My excuse: I am Spaghetti Sauce!

It's been well over a week since I posted last and I am sorry but I really do have a fabulous excuse! I have been sick...with morning sickness! Yes, that's right we are expecting our 4th baby in November! I also didn't want to do another post on here until I had told all my close family and friends first. We are so excited and can't wait to meet him/her! I found out about 7 weeks ago and of course I was dying to tell Chad first, but I wanted to be creative. So I made this fun DVD that showed me pregnant with Emma, then Taylor, and Chase. After it was caught up to our current time in life, along came a few slides of me in these pictures below...

He laughed and thought it was funny at first...

 Then he was confused...

 Then he said "Wait, Babe are you pregnant?" and I said "YESSS!" and he said "Oh crazy! That is awesome!"  

Here are some of the fun pictures that I had in the DVD that I gave to Chad and then the rest of the family...

This is Chad and I in Hawaii on our last vacation as adults before we had Emma. I was also 6 months prego here...

This is in the hospital right after Emma was born...

Once we took Emma home we spent a lot of time on this comfy Lovesac!

This was her birth announcement we sent out...

When Emma was 2 weeks old

3 months old

 6 months old...

1 yr old, also our first family picture...

Our family, Emma is almost 2! I am 3 months prego with Taylor here...

This was my baby shower for Taylor and it was 6 days before I had her! 

Taylor was born 4 weeks early and spent 7 days in the hospital before finally coming home. She weighed 4lbs. 6 ozs. and was 18 inches long. We brought her home at 3lbs. 11ozs. so needless to say, she was a tiny peanut! (Please disregard my lovely style in this picture but it was all that fit me that wasn't maternity clothes!)Taylor's onesie was a preemie size but as you can see it was falling off of her! She was as small as a chihuahua!

Emma really wanted to hold Taylor ALL THE TIME! She is my little helper.

2 1/2 weeks old!

This was our first sunday at church with Taylor only 3 weeks old! I was too paranoid of germs and having to go back to the hospital to ever get her out of her carseat though so we went home early.

This is a close-up of her on my lap...

 6 weeks old, after 3 years we moved from Lander, WY back to St. George to be close to family!

This is in St. George, Tay was 2 months!

Tay at 3 months old...

Tay at 4 months...

This is the last picture I have of Taylor with my Grandpa Thacker before he passed away. 

Tay at 5 months old and first Halloween...

Taylor at 6 months old...

Tay at 7 months old...

Taylor at 7 months old...

Tay, 9 months and Emma, 3 years

 Taylor at 10 months old at my Grandpa Thacker's funeral

 Taylor at 1 year...

I found this cute random picture of Emma at 3 1/2 with my friend Valerie's little boy, Stockton, we came to visit her and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Tay at 14 months...

Tay at 16 months...

 Tay at 18 months...

Emma at 3 1/2

Taylor at 20 months...

Our family before I got pregnant with Chase...

Taylor at 22 months...

 Emma at 4 we took her to see My Little Pony live in Las Vegas for her birthday and left Tay with Grandma! It was very special and she still remembers it!

Taylor at 26 months...

Me in Greece on our Annual Petersen Girls Trip at 4 months prego with Chasers!

Taylor at 2

 Emma at 4 1/2

While I was in Greece for 2 weeks Chad and Grandpa Pete took the kids to the Ranch in Idaho to do some fishing and have fun!

This was a fun girls dinner with my friends Alissa, Chelsea, and Valerie at Olive Garden to celebrate my friend Chelsea being pregnant and I think I was about 5 months here...

We celebrated my birthday in July at Chad's sister Robyn's house and I was 6 months prego here...

Tuachan with Chad on our anniversary in August at 7 months prego... 

 We came up to the ranch in September as a family when I was 8 months prego!

 This is at Linda and Gary's house about 4 weeks before I had Chase!

 Chase Tyler Petersen was born Oct. 20th, 2008 and weighed 5lbs. 2 ozs. and was 18 1/2 inches long!

 I could not believe we had a son! Yeah finally!

 Chad was instantly bonded to him!

 So was his 2 BIG sisters! Tay was 2 1/2 and Emma was almost 5! They love him so much that he really has 3 mothers!

 Chad was always wanting to help with him, Chase is 1 week old here...

2 weeks old...

Our first family picture of all of us! Chase was 2 1/2 weeks old...

Chase at 3 weeks old, so sweet boy!

 We went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving with all 28 Petersens and we stopped by an Anne Geddes store that had this tiny hat on a display and I couldn't resist trying it on Chase! Sorry bud! Chase was 5 weeks old...

Chase at 2 months old...

 Chase at 3 months old...

Chase's blessing day at 3 1/2 months old...

Chase at 5 months old in his white blessing tux outfit, my friend Jacklyn took these pictures!

 Chase at 6 months old...

 Chase at 7 months old...

Chase at 8 months old...

 Chase at 9 months old...

 Chase at 11 months old...( I loved his snarly look!)

Chase did a cute cake smash photo session with my friend Chelsea for his  year photo shoot! They were so cute! Here is her link to her photography website if you are interested http://www.clickclickphotography.com/blog/

So that's a mini-recap of the DVD I made and now the news is out and we are getting things ready for this baby to be here this fall! It's cool too because my sister in law is expecting close to the same time too so I will have someone to commiserate with! We are sooo excited!! :D

 How we told...

 This is also how we shared the news with close family and friends at Easter, we either had these cute plastic eggs filled with a little bootie and the note saying "Our "eggcitement" can't be matched, for in November a new little Petersen will hatch!"

 Or we gave these cute metal eggs I got at Krumpet's and attached the same note. Everyone seemed to like them so I was happy we told everyone in a semi-cute way! :D

Chase is so Handsome!

 I don't think I have ever seen a kid more in love with cars than Chase! He sleeps with them he bathes with them and he eats with them. So why not wear the car attire to Church? He was so excited and he looked adorable!

 See how funny he thought it was!

 My cute and handsome little guy! I love you bud!

Emma the Bunny!

 I bought this cute bunny dance set for the girls to wear to dance and they loved it! Emma was posing in it all day!

 First she did this...

 Then this...

 Then of course she shook her little bunny tail!

 Lastly, she had to do the bunny pose!

Emma's Theater Performance!

 Vista has a neat format for kids to be well-rounded and so part of that routine is to take part in a Performing Arts/Theater class. The do a few shows each year and this was obviously their last. She was so adorable and unfortunately I only took video of the actual 45 minute performance. She was so focused and did a great job and we are so proud of her! Her grandparents came also to support her and she felt so special!

 I distratced Chase for most of the show with a bag of skittles. As you can see here he is holding his hands out because they are now super sticky from holding them in his little hands for so long. I guess my kids can't handle feeling messy because I am such a freak about them being clean. Chase kept saying "Wash 'em off for me k?". So I gave him a tissue....

 Unfortunately it stuck the tissue to his hands and then he was mad he couldn't get it off! We went and washed them. Poor kid, I won't leave my wipes in the car next time!

 He is showing me, look they are all clean!

 Chad and his Dad...

 Our lil' fam! We brought Emma a pretty spring bouquet and a HUGE butterfly balloon and she was so excited! We love you Emma, keep up the good work girlie! (Can you tell how tired and sick I feel here? UGH I hope it goes away soon!)

Emma's Book Fair 

 Emma did awesome and scored a full 100% 10/10 A+ on her project! She did all the writing and all the artwork! Dad helped with the construction of the treehouse and I helped with my cricut by making the title. It was fun to do a project with her and she was so proud of it as you can see below!

Baby Bunnies!

  My friend Kally took us to see some cute little baby bunnies and my kids fell instantly in love!

 There was a lot of "Awwwwww" and "Cuuute" that was said.

 Tay was so careful not to drop or hurt them.

 They weren't old enough to be sold but they said in a few weeks they would be ready right before Easter.

Chase was a little unsure what to do with them but he was very interested... 

 He even gave one a kiss!

 He thought they were so funny!

and finally he touched one... 

 and the bunny survived a 2 1/2 yr old!

 Emma didn't want to let them go! I told her we might get them for Easter but later I decided against it, I hate the smell and mess! They were so cute though, very cute!

We also went and did another stop to see some baby kittens too and my kids LOVED them...and no we did not bring home a kitten! I am allergic, at least that's my good excuse! :D

Accident-Prone! 

 Poor littel Chase fell on the stairs, fell off my bed, tripped on the sidewalk, and fell on the ship slide at Pirate Island all in 1 week! I hope he gets over his clumsy spell soon, you'd think he was just learning how to walk! 

Surgery Day

 Tay and Chase both had to go in to have tubes put in their ears to help them not get anymore ear infections. Tay also had to have her adenoids removed to help her constant runny nose. It is a simple procedure but they do have to use anesthesia so we were a little worried that day! When we got there at 7am and checked in the kids each got a cute little bear to hold. It seemed to actually comfort them quite a bit!

 Tay kept tucking the limbs into the shirt!

 She really liked it!

 Chase was just wired that morning...

His mood completely changed once they walked into the back to be prepped before the surgery...

 Tay was scared too...

 So Daddy sat by her...

 Then they came in and took the kids and escorted us to the post-op recovery rooms. We only waited 15 minutes and Chase was done! 20 minutes later he was up and running around back to his old self! I couldn't believe how quickly he was back to normal! I sent him with Daddy to go get a donut while I waited for Tay to be done and they brought her out a few minutes later and she was so asleep! We ended up leaving 1 hour later and she slept the whole way home too! By that afternoon she was up running wild just like Chase. I was relieved that they weren't sad for too long! It has been heavenly to have this surgery over and see the positive results too! 

The Faux-hawk is gone!

I finally decided it was warming up and it was time to cut Chase's hair. So I buzzed it and I almost didn't recognize little Chaser! He looks soo much like Chad now it's crazy! 

Cousins Visiting

 Chad's brother, Jon and his family came down from SLC to visit and we had a blast with them!

 My nephew Nick blew bubbles for Chase and he really enjoyed chasing after them!

 He wanted a sippy cup but all I could find was this preemie baby bottle, and after 2 minutes drinking out of it...

 He bites the nipples clear off the bottle! It was funny but it's exactly the reason you don't give a bottle to a 2 yr old!

 We all went to go see the cute new movie "Rio" and I thought it was actually really funny!

12 of us went and almost took up a whole row at the movie theater! Good times!

 Emma loved it! We can't wait until they come back to visit so we can do it again! :D

Taylor's Preschool Easter Party!

 Tay and her best bud, Payten!

Eating a yummy snack... 

 Look how adorable the cupcakes are! It was super cute!

Old Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

 We had a blast at the Easter Egg hunt this year!

 Emma collected her share in record timing and helped Chase to gather his...

 Here is their loot...

 It was fun to see friends we don't see as much anymore since we moved!

 Chase was very happy he got so many treats!

Kody's Party

 My kids were invited to their friend Kody's swimming birthday party. It's funny because they were right by him the ENTIRE party! They love him so much! He is such a sweet little boy! Happy Birthday Kody!

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

I was in charge of doing the Easter Egg hunt for our new neighborhood and I made these little invites above with pastel pink paper and delivered them to 80 homes and voila, the party was ready! The morning of was hard because I was feeling sooo sick but I pulled it together and had some friends help me out and it turned out to be a great success! With their help, it was really cute and easy to do!

 Here is Tay getting ready to find her eggs...brrrr it was a little chilly for my chicken leg children!

 Chase was being very patient sitting on the curb waiting too!

 Emma instantly after this picture headed for my car to take apart her treasures in peace and devour the candy! She loves Easter!

 A shot of some of the attendees...

 the back of the crowd...

 the other side...

 some of the kids...

a close-up...

Easter!!!

Each year the Easter bunny comes to our house and leaves a candy trail from each bedroom to the kids baskets, this was Chase's that led to... 

 A car heaven basket!

The girls trails started upstairs in Emma's room since they were both sleeping in there...

and led downstairs...

 into the living room...

 and towards their baskets...

 where they found everything they asked the Easter bunny for, a Barbie secret movie, big fluffy bunnies, light-up twinkle toes, press-on nails, lipgloss, a tinkerbell game, and of course TONS of candy!!

 He also hid eggs in such creative places...

 like here...

 That morning you would think it was Christmas or something because Chad and I were woken up at 6:30am!

 After a lot of begging and dragging us out of bed we finally got up and let them follow their trails and hunt the eggs!

 Leave it to Emma to climb the rock pillars! It was so fun to watch them run all over searching for eggs! If only picking up their toys was this enticing, it would only take them 2 minutes to clean-up instead of 20! What a fun Easter! I'm glad that hectic week is over and I can begin the next one...

Monday BBQ night

On Monday we had a fun street BBQ where we each brought our own meet to grill and one side dish to share. The kids just played the whole time and it was soo cute to watch them with other kids! It was really yummy food and we plan on doing it each Monday until it gets too hot to do so...

 Chase had a blast in this of course!

Here are the girls eating their dinner with their little buddy Olivia! 

Vista Auction

Because I am the room mom for Emma's class, I was in charge of making a basket to auction off and all the proceeds go directly to Emma's teacher. I chose a "movie night" theme and was quite disappointed in the donations parents gave, out of 23 kids only 5 actually donated something! It worked out though because My friend Kally and I got together and bought some neat things to add to the basket and with the things that those few donated it turned out AWESOME! Every kid wanted their parents to bid on it so I was happy it turned out so cool!

 Chad was nice enough to offer to be the auctioneer for the event. He did so good and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! I was his little helper walking around helping bidders and organizing chaos.... I also was in charge of a face paint booth and so I had some cute neighbor girls come help out and watch my kids and fill in to face paint while I was busy. They were so cute and I couldn't have done this without everyone helping!

 It was pretty packed, almost 100 people came!

 Everyone became real familiar with bidder #194 (my mother-in-law) Taylor would just bid on anything she wanted. They ended up with 9 baskets!

 Here she is bidding away...

 I had my little brother Mike help me out and bid on the ones I wanted. I ended up with 5 baskets!

 This is another shot of the crowd...

 This is all the baskets at my house!

The themed baskets we got was a sports fanatic, a runners dream, Mommy-to-be, Violin set, picnic in the park, beach day, chocolate lovers, baker set, everything kids, cherry creek golfing, fitness, pool party, horseback riding lessons, Tuachan tickets, and I can't remember the rest... All I know is when we were loading up the baskets into Chad's truck some adults followed us out and said "Now just where do you think you are going with all those baskets?" and we replied "Home, we bought ALL of these." They were shocked to see 14 of the 30 baskets leaving with just one person! It took me 3 hours to separate them and put everything away but we got some really cool things and it was a fun experience to have Chad do the auction. I'm excited for the next one, we are addicted! Ha ha ha

Taylor is 5!

Taylor loves the new show "Bubble Guppies" and she LOVES to swim so we combined both for her 5th birthday party. I will be busy this week creating decor and ideas for her themed party because the show is too new to have any in stores to buy or online. This will be interesting and fun! We can't wait for Saturday to be here!