THE PETERSON FAMILY

Getting ready for our house.

2012-01-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

Since we got here (almost 3 weeks not) we have been staying in a condo style hotel. Two bedrooms, dinning area, tv/ sitting area, kitchen and 2 restrooms. It's been a little easier that I thought it might be, but still the kids don't have any of their toys and they can't just go out and play outside. The kids are needing a routine to be started up again. And because I have to commute to take Jack to school, Charlie and Anna don't' get a nap.

We are hoping to get the keys to our place today so we can begin cleaning it since the movers come with our stuff on Friday. Our van will be ready on Friday or within the beginning of the following week. I know having our second car will help with things too.

We have been trying to keep busy on the weekends since Clint has been working during the week and will begin shift work once we get the house settle. We have been to the beach, several (if not all) of the local 'malls', local pool (playground inside a shallow pool), aquarium and many car rides down to the navy base.

I have meet some wonderful moms that have kids about the same age as ours. They have been very welcoming and helpful. I still miss my core moms from Washington though.

We have arrived in Guam

2012-01-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. We made it Guam after a short stay(two days) in Okinawa, Japan. The 4 plane rides were good flights, but the 11 hour one was too long for the kids. We got off the plane at 0530in Guam to it raining and warm. It was quite a change from the cold 40 we left in Seattle 3 days before.

So far, every day, it rains in the morning and then turns sunny. It does get a bit warm in the afternoon for us to go walking/playing outside yet. We were able to play at the outside pool at Andersen AFB (where we will be living). Our hotel/condo is at the end of the tourist strip, a couple blocks from the beach. We have an amazing view of the bay from our balcony. We haven't been to the beach yet to play (but we did drive right up to the beach on Andersen) since we are still trying to get used to the humidity.

We did find the school, child care center and preschool. We hope to enroll the kids in school on Tuesday (since Monday is a Holiday) and get some sort of routine going.

Clint's work is about 10 minutes up the road from our condo and it's another 10 minutes to the base from there. Everything is close by. We found the traffic report here to be amusing: looks like its a 3 or 4 light kind of day. Needless to say, traffic is nothing like at Fort Lewis.

I hope to have some photos up soon. I look forward to sharing my experience with you as we spend our days here in Guam.

Whats new?!?

2011-06-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Life has been a wonderful roller coaster with my 3 kids leading the way. Since Clint has been away for the past 10 months, life gets a little crazy around here. Charlie is nearing 3 in two weeks and Anna will be 1 in two months. Where has the time gone? Jack is finishing up this year's preschool and he is signed up for summer school. We are hoping there will be room for Charlie in summer school also. Anna is starting to pull herself up on things. She has decided that crawling is not her thing and may go strait to walking. Only time will tell.

Summer fun

2010-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Fort Lewis just opened a new spray park on post. It has become one of the boys new favorite places to go. There is a playground that is connected to the park so Jack can play in the water and Charlie can go climbing on the playground. It is a win win for both boys. It makes for some work for me, but they come home tired and nap well, so no complaints from me.

Sorry so long

2010-06-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well so much has happened since the last time I posted anything. Well, everything has changed.

We are expecting #3 in just a couple weeks. Her name is Anna Margaret Peterson. She was expected but unexpected all at the same time. We are very excited to meet her soon.

Jack finished his first year of preschool, which he loved very much. We met some wonderful friends and he had a great time learning. One of his favorite things to do was participate in cooking projects.

Charlie turns 2 this weekend. Where has the time gone. In the last 2 weeks he has picked up several new words that are very recognizable, not just Chewbaka talk. He LOVES to climb and is pretty good at it. So going to the park can be quite the exercise for me. I should have known he would be a goer when he learned to walk. One day he decided he wanted to go. So he got up and took 5 steps. He was very proud. The next steps were 6 feet of steps. He was on the move. The next day he was running at the park. Not walking, but running.

Clint came home in late August of 2009. The boys were so glad to see him and have not let him out of their sight since. Right now, Clint is in Louisiana training for his deployment (again) in August. Just when we were getting used to being a family again, he got the orders that his battalion was deploying. It was also right after we found out that we were pregnant too. Needless to say December was a very stressful month.

The kids and I plan on staying at Fort Lewis for the next year while Clint is gone. The less disruption in their schedule, I figure the better. Jack is enrolled in a preschool right outside post. He will be attending school with one of his good friends, McKenna who is 6 months younger. Clint is deploying with her dad and her mom and I are good friends also. We have some wonderful families that we are friends with that are great help with the kids.

Alki Beach

2009-06-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning at Alki Beach this past Memorial Day. It was Charlie's first visit to the beach and boy did he love it. Jack didn't want to get his feet wet or get sand on them, but loved the idea of the beach. We had a a great time with Grams, Grandpa, Grandma, Babbo and Auntie Sarah.

Goings on lately

2009-02-21T11:22:00.001-08:00

Charlie is getting so big so fast. Soon enough he and Jack will be driving before we know it.

Charlie is an easy going little boy who just wants to go and do everything that Jack does. He loves to watch Jack. I know he is going to be a quick learner.

Charlie loves to laugh also. He finds things so funny. He is also a ham. When grandma gets the camera out, he feels the need to have his picture taken too. He can't be left out of the lime light.

Jack has started swim lessons two weeks ago. We joined the local YMCA and love being part our our community. Jack loves the idea of swimming and he enjoys spending time with the other two girls in his class, but does not like to have his face in the water. He enjoys swimming with the noodle that you see in the picture. It has become his safety net. We are working to overcome that.

Jack is talking in sentences and he is so bright. We are looking into sending him to school early/gifted school. He has quite the imagination and loves to use it. He also loves his brother and loves to play with him and becomes very concerned when Charlie is crying. He is loving the warmer weather also. He loves going outside with the grandparents and going to the park.

They change so much

2009-02-10T14:58:00.001-08:00

Well, life has been so busy since Clint left. The time has gone so fast some days, yet so slowly other days Clint is almost half way done. We can't wait the end of summer.

Jack just had his second birthday. The picture of him was just after his second birthday at a breakfast for daddy. (Daddy was here for his second birthday. What a great surprise that was.)

Charlie has two teeth now and is trying to walk. He would rather walk and not crawl. Crawling is too much work and too slow. Charlie is trying to talk. Lots of things are called 'dada'.

I have been busy chasing the boys and trying to work out at the local YMCA in my spare time. The boys loving going to the gym where they get a chance to play with other kids and Jack and I have started swim lessons.

I am sure that once it stops snowing and being grey and the sun comes out, the time will pass so fast and Clint will be home even soon.

Mr. Charlie

2008-10-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

This is Mr. Charlie. He is such a wonderful baby. He is so mellow that it is hard to believe that I got another well mannered child. Charlie loves hanging out with Jack and Jack loves talking to Charlie and showing him his toys. They are going to be great brothers and buddies.

Before he left

2008-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pics we had taken just before Clint left for Iraq in August. The boys are growing so fast that I find it hard to keep track of all the changes.

Charlie

2008-03-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of Charlie's ultrasound pics. The first two were done about a month and a half ago and the other picture was our very first ultrasound of him at week 7. He is a very active young boy but lets mommy sleep at night. He seems to be very active like Jack was, it just took him a bit longer to get moving.

Easter

2008-03-23T10:45:00.001-07:00

This is Jack with the Easter Bunny and Jack with his friend Penny. The two kids wouldn't sit still so this was one of the few pics that turned out where they are both looking at the camera and sitting. Jack liked the Easter bunny from a distance and found him to be soft and friendly. But after he had been sitting on his lap for about three minutes, he had had enough and started to cry. He did so great. He did better than I thought. Plus, most other kids wont even get near the crazy looking stuffed toy that is as big as his dad.

SNOW!!!!!!!!

2008-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Jack got to play in his first snow since his birth. It snowed just enough over night to play in the next morning. He was quite curious about the funny white stuff on the lawn. He held it and squished it. Finally he started to walk in but with some reservation. Once dad got home from work that morning, he got to go out again and make a snow angel. He wasn't sure what to do about that. Jack had fun in his first snow even if the snow was gone in 2 hours.

First birthday

2008-02-01T08:37:00.001-08:00

Well, Jack turned one on January 7th. We had some friends overon his birthday for dinner. This is him eating that cake from dinnr. He loved the cake and the yummy frosting. We had his big birthday party the following Saturday with all the family and friends. He had a blast. He went all day without having a nap because there were so many people over and he didn't want to miss anything.

I love pumpkin pie!

2007-12-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

These couple of pics are from Thanksgiving at Bob and Jane's. Did I mention that Jack LOVES pumpkin pie? Well he does. And he let everyone know that he wanted more. Plus he had a great time with great grandpa Bob and his cane. It was pretty interesting to Jack. He had a great time.

halloween

2007-12-03T16:31:00.001-08:00

Jack was a 'Jack-O-Lantern' for halloween. We didn't go trick-or-treating but we did go and visit the grandparents. He had fun getting all the attention. He is such a ham.

Tiny little bubbles

2007-10-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

Since Clint is away for another week, I decided to give Jacka bubble bath. So here are a couple pics of his bubble bath debu. He was'nt sure what to do with all the moving bubble, but he did realize that if he splashed, they moved. Any wasy, I hope that you enjoy the pics as much as I did.

Up the stairs

2007-10-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

Jack loves exploring. The other night he crawled over to the stairs and began climbing them. He has never been interested in the stairs before so this was a big surprise. As you can tell by the pics, he made it up the first flight by himself with no help from us. I guess it is time to either put the gate up or teach him how to go down by himself.

The great pumpkin adventure

2007-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, we took Jack and our friends daughter Penny and the grandmas to the pumpkin patch. The weather was perfect and .....well......it was fun. A lot of pictures were taken of course. Both kids loved standing with and around the giant pumpkins. They both decided on a pumpkin with the help of the parents. (We picked something small to touch here at home.) They had so much fun that they both fell asleep in the car on the way to lunch after. Jack and I are heading to another patch with some friends closer to Halloween since Clint will be in Arizona for some training for 2 weeks (which by the way is during Halloween. GRRRRRRR!) But I will post more pics of that when we are done there.

The Puyallup Fair

2007-09-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair last week after Clint got work. We had so much fun. They wouldn't let Jack ride the Carousel because he wasn't two yet. So we visited the petting zoo and we saw the XL horses. Clint and I ate our way through starting with a Krusty Pup and ending with a Cow Chip cookie. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. Next year will be even funner because Jack will be able to ride some rides.

He is into everything

2007-09-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well, here are some of the newest pictures of jack. i just took them too. he is crawling like crazy. he is almost to the point of doing the fast cralw ( he is still doing that slow crawl but is ready to go any day now). also, his second tooth is almost in too. so he has been a bit cranky lately. jack likes to crawl in and through things and on top of things too. he also likes to play with daddys 360 because it has this bright pretty green light. he is such a joy and is learning so much every day.

7 and a half months

2007-08-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, all i can say is where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday i was still carrying a tiny baby in my arms. Now he doesn't like to be coddled any more and wants to just sit on my lap instead. He has started the crawling thing even though he still prefers his walkers (instant gratification thing). He has also started the rambling thing. He likes to say mama and baba. Clint is trying to get him to say dada but he just laughs instead. Within the next couple of weeks i am sure he will be getting around the floor like crazy and i am going to be in trouble.

This past week........

2007-08-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

This past week Jack has started to stand for more than just a second on his own. I think he is up to 7 or 8 seconds at a time. And boy does he love it. Jack and Clint love trying new extreem stunts together that can somethimes freak mommy out.

This past week we also went to a cousins birthday party. Jack enjoyed the cake and attention from his 4 and 7 year old girl cousins, Emily and Katie.

Also, our friends Ken, Rachel and Alex met up with Jack and mommy for lunch and gave us some new toys that Alex was done playing with, one of which was a Jumparoo. This is the best invention that anyone has ever made for kids other than diapers. Jack will sit and jump in that thing for thirty minutes strait and not miss a beat. I think this is how his legs are getting so strong. I am sure there are more pics to come of him in.

He is getting to be a big boy

2007-07-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Jack is getting to be a big boy, and boy do I mean big. He had is 6 month check up two weeks ago and he was already weighing 18.8 lbs, 27.5" long and a head that was 18" round. He is in the 80+ percentile for his age. As you can tell he as caught up quite well considering he was 5 weeks early. He loves being mobile in his walker and getting himself into trouble by pulling stuff off of tables and shelves. My mother calls him my 'Dennis the Mennis' and he is growing into that name very quickly. He is an extreme baby. He loves to be thrown in the air and tossed about. He has very little fear and is very trusting.

At last, new pics

2007-07-23T14:04:00.001-07:00

Since we have moved to Ft Lewis, life has been quite busy. With the hot weather, we have been trying everything to keep cool. Clint is catching up on the ins and outs of fatherhood qutie quickly. Jack loves his dad so much and the two of the are two peas in a pod. Who would have thought since the look identical. =)

It's Moving Day! Again!

2007-06-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we got out keys to our new house two days ago.

If you didn't know, we got base housing here at Ft. Lewis. It is a brand new tri-plex and we are in the middle. It is 1700 sqft, three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, detatched garage and a back yard. We couldn't have afforded anything like that off post.

So, we have packed up a moving truck again for the umteenth time in the last 2 years and are heading to the post. As soon as our computers are up and running, I will post some pictures and email everyone our new address and phone number. I am hoping that some of you will take a trip to come and see us.

It's too dang hot!

2007-05-30T13:20:00.001-07:00

Well, we only have a couple days until Clint comes home, but the weather is getting hot. Real Hot! Clint and Jack are both not fans of the heat. Thank goodness that the in-laws have air-conditioning. Along with the heat, I think Jack is begining the whole teething process. All he wants to do it chew on things, one of which was his activity center today. He doesn't want to be held and he is not sure what he wants to do. So needles to say we are both a little frustrated.

Mmmmm sweet messy

2007-05-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Jack had his first solid foods today, other than rice cereal. Sweet potatoes are.......... messy. He wasn't so sure that it tasted good, but he went along with it. More of it ended up on his face than in his mouth I think, but that is fine. And by the way, sweet potatoes are staining like carrots if any one needed to know that. I didn't, so needless to say Jacks fingers were orange yesterday because he loves to help feed himself.

Hold on Mom!

2007-05-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I was getting ready this morning and decided to let Jack watch some Little Einsteins. He was so cute with his little bear, that I had to take some pictures. I was trying to get his attention and he would not stop watching the tv. He gave me this look like, 'gosh mom, can't you see that i am watching tv here?' I guess that I have a little monster on my hands already. Hehe!

This one is for daddy

2007-05-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take a picture of Jack to send to his daddy today, so I told Jack to smile real big for his daddy and this is what I got. I know Jack is naturally a smiley baby, but I think he was more so this time than usual. Jack talkes to his daddy when he gets a chance, which has not been that often lately, but we will take what we can get. Jack always lights up when he hears his daddys voice and tries to listen real hard to what he is saying. (If you know Jack, you know what I am talking about.) I know that in no time, Jack will have plenty to say to his daddy.

Four months today!

2007-05-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

Today, Jack turned four months old. It was such a beautiful day that we (Jack and momma) went for a walk. The sun was out and it was 75 degrees. Who could ask for a better day to enjoy? Jack was enjoying the sun so much, he had decided to kick up his feet and rest them on the strollers food tray. I found this so cute, so we had to take a picture. What a little man he is becoming.

Bath time with Dax

2007-05-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

Jack loves bath time and so does Dax, our cat. Jack splashes and kicks and throws water everywhere and Dax is there to see what is going on. She gets so interested in what is going on that she feels the need to get into the tub and be a part of the fun. No complaints from Jack.

Hello there!

2007-05-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

This is Jack this afternoon with his grandma Jane since mommy was at work. He has been gaining personality by the day. He knows what he likes and doesnt like and he lets it be known. He generally likes to play with his toys as seen here on his chair, but when he has had enough, he has had enough. And that is quite alright and understandable. He is also like his father in that he finds the tv facinating and it captures his attention. They will have tons of fun together when Clint gets home.

Activity Center

2007-04-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Jack was enjoying his first experience in his activity center today. He found that standing is the thing that he loves the most right now. He doesn't like laying on his stomach much. He would rather stand on mommy's lap. He has been this way since he was born. I believe that I am going to have my hands full in a few months.

Getting bigger

2007-04-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

Jack looks so much like his dad. It is amazing to watch him transform day to day even, from an infant to a baby. He is very similar to his dad even though he hasn't really spent any learning time with him. Jack loves to take naps, especially with mommy. He is very thought orientated. He takes his time and you can tell that his little brain is ticking away at whatever he is trying to do. Jack has finally slept 8 hours in a row during the night for two nights now. Boy am I excited about that! We can't wait till Clint is home to spend some time with. Only 37 to go!

Bumbo

2007-04-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

We got Jack a bumbo the other day to help with his sitting skills. He loves sitting in it. He likes the fact that he gets to sit in it at the table, which puts him at eye level with the other people in the house instead of the cats. (We are living at Bob and Jane's and they have the cats.) He tends to lean to his right side a bit more than his left. Again, we are working on the whole sitting up by our selves concept. Here he is looking at Grandpa Bob.

Loves Laughing

2007-04-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Jack is a very happy baby and I could not have asked for a better son. He laughs and smiles all the time. He especially finds his mommy very funny and amusing. I know he gets all the smiles from his father.

Daddy

2007-04-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's true. Jack's dad is a geek and we are proud of it too. But so is his mommy.

Green Grass

2007-04-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

Jack got to put his little toes in the green grass today for the first time. It was such a warm and sunny day, i couldn't resist. He crinkled his toes and tired to grasp the grass like his dad can do with his toes too.

Almost three months old

2007-03-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Jack is almost three months old. He is gaining weight and growing tall like his dad. As of 20March2007 he was 23" and 11lbs. Soon he will be rolling over.

Two months old

2007-03-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

This is the outfit that Jack wore to his grandpa Bob's birthday dinner. Jack is now 2 months old and getting bigger by the day.

2007-02-21T23:41:00.000-08:00

Clint's maternal grandfather Charlie, passed away early February. Luckily, Charlie and Jack were able to meet and Charlie was very fond of his first great grandchild. We will miss Charlie very much. We love you.

2007-02-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

This is from when we finally got to bring home Jack. It might have been the day after, but you get the idea.

2007-02-21T23:36:00.000-08:00

This is Jack's one month old picture. Boy has this boy grown in only a month. He looks so much like a little person instead of a baby.

2007-02-21T23:34:00.000-08:00

This is our first official photo. Jack decided not to be a happy camper, so this is what we got.

Here we go Steph

2007-02-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

This is a new thing for me, so bare with me.