It's that time of year!

Yes, when the Peck girls head to the pumpkin patch... Here are some of our pictures...



and here are some links from years past at the pumpkin patch:

http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2008/10/fun-week.html
http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2007/10/pumpkins.html
http://kevinandleslie.blogspot.com/2007/10/past-pumpkins.html

More to come... COSTUMES and Trick or Treating!!!

Soccer has begun!

This fall, Ellie has started her athletic journey and she has started with soccer. She was super excited about signing up and even more excited when she found out she knew 4 out of the other 5 kids on her team. In fact, the coach of the team are some of our good friends, Aaron and Becky Travis. She has been doing so great and it's been fun helping her understand that though we've ingrained in her to always share, when she's on the soccer field, that ball is hers and she is to do what she can to take the ball away from the other team and kick it in the goal! :) It's been a big laugh watching these little 4/5 year olds learn the game. Here are some of our pics from the season:





And here are 2 videos of Ellie's 2 goals in the last game... pretty awesome!!



and goal 2

Sorry for the delay!

Ivey Grace Peck was born on Monday, October 5th at 3:24pm!! She was 7 pounds and 14 ounces and 20 1/2 inches in length. It was a VERY early morning checking into the hospital at 5:30am. They started the pitocin at 6am and we were rolling! Around 3pm game time happened and after a few minutes of pushing, here she was!

We spent 2 days in the hospital and came home on Wednesday. Thankfully, my parents were at the house taking care of the other girls.

It's been a great almost 2 weeks with 3 girls around our house. Ellie and Halle both L*O*V*E their new sister and want to hold her all the time. They love helping me get diapers and finding blankets and pacifiers.

We are basically on house arrest for the next few weeks, so if you want to come by, just give me a shout and we'd love to have you over! (We're all staying home from school, church, and anywhere else lots of kiddos are to keep all the viruses and flu's out of the house)

Here are some of our pictures of the new world of 3 kids we have embarked on!

The Vanilla Orchid

If you are in the Austin area, you NEED to check out The Vanilla Orchid! My sister in law Molly is a chef and has started a home delivery/catering business over the past 6 months. Every week she offers an amazing menu filled with really great foods. And as good as her main courses are, her sides, desserts and sauces are just as good. Place your order by Sunday night and she will deliver it TO YOUR HOUSE or office on Wednesday. If you aren't home, just leave a freezer bag out and it will keep on your porch until you get home. Or if you have a friend who has been sick or maybe had a baby, set it up for the meal to go to their house as a special treat!

This week, she has an amazing comfort food filled menu including
Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf and Pork Roast. YUM!

AND if you order by tomorrow (FRIDAY) you'll get free cookie dough with your order so you can make her amazing cookies at home and hot anytime!

Her website is Http://thevanillaorchid.com Click now and make your order for Wednesday!!

The name

Ivey Grace Peck... yes, we have finally made a decision!! This is the name we've been going back to for the entire summer and for some reason, just couldn't make it official. But last night at dinner, Kevin and I decided for sure on both the first and last name.

So where did this come from??

In all reality, I'm not sure... one day I was just driving and the name Ivey just entered my mind... I think I was thinking of my friend Courtney which made me remember the names of her nieces... one of which is Ivy. We went to dinner with some friends that night and I said it... no one seemed to oppose. I came home and decided to do a search to see if maybe there was some Biblical meaning to it. Sure enough, I found a meaning to a Hebrew word Ivah, which means "God's great gift." Done. Basically, we were done with the first name at that point, but had more trouble with the middle name. Both of our girls (and even my sister and I) have family names... Ann and Elizabeth. So does that mean our 3rd girl needs another family name for a middle name?? That was our conversation all summer. We had several considerations throughout our chats... from Marguerite which was my grandmother's name or maybe Pearson which is Kevin's mom's middle name and grandmother's maiden name. But at the end of the day, we realized that we wouldn't use either of those with the first name. Does that make sense? We have Ellie Ann and Halle Beth... they just come out easily. One friend told me about a friend that she had that was Ivey Grace... and there it was... it rolls off the tongue and when put with the name Ivey, "God's great gift of grace" ... perfect!

We love it and are so excited to be able to officially have her name down!!

Oh and by the way, if you are curious of the spelling, I didn't really have a preference between Ivey and Ivy, but Kevin said, "She's not a plant." So, there you have it! :)

And if you are keeping up with our friends the Suhs, not that they wouldn't be already, but these two girls are destined to be bffs forever... I mean, Ivey and Evie??!! So fun...

A trip through California

After NYC, we came home and Kevin wrapped up work the last week of June because for the month of July, he was taking the entire month off for his sabbatical. We had a great month!

To start it off, we went to California for a week. We started out in Southern California in Dana Point (just south of Laguna Beach). We had 2 days at the beach and the girls couldn't have had a better time. Day 3 was spent at Disneyland. Ellie loved it and had a blast and Halle was pretty disinterested. It wasn't until after the trip that she decided she liked to watch cartoons on tv. After Disneyland, we spent 2 days in Bakersfield with Kevin's grandmother and his uncle Danny. Those days including lots of time in the backyard in the famous Smith tree, trips to Dewars (an ice cream shop), and fireworks on the golf course in the backyard on the 4th of July! Our final leg of the trip, we drove up north to Marin County and San Francisco. The first night in Marin, our hotel just happened to be next to the county fair grounds and they were having their summer fair. It was awesome! The weather was amazing and the scenery was unreal. Our last day in CA was spent wandering through the red woods at Muir Woods and then an afternoon in San Francisco visiting Fisherman's Wharf.

It was an amazing week... here are a few pictures:




Next up: Pine Cove Family Camp!!

NYC

So, i thought to get caught up on our lives, I'd do a couple of posts about our fun summer!

This summer, I turned 30! I still can't believe it. Time is truly flying by...

Kevin kept telling me he had something up his sleeve, but wouldn't tell me anything. So on Monday, we were driving up to Dallas for the day and on the way he gave me a card that told me he was taking me to see Wicked (the musical) for my birthday. I was super excited because it was coming to Austin in August and thought that was what he was talking about. Until he told me our tickets were for Broadway and that we were leaving on Wednesday morning for 4 days in the big city!! I was beside myself. Kevin has been several times over the past couple of years for work, but I haven't been since March of 2001.

We had a blast to say the least!

Here are some pictures of our trip:




Next up: California!!