Lately

Since I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog lately (see all the previous posts from tonight), I thought I'd just put up a bunch of pictures illustrating what we've been up to for the last month or so. I lost the camera in a box or something during the move, so there's a good chunk of time that we're missing before I finally found it, so please forgive me. This is all I have. Enjoy.

The Waites came to visit at the end of December, and we got to see them for a little bit before we left for Ohio as well. I'm really glad we got to spend a little extra time all together before we moved. We always have a blast.

Trevor has suddenly taken a serious liking to his teddy bear, Matthew, we put in his crib like 10 months ago. He cuddles him to sleep every night, and I think he has a hard time getting to sleep without him. It's really cute.

Trevor taking advantage of the endless boxes we had for moving.

Finally getting a little bit of Mama and Trevor time amidst the chaos of packing.

With the Waites, waiting for Winter Storm Gandalf to pass through. (I had no idea they named winter storms. Weird.)

 

This kid has the best facial expressions. He is always a hoot to watch.

Discovering his belly button.

Trevor loves wearing shoes. Everyone's shoes.

The Trip to Ohio by Ben. And a little from Beck.

The trip to get from Utah to Ohio was unreal.  I'll try to keep this relatively brief, but there is no way that I can explain the intense frustration or the incredible gratitude I felt during this trip.

On Wednesday, the 9th, we picked up our truck, and the trailer that we would use to tow the car across the country.  We packed up the truck, and headed up to Roy.  My brother was flying in to SLC from Ohio on Thursday to help me with the drive (he has a commercial driver license and is a great driver to have around), and Becca was flying out of SLC on Saturday.  Michelle and Nate were kind enough to let us stay there until we left at our respective times.

Thursday the 10th was the worst experience I have ever had with travel.  My brother was initially going to fly in to SLC at 7:30.  We had learned that there was going to be a hum dinger of a storm coming through Utah and Wyoming.  And Wyoming is horrible to drive through no matter what, but when you throw in snow, wind, and the steep inclines and declines, it can be downright dangerous.  So with that in mind, we changed my brothers flight to 10:20 so we could be out of Utah and mostly through Wyoming before the storm hit at 3:00.

Around 9:30, Becca and I left to put the car on the trailer so I could go and pick up my brother.  As we drove the car onto the trailer, the tongue broke, and rendered the trailer completely useless.  We contacted Budget (the company that owned the truck/trailer), and they said they would get back to us.  At 11:00, they said that within an hour someone would be able to pick up the trailer, and then we could pick up  another trailer in North Salt Lake.  That would put us on the road with the new trailer at around 1:00, and we still might be able to beat the storm.

Or so we thought.  Long story short, we didn't get everything until 4:45, with 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and all the roads in Wyoming were closed.  I was not happy.  At least Michelle and Nate provided great company and a place to stay.

This is already getting long, so even though I could go into great depth on how furious I was with the company, their mismangagement, and incompetence, suffice it to say I was angry and a huge grumpy face.

Then came Friday.  Somehow Hans (my bro) and I were able to leave in the afternoon!  It was a miracle.  We were thinking we might not have left until Monday.  We got the car on the trailer with no problem.  It's important to note that on the trailer, all 4 tires are off the ground, and the only thing really holding the car in place are two nets made of seatbelt material that you tighten down with a winch so the car doesn't go anywhere.

As we were driving, we were saying prayers of thanks at one moment because the roads were spotless, and then praying to be able to see the roads the next.  It was shocking how fast conditions would change.  At one moment, we were going up hill on an icy patch, and the truck started to fish tail.  I think the trailer acted as an achor and kept us on track, but it was scary.  After a few hours, we stopped to get some gas.

While I was filling the truck up, I decided to go back and check on the car.  To my horror and awe, the nets holding the car in place had both fallen off.  All that had kept the car in place was the fact that it had been in park.  We had been going up and down steep hills, and the trailer was covered in ice.  There was no visible metal at all.  I have no idea what kept the car from falling off, but I am so incredibly grateful that we hadn't lost the car and caused a wreck at the same time.  I put the nets back on, and they (thankfully) stayed on for the rest of the trip.

We drove non-stop for 31 hours, and even though we didn't sleep, we were alert and could drive just fine.  I'm grateful for the prayers offered on our behalf, and for the fact that Beck and Trevor made it to Ohio safely as well.  Without a doubt this was the worst trip of my life, but it was a huge blessing because it made me so aware that the Lord knows what we need.  The trip helped me put into perspective what's important (family, safety, being in tune to the Spirit, having more consistant communication with Heavenly Father) as opposed to what isn't quite so important (personal plans, or our own desires...like getting home at a certain hour).

At any rate, I don't mean to preach, but the trip was truly horrible, but I'm extremely thankful for the outcome of it, and for any prayers or thoughts from you guys.  You all rock.

 

This is Beck. Mine and Trevor's trip wasn't nearly as bad. I definitely did my share of worrying, but that's about as bad as it got. I was super nervous to fly with Trevor by myself, but he was a champ. (Minus the 4 - that's right 4 times he decided to go #2 at airports/on airplanes, and the one time he threw up. Other than that, nothing major.) We almost missed our connecting flight because of the time it took to de-ice the first airplane, but thankfully we made it in time, and the flight was only like half full, so we got our own row. It was awesome. It was a little less awesome when I got yelled at multiple times by multiple flight attendants for trying to change Trevor's stinky diaper while that plane was being de-iced. But you win some, you lose some.

Mostly I am just very thankful that we all made it here safely, and for all the prayers from everyone that helped to make it that way. Also, a huge thank you to Hans for taking time off of work and missing his daughter's birthday party so he could come out and wait in a freezing cold parking lot for hours in a snow storm for the dumb truck guy to get there, and then driving across the country in very less than ideal conditions so we could get all our stuff out here. Don't know what we would have done without him. Thank you!

Trevor turns 1!

I know, I know. I'm over a month late posting about Trevor's birthday. But it's a pretty hectic time of year anyway. When you throw in a cross-country move as well, let's face it. There's just no time to blog. Anyway, more on that later.

Trevor turned the big 1 on December 25th! I'd always felt like we had to celebrate his birthday on his actual birthday, even though it would be hard to figure out how to work it with Christmas being on the same day. By the time the big day rolled around though, we were all so pooped Trevor didn't mind in the least his birthday party being postponed until the next day. In fact, I think he appreciated it. We pretty much took it easy all day (jammies all day, played with Christmas presents, took birthday naps, etc.). We celebrated with a delicious birthday supper of spaghetti, followed by a bear cake and presents. It was awesome. Here's the proof.

I really cannot believe my baby is a whole year old! He is so funny, and so smart, and has so much personality. He recently reached a couple of big milestones, taking his first steps at the beginning of December, and saying a few words on his own (please, book, bottle, ball, uh-oh, duck...and some other ones I can't think of right now). He gets bigger and smarter and cuter everyday. He has blessed our lives more than we ever thought possible. Sure love you, Trev!

Christmas 2012

Even though this was technically our third Christmas together, we count this as our family's first real Christmas. Our first year we joined in with my family's Christmas celebration in Georgia, and last year Christmas was spent in the hospital getting the best gift we ever could have imagined (that's Trevor, in case you forgot), so this year was the first Christmas where it was just our little family celebrating together. And it was awesome.

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the year. I love everything about it. This year we feasted with Libby, Paul and Vincent for Christmas Eve dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with them and the food was absolutely delicious.

We went home and had a short reading of the Christmas Story in Luke and we each got to open one present from each other. I have been wanting some Christmas decorations, and Ben got me the most adorable Christmas count down thing ever. I love it!

When Ben and I were dating we messaged each other on facebook all the time. It's a thread of messages that kind of act like a journal for us that we still add on to every once in a while. I made a book out of them and gave it to Ben for Christmas.

 When I was like 12, Mom and Granma tried to teach me to crochet. I got the very basics down and made a scarf one time, but that was about the extent of my crocheting skills. A couple days before Christmas I started feeling ambitious and decided I wanted to crochet Trevor some slippers. After a night of finding patterns online and getting super frustrated because I couldn't understand a thing any of them were saying, I stumbled upon a youtube video of a woman crocheting some baby slippers. It was awesome and very clear and I could watch to learn how she did the fancy things. Incredible. Anyway, I switched the pattern up just a little to make it a bit bigger for Trev, and then I was able to make these babies in under 24 hours, just in time for Christmas. And I am quite happy with how they turned out!

 That night we watched The Polar Express, went to bed, and woke up to this beauty!

This is a pretty good representation of how Trevor opens presents. One square inch at a time. This was the longest Christmas morning I can ever remember having. And I loved it!

 He would get really excited every time he opened something. Even things along the lines of the 1586558 articles of clothing he got, or his new plastic plates. Super fun to watch.

Mingledorff Christmas Party!

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Roy to spend the weekend with Michelle & co., Megan & co., and Brianna. We had a blast! We spent most of the time chatting and laughing and eating. We ate a lot. There was also plenty of piano playing and singing and puzzling.

One night we headed over to the Roy Fire Station to see Christmas lights and play in the snow. Ben tried to snow board on a cookie sheet down a giant hill and made it about 8 inches before the cookie sheet slid out from under him and he landed straight on his behind, breaking (and losing) his watch. We got a good laugh out of it. Ben and Sam went back later that night and miraculously were able to find his watch. Tithing blessing if there ever was one.

There was a scary part involving a phone call informing us that some drunk guy with a gun was in the neighborhood and we needed to lock up and turn off all the lights. That was slightly terrifying. But thankfully everything worked out in the end.

We had a white elephant gift exchange that was a blast! It was really intense. I think everyone came away happy except for maybe Megan and Sam who left with both cans of sardines. Ha.

White Elephant

I think there was constantly someone playing the piano while we were there. So nice.

for the Ohio fam

At the  Roy Lights

Trevor had so much fun with Addison the whole trip. I loved watching them play together.

We really had such a fun time. It was so much fun to see everybody and to hang out together. We've really been blessed to have family so close to us here. We recently decided that we'll be moving to Ohio on January 10th to start in with the Griffioen family insurance agency. We are so excited to get out there and start this new part of our lives, but we are also really going to miss living so close to the family we have out here. It was so nice to be able to spend some of the holiday season with them. Love you guys!