Sunday, January 2, 2011

See you next year...

wowsers! times is a crazy thing my friends! i can't believe it is 2011. it's going to take me at least 3 months to stop writing 2010...and 2011 just sounds more spacie to me, like we're now living in the future or something.

anyway i have a lot of catching up to do...this may be the longest post ever, so grab some popcorn....older people always say the holidays are a busy, crazy time...i didn't agree till this year [which makes me older i guess] as a child i never realized how much work my parents went through to make my holidays a happy time. i got very behind on my blogging because there was just too much to do and not enough time to do it!

matter finished up his fall sememster and did super well. he was quite nervous about his econ class. he needed a B in that class in order to get accepted into the business college at weber. he work extremely hard all semester long and it paid off! he passed every single class and got the B he needed. merv and i are so so proud of him! he is all registered for spring and is on track to graduate in spring 2012...then who knows where the road will take us!

matt and i really enjoyed our first Christmas together! i loved coming home to a lit tree in my window [not nealy as much as merv enjoyed the tree though], making homemade stockings, and playing Christmas music 24/7. we also loved participating in the hunt pageant! i have been in the pageant as long as i can remember and this was matt's second year. he got promoted to a wise man! other Christmas activities included the eclipse Christmas concert, a Christmas eve breakfast with friends, the john schmidt Christmas concert, and of course a heart-healthy dose of family gatherings!

making stockings

merv's wasn't quite finished at this time of this photo...we ran out of hot-glue!

our first tree!
can you spot the tree gnome?

merv spent most of his free time perched in our tree

cutest decoration ever!

wise man matt and shepherd ash

needless to say merv took great pleasure in maiming the gifts

merv enjoys Christmas

Christmas morning

merv opening his stocking

matter is enjoying his new "chore" hat, comfy pants, and fresh mountain dew shirt, merv can't get enough of his special-formulated kittie milk and his new peacock-feather toy, and i am lovin all my andes mints, my new coat, and my new messenger bag.
peacock-feather toy

chore hat? and the old mountain dew shirt that was replaced


Christmas is my favorite season because it seems like it's easier for us to forget about the worldly differences and recognize that we are all family... all God's children. i love the spirit i feel during this season and the hope it gives me that there are still so many good things happening in this crazy world.

happy new year world....a day late.

we had our great pals over new years eve and it's official...we are all old fogies since we got married! we made it to about 12:30 and party was over and bedtime was initiated. our priorities have just shifted a little and sleep has moved up the list...call me crazy but i thoroughly enjoy sleeping!  it was still a slammin party though haha we partyed it up with food, despicible me, scribblish, cuponk, food, scrabble slam, nintendo, and food.

it was really nice having some time off for new years to spend with matt and mervie. we had a snow day new year's eve day. it was quite frigid and the snow wasn't as packable as i would have hoped, but we still enjoyed ourselves and it gave merv a chance to wear his new coat. we tried making a snow man, but it was pretty much a powder pile...we even tried to add some package by pouring water on it, but in the end it was still just a pile of powder. we did accomplish snow angels and our names though. i am not sure what merv thought of all the snow...he loves being outside but i am sure that love was battling the fact that his toes were freezing. every time i went to put him down his toes would fan out and recoil...i think he warmed up to it though. he loved trying to catch the powdery snow as i tossed it around. he was quite tolerant of his new coat....outside....once he was inside it was a different story:
me and merv playing in the snow

majestic snow merv

matter and mervie shoveling the walk

merv watching matt shovel the walk once his toes got too cold

merv's true feelings about his new coat

when we put the hood on merv pretty much became incapacitated...


the petersons have spent the last week thinking of the things we would like to work on this year. matter and i are very different in the way we set goals. matt is far more realistic than me and likes to set precise goals that he knows are perfectly attainable. i live in a bit more of a dream world...i like to aim high [most often unrealistic] and i figure that if i fall short of my high goals, i will still be sitting pretty good because they were high to begin with. neither of us can stand the way the other sets goals, but we laugh about our differences and i can truly say i find joy in our differences...most the time. here are a few of our res-o-new-tions [i figure putting them on the blog will allow you to harass us when we are slacking] :
matter:                                                                                  
1. get all A's and B's [nothing lower than a B]                 
2. go to the gym 3 times a week                                   
3. no pop at all...with the exception of 1 pepsi throwback on sundays

ash:
1. cook one made-from-scratch meal twice a month
 2. go to the gym 5 days a week
3. go to the temple each week 

merv:
1. kick biting

matt and i are competing in biggest loser....schneider edition. we weighed in tonight and will go till april 2nd. there are 9 competitors and at the end we will weigh in again and the loser with the highest percentage lost will take home the pot.  shortly after the weigh-in matt and i came home and trashed the temptations...which unfortunately contained wonderfully tasty delights:
garbaged treats...who know why i can't get this picture to flip the right way!
so matt and i got gym memberships for Christmas so i decided i wanted to store our treadmill downstairs. i told matt we could wait until he had another buff guy here to help him, but he, for some unknown reason, felt that i would be adequate enough for this task. so i joined in his confidence and we began to hull this masssive piece of equipment towards our stairs of death. for those of you who have not been to my house, i will explain as well as i can. leading down to our basement our somewhat spiraled stairs that grow thinner on the left side as they descend...observe object A:
spiraling stairs of death
 so we measure the treadmill at its widest point and then measure the space we have to cram it through...both equal 29 inches....matt assures me this is a feasible task...i have my doubts. so we somehow manage to struggle it through the first set of stairs...this taking about 20 minutes...we then get it lodged over the second set of stairs...that's right folks...stuck between the foundation wall and the little white wall. 
lodged treadmill
this all started out quite pleasant, but at this point matt and i are both highly frustrated, sweating our guts out, and about to rip each others faces off.  matt was losing his temper and i was yelling and laughing at the same time because i had crossed the line of sanity and was practically delirious. matt suggested we leave it, lodged in our stairway until he could disassemble it. i didn't love this idea because we couldn't get down to our laundry with it there. we decided the best thing to do was to take a breather and cool off. when we came back we gave it the biggest push we could and..... long story short...we somehow shoved it through that terrible place and now it's living in the basement! even though we just about reached our frustration limits, we are laughing about it now....good times.

well hopefully you made it through that forever-long post awake. i hope to keep more on track with the blog this year....cross your fingers!



Monday, November 29, 2010

home to snow

the petersons are back in hooper....with merv. we had a super great time in colorado springs with matter's parents and his sweet sister jen and her family. jen made a fabulous thanksgiving dinner and matt and i couldn't get enough of our fun-hilarious-rowdy-love-to-play nephews. we are already looking forward to seeing them again in the summer! we are so grateful to have such amazing family in our lives and extra thankful that we were able to travel so safely to go spend time with some of them.

so needless to say, even though i had a fabulous time in CO, i was anxious to get home to mervie. we even got a little souvenir...a cute little Christmas sweater! however, i may have misjudged merv's size just a bit:

slightly snug...

mervie wasn't a huge fan of his gift...
when he got outside he didn't seem as distracted by his tine outfit...


...he was more concerned about the snow
the little ball on top is my favorite part :)



he was quite hesitant about the chilly snow haha

me and my merv out in the snow

handsome little fella isn't he?

after awhile he enjoyed playing with the snow

the end of a snow day for merv :)
i promise i am not a crazy cat lady...but you can have no doubt that i love my mervie!

so as for what is new with matt and ash:

well matt is still chuggin along with school...two weeks left, but you can be assured they will be two weeks of homework. test. test. homework. paper. paper. big project. paper. test.....anyway you get the idea. he has now finished his remodeling job so he will be focusing all of his time on school for the next few weeks.

as for me...nothing new...just work, movies, sleep, merv, seinfeld, matter, snow angels, eat, dishes, snuggle, and putting up the Christmas tree ....just living the good life :)



Sunday, November 7, 2010

aborigines and nintendo....just more days in the life of us....

Ok let's face it, the blogger in me is not as rambunctious as she used to be. i really want to get back in the habit of writing once a week because too much good stuff happens in my life to not type it down. so let's get started with the catch up....

we threw a little halloween shin dig at our good friends the iverson's lovely home...and i had a swell time. there were lots of fun costumes, good chatting, yummy food, and some rowdy games. matt and i decided to get in touch with our native sides and go as aborigines....here are the results:


matter in a loin cloth....what a treeeeeat!
The Petersons
awww!


Angela and Dwight

Hula chic and Rednecker

THE Hobbit

.......yeah....

riders of rollercoasters

Grinch and Miss Who

short man and woman with hilarious hair!

man and wife.....wife and man?

Eskimo

Giraffe Keepers

Yup Yups

The Hunter and the Hunted

lame-oes....uh...i mean our friends ;)

MUFASA.....oooo [shudder]...say it again...mufasa, mufasa, mufasa!

so matt brought his nintendo home from his parents house last week and i have lost both of my little boys to that thing! i like playing every once in awhile for 20 minutes or so...but these two are die-hards and will play almost everyday, some days for hours! i think merv wishes he had thumbs more than ever before, but he is still quite entertained by watching matt play super mario, paperboy, zelda, and duck hunt...see for yourselves:




matter is still chuggin' along with school with tests and project every week, but he is keeping up really well! i have decided to switch gears and go back to school for graphic design. i am still looking at all my options, but i hope to be registered and ready to get back for the spring semester. as far as work goes...matthew has been working hard on the sister gibson job. he is remodeling a good little chunk of her house. i joke that it's more like playing for him because he has friends working with him on the job: kevie is doing to railing, paul with painting, and hobbit is doing drywall. no wonder he enjoys going to work! but i am glad he loves what he does and i am double glad that i married a man of many talents. i am still working at ensign systems as a little techie, however i am hoping to pick up a second job [just for the holiday season] so i can earn a little extra dough for a new camera! i have an interview tomorrow so we will see how it goes.

when he is not playing nintendo with matter, mervie enjoys ripping apart any accessory of mine that has feathers. i have some peacock feathers that i used in some pictures that he goes nutso for! mental note for ash: get mervie some new toys with feathers. merv has also got into the cozy little habit of sleeping on our bed....morning, noon, and night.....it's his new favorite spot. another funny thing about merv lately...he has been biting matt's ears in middle of the night. correct me if i'm wrong, but don't certain animals do that to show they are the alpha male??? ha! merv peterson - man of the house.

random fact: one of my new favorite bands as of late is called [the band perry] they would be classified as country i guess so if that's not your thing you can just tune out, but they have a different style that i quite enjoy. my preferred songs are if i die young and hip to my heart.

well that's all for now my cheery little mates, stay tuned for more adventures of matt....ash....and merv.




Saturday, October 16, 2010

happy...happy

i turned 21 about a week ago...weird. i had a friend ask me on my birthday if i felt wiser and more mature. i wasn't kidding when i answered him, "less, actually." i don't know if my soul will ever grow up. i still sleep with my blankie, i don't like being in the dark, i enjoy dino shaped chicken nuggets and snackpacks, and cartoons are still my favorite form of entertainment. matter can attest to all of this because, also like a child, i don't like being alone and my best friend slash husband is present to witness each of these youthful habits i haven't out-grown. actually, i dont mind being called simple-minded or child like...let's be honest....some of my very favorite people in the whole wide world are little guys (like my adorable nieces and nephews.)


but to get to the point, i had a lovely birthday. i had beautiful birthday songs from mel and the petersons in pleasant view, perfect picture cards from beth and sammer with my fav treats, a very sweet card with a special treat from aleene, dinner with my {gramzie & em & mom} plus sweet gifts from em and gramzie, bowling with daddi and michelle, a vcr, bella, and kittens from auty, a beautiful necklace from my sweet little nephews in CO, and pockets of goodies from matter.



auty and ash

birthday bowling



matthew never ceases to amaze me with his willingness to make me happy {aww} a few nights ago he whine-less-ly sat through 2 hours of mary-kay-ness...including a facial! although, my friends, i must say, he was super interested for the first hour when they were talking all about becoming a mary kay consultant...the business-ie stuff. my husband loves numbers...and stuff that has do to with them.


merv has added a few funny tiny quirks to his lists of things that make me smile. one: he is slightly terrified of the heater. he looks at our vents like there are little creeps in there everytime the heater kicks on and he won't walk in front of them...only around them. i think he will learn to love them as the snow falls. two: we are retraining him with the squirt bottle...and he is demonstrating forceful resistance! merv will take squirt after squirt to get just a lick of something that is not kittie food. three: he has been climbing on top of the tv and trying to take a wack on the green balls hanging from my ceiling. my fav pictures on this:


shadow kittie

balance....balance!

our little alien
so last weekend our family from CO were here and it made my weekend amazing. we had so much fun spending time with family at dinner, lagoon, and sweet little jake's baptism. jake asked his uncle matthew to give the holy ghost talk and me to lead music. it made me smile {even though i struggled with waving my hand the right way haha} uncle matte did fabulous on his talk. we are so proud of little jake.


good job jake!
last night, matter laid on a fork for a few hours while watching seinfeld. when we got up to go to bed, he just walked off and i was left staring at the fork curiously.

ash: there is a fork on the couch....you were laying on a fork.
matt: i thought i felt something poking me!

i guess you could say he is thick-skinned.

in more recent news, i sorta got a new job at my same job and so far it's going well, matter remodels bathrooms {who knew} and mervie is a freak about doggies. auty brought her sweet little doggie izzie over last night and merv was a spaz. izzie is super mellow with kitties and was being so nice, but merv was being rather hostile! merv would stalk izzie, and when he got really close he would start hissing...the little creepie!