E A S T E R ! ! !

"There is sunshine in my soul..."

While driving out of Logan Luke said "Mary, turn around and look at the car behind us." *if you can't tell what this picture is, click on it and enlarge it. Can you say, UNSAFE and kinda creepy?! 

Adelia aka Steering wheel ornament.

Saturday Morning
Phase one- Easter Baskets

"What am I doing with this stupid carrot when there is chocolate here?!"

 

Phase two- Egg Hunt

Phase three- Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Peacock's with the cousins

Phase four- Out to the desert with Frandsen family

Easter Sunday
Break between Conference Sessions- Rolling Eggs

Easter was so fun! Wished we could have spent more time with the Frandsen's and Grandpa Bert, Courtney and Laura on the Peacock side... but we'll be back... I'm sure of it!

We also wished we had spent more time on Saturday listening to Conference... but now we are listening to it on lds.org as I blog. It's been so uplifting to hear the words of the Prophet's and hear the sweet music that truly bring "Sunshine to My Soul" I'm also grateful for Easter and the great and eternal gift that was given to us on that spring morning so many centuries ago when our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ was resurrected! I know that He suffered and died for us, but that He lives again!

If there were no Easter, there would be no Christmas.

Happy April Fools and Easter (or should I say Merry Christmas?)

Well.... Mother Nature had one up on us all today for the best prank. Just when you think it's SPRING, she dishes out 6 inches of white stuff.  "It's SPRING and EASTER and APRIL!  April Fools! You get more Winter!"

This is what we woke up to! The only thing keeping from being discouraged by it is.... it's April. Really, how long could it last before it melts? And it really has melted a ton today. So...... the jokes on you MOTHER NATURE!

We have also been having some EGG-CELENT times last night and today. Last night was our ward party and it was so awesome! (LOVE our ward... if I haven't already said that a hundred times) They wanted everyone to of course interact, but also stay together as a family as we went around to 3 different stations. First one we went to was to make paper baskets for the kiddos. Tianna has been obsessed with hers.  After that we went to the egg games (toss game, relay race etc) and the last was the coolest! Every family got 12 plastic eggs and got to fill them with an object and word strip that all tell the TRUE story of Easter! I'm excited to go through it with our family on Sunday. (that is if Tianna will leave her little basket alone long enough to not lose all the pieces!)

When we got home we colored our own Easter Eggs. As always, SUPER FUN!My favorite part--taking pictures after Tianna had taken out her hair... she'll love these when she's older!

Today we made Rice Krispy treat Easter Eggs. I don't know how I came up with it (i'm sure I'm not the first)... but they actually turned out pretty cool. I doubled the recipe for Rice Krispy Treats but broke it up into 4 rounds, each time using a different color or food coloring to the marshmallow just before adding the cereal. Then form that 1/4th into egg sized/shaped pieces. Then move on to the other color and repeat the process. When you are all done, cut the "eggs" into 3 or 4 pieces and mix and match as you reshape into a mulit-colored egg. It was so fun and Tianna loved helping with it. And really, who doesn't love a rice krispy treat?!
We had left over yellow and green........ so we got creative! So the bunny is a bit on the freaky side, but Tianna insisted on him having, "Those long spiky things like a cat has" (as she strokes imaginary whiskers from her cheeks)

Pictures from Spring Break

Whew! That last post was a biggen. I don't know why I always write so much. I just get behind and I jabber on a lot.... so the end result is always SUPER large posts. This one will be short!
Here are some great pictures Luke's sister, Monica, took while they were up for Spring Break.We had so much fun while they were up here and we are so glad we have a photographer in the Peacock family!

Starting from left: Aden-3, Raleigh- 4 months, Adelia-9 months, Tianna 3 1/2

Go Away Sickies, Go Away!

WARNING! Do not come near our house, you're sure to walk away with a mysterious fever, and/or strep, and/or cough, headache, OR SOMETHING! We have had one "bug" after another after another!
That has consumed our life lately!


On to other news: Luke's been so bogged down with school this semester. It's been really awful. So bad that we're starting to rethink Grad School.  So the plan now is to stay enrolled, but begin a serious job search and start interviewing. If something pans out, GREAT, if not, he'll do school this fall.  It really is such a toss up as to which route is better in the long run and without a crystal ball...... or a serious revelation :  ) It's just hard to say which will be the best  for us. So for now, that's what we shall do.  And we know the right thing will happen, whichever it is.

Adelia has continued her endeavors to walk all over the world.  She's getting quite good at it! I wish my blog had the little video icon like it use to. I know there are other ways to upload video but i'm too lazy to really work hard to get one up) but trust me, she's SO CUTE with her toddling.  She can go several steps before she has to crawl a few rotations and then get back up and walk a few more steps.  Basically, she's adorable!
Her little personality is so sweet! She loves to smile and smile and smile (except for when she's got a fever of 104. YIKES!) but she's just really happy and loves to grab anything within reach. She has two bottom teeth and 4 on the top.  Her well-check the other day said she's still in the 3rd percentile for height and weight. She's 25  and (something) inches in height and 15.4 lbs.  She may be little, but she can take down Daddy!

 Now on to Tianna: Oh my little girl, what can I say to sum her up?  She's just so.....LIVELY. That's the best way to describe her! All day I'm either laughing at something funny she has just said or wanting to wring her neck. : ) She's still very into anything GIRL and loves to mother her little sister. She is constantly bossing Luke and I around and is such a perfectionist. Everything has to be just "so-so" or she just can't handle it.
She's the best shopping buddy and loves clothing.  Sometimes her ensembles get a bit strange though :)

She is also mommy's little side-kick. She's a great helper and loves to help me make dinner, make my bed, take care of Adelia, and do a myriad of other things while Daddy is gone for 10 or more hours each day.  She's a GREAT cleaner and is so good to clean up after herself when I ask her to. I love her! She really is like a great girl.  Tianna is very grown up and mature for her little age so  I often forget when she is acting especially 3, that she's suppose to.  It tests every ounce of my patience and I hate admitting that sometimes I just want to strangle her! But immediately I want to squeeze her guts out. It's a good thing she tells me, "I love you, Mommy", 300 million times a day because sometimes it's the only thing saving her life! : )

Some of my favorite things she mispronounces lately are: HuckaDonalds (McDonalds), Daisy's (Wendy's), chicken nuddets (a step up from when they were Chicken NUTS, hhahaha).... wait, all of the examples coming to mind have to do with food.  Anyway.... she just cracks us up all day. Love her! I came across this old picture of her today and I just HAVE to post it. She's such a pretty little thing!

For as for me... well... I've been taking care of sick kids. 'nuff said. No, really... I've been doing a lot of things too. Being stuck at home has forced me to do some things I just kept putting off.  I have rearranged several rooms in our house, kept it cleaner on a more consistent basis that usual, joined a card making group with some friends from my ward, started working out with the treadmill Luke's parents are loaning us, and I am currently keeping up on my filing of icky mail.... amongst other things. I'm excited for spring and can't wait to plant my garden. And I revamped my sad attempt at making an Easter wreathe last year. NOW I like it... and decided not to hang it outside, but in my stairwell where I can enjoy it all day long!

 

(With flash. Oooo pretty!)

Luke and I are also preparing for our first VACATION since Tianna was a baby.  We went to Hawaii when she was 5 months old and she came with us. This will be our first trip without her... and without Adelia. (that part is going to be difficult!!!) We are going on a backpacking trip in June to Havasupi with some of our friends.  We are so excited!!!! I've never done a backpacking trip before, and it's been a long time for Luke. It will be a great way to celebrate his GRADUATION with his Bachelor's degree. Wooooooooooooo!

Other things we've been up to lately:
The weekend after I posted last we went to Salt Lake to pick up Tianna from the grandparent's houses.  Since it was Luke's last day of Spring Break he took Friday off and we left early for SLC and went to REI and Gardner Village.

That night we stayed with my friend, Janelle and her husband, Ed, and had a jolly ol' time with them as usual. Thanks for hosting us guys! Saturday morning Luke went to the REI garage sale to pick up some stuff for our trip. Later we met up with my family and Tianna! (WE MISSED HER!!) I went to the mall with my mom and Val and everyone else went to the Outdoors expo.  A noteworthy experience:  Tianna got away from the group and they spent 15 minutes searching (and freaking out) until they found her at the opposite end of the expo. Awesome. Luckily she refused to tell anyone her name.... which is different than usual since she usually tells anyone who will listen her name and everyone else's name that she knows!

On March 22nd we got to go to a viewing party for our friend in our ward who IS AN AMAZING cake decorator and was on TLC's "Ultimate Cake Challenge"  We went to the party and ate YUMMY food. Sadly, she didn't win but she totally should have!. Go Amelia!!! It was so fun to cheer her on in person. 

 Last weekend, we again went to SLC on Saturday so that we could go to another REI garage sale. HOLY HECTIC! Whew. I was glad when that chaos was over with. Afterwards we met up with our friends, Robbie and Sarah and their adorable little boys. We haven't seen them for a long time so it was great to see them.
On our way home we stopped at Trolley Square where Sarah works at Pottery Barn Kids and then ate at the Old Spaghetti factory. Of course we couldn't get by without some sort of  "Tianna incident." She took a topple head first out of the trolley car. So we had to give the manager our information for insurance purposes.... not that I wanted to. I knew she was fine but what do you do?

 So there's the rest of our March wrap up. Now, STOP SNOWING OUTSIDE and bring back my Spring. Easter is in a few days and yet I'm looking at a winter wonderland!

March Madness (No BBALL involved)

Is it really St. Patrick's Day?!?!?! WHERE has the time gone? March is half over and I feel like February just barely ended. We've been busy and it seems like we're always going out of town lately..But Life is GOOD!

This post has a lot of random things, so there won't be a whole lot of order to it.

But first and foremost..... I think we have a TODDLER! I don't know that someone so small should be allowed to be called a toddler, but Adelia thinks she is

Once she started crawling about a month ago she really got into pulling herself up on things. Before we knew it she was starting to let go for several seconds at a time and just balance on her own. A few days later while I was staying down in Price (more on that in a minute) she got braver and braver. After a day or two of that she could stand up from a complete squat without holding onto anything. Then after a few seconds she'd either grab onto something or fall.  She looked like she wanted to just take off walking but I was doing my best to keep her grounded until Daddy could see her in action!

I was staying down there from Sunday, February 28th, till the next Sunday when Luke's sister, Monica's, baby boy was blessed. Adelia was having serious stranger anxiety (Stranger in a very loose sense... more like anyone but Luke or I looking at her) so I felt she needed some good exposure to other people. So while he had work and school, the girls and I went down to Price until that Thursday and then spent the rest of the time in Castle Dale with the Peacock's.
It was GREAT! But back to my "toddler" that week she got braver and braver. My dad wanted her to start walking so badly so he'd help her practice but I was trying my hardest to hold her off a few more days until Luke could see her take her first steps.
By Friday.... just minutes after he arrived she took her first few steps! That was March 5th (for the record)
Now we're a week and into that and she's getting pretty comfortable at taking 5 or so little steps each time. CRAZY though! She' still just so small that it looks like a 6 month old walking. She just thinks she needs to do everything early.
Now we're dealing with all her teeth coming in at one time. She has her two bottom teeth and now her top front are breaking through the skin and any day now at least 2 more will be out! That was at least 4 at one time!  OUCH!

It's currently Spring Break! YAAAAAAAAY for no school! Luke was in dire need of a break. This semester his "lucky" hour where his homework all comes together seems to be 5 am. He's stayed up that late probably 5 times now and it's only half way through!
So besides a much needed break, we have been enjoying some company.  His mom and Monica, as well as her 2 boys, came up Sunday and stayed until yesterday evening. It was really nice of them to come! While they were here we "attempted" to take some pictures of all 4 kiddos....  then we shopped till we dropped at craft stores on Monday and yesterday we took the kids to Tianna's gymnastics class. It was nice that Aden got to participate too! They were both SO CUTE! After that and a good breakfast at Angie's we went to a park. I LOVED that we had good weather while they were here. Oh I love Sunshine! Then sadly they had to leave... but since we were suppos to go down (yet again) this weekend, they took Tianna with them. Now we aren't going so we'll have to work out some other way to get our baby back.

So it is quiet here! Well.... its quiet when Adelia isn't shrieking. She's learned to shriek when she wants something. it's awesome. She has also caught a nasty little bug and is miserable... hopefully Tianna avoids it since she's not here... and hopefully Adelia gets well soon! She sure gets sick more often than her sister ever did. Maybe it's just that they pass stuff between them now and Tianna had no one but us to share with. I just don't know.

One day a few weeks ago the girls and I had a picnic inside.  I had promised.. well, bribed... Tianna with chicken nuggets if she'd be really good and listen really well during gymnastics that week cause it had been rough lately.  She was really good that day and so we got McDonalds. It was NOT nice weather but we were aching for some, so we pretended.

 Now I'll expound more on our trip to Price and Castle Dale:
One fun thing Tianna got to do was attend a dance lesson from Aunt Tori.  Her and Camryn were so cute and Tiannna is still doing the dance steps weeks later! Thanks Tori for letting her come!

 

I also got to work out for the first time in a long time..(thanks Mommy for watching the kiddos while I did).. it's so hard to do it with kids! I know I could wake up earlier, but Adelia still wakes up so much at night that I can't do that, and while she's napping so many other things take precedence.  I would rather just go outside but that's not much of an option... (okay so I'm just full or excuses) BUT now I don't have one! We came home with Luke's parent's treadmill!!! Thanks for letting us borrow it!
And thank you everyone for just hosting us all the time when we come down. We love it and we LOVE ALL OF YOU!
Here Pyper is trying to eat Adelia! :) Love those two!

It was fun seeing Jocelyn and Harley being big girls... when did that happen?

That chair must have sedative qualities... the night before she fell asleep like that on my mom's lap too.

I'm happy to report that after a few days at Grandma's house Adelia finally started letting people hold her. We just need to go often to keep it up!

The Dynamic Duo... need I say more?

Those two girls sure missed their daddy!

 This is the handsome little man that got blessed. We love you Raleigh!

Tianna and Grandma Belinda doing a craft

We didn't get to see much of this guy that week. We missed you Grandpa Bert