father's day

(BLARGH i look huge! i swear the shirt is not flattering...)

father's day this year was pretty unorganized and not at all how i wanted it to go. definately poor planning on my part as we got back to alaska late saturday afternoon and i didn't feel like making a shopping list up as i was BEAT from flying. but steve is rad and laid back and didn't complain. he already got his present 2 months before (dewalt tools from lowe's), so he wasn't expecting anything else. but me, being the crazied shopaholic that i am, bought him a few more things in park city with kristen while we were in utah. just the normal father's day schtuff; a few dress shirts and a nice tie. did i mention how bummed i am that they don't have a nordstroms rack in alaska?! anyways...

just wanted to let steve know how awesome he is and how seriously lucky i am that he picked ME to spend this journey with. such a great person all around who cares so much for others and loves life. he is so stinkin' patient with brynn and i that its unreal (especially with my crazied mood swings lately)! his devotion to our little family is so amazing and it seriously melts my heart at how much time he puts into making sure we are well taken care of.

he has such a strong work ethic and always goes above and beyond to set the bar high and let others that he works with know that they are appreciated. he understands my insane humor (and sadly, he has sank to my level of pure insanity...lol) and is just plain fun to always have around. he is so cute with brynn and has no problem at all changing diapers, giving her baths, and putting her to bed for me (which he does almost every night by himself so i can have a break!). steve is so kind hearted, a great listener, and never ever quick to judge others. he is always encouraging me to strive to be better and never gets frustrated with me when i fail. he is such a great son, friend, father and husband. always putting the needs of others before him and never ever complains about it.

did i mention i'm lucky to be with someone so perfect?

seriously. i love you steve.

thanks for you all you do. you are such an amazing person and everyone who comes in contact with you knows that.

utah visit

we left seattle on the 13th, and flew directly to salt lake city as steve's brother jared was getting married. like washington, our family had not been to the area for 2 years (except for steve staying a few days in logan back in december) so we were long overdue for a visit. we had a fabulous time seeing family, and a few friends (sorry to those i was not able to meet up with. it was a crazy busy week!) and didn't want to leave when the time came to go.

it was great meeting lisa FINALLY and for her edition to the family. she is an amazing person who makes jared sooooo stinkin' happy so we were all happy to see them get married.

it was great for steve and i to visit our old ward back in benson as well. we could not believe how fast everyone has grown up and to hear all the awesome changes that have gone on since we moved 3 1/2 years ago. i felt so OLD seeing all my little beehive girls, when i served in young women's, now going into their senior years in highschool and dating! so crazy...

i also had a blast returning to my favorite stores; tj maxx, ross, and downeast home. it was rather depressing going to downeast home as they had so many rad things from pottery barn that seriously is exactly what i'm looking for our home. but, there is no way i could get couches, ottomans, and decor here to alaska so i left the store angry! everything here in alaska is sooo expensive and i've had absolutely no luck searching craig's list and garage sales for things. oh well.

here are some of the highlights from our visit.

brynn and her cousins got into grandma peterson's costume stash and had a little parade around the house for us. brynn was in heaven playing with her older girl cousins.

cousins anders, josh, brynn, anson, reagan, maddie and soren playing life. (missing tre, erik, claire and megan)

peterson family+spouses posin' with jared and lisa outside of the logan temple. such a perfect day. (sorry dj and kristen about the lack of light!)

kristen and soren. the rest of the children (including brynn) were at grandma and grandpa's with a babysitter.

risk family. maddie, tre, dj, heidi, josh and reagan.

sweet picture of jared and lisa below the logan temple. seriously, the weather was amazing! they were so giddy and it made me sad to think i'm no longer a newlywed! ahhh, the days of being so in love!

stephenson family at the reception. jeff, erik, claire, janae and megan.

jared, claire, brynn and lisa. brynn was soooo excited to get her picture with lisa as she's been obsessed with marriage and pretty dresses lately. grrrr, she is getting into the whole princess obsession now and i'm not ready for it!

posin with cute cousin claire. claire was so cute with her the whole week and i really appreciated it as i didn't have to entertain her!

our little family at the reception. such a crazy long day with the marriage in the morning, a luncheon in the afternoon and a reception that night! but, it was great and we had a fabulous time seeing extended family and catching up with people.

again, i'm sorry i wasn't able to see all our friends in the logan/idaho area's. we plan to make it out to logan again in the near future, so we will definately see you all then!

washington visit

if you're wondering why i've been mia, its because we have been on vacation for the last 2 weeks visiting family in washington and in utah. and yes my stuff is still in suitcases... my mom graduated with her masters in nursing from the university of washington tacoma branch so of course we wanted to be there for her. it had been 2 years since i had been to washington state so it was awesome to get back to the area where i was raised and see family. it went really fast, and i feel like we should have stayed a few extra days as there was some drama and towards the end and i didn't feel great leaving while my family was going thru crap. BUT, we did enjoy our time there, and got to see most of my immediate family. brynn had a blast with her only cousin on my side (my brothers daughter ava) and it was really sad to leave without having them say goodbye to one another. well, at least alaska is a little closer to washington then germany...i hope to go back again soon and hope that the price of tickets go down! it's crazy expensive to fly out of alaska...argh!
rather then write a huge long post about what we did, i'm just going to post a ton of pictures as i still have to talk about our utah trip.

the first night we arrived (the 8th), ava had a little graduation from preschool. brynn was so excited to see her (last time they were together, brynn was 11 months old) and followed her around like a little dog. it's pretty funny as ava is a whole year older, and brynn towers over her by a good 3 inches. they played so well together! it's so sad that we don't live closer.

we met up with my dad at coulon park in renton the next day so we could feed ducks, let brynn play on the playgrounds, and soak up the beautiful weather. it was crazy hot for washington while we were there, so i spent a lot of the time in the shade as i'm SICK of multiple tan lines on my arms/forearms.

posin' with my dad. don't mind the weird sun patches all over. it was crazy hot and us honkies hid out in the shade to avoid getting fried. brynn wasn't too happy with all the picture taking, so she decided showing off her tongue was pretty cool.

i finally agreed to get a shot from the SIDE of my enormous belly. don't mind my facial expression...the sun was making me a little crazy. or was it that i was incredibly dehydrated? who knows...

another shot at 21 weeks. and no, i'm not smuggling midgets. but thanks for noticing! LOL!

ava, grandma, and brynn. we are so proud of my mom! she is such a hard worker and we were all so happy to be able to see her graduate with her masters in nursing. i think we embarrassed her a little when they called her name as our section went crazy and definitely won the loudest people award.

our family took a whole day on thursday to see the san juan islands up north. we spent most of our time at friday harbor browsing shops and laughing at each other. it was so great to be back together with my hilarious siblings! we all laugh at the same things, quote lame movies, and have no problem taking gay pictures while tons of people stare us down. we all despise the stupid "sorority" pose, as pictured above, so of course we had to take a few of those.

our little family on the ferry. i was a nervous wreck with brynn running all over the place as she is sooo dang klutzy so i didn't really enjoy the multiple ferry rides we took throughout the day.

many, jon and ava.

cute brynn and ava.

(the morning before these pictures were taken, my sister dyed my hair and it did NOT turn out right. so excuse my nasty pony tail. i hate when my hair is up, but i had to do something as we had a lot of family to see so i obviously couldn't skip out)
4 generation picture.

my cute, sweet grandpa maher and brynn.

my brother anthony, uncle jeff, and brother jon. doesn't my uncle look a little like brad pitt?! i think he does a little. he is soooo dang hilarious and about made me pee my pants a few times.

my siblings from oldest, to youngest. could you tell we were watching a little too much america's next top model? RIGHT.

the last night we were in washington, we got together with my dad, his wife hong, and half brother christopher for dinner. we had a few hours to kill, so i convinced steve to let me walk around southcenter in tukwila as it had been added onto since i had last been there. holy crap that mall is crazy huge! i wish i had more time to look at things before we met up with my dad for dinner.

not the most flattering picture, but its so us.

brynn started to get a little delirious, so we had to throw her around a little between pictures.

my half brother christopher, hong, dad and brynn. my daughter now refers to my dad as "grandpa duck" but that's a long story...lol.

we are having...

another GIRL! that's right! i was totally wrong. i was so sure i was having a boy as so many things this time around were happening quicker, differently (like having awful acne, not being as sick the first trimester, hair falling out, my butt starting to creep towards my front, etc) but that's not true. we are sooo excited and steve is thrilled knowing this time around, it wont be as expensive. he THINKS i wont buy any more clothes as i saved everything from brynn, but this baby is being born in a totally different season so i will have to buy a few things (july vs. october). and plus, its butt cold in alaska in the winter and the german winters were nothing like how it will be here. i'm so excited to use the maxi cosi (ok, that sounds like a friggin nickname for a pad!) car seat we got just before we moved and get a sleeping bag that fits it. i loved how the german babies looked so pimped out and cozy in the winters.

i'm so awful. i'm already looking at robeez's and pediped's online, thinking about all the bows i can make, and planning out how i'm going to revamp the nursery! its going to rock! hooray! now if i can just get steve on board...

backyard vistor

around 7:15 tonight, we had a backyard visitor. i was in the master bedroom talking on the phone to my friend when steve yells "there's a moose in our backyard!". so i freak out, tell my friend i have to go, get our camera's and bolt to the upper deck. there is a trail immediately behind our home that goes throughout the neighborhood and this moose happened to be taking a stroll down it eating plants as it went along its way. by the time i saw it, it was walking away from our home so we ran to our neighbors to get a better look in their backyard. i felt safe at their place as they have a fenced in back yard so we were able to get super close while being safe behind the fence. the moose was literally 10-15 feet away from us for a good 15 minutes so we got some got shots and held the kids up to see it. brynn was terrified and kept calling out to me to "come back mommy!" as i was up on the fence most of the time trying to get a good look. this was my first time seeing one and i was amazed! a lot of people say that they are ugly and weird looking, but this one looked pretty cool to me! it was so tall, curious, and totally chill with all the people gawking at it in their backyards and on the trail. i wanted to follow it down the trail some more as i was totally in awe over the fact that i was seeing a moose, but we had to think of our daughter's safety and all that boring stuff...lol.

and here you go! a belly shot! well, sort of...you can see my grey shirt poking forward towards the fence so that counts right?! and isn't it crazy how close i was?! this thing was massive! we took a few videos as well so let's see if i can get one to upload on here. i have always had problems in the past doing that...

and poor brynn! we just put her to bed and she's still traumatized by what happened! she thinks there is a moose in her room so we had to reassure her several times that there is no way it would be able to get in her room...so sad! i'm sure her seeing me get that close to the moose didn't help her. we did instill a fear of bears and moose in her so i'm sure she's a little confused and thinking we're hypocrite's.

"eggs-on-mah"

"eggs-on-mah". that's how brynn pronounces her new condition (eczema) that we just discovered she had last week. since moving to alaska, she has had really bizarre rashes that cover her body and its really been worrying me. i didn't even bother to make an appointment for her on base right away, (yes, i'm a bad mom) as i was sure it would eventually get better. i've had many experiences where i have brought her in, and the doctor would treat me like a total IDIOT as what she had was something that just needed time to heal/get better. i'm seriously not one of those moms that FLIPS when my child has a little cough either and has the doctor on speed dial. i just assumed she ate/came in contact with something that produced these crazy hives. well, after a while they started to spread and get real nasty behind her knees and in the creases of her elbows. it looked so awful! i felt so bad for brynn as she scratched at these areas and complained of them hurting. i never thought it was eczema as it wasn't dry, so i didn't really believe our neighbor (who is an allergist!) when he told me that's what she probably had. so i made an appointment on base, only to find that the wait was 2 WEEKS! so they referred me to an urgent care clinic in anchorage and we waited there for 2 hours and were finally seen. this is also the place where when they called us back, referred to brynn as "burn avery peterson". WTF?! i have had many people mispronounce her name (ben, bryan, bwen) before, but this was name was a first! so anyways...

the air here in alaska is crazy dry so this is normal for children/adults to have skin conditions when they first move here. i never thought of alaska as being dry as its next to the ocean, so i always assumed it would be a little humid if anything. so we are now slathering BURN with cetaphil (oh how i love their stuff! it's awesome) cream 24-7, and using their soap bar to help with the dryness. they also gave us a few tubes of hydro cortisone cream to use twice a day to help with the bumps. it's helping a little, but i still finding myself telling people "oh, don't worry! those bumps aren't contagious!" whenever i see people look at her arms and legs. its been amazingly warm here (warm, being in the high 60's and low 70's! this is unreal this time of year) so she is always wearing shorts and tank tops so she doesn't overheat. brynn is always sweaty and burnin' up as she's always on the go so i try to make her as comfy as possible.

on another note, we find out tomorrow what we're having! i hope the little fetus cooperates and shows off her/his goods as i'm anxious to know what's brewing inside of me!! i'm having a killer time coming up with names so i need all the time i can have to think things over. also, all these sales at gymboree and baby gap are KILLING me as i can't just go and buy things yet! wait, i take that back. i have bought a few little outfits for both genders (i'm awful, i know) just in case. if i end up having the opposite sex, i can always send the others off as gifts to my friends as everyone and their mom have had/are having babies. i'm telling ya people, don't drink the water! it's tainted everywhere!

i promise i will take some belly shots soon and post them on here. i meant to after church on sunday, as i wasn't looking like hot butt for once, but i decided to crash as soon as i got home and get into steve's old sweats as primary just about killed me. or maybe it was the uncomfortable heels that i wore that gave my bloated feet crazy indentations? i so need to find shoes that last longer then 15 minutes...*sigh.