Jessica AND Christi's Baby Showers!!!

So I finally decided that I would take Jessica up on her offer of throwing me a baby shower and within a day she decided that in fact she would like to take me up on my offer of throwing her a baby shower too! Jessica came up with the brilliant idea to do them the same day and go in on everything together (no sarcasm there really). I know that when I told many people that we were going to throw two showers the SAME day people were like "What? Are you crazy? You guys are both almost at full term and you guys are going to host each others showers and on the SAME DAY???" Well...yes! And it turned out great.

Funny thing was that we started getting similar reactions we got Freshman year at BYU together. When we first met during orientation our parents couldn't believe how much we looked like each other. Or when we'd do our grocery shopping at the Creamery on 9th the clerks would often ask us if we were sisters. And once again when people arrived (mostly for my shower) a few people asked us if we were sisters! Not by blood...but in heart I guess. :)

So when everyone first arrived we had them guess what day they think our babies would be born. And then they stamped the date with jessica's cute baby feet stamp. We'll see who is right and come up with a prize! :)
We also had them take Advice cards to fill out for us.
Once more people arrived we had them get their food.


Here is Jessica opening her presents. We decided to do Baby Bingo to help keep people occupied throughout the gift opening process.




Kara Anderson and Han








Well it was a super fun day but I don't have time to finish typing everything up about it so I'll have to finish it later! But enjoy this in the meantime!

Happy Valentines Day...belated!

Since Valentines Day happened to fall on a day where Griffin had class and I worked all day we decided to push it back on day. And it ended up being perfect! When i was a little girl my mom would often make these heart shaped pancakes for us kids on Valentines day. I was never a fan of pancakes but something about the pink food coloring in the batter and the hearts made me excited for them every time!
Griffin came home from his one class he had that day with a hot pink Gerbera Daisy...in honor of our wedding. :) (I gave him a $5 budget) It's been decorating our kitchen table since.
One of our favorite highlights of the day was going and doing initiatories after having a romantic dinner at Olive Garden. I think you can see the bread sticks popping out of my stomach in the picture because holy hannah I WAY over ate those bread sticks! I ate tons of salad and breadsticks and had most my dinner boxed up because of it! Little Jaylee was not happy with how crammed she was and kicked and kicked like crazy afterwards.
We also enjoyed pigging out on Dove chocolates Mom Anita sent to us...sooo yummy. She also surprised us by buying us Breaking Dawn (which is all about marriage and love) which we were planning on watching on our Valentine's Day. But we are still working on it...5 minutes here and there since we've been so swamped with baby stuff and homework and work. Thank you mom anita though for making it so convenient to do romantic things on Valentines Day.

I must say though that this was the best Valentines Day of my life! I haven't taken pictures of them all but Griffin went above and beyond with romantic gestures... I forget sometimes how he really did sweep me off my feet when we were dating...

For those of you who don't know, Griffin is quite the poet. He just has a way with words. I've typed below the poem he wrote for me for Valentines this year. It's not your straight forward "I love you" stuff...it's deeper and I just think he's so amazing for having the courage to put himself on paper in the form of poetry! I mean really...how many guys are willing to do that? My Griffin is. :)

Untitled
I often am curious how some describe love
For me it is the most powerful force, love
It is a force that makes you powerless at time, love
It is also a force that takes your breath away, love
Other times it is a force that can bring you to tears, love
But most of the time I like to think of love as a driving force-a force that motivates and inspires you to serve, give, speak kindly, and above all, love
For me today love has inspired me to change and be more of the man my sweetheart wants me to be (as well as the man my Father knows I can be), love
Let me tell you a little about my love

(Just ask)

Then when I looked up to see what he meant he had outlined a little program for me.
He had taken my name and for each letter assigned a word that described a quality he LOVES about me...and then he went on and on and expounded on each one...bringing me to tears.

C is for Compassionate (Reach out to Irene and always give ppl benefit of doubt)
H is for Helpful (Washes dishes when I don't and helps co workers out time and time again)
R is for Radiant (Your countenance)
I is for Incredible (So dedicated to the gospel and to truth...that is rare)
S is for Sporty...which made me laugh since he's never seen me when I've had the health to work out and do stuff (Yoga and jogging in such cold weather you slipped on ice and fractured your elbow)
T is for Tough! (Broke elbow and didn't even know it...waited it out 3 weeks)
I is for Intelligent (Social intelligence and Musical Intelligence)

J is for Jovial (Always laughing)
O is for Openminded (example is you reading Hunt for Red October)
Y is for Youthful (If it were up to you we'd dress up for Halloween every year, Play, go outdoors and to parties)

and THEN he said I had a quiz where I had to recite to him by memory each of the things he shared with me that he loved about me. So one by one, for each of the 10 things I got right he would massage one of my 10 fingers...telling me that if I got them all right that I had a prize awaiting me. And prize there was...a giant Reese's Bar (they're new). He stayed within the $5 budget and still managed to get me flowers, chocolate, and poetry! What an incredible husband I have.

PLUS he included one of our romantic coupons (from a booklet Natalie Stadelman gave us when we got married to help keep the love alive) which said "Let's fill in the blank together". I'm so excited for us to find something to do together to keep our love alive. :)

And I'm ashamed to admit what I did for Griffin for Valentines day...well I pretty much made him a short and simple card with a cut out $5 bill representing him getting to put $5 in his allowance. That's what he wanted but wow...no pressure...I gotta make it up to him somehow! Any ideas????

But we had such a great Valentines Day that I asked if we could make the next day Valentine's Day too. he agreed and we've been saying "Happy Valentines Day" every day since! :)

I love my sweetie.

Still growing

It has been SOOOOOO fun having my good friend Jessica from Freshman Year at BYU to go through this pregnancy with. She is due just one week after me and we've been able to go to some breastfeeding classes together as well as suggest good resources to one another. Gosh it's been fabulous! We even decided to throw each other baby showers...post coming soon....
In the meantime everyone just keeps saying that I'm so tiny. Even my doctor when he walked in for my appointment at 35 weeks said "Goodness you are so tiny for 35 weeks!" But luckily Jaylee is still growing and seems to be right on her mark...or close to it. She's still about 26th percentile. Doctor predicts she'll weigh 7lbs when she arrives. When I asked him how often he's right he said the babies are normally within 1/2 lb of his predictions. Dr. Young has been really good. I'm so grateful to have a doctor I trust to go into labor with.

I took a tour today of the Orem Community Hospital (where I'll be giving birth to Jaylee) and feel much more comfortable already. I'm still terrified of the actual birthing process, but at least I know I'll have a TV and DVD player, a fridge and microwave, a jetted tub, a couch that turns into a bed, etc. Plus the nurses and med techs were SOOOOOo nice. I'm grateful to know I'll be in good hands!

Trip Home to California for Winter Break

This year our anniversary was filled with Pettersen Family pictures, A family temple trip to do sealings, Family game night as well as our traditional "romantic" dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Can't believe it's already been 3 years.
Mom and I enjoyed a day at the temple together as well.
While home my wonderful, beautiful sisters and mother threw me a baby shower with the help of aunt Kim and mom Anita as well! It was so fun!
As per my request...we had a delicious fruit salad, mom's oriental chicken salad, french bread, and cheesecake brownies. hhmmmmm delicious!
Brooke was able to come too and stole the show with her adorable expressions.

Two very random things entailed the crazy sleep schedules of the East coast babies...I had to grab a picture of Stacy rocking Annabelle goodnight the only quiet place she could find...outside on the porch.

The other photo is a taste of the fun Griffin and Rojohn had trying to hunt down the friendly skunk living in mom and dad's basement.


A highlight for Griffin and I was getting to go visit one of my best friends from high school, Ming Shen and her boyfriend Marko Luk. They threw a New Years Eve party. Even more special was that Wendy and Greg Lu-Carroll came out to the party around when Griffin and I did just so that we could all catch up. Gosh I was so blessed to have the most amazing, uplifting friends growing up. Then the day after was the beautiful baby blessing of Brooke Ribeira (GayLynn and Ryan's second baby). She is so precious. Here's a photo of all the nieces and nephews together after the blessing. We can't wait for our little Jaylee to become best buddies with all her nieces and nephews!

Overall we had a wonderful time being home and could have used a few more days there before returning to work and school. We love you everyone!

Baby Shower hosted by Anita!!!

So it's official. I'm the most spoiled mommy to be in the world. Anita threw me the most amazing baby shower and I'm sick to my stomach I didn't make a big deal about getting pictures of everyone there because it was so well attended and by the most wonderful people ever! Truly it was a credit to Mom how loved she is that so many people came and were so generous to Griffin and me. Thank you Mom!!!! We love you and thank you!
Mom even special ordered my best friend Natalie's Cake Pops for the shower! And man they were a hit. Along with the chinese chicken salad, delicious fresh fruit salad, Mom Lynda's crazy lemon cake, and chocolate truffles!

Mom had a lot of help too from Sister Lathrop, Sister Lindow, Brother Welch, Sister Mordecai, the beautiful McMullens Brittany and Stephanie, and more. Tara Lindow was the perfect emcee and kept the games rolling, the prizes coming and the smiles bright! Thank you everyone!

Plus Mom Anita invited my immediate mom, sisters and grandma which made it even that much better! I couldn't have asked for more! Thank you everyone for coming! I love you all!