Chewie!!

With Kelo's passing, we decided that we needed another little furry creature of some sort. After some research, and the fact that Petsmart was completely out of dwarf hamsters, we decided on a chinchilla. Looking in the classifieds we found a 2 year old male for sale. His previous owner couldn't keep him any longer because one of her cats bit off the end of his tail and wouldn't leave the poor little guy along. He was down in Lehi, and convieniently enough we had a wedding reception in Provo. After getting him we decided to name him Chewie, after Chewbaca, and also because chinchillas are quite the chewers!

We also got him a new cage and we've been adding to it over the past month or so. It's a lot better than what he was living in before and there is plenty of space so that we can get another one to keep him company.

In Memory of Kleo

So this will probably be old news for some who read this, but I'm still super sad about the situation, and want to make mention of it. My beloved rat, Kleo, passed away shortly after Christmas.

I'm pretty sure my pets should never die. Otherwise I'm a wimp for a couple days after. Kleo was my first real pet to die. I mean, whenever other pets had passed on, it had always been while I was still at home with my parents, so I never had the horrible sadness that I had to deal with and feel that Monday night. Kleo also represented the time in my life where I "converted" back to following the gospel, and getting back on track with what I knew was right (I got him not too long after I moved back to Spokane, WA from Orem, UT). I miss my baby boy, and it is still a touchy subject.

I decided that this was one of the worst holiday seasons ever though. One of my good friends had two of her guyfriends pass away in a horrible accident on Christmas Eve morning. One had only been married for four months. A couple in our ward had a good friend die from brain cancer the next week. A lady I work with had her puppy that she had only had for a year die right in front of her. Another lady I work with lost her husky that she had had for 9 years. I just hope our kitties stay nice and healthy. I don't know what I would do without them.

Christmas '08

We spent Christmas with my (Bryan's) family down in Kearns. It was great to spend some time down there and play with our nephew Landon who we don't get to see too often. As you can see he enjoyed opening presents, and had to play with each present immediately after opening it.

Some presents were even wrapped to provide a little extra opening fun for Landon!

After getting all the presents opened we went over to Jason and Leslie's to give them a little lesson in all things Wii. As you can see we were able to introduce Landon to Mario Kart...I don't think you can start a kid too early!
We stayed down in Kearns until Saturday, when we made the fun/snowy drive back up to Logan. After a couple days of fun and tons of food (I think my parents were trying to fatten us up a bit), it was back to work for the both of us.

Quick Recap of (Most of) December 2008

On December 1, 2008, Bryan and I celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary! It is so crazy to think that we have already been married a year! As they say, time flies when you're having fun! I've also heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If that's true, then the rest of our life together will be cake! We actually spent the weekend before celebrating our anniversary, as we both had work, and Bryan had school. But I came home to my FAVORITE colored roses!

Here are some pictures from events that occurred in December.

Basketball game on 12-2.

In the middle of the month, we went up to Spokane to visit my family. It was so much fun!

We spent some time with my dad, step-mom, and little sister, Jenna. And of course there was Simon! He is such a funny little chihuahua My step-mom had a gorgeous Christmas tree! We also drove around and looked at the lights that hit the newspapers. Some people really go all out! I love it!

My mom and her newly inherited Yamaha winter jacket. That thing is WARM!!


I got some pictures of my grandparents animals. Well, almost all of them. The first one is Honey, the mutant dog. She is soo sweet, but very... umm.. different. The middle picture is Sweetie. She is the daughter of Mr. Chan, and litter mate of Koko, both of whom belong to my mom. The third cat is Rosie. She is so pretty! She has very unique coloring. And she is super skiddish. I'm lucky I got as good of a picture as I did! I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Cali, the calico cat that my grandparents adopted from a friendd of theirs. So much fun! Can you tell that loving animals runs in my family?

I had Bryan take this picture right before we left for the airport. My mom is looking and feeling so much better than she did a year ago. It is an absolute miracle. I know that without the gospel, and the faith of all of our friends and family, she would not still be with us. After experiences such as this, I wonder how people can't have their testimony grow. It surely was a miracle, and nothing short of that. My mom also has her own hair in this picture, which she is very happy and proud of. No more wigs! Hopefully she'll never have to wear one again. Her hair is curly too. Hopefully it'll stay that way this time!

Thankgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving this year with the Hansen side of the family. It was way fun (as usual!). Bryan and I both had a really hard time getting a good picture of the awesome turkey cupcake that Grandma Hansen made. This is as good as we got:

Maybe one day I'll be this creative...

Since we finally got past Thanksgiving, Bryan let us put up and decorate our Christmas tree. And we listened to some of our favorite Christmas music! Yay for Christmas music!

We were both excited to go to see Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols again this year. It is such an awesome performance. Too bad we were kind of off on the day... So we kind of missed it. I think from now on we will just watch the DVD as a tradition, instead of going to see it live. But don't get me wrong. I HIGHLY recommend going and seeing it if you ever get the chance!

Visiting Family in Idaho Falls!

So, it has been a while since we have updated our blog, so I decided to try to catch up on the past month and a half. Near the end of November, Bryan and I went up to see Alyssa, Jeremy, and their four adorable kids, Cole - 7, Olivia - 5, Tanner - 2, and Parker - <1>

Olivia and the picture that she drew. She is such an artist!


CUTEST picture ever! Bryan and Parker are great buddies : )

My sister's kids love taking pictures with any camera. Olivia took this picture. Not too bad if you ask me!

We Love USU Basketball!!!

Since Bryan still has two more finals to study for, I decided I need to pick things up a bit, and add another post to our blog! One of the first things that came to mind was (of course!) Aggie Basketball. It is amazing. USU is awesome. And the games are so much fun! For those of you not from Logan, and have a distaste for the lack of sportsmanship from the crowd, well, I wish I could apologize. But I can't. The Aggies ROCK! And we know it! : )

Bry & I after the first game; we didn't take any pictures at the game...

The second game we went to was against Cal Poly (I think). The guy shooting in the picture below was a midget. That's what I decided anyway. Cause you totally have to be taller than that to play basketball! If you are any good anyway!

Bry and I at the second game - So fun!

So there is this one cheerleader that I wish would just go away. She has these huge, super fake-looking white teeth that stick out like a beaver's front teeth. I've been trying to get a picture of her, but it's kind of hard, as when she is facing us, she is usually jumping around, being annoying. But I mean, LOOK AT THOSE TEETH!! You can't tell me those are real. Otherwise, you'd have to be her, and let me pull on them... really hard.