February

It was a beautiful February.  The temperature was mild.  The trees were blooming, then snow hit us.

So I sent the kids out to shovel.

They did not enjoy it.

It was much more fun when Daddy joined them to build a snowman.

And they got to play.

Sadly, there were multiple snow storms, so we spent a lot of time indoors rocking out.

We also got a membership to the science museum, so we spent some of our time there, and have often since.

January

Johnny had a birthday in January, like he does every year.

I made him a cake and took him to an awesome dinner.  After knowing him for 20 years, I've finally figured out how to celebrate his birthday successfully. 

We found out they had family operas for $5/ticket, so we took the family to the opera house.

They had coloring and crafts before hand.

We recognized the Opera House the minute we got outside because we had been there almost six years earlier when The Captain was a baby.  So we tried to recreate that moment.

Here's him at 7 months and almost 6 years.
And for comparison, Lee at 7 months.  (And of course Miss Joy needed in on the action.)

Some Catch up . . . finally

Over Christmas, we travelled back to Utah to see the folks.  We drove straight through the night, which for some reason I expected to take longer.  We got to my parent's house about 12 hours before I planned.  We got lucky to avoid snow storms and not have too many grumpy children stops.  Miss Lee did much better than I thought she would.  And in return, she got some serious grandparent time.

We decided to do back to back vacations and headed to San Diego after we were done with Utah.  We stopped off to see my grandma first, which required a walk around the temple.

We spent some time at the beach - as one does

cousins

rock cave

shaking sand on rocks

seal cove

We went to Legoland

building

driving

boat ride

 And Disneyland.  Sorry so few pictures, we were off having fun.

And the Zoo

Sleeping hippos

In case you're curious, or worried for our sanity, it's the same amount of time to drive from San Diego to Dallas as from Dallas to Salt Lake.  So we made a big triangle.  Plus we got to stop off at my sister's in Phoenix on my way home and ran into my aunt, uncle and cousins while we were there.  We had a great time.  More to come.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry about the complete lack of posts in awhile.  We've had a busy year so far.  My photography business has been taking off and keeping my busy sorting and editing other people's pictures.  Then March as a whole has not been kind to me, lots of yucky weather, sickness and lack of sleeping.  Not good blogging combinations.  Then, our computer crashed and I still don't have access to the hard drive with my pictures on it.  And let's be honest, there's really no use blogging without pictures.  I don't even know why I'm posting this.

Anyway, a lot of stuff is going on.  I will update soon.  Sorry for the delays.

December Wrap Up

I suppose since it's February, it's time to catch up. 

It's been a pretty mild winter so far.  Hooray, our first in Texas!  Here's some of the great fun we had in December.

Another family work party at It's.  

This was a laser maze.  I got to be Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment.  We got unlimited laser tag, bumper cars, rock wall climbing, and lots of points to use on games.  We also did an hour of free bowling.  We had fun, though we were all plenty tired by the time the day was over.  Did I mention food was covered too?  Lunch and dinner on a buffet.  All in all a great Saturday.  

We also went to the adult work holiday party.  It was great.  I bought a new cocktail dress and Johnny suited up in his tux.  All our family dance parties paid off because we rocked the dance floor.

First time in sponge curlers

results! and the sweater dress I made for her.

The whole family at the Nutcracker, one of our new Christmas
traditions.  

The Captain's favorite part=Russian variation.  Joy's favorite part=the mouse fight.  I'm pretty sure she was expecting blood and carnage.  She likes that stuff.

The Captain driving us a Six Flags

The family on the log ride

We picked what we thought was a warmish day to go to Six Flags.  Yet again, everyone else felt the same way, so lines were ridiculous.  Luckily, Johnny had prepped The Captain with YouTube videos to get him excited to ride some real rides.  Unfortunately, that meant that they waited in line for about 2 hours to ride the one his was excited about.  I struggled to keep Joy happy since I had Lee, so I couldn't ride any rides with her.  While we were waiting, we noticed the log ride was running and the line looked really short.  So we met up with the boys over there and the kids went four times in a row.  Twice with me, twice with Johnny.  And they didn't even get out of the log with Johnny.  And by that time it had gotten cold enough that a lot of people had gone home, so lines were more normal and we were able to ride quite a few more rides before we went to IHOP for dinner.  Good times.  And good prep for our multi-theme park vacation in January.

Year in Review 2014

This has been a great year for our family.  Here are some highlights.

January

We went to visit my sister in Phoenix and to see the Gilbert Temple open house.  It was so wonderful to get a break from the roller coaster Dallas weather, do some hiking, not feel sick all the time (2nd trimester and no flu, yay!), but mostly explain the temple to my beautiful children and be grateful we are a forever family.

February

Our ward split, but I continued in my calling as a Gospel Doctrine teacher.  They collected a wonderful group of people for our new ward and it has been a delight serving them.  Johnny traveled to Asia.  I got some sort of stomach bug and felt like dying.  Oh, and I got my hair cut.

March

The original plan was for me to go to South Africa with Johnny for his last school immersion, but a work trip got tacked on, so I joined him in Europe for a few weeks of vacation. 

April

Johnny graduated!  One of the best days of my life.  We celebrated on the beach.  I also put an unnatural amount of food in the freezer that month in preparation for . . . 

May

A very sweet bundle joined our family.  She was a week or so early, which is right on time in our house.  She has been happy and smiley from the beginning, and though she's taken much of our sleep and pooped through more then her share of diapers, we love her.  It took a good six months, but I finally got the handle on three kids, and I can't imagine life without her.

June

I was doing a lot of recovery this month, so our days got pretty silly. The kids started swimming lessons, so at least they got out of the house sometimes.

July

The family left Lee and me to go on a reunion trip to Colorado.  The Captain finally got to go fishing and he caught one!  I honestly don't remember much about my birthday.  I guess alcohol and sleep deprivation have about the same effect, but I'm sure it was good.  

August

We jumped back into the swing of things with a vengeance.  Joy had a birthday.  All those swimming lessons paid off as The Captain completed his first triathlon.  The Captain started Kindergarten.  Joy started preschool.  I started my knitting group, and we found out that our favorite preschool teacher was retiring. Lego Kids Fest was in town.  And Lee was blessed. 

September

This was the month of festivals.  We went to Oktoberfest and the State Fair, and open barn night at the FFA farm and a temple trip.   

October

There were Arboretum trips and pumpkin patches, decorating and party planning, and Halloween costume making, of course. 

 November

Had our first Pie Night, and wonderful Thanksgiving and a trip to San Antonio.

December

We celebrated all month long the birth of our Savior.  We heroically battled illnesses and immunizations.  And we had a fabulous Christmas.

I hope your year was good and that the New Year brings miracles and blessings.

Love,

The Peckhams