Return to Reality and Snow!

FINALLY getting back to home, we had to return to reality as well. I had to accept that my life was going to be different. I had to help my hubby find a new job. I had to support and still be there for him.

It was kind of a shocker to return home after a month away.

C was happy to be home. :)

In one of the suitcases, we took home some of my inheritance from grandparents.

I was soooo happy to get home and see that nothing was broken! I was sooooo worried!

This was the day after we got home. It was all cold outside, so I wore my new sockies from Rachel and C took a nice, long bath until the water was cool.

Told ya there was lots of snow! This stuff stayed for a really long time!! When it did melt, more followed! It was crazy for Boise to get that much snow!

That first Saturday we were back, we went to J's parents' Christmas party. It was a breakfast and you could see Santa and also see the nativity. It was cool how they connected Santa with Christ's birth the way they did. They had Santa in this room, then a pathway through to another room (they had starry-looking plastic to make the hallway secluded from the rest). Then in the next room, they had a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus all dressed up in a manger in a darker room. It was quite special.

C was NOT ok with Santa. Way too scary. hahahahahahahaha

C had to get out just about every toy he had to say hello to it

Playing video games with daddy.

C didn't know what to think of the snow, but he handled it well!

Brrrrr!!!!!!!

haha Ty's in Florida. Punk!

Since J didn't have his job, I was on the look out for subbing jobs. As if in an answer to prayer, one of my old friends from my student teaching asked if I could sub in her class. I've been sooo thankful for her asking for me specifically!

This is a tree in front of their school. The frost was beautiful.

Along with all of our frosty, snowy world, we also got inversion. It was CRAZY!! It stayed around FAR too long. I'm not even sure how long it was. Man, oh man! At the end of it, everyone was leaving on the weekends to seek higher elevation where they could be above our blanket of dreariness!

Pretty frozen tree.

The lake was…mostly…frozen over… :) 

Thankfully, J didn't fall in. He backed off before it started to crack. Yikes.

Heading home from Arkansas

Normally, I don't think that going home from somewhere requires an entire blog post.

Except for this one.

It was the longest time I've taken to fly anywhere ever. (that made total sense. don't worry.)

So we were to head home on Dec 3. Our flight was somewhere early in the morning like 7. 

We got to the airport at 5 and found the longest line I've ever seen to check in. 

A lady in line said to her friend that online it said our flight was 7 hours delayed. WHAT?!?!?! 

We looked it up, freaked out, called United, and got it as sorted out as we could.

We decided to go back to my parents' place for the night and leave the next day. We'd leave in the afternoon, fly in to Chicago instead of Denver (? I think?), and get to Salt Lake that night, spend the night at J's cousin's place, and drive up to Nampa the next day. 

This is C going up the escalator, down the escalator, up, down, up, down, up, down for a long time while Daddy got things figured out.

Mom came and picked us up and C promptly fell back asleep on the way home. (All those tears saying goodbye that morning were wasted since I saw her and Dad later that day!!)

I really enjoyed staying just a little bit longer. Everything feels so rushed when you have a set time to leave. So when you get an extra day, you're able to relax and enjoy rather than rush. 

Mom and Dad took us out to dinner and we bought a christmas tree!

(p.s. my mom is the sweetest, most amazing, wonderful, cutest ladies I've EVER known. And will ever know.)

Reading with Daddy

The next morning, we decorated the Christmas tree. C loved the ornaments.

Remember the y'all shirt? My sister got one, too! It was funny because every time one of us wore it, the other did as well. "It's like we have ESPN or something!"

So we were off to Chicago! 2 hours late. Sooo annoying! It wasn't enough time to warrant having my parents pick me up again, so we stuck it out at the airport. Everyone knew the adorable boy with the blue eyes who walked around and around asking for their food.

The flight was ok. :)

THANKFULLY, he fell asleep. It's exhausting because he just needs so much attention but wants his space!!

We got to Chicago quite a bit later than our flight to Salt Lake left. So while J went to demand a hotel room, C and I ran round and around and around.

We didn't get a room for free, but we got our flight figured out for the next morning and a coupon for hotels.

This is C and me on the way to the hotel in Chicago.

Brochures are excellent at occupying a 15 month old who has been bored and needing his space for the last day, pretty much!

He zonked quickly and J and I ordered overpriced, but still yummy, pizza that got there at 10 pm. Ugh.

So, wearing dirty, used clothes, we got on another plane the next morning. (we had the big bag checked back on the 3rd) There were Brazilians on the row in front of us who loved speaking Portuguese with J and playing with C. He loved them and asked to sit with them frequently, and, bless them, they took him for a little here and there. I should have slept for those 5 minutes… :)

We got to Salt Lake, J's cousin took us to her house, where our car was, fed us, and let us change clothes, and we were off to drive the 6 hours back home.

It took forever. We were exhausted. Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful. I did, however, have to sing to myself the last hour to keep myself awake. Yikes!

Arkansas

I'm still working on catching up in my blogs. It might take a while still. :)

So back in November, after my lovely YW in Excellence program, I got to go to Arkansas! 

I took C with me to stay there for 3 weeks before J came for the week of Thanksgiving.

There are a loooooooot of pictures, so bear with me!

Here's on the way down. It was tough. I was thankful for the people who were very sympathetic and kind when he wouldn't hold still or stay quiet.

All he wanted was his own space. And he didn't get that all that day.

This is his own space that we found. :)

We sent this picture to J on our first Sunday when we were on our way to church.

It was so wonderful to be with my family. I loved spending time with my sister and mama. 

Side note: My sister has been on a life-changing journey. She has lost about 100 lbs. When I saw her, I was quite amazed. It was different from what I'd seen in the pictures. She was so different! I can't express how proud and impressed I am of her. She's a rock star.

When we went shopping, we called my dad and went out to eat lunch. It was fabulous! Yummy food, cool stores… It was great!

C was easily wiped out the whole vacation. :) He fell asleep no matter where he was. It was adorable. This picture is when he fell asleep in the car, I took him inside, changed his diaper and then took it.

This is in the grocery store. I love the arm hanging out the side. :)

While I was there, I was given the task of going through and thinning out my belongings.

I had a lot of stuff to throw away. Here are some awesome things I took pictures of. :)

Lots of wedding planning magazines.

A whole bunch of candles that I didn't keep any of. lol

A true, bonafide fact.

My only 100% in Pre-Cal

Lots of picture frames

My sister has "Gelish." It's an awesome nail polish that you cure after each layer, so it stays on for 2+ weeks depending on your nail growth. This is the first one I did of a VERY dark purple.

This is my sweet boy crammed behind the couch so he could see out the window.

And this is him crammed between the toilet and wall in my bathroom.

Mom, Siz, and I went to an expo-thingy where lots of people brought their product to sell. It was HUGE! I enjoyed looking at all the crafts and things that people were selling. I got this bracelet and a t-shirt that had the shape of Arkansas and said "y'all" in it. :) I love the south.

One great thing about Arkansas is that it is rather nice in the fall, so you can play outside with cousins!

Meg and Lu

While I was showering, C learned how to flush the toilet and open the lid, so I had to restrict his access. I wheeled in his crib every day and he sat there with books and toys.

The next sunday picture. :)

My mom is the choir director in her ward, so we went to practice every week and C enjoyed playing with anything and everything he could. :)

He loves touching finger to finger with people.

There's the y'all shirt. :)

Playing outside.

C learned how to walk in Arkansas. It was like he saw all of his cousins walking and decided to follow suit. :)

Second nail color. I did a much better job on this one.

C put this here as if to say "here, mom, hold this!"

C was dying to get out of the car, so I unbuckled him. Then he did this. I got serious mommy points when I took this picture instead of getting him out. heehee

I LOVE this stuff. I call it reindeer poop. 

 C is a cutie.

C and me on our way to Ev's Arrow of Light ceremony

My beautiful niece.

Kissing his mommy on the cheek. :)

His dad is now his scout leader. How fun is that?!

C started to hold my hand when we went in the car. Made me so happy!!!

My parents have a gate that my dad made out of rope and zip ties to put up so that kiddos can't climb the stairs. C knew how to climb stairs pretty well, but didn't know how to get down. When we took down the gate for a baby shower at my mom's place, he suddenly figured out that if he wanted to climb the stairs, he had to climb down the stairs, so he learned how!

Third Sunday! 

My dad is the Bishop (the leader) of my parents' ward. He was invited to speak at an interfaith Thanksgiving activity put on by the Rabbi next door. It was beautiful. I was so very proud of him.

When I was a kid (Who am I kidding? Maybe even now…) I threw epic tantrums ;) 

I am pretty sure karma is real. 

I'm getting it back with this kiddo. He flings himself to the floor, screams, writhes…. it's epic.

This is C after smacking his head on the floor on purpose during a tantrum. Notice the big spot on his forehead...

Shopping at my favorite accessory store, Charming Charlie.

Then J came!! The tuesday before Thanksgiving. I cried. I'm such a goob. :)

Wednesday is "pie day." My sister in law has a FABULOUS apple pie recipe without cinnamon. Pretty amazing, right? 

This is the peel and core pile after all of our apples were cut and peeled on the fancy apple-peeler-cutter-corer thingy. :)

Beautiful isn't it?

I was very proud. Everyone loved it, too. Win!

 We had lots of people over for Thanksgiving dinner. We talked and chatted mostly, but then we played Bananagrams. This was Lu's board. She won a few times. ;)

The day after Thanksgiving is our day to decorate for Christmas!! I love decorating the day after Thanksgiving.

J brought DND so he could play with my nephews.

Eden is very very exclusive of who is allowed to touch her. So this picture is an awesome triumph. :)

This was funny. When she took away the cars, he'd cry, but then she'd cry when he took them from her. 

One of the goals that my sister had when she lost all her weight was to climb to the top of Pinnacle Mountain. So we carried C up. Everyone in my family except Jake and my parents climbed it! It was awesome. And exhausting.

This is at the bottom of the mountain at the playground.

My kiddo loves spicy food. Oh my goodness. He loves it.

A guy in our ward gave J some jobs to help him with setting up lights to earn some money. He got really good at it. My sister told me that he's not allowed to do that anymore unless he is there to take it down. :)

Meg and I did the bench. Lu wanted in the picture. It was cute.

C loves to give kisses through the bars. :)

A sweet girl who is friends with my sister invited us to go to the zoo. It was fun to see the animals with C.

Next post is about the trip home. Quite the adventure!

It was sooooo nice to go home and escape from the real world for a while. I loved going. And I love home.