Tribute to Damon

So awhile ago I did a tribute to Tyler and Doug has been after to me to do one about Damon, well he beat me to it. He wrote most of this (I added a bit). So here's some fun things about Damon.
Damon is our oldest son who will be 6 years old in about 4 months. He is our constant ball of energy. We don't know if he knows how to get around the house other than sprinting, or flying, or leaping. He’s experiencing new things each week and becoming more and more an older boy.

Damon is about half-way through kindergarten. He is one of the youngest kids in his class but his teacher says he is doing very well. He likes to see his class-mates around town and has enjoyed making new friends with his first organized soccer team. Damon loves math and numbers. His favorite way to pass time in the truck is to ask us what X+X+X equals. “Dad and Mom, what’s 5+5+10?” followed by other renditions. Tyler has also gotten in the act and can already count to over 30. Damon enjoys counting and is our little Rainman. One time we were in a room and he whispered fairly soon after entering, “Dad, there’s 23 people in here.” Damon is learning his sight words and doing well at spelling. One of the nice surprises that Damon has shown us, after showing no interest earlier in life, is art and coloring. He’s not the best at coloring but will now do it. He’s a good little artist who prefers to draw dragons from the movie How to Train your Dragon.

Damon played his first soccer game on January 29^th. He is funny - he is much more interested in running around and kicking the ball occasionally than getting in the group of kids clustered around the ball. After one practice he told me this was because he was worried other kids might push him down. Then the next day he said he had a new "hypothesis" (big word which when he said it I laughed because I didn’t know he knew that word). His hypothesis was he was more worried about getting kicked in the legs, than being pushed down. He has some shin-guards so hopefully he realizes it won’t be so bad if he does get kicked. Before his game he said it wasn’t important who won the game but that he had fun (good little repeater of what mom and dad say). Good thing because when he was goalie he got scored on twice. He did score a goal himself but unfortunately it was an own-goal when he was trying to clear the ball out. So his team ended up losing 3-0 but Damon had a ton of fun even though he contributed to all the other team's points.

Damon likes to go to his dad’s basketball games. He's his number one fan and sometimes cheers a little too loud. One time when somebody was getting ready to shoot free throws, he yelled out, "Let my dad shoot them!" I think then his mom explained the rules to him. He knows his dad likes to play basketball and whenever he goes to play he encourages him to make a basket for everyone in the family.

As for some of the other things Damon likes, he has really gotten into Legos. He has a couple of sets which along with Tyler's and Dad's make for hours of fun. He likes to make cars and flying ships. Damon also likes to play the Nintendo Wii. His favorite game is a tank game where you drive around and try to shoot the enemy tanks before they shoot you. He also likes to play NBA Jam and his favorite part is where you can shove people without being called for a foul. Damon also enjoys cartoons like any other kid. He has a great imagination when he's playing and is at the age where he can entertain himself with it. One thing we're appreciative of is Damon likes to eat his meals unlike his younger brothers. He's always been very good to eat what he is served even at family functions. Other kids may be done and playing but Damon will often stay in his seat and finish his food.

Another funny thing Damon does is he loves to hide and especially be sneaky around the house. We sometimes pretend we cannot see him as he darts from room to room and hides. He thinks it's pretty cool how he can sometimes move around "without us seeing" him. Damon is a kid who is not that adventurous or daring. The other day we were watching the Winter X Games and the Big Air contests in snowboarding and snowmobiles. After watching them flip through the air and do crazy tricks I asked Damon if he wanted to do that when he got older and Damon said, "no way." Later when Tyler was watching I asked him if he wanted to do that and he said, "oh yeah, but maybe not as high." That is one difference between the two. Mom said to dad to keep his mouth shut and not encourage any of them to do that!

Here are some of the funny things that you might hear Damon say around the house. When answering a question correctly or being smart he'll say, "just using the old Dino brain," which he got from watching Dinosaur Train. If anything is easy he'll say, "that was easy peasy lemon squeezy." He likes to play peek-a-boo with Christopher so we'll hear them play together. He has also taught Chris to roar like a lion - it's pretty cute.

Damon is a great kid who we love very much. Sure there are times when he gets timeouts and we feel as parents like we've totally failed but then we realize how blessed we are to have good children. Damon loves his brothers Tyler and Christopher very much which we hope continues as he grows up. We sometimes wish our boys would grow out of phases a little bit sooner but we enjoy them just the same.

Fun around the house

Haven't blogged much lately because we've been sick and just chillin' at home. But here are some things we've been doing to stay sane during our cold weather.

Christopher likes to get into lots of things.
Everyone likes to build things: towers, forts, tents, castles. . .



Playing Basketball - Slam Dunk!
Read a book, even though it's backwards.
Dress-up!
Playing the Wii.My mom gave us these Sesame Street cookies cutters and Damon had fun helping me decorate them. Not a project I'd do very often, but fun every once and awhile.



This was just a cute one of Chris and Tyler.
So, we've been doing ok, just waiting for the snow to melt so we can run outside.

Christopher's First Birthday

We celebrated Christopher's first birthday while we were at Grandma's so that we could have family there. I believe in making the first birthday pretty easy, so Chris didn't get very much- we have too many toys anyway. He got our Block Buggy that had been Damon's, and mom got him some great new soft boots to keep his feet warm during this cold weather. He also got some clothes and some of mom's old books and blocks and stuff - great to pass along things. Grandma Petersen sent some money from Africa and a postcard, and we got a new phone (since Chris really like to push buttons). Damon also wanted to get a Chris a new Hot Wheels car with the money so he helped pick one out. Chris hasn't played with it much ;)

Mom helped make Chris's cake. I was being lazy and didn't really want to build one, but she stacked it for me and then I helped finish it. It looked like a block.

Here's Chris on his actual birthday, we didn't do anything to celebrate - but he just looked cute in his new Christmas pj's.

Going to Grandma's

We usually always stay at my parents when we go up to Cache Valley. Mom is so good to have food ready for us and fun things planned. My kids are lucky to have such wonderful grandparents. I usually forget to take pictures around the house, but here are some.

The boys loved the hot tub this time. It took a minute for Tyler to warm up, but then he was just as crazy as Damon.

Everyone is getting older and more coordinated for the air hockey table.

New Year's Party

This year the Petersen Christmas party was over New Years. That was basically because that's when we were coming up to visit. Brenda was in charge this year and she scheduled a big party- including a sleep-over at her house. (We actually slept at Karen's who lives down the street). It was a fun time to visit and let the cousins play together.

We had a nice dinner first - mashed potato bar (the mashed sweet-potato casserole was heavenly). Then we went on a scavenger hunt that took us all over the valley. We were split up into 4 teams. Our team went to Walmart, then McDonalds, then Bensen Marina, then to the statue of Big Blue on Campus. Chris and Tyler didn't do to well. Doug had to go back with Chris, and Tyler fell asleep in the car - but oh well, the other cousins had fun. Tyler was hysterical when we got back so Doug and I went to Karen's when we got back and put him and Chris to bed. Doug went back over the party and stayed with Damon and put a Lego set together and visited. I stayed at Karen's and played with my new phone and read the Hunger Games (a re-read for our book group).

In the morning we had a nice breakfast of waffles and eggs and bacon. Later I went shopping with the moms and got some sweaters. The kids played in the snow even though it was so cold. We had pizza for lunch then we headed back over to Grandma's in the afternoon. It was a fun time to visit with family.
We had a dance line going in the basement for awhile - fun to see people get their groove on.


Wesley is just a few months younger than Chris, they'll be good friends.

Snow

Here's a quick shot of what Doug built for the boys. He's a much better builder than me. It's a rocket-ship if you can't tell. He made nice little seats inside too for the boys. Too bad it's so cold right now or they'd be out playing in it. (we're lucky if it gets above 20 degrees).

Christmas 2010

Well, I'm finally getting to Christmas. We did our own thing at home again this year. For Christmas Eve I asked Doug what he wanted to have for dinner and he requested French Toast - so that was a fun change. We read the scripture story and sang some song . We also opened a new family game: The Cat in the Hat, I can do that. It was pretty fun, but pretty easy - we'll have to make a few alterations to make it more challenging.

I baked all week to have things ready for Christmas day - so I didn't have to spend all day in the kitchen. We had muffins in the morning and a ham dinner later with rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry jello, creamed beans, carrots and pumpkin pie and cheesecake for dessert. I also made banana slush, peppernuts, peanut brittle and penuche for treats.

One thing we did differently this year is wait to put all of the presents under the tree until Christmas Eve, after the kids are asleep -so they wake up to all of their presents. My family usually had some presents under the tree so you could shake them etc. But this made it fun to see them all at once. Here's our tree:They got into their socks first.
Santa brought a Lego set and a T-Rex Dinosaur Train talking figure for Damon.

Tyler got the Dinosaur Train from Santa.
It was a fun day, Doug was able to stay home from work which was great and we just enjoyed opening presents and then playing with the boys all day. Some toys didn't hold their interest as long as we would have hoped, but they still liked all of their presents.
Here's a quick run down for the record:

I got some new clothes, apron, biscuit/cookie cutters, bubble bath, hair clips, Music and Lyrics, and the soundtrack to Hairspray - thanks Doug. (I also got a bunch of stuff from my mom that we got later when we went up to visit. The main thing was my new boots - I love them. They were quite pricey but I think they will be worth it, and hopefully last forever - Thanks mom).
Damon's pile - besides the stuff from Santa the other main things were a camera and clothes from us and a Lego set and walkie talkies from Grandmas.
Tyler is about the same, camera and clothes from us, Lego set and play doh set from Grandmas.
I didn't take a picture of Doug's or Christopher's stuff. Doug got a nice watch, some clothes, some tools, and an outdoor thermometer since our old one had died. Chris got some clothes, CastleMarble works from us, a peekaboo toy and train cars from Grandmas. He got some Dinosaur Train figures from Santa, but of course Damon and Tyler play with them more than he does :).

We also got Cootie for a family game.



It was a fun Lego day for all the boys, including Doug. He got out his big set and built it again, so this is a picture of all the Legos we have right now - I'm sure we'll get more :).
Merry Christmas. This Blog was basically about the presents so I can remember, but I am grateful for the Christmas season to focus more on our Savior and to be able to spend time with family. I love the traditions we have and listening to Christmas music. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.