and the grinch's heart grew three sizes that day...

this is oscar.

he is our friend.

he helped bring "the spirit of christmas" into our home this year.

we made presents for his family. then we wrapped them up.

enjoyable, to say the least.

christian asked oscar if he and his sister's were getting along. this is a question he frequently asks. oscar's response: "yeah, they are being nice to me because they have the spirit of christmas". turns out, oscar helped our family start feeling the "spirit of christmas" during a crazy month of december. and the grinch's heart (my heart) grew three sizes that day...

thanks for the givin'

christian was a little tired in this picture. looks like the tryptophan got the best of him. i couldn't leave this picture out though.

first time i'd been with all of christian's siblings at once.

showing our best sides at the bowling alley the day after our turkey feast.

britta + punkin pie = true love

pumpkin chiffon pie - along with the assistance of swede, tyler, rachel and paul, we were able to produce four of these bad boys.

swede is a dancer. we got to watch.

above is a photo sampling of our first thanksgiving as a married couple. we have had a year of things to be grateful for - one engagement, one marriage, one thesis defense (hooray for christian!), one less gallbladder, one less hemangioma of the head and one trip to africa. 2010 was a big year for us.

montana mountain bash aka petersen family reunion

christian's "travel outfit" - he said he chose it for the comfort. my assessment - he wanted to see the look on my mom's face when she saw how well he matched.

our drive up the highway to the sun. i love glacier national park.

beautiful, beautiful glacier

my two favorite men

i think my face is blurry because we are going so fast.

this summer we made our way to lakeside, montana for the petersen family reunion. it was a weekend fun of cousins, aunts and uncles. we had a chance to reminisce about grandpa pete and grandma amy. my mom and dad rented a house for us to stay in. christian and i got the bedroom with bunks beds. pretty cool, eh?

we spent one day in glacier - driving up the highway to the sun and tromping around up top.

the next day we hung out at the lake house by my aunt deann and uncle steve's condo. christian and i played doubles tennis with nate and kim. wimbledon here we come! we jumped in the freezing cold lake. had good conversations with family - my favorite was the controversial topic of why men should put the toilet seat down for their wives. wonder who brought that up? no need to wonder. it was christian. he loves the topic. ask him about it sometime. we rode on the boat around the lake. ate a lot of food. the men played basketball - and my dad broke his wrist, but he continued with the fun. watched the kids play. ate some more food. it was a lovely day.

again, i know this is a late entry, but i found the pictures and didn't want to forget my first petersen family reunion as a sabey.

p.s. one of my favorite parts of the trip was singing a duet of "meet me in montana" with christian on the way to the reunion, in the truck with he and my parents and on the way home. watch out petersen family - this may be our talent for the christmas party!

you're a grand old flag

ask my friend angie about "you're a grand old flag" and all the times i used to sing it to her. i love that song! i also loved our trifle we made for our 4th of july holiday celebrations.

i know my timing is off, but i was just so excited to find all sorts of pictures i forgot we had.

proud (and grateful) to be americans!

carnival

we used christian's camera for all our honeymoon pics. i forgot we even had any until i found them on his computer. i was reminded of the fun we had on our honeymoon cruise. i don't know what all the complaints, as of late, have been about the carnival cruise line. we loved it. it was like a carnival on the ocean! hot dogs and ice cream 24 hours a day - who can ask for more?

long beach airport

our first stroll around the perimeters of the boat. i mean, there has to be a few kissing pictures - it WAS our honeymoon.

waiting in line to get off the boat. hot and muggy with a 100% chance of the people behind us complaining the whole time we were in line.

the boat ride from the cruise ship to catalina island.

"standin' on the dock of the bay..."

i've said it before, and i'll say it again - i like bikes!

we rode all around the island and to the top of some big hills. all sorts of people were driving golf carts, but we made it to the top on one speed bikes. can you tell by the look on our faces?

we like bikes!

formal night - another kissing picture!

"ohhh mexico, i've never really been, so i don't really know..."

all dressed up

scooters?!?! mexico?!?! fun???? yes, yes. i think so.

all geared up for our scooter ride.

another lovely self portrait

our very own towel swans shaped like a heart. how romantic.


carnival cruise line gets four thumbs up from this couple.

happy halloween

we had a lovely evening eating fall foods and watching an alfred hitchcock movie. halloween was particularly pleasant this year.

"great date night with my hubby!"

a few saturdays ago, i came home later in the evening from grocery shopping. i was pretty sick of the grocery store and glad to be home, especially because christian was home. he could tell i was tired. he looked at me and said something about appreciating what i do for him. (side note - he is good at that whole gratitude thing.) then he proceeded to tell me that he was sorry we hadn't been on a date in awhile. he said he often sees status updates on facebook that say, "great date night with my hubby!" he was concerned about the fact that i didn't have any "great date nights with the hubby" to share. he was worried that i might be feeling like ever since we got married we were boring and didn't do anything. i proceeded to remind him:

1) even if we were going on all kinds of adventurous dates, i probably wouldn't post it on the fb for everyone to see - not that it is bad to have status updates, just that i don't post status updates all that often

and

2) we don't have to do anything crazy for me to think it is fun - i mean, most of our dating experiences consisted of sitting on the couch watching food network shows or project runway because i was battling headaches

so, that night we drove up the road to the 7-11 and got a slurpee for our date night. fun and fun. i almost posted "great date night with my hubby!" on facebook to make christian feel better about things. i told him i'd let the world of facebook know that he is a wonderful husband if he really wanted. he declined. then he proceeded to tell me that he wouldn't mind if during our whole eternity of marriage i didn't call him "hubby" or "my hubby". it isn't his favorite term of endearment. so, i plan on not ever calling him "hubby". other than in this post.

the next saturday, my hubby took me on a great date night. we went to the opera. la boehme, a love story, was our opera of choice. he had been wanting to see that opera for years - ever since his mission, i think. it was a lovely evening filled with beautiful voices, an almost non-existent plot, and enlightening companionship. because we were early, we had the chance of walking around the block of the capitol theater. we reminisced about one of our first dates where we walked around the same block because the wait for beni hana was pretty long. it was fun to remember all the great date nights i've had with christian, and look forward to all or future dates. here's to my wonderful hubby and all our great date nights!

i miss the rain down in africa

it rained quite a bit when we were in africa. we got in on some great weather. from what i hear, the heat can be suffocating, but when we where there, it was quite pleasant. here are a few pictures from our adventures in ghana. more to come.

batik workshop - we used wax, dye and boiling water to print cloth. when i say "we", i mean our friends at the batik shop. they did most of the work, but let us feel like we were contributing.

learning about weaving at the kente village

the slave castle - a sobering experience

standing inside a ficus tree at the monkey sanctuary

excuse?

i have a friend names jeanna. jeanna posted the following comment on my last post:

JeAnna said...

I don't believe that summer pics are coming.

It is almost November.

October 17, 2010 3:27 PM

she has a good point. i promised summer pics were coming, and it is almost november. wow. i'm slow. i figure i've always been slow though. i'm more about endurance than speed. right?!?! i figured i better keep my word though. "summer pics coming soon..." i thought i'd post a few. we had plenty going on - a wedding, a honeymoon, africa, montana. i decided i'd post at least a couple. i signed in to the blog, opened up a new post page and this is what i saw:

Image uploads will be disabled for two hours due to maintenance at 5:00PM PDT Wednesday, Oct. 20th.

now, i know it is a lame excuse, but i can't post pics, even though i want to. i'd like to think that i'm a solution-based person. because of this, i came up with a little solution. kim, our lovely photographer, just posted some of our wedding pics to her blog. they are simply divine. take a look at them:

http://kimberhansen.blogspot.com/

enjoy! i do. all the time.

honorable mention

okay, summer adventure pics are coming. i promise. okay. i promise.

but, i wanted to be sure and finish out with all the lovely people who made the moving parts of our wedding come together. last but not least - dad and mom. they were just amazing. ever heard of milkglass? the second i mentioned it, my mom started looking in every antique store and d.i. from logan to salt lake to find the stuff. in fact, she is still finding it. ask her about the cute cake stand she found for $1 at a yard sale. my dad did what we asked, when we asked, no questions asked. then, when i'd be ready to crash, they'd swoop in and save the day. it is important to note, that the wedding is one aspect of all they have done for me. my whole life has been filled with my mom and dad loving me unconditionally and teaching me the most important lessons of life through examples. so, the honorable mention goes to....danny and terry petersen - the best mom and dad in the whole wide world.

alert

the blog title has been changed! we're married now, and have been for over three months. you know that, right? i've slowly been changing my name on my passport, drivers license, social security card, bill, etc. i'm making my way through these changes. i haven't yet changed my e-mail address, but that will come soon. just thought ya'll should know, the blog hasn't been hi-jacked, i'm just making changes.

i'll add updates of our summer adventures soon. it's been such a grand summer.

more highlights...

a few more of the remarkable vendors we worked with...

reception center

old rock church

www.providenceinn.com

music

austin weyand

http://austinweyand.showitsite.com/

food
culinary concepts

http://culinaryconceptsonline.homestead.com/

invitations

square one printing

honorable mentions include rex parrish video, coppermill restaurant and university inn.

highlight reel

a highlight reel of all the adroit, professional, ingenious and extaordinary people we worked with to make the wedding and reception happen. the most important and beautiful part of the day was the sealing ceremony in the logan temple. the temple workers were amazing. they were helpful and kind and helped me feel the spirit of love that day. if the day had ended after the ceremony, it would have been perfect. but, it didn't - and the day continued being perfect.

dress

http://www.avonleabridal.com/

flowers

and

decorations

diane malmquist

le decorateur

cake
marcie suchow
kake an edible design company
http://www.kakecompany.com/

accessories
amy royer
yellow bird fabrics

http://yellowbirdfabrics.blogspot.com/

accessories
steph wildman

photography
kimber hansen photography

http://kimberhansen.blogspot.com/

all of the people we worked with were so wonderful. the reception was absolutely picturesque. more to come....