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

Ward Party

Our Ward Christmas Party this year was put on by the youth, with a Whobilation theme. 

They did an amazing job decorating the cultural hall.

they built us a fireplace and had Christmas trees and presents everywhere.

Even the place settings were amazing.

The seminary teacher in the ward also made this amazing cake. Each layer was green and white stacked cakes.  I didn't taste it, but everyone else did and loved it.  Although The Captain didn't eat the green part, not sure why.

The Grinch even crashed the party.  This man was as dedicated to costumes as I am.  His face and hands were painted green.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were there, too. 

Here's another look at Joy's who-hair.

We really have the greatest Ward Family.  They are loving and accepting and kind.  We are so grateful to have been able to move here and be a part of starting this new ward.  They have been a huge part of why this year has been so wonderful. 

Nativity

Every year our stake puts on a Community Nativity Display.  This year was the tenth anniversary,  and the first time we have been able to go.  We braved the ice storm last year, but the parking lot was deserted.  Apparently later that day more people did brave the storm and it was open, but we didn't go back. So this year, I suppose in an attempt to make up for it, we helped out a lot.

I made lunch for the volunteers setting up on Tuesday.  Johnny went and helped set up on Wednesday.  I was a host on Thursday, and The Captain sung with the Primary on Saturday.  

The cultural hall was open to the chapel where musical groups from other churches in the community and families in various wards constantly filled the display with Christ-centered beautiful Christmas Music.

There were three "kiosks" in addition to displays all around the cultural hall.  This picture only shows two of the three and is missing the stage, which had a cutout of the city of Bethlehem on it.

Close up of a kiosk.  This one had displays from Italy that included
whole villages, and one from the Netherlands with working
windmills.

There was a live nativity facing the chapel, which was one of the first things you see on your way into the display.  There were hour long shifts for Mary and Joseph and sometimes even a live Baby Jesus.  

They had nativities grouped by country of origin, but also a little area with children's nativities.  This one is a pop-up book. 

There were nativities in all different mediums: scarves, glass, marble, wood, bullets from a civil war in Africa, snowmen, paintings . . . 

Here is a plate

and some stamps, didn't know they made these,

and chocolate.  And in the background you can see the paper nativities they handed out to all the kids as they left so they could color, cut and display them at home.

This is a great example of how they displayed these awesome nativities.  There are three on this wooden block, which is the top of three shelves, all full of nativities.  There are trees and lights everywhere, as well as lamps, fabric, signs, pottery, and baskets.

This one in a basket is from Argentina, I believe.

The Asia and Africa section was one of the most amazing ones to me, because who knew that there were such beautiful nativities to be found in India

or Japan

This was a pathetic pictorial representation, really.  It was overwhelming and in the ten years that some people have been setting up, they have yet to see all the different nativity sets.  There are at least 1000, and I could no sooner pick a favorite then count the stars.  But next year I will take more pictures because this is definitely becoming a tradition as long as we are here.

San Antonio - The Alamo

On Saturday we went to the Alamo

We waited in a long line to get in, so we talked about why it's important and what happened there.  The kids were very respectful inside.

On the grounds they had this beautiful old oak tree.  It was one of the first mature tree transplants and has been around over 100 years.  It's crazy because all the branches are twisted and tentacle-ly and have to be supported and propped up so people can walk beneath them.

My sweet family

Shooting me with a cannon.

The beautiful boardwalk

After lunch, we decided to see a movie since the kids were still worn out from all the walking at Sea World and on the Boardwalk, so we went to Big Hero 6.  It got a little scary in parts for Joy, but it was awesome.  I've never taken an infant to the movies before, but the only reason we had to leave was for a diaper change and then Lee slept most of the time, so it was awesome.

Thus ends another successful post-Thanksgiving vacation.  I think next year will be just as great.

San Antonio - Sea World

Our after Thanksgiving trip this year was to San Antonio.  We were planning on going there sometime anyway, but when I found out last year that there was a Sea World there, we made it more of a priority.

Holiday hours meant the park didn't open until noon on Friday, so we packed up the kids and left our house by 7 and got to the park shortly after they opened.  We stayed all day until 9.  It is the first time in our family's road trip history when the kids have crashed fast and easy in a hotel room. Except Lee, of course. 

Holiday time also meant Christmas decorations and holiday shows.  Since the most important and awesome part of Sea World is the shows, we planned out which ones to see as soon as we got there and were able to see 5 different shows throughout the day.  It paid off because that was what The Captain said he enjoyed most.  And even though Joy fell asleep before the last one and slept through it, she still plays Sea World at home and makes her giant dolphin jump and spin around on its tail.

Waiting for the first show

Pacific dolphins = great jumpers

Learning to flip

The first Dolphin/Beluga and Orca shows were less entertaining and more educational.  I'm pretty sure Sea World is recovering from the bad press the Black Fish movie generated.  So we got to see some training and learn about husbandry practices.  

At least the light was good so I got all my jumping shots in early.

After the first shows we went to see the dolphin encounter.

And the rays

And the sharks

Then we rode some rides.  That's me, Joy and The Captain on the Shamoo Roller Coaster, or as the guy operating it said, "the most exciting roller coaster in the world!"  Pretty much everyone who worked there was great.

Joy climbing through 2 story tunnels

While the kids were climbing around, Lee got to have some Muppet encounters

It's your furry pal, Grover

Laughing with Zoe

We convinced the kids to ride Elmo's Blast Off.  They only dropped you a few feet at a time, but the lady running it would ask them how they were doing, and scream with them.  She was great.  I forgot to mention that Sea World and Sesame Place are run by the same people.  So there were a lot of Sesame themed things around.  We ate dinner at Rosita's Cafe, which was surprisingly affordable and a buffet, so definitely better than the pb&j disaster a few years ago.

the dolphin Christmas show had awesome divers, synchronized swimmers, and acrobats.  And it was all to Nutcracker music, so I was happy.

They put 3 guys on the swing you see in the corner then rocked until they launched the first guy up.  Ridiculous.

We walked around to the big roller coasters that Johnny was pining over because I couldn't go with him and The Captain wouldn't.  While we were walking we saw a nativity display with the lights and I thought, we must be in the Bible Belt because they would never put religious decor in amusement parks in the North or the West.  

We saw the penguins and puffin, who were mostly asleep

The dude on the hill was standing right beneath the falling snow
hogging the cold to himself.

Then we saw a pet show with ridiculously well trained animals.  Had time for one more ride before we went to the last show of the night.  The one Joy slept through.

Did we love Sea World?  I think so.