This Girl is Ultra Talented

Cali and Carter both look forward to bath time. They like to splash and play, but they don't really liked to get washed off. Cali especially hates having her hair washed. I've threatened, debated and screamed about cutting it off.....but I just haven't been able to do it. She is very cooperative when I put the shampoo in her hair, and she will even help me scrub it around. But when it's time to rinse, well, that's when the real drama starts. So she developed a way to keep the water out of her ears (she's got tubes in there), eyes (she claims the no-tears shampoo stings and burns her eyes), and nose ( just for good measure). I will admit, it really works. It's made bath time much more enjoyable for everyone.

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I Can Finally Laugh

It's taken five days, but I can finally laugh about what happened on Sunday. Some of you were there and witnessed it first hand. Those of you who weren't, will just have to take my word for it.

It was bad.

So here's what went down. On Sunday Christian had to go into work to fire some employees (alway unpleasant). He left sacrament meeting early, which made the score two wild meowzers.....one mother. I take that back, I had one reverent meowzer and one out of control meowzer.

There's a little ramp that leads from the floor to the stand where the bishop sits. Carter took off running. I caught him before he got too far away, and I thought it was over. Not so, two minutes later he pulled the same stunt. He ran up the ramp, sprinted along the back row of the choir seats. All of this in the middle of testimony meeting. He kept running, and I thought that he would run down the ramp on the other side. I made eye contact with my friend Adrienne who I knew who be able to intercept him when he ran down the other side. Not so, he took a detour at the organ. As you can imagine, this is where the story gets really bad, or good, depending on how you look at it. He ran along the foot pedals of the organ creating a loud low booming organ solo. The organ solo startled the woman giving her heart-felt testimony, and she let out a little yelp right into the microphone.

The second counselor in the bishopric picked Carter up and walked him down off the stand and gave him to me. Where upon, I took him out in the hall and tried not to shake him.

If that's not bad enough several people stopped me on the way to Sunday school and said, "Where's Beethoven?" This is a comment that I thought was pretty original the first time, but several people said the same thing. Which is funny because I think Beethoven was primarily a piano player, not an organ player. I believe there is a difference.

And so it goes!

Precious Meowzers

I finally got around to getting some new pictures taken. I am so glad that they turned out as well as they did. It's going to take me another year before I get brave enough to wrestle Carter at Kiddie Kandids again.

Two Years Old

Four Years Old

November 3, 2007

Tippy Teap

That's Trick-or-Treat in Carter Language. He practiced saying it all day long. Once I got his little bat costume on, he never took it off for the rest of the day. It was pretty grungy and fuzzy by the time night rolled around. Chowing down on Trick-or-Treat candy is a little challenging for a boy with a peanut allergy. It's also challenging for the mother who has to hide all the candy, and read labels like a mental patient. But he still had so much fun answering the door and giving candy to the goblins and ghosts that came to our door. I tried to get some cute pictures of him, but he WILL NOT hold still, as you can see by the blurred images.

A Busy Busy Busy Halloween

Our Halloween To Do List:
1. Get all fancied up like Sleeping Beauty.
2. Wrestle Carter into his costume (once I got it on, he wouldn't take it off).
3. Pre School party and Halloween program.
4. Eat some lunch and take a little rest.
5. Go Trick-or-Treating at mom's work.
6. Swing by Costco to visit daddy.
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7. Get something to eat...I think Wendy's dollar menu will do.
8. Get home and chow down.
9. Answer the door for Trick-or-Treater's.
10. Go Trick-or-Treating.
11. Answer the door some more.
12. Check out all the loot. Eat some!

Princess Aurora

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Cali informed me very early on that she wanted to be the Princess Aurora Sleeping Beauty. Piece of cake! She already had a pink princess dress-up dress, so I tried to talk her into using the pink dress she already had. She wasn't falling for it. Instead, she gave me a laundry list of intricacies that Sleeping Beauty's dress had that her dress-up dress didn't. The details! So I got this dress from Disney.com and it was truly fantastic. She's worn it every day since Halloween. She's got it on right now!

This is About as Good as it Gets

This really is about as good as it gets. For one, it's a great time to get together with family. And for another, this is seriously about the best picture we can take.

So here we all are from left to right.

Grandma Peacock (my dad's mother) Christian & Carter there in the back, me and Cali, Neal and Gwen (my mom and dad) Brandt (my brother), Dory (my sister), Bethany (my sister) with Tyler (her husband) behind her, Grandma Cook (my mom's mother), Jayna (my sister), and Mike (her husband). So there you have it. The whole Peacock-Pollastro-Miller-Gilson family.

Not the Best Picture Ever

So this isn't the best picture ever, but I'm still posting it. This is the only one I have of me and my bro. And since the last few weeks has been all about him, I thought I'd throw this one in.

Return from the Highlands of Scotland

Several of Brandt's missionary companions came to hear him speak on Sunday. Kilts and all. It was really fun for him to see some of his friends that have been home for a while. One of them even showed up with a girlfriend.

I didn't meet all of these guys but the one on the left is Donny Osmond's son. He was Brandt's first companion. The second one from the left is Elder Hewlitt, he was a favorite of Brandt's. Then Brandt is in the middle. The one with the white shirt is the one with the girlfriend, and I'm not sure about his name or the one on the end.

Castle Dale City Halloween Party

During our visit to Castle Dale we attended the annual Halloween party. There was music, games, food, pumpkin carving and a costume contest. Cali dressed up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.


She had so much fun stabbing this pumpkin


Dory was a nurse. Bethany was Little Red Riding Hood.

Grandma Gwennie

This past weekend we went to Castle Dale for my brother's missionary welcome home. We can never go to Grandma Gwennie's house without going outside to feed the lambs. My parents live next to a small field where their neighbor keeps a few sheep. The fence line borders my parents backyard so Cali and Carter can play in grandma's yard and feed the sheep through the fence. It is one of their favorite things to do (I've mentioned before that my kids go crazy for real animals). I snapped these pictures from the back porch on Saturday evening, and I just thought they were so sweet. My mother is the most down to earth selfless person in the entire world. She's soft and warm and very caring, and I thought that these pictures captured that perfectly.

Here's the Beef

Christian loves to grill. He grills all year long. Our neighbors have enjoyed a good laugh watching him stand outside in the rain and snow grilling his little heart out. His specialties are chicken and steak, but he can also make a pretty mean burger. So, tonight when he said he wanted to make some burgers I didn't really think anything of it. Until he strutted in the house with this......


This is a regular sized dinner plate.


He's so proud of his creation.


The half way mark


He's full.

FYI: No, the rest of us do not eat like this. Yes, we have a great life insurance policy.

We Love Him Like an Old Cat

My dear darling brother returned from his mission to Scotland yesterday. He arrived in Salt Lake at 9:00pm, which was 4:00am Scotland time. My mom, dad and two sisters (Bethany and Dory) picked him up. After he rounded up all his luggage they all came to our house. We talked all night, he has some pretty funny stories. "I love you like an old cat" is a phrase used to tell someone that you love them a lot.

I just have to say, it is so amazing that these little boys come back as men. It is incredible to see how much he has grown and changed, but how much he is still the same Brandt.

Here are a few pictures from the airport. I sent my video camera with Bethany so she could get some good footage. I can capture still frames from the video, so that's why these pictures are a little more blurry than usual.


I hope he brought me one of these stylin' hats!


Scottish wit and banter with a touch of British class.


A hug for mom and dad.


A favorite companion Elder Hewlitt. Can you imagine this pair walking along the streets of Scotland together? This kid could eat Brandt.


Some more loves for our mother.

A Good Idea Gone Terribly Terribly Wrong

A while ago my friend Natalie posted a really great idea for Halloween decorating. She got the picture from a magazine and it seemed easy enough. So I tried it. I got sticks (which my friend Adrienne and I stole from a yard) and pumpkins (which I purchased at Smith's). I poked holes in the pumpkins and inserted the sticks. I placed them around on a bale of straw and with my scare crow. And my small spooky forest was pretty cute. Until.......This......Happened......

Who is going to clean this crap up?

Cali came in the house yesterday with rotten pumpkin fingers. She poked her fingers in to"see what would happen".

If you can overlook the rotten oozing, it had potential to be pretty cute.

A Strange Time of Year

We woke up Sunday morning to a little bit of snow. Not enough to shovel, but just enough to play in. This is a picture of our back yard on Sunday afternoon. Cali and Carter were begging to go outside, so we ventured out in the afternoon.

Carter hated wearing gloves, but he also hated getting his hands cold.


He wasn't exactly sure what to do in the snow, so he grabbed his bike.


This is the giant snowball that Cali and I took turns rolling until almost all of the snow was gone.

Grandpa Cook

My grandpa Cook was such and incredible man. My memories of him are so precious to me. He taught me many things. He coined silly phrases and terms that I often find myself using. Today is the one year anniversary of his death. I've been thinking a lot about him today. The day he passed away is one of the most poignant days I've ever experienced in my life. My grandpa taught me that it's not how long you live, but how you live.

Oh Yes It's Ladies Night....

On Saturday night we had our monthly card club meeting. We met at Heather's for some delicious treats (the pumpkin roll was to die for) and to exchange our cards. All of the cards were great. We are a talented bunch of witches! Then we headed over to Gardner Village for the annual Witches Night Out. We browsed the shops and blended in with all of the other witches roaming around.

At Heather's getting ready to get our witch on.


Scary spooky grainy night vision witches.

Super sexy, and I mean the huge monster in the background.

Also super sexy.

By this point it was getting pretty cold.