Happy Birthday Bryant!

This is for you Bryant!

In our family, we started a tradition of sharing a favorite thing about the birthday boy/girl on his/her special day.  We wanted to share our favorite things about you: (after a special song!)

We miss you so much here and I am wishing that we could actually chat on the phone...hear your voice, ya know?!  I hope you get this for your actual birthday, Singapore time!  I'll follow the form of Isaac and Gigi and tell you my favorite things about you.  Firstly, I can talk to you about anything.  You always show an extreme amount of empathy and understanding and you do your best to find common ground.  And you're hilarious!  I also love that you are very thoughtful.  Amidst all your travels you always take the time to find me something special that just screams "me"!  How many sisters can say that about their brother!  Not many!  Joey says his favorite thing about you is that you are fun and interesting to talk to.  Short, sincere and too the point!  He loves having conversations with you!

We Hope You Have a Great Birthday Bryant!  We will be thinking and talking of you ALL DAY!

honest comments only please!

So, I've been making jewelry somewhat obsessively lately, mostly because I've been itching at the bit to craft and partially because beads are about the only craft worthy thing that I have in the house and don't have to go out for (or withdraw any money from our depleting Christmas bank account).  I made this today and I'm not quite sure what I think about it.  Well, okay, I'll be honest, I like it.  But I've liked a lot of things that I've made for the first couple of weeks and then when I put my emotions aside from all the sweat and time that went into it I realize it's ugly as sin.  And since this kind of makes a statement, before I send this to someone as a gift or make 10 more or wear it myself, outside of the house, I wanted to ask some friends:  Is this wearable?

Be honest...you won't hurt my feelings!

Thank you!

Happy New Years Resolutions!

Happy New Year to you ALL!!  I absolutely cannot believe that it is 2009.  Aren't we supposed to be flying hovercrafts and landing on Mars by now.  Man our progress has really slowed below the predictions!  But we do have some crazy music playing devices and the Iphone. That's pretty cool!  

No, but, seriously, I would like to display my New Years resolution for all my friends and family to see.  Maybe this will make me a little less likely to completely forget it by February.  I seriously have no idea what my resolution was for last year.  So this year I decided that I want to be more goal oriented and in turn, teach my children to be more goal oriented as well...and this will require me to be more organized.  Here's how I plan to tackle my resolution: 

I printed off a little goal sheet to glue over the monthly picture page of my 2009 calendar.   I put a picture of each member of the family across the top of the page.  I then put three goal categories along the side of the page.  The categories are, first, Overall Goal, for example mine for this month is to not lose my temper even once the entire month.  (I'm thinking if I take this one day at a time I might be able to accomplish this!)  The second goal is, Chore of the Month.  This category is really for the kids.  I will have the kids pick one chore that they would like to learn how to do.  They will work the entire month at becoming as independent as possible at that chore.  Some may even take two months.  Isaac's chore this month is putting the groceries away into the refrigerator/freezer and Georgie's is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher.  The third category is to to pick one or two projects that we would like to complete this month.  For example, I would like to complete our 2008 family photo album and make Georgie some new hairbows this month.  The kids will each pick a couple of crafts that they would like to do that month.   

So thats the layout.  Hold me to this guys!  Ask me if I'm still doing my monthly calendar goals sometime!  I'll let you know how its going.  Thanks to all of you for your friendship, comments and your great blogs!

Love, 

Ashley

Christmas...the second time around

 Christmas #2:

Our second Christmas was spent at Lake Tahoe with the Merbacks.  We had a lot of fun doing things and just being together...I guess I'll just let the pictures tell the story!

We did a lot of this:

And this:

(I'm not lying when I say they did a lot of this...i.e. wrestling...when all else fails for two four year old boys, resort to wrestling!)

And this:

And this: (okay, okay...we only built a snowman once;)

And this:

( we woke up to find that the kids had moved their bed underneath the table in the middle of the night)

And this:

(we went to a casino to eat dinner one night and watch the Utah Alabama game.  We had to come home before it was over to put the kids to bed and guess what they guys were doing while the girls put the kids to bed!...GO UTAH!)

And this:

(Dancing together)

And this:

(Isaac set himself up with a book before the fire...see, it just comes naturally!)

Yes and this too!

We even helped Meems in the kitchen!

No family vacation is complete without banging our silverware on the table and chanting 

"Feed me NOW!"

Oh yes, we did all of these things but we did even more.  I have no pictures of Isaac tearing up the bunny hill at Diamond Peak!  He was such a great skier.  Joey and I were so proud of his good little attitude and his ability to snow plow and even make some turns in the span of one day!  I enjoyed skiing with him more than I enjoyed skiing the black diamonds!  Another great day we spent at the Rec Center swimming and then playing some fun games in a deserted aerobics room.  We played Dodge ball, soccer....ummm I can't remember what else...But whatever it was it was fun!

And yes...once again we are grateful!  But just let me say my peace and move on!  We are so grateful for family!  Mimi and Poppop provided us with a great vacation and Bob and Laurie provided us with the perfect, cozy little cabin!  Thanks to all.  My favorite thing about the Merback family is that we talk.  We talk for hours and hours about politics, relationships, people, parenting, problems, sports and all of the above.  I came home more tired than before because we stayed up so late almost every night just talking.  Thanks for talking to me guys!  I miss you already!

...too short

Our visit with our California Family was TOO SHORT!  And we enjoyed every minute!  

I think Georgie enjoyed it the very most of all because she LOVES Reesie bug!  Here they are working their way toward a little kiss:

Our new nephew/cousin Will, Aunt Mary and "Bad Tall"...McCall!

Chels and I

Mom wearing the new apron I made for her:

We miss you California Petteys!

Christmas...the first time around!

We were all spoiled this Christmas and we still have one more Christmas to go...with Gaga and Papa!  (I'll get to the one with Mimi and Pop Pop on my next post!)  The hit toys of this Christmas are pictured here:

An Alien Matchbox thing-a-ma-jigger set 

(I have no recollection of its real name but something with a Rocket ship, launcher, alien ship, astronauts and aliens that goes with the submarine set he got last year;) And his knight in shining Armor Costume that goes with...

Georgies Cinderella Dress!

I didn't get a picture of Georgie's other hit present...her baby doll stroller.  But here she is, all smiles at the sight of it!

Frosty the Snowman came to our house:

In Pettey/Anderson family tradition, Frosty the Snowman brought new pajamas on Christmas eve!  But this time, he knocked on our door and left gifts for us on the door step!  Here Isaac is flying to the moon with his Superman cape flying behind him!

Georgie was so excited to be wearing her princess night gown that she gave her friend, Sam, a giant squeeze!

Oh Boy...Princess!

"What the heck?  Superman!  Frosty knows me so well!"

Here are all our little tyke guests ready to go play outside on Christmas Eve!  

Don't they look cute!

Our more mature dinner guests!

I must say that our Christmas Eve dinner was quite smashing.  I actually still dream about it.  My new friend Ellisa brought a very yummy Guacamole for an appetizer.  Our friends Johnny and Natalie Fischer made Chicken Cordon Bleu and Mashed Potatoes.  I contributed Blueberry Spinach Salad with candied almonds and Bleu Cheese, Carrot Souffle, Bacon wrapped Green Bean Bundles and Homemade Sour Cream Rolls.  And Shalisa brought  Chocolate Peppermint Cake and 2 Peppermint Ice Cream Cakes.  Can we have that again please!  We topped it all off with The Newlywed Game where the topic turned many times to sex and laughter was had by all until our sides hurt!  Isn't that the best!  The missionaries sure enjoyed their visit!

So, as you can see we had a great Christmas.  We felt truly grateful for friends who filled our house with love, laughter and kindess in the absence of extended family.  And we sincerely enjoyed the time spent with just our little family.  I think it is the first Christmas I have ever had where I didn't feel that empty sadness at the end of the day because I had to wait a whole other year until next Christmas!  I can't quite figure out why that is..?  But it sure was nice!

forever a favorite

The Christmas Miracle:

I think this will forever be a favorite in my book of Isaac memories.  

He loves to draw and color and I found this amidst his crayons a few days before Christmas.  I thought I'd put it on here for us all to see!