an abundance of love...

i positively adore my niece.

i love the way she loves playing with beach balls.

i love the way she says, "hmm?" when you ask her a question that she 

doesn't know the answer to... or knows the answer to, but doesn't want to say.

i love the way she always loves jumping.... off laps, rocks, fire places, beds, chairs, stairs- basically anything that is three inches or more off the ground she will jump off of.

i love the way she says "aunt kendle."

i love her hugs and kisses.

i love how much she loves "stuff in her milk."

i love that she loves chowder... and gets excited to come see him.

i love that she knows where his treats are kept and always wants to give him more.

i love how she says prayers.
i love that she asks me to polish her nails.

i love that she eats as much dough as i do while we make cookies.

i love that she prefers to play with hot wheel cars instead of dolls and barbies.

         

gosh... this list could get really long. basically... she's the coolest almost three year old ever. 

and i love babysitting her. 

today was one of those babysitting kind of days. i woke up much earlier than i normally do and spent the day with this awesome little kid. welp... we came back up to nana's house and i was helping my grandpa with some stuff when i heard hayley walk down the hall behind me. and i just knew where she was going. she was going to my room to feed my fish, edwin. she knows where i keep my food and how to get a little pinch of food out for him. welp... apparently he was really hungry today. little miss hayley dumped the whole bottle of food in the bowl. haha... so i told hayley thank you for helping and immediately scooped edwin out, took some pictures and cleaned his bowl. it was positively hilarious! 

now i need to add "i love how she loves to feed my fish" to the list. what a funny girl <3

+ edmond...

once upon a time... katie nicole & i got a pet fish for our goodman apartment in thatcher [he matched our decor of reds and blacks haha]... we named him edmond [after edmond dantes... the count of monte cristo, because lets be honest... he is one hunky dude]. edmond survived the wrath of angela [who poked a hole in his fin and often aggravated him with pencil erasers], many other random people who would try to get him riled up [he sure was a spunky little dude... and he was ready to fight you in a second. he would puff up his gills and charge your finger behind the glass], a couple trips and then a move to tucson, a move to utah [where he got a window seat of all the snow and utah scenery], and another 12 hour drive back to arizona. so... ive been taking care of edmond for 2 and a half years. ive grown rather attached to him. and i got a little teary eyed last night because i just knew he wouldnt make it through the night. there has been a couple times that i really thought he was going to fishy heaven, but then he would pull through. but since utah he kinda just laid on the bottom of his bowl most of the time. he was an old fella in the end... he was allowed to be lazy [despite what austin may say]. anyway... this is the end of my tribute to edmond. he will be sorely missed, indeed.

i sure loved this little fish.

{this is embarrassing, but here goes}

so... when i was younger [i think i was fifteen or sixteen] i asked for an aquarium one year from santa claus- and i got it! it was a 20 gallon and it seriously made my dreams come true. i had never had a real aquarium before, so i just started out with feeder goldfish. and i named them and i loved them. i had them for years [i even rescued a few from the ward halloween party]. and they got seriously big. they were probably 5 inches long. anyway. they were wicked sweet. and ever since i've had particular affinity for little goldfish.

well... as y'all know i have a soft spot for animals. i wish we had more. and i love the little turtles that nicole and i rescued. they make me laugh. anyway, apparently red-eared sliders are more carnivorous when young, so we've been getting red minnows for them to eat, but chip and big bertha have grown a lot and they can now eat feeder goldfish. i dont really enjoy watching them eat the fish though [austin does... haha]. so recently we've gotten on this schedule of giving them live fish once a week the night before we clean the tank [just cause it gets that much dirtier... they are messy little creatures.] well last week we went to petco [oh and a random moment... i saw i kid that i went to school with... like elementary through high school. i thought he was cool in the fourth grade, but im pretty sure that was the last time ive talked to him... i really should be better about saying hello to people i know, and yet... im not. haha.] and anyway. so im at petco getting fish... i usually get the brown ones just cause they are not as cool looking [although they do change color as they mature... the brown ones turn golden later. weird right? haha...] anyway.... they chick at petco gave us two really cool looking goldfish and i couldnt bear to see them become live turtle food. so... i set up a little fish bowl for them. and we named them goatee and tippy. they are mighty cute right?

welp... they only lived for like 2 days... then austin fed them to the turtles anyway. but at least they didnt have to get their unusually long fins nipped at while swimming around fighting for their lives. and i didnt watch.

maybe this wasnt as embarrassing as saving a snail, but the fact remains... im a softie at heart.

the end.

::

also... on a funny little note, i got a mini cheap version of a chia pet. his name is larry [like the cucumber... haha]. ill update you as his hair grows... just because it makes me smile.

the end... for reals this time.

another one bites the dust...

i give up.
ive bought two bettas and two gold fish.

all have died.

at least this new one (i bought it a few weeks ago) lasted longer than the other ones... but still! what is my deal? i keep killing all my fish... well at least edmond is still alive. hes a tough little booger. but i was really starting to like this one... he was a sweetheart...a very calm fish. although he wasnt really eating much... maybe thats what did it. maybe its the container. i got it from d.i. ...maybe its still contaminated with other peoples dirty germs and stuff. i have cleaned it though. oh i dont know... no more fish for me i guess... :(

................................................................................................

yesterday at work i decorated for christmas...
i really like my job. lol...

i can hardly believe its december 2nd already... almost time to go home again. [15 days.] it was a killer to make myself come back up here and finish up school.... i wish i coulda just stayed home... i miss my family!! it was crazy fun being there for thanksgiving. mom... as always... did a great job on thanksgiving dinner... we even broke out her china! :) kelsey and i made the funniest looking rolls... they still tasted afreakingmazing... we were laughing the whole time... and grandpa was laughing at the both of us. haha. oh and i made cheeseballs.... including a naked one for nicole [who got to stay all thanksgiving day with us!] grandma and granpa farr were there too... and i think grandma approved of the cheeseballs, it was her recipe after all! lol. we... me kels tino adrian dustin and nicole all went to see twilight thanksgiving night with the townsend kids... good times! [whoda thought movie theaters arent busy on thanksgiving night? lol...] i got to see all of baby hayley's new stuff [all of which is pooping cute!] and i even got to feel her kicking and moving a few times!! it was was exctiting!! seriously though... adrian is too cute all pregnant and stuff! i played mario party with tino and put up christmas lights outside with him and dad... i put a few up in the trees... and as always my hands got pretty scratched. lol... but it was worth it! anyway.
15 days... and i cannot wait!

oh and yesterday was our ward christmas part slash closing social. danielle and jared and i went and ate... it was at this cute little place called wadley farms. it was yummy [thats the room where we had dinner... roast beef with carrots and mashed potatoes and stuff...] it really was a very cite little place!


right after that we went to the mall to buy myself [well... its from the parentals really] a new cell phone... its my christmas present! im really super excited! its an awesome phone! and i hear great things about it... its really cool looking too! its an enV2... pretty sweet. lol. my poor little razr has been crapping our something fierce the past few months... but ive had it for a little more than two years... and it has served me well! im still trying to figure out this whole keyboard thing! lol... but i love it! merry christmas to me! thanks santa! :)

why?

okay so danielle and i bought a purple beta fish for our apartment last saturday.... because it matched our apartment. oh...lol, we found this really cool square vase at d.i.- for a buck! amazing! anyway... we named the fish francis... haha. okay so last sunday i had gotten all ready for church and i came out to feed our little francis (he was on the kitchen table) and i couldn't see him! i seriously spent like two and half minutes looking for him... and i even called danielle out and we were looking for it.... and he seriously wasn't in there! so... then we started looking on the floor for it... and it was on a kitchen chair... all shriveled and dried up... he was kinda stuck to the chair. i scraped him up and threw him away. for serious. we had him for less than 12 hours. what would compel a fish to do that?! honestly...

*i woulda had a picture of francis for you (he was a really pretty fish) but... we didn't have him long enough! lol... sorry!

so yesterday we bought new fishies... we decided to try little goldfish... well, white gold fish- just the little feeder fish... we named them edgar and rupert.... they are pretty sweet... and they haven't committed suicide yet! yay!

......................................................................................................

okay. so we live right by all these fast food places. right across the street is taco bell. and ever since i got up here, i've noticed how there are seriously always cars there... at the taco bell. i think i've figured it out... there is an average of 4 cars there... pretty much regularly. and it seriously makes me laugh so hard. ill look out the window and be like "oh its only a three car day..." haha i don't know why i am so amused by this, but i am. i've told danielle about it- and she just shakes her head at me... lol. so this one day (this last week) i was sitting and watching tv and looked out the window and there were a freaking butt load of cars! there were ten cars when i saw it first and i was like "holy poop! gotta get a picture!" and by the time i got my picture (like ten seconds later) the cars were already backing out... so i got 9 cars in the picture! and it still makes me laugh... just in case you were wondering....