Did you picture this?!...

Quick question...

So did you picture this?...

Or this?...

How about this?...

Did you picture this?...

What about this?...

Could you possibly have pictured this?...

Yep, its really true. A miracle happened. Well... a miracle or I just happened to be married to the smartest, most brilliant, thoughtful man evers.

Last night, by the time we got the kids in bed, I couldn't physically keep my eyes open and was falling asleep every five minutes on the couch. Obviously staying up to the wee hours of the morning all last week was not a good idea - you know, since I still have an infant who eats during the night and kids who get up early morning. But when we are all together, and we spend all day entertaining the kids, feeding the kids, keeping the kids happy, doing activities with the kids, etc. By the time those kids are in bed I cherish the adult time we have at night; where we talk and play games and chill and do our things. So I stayed up. And now I'm sleep deprived. Anyway... So I went to bed a little early last night. And a couple hours later there is PJ, waking me up (?!??!?) with the most mischevious grin telling me I need to follow him downstairs. OK?!? Stupid thing is, the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw his face is that he must have caught a mouse or something downstairs and wanted to freak me out. Very thankfully that was not the case. He led me to the computer where, lo and behold, there he had my missing pictures!!!!! He had spent the last long while finding them for me. And by finding them I mean locating and downloading this wonderful program called PhotoRec (www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec). It is a "file data recovery software that is designed to recover lost files from digital camera memory". Only PhotoRec "ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if the media's file system has been severly damaged or reformatted"... or pictures deleted!!!

So I'm thinking my amazing husband is definitely on Santa's nice list this year!

Picture This...

I've never had a great memory. It bothers me how I have the hardest time remembering the past - the feelings, the events, the details that accompanied me. Thats part of my motivation in why I am so diligent in recording my family's history. To be able to look back at the pictures, and read my feelings... it triggers something in me and I can relive those moments that would be otherwise lost.
So just before we left for our Thanksgiving vacation Preston surprised me with the perfect Christmas present. Yes, almost two months early ;) He had bought me a nice, new camera. One with "a steep learning curve", as he kindly put it. But he knew that I would love to have it as we went about making many family memories over this holiday season. He was right. I was thrilled and read the manual on our drive over to Indiana. And still not knowing what I was doing ;) took pictures all week long like I normally do. Then tragedy struck! There were many priceless and precious moments that I captured and all of a sudden most of them disappeared. And as hard as I tried I could not make them reappear. For me this is heartbreaking.
And so I guess I will just have to picture this...

Picture my husband and my brother on Thanksgiving day out in the pouring, freezing rain. Holding umbrellas for eachother while trying to fry a turkey. Picture it not going well and them constructing tinfoil tents to help things along. Picture us needing to go ahead and feed the kids chicken nuggets for their Thanksgiving lunch because they couldn't wait for the turkey any longer. Picture it finally being "done". Picture my dad carving the turkey and finding it still raw on the inside. So picture us sitting down to our Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings and no turkey. No turkey but a honey baked ham that my dad just happened to have out in the garage :) Picture a wonderful meal with my family surrounding the table (as the kids with already full tummies peacefully watched a movie in the basement) while we enjoyed it.

Picture PJ in the kitchen, trying to one up the Cake Boss, as he decorated the elephant that was Stevens 27th birthday cake. Picture him making pastry bags out of ziplocks because he couldn't find any fondant at Kroger. Picture Steven, surrounded by his nieces and nephews as they sang to him and helped him blow out the candles and eat that beautifully decorated elephant cake.
Picture Kate turning 3 months the same day her Uncle Steven turned 27.

Picture Kate and Steven joining the lineup on the couch for the first time as we took pictures of them in this years Christmas jammies. Picture me recruiting help this year as Katy and Julia helped me madly sew 12 pairs of jammies in the basement.

Picture the look on the kids faces as they excitedly opened a few presents. We had our first annual Peper family cousins ornament exchange. Picture our surprise as baby Steven opened his "ornament" from one of the Detros and we saw mini glass bottles... picture our first mix up between Uncle Steve and baby Steven :)

Picture us adults, after the kids were fast asleep, gathering in the living room for our annual circle game. Picture Lyndsay and Jonah joining us via the computer (google video) - gotta love technology. Picture the wonderful presents that were recieved after all the thought and very early Black Friday shopping was done. Oh and picture me NEVER going to Walmart at midnight on Blakc Friday ever again - that was a first and a last.

Picture us spending half a day getting everyone showered and groomed and fed and happy at the same time, with coordinating outfits, so we could head out the door for family pictures. Imagine the effort. Picture the beautiful scenery and the chill in the air. Picture my little family walking down a woody path hand in hand. Picture the precious close ups of our little children. Picture us having to do it all again now...


On a wierd side note. As I madly was doing everything I could think of to "find" the lost photos I turned on my old camera. And to my surprise, and disbelief, there were pictures from Halloween 2009 that I had "lost". That I counted as gone. But there they were!?! So here are a few of those...

Grandma Eccles was here with us for the holiday.

Notice Tyler concentrating hard so his tounge is sticking out just like Grampa Peper's would.

One of our spooky meals that included white chili and personalized bread hands.

Everyones here now

TJ, Julia, and Steven got in late Monday night. So the next morning Steven and Kate got acquainted for the first time...

Steven was so sweet and smothered her in kisses...

And then became very interested in the bow on her head...

And the kids, especially Brynn, has loved having him here...

Out and About

Yesterday we decided to get out of the house for a while and headed up to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum. We were there for several hours and wish we had had more time. The kids were wonderful and oh the fun they had...




Yes, even the adults got in on the action...

Tyler needed the map in order to get us from place to place ;)

And I have to admit that one of our families new favorite shows is Swamp People - where they show the folks who live in the Louisiana swamp lands hunting alligators. And so this "addigator" was a highlight...
Even little Steven got to explore a few things...

The Warrens and The Pepers...

They had a whole Barbie wing and I was amazed at how excited Brynn was about it. We have Barbies (unfortunately) and she plays with them every now and then but nothing too obsessive. So I couldn't believe how I had to pull her out of there and away from all the girly stuff?!


Ha! Gotta love these adorable penguins...

And the dinosaurs!...

Then today Uncle Steven promised to take the kiddos to his favorite hot dog joint since we have a few hot dog lovers amongst us... Dylan and Tyler to name a few!
And while it was a disaster getting there - we're talking freezing pouring rain, whinny kids finally loaded, car dead, car taking forever to jump, did I mention naughty kids and freezing pouring rain ?! :) But in the end I'd say it was a huge hit! And they fit right in since the naughty kids were at Naughty Dog...