Its a Girl!

As most of you know because Trav sent out a text minutes after we found out, we are having a sweet little girl in April. It was really neat to see the ultrasound and try and understand what body parts are what and how is that thing living inside me. Trav picked out that it was a girl before the doctor even said anything, and I still don't know if i ever saw or understood what i was looking for. We are just so grateful she is healthy and moving right along. It was funny the doctor measured everything and then said everything is still on with the due date except her legs, and i just laughed and said she has no hope i could have told ya she would be small. My mom came up from Malad to be there and it was great, she was so excited and even took me to Porters after to pick out some material. Trav has also been really cute about it and i think he has been more excited it was a girl then i was. Don't get me wrong i am grateful for a girl, but i thought he would want a little Trav Jr. first, but he told me that real men have girls first, so he is already a proud daddy. Anyways just wanted to share the new exciting news, and look forward to having this little angel in our family in April.

Also i wanted to post my beautiful Christmas tree and my favorite nativity that my mom gave me when i started school. Our tree turned out wonderful, it is much smaller than last year, so i feel like it is a little overload with ornaments, but it is so fun to have up and bring the christmas spirit into our home. I think trav is already sick of christmas music because i love having it on. The Nativity is my favorite thing to put up every year. My mom is a nativity freak and i miss putting up all of hers with her. It seems like it just adds a little more of a beautiful spirit to have Christ as a baby displayed in our home. I love the holidays and the events and spirit that are in full force. I always think because of this one holy night my light has been blessed forever and i am so grateful for my Savior and his birth!

A little of everything!

Ok i know it has been over a month since i have posted, but i am going to try and get caught up. First of all like most of you know Trav has started his new job at Rain for Rent and really enjoys it. They have already treated us very well, and enjoys the people he works with. But when he started he also received a uniform that is well how do i say this nicely, he looks like a janitor or something of that sort, but i will take it because they wash all of his clothes, so not only did we save some money on work clothes, but also send his clothes to work to get cleaned. Here is a hot picture of him. . . .

Also when he got the job he had to go to Boise to some classes for a week, and i am not the best at staying alone, especially out here in the country, so i invited some girls over from the ward and we had girls night out for a couple of days until i took off for Malad to be with my family. We had a great time playing games, eating, watching movies, (Kenize texting), and just hangin out. I kinda felt like i was back in college, except i had to cook and clean for my roommates and wake them up for school (that was a chore). It was fun though and i really appreciate them keeping me company while trav was gone. They are the cutest girls and i have already told my brother he will marry one of them. ;)

After a few days of girls night out i headed for Malad for our Christmas girls weekend out. This year my mom and the sisters all decided to do our girls shopping weekend in Park City...wow what a blast. We had a great time! And my sweet dad always makes it better with the things he does. From the pictures you can tell that we all got most of our Christmas done. It was nice!

We also went to DSW (discount shoe warehouse), and if you didn't know my weakness are shoes, i love shopping for shoes, so when i walk in i said "heaven" a little to loud, plus it didn't help that it was a warehouse, and everyone looked at me.

And then just last weekend one of my best friends was married in Logan. It was really fun to be there and just remember what a neat experience that temple marriage is. I am so excited for her because marriage is truly the best thing in my life. I love Trav and all he has brought into my life, and i am sure rusty will do the same for Jeri. Good Luck guys and enjoy the journey to forever together.

Presenting Thing 1 & Thing 2

Last night was the wonderful halloween party that Jenni Miller puts on, and it was a lot of fun. The theme this year was famous couples or duos, and you had to have a skit to present who you were. So Trav and I have been thinking for some time and were going to be Danny and Sandy off of grease and sing summer lovin (trav just wanted to dye his hair black again) but i decided that plastic tight pants and high heels all night just didn't sound all that fun. So we went with Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Dr. Suess books. Which also made it easy for our skit all we did was read a few pages from cat in the hat. It turned out great. I searched every store for blue wigs or even wigs that stuck straight up, but it was hopeless. So i finally just got blonde movie star wigs and made them work. I first used jello to get them to stick up, and i couldn't find blue so i used lime and my hands are still green, then i hung them upside down to dry and Trav spray painted them blue, wow don't they look great. One problem was i think they were meant for only girls heads, because Trav's was pretty tight. Then for the uniforms, well we bought pants from walmart, and then finally on thursday we found long red underwear at Cal's, but the trouble didn't end there. We got home and i pulled mine out of the package (which i now can't return them) and they were a youth size. Wow, they were tight, so I had to get another pair. Anyways it all worked out and we had a great time and everyone was very creative and had great costumes. Nobody knew who we were for a while, so Trav thought that was hilarious, and thanks to Doug Trav decided we better wear our red pants over our red underwear. Happy Halloween everyone!!

Before:

I also wanted to post the new improvement in our cute farm house. It had these old light switched and outlets, and i have been bothering Trav to change them because they were so old and loud. If you were to turn on a light in the back bed room you could here it click back by the back door, and the outlets were all just 2 hole outlets instead of three ( i don't know what you call them), except for for a few, which is a problem with most plugs now days. Anyways the new addition looks great and is very appreciated. Trav does start work on Monday at Rain for Rent in IDaho Falls which will be so wonderful, but i have enjoyed having him home to do all these honeydos that have finally got done. I think he is already sick of the phrase we need it for the baby:) Anyways they are so nice!!

After:

Baby Kotter

Hey guys i know a few of you are wanting to see pictures of Bree's baby so i went up to the hosptial today and visited them and took some shots of the big guy and told her i would post them on my blog so you all could see him. As some of you already know he was 9 lbs, 3 oz and 21 inches. He is so cute and has the biggest new born feet and hands i have seen. He is going to be one tall ball player someday. He had some fluid in his lungs and needs a little help breathing so that is why he has all the stuff on him. Bree and dillon are very excited and tired. But anyways here are some pictures of little Elijah James Kotter.

Spud Harvest & Conference

As most of you know it is that time of the year again...Spud harvest (potatoe harvest for those of you who don't speak that language aka: Trevor, and the picture is of me in a potato pit with lots of potatoes behind me ). We started diggin on Sept 27th and finished on Friday the 3rd. It was wonderful to be done in a week and during the warm week. This week has been so cold. I wasn't a lot of help because I had to (or should i stay got to) work. I would get home at 6:00 and they would just be finishing up because it was so hot they had to stop, so i lucked out everyday except for Friday. I took friday off to help drive. Thanks to Mak I was able to drive a spud truck all day and help out a little bit. I don't know if Doug would say i was help or just a pain, but it was all good. Trav was in the digger, Jeff was in the cross over, Doug was running the pit, and then we had the girls and grandpa driving (and who said women drivers were bad). We started about 7:30 am and finished up that night at about 10:00 pm. It was a long very wearing day. I am use to sitting on my butt using a computer, eating every 4 hours, and using the restroom every hour. Well not that day. I used the restroom once, and had a sandwich. My poor baby was like what are you doing. The highlight of the day except for when we got to shower and go to bed was when I was unloading my truck and at the very bottom was a mole or muskrate thing. One of the girls picking through potatoes thought it was a dirt clod and picked it up and it squeaked, and wow then the girl screamed and screamed. Doug started freaking out and none of us knew what was going on until I looked in my mirror and saw it going up the belt into the pit. I started laughing so hard, and Mak was laughing too. Then when i got out to the field i was trying to tell trav the story through the tractor and was struggling driving at the same time because i was still laughing. Needless to stay we needed the pick me up. Once again i am glad i could help, but i was definately worn out, tired and very dirty at the end of the day. But it was worth the long day because we finished and i was able to sleep in on that cold raining Saturday morning and watch conference in my pj's. Also, because we were done we all headed out to the cabin to watch the rest of saturday and Sunday sessions out there. It was nice to just eat and be spiritually fed by our leaders. What a wonderful conference! I love all the encouragement and direction we receieve, but i have a lot of work to do. We live in a world full of trial and sin and it is only going to get worse. It made me really ponder about how important it is for me to prepare myself because soon trav and i will be preparing one of his little spirits. O dear! Well the weekend was nice, and the highlight for trav was seeing the elk. We took a break and went hiking in the moutains by the cabin and we were being plenty loud, Brayden was hitting the trees with his pretend swords (sticks) and we were all talking, and then out of no where we saw 2 bull elk, and about 5 cows. It was pretty cool. Not very often do you see wild elk while you are walking around in the mountains. Now Trav is all pumped for this Friday (open deer hunting), he is even growing a nasty beared that i am having a hard time waking up to, but he thinks he has to have it to hunt with Clint. And if i have to hear him practice bugling one more morning i am really going to kill clint.

(this is the picture of the elk we saw, sorry you can't see it)

Anyways sorry this is getting really long, but things are good and we are going on 15 weeks pregnant and a little tummy that isn't going away.

This is just a random picture i took that i thought was pretty funny. I looked out my window the other day and i saw Trav and his dad riding through the field together. I called it Daddy's little helper!

Cleaning the temple

I know once again i am slow posting, but at least it gets up sooner or later. On Monday the 22nd, Trav and I met at the Rexburg Temple at 9:45 pm to help our ward clean. We were all dressed in white jump suits, and had a great time cleaning until midnight. It was amazing the things you have to do to keep that place looking as amazing as it does. I kept thinking the whole time, ok if my house is suppose to be a temple, then i need to do more then just try and keep a good spirit in it. But I would have to invite the ward over to help me get it to even start looking like the temple. I don't think i vacuumed up more than 3 fuzzes. Trav had to wear this vacuum that straps on to your back, so with his jump suit and vacuum he looked like ghost busters, it was pretty funny. We had a great time and it was a great experience to do some service in a place that is continually serving us. The janitorial guys said we could come any time mon-fri at 9:45 pm to help, so if you are looking for some serves there's your ticket, plus it was really good exercise.

Super Saturday

Usually when we go to Malad, my dad lines up so much fun for Trav to do because he knows he will do it with him, and Trav always says well that was a great super saturday, but this time Trav was busy moving while i had a little super saturday with the girls. Trav and I were able to go to Malad again last saturday to help Jed and Krischell move. Well i wasn't much help, but Trav and Jed had the trailor full by noon just in time to go to the Dude for some wonderful lunch and a dude ranch salad (the best salad ever!!!!) Trav also spent some time with Bridger and he was being superman and jumping off the mallbox, it was pretty funny. I also got to spend so great time with my mom and sisters crafting and canning more food. My mom and I had bought a cute halloween wall hanging to make and we finally got time to do it. It is so cute and was way easy, well my mom made it easy. My grandma DD came in to bring me some plum jam and was saying how she wanted the little stitching my mom had that said, "lead me, guide me." So while my mom was finishing the halloween thing, i sat down and stitched her up the saying with some flowers, it was pretty cute and she loved it! I was glad i could finally do somthing for her. Then Heidi and Beth came over and we bottled some dilly beans. They were very strong! It was so much fun to be there and do so much in one day with them. I love being with my family whenever i get.

Making Jam with my beehives

Well as some of you might know i am the advisor of the Beehives in my ward and love every minute of it, even though they are very giggly. Last Tuesday, Bonnie (beehive counselor) and I taught the girls how to make jam and then enjoyed it on some warm bread. The jam turned out ok, either i wasn't watching close or to many hands adding to much stuff, but it was pretty running and one batch had a lot of sugar in it. But they loved it. They are so fun and full of life. I love there strong spirits and just feel like i can't teach them enough as they progress in this world full of temptation everywhere. I remember how much my Young Womens leaders did for me and i hope we are doing the same for this next generation. Some days i think i am to busy and don't have time, but I have realized that there should always be time to teach and prepare these young girls in righteous paths and hope someday my girls will have leaders that take the time to love and teach them. Sorry that got really long and annoying probably but i love these girls!

Guess What?

Ok, so the pictures are probably hard to tell what to guess about, but Trav and I are so excited to announce that we will be expecting a baby some time around April 2nd (jakes b-day my brother on a mission that has been wanting us to get goin). I am 11 weeks, and feeling great(sorry to all of those that get sick) besides i am always hungry and tired Trav says. I am getting concerned that pants are getting tighter, and Trav is always quick to ask me how much i have ate during the day and if i exercised. I can already tell he is going to be fun for the next 6 months. He has been really cute. When we went to get our first picture of our baby (the fuzzy picture of gray) Trav was so funny in the app. I think the doctor was getting annoyed of his questions. He made the mistake of telling trav it was a boy, and trav said i can see the bulge and then i informed him that it hasn't even formed those parts. So i hope if it ends up being a girl he won't be to sad. The other picture is of trav and i at 5:30 in the morning when i couldn't wait any longer to pee on the pegnancy test. I was so excited and trav just kept saying there is no way you are really pregnant. I have been listening to a book on tape on my way to work, and it is about Emma Smiths life, and there are days when i walk in to work crying because it is amazing what she went through and the trials she endured to do the work of the lord. She lost so many babies, and i have felt so blessed to have not had any problems to creating a child of God and pray that everything continues to go well. We are so BLESSED and excited!!!

Catch Up

Ok, i am sorry i am so behind, but my camera has been in Malad for a couple of weeks so am just going to put everything together. First of all, our garden has been so nice this summer and we have enjoyed the yummy garden dinners, but it is coming to a close so i thought i would put a pitcure of our sunflowers that have been fun to watch grow. I was so excited to have them to look at everday because of the reminder they would be to follow the "Son", but some of the flowers for some reason face the same way every day. there are a few that do move and they moved great when they were just leaves, but not so good now. This turned out to be better for me because i realized that some times i choose not to follow and just face the dark and wonder why i am confused we all so easily lose sight of the Son in our lives and the blessing it can be. I am so grateful for prophets, scriptures, prayers, and examples that continue to help me follow our Savior and let him guide me to the light and truth where happiness always is. Second, Trav and i had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas with my family to a cousins farewell. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the nice weather, and most of all spending time with the Evans family. Chase my cousin left for Washington DC mission on Wednesday and we are so excited for him and excited to see the amazing work that he will do. While we were there we spent a lot of time jammin out on the Wii with the American Idol karaoke. Trav was hularious and so fun to watch. His favorite song to do which worried me was "Glamerous". And he knew it way to well. And third, we spent the weekend down in Malad. It was wonderful and i had a hard time coming back. When we were leaving to come home Trav asked me what was my favorite part about the weekend and i said canning peaches with my mom. That is one thing i have missed so much being away from home for the first summer of my life. She was so helpful, and we had a great time just talking and spending the day together. There was one thing missing my grandma DD usually is there and she makes the process so much faster, but she works in the Logan temple on Sarurdays so I guess she was in the right place. We got a lot done and my food storage looks much better. Trav got to go hunting with Clint and he still hasn't stopped talking about it, so thanks Clint! Also a bunch of my friends from High school were in town and heard i was also and they surprised me and came over. It was fun to see them and especially excited to see Jerianne with a ring on her finger. But to top the whole weekend off, it was my Grandpa & Grandma Hess' farewell. They are leaving for New York on Monday to serve the Lord for 18 months and are going to do great. I am so excited for them and for the people that will be blessed by there service and spirits. The farewell was so good, the spirit that was there was wonderful and gave me a push to do more to help to teach the gospel. I think about Jake and Derek our brothers that are serving and just filled with love for the Savior and this gospel and i envy it. But i can have the same feeling if i just dedicate myself to the work like they have. Good Luck grandma and grandpa we will be praying for ya and missing you, but we love you and know what you are doing is right. Just remember elder scott said, "The only way to prevent a plum from turning into a prune is to serve a mission."

Bear Lake

I was bummed because Trav was suppose to be cutting grain and i was going to have to work, so we wouldn't be able to go to bear lake with my family this summer, but luckly the grain wasn't ready and I have an awesome boss. We had a blast playin on the water, eating ice cream, playing the human elastic (don't have pictures of that yet), waterskiing, tubing, and just relaxing in the sun. It is always nice to spend time with my family. But it was different without Jake and can't wait to have him back with us in 2 years.

2nd Honeymoon

Travis and I were lucky enough to go with my parents and Jake to the Virgin Islands in January and we had a blast. We called it our second honeymoon. It was beautiful and Travis did a lot of scuba diving and never got out of the water. It was fun to spend some time with Jake before he leaves to Peru, and also be with my parents. We are so grateful for them and all they have done for us, they are wonderful examples of what a marriage should be like. Anyways we really enjoyed ourselves and probably drank way to many pina colodas.

Hailee's Graduation

Well i finally did it i graduated on the 10th of April. It has been nice just doing what I want and getting some stuff done at home. I am studying to take my Social Work license test, so that isn't much fun, but other than that life is good. The snow is finally almost gone, and the moose are going back to the mountains so now I can walk outside again.