The Petersen Family: Family Letter 2012

I decided to Blog our Christmas Letter this year, so then I will have a copy of it as well. I have had this written for awhile, but it just took be a bit longer to get it onto the blog, but better late than never.

Merry Christmas 2012

Well, I feel that we have communicated with friends and family this year more than others, so our yearly review won’t be much of a surprise for some. This is a quick review of what’s been keeping us busy this year:

January 17^th: found out we were having twin girls – that was a crazy day, spent over 3 hours on the phone telling everyone. “No way! You’re kidding! Are you serious?!” were common responses.

February: Kept busy getting things ready for the girls – sewing blessing dresses, finding bedding, etc.

March: Doug gets a promotion and starts his new job in the Brighton office of Halliburton. He finds us a new house in 2 weeks and takes care of all the hassles of buying and selling a house and the stresses of a new job (in the middle of an audit to boot).

April 18^th: I get LifeFlighted out to the U of U hospital due to pre-term labor, thus adding to our craziness.

May 2^nd: Jenna Ann and Kaylee Beth are born at 2:40 am. They spend 20 days in the NICU and about 3 months on oxygen.

May 9^th: We move into our house. With the ward’s and my mom’s help we slowly start to get settled in Firestone Colorado.

June – July: We try to juggle our lives with twins – days filled with feedings with brief pauses in between. The boys love having more room to play in our new house and having our own swing-set outside.

August 15^th: We dare make our first trip as a family of 7 back to Utah. It takes 10 hours with 3 stops/feedings. We are very grateful and tired when we arrive at my parent’s house in Smithfield.

September: We make our first trip down to Denver and experience a Hammond’s Candy tour and visit the Firefighter’s Museum. Later we make a trip to the Lego Store, a thrill for the boys. Girls start sleeping through the night!

October 31^st: Doug strolls the streets with our team of Lego Ninja warriors: Kai, Zane, and mini-Zane. I stay at home with our two little flowers.

November: Thanksgiving is spent hosting a neighbor family and we enjoy good food and company. We even managed to play a new game called Dominion which was very enjoyable.

December: Spent lots of time shopping online – trips to the store are few these days. Love the great deals and free shipping. There are lots of late nights getting things done and updating our basement.

In general our lives are so full of things to do we wonder if we will ever get our “to do” lists completely checked off again – but live is good. The girls are healthy and so much fun. They boys are full of energy and are asked to visit the basement often to relieve some of it. Doug had a brief stint as an Elders Quorum instructor but is now teaching in the Primary (9 year olds) and I am on the Enrichment Committee. Damon (7 ½) and Tyler (5 ½) enjoy school and their teachers. Damon did a patriotic program with the 2^nd grade and Tyler is already reading very well in Kindergarten. Christopher (3) loves cars almost as much as Damon did and is rarely seen without at least 3 cars in hand.

We have been so blessed and have seen Heavenly Father’s hand in our lives so much this year. It has been a whirl-wind but so many things have worked out just right that I know that we have been looked after. Thank you all for your support and prayers throughout the year, we have such a great group of friends and family. We hope you are well and that you can feel our Savior’s love for you in this upcoming year.

Merry Christmas –

The Petersen’s (Doug, C’Anne, Damon, Tyler, Christopher, Jenna and Kaylee)