Quarterly Faves October-December 2009

there weren't too many straggler pics this time!  just a few!

 i love how much my kiddos like to help me cook . . they're the cutest!!

                            these are some of my FAVORITES!!!  we loved going shooting!!!

treehouse museum!!!

29 reasons

so i won't tell you how old he is ;) ;) but my sweet husband's birthday was on christmas eve. what a wonderful christmas present! the best one i get every year! :) another year with the best hus in the world! so to wish my dear husband a happy birthday, here are 29 (totally random number ;) reasons i love this guy to pieces . . .

1. just because he's never done it before totally doesn't matter. the man can do absolutely ANYTHING! fix this pipe, that leak, this busted thing on the car, the weedwacker, the boat engine, rebuild a tiller, lay carpet on our stairs, hang a light fixture anywhere . . . the list goes on.

2. tells me i am beautiful when i have no make-up on, hair is a wreck, and i'm still in my pajamas when he gets home from work :)

3. takes care of the kids for 3 days a week totally on his own (and does a really good job!)

4. works AND goes to school full time, 2 kids, full-time working wife . . . NOT easy. he is the most determined person i know and damn well IS going to get through his schooling no matter how much it sucks. :)

5. (if he happens to be here) wakes up with the kids and goes downstairs and makes breakfast for ME in the morning! thanks awesome huzzy!

6. puts up with my grumpiness and buzzard biting . . . and there's a LOT of it! :)

7. i have automatic permission to buy anything i want for myself . . . any time (even though i usually don't) :)

8. enjoys a good football game, chips and dip anytime

9. lets me watch american idol every week and pretends like he cares what is going on

10. cleans the house without me asking

11. will eat EVERYTHING i cook. and says it's delicious (there's no way that's always true!)

12. even though he is exhausted, he'll rub my hair or my back at night because it settles me down so i can sleep

13. makes emergency store runs if there is ever anything i think i might possibly need so that i don't have to

14. watches chick-flicks with me

15. it's ok even if tom brady and matt damon are sexy (even though they're not)

16. always drives

17. cleans up the dog messes (and there are a LOT of them)

18. doesn't beat the dog too bad :)

19. drove clear to blackfoot to get me a miche bag that i wanted while i was at work and hid it under my blanket to surprise me with it the next day

20. it's ok if we go bankrupt, i don't have to go to work because he would rather have me here anyways :)

21. tells me if my baby bows look better with flowers or rhinestones

22. is more proud of me than i am for losing all my weight

23. takes SUCH good care of our kids. they know they have the best daddy in the world!

24. cleaned puke out of our car for 3 hours when aiden and sadie both got sick and puked in it

25. MADE me let him buy me a ring with his birthday money last year.

26. pushes the fussing, bawling kids around in a stroller while i try on every single thing in express :)

27. makes me feel better no matter how bad things seem

28. i never question what is most important in his life. us.

29. keeps us on the right path. has a strong testimony, magnifies his callings, and is always the good person, even if nobody else will do what's right (the thugs he works with come to mind)

this list could go on and on! i could think of 100 things! and more! i love this guy more than i can ever say. i think that maybe for some people, there could be more than 1 specific person for them depending on time and circumstances. but i know that in all the trillions of people, all the eternities, i have the one person that i am meant to be with. i just don't know how it's possible that he was right there, in the same high school, at the same time. how lucky i am that i found him. i hope he always knows how much we love him, and how truly wonderful he is. love you hus!

funny story . . .

so on christmas eve, we had dinner at trav's house. we may never know what happened, but apparently our dog somehow got WAY too much food . . . and ended up getting very sick.

i saw him throw up once on the floor, not that big of a deal, it was just a small one. happens, right? . . so i clean it up, and thinking back - i do remember thinking . . . "huh, he has kind of a sick look on his face, he might not be feeling very good. well, anyways! . ." and went about doing whatever i was doing. well, it was not an isolated event . . . the dumb dog then proceeds to have a HUGE puke all over the couch and trevor's pants (sick!) and then another HUGE puke on the floor in front of the couch on the other side of the room. then one more . . . by then trav has had it and chucks him out in the garage. good thing, because when i made him go get him a couple hours later because it was too cold for samson to sleep out there all night, there were 4 . . . yes 4 MORE! . . . pukes in the garage! how in the H does a little weiner dog hold that much puke?! i will never know . . . so anyways, we decide we don't trust him to be wandering about the house all night puking as many times as possible, so we decide to put him in the laundry room overnight. well, sometime during the night, he found someone's pink sweatshirt to crawl into to sleep. then tried to crawl out the arm-hole, got his head and one leg out, and got stuck! hahahahaha! and i have no idea how long he was like this before we went to get him christmas morning! and i thought i was going to have to find some scissors and surgically remove him from this sweatshirt! ha ha ha ha! oh dear, it still makes me laugh out loud . . . :)

the look on the poor thing's face just says it all, doesn't it!?

poor weeney!

always a rat race . . .

it's so hard to believe that christmas has come and gone . . . again! life goes by so fast sometimes! christmas always feels like such a rat race for us, usually having a very limited amount of time and trying to see so many people and stop at so many houses . . . but would i really have it any other way?! probably not . . . it was so much fun to be able to go to blackfoot and see our families! trav had to work christmas eve day, and i was supposed to work the night before that (but got called off from 11-5, yay!) so we left logan about 2-ish christmas eve day. we stopped at gr. ruby's on our way through, stopped at my mom's, and then slept at trav's house. then x-mas morning got up at 7-ish, went to my mom's, then back to trav's, then to my dad's . . . spent about 2 hrs at each house, and then hit the freeway to drive 100 mph back to logan, just to find out that i was NOT needed at work, and didn't get a cell phone call telling me that! dah! oh well, thus is the story of our lives . . . always a rat race!

dad & vauna's = total chaos! it was great!

at my mom's house . . . g-ma helen & g-pa were there, kylee, & zac and manami made breakfast, it was fun!  i am so grateful for our wonderful families, we are SO very blessed to have them! we hope you guys all know how much we love you! thanks for such a wonderful christmas, we are so happy we got to spend it with all of you!

treehouse fun

this is our visit to the treehouse museum in ogden, we had never been there before! so our good friends amber and noah (and little easton!) came with us for a fun playdate. what a fun place! we stayed for 4 or 5 hrs, and i think we probably could have spent 4 or 5 more!

riding the rodeo horse

king aiden

me and my little sis, i love this girl!

kylee and sadie playing dress-up

aiden hauled this HUGE dalmation dog all around the museum, it was so funny!

aiden and kylee were playing, and she got knocked over into this cube, it was great!

there's my friend! amber, aiden, and noah

little sadie carried this little teapot everywhere, she was so obsessed with it!

the firetruck was one of their favorites! aiden loved to dress up and sadie loved to climb on it

aiden and noah

thought i better get these on because we are going again tomorrow with one of my favorite peeps in the world! see you tomorrow catherine! can't wait! :)

happy birthday uncle t-dawg

happy birthday trevor! i can't believe trevor is 19! makes me so sad! it just happens so fast, there are pictures from our wedding where i swear this kid is just outta diapers! i'm sure he would definitely NOT appreciate me saying that, but reallly . . .

uncle trevor and grandma susan . . . love you guys!

the crew

not sure what he's up to here, but it's funny! :)

such a great fam! and just look at that brotherly love! (pretty sure they just got done whipping each other with dish towels or something :)

so happy birthday to one awesome kid and one of our favorite people in the whole world! love ya t-dawg!

a small change for me . . .

collarbone. ouch!

thanks for the bandaid mr. aiden! looks awesome! geez, no wonder i get stared at :)

face

i know i will be sad if i don't keep track of this somewhere, and i know better than to think i will actually write in my REAL journal! ha ha!

so i had a smaller mole on my collarbone that all of a sudden started to look a lot different. it made me dang nervous so i went right in and had the dr. look at it. he thought it needed to come off very soon because of the changes, which were suspicious of something cancerous. so while i was there, i had him look at a few more. turns out i had 7 that didn't look so good! one of them being the one on my face. i have always thought it would have to come off someday, but i was surprised. it wasn't even one i was going to ask about. i guess i'm just so used to it! it made me sad! the funny thing is, that i remember hating it when i was younger, i was very insecure about it and thought i would always just be "the girl with the mole." makes me laugh thinking about it now! poor little girl! but over the years, i became a much more confident person and didn't mind being a little different. i got used to having it, and it just became part of who i was!

so on a monday, dr. stevens told me i needed to come in the next monday and have it and the one on my collarbone removed. what?! i only have a week to prepare for this?? i felt like i needed every day of that week too. i didn't care about my collarbone, but i sure did about my face! it felt like a lot to prepare for. it still does. it has been a little more emotional for me than i expected. i feel like i have had to deal with one baby step at a time. today is day 4 since my appt. it doesn't hurt much now, as long as i keep a bandaid on it. which is good and bad . . . i don't like to look at it much plus it keeps it from hurting and will hopefully help it heal well so it won't scar much. but you should see the looks i get! i happen forget about it for one minute, until i catch someone staring at me and immediately remember again. i'm sure they are wondering if my husband let me have it. oh well. i get the stitches out in another week, so 10 days total. then i'll get the rest of the moles off. not looking forward to it much, but at least it won't hurt as much as the ones i already had! i never want another shot in my face again! or directly over my collarbone for that matter! :) so for now, i will try to get used to what i will look like now. doesn't seem like much to everyone around me i'm sure, and hopefully won't even be noticeable to people who don't know, but it's going to take some getting used to for me! so wish me luck and i will keep trying to get used to it :)

a special thank you

i took care of a new mom and her baby a couple of weeks ago who gave this to me to say thank you. i have never had someone do something this nice for me in all my years as a nurse! (all 4 1/2 of them :) i have however had someone tell me that i wasn't fit to work at a hot dog stand on the side of the road . . . now that's more like it! ha ha! that was when i was a cna working on the cardiovascular unit and she was just a little on the nutty side, but still makes me laugh! she said the same thing about the nurse that took care of her, and our whole unit was hysterical because we were the least likely two people to ever have someone say that about us! so it was funny and we were not that offended :) but it is a rare day when someone does something this thoughtful to say thank you. i think for the most part, people who go into nursing do it because we like to take care of people. and sadly, it feels like a very large part of what we do goes unnoticed. management is always making changes, cutting budgets, and telling you that what you are doing isn't good enough. but every now and then you take care of someone who helps you remember why you chose this profession. because all you really want to do is make a difference in someone's life and make an experience, like having a baby in my case, something positive for them.

the card she gave me said: brittany - thank you so much for all you did for us. it was so much fun getting to know you! you are an awesome nurse and the best we have ever had! this is a small thank you for all you did. if you don't like them give me a call and we will get you some you do like!

the thing is, it was definitely not a small thank you. it was so much more than i would ever expect anyone to do for me. it reminded me that i do love what i do and there are people, probably so many more than we ever know, that are very very grateful for what we do as nurses. it reminded me that we do make a difference, and that we can change people's lives. not to mention the very large burden of SAVING them sometimes! so THANK YOU to that very kind and thoughtful family who gave me a much needed reminder that maybe i do make a difference. thank you . . .

family outing

trav's fam came and stayed with us for a couple days around halloween and we went on a little family outing to the willow park zoo. aiden and cousin kennedy were holding hands and running for the gate, they were so excited!

sadie loves aunt heather!

just in case you couldn't tell, i worked the night before. :)

aunt nikki and cousin livvy

aiden was rolling down all the hills and having a wonderful time in the leaves

we love our aunties! nikki, heather, and ashy

sadie princess

cousin kennedy . . . proof that apparently she did sit down for at least 2 seconds, they were all running around like a bunch of crazies!

well isn't that just cute . . . :)

it's too bad someone wasn't timing me when i ran the 30 yards it took me to get to these 3 when i saw that they had all sat down on this bench together . . . they would draft me as a running back on the spot . . .

does it get much cuter than that folks? i don't think so . . .

what a couple of sillies!