My Thoughts on Cinnamon Rolls

Shortly after Ben and I were married he told me that his one of his favorite treats ever was cinnamon rolls. I had never made them all by myself and tried a few times with mediocre results. When we'd been married about 8 months, our good friends Derek and Heidi Goodyear brought over some homemade cinnamon rolls on a snowy Sunday night. They were AMAZING! Ben gobbled them up and then mentioned that I should ask Heidi for her recipe. We enjoyed the treat and later I mentioned it to her how much we loved them and that I'd like to try her recipe sometime. (To clarify- Derek and Heidi are basically the same couple as Ben and I, but one year ahead. They got married the summer before we did, Heidi was one semester ahead of me in the nursing program at BYU, Derek started med school last year, and they had a baby boy the year before we had Chase. It's seriously uncanny).

A few weeks later after a particularly frustrating Pharmacology test, I texted Heidi and told her how frustrated I was with school, pharmacology in particular. Her response: Oh shoot! Want to come over on Saturday and we can make cinnamon rolls and vent about the nursing program? (Awesome friend, right?!) That is just what we did. I learned to make her amazing cinnamon rolls and she gave me some much needed support and advice to get through that hard semester of nursing. I will always be grateful for her friendship and all her help in getting through nursing school!

I've made her recipe for cinnamon rolls many times now. They always turn out amazing. It is a pretty amazing recipe. Sometimes I'm hesitant to make cinnamon rolls, because let's face it, they are way more work than pretty much any other dessert that my husband loves (cookies, brownies, pie). But cinnamon rolls are really his favorite, so whenever I'm feeling especially giving or I want to do something really special for him, I make cinnamon rolls.

This last Saturday was such a day. He's been working so hard lately and I really wanted to show him some love. I pulled out Goodyear's cinnamon roll recipe and spent my afternoon baking them. And they turned out delicious. Ben was delighted.

As Ben and I sat eating our dinner of fish tacos, Chase sat contently on his dad's lap, just enjoying being held by dad. As soon as Ben put the cinnamon roll in front of him and started eating it, Chase was sure he needed some too. He reached and squirmed trying to get his hands on that cinnamon roll. We might be in trouble. This kid already loves desserts- and he hasn't even tried them yet!

I thought it might be a fluke, but on Sunday afternoon we had the same experience. Chase sat contently on Ben's lap while he ate his sandwich. Once the cinnamon rolls came out Chase was sure he needed one too. My son knows what he wants!

Happy Birthday Heidi

Chase wanted to wish his Aunt Heidi a very happy 19th birthday!

Okay, maybe Chase doesn't even know it's July.

So this is maybe more from his mom.

Either way- she's a pretty sweet aunt to Chase

and sister to me.

We love her a whole lot.

This is Heidi saying goodbye to him last April.

I think he's protesting the separation.

This is when Heidi so lovingly introducedChase to her "silky one"

- childhood "blanket" that she repurposed from my aunt's bathrobe

Chase and Heidi snuggling at the Superbowl party

Their first meeting on the night Chase was born.

Purple Turtle

I forgot to post these pictures with the post about my mom's visit. Last Saturday night she treated Ben and I to dinner. She told us to pick a place we'd been wanting to go. The Purple Turtle is a beach somewhat nearby that has a little burger shack on it. Ben has been wanting a good hamburger, so that's where we went. It was so pretty to sit on the beach as the sun was setting. The hamburgers were good too! And then the bugs came out, my mom and Ben got eaten alive (I was wearing bug spray because I always get eaten- dodged a bullet there) and Chase decided he was absolutely done with being out and wanted to go home. So the evening ended a little abruptly (I'm glad Ben and I got a few years of nice, casual, pleasant dinners before this cute and demanding child joined us) but we all had a fabulous time!

Check out Chase's face in that bottom picture-

he is already looking annoyed that we make him pose for the camera so often.

Sorry kid, you are adorable and a first child-

it is just something you'll have to put up with.

A Red Head?

When Chase was first born we thought he looked like a little mini-Ben. I think he still looks a lot like Ben, but definitely has his own little look. In pictures his hair always looks red like mine, but I swear in real life it's pretty much just brown. My cute next door neighbor took these pictures of Chase and I hanging out on our porch a few weeks ago and I thought they were too cute, I had to post them. I love his little facial expressions. I don't think any picture really does his cuteness justice, but these are pretty close!

Mom's Visit

We just finished ten fabulous days here in Paradise with the most amazing women in the world! My mom left this morning and I'm writing this post so I don't just sit in bed and cry. We had so much fun and I didn't want it to end!

My mom arrived on Saturday night, the day just dragged on and on while I waited for her plane to land. It was like waiting for Christmas! She had her suitcase packed with all kinds of things I asked her to bring that we can't get here in Dominica, mostly diapers. She included this darling outfit she bought for Chase. I think he liked it! She took this picture of him early one morning. Chase has been getting up so early and I have been sleep deprived for what feels like forever, so my Mom would send me back to bed and play with Chase. It was fabulous! This little one soaked up all the attention she gave him. Apparently life is great when you have someone to read your stories, talk to you, play with your toys with you, cheer for you every time you roll over, giggle with you, every second of the day. Poor baby might be a little difficult now that Grammy is gone and Mom does occasionally set him down to do dishes or cook dinner.
We spent a lot of time taking walks and playing with baby Chase. I loved having someone else to hold my baby while I cooked, entertain him at all times, and I swear every time I turned around she was doing my dishes. We just had so much hanging out doing nothing!

On Tuesday we walked to Ft. Shirley (7 miles round trip). I love this fort, it has an amazing view of Prince Rupert Bay and you can see the Fort from our little neighborhood. My mom got to experience Portsmouth and the beauty of Cabrits. It was a completely fabulous day!

On a particularly hot day we took Chase to the river by our house. I tried to put his feet in several times to cool him down, he hated it. Luckily, Grammy rescued him and just held him while he contently watched the river completely mesmerized.
We also took a boat tour of Indian River, which is nearby. This river was used in the filming of the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Calypso's hut was built on this river. Our tour guide, James Bond, gave us a fabulous tour of the river, taught us all about the plants and wildlife we saw and made us a pretty fabulous angel fish and grasshopper out of palm leaves. Chase was okay with the experience until the last 5 minutes when he pretty much demanded we get off the boat (not an option at the time and poor James Bond had to endure the screaming baby). I had wanted to do this for awhile, I was so glad we did it!

We took a bunch of trips to the pool. Chase is warming up to the idea.

Friday night my mom bought us KFC and we met Ben on campus for a picnic and watched the beautiful sunset. My mom and I tried several times to watch a good sunset without a whole lot of success, too cloudy. This night was gorgeous!

On Saturday a girl from our branch was baptized in the ocean. It was a beautiful baptism! Here I am with my mom and Chase beforehand.
For her last meal on the island my mom wanted to help us cook fish, it's so cheap here and very fresh (you buy it down on the beach). I have never been a huge fish fan, but have had some good experiences eating Salmon at my aunts house in the last few years, so I thought I could maybe give it a try. I have been scared to try to cook it! So my mom and I walked down to Portsmouth and bought some fish, spent about an hour looking all over for charcoal, and then my mom grilled it in our little gazebo. It actually turned out delicious and now I'll probably try to cook fish. Ben was so excited about it that he documented the occasion with pictures:

I am sure missing this lady!

Having her around was a dream. She is one of my best friends in the

whole world and one of the most amazing women I know.

Thanks for visiting Mom!

I love you so much.

Thanks for being so helpful and spoiling us- come again soon!

xoxo

Court

Our little Red Sox Fan

Since his Uncle Will's recent trip to Boston resulting in a souvenir Red Sox jersey for Chase, Chase has become a Red Sox fan. (I've already written about how my baby loves ESPN right? Apparently we start this kind of obsession young in the Hugo family) Chase looks so darling in his little jersey, and as proof by the pictures he was pretty excited about it as well.Or maybe these smiles are the result of his Grammy was waving one of the fancy new toys she brought him? Either way, this kid has been spoiled with presents lately.

I'm not sure who is happier- my Mom to get to spend all this time with her only grandbaby that she hasn't seen in 2 1/2 months, or the baby who now gets all kinds of attention all day long and never has to be set down. There is a lot of happiness at the Hugo home this week!

Thanks for the jersey Will!

He LOVES it!

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. Today I'm missing the USA a whole lot. I'm so grateful for America. It has it's problems, but I truly feel it's the greatest country on earth. I am so grateful for all the men and women who have sacrificed for the United States. I'm also so glad that we have such a fun holiday to celebrate America. This is the 3rd time I've spent the 4th of July in a foreign country, and every time I'm grateful for the chance to reflect on how thankful I am for the awesome country I call home. Living in Dominica has been a fun adventure, and I'm grateful we are here, and it has made me appreciate America so much more!

Since Independence Day isn't celebrated here (obviously- it's not America) Ben still had school, and he has a huge test tomorrow morning to prepare for. So Chase and I were mostly celebrating solo today. We went to the pool for Chase's first swim. He tolerated it. The whole time he had this look on his face like "Mom, why are we doing this??????" It felt heavenly to cool off and I think Chase and I will now be regulars at the pool!

Later tonight there was a BBQ at the pool that we attended. I was so glad someone had the planning and initiative to put it together. It was so fun and Chase and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. If we can't have fireworks, at least we had a BBQ.

I was nervous about him getting sun burnt- which he didn't

I think he looks so cute in his little swim outfit!

This is the "my mother is crazy" look he was giving me

throughout our swim

I wanted us all to wear red, white and blue today.

Then we realized none of us has anything red.

Does my hair count?

So we just settled for white and blue.

Happy Birthday America!

Six Months of Chase

My little angel will be exactly six months old tomorrow. I can hardly believe we have had this beautiful baby in our family for six months! Ben and I talked about how when he was born last January it really didn't occur to us that his six month mark would be on the 4th of July, so tomorrow will be a double celebration, Happy Birthday to America and Six months of Chase! (Although Ben has a huge test on Tuesday and will be studying ALL DAY tomorrow, so the celebrating might be limited to just Chase and me).

It feels like Chase has always been a member of our family. We feel so lucky to have him! Ben and I were reminiscing today about the day Chase was born and what an amazing day that was. Once we got all settled in our hospital room and the nurses left us alone for the night, we sat together on the hospital bed and just marveled at Chase. He was so perfect, so beautiful, and we could already tell had such an amazing spirit. We loved him so much immediately. Six months later we love him even more than we did that night. We still think he's perfect, beautiful and we know he has an amazing spirit and a wonderful personality. We are thankful every day to have him in our home and are so grateful that he is ours forever!

At six months old Chase:

• has such a fun personality and sense of humor
• Giggles all the time
• Loves to play with his toys- his little Nuby Keys seem to be his favorite but he'll take any of them
• Still loves to be held
• Loves the stroller
• Has eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, avacado, squash and green beans
• Can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back
• "talks" all the time
• Loves his dad more than anyone in the world
• Can finally sleep at night without being swaddled (he still needs the swaddle for naps, he's such a particular baby!)
• Loves to watch other kids play and gets very excited when they acknowledge him

And now for a whole bunch of pictures of this little guy over the past six months....

3 Years

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary- what an amazing 3 years it's been!

Some of my favorite memories from our 3rd year of marriage:

Spending 2 wonderful weeks together in Europe last summer

Hiking through Cinque Terra

Ben eating his weight in gelato all over Italy

Touring the Acropolis in Athens

Relaxing on the most beautiful beach in Mykonos

Exploring Santorini on a four wheeler

Finding out that our little sweet pea was a BOY

Picking out a name for Chase and shopping for him

Our last semester at BYU and Graduation

Thanksgiving in California

Moving away from our first apartment in Provo

Our last Christmas as a family of two

Anxiously awaiting the birth of our baby

Chase's birthday- the best day of the whole year

Spending hours just holding and marveling at our little baby

Ben having the opportunity to help open up Fatboy's Pizza and Pasta Co.

Passing NCLEX

Leaving Chase with my mom so Ben and I could have a romantic night out on Ben's 26 birthday

Our trip to Washington DC in March

Getting ready for our move to Dominica

Starting out life in the Caribbean

Ben's first day of Medical School

Spending time as a family on the beach

It's been a wonderful year!