JULY

Hi. It's Luke again!

First of all, here is Andrea at pretty much 9 months of pregnancy. She's huge in a very tiny way! We are so excited to have Peter in our arms. The official due date is tomorrow, but we both have a feeling that it'll be another week.

The other thing we are excited about is our move! We applied to the student housing at the U several months ago but as I corresponded with a girl that works there in the office, we were thinking that our chances of getting in right when we wanted to were slim, so we prepared a plan B and asked Mom and Dad Wright if we could live with them until we were offered an apartment at the U. They said they'd love to have us, and we were even getting kind of excited to live with them, but then the U called and offered us an apartment that we could move into on August 20 which works PERFECTLY!!! We were both so happy! We went and looked at the apartment immediately and although it is very small, we both feel like it is absolutely the perfect thing for our little family and we accepted the offer. So now we won't have to move in with parents after all and we will have much more time together as a family since I won't have to travel down to American Fork after my night classes. It was such an immense blessing and we're so overjoyed that it's going to work out!

New subject. The fourth of July was fun. We went and spent it with Mom and Dad Perkins and also Caleb and Lauren, and a hint of Andrew and his girlfriend. We just had a very nice relaxing day. We slept in, ate breakfast and talked until noon . . . Andrea napped, I washed our car for the first time in a year . . . we had a calm little barbecue and later that evening Lauren's parents invited us all to watch fireworks with them at Davis high. It was the first time we had seen a firework show to music and it was great! Here's a picture of the little Ho-Ho firecrackers that my Mom always makes, Andrea made them this year though.

The weekend after that we had a lot of birthdays to attend and a shower for Andrea with her family. It was a lot of fun too. These are pictures of Jackson and Alanna's combined party:

This is Jackson's Death Star cake that Caleb Made for him.

This is Jackson's other Skateboard cake with doughnut wheels (lucky boy!).

This is Alanna's Monkey cake.

When we were growing up my mom would make fun creative cakes for our birthdays like cookie monster cakes, baseball cakes, dragon cakes, etc. Sarah has definitely made the creative cake making a tradition for each of her kids birthdays. they're always really fun to see.

The first present that Alanna opened was . . . FINGERNAIL POLISH! I was amazed because she's just two years old, but she knew exactly what it was, exactly how to use it, and it was as if it was the only thing she ever wanted out of life! She tore into the package and I don't think anyone expected her to get very far but she picked some blue polish, unscrewed the lid and started trying to paint! People tried to persuade her to hold off until she had opened her other presents but she didn't care about them at all! she squealed and screamed and said her favorite word (No!) whenever anyone tried to take the polish from her so eventually we just gave in and patiently watched as she painted her nails. It was the cutest funniest thing ever!

And then here's one of the finished hand:

And while we're talking about Alanna, I have to mention that since she turned two she has immediately started liking me and acknowledging my presence etc. She'll hug me now, smile and laugh in my presence, let me hold her, wash her hands, and play with her. It's nice ya know? it's nice to try to give your niece a hug and not get stiff-armed in return :)

Sunday we had Ashton's birthday. I have to include this picture of Wilson and him:

We spent the afternoon helping with the quilt that Grandma Wright is making for Peter. The whole family got in on the quilting action. Here's Mom and Heidi:

It's going to be a really cool quilt with nine completely original and authentic patchwork illustrations by a really great guy called me :) I can't believe that Mom Wright is undertaking this huge task! It's going to be hard but she insisted on doing it so we all gave a big push to help her.

That evening we all told Ashton what we love about him and then we played a killer game of volleyball. I never had realized that there were enough people for a five on five game, and it was the most fun ever! Andrea and I can't stop talking about what a perfect, fun, friendly game it was.

And then we had this week which was fun as well but I'm done now so thanks for reading and goodnight.

SUMMER!

Well, It's Luke again. Picking up the slack, again. Andrea IS very busy being a wonderful wife and pregnant person though, and it's not like blogging is a chore, so come with me friends as I paint you a picture of our recent lives . . .

First of all, I need to get the mandatory pregnancy progress picture out of the way. Here she is, 7 months pregnant . . . and she's just beautiful.

Completely graceful, elegant, charming, and beautiful . . . and she's mine, HAH! So is the little one inside of her, HAH HAH! I LOVE watching them grow! It's my favorite. Peter kicks around all day long and keeps things interesting for Andrea at night as well. She is such an awesome girl, she hardly complains, she's just been happy as a clam through the whole thing. The guys at work ask me all of the time if she's "changed" or been acting "differently" yet and all I can say is "No, she's wonderful!" So there's that.

Next, Andrea GRADUATED! Mostly. She's on track to finish her last two online classes by the beginning of June, and then she'll be officially done. She got to do the ceremony already though. That was a fun day! Her parents and mine were able to go and watch her walk. The speakers had brief and interesting talks, and they read the graduates names very quickly so that the whole thing was over in two hours or less.

We had planned to meet some other family at the Texas Road House to have a celebration lunch, but it was closed. We went to the Olive Garden . . . it was busy. So we ended up going to Flour Girls and Dough Boys, a quaint little bakery type place here in American Fork, which ended up being the best place of all. They have delicious soups and sandwiches, and they have wonderful desserts.

After lunch Sarah, Caleb, Alanna, and the boys came to hang out at our apartment for a while. They played with my nerf dart, colored, and jumped on bubble wrap. It was a lot of fun, I love being around all of them.

This is a picture of Andrea with her graduation gifts. Mom and Dad Perkins bought the cool painting of Christ walking on the stormy sea, I got her the tulips, Sarah gave her a baby bouncer, and Mom and Dad Wright gave her the other flowers and a card with a little something inside if you know what I mean ;)

I'm very proud of my wife for working so hard and finishing school! I'm so happy that she has a degree and that she persevered even though it was really hard and miserable sometimes. Congratulations Andrea!

Now me. My school came to an end as well, I didn't graduate yet though, that's in three years. How fun, huh?

This semester was awesome! I love my art classes. At the end of the semester usually people have papers and tests to do . . . I had paintings and sculptures to do. The sculptures are pretty fun but they aren't really my thing. Here's one of the sculptures I made with paper.

Now painting . . . WOW! I have always been pretty good at drawing . . . and through the year I've found that in just about all of the media I've drawn with I'm pretty good, but painting is another story! I found painting to be incredibly difficult, frustrating, impossible . . . and completely AMAZING! I hate it and love it, it's just so fascinating! I'm determined to be good at it someday. The painting below was a final assignment where we were to imitate the technique used by Chuck Close in his paintings. It was HARD! Mine doesn't come near the quality of his, or the quality of half of my class's paintings, but I worked my butt off on it so there!

So now we're having summer. Andrea has been spending her time working part time, doing online classes, and doing a water aerobics class with her two good friends Britney and Amanda. I have been working a lot. I work for a company that sells power tool equipment, including lawn care equipment, and it's spring. We are busier than it's ever been before and it's been great because I've been able to work overtime! Besides that, we are both going through a Hypnobabies course every Saturday morning and we're trying to keep up with the homework! Hypnobabies is a birthing method for those of you who haven't heard of it. We love our teacher and we love the classes.

So there you have it. Thanks for reading. Goodnight.

Nothing big, just an update

Hello all. It's Luke again, filling in for my very busy and nearly 6 months pregnant wife. Look at her! Gorgeous isn't she?

A lot has happened since we last posted about that homemade butter. I won't go into too much detail but I'll try to touch on everything a little bit.

I guess I'll start with Passover. My Mom obtained from some neighbors that used to be in our ward a little booklet of a passover ceremony, LDS style, and she has made it a tradition in our family to celebrate passover every year near the end of March. It's really cool because it goes through all of the things that the Jewish passover ceremony does like leaving a door open and a place set for elijah at the table, eating bitter herbs dipped in salt water, matza, drinking wine (we use grape juice of course), eating horseradish (if that's how you spell that), all the while reading different little things that talk about the bondage in Egypt, etc. etc. The difference is it's been modified to talk about how the saviour has already come n'stuff I think. You know, to tell you the truth, even after doing it 3 or 4 times I don't really know what happens, and Andrea and I showed up late this year so that didn't help . . . I guess it's time that I started paying more attention. At any rate it's fun, alright? Eveyone gets to read, sing, and eat their little bitter herbs n'things in turn so it's a very involved and non-boring ceremony in my opinion. It was extra fun this year because along with our family we had Andrea's family and a few of the Sparks family as well. It was a ton of fun.

It must've been that week that I turned in my portfolio and application to the U of U Graphic Design Program, and that friday I found out that I had been accepted! Woo-hoo! We were pretty excited about that.

Then it may have been the next weekend that it was easter. On Saturday Evening we went to Layton so that I could go to priesthood session with my Dad and brothers. That's always nice. It's fun to see old friends from high school there at the ol' stake center. When we got home we dyed eggs with Caleb, James, Paul, Jackson, and Alanna. That was really fun too. I was trying to teach Paul how to put the egg in the dye without splashing or breaking the egg and he kept pulling away insisting that he could do it himself. Later, I splashed the dye and HE told ME to be careful and not splash. That was humbling . . . he's only three (right sis?) Alanna kept sampling the dye, and Jackson had fun experimenting with as many colors as possible on one egg. Mom bought doughnuts as is tradition (she always buys them when we go to priesthood for a treat when we come back). Andrea spent the entire evening making hot cross buns. It took FOREVER! Luckily while we were waiting for the darn dough to rise in-between stages of the recipe we got to watch "The Blind Side" cause Lauren brought it with her. We ended up not getting to bed until like two!

That morning we woke up to watch the kids go and do their easter egg hunt. Grandma gave them silly string to play with as well, so we shot each other with that a bit and then Jackson and Paul said we should use the rest on Caleb's car, so I helped them as any uncle would.

After that Andrea and I went to her house to watch the rest of conference, and it was also Dad Wright's birthday. So we had a fun time there and then as is tradition in the Wright fam, we all sat down and told Dad something that we really love about him. It is such a cool tradition! I love it. It's weird, cause I'm definitely an introvert (those of you who know me can attest to that) but on these birthday things in the Wright fam it's pretty easy to express your feelings to each other. I dunno how to explain it, it's just awesome and I'm glad we do it.

Besides that it's just been a lot of school. OH! Andrea is going to do her graduation ceremony next week I think it is! She's still one class short but they said she can do the ceremony if she promises to finish by august, so she's going to do it! We're both very excited and I'm very proud of my wife! So that was the big news for this week.

Do you all like how I put in every detail that crosses my mind? One last picture. This one is almost candid . . . Andrea told Kaden that if he touched her tummy he might be able to feel Peter (yeah, his name's Peter) kicking, and immediately everyone had leapt across the room to put a hand on Andrea's belly!

Looks like Peter won't be wanting for attention for a loooong time!

Well I think I've said enough. Have a great week everyone!

WAIT!!! ONE MORE THING!!! I have to tell you about banana treat. It's an amazing dessert that Andrea and I have been making. Get out a pencil and paper, cause you're going to want to remember this recipie. You will need . . .

Sliced frozen bananas

Milk

Put sliced frozen bananas in a blender. Put milk in the blender. More milk makes more of a milk shake texture, less makes a soft serve ice cream texture. However you do it, don't submerge the 'nana's completely in milk, just almost. I'm sure that any sort of milk would do (rice, soy, cow, whatever). Blend it up. Serve.

IT'S AMAZING!!! You don't even put any sugar in it or anything, it's just a completely wonderful dessert that may even be good for you!

We encourage you to try it.

NOW I'm done.

Homemade Butter!

I saw instructions on someone's blog on how to make homemade butter, and had to try it myself. It seemed deceptively easy, but when I tried it, it turned out to be just as simple as it seemed! It was too much fun! All I did was pour almost a quart of heavy cream into my bosch blender (a kitchen aid, food processor, and etc. would work just as well), turned it on, and about 7-10 minutes later it was butter! And buttermilk, too! After rinsing it of as much buttermilk as I could in cold water, we took a picture.

Wonderful, isn't it? Luke keeps checking on it every once in awhile. He keeps expecting to find it turned all soupy or something, he can't really believe we made butter! Ha ha ha! If you want to take a similar plunge into adventure, the post about making it can be found here: http://www.kozycarrierblog.com/search/label/Homesteading.

Andrea's Birthday

My birthday was so much fun this year! I was showered with love and fun surprises. We had the traditional family dinner with my fam and Luke's parents on the Sunday preceding my birthday. My mom made some delicious enchiladas and the most beautiful spring birthday cake I've ever seen! I will have to post pictures once I can get a hold of them. After dinner we all gathered in our family room and everyone went around saying something they appreciate about me. This, too, is a family tradition, and let me tell you it is just so nice! It's so nice to hear all your siblings and everyone tell you how much they love you, at least once a year. It turned out to be a great day.

On my actual birthday that Wednesday I woke up to surprise Toaster Strudels for breakfast! They are one of my favorite breakfast foods! (That should really be dessert, considering the sugary fruit-flavored filling and icing on top!) I ate three of them immediately, and consequently felt rather sick. Then, rather than give my body a break, I ate the FastBreak mom and dad Perkins had given me for my birthday (my favorite candy bar) and several oatmeal cookies that night. My body was seriously displeased, as it had every right to be, and I swore not to eat sweets again for awhile. I didn't last. Sweets are too yummy! But I have been good about just having a little bit on the days I do have it, so I feel pretty decent about that.

The following Saturday Luke took me on a surprise date. We went out for lunch at a little place near our house called "Flour Girls and Dough Boys." They make soup, sandwiches, meat pies, and desserts all from scratch, and it was soooo good! We tried a tomato basil soup that was divine, as well as a chicken and guacamole panini and a fresh green salad. We topped it off with a mint brownie (the kind with a layer of mint ganache on top, and a chocolate topping over that). It was very rich, but very good! Luckily we were just sharing one, since they are huge! I certainly couldn't have eaten it all on my own, and Luke had to finish it off for me as it was.

After that we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D! Now, I have never in my life seen a movie in 3-D, and I was slightly worried that it would freak me out if anything came flying at me out of the screen, but it ended up being so cool, and not the least bit invasive. :) Also, my opinion on the movie itself: SO MUCH FUN!!!! I was completely expecting it to be somewhat weird/creepy, considering how the posters make it look and the fact that Tim Burton is the director, but it wasn't! It turned out so cool! Luke and I want to own it for sure. I would suggest everyone go see it! There is a somewhat scary creature in it (the Jabberwocky), so maybe little tiny kids would not like that part, but other than that it was so fun and fanciful, and just great!

After that we went to Barnes and Noble to look around, and I found a book called Raising Boys that I decided to buy after sampling a chapter or two in the store.

Thus my birthday was one of endless bliss and happiness (aside from the sugar damage mid-week). :)

A Wish Come True!

Hello Everyone, it's Luke. I thought I'd take the pleasure this time to post about my upcoming greatest joy: MY LITTLE BABY BOY!!! Or "our" little baby boy I suppose. As you can see from the sonograms that I have provided, he's the handsomest little guy you'll ever meet.

This picture is his hand. If you can't tell he's saying "Please, please, hold the applause. I know I'm amazing already, thank you."

Here you can see him curled up inside Mommy from above. The two long horizontal shapes are his legs, the halfway cut off part on the right is his head/chestish area, and I believe that the diagonal swoosh is part of an arm.

This picture is his profile.

This one is a confirmation of his boy-ness.

This last one is his tiny foot!!! Isn't he just adorable! This is so much fun for me! I love it!

It was funny when we were there with the Sonographer, Philip, because he said "it's a boy!" and Andrea said "How can you tell?" and Philip whispered to her "He has a penis!" I'll never let her forget that. It was such an amazing thing to see him there all developed and looking just like he should and he was even kicking and moving around! SO MUCH FUN!!!

The following is our beautiful baby boy from the outside at 19 weeks:

Isn't Andrea GORGEOUS? Like I said, the kid doesn't have a chance. With genes from a gal like her and a guy like me, he's destined to be a heartbreaker.

After we did the sonogram thing all I had on my mind the whole rest of the day was babies! I just can't wait for him to be here! When we got home that evening we went to the library and picked out a baby name book and "The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD that I, yes I, had on reserve and we spent the remainder of the evening going through EVERY boy name in the book (about 30,000). It's going to take a lot more work than that though. The book had some pretty stupid names, it even suggested "Primerica" as a name. Girl names are easy for us. They just have to sound nice, pretty, and somewhat classic. Boy names are TOUGH! You can't just name him anything. The name's gotta be strong and steadfast, and worthy of a man like he's going to become, you know? So we'll be working on that for a while.

We also found a little break that night to watch the "Happiest Baby . . ." DVD. It teaches you how to calm your baby when it's crying and upset. It was awesome! I hope that stuff really works. In fact, I was so excited about the techniques that I had to try them on Andrea to see if they would make her "The Happiest Wife on the Block." So I swaddled her:

She claimed she hated being so confined, not being able to move and all that, but as you can see from the picture, she's clearly loving it!

This is Luke, signing off.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was always one of my favorite holidays growing up. My mom would often make us heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry topping and whipped cream for breakfast, and you got to give little Valentine cards to everyone in class and make cool pouches or boxes to put them in, and of course there was tons of candy! My Dad would bring home roses for all his special girls too, and who wouldn't love that? Thus, Valentine's has always been a favorite with me and Luke has done a wonderful job of making it a special day for me too. This year he woke me up bright and early to see my surprise roses. He also got me two Bath and Body cream lotions and body wash all in my favorite Japanese Cherry Blossom scent. I am so pampered!



I really have the best husband in the whole world for me. He always does simple little things for me that make me feel loved and beautiful. To show him my appreciation for him, I gave him Valentine's balloons with heart-shaped love notes inside and a bag of his favorite cherry Juju hearts. I wanted to put them inside the balloons too, but after a long fight with the first one I gave up and just gave him the bag. Have you ever tried to put candy in a balloon? It's HARD!


After doing some spring cleaning, making a trip to the D.I., boxing up some of our stuff to put in storage, and going grocery shopping, we enjoyed a delectable dinner of fettuccine alfredo with red peppers, broccoli, and chicken in the sauce. It was sooooooo good.


Wonderful as the whole day was, we didn't escape without a bit of a tragedy. We made heart-shaped pancakes with strawberry topping and whipped cream for breakfast to keep tradition, and naturally had the butter out to put on them. Well, I was going back for seconds, and I knocked the top of the butter dish off the counter and it shattered on our kitchen floor. This wouldn't have been such a big deal, if it hadn't been the very butter dish that Luke proposed to me with. I bawled for an hour, and poor Luke had to sit and hold me the whole time. Ha ha ha! It was pretty devastating. But I've decided maybe it's better that it happened now, so that later on when one of our poor kids accidentally broke it (as break it they must, sooner or later) they wouldn't have the wrath of their mom come down on their heads. Luke's going to make a new one, and it now seems inevitable that it too will end up broken at some point, but now we'll just laugh and add it to the pile, so to speak.

The remains of our butter dish.


All in all, it was a wonderful, simple Valentine's Day, and, aside from my devastation with the butter dish, I wouldn't have had it any other way!