Lots-ta Blog and Lotsa Pictures

Again I find myself behind on the bloggin'.  Life just happens too fast I guess.

First off- our friends sold us their bike trailer/jogging stroller combo for 20 bucks! First ride out definitely accomplished the desired results.  Even after Adelia woke up and I got her out Tianna snuggled in more and slept for 2 hours in it! haha

I need to include a picture of my new apron Luke gave me for Mother's Day. Apparently, he thought Tianna's didn't fit me well enough! I couldn't agree more!

And NEVER mess with a woman holding kitchen utensils! It's just not wise.

On the weekend of May 14th, Luke and I went on our first over-night adventure without either child in a REALLY long time. We went backpacking (a first for me) to test out our gear and equipment for our BIG trip we're taking to Havasupai, AZ next week. It was really really really fun. We left Friday night from Luke's parents house where the girls were staying and drove about an hour out to the middle of the desert. It was dark by the time we started our 2 mile hike in.

Notice how my hammock was actually on the ground!  : )
The first thing I saw when I pulled the sleeping bag off my face. BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

And added surprise to the scenery was our camp neighbors with their airplanes. It was really neat watching them take off and land throughout the whole day.

Day spent hiking, enjoying the gorgeous desert and good friends!

Luke had to go home to work but the girls and I stayed for a VERY special occasion on Monday night. My sister-in-law, Tori, has a dance studio and it was the annual recital. This alone was reason to stay since all of my nieces old enough to do so, take dance from Tori, but this year had 2 musical numbers dedicated to my sweet niece, Vittoria, who passed away 9 months ago on Sunday.  All of her cousins (and their mom's he were needed to help the younger ones) danced in the "Footprints in the Sand," by Leona Lewis number. It was incredible! A perfect tribute to Vittoria and her family.  That little girl LOVED to dance and is now free to dance to her heart's delight now in Heaven.  We miss you Vittoria!

This picture was also taken Sunday night. All the grandkids! PS-- Jason and Joy just found out they are expecting another little girl in October! That makes the gender ratio 12 to 1.  Good thing Jacomo can stand his own! He's such a BOY! 

Monday night after the dance recital we rode to SLC with James and Val and Tuesday we stayed at their house having a total girls-day-in (with Jacomo) as we watched movie after movie while we waited for Luke to get off work.  It was great!

Last Thursday, Tianna had her very last gymnastics class where the parents were invited to watch the kids "show off!"  She did such a great job and was ecstatic that I was there video taping.  She did all her tricks and hammed it up for the camera.  She was even a really good listener that day! :)  To top it all off she was awarded a certificate and a gold medal.  We wished Daddy could have been there to watch too.
(and sorry for a million pics of it--- but this is my only attempts at journaling and scrapbooking. Plus she's so darn cute we have to show her off! hehe)

Gymnastics was such a good experience for her.  It was good to have her interact with kids other than family and the ones she attends church with. Even if she doesn't become a master gymnast, this was worth every penny.  She improved a lot in her skills, but most importantly in her ability to follow the teacher's directions and to gain some self control as she waited her turn!  Love you Tianna and we're so proud of how hard you worked in gymnastics!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

First off, don't I HAVE THE SWEETEST HUSBAND EVER?!!!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the previous post. Sure, he was spreading a pack of lies about me, but it was so sweet anyway! To top it off.... his first night he didn't have to stay up all night doing homework and he spent it writing this instead of sleeping.  He finished while I was upstairs getting ready Saturday morning and turned the music up to "our song" really loud and had the laptop plugged into the TV so I got to read the tear-jerking blog post in all it's glory. I LOVE that guy! He truly amazes me.

Now, about our busy weekend.
Thursday night: stayed at my brother's house in SLC and Friday spent the day at the hospital with Luke's dad (hip surgery) and family. Even ate lunch with my BFF who works at the U of U hospital. : ) Surgery went well and we hope he recovers quickly! Love ya, Bert!
Saturday was BUSY! : ) but awesome. We had a nice brunch at our house before the graduation and then enjoyed the kind of grad ceremony we all love-- short and sweet! Afterwards we took a million pictures and then came back to our house to eat fruit pizza. Mmmmmmm!

Thanks everyone who came and was able to support him on his special day! We were so glad we could see all of our mothers and grandmothers this Mother's Day weekend too! We love and appreciate all of you so much!
Mother's Day was pretty low key. We ate some of the left over breakfast from the day before and went to church. My little primary kids did SO well singing and the flower thing turned out better than I had imagined. Only a few flung their flowers around and poked other kids with them. And I didn't sing the wrong words and lead all the kids astray.... it was definitely better than I feared.
That afternoon we ate our left overs from the night before (a cooking free day... sounds good to me!) and then sadly said goodbye to my parents.  We watched "Funny Girl" and relaxed the evening away. I got lots of hugs and kisses and spent time with my favorite people.  Pretty much a great way to spend Mother's day.  I love my family and am so honored to be their wife and mother!
With that thought, enjoy this amazing video message.

Ladys and Gentlemen, I'd like to recognize Mary Anna Frandsen Peacock

Okay, so now it’s my turn to blog. I know, I know, you are all probably wondering why I would take the blogging baton away from Mary since she does such a GREAT job at it. The reason is that I need to tell everyone about this wonderful woman that I married.

Words cannot even begin to express the love and appreciation that I have for Mary. As I approach my graduation day I can’t help but look back on the journey to this point. There have been a lot of late nights, there was a lot of stress, anxiety, frustration, discouragement, etc…etc…etc… And as I contemplated all those hard moments there was one person that was always there to help me through them, Mary.

Mary has a way of brightening every room that she walks into and immediately brings a cute, light-hearted, and vivacious spirit with her. Maybe it’s because she has me so “twitter-pated”, but I can’t help but smile and feel a great deal of love for her whenever she is around. Most people that will read this will know what I am talking about. She is a very happy person and spreads that happiness wherever she is. This is an attribute of hers that really compliments the gloomy, stern, and serious vibe that always surrounds me. I think that this might be a big reason that I was drawn to her. She is my better half.

Mary is also very supportive. There have been many times throughout my school career where I have been ready to throw in the towel and just be done with the whole school fiasco, but she was always there to uplift and encourage me and persuade me to keep going. I know for a fact that I would not be an Electrical Engineer if I hadn’t married such a wonderfully heartening woman.

Part of her being so supportive has been the help that she has given me with my school work. I don’t know of any other person that would stay up to the wee hours of the morning working out my bad grammar and writing abilities on subjects that she hasn’t the slightest bit of interest or knowledge in. And many times when I have been up doing homework in the office she comes in to be with me with words of encouragement. Even if she sleeps, her presence is always helpful. I can’t help but feel guilty walking up to get a diploma that probably should at least mention her name on it as well.

Mary is also a GREAT mother!!!! I was looking through pictures, trying to find some good ones of her for this blog post and you will notice something about the ones I have; in almost every picture she has one or both of our girls in them. One reason for this is probably because she is usually the one behind the camera and whenever I take over it’s to catch a moment with them, but the biggest reason is because of how much she loves and adores those two cuties. I don’t know how much they realize how lucky they are to have such a GREAT mommy, but I do know that they love her SOOOOOOOOOOO much and just love being around her. It doesn’t take me long after I get home to find out from Tianna what great adventures they had from there playing together, and what a great influence she has on them. There is NO doubt in my mind that I picked the BEST mommy for my kids that I possibly could.

I love the way that Mary loves and is concerned for me. Sometimes it almost feels like I’m in some kind of sporting event and she is my own personal cheerleader, shouting out words to bolster me up. And it’s not just in my school work either. She makes a big deal out of everything that I do and always makes me feel like what I do is important.  She puts up with a LOT sometimes. I know that she is not really into hunting, shooting, horseback riding, etc... the way I am, but she is always finding ways to help me participate in these types of activities and even participates herself when I know that she would probably rather not.I think she is a great example of LONG-SUFFERING!

 Mary is a very spiritual person. I can’t even count the number of times (and me being an Electrical Engineer I can count pretty high) that I was up late doing my homework, or studying for a test, and even during those tests, and I could suddenly feel my burden lightened slightly and things just started working out better, and I knew that she was praying for me. I KNOW that I would not have made it through my classes without her faithful and fervent prayers. Members of her family know how quick she is at going to her knees and how much she has learned to rely on the Lord’s help. This woman has more faith and righteousness in the tip of her little toe than I have in my entire being! I am so grateful that I married someone so virtuous and stalwart. She keeps me in line and makes me strive to be a better man daily, just so that I can be fractionally worthy of her companionship.

 There are many great things about Mary that I could blog about but I’m running out of time to get this posted before things get really hectic for the graduation events, and I really wanted this in place for Mothers Day on Sunday so I’ll wrap it up.

Part of the reason for this blog post is to let everyone know how much I love and appreciate Mary, but MOST of the reason is to tell HER that. Mary, I love you. These past few weeks have been rough for me, but I’ve realized how hard it’s been for you as well and I think that you deserve more recognition for it. I always feel so inadequate to try to formulate some way of telling you how much I love you, and much I appreciate all you do for me. I just don’t have the verbal capacity to do so. YOU COMPLETE ME! I’m less than half a man without you in the equation. You are my everything. THANK YOU!!!  I love you ∞.

P.S. Happy Graduation, (this degree is as much yours as mine)!!!!!!!

P.P.S. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Cinco De Mayo? Really, the most celebrating we did was eating left-over white bean chili. It can be classified as somewhat Mexican food.  Otherwise, the only significance of today is that by the day after today Luke will be DONE WITH SCHOOOOOOOOOL! I have never been so ready for him to be done and I KNOW he has never been SO READY! This semester has been awful. Terrible. HORRIBLE. get the picture?!

Between his worst work load ever and me being home dealing with sick kid, after sick kid, after sick kid.... for 4 months, we are both just DONE! It's also been hard for me to not have Young Womens or anything else really to have as a break. I know with how much work he's had to deal with I shouldn't complain, but really, this has been the hardest 4 months of our married life I think. He never gets a break (or sleep) from his homework and I never get a break from being 24 hour mom AND having to take care of everything that he isn't able to.  Plus, we just hate being a part.  It has been a long, lonely few months for both of us. By the time he hands in his last project tomorrow we are both going to be so relieve we'll be out of our minds! Hopefully the next two semesters are better.

Okay.... so now that my rant is over, I thought I'd share some cute pictures since the last one is without any.
First: This is Tianna's very first drawing that actually resembles anything. She told me she drew her family and I kept asking if her friend drew it. I didn't believe her until she drew a few more family members to show me. I was so proud I actually teared up! Especially because she kept saying, "I just love my family so much!" Aww!

and Yes. I'm the one that looks like I have a mustache. Thanks Tia.

These are my sad attempts at a picture of cute little Adelia. Most of the pictures we have of her don't show off her personality at all. She is so funny but every shot I get of her she looks kind of expressionless.  Unfortunately... 1 slow camera + 1 really fast/busy little girl = BLUR.  So, you get what you get.

What's better than a girl with a purse? A girl with 2 purses!

And with Luke being gone all the time, I've tried to keep myself occupied. The adventure for last weekend was to make us all (okay, only the girls) matching skirts! My sewing skills hardly can be called skills... but if you don't look too closely, the skirts aren't so bad! 

After church on Sunday we had a mini photo shoot.  Luckily the sun was actually shining for a bit and we could get some shots of the pretty tulips as well! 

I really love that last one! : ) 

And these are the pictures from Luke's "Order of the Engineer" ceremony from the last post. 

Signing his certificate and receiving his ring

The group reciting the pledge (?) Oath? Whatever you call it, he promises to be a good little engineer and use ethics and morals in his profession--in a nutshell. 

These are just a few extra fun pictures that he had on his camera phone

Take a guess as to what he's buying me for Mother's Day. 

April SNOW and WIND brings May flowers? I sure hope so.

This post was written the last day of April. I don't have pictures for the things I wrote about and wanted to get some off Luke's camera. But he's always gone. So......... sorry. Read if if you want... if not. Oh well!
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Wind ripped off some of our shingles. Add that to the list of things breaking at our house. It has been a super trying month for us. But hopefully May brings some sunnier days. Figuratively Speaking and literally! I want some flowers out of all this crazy weather we've been having.

Speaking of flowers... I have to share what we are doing for Primary during the Mother's Day Sacrament meeting.  *by the way I'm the chorister... and it has been a difficult and often humbling-to-the-point-of-tears, calling for me. I miss my young women but I have enjoyed Primary...most of the time. I just feel inadequate and acknowledgeable since I haven't been in a Primary singing time since I was 11 years old. Do I remember what we did or how we did it? No.  So this has been a huge challenge for me.... but this idea I think will turn out.

We were asked to sing 2 songs on Mother's Day and so I thought I could find a medley of some of the Mother's Day songs and sing that instead of singing a song, stopping, then singing another one.  No such luck in finding one already done. Thankfully, a musical GENIUS lives in our ward and her and her son helped me put a medley together after I explained kind of what I wanted. We are singing the first verse of "I Often Go Walking," then the first verse of, "Mother I love You," then the second of "I Often Go Walking" and then finish with the second verse and ending of "Mother I love You."  I have some silk flowers that the kids are going to pick up on their way up and then they will do little actions with them and at the end, give them to their moms.  I HOPE it turns out.  In theory it's a good idea, but it definitely has the potential to be a disaster. :  ) Since my own Mommy will be in the congregation, I REALLY hope it turns out! Of course, if it fails miserably, maybe they will kick me out! Just kidding. Mostly.

Now on to updates.
Basically, school just might be the death of Luke.  This has been a semester from. *cough*  He has literally stayed up all night (5:30 am) probably 20 different occasions. That adds up to roughly more than once a week.  Right now is crunch time and we're praying for a miracle that he can get everything done... and live to walk down the isle at Graduation.

Which if anyone is interested:  The ceremony for the College of Engineering will be on May 8th at 2 pm.  We're thinking of having a nice brunch before hand-- so come play with us! Afterwards-- FRUIT PIZZA.

(SOMEDAY I'll GET PICTURES OF THIS:)
Last night we attended his "Order of the Engineer" Ceremony.  Basically, a formal induction into a club for Engineers that vow to uphold ethics and honor in their working professions.  They presented each inductee with a silver ring to be worn on the pinkie of the working hand.

I am so proud of him.  Yesterday I met one of his coworkers who said, "You have a very smart husband."  I know I do.   He works so hard and IS very smart.  It amazes me all that he has accomplished in his school career.  Even when it has meant he has had to get only 8 hours of sleep in a 72 hour period at times, he presses on.  The next week is going to be really rough to finalize everything, but Luke, I know you can do it! When you are all done you can celebrate! And get a massage! And go to Havasupai!  (and forget that it all starts again in the fall.)