Just when I think, it can't get any worse, then it does. We really pissed off Karma somehow! Anyone know how to make it right?

It's not enough that we can't get our insurance to pay for everything they're supposed to. Now, we might not have health insurance at the end of the year.

It's not enough that Emarie can't just stay healthy, but neither can Steve or I.

It's not enough that my family just can't get along, but now I'm not sure I can stay out of it anymore.

It's not enough that our water heater has to cause mayhem upstairs, now our plumbing is backing up into our house just because we drained our bathtub. It smells like raw sewage, we probably have to replace all the carpet and we had to have a plumber come at 3 am all while we were trying to celebrate our sixth anniversary.

Anyone know anyone with extremely good luck that could spend some time with us for awhile, since I've been trying to turn my luck around all my life!!

All the good things in life.......And of some of the not so good!

I do have a lot to post on today, but have not had time until now. Firstly, because I had dreaded parent/teacher conferences (so fun progress notes to go along with that), and then we've had some problems (understatement!) with our water heater (Steve doesn't technically like me calling it the water heater, but it's the best way I can describe it, well you'll see in the picture)

So the first of these pics are from Thanksgiving which was spent in Preston/Clifton Idaho, with Steve's mom's side of the family. There were 60 people there at dinner (and no that's not an exaggeration!)

Emarie dressed up all nice for Thanksgiving!

I was trying to get Em to look at the camera. Steve's cute little cousin Julia took it (and it was the best we got of the three of us!)

Isabel and Emarie on the toy bears. Isa does not like to pose for pictures with Emarie for some reason!

For the record, I would like everyone to know, that I did get my Christmas decor up the weekend after Thanksgiving, just haven't had time to show it off yet!

The lights on the house, that Steve worked very hard on!

The beautiful tree that I worked hard on (1,400 lights, mind you!)

The mayhem in the middle of it all. Yes that lovely thing that connects to the water heater was leaking all over the place for who knows how long!

The traditional Christmas stocking picture (she got it from the hospital since she was born on Christmas Eve), and we will continue to take a picture in it every year, until she no longer fits!

With her candy cane and Christmas teddy, in her cute new Christmas PJ's!

She just loves the snowman that sings "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland"

And da da daa! I actually cut Emarie's freakishly long pony tail, since I now can fit it all into a pony tail in the back! No one can get mad, once you see how cute it is.....

In other news, I do need to tell you first not to freak out! Okay, everyone calm....... On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Emarie was vomiting blood, we took her to the doctor though, and everything is fine! A little scary, but apparently a fluke that we are hoping we won't see again! We love you all for your concern though. Hope you are all are starting of your holiday season wonderfully!

Emarie's 8th surgery! What a trooper!

So Emarie had a procedure scheduled on Monday to remove her prosthesis in preparation for her hard palate repair that was supposed to be in December. But, as it turns out, Dr. Sadikqi still thinks the gap is too wide, so he wants to wait a year. So, she had another prosthesis put in instead.

Before her surgery in the waiting room, we got up at about 5 that morning!

     We've started letting her hold the pager the last couple of times, she feels very important!

After she got dressed in her surgery attire with daddy, so cute!

And waving with mommy

And then with the anesthesiologist and giving a dirty look to his assistant, I don't think she trusts that attire!

When I went back to her in Post-Op, let's just say she was not a happy camper! To explain it the best, I think she was throwing her first ever fit (which isn't bad for an almost 2 year old!). But let me tell you, there was good reason for this! The Dr informed me that she had kicked her IV out right as she was waking up, so he didn't think she got any of the morphine into her system. They did try to rectify this by giving her some Loritab as soon as I got there, and 15 minutes later, she was much calmer!

As was typical of Emarie, she was having a hard time keeping her O2 levels up, even going down to the low 70's. So, this was a concern for her to go home. She also threw up once, which she doesn't usually do that, so I suspect that some of the anti-nausea medicine didn't get to her either. But, in the end, she pulled through, and we were able to go home at about 4:30, and all 3 of us pretty much slept the rest of the day and night!

Let me also just mention that the cute old ladies in the parent waiting room (while your child is in surgery) now have seen me enough, that they now know me, and don't even bother to lead us anywhere, or give us instructions! Kinda sad, I know!

It was a long Halloween! And for once, I'm glad it's over!

Halloween lasted three days long for me at the preschool. We had our big Halloween parade on Wednesday, and then our actual party on Thursday (which Emarie joined us for). And then I have no kids on Friday, but the afternoon kindergarten classes missed their parade, so they came around to trick-or-treat. That night we went to Salt Lake for Steve's grandma Jan's birthday, and then went to Payless with Steve's sisters and their spouses for their crazy 50% off sale!

Actual Halloween on Saturday, we just took Emarie to grandparents houses. She had a blast!

With great-grandma Wilde and Dexter

At Grandpa Mitch and Grandma Jen's

With poor Tank, who was dressed like a chicken, and was so embarrassed and hiding most of the night

Love this picture with Uncle Bryan at grandma Karen's

Fell asleep with a candy wrapper in each hand!

Here's Em in her new boots and tights, some of the many

things we got 50% off!

A few things to remember for next Halloween:

-Spray-on glitter (aka: Fairy Dust) does not easily come off the couch, the tile floor, the car, the carpet and clothes, well pretty much anything!

-No matter how much you love to dress up, your husband might not feel the same way!

-Trying to paint a two year old's face with eyeliner, is definitely not an easy task (that's why she just has the nose at this point!)

-No matter what I do to prevent it, we will continue to be the only ones on our street that get our pumpkins smashed before Halloween.

-If you get home after 8 pm, you probably won't have more than 4 or 5 trick-or-treaters!

-No matter how much you want to tell the big teenage Tongan girls with no costumes, that they don't get candy since they didn't dress up, it's probably not a good idea (they probably would have easily beat me up)!

-Last of all, watching a scary movie on Halloween, is not always a good idea, when it was as disturbing as this one was (which I won't mention!)

I'm going to see David Gray!!!

So, today was my birthday and my wonderful Steve gave me two presents. The first one I opened was the new David Gray CD, and then I opened the big one, tickets to see him in concert next Monday!! I was so excited, I could hardly stand it! I've been listening to the cd every chance I get, I just can't get enough David!

Here's a picture of me with my cd and tickets. Oh yeah, and my new, badly needed, hairdo! 

My cute little Minnie Mouse!

So, yes, I have gone a little to the Disney side of things with Emarie's costumes! Last year she was Tinkerbell, and this year, she's Minnie Mouse. I was very proud of finding her Minnie costume 50% off at the Disney Store!

So here she is as Tink last year

And here she is as Minnie

Doesn't look too thrilled in this one!

Then I took her inside, but all she did was take the pumpkins off the shelf

        This is a weird pumpkin!

I just can't wait for Halloween!

Halloween is Coming!!

So, Saturday we went to Pumpkinland. It was Emarie and Steve's first time there. I've been going every year with the preschool though. I also grew up going there every year. The first few pictures are at Pumpkinland, and then Em out in front of our overly decorated house with her pumpkins. And the last picture is of the end result of my carving the pumpkins.

I have the best kid in the whole world!

Man oh man, I love this girl! I had to take her to work since I was running really late today. I'm not really supposed to take her anymore on Fridays, although I don't have any kids here, but I still do once in awhile. My grandma Andrews watches her most Fridays, which is very nice!

So, I am so busy trying to get in my end of month assessments, and Emarie is just busy playing with her toys (including her drum, which is her fave!) and then she'd look up at me once and awhile and just kill me with her smile! I just can't even express in words how much I love this girl!

Emarie's First time in Nursery!

Well, Emarie went to Nursery for the first time yesterday in church. She could've been going since she was 18 months, but everytime I looked in there all I could think was "those kids are going to trample her!" But they have put together a more mellow, smaller (as in the children's size, but still considerably bigger than Em) class. Steve and I stayed with her the whole time, since we were too afraid to leave, but she did great! The only hitch was when she almost fell off her chair trying to take back a crayon that one of the kids stole from her (but I caught her! See, lucky I was there!) Also, she didn't really know what to with the marshmallow snack they laid out in front of her, we will have to work on that!

Sorry, no pictures this time, but I will try to get one next week!

Family Pics by the wonderful Lacey Lyn, who happens to be my best friend!

It has been too long since there was a Peters' family picture! The last one was over 5 years ago, and didn't include the newest four additions (Ulises, Isabel, Emarie, and Kevin)! So, Steve and I told his mom at Christmas that that was what we were giving the family, but we wanted to wait for Kevin and Amber to be married, so we've just gotten them done!

So my best friend, Lacey took them for us up at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake. Here are a few for you to see!

               My favorite group shot!

Another group shot, featuring all 14 family members!

    The girls, minus the babies

The three youngest boys jumping off the wall

The Peters kids, L to R: Brian, Steve, Amber, Mike, Cory, Rachelle, Jeff, Kristal. That's not birth order

The boys

Lacey made us do this! J/K, I love this pic!

Emarie being blown away by a gust of wind, haha!

The newlyweds, Kevin and Amber

       Kristal, Ulises and Isabel, the next Newlyweds 3 1/2 years

   The first married children, almost 6 years now!

Love this red bridge, in the Japanese Garden!