Wyatt Reed Peterson

Yesterday, Michelle's youngest sister had her first baby.  Wyatt Reed Peterson was born on April 14th, 2012 weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz and measuring 19 inches long.  Chelsea did great during the delivery and the whole family are doing well.

Michelle and I were able to visit them today and see for ourselves just how much hair this little guy has.  He is definitely a cute kid and we are happy for the both of them.  Congratulations Chelsea and Darren!!!!

New Stairs

Ever since we moved into our house we have wanted to replace our stair railing.  Our current one was not up to code and there were some spaces between balisters that were too wide.  We procrastinated at first because of cost and by the time we thought about it Drew was old enough and good enough not to mess around on the stairs, but when Braeden started getting older and is a little closer to crawling we thought we better not press our luck.  It took us a few weeks to get some quotes, but we ended up finding someone that we liked in terms of their work, their general personality, and thier price.  He did a quick and fast job of everything.  It only took 2 days for him to finish 99% of the work and then he had to come and fill in a few things that he didn't have.

Here are some of the before pictures.  If you notice it is all made of wood, with some rather big spaces in between.  There is also carpet on all of each stair.

The day before the guy came to start I decided to get things ready and rip up the carpet on the stairs.  The carpet was so dirty.  We do vacuum,but it isn't enough to get all the dirt out. 

Here is the beginning of the process.  He worked pretty fast and it was interesting to see what he was doing.  Before he started it was hard to imagine what it would all look like.  We had a vision in our head and even with that vision I was a little apprehensive about making the change.

Here is the final product.  Like I said before it didn't take him that long to finish.  We love the color and it isn't as dark as we thought it would be.  The space is large enough to handle the contrast and we are pleased with how it turned out.

We are glad we have a railing that is safe enough for our kids.  Our next adventure is the paint all of the rooms up stairs and then replace all of the carpet for the stairs and in the bedrooms.  It seems like a lot, and it is, but we will be so happy when it is all done.

Easter Weekend

Since everyone's families are getting bigger and it is harder to get together on the actual day of a holiday we decided to have a Martin Easter celebration the day before Easter.  That morning Drew had already gone to an Easter egg hunt at the local grocery store and then was taken to Home Depot by his uncle Darren to make a bird feeder.  After I got off of work I headed down to Orem to join in the festivities.  We first had the little kids dye Easter eggs.  The hardest part was making sure they didn't drink the dye solution.

Grammie had her kiddie pool out full of her corn.  It is a little easier to clean up than sand and a lot less messy.  The kids had a lot of fun throwing it around and pouring it into dump trucks.  Drew then wanted to go on the swing and then play with the little Easter scene that Grammie had set up as decoration.

While the kids played outside a few of us stayed inside to chat.  Rachel's mother and sister were in town for the weekend and were able to join us for the party.  Jill also was in town for a BYU nursing reunion with her littlest one, Steven, so we were happy to be able to spend time with them.

After dinner it was time to play one Grammie's fun games she likes to put together.  This time it was darts.  She had a board with balloons that we wanted to try and pop.  For each balloon we popped we got a treat.

Everyone was given at least two rounds of 4 darts each.  Even the kids were able to participate, but most of us kept our distance because you never know where the dart might end up.  Not everyone's aim was a straight shot.

As usual, Michelle is the life of the party and gives us something to laugh about.  She always makes these funny faces when she is doing these types of games.  Just look at her form.  She follows through with a straight arm.  Unfortunately, I don't think she hit a single balloon.

After our games we prepared an egg hunt for the little kids.  By this time Drew was a little tired and ready for a nap, but I forced him outside and got him a little involved in the hunt.  He didn't go crazy, but he did end up having fun.

When I was growing up we always got our Easter baskets on the Saturday before Easter.  Since I was working and Michelle was down in Orem for the Martin party on Saturday we didn't get Drew his basket till Sunday.  Michelle waited till I got home from work to set them out.  When I did get home Drew was asleep, but Braeden was all ready in his rabbit ear Easter outfit.

Before long I heard Drew in his bedroom.  He didn't seem very happy.  It took him a little while to calm down, but soon he made his way down the stairs.  I kept telling him he had a surprise waiting for him.  Even after seeing his basket and gifts he didn't have a smile on his face.  That didn't come until we broke out the little golf set for him.

Drew won't be going on any PGA tour any time soon, but he did love trying to hit the ball one handed.  We will work on that later.  He mostly used the club as a sword, but that is how boys are.

Later in the day we had Rachael, Steve, and our cousin Jean-Jacques over for dinner.  It was fun to be together and we had some good food as usual.  We thought about going away from tradition and using some of our beef, but Michelle had a last minute change of mind and we decided on a good old ham.  The day turned out great and it was nice to be with family and remember the resurrection of Christ.