christmas break

we had such a good, much needed break. we were pretty excited to have 3 weeks off this year. (we usually only get two!) this was brian's first break from school since last christmas break, because he's been going to school all year round. so, he was loving life.

we stayed in provo the first week and spent our time working, and when we weren't working we were relaxing (aka watching the office). we started the week off with a little christmas cousin party with out favorite cousins. we love having cousins close & the christmas party has turned into our favorite. we went up to salt lake and had dinner and had a white elephant gift exchange. then we headed to temple square to see the lights. as we were walking around we started singing some songs & decided we were REALLY good. so we stopped at the corner on our way back to the car to see if anyone would listen to us. we got a few onlookers and an applause after we were finished. :)

i also got to spend some time with my favorite girls. we made some christmas treats together.

& my favorite kiddos, i have missed these three so much!

my family flew in a couple of days later. so we drove up to salt lake to spend a couple of days with them, and we also went to a wedding dinner & sealing. (brian's cousin) and then spent even more time working.

we spent the weekend before & christmas day with brian's family. it was fun to have everyone home, even if that did mean that brian & i had to sleep in two twin beds. ;) i was a little bit worried about my first christmas without my family. i was pretty sure i would get super homesick & be sad i was missing out. however, that was not the case! i loved spending christmas with the petersons. it helps that our families are so similar & do basically everything exactly alike.

christmas eve pizza.

christmas day.

we also got to skype with our favorite missionary. elder jones! he is doing so great & loving life over there in romania. i can just hardly believe he only has 7 months left!

a few days after christmas my family came down to spend a few days in utah. we attended a couple of basketball games, shopped plenty, had lunch with our favorite brasilians, & loved spending time together. on new years eve we headed up to spend the week in burley. brian and i both got a whole week off of work (don't think that has happened since we've been married!) & was it was heavenly.
my best friend rach came up to celebrate the new year with my family too, & we had a blast.

new years eve

jones family ball bash

pazookies!

dinner & bowling with the family

the only bad news about our 3 week break is that i was sick for about 2 of them. & i felt the worst when i had my week off of work! of course that had to happen. i never get sick, like EVER. so of course it had to happen over the break, just my luck.
i am however grateful that it wasn't the full blown flu. it was bad enough that i felt miserable, but it didn't slow me down much, i wasn't about to miss all the family fun!

the fourth.

we had a good day on the fourth. my mom & sisters flew in on the third, so everyone made the trip down to utah to spend the fourth in provo. me & the rest of the girls ran a 5k in the morning & then treated ourselves to a pedicure, while the boys golfed.

then we did the stadium of fire. none of us had ever gone before & it was awesome. the firework show was probably the best i've ever seen. (& we saw a pretty awesome one over the ocean last year on our honeymoon) we had fun jamming out to the beach boys (but even more fun watching the old folks jam out around us) & i might have teared up when the choir started singing 'proud to be an american' during the firework show. it was a pretty good night.

brian & drew loving on baby jane.
and me loving being with my cute sisters.

we're loving having the fam home. we may or may not be going to idaho every weekend this next month. :)

our memorial day weekend..

...was spent in idaho. with my brothers, sister-in-law, & cute nieces.

since we all live in different places these days. (rexburg, burley, oakland, provo, & brasil) get togethers are tough. so i was pretty excited that the majority of us (minus the brasil fam) were able to be with each other. 

our main reason for going home was the annual memorial day picnic. my grandpa puts on a picnic every with his siblings & all their kids/grandkids. he loves for us to represent & we are glad he talks us into coming, it makes for a pretty great weekend.

we were also pretty anxious to see this guy. my brother drew just finished his first year of medical school & none of us had seen him since christmas.  we are pretty excited that he'll be around for the summer. 

ave was especially happy to see him...

as you can tell. :)

besides picnicing. we golfed (well the boys did), played basketball (the boys did that too), studied (not quite as much as i should have) swam, & ate at pizza hut one time...and then another. :) we also got plenty of loving in on our nieces. (hopefully enough to hold us over until the next time we see them).
the only part that wasn't so much fun was when brian woke up the day we left sicker than i've ever seen him. (poor boy) but because of work we still had to make the long drive home.
& we made it, with only one throw up stop. (yuck)
good news: he's feeling much better.

it was a good couple of days. & here are a few pictures to prove it.


miss janers always smiles on command. ave, on the other hand, usually has something else in mind. :)

boys ready for church. (who knows where matt ran off to?) & waiting in line for grandmas candy jar.

enjoying our friend chicken, soda & of course, some ice cream bars.

swimming at nat soo pah hot springs. love these two.

annnd now the countdown is on for the peterson get together in a couple of weeks.

& my mom, sisters & dad visiting for the whole month of july. :)

we sure do love summer.

A little ditty from the Mr.

So, in case you were wondering, I am not Macey. Mace has asked me a few time to write a blog post. And I wanted to. So, here we go. Buckle up. 

Now, I'm supposed to talk about Easter weekend, but probably I'm not gonna do that yet. Probably, I should put a little about me out there first. So, here it is:

I laugh so hard every time I see these pictures. And so should you.

The following are some of my favorite things:

Toaster Strudels. They need no explanation. 

The MTC Cafeteria. All you can eat food for super duper cheap. This picture was after two plates of chicken cordon bleu. So..... delicious...... Are you drooling? Cause I am. 

Ok, so here is Easter for you. We spent the weekend at my family's house in Sandy. It was pretty great. We had dinner Saturday night with our buddies. Which was also pretty great.

Then we went to Rio Tinto to watch the Real Salt Lake game. It was awesome. Soccer is my favorite game, (followed closely by basketball, don't hate on me too hard) so I was in heaven.

 After the game, we went back to the house to dye some eggs. That was pretty great. You guys should have seen the eggs I dyed. They were pretty bomb. I guess Macey's were ok too.... (and of course, that means they were way better.)

Sunday morning was pretty great too. We always start our Easter mornings with a jelly bean hunt. My mom and dad hide jelly beans all over the house, and we go after them. I thought I was doing pretty well, but it turns out I got rocked by everybody else. No pictures of that though.

Then we went to church. And we took these pictures. 

After church we, among other things, had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Once again, I thought I was dominating, and I got destroyed. Everybody had more eggs than me. I am an Easter failure. 

And that was our Easter weekend.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a brief intermission at this point? Because I have complete control over this blog post, I am putting some of my all time favorite pictures. Enjoy.

Wonderful.

Just a couple other things to mention. We went and saw Hunger Games for the second time in theaters this past week. Such a good movie. Here we are right before we walk in, each with our own bag of popcorn. 

Allie came in to town, and that was pretty fun. Please notice Stef in the back, trying to be part of the picture like a creeper. I love you anyway Stef. 

Thursday night, we went to our friend's Andrew and Steph's wedding reception with our best friend Rach. I lived with Andrew the semester before Mace and I got married. He's the man. After the reception, we hit the town and finished at Hires. Yum.

And that's it guys. Hope you enjoyed it. Who knows when the next time I'll be in charge of a post will be. Maybe next time I'll talk about school and work and all those wonderful things that I do day in and day out. Maybe. 

flashback friday

back  in the olden days, my favorite part about easter was getting a new easter dress.

my mom would shop with me until i found something i love. (which wasn't easy) every year. 

bless her heart.

she even got me exactly what i wanted this year. (which turns out, wasn't a dress..because i couldn't find one that i love.) thanks mom! :)

i found this gem in my old pictures.

my twin brother, matt, and i dressed in our sunday best on easter.

and then i found these....

i remember that bow, and that day....

 and i remember i did not want him to kiss me.

thankfully, i now have a little bit better grasp of the whole easter thing. and it is one of my favorite days of the year. i thought i'd share one of my all time favorite talks. which was given on easter. it is something that everyone should read & think about this weekend.

jeffrey r. holland
None Were with Him

happy easter.

i love me some family time.

said goodbye to my mom & sisters on friday. im gonna miss them like crazy.
can't wait until july. :)

just a few more things that happened over christmas break. (mostly stuff i did with the sisters)

we went to dinner & to temple square the night these four flew in from brasil. it was really, really cold. and well, they froze. :)

the girls stayed with me that weekend, while my parents did ALL of their christmas shopping in salt lake. so i took them to work.

the kids i nanny love when i bring these two...

apparently a 12 & 14 year old are much more fun than a 22 year old.

then we did a little christmas shopping/pit stop to get mal's ears pierced.

such a champ.

morg & mal really wanted to go ice skating.

unfortunately they were a little rusty. we spent most of the time teaching them how.

thank goodness bri is the best teacher. 

they were skating like pros in no time.

to finish off our weekend we all went to the byu vs. baylor basketball game.

yes, we're a little bit obsessed with our new niece. she is now twice that size.

fast forward to after christmas.

at the end of our break brian and i took these girls up skiiing. there wasn't much snow...but we still had a blast.

and this would be when mal forgot to get off the lift, and almost kept going....

last weekend my mom & sisters came down just for a day to hang out with me. we did everything fun. got our nails done, went to the movie. (we bought a zoo. have you seen it? if not, i recommend you go. right now.) a little shopping. went out for lunch & dinner. 

us with zane, our favorite brasilian. :)

i'm sure going to miss these girls.