14 Days of Thanksgiving, Day Two...

I'm thankful for all of these people:

-One Mother-in-law
-One Father-in-law
-One Husband
-One Daughter
-One Son
-One soon-to-be Sister-in-law
-Five Sisters-in-law
-Seven Brothers-in-law
-Seven Nephews (The seventh was born five days after this photo was taken)
-Four Nieces

And days where we get to celebrate this:

One little princess:

One beautiful addition to our family:
One guy who I'll love forever:
One eternal family:
One Sister-in-law who can organize this:
One boy who thought we'd all forget about his day:
One boy who is just too much for words:

One boy who IS smiling:
One happy couple:
And a whole bunch of little people:

15 Days of Thanksgiving, Day One...

Or rather, 14 days of Thanksgiving, day one...

My friend, Sarah, started this idea, and I thought it was a good one, so I'm joining in...


I'm thankful for:


Yes, this may seem a little odd... But I came home from work after the rest of my family had already gone to Costco and had dinner. And I had to go to the store anyway for a quick trip.... So I grabbed a delicious dinner of Totino's pizza and Little Debbie Nutty Bars. Mmmmm... Alright... so it's not the healthiest... but awwell... Ask me if I care.

Our Life

I've been sick this week, and now Travis is sick.... so we haven't seen much of the outside... So let's get to some good points...


Travis-

(Photo courtesy of Elora Gough)

-Travis is going to school full time getting his teaching certificate, and working 3 part-time jobs. He teaches two basic automotive classes at the college as an adjunct professor, he refs high school soccer games, and he refs little league flag football. He enjoys work a lot better now, and is looking forward to when he gets to teach high school classes. He has faith in our future. And he loves playing hide and seek with the kids, and of course spending time with his wife.

Cynthia-

-Cynthia works part time at the Tuacahn box office. She is also excited to invest her time in two businesses-artist and childbirth educator. She has just done some commissioned artwork for an old family friend, and has got herself a new space to work on paintings etc... (Home is too distracting to work on art, so she is borrowing some studio space from her friend Annette Everett when Travis can watch the kids.) Cynthia is also teaching Hypnobabies childbirth education classes. Classes start on October 10th. She enjoys all of her "projects" and has faith in her future and dreams. She recently got a haircut that she absolutely loves! She loves cuddling and singing with her kids before bedtime and receiving sweet little kisses in return. Oh and of course spending any moment she can with her awesome husband!

Elora-

-Elora goes to preschool two mornings a week, and ballet class once a week. She enjoys playing pretend with her many little dolls of different types. I can often hear her little voice re-enact little situations we have in our own home. She loves riding her bike and begs to ride it everyday. She can trace her name, and she is excited about every moment of life. She loves to boss Max around, climb on Daddy, and "go somewhere" with Mommy.

Max-

-Max works hard at play everyday. He enjoys lining up his cars, reading books, and just figuring out what he wants to do next. He wants to do everything himself, or if Daddy is home, "Daddy do it!" He still sleeps with his blue doggy that he got when he was a baby and runs his fingers through the ears, but no longer sleeps with a pacifier. He loves to help out anyway that he can. Max enjoys playing pretend with Elora and doing what she tells him to do (sometimes...), climbing on and chasing Daddy, and cuddling with Mommy and making his Doggy give Mommy a kiss.

-So that's our family. We are excited about life.

Happy 4th Birthday Elora!

Elora is 4 today... 4!!!! I can't believe it! She is growing up, but she will always be my baby...

Anyway, Elora got to go to ballet class today, and then out to lunch at McDonald's with some of the cousins. Then for dinner we had pizza at the park and then cake with some of the family and friends. She had a fun day!

Here's her cake that I made. Elora is really into Cinderella these days...

These next pictures speak for themselves... They just show Elora's personality so well...

This is before she opened up her big gift from us...

It's a bike!

She absolutely LOVES it!

You can call him "professor" and her "student"...

That's right, you heard me correctly... Travis can now be called Professor Gough. He has been hired on as an adjunct professor to teach 3 automotive classes at Dixie State College this fall, because there is unprecedented enrollment at Dixie College, they needed some extra help. Travis has also decided to go back to school to get his teaching certificate, so he can teach high school auto shop. He may eventually get his Masters degree so he could become a full time college professor. So we are more than provided for with financial aid, Travis teaching, Travis reffing high school soccer, and I am getting more hours working nights at the Tuacahn box office. Plus, I am now officially certified to teach Hypnobabies childbirth classes, so I just need to find people to teach. So thank you for your thoughts and prayers, we needed them, and truly felt them as we are soooo blessed! Teaching is something Travis feels like he will really enjoy.

And, on to our other story, surprise, surprise! Elora is going to pre-school! I found a really good deal last minute, and couldn't pass it up! Her teacher is Mrs. Bowen (some of you might know Will and Jenny Bowen... -their Mom) and she has been doing this for a long time, and has turned her whole garage into an awesome preschool! Elora is going 2 days a week for 2 and half hours each day, and she absolutely loves it! Max is also enjoying being the only one home having his parent's extra attention, and not having someone bother him while he plays.

So here is the traditional first day of school picture by the front door... She looks so grown up!

And... Elora is taking a ballet class once a week! She has been dancing around the house ever since she could walk, so I knew she would love going to dance class. A couple months ago, we showed her a ballerina dance on TV, and Elora was absolutely mesmerized by it the whole time, and when it was over, she said, "Mommy, I want to be a ballerina." So we signed her up! She absolutely loved her first class, and said to me later that day, "Mommy, thank you for taking me to ballerina class." Here she is in her cute outfit...

Oh, and the best part of the story, on the night before her second preschool class for the week, I told her that she was going to preschool again the next day. Her whole face totally lit up and said, "I'm going to preschool again??!!" Haha, She totally thought that preschool was a one day thing... hehehe. She did the same thing when I told her that she was going to ballet class again next week...

Once again, thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We are doing great and are loving life!

Random Fun...

Prayer is a funny thing...

We got some answers, but not nearly in the way we expected or wanted...


We've been wanting to buy a house, and we did some looking, and found one that we really liked. Well, we fasted and prayed about it this weekend, and this morning we got our answer....




Travis lost his job.


I mean, a simple "no you shouldn't buy a house," would suffice. But Heavenly Father has his own ways of letting us know who's in charge.


Yes, we are devastated. Yes, we cried. No, we don't know exactly what we're going to do.



But we do know that everything will work out the way it's supposed to. We are so blessed. We feel like this is a blessing in disguise, and that it just means that there is something even better for us around the corner. Travis can do whatever he wants, and we are both excited about that. Travis has been thinking that he wants to do something else, but he might not have had the guts to go for it. So now, this forces him to just go for his dreams, and I'm proud of him for that.


I love you Travis!


Everything is ok.