Christmas 2015

Christmas is always a fun time of year for us. We have our traditions of gingerbread houses, bowling, and the Christmas eve party. We even managed to go see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.

This year was extra special too, because Brett's brother, Casey, and his wife, Tayler, had their new baby! Little miss Hayden is so beautiful. And Brett voluntarily asked to hold her! I didn't get to hold her, because I got a cold from the mandatory flu shot :(

Surgery

My dad and I finally scheduled to have our back surgeries done. We both had them done on the same day by the same doctor. And my sneaky dad who told me to wait to have surgery snuck in and had his done right before mine! The surgeries went well and my sweet husband slept on the horrible pull out coach all night and even pulled it closer to my hospital bed. He had to leave a few days after my surgery, but he took such good care of me while he was here.

Since Brett had to leave after I had the surgery, it was not practical to go back home to Manti to try and take care of myself. I ended up staying at my parents house during my whole recovery. It was really nice, because my dad could keep me company and I could keep my eye on him. He doesn't like to follow doctor's orders. We went on daily walks and it reminded me of how blessed I was to grow up on this beautiful property.

Evening in the clinic

So anyone that know me very well knows I have issues with injuring my feet...or to be more specific, my right foot. I have been doing good with not hurting them, but it was too good to last. I was walking through our bedroom and felt a sharp pain in my right foot. I had Brett look at it and it was bleeding, but we got it to stop and he couldn't see anything in there. I wanted to know what I stepped on and so I started looking through the carpet and found a piece of metal. We could not figure out what it was though. It just looked like a little metal rod. It hurt, but he said that it was probably just hurting from the pubcture and that there wasn't anything stuck in my foot.

The next day it was still bothering me, but only when I walked, so I decided to go to the clinic in Ephraim. The doctor said the same thing as Brett, but said we could take an x-ray just to be sure. And I'm sure glad he did, because sure enough there was something broke off. And not just in my foot, but down to the bone!

The doctor spent about 10 minutes trying to dig in my foot and couldn't find it, so he decided to stick needles in my foot and take another x-ray to try and find the angle it went in at. He dug around for another 15 minutes or so and decided he couldn't find it without a special x-ray that they only have at the hospital. At this point, Brett showed up and had to drive me to the hospital in Mount Pleasant to use the floroscopy x-ray. What it is, is a vido x-ray so he could see exactly what he was doing. With that machine they were able to get it out in 2 minutes. Technology is amazing isn't it?

Turns out that it was the eye of a sewing needle. I'm glad I went with my gut and went to the doctor. And Brett did buy me some cookie dough to make up for not believing me :)

Basin Drive-In

I had never been to a drive-in before, so we decided we would change that this weekend. We loaded up the love-sac, a couple pillows, and a blanket and headed to the Basin Drive-In theater. We saw San Andreas...which was okay, but the whole drive-in movie experience was phenomenal! I could do it every single weekend.

25....quarter of a century.....getting old.....

So I had to work today, but that did not take away from my birthday at all. In fact...they made it so much more special. My team decorated my desk, bought me baloons, and got me a crown to wear for the day. And it wasn't just a regular work day. We had management from the corporate office down to announce a new employee recognition program, that I helped kind of put together. So when we got the whole office together, they all sang to me...the....whole....office. Around 150 people all singing to me including the big managers from corporate. Needless to say my face turned so red it literally hurt.

After that we headed off to Cedar. We didn't get to Keith and Donna's until a little later, but Brett's neice, Addie, was there and she insisted that I have a cake and get sung to...again. she even got me a present. It was the sweetest thing ever!

The next morning we met our friends and headed to Crystal to spend the night. It is one of my favorite places, so it was a great way to spend my birthday. We got up to the cabin and decided that we would go up to the lake, because CJ and Lacie wouldn't be spending the night. And when we went up there I caught a wild baby duck! And then it pooped on me ha ha.

And we decided to shoot our pistols a little bit. I decided to try and shoot a goldfish in the pond....and I actually hit it!

The next day we kind of just drove around and did a little exploring in the side by sides with Brooke and Curt. I am so glad that I met these guys. They are such great people and even better friends!

Girls Weekend

This past weekend has been one of the funnest that I have had in a llloooonnngggg time. I had made really good friends at my best friends wedding a few years ago, but life happened and we haven't seen each other since then. So I was ecstatic when I got the text saying we were planning a girls weekend.

Saturday morning we all met at Heather's house to go swimming at her local community pool. We didn't spend much time there, because we had scheduled pedicures for all of us across town. So we grabbed something to eat and headed to our pedi's. I've always been a little weird about people touching my feet, but it was actually really relaxing.

After our pedicures we headed to Sakura, a Japanese steakhouse, for Meili's birthday dinner. We had the hibachi chef and met up with some other friends of Meili's, but then split out again after dinner.

We didn't really have any plans, so we just got in the car and started driving. And we ended up in Mesquite at Club Envy. We got there early enough that we got free admission! There wasn't anyone there besides us, but that is just how we wanted it! Ha ha!

Sunday morning we went to Meili's house so Sheena could do some of our hair and then after we headed to the Black Bear Diner for our going away breakfast.

Don't mind the sideways picture ha ha

Almost three years since I've seen these girls and it was way too long. But it was a great reunion.

Mini-vaca

My brother, Rick, has a condo in St. George that he rents out. He did some trade work for a weekend getaway in Salt Lake and we were invited to go along with them, my parents, and my grandparents.

First thing Friday night we met in Salt Lake for a Jazz game. I had never been to a professional basketball game and, even though I'm not really into sports, it was a good time.

After the game we went and stayed the night in the condo, which was really nice except the people who owned it did not supply ANYTHING. Not even toilet paper ha ha!

The next day we woke up and headed over to the Zoo. We met one of my sisters, Kym who lives in Logan, and another one of my brothers, Jeremy who lives in Salt Lake. We didn't have all of the siblings there, but it was still fun to get together with the ones who were able to make it.

Brett and I love the zoo anyways, but one of the coolest things we saw this time was a brand new baby Orangutan. It was through glass and not the best view, but how often do you get a chance to see something like that?

Kastle loves hunting bears, so he was pretty       Loved going in and seeing the birds.

excited when we got to see this one.                                                            .

These little guys are so cute! I would have one for a pet if I could ha ha

Brett's hand vs an orangutan hand. Crazy!        Baby Taya                            .

After the zoo we had to leave to try and clean our new home. It needs it pretty badly too. And bless my mom, she left early to come help us. I don't know what I would do without my family. They are my best friends and support whenever we need any help.

Another move

We just found out that the home that we have been renting for about a year now has finally sold. We knew when we moved into it that the owners were keeping it for sale and that it was only a matter of time before we would have to find some where else to live. But I'm not going to lie....it still sucks. We were hoping that we would be ready to move back to Southern Utah before the house would sale so that we wouldn't have to deal with finding another place to rent that would allow pets. Because, even though it is rural Utah and everyone has a pet of some kind, it is really hard to find somewhere to rent that will allow pets.

Luckily we were able to find a place in Manti, which is only about 15 minutes away from Ephraim. It isn't the ideal home or conditions, but at least we found something quickly. We will have neighbors that live in a downstairs apartment and the house needs some work, butat least we get to keep our dogs with us and don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of rent.

Working cows

How awesome is it that I married into a family that has the same interests as me?! While the boys were at drill, Tayler and I got to go help remove IUDs from heifers. I know, I know. It sounds weird that they put cows on birth control and I heard about it from my family plenty of times, but it helps them with coordinating breeding and calving. And it may look gross to some of you....but it was fun to me!

One year

My sister-in-law, Dani, is seriously the cutest person ever. Her little boy along with several of our cousins little boys were all turning one at the same time, so she decided to have a combined birthday party. And the construction theme was so cute!

The boys weren't that into smashing their cakes, but at least they were cute (the cakes and the boys of course!)

Utah Business Games

I can't believe how lucky I am. When we moved to Ephraim I was so worried about finding a job and "settled" for a job at a "call center". Well it turns out that Verisk Health is anything but a call center. They genuinely care about their employees and have given me every opportunity to progress in the company. Sometimes the job is monotonous and hard, but I absolutely love the people I work with. And they must really like me there, because I got the privilege of being chosen to go to Salt Lake and participate in the Utah Business Games. They paid my daily wage, gas to drive up there, plus compensation for wear and tear on my vehicle. And it was a BLAST! They had ping-ping, Foosball, golf simulators, basketball, rock climbing walls, ninja cards, card games, video games, remote control car races, a rock climbing wall, massages, and a bunch of other fun little games. And we can't forget the free food! I seriously can't believe how lucky I am. I didn't win anything, but I had a blast and hope I represented Verisk well.

California Day 6: Last day at Disneyland

Brett and I were determined to get on as much of the rides and see as much of the attractions as possible.

 Addie really wanted to make sure we went on the Monsters Inc ride. I love this movie

Tarzan's Treehouse

We got stuck on the Haunted Mansion ride literally 4 times because people kept getting out of their seats

We went on the Toy Story ride yesterday, which was the funnest ride we went on and we heard that the Buzz Lightyear ride was really similar, so we trekked through the rain and got fast passes for it. It was similar to the Toy Story ride and was fun, but the Toy Story ride was funner.

 I was surprised to see how many people were there on a Monday. It was busier even than when we were there on Friday. But lucky for us it started to rain and sent a lot of people home. And we aren't the type to be discouraged by a little rain. I did make Brett buy me a Carsland sweatshirt though... It was so gorgeous to see all the lights at night and the rain just made it that much prettier. Plus the rain always makes everything smell better