A Contest, a Rock Band, and an Analogy for our Life

To start off, I posted this Contest on Facebook the other day, but feel free to cast your votes here as well:
PLACE YOUR BETS! When will my lovely wife Amanda give birth? Winner receives a custom illustration, created by ME especially for YOU!

Here are the statistics to help you make your decision:
Due Date according to menstrual cycle: Dec. 26
Due date according to 20-week Ultrasound: Jan. 8
Due date according to December 15th Ultrasound: Jan. 4th

Previous children’s births:
Maddy: Induced 1 week after due date.
Joel: Induced 3 days after due date.
Abe: Induced 6 days after due date.

Reply to this thread with the Date and Time you think Elliott will be born. (EX.: 12/25/2009 at 7:05am—but we hope that’s not the answer!) The closest to the actual time is the WINNER!

Here are the guesses so far:
Molly (Amanda’s sister): 12/30/2009 at 9:30pm
Christine Jerrell Fimbres: 12/31/2009 at 10:15pm
Stephanie Ross: 1/10/2010 at 10:10am
Reed Peterson: March 27, 2036
Debbie Lambson: 1/5/2010 at 7:42am
Amanda Peterson: 12/29/2009 at 11:30am
Haley (Amanda’s other sister): 12/24/2009 at midnight
Matt (Amanda’s brother): 12/21/2012 at 12am
Kevin: 12/25/2009
Andy: 1/4/2010 at 6:35pm


Today, the kids entertained themselves by forming their own rockband, called “Jam!” (as in, jamming on guitar, but also incorporating the first letters of their names: Joel, Abe, Madison. Clever, huh? They thought of that themselves!) The band featured Joel on vocals, Maddy on keyboard, and Abe on drums (boxes of puzzles were used as a drum substitute). They made a poster (click to EMBIGGEN):



Here’s their hit song, written by Joel:
Take a look at your past
And look how it is
Maybe you will find
Just who you are
So believe in yourself
Yeah, believe
You gotta believe

A couple of days ago, a lady from the ward called and asked if we needed anything for Christmas. Amanda explained that we were ok and that we would rather have other families get help, but the lady said, “Well, you’re on the list, so we’re getting you some presents and a Christmas dinner.” Today they showed up with several bags of presents and a box of food (including a turkey). We were so grateful, and have been overwhelmed by the help we’ve gotten the past several months from family and church members.

We want everyone who reads this blog to know how much we appreciate your help, whether it’s been in the form of money, food, words of encouragement, or even a desire to help (even though you’re in similar circumstances). We can see the hand of the Lord in our lives more and more each day, and while there are still times when we feel temporarily overcome by despair, hopelessness, and a fear for the future, we are just as quickly shown that God is real and that he has plans in store for us.

You guys will probably remember how our trip home from Disneyland last December was a miserable, stressful experience. Due to snow, ice, and closed roads, our 10-hour drive home turned into a 40-hour trek full of closed roads, crowded hotels, detours, and dark desert roads filled with flooded, muddy runoff. But it’s what we had to do to get home. Even the following day, roads were still closed to go the “fast way.” We realized that sometimes, the shortest distance between two points is a 40-hour detour.
I feel like that could be the theme for our life this past few months. I don’t know why we couldn’t go the easy, direct route in life, or how long it will be before we’re back on track. I suppose that that was the risk we took by taking the trip to Disneyland. There was nothing WRONG with choosing to go then, it was just the natural consequence of going when we did.

But we made it through that ordeal—we were united as a family (and the kids were so understanding and well-behaved, even with all the extra driving). Conditions aren’t ideal, but are still better than they could be. A hotel room with a broken heater was better than spending the night in the car. Similarly, while we aren’t as financially stable and comfortable as we were last year, we still have a roof over our heads, food in the cupboards, and are all healthy and safe.

I don’t know what the next year will bring, but as Elder Uchtdorf mentioned during Conference, eventually, things do get better. If we endure and work hard, we will eventually get through that 40-hour detour and back onto the road home (and heck, once we got to Vegas, we had In-N-Out Burger!)

Merry Christmas to All of You, and best wishes for 2010!

"Christmas is Coming, the Goose is Getting Fat!"

Joel is so excited for Christmas, we have had to restrain him:



We CANNOT believe how fast this month is going. Next week is Christmas! With my busy animating, the kids doing a lot at school, and Amanda in the final weeks of giving birth, there’s not much time to wonder where the time is going! Let’s do the usual person-by-person run-down (we’ll go youngest to oldest this time):

ABRAHAM:

Sometimes I wonder where children learn their behaviors. Some things are obvious—My kids sound like me or Amanda when they yell at each other or tell jokes. Their opinions on movies and shows are heavily influenced by OUR opinions.
Abe, as with many younger brothers, copies his older brother CONSTANTLY. Joel takes off his shirt: Abe takes off his shirt. Joel puts on socks: Abe puts on socks. Joel takes off ONE sock: Abe takes off one sock. Joel screams nonsense words: Abe…well, you get the idea…
Here are the two of them in their improvised superhero/Super villain outfits:






But on Sunday at church, Abe did something I’ve never seen any of the other family members ever do. They were just starting the Sacrament, and as we were sitting there waiting for the bread, Abe stuck his hand down the back of his pants, pulled his hand out, and SMELLED HIS FINGERS. While restraining our laughter and shock, we made sure that when the bread came, he used his OTHER HAND, and took the FIRST PIECE HE TOUCHED. Obviously we later had a discussion on cleanliness (and a hand-washing in the bathroom).



JOEL:
On December 5th, Joel was baptized and confirmed. It was a very nice meeting. Another ward was in charge of the program, though, and decided on a whim to ask all the kids in the chapel to come up and sing the baptism song. Well, one of them started with verse 2, which got ALL the kids singing verse 2, followed by verse 1, then verse 2 AGAIN.
Later, while Joel and I were changing out of our baptismal clothes, the Primary President did something really nice: she had all the family members write Joel letters (or draw pictures), congratulating him. Then she bound them in a book for him to keep. Very cool, and a nice memento.
Here are some pictures of us at the baptism:





In completely unrelated Joel news, here’s a song he wrote one day (I’ve corrected spelling and punctuation):
You’ve gotta find the way
To believe in your one heart.
It’s the only heart you got
So use it good.
If you don’t use it good,
You’ll end up being sad
So use it good, yeah,
Use it good.

He loves to make up songs, many of which are surprisingly awesome.

MADISON:
The 5th Graders at Maddy’s school do a “wax museum” every year, where each student learns about (and dresses up as) a famous person in American History. Then they all stand by their desks while students and parents walk past. Each student has a “button” on their desk, and if you press it, the student recites a spiel about who they are dressed as. Maddy chose to be Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female medical doctor (I’m sure her mother didn’t influence her at ALL in that decision…) Here she is in costume:



She did a great job, and even though she’s notoriously shy, she performed her speech clearly and confidently—even her teacher was surprised.

AMANDA:
Yes, the “goose” that’s “getting fat” in the blog title is Amanda. But she’s got an excuse. The question of “When is she due?” continues. More and more evidence points to a December 28th due date rather than the Jan. 8th date the Ultrasound Tech gave. She’s already dilated to a 3, and at this morning’s checkup, her uterus was measuring “44 weeks.” It also appears the baby is still breech. They’ve scheduled yet another ultrasound for Tuesday morning to determine what’s happening in there, and to make sure there’s not too much amniotic fluid. Also, if the baby’s breech, they’ll try to turn him next week. There could be a C-section in Amanda’s future.

ANDY:
I’m still animating bikes. I’m really getting a feel for how to animate “TV Style.” You might think the low budget TV animation you see is simple, easy-to-do crap designed to tell the story with the least amount of work possible. Well…it is, but it’s also an art. Each shot I start animating, I need to plan out, determining which layers will be animated, what movements will be re-used, and figuring out if the animation can be re-used in another shot. It’s like creating little animation libraries of re-usable pieces. But every so often, I get a nice, juicy “emotion” scene to animate and can let out some of the Disney animator in my soul.
Decorating for Christmas

In Family News, we decorated for Christmas. Looks pretty much like the previous Christmas. Here are the kids and the tree:



Have a great Christmas everyone!!!