Kimi and the temple

Kimi and I outside the temple. Kim's eyes are closed and I look pregnant. Oh well.

The rest of the clan. Our other family left before we could take a picture. I'm not in it because I am taking the picture of course.

My sister Kim went to the temple at the beginning of the month. I always knew she would. She went almost exactly 8 years to the day after I went for the first time. And she asked me to be her escort. I was honored. Truly I was. It was awesome for me because I'm the little sister. I never expected her to ask me to be the escort. One of the sweet little ladies in the temple said, "Shirley you can't be here with your daughter." And I said, "Listen lady I'm only 28 years old. (and don't call me Shirley)" Just kidding I didn't say that but I was thinking it. Anyway, I really am proud of Kimi for being so strong. What a great example she is to her kids. It takes courage to change your life like she did. She's been through a lot and it took awhile, but it was worth the wait!

Stupid blogger/html code

I would just like to say that if you read my anniversary post you will see that I said, "Click the pictures for a close up look." But you can't click the pictures because stupid blogger won't let you click on pictures that you have moved around in your post. I know some of you know this and are thinking I need to change my html code so I can click on them. But I tried that and it screwed things up so much that I had to get very angry. So you can't click on Kody's baby face in the temple pic and that makes me really mad. Therefore I have uploaded the picture so you can see AGAIN! In your face blogger writer people that make this stuff up. Seriously, we can put a man on the moon but we can't fix blogger so we can click on a picture to enlarge it if it's been moved around in a post! Thank you for listening -or reading I mean.

8 years

My friend Brittany Hoyt titled her blog "8 years" a few months ago when she celebrated her anniversary so I stole the title. Thanks Brittany! Anyway, today is our anniversary. Kody is hunting and I am spending it alone. Don't feel bad for me, it's not the first time. In order to avoid divorce papers Kody surprised me with a weekend stay in Mesquite last week. He did however forget it was Halloween so we only stayed one night. But he told me to pack my bags so we could leave as soon as I got off work. He organized a babysitter for us and everything. We left the kids at my moms and hit the road. He got off the exit in St.George and he took me shopping first. I was surprised because he didn't tell me what we were doing until we were parking the car at the mall. He was even nice while I tried everything on and told me my butt didn't look big and such. What a gentleman! So after my shopping spree we went to the Casa Blanca in Mesquite to check in. He had made reservations at Katherine's at the Casa Blanca. It's one of the only places I really like to eat at in Mesquite. Then after our stay we got up on Saturday morning because we can't sleep in anymore. You know how kids totally kill that for you? You finally get to sleep in but you can't because you're so used to waking up with the kids? Anyway, we went and got massages. It was nice and relaxing. So now you can see why I am tolerating him hunting on our anniversary... again. And he did send flowers today too. He can be a thoughtful guy when hunting doesn't get in the way. So I can't believe it's been 8 years. Once you have kids time is out of control. I have known Kody since I was 12 years old. We went on our first date when I was 16! I am now 28. That is 12 years people! Holy smokes! We have experienced so much together already. Our relationship survived his two year mission (barely). We lived in 2 different apartments before we bought our first house then sold it 4 years later. We managed not to kill each other while living with Kody's parents for NINE months while we built our first house together. We have dealt with infertility and won! We have 2 beautiful children! In our relationship we have owned 7 different vehicles and 3 different dogs. We have killed (accidentally, don't judge) about 10 goldfish and 4 crabs. Between the two of us in our marriage we have had 7 different jobs. I have survived countless hunting seasons and Kody has survived countless hours of me telling him he hunts too much. Kody has lost two wedding rings. He found one of them, then lost the diamond out of it. We have dealt with 2 major health issues. And we have survived two heart surgeries (one Kody's and one Mataya's). Whew! We've experienced a lot. Can't wait to see what the next 8 years brings.

So now I have a bunch of pictures for your viewing pleasure of our wedding. I LOVE to see other peoples' anniversary posts with wedding pictures. So if you don't love it, stop reading this post. (PS I love you, Kod. Happy anniversary and congrats on your stupid-ahem -amazing deer. PSS I am just kidding I really am happy for you, for shooting a big deer.)

Walking on the temple lawn. I love this pic.

Here we are looking in love. OHHHH! This is when I came out of the temple for the first time. I scanned these pics so you can't see what a baby Kody was. No wonder he gets ID'd at the movies! Please click then zoom in for the full effect. PS That's my friend Natalie and my brother. He looks like a baby too. Then the bottom pic is Kody's family.This is our wedding luncheon at Rusty's. We were late because I couldn't find the right thing to wear. Everyone thought we were doing something else that caused us to be late.- Excuse me! I am a lady and would never do such a thing!- The bottom pic is the head table. Check out how big my hair is. It's funny how fast the styles change.The top pic is my dad and I dancing. He is crying of course. If you know my dad, you know this is not an uncommon thing. He cries at every birthday, holiday, social gathering, sappy commercial, etc. The bottom pic is Kody after I smashed cake in his face. He wasn't very happy and insisted I LET him get me back. I forgot to mention the pics are black and white because those were the days when we didn't have digital cameras so I bought black and white film and asked my best friend Nicole to take some pics. I love these pics because they are of my brother dancing. First he is doing the limbo, then he is cutting a rug with the chicks. He was a bachelor in those days and cracked everyone up with his moves. He's a good dancer but he is so large that you can't help but laugh.

Halloween 2010

Halloween was fun this year. It was freezing but that was OK because McKoy didn't want to go door to door all night which was fine by me. McKoy was Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. He LOVES pirates and has for about the last two years. He has already been a pirate before but he wanted to be one again. And my little peanut was a skunk. It was a darling costume and very appropriate for her. She is such a little poop. Anyway, here is how our Halloween went. Kody surprised me with a weekend stay in Mesquite for our anniversary. He forgot it was Halloween because our anniversary isn't until Nov. 9th. However, he was leaving for a 10 day hunt and would miss our anniversary so he planned our getaway early. But because it was Halloween we only went for one night. My mom took our kids to the carnival at my school on Friday and Kody and I went south. So Saturday when we got back we took the kids trunk or treating at our church. Then we went to Kody's moms and visited. Then we went up to my Aunt JoAnna's and trick or treated her neighborhood because my cousin Talia and my sister were up there working that neighborhood. My other Aunt Jeanette also lives a block away so we visited her too. Then we drove to see my sister in law Steph. After that we went to my grandparents house and my great aunts. Then we drove to Brad's because my other cousin was working and wanted to see the kids dressed up. Then I went to my mom's house and finally took the kids home. Needless to say I was exhausted. Kody only lasted half way through. He said someone needed to pass out candy at our house so he went home early. (He's kind of a wimp.) And that was it. Another lovely Halloween night!

These kids are pretty darn cute.I think I smell a skunk. (It's probably just Kody)

McKoy really wanted to scare people in his costume.

We all pretended we were scared of course.

More cuteness. Kody having the time of his life at his mom's house. This pic is cute of my kids with their grandma and papa. That skeleton really had it out for McKoy. Here is what happened... Kody is holding the Skeleton and McKoy is sword fighting it. Kody is swinging it around and the foot of the skeleton hit McKoy in the head. It made that HUGE goose egg. It hit right on the vein that McKoy inherited from his mother. (Poor guy) And when McKoy cries, Mataya cries. She didn't want to be left out. PS her hair is wet because her awesome mother didn't realize she was sweating to death in her costume. When I took off the head thing she was drenched. I felt so bad:(