Family pics. update

Christopher, Lesa and Maddox took some fall family pictures just a few days ago. What a beautiful family!!




Here are a couple of pics of Kingston. Look at the curls!! I love it!! I just want to grab him and give him a big squeeze!! What a cutie!

Philip is here!!

Yesterday I picked Philip up from the airport. It was crazy busy with a lot of returning missionaries on his flight. He was one of the last to get off. Poor Philip struggled with the lack of humidity in the air and the high altitude. I kept teasing him that he's like a fish out of water flapping on the ground. By the end of the day he was getting pretty use to it. Christopher, Lesa and Maddox came over to see him. We did lots of story telling and even more laughing. Maddox warmed up to Philip really fast. Philip is a fun (2nd?) cousin and flew Maddox through the air a lot!!!
We had dinner and then went to BYU for an official tour of the campus.....plus a stop at BYU creamery. At noon today........the MTC.

ps. I really needed to take more pictures!!

It's been awhile.

Today I am picking my nephew, Philip, up from the airport. He goes into the MTC wednesday. He's off to the New Mexico mission. This was the last time that the "cuz" got together. Christopher and Emily will be the only cousins here to meet him....Timothy in CA, Jaron in SL and Nathan in Finland but it will be fun for us to get together!!
This picture was taken in 1993, I think. Greg and Heidi were getting ready to move from NC to Oregon. The boys were having fun in the cab of the U-haul while we were loading it up.
In the pic. is Timothy (very back), Philip, Christopher and Nathan (in front).

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers!!
So it sounds like everything there is going fine and dandy! That sucks about Lesa though, I hope that she is doing okay! So yeah things here are good. Not too much has happened this last week so not too much to tell but, this week we do have the Estonians baptism on Saturday. Yup the same day as conference. The baptism is going to be at 4 and then conference will start at 7. so that's exciting. They asked that Elder Horne baptises them. so he is going to be coming down here to do that. so that will be pretty cool. then after the baptism we are going to be going down to Rauma for General Conference because they actually show it there. If we stay here in Pori we would have to watch it on the computer which wouldn't be very much fun so we're going down there.. so that should be fun... Oh before i forget did you ever send my address to Phil? I sent it after the letter a couple of weeks ago so I don't know if you would have saw it. anyway things here are going fine and dandy. Umm... I don't really know what else has happened... so yeah... Well I love and miss you take care!!!!
Rakaudella,
Vanhin Peck

Hello Father

So you want to hear something random about our last name... Peck in Estonian (I think its actually spelled Peck.. but its said the same... this apples for cases) means Fat.. like its was you call a fat person. and in Swedish, its a spoken word for disgusting. So yeah we Pecks are fat and disgusting... hahaha... so yeah random fact of the day.. As of this point I've yet to find a Finnish word Peck but yeah... its kinda funny.

So anyway things here are going good. Driving is quite fun, however its really confusing at times... some times i just don't know when or who to yield to and everything is crazy.. but its fun I enjoy it.

So yeah the language is pretty intense.. I'm still not very good at it, but i think its coming slowly.. I have good days and I have bad days where i just understand pretty well and somedays its just not every good... but I'm just going to keep studying and what not and I'm sure that it will.

So yeah everything is going good. we've got our baptism this week so that's exciting (more info in moms letter). and yeah. I haven't received your sacrament talk yet... it should come tomorrow.. so yeah remind me next week to tell you what i thought.

Welp i think that's everything. Take care. I love and miss you!!

Vanhin Peck

She's out

I just want to update everyone that Lesa is out of the hospital. Steve and I went and visited her yesterday morning. She seemed to be doing a lot better and not much pain at all. When we were there she still had her IV in and was on a liquid diet and slowly moving her to some solid food. She may have to still be on a fat free diet. It seems like there is some debate between doctors what she should eat. But last night she got to go home and I know she is very happy about that.
Also Jess had surgery on her eye. She was seeing double vision in one eye. I think they had to go in and correct an eye muscle. She had to wear a eye patch for a day that Kingston wasn't too thrilled about. Timothy said she's doing better but has some bad headaches with her eye readjusting.
I believe it is now time for everyone to be healthy and no more illnesses or surgeries......I worry about everyone too much.

Old and tired

Lesa is in the hospital. She was feeling really sick and come to find out she has pancreatitis. The baby is fine but she has to go on a special diet. Last night I went to the hospital and picked up Maddox and he stayed the night with us. Then I watched him most of the day. He helped me clean, ate lots of fun snacky food, laid down on pillows, read "Go Dog Go" 8 times and he discovered a cool saw in my tool box. No worries.....I didn't let him play with it. But he did think it was a fun "toy". He also thought the ratchet was pretty cool too. Tomorrow he's coming over again to play. I can't believe how tired I get from watching him. Maybe I need to increase my workout :)

School

Last Thursday night I started back to school. It's a 3 credit class that meets once a week for 3 hours. Starts 6:30pm to 9:30pm so by 9:30 I'm pretty dead. It's a business class on retirement and investments. I have found the whole thing very interesting. After the first class I went and redid some of our retirement and where we need to put some of our money. I can't say we have been very smart but we're not hopeless.....and I think we may be on the right track now, I hope. This week we are going to do some major crunching of number so that will probably give me a better idea. I know it sounds strange but I kinda really like the business kind of stuff. So I'm thinking about what class to take next semester. If I learn anything really cool that I think everyone needs to know I will post it :)

Nathan's very short email

Hey!
So first off, Could you send this Email to every... aka Dad, Tim, Chris and Jaron. I had one of those weeks where the email is stupid... so I'm not going to have a lot of time to write today so hopefully i will be able to get through everything. Sorry.
Anyway things here are going really good... Zone Conference was really good and the drive was pretty intense. It was pouring rain the whole way and i was barely able to see 10 meters in front of me, so that was pretty crazy. But we got there safe and everything ended up alright!! The meeting also went really good... learned many much things and twas also super fun. but yeah.. and then the drive back wasn't as bad. so that was quite dandy.
So this next week Elder Karlsson is going to a week long training meeting in Helsinki, so I'm going to be on a week long splits with Elder Bert. And i have never met him so it will be pretty interesting. I'm not really sure how everything is going to work out but I guess we'll see.
Welp I think that's everything, plus i got to go anyway... i try to get more stuff in the letter but sorry again for the email deally I'll try to write everyone next week... as long as the computers work... I love and miss you all. Take care
Rakaudella,
Vanhin Peck

Happy 22nd Birthday Jare-bear!!

Happy Birthday Jaron!!! We celebrated Jaron's birthday yesterday since he was home for the weekend but I wanted to put something up today......THE birthday!



I LOVE this picture of Jaron. Look at his finger.



Jaron , I hope you have a great day and your 22nd year is great!!! I love you Bud!!

A early birthday for Jare

Today we celebrated Jaron's birthday a day early. He came down for the weekend since U of U's football team didn't have a home game and he had the weekend free. He wanted meatball, mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner so he got lots of that.
Jaron also loves fruit roll ups and so now he's temporarily stocked up with lots of those. No worries....he got other things too but he really loves fruit roll ups!!!

And an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.....can't go wrong with that.

Apple Cider

Today we had our 3rd....or maybe 4th annual apple cider making. The Waters' came with some of their kids and grandkids and so did Darrell and Dyann. Christopher, Lesa and Maddox came over and Jaron came down from SL. I always stop for a minute to think of my grandad and when we would make cider with him when we were kids....great memories!



I think Maddox had a fun time getting involved in it all. He loved all the apples in the water.





When we were done we came in, drank cider, ate chili, and celebrated Darrell's birthday with cake and ice cream. It was so fun getting together. Tons of work but so worth it!!!!

A letter from Burger

Dear Family,
Hey everyone! So how are you all doing back home? Things here are going pretty well. We just found out that this change is going to be 7 weeks instead of 6 which is pretty weird. I'm not sure why yet but we have Zone Conference on Wednesday so I'm sure we'll find out then.
So yeah, as I had previously mentioned we've got Zone Conference on Wednesday which is pretty exciting. However, I have to drive because Elder Karlsson doesn't know how. But that's not really the bad part.....I don't know how to get to the chapel in Tempere. But we are picking up the Rauma Elders and I think that one of them served in Tampere. So hopefully he knows the way. So it could be interesting.
This week I got my new comp. Elder Karlsson. He's a really cool and funny guy so I think it will be fun to serve with him.
Well I can't think of anything else that happened this week so I'll just talk about general stuff....So the ______ family is doing good. Their baptism is now the 2nd of Oct. However we may have to move it due to general conference. But we are going to talk with President Brown during Zone Conference and see if we can do the confirmation and baptism on the same day. So we shall see what happens.
Oh, so with that package you're planning on sending, would it be possible to get a Moleskine book? Because I've been wanting one but the big ones her cost 30 euros. So I don't really want to get one here...ha ha. Oh and before I forget....is there any I can get a new copy of my debit card. Mine is breaking. Not sure how but it still does work for the moment.
Welp, I think that's everything. If you've got any questions let me know. I love and miss you all!!
Vanhin Nafey Burger

ps. I forgot dad asked about if its getting colder and darker. So the average temp. is about 12C. So it's not too bad. But the days are definitely starting to get shorter. It starts to get dark about 9pm. then gets light about 6ish. So yeah, they're getting shorter.

Black Cauldron and school picture

Emily is dancing 2 dances in The Black Cauldron performance that the dance company is putting on. It's Oct. 1st and 22nd at the Orem Library. I haven't seen the whole thing yet but I have seen Emily's dances and they are really fun. It's at 7pm so everyone is invited!!!
And no worries.......I'll be taking tons of pictures too.
Cute school picture huh?

Rough Stone Rolling

So I have been reading this book.....Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling. It's taken me awhile cuz I have a hard time reading lots of info. all at once. I have to read a little, think about it and let it digest. And I've been doing a ton of thinking. This book is written by an active member who is a historian. Steve bought it at Deseret Books several years ago. There are tons of references (about half the book) of where he got his info......lots of journals, etc. I have a whole new look into who Joseph Smith was. It's good in a way because it makes him more human. It also shows how Heavenly Father can work miracles through all of us. I believe it was a miracle that Joseph Smith organized the church. There's no way he could have done it alone. There are also some things that I still have a hard time comprehending and may never totally understand. But it made me question more what I really believe.....what is truth and what is not, what it revelation and what is opinion? You have to read it with an open mind because it's not exactly what was taught in Sunday School. There's no sugar coating in this. I'm glad we can have personal revelation to sift through so many things we are told in life. But I do know that I think differently now than I did before reading this book........and I don't think that's a bad thing.

On Strike

This year I decided that I am not canning salsa or any other type of food that goes in a jar. I have some reason not to....
1. Doc has eaten every tomato that I have grown this year in the garden which leaves me with a total of "0" tomatoes.
2. I thought I would put more effort into fixing up and painting the house. Believe me....it needs it bad!!
3. I'm just too, too tired.
So maybe nothing will be canned this year but it doesn't mean I won't next year. And maybe by then I will have a set-up where Doc won't make the garden her own personal pantry. If you have any ideas let me know. I keep finding half eaten tomatoes all over the back yard. Erg!!!

ps. Painted the kitchen yesterday and it looks great with the new floor. I'm going to paint the cupboards next and get some caulking done......always something :)

Nathan's emails

Hey Father!!!

So how's is everything going... things here are going good, my new companion is really good, so i think that its going to be a really good change with him! and He does speak English... so we speak mostly English... but yeah... I really want to speak more Finnish with my comps because my last 2 comps didn't really like to do that too much, so hopefully we well be able to. Because I really need to improve my speaking ability... I have a super hard time understanding things that aren't gospel related... so yeah... I want to get better... its just hard to find a lot of situations where we can speak Finnish with other people, because right now we don't have many investigators... and half to ward doesn't speak Finnish to either of us, even though we always try to reply in Finnish, I don't think the ward understands that we need to here Finnish to learn Finnish... so yeah.. kinda hard... welp i best be off but take care I love and miss you!!!

Vanhin Peck

Hey Mommers!
Hey so everything is going good... My companion is great, and we get along really good... so that's awesome... So I'm sorry this E-mail might be kinda short.. I have to write a lot of people today and I don't have a whole lot of time... sorry... but I'll try to write you a good letter that will cover everything this week. anyway... A package would be really quite awesome... so if you send one that would be great... um... one thing I've been wanting is a Sufjan Stevens, CD... mainly the Christmas one... so if there is anyway that you could get a hold of a Sufjan Stevens Christmas cd and send it that would be awesome!!! Anyway things are going good... sorry this is so short but ill try to get a longer letter to you that covers everything... Thank you for everything that you do... I love and miss you!!! Take care
Vanhin Peck

A Monster!!!

We bought a scanner. Steve showed me how to use it and for the last 3 days I have been attached to it! I am scanning everything!!! Going through old photo albums and scanning most of the pictures I can find. There are some real treasures in there!! I have become a scanning monster!!! Here are some of the treasures I've found. This picture is me with Timothy, Gramma J with Christopher and my Great Grandma Ketchum.
Grandma and Grandad Awbrey with Timothy and Christopher
I love this pic. of Steve with Jaron.....very tender!
Christopher and Jaron
This was our first Christmas. Everyone looks sooooo young!!
Timothy and Christopher

Me with Christopher and baby Jaron. This is just a very, very small sample of the pics I have. I have probaby scanned over 200 pictures so far and I wonder....where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday T!!!

Yep.....my baby boy is 26!! Can you believe it? Through my eyes he's still my little boy :)
Here are a few pictures of Timothy growing up. I could have put on so many more . Floods of memories came back just looking at these!

I love his smile!! It would always make me smile!!

Timothy and Teddy. Teddy was constantly getting Timothy into trouble. Timothy would always say,"Teddy did it!"







Happy Birthday Timothy!! I love you so much and I'm so proud of you!!!

ps. We got a new scanner....can you tell? These are just a few pictures of Timothy that I scanned . I think I have over 50 and still lots more to go :)