it's been awhile . . .

ok, i know i've been a huge slacker and TOTALLY neglected the blog . . i don't know what's wrong with me!  probably just because we haven't been up to anything new, just school and work!  

there has been some exciting news in the rest of the family though!  first, we welcomed a new niece into the family!  my little brother zac and his wife manami had their second baby!  abby kalena walker was born on feb. 2nd at 9:22 p.m. she weighed 6#13oz. and was 20 inches long:

 abby the day she was born

and at 3 weeks old.

thanks for letting me borrow your pictures manami!  little abby is such a sweet little baby!  i got to snuggle her at the super bowl and can't wait to see her again!  congratulations to zac and manami, we are so excited to welcome our cute little niece into the family!

the second piece of news is that nikki is engaged!  congrats to nikki and skylar!  their wedding date is set for april 14th, and we're so excited for them!  

look at their engagement picture, isn't it so cute?!  okay, just kidding.  this is totally not their engagement picture.  i just found it on my computer.  thanks nikki.  trav and i were just discussing what we would call them after they get married.  we'll just refer to them as if they are one person, like nylar or skikki :)  we'll let you know what we decide :)

well, that's all for now i think.  maybe one of these days we'll get a life and actually do something worth blogging about!  ha ha!  

happy 14th

Happy Valentines Day

i think trav is the luckiest guy in the world.  for like, a million reasons of course ;)  but also because i don't care that much about valentines day!  am i a girl?? oh well! :)  i make it easy on him.  although it is a good opportunity to tell my sweetheart that i think he is wonderful and i'm glad i was so smart when i was all of 17 years old and snatched him up, much to the dismay of many.  sorry ladies! ;)  life would be nigh un-travelable without my cute huzzy by my side.  i love my sweetie.  happy valentines day!

you're not going to believe this . . .

do you remember this post, the one that i told the life story of my favoritest cell phone in the world and how it had been brought back from the dead twice, taped, saran wrapped, and super glued?  well, it has another story to add to the list!!!!!!!!!!!! (if you didn't see the other post, you should probably go back and read it, because you really can't get the full effect without knowing its history ;)

so . . . yesterday we went to grandma ruby's to watch the super bowl and when we were leaving, trav got my cell phone for me.  you remember that the phone looked like this:

super glued so that it couldn't shut.  well, trav put it in his pocket . . . IN HIS POCKET!!!!!  super glued, broken cell phones don't go in pockets!!!  i'm sure you can guess what happened next . . . it broke.  again.  only the little ribbon piece that didn't break last time that made it so the phone was resurrect-able, did break this time.  so it was ripped in half.  COMPLETELY.  aka:  not resurrect-able.  i found it this  morning and i was MAD!!!  like madder than a wet hen mad!!!  mostly because this is the second time trav has broken it (the first time was a month or two ago and he super glued it again for me) and he always says he's going to break my phone for good.  on purpose.  so i thought he really might have done it . . you know . . on purpose!  and plus all my #'s are on it and i don't have them written down so they were all lost.  i think i'll write them all down today ;)  anyways, after trav got the tongue-lashing of his life for breaking my phone (i actually have another one that we bought after my cell phone fell in the toilet.   he told me to set that one up and i chucked it at him and said, "no, YOU broke it so YOU set it up!!!" and then informed him that he owed me something that i didn't know what it was yet for breaking my phone, and that i would be laying under my heat blanket sulking and not to bother me.  (kind of, this is all a little dramatized, i didn't really chuck the phone AT him, just beside him on the couch, and i was really just cold and was going to get warmed up.  anyways, i fell asleep and when i came back downstairs, i found this:

 and a text that said, "do you like your new old phone?  don't break it again, because i don't have another carcass to dismember."  HAHAHA!!!!  (he had to go to class and wasn't here when i got back up.)  BUT LOOK!!!!  he fixed it!  i couldn't believe it!  and it shuts again!!!!  holy crap!!!  ha ha ha!!!!  once upon a time, we both had this same phone.  well, something happened to trav's and so he got a new one, and his old one like mine has been a play phone for the kids ever since. (and that was like, 7 years ago!)  well, he dug around in aiden's room and found it, disassembled it and mine, and put the good pieces back together to make up this one :)

hilarious!  the 2 morals of the story are this:

#1 - even though he was the one who broke it this time, trav TOTALLY gets husband of the year for going to that kind of trouble to fix my phone for me!

#2 - why am i so excited to have that busted-A, old piece of crap phone back?!  i think there's something wrong with me! ;)  

 and this is sadie pretending to talk on one of the dismembered pieces, i thought it was too cute :)

i loved it.  this whole thing made me laugh so hard.  stay tuned for more updates on the "9 lives of the busted-A p.o.s. phone that never should have been fixed the first time . . . " i'm sure there'll be more ;)

thoughts of the day

a random act of kindness

over this last month, i've been amazed at  how many wonderful people we have around us and how much support we have felt.  i have been very humbled and have felt so blessed by the compassion and caring that so many kind people have shown.  we have such good friends, caring families, and such a great ward.  there have been so many people who have gone out of their way to let us know they are thinking of us and praying for us.  they have brought us dinner, cookies, cards, and have just let us know that we've been in their prayers.

and today, someone did something so nice for us that it literally brought me to tears.  our visiting teacher, who i feel so blessed to have been able to get to know over the time that she has faithfully been to our house every month, who already brought us enough food to last us an entire week, and who also brought us cookies, caramels, and oranges.  who came over just to see how we were doing shortly after we got home from christmas and was unlucky enough to knock on the door and have my kids answer it just as i was opening a box for sadie that was from my mom and then bravely endured as i did my best to assure her that i was "doing really good . . as tears rolled down my face, and one look at me told her otherwise . . . " as if all of this wasn't enough.  as we pulled into the driveway after getting aiden from school today, she was standing on our doorstep with pizza, chocolates, and this willow tree figurine.  i couldn't believe that she would do such a nice, random act of kindness with everything that she has already done.  i am just so grateful for her.  she is one of the kindest, most wonderful people i have ever known.  she has been an amazing example of service, and i hope i can pay it forward to someone else, and someday do something for her as well.  the figurine is called "close to me" and is about having our loved ones with us always.  what a nice thing of her to give to us.  so thanks to my visiting teacher, who i just can't thank enough, and to everyone who has been so kind to us and has kept us in their prayers.  each day continues to be a struggle for me, and sometimes i wonder if i'm ever going to snap out of it.  as i try to come to terms with the fact that i will never see my mom again in this life, everything else seems to be collapsing around me as well.  i guess life really has to kick us when we're down, something that i may never fully understand.  but we've had a lot of good times, i guess now it's time for some trials and i'm just going to have to do my best and hope and pray that i've got it in me to not only make it through them, but learn and grow along the way.  i guess that's what life's all about, even though it's hard.  and i have to believe that we'll make it through.  we're tough like that . . . 

congratulations ashley!

trav's sister ashley welcomed a new little boy into the family on wednesday, january 4th.  he weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and they named him McCoy.  he is one lucky boy!  he has two wonderful big sisters who will be so good to him!  we went to see him, ashley, and the fam the sunday after and kennedy and livvy both assured me that i was not going to be able to take him home like i wanted ;)  he was their brother and he was absolutely not going anywhere.

he was such a sweet, cuddly little boy.  he was a perfect little baby, and i snuggled him for a long time :)  thanks for letting me snuggle your baby, ash.  we liked him a lot :)  we're so excited to have a new little nephew, it's been a long time since a new baby was added to the fam!  we were overdue, thanks for taking care of that for everyone ash ;)  he's adorable and we can't wait to see him again!

a temple trip milestone

trav and i decided that january would be a good month to take off and go to a new temple somewhere, since we would have one more week off at the first of the month.  we also decided that we wanted it to be a memorable couple of days for the kids, (and we were leaving on a monday which meant it was SUPER cheap day at the treehouse museum in ogden!)  which happened to be on the way, so we stopped there and let the kids play.

i laughed hard because trav was appalled when i told him that one time i took the kids and spent 6 hours there.  but once he saw how much there was to do, he wasn't surprised!  we spent about 3 hours, and then it closed and we had to go.  we could have stayed longer, but it was fun and the kids loved it!

we had first thought of going to the twin falls temple, but it was closed for cleaning so we headed towards salt lake and decided on the oquirrh mountain temple.  and now (until one of the new ones open up!)  we only have 1 temple in utah that we haven't been to!  the draper temple!  

so we drove down to sandy on monday and stayed in a hotel.  a really nice hotel!!!  we pricelined it and got a really good deal, and it was new and really nice.  we went swimming (of course!)  that evening and then again the next morning, and both times we had the pool all to ourselves!

the look on aiden's face in this one makes me laugh really hard, he looks crazed.

and the next day trav and i took turns going through a session.  we loved this temple!  it was a bigger temple and really really pretty!  and our sessions were really small, which was a little different for a salt lake area temple, last year when we went to mt. timpanogas, there were over 100 people in our sessions!

after our sessions, we went to red robin for dinner.  aiden and sadie begged to play that game where the grabbers go down and you try to get an animal, and this time we gave in.  and aiden won a pink kitty!  it was so funny!  he was so excited that he won that he was jumping up and down, and then the look on his face when he realized that yes, he won . . . but it was an ugly pink cat . . was so priceless!  we were all laughing hysterically.  in the end, he was still really excited and he decided to give the cat to sadie.  sadie was trying to decide on a name for it, and aiden yells "how about mrs. ugly?!"  and sadie said, "aiden, she doesn't like that name . . . but she still loves you . . "  ha ha!  it was hilarious.  she ended up naming it pinkie-pie :)

we had a really nice little getaway.  we thought it might help us to go do something we all enjoy, even if it had been a really busy couple of weeks and felt like we were running around even more.  we had a good time, and thought the temple would be a good place for us to be.  and of course, it was.  i've been very thankful to have had a couple opportunities to go since my mom died.  i think it's been really good for us.  and we needed one more weekend to get away before trav started school again :)

oh!!!!  all that yapping, and i forgot to write why it was a temple milestone!  ha ha!  it was our 20th different temple that we've been to!  so cool!