Where Do I Start?

Thanksgiving:

For Thanksgiving I had my friend Sarah over, and we made our own Thanksgiving with the help of Tawnya, and of course our supportive husbands. The dinner turned our great, although the Turkey was a little dry, but I just figured it tasted like turkey and thats all I was going for!

A few days later we put up our $12.00 Christmas tree that we bought from a local exchange store. I've been buying ornaments little by little since August and I think the overall decor looks great.

And of course since we have curious crawling boys... this is what our christmas tree really looks like:

And finally, the present time:

On Thursday night Joe was vomiting through the entire night, but he had a big test on Friday that he couldn't miss. He ended up making it in time for the test, but not doing very well on it, which means that he will have to take the final on Tuesday. He is feeling much better now, so we think it must have been a 24 hour bug that I think I have now (Although my symptoms aren't as severe which I credit to my stellar immune system). Unfortunately Ethan has become quite ill as well starting last night. We aren't sure what it is, but he has a temperature and is very lethargic. I will call a nurse tomorrow to see what I can do.

Though all of this seems fairly grim, it just makes us all the more excited for finals to be over, our illnesses to have passed, and us be on our way back to Utah to visit family and friends.

Operative Dentistry

I just wanted to write a bit about school just to make myself feel good. It is absolutely incredible how much information they are packing into our brains so quickly. I already have a pile of paper that is just my notes from class that is approaching 10 inches in height. Of course there is also text book material we have been required to read but just the notes from class are exausting. In a week or two of time we cover as much material as an entire semester of undergrad study. But with all that said, It has also been quite rewarding. The other night as I was walking in the rain from the Dental building to the medical library to study all night, I stopped and thought about what a blessing and a great experience it is to be here. I felt the rain on my face, looked at the stone spires on top the Medical School illuminated against the black sky like the cathedral of Notre Dame, looked at historic Kinnick Stadium, and pondered what a great experience this all is. Jessica and I have worked so hard to be in the place we are right now and sometimes its easy to get overwhelmed with everything, but its in those hard moments that I count my blessing and thanks Heavenly Father for what we have.

Now on a more fun note, I had one of my classmates take a picture with my phone of me working in class. We have a dental simulation clinic here at Iowa where we are able to work on a manikin head that has false teeth, real teeth glued into a denture, etc. We are learning how to drill cavities right now and its fun to actually be working like that. I'm getting pretty good with the drill so everyone needs to look out. Hahahaha. We will start doing work on each other next semester and I think we start working on real patients either next summer or for sure next fall.

The Slideshow Famine is Over

Here is a quick slide show video i made while Jess was taking a nap. She is still recovering from a bad cold. The film covers the boys from the time we moved to Iowa til now. I hope you will enjoy and not miss the boys too much. We will be home to visit soon enough.

To all the doubters

Here is phase II of our little project. We received phone calls and blog comments kind of doubting our painting skills and wondered what patterns we used, if it was paper or paint, some thought they were purchased. Well, to all the doubters, here is a picture of us working on it as well as the final product. We used those spongy ear plugs to do the solid circles and used a piece of construction paper rolled in a tube to make the hollow circles. Jess is so creative. They were both her ideas to make such nice circles. She is great. I love her so much. She has so many talents. You would not believe the fantastic scrapbook pages she has made for the boys. And now these block letters are memories that the boys can have forever.

The Fruits of Our Labors

Joe has been so great this weekend taking care of me while I have been sick. He has cleaned up, taken care of the boys, taken them to church by himself, and most importantly he has let me NAP! When I woke up from a much needed nap this afternoon, he had started my craft project for me to kill time. Well, I couldn't very well let him go at it alone! So this is what we have so far.

Close-up

And this is the crib set we tried to match.

Tomorrow for family night we are going to do "Noah".

Wish us luck!

Let me explain...

...no, there is too much. Let me sum up.
This past week or so has been fairly hectic, but i won't go much into it. Halloween was filled with many events that i will soon post pictures of, but I don't have any yet. I'll just talk about the important stuff.
Things I love about Joe:
1. He lives his life in a way that makes it easy for me to love him, trust him, and respect him.
2. I know that he would do anything short of chopping off his fingers to make me happy.
3. He loves being a father, and he is good at it.

Things I love about my boys:
1. They are giggly in the morning.
2. They look to me when they cry, because they trust that I can make it all better.
3. Noah sticks out his tongue a lot, and Ethan says "Dada" to get my attention.

Things I love about my mom:
1. She is so quarky that it would be impossible to describe her in one word.
2. She has found it in herself to forgive me for being such a wretched teenager.
3. She loves to laugh, even at herself.

Double Tagged

A few weeks ago i was tagged by my friend Trish to list 6 quarks about myself. I really wanted to do it,but i was about to post a bunch of awesome zoo pictures, so I waited. But then i got tagged by a different friend Tawnya for the same thing. So here goes, one for me and one for Joe. Our quarks that make us sooo different.
Our 6 Quarks:
1. For some reason, I get SUPER hyper right before bed time. I always have. I can remember when i was little, running down the hallway singing at the top of my lungs and then jumping on my parents bed and licking my mom's face. Ya, hyper may be an understatement. I have no idea why I get so wiggly and silly and crazy right before bed time, but i just do. I really cannot help it-I've tried. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep-bare minimum. Joe is just the opposite. If I wasn't there to bug him to almost death, he could crawl into bed and be asleep in less than five minutes. Every night is a battle...and I always win.
2. Joe is a planner. Every night as he is brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed he plans out his next day. What time he will wake up, what he wants to accomplish, and everything in between. If he has an open window of time in his planning, he fills it. Even on Saturdays! He hates waking up and not knowing what he is going to do for the day. I, however, hate being scheduled. It leaves no room for spontaneity. Sure I have things that I'd like to get done, but without the pressure of a deadline. There is nothing I love more than the complete and total freedom of an open schedule.
3. When I am meeting new people, and even with friends, I always feel like I have to watch what I say so that I don't offend people. It started in junior high when I told someone that "i used to be so nerdy with my glasses", and my friend with glasses really had her feelings hurt. I felt so bad, and I have always tried not to do that ever again. Joe has an interesting sense of humor sometimes, where he says rude things to people and tries to play it off as sarcasm. For example, Joe used to tell his/my family that he really didn't mind when their kids touched their nasty germy hands all over his stuff. But then he doesn't laugh it off after, so as to give the recipient the reassurance that he was only joking. The truth is, he really means what he is saying, but assumes that everyone will just think he's joking. It drives my crazy. If he ever does this to anyone, you have my permission to tell him that he is a jerk.

To Be Continued....

My Attempt At Greatness

A few weeks ago for my birthday, Joe bought me some wooden letters that spell out "Ethan" and "Noah". He also bought for me some paints in different shades of blue and brown/tan so that i could match the letters to the boys current crib sets. It has taken me quite a while to get started on this project, but late last night I found a website that gave me a renewed inspiration to get me going on these letters. Here is the link, you're gonna LOVE it:
http://www.pinktaffydesigns.com/room-decor-hand-painted-wall-letters-c-101_168_272.html
The design for the name "Tristan" matches the boys cribsets perfectly so I'm gonna go for it! Wish me luck!

Also, as a bit of news, I will most definately be needing to baby-proof since Ethan has begun to crawl. Just as i was typing up this blog and feeding Noah, I could hear Ethan's voice echoing in the bathroom. Naturally I got up to check on him and found him behind the toilet sucking on a Q-Tip that must have fallen from the bathroom garbage. YUCK!!! Somy question is: what am i going to need to baby-proof now, before I find out the hard way again?

Let the Competition Begin!

This is just a little clip of the boys fighting. They usually play really well together but we caught them being mean. Ethan pulls Noah's hair the Noah pushes him back. Jess and I thought it was pretty funny.

Home Movies!

I took this video to share with the grandmas who don't get to see bathtime here in Iowa city. Normally I bathe them when I'm home alone, but this time Joe was here and I was more than happy to take the opportunity to put them both in at the same time. Noah loves to play with the stream of water that comes out. I never plug up the tub so that it can drain and i can turn the water back on for Noah to play with. Also notice that he sticks his toungue out to taste the water on his face. I think its so cute. Don't worry, this video is totally modest. Hope you all get a kick out of it!

Conference!

Conference was so great this weekend. Its always nice to get new inspiration to try a little harder to be a little better. my favorite conference quote was "you may not know everything, but you know enough". It really struck me that i can still make a difference despite how little i know. Joe is such a scriptorian, he can almost always finish a scripture by memory when it is quoted, and then give me the reference. How could i ever learn that?! After that talk I thought, "Jessica, you don't have to know everything to be good enough. Some things just take time, but for now, use what you've got." It really inspired me to keep trying and bit by bit, the rest will come.

During the priesthood session of conference, a friend of ours from the ward invited a group of us over for a Cafe Rio potluck dinner. Each person was supposed to bring an ingredient for a Cafe Rio salad. I volunteered to bring the sweet pork, and it turned out almost exactly how i remembered! I'll have to ask my picky food snob friends to know for sure (you know who you are haha). So for any of you who no longer have access to the sweet juicy goodness of cafe rio, here is the link to the recipe i found.

http://favfamilyrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/11/jared-and-i-love-cafe-rio.html

I also had the opportunity to attend the funeral for the son of a friend of ours. We wish this family rest and comfort from their grief and hope for their future. We pray every day for their well being. For those who know this family, please remember them in your prayers as well.

If you build it....they will come...

Saturday we drove to Dyersville, Iowa which is about two hours away to see the actual Field of Dreams. It was pretty awesome to go and play around on the ball field and the corn and stuff. We went with a couple of our friends Taysia and Jamison Metcalf and Tawnya Rasmussen that I mentioned in my last post.You can sort of see the house behind the fence. I really wished I could go chill on the porch swing for a while.

This is the view of the Field from the corn. Its sort of hard to see, but trust me that its really cool.

This is out in left field having fun in the grass. Noah, then Ethan in the middle, and Spencer Rasmussen.

Shoeless Joe coming out of the corn!

There were a bunch of other people there so we all had to wait in line for our turn to hit. It was so cool!

Playing Catch-up

What a busy week we've had! I haven't had time to sit down and blog at all because I've been so busy, especially since the weekend, so here is my attempt to fill everyone in on just the really fun stuff. Friday was the relief society playgroup where we took a trip to the zoo. The boys were pretty obviously unaware of how cool it was to see the animals, but here are a few pictures:

Ethan is the top monkey and Noah had a super cute frownie for being on the bottom.

This is my friend Tawnya from my ward. Her little Spencer is 6 months old and you will see his picture later.
Trying not to get eaten by a goat.
This isn't even a quarter of the kids from our ward that came. There were a billion strollers because it was free zoo day. After a long day at the zoo, the three bears are all tuckered out. Spencer is in the middle, and they all play pretty well together. Its fun to see.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of todays adventures at the Field of Dreams!

I'd had enough. Our previous stroller was really great for what we needed it for, but the boys have gotten big enough, and the hills here are steep enough that I was in dire need for an alternative. On Saturday I got this jogging stroller so I don't have to excersize so much when I'm out with the boys, haha. So today I signed up for that relief society trip to the zoo with confidence that I will have a smooth ride and a great time.

Mi casa es su casa

We thought it would be fun to show you all our place since more than likely, you will never see it in real life. We are still settling in and there is far more decorating that we need to do but for now, welcome to our home. I had to divide the film into three because blogger only allows videos of a certain size so just watch them sequentially.

nothin special

So, I'm always getting after people who don't post on their blogs, even when they check on them all the time. I always tell them to blog something even when there isn't anything special to blog. You can just blog about nothing. If someone can make a sitcom about nothing that lasts for like 9 seasons (is that right, I just guessed), then we can come up with one measly post. So this is my example of blogging about nothing.

This is the double stroller i won on Ebay. I wasn't looking for a jogger since they are out of my price range, but this one was a great deal!

These are some older pictures of Ethan looking like a homie G.

And these are some super cute pictures Joe took on his phone outside of the walmart the other day. I absolutely LOVE these jackets. Thanks Aunt Verna via Ray.

I guess I could always say something about Joe's school. He had a test yesterday (which he got 100% on), a test mondy, a test wednesday, a paper due thursday, and another test on friday. Im thinking this is going to be a long week for the both of us. For that reason, we are just relaxing and having a lazy saturday.

Orange Pictures

After so many people commented on the header picture above I thought perhaps you'd all be interested in seeing some other orange family pictures of mine.



This is my cute little...big family. Joe and I in orange, Joe and Britt in white, Parents in blue, Gramma and Norm in pink, Bud and Julie in red, Joshy and Britt (Red) in dark blue, and Justin and Mirella in brown. You can probably spot the twins in orange, white, and brown.





I never thought there would come a day when i was MORE pale than Joe. This is that day my friends.












There was supposed to be a picture of Ethan too, but the poor photog couldn't tell my kids apart so we wound up with two pictures of Noah. Here is the cuter of the two.








And here is the whole enchilada. Is that a common phrase or is it just common to the Petersens? Sometimes I say that I have oods of stuff, and people don't get it. Oods! As in, a lot.

After a Long Day of Manly Softball

Here are some pics of Joe and the boys after our ward softball game. I played too and did quite well if I do say so myself. We all put black under our eyes to intimidate the other teams. The boys of course were the talk of the event with their little eye make-up.

Joe and the boys just being tough guys

A Quiet Moment

Well, This is my first post since coming to Iowa. This is probably the first time that I have had time to write. I have been working hard trying to get all settled in. Any free time I have I am trying to spend with Jess and the boys. Jess is at relief society tonight so I am alone. I haven't taken time the write on the blog because I feel my time at home is so valuable I want to just play with Ethan and Noah all I can. The are growing so fast. They are becoming little people. They sit up on their own for extended amounts of time and both are learning to crawl backwards (slowly). I am two weeks into my four professional school stretch and I have to say it is going well. I can tell now that it is going to get really hard in about a month or so but right now its not too bad. Our schedule is outrageous. The school has prepared an entire schedule for the whole year and it is crazy. We start and end classes at random times; every week the schedule is different. I guess it is kind of exciting to know that my life will not be routine for a long while. Jessica has been so great. She is taking care of me in way I have never deserved. I love her so much and I'm so grateful we are together in this endeavor. She seems happy here. I knew she was so scared to move but she is handling it the way we all knew she would and enjoying here new friends and her sons. In all reality, life out here is great. I know that there will be time when my stress level reaches great heights but I'm ready. We are just starting to learn dental terminology and anatomy and it is really fun to finally be learning things in school that will really help me in my future career.

On a different note, our apartment is coming along. We still have many pictures to hang on the wall but that is about it. One of the first things I did when we got here was build a large shelf in the garage so that we could store more things. I think we finally have the nursery arranged in a way so that everything fits and looks nice. Today we finally got couches. We left our little couch with Josh and Brittney so we needed to get a new one here. We spent a good amount of time searching and finally found the ones we wanted. Now our house is looking like a home. I will put some pictures and/or videos of our place soon so you all can see it.
The ward here is great. We have many LDS dental students in the ward. My class has only six LDS students but some of the upper classes have more. It is nice to have people that share my beliefs and lifestyle. Today was the first day I have been asked if I was a Mormon. There is a girl who is in my lab group that asked me some good questions and said she has been searching for a true religion for a long time. She has become a member of 3 different churches in the last while and says she is looking forward to further conversations about the church. It was fun to share my testimony in a way that I think she understood and provoked curiosity.

I miss you all. I was so very grateful for everything that my parents and in-laws have done for us. When mom and dad came to visit, mom helped stock the fridge and never before had we needed it more. I mean it when I say that we ate up almost all of our savings to get to this point. There is no way we could have afforded the food we needed. Dad also gave me a fathers blessing to start the school year. You would think that I wouldn't have need for a school year blessing at the age of 24 but I definitely needed it. Last year was the first year that I didn't receive a blessing for school and It sure was hard to manage. Thanks dad for being here for me. Thanks for living in a way that you have been able to bless my life every time. We love you all and can't wait to see you in a few months.

Joseph

p.s. Jessica saw a little froggy hopping across the road tonight and then a bunny running along side the road. She got really excited to see those things for the first time and wanted me to share.

When did this happen?

For the past few weeks i've been noticing some differences in my personality that i wasn't expecting. Nobody freak out-I'm not pregnant. Anyway, so back to the personality changes. I've cooked dinner for Joe and I pretty much every night since we've been here. Actual dinners, not mac & cheese, or something like that. In the two years we have been married I have yet to achieve such a successful cooking streak. The only time I suggested we go out (other than when our parents were here) was our anniversary. Where this came from i have no idea. The other strange occurrence is even more strange. In church the last two weeks everyone has been super nice and welcoming. They asked me all these questions, who i am, where i'm from, yadda yadda yadda. The weird part is that i was really excited to meet these new people. normally when I start a new ward I try to hide in the back and do my darndest to disappear. But in this ward I was happy to share. I let people hold the boys and i answered all their questions without thinking that it wasn't any of their business. I actually remembered a lot of their names! This never happens. Speaking of never happens, I willingly and happily attended the enrichment activity last night. I had a great time getting to know people and I am almost stunned. For some reason i released Social Jessica into the ward. Normally i give them Quiet Self-conscious Jessica, and i save Social Jessica for people who've already met and expect her. How did this come about? Maybe its the move and i know i need to make friends. Maybe this is the first new ward i've attended where people actually want new members. Maybe people are praying that the adjustment will be easy and smooth for me. None or all of these could be true. Any insights?

where's ethan?

sorry this pic is so small. it was taken for our ward website. I wanted to post it because I think the boys look so much alike. you be the judge... if you can tell

Simpsonized

This is what Jess and I would look like if we were ever lucky enough to be on The Simpsons. Special thanks to the Cassity's blog for the idea.

So Far So Good

So, I'm still really enjoying it here in Iowa. Joe started school yesterday and I was alone with the boys for the first time since we arrived here. The alone time was actually really nice. I got to read and play with the bears. ("The bears" is one of our nicknames for Ethan and Noah). The time actually went by really fast. When Joe got home from school we celebrated our two year anniversary. He had already gotten my gift and after going out to dinner I let him pick out his gift-some dress pants for school. I've decided that dress clothes are going to be his gift for every event in the next four years. He has to wear nice clothes to school everyday so i need to build up his wardrobe.
On a more unhappy note, I finally got my "we're-definately-not-in-Utah-anymore" experience. A woman cursed at me from her car to mine because she could tell that i could hear her yelling into her cell phone. For some reason that was my fault. It didn't affect me really, I thought it was sort of silly actually that a person would get so worked up over that. Also, i took comfort in the fact that she was not only unpleasant, but on the hefty side. Not fat, but sort of built like a man. Thats probably what made her so aggressive, too much testosterone in her blood. Thats sort of rude to say, but I can't help what makes me feel better.
Well the real reason i have to do a post is to give you all my mailing address.
Whiteheads
2884 Coral Court #101
Coralville, IA 52241

The Big Move

This is a rest stop in Nebraska. The boys are so happy to be out of the car!


















Joe carrying the last of the hefty load inside our new place. Ha ha.




















This is the first night in our place. We slept on the airmattress, safe inside our fortress of boxes.

"Is this Heaven?"..."No,It's IOWA"

well we finally made it all the way to Iowa. The boys did reasonably well for the long trip; they didn't scream any more than i wanted to. After three days of driving i am surprised i had the stamina to endure it. I'm certainly not looking forward to eating any more burgers for a long time.
It really is lovely here. Some may think that the landscape is dull or boring compared to our majestic mountains back home, but Iowa has its place too. The trees are huge and everything is green. There are so many cornfields here, everywhere you turn and they roll on for miles. There is barely any evidence left of the floods in our area, unless you know where to look.
We haven't met any of our neighbors yet, and we can't remember where the Ross family has moved to, so we haven't been very social, but my parents are here. Its been so nice to have them for the trip! If I had to drive the whole way myself I'd have taken at least a week. And to have them here while we are settling in has helped my emotions quite a bit. i'm glad i haven't started bawling again. On Thursday they head back for SLC and Mom and Dad in-law are flying in to continue the emotional support that holds me together. Although I do like our apartment, and the city is beautiful, without our family here it is hard to consider it home. This way i can pretend that the parents are just around the corner, and they can stop by anytime. We will post some pictures of our place really soon.

Here are just a couple of pics of the boy that were taken this weekend. I was checking on the boys while they were taking a nap and they were holding hands. It was so cute.

3 Days? Really that soon?

Well, its getting closer. I think we might actually be ready to move in three days. I can't believe it is so soon. I am so excited. Jess seems to be excited too. I know that she is a little (lot) nervous but she doesn't let it show. It has been fun these last few weeks to be able to visit our family and friends and say our goodbyes. We went up to Logan and visited with Keenan, Brittney, Zac, Lindsay, Tanner, Lauren, Alex, Laura, and Justin Miller. It was so fun to see them all again. Then just this weekend we went to Price where we go to be with my family for three days. Scott and Moke Sonntag stopped by too so that was neat. The family reunion in Price was so fun. They boys were well behaved and Jess and I were able to just relax. Sarah and Nick did such a good job planning everything and keeping everything in line. I am going to miss my family so much. I don't show emotion very much but I will miss them. I just hope they don't forget about us after 4 years. Anyway, I need to get back to packing, Im being a slacker. Here are some pictures of our recent events.