Homes for Our Troops!!

There was a really nice banquet in Travis and Stephanie's honor in Cedar City on the 17th of Feb. This was an information dinner and groundbreaking ceramony to let the community know about their plans. An organization called 'Homes for our Troops' (www.homesforourtroops.org) builds specially adapted houses for severely wounded soldiers and their families and Trav and Steph were picked! The plan is to get the community envolved as much as possible to build this house with friends, family and volunteers. They are going to have a big volunteer day where they get all the walls up in one day! They have chosen to have their house built in Cedar City!! I'm so excited about this!! The dinner was very nice and Travis gave a really nice speech. They really deserve this!! The Canyon View Choir was there to sing! The girls had fun running around and being with each other and they looked so stinkin cute!!

Travis got his new leg today!!

Hey everyone! Travis got his computerized leg today! It is called a C-Leg! It is so cool! They program his leg to walk the way he needs to walk! The computer part is the knee, and it is programmed to bend at certain resistances which help him walk and sit. He can even ride a bike! He's using his crutches while he walks on it. He's not supposed to walk on it all the time, because his nub (which he likes to call Nubby) still has scabs from the incision! But he is healing so quickly and walking so well! He's a miracle! See for yourself in the picture!!

***My Baptism!***

I was baptised Ladder Day Saints on Feb. 7, 2009. My baptism was the most amazing and wonderful thing! I asked Justin to baptize me and decided that Cedar City would be the right place to do it since most of my friends and family are there. Justin did sooo much to make the day so special!! It will surely be a day that I will never forget. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people. I asked my friends Tony and Jaryd to talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost since they have always been so influential and positive in my entire families life. They gave wonderful talks. Poor Jaryd got so nervous that he accidently called me 'Jessica' which is Tony's girlfriends name! Justin and some people from his ward did a really nice medely with primary songs. It was so perfect. Justin's wonderful parents were kind enough to drive down from Wyoming to share the day. They are such great people! Here are a few pictures...

Travis' Surgery

Miracles do happen! Prayers are answered! We felt them all today! Travis is recovering beautifully! His surgery was 3 hours long, and it went wonderfully. He woke up fairly well, and his pain has been pretty much under control. He said his pain was nothing like it was while he was in the hospital for his pelvis! His nub is doing well. He sometimes feels that he has an itch on his shin, or like water is dripping on his leg. Those are just nerves firing, trying to reconnect in the upper part of his leg! His spirits are very high, as he's been joking with nurses about his nub. I am so so so proud of my brother! He is such an inspiration to people. He is so strong and happy and I think twice about complaining about stupid little stuff in my life!! God certainly does hear our prayers! Sometimes, as we can testify to, those answers are not what we want to hear, but He will ALWAYS carry us through the trials He asks us to bear!

The latest on Travis...

I just got the news from Stephanie. Because of the damage that his hip has caused his leg to deteriorate to the point of no return. He had some tests done to show that his nerves and muscles will not be coming back to life.

They have decided, with the help of Heavenly Father, that it is time to amputate Travis' right leg. They will cut it right at the knee, keeping all of the femur bone. They will rotate the calf muscle into the quad muscle so his future stub will have enough tissue and cushion. They are VERY optimistic about this surgery! Since it will be a clean cut, Travis should heal very quickly and well. He should be able to start walking on his prosthetic within a month!

This means, that Travis might be able to run again! They say that his severe limp will go away because it is not cause by his hip, but his dead leg!

The surgery will be on Monday, January 12th. He goes in that morning to get it done. I'll be praying for you guys!!!

Some Random Photography that I did recently...

Happy Halloween!!!

There has been a lot of Halloween costume discussion going on at our house! I mean, it only comes once a year so how's a girl to choose just ONE costume? Poor Kaycie, she had so many ideas and in the end....decided that it was last years costume that her little heart desired! We were going to go with the bumblee bee idea. We got a cute little costume for her and the morning of Halloween she tried it on and I think I made a little too much 'fuss' over how cute she was and it just ended up embarrassing her! She told me 'But mom all the kids at school will make fun of my stinger!' OOOooohhh it was darling!! I tried to convince her that her costume was perfect and nobody would tease her but she had her mind made up! So she ran upstairs...dug through her trunk of dress ups and came downstairs with the costume she wore last year. I have to say that when I bought this costume last year I was convinced it was the cutest witches outfit ever!! She ended up looking adorable of course and I wore the wings to her class party and then our dog, Ginger wore it Trick-or-Treating! Hehe!! Kyleigh was a black cat. She was convinced since last year that she would be a cat this year. She was so dang cute!! They still like to wear their costumes around the house.

We went to dinner at the Olive Garden with some friends then Trick or treating in the neighborhood....It was actually warm enough!! We decided that we should take advantage of this because we may never get the chance again! This crazy Idaho weather!! It's just plain confusing!