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.

Little Caroline

This summer when I went home to Colorado I scanned in some baby pictures of me to have when our little baby comes to see if it looks like me or Trav. Of course Jess is in a bunch of the pictures too and couldn't look more like Sophie! Here are a few of my favorites:

First Baby Portrait. Aren't I a cutie?! :)


We determined that those are oars between my legs. Just another vacation at Bonita Beach!


Jess never smiled for the camera-this was the best we found in all the pictures, and neither does Soph! Ha!


This was my favorite kitty Leo. He let me do whatever I wanted with him!


This picture is how I remember home when I was in high school: me studying and wearing sports gear, Claire and Emily as the little girls, Joe and Jordan as fun young boys (well they of course still are), Sarah, Jess and I wearing crazy weird clothes. :)

Great memories! I posted these and more on facebook and got more comments on an album then ever before! We decided we need to pull the albums out again at Christmas this year. :)

Mindy's Babyshower

Mindy's little Savanna comes next week so we had a baby shower for her with a bunch of friends from the ward. It was so nice to get everyone together and so fun to see all the cute girl clothes! The girl stuff is just so adorable! We're so excited to meet Savanna and happy for Cael to have a sibling!

Graduation-Hooray!!!

It is finally official! Travis graduated PA school on Nov 14th!!!! We had a graduation party for him that weekend and had about 40 people over to our house. We accommodated everyone in our living area, den, backyard and front yard under a pop-up shade. We had tons of food and great company. :)





My parents came to town as well, and it was so nice spending time with just them! We went on a hike to the Arizona Hot Springs, at a turtle pace (since I couldn't breath-this baby making is no easy thing on the body!) but we enjoyed the trip and view of the Colorado River. We had a nice dinner on the strip that weekend too. My brother Joe and his friends also came to town that same weekend, and crashed at our place for a couple days. He loves coming to Vegas and it's always so good to see him.

It's so unreal that he's actually done! He just has his board exam left to take in a couple weeks and then he'll be certified and ready to work. He's started to submit resumes and we hope to know where we'll be or what he'll be doing by the beginning of January! So exciting!!!

Pet Bird

Travis found a cockateal flying down our street one day. Since he has this amazing ability to befriend/train birds he eventually got a hold of it and brought it inside. We had the bird for 2 days and thought that Trav just might want to keep it. Lily could not keep her eyes off of it and actually yanked out a feather! Well thankfully, it turned out to be a not-so-well trained bird and would bite him and fly all over the house. I was not amused- it even broke one of my nick-knacks! It was nice to see him go. We got someone on Craigslist to come get it.