Basket Case

Holy emotional train wreck today! And no, i am currently NOT pregnant. I was leading the music in church today and the opening song was O Canada. I have never gotten emotional singing our national anthem before.. but today was different. I'm far from home. I couldn't stop thinking about home. Then i started thinking about the awful flooding that has been going on in the Calgary area - especially the High River area. Lots of people from Cardston have been donating trailer loads and trailer loads of food, clothing, hygiene items, toys ect. Way over here on Statia we're hearing about it via Facebook and family. Three ladies in particular seem to have been heading up the relief. Shannon- i've taught her daughter dance in the past and was in one of Shannon's 'better-body-boot-camps', Letje- wicked awesome lady, so hardcore and cool, and Suzanne- my former AWESOME piano teacher. So during O Canada, my eyes were flooding but didn't overflow. Then i said the opening prayer. And that is where i lost it. I  thanked Heavenly Father for our home country and asked Him to bless it (with the flooding areas in mind in particular) Then I asked for a special blessing to be with a couple brethren in our group as their families have gone back home for a while. One of which being my old neighbour Katie. Holy Nelly. I seriously stood there trying to contain my self for approximately an HOUR. Ok not that long but it felt like forever. I hurried and closed my prayer and sat down. WELL then i had to lead the Sacrament hymn. Which was I Stand All Amazed. I just stood up there in front of everyone leading the music with my arm and not with my mouth. I couldn't sing. I had too many emotions and thoughts flowing through me. The previous mentioned and the fact that the girls and i will be leaving Josh here for a while as we go back home too. I'll have to work when i go home to pay for our flights back. (I'll mention here that the reason why we're going home in the first place is because i have a medical issue that needs to be taken care of.. to have it dealt with here would cost tickets to St. Maarten and a $1500 procedure... so the girls and i can fly home for $1500. So that's what we decided to do.) Anyhoo i'll be working full time at the Clinic...and as you can guess my sweet, angel, darling girls will not be able to come to work with me :( They will be in day care. Or as i like to call it, Jade Care, as my gracious friend Jade has offered to watch the girls for me. Bless her heart! My family will also be helping out where they can. Lucky to have such loving people in my life. Still the decision was so painful. I can't think about it for more than 5 seconds with crying. It's honestly so hard... So that on top of all the other things going on made for a great Sunday 'basket' showcase. Sigh. I must mention that i am very grateful that the clinic will be taking me back for a time-it is a wonderful place to work. But of course i would rather be at home with my girls where i'm supposed to be. Oooh. It really just breaks my heart. I'm sure i'll be a basket case at work for a few days too. I honestly couldn't even compose myself when i was standing up there today! I was covering my face with the hymn book at one point. Seriously, a basket case. OK! Well... prayers for me and my girls and Josh would be greatly appreciated. Props to all you moms out there. If you're at home with the kids, you are rockstars. If you're in a position where you need to be at work, i feel for you.

On a happier note! I took family photos for the awesome Erickson family yesterday. I let the borrow a few clothing items ect, for the photos and she handed me the bag of things and then Tiff said, " Oh, i think i forgot something." And she took a necklace off of her neck and put it around mine. It's a Statia blue bead! They gave it to me as a gift for doing their photos. I was so shocked and so excited!

Mommy and Fay <3

Mommy and Eden <3

Real

The title of this post should actually be 'Reality Check' ... but i thought that sounded too harsh. We recently had a little Relief Society activity last week on journaling. We were visiting and chatting about different methods of journaling and blogging came up. One of the sisters was telling us about some blogs that she really loved because the people were real. They didn't sugar coat their lives, they didn't make them selves up to be this perfect mom with the perfect kids, perfect life, perfect pictures, perfect craftiness ect. It got me thinking as to how i'm portraying myself on my blog. So I'm about to become a wee bit vulnerable. No -i'm not going to tell you my deepest darkest secrets, no -this isn't a pity party. This is just me. Real. Raw. Me

I've always been a busy person. Lucky enough to do all the extracurricular activities that i wanted. A kazillion dance classes, piano lessons, violin lessons, voice lessons, cheerleading, theatre productions, girls choir, ect. I think it's fair to say that i was good at all those things. I unfortunately never focused all my energy on one thing so i don't feel that i reached my full potential in any of those areas. I'm almost 23 years old and i still think to myself, I'm going to be a ballerina when i grow up.. and a broadway star, and make a CD, and be a movie star for disney,and and and. I want to be an amazing blogger, dancer, violinist, pianist, photographer, shopper, cook. I'd like to be a high school English teacher some day.... I have a pet peeve when people make grammatical errors and confuse words like 'to,' 'too,' and 'two' and 'there,' they're,' and 'their.' Yet i make such mistakes often enough myself. Hypocrite!  I want to be the perfect mom with the perfect kids and the perfect life.
The start of my 'realization' process began a couple weeks ago. Laundry. There's always so much laundry, the house is always a mess, there're always dishes to be washed. I realized one day that, that will never end. There will always be clothes to be washed, dishes to be washed, a house to clean. I'm currently not a very good house keeper - i'm a lazy sack of bones. A friend of mine had an incredible Facebook status a while ago.. it said something along the lines of being grateful for the piles of laundry because it means she has clean clothes to dress her kids in. She's grateful for the pile of dishes in her sink and on her counter because it means her kids have good food to eat. She's grateful for the messes in her house because it means her kids can play. And holy nelly. I'd love to have that attitude everyday!
I always considered myself a happy person. Sometimes i don't feel so happy. I have bad days, bad weeks, bad months. I don't do all the good things that i should all the time. I am quite the slacker. I lack motivation, i'm a procrastinator. BUT... That's just where i'm at right now.

I've realized that i can not do it all. No one can. And guess what? That is OK! Hallelujah! I love being a mom. That is true. I'm not a perfect mom. I feed my girls Kraft Dinner, i get impatient sometimes, i don't like letting them play with paint because the make a huge mess. But my love for them is perfect.

The important things are the little things. The little things are the big things. I need to remember to focus on the most important things and not let my dreams of 'doing it all' get in the way.

Hello Goodbye

The last few months have been full of Hello's and Goodbye's. Our friends the Wolsey's left Statia in April. We became great friends with them and Fay, Eden and Remy loved having playdates. Kayleigh and i could talk about anything and everything. I think we balance each other out quite nicely. We miss them a lot but are excited for their next adventure.

The Beckett Family. They also left the island in April. We miss them.

Jenna and Brook came for a visit!!! That was super fun! We packed in all the island activities and had fun hanging out. Fay and Eden loved playing with their Aunties.

We became good friends with these two, Caesar and Sylvia. They also left the island end of April.

Cole and Ciara! They left the island too :(

The Harker family arrived at the end of April. We were so excited to welcome them to the land of Statia. They've settled right in and i think they're enjoying island life :)


My neighbour and partner in crime Katie, left the island with her kids yesterday. (Andy is staying to finish off the semester) That was SOOOO VERY SAD! I could be my weird, crazy self around Katie. Lucy and the girls had lots of fun playing together. The girls also loved playing with Peyton and Stella. The girls and i are going to be leaving the island in a few weeks. I thought that i wouldn't be emotional saying goodbye to them at the airport because we'll be back soon too... but... that was not the case. I'm going to miss them a lot. It's a good thing the girls and i are going home for a while or else i would have been a basket case!









We all just get cycled through on this little island. We are so blessed to meet such amazing people.

Well howdy, hey, hi there! Just took a little looky-lou on my blog and realized that it has been WAY too long. So... Let me just fill you in here. Fay and Eden... little stinkers! haha They are growing so fast and talking a lot. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don't. It's hard to believe that they will be 2 at the end of the month! CRAZINESS i tell you! The little twiddles do the cutest things. Like morning snuggles for example. They come in and say,  "Hi mom."- in the cutest little voice.. the 'hi' is said like this ~ .. if you could say hi and follow that squiggle. OOH this is a buggy. The girls are practically potty trained! I say practically because they still have accidents every now and again.. they also still wear diapers for nap time and bed time. They love it when their daddy takes them to the park. They don't even get sad saying goodbye to me! I try not to get offended ;) They are really in to Winnie the Pooh right now. I'll do a fancy shmancy blog post for their 2nd birthday so hold tight for a few more weeks.

Fay and Eden- They LOVE playing in our bed.

Quite the mess-makers these days... must be almost 2 or something ;)

Josh created quite the romantic scene for me on Valentine's Day. He took me out to Zealandia beach where he had spent hours digging up a table and creating a beautiful ambience.











We hosted Easter dinner at our house and shared it with the Bridges, the Becketts and our new friend Sylvia. It was super tasty and i couldn't resist decorating.

Fay and Eden had fun finding the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid for them.

Josh has again done very well in school this term. He has gone out spearfishing a few times, he loves that. He always has quite the adventures. We played a little April fools joke on Facebook... We 'pretended' that Josh was in the hospital getting stitches for his shark bite. Hehe. Jenna CALLED in a panic. I was hilarious.. video to come it just needs some slight editing ;) ...I've been keeping quite busy with my latest "business" schemes. I have this (bad?) habit where i'll purchase something with the intent of making it into a mini business. For example.. Josh and i once bought a ...thing (for lack of a better word) that converts old film strips into digital images. COOL right!? Well we converted a few slides of my moms from her traveling days and that's about all we did. Another time i bought (Josh bought me) a cricut cutting machine. LOVE IT! My intent was to make boards/signs to sell at craft shows ect. ... didn't ever sell a single sing. Did a few for gifts. I have gotten lots of use out of my cricut though. Sadly, my cricut is not here with us on Statia :( ANYWAYS... back to my point... So i've been learning about my camera and taking lots of pictures and getting into photography. I have put a poster up at the school advertising my services. I've created a blog for my photography...CLICK HERE! to visit my blog :) ... Another 'expensive habit,' as Josh likes to call them, is my shellacking. Shellac is a nail polish that needs a UV cure. I also put a poster up at the school offering my services for nail painting.  So that's fun.

a little somethin somethin in the making

 The school's shipment that we order things to is supposed to arrive near the beginning of each semester. Next week is finals - meaning that the semester will be over. And guess what... no shipment! Don't even get me started on how frustrated i am with that! Apparently the shipment is arriving this week. I've heard Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Fingers crossed! We have some fun and exciting things coming on there! I am most looking forward to my spray adhesive. I'll finally be able to get some of my projects going! Wahoo! So stay tuned for some of that action!










I'm looking forward to the break and spending some time with Josh. Two of his sisters are coming to visit! Jenna -this will be her second visit to Statia.. and Brook! - this will be her first!

My little sweetnesses :) 

So Close Yet So Far

After a wonderful Christmas break back home in Canada we were looking forward to returning to our warm little island.  We left from Calgary bright and early... well, dark and early as it was 12:40am on January 6^th. It was, of course another very emotional goodbye.

During the flights the Fay and Eden were miserable. I can’t really take a guess at the ratio of pleasant and brutal, all I can say is that when they were brutal, it was nasty. So other than sad little girls, the flight from Calgary to Toronto was uneventful and so was our layover there. Our flight from Toronto to St. Maarten had left a little later then scheduled which resulted in our plane having to wait on the tarmac in St. Maarten due to heavy volumes of flights that were unloading and loading passengers. So once we finally got hooked up to the terminal and left the plane the lines for immigration were huge. So all of that resulted in us missing our flight back to Statia that evening. We were told we could attempt to wait for the next flight as standby passengers. We were desperate to get home so we checked our five suitcases and stood by. Evidently the flight was full and everyone had checked in. We collected our five checked pieces and dealt with “customer service” representatives. So Westjet put us up in a hotel and we had a much needed good night’s rest at The Towers hotel in St. Maarten. (Luggage in tow)

Luckily we were able to catch a flight to Statia the following morning at 11:00am. Here is where the story starts to get… interesting. We had finally got to Statia! We could see the Tidmarsh family and Steve Beckett waiting at the gate to pick us up. We were so glad to be back and the cool breeze felt so good. We waited patiently as we were the last in line for immigration. The immigration officer told us that we were not permitted on the island, that we had been there too long already with out having residency papers and would have to leave on the next flight. We pleaded with him, spoke to another worker, spoke to the manager, had the manager call to ask the person that he works under if he could just grant us 24 hours to figure everything out. Nothing. Josh asked for the number to call the person whom the supervisor works under. He called and the man hardly gave Josh the time of day. I begged the supervisor to please allow us to stay, there we were a family with two small children, who’d been travelling since midnight the prier day, exhausted and hungry and desperate to get home. Josh was supposed to start school the next day. He told us that he understood but that there was nothing he could do. Of course I was a mess. Thankfully, they let our friends take our luggage to our house for us so we didn’t have to haul it all through St. Maarten. We changed the girls diapers and thankfully Meg Beckett came down to the airport, gave me a big hug (which I so desperately needed) and gave us a bag of snacks for the girls to eat.

And back we went, tired and down trodden, to St. Maarten. –I must add as a side note that in retrospect it was a blessing that we missed our first flight to Statia, because we both would have been way too exhausted to have dealt with the situation. 

So what had happened with the residency papers?

When Josh was accepted to the school there were certain documents that we needed to have for immigration purposes, which he handed in. The admin building lost the forms before they go to immigration. By the time the school found the forms the police checks and the bank statements had expired. Josh knew this before coming home for Christmas and was planning on getting the paperwork done while home. He forgot. How ever he had called the school to ask if it would be a problem for getting back on the island and he was told that it would not be a problem. SO… that’s the paperwork saga.

Fay and Eden with Bro+Sis Wright.
(side note: that is wall paper in the
background...St.Maarten doesn't
really look like Alberta)

Back in St. Maarten, we called the Brother and Sister Wright who are serving a mission there. They are from Raymond. We told them our situation and asked if we would be able to stay with them for a night or two.  After renting a car we saw three students from Josh’s school and picked them up. Daksha, Mumtaz and Ali. We all we for gelato, Mumtaz treated us. That seemed to help our moods. Then Josh, the girls and I headed to the Wright’s home where they graciously aloud us to stay.

           

Luckily for us, the Bridge’s flew in the next day and thanks to Jenna, they brought our new police checks. They took our papers back to Statia with them and gave them to the lady who works for the school doing immigration. She had an appointment with the immigration people to file our paper work that Thursday, but unfortunately the fax of our bank statement had arrived late, so she couldn’t proceed with the appointment. Her next appointment wasn’t until the following Monday. BAH! NO! We needed to get home like yesterday! Josh was already missing days of classes, now he’d be missing an entire weeks worth! We pulled out all the ropes and our family and friends here and at home did what they could, weather it be providing some financial help or praying for us our just helping us stay sane. Haha. Might I just add here again, how grateful we are to all who helped us.

The most disappointing part of our status now was that no one who had a say in the matter seemed to care. Many phone calls and emails to the school admin were ignored and when answered, the responses were not anything close to, “I’m so sorry for this inconvenience! We’ve/I’ve done everything in my power to try to sort out this mess. But now we will just have to wait. Again I’m sorry.” Nope. Nothing like that. In fact the responses included round-a-bout excuses and phrases such as, “I don’t do favors.” It is most disgruntling because the school lost our papers. We did not. So alas, we just simply had to wait. After imposing on the Wright’s for four days and nights, and how grateful we were for their kindness, we decided we would impose on them no further and thought we’d be able to better ‘try to relax’ if we had our own space. So we got ourselves a hotel room. Just let me insert here the caliber of husband that I am blessed with, he did all our laundry in the bathtub of our hotel. Now that’s a real man. I must say that I remained in a bit of a mood for the most part… (Sorry Josh) until early Monday afternoon, when we had received the good news that our paperwork had finally been submitted.  However I was still holding my breath, and would continue to do so until we had successfully crossed through immigration in Statia. We did find time in St. Maarten to enjoy ourselves under the circumstances. 

Our little fam.

Eden :)

Fay :)

Our brains were restless with the thought of the possibility that we might not be able to return to Statia soon enough and would have to return home for a semester, and what all that would mean. We ate lots of pizza and pasta and gelato. I read my kindle. We played at the beach and at the pool. (Freezing) We did a big grocery shop at Cost-U-Less on Monday evening that would ship to Statia that Wednesday. Tuesday morning came and we got ready to make that familiar trip back to Statia. Off to the airport we went, checked in, through passport control, through security, waited at our gate… and waited… and waited… until we finally boarded our little 20-seater puddle jumper, which contained four passengers other then ourselves. It’s such a white knuckle little flight over the ocean; thank goodness that it’s only about 20 minutes long! Well we landed, de-boarded made it to immigration second inline this time… they turned us around AGAIN!

Statia, sweet Statia.

Just kidding J HEHE They let us in this time! AND the lady even apologized for the inconvenience. What a relief it was to walk on through and see Katie and Lucy Bridge waiting for us. The feeling of happiness that we felt after finally, finally arriving at our home away from home, was indescribable.

Now here we are getting back into the swing of things and it is wonderful. Of course we miss home, we always do, but there’s something to be said about being in your own home. (Insert sigh of relief here.)

… And you’re welcome to come visit anytime J

Home for Christmas

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

WELL! Home for Christmas we were! First of all, before we left we had a countdown chain going for the things we were most excited for. We started in on September 22^nd with 59 days until departure for Emma, Fay, Eden and myself.

59 days: The mountains

58 days: Pinterest!

57 days: Snow

56 days: Driving faster than 50 K

55 days: Steak (Josh)

54 days: Slurpies

53 days: *Cassi arrives in 2 days and Fay and Eden turn 17 months*

52 days: Crepes with Atwoods

51 days: Play date with Jade and Macy (not enough)

50 days: Christmas toys for Fay and Eden

49 days: Christmas crafts (which never happened, if you can believe that L)

48 days: Hopeful Brat-Pack reunion (also didn’t happen L)

47 days: Yorkshire puddings and using a washer AND dryer

46 days: Christmas Sunday (which I actually ended up singing Tonight You Are Mine  -with Kadie Beazer and Julie Smith. We also played a violin trio that I arranged.

-A medley of The First Noel and A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief)

45 days: Seeing Les Miserables in theatres (SO GOOD)

44 days: Keeping busy, places to go, people to see

43 days: Chocolate!

42 days: Christmas movies

41 days: Playing my piano (Hannah & Emma) (but let’s be clear… it’s MY piano J)

40 days: Cooking and not sweating

39 days: Cooking my new favorites for the fam.

38 days: Sleeping in a nice toasty bed and being happy about it

37 days: Normal driving conditions. Including traffic lights and lined roads

36 days: Wearing a seatbelt LOL (On this 36^th day Katie came over and announced that 5 weeks from this very moment we would be heading to the airport)

35 days: Taking the girls sledding (we didn’t really do that but Matthew did pull them around on a toboggan.

34 days: Doing my hair (Hannah & Emma)

33 days: Not worrying about shaving my legs. Hehe

32 days: Normal school (Emma)

31 days: Walmart –ha!

30 days: McDonalds (Emma)

29 days: Not being constantly hot

28 days: Roast Beef dinner! (SO GOOD)

27 days: Loooooooong, hot showers

26 days: Spending less at the grocery store… or more. (getting more bang for your-buck)

25 days: Not having to keep all your dry food in ziplock bags.

24 days: Taking family pics (which we did, Thanks Krystie!)

23 days: Visiting 6^th ward! (Fay and Eden’s 18 month birthday)

22 days: Spending time with James and Allison

21 days: Seeing Grandma and Grandpa Reagh (which we thankfully got to do but not for as long as we would have liked)

20 days: Catching up with friends

19 days: (November 1^st) Buying a bucket of ice cream for a ¼ of the price we pay for one here.

18 days: Play dates with Gen and Briley (didn’t happen nearly as much as it should have)

17 days: Normal internet (even though my parents have crappy country internet, it was still a heck of a lot better than here)

16 days: Play dates with Jodi and Allie (again, not nearly enough)

15 days: Blizzards from DQ (I got my pumpkin pie blizzard! Thanks Scott)

14 days: Play dates with Brittany and Laynie (lots of fun)

13 days: Seeing family (Josh’s side) and Marianne’s cooking

12 days: Alumni! (which I cheered at with Emma and some girls from past squads)

11 days: Wearing jeans and a hoodie (Everyday J )

10 days: Getting my hair cut (thanks Brigitte! I love it) .....-------->

9 days: Being surrounded by loved ones

8 days: Watching Nana and Papa with Fay and Eden

7 days: Watching the girls play with Molly and Mr. Cat (They LOVED the animals,

-especially Mr. Cat and new cat Rex)

6 days: Watching the girls play with Nana and Papa

5 days: The anticipation and excitement of seeing Mom and Dad at the airport

4 days: Home cooked meals by Mom

3 days: Christmas with the all the fam

2 days: Matt and Benny

1 days: Dad!

0 days: MOMMY!!!!

Auntie Helen was down visiting and we rearranged our trip so that we could stay with her in Toronto for a couple of days. Her, Emma, Fay, Eden and myself left and Josh stayed to prepare and take his exams. We made him a 16 day countdown chain which included the following:

STEAK, SLURPIES, driving fast, feeling cold, fast internet, no school, sledding with Fay and Eden, wifey cuddling because it’s cold, Happy 19 months Fay and Eden <3<3, wings with the guys, playing and teasing Matt and Ben, Playing ball with Brook, My mom’s food (Paige’s), Your mom’s food (Marianne’s), excitement at the airport seeing Jenna then surprising your mom, and seeing Fay and Eden J

It, of course, was SO awesome to see my family again! Matt and Ben looked huge to me! I loved spending time with my parents. It’s’ always so fun to laugh with my mom. I missed her so much. My first weekend home was Alumni. It was a blast cheering with the girls in our again uniforms. The first month was filled with kitchen renovations. All hands on deck! My parents hired Josh to do most of the work- that was nice. It looks beautiful. I especially love the turquoise island that Josh and my dad built. 

My Grandpa Jack (my dad’s dad) came to visit for a week! He was a big help. I beat him at crib both times we played. Hehe. He told us lots of stories from his younger years, which were very interesting. It was a special time and I loved getting to know my grandpa better. Him and his wife Karen did a Dutch Christmas this year and gave us Dutch ornaments of Santa Kraus on his white horse and Santa Krauss with Black Pete. I really love that as we are living in the Dutch Caribbean.

It was great to see some of my friends and get caught up. I didn’t spend nearly enough time with them as I had hoped. But thank goodness they are the kind of friends where you can just pick up where you left off. AND thank heavens for facebook that keeps us all connected.

Laynie, Macy, Ryker, Eden and Fay

The house was in a rather chaotic state until the very moment my Uncle John and Auntie Stacy’s family walked in door. What a hilarious moment that was. We had been stressfully working hard all day to try to get things finished. The new kitchen sink had just been finished getting plumbed 45 minutes prior to their arrival. The vacuum was getting shoved back into it’s closet as they walked through the door. We just laughed with each other and felt the relief of a job well done (and accomplished!) What a wonderful time it was. I feel like I didn’t do enough the first month I was there, then Christmas came and family came and it was great, then my last week there was so hectic trying to cram everything in. Some highlights from the trip were definitely hands down Christmas with my mom’s side that came down. Sadly, my Grandpa Reagh got very sick and was in the ICU so they couldn’t be there for Christmas. My Uncle John and Auntie Stacy and my cousins J.P., Bailey, Brock and Kamryn came, my Auntie Jack came, my Uncle Brad and Auntie Kristine live in Cardston so they came and my cousins Tyler and Adrian came, Scotty came, Whitney and Weston were there, of course James and Allison were there, we were only missing my cousin Danielle and Tyler’s wife Cherri – And of course my Grandparents. We did have a wonderful time together, as we are blest to always do. I enjoyed playing man-tracker with my little brothers, Emma and some of our cousins. Kamryn and Ben played with Fay and Eden a lot of the time. Kamryn is a natural babysitter- it was SO nice! I can’t say enough about how fun and loving our family is.  It is always a special time and we cannot get enough of each other. There is something to be said about families such as ours.  Of course our Christmas morning was fun watching everyone one open their gifts one at a time. We sure are blessed. It was especially fun to see Fay and Eden with all their new toys! Among the gifts was an I-pad for Josh (you’re welcome sweety) a kindle and a photography reflector for me (thank you Josh) and canisters for my kitchen (thank you mom!) A few of Fay and Eden’s gifts include a Dora tunnel tent, bikes, stick horses, baby dolls, and books. We served Christmas dinner at the soup kitchen. There were a lot of us there to serve so the cousins sang Christmas carols. A few of us played cards with some of the recipients and one man taught us how to play an Indian hand game. We all enjoyed serving that day. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner that evening. We watched some home movies, did a little Zumba warm up and played White Elephant.

Fay singingJingle Bells with Nana

Eden and Nana, fish-lips kisses

Opening presents at Grandma Marianne and
Grandpa Joel's house.

Boxing day was spent at Josh’s mom’s house with Marianne, Joel, Jenna, Brook, Kayla and Alexa. We enjoyed a wonderful meal (as we always do when we go there) which included Marianne’s famous potatoes that seem to now be called ‘Hannah’s favorite potatoes.” Fay and Eden love to play with the toys at Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Joel’s house.

Auntie Jenna feeding Fay ice-cream

We went to Jenna’s new house for New Year’s Eve. She recently bought her own home in town and it’s so great! We ate LOTS of food and had a lot of fun playing Scum and crud. We also did a little bit of dancing do Gangnum Style.

Grandma and Grandpa Reagh were feeling better and came up for a visit. I just love those two. The time we had with them was short but special. My Grandpa is the type of person who sees the best in people and always gives the benefit of the doubt. He is always willing to give the shirt of his back. My Grandma is the sweetest woman. She is such and example to me and I adore her.

Must make mention again of my gratitude to those individuals who helped clothe my girls for the cold! Auntie Helen, who so graciously bought them new coats and some super cute outfits, Marianne who bought them a few outfits too, my mom who bought them Sunday clothes, boots and jammies, Peggy Sanders for lending us her granddaughters snow suits and Dawnette Gregson for letting us borrow her baby monitor. They made this trip so doable for us. Also a huge thank you to my Mom and Dad for flying me home and us back and to Jenna for her contributions to Josh’s flight.

We wish we had another week or 2 at home. And hey, we totally could’ve rather than being stranded in St. Maarten! Oh, if we’d only known.