Another year down

Today I did my last workout for the year. I workout 3 times a week consistently unless I'm sick or on vacation. A lot of times when I'm sick I'll still workout. I can't say that it's easy cuz it's so much easier to just quit. My legs ache like crazy all the time. I keep thinking that at some point it has to ease up but it really doesn't. I think they will ache whether I work out or not so I'll work out anyways. I like having the energy to do things. I like being able to go on long hikes and not wearing out. This year I switched back and forth with biking and running. I'm going to keep it the same for 2012 and maybe throw in a little weight training. My upper body strength really sucks so I may work on that a little this coming year. March 2012 will be my 3 year mark of constant exercise. :)

It's down

Today I took the Christmas decorations down and it left me in a great mood. I do love Christmas decorations, lights, and all that comes with it but Christmas seems like a double edge sword to me. I love the giving stuff but it stresses me out soooooo much. I've been thinking about it a lot and I think the problem is that I'm a people pleaser and I worry if I bought the right thing for each person, if they'll like it, if I bought enough, did I remember everyone and if everything is even and fair. Oh....and paying for it. So I end up being really stress for a month+ while trying to keep Christ in Christmas. I still haven't figured out how to combine both. I honestly don't think I will in my life time be able to combine Christ and Santa in one holiday. Too hard or my mind just has a hard time doing both at once. And it seems like when Christmas is over I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Last night it hit me. Totally exhausted, I just couldn't stand one more day with the tree. It was so dead and needles were everywhere. If you brush up against it small branches would break off.....even with vacuuming every day. While I was upstairs lying in bed watching a movie, Steve, Jaron and Emily took down the tree for me as a surprise. And boy was it an awesome surprise!!!! I don't hate Christmas. I really do like it. I just wish it was more Christ-centered.

A short email from Nathan

Hey mommers,

It was really great to talk to you all!!! that was a ton of fun!! So I did get the one package that dad sent with the socks and cd's that was GREAT!!! Thanks a ton!!! Well I'll be calling the office today to see if they can send the packages so we'll see when I get them!! Welp... thats really about it but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you a ton!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Nate Peck

Nathan didn't get any of his packages for Christmas. I am quite mad about this. Steve sent the socks DHL thats only suppose to take 3 day (paid $45) and took 2 weeks......after Christmas. I mailed 4 envelopes to Nathan the 1st of December and he still doesn't have them. I'm hoping that they're at the mission home. It just really angers me and we put out over $100 in shipping and got promises that they would be there and they weren't. Erg!!!......It just makes me so, so mad!!! Ok, I feel a little better now letting that out. I hope everyone has a good day. :)

King-man

We didn't get to spend Christmas with Timothy, Jessica and Kingston. Distance is hard. But we gave Kingston a cement truck for Christmas. I think he likes it. He does love his cars and trucks!! :)

Christmas Eve night

To start off.....Steve hasn't shaved since the semester ended at BYU. Going radical. I like it. :)














For Christmas Eve dinner we had salmon, sausage, rye bread, green beans, clams, potatoes and sparkling cider. All of it was so delicious. Some major overeating went on.















I wanted to take a picture of everyone at the table but they wanted to hurry and pray so everyone could dig in.








We did our program and then off to the presents!!!


















Maddox wasn't sure how the present thing worked so Lesa open her present first. Maddox watched and then it was like a light bulb went off and it was his turn. He grabbed his present and started ripping it open. He saw that he got Elmo pajamas and started tearing his clothes off to get them on. It was funny watching him.

















In this pic. it looks like angry Elmo.









It's been a fun night. Though we miss Timothy, Jessica, Kingston and Nathan terribly!!!!!

Christmas Eve...thus far.

We woke up this morning to Steve making Swedish pancakes. A tradition in our home. They were so, so good!!! He also cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.....I love it!!!! Thanks Sweetie!!

This is what's happening to our live Christmas tree. It's drying out badly. I did keep up with the watering but I think with the heater on all the time there was no hope. When we take it down after Christmas were going to burn it in the fire pit. I love hearing the crackling noise.
We also did our test call to Nathan a couple of nights ago. We only talked for about 3 or 4 minutes but he sounded so good. So far none of the package got to him yet but I'm hoping they do by today (fingers crossed). Also no Christmas dinner appointments but I gave him some extra money and he's going to make a ham for him and his companion. We'll be calling him tomorrow at 10am and will let everyone know how it goes. I'm sure it will be amazing!!!!

Hugo

This has never happened to us before or very rarely.....to see 2 movies in one week. This afternoon we saw Hugo...in 3D. I didn't know it was in 3D. I think if I did I may not have gone. It gives me bad headaches sometimes so I kinda stay away from them. After we got seated I popped 2 advil to get me through it. It was a really good movie and the 3D didn't kill my head too much. Plus Steve bought me a diet coke to help also so maybe the combination of both.....no headache.
Tonight we are doing our "test" call to Nathan. It should be fun!!!! :)

Nathan's email

Hey mommers,

So the Phone number is, xxxxxx.. thus you'll need to do the whole exit/enter thing and it'll look like ###. And if you could call here on Christmas at 10 in the morning your time, which should be 7 at night for me. So if you could do that it would be GREAT!!! THANKS!!!

Thanks for the Recipes!!! I let you know how it turned out on Christmas! ;) I don't think it'll cost more than 30€... hopefully! So our little adventure to Santa land was pretty sweet! (I sent a pic in another email) IT was way awesome to get to see the actual Santa! I got a couple other pics but nothing too great. We weren't aloud to take pictures of a lot of stuff, because they want you to buy their pictures haha. but it was way fun!

So I'm pretty excited for Christmas. (except for the fact that I have to give a talk) I don't know what we're going to do the whole day but I'm sure it'll be fun and I'm really excited to talk to all of you!!

Hm... sorry i don't really now what to say :S Not too much has really happened in the last couple of weeks so there's not really too much so say.. haha. but things here are going good and I'm really excited to talk with you all but I hope you have a great week and I'll Talk to you soon!!!! I love and miss you a ton!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Nate Peck


Hey Pa!

So I haven't gotten the socks yet. It'll probably be really hard for them to find us at home because we are at home so little. Do you know if there is a phone number that i could call and try to set up a time/go and pick it up. If there is that would probably be the easiest was for me to get them.

Things here are going really good. Santa Land was a lot of fun. I sent a picture to mom of our whole zone with Santa.

Sorry I don't really have a ton of time to write today :( but I hope that all is well we you and I am super excited to talk to you on Sunday!!!

I love and miss you a ton!! Take care!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Nate Peck

Santa picture

I got this picture from a missionary mom of the zone Nathan's in. It's their trip to Santa town they took yesterday. Nathan is in the back row, 3rd from the right. So cool!!!!

Sherly

Last night we went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. The theater was packed and every seat taken. Good thing we got there a half hour early. I loved it and so did everyone in my family. I got quite a few good laughs out of it.....and a great storyline. We will definitely be buying this when it comes out on DVD.

Jazz parent show

Last Wednesday night was the Jazz parent show. Emily did a great job!! She has dance Saturday (5 hours) and then she gets a 2 week break for Christmas. After the break they will be performing the Labyrinth at the Scera.

Happy 21st Birthday Nathan

Today is Nathan's 21st birthday. I feel kinda bad cuz none of his packages I sent will get there on time. Maybe not even on time for Christmas.....but hoping they will. He knows they'll be late and tells me not to worry about it cuz he's fine. I still worry though. :)



















I had to put these cute pics. of Nathan when he was little. I can't believe how blond his hair was.......more like white.


























I miss him so much but he will be home in 4 months!!!
















Happy Birthday Nathan!!! I hope you have a wonderful day and I can't wait to see you!!!!

Dance parent show #3 :)

Here are more pics. from another parent show I went to last night. All the girls are such beautiful dancers. I have one more to go tonight.....jazz.

Locked out

A couple of weeks ago our front door knob broke. We bought a new one and replaced it. Two keys came with it. We haven't made copies of the keys yet cuz.....it's the Christmas season, life is a little crazy and so who has time? The new door knob can stay locked and still be able to go out. So that is the setting it's at. This morning I wanted to make a bunch of banana bread to take to Emily's dance teacher tonight. I got all the mini loaves in the oven and set it for 20 mins. After I got it in the mail came. I slid on Steve's big church shoes and ran out to get it. As the storm door closed the suction closed the front door also. I'm thinking...Oh crap!!! With the front door locked I run around the house checking all the windows, back doors and everything is locked up tight. I run over to Heather's and call Steve at work to get Christopher's phone number. My cell phone is in the house so I have no numbers. I finally get a hold of Lesa and Heather drives me to get the key from Lesa for the back door. We get back and try back doors but the key doesn't work. We go back to Heather's and decide to call Jay Marquiss. He has a tall ladder and find out that Emily's window is unlocked. He breaks in through Emily's window, that is lined with about 10 cups of water that she hasn't brought down, and opens the front door. An hour from when I was locked out....I am in. The banana bread is little black bricks but the house didn't burn down!! :)

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers,

So I'm not moving. So you can send the socks here if you want :D And before I forget I was wondering if you could send me a couple recipes in your next email. I want to know how to bake a ham.. So if you can send a good ham recipe that would be awesome. we probably wont have a DA on Christmas so it would be good if you could send one of those through email. and also I was thinking of making potato salad. So if you could also send your recipe for that, that would be AWESOME!!! And if you've got any other ideas of things we could make for Christmas dinner that would be GREAT!! That's WAY super cool to hear what Behnke said! I would definitely say that he was my Fav. comp as well!!! those were 3 EPIC changes! So things here are going good. we don't have too much going on right now, however, things are looking up! we we're pretty excited about that. Oh so next Monday we get to go up to Rovaniemi (the northest city missionaries can serve in, as well its where Santa [the real Santa] lives) for a Zone conference, and we'll also be going up to see Santa!! So I'm super excited!!!!!!!!!!! SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I'll take pics! But yeah, so that means i probably wont get to email until Wednesday. hopefully.... but we'll see what happens. Welp that's really about it but i hope you have a great week and I love and miss you!!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Nate Peck

Hey Pa,

How is all of your book stuff going? It sounds like you've been pretty busy with all of that stuff. I'm pretty excited about it, I want to read it when I get home!

So things here are going pretty good. Not too much is going on right now, but things here are starting to pick up as of last week so that's super great! We were actually able to find a couple of people who want to meet and so we've got several teaches set up for this week so I'm pretty excited about that.

Oh, I was wondering if you were ever able to send that other pod cast? I'd be super interested to listen to it and I know several other missionaries who would want to listen to it as well. So I'd love to hear it!

Well that's really about all for now but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you a ton! Good luck with all of your school stuff!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Peck

Book signing

Yesterday afternoon Steve and I went to Salt Lake for his book signing at the Kings English. That is the coolest bookstore I've been to in a long time. Not to get off track but the store has lots of little rooms lined with shelf of books. And there are different levels of the store. They have lots of unique books. You could spend hours in there just looking around. I love the atmosphere in there!! But before we got to the bookstore we stopped at his mom and dad's place and visited for a while. Maureen, Alexie and Josh came from CA to go to Steve's book signing. That really meant a lot to Steve and it was so sweet of them!!! We arrived at the bookstore and Steve got all set up. There was a constant flow of people there. It was nice to see......lots of family and friends. After the hour of signing we went to dinner at his publishers house with one other couple. It was so fun!! The food was great and the conversation was wonderful!! Thanks for everyone that came. It was a fun day!!!
ps. Sorry the picture is so bad. I forgot to bring my camera and had to use my phone. :(

Tree shopping

Tonight we went and bought our tree. We saw several trees we liked but upon closer examination they either had a bald spot, too flat on one side or too dry. Finally we found one that we all agreed on.











We got it roped onto the car. Man, our car is sure dirty!!!











Then decorated it. I forgot to take a pic. of it done. There will be plenty of more pics. taken with the tree done. It was fun going out as a family and picking a tree. We haven't done that in a while since we have an artificial one......went live this year. :)

Choir concert

Last night was Emily's choir concert. Steve and I got there 15 minutes early so we could get a seat. When we got there every seat was taken, people were lined up against the walls and kids were all sitting on the floor and steps in front of the stage. We found a little spot on the floor to sit by the stage. It was packed!!!! The choirs sounded really good and did a great job!!!

Stolen pictures. :)

I took these pics. off of Jessica's blog. Kingston loves his lunch meat and a good read!! :)


































And I took these pics. from Lesa's blog. Maddox and Asher having a good sword fight with rubber spatulas. :)

Hip hop parent show

Last night was Emily's hip hop parent show. Taking pictures of hip hop is harder than ballet but here are a few of the millions Steve took. Steve was able to come to this was one cuz it was later in the evening. Emily did a great job and it was fun watching all the girls dance.







So far I've been to 2 parent shows and next week Emily has 2 more. I really like going to these. It's fun watching her dance!!