My List

I haven't taken the time to write down the things that I am thankful for this year, so I thought that I had better get it documented. (I have thought about it a lot though!!)

1. Travis--He is my everything, and I would really be lost without him. He is my very best friend!! I am so grateful for his willingness to work hard to support our family, and for his unconditional love for me. I am also so thankful that he is such an amazing father, our kids are truely blessed to have him for their daddy!

2. Our Kids--Some days I want to pull my hair out! But our kids are great!! I love having the opportunity to be their mother, and to watch them grow and learn new things. They make me so happy (most of the time!!)

3. The Gospel--Where would I be without the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and all the many blessings that come with the gospel? I wouldn't even want to know. I am so grateful to know that no matter what I do, and how much I feel like I have failed, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me!

4. Living close to family--I loved living in Florida, but it is such a blessing to be near our family. My mom is a lifesaver and is one of my best friends. She helps us with the kids so much, and our kids adore her and my dad. Also Travis' grandma, she is such a wonderful person. I consider her my own grandma, and love that we have such a good relationship with her. Family is such a huge blessing!

5. Our little house--It is cute and cozy and keeps us warm. I am grateful that we have a place that we can call home (even if it is just a rental for now) I am also grateful to have such amazing landlords!! They make renting great!

6. My minivan!!--I know, I know its not anything too fancy, but to me it is beautiful and luxurious!! It is great to have a reliable vehicle, and one that is roomy and can fit our family comfortably.

7. Preschool--It gives me a break for a couple of hours twice a week, AND is helping Parker so much! He has become quite the little singer, and loves to sing his school songs. I am grateful that he has such wonderful teachers, and such a wonderful bus driver!!

8. My Talents--Sometimes I have a tendancy to hide them, but I am working on not doing so, and have enjoyed improving and learning new things!

9. Our Portable Dishwasher--It's a life saver!! Living without a dishwasher is NO FUN! So I am grateful that I don't have to!

10. My Calling at Church--I get to work with the young women, and I am loving it so far. I am having to get out of my comfort zone a bit, but I am learning a lot, and love our girls! They are wonderful!

All in all, I am a very blessed girl! I just need to always remember that, and work on living life with an attitude of gratitude!

Yay! for Travis!!

On Wednesday Travis went and took the AFAST test. It is the test that military people have to pass to get into flight school. Anyways he passed!! Woohoo!! He did really well, and is one step closer to becoming a Warrant Officer in the National Guard! Now he just has to get about a bazillion documents and letters put together!! Hopefully when he gets back from Iraq he will be able to start flight school shortly thereafter! Just wanted to share our good news!

I Have a Confession...

Here's my confession...I HATE to fold and put away the laundry, and usually wait until it looks like this to tackle the task.
(These are REALLY embarrassing pictures!)



I don't know what it is about this chore, but I despise it! It drives me crazy to have a mountain of laundry to put away though, so you'd think that I wouldn't let it pile up like that. Anyways I have decided to really focus on getting the laundry put away as I wash it so that I don't have it ALWaYs looming in the background haunting me!


(Two hours later, and I have my beautiful bed back! P.S. I did have a few distractions, so it probably didn't really take two full hours!)


Hopefully I will do better at one of my least favorite chores! What are your least favorite chores?

Let's Give 'em Somthin' to Talk About....

This song has been in my head for a couple of days, so I thought it would be an appropriate title for this post. Except we aren't going to be talking about Love!! It is about MY love though!! We found out a little while ago that Travis will be getting deployed next year to Iraq. We've had our fair share of emotions about it, but shock wasn't really one of them. I knew when he joined that there was a good chance that he would have to be deployed at some point, he did join the military during a war after all!! But I think that I have come to a point of peace about it. It will be hard, but we will make it through. I just have to remind myself that I made it through his basic training, so I will make it through this too!!

So sometime in June he will go to Idaho for 3 weeks for some training, then he will be back here for three weeks. Then he will go to Ft. Hood, Texas for more training for a few months, and then in December of 2011 he will head to Iraq. He will be there until September of 2012. So it will be long, but it's ok.

I have faith that he will make it through his deployment safely and that we will all be together as a family again in 2012, but being apart is definitely going to be difficult. I am so grateful for him and for his love for me. He is an amazing guy and I love him so much. I am also SO thankful for the gospel and especially for the sealing power of the Priesthood. It gives me comfort that even if something happens to shorten our time here on this earth, that it is not the end. We will be together for all eternity.

So, there you have it...that is the latest BIG news in our family.

Fun in the Fall Sun!

Wheel barrow style! A couple of weeks ago we were out working in the yard, and when we finished up the kiddos got to go for a ride in the wheel barrow!! They thought it was so much fun!! Here are some cute pics of my love, and our sweet kids!


What a stud!! The kids are cute too!!




Don't ya love Parker's cheesers!!

Peek-A-Boo...

...I see you!!!


Chloee's latest "trick"!!

Halloween 2010

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Chloee was not teething with a fever/throwing up, and miserable all week!! But other that that we had a good time. On Tuesday for Family Home Evening(Travis worked Monday!) we decided to carve pumpkins. It was a blast! Chloee loved the goo, and Parker wanted ears on his pumpkin!






On Friday night we went to our friends, Betsy & Clint's house for a Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. We had yummy food, and played a fun game. Travis dressed up as a ghostbuster, I went as "Bo Peep"(I don't know if anyone even knew that that was what I was going for, we left my cute little sheep home!) and Parker dressed up as Woody. I intended to take pictures, but failed to do so!!



Then Saturday night we took the kids trick-or-treating. Parker loved it!! This is the first year that he actually said "trick-or-treat"!! Chloee just enjoyed being outside, being carried the whole way as we walked from house to house. We didn't stay out too long, but got a pretty good load of goods!!





Eliza the nerd!