2011

I have a few more hours until 2012 and I can't help but reminisce a little about this past year. 2011 was probably the best year of our lives, and also probably the hardest year. It has been full of changes, challenges and lots of happy memories. Here are a few favorites from the year:

January 4, 2011

The best day of the year and my favorite memory:

holding my sweet little miracle for the first time.

Oh how he has changed our world!

January was full of first memories that I will always treasure- watching my husband cuddle with his newborn son, holding my baby in the middle of the night when everything else was dark and quiet, Chase's first bath, first doctors appointment, first visitors, Ben and I sitting for hours holding this sweet baby and admiring him.

February

Chase's blessing

Our romantic candlelight Valentine's dinner at home that Chase cooperated and slept through

Our romantic date night out of Ben's birthday sans baby

March

Our trip to Washington DC for Kevin and Jessi's wedding- Chase's first time on a plane

Visiting the DC temple and attending Kevin and Jessi's beautiful sealing

Our sleepover with Andrew and Chana- nothing like staying up super late with old friends:)

April

We had such a beautiful Easter this year, church was wonderful and we had a delicious dinner with my family and the Caldwells

Right after Easter we said good-bye, packed up and started our journey to Dominica

Traveling to Dominica was scary, stressful and exciting- we didn't truly know then what we an adventure we were in for! Chase was a champ even though the trip did not go nearly as smoothly as we'd planned. I was so glad when we finally got to Dominica after two long, exhausting days of travel.

May

Ben started medical school. It was such a great feeling to know he was finally able to officially start down the path of fulfilling his dream of becoming a doctor.

Ben and Chase eating lunch on the first day of school

Shortly after arriving in Dominica Chase became a pretty happy, easy going kid. We hit this groove right around 4-5 months where I really felt like I'd gotten the hang of being a mom. He started giggling all the time, which I still think is one of the best sounds in the world.

June

Chase sat up on his own for the first time on my birthday

July

I took Chase swimming for the first time on the 4th of July.

My absolute favorite memory of July was my mom's visit-

it was something I was looking forward to and I loved having her here and getting

to share this beautiful island with her.

August

Ben successfully finished his first semester of medical school- finally getting his grades and knowing he passed was one of the happiest memories of the year!

We did some fun exploring together as a family, visiting Batibou Bay and Emerald Pool.

September

Ben started his second semester of medical school- pretty much the only eventful part of September.

October

I took a last minute trip to visit Utah! Chase and I had a blast there, loving being with family, the comforts of the USA and loved the beautiful fall leaves and weather in Utah.

Chase was the cutest pumpkin ever for Halloween

And just the sense of accomplishment that I survived a 30 hour international journey with a ten month old by myself without losing it.

November

Our Island Thanksgiving

December

Will came to Dominica for a week!

Ben finished second semester- another happy memory at seeing his grades and knowing he'd passed.

Our spontaneous (thanks to American Airlines and the Dominican Airport) sleepover weekend with our friends the Warners after we'd already said good-bye

Moving away from our first Dominica home to our new place

Our first Christmas on our own and our first Christmas with Chase

Seeing Chase open his presents and have so much fun playing with new toys

As I said before, this year has been full of changes: a new little member of our family, moving to a new country, starting a new and challenging education program for Ben, starting life as a stay at home mom for me, making new friends and meeting new people, the list goes on and on. There have been so many challenges this year from learning to live on no sleep and how to be parents to Ben's highly stressful and time intensive study program, along with the lack of resources, medical care, technology support, and many normal grocery items living here in Dominica. All of these have given us an opportunity to grow- and grow we did! Ben and I have grown closer to each other and closer to our Savior. We've learned many life changing lessons and had our perspective broadened. This year has been happy and wonderful and hard and challenging, and now looking back, I wouldn't change it for the world!