2014: Ready or Not Here We Come!

We had a great time saying good-bye to 2013 yesterday. We met up with my sister and her family at Discovery Gateway and had a blast!

what to do first...

After putting off our grumbling tummies for too long, we set out on the train to get some lunch at a place called Toasters!

The train was a blast, though it smelled quite questionable at times..

It was SO delicious! And especially delicious because we were all able to cash in on the last day of the Isis Mobile Wallet Deal going on there! (Thanks Jon!) A full sandwich, drink, and chips was only $1! So tasty and so cheap, talk about amazing!

After putting Scarlet down for a much needed snooze, Brandon and I got to work putting Christmas away and FINALLY starting the assemble of our brand new office! It's been quite the project, but I am SO excited to FINALLY have my computer back!! YAY!

We finished the VERY quite night at the Orton's with a delicious dinner, played some fun card games, and watched Scarlet go crazy hawked up on soda and candies. She is so hilarious. We decided to ring in the new year with New York, and 10pm, so we could get Scarlet home and in bed. She had a blast hitting on the pots and pans and cheering so loudly, "HAPPY New Year!" (Sometimes shouting "Happy New You!") It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful year.

2013 highlights

• Started the new year saying 'good-bye' to my wonderful L-3 career and friends, and 'hello' to full-time mommy-dom.
• Brandon and I got to go on a Puerto Rican cruise with doTerra for 10 days. Had some pretty incredible times despite Brandon's terrible flu and missing Scarlet like every second. 
• Jumped head first into spur of the moment home reno in March. 
• Scarlet became a little girl!!! Where did my baby go!? Starting nursery, which has easily become one of her favorite events of the week. (Every Sunday when the last speaker says 'amen' the entire congregation hears her joyously exclaim 'YAY!! NURSERY TIME!!!' Haha! Such a crazy girl.)
• We got a new nephew/cousin. Baby Caleb is the sweetest little stud.
• Brandon traveled to Peru and Guatemala for work. (we missed him like crazy ESPECIALLY through the awful construction)
• Speaking of construction, we broke down walls (including structural and load bearing), put up new ones, switch around layouts and plumbing, put in new floors and cabinets (IKEA!! wow..) switched out appliances, and lost almost all our house to demolition or storing things from the rooms being demoed for over 7 months. No laundry for over 6 months and without a kitchen for over 2. (thank goodness for family!) Date nights and family home evenings were spend assembling furniture or walking the aisles of hardware stores. Our poor contractor was in and out of... confinement.. *cough cough* jail *cough*.. for a few weeks here and there, which put us in stand stills or had Brandon and his dad sanding, mudding, and even demoing into the wee hours of the night or early in the mornings before work, to help keep us on some sort of schedule. Wonderful family and friends came to help assemble cabinets and backslashes, and everything MIRACULOUSLY came together making our house once again livable in September. We're still working on making it our home, and everyday we get a little bit closer.
• Brandon's loving his job at doTerra. Manager of AV Services his department is getting so crazy he's got a couple of really awesome guys that started working with him to help keep things running smoothly.
• We found out we'll get to be adding another member to our little family in May 2014!
• We attempted potty training.. and.. decided diapers were WAY better for everyone for the time being. Haha!
• We all made it through another doTerra Convention!
• Scarlet turned 2!!
• We got a new niece/cousin. Scarlet is loving her "cute, tiny, baby BeRell" as she calls her. And we love her too!  If only sniffles weren't so rampant we might get to see her a little more! 
• We had to say good-bye to a beautiful ward friend, Merle, and Brandon's amazing cousin, Jami. Both incredible women who have been and will be greatly missed through their passing. Both amazing examples of service, love and perseverance, in completely different ways. They have touched our lives and reminded us that family is in fact everything.

2013.. oh how you've molded and shaped us. Taught us some pretty incredible lessons by pushing us to our wits' end, humbling us into deep reflection, or testing our faith and strength by seeing what we cling to the most. One thing is for sure, at the end of every test we found each other, which is exactly what we needed all along. So though I would never want to live through this year all over again, I do hope I'm able to end each year as happy and content as I'm ending this one.