Beaver, Utah- Here We Come!

Amidst all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, Travis found an amazing job in Beaver Utah! He passed his boards (Yeah!) and went through 2 interviews and was offered the job. He will be doing 10 24hr ER shifts/month plus building a patient base in the clinic. Since Beaver is a small town of approximately 3000 people he will get to provide all types of health care in the clinic. The hospital is beautiful and fairly new. The people are really nice and we amazingly found a nice place to rent our during our trip up for the second interview. Beaver has all sorts of fun stuff to do nearby. Our favorite lake is just a little over an hour away with skiing, hunting, ATV trails, mountain biking and all sorts of fun outdoorsy stuff basically in our backyard. :) We feel so blessed to have found something so perfect so quickly. Look out Beaver, the Hicks are movin in! :)

Hicks 2010 Christmas eCard

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White Elephant Fun

We had a great time at a few Christmas parties this year, one being the annual Hammond White Elephant Gift Exchange. It was hilarious as usual with the entertaining gifts this year being tampon slippers, a bejeweled toilet seat, batman boxers, etc. We had a Mexican buffet with tons of extra food and was just way yummy. It was so fun to laugh and chat and be with good friends and fun people.

Birthdays!

Can't move onto to December without a post about our birthdays. Mine was on Monday this year- 29yrs on the 29th! Silly, I know. :) Work was nice just to see all the birthday wishes all day and get some flowers from Trav and eat lunch at our favorite pizza place, Enzos. In the evening we went to my favorite Mexican place, Cafe Rio of course, with Travis' parents :) Then we opened presents and had yummy strawberry shortcake at David and Linda's. They all were so generous with their gifts: Travis got me a jogging stroller a few weeks ago and also went out and bought me a cardigan (so sweet of him!) and a couple other things. David and Linda always give so much- a massage, new purse shell, shoes, etc. Travis' sister and her husband got us tickets to Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian which I was really excited about and had been wanting to see forever! We went on the Saturday after our birthday and I LOVED it!! The performance was amazing!-the singing/acting, the theatrics and special effects... such a great show! (Thanks Shawn!)

For Travis' birthday on Tuesday we went out to Outback with a gift card we had. Then we went over to his parents for gifts and delicious Nothing Bundt Cake. I got him parts to his truck to supe it up some more, which he was wanting really bad. His parents got him a few things but the main thing was the iPhone Tom Tom. I think he had a great bday too. :)

Overall it was a pretty exhausting week of celebrating etc. But all good stuff! Being 29 isn't so bad after all. :)

Give Thanks

It has been such a nice Thanksgiving break. I have so enjoyed sleeping in everyday and just being home with my hubby and doggy. It's been nice to slow down yet get everything done! Thanksgiving Day was so nice at David & Linda's. I brought green bean casserole and sweet potato pie this year. We had all the essentials and just enjoyed a delicious meal with the Capparellis, Peters, and Culvers, a group of 16. It was so nice to get a bunch of people together and make it feel like a big holiday event. After dinner I played LIFE with Taylor and PJ, Travis' cousins who are 13 and 16 yrs. It was so relaxing and fun to feel little again and play a game a played sooo many times when I was that age, which was almost 15 years ago! So crazy. I still love playing board games and miss having my siblings around to play with. We ended the evening watching Grown Ups, a light hearted Adam Sandler movie. It was a such a nice Thanksgiving and I truly am thankful to be part of the Hicks family. :)

p.s. I totally forgot to take pictures!

St. Jude's Ranch for Children

At work, it is the business' 10 year anniversary this year. Instead of having an office party, we decided to give to the community by donating Christmas gifts and decorations to a house at St. Jude's Ranch for Children. The campus is a place where children go whose parents are no longer allowed to care for them and they have no where else to go. The house we chose had a family of 5 kids ranging from 1yr to 10 yrs. The foster parents had 2 young girls as well. When I first went to meet the parents, the baby just clung to me and didn't want me to go! He was sooo cute! We all went back on a rainy, cold Saturday afternoon and put up more lights outside then they ever had and a bought a Christmas tree for them as well. They had lots of other decor to set out as well and the house just looked amazing once we were done. They fed us dinner as well and the kids were so sad to see us leave. They loved the attention and had so much fun.


The following week Jill and I went to Toys R Us and bought gifts for each of the kids. It was sooo fun picking out little black baby dolls and barbies and finding all of the things they wanted. If we hadn't decided to forgo our office Christmas dinner and buy the gifts for them, they might not of had nice gifts this year. The only way they get nice Santa gifts is if someone donates to the campus or chooses their house specifically to donate to. And who knows if those donations are just hand-me-down used stuff or actual gifts they want. Just gave us all warm fuzzies to know that we really are making a difference for someone this holiday season. And what better people than children who bring the Christmas spirit to us to much more than we do for ourselves! It was a great event and something I'd love to keep in mind for the future for our family.