Visit from Mom & Dad Petersen

Mom and Dad Petersen came down to visit John and me this last week. We had so much fun! They helped John & I paint a couple of rooms we've been wanting to update here for a while, namely our kitchen and nursery, and Mom & I put up curtains in most of the rooms. These are pictures of our kitchen. We decided to paint one wall in the kitchen red and it turned out so good! We kept Dad busy putting a lot of coats on for that and John made the cornice box for the curtain above the kitchen window. (John is really gifted in woodworking, for those of you who were wondering).
I feel so much better now that our kitchen is complete, and it turned out better than I imagined it would.
If any of you like the color red, I would encourage you not to be afraid to use it as a paint color in some room of the house; it sure warms up our kitchen!

I think this is John's and my new favorite room of the house, the nursery. We went with green since that is such a neutral color for baby boy or baby girl and the color turned out great! Mom & I made a canopy curtain using the valance that came with our bedding set. So cute!
Also, we refinished an old dresser that came from my Grandpa and Grandma Farwell's house; I wish we had a before picture because the transformation is incredible! Mom & I painted it red to match the shelf that's hanging in the nursery and covered the drawer & cupboard faces with fabric we found at Walmart for $1/yard. John attached the old hardware to the drawers and it makes it look tufted, like a pillow. As you can see, we also made the front of the cupboard door into a memo board; I don't know what I will put on the memo board but I am just so excited with how it all turned out. Thanks, Grandpa, for letting me steal this "old" dresser. Grandma used to say we were turning a sow's ear into a silk purse...I think I finally understand that expression. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun getting things done around the house this week, but more than that we had fun spending time with Mom & Dad. Now we are looking even more forward to Christmas (if that is even possible) when we can see everyone again.

Sailing!

Our friend, Russ, took us out sailing yesterday. It was my first time and I had so much fun! The base at Pensacola has a nice marina where we can rent sailboats so we went out on the little bay and enjoyed the perfect weather. It's cooling down quite a bit, which means it feels like a nice summer day (80's, no humidity, clear skies), so it's just right to do stuff outside.

They say during the fall and winter months it starts getting cold here; last winter temperatures actually got down into the 20's. We're still waiting for it to "get cold" but we definitely can tell a difference between July/August and now.

Pictures of Baby

We had our 20 week ultrasound today to make sure the baby is healthy and everything is working as it should. What a blast! John & I saw pictures of our little one...the ultrasound technician said our baby is very photogenic, although once she started the 3-D tests, he/she quit cooperating.

Here are a couple of our favorite pictures. This was about the time the baby said, "No more, I am going to sleep and turning my face away from the camera." But you can see the arms and the five little fingers on the one hand over the face and the mouth, nose and eyes in the other picture. We might be biased but we think this is the cutest baby we've ever seen. He/she is very active; the technician said the baby is doing somersaults in me (and I can feel it when he/she does!) Its' heart is beating 160 beats/min (normal) and it weighs exactly 1 pound right now. According to what I measured (whatever that means) I am a little over a week ahead of schedule. The due date is February 15th (Uncle Blake, maybe your first niece/nephew will share your birthday after all); however, the technician said that my due date will probably not be changed by the navy hospital since Feb. 24th still fits with everything else they go by. Maybe this is way too much information for all of you but it was so fun and such a miracle to see a real live video of this baby God is giving John & me. We just wanted to share!

New Member of the Family

We want to introduce you all to our new kitten, Ivy. She has a few words to say down below.

Hello, my name is Ivy, and I am the newest member of the Anderson family. I am eight weeks old and my hobbies are sleeping, kissing people's noses (with my nose), and following my friend, John, around the house. Oh, and I like laying on him, too, as you might be able to tell from the pictures.
It's really fun having her around...she's still getting used to everything but she likes being with people, which is a good thing.