So after getting a picture taken in your Easter dresses.....

Then looking at what the Easter bunny brought you.....

It's only natural to be found digging in the dirt in your pretty Easter dress.

Right?

recent loveys

Moonlight path shampoo, from Bath and Body works. I got this as a party favor from a baby shower and LOVE IT! It makes my hair feel really clean and I can smell it on my head for 2 days. I don't use the conditioner either, all the smell comes straight from the shampoo. Since getting this, I have used the other flavor of Coconut Lime Verbena but it doesn't linger nearly as nice as this scent does.Egg salad sandwiches. They are one of the best parts about having lots of hard boiled easter eggs hanging around.

My new Checi foot file thingy. This thing is amazing! My heels have never, ever been so smooth and soft. My feet are softer now than they are when I walk out of a professional pedicure.

My target brand knock off of Jergen's Daily Glow self tanning lotion. This stuff brings my skin down a knotch, from flourescent to bright white. It doesn't stink and it dries really quickly.

Nerds, the candy. My girls scored big with them this year at the St. George City Easter Egg hunt....I am reaping the benefits.

My space bags. They are saving me tons of room as I am packing our house up. I can put all my sweaters, pillows, blankets, socks, and underwear in them. Then I just vacuum all the air out and voila! They are flat as a pancake!

The Name Game

Corky Travis-
Yes, his real name is Corky. The first time we met and he told me his name, I said "is that your real name, like on your birth certificate?" (I was so tactful, right?) The story goes that his dad came home from some army training, at Ft. Irwin of all places, and told his mom that their next son would be named Corky. Apparently Corky's mom and Grandma Ruby (Corky's grandmother) fought him on that name for a long time but to no avail. Apparently the compromise was Jean, his mom, could pick whatever she wanted for the middle name. Travis seemed normal enough to balance out the first name I guess.

Morgan Velette (pronounced vull-(rhymes with full) et (rhymes with pet))
My first name is after the famous model from the 70's, Morgan Fairchild. My dad had a big crush on her and really like her name. Growing up, I wasn't a huge fan. Even though I always knew I was named after a woman, I still felt like Morgan was more of a boy name. I don't care too much anymore. My middle name is my mom's middle name and my great-grandma's middle name. At least I wasn't name after her full name, her full name was Bertha Velette Skilicorn. I definitely didn't like it growing up, but I liked that my middle initial was a V for some reason.

Gracey Mae
I have had this name picked out for my first-born daughter since I was about 12. Corky barely had a say in it. Luckily he liked it or else we would have had issues. For some reason, ending Gracey with an "ey" just seemed a little more girlie girl to me and something inside me knew that Gracey would be a tomboy, so that was intentional. Her middle name just seemed to flow with her first name. My grandmother's middle name is also Mae, so I figured I could spell it the same and to tie them together somehow.

Emily Velette (see pronunciation above)
This name is a little more random. All while I was pregnant with Emily, I thought we would name her Rachel. I LOVE the name Rachel but will admit now that something wasn't sitting well with me everytime I would tell people we were naming her Rachel. I hated that because I loved the name so much. One day when I was about 8 months pregnant with her, Corky came home and said "A name came to mind today that struck me. What do you think of Emily?" It was seriously like a weight was lifted of my chest. I responded, kind of sighing "Ohhh, I like it!" She was Emily Velette from there on out. What's kind of funny is the girl that I was a nanny for in Connecticut was named Emily, but I had never considered that name until that day Corky mentioned it. So its kind of fun to have that name tied to a special time in my life.

She just couldn't catch a break.

Gracey had quite the dramatic week last week. First, she and corky were wrestling in the front room one evening and somehow she had a run-in with the table. Here are pictures of the night of, and the next morning. You can see it wasn't a tiny little bump, but this is one tough girl. She makes her daddy proud.

As if the head bump wasn't bad enough, Gracey looses her footing at the playground. Gracey is the most coordinated 3 year old I have ever known, but she simply missed a step and ate a stair. Nearly knocking out her 2 front teeth and cutting her lip pretty badly. She freaked out from all the blood and I luckily before it started gushing out of her mouth too badly, I was able to put one of her front teeth back in its place. (gross, right?!) We ran across the street to my friends house where we were able to clean up a bit before heading our way to the E.R. There wasn't anything that could be done for her lip since it was all cut on the inside but they were concerned about her teeth. One of our closest friends and a member of our branch is a dentist so I told them that I would just take care of it, rather than waiting in the ER any longer. Our friend hooked us up with xrays and determined that she would be okay as soon as her loose teeth tightened back up.

The poor girl had a fat lip that pictures don't do justice for. The next morning she went to school like normal but I was scared that her teachers were going to think we were beating her. The bruise on the forehead and the fat lip are pretty suspicious looking. About 15 minutes after her school started, I got a phone call and was SURE that it was the school, or the police, or the social services, contacting us for questioning! Luckily it was our dentist friend, seeing how Gracey was doing.

Gracey is pretty much all healed up now. Her bruises are looking good. Her teeth are loose still and one of them is slightly darker, but we were told it would lighten up. They will probably remain slightly crooked but there isn't much we can do about that at this point and it really isn't too noticeable. We still think she is cute! :)

This deserves the happy dance.

Emily had her follow up last week at Loma Linda University Hospital. For the past month and half she has been taking an anti-siezure medicine that really seems to be doing the trick. This appointment was actually with the head of pediatric-neurology and she really knows her stuff. She was very happy to see Emily and to see her happy, unlike her personality when she stayed in the hospital. After her examination and questions she did decide to raise the dose of her medicine, but that is no big deal to us. It is a liquid and Emily has no problem taking it twice a day. Emily will be on this medicine, called Keppra, for at least 2 more years. After 2 years she will receive another EEG and then they will determine if she has outgrown her abnormality in her brain or if the medicine is just suppressing siezures. With all that said, Emily is as healthy as can be. She is happy, stubborn, sassy, and cute as ever.

Help us choose

Our friend took our pictures this weekend and now we need help deciding which ones to purchase. Also, this way I don't have to post picture of myself with my new haircut. I know, I know....I have changed my hair style what seems like a million times in the last year. We thought they turned out pretty good, considering the girls were going C-R-A-Z-Y!! They still aren't the finished product, he will touch them up and stuff when we decide which to buy (which won't be many because they pricey!!!) Go to http://www.leavittphoto.com/
then click on VIP Client and are top secret password is "whipple"!

Big news that is long overdue

The week that Emily spent in the hospital was quite stressful to say the least, and not just because of obvious reasons. That was a week that Corky had received some job offers that we needed to decide on. Going from the army to civilian life is quite different already. In the army when you change jobs, the army tells you what you will be doing and where you will be going. You just deal with it. Not really any decisions on your part are required. Now that Corky has more freedom in what he will be doing, we found it to be quite stressful. We really wanted to get it right and go somewhere that we would be so excited about. We narrowed it down to 3 options: Phoenix, AZ, Fishkill, NY, or Kingman, AZ. In my head, Kingman could have been scratched completely off the list. I had only driven through Kingman a few times but it had nothing that I knew of to be desired. However, the job opportunity for Corky was really great. That is the ONLY reason it stayed on the list. It was our "backup" just in case the other places didn't work out.

I wrote this in a notebook a few weeks ago, try to follow.

"You know when something that you don't want to feel right, feels right? And the thing that you want to feel right actually doesn't feel right. So you pretend that the thing that doesn't feel right actually does feel right, in the hopes that it will eventually really feel right. That is where Corky and I are at right now. I really wanted Phoenix to work out, but I know that Kingman is where we are supposed to go right now."

We were both so ready to move to Phoenix that we went down house hunting one weekend while Corky had another interview. I looked at 11 houses that would be have been excellent and I was so excited about. As soon as I got back to my brother in law's house, I got this really stressed out feeling that I couldn't pin down. Audie and Candice probably remember me grilling them about Phoenix and that I was wearing my heart (and stress) on my sleeve. Anyway, Corky had many of those same stresses.

Then of course, the next day was when Emily had her seizure. That gave us a few more days to think more about where we should move to. After some long talks and prayer on both mine and Corky's parts, we had a very strong yet peaceful feeling about Kingman, AZ. The day after Emily was released from the hospital was the day that Corky accepted the job there. He will be a department manager for Southwire. It is a manufacturing company that produces copper and aluminum wiring for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. He is really excited about the job and there is great potential for him to grow with it.

So after accepting the job we researched homes online in the Kingman area. We went down for a day and looked at about 12 houses. After spending the entire day looking at house after house, we decided on the very first home we looked at (isn't that how it always works?) It was a foreclosed home that was in great condition. We put an offer on the home and the bank accepted. We are really excited about it, I wish I had some pictures to post. It just had its inspection this week and everything looks great. Corky now just has a "honey-do" list with little things like a leaky faucet, slow drain, etc. We will immediately be putting carpeting in throughout the house and will build a new pantry, but other than that there isn't much else to do.

Re-reading my little note I wrote to myself a few weeks ago, I have to laugh. Wouldn't life just be so much easier if we all just went with our gut more often and followed our first instinct? I know I could have saved myself from all that stress if I wouldn't have tried so hard to make what didn't feel right, feel right. I suppose though I wouldn't have learned a lesson, nor would I have such a confusing paragraph written down in my journal that I will be able to always laugh at.

Since committing to Kingman we have been talking to residents and reading a lot on the city website. It actually sounds like it will be a really great place to live. It has a lot of tourist attractions nearby, some great schools, and men, women, and co-ed sports leagues, which will be SO FUN! It only has about 40,000 people (I think?) and so it isn't tiny like it used to be but still has that small-town feel. Not to mention, it is closer to both my family and Corky's family.

Kind of funny how the very thing that I dreaded a month ago, I have completely changed my tune about.

March resolution

I am making a goal of writing a new blog entry at least twice a week.....starting tomorrow. Hopefully. (such conviction and motivation, right?)

Just like my diet, it always starts tomorrow!

This was in Phoenix about a month again when we were down visiting.

We are teaching our girls right.