Assorted pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Micali, Elijah, and the winter landscape. Enjoy. Our favorite is Micali climbing into Eli's crib which is temporarily in the kitchen/living room. She climbed up on the couch, then crossed the end table with a lamp on it, and crawled in beside him.

Passing of a great leader

For those who may not know, and those not of our faith, President Gordon Bitner Hinckley passed away last night of old age. He was 97. In the LDS faith we believe in modern revelation through a prophet of God. President Hinckley was the prophet and president of the church. It was not wholly unexpected but since he accomplished so much good in his life, it still is a loss. The following link has more details.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

I'll keep you updated on the changes that will happen soon.

The loooonnnng week

Aside from having a new baby, Micali running a fever of 104, neither one sleeping well for the first few days, this week was going fairly well until Tuesday. To preface this new dilemma, let me explain the mail system up here in Alaska, at least where we live. Nobody has the mail delivered to their house, it all goes to the block or street corner with the metal conglomeration of boxes-all to be opened with a key. Now, when you first order your box, they, the illustrious postal service, provides you with two keys, one of which disappeared shortly upon finishing up the major fixing up of the house. Therein lies the problem. One key left. If you lose it, you pay a substantial amount to have your box rekeyed. The question then is where to keep this key. If it is on either of our keyrings, then we must turn off the car, not something you want to do at 10 below, in order to open the box. We have left it in center console of the main car we have been driving which was working well, until I decided to take a jog down to the mailbox early last week. Commonsense would dictate that I should return the key to the car upon arriving home, but since I thought I was on the cruise with my parents I ran down in just my pajama pants and a sweatshirt, so I was ready to go inside. Then, our loveseat, which doesn't love me nor let me sleep, reached up and, unbeknownst to me, swiped the key out of my pocket. Thus we could not open the mailbox all week. Luckily, I received some inspiration as to where the key was located and wrestled the loveseat for it back. I won. And we were blessed with a multitude of gifts inside. I had carried Micali down to the box because I figured it would just be mail, but the poor girl had to walk a portion of the trip back because my arms were full. How exciting...until I realized they were all for Micali and Elijah. Sheesh. I guess I really did fall that quickly down the totem pole. Moral of the story: Don't lose your mail key or sit on the couch with it in your pocket.

Elijah's first bath video

His bath was given by our male nurse-Jan-whose attention to detail during delivery, post-delivery, and at 3 in the morning is impeccable.

Please excuse the immodesty of Eli.

How mothers do it?

Well, since I haven't posted in about a week, let me explain my new insights on life. Number 1- I have a newfound respect for my own mother's ability to take care of four young children (all under 5 was it?), fix wholesome meals, keep the house clean, and do whatever else she needed to do. I took this week off of work to help Kristen recuperate and boy have I learned what it means to try to keep cleaning. It seems like an endless flow of dirty dishes, clothes, floors, etc. If anyone can explain how mom's get this done and still maintain their sanity, please share. I'll admit that I did have time to organize the cupboards, closets, and nap still, but it simply never stops. Especially at the first part of this week. On Sunday last, Micali came down with another fever (we believe due to her teeth that are slowly making headway) and was up almost the whole night or sleeping with daddy on the coach. Note: loveseats are fine and dandy for sitting on but do not make the most comfortable sleeping arrangements. Anyway, so I was trying to tend to her all night and for the next 3 nights while Kristen dutifully attended to Elijah in ways I cannot. The exhaustion for all four of us (Eli was less than estatic that the milk hadn't come in by that point) seemed to get more and more each day until we were finally able to get some solid hours of sleep.

Needless to say, I am impressed at those wonderful moms who make it look so easy. It has been wonderful being home with the whole family home this week. Thanks for all the prayers and well-wishes.

New Pictures

Coming Home

Elijah's birth pictures as a slide show

It's a boy!!

Kristen, Micali, and I would like to welcome the newest addition to our family-Elijah Lucas Peless. Since the meaning behind the name is a big deal to me, I will share the meaning behind Eli's name. (Kristen will most likely call him Eli for the rest of his life, I am undecided). Elijah meaning "The Lord is my God" or an alternate is "God is the highest" and Lucas, my personal favorite meaning, "Bearer of Light." So, Elijah has a strong heritage to live up to since there are some incredibly important people with his name have lived on this earth.

The baby stats:

Birth time: 5:14 p.m.
Birth date: January 18, 2008
Birth Weight: 7 lbs. 11 oz.
Birth length: 20 1/2 inches
head circumference: 14 inches
Sex: Male
Parents: Lucas and Kristen Peless
Siblings: Micali Rebecca Peless (who still isn't too sure about this baby thing)
Hair color: Technically listed as auburn though it looks brown like Micali's was with a hint of red in it.
Length of delivery: Kristen called me at school at 1:00, I made it home at 1:30, we had a doctor's appointment already at 2:30 so we went to that, she was dilated to a 6 or 7 by that point so we went to the hospital. By 4:00 p.m we were in the room, I went to the cafeteria at 4:20 to get some food, the doctor was paged to come quickly at 4:40, and Kristen delivered, drug-free, at 5:14. Is this girl amazing or what? I know she's my hero.

Both mom and baby are doing well. I am home with Micali so she can nap. She stayed the night at some friends' house last night, but Kristen missed her so I went to get her early this morning.
I am posting some pictures on here now.
Later

Do we make it too hard?

Tonight Kristen and I were discussing issues that are surrounding the should-be happiness of some distant friends of ours. I say should-be because, for one reason or another, they have let themselves get misguided on the path of happiness, and, consequently, on the plan of the salvation. We then turned our thoughts to how we were raised and then how we would like to raise our children...which any day now will include two precious souls. I was reminded in our discussion of a wonderfully insightful talk given by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled, "A Prayer for the Children" (Liahona, May, 2003) Go to this link if you would like to read it in its entirety which I wholeheartedly recommend.
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=6d2fee9ba42fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1
Anyway, he discusses how too often well-meaning parents lead their children astray. Quoting Richard L. Evans he said, "Sometimes some parents mistakenly feel that they can relax a little as to conduct and conformity or take perhaps a so called liberal view of basic and fundamental things—thinking that a little laxness or indulgence won’t matter—or they may fail to teach or to attend Church, or may voice critical views. Some parents … seem to feel that they can ease up a little on the fundamentals without affecting their family or their family’s future. But,” he observed, “if a parent goes a little off course, the children are likely to exceed the parent’s example.”
After viewing the potentially eternally damaging effects of lack of teaching in our young friends' lives, we have resolved to wage the good fight throughout our life in helping our children, and their children, to hold to the truth that we have found that the world desperately searches for. We feel blessed to have been born into the church and to know for ourselves that we have a specific purpose in this life.