This, That and The Other

More Updates. Just some quickies.
We got the kids a little bike to learn on. Harlee Loves it and Bodie is warming up.

We Celebrated our bdays at Red Robin. Travis got sang to and as you can see, He loved it!!

We Visited Grandpas Grave on Memorial Day with most of the whole family.

I got bark for my bday. I know it is a little weird to be excited about that, but I was way excited!!

Update

I know that it has been awhile. So I am doing a quick update. The end of the school year buzz...Harlee won the Most improved reader of the year award. She ended the school year with the most AR (Accelerated Reader) points in her class. This is her with her best friend Zane.

Bodie graduated from Kindergarten.

We did the annual Memorial Day Weekend camping trip. Here is Jax giving "the girls" a big 4 wheeler ride. What a Man!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!!!

Okay, in order of most recent to latest. ...did I say that right? Anyway, Feb 23: Harlee's birthday. She said that she had the best day. She woke up to pancakes, sausage and bacon for breakfast, her choice. Then her dad met her at the school for lunch. She took a custom cold lunch. She really wanted PB&J, Doritoes, fruit snack, Capri Sun and a treat. Easy. Her dad took Subway and they spent her whole lunch hour hanging out with Grandma in her classroom. She loved it. He took her some balloons and then later I brought cookies for her class. That evening we went to eat with some neighbor friends and then came home to a family party and cake and Ice cream. SO fun!!

Her custom cake consisted of "How to Train Your Dragon" figurines.

Feb 18: Bodie's Bday was FILLED with fun! He woke up to eggs, bacon and sausage with chocolate milk. He loved picking the meals for the day. We went and got his good friend Clancey after that and met friends up at Leo's Place. A pizza play place up in Idaho Falls. We played and ate and served cupcakes. That evening I took him on his bday date. He wanted a Happy Meal and so we went to Arctic Circle and got one. He wanted an ice cream cone and so we got one of those too. Then we went and got a balloon to top it all off. When I asked him if he did everything he wanted, he said,"yes, we can go home now." We ended the evening with a party with family and cake and ice cream.

Bodie's custom cake was Buzz Lightyear. This is Buzz on the moon.

Jan 29: Jax woke up to pancakes. We did family presents and he just wanted to play all day with toys. He got a boat and a Buzz. He was SO entertained. It was cute. He wouldn't even break to go on a date with me, so we let it slide. I had to run to the store and so I brought him back some Cheetos. He Loves his Cheetos. That night we had a family bday party with cake and ice cream.

His custom cake was an Airplane cake. He LOVED his airplane.

Thank you to all that came and supported the kids for their birthdays. They love it when they get to see their cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandmas and Grandpas. It is SO fun to celebrate birthdays. I hope that they each felt special on their birthdays. AND I am glad we are done with that for awhile :)

Anniversary Trip

Travis and I recently had the BEST weekend getaway EVER!! I say this cause it had been a REALLY long time since we last got away for fun, so it was in much need for both of us. All weekend we kept turning to each other and saying, "this is so nice!" It was great. Okay, so we went to Island Park and stayed in a cabin. We were able to find the EXACT cabin that we stayed in for our honeymoon 10 years ago. It was great! It had been changed a little bit since last there. There was a gas fireplace, a hot tub and new carpet/hardwood floors and satellite TV. We didn't have any of those modern conveniences last time. We relaxed and watched movies, went Snowmobiling, and played racquetball and swam at the local resort club house. We stayed two nights and it was so great to get away and not have to do anything.

Here Travis is in front of our little cabin.

Just outside our cabin was thus HUGE snow pile from the snow blowers that clear the roads. There was a lot more snow there than we have seen at our house all winter.

Here we are chillaxin in the Hot Tub. That was SO great. Oh man, I am still just thinking about how great the weekend was and so nice to do nothing!

If you can't tell, this is a snow sculpture of a bear. I thought it was cool.

This is Trav's Snowmobile. The first $1700.00 cash takes it. Not because he hates it, but everything is for sale for the right price. Plus he wanted me to take a picture of it in all that snow. You can see behind it, our cabin. There is a back door there behind the tree on the left. It is completely blocked with snow.

Can I just say again, that it was SO nice to get away. We loved our weekend together and it was the perfect way to celebrate our 10 years together.

The Big TEN

I wanted to write a tribute to my marriage. I was going to say all the cliche things that are expected when writing a tribute to marriage/husbands. I think that I am just going to ramble instead. Bear with me as I hash this all out. It has been 10 years today that I married Travis. I had known Travis for about 5 years before we married. From day one we have been friends. He has always been the guy that is easy to talk to. I know that his whole family could attest to that. He is understanding and a good listener (as long as race cars and motorcycles are not within ear shot:)). I am stubborn, He is a perfectionist. I am scatterbrained, He is organized. I am clean, He is cleaner. I am loud, He isn't. I say too much, He has tact. We are so different in so many ways, but I can almost always tell what he is thinking and I love that power :). We have both changed a lot, especially in the last few years. We are not the same people we were ten years ago. We have argued and made up countless times. Sometimes it was truly hard to be married. We have both learned to sacrifice in our own ways and at our own pace. We have both learned to choose our battles. He has learned how to love me and I have learned how to love him (This his is still a work in progress for both of us). We have had our testimonies strengthened through prayer, hardship, fasting, and kids. Having kids has brought us closer than I ever thought possible. Trying to raise and guide little ones in the right path......I don't know how to explain it, but seeing Travis as a dad, and making decisions to teach the kids, has really increased my respect and love for him SO much. Ten years isn't a long time compared to eternity, or even 20 years, for that matter. But it is a milestone to reflect on. Let me just end with this: I love Travis. I appreciate him and all he does to help me to be happy. He is a wonderful and conscientious provider. He is patient with me when I am being a girl and an over indulgent mom. I admire him as a hard worker (I feel lazy compared to him). He has made me laugh everyday that I have known him. I can honestly say that. IF I believed in Soul mates, I found mine.

Memories

"pick 'em up and put em down!" That is what I remember when I think of the Lotts. A sweet couple from my mission that served in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center (VC). One of the duties of the couples was to make sure all the sisters got home from the VC safely. Mostly they would follow behind in their cars. After all, there were usually 10 of us on shift, and we wouldn't all fit in the car (Although, I think we did try to a time or two). The above quote is what I remember Elder Lott yelling out his window as he followed us.

I served with them the most when I was in the long stretch of companionship with my dear S. Stott. Each companionship rotated positions throughout the VC. We would be coupled with the Lotts a lot of the time. It was always fun to chat with them on the slow days. E. Lott was a farmer from Idaho. He had a farm mouth which he censored, of coarse. He would tell stories of farm life. Animal problems and machine problems. He would talk of his beautiful wife, his "little La" ( her first name LaDawn). He was always so witty and funny, she was so sweet and loving. Sis. Stott and I would fantasize about being a part of their family. What would it be like to go to a Lott family reunion? I bet wonderful and entertaining, would be the answer!

One afternoon, they went around and took pictures of the companionships and some of us by ourselves too. I remember honestly feeling honored to be a subject of their memories caught on film (back in the day of 35mm cameras). I didn't learn until later that they had ulterior motives. I received a letter from an Elder .....I don't remember what his last name was. First name, Matt. I do remember that. He was still on his mission in California and said that he had gotten a letter from his grandparents who were serving in Arizona. They had sent him a picture of this sister missionary, whom they thought he should write. Haha!! I was flattered, embarrassed and thought it was hilarious that they could be so conniving...is that the right word? Conspiratorial?

I did end up writing Matt the rest of our missions, he planned on coming to my home coming until he found out I was engaged the day after I got home. So, I didn't become a member of the Lott family. Elder Lott died of Leukemia a year after I returned home from my mission. I was able to attend his funeral and see Sister Lott....and Matt :) I still very much love and miss the Lotts. I just ran into Sister Lott at the temple a couple of weeks ago. It brought back these precious memories. I am grateful for such fabulous examples and fond memories!

Elder and Sister Lott. This was at the end of my mission. Elder Lott had been diagnosed with Leukemia and was undergoing chemo (above)

Sister Stott and I (below)

Happy New Year!!

So on New Years we had a small party consisting of Chad&Laina, Rumel&Heidi, Tyler, Harlee and Travis&Me. Laney and her friend Lisa were there for a bit too. It was fun to have people over. Along with all the good food: veggie tray, crackers and a cocktail cream cheese dip, Italian Nachos, Chips and 5-layer dip......mmmmmm...we played games and watched Despicable Me. One of the games we played was you all get in a circle. Each person takes a turn rolling a pair of dice. When one rolls doubles, they jump up as fast as they can and get dressed in a robe, scarf, hat, and oven mitts (or whatever combination of clothes you have, but always including oven mitts). Once dressed they have to unwrap the frozen candy bar (previously placed on the table on a cutting board) with a butter knife as quickly as they can. If they have succeeded this far, they win the game. What happens, though, is that they usually never get past putting on the first article of clothing before the next person has rolled doubles. It was a lot of fun watching all the chaos.

Heidi won both rounds we played. She was quite fast in doing the whole process. To ring in the new year, we waited out the last 20 minutes of the ball drop, kissed our significant others, and called it a night. I think next year I will do a Eastern Standard time party. That way we can end earlier. Let's face it, the year will change whether we are awake or not. :)