Last year for part of my mom's birthday present, I promised to make a trip out to see her in the next year. So February I flew out to Seattle for a long weekend with mom and it was wonderful! I tagged along with her to her gentle yoga and senior aerobics classes,
And we visited and hung out with family,
and I held Lani's baby spencer a lot,
and we went to a cooking class at PCC where we made gnocchi and a couple of sauces (I LOVED this!)
I had a lovely time enjoying every second with mama and the family.
The Seattle airport was busy, as usual. While I waited at the airport to come home, I had my earbuds in and I was facetimeing the family, talking to Jane. A woman, probably in her 50's and she looked like she may be from India, but she approached me as I was sitting there talking on facetime, and she showed me her itinerary. So I pulled out my earbuds and I could tell she couldn't speak english well, or much at all, but I figured she needed help finding her gate and I noticed she was not in the right area of the airport. So I got off the phone with Jane and went over to the depature board and found out where she needed to be. I wasn't sure how long it'd take to get to the other terminal and I had about 15 minutes before I needed to board so I said a quick prayer in my heart that I'd make it and then I had her follow me and we walked out of my terminal and across the food court area and found her gate. Once we got there I motioned to her that she was to stay here and that this was where she needed to be and she smiled a big smile and said in broken english, "thank you sister" and gave me a hug. I'm not sure why she chose me to help her, out of all the people there, standing around doing nothing and here I am on my phone with ear buds in, but I'm glad she did. It was another divine orchestration. The Lord sent her to me because he knew I'd help her. Not all people here in the USA are kind to those from other countries who can't speak their language; they get annoyed and frustrated. But my dad was from Mexico. He had a very thick accent and most thought he was always speaking in Spanish. He was also considered elderly most of my life (he was 56 when he had me) and so I love and have patience for and understand those who are similar. I don't know which of us needed that experience more but it certainly made my day and I'm grateful the Lord put his trust in me and I hope I continue to deserve that trust.
When I walked in the house from the airport, this was in the doorway: love notes from each of the children.
15 years ago on February 6, 2003 Scott proposed and I accepted. Words cannot possibly come close to expressing the love I feel for Scott. He is my world. He is my strength and my anchor. My joy. When he's home, we both just automatically gravitate toward each other. During the day we send texts (not non-stop; he is a hard worker too), and we talk during his lunch break. I am so grateful for our marriage, for our sealing in the temple, that I can be with him for not just now, but for eternity. Here we are 15 years ago, and we thought we were in love then, but I don't think we could've thought it possible how much more that love would grow over the years and I am so looking forward to our time together in the future.
Annie has learned how to make eggs in a basket! I love that our kids are learning to cook and do laundry and they're becoming such hard workers and amazing little people!
Scott's office moved closer and he will be closer for the next couple of years while they're working on a project nearby, so we try to meet for lunch a little more often (like once or twice a month). Nora and I met him for lunch at Cafe Rio which is a family favorite.
Charles went on an 8 mile bike ride with the Scouts. It was snowing during their ride, but they still did it and he loved it! He loves anything outdoors and active. He's definitely our son.
Scott's parents sent us a box of his old things. We found a couple of gems like these old school assingments that talk about what annoyed him as a child, and what he wanted to be when he grows up (a grocery bagger so she can spend more time with his family :)).
I helped Annabelle cover this entire board with construction paper because her 5 year old sister didn't think it belonged to anyone and she colored all over it in pen. But I think the construction paper turned out looking really nice and she got an A on her animal report!
Lizzie made crepes with Maddie and then came home and made some for the family! Love this girl!
Decorating valentine's sugar cookies!
My 2017 blog book. I printed it through blog2print this time because blurb has made it very difficult to convert my blog to a book, so it's not the same height as the others, but that's okay. As long as we have our family record and photos in one spot, I don't think the height matters.
I got this book for Scott for his birthday. We read together every night, something spiritual, a lot of times scriptures, general conference talks or the relief society/priesthood lesson for the week but right now we're reading One By One and it's amazing. Elder Bednar, an apostle, often talks about Divine Orchestration and I love it.
Nora received the Reading Scholar award at school! We love that our kids are good readers. Keep up the good work.
Nora is obsessed with Stacey and Mark and their dogs. We sit by Mark and Stacey at church every week so she always has that time with them, and then sometimes we'll stop by. This particular time we had a lunch date planned in which we included a dog walk. We sure love this family.
Valentine's morning love notes! I have years, and years of Valentine's love notes that I'm saving to put into books one day for the kids. Hands down my favorite Valentine's day tradition.
Valentine's Heart shaped pizza!
Elisa Ludwig and her husband went to Hawaii for a week and she had babysitters stay with their kids, so one day we asked if Andrew and Annika could come play and another day when the babysitter had tests, I had ben and Sam over during the day while the kids were at school.
On the day I had the boys, Nora and I were invited to an Indian birthday party for a boy in her class, Adi. THis is the same family that I've gone to cook with a couple of times, with Jaya. We were the only caucasion family there but I loved it! I loved learning about their traditions (eating on the floor, using their hands instead of utensils, that women don't come out of the house 40-45 days after having a baby, and that kids sleep in your bed with you until they're 10 years old), I enjoyed getting to know the women better, I loved that they all stayed for the party and helped out, and they were so kind and sweet. And the food was amazing (though our white kids didn't love it, nora or the boys)!
