Daniel Tiger Day

A couple weeks ago I read on a local kids museum's website that they were going to be having a Daniel Tiger day. Anyone who is a parent to a toddler knows who he is and how he can be a lifesaver when laundry needs to get done or the house needs cleaning. I had been wanting to take Judah to that museum and this was a perfect day to try it out!
I thought there would be quite a few people. I mean, he is Daniel Tiger..Unfortunately, I didn't know that it had been advertised on PBS after every show. To say there was a lot of kids is an understatement. Nevertheless, Judah had a great time and loved all the different activities, especially pumping gas, He loved pumping gas.

Getting out of debt

So in this post I mentioned the Financial Peace University we had done by Dave Ramsey. It has seemed like such a long uphill battle, but my husband and I are debt free! Today we paid off both of our cars. One of them being 6 months ahead of schedule. Starting out the new year debt free is such a relieving feeling. For a while it has just been our two cars that we needed to pay off, but man did it take long! Living on one income for our family with me in school has been hard, but we have made it possible. One thing that has been especially hard is tithing. There are so many things and bills that our first 10% could be spent on. But, we are where we are because Jesus has gotten us through everything. Every thing we have is because of Him and we are continuing to try to remember that, even when we might feel like we have nothing.
It will be nice to finally start saving money. We want to buy a house in a couple years so that is what we will be saving for now. If anyone is needing to get out of debt or just need advice or tips on how to be a better saver, Dave Ramsey's site has amazing answers.

New Years Day

New Years Eve consisted of a bed, pj's, and Netflix. Having a toddler can be exhausting and after I put him to bed at night, I'm about ready to sleep myself. I am definitely an introvert, give me a book and a comfy blanket and I am completely satisfied to stay home all weekend..but..my husband loves to go out. He wanted to go out with Judah so New Years day we went to a small petting zoo in our neighborhood. Aside for my husband getting bit by a donkey, it was nice to go out. 
Later after Judah's nap, he was a bit cranky. So, my husband asked if he wanted to go to the beach (which of course was a yes!) and we went to the pier and out to eat. It was a great start to a new year!

Christmas

I can't believe that it is already over. Christmas time is so much more beautiful and magical with a child. Every Christmas just gets better and better. We were able to spend Christmas with people we love and care deeply for. Christmas Eve was spent at my dad's family's house. Christmas morning was spent at home with my mom's family and Christmas night was spent at my in-laws house with siblings and cousins. Judah loved opening gifts, I don't know if he was so much interested in the actual gifts as he was in opening them. Before he could finish opening one gift, he was already looking to open another gift. We had to slow him down to appreciate what each gift was! He now has so many toys that he could probably open his own small toy store. I need to figure out a toy rotation or something because there is absolutely no room for them all!
Judah still hasn't quite grasped that Santa came to our house with the reindeer and brought him a gift, maybe next year he'll understand it more!

 Judah's cousin James

 On Christmas Eve before bed Judah got to open his Christmas pj's and new book to read before bed

I totally forgot to take pictures at my husband's parents house but I took a quick picture of Judah with one of his cousins before we left

Side note- I totally procrastinated and took Judah to see Santa on Christmas Eve. 2 hours later, every time the woman tried to get Judah to smile he would smile and look over at me. Cute of him, but maybe next year we'll get him to look at the camera!

Salt Dough Ornaments

This past week Judah, Daniel and I made salt dough ornaments. I've seen them all over Pinterest and Instagram and thought they looked simple enough, so we gave them a try!  

We used the 1+1+2 method 
(Ours was 1 cup of salt + 1 cup of water + 2 cups of flour = 6 cutouts and enough dough to make a toddler hand print)
We then left it in the oven at 200 degrees for 4 hours and left them out overnight to make sure they were completely dried out. 

Christmas time is here!

After months of not having a camera, I finally bought a new one! It is a beginners DSLR but it is definitely an upgrade for me.

It is finally Christmas time and it is in full swing around here! Earlier this week we got our Christmas tree and yesterday we went to look at Christmas lights. There's this neighborhood that block after block has all these amazing lights. They even had carolers, a Santa and sold hot chocolate. Judah is at the age now where it all fascinates him, which makes it totally worth walking around in the cold for me.  He actually sat with Santa which surprised me. Last year he was terrified to sit with him at the mall. By the end of the night Judah was cold and so tired that I had to carry him back to the car. 

I think this time of year we can all get caught up in the materialistic part of it but it is such a great reminder of the love our Father has for us. As much as I love the spirit of Christmas and reading Judah books about Santa, I know it is even more important to use this as an opportunity to talk about Jesus to him. He loves helping me bake and later this month we plan on baking a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and read books about Jesus' birth. 

 Picking our tree

 Unwrapping our ornaments 

 Getting hot chocolate with Grammy

 Santa!

Tired and cold!

David's Army BCT Graduation

*Warning, probably going to be a long post

I had written previously in this post that my brother-in-law David had joined the Army. Danny and I flew out to Oklahoma on Wednesday to make it on time to Family Day on Thursday. Being from California, the weather is pretty much warm and between 75-80 degrees all the time. 

Wednesday 5/20

So we flew from California to Dallas and then Dallas to Lawton. What a difference in weather. The shorter flight was at about 10pm and it was full of thunder, lightening and crazy turbulence. Luckily we made it and went straight to bed because we had an early day ahead of us.

Thursday 5/21

So we woke up early to get ready and ate breakfast downstairs at the hotel. Guys, seriously the Best Western has the best complimentary breakfast I've ever had at a hotel! We're talking eggs, biscuits, potatoes, bacon, grits, yogurt, fruit, waffles etc. So so good. Danny's parents and some of his siblings drove up to see the graduation also so we carpooled with them for the weekend. We arrived on base and there is a small ceremony and then we were able to finally spend time with David. We walked over to David's barrack to pick something up and left the base to explore the very small town of Lawton! We ate and shopped and walked around until it was time for us to take him back to base. It sounds short but we were able to spend about 10 hours with him. After we dropped him off, Danny's family dropped us off at our hotel and we order dinner and watched tv. Again we had an early morning so we went to sleep relatively early.

Friday 5/22

Again we woke up early, got ready and had breakfast at the hotel. Danny's parents picked us up and we went to another hotel where the graduation was being held. We waited outside in line, in the rain for a while until we were allowed in. Took our seats and it was graduation time! It's was a little weird seeing David on stage, he seemed so grown up. I've known David since he was 9 or 10 years old and sometimes I still see him as being that young. After graduation we picked David up at the base and were able to spend the rest of the day with him. We went to lunch at a Tex Mex place..what an experience. Very different from Mexican food. We walked around some more, bought cookies, then candy, went and saw Avengers: Age of Ultron, and took him back to his base. The soldiers lined up and were given orders for the following day and we said our goodbyes. We were dropped off at our hotel and Danny and I went to have dinner but the restaurant was closed. We had no car and there was no where in walking distance to eat so luckily Danny's parents came back and brought us food.

Saturday 5/23

So this is when things start getting interesting. As usual, we got dressed and had breakfast (the highlight of the day) We were scheduled to leave the airport about 6:30pm so we paid for a late checkout and arrived at the airport about 4:30pm. We waited and waited and finally about 6:00pm we went through security and then waiting some more for our flight. It was the last flight of the day and the weather was pretty bad in Dallas. About 10 minutes before we should have been boarding we were told it was going to be delayed. A little worrying because our second flight was pretty soon after we were going to land. About 5 minutes before we were suppose to board we were notified the flight was canceled. So we rush to the reception area to book a flight for the following morning. We were told that there wasn't a flight available until MONDAY MORNING! This was the first time I had ever been away from Judah and that was the worse thing I could have been told at the moment. So we called the Best Western back and luckily they had a room open. (Because it was weather related, the airlines did not compensate us for our 2 extra nights). Weather was pretty bad now in Lawton and on weekends the hotel doesn't serve dinner so we order a pizza, which took 1 1/2 hours. We also had thrown away a majority of our toiletries because we were suppose to head home. Danny's family was already in Arizona by this time and all taxis were not driving in the weather. So after we ate our pizza we went to bed.

Sunday 5/24

So we were running out of clean clothes and were going to do laundry. But can you guess what we did first? That's right, we had breakfast! In the middle of breakfast all the lights went out. We finished breakfast and went back to our room. We kind of just sat there because there was nothing else to do. About two hours later we get a knock saying we were evacuating because the power wouldn't be turned back on that day. We later found out someone hit the power poll and the transformer was 8 feet under water. If it wasn't for the power outing, we probably would have been evacuated anyway because the whole area around us was completely flooded, They even closed down the freeway next to us. And as Californians, this was like completely uncommon. So we waited a while and eventually took a shuttle to another hotel. The rest of the day was pretty boring, bought toiletries, food, ate, slept, did laundry and slept some more

Monday 5/25

Finally the day we were going home! Went to airport early, checked weather conditions religiously. Boarded flight, then second flight. Finally was greeted at baggage claim from my mom and Judah. HAD MY CAMERA AND MY MOMS PHONE PICKPOCKETED! Yeah, as if the trip wasn't crazy enough! I was so bummed, I had so many pictures and videos that I hadn't uploaded. The photos I'm posting below are from Danny's old iPhone and iPhone pictures that my mother-in-law sent me. Not so great quality but they will have to do because someone stole my camera :(

Waiting for flight

 Family Day

  Some of Danny's siblings and parents on Family Day

Waiting in the rain for graduation

 Graduation day

Grenade marksmanship award

Graduation Day

Danny's siblings saying bye

We are so proud of David and all that he has accomplished this far. We know he is going to do amazing things in the Army and we pray that God continues to keep him safe and leads the way in this journey.