Fathers Day

It's that time again, the time when we get to celebrate our favorite guy and gush about all the wonderful things that he does for us and how we love him so much. 

Happy Fathers Day to David (aka best dad EVER)

Of course, the morning started with breakfast in bed and messages about how much we love him. 

The rest of the day was focused on his favorite foods, special surprises for him, and spending as much time with him as we each possibly could. The kids were particularly attentive to him and it's sweet to see how much they wanted to show him their love. He means so much to all of us. 

Truly, David is such a wonderful dad. Some of my favorite things that he does right now that are particularly great are: 

-The Peaden Restaurant. David hosts this occasionally. He writes/types up a menu with loads of different food/side/dessert options (not anything fancy, just mac and cheese vs a hotdog or whatever leftovers we have in the fridge- but there are a lot of options), then he pretends to be a fancy waiter coming to take the order of each of the kids. They love it so much and it makes me smile every time. He's so fun. 

-Talking through the kids when I get stuck in a hard place with them. When I'm having a hard time reasoning with one of the kids, I can just say "Lets go talk to Dad about it". We pop in to the room he's using as a work-from-home office and he will stop what he's doing and talk to us about whatever is going on. 99.9% of the time he's able to work out a solution when I'm just not able to. He's patient and a good listener and helps the kids feel validated on the path to a solution. 

-He plays games with Austin all the time, even when I know he's exhausted. But Austin loves games and it makes him feel loved to have Daddy play with him. 

-He brushes Lydia's hair when it's particularly tangly, or even when she's just gotten out of the bath. Even though Lydia usually does it herself, you can just feel the love radiating from them when he sits cross-legged on the floor to spend that time brushing her hair. 

-He plays "Chase the Monster" with Caleb and Lucy and diligently swings Caleb into his bed whenever asked to during the bedtime routine. (Chase the Monster is a run around the house while Dad chases you game. Lydia called it that when she was little and it stuck.) The kids never get tired of playing this with him and beg for it often. 

-He teaches the Come Follow Me lesson most Sundays (I usually teach it during the week) and his lessons are always on-point and engaging. When the kids hear dad is doing the lesson, they cheer. I love David's testimony and his humble determination to teach his children of the things that are important.

-I have a pretty time-consuming calling and David takes a lot of the load while I'm in meetings on Sunday or at Saturday baptisms (plus other meetings during the week). We are such a great team together and knowing that he's there taking care of our children without complaint makes it so much easier for me to focus on fulfilling my calling. I often call him the Assistant to the President because I couldn't do what I do without him.

And I would be remiss if I didn't include a shout-out to our dads, too. The best dads we could have asked for and two of the greatest Grandpa's around. We are so grateful for their love and care throughout our childhoods and well into our adulthood. We depend on them for so much and are blessed to have them in our lives. 

Lucy at Home - the first week

This first week of having Lucy at home has been wonderful. We got home from the hospital late Tuesday night and Sam brought Lydia, Austin, and Caleb home Wednesday morning. They were so excited to see her, and it just felt so good to have our whole family together in our home.

Lucy "gave" the kids a gift, a small play tent and some water bottles. They were thrilled.

The rest of the week has been spent showering Lucy with a massive amount of love. Caleb asks "I'm hold my baby sees-ter?" about 50 times a day, and if it isn't met with immediate results it turns into a screechy-yell "I'm. HOLD. my baby SEES-TER!" He loves her, and even though softness doesn't come super natural as a two-year old, he tries so hard to be gentle with her.





It has been so neat to watch Lydia with Lucy. They say that as soon as you have a new baby, your youngest child looks SO grown up (which is certainly true - Caleb seems SO big compared to her), but what I wasn't expecting was how much bigger Lydia seems. She's responsible and helpful and loves to hold Lucy all by herself. One of the mornings, Lydia asked to hold her and I asked if she could hold her while I went upstairs to help the boys in the bathtub. I left her my phone and she listened/read her Book of Mormon while she held Lucy. It was so helpful and I was taken aback a tiny bit at how big my Lydia is getting. I love watching these two sisters together. They are so lucky to have each other and I hope their relationship continues to bloom throughout their lives.

I've just been enjoying these sweet baby snuggles. David has been such an incredible support to me. He has taken the three big kids over and over and left me to rest and snuggle Lucy. I feel like I recovered the first 80% in the hospital really quickly, but the last 20% feels like it might take a lot longer. My ribs feel bruised and I get really tired, really easy. Walking up and down the stairs takes a lot of physical and mental energy. My body isn't really in pain, it's just tired and I think it will take some time to recover. David has been incredible. Bedtime with all the kids, trips to the park, the library, the store, playing with them outside or downstairs, etc... etc... plus making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of us! I'm not sure what we are going to do when he has to go back to work. It's just been so nice to have him home. 

I feel like there aren't words to describe how blessed we are to have David. He's such a wonderful father and such an incredible husband. The kids adore him. So do I. He's so sweet and tender with Lucy, so fun with the older kids, so kind to me. We are just so so lucky to have him.


We've also been blessed with such supportive family and friends. We've had a handful of visitors over the week and had people from the ward bringing us meals. My sister Jenna, who currently lives in Iowa placed a Chilis to Go order for us and had David go and pick it up. It was the most thoughtful thing. I'm grateful to be surrounded by so many good and kind people.

We've only had you home for a few days, Lucy, but we hope you love it here as much as we love having you here! 

The most-loved Daddy

These kids love their Dad. It's written into every fiber of their being and you'd think that every day he has to go to work is the first day, every time. He either has to leave really early in the morning before any of us wake up, or it's a production for him to be able to leave. They beg him to play "chase the monster" with them where he chases them, then when he says it's time to go they run to the doors and block him so he can't get out. When he finally says that it really is time to go they all require multiple hugs and kisses and then they beg for him to wave at them before they go. When it was warmer they stood on the front porch, but now that it's so cold they wave from the window. David backs up until he's directly in front of the house and then he waves at them and tells them that he loves them before he drives away. 

This week's goodbye was even more drawn out than usual because David had a work trip that took him to Minneapolis for the week. These kids love him and missed him very much while he was gone. I wanted to document what a good Dad he is, because I feel like sometimes these are the things that get missed when writing about our life - the normal, everyday, good-bye-to-dad-before-he-goes-to-work routine. David is such a great dad. He's so patient with them, even though I myself am exasperated by the time the routine is done "Kids! Just let him leave! He's got to go to work! And we've got things to do, too!" But he is fun and kind and patient through the very end. I heard recently that one of the most important things you can do for your relationships with your kids is make your hellos and goodbyes special -so that they know that you are sad to leave them and that you are happy to see them. David is amazing at this and these kids are so lucky to have him!