Beasley Family

you're not going to believe this . . .

2012-02-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

a random act of kindness

2012-01-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

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!

2011 year in review

2012-01-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

well, i think i'm caught up on all our 2011 posts! yippeee!!!! so now i can write our family newsletter and year in review. i always say that i'm going to get family pictures done and get a letter written to update everyone on our lives, but this was not the year. again. and honestly, i doubt it will ever be . . it's just not one of my strong points ;)
it's hard to believe that another year has gone by, and it's 2012 already!! i just don't know how it happens. 2011 was memorable in so many ways. we had some fun times, sad times, vacation times, and family times.
~we said goodbye to my mom and work to heal the hurt while remembering the good times with her.
~we went to 3 new temples; mount timpanogas, ogden, and kona hawaii
~we went on 2 big vacations. our road trip to san francisco and redwood national park in may with the whole fam and our trip to hawaii in august with just me and trav. they were both AMAZING!!!! whenever we have the funds to be able to do it, (which sadly will not be this year ;) we hope to be able to take a family vacation and a vacation for just trav and me. we LOVE to travel and see new things and places!!!!
~sadie got rid of her binki and got potty trained (i think i can safely say that we are FINALLY there now!!!!)
~aiden started first grade and learned to ride a bike without training wheels. they both get bigger every day and we love our kiddies so very much!
~trav and i celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary, yay for us! it's hard to believe it's been that long, it still seems like we still just got married! :)
~we inherited a fish (red rojo) and another plant (an orchid that trav got me that doesn't seem to want to bloom) and both have managed to stay alive throughout the whole year. and who knows, maybe i'll get the orchid to bloom this year! it'll be a new year's resolution :)
~i finally became a "runner"! i ran a 10k and a half marathon (which i think i've finally healed up from and am happy to announce that my big toenail is growing back, and the other one seems to be staying intact :)
~trav finished another year of school and if all works out like we hope, he will be starting his last semester this spring! way to go trav! you are almost there and we couldn't be prouder of you!!
i think that pretty much sums it up. we are healthy, happy, and blessed to just be together. even if sometimes life throws curveballs, we can make it through and hopefully come out better. we have so many things to be thankful for and know that sometimes we are just going to have to work through the hard times. but we can do it. we hope that all of our friends and family are doing well and hope the best for everyone in 2012.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

salt lake christmas trip

2012-01-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

we stayed in blackfoot until friday, and then my dad's family all went down to salt lake. that's what they did for christmas for all of us, my dad, vauna, and grandma ruby and grandpa dennis reserved hotel rooms for everyone at little america, took us all to dinner, and then to the aquarium the next day. it was an awesome christmas present! so on our way down to slc, we stopped in logan to repack a little bit and see if santa came.

looks like he did . . . !

trav covered their eyes and then we let them look. this was right when they looked. i laughed hard at this picture, aiden looks totally overwhelmed! not really in a good way either! ha ha ha! they really were excited, this pic just doesn't quite show it ;)

oh there we go! there's the happy faces we're looking for!

merry fishmas trav!!!

so we got to salt lake and to our hotel later in the afternoon and first thing on the agenda was . . .

swimming!!! they were SO excited!!!!!

and the BEST part about this picture is . . . buttcrack man!!!! it should be illegal to sport that much buttcrack in public

after swimming, we all went and ate at up-chuck-a-rama and then to temple square. look at our sweeties! we didn't even tell them to hug :)

the pics are extensive, i know, but it was just really really pretty! and i couldn't choose from so many good pics so i'm putting them all on. i laughed as i looked through these and thought, "well, i guess if the kids are not going to take one good picture and they're going to make goofy faces in them all, at least we know they had fun!" ha ha! and they did :)

the best part about our trip to temple square was that the weather was AMAZING!!!! it was like, 60 degrees!!!!!!!!!! the freakiest weather day ever in december, it had to be a record! it was so awesome. sadie wouldn't even keep her coat on, it was so nice!

this one made me laugh really hard. i have no idea why aiden has his hand on top of her head and i have no idea why she is pulling that face

more crazy faces

when we got here, sadie asked loudly if she could ride the sheep. everyone around us was laughing. so were we. and for the record, we did tell her no.

their own personal little slide. they were laughing so hard!

many thanks to the nice person who offered to take our picture!

oh whadd'ya know . . . more crazy faces

and not just the kids either . . . ha ha ha trent!!!

zac, manami, and kellan

dad and vauna

daddy and sadie . . . refusing to wear her coat

grandma ruby, aiden, and the fam

it was so fun to go to dinner and temple square! it was the most beautiful night, and so fun to get to hang with our families. the next morning we all got up and went to breakfast at denny's. then we went swimming one more time, and then to the aquarium

the whole fam!

sadie getting roughed up by uncle trent

there were a bunch of sting rays in this pool that you could touch. they were cool!

my dad, vauna, and sadie lady checking out the shark aquarium

the aquarium had all kinds of neat things to see! there were sharks, eels, snakes, penguins, fish . . .

grandma vauna and little cutler

this was one o f those things that you put change in and watched it go around. the kids had like, 3 or 4 of them all going at the same time and were laughing soooo hard! it was pretty cool, i have to admit!

carson, kellan, aiden, and dallin posing on the frog

aiden REALLY posing and sadie gettin' in on the action!
after the aquarium, everyone disbursed and went their separate ways. we stopped and got a bite to eat at applebees and then headed home ourselves. it ended up being a really fun trip. thanks especially to my dad, vauna, and grandma ruby/grandpa dennis who took us all down there! it was an awesome christmas present and so much fun to see everyone and hang out!

christmas day

2012-01-05T23:14:00.000-08:00

first stop on x-mas day was my mom's side of the family. we had it at zac and manami's and they cooked their traditional breakfast burritos for us. thanks guys! they were delicious! i was really worried about christmas day. were we supposed to open our presents from my mom? would i even be able to handle it? what would we tell the kids? would it be confusing for them? there were a million questions. in the end, we decided to open them and we told aiden and sadie that they were from grandma geri before she died. i'm glad we did, and it ended up being really nice.

my gramp, sister kylee, and gus

the lighting is terrible, but it was the only one i got of trav!

well, i guess he was in this one a little bit. this was the lion hat that my mom got for sadie. and aiden got a monkey. they were adorable.

whoa . . who invited erkle??! ;)

grandpa dick and grandma helen got the kids books with matching animals, they were really cute and they loved them! sadie was giving hers a million loves. she named it dolphi and aiden named his roary. cute little things :)

we made it through it ok. i just wish i could tell my mom that the kids loved their presents and that she did a good job. and that she did way more than she needed to, as always :) thanks mom. love you. these presents will always be a little more special to us.

next stop was out to my dad and vauna's house for more food, more presents, and more christmas fun. first, aiden had to go beat up (or get beat up!!) by uncle colin. i love this picture, it totally sums them up. aiden loves colin and can never get enough of rough-housing with him :)

hi aunt deena! and her big boy carson and little boy cutler. and cousin ashlin, who is getting way too big!!

manami, sara, and little lainey

dad and vauna, and trent coming in with their new microwave from everybody!! their's was from like, the 1980's and it was used even before we got it! they just don't make 'em like that anymore! that thing was indestructable! :)

and new cordless phones for grandma ruby and grandpa dennis. they're just too handy, everyone has to have a cordless!

the fam

sadie got this cute little pony from grandma ruby and grandpa dennis and was giving it loves. so cute!

more rough-housing. this time uncle brandon was the victim . . :)

then it was in to heidi's house where we had more food (pretty sure i gained 10 lbs that day!;) and presents on trav's side of the fam

i enjoyed watching heather harrass their cat, charlotte. super funny!

holy freak that thing's scary! ha ha! careful heather, i think you might lose a finger!

nikki, skylar, susan, jen

the mass craziness that it was when we opened presents. look really close and it'll be like where's waldo . . only it's where's the totally naked toddler putting on slippers. brookies, i think you should work on those AFTER you're not completely clothes-less and diaper-less . . scary!!!! ha ha! and that was it for x-mas day! it ended up being a little bit of everything. busy, fun, and a little bittersweet. all in all, it all turned out to be a nice day and we were so happy to be able to spend it with our families.
we also went out to my gramp and helen's house during the week and spent some time with them. it was really nice to spend time with them and the kids loved it!

trav, aiden, and their dog aspen. she's such a nice doggie! even if she does think she's a little lap dog! :)

their christmas tree was really cool!

gramp, helen, and their other dog choco

this is mr. fuzz. he was my mom's cat. we've had him for so long! he showed up on our doorstep like, 12 or 14 years ago or something and when i graduated high school, i took him to boise with me for awhile. then i moved into a place that couldn't have cats and had to send him back. and he's been with my mom ever since. and my gramp took him in now because he wouldn't be able to be adopted because he's too old. so he'll stay with them now. he's such a nice kitty!

aspen loves to play! i love the look on aiden's face in this one!

tug of war with grandpa dick!

this one makes me laugh hard, this monkey is one of those that laughs and rolls over and sadie hated it! she really kept her distance and when we would tell her to pick it up and bring it to us or something, she wouldn't do it! she would just kick it! ha ha!

we were so glad that we got to go hang out with my grandpa dick and grandma helen. we love them, and don't see them near enough! it was nice :)

all of that, and christmas still wasn't over yet! we still had to go back home to logan to see if santa had stopped at our house too! that wouldn't be for a few more days, but we couldn't wait to find out! ;)

christmas eve

2012-01-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

before i post about christmas, i have a whole post for christmas eve . . we visited grandma ruby's and grandma susan's.

first stop was grandma ruby's. and apparently someone hasn't taught sadie that it's impolite to pick one's nose, ESPECIALLY right as someone snaps off a picture! not only is it very un-ladylike sadie, but now there's evidence . . and that makes us both look bad . . . ;)

love you grandpa dennis! :)

then it was off to grandma susan's to party it up some more.

AND of course celebrate trav's b-day!!! the most important part of christmas eve!! you'll always be 29 to me cute huzzy :) happy birthday!!!!!

look at how cute he is :) and for the record, i've stopped caring about pics of me with no make-up . . just don't look very close ;) but if you do happen to look close, i think there might just be some cleavage there!! . . oh wait, no . . nope, there's not. i was excited there for a minute ;) but i know better . . :)

we had a white elephant gift exchange that was really fun. this is nick opening up ours. nobody wanted it! especially after they found out it was the one we brought! ha ha! they all thought there was going to be something inappropriate or awful in there like a urinal or something (hmmm . . good idea . . well, there's always next year :) we were offended, i don't even know what would ever make anyone think that WE would do something like that!! ;) although that hat was quite hideous, the picture doesn't quite do it justice . . we all got a good laugh out of it :)

and the kids got to do the same thing, only their presents were candy. they had a good time too.

aiden's face in this one cracks me up :)

livvy and sadie. these two are so cute and i love that they are only like, 3 weeks apart. they're so funny! and that was all for our x-mas eve. it was fun and good to be surrounded by our families during a sad and trying time.

december date night

2012-01-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

i'm still catching up, but i had to write about me and trav's date night! we got to go on a little outing in december :) nikki was here not doing anything one night, so she held down the homestead for us while we got to go on a long overdue date. we never get to go on dates! so needless to say, i was super excited! i found my sassiest outfit and we hit the town.

we went out to eat at cafe sabor and then went to a movie. one trav had been DYING to see forever!!! . .

ok . . so maybe i dragged him to it, but what a good sport :) he hardly complained at all . . until after the movie. he didn't like it. but i later found out that it was just because of the end. too much blood. and cpr. he was greatly disturbed by the cpr. i didn't even notice. go figure ;) but for the record, i liked the movie. i want to watch it again! i didn't realize that i probably should have warned him about what happened in it and stuff, i just didn't even think of it! sorry huzzy . . and thanks for coming with me :)

i love date nights! any opportunity to get out of the house is a good enough excuse for me! especially when this cute husband of mine will let me drag him anywhere! shopping, girly movies, restaurants he doesn't even like . . that's my huzzy. he's a good one :) love you hus. thanks for hittin' the town with me :)
that's going to have to be all for tonight. i had high aspirations of getting mostly caught up, but alas it was not meant to be. i'll be back :)

catching up on xmas stuff . . ward xmas party

2012-01-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

our ward christmas party was clear back on december 15th! and i haven't blogged about it yet . . how did that happen?! well, i don't have too much to say about it. except that i love the ward xmas party and i'm so glad we got to go! :) we ate dinner which is always yummy, had a very short little program, and then santa came to visit.

sadie hopped right onto santa's lap and told him what she wanted. a barbie. that's all she asked anyone for! we're gonna end up with a million barbies!!!!

and aiden did too (sit on his lap that is, not ask for a barbie . . thank goodness ;) he asked for spy goggles.

that's sadie showing off her candy cane. and mr. professional photographer himself taking the picture :) and whenever you tell sadie to show you something, this is what you get. oh well, at least you're getting showed . . even if you can't see HER at all! :)

a moment to remember my mom

2011-12-31T21:31:00.000-08:00

My First Christmas In Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees
around the world below
With tiny lights, like Heaven's stars,
reflecting on the snow

The sight is so spectacular,
please wipe away the tear
For I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs
that people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can't compare
with the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you,
the joy their voices bring,
For it is beyond description,
to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me,
I see the pain inside your heart.
But I am not so far away,
We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones,
You know I hold you dear.
And be glad I'm spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift,
from my heavenly home above.
I sent you each a memory
of my undying love.

After all, love is a gift more precious
than pure gold.
It was always most important
in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other,
as my Father said to do.
For I can't count the blessing or love
He has for each of you.

So have a Merry Christmas and
wipe away that tear.
Remember, I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year.

this was the poem that was on the funeral announcement for my mom. maybe someday i'll be able to read it without bawling, which would be nice because it's actually a really pretty poem. i like how it helps you think of the person being in heaven and being happy. the announcement also had this picture on it:

"Heavenly Hands" by Greg Olsen. we have it in our house and it's always been one of my favorites. i think the lady looks like an angel. and a mom. like my mom now. maybe she's all dressed in white and in a pretty place.

we had the viewing last tuesday night, and the funeral wednesday morning. it was hard. christmas was hard too, but there were happy moments as well.

on tuesday morning, trav and i went to the temple. it was the best thing we could have done. it's always so nice to go to the temple, but i think we all have certain temple trips that stand out through the years. this will forever be one of them. the peace it brought was amazing beyond words. it got me through the viewing, which i was dreading so bad that i felt like i almost couldn't go. and it has gotten me through the rest of this week as well. i really am so thankful for the temple. it is such a blessing and can give us insight into our lives and our time here on earth that i don't think we could gain otherwise. i will look forward to when we can do my mom's work for her. i know she will be so happy.

a really nice friend of hers, who has helped her and been with her a lot through the years, gave each of us some nice pictures of her that were taken just in the last couple of weeks. she looks really pretty. i will put it on here when i can get it scanned.

this last week has been such a surreal whirlwind. we just got home today, after being gone for 9 days. some of the longest, and perhaps some of the very worst of my life. but there have been some good and happy moments too, and i am grateful for those. i'm especially grateful for my friends and family who have done so much for us. thank you all for so much support and kindness. we love and appreciate you more than we can say. i think, for the most part, this is all that i am going to write as far as my mom's passing. i want to make sure and focus on some of the good things as well. one of the nights that i couldn't sleep, i spent reading scriptures and conference talks. a talk that i read that really stood out to me was called, "sunday will come" by elder joseph b. wirthlin. it is a beautiful talk. BEAUTIFUL . . . and i write this so that if (when) anyone else that i love dies, i can go back and read it. it brought me so much peace, and reminded me of so many things. one thing especially, that this pain will only last for so long, and then "sunday will come."

so now i will post some other, more happy memories. like christmas, and our trip to salt lake with my dad's side of the fam. and i'll try to keep the tears at a minimum from now on :) i have felt so emotionally tattered this last week that it's time to start to mend. wish me luck.

i never thought in a million years

2011-12-24T01:32:00.000-08:00

that i would be planning a funeral over christmas. and never in a million years would i want to do it again. tears are close to the surface, and sleep is the companion i can't seem to find. christmas is marred and a time that used to be my favorite time of year may never be the same again, only a reminder of moments that i wish i didn't have to experience. but no time of the year is a good time to lose a loved one, right? . . it happens. but knowing this doesn't make it any easier. i hope time does. christmas is a time to think of our savior and our loved ones. a time to be grateful. right now i am grateful for so much support from so many wonderful people around me. and i am grateful for the knowledge that i will see my mom again someday and that she is happy now. she doesn't hurt anymore and she is in a place so much better than here. how do people make it through times like these without that knowledge? it feels like the only thing getting me through. and the knowledge that christ already bore this pain. this pain and more, for every loved one that every person has ever lost. and when i can't take any more, he will be there with me again. i hope my mom knew how much i loved her. how much we all loved her. that i will look forward to seeing her again, and that i hope she is happy in heaven. i'm so thankful for my family and friends. for their love, prayers, and strength. i will need them for awhile . . and then my own strength will come. it seems to have left me for now, but i know it will come back. i hope we give all of our loved ones an extra hug this time of year. i've been reminded of just how fragile life is. and how much i need to appreciate the happy moments. keep an eye on us from up there, -k- mom? love you.

family movie night

2011-12-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

so i got on here to post about our family (minus daddy) movie night, and had to share the few extra little surprises that i found on the camera . . .

i'm seriously gonna have to either threaten aiden with his life, or HIDE my camera from now on! ha ha! i let him take a picture one time, and now i've created a monster!! i find the most interesting things on my camera now-a-days! and all i can really do is laugh, this time i especially liked all the extreme close-ups . . . the one of sadie kind of . . strangling . . belle gave me a pretty good chuckle . . ;)

so anyways, on to what i was really going to post about.

family movie night!!!!!

well, kind of . . we had to find something to entertain ourselves while daddy was at the school for one last night studying for finals (the last of which are tomorrow . . halle-frickin-lujah!!!! . . sorry, i'm just a teency-tiny bit ready for this semester to be over and done with, never to be thought of or spoken about again . . . ;)

anyways . . oh yah, family movie night . . ;) we watched this:

kung fu panda 2! which i thought was really cute! and definitely worth the $1.28 that is now the price of redbox . . WHAT THE?!??!! i'm seriously boycotting . . ok fine i probably won't. YET . . but mind yourself redbox and no more sneaking the price up or i will . . .

ha ha, these 2 were so excited for movie night! they just make me smile :) aiden helped me get the popcorn buckets and helped me get everything all set up. the little cutie.

is that not the ugliest thing you've ever seen?! . . the cat, not me . . ;) it's sadie's favorite

looks like samson's dippin' into the candy a little ;) i've heard that chocolate will kill dogs . . so i left the bag open . . . and moved it close to him . . . ok fine, i didn't!!! ;) ha ha! there wasn't even chocolate in there

oooh, nice kung fu move buddy!!

so funny! what would i ever do without these two??! i adore my little ratties, they really are such a joy to spend time with. they are such fun, happy little kids! parenting will always have its challenging moments, but i am so blessed to be able to have my little sweeties and i hope i can always remember that. i would have to be the perfect mom to give them all that they deserve. i'm so far from that, but all i can do is work my very hardest and hope that they know that even when i'm ready to scream and cry, i still love them more than anything in the world!

getting ready for the holidays

2011-12-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

these last few weeks have FLOWN by for me! oh my goodness! there have been so many christmas things that i've wanted to do to get us ready for the holidays, and i haven't done a-one. although i did put my christmas tree up, there have been years that i didn't get it put up until probably about now, so i call that a success! having trav so busy with school these last couple months has made it really hard (aka impossible) to do anything as a family yet, so i'm anxiously awaiting this thursday when he is FINALLY DONE with this semester. it's been a wicked one. so for now here are the things that i can't wait for us to do so we can get all ready for christmas!

1. watch the christmas devotional together

2. read the white stocking poem and make white stockings. this is one of my favorite things from last year that we did. there are a lot of renditions of this poem, the one we use is the one found here. it's a fun family tradition and a good way to help us remember what christmas is REALLY about!

3. make a nice christmas dinner just for our family and each open a present on a day before christmas

4. make gingerbread houses together

all right, let's not get too carried away shall we . . these are some lofty goals for our schedules :) we'll start with that

we're also SOOO excited for what we are doing for christmas this year on my dad's side of the family, we are going to go to salt lake city and stay the night at a hotel and go to temple square to see the lights the weekend after christmas. it will be a huge party!

and just because i like to get on here and randomly browse pictures sometimes, here are a few christmas ones that i liked :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cowboys and christmas

2011-12-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

a box showed up on our doorstep from a certain beloved grandmother last week. it had all sorts of wonderful hyperness-inducing treats, toys, scooby doo movies . . . and most importantly . . .

ropes and cowboy boots!

they were SOOOOO excited! grandma ruby had taken them to riverside boot and saddle and spoiled them like crazy (AND i learned that my 6 year old is one good secret-keeper! ha ha! they had decided it was going to be a secret, and that kid was a closed vault. he didn't make a peep for a whole week, and i KNOW he was just bursting at the seams . . . but he never told me!) i was very impressed!

and yes, it's the middle of the day and sadie is still in her pajamas. no judging. and just to bring your opinion of me down even further . . . so was i ;)

i'm laughing out loud right now, because as i hooked my camera up to the computer just now to upload these pics, i thought to mysef, "huh, 18 pictures. i thought there was more like 5 or 10."

aaahhh yes . . it looks like a certain somebody got ahold of the camera again and was practicing his photography skills :) that's a really great pose sadie.

this one too ;) . . .

hee hee! here's their boots (i needed a good close up of them anyways, thanks mr. aiden ;). aiden's are little ropers, and sadie's are purple rainboots that have horses with umbrellas on them. gr. ruby said that she did everything she could to get her some "real" boots, but the girl just wasn't going to have it. these were the ones, now no more questioning. and they WILL darn well work for snow, mud, rain . . do your worst logan weather! :)

these pictures that aiden takes just make me laugh! it's interesting, the things he decides to take pictures of. :)

all right. those were all of aiden's. i took this one of our christmas tree. you can't see it very good though! i really do love our tree. i always say that one of these years, i'm going to change up my decor, but i never do. i just like it too much! it was so fun to put it up, i even put it up a week ago! it wasn't even december yet! that's gotta be a record for me! and can you see the little white one, just to the left it? that one's aiden's. i let him decorate that one and told him he could put it anywhere he wanted. i think it's going to stay right there, right by the big one. cute :)

i've been in such a christmas mood lately! we've been listening to christmas music and getting our house all decorated. it's been fun! and i've especially been in the mood for christmas crafting. when i was decorating, i put up all of our stockings and noticed that one was missing . . . nikki's!!! so i made her this one . . . out of a dog paw stocking that i turned inside out and made all ruffly and flowery! it was fun!

i also slapped this festive li'l thing together to go in the living room. i liked it!

and of course, christmas isn't christmas without some festive subway art! yay! i love, love, love christmas! i'm so excited to have the holiday season upon us!!! we even watched this last night:

AND look what i found that i'm going to print off and put in my house:

if you want one too, you can go here!! because it's awesome and there a whole bunch more cute printables too! :)

ha ha ha! i do love this movie :) next we're watching this one:

because i also love cousin eddy :)

thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

something happened this thanksgiving that has never happened before . . . I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!!! aaaahhhhh!!!! i can't believe that happened! i was so sad and upset at first, i thought my whole life was ruined! ;) but then we had so much fun that i decided that maybe just this one time, it would be ok. for once i wouldn't be behind the lens of the camera so worried about getting pictures of everybody (who was so sick of looking and smiling for the camera anyways!!;) that it would be wonderful just the same. and it was!

we played games, talked, laughed, and of course ate some REALLY good food! we were able to go to blackfoot the evening before and split thanksgiving day between grandma ruby's and trav's house. and it was wonderful. the kiddies had a sleep over at grandma ruby's and trav and i had lots of plans that we DIDN'T follow through on! we were going to go to a movie and then go "black friday" shopping (can they even still call it that when it starts at 10:00 on thursday?! what has black friday become?!) anyways, after all that eating, we were so tired that we didn't do either! we ended up just relaxing and shopping online instead :) and it was lovely!

thanksgiving really is a time to ponder the things that you are thankful for. i have so many, that it almost brings me to tears when i sit down and think about it! i'm so grateful to be able to spend thanksgiving with our families. it doesn't seem like so long ago when trav and i were in st. george spending thanksgiving alone because it was too far to drive and we couldn't make it between work and school schedules. but now we're close enough, that even if we have to just make a day trip to idaho, it's possible. and i love it! we had a really good time and are so thankful for our families. we found out that sadie LOVES pumpkin pie (she had 3 pieces that day!), brandon taught us how to play "bang" (which was hilarious!), and aiden bypassed playing with the cousins to spend some one-on-one time with daddy as they explored and explored the wonderful world of grandma ruby's farm. then we went to the beasley's and i dove into the ham and ham gravy because susan makes a WICKED thanksgiving ham! i could eat it and it's delicious salt-laden gravy for weeks on end. it's that amazing. really.

so that was our thanksgiving! it was great!!!!!!!!!

the next day, those of us who didn't hit the thursday night shopping craziness, decided that we couldn't miss black friday shopping altogether, so we hit the mall later in the morning and hit up some of the sales before they were over. susan, jen, heather, and i all went to pocatello at about 11:00 and trav stopped by the mall at about 2:00 to pick me up and we headed home to logan so i could work that night. and THEN, the next night (saturday), i got called off work so we went to lava hot springs with heather, trevor and shaila, and nick and jen before they headed back to washington the next day. nikki and skylar stayed with our kids (thanks guys!) and it was a really fun night out for us. it was an awesome holiday weekend!

happy birthday to you! . .

2011-11-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

happy birthday nikki! our adorable nikki turned 19 on the 17th. it's hard to believe that i've known this girl since she was like, 7! makes me feel old!

my m-i-l and s-i-l susan and heidi came to logan to take nikki to lunch and hang out for the day. we ate lunch at costa vida and then did a little shopping while nikki went to training for her new job at old navy (yay nikki!)

look at the cute little cake we found her! and the animal print candles were just perfect for nikki!

look how cute she is! :) trav said her cake looked like it got shot with a shotgun in this picture, ha ha! i didn't even notice at first but now that you mention it . . . :) nikki, we hope you had a good birthday! and liked your sparkly makeup that aiden and sadie picked out for you! ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

last halloween post . . . i swear!

2011-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

these were a few others from the halloween party that were on a different camera. but i just HAD to put them on! did you see these hillbilly teeth? enough said. blackmail for the rest of sadie's life. ;) totally awesome.

so cute! the kids were all adorable and had so much fun! halloween was everything i'd hoped it would be this year! minus the fact that i couldn't blink without hurting something . . . ;) it was all worth it though! totally fun and i already can't wait til next year! :)

happy halloween!

2011-11-16T19:56:00.000-08:00

so i know i'm getting a little behind on my blogging, but here is our actual halloween! ha ha! my computer has been having problems, so it's been banished to the basement instead of on our couch where i have easy access to it whenever i want. now i have to go to the dungeon basement to get my blogging done, and it's just SO inconvenient! ;) ANYWAYS!! . . we dressed up as angels and devils this year, and even nikki got in on the action!

earlier, i told you that i had to make some changes to my awesome shoes that i put together, you know . . one red, one white with my angel halo and pitchfork . . . they were totally awesome! but due to my unfortunate luck and apparently bad-fitting running shoes, my poor bleeding toenail couldn't handle my custom made shoes and i had to get a little more creative . . .

taa-daa!!!!! and i STILL made it work! ha ha! awesome, right?!

here's samson looking victimized. deep down, i know that he actually loved his costume :)

we're ready for some treats!

funny how she makes such a good devil . . . maybe a little extra inborn ability?? DEFINITELY!!! ;)

ok, well i guess she makes up for it in this pic and looks like quite the little angel ;)

they had a really good time! they really hauled in the loot too. it was so funny to watch them. if anyone answered the door and scared them or had a costume on or anything, sadie would make aiden get her candy for her. ha ha! it was hilarious! and we went around our neighborhood, so everyone knew the kids and half of the people who answered would say, "hi aiden! hi sadie!" and then she'd say, "i'm sadie. i'm an angel-devil." hee hee. they just made me laugh. SO CUTE!!! this is why i freaking LOVE halloween! :)

me and nikki showing of our wicked lashes. mine were red glitter and were pretty extreme, and nikki's were just thick black ones that actually looked really pretty! ha ha! fun!

and aiden was our candy giver, i thought it was so cute! he loved manning the door and handing out candy to everyone who came! way to go buddy!

more halloween festivities

2011-11-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

so it's no secret that i love halloween, right? like L-O-V-E it!!!! so the last couple of years we've put together a little halloween party and had all of trav's family come. i guess i wouldn't really call it little, i start planning like, 2 months in advance! ha ha! i love it! the only bad thing was that it ended up being the day after my race. do i look hammered or what?!

yep, totally hammered . . . hee hee ;) i was in bad shape. quite possibly, the worst of my life! i was limping around here like i'd been hit by a semi! (still glad i ran it though! :) so we had everyone come over and we had halloween treats, played halloween games, and the best part . . . got all dressed up in our costumes!

the kids played outside and played pin the bowtie on the skeleton, last man standing, and balloon popping with darts. well, it was actually a pencil with a screw duck-taped to it, but kids don't care! as long as the balloons pop, right?!

oh yah, and there was plenty of nazi zombie killing too. look at that concentration!

and the treats! we had cupcakes, TONS of cupcakes, owl and spider krispies, eyeball oreo balls, and salty bones. i loved the owl cupcakes!

here are the owl and spider krispies

there were a few of us working on the spider krispies, and we laughed so hard at this one because he was a little retarded. he only had 1 leg, his fangs were on the wrong side, his eyes were all kooky . . . he was in bad shape! and it was so funny!

i also found these cute printables for 2 liters and had to try them out

oreo balls! i mean, eyeballs!

and this was our juice. it was worm punch! it looked awesome! i might make some tweaks on it next year, because it had jello in it, but i also had to put it in the freezer so it was more slushy or i was afraid the frozen worm ice would all just melt, and putting it in the freezer didn't make the jello very happy. and so there were little jello chunks floating all around. it was a little weird, but maybe just added to the halloween-ness! :)

ha ha! look at devin, the big baby! we laughed so hard when he came out in this thing!

showing off my shoes! one was red with an angel halo, and the other was white with a devil pitchfork. only with all my hurts and especially my toe full of blood, i couldn't wear them! it was so sad! but i made a compromise that i'll post with our actual halloween pics. it worked out okay, even if i couldn't wear my awesomely cute shoes that i planned to! oh, and thanks nikki, for letting me borrow your shoes and decorate them! they were so awesome!

aaahhh!!! kennedy the vampire! she was one of those cute little vampire girls (that i think are kind of freaky little things, but she was super cute in her little outfit!) she kept saying, "i'm a NICE blue vampire!" ha ha! love those fangs kennies!

pin the bowtie on the skeleton!

we loved skylar's "pimp hat!" and then when we found this snake that aiden had laying around here, it worked perfectly! we laughed so hard!

and it's just not a halloween party without crazy halloween glasses! ha ha! i love these things!

some of the james clan, nathan, heidi, and richard

and my cute little devil!

ha ha! even ashley and devin's dog was a good sport! sweet specs missy!

and this year we found some hillbilly teeth to go along with the halloween glasses, so EVERYONE looked like a freak! ha ha! it was awesome! we're so glad everyone could come to the halloween party! it's always such a blast! thanks for making it so much fun!

the results are in! . .

2011-11-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

our halloween half results are in! and i always like to look back to see how i did so i had to make sure to post it on the bliggity-blog. now, if anyone looks at it and laughs i'm going to egg your house and let all the air out of your tires. and don't think that i won't either . . . i WILL!!! ;)
mmmkay?! got it. so here it is, and for the record:
my goal was to run the whole thing. not run the whole thing FAST!! so i wasn't even caring about time, my knee was hurt, like really hurt, and my other toe was filling up with blood with every step i took. oh, and i had blisters on like, 7 out of 10 toes. and it was my first 1/2 marathon!
just sayin' so that i know that when i totally cream this time on my next 1/2 marathon, (which looks like it's going to be next may, yes i'm just a glutton for punishment aren't i?! ;)
anyways, just so that i remember all that i was up against :) ok, here it is for real:
2:44:06. turned out to be a 12:32 minute mile average. not as bad as i expected, actually! yippee for anita and me! now i just need to hurry up and heal up so i can get going again! i'm feeling sad about having to start my training all over again because it's taking me so long to get back to good! but it's ok i guess :) i can get back up there. and i learned some good lessons from this last one anyways :)

i did it! . . NOW i'm a "runner"

2011-11-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

i'm still freaking out about our halloween half marathon, i can't believe we did it! my sister, anita, and i ran our first half marathon together this last saturday! let me just tell you that it's not something i will forget for a long time. A VERY LONG TIME! because i'm probably NEVER going to stop hurting from it! i think i'm too old for this kind of nonsense! ;)

we ran the halloween half in provo and this is us getting on the bus at 5:30 in the morning. um . . . way too early for me! but i did love our costumes! can you guess who i was?! katy perry from her last friday night video! awesome, right?! and anita went along with the program and dressed up as 80's too! i thought we looked AMAZINGLY awesome!

it was exciting from the beginning! i started to write the whole story, but it was huge, so i'm going to condense and make a long story short and just tell you that first, whoever was running this thing was not with the program AT ALL! apparently they changed a lot of things from last year, like the starting point of the race, and didn't really tell any of the bus drivers! so we get up to sundance, pass where we're supposed to be, and a bunch of huge greyhound-size buses get stuck all along the tiny, windy roads and are lost! someone comes to our bus and tells us that their bus almost ran off the cliff, so everyone bails off our bus and we end up walking down the little mountain road in the pitch black hoping we don't get eaten by a bear, not having any idea where we're going, and hoping we're going the right way to get to the warm tents that were supposed to be set up. it was FREEZING!! eventually, we found it, just as the frost bite was setting in. phew! and there weren't any bear attacks, thankfully.

the race was crazy! i hurt my knee really bad a couple of weeks earlier, and hadn't been able to run more than 1.5 miles since. so i wrapped it all up, and just accepted the fact that i wouldn't be able to run the whole thing. but it ends up that i did! anita and i both ran the whole thing! and we finished it together! it was so awesome! i can't even put into words how awesome it was, i've never been so proud of something i did ever in my life! and so proud of anita too! i'm like, totally crying as i write this because i'm seriously so proud of us! we were both hurting SO bad! my knee hurt so bad that i thought i was going to die, and we had to stop once for a traffic cop, and once to go to the porta potty/fix my knee brace and i couldn't even walk. but we walked/limped a few yards to the water table, got our drink, and started running again. and i just knew that i wouldn't be able to stop running again or it would be all over for me! and that was only about mile 6-7! i could also feel huge blisters popping up on my toes, and my right big toe was hurting really bad too. by the end, it hurt worse than my knee, which is saying a lot. and anita got kicked in the ankle by a horse a couple years ago, and her ankle was killing her too! we were both in pretty bad shape! it started getting pretty hard around mile 9, and by the time we finished at 13.1, i wasn't sure if i was going to make it! it was the best feeling in the world when we hit that finish line!

getting our picture by the hearse! i honestly thought they might have to cart me away in that thing! ha ha! trav and nikki said that there were a lot of people in REALLY bad shape as they finished the race, and they saw someone have to get hauled out in an ambulance. half marathons are rough business! the race website doesn't have our results yet, but we were just behind the 2 hour 40 minute pacer, so we figured about 2:45 is about where we finished. it was probably bringing up the end of the pack, but we don't care! we ran it all and that's what i'm excited about!

here are some shots of my costume up close, do you like my braces?! i made them! ha ha! out of a cut up mouthpiece, wire and tinfoil baby! ;) i was pretty proud of them!

showin' off my neon shoelaces and leg warmers. i'm not taking those shoelaces out either! every time i run, it'll remind me of running our half marathon! (well, the good parts! i'll just try to forget about the bad parts!) woo hoo!

trav got a few shots of some of the other costumes, this guy's dressed up as a 12 foot tall skeleton . . or maybe he is just 12 feet tall! i wish i had running legs like that! my little mini-legs don't get me through races very fast! ;)

nice singlet dude! there was also a guy in what we believe were control top pantyhose, and i still don't know what he had under them . . speedo, loincloth, thong . . . the possibilities are endless, scary, and i probably don't wanna know anyways! ;) we saw lots of superheroes and where's waldo's too.

i found out why my toe hurt so bad! my toenail was completely purple/black when i finished! must have been from running downhill so much? and the glitter polish that was still on there. i had blisters on every toe on my left foot, and huge ones on both big toes. i had to drain one a couple days ago, and finally drained the blood out from under my toenail yesterday. it actually made it feel better. my toenail gets darker and darker every day, and i'm convinced that it's going to fall off eventually. nice. can't wait for that. and i'm still limping around and just barely since yesterday feeling like my muscles aren't so sore that i can't even move! i thought i would never get better! but . . . it was STILL worth it! thanks for being my running buddy anita! WE ARE AWESOME!!!!!!

let the halloween festivities begin!

2011-11-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

we had a whole bunch of halloween fun this year! when did i start loving halloween so much?! i have no idea, but it's probably become my favorite holiday. but if i told you that i loved it more than christmas then you might think that i was a freak, so i won't tell you that. instead, i'll just tell you that it's TIED with christmas :) there. now that i've avoided freak status, i'll tell you about our first bit of halloween fun. our ward halloween party! this year we were angels and devils.

and let me just tell you, that i basically agonized over whether this was ok or not . . is it ok to wear a devil costume in the church?! ha ha! i asked everyone i could think of, and the consensus was yes. i was honestly quite worried about it! so i gathered all my moral support, and decided to go for it. :)

honestly, i think these 2 pics of the kids are the best i've gotten in a LONG time! so cute!!!!

we even talked nikki into wearing a pair of devil horns with us :)

i love our ward halloween party, it's always so much fun! there were a lot of fun games for the kids, a crock pot cook off, cupcake walk, and lots and lots of treats! the kids were so excited! first things first, they wanted to get their faces painted. aiden chose a bat, and sadie chose a halloween cat.

here's aiden trying to eat a donut on a string. we were laughing so hard! he almost got it too, but when he got the ok to just grab it and eat it, he didn't hesitate :)

cupcake walk

we're glad we got to go to the ward halloween party this year! it's always so much fun! the kids loved it, and it was fun to get all dressed up. and for the record, it didn't seem like a big deal at all that we were dressed up like devils in the church ;) next time i'll make sure not to worry so much! ha ha!

one last picnic . . .

2011-11-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

so as much as i hate the winter-time . . . and as much as fall just reminds me that the dreaded winter-time is coming, i still love this beautiful time of year. every year we go into the canyon and take some fall pictures with the changing leaves. this year we were a little late, and the leaves weren't at their prettiest, but we didn't mind so much. it was just as much an excuse to pick up some food from one of our favorite places and go for a drive and have a picnic. three of our very favorite things to do!

we got lunch from the grist mill, complete with huge cookies for all and an extra cream cheese brownie for me, (i swear, the calories are SO worth it!!) and we drove up the canyon to tony grove. i really love this place!

the only downside was that it was FREEZING!! good thing the sun was shining, cuz it was the only thing keeping us from becoming ice-cicles (icecicles, ice-cycles . . how the freak do you spell that word?! it's one of those words made up just to torment people, i know it . . .)

aiden was our little photographer, and got this awesome pic of nikki. i thought it was so pretty!

king of the rock! i mean, queen . . . more like diva princess drama queen . . .

look at these cute little things! when did my kids get so big?! sheesh!

ah, look at the happy family :) now we might get a few family pics in there since we've got nikki around! thanks nikki!

here's another masterpiece of aiden's, i especially like the finger in the corner :) nice job little buddy, it's a good one! :) doesn't that snow just make ya cringe a little?! it does me . . . i'm going on snow strike. NO SNOW, NO SNOW!!!

Nikkity Nack

2011-11-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

so a couple of weeks ago, trav's little sis nikki moved in with us. we have been so happy to have her! she just graduated high school this last summer, and is coming down to good ol' logan to embark on a new journey of job-hunting and college-going. we don't know why our dear nikki would ever want to become a UTARD like us, but we're ecstatic that she does! :)

look at her, isn't she just the cutest (and shopping-est!) little thing?! now i've got me my own live-in shopping buddy! yippee! sorry trav, i know you'll just be destroyed to hear that you're not the one that's going to get drug all over heck and back shopping with me from now on ;) i hope it doesn't ruin your life too much . . .

nikki and skylar, her boy-toy ;)

we're so excited for nikki and happy to have her in our home. i have no idea why she would EVER want to live in this crazy household, and in our basement for that matter, but we're MORE than happy to have her for as long as she wants to stay! beats the heck out of having 7 estrogen-happy, bathroom hogging, up-all night, cat-fighting girls for room-mates that many college-goers have to deal with, right?! (well, i think it might . . . right??) even though instead she has 2 small children, one of whom is the biggest princess-diva this side of the mississip, the other who is just getting too big and smart for his own good, one sometimes bear-ish of a sis-in-law who stays up all night for work 3 nights a week and sometimes more just because, and trav who drags her to school with him and drinks all the mountain dew in the house. but, maybe all in all it's not so bad :) she does get to kill all the zombies she wants, go shopping as much as she'd like, and watch all the movies she can handle. :)

thanks for coming and hanging with us nikki! we hope you like being here and hope we can help you find what you're looking for next on your journey :)

BOO-ING!!!!

2011-10-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

the kids and i had some time this last week to do something fun and halloween-ey! i got this link for these adorable and FREE printables (thanks ash!) to go boo-ing! http://www.tipjunkie.com/boo-collection-printable/

have you ever gone boo-ing?! up until the last couple years, i never had (guess when you grow up in tumbuktu and have no neighbors to "boo", it just doesn't make the list of top ten holiday priorities ;) ha ha! but all you do is go to this website and print off this poem (and whatever extras you want to, because she has some other cute things too!), think of a treat that you want to take to the neighbors: halloween candy, cupcakes, cookies . . . whatever floats your boat, rings your bell, butters your biscuit, paints your wagon . . etc. we happened to make what i like to call the BEST cookies on earth . . . rolo cookies!

recipe: one devils food cake mix + 2 eggs + 1/2 cup oil + a whole bunch of unwrapped rolos. get small spoonfuls of the dough, just enough to wrap a rolo up in and make sure it's completely covered. then roll in a bowl of white sugar and bake at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes or until big cracks form. make sure to make a LOT because you will want to eat like, a hundred of them!

then find some cute halloween bags, decorate them up, and fill with cookies (or whatever!)

and most importantly, give your kids some cookies! . . don't bother telling to look normal so you can take a picture of them though . . . cuz it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!

here we are at our first house. aiden's giving me the thumbs up and telling me it's boo time, and sadie's ready to put the treat on the doorstep, so next step . . . ring the doorbell and RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!! they loved this part! they were so funny as they high-tailed it down people's stairs and made a run for it!

we had a lot of fun going "boo-ing" this year! i also incorporated it into a little bit of a family home evening lesson, because when you take treats to people (even if you are ringing their doorbell and running! ;) it's still considered service, right?! okay, maybe it's a teency tiny bit of a stretch, but in my world, i say YES it is, and make a FHE out of it!! :)

so there it is! another excuse to do something fun and halloween-ish! i'll take any excuse i can get! :)

it's almost here!!!!!

2011-10-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

how can i wait 13 more days?! i can't wait for halloween to get here! costumes, parties, half marathons = lots and lots of FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! yippee!! halloween is the BEST! :) i can't wait to dress up and act like a total freak! :)

happy to announce that . .

2011-10-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

my dreams weren't broken and we DID get to watch conference, complete with conference packets for the kids! yay! they were so cute down in the living room with their little desks, chairs, and packets! they really liked them, and it made me SO happy to see them learning. especially about things so important :)

but would it be possible to get a decent picture of both my ratties NOT being bonebags and BOTH looking?! apparently not . . this is what i'm stuck with i guess. nevertheless, they are adorable to me :)

sure love these kiddies!

we really enjoyed conference. some of trav's siblings came down to hang out with us on sunday and it was great to see them. trav went to a lot of trouble to hook up the computer to the t.v. so we could stream conference off the internet onto our t.v. thanks huzzy! and he watched all of the sessions and listened to the priesthood session too. i'm so proud! i did less good, but i worked all weekend so it made it impossible for me to watch the morning sessions :( so i will just have to watch them online or read them in the ensign next month. but i watched both the afternoon sessions! that's better than nothing, right?! it was wonderful. i love conference! it always makes me want to try so much harder! it was a good weekend that made me so grateful for the things we heard, the time we were able to spend together, and the time we were able to spend with our fam from home. we are so blessed! :)

9 lives

2011-10-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

so i have to tell what has happened to one of the dearest and most beloved accessories of my life . . . my cell phone. first, we're going to play a game called, "getting to know my cell phone." you have to really get a feel for all that it's been through to fully appreciate the poor thing. here we go. my cell phone is:

(well, was . . . ) a flip phone. i'll explain in a minute . . .

OBVIOUSLY not a smart phone . . . or anything even remotely close. it's very technologically not-smart. in fact, it's sometimes prejudiced towards other phones that are.

old. super old. i got this baby when we were living in st. george. even before aiden was born! so it's something like 7 years old! i know what you're thinking, "what in the world would possess someone to keep something like THAT for 7 years?! hold that thought . . .

it was free. heck yes it was! who says nothing in life is free?! i bought the 300 minute phone card for $30 like it always is and it came with it :) woo hoo!

and i think it really does have 9 lives. unfortunately, it's down to about 6 now.

this was its first accident back in april. i dropped it in the tub. i thought for sure it was dead, but i remembered hearing about the rice trick and decided to try it. i left it in for about 12 hrs, checked it and it was still broken but a little better, and put it back in for another 12 hrs. and it fixed it! it really DOES work!

the second accident happened when we were at yellowstone nat'l park in august. aiden wanted to see what time it was or something and pretty much ripped it in half. i have no idea how it happened, and it just about broke the poor little boy's heart so i just didn't have the heart to get mad at him, but it looked something like the above pic (not a pic of my actual phone cuz my camera died. i borrowed this one off the internet :) but the only thing holding the two pieces together was a little piece of mechanical ribbon. must have been an important piece, because my phone still worked like nothing had happened! but it wasn't exactly functional so i did this:

wrapped it in the plastic wrap that had been around the blueberry muffin i was eating:) being hours away from home, i didn't have much for choices. and i actually used it like this for about a week! ha ha! but it was a little embarrassing, so i toned it down a little to this:

and this is how it looks still. super glued with just a small piece of plastic wrap in the one side. is it not the saddest thing you've ever seen?! it stays like this and i can't flip it shut, so sometimes it kind of hangs out of my back (or front) pocket. which is how it had its last accident:

again, not my pic. but so close that i could have been, just add some pee in the toilet and you've got it! sadie's pee. and it fell in as i was leaning over to help her. AND it all happened so fast that i flung my hand in there to save my precious cell phone without thinking! (but don't worry, it's practically sterile now because it's been sanitized so much since! . . the phone and my hand, that is . . ;) my poor phone! i got home, tried the rice trick again over night, and wah-lah! the thing works again! AMAZING, RIGHT!? best cell phone in the world! i'd like to see a blackberry, droid, or i-phone withstand all that!
so maybe it IS a smart phone after all! at the very least, it's a very very sturdy one :)
i love you little cell phone! you're for sure my BFF! :)

did you hear this?!

2011-09-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

at the general relief society meeting this last weekend, president uchtdorf gave a talk called "Forget Me Not." did you hear it?! it was SO good! something i think every woman in the church, every woman in the WORLD, needs to hear, and as i listened to it tonight, i thought, especially me. when times get tough, when life gets stressful, and when you feel like it's all just a little too much, listen to this talk and you will feel better. i PROMISE! i have such a love for president uchtdorf. how can you not?! he is amazing, and his talks are amazing. i think i needed this and it makes me want to be better. and more grateful, and less hard on myself. if you haven't heard it, go here:
http://lds.org/general-conference/watch/2011/10?vid=1180453706001&cid=7&lang=eng

there are some neat printables on sugardoodle.net that go along with this talk (thanks lindsay! :)
i'm looking forward to conference this weekend, which reminds me . . . we have no way to watch it! ha ha! i've just spent a very long time trying to find conference packets that i could print out for the kids, pictured them coloring their little pages with their cute little desks in front of the tv, and then realized . . . WE DON'T HAVE T.V.!!!! SNAP!!! guess i better get on that! ;) i don't intend on this happy, conference watching, packet-coloring, picture in my mind to not happen! and if you HAPPEN to ever read my blog, and HAPPEN to have young children, and HAPPEN to be needing a conference packet for them to work on during conference ;) . . here ya go:
http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8010
there are a few different ones you can download, i'm getting the one for young primary kids for aiden, and the nursery one for sadie. :) happy conference-watching!

a budding photographer perhaps? . .

2011-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

aiden has recently become very interested in taking pictures with our camera.

i let him take a couple one day, and then another day i noticed that there were a whole bunch more on the camera. i didn't even know he got ahold of it :)

mama (looking exceptionally good one morning, looks like this is before hair, make-up, getting dressed . . little scary

his room . .

his artwork . .

darn that dog, he just won't hold still . . .

my artwork . . . :)

um . . . any guesses? it'll be like pictionary! ;) . . i would have never guessed . . turns out it was his undies. :) nice one buddy. by the by, it looks like those babies might need to be retired ;) . .

this is a funny story . . we started decorating for halloween last week, and we put this on the bathroom mirror. except when i put it up, it said "vampires welcome." that night when we went upstairs to get ready for bed, i noticed that aiden was walking on the bathroom side of the hall but right before we went past the bathroom, he stopped and traded me sides. i wondered what the heck he was doing, but didn't pay much attention. later the next day, i noticed that the mirror now said this . turns out it scared him that it said vampires, so he changed it. funny kid :)

i LOVE this one of sadie! what in the devil is she doing?! ha ha!

when becoming a beginner photographer, one must have props . . that includes shoes and pillow pets. :)

mr. weeney and his hat . . .

and finally . . a family photo op :) ha ha! way to go buddy, i'm impressed :) i see some real potential here! ;)

crafty pants

2011-09-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

ok . . so that might be an overstatement, i'm definitely NOT even close to being a crafty pants! but i do love it, and i can tell sometimes when i'm getting a little stressed because i will neglect all housework and other responsibilities and craft all day. like, seriously . . . ALL day!!! i'll usually stop and feed the children a time or two, you know . . like throw 'em a bowl of broth and some bread crumbs and stuff . . ;) but don't ask me questions, tell me anything, ask for favors etc . . . and if you value your life, do NOT make me put down my project and help you to the bathroom when i know you don't need it. seriously sadie, why can't you just pee your pants when i want you to? ;)

so here is the project that caused me to completely neglect all responsibility and lose my mom of the year award (cuz i was FOR SURE going to win ya know ;)

if you haven't heard of pick your plum, let me just tell you that you are missing out on a SA-WEEET little website! and i'm telling you about it because i love you. all you do is head on over to pickyourplum.com after 0700 on a weekday morning. they will have something that they are selling, usually some sort of crafty item. i'm pretty sure they have my name, address, phone number, kids' names hair color . . . all memorized. it's pretty much amazing. well, anyways, on one day they had these plain wooden blocks for sale and, as usual, i couldn't resist myself so i bought me a set. they even came with the cute halloween saying and numbers, which is perfect for me because i'm not cool enough to own a cricut or silhouette, or something EXTRA cool like that and if i was to try something like that freehand, i know i would just massacre it and ruin like, 10 yards of perfectly good vinyl. so like i said . . . perfect :) anyways, long story short, this is what i made. halloween paper, stickers, ribbon, assorted embellishments, and lots and LOTS of mod podge. my favorite :) this little baby took me about 3 days. i know it's pathetic, i'm such an amateur.

but i loved it. EVERY. SINGLE. SECOND!!! it's therapy i tell ya.

so there it is :) my countdown to halloween. i meant to put all the pics into a collage, but to be honest i'm too lazy for that today. so they're each getting their very own spot. i also slapped this next thing together from a cream puffs box and a shoe box (when a person has 50 pairs of shoes, finding something to do with all the shoe boxes you've hoarded is pretty much a must. ok i'm exaggerating, not 50 . . . 45. :) i was getting sick of the area around my tv looking like total crap, so i decided i needed some nice (and cheap!) way to organize a little . . .

so i made me a cute box and book holder with spray paint, then mod podge and paper, a little extra cardboard to make it a little more sturdy, burlap, and ribbon. it took forever. i really am a lamo crafter. and don't look close or you'll see that my burlap is crooked.

seriously. i told you not to look . .

i found the flowers here. i really liked them and thought they turned out super cute! and now my tv area is all clean with a little cuteness :) and i felt so guilty for spending so much time on my own selfish crafting crap that i got inspired by cleaning the tv area and tore into our basement. and garage. it's taken like, 3 days but the basement is done! and the garage is still patiently waiting :) i'm a little late on my spring cleaning, but that's about what you'd expect from me. things do get done, just on my own timeline. . . which is eventually :) i have some more cute crafty ideas in the works and can't wait to dig into them! which will also happen . . eventually :)

the white trash extravaganza of the year: aka E.I.S.F.

2011-09-19T23:52:00.000-07:00

it's that time of year again! fair time! YES! i LOVE the fair! and not just any fair, the EASTERN IDAHO STATE FAIR!! i really wasn't kidding when i called it a white trash extravaganza, it really doesn't get any better than this folks, they really come out of the woodwork for this one . . and i love it. i wasn't sure if we would be able to go at all this year, but to my extreme delight, we were able to go 3 times! yippee!! the first day was with grandma ruby. we love to go to the fair with grandma ruby! it's tradition! :) and we even met up with my sis-in-law manami and her cute little kellan.

we had such a fun time! we weren't there for 5 minutes, and the ratties were already begging to go on the rides . . so you know where we headed!

aiden and sadie LOVE going with grandma ruby, for a million reasons, but one of the most important is that she always lets them play the games! they love it! and you think the toys that they give you for playing are so lame, but i tell you, these 2 LOVE them! they still have theirs from last year, and this time they each got a rat and sadie got this little horse and aiden got some kind of little blue monster. the funny thing is that they still play with them every day! and it's been like, 2 weeks! AND they still have theirs from last year too! :)

one of the highlights for aiden is the bull. he rode it for the first time last year, and i think he actually rode it 3 times because he loved it so much! he was asking to ride it before we even saw it! so of course, we had to get him on there again! doesn't he look like a little bull-riding professional!? ha ha! way to go buddy!

and look who else braved the mechanical bull this year! yeah sadie lady! she was awesome, she kept saying she wanted to do it, i just didn't think she would! but the funny little thing was so adamant about it that i decided to let her go, and look at her! she really surprised me!

here are the kids enjoying the VERY BEST PART about going to the fair (if you ask me)!!! fair food!! oh my gosh, i LOVE fair food. i'm already waiting for next year so i can eat more . . this year i had a combo baked potato, 2 indian tacos, 2 ice cream cones, scone nuggets, corn on the cob . . (yes all that was just me. probably gained 10 lbs. . . don't care . . :)

all of us hangin' out by the animal barns! trav's favorite part!

the kids had the time of their lives going on all the rides! they were all smiles and so cute!

sadie's red rat :)

you can't go to the fair and not get a round of cotton candy!

aiden was one tired boy by the end of the day! we probably walked 5 miles by the time we went home! we had such a good time, we're so glad that we got to go with grandma ruby and manami this year, it was so fun! and thanks for everything gr. ruby!

the next time we went, it was just trav and i. a fair date! yippee! we shipped the kids off to uncle trevor and aunt shaila one evening and went in for some more food and fun! we walked through all the animal, photography, and art barns, had some ice cream, and then i found some inner bravery and went on trav's favorite ride, the fireball. i think i peed my pants a little . . . but it was fun :)

on our final fair day, we bought the kids wristbands and turned them loose on the rides. needless to say, the smiles were permanently stuck on their sweet little faces. little did we know that we were in for a day to remember . . 8 hours, $150, and one heat stroke later . . .

aiden was even big enough to go on some of the big rides with dad. i had no idea! and oh my goodness, it brought pure happiness to my heart to watch him on them, especially the tilt-a-whirl. he was HYSTERICAL!!! every time it would spin my way, he was laughing so hard. it [almost] made me wish that i was the one beside him so i could be right there with him and hear him laughing that hard ;) it was adorable!

there was one ride that was supposed to be the scary-ish one, it was one where it's almost like a roller coaster but slow, and you climb in the cart and go into the haunted house looking thing. aiden and sadie were both tall enough to go on it and i didn't want them to because i thought it was going to scare the crap out of them but they begged. like, REALLY begged! i've never seen anything like it . . . so i caved. when they came out the other side, i expected some frightened faces, especially little sadie, but to my surprise, she ran up to me and yells, "momma, you GOTTA try that one!" ha ha! sadie my little daredevil! nothing phases that kid i tell you! and while we were standing there, a cute little girl came up and asked if we wanted her goldfish that she won because she couldn't keep them. trav said no . . sadie begged . . i said yes, so i got to hold them for the next 6 hours :) i thought for sure they would die, but what i should have remembered was that i am the queen of saving things that i never expected to live :) gill and fin currently live at trevor and shaila's and are getting along just fine. :)

on this one i told aiden, "ok buddy . . when it goes down that steep part, i want to see your hands in the air . . okey dokey?" that's him behind trav and sadie. i was totally proud :)

hee hee . . this one makes me laugh. first of all, because sadie is looking just as pleased as peaches, and second of all because trav looks so not . . "blast this buckle, how am i supposed to latch this sucker on?! i swear, i've NEVER seen one of these things before in my life . . . what the . . . sunuva . . . "

they look just slightly crazed, don't they . . . ;)

the only breaks we took from the rides were to go get some food, and go to the hypnotist, which is guaranteed to be a good time, right?! and it was. aiden even liked it and laughed pretty hard a few times. that was when the heat stroke came in. who knew trav was so fragile?! but i have to give him some major credit, he really sucked it up! he went on some more rides with the kids, and then finally about 2 hours post-bedtime, we called it a night . . for the kids ;)

we took them back to grandma susan's, got them to bed, picked up trav's sis heather, clipped sadie's wristband off and re-taped it on heather, faked the black hand stamp (don't judge, you know you would have done it too! . . ;) and headed back in for a couple more rides. and just because we are awesome and did a pretty amazing job if i do say so myself . . it worked :) i had enough tickets for 2 rides, so i went with them on the fireball again, and then the zipper (my favorite!). then trav and heather went on a couple more, and THEN our chariot turned back into a pumpkin and the clock struck midnight :)

and that was it for the fair this year! i'm so glad we got to go! we had such a great time! i already can't wait til next year! let the white trash festivities begin! ;)

my favorite holiday! . .

2011-09-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

anyone who knows me well, knows how much i LOVE halloween! like more than christmas, more than valentines day, (way) more than my birthday . . more than any other holiday! i LOVE it!!!! so this year i'm starting early and making some super cute halloween projects!

this was my first! a cute halloween wreath! i got the idea from this blog:

http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/2010/09/boo-wreath-tutorial.html

she makes some SUPER cute things! i did learn a valuable lesson while making this, burlap REALLY sucks to dye! i'll probably do it again, but next time i DEFINITELY won't cut it into 1" strips first, because that's what i did with this one and i mostly ended up with a big pile of shredded, although nicely dyed, burlap! :) lesson learned :) but it ended up being a really fun little project! i will be making more halloween things for sure! yay for halloween!

guess what i'm doin' in october!! . . .

2011-09-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

look what i just registered for! woo hoo!

AND . . .

i already know what my costume is going to be!!

AND . . .

it's going to be AWESOME!! i can't wait! guess i better go run . . like, NOW!!!!!! :)

yellowstone day 2

2011-09-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

these are from our second day in yellowstone. we hit all the major places:

i just think these pools that are such turquoise blue are amazing! and all the orange and yellow colors on the rocks near them . . they are just beautiful!

what. . . i do too have make-up on. ok, fine . . no i do not . .

the mud pots!

this was a geyser area that had a bunch of geysers going off

this one was my favorite! you can kind of see the colors, it was really turquoise water with the orange all around it. it was pretty!

what does surprise pool mean? don't fall in or . . . SURPRISE! . . you're burned to bits!

this was a monster geyser that could shoot up to 200 feet into the air! it only erupted once like every 12-14 hrs so we didn't see it, but i bet it would've been cool!

sportin' my sweet green speed racer sunglasses. and it's not to hide that i'm not wearing make-up. . . ok fine. maybe it is . . :)

look! . . grizz-elly bear :)

the one thing that never fails to amaze me is that there are signs everywhere . . and i do mean EVERYWHERE!!! that say do not approach the animals. and there are still the dumb-a's that choose not to listen. this is some guy who must have been just ACHING to get mowed down by this buffalo . . he walked within like, 10 feet of the thing! HELLO! seriously people, where are your brains?! ha ha! luckily we didn't see someone killed that day!

here's the buffalo up close. would you really chance getting trampled by that thing?! is it really worth the picture?! personally, i think not but . . .

we drove through this area that had buffalo all over the place. there were buffalo herds as far as the eye could see! pretty cool.

we liked this one with the buffalo wading in the water

this area was called mud volcano, it was just spots of boiling mud and a boiling mud cave

this area was called the grand canyon of yellowstone national park. it had 2 waterfalls that were HUGE! and the canyon was amazing! it really was like the grand canyon! it was huge!

we had a really fun day! :)

a visit to yellowstone

2011-09-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

so after our mesa falls race, checking out the falls, and eating at big juds, our little fam cruised over to yellowstone. we got there at about 2:30 or so i think and then had some business to take care of. first off, in all the hustle and bustle of the morning i forgot something slightly important . . . shoes for aiden. what's wrong with me!? ha ha! but i did. so he was trompin' around in my flip flops for the day and that just was not going to work for the rest of the day! so we went to the yellowstone shops, which i LOVE, and on like the 6th store (6 stores later?! what's up with that!?) we finally found some aiden sized flip flops. and then came the MOST important part . . ice cream! this is our fave:

this place is AWESOME! they call it swirl freeze ice cream, and it's not just your normal run of the mill ice cream. i don't know exactly how they make it, but it is SO yummy! and i could eat like, 10 of their homemade waffle cones. they're so good!

so by then, it was getting a little later in the afternoon. we didn't feel like we were going to have as much time in the park as we hoped for, so to make our time there worth it we decided to stay the night! so we wheeled into the mcdonalds and whipped out trav's laptop to priceline a hotel. we ended up finding a really nice one for just over $100, which is pretty much unheard of there! even the crappy super 8 was $154-$185! so we were excited and were really looking forward to our time in the park. so we ran our stuff into our hotel, and off we went to the park!

another rainbow! aren't rainbows good luck? i always think they are!
we decided that we should head towards old faithful first, since it was getting a little later in the day.

first thing we saw was this bison. he was HUGE! he walked across the road right in front of where we were pulled over. aiden and sadie really liked him!

a little ways down the road, there were about a million cars pulled over on each side of the road. so without knowing what the heck was going on, we wheeled over and hopped out to see what was up! ha ha! we laughed at that :) so we hopped out and asked someone leaving what it was and they said it was a grizzly bear eating an animal. sorry for the dead carcass in the pic, i thought it was disgusting and MY pics had no dead carcass! but trav thought it was cool, and the one's where the bear is actually looking had the dead carcass. so dead carcass it is!! sorry!

aiden was VERY nervous that we were just out in the open checking out a wild grizzly bear. he kept saying he was scared and kept wanting to go. sadie was actually the one to assure him that everything was under control, she kept saying "it's ok aiden! the bear's not going to get us!" needless to say he wasn't very impressed when i told him this: "it's ok buddy . . see all these people out here? if the bear does come after us, you've only gotta be faster than 1 of them and you'll be fine . . . ;) yes, he was VERY not-impressed! i thought it was funny though . . . :)

we were so glad we went in the evening time! this was the last explosion you could be in the park to watch before it closed to the public. it was less busy and more pretty! :) we loved watching the sun set here!

these were a whole bunch of other little geysers around

sadie got cold so she was running around in my hoodie. i had the arms rolled up for her, but she insisted on them being long. she looked so funny!

one of the pools by old faithful

there was a little gift shop nearby that i really wanted to get the kids something from to remember the trip. so after old faithful, i ran into the gift shop and found a buffalo and a grizzly bear. i hid them so the kids didn't know i came back with anything. then after we got going, i asked them what their favorite parts of the day were. aiden said seeing the buffalo, and sadie said seeing the grizzly bear. PERFECT!!! so i got them out and gave them to the kiddies and they were so excited! aiden named his bartemus buffalo and sadie just calls hers grizzly bear. when she says it, it's actually grizz-elly bear. it's too cute!

they held them until they went to sleep (which was about 5-10 minutes!) and slept with them that night. then sadie carried hers around ALL the next day! they really like them! it made me so happy! :) and that was it for the evening in yellowstone. we were so glad that we had decided to stay so we could spend the whole next day there too!

my first 10k!!!!

2011-08-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

i'm so excited! last weekend i ran my first 10k!! i ran it with my awesome sis-in-law heidi in ashton, idaho. it was part of the mesa falls marathon and it was GREAT!!! we had a little bit of a crazy morning, but trav got us there in a hurry! the taurus was like a black streak all the way from blackfoot to ashton! thanks huzzy! we made it just in time to get our race packets and get ready to go. oh, and just in time to get to the starting line and find out that my zune was DEAD!!!! mark my words zune, that was the LAST time you let me down! i really am going to throw you out the window and peel out on you! i've never been so mad in my whole life! i had to run clear back to the car and in my fury and my hurry, i hurled the zune back into the car through trav's window. the thud as it hit the passenger side door did make feel a little better, but later i found out that my headphones whipped him in the face on the way by! sorry huzzy! that DARN zune really brings out the worst in me sometimes! :)

here we are before the race

and we're off! we ran around a big country block in ashton. it was really beautiful there! we had a perfect view of the grand tetons for the first half of it too! i made a HUGE mistake by eating too much that morning. i thought if i ate good, but not a ton a couple hrs before the race then i would be good! so i got a ham&cheese croissant from burger king (my favorite!) except it almost wasn't my favorite anymore cuz i almost barfed it up! ha ha! NOT cool!!!! next time i will eat good the night before and just stick with a marathon bar that morning!

this is me coming to the finish line. here's a mile by mile rundown of the race:

mile 1: "oh i'm gonna barf, i'm gonna barf . . . i hate my zune . . this isn't going quite as well as expected! . . it's ok, i'll sing to myself . . just keep swimming, just keep swimming oh uh uh oh i love to swim . . swim . . ok that's enough . . i really need that zune . . "

mile 2: "yay! the first water station! it's like happiness to my soul! oops, i grabbed gatorade instead of water, oh well i'll drink it anyway . . ack! ack! slurp . . choke . . wrong tube . . ouch it burns!!! cough, cough . . i'm gonna die . ."

mile 3: "still coughing up the gatorade that i aspirated into my lungs, but i'm finally getting a good pace! feeling pretty good . . keep going legs!"

mile 4: "whew! that mile marker took long enough! hangin' in there though . . haven't ran more than 4 miles outside before! oh look a cemetary, maybe i'll just go lay me down in there, might as well . . . oh no i better not . . just keep running, just keep running oh uh uh oh i love to run . . run . ."

mile 5: "bravely going where no brittany beasley has gone before! passing 5 miles EVER!!! inside or outside! woo hoo! and here's another water station! hope this one goes better than the last one! i'm not getting gatorade again, that's for sure!"

mile 6: "woo hoo i'm done! oh crap, i'm not done! it's another 2/10's?! aaahhhh!!!! that's the longest 2/10's of my life!" ;)

these are a few after the race, it really wasn't too bad! i didn't feel like i was going to die for real or anything! it felt great! i was not fast by any stretch of the imagination! here's my stats: i finished 23rd out of 50, time: 1:03:49 which breaks down to a 10:17 mile. i did run the whole thing, which was really my only goal! and i just need to be under an 11 minute mile for the ragnar. and i'm already there! with plenty of time to improve! so that makes me HAPPY! yippee!

here are heidi and me after the race, sadie wasn't feeling so well so she was immediately glued to my side. poor thing :(

re-doing my run through the finish line since trav missed it the first time ;)

so there we go! my first 10k and longest run yet! yippee! after the race, we went to mesa falls. what a beautiful area! the falls were so pretty!

the grand tetons on the way to mesa falls

these were the upper falls, and there really was a rainbow! how awesome is that?!

there was this cute little visitors center by the upper falls that we went into. it was built in the early 1900's i think. it was beautiful!

inside there was this area where there were different kinds of animal pelts, skulls, bugs . . all sorts of cool things! there was even a live turtle and some fish in a tank that the kids really liked!

aiden really liked the bear!

shot at dawn! bahahaha! what. i'm not touching the skulls. . . ;)

we told aiden to put his hand in the bear's mouth and pretend like he was scared. ha ha! that's pretty good buddy! :)

the lower falls

lower falls up close

a nice lady offered to take our picture. thank you nice lady!
after the falls, we went to big juds with heid, richard, and their kiddies and had lunch. that place is GOOD!!! then our fam headed toward yellowstone. we decided that since we were already so far that way, we might as well! it had been something like 4-5 years since we'd been before! that'll be a whole post by itself, or probably 2, but it ended up being a really fun weekend! i'm so glad i took the plunge and ran my first 10k! now i've gotta keep it up!

aiden's first day of 1st grade!

2011-08-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

holy cow! i think i finished the hawaii section! whew! that was extreme! so it's back to the daily grind for us. bummer. back to school. back to work. back to mowing the lawn and running out of dog food. and speaking of school, a little somebody i know started the 1st grade last week! mr. aiden's first day back was on wednesday august 24th.

look at my big boy! how can he be in first grade?! it was a rough couple of days for this mama! i was fine with kindergarten, it's just like pre-school only it's every day rather than 3 a week or something . . . but 1st grade?! it's ALL day EVERY day! my little boy is too little to be gone to school ALL day! i totally cried the first 2 days i took him! ha ha! what a weenie! ;)

now i have to say, i am trainin' this boy up good . . i wanted to get a couple pics for his first day, so i busted out the camera when i went to pick him up. i was expecting him to be like, 'oh mom! c'mon! seriously?! geez, my friends are watching!' ha ha! but he TOTALLY wasn't! wanna know what he said?!

"mom, why are you taking it right here? why don't you take it over by the welcome back sign?" oh! well heck! that's a good idea! thanks buddy! :)

his teacher's name is mrs. keepers. the first thing he said about her is that she's funny! he seems to really like her, and his good friend tori who lives next door is also in his class and i'm sure he doesn't mind that :) his first item of homework was to memorize his lunch #, which was a 6 digit random number. we practiced it that night, and he had it down pat. i ask him probably once a day and he always remembers. maybe he has a math brain! he was so easy to teach our phone number and address to too! way to go big boy! here are a few aiden stats as he enters the first grade:

weight: 42.4 lbs

height: 45 "

favorite color: blue

favorite food: fruit, especially pineapple

favorite activity: playing games, he says ned's head, but we've played it like, once . . ;)

favorite movie: dinosaur (so he says . . ;)

favorite toy: he says bartemus the buffalo, but we just got him this weekend so i don't know if he counts because we didn't actually have him when school started. his other favorite is dress up stuff.

i'm so proud of my big boy! he's such an easy going kid! it's a big transition for a little guy to start all day school, but he's done it seamlessly. he likes it already, and says that his favorite part of school is that he goes to special classes. p.e., music, library, and computers. love you buddy! way to be such a trooper!

hawaii highlights

2011-08-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

all right . . this is going to be my last one. i think . . . ;) i wanted to try to compile my top 10 moments in hawaii. it might be hard, because it was all so amazing! but here it goes, not necessarily in any order. except the order that my brain thought of them:

1. my necklace! it looks green in this picture, but isn't really green at all. it's kind of reflective and iridescent. and SO pretty!!! i LOVE it!!!! thanks huzzy! :)

2. the rest of my treasures: earrings and another necklace.

i know! i got TOTALLY spoiled! :) thanks trav, you're the best husband EVER!!! these were not of the expensive variety though ;) just the SUPER CUTE variety! :)

these were also very symbolic of our trip. we got them at a little shop that a lady owned and she made her own jewelry. these are made from mgambo seeds, aka weleweka or velvet seeds which only grow in hawaii and some parts of ghanda, lava rock (no explanation needed, right?!) and olivine, which is what is created when lava hits the ocean and shatters and what makes the green sand beach green in hawaii. isn't that cool?! i loved that they had so much more meaning than just any beads!

3. getting sand from each color of beach that we went to: white, black, and green!

probably a major no-no, but i didn't care! i was going to get a sand sample from those 3 beaches no matter WHAT! and now i'm so glad i did, because look how cool they are!

4. picking out some loot for the kids. they each got a hawaii t-shirt, shell lei's, and turtle magnets. sadie got a hawaii flower barrette, and aiden got a shark tooth necklace and statue keychain. they also each got a musical wooden turtle with a stick that you run up its back and it sounds like a croak. they loved it!
5. driving with the top down. we took full advantage of our convertible for sure! every morning and every evening we drove around with the top down. it was AMAZING!!! we watched the sun set and felt the breeze in our hair, while listening to the hawaiian easy listening station . . . it was unbelievable! maybe someday we'll move somewhere warm and have one for our own :)

6. chocolate covered macademia nuts

we kept these on hand at all times! they were soooo good!

these were my personal favorite, i just checked online and it's like, $25 for an 11 oz. bag. they were so good, i'm tempted . . .

7. ginger ale

we were obsessed with ginger ale on this trip! we hardly drank anything else! and now . . . neither of us has had one since we got home! ha ha! it was just a hawaii thing i guess! ;) whenever we stopped at the store, we would get us an extra one and take it home and keep it in the fridge.

we especially loved this kind! neither of us had ever even seen it before, but it was awesome! if we weren't drinking ginger ale, we were drinking our $0.99 1.5 liter hawaiian water

8. singing katy perry. on friday night (interestingly enough!) we were driving down ali'i street through the downtown shops on our way back to our condo. we had the top down on our convertible and had been listening to the hawaiian station, which was SO funny! it was like, super laid back, cool, island-sounding music. the song that was on ended, and i started flipping thru the stations. all of sudden, guess what came on!

yep, last friday night by katy perry! so i CRANKED it, and as we drove by some poor, unsuspecting pedestrians, i started screaming it at them out the convertible. i was dancing and acting like a total fool! i think trav thought i went nuts! ha ha!
9. the only time in my life that i did, and ever will again, consistently wake up at 5:00 every morning! every day we woke up at the same time. we never set an alarm either! we would go to bed at 8:30 every night and wake up between 5:00 & 6:00 every morning. it was perfect! and the other crazy thing was that it got dark at 7:00 every night! and light at about 6:00 a.m. it was fun :)
10. groceries are SO expensive! milk was $6.00 a gallon. some boxes of cereal were $8.00 a box, and those were just regular size boxes of normal cereal! bread was $4 for the cheapest loaf, peanut butter was $8, and that peanut butter mixed with jelly was $6! you know carl buddig meat? it's like, the cheapest meat on the planet? about $2 here? it was $5. and just a small pack of those fake cheese slices . . $7! it was insane! and gas was $4.36 just about everywhere we went. everybody told us that most people in hawaii have to work 2 jobs to make it. one of our tour guides worked 3! it's INCREDIBLY expensive to live there!

i found this online, it was about how much food $100 will buy in hawaii. looks about right to me! can you believe it?!
so there we go! some of the most memorable things of our hawaii trip! i think that about covers it! i don't know if i could post any more even if i wanted to! phew!

random hawaii pics

2011-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

i know, i know! . . ENOUGH ALREADY!!! i'm sorry! i just have to do it! i can't help it! just a few more, and i promise . . anyone who i lost can tune back in! ha ha!

we saw this bumper sticker on a local pick-up. made us laugh so hard!

this sign made us laugh sooo hard too! donkey crossing?! for real?!

i need to find a good program so i can write on my pics. anyone have any recommendations? this is a TINY little lizard that lives in hawaii. see the long brown stick that goes across the bottom? and then the medium white one that goes up and down? look in between them and that's the lizard. little tiny brown thing. it was the smallest, fastest lizard i've ever seen!

we didn't see any wild donkeys, but we did see some mountain goats! they were cool!

trav thought i was always dinkin' around! every time he took a picture, he'd say. . . "ok. this one's for real. ok, now act how you wanna act . . " ha ha!

a couple more from volcanoes national park

this was boss frog's, the place we rented our snorkel equipment. the guy in there was so funny! very laid back and no-nonsense kind of guy. we liked him.

a bird of paradise flower. that thing really DOES look just like a bird!

this was probably the most random thing i've ever seen! this was someone's property along the road. they had a longhorn, a bison, a zebra, and a donkey in this pasture. what the heck?!

probably how trav felt the whole time! . . he pretended that i drug him all over and wore him out! i totally did NOT!!! ha ha! :)

hawaii day 8: a final adieu

2011-08-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

after the temple, we went back and got our stuff all packed up and ready to go. SAD!!! and then we decided to go back to the kona shops for a little while. it ended up being so fun! and we spent most of the rest of the day at them.

first, we checked out the king's old palace. we didn't go inside, but we took a walk around the outside. it was neat! the king had a heck of a view! i guess it really is good to be king!

this was a coconut tree. did you know that coconuts are actually green?! i didn't! and the brown looking thing that you think of when you think of a coconut is actually inside the green shell! who knew!?

we found out that numerous people are killed by falling coconuts every year. really?! didn't know that either . . . i hope i'm never struck by a falling coconut. that would really suck. ;)

don't know why, but i really loved this picture of the palm tree shadow!

after we checked out the palace, we checked out a few shops and then went and got some ice cream. i got chocolate coconut macademia nut (does it get any more delicious than that?! i really don't think so!!!) and trav got macademia nut. it was amazing and delicious. we sat down overlooking the ocean and saw a dolphin jumping. very cool! i told trav the only time it's ok to pay $12 for two small scoops of ice cream is if you are watching dolphins jumping in the ocean ;) venue is everything, right!?

AND THEN . . . one of my very favorite parts of the day! trav talked us into getting henna tattoos! ha ha! trav got a shark, and i got a hibiscus flower. it was cool! it kind of burned like a beast, but felt kind of good if you ask me, and then it flakes off over a few hours and stays for 2-4 weeks.

hmmm . . . i like it! maybe i'll have a mid-life crisis and get it turned into a REAL tattoo! (i am turning 30 before too long you know, who knows, i may just go off the deep end! ;)

and then we went to one last shop, and trav got me a surprise! one that i was SO excited about! it was such a highlight for me! i can't tell what it was yet though . . .

this thing was pretty cool, it was an apple-banana tree. these banana things on there looked just like small bananas. but they tasted different, way better than the bananas we're used to! we tried some on our ziplining tour, and then found this tree this day. we were excited!

i don't know what that thing hanging down is. kind of weird huh!

we got done at the shops and then decided to go get a quick bite from taco bell and take it to the nice beach we went to the day before. we had to say goodbye to the beautiful hawaii beaches one more time!

this is me showing off what trav got for me. can you tell what it is?! a necklace! yay! it's like, the 4th piece of nice jewelry trav has gotten for me in the 9 years we've been married! thanks huzzy! it was worth the wait, i LOVE it! and it's so sentimental to our trip because it's a tahitian pearl, which is only found in the pacific/polynesian islands, and it's set in a hibiscus flower which is hawaii's state flower, all set in white gold so my skin won't eat it. :) i LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!!! thanks huzzy! and i love YOU too! :)

one last shot of us and the ocean and then it was off to the airport. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! don't make us leave! we want to stay!

one last hawaiian sunset

with the hawaiian airlines plane :) we didn't even fly with them! but we thought it was very fitting for scene :)

what an amazing vacation! i am SOOOO glad we went! we loved every second of it and have memories that we will NEVER forget! we didn't sit still for 2 seconds before we were off to find something else, and i wouldn't have wanted it any other way! a very special thanks to gr. ruby, heidi, and ashley who watched aiden and sadie for us so we could go! it was so much appreciated, and meant a lot to us! and it was nice to find out that i guess we really do like each other and can still have fun after all these years! thanks to my huzzy for being the best vacation partner i could ask for! :)

aloha! . . and mahalo for visiting hawaii! til we meet again most beautiful and wonderful place! :)

hawaii day 8: temple trip

2011-08-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

what?! our last day?! how did that happen?! so we knew we wanted to go to the kona temple while we were there on the big island. we even packed a whole bag for it! a whole carry on was dedicated to packing our temple stuff! we had to make it! we meant to go the first day that we were there, but the temple times were a little scarce, so we ended up deciding that the day we left would be a perfect time. so we decided that's what we would do first the morning of our last day.

there is kind of a funny story of our temple trip. the first session was at 7:30 in the morning, so we got up at our usual 5:30 in the morning and planned to get there early to take pictures of the temple and stuff. so we were planning on being way ahead of schedule! we left our condo at about 6:45 (the temple was just right up the street so we figured that would be plenty of time!) well, it wasn't. when we got up by it, we could see the temple but couldn't figure out how to get to it! the block was all walled up and the road by it led us clear far away. it was the only main road, and everything that went off it was a dead end! we were so confused! so we went around and around trying to figure out where to go until about 7:15, and i was finally giving up. then all of a sudden, trav was like, "i'm going to go down the road that we went on first. i know it said dead end, but let's just check it out again. we had to have missed something." so we went up the road and found out that it DID dead end . . . right around a corner and into the temple parking lot! OH MY GOSH! ha ha! now it's funny, but it wasn't at the time! it was a little stressful, i thought we weren't going to make it! we pulled in at 7:21! and it was awesome, like they were expecting us. (we found out later that we were supposed to call ahead to make an appt. oops, sorry!) but nobody said a word about it, we walked in and someone came up to the front to get us. it was a very small temple, and the smallest session we've ever been to by far! but it was a wonderful experience and we were so glad we made such an effort to get there. it was so worth it!

and the temple grounds were AMAZING!!! needless to say they were unlike any temple grounds we have ever seen! there were palm trees, all kinds of orchids (my favorites!) and so many other really pretty and really neat flowers and things!

and even a couple of those little lizards that we loved so much! they were such cute, colorful little things!

and this one was even looking!

we did lots more that day, but i wanted the temple post to be by itself so i'll post the rest in another one. we're so grateful for such an amazing experience, to go to the kona temple! it was so wonderful and we're so happy we were able to go!