Oh That One Time 2014 Happened

Well blogging once a year, that’s acceptable, right? I’m not sure if anyone even blogs any more, with all the social media outlets. But I still like it and recently had a friend ask why I don’t blog anymore, so I guess I’ll give it a go! Mostly I’ve just been too busy lately (oh I mean, this whole last year) and I haven’t thought much about it. Life seems to run from one thing to the next, as it always does for everyone, so I guess I can’t use that as an excuse. How about a top ten from 2014 as a way to start out? 

I finally figured out what happened to my pictures and fixed them! Yay! Also, I like to post my pictures big because if I'm looking at someone else's pictures, I like to really be able to SEE them. So with that preface... onto 2014.

January

A new addition to my family! Yes, this little baby has been waiting YEARS to come and I have been waiting years for it to join me! I couldn’t be more happy with it. We’ve become fast friends this past year. 

February

Enjoyed the Olympics. I’ve been a Figure Skating fan since I was young and I still loved it. But I was surprised that I also found my interest captured by snow boarding and slalom skiing and the rest too. Just so inspiring to see people work so hard!

March

My birthday of course! 25. The big 2-5, whatever that means, ha ha. : ) I have THEE best friends who threw me a surprise party! Kyle took me to see a movie and then Stacy, Kyle, Kristi and I all went to eat Korean food and then they all just got in their cars and drove wildly back to my house while I drove more sedately, thinking they were kind of weird. When I walked in everyone yelled surprise! So many nice people came. I am so the most blessed.

Oh and the 1st General Women’s Meeting. Man I love that meeting, it’s like screaming “go girl power!” love it.

April

Business started to pick up a lot and life started to get more crazy. Bought Mac red lipstick. Ate snails.

My french class amies! 

Gross.

I made it through 1 snail.

May

Got to webcam with Amy! 

Kyle and I went to Minnesota to visit our good friend Lisa who ripped our hearts out last year by moving back to be around her family (priorities here Lisa ;) ). It was so fun! I’ve never been to Minnesota before and we had a good time. We didn’t really see much of downtown Minneapolis... okay I actually don’t think we saw any of it. Except the State Capitol building, we did see that. Oh and the Mall of America. Okay so I guess we did see some of the city. :) We loved Lisa’s house and getting to be with her. We drove to Wisconsin one day because if you’re that close to the other state, you should see it. We bought some cheese, of course, and went walking through Crystal Cave. I’ve never been to a cave before and it was really cool! And also sort of freaky. But mostly cool. And we saw a bat. Lisa and I went to the St. Paul MN temple, which was really fun to see a new temple. It was so tiny! But beautiful. We drove up to Lisa’s parents house after church on Sunday and got to see the rural side of the state. It was seriously so beautiful. Everything just kind of appeared suddenly out of the trees, including the fields of growing crops. Her family was so nice and fed us a delicious meal. They were so fun! Her dad also took us on a pontoon ride around Lake Sissabagma, yes that’s its name. It was beautiful, albeit buggy, and we got to see the state bird... a Lune! Also an eagle’s nest (with the eagles...). For Memorial Day I wanted to go see the National Cemetery there. It was so beautiful and sad and yet filled me with pride for our country. There were fields and fields of white crosses. It was incomprehensible that all of these people had served for us and yet it was only a fragment of those who had served throughout all of our history. We ended up spending like 2 hours there. It was such a great way to spend Memorial Day. We seriously had such a wonderful trip. We love Lisa!  

June

Trip to Rexburg to see Jared and Bekah: went to clogging class!! Soooo much fun, I miss it so much; first time at a rodeo-- It was really fun, but also induced a lot of anxiety as I felt like any second we were going to watch a kid get trampled by a sheep, an adult gored or trampled by various bucking animals, etc. But the horses were beautiful and it really was fun, although I'm not exactly sure why; dutch oven dinner with friends, cooked by Jared; Gelati at Kari Ann’s; 1 year temple anniversary! 

You're not cool if you don't wear aviators

July

Headed to Oregon to be there for Hunter’s baptism. Such a fun time to be in Oregon-- Spencer and Heather live on the most beautiful property. 

August

Called to be Relief Society President. Talk about overwhelming. Things have gotten better, although overwhelming is probably still the adjective of choice, but (as cliche as this sounds) it is also seriously such a blessing in my life. God is so good. Kevin Luke Family Reunion in Bear Lake. A highlight of the summer for sure! One night we did international dinner night and everyone made a dish from their mission .... I made Turon from the Philippines to represent Amy. Dad and Mom made English trifle (dad served in the England, Wales mission), Spencer and Heather made fried mars bars and meat pies (Spencer served in the New Zealand, Wellington mission), Aaron and Krista made homemade cheese empanadas (Aaron served in Chile), Adam and Sarah made homemade corn tortillas and black beans (Adam served in the Guatemala, Guatemala City Central mission) and Jared and Bekah made fried plantains (Jared served in the Peru, Lima South mission). It was soooo much food, as you can see, and all very delicous. 

Grandma's huge magic bubbles were a hit with everyone

Squirt gun fight!

He couldn't have been happier

S'mores

Can you even resist that face?

They did a play of the Lego Movie. 

They must belong to this family.

Plantains

Empanadas

Beans and tortillas

Meat pies and mars bars

Wind-dried hair and a sunburn is a great look for me.

Oh and this is Turon

homemade ice cream!

 Hal Luke Family Reunion with a homemade photo booth. We had way too much fun. 

They are the original owners of these glasses...

We lost my Grandma Mackay (Mamo) in August as well. It was sweet to be with so many family members and my Grandpa has such strength and continues to be a bright spot in our lives. 

The whole family. Almost everyone was able to be together!

All of her grandsons were pallbearers

September

Macie Taylor was born! Year mark for Sister Luke. Kristi *officially* got engaged! 

October

Kristi’s wedding! Chugging along in French class; I love it! Chloe Luke joined us! 

November

Took a trip out to Virginia for Thanksgiving to see the Adam Lukes. It was SO much fun. We miss them so much. We stayed in a beautiful home of one of their neighbors, right across the street from them. They live right in colonial Williamsburg and it is charming and beautiful and exactly what you would think Virginia would look like. It was so warm too. We got to walk the kids to the bus stop and see Laila’s grinning face out the bus window as she waved goodbye on her way to school. Aiden just reads and reads and loves to make up board games for everyone to play. Ezra talks so deliberately with each word that you can’t help but smile as he talks. I made cookies one day with Laila and Ezra, which was very entertaining. Laila is so me when I was that age-- such the little mother to Ezra. I love it! Chloe was so much fun to snuggle and had the best cheeks. I couldn’t get enough! Sarah and Adam were such good hosts and amazing cooks. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. We walked around Williamsburg a bit and went to the candy shop there to get some chocolates. We also fit in a family photo shoot on campus there to kind of commemorate Adam’s time there at William and Mary (he finished classes the next month!). Such a gorgeous location, even in winter. It was so hard to leave all of them! They are much too far away.

A mini photoshoot for this one too

Photo credit to Sarah on this one. This is Chloe talking to me. 

Yep, I'm the favorite aunt. :)

Our Thanksgiving spread

Blessing Day for Miss Chloe!

MockingJay

Making cookies

On our walk home from the candy store

I introduced Aiden to a selfie

Ezra came with Grandpa and Grandma and I while they drove me to the airport (I left a day before they did). He kept asking me to read his Thomas the train book over and over while we drove. To keep him entertained, Grandma kept telling him we were going to go see the planes. When we actually got the airport, he was in tears when he realized he wasn't going to ride WITH me on the plane. It was seriously adorable and also heart wrenching to listen to his little gravely voice tell me he wanted to go with me. 

December

Christmas! Of course. We got to have everyone there for Christmas morning, except for Adam’s family and Amy. It was a fun memory. After years of fighting for the position as a child, I was granted the position of Mary in this year’s nativity by Casen, after he tried Bekah first and she suggested I be Mary. She’s gracious, I know. We got to have Grandpa and Grandma Luke with us for Christmas Eve as well! The week between Christmas and New Years was SO much fun. Full of lots and lots of laughter. We played games every night and laughed ourselves sick each time. So many fun memories. Mom and Dad were grandparents extraordinaire by taking all the grandkids by themselves to my great-aunt Ella’s house where she sets up 2 rooms full of a ceramic Christmas village. She’s done it for years and years and used to make almost all of the ceramics herself. But at 90, she doesn’t get to too much of the actual making of them anymore. It’s so beautiful and such a fun Christmas tradition. I had to work and Spencer and Heather went to the Temple. Krista was home with Macie and so mom and dad braved it with all the kids by themselves and made it without any mishaps of broken ceramics! It’s like they raised 6 kids or something. We had a great holiday season and of course, got to talk to Miss Amy. 

Sweet Daddy/Daughter moment by the tree. 

(with the donkey costume... see below for more details)

Deer in the headlights much? But still adorable. :) 

Joseph and Mary

Angel

No Room

A Wise man. Doesn't he look it?

The other Wise man got to see Jesus early

Somehow the wise man and the inn keeper found each other

Traditional donkey costume... dad's socks for ears and his old 70's coat turned inside out.

The shepherds. Do they look sore afraid? And dad, the narrator. 

Moving from a bible to the bible on a smartphone!

The angel seemed a bit afraid to be up so high 

because he pulled Bekah's hair out in his agitation.

Baby Jesus needed to be bounced to stay happy

New PJ's

To Infinity and Beyond!

We loved getting to have Grandpa and Grandma!

More PJ's

Heather has to get her time in to be favorite Aunt

These two were quite the treat to watch. Benson really liked to hang out with Sophie and would walk up and smile at her-- and Sophie would make a loud 'stop it' sounding noise and push him away. She's just starting young to keep the boys at a distance.

Krista's bonding time for favorite Auntie

Traditional temple square!

2014 was a wonderful year full of so many, many blessings. I’m really excited for what 2015 will bring and can’t wait to see what adventures I’ll find! Oh and Amy gets home in 40ish days. (I’m trying not to count down exactly yet because I feel it’s too early to start a daily countdown. So I try to not count in my head...)