Kingstons and Darci

Here are some cute and updated pictures I got of Kingston and Darci I got this week. Both of them are growing so fast! And they both have beautiful smiles! I can't wait to see them next month!!!!





Nathan will be home in 2 1/2 weeks and we will be taking him to CA with us to see Timothy, Jessica and their family. It's a very short trip but it will be so fun to see them all. Jaron can't come cuz of finals but when we go back the end of June he'll be coming. So much is happening and I'm so excited!!!!

The garden....so far

All the daffodils and hyacinths are up. The hyacinths smell so good! We get more and more of them each year and the smell is incredible!!

















I've also been working in the vegetable garden. The carrots are up....


and the turnips...




and the radishes, lettuce, onions and peas.


They all came up really fast but I think it's cuz it's been such a mild winter. I can't wait to plant more. Hopefully in a month or so.



I also completed my finance class. The last class was last night and so full of information. My brain is so full of retirement/investment/financial words that I'm trying to let it all sink in. I think we are on the right track but there is more that we could be doing. I learned a lot from this class but also have so many more questions. Glad I went!!

Oh Deer

Steve looked out the front room window and saw over a dozen deer. He said to get the camera. I'm trying to focus it through a window and hoping that they don't move. They were moving so it is kinda blurry but it was cool. There were a few bucks in there too. It made me very gratefully that I transferred all my tulips to the backyard.
Also Emily got her schedule done for next year. It was pretty intense and stressful. We had one melt down moment but she ended up taking the classes she needed and also some fun classes. I think she's really gonna like her schedule for next year.

Kids

Christopher, Lesa and the kids came over Sunday for dinner. Emily is like.......Mom, get the camera out!! So I took a few pictures of everyone.
Maddox and Asher discovered the gliding chair and had to sit on it and rock.




Maddox got a new "Utah" shirt! Uncle Jaron is going to love that one!!


















And look at that smile. I love Kingston's smiles.....very contagious!!


Darci is very focused on Jessica. We got to skype them last night. It was fun watching Kingston jump around. He has so much energy. :) Darci's eye's were wide open the whole time. It was so fun to see them all......the parents too!!! :)

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers,
That's cool that you got my itinerary. I haven't gotten mine yet, so I have no idea where I'll be flying. Hopefully this week I get it though. Well.. I'll probably just have to wait and not use any of my own money cuz I have no idea how much money is in my account so I've got no idea how much to pull out, so hopefully I'll get the card soon and I can write you when I get it so you'll know to activate it. So things here are going pretty good. We're going to be playing bad mitten with some members today so that'll be tons of fun. I haven't played sense i was home so we'll see if I'm any good. Other than that we're going to be really busy this next week with splits District meetings and a zone leader council so really we aren't going to have any time in our city to do work. Soooo we'll see if anything gets done. Welp.. that's really about all for now but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you a ton!
Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Nate Peck

pictures

I like to try and get pictures up on our blog fast before they get lost in my files or deleted off my camera. It's hard keeping up but I try my best. Jessica is really good and keeping me updated with pics. and I'm so glad. It's hard living so far away. I see Maddox and Asher quite a bit but I forget to pull out the camera. Yesterday Steve and I did lots of yard work. If you look at this first picture of Steve and Emily you can see the big pile of sticks from pruning that needs hauled off. And that's not all of them.



We got quite a bit of the trees pruned but we ran out of time to get everything done. I have lots of pretty flowers on my apricot tree right now. I guess we'll prune that next year. We did get quite a bit of stuff burned too. And if you have great coals......make somemores!!!!

I also got Nathan's itinerary and a really nice letter from his mission president. I can't believe he's finally coming home!! April 19th is the date at around 8:30pm. He goes from Helsinki to London to Dallas then to SL.
Here are the cute pictures that Jess put up on her blog. Cute kids......and cute big kids too!!! :)

Glass

For the last few months I had this sore/bump by my eye brow above my nose. It was kinda annoying but didn't let it bother me. Then a week ago it would just start bleeding. That's when I thought maybe it was a piece of glass from the wreck. But I thought it was too many years ago and that what ever was left in my face would probably just stay put. Yesterday it started bleeding a little bit again and I went to I touched it. I scraped my finger on a piece of glass that was in there. I got the tweezers to see if I could pull it out but no such luck. I was sad and a little freaked out. Fortunately I got in to my dermatologist (who is totally amazing!!) and he was able to get it out. It was bigger than what he thought and took 4 stitched in the end. I asked him if it was unusual for glass to come out almost 29 years later and he said it wasn't at all. He's seen people where it's been even longer and that more may eventually come out. I didn't like that but so glad that this piece is out now.
ps. Steve wanted me to keep the glass that got taken out.....so I've got it. :)

Class

Yesterday was a busy, packed day!!....but a good day too. First thing in the morning I ran 2.5 miles, rushed home to get ready so I could watch Asher for an hour or so while Maddox went to gymnastics. Then I met some friends for lunch. Sometimes I forget how therapeutic it is to sit with friends and talk for hours......with some delicious food. When Emily got home I took her to dance. She only stayed for ballet since she has/had a choir concert last night and tonight. I dropped her off to the concert and ran to my finance class. They wanted us there early to pick up our materials so I timed it that I would be there a little early. I got there and there was no visitor parking. What little they had was full. So I follow some signs to more visitor parking. I finally get a spot.....almost a half mile away. I was getting VERY frustrated (UVU parking really stinks). So I practically run to class and get there 10 minutes late. The class is 3 hours long so I know they'll give us a break and I start planning in my head about moving the car closer cuz I don't want to hike to the car 9:30 at night. We get a 5 minute break. So I run back up the hill to the car and find a spot closer to my class.....10 minutes late again. Oh well... I did get some good info. and tons more questions I need to ask next week.
And a funny thing....at least to me. Emily likes wearing some of my clothes. She says I have some in style stuff. Ha ha!! We wear close to the same size blouses/sweaters and that's what she likes to borrow of mine. I never thought that day would come.....but I guess it did. :)

Oh.....

And I'm taking another finance class that starts tomorrow. I'm hoping that after I take a few of these that I'll finally get it. :) But I do have an interest in it and find it pretty interesting. And I'm hoping it helps with our future (retirement).
I also wanted to put up this adorable picture of Darci too. She is truly beautiful!!!! I can't wait to see her!

Negativity

It seems like negativity is everywhere. It's like a virus that can be spread from person to person so easily. It's also habit forming. We can concentrate on what's bad and horrible in our lives and the world around us. Lately it's been affecting me and I've been trying to fight it. I think my problem is that sometime I focus on what's wrong instead of what's right. Then get mad at the wrong instead of trying to improving the good. And I have to admit....it is easy to do and I know that I'm not the only one. For example, after church Steve and I were talking to friend and we asked her how she was doing? She said good until two of her friends came up to her to talk and all they did was gripe and complain about their lives. I'm ok with people complaining every now and then (it's a great release to get it off your mind) but when it's the only thing they talk about it's hard. I wonder sometimes if I'm like that. I don't want to be but I can see myself sometime slipping into the habit of being negative. Yesterday I read an article from Carol Lynn Pearson and it got me thinking about how I'm looking at things. It was almost like a reversal of how I should look at things. I'm glad that there are inspiring people out there that can give me a knock on the head to help me get back on track. We do live in a great time on earth.....we just need to remember that.

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers,

Just so you and everyone else knows I don't really have too much time today to write so if I don't get to everyone let them know that I'll write them next week. So things here are going pretty good. We were gone for probably over half the week. We had to go to two district meeting and we had to do a Baptismal interview (I'm a zone leader now... I don't know if I ever told you... so yeah.. FYI) and then had another District meeting so we were gone for over half the week. It was pretty crazy. But we're back now and we're not leaving until Thursday.. haha.. We are honestly gone 2 or 3 day's every week it's honestly pretty weird. However other than that things here are going good. We don't really have too much going on right now but we're working on finding some new investigators so hopefully we'll have some more people to teach here soon. but we'll just have to wait and see. Hmm... well other than that not too much is going on.. we've got a good branch here it's about 100 people but because it's not in a stake it cant be a ward.. but it probably will be some day. But yeah things here are going pretty good.... Not too much else to say.. My comp is really cool, so there's no worries there. but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you a ton!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Peck

Yard work

This week has been a killer week when it comes to weather. I've spent a few afternoons outside clearing out the garden, chopping up sticks and transplanting. I had onion plants scattered all over the garden and I dug them up, tilled in some organic soil and put them in rows. I think I will have between 30-40 onion plants.....or more. Half are red and the other half yellow onions. I also planted lettuce seeds and peas. I also cleaned up some of Emily's secret garden. Last year I dug up about 40 tulip bulbs and transplanted them along the fence. They are all coming up plus looking at her garden you can't tell that I took that many out. They are EVERYWHERE!!!! After they bloom I will be taking at least another 40+ out and moving them around. Jaron and Kevin hauled out all the branches from the first pruning job we did on one of the apple trees. Steve is going to finish pruning that tree today and then maybe move over to the other 4 apple trees. We have tons of work ahead of us but I enjoy every minute of it. Snow is suppose to come tomorrow so I guess that means I need to start working on the house. It's been rejected for about a week and it looks like it.



Look at this cute little message I got on my phone yesterday. Darci makes me smile.....such a doll!!!

Wednesday

Jessica sent me two pictures the other day...... Darci and Kingston. I miss these two little people so much! Kingston has an award winning smile. Such cute, cute kids! I can't wait to see them!












Every Wednesday mornings I watch Asher for a little over an hour while Lesa takes Maddox to gymnastics. I love this one on one time with Asher. Most of the time we read books. He'll go get a book and then back up and sit on my lap. He'll do this over and over. I usually bring over a little treat for him and Maddox. Today was chocolate chip cookies.....can you tell? :)

Nathan's email

Hey Mommers,
Hey so things here are going pretty good. My new area is pretty cool and we have a car so that's super awesome. My new comp is also really cool. he was actually my last companions trainer. So that's good.He's a good guy and I really like him .. so that's good. BTW. SO things here are going pretty good. Not too much went on this last week but we did get to go to a couple of other cities for splits and that was pretty fun but other than that not too much really went on. Hrmm... I really don't know what else to say... it was a pretty uneventfully week besides coming here. But Oulu is a good place and i really like it... I think that I'll enjoy it, and I'll try to get some pictures. welp that's really about all I got... sorry this is kinda a lame email, but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you a ton!!
Rakkaudella,
Vanhin Nate Peck

Hey Pops,

So the new area is really nice, and I'm really getting along with my new companion. His name is Elder Carr and he's from Idaho. He's a really nice guy and things have been going really well. We have a lot of fun and we get a lot of work done so its really good. I think it'll be a really good last change.

Things here are going pretty good. There isn't a whole lot going on in this area but we're looking for some new investigators, so we'll see what happens this next week.

It sounds like everything went well with your book reading. That's good. That's really cool how much stuff you've been doing for your book. before you know it you'll be famous and making millions off of all your books :)

Well sorry not too much has happened this last week, so there isn't too much to write about but I hope you have a great week and I love and miss you!!!

Rakkaudella,

Vanhin Nate Peck

In a cabin in the woods at the South Fork of Provo Canyon.

Steve had another book reading tonight and since I'm the photographer for these events I needed to take a test picture first. Jaron and Emily were very cooperative.





We headed up Provo Canyon and back into the woods to a very beautiful cabin. As soon as we got there we realized that we took the wrong car there. We drove the little car that loves to ice skate on the snow but we finally go parked.







Lots of people showed up. I think there were around 57 people.














Steve did a great reading!! And lots of fun question/answer time afterwards.













There was lots of time to sit or stand around and visit. Also lots of delicious food!!











It was a great night. Steve did a wonderful job! The only drawback was that I'm fighting a sinus infection and my head was screaming that it was time to go. So around 10pm. we headed out. But what a fun evening!!!!

Saturday

Jess sent me this cute picture of Darci yesterday. And that's the quilt I made her that she laying on. I see both Timothy and Jessica in her. So beautiful!!










Lesa put this pic. up on her blog of the boys reading. Too cute!!! I love stealing pictures off their blogs.
This has been a crazy week for me. Not one that I want to repeat. Monday I got food poisoning. I thought I was going to die......so painful. Tuesday while getting over the food poisoning I stubbed and broke my toe. Thursday I felt a cold coming on and by friday.......flat on my back. I missed Christopher's birthday dinner but Emily took over and cooked up a great meal for him and the family. Lesa helped her too and they did a great job. Thank you, thank you. Today I'm feeling a little better but I need to stay away from any sharp objects near my face cuz it will pop.....lots of congestion. Steve's book reading is tonight so I'm going to stay on meds so I can go to this. I know he'll do great. And Jaron is home for spring break. We love it when he's home!!!!