the bowling champion

we went bowling the day after christmas and i just had to document my awesomeness. impressed??
and no, we didn't have bumpers.

christmas 2009

we had such a great christmas. it flew by soooo fast though!

coming down the stairs christmas morning
{even though glen & i didn't sleep there}
we always have to get this picture every year!

our yummy breakfast

the boys

amanda really wanted this picture of christ with a child in africa, since she went there a few years ago. it's such a neat painting!

matt got dad a walker from the DI for christmas. what a nice son.

santa spoiled me this year and got me a really nice nikon camera. now i just have to learn how to use it!

we've always gone over to my aunt tammy's house for tacos on christmas night, but we had to change our plans this year. she just moved into a little condo and couldn't accommodate everyone anymore, so we hit up ihop instead!
{thanks smith fam for all the years of yummy tacos}

amanda, greg & matt

dad & glen

jesse & steph

me & mom

it was a pretty laid back christmas. the way it's supposed to be, in my opinion. hope everyone had a great holiday and was able to spend it relaxing with family!

christmas eve

christmas eve we went to crown burger & a movie with the peterson cousins. this has been a tradition since before i can remember. not sure how it started, but i sure love it.

amanda, me & glen at the CB

emily just got foot surgery, so matt volunteered to push her
{and auri} around jordan commons in her wheelchair.

then we had our "wrapping party" where we help mom frantically wrap all the presents. this also has become a christmas eve tradition!

we got a little slap happy... i would yell out an animal and matt had to act it out. gorilla, house cat, and dolphin.
isn't he a cute little dolphin?!

and then there's greg. not sure where he got those glasses,
or why he's wearing them. don't you love the hitler mustache he added? he might have helped us wrap one present... the majority of the night he was hitting maverick with the empty wrapping paper cones.

he was good at putting the wrapped presents under the tree though. what a good little helper.

me & matty

now off to bed so santa can come!

u-g-l-y...you ain't got no alibi, you UGLY!

last night was the 2nd annual
Peterson Ugly Sweater Party
and it did not disappoint.
everyone came dressed to impress.

glennifer

kevin, kim, matt, me, & ryan moffitt

jeff had his aunt knit him a full body suit. she was working on it since last christmas and just finished it about a month ago!

everybody voted on who they thought was the ugliest...
jeff snatched the trophy this year
glen came in 2nd
& ryan moffitt snagged 3rd place
good work gentlemen!

steph wasn't really a fan of jesse's stache

santa came to our party! he's such a busy guy this time of year... we were honored he'd take the time to come visit us.

everyone was soo excited to tell santa their wish list!
from top to bottom, left to right:

1. parker 2. haley 3. greg 4. jeff 5. matt

super duper ugly mangum fam
{only ugly one night a year - most of the time we're really really really ridiculously good looking}

niagara falls

we stopped off real quick at niagara falls during our cross country drive. it was sooo bitter cold, but i'm glad we were able to see it cause who knows if we'll ever be back to buffalo again.

i was an eskimo. totally frozen.

check out the ice on the telescope. told ya it was cold!!

are we there yet?!?

we packed up our truck on friday and began the drive from boston to salt lake... 4 days later, we're finally home!

we had only made it a few hours into new york, and the alternator on our truck went out. luckily we were able to find the part after calling about 10 stores. i was afraid we were going to be stuck in albany until they could order the part in! also, my husband rocks and he was able to fix it himself so we didn't have to pay a mechanic. he wasn't too thrilled about standing out in the freeeeezing 15 degree weather though!
{while i sat in the warm truck}

i drank way too much diet coke, and pretty much ate my weight in pringles & beef jerkey. we played the alphabet game, the license plate game, the guess what number i'm thinking of game
{i just made that one up - you have to get creative after about day 2 or 3 in the car}
and i took a million random pictures. good times.
gotta love a road trip.

bottom right picture is our first day in the car...
to the left of it is day 4.

we drove for 4 long days... through massachusettes, new york, pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois, iowa, nebraska, wyoming... and finally UTAH!

i was sooooo excited to finally see this sign!

and about jumped for joy when we saw this one...

i can't really remember a time before we started this road trip. but i'm glad i had good company the whole way and that we made it home in one piece!

over the river & through the woods

to salt lake city we go!

we're packing up our things, saying goodbye to boston & hello to salt lake, family & christmas! wish us luck on our 39 hr / 2400 mile drive! yep, you heard that right, we're driving. just in case you didn't know... boston is on the far right side of that map, and salt lake is on the left. i bet you're jealous of our cross country trek! let's hope we don't get stuck in any bad weather & that our trusty old truck can get us home in time for santa next week!!