December- Dicembre

Matt's birthday, we got him the gift of hair by giving him that wig.  He is bald.

Matt e' un collega di Ismar.  Per il suo compleanno gli abbiamo regalato una parrucca dato che e' pelato.

Tamales

Franky's birthday

Chruch Christmas party, poor Sofia, she looks like a lizard.

Festa di Natale in chiesa, povera Sofia, sembra un rettile con quel coso addosso.

We got a couch for the downstairs!!!!

Abbiamo comprato un divano per la taverna.

Christmas

Natale

This year it was perfect timing.  It snowed on Christmas eve and we woke up to this.

Quest'anno madre natura ha fatto si che nevicasse durante la notte della vigilia e ci siamo svegliati con tutto ricoperto di bianco.

View from my room

Vista dalla mia stanza

December 26

26 Dicembre

This year we spent Christmas alone and decided to spend New Years with family.  We have been really busy with house renovations that we have spent a lot of time on our own.  It was a much needed break from all of this, unfortunately I didn't take many pictures.  We had a great time with family and friends.  We will be back this summer.

Quest'anno abbiamo passato il Natale da soli e il capodanno con famiglia in Arizona.  Ultimamante siamo stati molto impegnati con i lavori in casa e non abbiamo socializzato con molte persone.  Questo viaggio ci ha dato l'opportunita' di staccare la spina e stare un po' con i nostri familiari e amici lontani.  Torneremo in Arizona fra 6 mesi durante l'estate.

Las Vegas

Cousins

Cugini

Geppetto and me - Family room

This room is a lot smaller then it looks.  I didn't have time to take a picture with the carpet intact, Geppetto jumped the gun and started tearing before I had the time to take a picture.  Good for him.  We really thought we could get this room, and the boys room done in a week before family came over for the weekend....well it was a little unrealistic.   It always takes longer to get things done.

The plan for the family room is to install wood tile, change the lighting, install thicker baseboards, paint walls, create 2 accent walls and wainscoting on the back wall to help give the room a little character and texture, create an area for a kid's computer like we had at the beloved house where we used to live, and some new furniture would be nice too, since we don't have any.  

Tearing out the carpet

   

 Once the carpet has been removed the white paint underneath needs to be scrapped in order for the thinset to have a better bond to the cement.

It feels like this room is taking forever....

We have had company over, a wedding to go to, Geppetto has been sick, I have been sick, grapes that needed to be made into juice, a garden removal, and leaves to rack and place on top of the garden plot. That is a few reason's why we are still working on this.  It's been a month, we are hoping to get this done in the next couple week.

We decided to add some wainscoting to one of the accent walls, to give the room some texture and create a focal point in the room. The top and bottom board are 1x4.5 and ones going up and down and across are 1x3.  We also changed the dimming lights to a more modern look.

I love how this wall turned out.  It seems easy but there is a lot of work behind doing a wall like this.  A lot of measuring, cutting, leveling, sanding, filling gaps, sanding some more, caulking and painting.  It is a very time consuming project.  But what a beauty in the end.  This wall will really dress up this family room.

Grouting time!

November - Novembre

Elder Peck - Anziano Peck

This is the 1st missionary to leave on my side of the family.  Gabriele is going to the Berlin, Germany mission.  We picked him up November 9th at the Salt Lake city airport to take him to the Provo MTC. He is a really good kid and will go a great job trying to spread the Gospel and serving the Lord.

Questo e' il figlio di Gaia, Gabriele, il primo nipote dalla mia parte ad andare in missione.  Gabriele servira' per 2 anni nella missione di Berlino in Germania.  Il 9 Novembre e' arrivato all'aereoporto di Salt Lake city e noi lo abbiamo portato al centro di addestramento dei missionari in Provo, a circa 45 minuti di macchina dall'aereoporto.  E' stato bello vederlo una ultima volta dato che ci siamo persi il suo discorso in chiesa.  E' davvero un bravo ragazzo che fara' un la volonta' del Signore in predicare il Vangelo di Gesu' Cristo.

In the MTC underground parking

Nel parcheggio sotterraneo del centro addestramento

Hair cuts - Tagli di capelli

Sofia had beautiful long hair, but she had learned to make knots in her hair and they wanted to cut them, so it was time to cut it short to prevent her twisting her hair.  Emma just wanted a new do.

Sofia aveva dei capelli lunghi molto belli, ma ultimamente aveva imparato ad avvolgere delle ciocche di capelli e poi fare dei nodi che poi voleva tagliare con le forbici, quindi per prevenire ho deciso di curare con un bel taglio. Emma voleva solo un taglio corto.

Jenny Oaks concert where Denisse played in.

Concerto di Jenny Oaks dove mia cognata Denisse ha suonato il violino.

 I wanted something different, change my look....this was not the haircut I had asked for....
Volevo un taglio diverso, qualcosa di diverso....ma questo non e' il taglio che volevo....

This was what I asked for!

....era questo quello che volevo!

After the first days spent in shock I have learned to like it even though it was not what I wanted.  I figured it will grow.  All I can say is that I am not going back to that lady anymore.

Dopo un paio di giorni sotto shock, ho imparato ad abituarmi al taglio.  Non e' un brutto taglio e' solo che non era quello che volevo.  Che dire...da quella non ci torno piu' , sono in cerca di un'altra parrucchiera.

BYU Pathway Worldwide Inaguration

YES, Sea Quest again!

Si, di nuovo a Sea Quest!

THANKSGIVING 

 This was my very first Thanksgiving dinner I had to make in 19 years of marriage.
The turkey turned out good, which is good because I usually don't like turkey.  We had a few vegan choices at the table thanks to Denisse and Chris.  It was great!  We played until almost 2 o'clock in the morning.

Vegan turkey Wellington
Wellington di "tacchino" vegano

Layton city park lights

Luci al parco della citta' di Layton

Salt Lake Temple lights with the laurels

Luci del tempio di Salt Lake con le laurette

Silhouette of my kids for the living room

Silhouette dei miei figli da esporre in salotto