Let's Begin Again

I've decided to start blogging again so I can have a scrapbook for the girls. So...Here's hoping that it lasts.

Graduation, Gardens, and Giving Birth

The past couple months have gone by so fast! I can't believe that it is  June. A lot of exciting things have happened to me.

First of all I can happily say that I graduated from Utah State. That was such an exciting day for me! Since I went to the Salt Lake Center I wasn't able to go to the Logan graduation, but instead went to the Tooele one. My mom, siblings, nephews and Jeff were there to celebrate with me. My nephews got me balloons and Jeff got me flowers. It was so cute! After the ceremony we went to Chuck-A-Rama, and then we went to Wheeler Farm, so my AMAZING nephews could see the animals. It was a perfect and rewarding day for me!

A couple weeks after my graduation I thought that it would be a great time to plant a flower garden. Our house has gone too long without having a decent front yard. Planting a garden is hard! We had to dig a lot of dirt, for a long time. (When I say 'we' I mean Jeff. I tried, and gave it my all. It just wasn't enough. But I paid for it... so we're even.) However, it is very rewarding and I am so happy that we (Jeff) did it. I stare out my front window all the time to look at the flowers that we had planted. That makes me sound crazy. Anyway I love me new garden, and it loves me back. Maybe. Actually it probably doesn't.

About a week after planting my garden another very exciting thing happened to me. I was able to be a part of my sister Rachelle's labor story. On the weekend of May 10th and 11th Christian, Rachelle's husband was in Oregon because his grandmother passed away. Rachelle and Christian felt very strongly that Christian should go to her funeral. Rachelle was almost 36 weeks pregnant, and was told by the doctor the day Christian left for Oregon (the 9th), that the baby would most likely NOT come that weekend. All seemed well. On Friday the 10th I took my mom to Rachelle's so she could spend the night. I arrived in the afternoon. We had a great time talking and hanging out. We got lunch, did some laundry, and played outside with Jackson; my nephew. There was only one sign that afternoon that things we're a little bit off. Rachelle said that she was feeling strange, and she was having some contractions. They went away quickly and she passed them off as Braxton Hicks contractions. Night came and Jeff and Anthony came over. We decided to go to KFC for Dinner. My mom stayed behind with Jackson and the rest of us went to KFC. Well, while at KFC Rachelle's water broke! So, we vetoed having chicken, and went for having a baby. Jeff and Anthony dropped Rachelle and I off at the American Fork Hospital around 9:00 pm. That was when the fun really began. I had the wonderful opportunity to experience being the role of the "dad". It truly was amazing! I helped Rachelle in anyway I could through the night. (Which meant I was able to get her Jell-O !) Around 2:30 in the morning I assisted in the delivery of Crosby McCoy McDonald. The doctor even let me cut the umbilical cord! It was such and amazing experience! I will never forget it! It was a very special night. It really fortified how much I love my nephews! It is so neat to see new life.
On that same note it is so wonderful to see all my friends become mothers for the first time. I have wonderful friends and I know they will all make great mothers!

St. George

Recently Jeff and I went to St. George with the most amazing people; Sarah and Skylar. We had so much fun! We stayed at an awesome place. We played lots of games, and did some great shopping. 
These are the pictures of a little hike/walk that we took.

Cute

Cuter

Cutest!

And The Money Shot! Aren't They Legit?

 This trip was awesome, and it made me wish that I could see more of my Grtsville friends!

Successes of 2012

The year two thousand twelve is over. I didn't make much of an appearance on the site throughout the year, so I thought I'd post a summary of some of the major events.

First and foremost, I made it through another year, successfully avoiding the hantavirus!

This was achieved through a rigorous schedule of chemical showers and a fully filtered mobile environment.

All joking aside, one of the largest projects I've ever undertook and possibly will ever undertake was the removal of ALL of the insulation in our attic, one large black trash bag at a time.

Then, once the insulation was out, my brother-in-law, Mark, walked me through and led the project of rewiring most of the home.

The finishing touches were cleaning up the mess, installing can lights in the kitchen, and having new insulation blown in.

I have some photos of the bags below to demonstrate just how much work removing the insulation was.

I absolutely love hard work and physical labor. It's even better when it's paired with learning life skills and new experiences which will benefit me or someone I could assist down the road.

These skills and talents that we learn, while they may not play a direct role in our futures, have incredible purpose in my life.

The bags on the trailer with Christina in the picture were only half of the bags. This other pile of bags on the right was the rest of them which we couldn't fit on the trailer.

I'm sure glad that's over!

Christina already posted about our trip to San Francisco, but I'd like to add one additional detail: I loved it!

The trip was very inexpensive thanks to our choice to camp in a KOA, which only made the trip more fun. I was extremely happy to take some time off and relax in San Fransisco. Having fun finding new restaurants and visiting famous places throughout the city was worth every second and every penny.

Things have been going very well at work, speaking of pennies. I love my job and 2012 was filled with opportunities to excel at work. Learning the different programming languages and trying to stay involved in as much as possible, I was offered a promotion.

Going to school part time while working full time in a now even more demanding job has been crazy, and 2012 was definitely one of the most difficult and busiest years of my life, but it always pays off and makes the future years less difficult.

I love the way things are going in both my education and my career.

Finally, my favorite success of 2012 was another fabulous year with my wife, Christina. She is doing so well in school and will be graduating in a couple of months with her bachelor's degree. I am very proud of her and I consider myself so lucky to be with such an incredible and intelligent woman.

Other than being extremely cold and snowy, 2013 has already been a positive year and I'm just so in love with my life with Christina. She's the greatest treasure I'll ever know and I'm just so glad and happy she's with me!

I sure hope she likes this post!

I love where I live.

 One thing that I haven't mentioned on this blog is how much I love living in the city. Our house is around SEVEN minutes (give or take a couple) away from DOWNTOWN. I love knowing that I am extremely close to downtown. It's wonderful. I have always loved the city! I love the people, the places, and the overall vibe the city gives. I love that I have access to so many places. I am especially thankful for this because I grew up in a small town. So, I know what it's like to not have access to things. Now, I know this city isn't the biggest or the most diverse. However, I am still madly in love with it! And as you can assume by the picture I love it the most at night. Every time we go to downtown at night I tell Jeff how much I love it! In short I think living in the city is the coolest!
So, thank you downtown for being a rock star!

  Thanksgiving is coming!

Kingsley is here!

Jeff and I have a new tenant living with us. Jeff's friend Kingsley from Florida is staying with us for a few months! I guess after Kate left we needed someone to take her place. Anyway we are glad that we could give him a place to stay for awhile.

What We Did This Summer

To begin our tree produced the most delicious cherries.

And I also made the cutest summer wreath. We celebrated our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY

We went to the cabin

a number of times with friends and family. On the 24th of July we went to the float preview, and saw amazing floats. I turned 23 in August. Also, instead of going to Florida, Florida came to us. (kind of) Jeff's best friend Kingsley came to visit from Florida, which was a lot of fun! But the highlight, of course was our California

trip. Jeff and I spent a few days in and near San Fransisco!

This was a blast, and a journey! The first night there we slept in our car! In the moment it was awful, but looking back it made it all worth while!

However, I would have to say the very best part of this summer was going to CHINAtown!

Cruisin' Into Summer

I don't think there is a question about what is the best time of year. Christmas is magical, and Halloween is awesome, but in the end summer takes the cake. And guess what? It's here! Summer is here! I could break out into song right now about summer! The song wouldn't be very original though. It would be like a mash-up of all the famous songs about summer. I could also list my favorite things about summer, but I feel the need to discuss just one item on this infinite list of mine. It happens to be my all time favorite item- the beach! I am desperately and profusely in love with beaches! I know what you're thinking. We don't have beaches in Utah. You are correct in that thought. So this can only mean one thing.... I'm going on vacation! In August Jeff and I are going to Florida, and from there we are going on a cruise!  The cruise stops one day on an island in the Bahamas! Do you know what this means? I will be surrounded by ocean, and sea breeze. Needless to say I am going to be in heaven.

A "Smart" Girl

The other day I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to and meet Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth spoke to an audience of captivated women, and I of course was one of them.  She shared just a few of her many horrible memories of when she was kidnapped. It was remarkable to see how eloquent, and enlightened she was. She shared these stories with a profound strength, and of course with the underlying message of perseverance. Her message to us is so important. She described that the night that she had returned home safely her mother gave her extremely important advice. To paraphrase, she told Elizabeth that her kidnappers had put her through enough, and the best way to get back at them was to be happy. I think that it safe to say that she has done that. She is involved in so many wonderful things. She also is a newlywed and seems to be very much in love. I am very grateful that she shared her wisdom with me. She really is a "smart" girl :)

Living, loving, blogging.

Reading Christina's posts are so much fun! She's an excellent writer and she puts some much passion and energy into her writing. Reading about Sammy's poop adventure just brings back all the memories, including the smells and laughter. It was a crazy day!

I, on the other hand, am not much of a blogger and never really did well with any type of journal keeping. Regardless of that fact, I have to start somewhere and I'd like that to be by saying that I love Christina like crazy! Though we've only been married a short time, I feel like I've known and lived with her my whole life and can't imagine being without her.

We love our little house and dog. Christina was really the one to get us both. It was her idea to swing by the dog adoption and we instantly fell in love with Sammy, just as it was also her great taste and intuition to land us in our house.

Basically, she's the greatest!

That's all I'm sayin'!

The Cone of Shame

This is another post about Sammy. I'm starting to think that I am in Marley and Me. Anyway, Sammy has to wear a cone these days because he has a staff infection (a rash) on his lower stomach, and the cone keeps him from licking it. He just got it yesterday, but he seems to be adjusting to it quite well. I on the other hand can't stop laughing every time I see him walk by me. I mean let's face it he looks hilarious! Jeff, of course doesn't find it as funny as I do, because he is too busy coddling him. Jeff was super concerned about him last night. He was worried about Sammy walking around the house. He was worried Sammy wouldn't be able to sleep, so he kept checking on him. It's really cute actually. So, in short I have one little cone head and a momma Jeff to take care of him.

Poop, or the Trick to Getting Things

Today was quite the day. Jeff got off work early so we decided to take our beloved Sammy on a walk. We went to Memory Grove (which for some reason I always want to call Heritage Hills). While at Memory Hills... Heritage Grove...whatever...we encountered a woman who encouraged us to let Sammy off his leash. This woman was a complete stranger to us, nonetheless, we listened to the woman who knows nothing about our dog and let Sammy off the leash. Sammy loved this. He had the time of his life. He was going up all of the trails, exploring every facet that Heritage Hills has to offer. This leads me to the punch line of my story. Sammy decided to wander off just a little bit above us behind some bushes. Even though we couldn't see him we let him explore, because he was doing so well at staying close to us. After about a minute or so we called him back. Sammy came running down the trail as fast as he could. He seemed so happy, so alive! He also seemed dirty like he was covered in muu-oh wait, no not mud, POOP. Sammy had poop all over him!!!! Now these are the moments that define us as people. This could be a moment where you get upset, and wish that you had never let him off the leash. A moment where you could be negative about the whole situation. Or, you could laugh. I chose to laugh. I laughed, and then we took action. Jeff took him to the creek so Sammy could wash off. So there Jeff was, in the creek, trying to wash off a dog covered in poop with his bare hands!! I could see he was struggling so I suggested that he use his shirt to wash him. (Don't worry, he had an undershirt.) Now, this was especially tragic considering that this was my favorite shirt of Jeff's. However, the comedy of the scene prevailed as I watched Jeff take off his shirt and begin to get poop all over it. It goes without saying that Jeff just threw that shirt away after he was done washing Sammy. Well, after a dip in the creek we decided that we should leave Memory Valley. The ride home was nothing short of smelly. Sammy was in the back smelling like crap, while my head was sticking out the window, as if I was the dog in the situation. So, we went home and bathed him. We shampooed him twice, and we clipped his hair. Now,  Sammy is a very special dog. He is deathly afraid of the clippers. (He also rolls in poop) So, to combat his fear we did what every insightful human would; we drugged him. We gave him some special calming medicine for dogs. That and a combination of me petting him and speaking to him as if I had birthed him (so baby talk) seemed to do the trick.
Well after that was done we decided to buy him a new collar. And then something else happened. We decided to just buy him stuff. I don't know the psychology behind buying your dog stuff, after he just rolled in poop, but it happened. I mean we bought him a water tank that has a filter. I bought my dog that rolls in poop a water tank that filters his water. In short I now know how to get Jeff to buy me a diamond necklace.
POOP. POOP. POOP. POOP. POOP. POOP. POOP

This is me really coming to terms with what had just taken place at Heritage Cove.

This is Sammy right after his bath. Can you tell he needs a haircut?

This is just here because it's cute.

It's a Small World...

I have now officially been unemployed at Small World Child Center for two weeks. I decided that this semester I wanted to go to school full-time in the hopes that I will get my degree very soon. This semester I am taking sixteen credit hours!!! Which is a lot, considering I am use to taking nine.
I am very HAPPY to be in school full time, but I am also very SAD that I had to say goodbye to my job! I love the children that I taught and I love the staff. Working at  Small World was the most fun job I have ever had, and also the most REWARDING! It is also the most TIRING job I have ever had. There is no way I could take sixteen credits and work that job. So.... GOODBYE FOR NOW SMALL WORLD. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!! (Which might be in the summer)

Savanny Serves Spain

Well it is official one of my best friends in the whole world is now a missionary. Today she went tot the Provo MTC. I am so happy for her. She will make such a wonderful missionary. She will be serving in the Madrid Spain mission. She says that she is super excited, and not scared at all. Which I think is crazy, if I was her I am sure I would be feeling a little nervous. Anyway, I love you Savanny and I am so happy for you!!!

Kayt Has Arrived!

Today my sister-in-law Kayt moved in with us. We are super excited that she is living with us! We love Kayt, and we are also super glad that our extra room (formally known as the den) has a real purpose. Because Kayt  is now using our room we moved some furniture around in our house that makes it look a lot more homey. We moved our bookshelf into our main room, and our desk into the t.v room. I love these changes. And of course the best change of all is that Kayt is living with us!!!

 This is Kayt and Sarah taking a Mt. Dew break during the big move. They each bought their own bottle. :)

Christmas from ...You Know Where

Christmas this year was hectic. In fact it was so hectic that I don't even know where to begin...
I guess I'll start with the 23rd. On the 23rd Jeff and I went to Uncle Richard's for the annual Hansen Christmas Party. Jeff and I enjoyed ourselves a lot. I especially enjoyed talking with my Aunt Marylynn.
On Christmas Eve Jeff and I went to eat with my family (minus Anthony, details about that will be discussed later) at the Chef's Table. The Chef's Table is an expensive restaurant in Provo. The whole experience cost us around eighty dollars. That night at Rachelle's  is when the craziness really began. We couldn't get a hold of Anthony and he was not only supposed to meet up with us but with his friend in Orem. Both the friend and I called and texted him, and no response. It took some investigation but it was finally determined by a neighbor that Anthony was home, however the neighbor didn't want to knock on the door for us. When I told Anthony's friend about this she suggested that we call the police. So there we are Christmas Eve calling the police to make sure everything was okay. Thankfully when the police came to our house they discovered my brother safe and sound in his room. 
While this whole police incident was going on my stomach felt like death. I felt like I had died a thousand times!! It got so bad that I finally threw up everything I ate that night. And I am talking everything. I had thrown up a forty dollar four course meal (minus the appetizers). I mean I knew that my food was going to end up in the toilet eventually but I had know idea it would happen like that.
After throwing up and calling the police I decided I was done with my Christmas Eve and just went to sleep.
Thankfully Christmas morning was what a Christmas should be. It wasn't until Christmas night that more drama hit the fan. We were at Jeff's sister's house and we ended up getting into an argument, because of things being said that shouldn't have been said. And because of some misunderstandings. And I am not talking a light little argument. I am talking tears, and yelling. The good news is that everyone talked it through and we figured out the misunderstanding. We even eventually had a ham dinner and started laughing.
So that was my Christmas holiday in a nutshell. I am sure it wasn't the worst Christmas in history, however I still wish to lovingly refer to it as, " The Christmas from... You Know Where."

                                        Jackson, Chelley, Benson, Christan, Me, Mom, and Jeffy
                                                                        Chef's Table

Merry Christmas!!

It's time for my Christmas post! I love Christmas the best, and I am very excited to celebrate it. This year we are doing Secret Santa with both sides of the family. I am super excited to get the people I picked gifts. Also this year we want to try to eat out somewhere really nice on Christmas Eve with my family, and then on Christmas Day we are planning to have a brunch at Sarah's house. I think it will be super exciting to eat at Sarah's considering it is Wyatt's first Christmas, and I will finally be able to give Wyatt's gift. Anyway...Merry Christmas to all!!!

Jeff's Birthday!

Jeff had a wonderful birthday this year! Because of his accident I took more pity on him and allowed him to get a PS3 ;). He also got a couple shirts, and a really cool version of the Dark Knight. And of course he had to get some PS3 games. Jeff says that the best game he got for his birthday is Infamous, and I believe it. He has already finished the game! Now he is trying to to tackle Final Fantasy. To celebrate with his family he went to eat at his favorite restaurant, the Porcupine Grill. Overall Jeff loved his birthday and is glad that he got his PS3! Happy 24th birthday Jeff! I love you!

Thanksgiving is Coming!

This time of year is one of my favorite times of the year. (Minus the snow,and the cold.) I love November because it means we are in the heart of the holiday season! This really is a magical time of year! I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I must say I have so much to be grateful for. To begin with I would like to say that this Halloween was the scariest Halloween in my life. Jeff got into a motorcycle accident on Halloween, and let me just say it was no treat. We did have to stay a couple nights in the hospital because he had surgery on his wrist. All in all everything went well. The nurses and doctors were super nice, and Jeff seemed to handle the situation pretty well. This experience came at such an appropriate time. A time when we should count our blessings and be grateful for what has happened to us. And let me just say that I am grateful that Jeff is okay, and that we had great support from his family. We are really blessed that nothing more happened to him, and that he was wearing his helmet. This experience has helped me to see all of the great blessings that I have, and that I should always count them. I am so grateful for my Jeffy, and for my Sammy. I am grateful for our house and our jobs, and I am grateful for our friends and our families.   HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!