The Suns

So I have a theory - That on giftbearing holidays (ie Christmas, birthday, Valentine's Day) Janel always manages to get me something that she can use equally as much as, if not more than, I would use it.

Please consider the following exhibits that support my theory:

• The black Pottery Barn desk and desk accessories that she got me for one of first Christmases together. I enjoyed using it in our old house, but now that we have moved, it has made its way to her upstairs office, where she uses it to full capacity. Somewhere along the line, another desk to match it appeared up there as well, so as to give her more workspace.

• A clothing steamer. Not gonna lie - one of the best gifts ever. Makes my shirts ready to wear and wrinkle-free in a mater of a few short minutes. She also benefits from having this handy-dandy appliance in our bedroom.


• My dress clothes. Shirts and ties mainly. You may be asking yourself, "But Jordan, Janel doesn't wear your clothes! You're just being a silly goose." It is true that my wife does not wear my clothes. However not only does she get to see me wearing said clothes, but she gets to be seen with me whilst I wear said clothes. And if you've ever seen me, you know that that alone is worth its weight in gold.

So needless to say, this past Christmas I was expecting perhaps a rolling pin or some pearl earrings, which I would have been extremely grateful for, because I love my wife more than anything, and anything she could ever get me would be absolutely awesome.

But boy oh boy did she out-do herself this time. As I opened up this gift, she was obviously anticipating a priceless reaction from me, since she made sure to video tape the whole thing. And she was dead on. Her gift rendered me speechless! Upon opening the beautifully decorated small, red box I found two tickets to see a Phoenix Suns basketball game!

I was amped. The Suns have been my favorite basketball team since the early to mid 90's when they had Charles Barkley, Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson. They are now home to even more of my favorite players: Steve Nash, Shaquille O'Neil, Amaré Stoudamire, Leandro Barbosa and Lou Amundsun.

So, the weekend finally arrived when we were supposed to go to the game. We were going to just drive to Phoenix on a Saturday, watch the game that night and then come home on Sunday. Janel's wonderful parents volunteered to watch Trey overnight, so it was just me and my babes in Phoenix. The drive down was lame, as is pretty much any drive, but it was all new scenery for me, so I made the most out of it.

We got there around 3:30 pm, checked into our hotel and just vegged for a few minutes. About two or so hours before the game was to begin, we decided we should probably go and get some grub before the game, since we had no idea how crazy downtown Phoenix would be before the game. So we made a few laps around the U.S. Airways Center, trying to find a parking garage that would rip us off the least. We finally found one that would only charge only $12 to park. our. freaking. car. We parked and then went across the street to eat at Stoudamire's, a cool sports grill owned by the Suns' very own Amaré Stoudamire. I had a decent quesadilla and some awesome fish.

Then it was back across the street to the game and we had ab absolute blast! It was so fun seeing the Phoenix Suns intros and the fun they have on the court. Shaq is just hilarious. The entertainment during the time outs was jsut as good as the time outs themselves! It was just a blast being there with my two babes.

The next morning, we took a drive to the Sprinkles in Scottsdale and drive by the Mesa Temple. I guess we shouldn't have purchased our Sprinkles on a Sunday, because our punishment was our GPS leading us back home through Flagstaff!! That tacked on an extra few hours. Yuck.

Anyway, a great trip.

Thanks, Janel!!

6 months

Wow! Time is going by way too fast.

height: 26 in... weight: 15.10 lbs... head circumference: 49.5 cm.

Tally loves to smile at anyone and loves to get moving. She is a pro at jumping in her doorway jumper and at investigating all the toys on her exersaucer. She eats and sleeps really well and is such a happy baby. And more than anything, she LOVES Trey and giggles with him all the time. Just about anything he does is funny.

And so it ends (and begins)...

I guess it is about time that I finish up blogging for the month of December and the year of 2008. I'm sure I've kept you all in suspense, wondering what we've been up to.

Talya had a lot of "firsts" for the month. She took a bath in the bathtub for the first time. She also tried cereal and bananas, both which she loves. She also loves to be in the door-way jumper and the exercaucer. She rolled over several times in a row, and is starting to even sit up for a short time. It funny to see all the new things she can do now that she is becoming more "vertical".

We did a lot of fun, holiday type activities in December, mostly due to the lack-there-of last year. We took lots of time decorating the house and the Christmas tree (I didn't even put up one decoration last year... not even a tree.) Trey and Talya really enjoyed just sitting under the tree and staring at the lights.

My family joined us at the Springs Preserve for dinner and to enjoy the Christmas lights and a train ride one night.

We REALLY enjoyed the inches of snow we received on the 15th. Trey was just in heaven! For some reason, when it's really cold outside, it doesn't seem to matter to a 2 year old. He could care less if he we dressed in just a t-shirt and shorts. He was determined to be outside playing in the snow.

We listened to tons of Christmas music and drank lots of hot chocolate all month long and even enjoyed our favorite treat of Carmel Apple Ciders from Starbucks a few times. (Not to mention A TON of other treats and goodies from friends and family.)

We had a great Christmas Eve/Birthday dinner with Jordan's side of the family, celebrating Morgan's birthday. It's always a treat to eat Allyson's good food.

Christmas morning was especially fun as Trey was so excited to see if Santa ate his cookies, to dive into his stocking, and to open gifts. At one time, he was half done opening a present and noticed his cousin had just opened a "Mater" from the CARS movie. Trey instantly threw down his half opened gift, not caring what it was, and ran over to see Mater. It was so funny. We quickly found Trey's Mater from under the tree and let him open it to see that Santa had brought him one too.

Christmas Day afternoon we started our annual drive to Vail, Colorado, only to find the I-15 had been closed off in Beaver, Utah due to so many accidents on the road from the heavy snow. We had to stay there over night, instead of in Richfield like planned. We had such a great time in Vail this year. Jordan got in 4 full days and 2 half days of snowboarding. I was able to board 2 half days, which was great, considering I've taken off the last two years. Trey, again, was obsessed with the snow. We bought him a little sled to be pulled around on and saying he loved his sled is an understatement. We celebrated New Year's up there too, which included enjoying a fireworks show at the bottom of one of the ski lifts and then playing board games with all the nieces and nephews. I regret not taking more pictures while we were there, but it always took so long to get the kids and myself all bundled up to go outside that I usually forgot the camera by the time we left the condo. Oh well, there's always next year!

We always love how shows like "The Soup" recap the year and show funny and ridiculous things that have gone on this past year. Looking back, we sure had a great year. Talya came into our lives, we got a new backyard, Jordan finished a Ragnar race, and many, many other wonderful events and accomplishments that we'll always remember. Here's to the start of an amazing 2009 and the beginning of working on my Blurb family scrapbook to record all these posts since the start of "The Bunk House". (THAT is going to take me forever!!) I don't like to set New Year's resolutions because I never keep them (why set myself up for disappointment?!) but I think I will have a mission statement of sorts. It's the year to "Be Skinny!" That includes my ever-on-going quest to lose "the baby weight" (from Talya & Trey) and to other things, like decluttering and organizing our house/lives of the things that don't really matter (like cutting back on bills for things that we can afford to live without), to being more "healthy" in the gospel, like working on FHE and our food storage. So, here's to better health, better minds, better testimonies, and a better year!

The End!!

With love,
The Bunkers

the santa run

On Saturday, we participated in the Santa Run again this year put on by Opportunity Village. Well, it was the second time for Jordan, but my first (I was at home, very sick and pregnant last year). It was so much fun. My friend Nicole and I did the 1 mile walk, while Jordan, Warren & Heather, Dennis, and Evan did the 5K. It was really incredible to see that many people dressed up in Santa costumes. Trey had a blast too. He is just catching on to this Santa/Christmas thing, so it was really funny to hear him keep say, "I see Santa Cwaz!" They tried to break the record for the most people dressed up as Santa at one time. There were thousands, though we don't know the official results. I think we're going to make this a tradition every year because it was so fun. Jordan says it was a personal best time for running a 5K. Way to go, Jordan!

5 months

Talya was 5 months old, yesterday, on the 7th. She is getting so big! She giggles now and is really trying to move a lot more. I still haven't fed her cereal, which I should of by now, but we'll try within the next couple of days. Her personality is coming out more and she is just so dang cute! We love our Tally!

ward christmas party

Our ward party was on the 5th this month. It seemed a little early, but it got us all in the Christmas spirit. The food was good, the program was good, and it was nice to be able to go this year (again, stuck at home, sick, during last year's party.) Trey had a lot of fun seeing Santa, which I didn't get any pictures of.

thanksgiving

Jordan's nephew, Taylor, came home from his mission in Japan the week before Thanksgiving. We wanted to attend his homecoming in Sacrament Meeting, so we invited ourselves to his family's house for Thanksgiving. They were glad to let us come, but they live in Amarillo, Texas, so we had to fly. We were slightly nervous about flying with the kids, it being their first time on a plane, but they were amazing! (Trey was in heaven seeing all the "air panes") Trey slept through two of the flights, and Talya only fussed (not cried) at the end of one as we were descending (only because she was a little tired). It was great! We really had such a fun time. Taylor gave a wonderful report of his mission and we really enjoyed hearing all of his stories. We were able to celebrate Katy's birthday with her too. We loved being with Jordan's sister's family, who we don't get to see very often. Thank you Jeff, Katy, Taylor, and Cameron for having us!!