The Big 3-0 and double 3's!

Our Birthdays! Had to make a quick mention of our birthdays this year since it was the big 3-0 for me. :P It actually was a really really good birthday- I had a day filled with fun activities and socializing, both my favorites. :) On Tuesday and Thursday mornings I play basketball with a bunch of moms at the church while the kids play in the nursery or run around us in the gym. So since my birthday was on Tuesday, I got up and played basketball. Then the girls bought me lunch and we all met at the park to eat while the kids played. It was so nice chit chatting and enjoying the nice weather. Lunch ended up being chicken strips from Dairy Queen, but living in Beaver, there really isn't much else to chose from! ha! Then Dallen and I took at nap (Travis was working just a day shift). Then he came home and we did presents. I loved all the gifts from Travis, Mom, and Linda and felt so loved from all the birthday calls, texts, and facebook posts. :) That evening I went to my Bunco group and had dinner at the sandwich shop and then went straight to my last city league volleyball game. It was such a great birthday!



For Travis' birthday, he unfortunately had to work a 24hr shift. So Dallen and I went and visited him at work with a balloon and some of his favorite Dove chocolates. The office got him his favorite Mexican food for lunch which was so nice. He too got tons of birthday wishes on facebook and on his phone. We did presents after his shift in the clinic. Dallen only lasted through half of them and then zonked out. So we dug into the cake I made Travis without singing happy birthday since he wasn't around to hear our lovey voices. ha! Yet again, it was definitely different celebrating without family around, but we enjoyed our birthdays and don't feel anything like a 30 and 33 year old. :)

A Chill Thanksgiving

This year was the year the Heeb family was suppose to spend Thanksgiving together. Well both Travis and Thomas had to work Thanksgiving weekend, so Mom & Dad and fam decided to travel to Texas and spend Thanksgiving with them this year. The Wells were able to go as well which left us Hicks and Jordan, obviously-since he's on his mission in Tennessee, to have our own Thanksgivings. I figure it was only fair that Mom & Dad travel to Dallas since they did come down the Vegas one year to visit us for Thanksgiving too. :)

So we spent our first Thanksgiving without extended family, here in Beaver. We were so kindly invited to feast with our friends the Hatches here in town. They had 3 other family members come to town, so it was a good size gathering. Dallen pooped out just in time for us to eat and Travis found him a perfect little napping spot. :)

Since Travis was on call, he did have to go in a handful of times that day, but really it wasn't that bad. I spent the day finishing up cooking and cleaning up after the feast. And to complete the tradition, I had to have a football game playing in the back ground. :) It was a nice, quite, relaxing Thanksgiving where we were so thankful for good friends but definitely missed being with family too.

THE Elk Hunt

Travis had quite the adventure on Eddie's Elk Hunt this year. They saw lots and lots of Elk and had multiple Bulls to go after. The trick to this hunt was getting Eddie close enough since he has a hard time hunting due to his physical limitations. So they attempted multiple times to stalk, shoot, or drive up to the bulls but finally, on the last morning they were there, they spotted one off the main road and got him. He's an average size bull, but so good that they were able to harvest one after all that hard work!

Now the hunt was a little more challenging with the freezing cold weather and snow storm that came through. Thankfully, Eddie had rented a trailer for the 4 of them to sleep in. It was also challenging because of all the things that went wrong- generators didn't work, diesel fuel was put into the wrong equipment, water lines and water jugs froze, tires blew, but worst of all was the steering knuckle that broke on Travis' truck! So yet again, he had to get towed- this time all the way from central Nevada to Beaver, including his trailer with the ATV on it. :P What a mess! It definitely was the trip where everything went wrong. All I have to say, is I'm glad I wasn't part of this hunt! I did my time in a huge snow storm hunt. :) But overall they all had a great time and it was a good hunt.

Down to Vegas

While Travis was out on the big elk hunt with his dad, Eddie, and Erik, Dallen & I headed out on his first trip down to Vegas. I hadn't been there since my baby shower in April, but I still found myself calling it 'home' a couple times. ha! I guess having family there and having lived there for 5 years it still is kind of homey. Who would've thought! Anyway, we had a great time staying with Linda and Kristin and her kiddos. Brighton and David were so fun to play with and see how big they've gotten!

Dallen enjoyed all the new toys and animals at Grandma's house and even had his first bath in a big bath tub there!

The dogs seemed to love having us there since they followed me & Dallen all over the house. (In the picture below, that's all of us in the bathroom, minus Roxy who was in the hallway right behind me, getting ready in the morning!) Sadie and Roxy are getting pretty old so they couldn't play much, but they sure still wanted a lot of love. Lily enjoyed her Grandma lovin and hanging out with her doggie buddies.

While I was there I was able to go to the temple with Mindy thanks to Jill who watched Dallen for me. It was so nice to go again since the last time I went was April. I also did A LOT of shopping- the best was with Linda and Kristin at Toys 'R Us. :) Dallen loved looking at all the toys and we had fun finding the best Christmas gifts for the 3 grand kids. I also got to eat at my favorite restaurants: Panera, Sweet Tomatoes, BJ's, and Enzos. So yummy! I ate at Sweet Tomatoes with a bunch of the girls and actually got to go out with them a couple times. It was so nice to catch up! Dallen and I went to our old ward on Sunday too, which happened to be the Hammond's new baby girl, Presley's baby blessing. So adorable! And so wonderful to hear their testimonies. I also showed Dallen off to my old co-workers at Southwick LA. It was nice seeing them but felt weird not being a part of the every day business there. I definitely miss it and am so grateful I got to work in a field that I loved! So those were the highlights of the trip. I had a great time and hopefully less time will pass before we make it out there again!

Dallen's First Halloween!

We celebrated a quick little Halloween with our little turkey. Our neighbors were so kind to lend us this turkey costume and he did great. He just sucked on it basically the whole time. The little tummy poofs out and the feathers are adorable. We went to the church trunk-or-treat and just walked around and said hi to everyone. Lily came along too and loved running around checking everything out. She was a pink doggie- ok so she just wore a pink cape. :) It was a nice, warm Baby's First Halloween.

Momma's Helper

This month I was able to go home to Denver for a nice long 10 day trip. I originally planned to go out to babysit while mom and dad went to Brazil. Well turns out that my mom got a blood clot in her leg and they weren't able to go. Since having a clot can be pretty serious, Jess and her 2 girls went out the first week to help mom and make sure she stayed off her leg and then I went out to help her instead of babysitting. Well I did end up doing a lot of what she would normally do and the trip was definitely more to be the back-up mom rather than a vacation, but I loved being there regardless. It was so nice being part of my families everyday lives and helping out around the house.

I was a little apprehensive about the trip- driving to Denver by myself with Dallen and Lily. It's an 8 hour drive and turned into 10 hours with the stops. I got a book on tape (The Help) to help keep me stay awake which worked great- it was an awesome book. Dallen did great too. He didn't fuss as much as I thought he would. I actually think Lily was more annoyed with the drive out then he was- ha! The trip back was a little harder on the little guy because he came down with a little cold- runny nose and scratchy throat, poor guy. Anyways, overall, the drive was fine and actually gorgeous through the mountains with all the fall colors.

While I was there I did a bunch of organizing and a few projects. I think I got in a little over my head going through ALL the family photos to send them off to get scanned. I thought there'd be around 3000 photos max and it turned into 7000! I finally got them all organized and shipped some of them off. Should be fun seeing them all online once we get them back. :) I also organized the laundry room, the office supply cabinet, the cake decorating supplies and cabinet, the basement living room, the entertainment center, and the medicine cabinet. I didn't quite make it to the tupperware cabinet or the loft or the movie collection, but I did accomplish quite a bit and was always on the go. I went shopping for mom a couple times with Joy, took mom to doctors appointments, made dinners and cleaned. I got a lot of help with Dallen after school and he actually slept pretty good there, except when he got sick of course.


I did fit in a few fun things for me. I FINALLY got to see the last Harry Potter movie and it was AMAZING! Can't wait to see it again once it comes out on DVD next month. I saw it with Audra, Charity and their friend. It was fun. I also got together with Kym-me, Laura, and Trisha. It was so nice to see them and their kids! Stella is Dallen's age so seeing them together was so cute. Trisha's baby Asher is adorable and so cuddly. Laura's boys are so big and into everything like boys are. It's so crazy to think we're all moms now- we got together at my parents' house because it's just too hard trying to take babies to restaurants or anywhere really. Such a change from all the fun stuff we use to do. No complaints though- it's so worth it. :) I also got to spend some time at the big Denver REI and get at Noodles and Panera which was such a treat. I so appreciate yummy food from restaurants now that I live in a small town. I miss my favorites.




Dad had a blast with Lily- he played with her everyday when he got home from work and took her jogging in the mornings. She found her buddy and loved it. Overall it was a great trip and would love to do it every year. I think Travis and I might have worked out a deal that I can go out during hunting season each year since I won't get to hunt with him for a good long while since taking babies hunting is impossible. :) It's definitely nice to be closer to home and I feel so lucky that I had the time and was able to go.