Back in Virginia

While Jamie was in Utah, I stayed in Virginia to finish classes and study for finals.  It was so hard to be away from Jamie and Lydia, but I was able to study for 10 or 12 (or 14) hours a day, something I felt like I needed because I'd missed so many days of classes when Lydia was born.

On December 13th, I had my first final (in my Criminal Law class) and I was shocked at how rigorous the test was.  The test was basically a short story several pages long full of conspiracy, armed robbery, and different types of homicides.  We had 4 hours to discuss all the legal issues in the story and make arguments about the likelihood of conviction, death penalty, etc.  When the proctor called time, I had more than 17 double-spaced pages typed up.

I was so drained after the first test that I couldn't imagine going back and doing it again, but I survived them all!  On my way out to Utah on December 21st, one of my flights was cancelled and I had to spend the night in Roanoke.  It was miserable to have to spend one more night away from family. I finally arrived in Utah the next day and was so happy to start the break.

 (Jamie) Lydia was making big changes and started sleeping longer at night. 6, 7, 8 hours at a time.  Two nights, she slept 10 hours straight! What a glorious blessing.  It's amazing how much better we can handle things with a little sleep. One morning Loren woke up to this face :) Obviously Lydia feels better after getting some sleep too.

We spent the weeks jumping back and forth from the Pecks to the Rigbys. Christmas was especially fun as we got to talk to Sarah and Nate who are both serving missions. They both sounded great and it was fun to show them Lydia over Skype. We spent the morning in Avon and the afternoon in Hyrum. Above is Todd and i duking it out on Just Dance for the Wii which they got for Christmas. Todd has skills! I'm pretty sure he beat me that time.

Mom Peck pulled out the jumper one day to see how Lydia would like it. Turns out she LOVED it! She basically just twirled around in circles since she can't jump yet but that was entertaining enough for her. 

Lydia Christmas morning! We love our cute little reindeer. 

On December 29th we blessed Lydia. We gave her the name Lydia Nicole Peck and Loren gave a wonderful blessing. Lydia wore the dress I was blessed in so it was pretty neat. I'm glad she still fit in it! It was a wonderful day and Lydia loved all the attention she got.

At the last minute, Loren and I decided to go with my family to Idaho to visit my grandparents for a couple days. It was so nice to see them as I can't remember the last time I saw them. I was glad they were able to meet Lydia. We played games and had a wonderful visit. 

One of my favorite parts of the trip was Lydia's photo shoot. Kristen, my sister in law, came over and took the cutest pictures! She seriously put so much work into it and they turned out incredible. I was glad Lydia decided to cooperate! We can't thank Kristen enough for the time she spent on those photos. Here's a just a few- I'm restraining myself from uploading all of them.

Ok, I'll stop for now :) We had SUCH a great break and I can't believe it's already over and we're back in Lexington. Our journey home was rather stressful. Our plane was delayed Friday night in Detroit, so after waiting 9 hours at the airport, Delta was kind enough to get us a hotel for the night. We were the lucky ones apparently because we had a baby. Everyone else had to either sleep at the airport or fend for themselves. Thank you, Lydia! We got to bed around 1:30 am and then got up at 6 to head to the airport. Needless to say we flew into Roanoke a little tired and worn out but happy to be home again. 
  We miss you all and will update again soon!