A Double Feature and A Cookie Party

Tuesday night we had a little family outing.  We went to see PRINCESS AND THE FROG!  First off-- Tianna is obsessed with princesses (as you can tell from practically every post involving her wearing her dress-ups) but to maket his movie even more relatable to her, the new princess' name is Tiana.  (In case you are unaware of her pronounciation because you've only read her name it is Tianna, with the A being like my name, Mary Anna... not with an aw sound.)  But in light of this new princess, she tells everyone her name is Ti-AW-na.  And that is okay.

 But we love LOVE LOOOOOOOVED the movie! The whole voodoo element was kind of scary because it wasn't the complete make-believe wizardry/spell stuff  that's in the older Disney classics (especially since Luke served his mission around a lot of people who practice it) but other than that, we loved the show.  Especially our princess Tianna! When it ended she threw her arms around my neck and said, "thanks Mom!"

Another movie we've been wanting to see is NEW MOON. I couldn't wait for Luke and I to finally get the audio book version from the library to see the movie, so I went with Joy in November.  We finally got our copy and finished listening to the book on Monday... so since we were already at the theater, we decided to risk it, and stay for the late show so Luke could see the movie. 

We fed Adelia her bottle and she fell asleep, Tianna fell asleep in Luke's arms about 5 minutes into the show, and we were able to see the movie we wanted without having to make a second trip AND without having to worry about babysitters. It was awesome!


Thursday was my Cookie Exchange/Christmas party I hosted for girls in my neighborhood and ward. We had a good turn out and lots of food and yummy cookies. I ate too many of them already!  This whole diet plan is just not working out this time of year.... i have no will power! Ah well, that's what we worry about after New Year's right?

Just a glimpse of what was to come!

I just love parties! It was really  nice having a girlie get-together. Thanks everyone who came! You helped to make my Christmas Merry and Bright!!!

LUVIN' me some winter!

Finals over.... TIME TO CELEBRATE! And that is what we did! We spent the weekend at the ol' cabin with some good old friends.  We had a wonderful time with them relaxing, EATING, playing in the snow, talking and laughing, playing games, EATING, and simply enjoying ourselves to the fullest. We were missing a few... hope you can make it next time! To the Merrells and the Langfords- THANKS FOR COMING! Hope our craziness doesn't scare you into never coming with us again! : )

The snow was great! Adelia had her first experience in it and I think she'll be a fan like her big sis! We did however, put the poor girl right to sleep! Speaking of Miss Adelia, she turned 6 months old on Sunday! WOOOOOOW! She's such a joy in our lives. She's starting to sit up by herself and it's so fun! Crawling can't be too far off either.

Sunday morning we awoke to no power (yes we were at a cabin but we're use to having power there --- lots of it!) so we empravized with the wet hair and sent Luke down to the parking lot to warm up the car and clean off the 10 inches or so of snow.  By the time he did that, refilled the wood pile, and got ready for church we loaded up in the snowcat (thank goodness for that!!!) and hauled ourselves off to church. By the time we finally reached it, we found locked doors... the power must have been off there too. So we hauled ourselves back to the cabin and had our own "church."  Then we watched it snow all afternoon... hoping that by the time we had to leave the roads would be plowed more.  Luckily they were and we all made it home safe and sound!

I love this time of year.... there are so many fun things to do (inside and out)  Luke isn't getting to work full-time during the break which means less money... but more time to spend together! Yesterday we took the girls to see the BIG GUY!  Tianna was surprisingly shy.  Adelia just smiled at him and wouldn't let go of his beard.  Tianna is making it easy for him to please her.  All she said she wanted are "crayons and paper".  I think Santa will be able to pull that one off!

  

Last night for FHE we made our own little gingerbread house.  What could be more fun than the holidays?! 

As promised, here are the pictures of our house and tree!! As usual, they look better in person than on camera.  We got our tree from Scofield this year and have again used the Peacock theme.  It's fun having a real tree again-- especially one so big it has to go on the landing!

 

To explain the basket.... for FHE 2 weeks ago we talked about baby Jesus and Him needing a soft bed. So when Tianna is a good girl she gets to put "straw" er rafia in a basket for him.  It works really well.... when we remember to do it! I like it better than saying "Because Santa's watching...." I still do it, but I'd much rather her want to please the Savior than just get presents from Santa.  

Well... gotta go clean the kitchen floor for my upcoming COOKIE EXCHANGE PARTY on Thursday! So excited!! 

Senior Design Project

I dedicate this post to my incredible husband.  He works so hard in school plus goes to his job so he can provide for us, finds time to squeeze in family togetherness and save me from feeling like a single parent.  He's such a good daddy and loves his girls.  They in turn, adore him!

 Starting in August 2008, he and his partner started working on their senior desing project.  They developed a Radio-Controlled Elevator.  Basically, when a person in a wheelchair is in an elevator it is hard to maneuver around to press the buttons.  They created a device that uses Bluetooth communication transmitted from a mobile device (cell phone for example) to control the elevator buttons. The device can attach over the existing elevator panel and can be controlled manually or by a touch of the screen on the phone.  It was really neat but boy oh boy, did it take a LOT of work! The project alone took nearly 500 hours between them.  Then on top of that they had to design a poster and write their final report which was 50 pages long.
For more details check out their website:  http://radio-controlled-elevator.blogspot.com/

Yesterday, the long awaited day arrived to show off their stuff for the engineering department as well as faculty members etc.  I loaded the girls up and trecked across the tundra aka USU campus so we could see his presentation.  I wasy very impressed with them... and I think the faculty members were as well.   

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

It's been awhile since I last posted. I spent an extra week down in the Price area before Thanksgiving.  I had so much fun- thanks fam for all the good times! I even learned how to make my Mom's delicious stuffing, yams, and cheesecakes.  Now when I HAVE to make my own Thanksgiving dinner some day I'll know the tips and tricks. We were lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year. It worked out that Luke's family had their dinner Friday and so we were able to get doubly stuffed! It was awesome!
We also got to spend some much needed time at the ol' cabin. I think the last time we were there was 4th of July--- WHICH IS CRAZY! Anyway... long story short-- we had a blast and we are sad the weekend had to end.  Good thing Christmas is right around the corner!

Last week we were busy Christmas-a-fying the house (YAY) and getting Luke done with school for the semester. (BOO)  His senior design project is due tomorrow so we've been squeezing in any second we could find (most of which was during the middle of the night, I might add) to get it all done. Their report alone is almost 50 pages-not to mention the actual project. I think his project deserves it's own blog post for sure! I'll get some pics taken tomorrow.

My mom came for a visit last week and she, Tianna, and I all got a haircut! Tianna's cut was the most dramatic, mine was just a trim.  She looks so cute and grown up and is sooooooo excited that "it looks like Rylie's" who is her 5 year old cousin.

Okay! So before you get to see pictures of the house all decorated, Luke's project stuff, the haircut, and anything else, we need to get Thanksgiving posted! Plus... I haven't taken any pictures of that stuff yet!

This picture is of all the Peacock grandchildren.  Tianna is 3, Aden is nearly 3, Adelia is 5 1/2 mons in the pic and Raleigh is a few days old. He's even peaking out at the camera!

 Luke's parents bought the girls some cute pajamas. Tianna has Princess Tiana (fitting) and Adelia is our little flower bug! Haven't taken a picture of Tianna yet... sorry.

 Thanksgiving day with our little girls in Scofield!

That night Luke participated in some pretty competive foosball games!

With blogspot's update I don't know how to upload videos.  Otherwise I'd post a video of THE BEST THANKSGIVING PAGEANT EVER! In fact, it may be the only Thanksgiving pageant! But it was awesome... the Frandsen clan girls put on a cute play of the first thanksgiving. Tianna was beaming to be on "stage."

Our Second Thanksgiving--- Friday at Luke's parent's house.

That day Adelia had her first solid food. Mmmmmmmmm RICE CEREAL! It basically went in and came right back out. We'll try again.... once these next few days are over.  Until then, milk- it does the body good!

Some pictures with the great grandparents: