New Year, New Beginnings

Welcome 2016!

Yes, it's practically March (what?????) but hey, this post is better late than never right?

These first two months of the new year have flown by but we've been keeping busy. Here's what we've been up to:

Brandon is still working at Big Lots but he's put in applications to jobs in Salt Lake and Washington, D.C.  These jobs are more career type jobs so hopefully something will come out of the submitted applications.

He is still working towards graduate school but we've decided that whether the end game is graduate school or possibly a house (we need roots!) he needs a higher paying job.

I'm trying to help supplement the income by doing my own businesses. Yes, you read that right- businesses. Plural.

There's three different ones I'm currently launching- there's Huffaker Photography, Vivi Jewelry, and my sewing studio-Sew Many Seams.

It seems like a lot for a stay at home mom with two kids, but if I can generate a little bit of cash out of any or all of these ventures then it'll help the family. I'm really excited for all of them and I've started to catch the eyes of some people so fingers crossed!

Giselle is still as busy as ever for a toddler. She LOVES playing with her toys and Darius.  She loves to make him laugh and smile.  She is also turning out to be quite the little helper.  She likes to help with almost EVERYTHING- dishes, sweeping, laundry, picking up toys, sewing, and many other things I do around the house.

She started nursery at the beginning of the year and it's her favorite thing about Sunday-aside from the afternoon Disney movies after church and nap time.

Her love for Disney has blossomed.  Her favorite characters are Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Roo, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Mulan, Ana and Elsa, Olaf, Sofia the First, and the rest of the Disney Princesses.

She isn't talking in sentences yet but her vocabulary includes- Tigger, Roo, Pooh, poo, boo boo, mom, dad, red, purple, car, milk, juice, blue, pink, and pray.  She can identify her arm, head, hair, feet, toes, hands, nose, mouth, and ears.  She understands what we say to her, she just can't form 'big girl' sentences.  We aren't worried about it-she still has time and is improving every day.

Darius is a cute little guy.  I say 'little' meaning 'young.'  He is growing, growing, growing.  He has almost outgrown his infant car seat and is in the process of outgrowing his 6-9 month clothing.  He'll be 6 months old in a couple days.

He isn't crawling yet but he can almost sit up on his own and can lift his chest off the ground.  He just started solid foods.  His favorites are bananas, applesauce, and pears.  He likes the applesauce and pears better if mixed with rice cereal.  He definitely has his daddy's appetite.

He LOVES to squirm, wiggle, and laugh.  He has many ticklish spots and so we try to make him laugh as often as we can. The laughter of a child is such a sweet sound and you can't help but smile when you hear it.

And that folks gets us up to date with what's happening here in Utah!

Christmas 2015

Two months later and I'm finally writing about Christmas.

I hardly need to mention that this Christmas was different.  However, we made the most of it and it was quite enjoyable.

The Christmas season started out with us setting up our tree the day after Thanksgiving.  However, we didn't decorate it until Nov 30th due to Brandon's work schedule.

Giselle had fun showing Darius their ornaments:

These two ornaments are for Darius.  Giselle got 2 "baby's first Christmas" ornaments from a lack of communication. So we decided that Darius would get 2 as well.

These next two are mine.  The top one says: "The ones we've lost are found in our memories."

Giselle's ornament for this year was Minnie Mouse-one of her favorite Disney characters

Darius and Giselle also got a Mickey and Minnie ornament from Grandma (Marilyn) and Grandpa (Todd) Huffaker-

The top of our entertainment center:

Also with Brandon working at Big Lots, we got Giselle a little special something- a giant Christmas Olaf.  It's as tall as she is but she loved it.

Brandon had to work Christmas Eve so Sabina, Robert, the kids and I went to my Uncle Nathan's house for Christmas Eve dinner.  We made a couple batches of Swedish meatballs and put together a meat/cheese tray to contribute to the meal.  It was a fun time had by all.

Christmas morning brought SO MUCH SNOW.  About a foot fell between 11 pm and 7 am.  It was GLORIOUS.  I had to go get Sabina from Provo that morning since she and Robert were spending most of Christmas Day with us.  Robert had opted to sleep over Christmas Eve but Sabina needed to go back to Provo.

Yes, I did in fact use a snow shovel to get most of the snow off of our van.  What happened to the Expedition you ask? Well that's for another post.

Anyways, so instead of about a one hour trip (to and from Provo), it took me about 2 hours to get into Provo and to get back to Pleasant Grove.  Again- SO MUCH SNOW.  Plus the van got stuck in a snow bank right outside Sabina's apartment. So that was a fun 20 minute adventure.

We got back to my apartment safely and we opened gifts.  I didn't get any pictures of the gift opening but I can guarantee fun was had by all.

Sabina and Robert left for Provo later that afternoon.  Brandon and I made more Swedish meatballs making the total being FIVE batches made this Christmas season.  I believe that's a record.  Also- I didn't make fruit soup this year making this the second year of my life not having it.  That's kind of a big deal considering that fruit soup is in my top 3 absolute favorite Christmas dishes.

It was a nice Christmas spent with family and I LOVED watching Giselle's reactions to her gifts as well as to other people's gifts.  I'm excited for future Christmases when the kids are older.  Having young children and seeing their reaction to all the decorations really does bring back the magic of the Christmas season.

I love it.

Tragedy

This post is hard to write even though it's been 4 months...but here goes.

My mother, Tamra Gerber, passed away October 4th, 2015.  It was General Conference weekend.

It was a sudden, painless death.  She died of either a heart attack or stroke and she was dead before she hit the floor.

My siblings and I knew that she would die eventually but we didn't expect it to be as sudden as it was. We all thought that we would be gathered around a hospital bed to say our final goodbyes.

Mom suffered from two major illnesses but she didn't let that stop her.  She loved to serve others, sew, garden, scrapbook, and decoupage among MANY other things. Her love of music and serving others was taught to all of us through example and sometimes sit-down lessons. Even though her health wasn't the best, she still had an excellent quality of life.

The last few years of her life, Mom was home bound (different than bed ridden).  She couldn't get out much on her own but she made the most of it.  Yes, there were days when she got frustrated about her situation, but she still tried to think positive.

Family was extremely important to her. Even though there were rough patches with all of us kids, she had our backs and loved us through it all.

We miss her so much but we are also happy that she's in a better place-able to do everything she wants to do.

I can't seem to write anymore through my tears so I'll let some pictures tell the rest:



































Link to her obituary:
http://www.wingmortuary.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3343690&fh_id=10655