The End Of 2015 + New Years Eve

It's 6:30 am. I'm upstairs in my bedroom in the rocking chair. The girls were up coughing since 5:30. I was in bed at 730 pm last night because of 5 days of accumulated bad sleep plus starting my period - so yeah overall pretty crappy sleep all around. 

Since my parents are visiting both girls are in my room. Tyson is exhausted too. We both go up and gave the girls water, cough medicine, holding hands ... man this parenting thing is tough on you. 

Since I was already up I got up and got work done so I can enjoy the morning. I'll work again in the afternoon. I'll let the girls not nap today and put them down early hopefully. 

So today is the last day of 2015. Man! This year has flown by and when looking back the single word that comes to mind is "house" or green house as the girls call it. 

This entire year has been about the house. First finding the house, then closing the house and finally renovating the house. What was suppose to take 3 months has now formed into 10 months. What should have cost 20k, turned out to be 40k.

I keep telling everyone that "we will never do this again" and I mean that. This scale of  renovation has been so hard on our family and marriage and finances. We have been uberly BLESSED through it all. From people helping, letting us borrow tools, finding stuff on sale, being able to sell stuff on craigslist .. etc. But my heart is heavy and my soul is tired of our family not being able to be together. Tyson's back has been hurting, the girls have been dragged to Home Depot a bizzilion times. I'm so glad its almost over. 

Still the house was the BIG one but other sizeable events happened.

2nd year of seminary

My business really growing

The girls thriving at school

Tyson getting a bonus and winning awards

traveling to Utah

Selling everything we could on craigslist to help offset the house cost

Getting awesome new neighbors. 

Me starting Primary presidency

I feel like this year my backbone had grown a lot. I feel like I've learned to bite my tongue more and learned to be more adult about hard situations. My heart is calling for rest and more walks and more active simple things. I am so excited for the summer and my bike and riding and testing out my "1 car" theory. 

I am so grateful to spend today surrounded by my family and seeing the progress we made. I'm grateful the girls are older and potty trained and can talk to me. I'm grateful that I have turned to the Lord and had Him soften my heart. I'm grateful for my clients. I'm grateful for my health and my desire to be active. i'm not sure what we will do tonight - honestly sleep is all I want, but tomorrow will be a new year and I am grateful we are together to experience it. 

*** Update - for new years eve we stayed at home. At 8 pm Tyson did a "fake" countdown with the girls. We got a funny 3 minute King Julian countdown. Each girl had a pot and pan and when we "struck" midnight, we had a dance party and said Happy New Year. the girls were in bed at 8:30 and Tyson fell sleep with them. I was in bed at 9:30 pm and my parents made it until 10:30 pm - so not a super rocking New  Years Eve but it was so fun to spend it with them. Hopefully next year it will be a little bit more active ***

Gerber Family Photos 2015

Christmas part 2

We left Christmas day at 5 pm to head to SLC. The weather was actually really great. 

We go there at 7 pm and Julio and Jeanette were there! Then Martin and Erica arrived! It was a fun quick mini party. 

We opened presents and hung out. The next day we went to Costco to return some stuff while tyson was at the the iPhone store getting a new screen. Then Saturday night we had a family dinner at Churck O Rama. 

The next day we had breakfast and took Tyson to the airport so he could go back to work. 

We got home and took naps and took showers. Then Jael came over and we headed to the girls first movie! We saw "The Good Dinosaur". The movie itself was cute enough but Sydney got scared at some parts and the seats were all taken so they had to sit on our laps. It was a cool experience but I probably won't take them to another one soon. It's easier to stay at home and watch movies.

We got back and played some more but i was SO tired that everyone left at 9 pm.

After a horrible night sleep with London coughing all night and Sydney craying, I had a conference call at 7 am and 730 am. It was a rough morning. Mom and Fredy were off to clean homes so I am on my own. I got the girls ready and at 10 am we met Jael at the Aquarium. Jael took the kids around while I worked in the lobby.

Sydney got lost for about 15 minutes and learned a valuable lesson. 

After we went to Niesha and Aaron's new beautiful home and we spent FIVE hours there. We had lunch and the kids just played and played. I love Niesha and Aaron! We also got to see Eric Mike from institute council. 

I got back to my parents house right at 6 pm and put the girls down. They were down at 6:30 after a big day. 

I immediately started to get ready for the trip back to Colorado the next day. I did laudry, packed, cleaned the house. bought snacks and got the van ready with Fredy. 

We were on the road the next day at 6:30 AM. We took it really easy and relaxing. We stopped three times for potty and for lunch. Fredy and I took turns driving and the girls were in good spirits most of the trip. 

In Colorado we kept things chill. We went to Ikea, Costco, the mall. We watch 4 different movies, we packed up some of the house. My mom helped me wash everything and prepare things in time for the move. 

The girls really connected with my parents. Specially Sydney. She kept saying " I miss Abuelita". 

A really cool night was the night before they left. I got the idea to draw out the two houses I remember from Nicaragua and this led to a two hour long stories about my childhood and how my mom escaped my dad and how we grew up .... it was fascinating. It's amazing what my mom went through. 

My mom got us some new plates for the new house. It was such a fun visit. I can't wait to see them again in the summer! 

Christmas Part 1

Man this Utah trip has gone by so fast. We headed to Utah on 12/21. We left at 4:30 AM and man I am glad we did. We had 65 mph wind gust when we first entered WY and then it was smooth sailing until we got to Rock Springs. After that it was 4 hours of non stop snow and rain and just crappy weather. This is the reason we don't travel home for Christmas and this just really solidified that tradition. 

We got to SLC around 2 pm and we stopped to have lunch and hang out with the Geronimos. We loved it! The girls loved playing and we just laughted and laughed with Melynda and Marco. 

We headed to Logan. The big event was the blessing and sealing of Milo. It was a wondeful event. We loved it. It was so amazing to see both sides of the family there. After the sealing we ate lunch. Here is recap of the rest of the things we did in Logan. 

Jump Zone

Chick Fil A play ground

Santa ride with Gaylan

Playing with Oaklen

Visiting Strat and Lauren's home

Cookie Decorating With Debbie

Seeing Hunger Games Movie by ourselves

Going to basketball game with grown ups

Straton and girls taking silly photos with iPad

Santa visiting the girls and knowing their names

Playing with Chi Chi

Hearing Debbie and Gaylan tell stories

Doing a family nativity scene

Driving around Logan and North Logan

Taking Family photos.

It was a jammed packed 5 days. The girls did better than expected. Sydney no longer naps but even she tooks  a few naps since we were going so much. Still I was able to slow down. I took naps and relaxed. Tyson and I Joked that it was amazing to be alone together and see that we actually enjoy each other! Christmas morning the girls were excited but no over the top. Stockings were fun and we had great food. The girls played for hours by themselves and their cousins. That' was probably my favorite part. Sydney was totally in love with Oaklen and keeps asking about him.