Happy Birthday to our Sweet Boy!!

Dear Ryan,

I can't believe this day has already come! It seems like yesterday we were blessed to have you join our family. My labor and Delivery wasn't the easiest with you, and didn't go as planed. After laboring for 12 hours you were delivered as an emergency c-section. Your heart rate plummeted and so did Mommy's blood pressure. By the second time it happened you were not recovering from the drop. The Dr's got you out so fast and you were just fine. Mommy and Daddy were so grateful! We already loved you from the moment we found out we were pregnant.

Now it's a year later and you have enriched our lives so much. You have brought so much joy and laughter into our home. You have grown from being this itty bitty boy into this handsome little man whom we can't live without! I would say the thing that makes you stand out from any other is the hugs and squeezes you give. You have been giving these hugs since you were just a few months old. I can not tell you the feelings I get when you wrap your little arms around my neck and squeeze like there is no tomorrow. You even add a little "ahhh" sound like you really know it is a sign of love. You absolutely love your big sister...if she isn't home you are lost. She does so many things to entertain you and you just eat it up. She has become very attached to you and is always making sure you are ok and taken care of. Your Daddy loves you so much! I know you and your Daddy will have many wrestling matches as he already rolls you around all over the ground, all along you giggling away! You are definitely a Mama's boy! You give me the flirty eyes, and always can't get enough of being with your Mommy! I love it! I will take it as long as it lasts. :) Please know that you are a very loved little boy....one that is very special and will do great things in this life. Know that you have a Father in Heaven that watches over you and loves you very much. You also have been blessed to be born into a family that has a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. Depend on him and look to him as an example. We look forward to watching you grown in this coming year.

Love you buddy!

Mommy, Daddy & Andalyn

I have a confession!!!

I am a.....



There needs to be a facebook anonymous or something! I have a blackberry so whenever I have a free moment I check to see if anyone has updated their status. If I do get a second to jump on the computer I log onto facebook first! I tell you this because I know I have slacked big time on updating my blog in a timely manor and I havne't been leaving comments on any of your blogs for that matter! :) I'm guilty of putting facebook first. Forgiving me! I know I'm not the only one...you all need to come out!!

Mary Kay make up fun!

This last Tuesday my girlfriend came to my house and did a Mary Kay make up party! It was so nice to get all my girls together...at least the ones that could make it, and have fun playing with Make up! Dave took Andalyn on a Daddy Daughter Date and came home just in time for Andalyn to have a little fun herself!



Drum Roll please.....and here is the product of my sweet little 3 year old doing her own make up!


Yea....that is all lip gloss, all over her face. :) She had so much fun!

Thank you Kristina for doing the party we all had a great time and look forward to all of our new products.
If any of you are interested here is her website:www.marykay.com/kristinawebb/default.aspx

Success on the Potty and a Hair Cut!

Well....This last Thursday was a big day for Andalyn. After playing with her cousin Eden, who is about 9 months older than her, she decided she wanted to were panties and use the toilet. This is a HUGE triumph!!! We have been trying to get this girl potty trained since June. When they say "they have to be ready" it is so true! All it took on this specific day was seeing that Eden was a big girl and used the potty. From that point on, Andalyn has been wearing panties and hasn't had any accidents!! That's 6 days with no oopsies!! So a big THANK YOU to Eden for being such a big girl and showing Andalyn how it's done!

This is a pictures of Eden and Andalyn at Andalyn's 3rd birthday party.

Looking at the pictures above brings me to the next part of Andalyn's big day on Thursday! She hasn't had her hair cut, other than her bangs since she was born. You can see above that she has this long pony tail with the perfect little ringlet of a curl in it. Well this is how I did her hair 99% of the time because it looked really long and stringy if I left it down. I have been fighting cutting it for a while, however since she was turning a new leaf with potty training I thought we would give her a new look too. :) So after her bath that night I cute the most perfect little lock of hair off of her sweet head.

It doesn't look like it but if you straitened this curl it ends up being like 5 inches long. Andalyn went from looking like a baby to looking like a big girl in minutes. Here is our beautiful girl with her new hair cut.






It's has been bitter sweet these past 6 days...I am seeing that my baby girl isn't such a baby anymore. I love you Andalyn Belle and Daddy and I are so proud of you!

New Years Eve Family Trip to the Snow

On New Years Eve, Dave and I decided to take the kids to the snow since he had the day off. We drove up Hwy 50 for about 25 miles towards Tahoe, and then took some side roads, and ended up in a place called "Ice House"....sounds cold to me!! We found this beautiful spot and it couldn't of been a more perfect day. It was sunny and warm actually. We only wore sweatshirts, well the kids and I did.


Daddy and Ryan.


Andalyn check'n out the snow.


Andalyn building a snow man...she had one ball with two sticks for arms and a small bundle of leaves for hair...so cute!

My two cute kids butts in the snow.

Ryan check'n out the snow.

We found this perfect spot for Andalyn to slid down ...it was just like a slide at the park. She loved it!

Here she is at the bottom waiting for her friend that she met at the snow. It was another 3 year old...they had a blast together sliding down the snow!

Here they are at the very top of this huge hill ready to go down on an intertube that this little girls family had. They were so nice. The girls did this over and over again until it was time to go. I'm sure this is one of many trips up to the snow this winter season...we had a great time!

Christmas Day 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
We had a wonderful Christmas...our morning started out with the kids coming downstairs and checking out what Santa brought them. Andalyn was very pleased to see that he brought her a computer, since that is what she is really into right now. She also thought it was pretty cool that she got a stocking full of candy and even more toys.
Ryan loved his little Piano along with the monster truck "grave digger" that Daddy...oh I mean Santa decided to pick up last minute. :)
The kids were pleased to see that Santa left them notes and ate their cookies that they left out!

The kids loot.


Andalyn so excited about her computer!

Once we were done looking at the presents from Santa we raced down to my parents house for my Dad's traditional Christmas Breakfast! Thank yo so much dad...you really do a great job every year! The kids, and even the big kids, got more presents from my parents and loved everyone of them. Thank you so much mom and dad!!

My two brothers David and Logan and my sister Whitney got up at like 4:30am Christmas morning to run up to the mountains to get a pile of snow so that we could all play in the snow after our morning festivities were over.

It was a blast....I wish I had gotten a video with my digital camera, because what I was getting on my video camera was hilarious!! Never a dull moment with the Petersen's!! Thanks guys for getting up so early and getting all of the snow....we may need to start making that a tradition. :)


During the snow ball fight that started shortly after we all got outside Andalyn stood top of the hill with out wavering!! She was the queen of the snow hill....and loving every minute of it!

Our little snow bunny Montana....what a cutie!!

It's snowing in Elk Grove...who knew?!?! No....I just happened to take a picture right as someone kicked a huge ball of snow into the air....great shot I must say! :)

Look at that face!!!....believe me it's hard to say no to this face!!

And look at this one...Dang we have cute kids!

Ryan and his Daddy enjoying watching the snow ball fight in front of Grandma and Grandpa Petersen's house.

Watch out Logan.....Andalyn's gonna get ya!!

Once we were all tuckered out from all of the fun in the snow we headed out to Dave's parents house for some more Christmas Day fun! I feel terrible, I didn't get any pictures taken while we were there. There was so many presents for our little family that I didn't have any extra hands to try and get any pictures. Between trying to help the kids open their presents and Dave and I trying to open ours....it was impossible. Dave's parents spoil us and the kids to the max every year. Thank you guys for all of the sweet gifts, they were all very thoughtful and wonderful!! Kathy even took Andalyn out a few days before Christmas so that she could get Dave, me and Ryan gifts! Do I have the most wonderful in-laws or what....no Kathy, I'm not just writing that because I know you read the blog! :) I really do believe I was not only blessed with incredible parents of my own, but I also ended up with some pretty amazing in-laws as well!

What seemed to be 1000 gifts later and a few pretty deep card board cuts on my fingers and thumbs... it was time for Christmas Dinner with the Cashdollar family!

We ended the night at my sisters house. My dad gave a little devotional. What a great way to end Christmas Day! Talking about and feeling the spirit of our Savior, whom is the reason for this wonderful Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas everyone...I hope you all had a wonderful one!

Christmas Eve 2008

The Cashdollar's side enjoying Christmas Eve!!

Our Christmas Eve Started about 2pm that day. The kids and I headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Cashdollar's for some Christmas Cookie baking. Dave had to work until about 4pm so he ended up meeting us at his parents house to enjoy the fruits of our labors. :)

Andalyn LOVES to bake with her Grandma. She did just about everything to make these sugar cookies, with some direction from Grandma of course. She rolled out the dough, cut the shapes out, and here she is sprinkling them with different colored sprinkles. She is a great baker!

The Petersen/McFadyen side enjoying Christmas Eve!!

Once we were done eating a wonderful Dinner with Dave's Parents, we headed to my Uncle Bruce's (my mom's brother) for the traditional Christmas Eve bash that I have grown up going to my entire life. It is so much fun to now pass these things on to our children all along creating our own traditions also.

My sweet sister Nicole wishing everyone a Merry Christmas with Dave's Santa hat on. What a cutie!!

Ryan, checking out my Aunt Carla...She passed, he loved her!

My cousin Mallory getting ready to narrate our traditional Nativity reenactment.

The grand kids acting out their parts in the Nativity.

All the girl cousins that were there that night...we missed those that weren't there with us!!

Now it's off to our homes to wait for Santa!! Goodnight...

Our Gingerbread House Making Fun!

For the 2nd year in a row, my sweet mother-in-law has provided us with all of the things needed for gingerbread house making fun! Andalyn really has enjoyed getting into the holiday spirit this year. She really is loving all that this time of year has to offer. She and I sat down the day before Christmas eve to make our gingerbread house. She had a blast....she said that the candies were the gingerbread houses Christmas lights. Oh how this girls loves Christmas lights. As you can see the house turned out great and Andalyn enjoyed every minute of it. Now, who's going to eat this thing...any takers? It's huge!!