, that He died and rose again, and we are saved!

One aspect of Christmas that I love is the beatiful carols. My favorite is O Holy Night, and I have posted part of the song below. It is my hope this Christmas that you will take a moment to think about what Jesus came to earth to do, and what we celebrate on the 24th & 25th. I hope that this song can help you imagine just how beautiful His gifts of eternal life and peace are. Merry Christmas!

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviour’s birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels’ voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

Between the new job and the Christmas rush that seems to be taking over my life, I haven’t been able to blog much lately. I miss writing, and once my mom said she was having “blog withdrawls” I realized I needed to step back up to the plate!

Please forgive my not posting this on an actual Sunday, but I will give a quick rundown of my Sunday Six from this last week.

1. My presents are all purchased and (mostly) wrapped. I went to the grocery for the final time last night, and Lord willing, I will not go back until after Thursday!

2. Saturday was Stone’s 2 month birthday. Amy says he is growing bigger by the day and I am so thankful that he is a healthy baby. I miss them so much, and wish that they were going to be here for Christmas.

3. I have started to make “friends” at my new hotel. I am now at the point where interactions aren’t as weird, and I am getting to know people’s personalities. I still got called “H.R. Girl” today, but at least some people know my name

4. Yesterday we had the pleasure of celebrating our friend Nick’s birthday with his family. I have known Nick and Alicia for 10 years and am thankful for their friendship and all the special memories we have together.

5. I got to see Disneyland at Christmas this year! On Friday night I visited the park with my Dad, Colleen, and Becky. We had a great time and saw the parade, fireworks, and even managed to get on a few rides. Thanks again guys!

6. Tomorrow my little sister Allie comes to CA to visit for Christmas. My mom and I are very much looking forward to seeing her… Also, I look forward to my obligatory older sister torment sessions… This time around I plan to harass her on the following subjects: her boyfriend, her boyfriend, oh, and did I mention… her boyfriend?

On a side note:
Do you ever feel like this is your life? Thankfully, I don’t have any “hungry enemies” at the moment (that I know of), but I know I sure have felt like this poor hampster before!

Fool me once, shame on you…
Fool me twice, shame on me.

Do you ever do something that just really makes you feel, well… stupid?
Every morning I take my pills along with my bowl of cereal. I will admit, most days I am in a rush and often forget to completely twist the lid of my enormous jar of multi-vitamins back on tightly. About 6 months ago I had an “accident” where I dropped the jar as I was grabbing it, and as the lid wasn’t completely on, vitamins went EVERYWHERE. I felt silly, but promised myself that it wouldn’t happen again. After all, we all make mistakes every once in a while. Then it happened again about 2 months ago. And, you guessed it, guess what flew everywhere this morning?

I often joke about being a klutz and always running into things, hitting my head on lamps/walls/etc., but I do genuinely get frustrated with myself sometimes. It seems like I can’t go a day without tripping, or getting a new bruise, or spilling food EVERYWHERE. My poor husband deserves a medal for the messes he has to help me clean up in the kitchen.

I know there are worse character traits to have than klutziness, but I wish I was more “graceful.” Maybe I can blame this all on my parents, for not sending me to some sort of finishing school. But, in their defense, they did send me to ballet and that normally helps kids with the whole coordination thing. I suppose I will just have to live with myself the way I am… Or, maybe we will just baby-proof the house a few years early. Our friends have special foam pads on the corners of all their furniture, and right about now, those are sounding like a lifesaver!

We are less than 2 weeks away from Christmas which means that if your life is anything like mine, your schedule is jam packed with many an event to celebrate the Season.
My Sunday Six are easy to pick this week as I had a weekend filled with fun gatherings.

1. We had a nice dinner at Nick and Alicia’s on Friday night. She made us yummy steak and apple pie, and we played several rounds of Taboo. That game is too much fun!!

2. I love receiving Christmas cards! I also love sending them out, and really the only thing I do not like about Christmas cards is having to lick the almost 100 envelopes. Yuck!

3. In the upcoming weeks, many of my friends are going to be heading out around the world. Megs leaves for Costa Rica in something like a week, Clo leaves for TN and her 5 month long internship right after Christmas, and Kel goes home to Colorado for the holidays on Wednesday. The 5 of us got together on Saturday morning to have an official Christmas gathering as well as to say “goodbye” to Chloe. As usual, we laughed hysterically and caught each other up on funny stories.

4. Saturday night I attended our church’s Christmas Concert. There are so many talented musicians in our congregation, and I was blessed by the meaningful songs that were chosen. After the concert our Grace Group gathered at the Haugen’s house for dessert. I love my fellow Grace Grouper’s… they sure are a hoot!

5. This morning was Paige’s (my cousin’s wife) baby shower. Little Charlotte is due in mid-January. It was so fun to see all the super-cute presents she received, as well as to spend time with my family.

The women of the family, minus Patti, Laurie, and Allie.

6. Tonight I returned to my old church for their annual Living Nativity presentation. Mama Coco played the keyboards tonight, and Frannie Pannie sang in the special ensemble… she even had a solo!! (My poor father and I are the non-musicians in the family) I really miss COD, and it was so nice to see friends that I haven’t seen in what feels like ages.

We got our Christmas tree last night and set everything up, and thus my decorations are finally complete. I am IN LOVE with our tree this year. More pictures to come, of the rest of the house.