the curious case of benjamin button

randy and i saw this movie yesterday (thanks to jeanie for watching madeleine!). randy loved it and i came out of the theatre feeling pretty lukewarm about it. it was pretty slow and long for me, but it was very well done for what it was supposed to be. the makeup and use of computer graphics for the aging was really impressive and the film really was beautiful. it's one of those movies where the more i think about it in retrospect, the fonder i become of it and the more it makes me think. i would recommend at least trying it out once.

charley harper abcs and 123s

for christmas, randy and i got madeleine charley harper's abc's board book:
and for her birthday, she got charley harper's 123's:

i have to admit that these were somewhat selfish purchases. his artwork is so beautiful that it makes it much more enjoyable for me to read to madeleine. i think that these will become classics around our house. hopefully, someday madeleine will appreciate the artwork. if you are looking for good books to teach your children their alphabet or numbers, i highly recommend these.

sink me!

for years, i have had people tell me that i need to see the movie, "the scarlet pimpernel," with anthony andrews, ian mckellen, and jane seymour. i finally saw it this week and loved it. such a good story, and such great characters. i think i will need to watch it more often now that i know about it.

peck family pictures

we had family pictures taken with randy's whole family last week. it's hard to get all of the kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, but we got some nice pictures. 

happy birthday madeleine!

madeleine turned one year old on christmas day. i don't know if you can read it in the picture, but her shirt (thanks beth and bruce!) says "best gift ever." she is definitely the best christmas gift we've ever received.
after christmas morning festivities and a little cool down period, we switched into birthday mode and had a birthday party for madeleine. here she is with her "cake":


i let her have her own cupcake and didn't feed it to her and she was actually very dainty about the whole thing. she started by slowly scooping up frosting with her finger and licking it, and then finally bit into the actual cake part. this is as messy as it ever got:


playing with a new "little people" bus from grammy. happy birthday madeleine!

christmas with the pecks

now that madeleine is a year old, we finally got to turn her carseat around. we figured that the ride up to boise was a great time to do it. sure enough, she loved it.

here are our pictures from christmas with the pecks:

christmas with the linfords

before heading to idaho for christmas, we had a christmas/birthday celebration with my family. we celebrated ray, beth, matthew, and madeleine's birthdays. december is a big birthday month for us.
randy helping madeleine get a present open.


madeleine loved her presents.

all of the grandkids in their christmas pajamas.


"chillin' with my homies."


two cute boys





it was actually matthew's second birthday that day, so we also had cake to celebrate. he was pretty cute about the whole thing.

merry christmas!

photo by jonathan canlas

i was too lazy to send out a christmas card this year, so i'm doing a christmas blog post instead. i figure that those of you who read my blog probably hear more about our lives than you want to as it is, but here is a quick summary of 2008:

obviously, the biggest change of the year was madeleine's arrival on christmas day last year. she is such a blessing in our lives and is growing up way too fast. she has recently picked up walking and is constantly doing laps around the house. she loves to chatter and talks to us all day long. someday we'll understand what she's saying.

randy had a busy year. he spent the first half of the year taking care of madeleine during the day and being a student on top of that. now that i'm back at home, he is busy being a student and teaching piano lessons. he had a big recital at the beginning of november and did a great job.

i spent the first half of the year as a law clerk for judge steven hansen in the fourth district court. i loved my clerkship and had a really great experience, but was thrilled to finish it in august and take over for randy as full-time mommy. i love being home with madeleine and have enjoyed having a little extra time to resume some of my old hobbies and pick up a few new ones.

we feel blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. we hope that you and your families are well and finding joy in this season. we love the chance to celebrate the birth of our savior and the light that he brought to the world. merry christmas!

teething v.2.0

madeleine decided to cut her top two teeth last night. oddly enough, we were in boise when she cut her bottom teeth as well. i think that she just wanted to wait until she had a dentist close by, in case anything went wrong. once again, i was not the one to notice the teeth. this time randy spotted them first.

going public

randy and i have decided to go public (again) with our blog. obviously, if you are reading this right now, then you have an invitation to the blog already, but this will allow you to more easily access the blog and to put it on your google reader*, the main reason for the switch. i know this will make several people very happy. 

*if you don't know what google reader is, you are missing out. find out. use it. love it. 

the diving bell and the butterfly

i know that i blogged about this movie a while ago, but i didn't really get a chance to watch the whole thing, so i decided to read the book. it was an easy, short read, and so beautiful. the author dictated the entire book by having a woman read the french alphabet to him and blinking when she reached the correct letter. he had "locked-in" syndrome and wrote about his life both before, but mostly after, his accident. his writing was beautiful and touching and the translation from french was really well done (well, as far as i could tell). i highly recommend it. 

bon voyage!

we're heading out of town today. first up to my parents for a linford christmas celebration, then up to boise tomorrow, weather permitting. we are so excited. i'm not sure what my picture uploading situation will be up in boise, so it may be a boring couple weeks, followed by a bunch of christmas and first birthday pictures (remind you of our trip to california?). have a wonderful holiday season!

happy birthday x 2

happy birthday ray (today)! happy birthday beth (tomorrow)!

december is full of birthdays in our family and today we have the pleasure of celebrating my brother, ray's, 23rd birthday. ray, madeleine, and i went out to lunch to celebrate and had a great time. ray and i have always been close and always enjoy each others company (well, at least i always enjoy his). i feel at ease around him and i especially love his wit.

while i'm at it, even though it's a day early, i might as well point out that it is my sister, beth's, 21st birthday tomorrow. fortunately, i love all of my siblings and can say many of the same things about beth as i can about ray. i love to have beth as my partner when we play hand and foot (sorry... for the other team!) and she is especially favored right now, as she is carrying a little girl cousin for madeleine to play with.

happy birthday ray and beth! we love you!

the doctor is in

disclaimer: this post will probably only make sense if you have seen the t.v. show, "house."

my sister, beth, and i had a conversation today and for some twisted reason, it reminded me of something out of the show, "house." i was dr. house, of course.

beth called because she was having problems with her blog and couldn't figure out what was wrong. i asked her several questions, but none of them led to a solution. eventually, we thought that maybe the problem was the internet browser she was using, so i asked if she had firefox and told her to try it on that. i could hear her tell bruce to go to their blog on firefox.

me: tell him to log on under your account since you are the administrator.

beth: actually, bruce is the administrator.

it was as is there were ten minutes left in the show and i finally happened upon the fact that she was adopted. within two minutes, we had the problem figured out, she was on the right medication and her kidneys were already beginning to recover. sometimes you just have to ask the right question.

it's been a while...

yes, i realize that i haven't been posting very much lately. life's been a little hectic around here lately. randy had a flu-ish bug last week, while madeleine had a cold, and then they kind of switched illnesses this week. i was able to avoid it, but i think that it's finally catching up to me too. ugh. it's like a sick ward in our house. i really want us all to be better before we go to boise.

some pictures of madeleine

it's been a little while since i've just posted random pictures of madeleine.

i love this girl in polka dots

omi made madeleine this sweater last summer and it's finally cold enough and the right size for her. she's pretty cute in it. i have a new appreciation for how well made it is now that i am learning to knit myself.

first presidency christmas devotional

i got to go to the first presidency christmas devotional last night with my friend, maija. randy was going to come too, but he was still feeling under the weather, so just maija and i went. i love being in salt lake at this time of year and seeing all of the lights and christmas decorations. the devotional was wonderful. i love that they do it at the beginning of the season. it's kind of a spiritual kick-off to the season for me. the music by the tabernacle choir was great, as always, and the messages about christmas and christ from the first presidency were perfect reminders of what this season is all about. thanks for the ticket maija!

ward christmas party

here's madeleine, all ready to go to our ward christmas party yesterday. but she never went. you see, madeleine hardly napped at all yesterday and ended up falling asleep at 6:30. and since randy had a high fever, he stayed home with her. i would have just stayed home myself, but randy was supposed to play the piano, so i was his back up.

despite being sans family, i actually had fun at the party. also, my piano playing went well, which i did not expect. i always choke when accompanying an audience. it was pretty fun - the last song i played was "santa claus is coming to town," and just as i started it, santa came into the room, ringing his sleigh bells on the beat. and within about ten seconds, at least three children were screaming. our ward doesn't have any kids over four years old, so they're not really at the stage where they appreciate santa, so much as fear him. i was a little sad that madeleine wasn't one of the screaming children and we don't have a picture of her crying on santa's lap. there's always next year though...

the tree is up!

we finally got the tree up and decorated tonight. apparently madeleine is terrified of christmas trees. as soon as i brought it in the house, she started screaming. so instead of consoling her, i took a picture:

she seems to be over it for the most part, but she still doesn't go too close to the tree. i'm hoping this keeps up. i still made sure that no ornaments are within her reach.

after several location changes, our tree found a spot.

and then i decorated it. it's good to know that some experiences are universal. randy patiently helped me get the tree in the stand, straightened it, and then hauled it to three spots before landing it in its current location. as soon as he was done with that though, he wasn't too interested in decorating. hmmm... seems reminiscent of my childhood.

christmas decorating

i bought a tree today, but we don't have a stand yet, so it is sitting out in our backyard. since i was itching to do some kind of christmas decorating, i got out everything else and put it up.

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care:

but then madeleine pulled one of them down with its heavy stand and almost killed herself, so now they are hanging on our bookshelf:

this makes me pretty sad.

so i put up a few other little safer stocking as replacements. as you can tell from the whiteboard that is barricaded by a piano bench to keep madeleine from pulling down the extremely heavy, extremely loose, fireplace grate, our fireplace has other safety issues as well.

this is our "entry way table." i put out all of our christmas books and a candy dish. it already needs to be topped off.

my christmas quilt is prominently displayed on the couch below my advent calendar,



and even the piano has a little decoration.

elder joseph b. wirthlin

one of our beloved twelve apostles passed away today of old age. i loved elder wirthlin and always looked forward to hearing him speak. for some reason, his talks always stuck out to me. something about his soft demeanor mixed with quick wit resonated with me. a couple of his talks that immediately come to mind as my favorites are his talks on kind words and charity. surely, he was an example of both. he will be missed by the entire church.