2

My little redheaded boyfriend turned 2 yesterday! If I could freeze time right now I would. I can't believe how fast they get big. It was like yesterday he knew he was big & decided to start talking! A part of me was a little sad. 2 seems so big. He's on his way you know.

* He loves "duper man" aka superman. thus the party theme. All he wanted was a duperman cake.

* He loves to do whatever his big sister is doing.

* He loves to make messes.

* He loves to eat.....anything & everything.

* He hates nursery

* He's a momma's boy for sure but is the spitting image of his dad.

* Loves dogs

* Loves to ride the scooter/motorcycle with his grandpa.

* He is a dare devil with absolutely no fear!

* I know he will be the cause of my first ER visit.

* He can be such a charmer which often makes scott & I roll our eyes cause he can also be so naughty.

* He has the best wavy red hair

* He makes us laugh every day. Chase & Tess usually can't get enough of him & laugh at everything he says or does.

He pretty much got to do anything he wanted yesterday. Like drinking a whole can of sprite.

Dad made his cake for him! Luke absolutely loved it of course.

You've come a long way my little NICU baby. I Looove you little Lukey!!

January 31st already?

I cannot believe January is already over!

I haven't posted about our little trip to Hawaii that we took on New Years Eve. We had a great time but didn't take too many pictures. I guess we were just really enjoying it instead of worrying about getting a good picture. It was heaven on earth.

We were on Maui & stayed at the Grand Wailea which was still decorated for the holidays. It is our most favorite hotel that we've stayed at!

Just the hubs & I went this time with some friends. It was a great little break & sure hard to come back to reality.

Kate & Danny B. above & Ryan & Ashley below. Kind of sad we didn't get any more pictures than that of our fun group.

It was beautiful of course! I feel so lucky to have been able to visit there a few times! But we were ready to come home to our crazy little rugrats back home.

Don't know what they are doing in this picture but kind of encompasses a typical day at our house :)

Palm Desert in December

It was our year for Christmas with the Warner Crew. Steve, who just got back from his mission, really wanted to go on a family vacation. Soooo, we headed to Palm Springs the week before Christmas.

Palm Springs isn't just for the Snowbirds anymore!!! We had so much fun.

My favorite thing about this family picture is my niece Elle. Her face is awesome. And out of the 5 different shots of the family we got, she has that same face in all of them!

Yes, it was warm enough to swim in December! The pools were all heated so even though the temp was high 60's, the water was great. Our kids LOVED the pool & the slide! Luke's an animal in the water.

Luke & Chase perfected their putting skills.

We took a lot of walks enjoying the amazing weather. Luke found the turtle featured above. He ran off at one point & became fixated on this rock which actually turned out to be a turtle :)

(My 6 year old has mad photo posing skills!)

The first snow we've seen all winter was actually in Palm Springs. We rode the Palm Springs Tram up a big mountain & actually played & froze a little in the snow. The tram ride was really neat.

All in all a great little vacation. My kids had a blast being able to play. So much so that we cancelled our plans to visit "the happiest place on earth!"

I'm leaving out a lot.

Like our visit to Uncle Cole's who feeds us every time we are in So Cal.

And our nightly family games. They've dubbed me "The Ruthless Competitor" which i think is a bit harsh. But I do like to win. And the boys in the fam are sore losers.

Christmas

I can't believe it came & went as fast as it did! We had a great Christmas. It was quiet & a lot of time spent with just the 5 of us. Here are just a few from the 2 days of festivities.

The Kids all dressed up to head to Aunt Jill's house for a yummy prime rib dinner. I thought I'd get their picture before their clothes/faces were covered in food.

I love these outake pictures of our little photo session. Can you imagine how life will be for Tess with these two as her brothers as she gets older. It makes me happy.



Santa made Luke's life with these 2 superman figurines. Too bad he lost one at church an hour later :( He is obsessed with superman. He brings me his superman toys & demands that we play. So the past couple of days have been spent flying around the house making superman noises (?). I tried to make superman going "night night" as part of our play (& to be done playing superman) but Luke doesn't buy it. He's too smart. He's got me figured out.

Love this time of year with my kiddos & love teaching them & remembering the birth of our Savior. I loved having Christmas on Sunday & wish that it was that way every year. I thought a lot about His humble beginning this year. A king born in a manger. No designer crib. No perfectly decorated nursery. Just a stable & a bed made of hay. So simple & so perfect.

Until next year tree! We will say goodbye to you tomorrow. I'm ready to declutter!!!

Merry Christmas card

Our cute friend Bri Webb designed our Christmas card for us this year & did such a great job! Getting Christmas cards thru snail mail is one of my favorite things about the season! We just got back from Palm Springs & have one day pretty much to get everything ready for this weekend. Eeeek!

being mom

I've had a few experiences lately that have really got me thinking about life.

Deep I know.

But one happened just this week that I can't stop thinking about.

I traveled with Scott to LA for a short business trip he was doing. We met a lady named Jewel who was very successful, educated, very pretty, & well traveled.

We ended up having to be together for quite some time so I made an effort to get to know her & what not. She is 42, not married, lives in NYC, LA, & San Francisco. She knows many people, she has many contacts, she's worked for numerous big city companies doing marketing & what not. She told me about how she gets hit on by much younger guys because she looks much younger than 42. Her family is the most important thing to her & yet not once did she mention their names nor did she know how old her only nephew was.

Needless to say we were 2 very different gals but she was very nice & could hold conversation well so I didn't mind the differences at all & I don't think she did either.

EXCEPT

When she asked me what I did back in Utah.

That was when I told her that I was mom to 3 little kiddos.

BAAAMMM!

It was like a steel door had been closed right on my face. She didn't even acknowledge this very big detail & only detail she had asked for so far about my life.

She in fact laughed & turned away looking for someone else to talk to. I'm sure someone else who she thought was more educated, contributed more to society in some way or another, had something more to offer.

It was my first experience where I felt "in the world but not of the world!"

I have thought about this experience so much in the past 2 days. I am so grateful for it. So grateful for my 3 kids who keep me grounded & remind me what is most important in this life. So grateful for a husband that when I told him about this conversation said "Little does she know that you are doing the greatest work possible on this earth." So grateful for my testimony & the Holy Ghost that reassures me of how right the things I am doing in my life right now really are.

Like I said, our conversation pretty much ended right there but she did warm up a little more as we had to spend more time together. Being a mom is not super glamorous. I sometimes get those feelings inside that make me feel entitled to something more. Like "hey, I'm an educated woman. I could go out there & have a career instead of worrying about my laundry & what is for dinner."

But I choose my 3 little ones instead.

I choose to have a home where we try to fill it with meaningful, lasting things like our family.

Speaking of family, here are a few pics from Thanksgiving in St. George.

The table was set so beautifully. My mom did such a great job but right as she was making the last few things for dinner she got super sick. It was so sad. It still was such a great dinner we were just bummed mom couldn't enjoy it more.

The kiddos were able to play with all their cousins so they were pretty much in heaven.

Now on to Christmas......

Belize

So I'm going to start out by saying that this is a really long post. But for sure one of the most memorable events i've experienced so it deserves to be long. Plus I'm not sure if anyone still blogs anymore (what with instagram being the hot thing & all - love it) but thats ok cause I think of this blog is something more for myself anyway. I started it way back before Chase was even 1. And now he is 6!

BELIZE

So a group of Pinnacle salesman & some wives headed down to Belize for a humanitarian trip. These boys & girl had to donate a certain number of their sales to the cause & then go down & work to build a home for some families with nothing. I have never done anything like this before. I had no idea what to expect. It was for me a huge eye opener. I feel like I came back with a whole new perspective on life. Which is why we can't wait to go back again. I need to be reminded of the blessings in my life. Especially the small ones like toilet paper.....cause the village of Chunox where we worked didn't even have much of that.

This is on our way to the village of Chunox. We had to take 2 of these ferries that were powered by hand to get to the village. We traveled on nothing but dirt roads. This is day 1 for Scott & I. I have many stories about our first night there but that may have to be a different post. It was an adventure to say the least.

There is someone doing this job 24 hours a day.

This is the village bar

That steaming pot of -who knows what - was our lunch for the day .....yummy, right next to the dirty clothes pile :)

This is Bri & Atom Webb. Atom was the one who organized this whole trip & did such a great job. And his sweet wife Bri......she is prego. She was such a trooper. I don't know if I could have done it being pregnant but she didn't complain or stop working once.

This is the front entrance to the Garcia family's home. You can see the poverty that they live in. It really offers no protection from weather or anything else really. They are a family of 8 living in this.

Dalia is the mom. She is such a hard worker. Always doing the laundry by hand or making her corn tortillas for their next meal. I really liked her. She always had a smile for us.

Here is where the kids play. I'm not sure how safe that teeter totter is.

I'm standing at the entrance of their home. You can see the mattress behind me with no sheets or blankets.

Megan is a fellow st. georgeian!! We all helped Dalia with making the corn tortillas.

This is how the dome (home) starts out. They blow up the large white contraption first & then cover it with cement. Inside is a kitchen, bathroom, etc. Super nice. YOu can tell I don't know much about the logistics of the whole thing.

The children were the sweetest things ever. I kind of really wanted to bring AnnaRuthie home with me :(

Jess with 4 of the 6 Garcia kids.

ok the food in the village was interesting. We were fed by a family in the village who helped us out during our whole stay. They were the more affluent people in the village. Their yearly income is about 4-6,000 belizian dollars which is about 3,000 US dollars. I didn't want to offend so I ate, plus i was starving but I'm not sure how I choked it down. I'm a wuss.

My hubby celebrated his birthday while we were there. Trapp's wife made him a giant birthday cake & we all sang to him. She was so proud. I thought it was the sweetest thing.

The Ladies

we worked mostly at the schools during the day since we couldn't do much on the dome. So this was the high school we helped paint. I loved the kids there. They were so shy yet wanted to talk to us so bad! School is expensive so not everyone goes. If there is a family with 4 kids usually just one goes. I can't imagine having decide which of my kids could not get an education.

The dome in progress.

We also worked at an Elementary School. Oh my goodness. The kids were darling! They all wear uniforms & act so polite. They speak English at school so we were able to talk with them. The little boy above loved the camera & i thought he was so handsome.

All the guys & the Garcia's

Another picture from the school

We had one free day before we left so the 6 of us (trey, jami, & the herrifords) hopped on a little plane to San Pedro. To catch a flight in Belize you only need to arrive 15 minutes before your flight leaves. & it is totally normal to have cell phone conversations while in flight. It was so crazy to me.

Aaaahhhh!

We stayed here one night before heading home. It was super nice.

And my most favorite restaurant of the trip. So good.

I have about a billion more stories & pictures but I'm done for tonight.

I am so grateful for my chance to do this.

As we head out for the Thanksgiving break, all I can think about is how blessed & thankful I am. It was great to help that family & another family had a dome started for them that will be finished later but I learned so much more from them.

They were kind & humble & loving!

The kids would hug us from the moment we stepped out of the van.

They were grateful.

We have way too many distractions here at home that I want to try to fix.

Home is so Sweet.

Our country is great.

My family is the most important thing!