i love waking up to this...

how could you have a bad morning with her around?

could you use it in a sentence?

aptyalism. aptyalism. can you give me the definition?
absence of or deficiency in secretion of saliva. aptyalism.
can you give me the language of origin?
is there an alternate pronunciation?
aptyalism.
A-P-T-Y-A-L-I-S-M. aptyalism.

yessss! (this is the patented spelling bee "yesss," used by school children everywhere)

that's right, randy's been out gigging tonight and i've been watching the scripps national spelling bee on abc, live. it's actually more gripping than you would think. and these kids are amazing. it reminded me of how much i love the movie "spellbound." worth picking up if you've never seen it.

the contorted faces, writing the word out on your hand, asking as many questions as you can to stall, it's priceless.

more boise pictures

home again, home again. here are the pictures of the weekend from my camera:

madeleine on her first road trip and her first time out of the state.



madeleine wearing beautiful new booties that omi hand-knitted for her. they fit perfectly and match the ones omi made for calli and lainey.



madeleine enjoying the sunshine outside while her grandparents did some gardening.



madeleine and i went to primary with kimberlee and calli on sunday. madeleine is wearing the bow that kimberlee made for her. it's a good thing that madeleine has creative aunts who are good with girlie things because i'm afraid i'm not too good in that area. but if she ever has a math problem... she'll know who to come to. okay, i guess her aunts could help her with that too.



grandpa bob with his two new granddaughters.



grandpa bob with all of his granddaughters.



madeleine and grammy watching while...



randy tries out guitar hero for the first time. randy was a natural.



randy and madeleine at randy's brother, trevor's grave on memorial day.



heading home again.



madeleine's a good little traveler.

boise trip

despite gas prices being what they are, we just couldn't stay away from boise this weekend. kyle and kim were blessing their daughter, lainey, and we haven't been up to boise since thanksgiving, so we made the drive up here. i will be posting more pictures soon, but i already stole some from my mother-in-law's camera and i'll post those now. 

all of the peck cousins hanging out. madeleine was a hit in her johnny jump-up.

madeleine and calli. 

madeleine and lainey. we can already tell they'll be the best of friends.

four generations of women: jeanie peck, marion moll (omi), madeleine peck, debra peck. 

calli and omi.

kyle, omi, lainey, madeleine, and randy

lainey, jeanie, kyle, omi, randy, and madeleine

american idol

poor david archuleta. apparently the woman sitting in court with the "i vote for david archuleta" shirt and the little mexican girls at diego's tacos who think that you are "sooooo hot" couldn't pull off enough votes for you to win. fear not innocent young man, you will still go far in your career.

i realize that by writing about this i am admitting that i too, became addicted to american idol this season. i actually wanted david cook to win, but when they announced him as the winner, i did feel kind of bad for david archuleta. i think that's mostly because of all of the local hype about him. i love that fox news showed clips of people sobbing after they found out that david archuleta didn't win.

forgotten photos

i was going to put these photos in with my last post, but forgot. these were taken on mother's day. the girls were busy playing cards and the boys played some chronology. yes, it is as dorky as it sounds, but so much more fun than it sounds.

gardening

well, the weather has finally heated up and i finally planted my garden. now, i haven't really tried my hand at gardening before, but i don't see myself as a natural green thumb. hopefully i don't kill all of our vegetables and ruin the garden in the first couple weeks. here are a couple pictures. once again, the pictures are blurry. our camera is generally great, but it has a hard time focusing in outdoor pictures that aren't close-ups. i'm going to have to figure out what's going on because it's driving me nuts.

here are a few other fun pictures from the week:

sisters' weekend

every year, on my dad's side of the family, all of the women get together one weekend a year for a sisters' conference. husbands and kids (except nursing babies) are not invited, and they just get a weekend to themselves. this has been a tradition for quite some time now and they always enjoy their weekend together.

well, even though we all live close and see each other at least once a week at sunday dinners, we decided that it was time to have our own sisters' weekend this last weekend. we started as soon as we could get off of work on friday and headed up to sandy to start the festivities. madeleine got to come along because she is still nursing.

we started the weekend by going bowling together. this went better than my most recent attempt at bowling, and i actually broke 100 both times.

after bowling, we headed to the paradise bakery in sandy for a delicious dinner. as soon as we got home, we started playing hand and foot, an activity that was repeated throughout the weekend, especially when madeleine was sleeping.

part of the tradition of sisters' conference is that everyone brings a party favor. it doesn't have to be anything big, just a little something to share. so, after hand and foot on friday night, we all got out our party favors and exchanged them. my mom went a little overboard and couldn't help herself from getting a few extra gifts, but we didn't really mind. i got everyone little notebooks with pretty covers and an elastic band to keep it closed, audrey got us brown sugar discs to put in our brown sugar to keep them soft, beth got us the "flipper" measuring spoon, with four measurements in one (so far, madeleine has commandeered this and prefers to use is as a rattle like chew toy), and my mom got us terry cloth insoles for shoes that you can't wear socks with, face lotion, the book "alfie gets in first" (a family favorite), a reading journal, and a magnetic notepad with our initial on it.

on saturday, my dad got up and made us pancakes (he was pretty scarce all weekend, as required, but did come out to make us food now and then, a welcome exception to the rule of no men) and then we commenced in more hand and foot, several chick flicks, and best of all, we got a few projects done. for christmas, we got my parents a digital photo album, but hadn't assembled it yet because we needed to get all of their pictures organized and we finally did that this weekend. madeleine was great during all of this and let us get things done.

after church on sunday, we got one more game of hand and foot in before the men came up to join us for family dinner. even though sisters' weekend was great, i have to admit that i really missed randy a lot and was so glad to see him on sunday. i think he was even more glad because he had been alone at our house - at least i had my sisters and mom!

all in all, it was a wonderful weekend. here are a few more pictures that we took to commemorate our first sisters' conference (sorry for the blurry ones, my camera is having issues).

in defense of food

i just read this for my book club and for the most part, really liked it. while i would not consider myself a health nut, it confirmed my general feelings about food and gave me some encouragement for what i am already doing and what i can continue to do to improve my family's eating habits.

pollan attacks the way that the food industry has taught us to think and feel about food and argues for a return to a simpler way of eating. his mantra, printed on the front of the book, says it all: eat food. not too much. mostly plants.

here's my beef with the book: he is not a scientist, but kind of professes to be one. he attacks "nutritionalism" for breaking our food down into it's nutrient parts instead of considering it as a whole, but then proceeds to do the same thing to support his argument. he actually acknowledges this later in the book, but it takes a long time for him to do so.

what i love about the book: in the third section of the book, he offers several simple and practical suggestions for how to improve your food situation. like i said, i'm not a health nut, and i actually don't think that he is extreme either, but what he says really rings true with what i've always thought about food.

a good, easy read, and if you are kind of interested at all, i suggest at least reading the third section of the book.

have i mentioned how excited i am for my garden?

4 month appointment

yes, another round of immunizations and i did better with it this time. madeleine did just as well as she did last time and was a trooper. hopefully tonight is better than the night after her last shots though.

here are the stats from her fourth month. maybe she's in the high percentiles because she's actually four and a half months old. maybe... but probably not. look at those healthy thighs.

weight: 17.09 lbs, 96th percentile
height: 26.5", 96th percentile
head circumference: 16.5, 63rd percentile

the doctor said that she looks perfect in every way!

photo booth

one of the fun features of our new arrival (see previous post) is an application called photo booth. with the built in camera, we can take pictures of ourselves, like a photo booth. madeleine loves looking at herself, so this is just another fun way for her to do that. plus, it means that i get a few fun pictures with my girlie. here are a few pictures from our first session in the photo booth.

madeleine and randy had some fun, too.

the built in camera also allows us to video chat and we had a great time video chatting with randy's family the day before mother's day. we're going to make it a weekly date. there's something so fun about actually seeing their faces. if anyone else wants to catch up via video chat, let us know, we'll make a date.

al capone does my shirts

i just finished reading "al capone does my shirts," by gennifer choldenko. my mom, reader extraordinaire, is always on top of good books and recommended it. it's juvenile lit, a newberry honors book, and a really easy and fun read. it's about a kid who's dad is an electrician/guard on alcatraz, so his family lives on alcatraz with him (which is historically accurate). the book tells about the son's adventures from the first person and is well written. i highly recommend it for adults and children alike.

mothers

i would be an ungrateful daughter if i didn't say what a wonderful mother and mother-in-law i have.

i will start with my mother-in-law, jeanie. i could not ask for a better mother-in-law. seriously. i'm not just saying that. i always look forward to our visits and wish that we could see them more often. she is so fun and energetic and i love her spontaneity. there's nothing like when her eyes squint up and she smiles. she has an amazing gift for perceiving other people's needs and serving them. i frequently call her and she is busy taking people to the doctor or sewing someone's costume for them or running a wedding reception for someone. she is an amazing cook and i gain weight every time i go to visit her. her cookies are especially magical. she is generous with all and i love her unconquerable spirit.

my mom and i have been the best of friends for as long as i can remember and our friendship has only gotten better over the years. i used to love going to costco with her or on any other errands she needed to run, just so that i could spend time with her. she is my game buddy and we never care who wins, just that we get to be together. she makes a mean quilt. she is always giving to her children and we could not have made it through this last semester without her driving down from sandy two times a week to help out with madeleine, always acting like there was nowhere else she'd rather be. it is hard to put into words what my mom means to me, but she is so companionable and i always feel comfortable an at ease when i am with her, no matter what is going on in my life. her beautiful example has shaped me to be what i am today.

i love my moms!

just as an additional note, with it being my first mother's day as a mother, i have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a mother. just today, i was sitting in our glider, rocking madeleine and i felt like a six-year old little girl, awkwardly holding a baby and playing house. sometimes (most of the time), it still doesn't feel real that i really a mom. it is daunting and wonderful all at once. hopefully, i won't make too many major mistakes and in spite of me, madeleine will turn out well. motherhood is an awe-inspiring thing!

new arrival

we had an exciting new arrival this week. it came around 10:30 on thursday and randy patiently waited for me to come home from lunch before opening it. this was harder than you probably imagine.

at last, he got to open our new purchase. of course, i took pictures.

within minutes, he had it up and running. isn't it beautiful?

yes, it's a new computer and we are that excited about it. we have been saving up for it for a while and then we were waiting for them to come out with the new updates. the time has finally come though, and we finally got our new iMac. i never thought that i would be so excited for a new computer, let alone a mac, but randy has converted me. we've been using randy's older, slow, battery-less laptop for so long that i feel absolutely spoiled.