Grandma Cluff's Funeral and We Bought A House!

It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks. Ben's Grandmother past away and we spent the weekend down in Mesa, oh and the day before we left we closed on a house. 

Kitchen

Family Room

Ben's Office

Deven's Room

Ari's Room

Master Bedroom

Dinning Room

Guest Room/Attic/Playroom with a Full Bath! Come stay with us!

Amazing Backyard

I realize now that I should have taken pictures of the kids in front of Cacti and Palm Trees (which Ari kept calling "pine" trees) but it was HOT. We did not want to be outside and if we did, it was with family or in the swimming pool. We did get to each fresh limes off of Ben's cousin's tree and the kids got to play with so many cousins (which I also didn't take pictures of). As it is, I only thought to take pictures of Ari and Laura playing together.

St. Louis Trip

The last post had so many pictures, I thought I would include the non-sealing pictures in this post. We stayed in a hotel for one night and the kids had a blast:

It has also become a tradition to ride the carousel at Faust Park:

With Aunt Skylar

Nana!

Sister Selfie

Deven has turned into a real climber, it is hard to keep up with him, I couldn't even touch the top of this rock structure...

Forever Family

Last weekend we traveled to St. Louis to have Deven sealed to us. For those of you who are not LDS, I'll give a short explanation and some links, if you have more questions just e-mail me! Ben and I were married in the St. Louis Temple. We choose to be married there because we knew that we would be able to make promises to each other and to the Lord that would last, not only for all of our lives, but after death also. Any child that is born to us is born in the promises and will be with us after death also. Those promises "seal" us together. That is why we call it a sealing. (When I was a kid I thought it was "ceiling" and I was so confused :) Deven, being adopted, needed to be adopted into those promises. We had the most wonderful experience, my little boy is mine forever. If you want to know more you can click here. If you want to see pictures of what it looks like in temples you can go here.

We were blessed to have so many friends and family come!

Grandparents!

Friends!

 Our Forever Family!

Afterwards we had a party at my mom's house. We had a bouncy house, good food, and great weather (for August).

Seven of the nine boy cousins on the Petersen side :)

 Family Pictures! 
Who doesn't love a bouncy house!

Cousin swing time

Friends and family made this a one of a kind experience. My heart is full knowing all the love that surrounds us!

Visit with Arianna's Birth Family

 We went up to Kansas City this weekend to visit with Ari's birth family.  We met Lindsey at the Zoo, and Ari loved the carousel.

Then we went out to eat at Five Guys. The weather was so perfect. I can't believe how cool it has been!

The next day we met Tyson and his family at a park  then went out to eat:

Tyson and his fiancee.

Also with Tyson's mom and sister.

I don't get to look at Ari and say she has my eyes and Ben's nose, so when we get together with her birth family, I love to look and see where she gets all of her features. When she was born, she looked so much like Lindsey, but as she has gotten older I have seen a lot of Tyson come out too.
 She is such a beautiful, loving little girl. I am very grateful to the people who gave her life and chose us to give her a home.