Roosevelt Volleyball Tournament

What a weekend I just had! It was loaded (literally) with a minivan full of girls, Mini Cadbury Eggs, card games, broken toilets, late nights, no sleep, early mornings, McDonalds, laughing at unearthly hours of the night, score keeping, and oh ya…a little game called VOLLEYBALL! We just came back from the most amazing weekend of volleyball in Roosevelt of all places!

For the last several years I’ve been playing volleyball with the same bunch of girls almost on a weekly basis. Whether it’s playing outside on the grass, in a church, or with a city league, we always seem to manage to have fun and this weekend was no exception.

The pool play portion of the tournament started Friday night at around 6:00pm. We ended playing several games that night until they finally closed the gym around 12:45 a.m. We were slightly tired to say the least! All six of us shared the same hotel room with one bathroom and a broken toilet. (We got pretty good at finding creative ways to make it flush!) Although I was exhausted, I must have been too wound up from playing because I could not sleep and apparently I wasn’t the only one. At 4:00 a.m. Misti Loveland turned to me and asked, “Have you even gone to sleep yet?” followed by a “Me neither!”

The next morning we finished pool play and ended up placing in the top seat. Shortly after that, the actual tournament part began. We ended up winning the first team we played in 2 games to 25, but the second team was a whole different story. They were a really good team and although we won the first game, we couldn’t pull together for the second two. So we officially lost and got placed into the loser’s bracket. All games in the loser’s bracket were only 1 game to 25 and single elimination. If we lost again we would be out. We proceeded to play really tough teams, but amazingly enough we kept winning. There was one team in particular that we were playing and we were down 14 to 20. They were stomping on us, and the bad part was that our team is generally not a comeback team. One good play however turned that all around. We came back and won 25 to 15! That game put us in the championship game against the same team that we lost to earlier that day. In order to win, we had to beat them 3 times in a row. They honestly thought that they had it made, and I can’t blame them. They had an amazing team and definitely the upper hand, but our team was so determined. All three games were extremely close, but when it was all said and done our team won all three and ended up taking first place! We were so excited! For our prize we got volleyball sweatshirts and celebrated over pizza at Pizza Hut.

OUR TEAM:
Outside Hitters: Misti Loveland & Me
Middle Blockers: Jenn Boyer & Melanie Partridge
Opposite: Jane Chang
Setter: Charee Neeves

Super Strong Dad!

So last night at dinner PJ commented to Mckay, "Do you know that there are other people stronger than me?" To which Mckay replied, "Ya dad, only two. Heavenly Father and Jesus." Oh how I love the sweet comments that kids make. I hope that Mckay always thinks of his dad as SuperMan. PJ says he is happy to take 3rd place.

Valentines Weekend

Our family had a great Valentines weekend, not necessarily because we got showed with gifts, but because we got to spend the whole weekend with those we love most.

On Friday night our whole family, on the Cutler side, meet together and went up to the Draper Temple Open House. Although it was a really late night we had such a good experience walking through the temple with our two kids. In our Family Home Evening lessons, we have been talking about the importance of the temple and it was really neat for us to watch the reverence which our kids showed as they walked through the temple. Madison kept saying, “Jesus House” and Mckay without us telling him, kept his arms folded the whole time. It’s amazing that at such a young age they can feel the importance of this holy house. For me, it was another witness of how close children are to our Heavenly Father and how we should be more like them.


Draper Temple


The next morning for Valentines, we made our family’s favorite breakfast-crepes. At breakfast we gave each other our little Valentines. Mckay made a cute card for Madi, and PJ and I got Mckay Lego Star Wars for the Wii. For our Valentine gift to each other this year, PJ and I decided to get Rascal Flats concert tickets. The concert is on February 26th and I can hardly wait! PJ has never really liked going to concerts, but I absolutely love them. For him to do this with me is a real act of love! Thank you Sweetheart! I love you!

Later that day, PJ took me to see Confessions of a Shopaholic at the Spanish Fork movie theater. Although it’s a cheesy girl movie, I really liked it. (PJ teased that’s because I can relate!) After the movie we picked up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s (Mckay’s request). PJ’s mom and Judd joined us for dinner and brought dessert. For the rest of the night we enjoyed a fun night at home playing Star Wars on the Wii, Go Fish, and watching another chick-flick—I really am loved! PJ kept asking when we are going to have a boy’s movie night. Poor guy! Maybe he can finally watch the new Batman movie while I’m playing volleyball in the Roosevelt tournament this weekend.

What's New with the Peery Family

After this last month we are convinced that we must have the most patient kids in the whole world. This last month has certainly been a busy one for our family and our wonderful kids have still been smiling through it all. Here is just a glimpse of the happenings around our house.

PJ:
PJ’s life can be summed up in just one word: GMAT. For the last year, PJ has been studying for this test with hopes to get into BYU’s MBA program. Studying for this test has consumed nearly all of his free time and has taken a lot of sacrifice from the whole family. He finally re-took the test a few weeks ago and is now in the process of applying to BYU’s MBA program. We are hoping and praying that he will be able to get into school this fall. With work, Young Men’s, and applying for school, he amazingly enough still puts us on the top of his priority list. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful guy in our lives.

Andrea:
For me this month was a busy one mainly because I got asked to speak in church and that stresses me out! A few weeks ago PJ tattled to the bishopric that I haven’t spoken in church since before Mckay was born. Being the kind bishopric that they are, they didn’t want to deprive me of that privilege. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with PJ. (I still think that he should owe me backrubs every day for a month!) Sadly enough, preparing for this talk consumed all of my spare time because I’m such a worry wart. Like most things however, when it was all said and done, I felt blessed to be able to study so much about the temple.

Besides studying for my talk, my spare time has been consumed with practicing the piano for our ward choir. Although this can be stressful at times too, it also has been a blessing to continue to develop one of my talents. On top of this, the last few weeks have been jammed packed with volleyball games, playing with kids, cleaning up messes, teaching piano lessons, helping with reading and homework, working out, playing house and Star Wars, dressing up like princesses and helping PJ apply for BYU. I’ve decided it’s a blessing to be busy.



Mckay:
The other day Mckay was spot-lighted at church and received his favorite candy bar. Instead of eating it all by himself, without us saying a word he split it into four equal pieces so everyone in our family could have a bite. His maturity amazes me! He is so kind and thoughtful and is such a good brother. He has such a desire to do what is right and already has a strong testimony. A few days ago PJ and I bought him one of those big bouncing balls from Old Navy and he lost it. Without us prompting him at all, he said a prayer. A few seconds after that, he felt like he knew where to look for his ball. He quickly found it and came up the stairs with tears in his eyes. When we asked him what was wrong he said, “I just feel so happy that Heavenly Father answered my prayer.” He then went on to relate the whole story.

Besides being a genuinely good kid, Mckay has been busy with pre-school, playing with his friends, reading new books, and playing on the wii.

Madison:
Madison is certainly our little princess who keeps us on our toes. She loves to dress up in princess clothes and play house. Her language has really developed over this last month. She tries to copy almost everything that we say. It’s nice to be able to actually communicate with her. Madi is my little buddy and still my baby! We think that she gets cutter everyday. We love her so much!

For Fun:
Despite all the busyness, we have still tried to make time to do fun things together as a family. The day after PJ took the GMAT he took Mckay on a special date to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. We have also made time for weekly date nights, tennis on the wii, game nights playing Go Fish and Skipbo, and sledding.

All dressed up for a fun day in the cold

Mckay, Madi & Daddy having a good time sledding