I'M BACK!!!! (kind of)

So I will start this post off by saying that blogging is just not my thing! Jake has been the one to update our blog the last few times which I know wasn't very often, but I wasn't going to complain because I didn't have to do it! Jake thinks if we blog we do more fun things (which isn't true, anybody that knows us know that we do not sit around long and do things ALL the time, at least that is what it feels like to me), and take more pictures of what we are doing, which is true! Jake told me a couple of months ago (that is the kind of time it took for me to complete this post) that he would love it if I would update our blog and he would be even happy if I did it once a month for 6 months and call it his fathers day present!!!!! Score for me (kind of), a super cheap gift! Well now that it is the day before the deadline, I am re-thinking that idea and it might be easier to just go buy him a tie or something.....

Today is going to be just a quick update, especially because it has taken me 2 times loading the pictures, and the computer shutting down on me twice. Next time I will work harder to get things in a little more order.

We have been really busy since Braxton got here last August. We have been on a few trips which include visiting Utah, Disneyland, New York, and San Diego. Jake has been busy finishing up his last year of his Doctorate in Physical Therapy, he graduates in August and we are all so proud and excited for him. I quit my job in January and now am a full time mom (aside from the races that keep Jake and I busy on the weekends from about September through May), and absolutely love it! Kaden is the life of the party, and always keeps us on our toes! Braxton is our kid that lets us just enjoy life, he is so easy going and lovable. At this time in our lives things couldn't be any better!

You can kind of get a glimpse into our lives with the pictures below, but I will hopefully give you a more detailed picture of our lives as I  keep this up for at least the next 6 months (happy fathers day babe).

New Baby Time!!!

Introducing Braxton James Petersen born August 3.

He weighed 7lbs 110z and was 22 inches long. We are so excited to welcome this sweet boy into our family. It feels like we have been waiting forever for him to get here.

Laura was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, August 2 at 5am but at 3am we received a call informing us that they were too busy and that we needed to wait. They told us they would call when they were ready, So we sat around the house all day not knowing what was going to happen. The hospital only had our home phone number so we felt confined to our home. Since we were given no details about when or what was going to happen we just sat around watching TV and movies anxiously awaiting for them to call. Luckily Laura's good Friend Jessica called and wanted to come over cause she was just as anxious. Laura's sister Lindsay then came by with lunch which was really nice. This helped to pass the time. Just as we were losing all hope we got THE CALL!!

So at 3pm on the 2nd we came in. We got right in to a labor and delivery room and Laura got all hooked up to the IV and all the machines and they started the induction. The nurse noted that Laura had all ready began to have some contractions before the drugs were started, she was very optimistic that the baby would come soon. WELL SHE WAS WRONG! It took forever. Each nurse would come in being very optimistic telling us that Laura was making good progress and would probably deliver soon then their shift would end and still no baby. We went through three nurses. Then finally at about 12:15 the Dr came in and broke her water. This helped to speed things up and we were off to the races. The baby was born about an hour later with Laura only having to push for about 15 to 20 min.

It has been an awesome and truly humbling experience. There is nothing on this earth that makes you feel closer to your Heavenly Father then to witness one of his choice spirits enter this earth life.

Braxton is adorable and so cute we are so blessed to have such a sweet baby boy.

Laura did fantastic and is doing great and recovering well. We have had so much support and thank all of those who have been there for us and have supported us throughout his whole process. We especially want to thank all of you who have helped us with Kaden namely Jake's parents and Laura's parents. They have been so good with Kaden and have had so much fun with him that he has not really even missed us at all.

The pictures are just before we went in you can tell by the look on her face that she is so happy to finally have receive the call.

Kaden has really surprised us and is doing really well with Braxton. I am not sure if he understands entirely what is going on yet and if he realizes that his reign as only child and king of the house is quickly coming to a close. It has been so fun to see Kaden interact with Braxton and get so excited to be a big brother.

We have had some great nurses since we have been here, but our nurse yesterday was so good with Kaden. She let Kaden be included in helping to given Braxton a bath and to comb his hair and change is diaper and then swaddle him up. She went and got a stool for Kaden so that he could participate in all of this, it was so fun to seem him so engaged and having fun helping to take care of his baby brother.

Many of you know that my brother Brett and his wife had there first about 2 months ago. So Braxton and Pennie got to meet again for the first time since Pennie left heaven, we know they were best friends up there. We are excited to have cousins so close together.

Braxton thanks everyone for the payers in his behalf. We are excited for this new chapter in our lives and are excited to continuing to share our lives with you, we love you all so much!!

Almost New Baby Time!!!!

Well we are under a week away from the arrival of our sweet baby Braxton. We are so excited for him to come!!! Laura is especially excited for him to come, it has been a long hot summer for her. Luckily the City of Mesa built a new public pool across the street from our subdivision and we got a season pass, so we have spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. Kaden really loves to go swimming and has had lots of fun swimming as well.

So on Tuesday, August 2 our Braxton will be here. Kaden is so excited to be a big brother, we have been working really hard to get the house ready and to prepare him for the big day. We are a little nervous with how Kaden will react but we are excited to watch him grow into a great big brother.

As many of you know we love to take pictures and have taken thousands of pictures of Kaden. When Laura was pregnant with Kaden we took pregnancy pictures every month. We have been told that there is no way we could keep this up and that we would have hardly any pictures of our next child. Well that is true I don't think we took one set of pregnancy pictures this time around. Laura was feeling a little bad about it and really wanted to get some shots so last week we had her friend Leigh, who has a photography business take some pictures and they turned out really good. I am so glad that she decided to have some taken. Leigh was able to get some super cute pictures of Kaden and Laura. I love the one of him hugging her belly it is so CUTE!!

Is Anyone There???

So it has been over a year since our last post and because of that I am sure that all of you have given up on us. Well I am happy to announce that we are back. However, I am not giving any promises to how long this will last. This very well could be it for another year and half.

We have been a very busy family and just have not had the time to blog.

Laura has been working hard this past year. She works full time at University of Phoenix (UOP) where she has been for almost two years. As an employee of UOP she is able to take classes from them for a fraction of the cost. She came to me about a month after she started and asked what I thought about her getting her masters degree. She said that her job would pretty much pay for it and she just didn't feel like she could pass up the opportunity. I was in the middle of my Doctorate program and it was hard and time consuming and I knew that a masters would be as well. After some thought she decided to go for it. I happy to say that just shy of a year and half later she has completed the program. Laura graduated with her MBA in April. She did this while working full time, being a wonderful mom to our awesome son Kaden, and pregnant with our second. She really is amazing and I am still not quite sure how she managed to pull it off.

So that leads me to our other big news. We are expecting our second son in just 3 short weeks. It has been a long hot summer for Laura but she has done great. Luckily the City of Mesa built a new public right across the street from our house, so we got a family pass to that pool and have been going about two to three times a week, to cool off.

Jake has been working hard for the last two years in his physical therapy doctorate program. He has just completed his course work and will begin his clinical rotations in August. To commemorate this time of completing the two-years of course work and entering the clinical world the school had a white coat ceremony. This was a special event that was held at the Mesa Art Center in on of the theaters there.

He is excited to put this part of his schooling behind him and enter into the clinical world and start to put into practice all that he has learned for last couple of years. He is most excited to not have to take a test every week.

Kaden is going like a weed and is so smart. He has an awesome memory and never forgets anything which often gets us in trouble. You can not make any empty promises with this kid. He got a bike for Christmas and loves to ride it and wants to ride it when ever he can. He is getting to that age where he is starting to get into things and is very independent. He has to do everything on his own and does not like it when you help him. He plays really well by himself which is nice but when it gets real quiet we know he is getting into something he shouldn't. This happened just the other day when he was playing in our room and after a few minutes we didn't hear him anymore so we went to see what he was up to and he had gotten into some lotion and had it all over him. He was trying to wipe it off of him and got some in his mouth and started to gag it was kinda funny.

Kaden is so EXCITED to become a big brother and he can not wait for his little brother to get here. He has been practicing helping out around the house and can't wait till he gets to help his little brother.

Well we hope to get some more posts up but again no promises.

In may we had the opportunity to go to a cabin with Jake's family and it was so much fun. Kaden had a blast! We got to go to the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery which was a lot of fun. Kaden really liked seeing the fishes and running from pool to pool. His favorite thing to do was to go bug hunting. He had all the official bug hunting gear which his Papa Pete supplied him. However his daddy and Aunt Gena might of had a little more fun with the bug catching then Kaden did. They were able to catch a centipede which was pretty cool to see.