The Petersen Family

Mom's Makeup Bag

2011-09-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

We had a slight mishap with my makeup bag this morning. Corrine loves digging through my bag and trying stuff out. Usually she goes for chap stick and lip gloss, but this morning, using an eye-shadow brush as an applicator, she tried out my foundation. We obviously do not share the same skin tone. It left a nice flesh toned ring around the tub too. But with my new Bissell Mini Green carpet shampooer Nathan got me it all came out of the carpet fairly well.

We have gotten settled in after the big move back to Washington and have enjoyed a very busy summer with family.

The Anniversary / Valentines Gift

2011-03-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Nathan took me out the weekend before Valentine's day and picked out an opal ring as a combined Anniversary and Valentines gift. I absolutely love it! I have worn it every day since getting it back from being sized.

The iphone takes regular and high def resolution (HDR) photos. These two pictures are the same shot, but the one below is the high def pic. I think it is interesting how much the stone looks like it has backs in it in the high def pic. Looking at it in person it looks more like the top photo though.

Five Year Anniversary

2010-12-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our fifth anniversary. Below are some of our engagement pictures. It is hard to believe that five years have already gone by.

We actually used this photo for our announcement. We did Photoshop out the faddish rip in Nathan's pants for the announcement though. We look so young and thin. Ha ha. I should probably mention we both had some bad food poisoning shortly before the engagement photos were taken Nathan looks extra thin and boyish both here and in our wedding photos.

These pictures were taken by our friend Lysle for our Christmas card. When he was taking this photo of us without Corinne I was joking that it was like getting our engagement photos done again so I thought it would be fun to stick a few of both up for comparison sake. I like my hair much better now longer and closer to my natural shade. I wouldn't mind if those other jeans still fit though. Grrr.

We had a lot of trouble getting baby girl to be happy and look at the camera.

For our anniversary Nathan got us an overnight babysitter and booked us a night at the Hilton Americas down town. We went to a nice fish restaurant (my favorite), then swimming in the hotel pool followed by staying up way too late dancing at a club until the disco lights started to make me feel dizzy. It was fun, but if we go to a club again I think we should find a few friends to go too. He planned the whole night. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Nate.

Traditionally the fifth year is a wood gift, but Nathan bought me an opal ring and necklace set. Opal is Corinne's birthstone and when he asked what I wanted this year I said an opal. I am exchanging the one he picked out though (which he said he knew I would) for just a ring instead. We will find the right one and then I'll post a picture. I have noticed I don't like a lot of opal settings so it might take a little while.

Daddy Daughter Seattle Trip

2010-12-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

Nathan was really brave and took Corinne up to Seattle for a weekend without me. It was his first time traveling on an airplane alone with her. I've done it. Even with her being really good it is kind of stressful. I am proud of him for doing it. And grateful because although I really wanted to go too, I had way too much to do to get ready for my NIOSH audit. Him taking her with him allowed me to get a lot of work done while they were gone.

Her diaper leaked on the plane and he had to change her pajama's in the airport. The first night they were gone he stayed in a Hotel with Dana and BJ in Olympia. Apparently there was a hotel fire before they got there. Kind of scary. Here she is looking cute in the hotel room the next morning.

My sister, Becky, also went into labor the night Nathan and Corinne flew up so they were able to see Becky with her new baby, Lucy in the hospital. Apparently, I look enough like Becky that Corinne really snuggled up to her. Becky's daughter Olivia would do that with me when she was Corinne's age too. I was extra sad I missed the trip when Lucy came just in time for it. Becky was scheduled to be induced the day after Nathan and Corinne came back home, so had Lucy not come on her own they would have just missed her.

Becky is such a good sport sharing her pudding with Corinne. Very sweet.

Such a cutie playing at the mall with daddy and cousins. She had a fun time. Naps were a bit difficult during the whole trip though. Without her crib, Nathan said he tried laying her down on her cousin Desmond's kiddy bed, but she would just get off and bang on the wall until he came back to get her.

Nathan says the only morning on the trip that she slept in was the morning they needed to get up early to come back home. I am glad to have them back. I knew I would miss them and I did for sure, but I was surprised how emotional I got watching them leave me behind at the security gate. I actually broke down crying in front of the guards. It is good to have them back.

Daddy Time

2010-12-18T19:52:00.001-08:00

With me working more hours again at BSI Corrine has been getting more Daddy time. These are all off his phone and some of them are pictures he has sent me while I have been at work. A daddy day is a perfect day to wear the ACDC onesie. Her first time wearing it Nathan played ACDC while we were all getting dressed so that she wouldn't be a poser.

Here she is helping him chat on the computer.

She likes to entertain herself with reading while he works. That map looks stimulating. I wonder sometimes if is she is mimicking us. We like to lay in bed and read with her.

She likes to chase Cali all around the house. They both seem to like it a lot under the kitchen table.

Corinne loves going for rides and running errands so long as it does not overlap nap time. I love her wild hair here.

Nathan has also discovered the joy of trying to take a shower with Corinne in the bedroom. The toys only distract her temporarily from looking into what you are doing. She likes to pull back the curtain and join you.

This is one Nathan sent me one day while I was at work. He says she pulled out her rocking chair and grabbed her snacks all on her own. I love her little frown. She looks like she is sad about the rain outside.

Here she went with Nate when he was meeting with the neuro surgeon. He had to take some steroids after messing his back up playing soccer and fixing the fence post in the back yard one Saturday. I guess you shouldn't jump on a shovel in flip flops. Three MRI's and an EMG later the Dr. says he is fine, though he does have an abnormal Babinski reflex.

One Year Old

2010-10-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy few weeks since my last blog post. Most exciting Corinne turned 1 year old!! Her birthday was on the 7th which was a Thursday and we had a costume birthday party for her on the following Saturday.

We figured with a birthday in October she may as well use her Halloween costume more than once. We dressed up with a theme in mind. We were Zapp Brannigan, Leela and Nibbler from the cartoon Futurama. Originally we were going to dress her up in either her Princess Aura costume we bought her or the Tinker Bell costume Marina bought her. We still have a few more chances before the end of the month though.

She started out by just picking at the pink icing with delicate and deliberate pinching before really getting into the cake.

That same weekend was also busy with Dana and BJ down here to help with some house repairs. I will take some pictures of everything we have worked on with Dana and make it a separate post.

She has a few other things that are new that came with turning one. We turned her car seat around forward facing, she loves it, she is drinking vitamin D milk now instead of formula, actually we started that a few weeks early and after the baby formula recall we were glad we did. She has also started walking. She took her first steps on September 13 and she has been getting more confident all the time. It is hard to believe that an entire year has gone by already. It is already hard to remember life without her. We love her very much.

Our sister-in-law Cassandra was here in Texas for some training with the Army. We both drove to a town halfway between Houston and Austin and got dinner together. The McDonald's here was just a place with indoor toys we stopped at after dinner. It was still too hot to spend a lot of time stay outdoors. Ben and Cassandra are moving to Florida here soon so we are hoping to drive out and see them soon.

My younger brother David got home from his mission and came down for a visit. While he was here David wanted to try some alligator so we picked some up at an exotic meat store along with some python. Here Nathan and David were cooking it out on the grill. The really dark meat is deer, which the salesman threw in for free. I thought the deer tasted too much like liver; I like my meat with a little more fat on it. Both the alligator and python were really chewy and tasted better fried, when you couldn't really taste them. A fun experience, but we were all actually a bit nervous about eating it because we cooked it ourselves.

We also went to the Zoo while David was here and I thought this picture was really cool.

Labor Day Adventure

2010-09-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

So we had the craziest adventure in honor of Labor Day. While watching the BYU game on Saturday with some friends Nathan was talking about how we would like to go camping. However, being late planers where could we go? Nathan had heard you can go camping on Matagorda beach here in Texas and that it would not require having a camping spot reserved. Sounded like fun. Kind of last minute, but we decided to go anyway with the Wirthlins.

When we first got to the beach around 6pm it was super windy. Nate and John tried to start a fire by digging a hole in the sand and then blocking as much of the wind as they could with our coolers and a beach umbrella, but the elements proved to be more powerful and after about a half hour and some rain we gave up on the fire for awhile. John and Ellice brought a plug in griddle for making pancakes on in the morning, which we decided to cook our hot dogs on kielbasa style. However, that didn't work out so well. Even with a power converter the griddle blew two fuses in their van. So we ended up heading to a burger joint/bar that Nathan had heard from one of his coworkers was really good. By this point we were all starving and tired of the wind. Though the restaurant was not much of a break from the wind, all the walls were just mesh screens, the food was good and as you normally do when starving we ordered too much food!

While at the restaurant we looked up on the iphone when the wind was suppose to settle down and found the prediction to be around midnight. So we headed back to the beach and struggled up our tents/kites and weighed them down with stuff in each corner. Here is Nate and John setting up the first tent. The cute little dancing girl here is Abby.

You can see we used the light of headlights to set up the tents.

After getting the tent up and using the little cove created by the cars and the tents as cover Nathan and John got a pretty good fire going. Here below is the Wirthlin family, Abby, John, Dallin and Ellice. Their youngest Conner was already asleep in the tent and missed out on the smores and Starburts.

Corinne was really good for pretty much the entire trip. For the most part she was content to just hang out, drink a bottle and be held. I was a bit worried about her with the sand and the fire but it ended up not being an issue.

After looking at the amazing stars for a bit we sat around the fire chatting until Corinne and I were dozing in the beach chair. I went and laid down with Corinne and she went right to sleep. Nathan stayed up chatting until around midnight or 1am. Cars were driving past us all night long and while laying there with the wind keeping us from really falling asleep that the cars changed from driving behind us closer to the water on the compact sand "road" to driving around in front of our tents in the really soft sand that you just get stuck in. We had parked as close to the soft sand as we thought we could go with out getting the cars stuck. There was a huge area of compacted sand that people had been driving and parking on all day so we thought it was weird that people started going around in the soft sand instead. Well around 3 or 3:30 Nathan decided to go out and check on the cars and the tide. I don't know if it was because he could see through the tent window that the tide had risen or just because I kept asking "are you sure the cars are ok," but when we got outside this is what we saw.

The tide had risen considerably and was already at the tires of the cars and the corner of our tent. Nathan woke up John and Ellice as their tent was also starting to get wet. Nathan debated just moving the tents further up the beach, but since we didn't know how high the water was going to go I was pushing for us to just pack up and get off the beach. So with us already parked in the soft sand this didn't leave us much of an exit route. We would have to either go in the soft sand and hope to not get stuck or the water. We got packed up pretty quick. Taking down the tents consisted of removing the tent poles and then rolling them up and stuffing them in the bed of the truck. We just put some stuff on to p of them to keep them from blowing away, contrary to the earlier prediction the wind never did die down.

So after getting turned around we headed down the to the area where you could get off and we were going fine until we came to an abandoned truck that we had to go deeper into the soft sand to go around. The truck got stuck pretty good here. The van did too, but probably only because they stopped when they saw the truck was stuck. When driving on soft sand you want to just keep moving or you get stuck. The truck had the axles touching the sand. While we were mourning our fate another truck with 4 wheel drive and 4 college age guys with beers in hand drove up. At first one of the guys was convinced that with the four of them and Nate and John they could just pick up the back end of the truck out of the hole it had dug. When that did not work they dug us out and pushed. Someone in their truck had the forethought to bring gardening hoes. They were our drunk angels! They helped dig and push both cars 3 or 4 times each. It took about an hour and a half to go less than a mile to get off the beach. We finally rolled into home around 6am and then slept until 11am when Corinne woke us up.

Later that day we got together and ate Thai food and made dutch oven cobbler in the Wirthlin's garage. It rained all day too. After getting back we checked when the high tide occured and it did not happen until around 6am. It was also the highest high tide in the recent history and forecast. I think the storm surge from the tropical storm probably helped with the high tide. I'm glad we didn't wait around any longer before leaving. Even with the hasty departure it was a really fun adventure and I would be willing to go again if we check the tide first and get a 4 wheel drive truck!

You can also read about this awesome adventure on Ellice's blog. http://wirthlin-family.blogspot.com/2010/09/awesome-adventure.html

Nap Time

2010-09-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Naps have been so hard for Corinne since getting back from Washington. Here she is complaining about it. We bought some black out blinds for her bedroom, which have helped. Now once we put her down, turn out the lights and turn on the bathroom fan for back ground noise, it takes her less then ten minutes to go to sleep. It has been a long month getting to that point though.

It is so sad to hear her cry, but in a weird way it is also cute. She gets really desperate with death grip hugs she gives trying to avoid being set down. We call that her star fish impression. Too bad she does not realize she will be longing for naps when she gets older.

Sealed the Deal !!

2010-08-18T20:30:00.001-07:00

Corinne's Sealing was wonderful. She was an angel and was happy and cute the whole time. It was so nice to share the experience with family and friends.

Our camera battery decided to go out during our trip to Seattle. After charging, we can take like two or three photos before the battery dies again. So Dana and Trevor took all these photos for us. My only complaint is I wish I would have slowed down and had more taken. Like some with my parents and Nathan's parents and with my grandparents. But the ones we have are still nice and better than none, which is what our camera did.

It is too bad this photo is so washed out and more than half of the people who came had already headed over to the church house for the luncheon, but I like it anyway.

Corinne was so sleepy and ready to take a nap, but she didn't cry or anything. She just laid her head on Nathan's shoulder. I think this is my favorite photo from the whole day.

At some point Corinne ended up with uncle Rick. This is such a cute photo of her with him. She got to know him pretty well while we were out visiting Grandma and Grandpa Perkins.

Nathan's Mom BJ bought this cake for us to have at the luncheon. I think the white on white is really pretty.

Swimming Lessons

2010-08-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

Corinne and I did a mommy and me swimming class this summer. Her class was just for those little tikes that really are not going to master many of the skills during the class time, but it gave me an idea of things I could do to work with her when we are at the pool.

We worked on teaching her to close her mouth in the water, climb out of the pool, grab on to the side of the pool, splash her arms and legs and get comfortable on her back with her ears under the water. We sang a lot of silly songs and had a fun.

My friend Laura came with her camera one day and took pictures of her daugher Addison in the class with her daddy.

She was so kind as to also take and send me these. Thanks Laura!

Finally Finalized!!

2010-07-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

This morning we were able to finalize our adoption of Corinne. We hit some snags earlier when the judge deceided not to accept the home study done by LDS Social and Family Services so we had to wait a bit while the new one was done. Sharron Middleton in the blue did the home study, Christian Landry, Corrine's court appointed attorney ad litem is standing next to Nathan in the back and Judge Marc W. Holder is sitting in the chair.

We are so happy to be finalized. Her name is officially now Corinne Rose Petersen. Our sealing is scheduled for July 31 in the the Seattle, Washington temple.

9 Months

2010-07-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Corinne is now 9 months old. We did some photos to celebrate. This cute purple dress is her blessing dress and the beautiful blanket behind her is the one grandma Perkins crocheted.

As you can see here, she now can pull herself up and stand on her own for short moments. She also shuffles around the edge of the couch and fireplace.

At her last dr. appointment a few days ago she was 22 lbs 12 oz and 28 1/2 inches long.

This little gray dress is Corrine's court dress for her to wear when we finalize.

She is showing off those two bottom teeth here.

We love our cutie girl!!

Leaving his 20's behind

2010-06-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Nathan turned 30 on Sunday. I remember last year that same weird feeling that Nathan said he had about turing 30. You just remember 30 sounding so old when you were a kid, but now that you are there you don't feel old.

On Saturday we had dinner with the Oliveros family with a nice Costco chocolate bunt cake.

And then on Monday we went out to dinner with the Oliveros family again and when we got to the restaurant he was surprised to find a few more friends came to join us. It was a lot of fun to just get a big group together. After eating at the restaurant they all came back to our house for a surprise DQ ice cream cake.

I should have gotten a pic with everyone together but didn't. We had fun anyway. Happy 30th birthday Nathan!!

a day at the zoo

2010-06-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Corinne loves to watch, laugh at and chase Gabby and Cali in her walker here at home, so Nathan thought we should take her to the Houston zoo. We went last Saturday. I made a bunch of videos of her laughing at different animals and really whacking the docile goats at the petting zoo, but I haven't been able to get the videos to load up on the blog. We had a lot of fun and bought a family membership that lasts for the next year. So many more zoo trips to come.

One Year Cancer Free!!!

2010-06-15T20:30:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else remember when Nathan looked like this? He is now officially one year cancer free. Yeah!! In this photo Nathan is ringing the Cancer Free bell in the Dr.'s office. It was a little leather cat with bells on it that they had everyone ring when they finished chemo or what ever treatment they were doing.

And here are a few more sexy shots of him with little or no hair.

This was actually after his hair was starting to grow back in. That is our nephew Desmond on Nathan's back. We went to see Mount St. Helens in Washington.

This one was at his Graduation from the University of Houston Law School, which was on his last day of heavy chemo where he went everyday for a week straight. He still had two more weeks after this, but they were only one day each week.

Here we went to New Orleans and this is in the park out side the St. Charles Cathedral.

I am so glad he is healthy and doing great. He is the love of my life and I am so grateful for him every day.

Crime Spree

2010-06-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Today after getting the tires on the truck changed I went to a clothing store looking for a new skirt. I didn't find one, but Corinne did! She pulled one off the hanger when we were in the isle and I didn't see it until we got out of the store and I looked at her through the little window in the sun visor. She had picked out a nice black skirt with pink flowers. Needless to say I took it right back in the store. The shoplifting alarm went off as we went back in ... but it didn't when we left. Nice piece of equipment huh? I just set it on the counter and left again; no one who worked there really seemed to notice or care. Although, as I left I did see they has a security camera which would have caught the whole thing. Good thing strollers don't have license plates!! Ha Ha.

Teeth!!

2010-05-21T09:41:00.001-07:00

Corinne has started getting some teeth!! Her two front bottom teeth are starting to poke out through the gums. Now we need to be more diligent in brushing!

Seven Months

2010-05-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

Baby Girl is seven months today! It seems like time is going by so fast! Corinne is has gotten pretty good at sitting up, but she still likes to flail backwards so it is a good idea to have something soft behind her just incase. She holds her own bottle and is eating more and more baby food in one sitting. She is already wearing nine and 12 month clothing size which makes me more and more a fan of dresses. They tend to fit her longer and she looks cute in them too. Happy seven months Corinne!!

Petersen Family Photos

2010-05-06T11:37:00.001-07:00

We missed doing a post for Corrine turning six months. We were on the plane heading to Minnesota that day. But we did some nice family photos while we were there so here she is at six months!

This is Nathan's family with his parents and siblings with their spouses and children.

Just him with his brothers and sisters.

I think this is my favorite though with Nathan and his brothers.

Corinne's Blessing

2010-04-22T08:35:00.001-07:00

We did Corinne's baby blessing this past Sunday. Nathan did a really good job. It was beautiful. Nathan's parents Dana and BJ and my Mom came down for the Blessing.

It was raining outside so we had limited options for photos after. I will have to take some more of Corinne is her pretty dress and with the beautiful matching blanket my grandma Perkins made. We feel so blessed to have Corinne as a part of our family.

Wheat Bread Recipe

2010-04-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

So by request here is Nathan's aunt Merilee's wheat bread recipe which I learned to make while BJ was visiting last week. I like this recipe because you don't have to hand knead the dough. You do it all in the mixer.

2 1/2 cups water

2 tbls yeast

1/2 cup of sugar (or honey)

1/3 cup of potato flakes or pearls (or even leftover mashed potatoes I hear works)

just shy of 2/3 cup of oil (or butter or margarine)

3 cups of wheat flour

2 tsp salt

3 cups white flour

up to one more cup white flour

Heat the water in the microwave 1:30 to 1:45 minutes. Stir the yeast into the water to dissolve it. Add the sugar, oil, potato and wheat flour and mix with dough hook. After that is going add the salt last and mix for 10 minutes. Add the three cups of white flour one cup at a time to incorporate. You may want to scrape the dough down at this point and then add up to one more cup of four until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and the dough is still slightly sticky. I have been using Betty Crocker Potato Buds and I think that is why I don't need to add much if any of this last cup of flour. (Also for those of you without a 1/3 cup measuring cup it is 5 tbls and 1 tsp). With the mixer still running spray the sides of your mixing bowl with cooking spray. Remove the dough hook and let rise covered in the bowl for 45 minutes. Punch down the dough to remove the bubbles. Shape dough into loaves and place into greased pans. For me I get one 8" and one 10" loaf. Merilee does six mini loaves. Cover and allow to rise for 20-30 minutes. You want the loaves to be almost the size you want, they will rise more in the oven. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. My 10" loaf needs just a few more minutes. The loaves should be golden on top and not sound doughy when you rap you finger nails on them. I have only made the recipe three time but it has turned out pretty good every time so far. Now I just need to do it without BJ here. Wish me luck!

Swimming

2010-04-22T06:56:00.001-07:00

I think it is kind of funny that we live in Texas and the first time we take Corrine swimming is when we go visit frigid Minnesota in April. The hotel had a swimming pool and my favorite, a hot tub.

Nathan took her in to the pool first and then I spent most of the time with her by the hot tub just splashing her with water. We didn't want to submerse her in the hot water. BJ also held her a lot. We only went at night and Corinne seemed to tolerate the water and the noise for about an hour each night before she was ready to eat and go to bed.

She is making a funny face here. I wonder what she is thinking about?

Grandma Vera's 90th Birthday

2010-04-22T06:26:00.001-07:00

The weekend before last we went out to Minnesota to visit Nathan's extended family for Grandma Vera's 90th birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Petersen are both doing surprisingly well health wise for being 90 and 94 respectively.

While in Minnesota we went out to the farm and had egg sandwiches with grandma and grandpa, which despite the name are really good! Dana had fun driving people around on the tractor in between doing odd jobs around the house. We put him to work when he comes and visits us too! In this picture is Carolyn (previousely highlighted on the blog during their visit in February) and her children Alex and Sydney. Their youngest Camryn, joined us later.

And here is more of the tractor. Notice how dark and fertile that dirt looks in the distant plowed field. Nothing like Texas's reddish clay.

This visit was my first time meeting a lot of Nathan's family on his dad's side. Dana is one of twelve children. They are all very nice, tall and have a similar sense of humor to Nathan. It was fun and I would not mind seeing more of them, which is good because I hear there is a reunion in the works for next summer!

Dana's sister Zina posted a video clip of her mother talking at the birthday party on u tube. The link is below. We met at the church house because no one's house was big enough. We did all meet at the local Chinese buffet The Wok'n Roll the night before though, Grandpa Edwin's treat! Thanks again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9R1Li1YKU

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T12:12:00.001-07:00

Corinne had a fun first Easter. My parents sent her the Easter Basket with all the ducks and we bought her the little summer dresses.

We went to dinner at the Wirthlin's with the Oliveros's and Corinne enjoyed watching the other children run around and gather eggs. She is pretty social and enjoys other children even if it is just watching them. I'm sure the watching part will not last long though; soon enough she will be up and running around with them.

Roll'n Roll'n Roll'n

2010-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah!! Corinne finally rolled over. She has been working on it a lot this past week and Thursday night she finally did it! Doesn't she look proud? She has had a few more good rolls since then and is now a pro. She can roll both from front to back and back to front. She learned both in the same night.

The Exersauser

2010-03-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

Here is Corinne enjoying one of her favorite pastimes .... the exersaucer!!

Nuby Bugs

2010-03-22T19:03:00.001-07:00

The favorite teething toy by far!!

Five Months

2010-03-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Five Months old. Corinne is smiley and laughs. She hugs and gives open mouth kisses while basically head butting you. She still has not rolled over and is completely content with it. She likes her bottle and while she will eat the baby food in small portions, she is not really much of a fan. She wants to put everything in her mouth. Her hand, your hand, her dress, your hair, toys, burp cloths... you get the idea. She is a normal, healthy, happy baby girl.

Last week we moved her to her own room and a crib instead of the bassinet. She has responded by not sleeping though the night anymore. Hopefully she will adjust soon and go back to sleeping her 10 - 12 uninterrupted hours per night. We love this baby girl!!

Smoke'n

2010-03-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Nathan does a lot of cooking in our house. He does not shy away, but I think his favorite ways to cook involve the grill, the deep fryer or the smoker. We have done a number of things in the smoker, but until this past weekend we had not tried making that Texas favorite, the brisket.

All rubbed down and ready to go. We actually have two smokers, a charcoal and an electric smoker. Because the brisket was going to take a few hours we selected the electric smoker. We use the charcoal one for shorter smoking adventures like salmon.

Nathan says living in Texas makes him feel like having a smoker is taking part in the culture. Obviously we have already dug in and started eating in the photo below. I forgot to take a photo of it when it was right out of the smoker.

And this is Nathan proudly displaying our Thanksgiving turkey from last year. I decided to throw this photo into this post incase you couldn't tell from the brisket photo that March is pretty warm in Texas, you could see that November is equally nice here. Love the flip flops and shorts on Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving turkey is actually why we got the second electric smoker. Dana and BJ got Nathan the charcoal one for Christmas one year, but got the electric later because we were starting the turkey at midnight, to have it done for an early meal and we didn't really want to get up every few hours to add burettes and wood chips. Home Depot also had a good deal on it because they were switching brands the next season.

The Drew Carey Show

2010-03-04T08:53:00.001-08:00

I think Corinne looks like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show in this photo ... except in a cute way. These sun glasses have an old lady look.

Baby Food

2010-02-23T16:02:00.001-08:00

We have recently added baby food to Corinne's diet. At the last doctor's appointment she kind of hinted she thought the baby food would be good for Corinne not only because babies need to start practicing eating but because she would not be getting as many calories with the baby food. Last night when I was babysitting our friends 10 month old I was surprised when I picked him up and he was not much heavier than her. She is a little over 15lbs and the 10 month old is only 17lbs!

Here they are next to each other. They look pretty close to the same size.

This is what she thinks of rice cereal.

And this is what she thinks of green beans. Today was her first day of veggies. We will try fruits in an other couple of weeks.

Maybe teaching her to blow bubbles and raspberries was not a good idea!

Weekend O' Fun

2010-02-23T15:08:00.000-08:00

Nathan's brother Aaron and his wife Carolyn came to visit this past weekend and we had some fun showing them around. Really they had a medical conference that the Air Force sent Aaron to in New Orleans and since they were so close they took the opportunity to come hang out with us for a few days. We had a lot of fun and we are looking forward to seeing the rest of Nathan's family in April for grandma Petersen's birthday party.

We took a ferry from Galveston over to Galveston island to see Crystal beach.

This photo of the freighter ship is courtesy of Carolyn and her camera. She said she liked the way the ship looked with the palm trees.

So below is on Crystal Beach. If click on the photo and look at it enlarged you can see an oil rig in the ocean background above Corinne's head.

And here is Aaron and Carolyn. Notice all the tire tracks in the background behind them ... here in Texas it is not illegal to drive on the beach. That has got to reek some havoc on the shellfish.

This is a crazy beach house we saw at Crystal Beach. Again the photo is courtesy of Carolyn. It is three little sheds with lots of porch space. I wonder if they built it in stages or if they built it all at once.

We also took Aaron and Carolyn to our favorite Texas state park, Brazos bend. The alligators just sit on the path and pretty much just hang out. We saw lots of alligators like this one on this trip as well as the one we went when my mom went with us in January. This trip though we brought our camera.

We are standing on a bridge in this photo just incase anyone thought we were taking the baby out of the stroller too close to the alligator seen on the lower left.

Aaron and Carolyn in the swamp lands.

Aaron was very kind to walk Gabby the entire time we were at the park. We have not trained her very well as far as taking walks go. She must have been part sled dog in her previous life. She pulls so hard when you walk her that she she chokes herself and makes a lot of noise breathing. It is kind of embarrassing.

Surfside Beach Half Marathon

2010-02-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have been training for the last few months to go run a half marathon and Saturday was the big day. I was honestly a bit worried about it could not sleep for two nights before the run, but it went well. I had to walk a few steps to drink water at the water tables on the way, but other than that I was able to run the entire time and it was the furthest I have ever run before. The race was on the beach and in the sand, but the sand was pretty compacted and not hard to run on.
I carpooled with a couple of girls from the ward who did the run too and then Nathan came down for the finish with Corinne. I came in 214th place over all out of 519 runners. I was 17 out of 46 for my age group, and my chip time says I ran it in 2 hours 15 minutes and 40 seconds running at a pace of 10 minutes 26 seconds per mile. That is honestly better than I thought I would do. I now have something to beat for my next one.

It was Corinne's first time on the beach. Hopefully next time we go to the beach it will be warmer so she can actually enjoy it. She seemed rather stoic and unimpressed with the beach. Maybe it was because she had just woke up after the car ride.

We had trouble getting Corinne to look at Nathan for a picture. She was too mesmerized by my red jacket. Nathan is going to start training for a half marathon now. It is such a time sucker to train that we have to take turns.

Super Bowl

2010-02-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

Corinne spent a good amount of time being passed around the super bowl party on Sunday. All that time being passed around between adoring women must have tired her out because she passed out after getting to Nate. I don't think we have ever had that many kids over at our little house. We had two mild mannered little girls, four rowdy boys and three babies including Corinne. The Potts, Bartons and Oliveros families came over. There is nothing like children wrestling on the level above you to remind you how flimsily the houses are made in Houston. Well that or a hurricane. Both make the house shake and the windows shutter. It was a lot of fun. I spent so much time visiting that I had to ask after who won.

Christian Rock Star

2010-02-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is an old photo of Nate from before we met, but while we were at BYU. Doesn't it look like it should be on the cover of a Christian Rock CD?

Flying Baby!!

2010-02-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

One sure way to get Corinne to laugh and smile is to do the flying baby with her. I'm not sure why, but it seem like all babies like this.

This cute little outfit was made by the talented Melissa Harvey. Thanks Melissa! If anyone wants to see more of her stuff check out her blog. She does some really cute stuff. http://themudpuddleproject.blogspot.com/ .

Family Visit

2010-01-31T12:14:00.001-08:00

I drove up to Dallas to pick up my parents and brother Dan when they came to Texas for a visit and while waiting for their plane to come in Corinne and I met up with Nathan's uncle Mark and Uncle Jeff. It is always nice to visit with family and too bad we don't do it more often. We are looking forward to going to Nathan's grandma's birthday party in March and seeing all of them then. This was Mark and Jeff's first time meeting Corinne. But the reason my parents flew into Dallas instead of Houston was so that we could visit with some of my Dad's cousin's on his mothers side who he had not seen for something like 40 years. We spent a day and a half visiting and getting to know them better. It was really interesting to see the similarities in interests, career paths and political ideologies between the families even though there has not been the best contact over the years.

Below is Vicky holding Corinne. We had to look it up to figure out the relationships, but Vicky and her sisters Terri, Angie and Marsha are my dad's first cousins; because I am his child and therefore one generation removed from them, they are my first cousins once removed. But they are all Corinne's second cousins and their children are Corinne's second cousins once removed. It has to do with how many generations back you share grandparents. I wish I would have taken more photos while we were all together.
While Mom, Dad and Dan were in Houston we went out to see the battleship "Texas". It is actually the last surviving battleship that was used in both the first and second world wars. It was a cold and windy day while were were there, but it was neat and Nathan and I will likely go again when his brother Aaron and his wife Carolyn come out. Corinne spent most of the time asleep in the baby carrier strapped to my front. Talk about an easy kid.
You could still move the big guns around and look through the sights. It is amazing to think about how much technology has changed in the 100 years since this battle ship was built.
While Dad and Dan were driving around and looking at neighborhoods they thought were interesting because of the lack of zoning in Houston, Nathan and I took Mom and Corinne to Brazo's Bend to see the alligators. We have gone a number of times and have so far only had one trip where we didn't really see anything. This was not that trip. There were quite a few alligators out trying to soak up some sun and Mom got some pretty good pictures. Hopefully she will send a few my way too. My iphone was already too full of photos of Corinne so I missed out. Look how lazy I have gotten that if my phone is full I don't get a real camera out. It is just so convenient.

Chubby Bunny

2010-01-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

Cora has been growing and putting on weight. It is so cute. I love her rolls and chub.

Baby's First Christmas

2009-12-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

This was Corinne's first Christmas!! We didn't go too wild with presents this year because we figure she won't remember until later years anyway. Nathan found a deal on Amazon where he got Corinne the Disney movies Car's, Up and Monster's Inc. on blue-ray for $30. We thought they would be gifts she would enjoy later, but she seems to be pretty entranced by the TV already.

Having gone to Seattle in July and again in October to pick up Corinne, we decided to stick around Houston for Christmas this year. This was our first Christmas by ourselves. We hung out with a number of friends from the ward that also do not have family in the area. This was also our first wedding anniversary not spent with family in Seattle or in the airport headed to Seattle. So what do we do? We both forgot until that evening and went to lunch together a few days later.

Making faces: 8 weeks

2009-12-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

Cora has gotten more responsive and makes funny little faces.

Leaa's Blessing Outfit

2009-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

While in Seattle mom gave me the outfit I was blessed in. My grandma Perkins knitted it. I was six weeks in the photos I have of me in it and Corinne is six weeks in these photos too. Corinne will be much bigger by time we bless her or we could have used the same outfit. I love the little rhinestone buttons.

First Dr. Appointment

2009-11-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

We took Corinne to her first doctor visit here in Texas on the 19th. Since being born she has grown more than three inches and gained almost four pounds. All that in six weeks! She is in the 90th percentile for height, at 23", 70th percentile for weight at 10 lbs 10 oz. and 40th percentile for head size at 14 3/4". She is a good little eater and it shows. She also had immunization shots, which she actually did pretty well for. It was later in the day, after a nap that I think they hurt the worst though. That afternoon was the most I have ever had her cry. She is doing fine now though.

One Month Photos

2009-11-17T11:17:00.001-08:00

I took Cora to get some one month photos at Target. She slept through the first part where she was wearing the cute little outfit I picked out, but she was awake for the ones where she was just wearing the diaper cover. So of course I like the ones where she is awake better.

2009-11-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from Corinne's first bath after leaving the hospital. We used my sister Becky's bathroom sink. Even with warm water, Corinne was not too happy about the whole experience. She was pretty upset until she got her bottle. She likes her bath time much better now that she has had a few more.

Daddy's Day

2009-11-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

I am playing a bit of catch up on some important events. Nathan did not come up to Seattle when the birth mother was in labor. She went into labor Tuesday night and delivered Wednesday. We knew Nathan would not be able to stay in Seattle the entire time we were waiting for ICPC to clear and be able to bring Cora home. We thought it would be more important for him to be able to help bring her home with juggling Cora and everything on the plane so he came up on Saturday after Cora was born. The photo below is Nathan's face as he got to see Cora for the first time in person.

Nathan was understandably distraught about not being in Seattle right away. I don't think he was expecting that. He also had a hearing on Friday he needed to attend for work, but he was itching to get out out Houston and to Seattle as soon as possible.

He had to unwrap her and get a good look at her. So tiny. So pretty.

I swear

2009-11-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Nathan was sworn in as an attorney a few days after getting back from picking up Cora from Seattle. He could have done it for like a month before we left, but we just didn't make the time.

Cora and I got to stand up front with Nathan I felt a little silly up there but it was nice to have the close up view. I am really proud of Nathan and all the hard work he has done.

I forgot my camera battery charger for our point and shoot in Seattle so all these photos were taken on my phone. We met a nice lady who offered to take the photos.

At home we used the big camera we didn't want to take to the court house. Cora is making the cutest face here.

This is the cute little dress she wore to the court house. We will have to pick her out another special dress in a few months next time we go to the court house together.

Four weeks

2009-11-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

Corinne is now four weeks old. It is hard to believe that it has been four weeks since we got that 2:30 am phone call telling us the birth mother is in labor, so hop the next plane to Seattle. Adopting has been an amazing experience. We feel incredibly blessed. Corinne is a beautiful and easy baby. She slept a full 8 hours last night!!

Belly Button

2009-11-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Corinne's belly button is so cute. The little swirl looks like a cinnamon roll.

Halloween

2009-11-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

I am late with this post, but I figured Halloween was not too long ago so still timely enough. We didn't do anything exciting for Cora's first Halloween. We just stayed home and handed out candy. We thought three weeks might still be a bit too young for her to be going door to door. It was such a cold night and Cora's little teddy bear halloween costume was so snugly and warm we just let her sleep in it. It is from the Carter's store and is just one of those winter suits. They had some other cute ones too like a reindeer and a polar bear. I liked this one the best.

Ashli Leifson in our ward down here made the cutest little bows for Cora to wear and this Halloween bow is one of them. I remember Halloween being such a fun holiday as a kid. I am excited for when Corinne is a bit older and will get excited for the costumes and candy too.

The Cora Borealis

2009-10-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

The name I chose for this blog comes from a few different things. When Nathan and I were trying to decided on a name for our little girl Nathan asked if I liked the name Cora. One of his favorite books is the Last of the Mohicans and Cora is one of the main character's names. Cora also happens to be my paternal grandmothers name. We both like Cora, but I hesitated to use the name Cora because my grandmother did not actually like her name and went by her middle name Marie. We decided to name our little girl Corinne to give her an option in case she also does not like Cora. We have been calling her both Corinne and Cora though probably more Corinne.

Another nickname for Cora is Cora Borealis (which of course, is the inspiration of the name of the blog). The princesses name in Sleeping Beauty is Aura which is a reference to Aura Borealis, the northern lights. At the end of Sleeping Beauty while Aura is dancing with the prince her godmothers change her dress color from blue to pink repeatedly while she dances with her prince in the clouds. This is a reference to the Aura Borealis, the northern lights. When I lived in Alaska, I would often watch the northern lights and thought they were beautiful. Since Aura rhymes with Cora sometimes we call her the Cora Borealis. She really is our little sleeping beauty too. At just under three weeks she still sleeps more than she is awake.