The Hambletons

Parade of Homes

2011-09-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

My sister Brenna and I went to the Salt Lake Parade of Homes this year. There wasn't many houses that were that spectacular but alot of cute houses. The best part was the "Up" house in Herriman. The whole house was modeled after the movie, even the furniture. It was so cute!

4th of July

2011-09-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July we had a family BBQ and hung out at Justin's mom's house and watched fireworks from her yard. After the fireworks Justin turned his car radio on and all of the kids started dancing in the driveway.

It was a great 4th of July!

Camping Trip to Yuba

2011-09-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

At the end of June we went to Yuba with Justin's family and his Dad. Our neices and nephews had so much fun on the tubes and making sand castles. We also went to this little snack house and had fried oreos. (the absolute highlight of our trip!) They were SO YUMMY!!! It is worth it to just drive down there to just eat the fried oreos.

Anyway, we tied some tubes together and laid in the tubes and floated around the lake all day. I loved just laying on the tubes and relaxing in the sun. Justin also went to this cliff area and jumped off. turns out the water was about 3 feet deep so he is lucky it wasn't too high. But it was fun and everyone had a great time together.

Boating

2011-09-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

We have been boating a couple of times this year on our boat! On Labor Day we went out to Utah Lake and had a bunch of fun with Justin's sister Trisha, her husband Mike, my cute neices and nephew and Justin's mom Carolyn. Most of us took turns on the tube, but the best part was when Justin and I were in the tube together. We had so much fun and finally flipped over and now I am so sore! OUCH!

Nephew Bee's Game

2011-09-06T20:11:00.001-07:00

Mid July, Justin's work gave him 5 tickets to the Bee's Game. They gave us dinner and treats and out in the field behind the game they had a little carnival where they were doing free train rides and face painting. We took my 3 nephews to the game andTeik is pretty young to enjoy watching the game so I took him on the train and to get his face painted. My other nephews are older and loved waiting for a fly ball to come into the stands where they could catch it. Tyson was almost lucky enough to catch a fly ball but missed so I went and bought them all a ball so they could take it home with them. I love going to Bee's games because it reminds me of when went to the Yankee's game with my dad when I was younger.

Baseball games are always a good time!

Dance Off

2011-09-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

In July we had our oldest neice Morgan for a sleepover and we had a great time. We went to the movie Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. It was so cute Morgan wore her cute Snuggi into the movie theater and snacked on these litte fizzy soda candies.

After the movie we went and grabbed some Fazoli's (by Morgan's request) and then went home. When we got home we baked some sugar cookies and turned on the radio. Morgan is a great dancer and decided to show her uncle Justin some moves. It was so cute watching them do a dance off.

Now every time we see Morgan now she challenges Uncle Justin to a dance off.

Emmie's Baby Shower

2011-09-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

On August 20th, I was able to plan and host my first baby shower for my cute friend Emmie. I made some good treats, a diaper cake and some baby sock flowers. Instead of playing baby shower games I decided it would be more fun to decorate onsies for baby Chloe. We all had a great time, Emmie got some cute stuff and we all can't wait for baby Chloe to get here!!

Mama Mia

2011-06-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last night we went with Justin's sister, Amber and her husband, Corby to Mama Mia at Capital Theater. It was awesome! I love all of the music and it made you want to get up and dance! We started out by going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then headed downtown for the play. We all loved it so much that we are going to see it everytime it comes to town. It will be our new Mama Mia tradition.

While at the theater I saw that Wicked will be here next year some time. I want to see it so bad. I think I am going to have to buy some tickets for that show. I have always wanted to see Wicked.

We're so excited...

2011-06-14T21:05:00.001-07:00

So Justin's mom surprised us with some tickets to Capital Theater on Saturday night!!!! We are going to see Mama Mia! We are so excited!

Projects

2011-06-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Justin and I have been working on some projects around the house, well around the yard. Justin built a GIANT shed....

My dad and I built me a garden box....

Put in some trees and made a new flower bed in out front yard...

Oh and on the side... Justin has been putting in a deck at his mom's house.

Justin does awesome work. He is so awesome at everything! I am so happy to have these projects done!

Easter 2011

2011-06-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Every year my work does an Easter Egg Hunt for the community. Our neices and nephews always come to it. We played some games and of course they had the HUNT!! Too Fun!

Western Carribean Cruise

2011-04-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

We went in Mid April and we couldn't have had more fun!!!! Justin's work took us and about 40 other of his coworkers and their spouses on a cruise to the Western Carribean.

We first flew into Miami and spent the night. We went arrived at about 6pm so we went straight to the hotel, changed our clothes and then headed to South Beach. We had dinner and then walked down Ocean Drive where there was tons of night life, restaurants and the beach right across the street. **On a side note I was super excited to see the Gelato Place where the Jersey Shore people worked. YUP! I love me some Jersey Shore!!!

Anyway we went back to the hotel had a great night sleep and then headed for the ship the next morning. We got on board and the party started. Everyone went to the pool and started dancing to the live band. Justin jumped right in and I, of course, took pictures! After dancing and visiting at the pool, we headed to the cocktail party that Spring Mobile hosted where Justin was recognized for being with the company since they opened 10 years ago. He got an awesome watch. We ended up dancing and hanging out at that lounge almost all night. Justin is an amazing dancer and he had a blast dancing with everyone and also he won a dance off!!! It was AWESOME!

The next day we spent on the ship on our way to Grand Cayman. We played shuffle board with a cute Grandpa and his grandson. We got beat big time!!! But we had tons of fun.

We also went to an oragami class where we made a cute little box. Justin just couldn't get it and got really confused!

The next day we arrived in Grand Cayman where we went snorkeling in the ocean and then went to Stingray City, which is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean that has tons of stingrays swimming around. You got out of the boat and stood in like waist deep water. We got to hold the stingray and I we got a back rub by one. It felt super weird!

After that the next stop was Cozumel, Mexico. Us and a bunch of Justin's coworkers rented scooters and drove around the whole island. We stopped at the beach for a little bit and had some good guacomole.

After Mexico we headed back to Miami to catch a plane home. It was an awesome trip! We had a great time and we are so grateful that Justin works for such an awesome company that would take us on this amazing trip!

Chicken Coop

2011-04-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Justin's sister, Trisha, asked if he would build her a chicken coop for her new chicks that she got. Justin loves to build so he got right on it and 2 days later she had an awesome chicken coop.

Girls Craft Night

2011-03-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

My Step Mom, sisters and I got together and made Easter wreaths for our front doors. My sister Missy made cookies in between us chatting and gluing ribbon to our wreaths. They all turned out really cute and were super easy to make!

Sledding at Soldier Hollow

2011-03-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

We went up to Soldier Hollow last weekend to go sledding with Justin's sister Amber and her family. We had a great time!

Soldier Hollow has one of those things that hooks to your tube and takes you up to the top of the hill. AWESOME!

The first trip down the hill was really slow because the snow was man made and the weather was really warm. So you had to run and jump on the tube in order to get going a little bit. We thought that it might get a little colder and a little faster if we changed to the last session of the night, so we did. Right as soon as our next session began it started to rain. But the rain actually made it better!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE sledding? It might be a sickness! I am getting a little too old to be sledding because every muscle in my body aches afterward, but it is so worth it!

Great News!

2011-03-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

We found out a couple of weeks ago that Justin's work is sending us on a Carribean cruise!! We are so excited! We can't wait to go! We are leaving Mid April for a week and it's free! We get to fly into Miami and cruise around to Grand Cayman and then to Cozumel Mexico. We are so EXCITED!!!!

YAY!!!

New Years

2011-03-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

For New Year's we went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with Zach and Emmie and Zach's brother and his wife. After dinner we all rushed downtown for some First Night fun! At the Salt Palace they had a half pipe with all of these snowboarders doing tricks. It was awesome to watch but so cold. So we went inside and went to the Ballroom where they had a DJ and a ton of blow up balls. We had so much fun dancing and keeping the balls in the air. Then right as the New Year count down began we went outside. We had a great time with some great company!

The Icicle Twist

2011-03-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Justin's mom put together a Murder Mystery Dinner called "The Icicle Twist". We all dressed up and played the part. But Justin really plays the part. He didn't break character for even a minute. It was so fun!

Christmas

2011-03-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a blast. I love Christmas!

We made gingerbread houses with Zach and Emmie.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights.

I was able to see the David Archuleta Christmas concert with Justin's mom and sisters.

We decorated our Christmas tree.

We pulled the kids on tubes and sleds behind the four wheeler.

I bought Justin a new Beach Cruiser bike for Christmas.

Justin was able to take his brother to his first Jazz game.

We went to my family's Christmas Party in Idaho, Justin plays Santa every year.

It was the best time. Christmas is always so busy but I love all of the hustle and bustle... Call me Crazy!

Thanksgiving

2011-03-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving at Justin's Mom's house this year. Here are our family pictures...

Halloween

2011-03-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

We finally dressed up for Halloween this year. We went with our friends Emmie and Zach to our ward Halloween party and then went out to dinner. We decided to dress up as the Scooby Doo Gang...

A few days later we all carved some pumpkins...

Trip to Arizona

2011-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

Mid October we went to Tucson, Arizona to visit my family. My mom and my sister live really close to eachother so we were able to spend alot of time all together. While we were there we hung out with my neice Tana that we do not get to see very often. I can't believe how fast she is growing and I love her sassy personality. She loves fashion and she loves jewelry.

We hung out at my sister's pool alot and then on our last day there we decided to visit the Biosphere 2. It is a building where scientists and NASA have tried to recreate the earth's ecological system. The Biosphere has all different elements from the rain forest to the desert. They had several scientists locked in the building for 2 years to see if they could survive. It worked out pretty well but they ultimately could not use the biosphere for the purpose they wanted. NASA hoped to put a biosphere on another planet but the biosphere was overran with insects. So now the biosphere is part of the University of Arizona for students to use. It was really cool to visit because you are able to see things like the ocean and the rainforest in a building.

Neice and Nephew sleepover

2011-03-06T12:08:00.000-08:00

In October Justin and I had the our neices and nephews over for a sleepover and we thought it would be fun if we made a huge blanket tent in the living room and watch movies. It was a huge mess but we had a ton of fun! The kids stayed up so late watching movies, I thought they would fall asleep pretty quickly but I was so wrong. At 1:ooam I finally shut off the movie and we went to bed.

Love this pic...

2011-03-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

Late September we had Justin's family over and Justin's mom fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons and all of the kids ended up sitting wherever they could fit on the couch and tried not to wake grandma. So Funny!

Playing Catch Up....

2011-03-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

I am so bad about updating this blog.... It seems like time just gets away from me. So I have decided to do alot of updating for my friends and family. Sorry for all of the posts but I want to get it all on here. We have been having a ton of fun lately and I want to share it all...

Reflecting

2010-09-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

1 year ago today, Justin underwent surgery where the surgeons opened his stomach and removed the cancer infected lymphnodes.

Reflecting on this makes me remember all of the feelings I had while he was under anesthesia. Was he going to be ok? Has the cancer spread? Are we going to have to do chemotherapy? How will this affect the rest of our lives? I had so many things running through my thoughts while waiting the 6 hours for him to come out of surgery.

It's nice to look back now and remember everything we went through last year and that we got through it. I don't think people realize that they are stronger than they think. I never thought I would be able to deal with all of these feelings so early in our marriage. I love Justin with all of my heart and I thought we would not have to deal with life threatening health issues until much later in our lives together. I now realize that the Lord gave us this trial to bring us closer together and to realize that we can make it through anything and we will be ok. I know that the Lord knows whats best for each us and He knows our thoughts and feelings and He can give you comfort when you need it most.

I am so grateful that Justin is cancer free today. He is an amazing man with many amazing qualities and he is going to do amazing things with his second chance at life. I love him so much and I can't wait to see where we are at 10, 20, 30 and 40 years from now.

New Haircut!

2010-06-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I cute my hair really short. My hair was all the way down to the middle of my back. Now I have a cute A-line and I love it. It is so much easier to do and it has a ton of volume.

Our activities over the past few months....

2010-06-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Alot has happened in the past few months so this post may get a little long....

Toward the end of April into the beginning of May we ripped apart our backyard to lay a lot of concrete. It turned out to take longer than we expected because of the horrible weather but it is done now and I couldn't be happier. We extended our RV pad to go all of the way back, then we poured a cement pad for an extra garage and then we poured a beautiful new patio (my favorite part!) We did not have a patio before and it turned out so awesome.

Before:

After:

We also went to Moab with some family and friends and had a great time. We went around the end of April and it turned out to be a great mini vacation for us. We were able to drive around Justin's old Willy's Jeep. It was passed down to him from his grandpa and it was really fun to actually drive it and bring it home with us after spending a couple of years in St. George at Justin's dad's shop. Justin's dad fixed it up really nice for us and put a backseat in it. Its such a fun little Jeep and Justin has a blast driving it. We go to Moab during car show weekend every year and have so much fun eating ice cream on the main street and watching the cool cars go by.

My Birthday was on May 8th and I had such a great birthday. Justin took me to breakfast and then took me shopping. I also really wanted a convertible VW Beetle and we went to the dealership to test drive one and talk about our options. We didn't end up buying one but it was still fun driving one around for a half hour. We ended the night by meeting our family up at the Drive ins. We watched Iron Man and we Barbequed some hot dogs. We had a great time with all of our neices and nephews driving them back and forth in the back of Justin's truck. The were laughing and having a great time.

CT Scan Results

2010-04-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Justin's scan is showing no signs of cancer still. YAY!

The doctor said that all of his organs and his kidneys are perfect so we can't ask for any better of an outcome from chemo. Kind of interesting... the doctor told us that we should not get pregnant the old fashioned way because his sperm from the may have defects in it from the chemotherapy and can cause defects in our child. So when we are ready to have children we will have to use what we have saved in the sperm bank. So we will really get to plan our family. No surprises here!

CT Scan

2010-04-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Justin has his first 3 month CT Scan tomorrow. We have a Dr.'s appointment right after the scan to find out if the cancer is still gone. I will update everyone tomorrow! Please keep him in your prayers!

Visits

2010-04-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of March my mom and Jeff (step-dad) came to visit Justin and I. We had so much fun together and I realized how much I missed my mom once she left back to Tucson. But we were able to spend a lot of good quality time together and I can't wait until they visit again!

We're Back!

2010-03-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

We're back on the blogging scene. I have found that this blog was actually doing what it was supposed to be doing; keeping everyone up to date on our lives.

My reason for quitting my blog was difficult because I didn't want to talk about Justin's cancer. Since July I have come to terms with the thought of Justin having cancer and I am finally ready to talk about it and share our experiences with everyone.

Toward the end of July we found out that Justin had testicular cancer. It turned out to be a whirlwind of events from there. A week after finding out that Justin had cancer he was immediately scheduled for surgery to remove his testicle. After the testicle was removed he tried to recover while we found out that his type of cancer was fast spreading and had moved into several of his lymph nodes. Immediately we were transferred to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital and were told that he would have another suregery to remove his lymph nodes in a few weeks. In the meantime we had to do some sperm banking because it was sure he would be sterile from the surgery. After he recovered from his surgery we were told that he needed to start chemotherapy to kill any other cancer cells in his body. Before he started chemo he had another surgery to install a power port to make it easier to receive the chemotherapy infusions. A week after that surgery he started chemotherapy for several weeks. It was almost a full time job. He somtimes had to be there for 8 hours a day hooked up to chemotherapy. The side effects were awful. He lost his hair, he gained 10-15 lbs a day, he was vomitting, his skin turned red, his mouth was full of sores and he was very weak and tired. A month after his last chemotherapy appointment he had a CT scan to see if the cancer was gone. And our prayers were answered, he was cancer free according to his CT scan. We are so happy. Now he has to go and get CT scans every 3 months for the next year to make sure the cancer is gone. Our next CT scan is on April 8th.

We have had so many wonderful people help us along this hard road. And I am so thankful for the help we have recieved from helping with meals, to mowing our lawn, to simple cards telling him to get well. We are so grateful for the love and support that we have had the past few months.

Everything seems to be getting back to normal and Justin is back at work and trying to make his body keep up with all of the things he wants to do. He has a nap about every day to regain some of his energy. Justin and I have really grown together the last few months and we are definetly much stronger and closer than we were before. Cancer was a definite struggle and I have had to learn things that I wish I never had to know at 25 but in a weird way I think cancer has helped us. I look at Justin in a whole new light. His positive attitude through this hard time has really made my outlook on life much different. You never know what trials will come your way but I think it definetly builds character and strengthens your spirit how you deal with these trials.