Happy New Year!

I've come to realize that posting blogs with mostly all pictures gives a much better representation of what has been going on. I can't possibly explain any better then my pictures can...

All of these photos are from December 29, 2008 at the Bodell Christmas party. The Bodell's are Calebs family and its a big family.  
This was from the Chicken Dance... Yes, the chicken dance, like the one you do in Elementary school and stuff. It was fun. 
This was the Chipmunk dance, or squirrel dance.. I never can remember. But I wanted Aaron do to this dance at my wedding reception so bad. 
Aaron got volunteered to teach me the dance.. This is how excited he was about it. 
James and Maydene Bodell. 
Cute Bodell cousins. They were so cute, all night. Sweet little girls. 
Caleb's fierce look. I love this picture.. His eyes look so blue. 
This is Dylan. He was so funny.  He was in the corner for something, and was so sad. I kept trying to get a picture of him being sad, but every time I was about to take a picture, he looked up and smiled. 

These aren't in the right order, but this is Christmas Eve. Everyone got BYU pajama pants, and the baby was in BYU apparel too. 
This is the baby. This is Jacob Douglas Davis. He's Julia and Steve's baby. Mine and Caleb's first nephew.  Very exciting, and we couldn't ask for a cuter little baby. 

Anyway, I should be caught up now. We start school on Monday, and we are pretty excited to be getting closer to the end. I have 3 semesters and Caleb has four. So the end is in near! Wish us luck!!

Christmas Eve Sledding

This was my first Christmas away from my family, so it was interesting, but Caleb's family was really great, and we had a blast. On Christmas eve after we got back from our drive, we all searched the house and found any warm clothing we could.. While we waited for everyone to get ready we took pictures in front with the snowman that was built a few days before. 

Caleb and I kept finding interesting places for the pipe to go...

Can't take a normal picture.. 

This sled was pretty scary.. It was like a bike thing, and it went super fast. The snow there was also pure ice. 

This is Julia, and this picture is pretty cool. She was going so dang fast. 

Our first Christmas Eve. Very cute. :)

Last, but not least, the triple chin picture. It was getting dark and our camera wasn't working, so the picture of us going down together didn't turn out, so Caleb and I posed to make it look like we were going down. Obviously it just looks creepy and weird. 

Christmas Eve Odds and Ends...

Christmas Eve.. 

Caleb and I went on a drive on Christmas eve for his work, while we were in Provo. Any chance I get to pull out the camera and play is a great time. So this is from Christmas eve... Before the festivities started. 

 I've always been pretty mesmerized by icicles.. I don't know what it is about them...

This is somewhere on the road from Provo to Payson, on Christmas Eve.

Caleb took this picture Christmas Eve morning. Very cool. 

Lava Hot Springs

Lava Hot Springs


The day after Thanksgiving I rolled out of bed at 5:00 in the morning, and headed to work. After work Caleb and I headed to Lava Hot Springs for his birthday weekend.

We spent two days there, it was a lot of fun. The town isn't real big, and there wasn't a lot to do other than hit the hot pots which we did twice a day. 

The pizza place on the corner has been a favorite of mine since I was little and I was really excited to share it with Caleb, and I had been craving it for months. It was a really fun weekend. 

There are a lot more pictures of the cute little Lava town, but they are on my little camera, and I will have to upload some of those pictures later. 

Our Very First Thanksgiving- November 27, 2008

Wow, I can't believe its already January. Over Christmas Julia, Caleb's sister informed me that I needed to update my blog. So, here goes, so this may be a holiday overload for those reading this.

Thanksgiving was a little different this year than I've had before. For starters, my brothers were at my dads. Which isn't unusual, that happens every other year. The unusual part, is that it was at my uncle Matt's house, weird because it has always been at Grandma Frosts.  Also, my two sisters were at their in-law's houses, and my mom was sick. So I was the only Cotton there. It was fun though, it was smaller than we are used to, but it was interesting. 

I love hanging out with my cousins. They always make me laugh so dang hard. Its cool that they are all growing up now. 

This is a photo of Savannah, Mckenzie, and Shantia.

'

Little Tommy. Matt's son.

I tried to get some pictures while everyone was eating, but those never work... And I was really hungry. 

Thought I would throw this gem in here. This was right after we ate. Savannah usually

is a very beautiful girl. She looks possessed..

Halloween!

Halloween has always been one of my very favorite Holidays. Getting together with family, eating food, and getting ready for the craziness that was soon to follow that evening. My family moved to Utah shortly after I graduated, and after one semester at ISU I transfered to Weber State to be with them. My first Halloween here was spent in North Salt Lake at my aunt and uncles house. They had just adopted Olivia, and she was just perfect. The cousins dressed up and the older boys took the younger ones out in the neighborhoods.
It was this Halloween that was so special to me and one that I will remember forever. Earlier that month my Grandpa had found out that he was going to need another operation on his heart, or else he would die within a few months. So, he was torn. He had already had two or three major operations on his heart and didn't know if he would have the strength to do it again. This day, spent with his newest grandbaby, I think he decided he would go through with it.
Once the older boys had scarfed their food and ran outside with the little ones, the house was quiet. My grandpa held Olivia and very quietly, while smiling at the baby, said, "It's good to be alive."
We knew that he didn't have much time, and I couldn't hold back the tears as the man that had taught me so much in my life said those words. He had so much pain, yet he was so happy. I was overcome with gratitude for being able to have this man as not just my Grandpa, but truly my dad.
He had the operation in February and it went smoothly. He recovered slowly, as heart surgeries require, and by June was ready to go out and Golf again. He laughed, and went to his grandkids events, basketball, baseball, choir, dance, you name it, he was there. He loved to live.
In August he had a stroke. It was very scary, but four days later he was out of the hospital and at church. He recovered so well from everything. Grandpa is invincible!
It wasn't until mid-September that we heard the news. He went into the hospital after ignoring the pain in his side for months, thinking it was just from the heart surgery. The doctors found pancreatic cancer that was at stage four. The doctors said there was nothing they could do, except to hurry up and wait. They said he had 6 months. He left the hospital a little over three weeks later, not coherent, in so much pain. Our hearts ached for our grandpa. He died a little over three weeks after he went into the hospital.
My grandpa was the strongest man I've ever known and also the happiest man I've ever known. I will never forget when he turned to me that Halloween and said those simple words, "It's good to be alive."
It is good to be alive. My life is beautiful, my family is wonderful, and there are so many adventures left in store. We'll sure miss him, but he taught us everything we needed to know.
Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving Date Night :)

Our first Halloween together. We wanted to have a date and carve pumpkins together. The problem was, I had already promised my sisters that we would have a pumpkin carving competition on Saturday, this was Wednesday, so we had our trial run on the mini pumpkin pie pumpkins.
We went all out. We bought the DELUXE pumpkin carving set which included like four carvers, little detailers and big detailers. It included a goop scoop and patterns.





Caleb didn't like the dirty pumpkins. He promptly took them to the kitchen to wash before any carving could commence.












Our camera is huge. The battery in the little camera died, unfortunately, so for these purposes we had to use the big one. It's hard to take a self portrait with a large camera.










hahahahaha. Uhmm... Weird!














My little baby pumpkin! It was so dang cute.














These were hard little boogers to cut and to clean out. They aren't the kind you are supposed to carve, so it made it that much trickier. Plus, we both didn't want it to get on our hands. So that made it a little more difficult.





































Anyway, this is the final product. We are going to be working on big ones tonight! Hopefully those are a little easier and a little more fun! Although we did have a blast. :)