John Henry Peterson Family

Steven Peterson Family Christmas 2009 Newsletter

Hello from the Southwest. We look forward to your letters and wanted to share a quick Peterson family update.

Mason is having fun in 6th grade at Emerson. He’s excited to go to Carson Junior High next year and get out of Emerson. He enjoys doing his Aaronic priesthood duties and scouting. He loves to create and build anything. For example, he and the “boys” spent an afternoon replacing the wood on our backyard gate. Also, his dad checked to see if he flew one of the paper airplanes stuck up on the church rafters (they weren’t).

McKay is having a great time being an 8th grader. He enjoys all of his classes. McKay is taking Spanish this year and hopes to be done with Spanish in 9th grade. McKay is in the Cougar Band, and gets to go with the band to Disneyland. He is very excited to go. McKay finished his service project for his Eagle scout award. With the help of many people, he laid 10,000 square feet of sod at an elementary school for children that primarily comes from homeless families.

Mary is 16 and driving! She is a sophomore at Westwood and enjoys being with all her friends. She was on the Westwood Swim team for the second year and absolutely loved it. She got up early in the morning for a few months to go to swim practice so she would be better prepared for the high school swim season. As a result, she improved significantly in her events.

Mindy graduated from Westwood High School and was 15th in her class of over 600 students. She has plunged head first into her freshman year at BYU. Besides attending classes, she landed a job as a lifeguard at the campus pool and has volunteered to be on the committee that plans activities for her on campus housing.

Marshall is serving in the Sendi, Japan mission. He has about 6 months left. He loves it there. It’s starting to snow there and he’s looking forward to fish tailing on his bike because he says it’s the closes thing to snowboarding. We are grateful he can serve the Lord and proclaim the gospel.

Kevin has finished another year in college. He drives a van for a charter school. He is responsible for picking up several hearing impaired children and drives an average of 200 miles a day in Phoenix traffic. He is also our motivator to keeping our home clean and in good repair. He also loves technology (especially if it is made by Apple).

Matt and Charity were married in June. The two of them make a wonderful couple that can often be seen holding hands and smiling at each other. Matt is in his sophomore year at a community college. Charity will graduate this next spring with a bachelor degree in Art History.

Megan, Marco and Alex. The Garcia’s have been happily living in McKinney, TX just north of Dallas for the past two years. They keep busy with family, work, and church responsibilities. Alex, almost 3 years old, is obsessed with trains and technology. He is really shaping up to be a successful future engineer. Alex runs around the house almost all day saying choo-choo and pretending to be a train. He is growing up so fast and he brings a lot of joy and happiness into their home. They have had a great year full of new experiences and chances to grow.

Marie and Justin still live in Queen Creek, AZ where Justin is a General Contractor and Marie is busy keeping the business and family organized and running smoothly. Cooper (6) loves all his pets (2 leopard geckos, Tweety the parakeet, Crash our dog, and all our fish), school, friends, legos, swim team, karate, and fishing. Kameha (18 months) loves her "pretties" or "bling, bling" (jewelry), shoes, singing, talking (which she does really well), and people.

Julie loves being a grandma. Our 3 wonderful grandchildren bring much joy into our lives. A highlight of the year was gaining a beautiful l daughter-in-law, Charity. An era is coming to close. This is our last school year in elementary school. We’ve been sending kids for 24 years!! Oh yeah she turned 50 this summer. Her family and nieces threw a surprise party for her and her twin sister. What fun it was to be with family and friends.

Steven has enjoyed the opportunity to serve on the school board for the Mesa Public Schools. Even though the school district is facing unprecedented financial challenges, he has been greatly impressed with the people and the manner they are facing the challenges. Julie and Steven celebrated their 30th anniversary with a wonderful trip to the Oregon coast.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!!!