it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

christmas came a little bit early this year for one of my presents. my sister, audrey, my mom, and my grandma orris gave us a wonderful early surprise of a christmas advent calendar.

apparently, audrey and my mom spent the summer slaving away on these beautiful advent calendars. they cut out, ironed, and quilted each individual pocket and the finished product is really wonderful. we had an advent calendar growing up and it brings back fond memories. i can't wait to get our christmas tree tomorrow...

knitting

i've been wanting to take up knitting for a while and since my grandma orris happens to be an extremely talented knitter, i decided that this week would be the perfect time to learn.

we went to "the wool cabin," and grandma got me outfitted with the basics for making my first project - a scarf.

here i am during my first knitting lesson. my grandma was a great teacher, and very patient with me.

it took me a little while to get it, but i think that i've finally caught on. i'm about a foot into my scarf and will post pictures once i'm finished with it. unfortunately, i'm a little worried that i'll make some big mistake and without my grandma there to fix it, it could get ugly. i did take some video of my grandma showing me various things so that even if she's not around, i can still get a visual reminder of what i'm supposed to be doing. hopefully everything goes as planned...

thanksgiving week

my grandma and grandpa orris came to utah for thanksgiving, so i decided to go spend the week up at my mom's to get as much time with them as possible. i went up sunday night, randy joined us wednesday morning, and we just got back last night. it was a great, relaxing week and a great time with family. madeleine spent the whole week walking around my parents house. she really is walking a ton now.

this was madeleine's first thanksgiving dinner. banana and apple juice. yes, you can all think that i'm a bad mother for not feeding my child more thanksgiving-like foods, which she is perfectly capable of eating, but i was too busy enjoying my thanksgiving dinner. she didn't seem to mind.

we worked on this puzzle for much of the week. here is audrey, sitting next to the (finally) finished product.

madeleine with her great grandma and grandpa orris (this was after an already too long photo shoot. she actually really liked them).

four generations: diane linford, ann orris, madeleine peck, debra peck

linford family pictures

we had a little photo shoot today for our annual family picture. so, we now have an up to date picture until february, when beth has her baby. madeleine had a rough go of it, but was decent enough in the first picture that we ended up using that one.

a great picture of the hanks family

madeleine had had it by the time we tried to get this picture.

still not going to do it.

thanksgiving

i have so many things to be thankful for. and even though i feel overwhelming gratitude every day, it is good to have this one day a year to really specifically focus on those things that i am grateful for and maybe even jot a few of them down.

i am thankful for my wonderful family and that we all live so close to each other right now. i love family dinners on sunday, raucous as they may be, and how comfortable it feels to be surrounded by my whole family. and even though they live a little farther away, i am grateful for such good in-laws (seriously though, i couldn't ask for better in-laws), who live close enough that we still get to see them fairly often. i am also grateful for ichat, which allows us to see them even more often (though still not often enough). i am thankful for caring extended family and those who have gone before me who are such good examples of faith and hard work.

i am thankful for the basic needs in life that i often take for granted - food, shelter, clothing, and so many less basic needs that i also enjoy. i am thankful for employment and the ability to support ourselves through school. i am grateful for knowledge, of so many different things, which empowers me and guides my decisions.

i am grateful for good friends. we have met so many amazing people throughout our lives. many of them have moved far away, but i am thankful that we are able to keep in touch with most of them and continue to enjoy their friendship. i am grateful for the friends that we still have around and who make our lives so much more enjoyable. i am thankful for laughter, for its abundance in my life, and for its healing powers. randy continues to make me laugh every day. what more could i ask for? i am grateful for peace in troubled times that comes through the gospel of christ and correct decision making.

i am thankful for music, that fills my home and my heart, makes randy who he is, and is already shaping madeleine. i am grateful for tender touch in my life that comes in the form of kisses from randy and madeleine's soft hand on my face. i am thankful for mornings in bed with my family, filled with soft chatter from madeleine. i am thankful for the overwhelming sense of love that i feel in my life in such a tangible way every day.

and this year, i am especially thankful for my little family. i am grateful for madeleine, who is such a sweet, mellow baby. she lights up my day and gives my life such greater meaning. she has taught me to be more selfless and renewed my sense of wonder at the things around me. every day is so much better because she is part of our family. i am thankful for randy, for his constant patience with my flaws, for his talents and abilities, and for his constancy in all things. i am so thankful that i married him.

and most of all, i am thankful for a loving heavenly father, who has given me all of this to be grateful for. happy thanksgiving.

byu philharmonic orchestra

randy got us free tickets to see the byu philharmonic play last night. what a perfect date! i love going to symphonic performances. they are such rich aural experiences, but i love the visual experience as well. i love the look of the black regalia against the warm tones of the instruments, coupled with the stage lights. and oh! when those bows glide smoothly through the air in unison... well, if you've seen it, you know what i mean.

they performed barber's overture to the school for scandal, bernstein's symphonic dances from west side story, and berlioz's symphonie fantastique. the conductor acted like everyone was there to see the symphonie fantastique, but i was definitely most excited about the west side story, and sure enough, it was my favorite of the night. such good music. it reminded me that i need to own west side story. all three pieces were beautiful though, and well performed.

in addition to remembering that i need to own west side story, i remembered that we need to own season's tickets to the symphony. soon. and as soon as our kids are old enough to sit through a performance, they're coming too. i'm so grateful that my parents exposed me to culture and the arts when i was young so that i have a taste for it now and act appropriately in those situations. this is something that i definitely want to pass on to my children.

and i may have realized that i need a couple other things in my life. like one of these hot little numbers:

(the female performers all looked so beautiful in their stunning black dresses)

and some of these:

no, i don't have my ears pierced, but while i was zoning out during the third movement of the fantastique (hey, even randy admitted that it was a little dull and lasted far too long), i noticed that the second chair violinist had some beautiful little bling like this that glistened when it picked up the stage lights and i thought that they would go so beautifully with the elegant black dress that i had already set my mind on. okay, so maybe "need" is the wrong word...

walking videos

i know that i promised video of madeleine walking a while ago, but i never was able to get that first video to upload. so, i decided to take some new video. unfortunately, i didn't have anyone to help me surrepticiously tape her, which means that she saw the camera and all she wanted to do was touch it. you can see this in the videos. usually she is much more deliberate and slow about taking steps, but since she wanted to get to the camera fast, she was kind of rushing and didn't take too many steps in a row. it's still fun to watch though, and you get the idea.

bows and books

here's madeleine, all ready for church with a bow that aunt kimberlee made for her. they finally stay in without the headband.

madeleine loves to sit next to me on the couch while i am reading and do some reading of her own. the books aren't always right-side up, but she'll get the hang of it.

90-10

my parents often joke that i am 90% my dad, 10% my mom. this is probably an accurate assessment. i was reminded of this the other day while walking to the library with madeleine.

i was walking along 500 west in provo, which is a pretty busy street - 5 lanes of traffic - when i came upon a big roadblock that was blocking off the sidewalk for less than a block and stated that the sidewalk was closed due to construction. the sidewalk itself wasn't under construction, but a building right next to the sidewalk was. obviously, the purpose of blocking off the sidewalk was to prevent anyone walking by from being hit with flying construction materials - a major liability.

unfortunately, the alternate routes weren't pretty. there was no crosswalk across 500 west at that point, and i would have had to backtrack considerably to get to one, or walk completely around the block (effectively walking 3 blocks) the other way to bypass the sidewalk.

and this is where i proved the 90-10 assessment. it would be inefficient to obey the rule, and unsafe to cross 500 west with madeleine in the stroller in front of me. it was later in the day, there was only one construction worker still on the site, and he was working on the ground level without any dangerous tools. obviously, the reasons for the roadblock were not applicable to me at the time. so, i ducked under the tape to the side of the roadblock, ignored the dirty looks from the construction worker, and continued on my way to library. my dad would have done the same.

i wondered if my mom could have brought herself to do the same...

a few pictures from last week for the grandmothers

"give me that camera..."



madeleine loves to lie on the ground and inspect toys or books by holding them above her in the air.



sometimes she does it with her feet sticking straight up in the air.



and sometimes she tries to eat the toy

welcome home grandma and grandpa linford!

my grandma jody and grandpa ray have been in brazil for the past 20 months serving an lds mission. they just got home yesterday and we all descended upon them for a big dinner and family get together last night. it was so wonderful to see them. madeleine met them for the first time.

my grandparents are such good examples of life-long service to the lord. this was their fourth mission. we are glad to have them home!

madeleine's first steps

madeleine took her first steps on thursday night and we managed to catch a little of it on film, but i am having technical difficulties uploading the movie. walking is definitely not her preferred mode of transportation yet, but she can take a few steps at a time and i think that her record so far is about 6 steps in a row. she's very slow and deliberate about it. hopefully i'll post a movie of it soon.

cooking directions for tasty noodle

i love product translations from asian languages to english. they are always sure to entertain.

randy teaches a couple of families from taiwan and one of them sent him home with some dried noodles yesterday. i was looking at the instructions for how to cook them and found them humorous:

1. put 1 bag of 375g noodles separately into boiling water and stir till water is reboiling up. noodles will be done in about 3 minutes.
2. while water boiling, make flame weak to avoid it overflowing or add a half cup of water to keep cooking noodles softer.
3. according to the seasons, you may do cool noodle or hot soup noodle with dressing.
4. rinse cooked noodles with cold water, drain, stir-fry and taste well.

and a skunk friend to go with it

this one was a lot easier. i think it was due to experience, as well as a different kind of glove.

glove chipmunk

are you sitting down?

i embarked on a craft project today. i saw this project (i can't remember where the original source was), and decided to try it. i have no idea why i felt compelled to do so. madeleine has plenty of toys, and even plenty of stuffed little creatures. and i'm no good at this kind of thing. but i have a lot of time, right? this is what the glove chipmunk is supposed to look like:

this is what mine looks like:

let's just say my chipmunk has been eating a lot more nuts than the model chipmunk. i guess this accurately models real life.

it's a little rough around the edges, but it's cute enough and madeleine seems to enjoy it. i always tell myself that i just need to take it slow and be more meticulous, but i'm not patient and i end up muscling my way through these kinds of projects, as you can tell by the visible stitches and other rough spots. i think some of that was from selecting slightly different materials as well.

i'm pretty proud of myself though, i took it start to finish in one day and it at least somewhat resembles the desired outcome. plus, i have another glove to try it out on when i get the energy and hopefully that will be a little more polished.

pictures from the week

here are some pictures of madeleine from the past week:

busted!

i realize that this is a really blurry picture of madeleine, but i was trying to get a picture of her dragging randy's shoe around. she grabbed on to the shoelace yesterday, dragged the shoe around for most of the day, and became extremely frustrated whenever it would catch on anything.

randy and i were outside doing yardwork today and madeleine sat by and watched, bundled up for the crisp weather.

she kept yelling things at randy while he was bagging the leaves - i think she must have had some suggestions for how to make the job easier.

i rocked the vote

don't forget to vote today! i did it and it took about two minutes. absolutely no line. another perk of not having a full-time job.

randy's piano recital

well, it's finally over and i don't have a single picture to show for it. for someone who's a little crazy with a camera, i kind of fell asleep on the job.

randy had his recital last night and it went really well. the racmaninoff concerto was the best that i've ever heard him perform it and as always, i loved the chopin nocturne. really, all of the pieces were beautiful and well performed. we had a great turnout from family and friends and appreciate everyone who came.

i am so proud of randy and all of the hard work that he has put in to prepare for this recital. he has spent hours (hundreds!) practicing these pieces and we have all become intimately acquainted with them. i can't wait for the next round of repertoire!