Fairwell my little buddy (Derek)

From the day that Gunther joined our little family, he has brought a lot of love, entertainment, and annoyance. He did a pretty good job at keeping Lacie company while we lived in Kansas and he never failed to listen to my stories even when Lacie wouldn't. I loved the little guy and the energy that he brought in to our home.

A little while back we came to the conclusion that the time was coming for us to find him a new home. The decision was tough but we knew that it would be best for him if he had some nice little kids to keep him company without the interference of a puppy full of energy and a new baby. We posted him on Craigslist a little under a week ago with a description making it very clear that we would only let him go to a family that we thought would take great care of him as we both really do love him (although Lacie has been known to swear at him every now and again...or many times a day as he chews on the carpet). Yesterday I received a surprise email before I left work and it was from a nice lady telling me about how her daughter has been researching rabbits for months and finally convinced them to get one. The family came over this evening and spent an hour and a half playing with him. We are both convinced that the nine year girl will take great care of him and will give him the attention that he deserves and craves. Having said that, Gunther will be heading to a new home tomorrow and I will miss him very much but am okay with it as it will be very good for him.

Here are a few pictures to remember him by:

Here is Gunther chilling in his cage a week ago.

This is Gunther enjoying one of his favorites...paper. It wasn't too uncommon for him to come and take a bite out of a magazine or book as we were reading it.

It was pretty common to find Gunther in some pretty random places. He was always a curious guy with loads of energy.

So my little buddy...I bid you farewell and hope the best for you in your new home!

(Lacie was convinced that I was going to cry as I typed this. I'll admit it, I nearly did a few times.)

Oh the joys of pregnancy

Yesterday I had to run an errand down to Issaquah, which is about 50 minutes from our house. From there I decided to just drive a big loop and visit with my mom for a couple of hours in Monroe. I was in the car from about 10:15 am to 12:30 pm and by the time I got to my parent's house I had to pee really bad. I mean really bad. At the same time, my mom was down the hill at Fred Meyer waiting to pick my sister up from work. I wasn't panicking though because I have a spare key and was just going to let myself in. Well, I forgot that Derek and I had traded cars for the day, so I didn't have my keys, I had Derek's which doesn't have a spare house key on it. Still, it wasn't a big deal because I know the code to the garage and could then let myself in through the laundry room. I ran from the front door to the garage door, quickly typed in the code and waited for the garage door to open. I ran up the steps and went to open the laundry room door only to find out IT WAS LOCKED! Okay, now I was starting to panic because my mom was still about 20 minutes. I was able to hold it so much easier before I was pregnant but whenever my bladder is already full the baby seems to think it is funny to use it as a punching bag. I sat in my car and waited for about 10 minutes before I couldn't hold it any more. What does one do in a situation like this? Drive back down into town to find the nearest bathroom? Not me. Start knocking on neighbors doors that I hardly know to ask them if I can use their bathroom? No thanks! I went back in the garage very desperate and found my mom's gardening bucket. Yup, that's right folks, I ended up squatting over a bucket in the garage...with Peyton giving me crazy looks! Luckily my dad had some paper towels on his work bench so I didn't have to air dry. Thanks for the paper towels dad! Oh, and mom, don't worry because I rinsed out the bucket with the hose!

Happy New Year!!!

This New Year's Eve, Derek and I went down to Seattle to meet up with my friend Gina, his friend Shane, and Chad and Musashi. We spent the night playing pool and visiting, well at least up until 10:15. Hey, that is pretty late for me and I'm surprised I made it until then! We decided to head home, get into our pajamas and watch the ball drop on t.v. I know, very exciting...but you can't expect too much partying from a pregnant lady! I think the days of staying out until the bars close are behind me now.

2009 will be a big year for me and Derek, full of excitment, nerves, adventure, and I'm sure plenty of love and happiness. This will probably be the year where our lives will change the most as we will make the transition of a family of 2 to a family of 3. Along with our new little bundle, we will be making a big move across the United States for Derek to attend grad school. With these two big changes coming, I already am having numerous feelings of being excited, anxious, nervous, and a little overwhelmed. However, I feel so blessed that we will get to experience these changes together and am so thankful to be experiencing them with Derek!

Now I have never been the one to make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I thought I would make a couple and see how I did with them. The first one I made was to work on my patience. The second one I made was to be more experimental in the kitchen. At least once a week I want to venture from my comfort zone and try new meals that are just as healthy, but a little more creative. Derek mentioned that he is in full support of this goal!

Thank You!!

I just wanted to say, thank you Amberly for the wonderful Christmas presents! I especially loved the quilt you made for Baby Peterson! Homemade gifts from the heart are the best and baby will get good use out of it.I wanted to say thanks to Mom Peterson for all the Christmas presents! We especially loved the marshmellow guns! The girls had a lot of fun attacking the boys one night...the dogs loved the marshmellows as well:)

Despite being stranded at my parents' house for most of the time, we had a very nice Christmas with my family! Thanks for taking us all in and digging our car out of the snow mom and dad!!

A little bit of everything

I have a few things to blog about so I thought I would combine all the things into one giant post, so bare with me!

First of all, WE ARE GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!!! Derek found out yesterday that he was accepted into Johnson School of Business at Cornell University! He still has three more schools to hear from though so the final decision wont be until later. We are both very excited and Derek is also relieved that he doesn't have to fill out any more grad school essays. He celebrated with some wine and this is what ended up happening.

He ended up rollerblading in the house...and spilling my water all over the coffee table. Oh well, he was having fun!

So the last couple of days the Seattle area has gotten hit hard with cold weather and SNOW! We decided to head over to my parents' house Tuesday night so that Wednesday Derek could put the snow tires on my car. We want to go to Leavenworth this weekend and the passes don't look very good. Both Derek and my dad ended up working from home yesterday so we had a fun day at my parents' house making christmas cookies, hanging out, and watching the dogs play in the snow. Peyton absolutely loves the snow! When we got home last night she slept the rest of the evening all the way through the morning.

For those of you who no my sister, you will probably picture this next scenario better than those of you who have never met her. She came downstairs yesterday upon waking in her snowpants from about 20 pounds ago, a pair a boots that seemed a little to small, and her big coat. That in general was a little suprising considering Jenny isn't much of an outdoors person. She informed us that she was going to go outside to make a snow angel. Now this I had to see! Have you seen the movie the Christmas Story with the little boys? Enough said! Here is how to make a snow angel Jenny style:

1. Find the perfect spot in the hard and hope there is no dog poop, then lay down in snow angel position.

2. Spread arms and feet back and forth to make the snow angel.

3. Finish snow angel and then lay there for a minute to try to think of a plan on how to get back up.

4. Roll over on stomach and try to push yourself up.

5. Get up on knees and then try to stand all the way up with dogs in the way.

6. Fall back over and roll down the hill a little ways with dogs in your face.

Don't worry, she eventually got up and even had the energy to go through steps 1-5 again to make a second snow angel. Thanks goodness she didn't find any poop!

Oh, did I mention that Bella loves the snow too.

Yes, that is snow all over Bella's legs. My mom spent half the day defrosting Bella. It would get so bad that she could hardly move. I guess they got about a foot more of snow last night and Bella can't walk outside at all today.

The preggers picture take two (Derek)

Lacie's mom was getting after her that she should be gaining weight more quickly. If you compare the two pictures you may notice that in about an hour Lacie grew significantly when compared to the tree! Yes, there still is a tree behind her.

The preggers picture (Derek)

A few people have asked why we haven't posted the naked belly pictures on our blog. The answer is that we both think that it is somewhat odd that women love to take this considering they are at their plumpest during pregnancy. BUT since people keep asking...here you go!

(If you look closely you can see a Christmas tree behind her...I just got called a name for typing that. I sure do love my Lacie.)