Merry Christmas!

We have been having a lot of fun with our first Christmas season as the Hancocks! We've made snow angels, decorated our little Christmas tree, sought out some gifts for our loved ones, and had a Christmas party with the Fairalls and Mortensens! Our ward had a fun Christmas party, Holly sang in the choir for the church Christmas program, and we gave a fun lesson in Sunday School about Christmas (actually, it was about a different and slightly less jolly topic, but we tied in the true reason for our Christmas celebrations :).

We are so looking forward to being in Indiana and Ohio with our families next week!

Love you all & Merry Christmas!

--T&H--

Some Recent Highlights

Beginning with the most recent...this is what our kitchen looked like about an hour ago! I guess that's what I get for scrimping and buying cheap, shallow pie crusts! :) Thanks, Travis, for helping me clean it all up!

Dallas ran a half marathon yesterday! Travis and I met his fiance Lauren at the finish line to congratulate him.
Can you believe he ran 13 miles dressed as Bane?! Congrats, Dallas!

Conference weekend was a blast! We stayed with the Fairall's and had lots of time with our cute niece Lily. We played with the rest of the Creek side on Saturday, then went to Ogden to stay with our Hancock grandparents. I always love visiting them--it somehow always feels like Christmas there!

I was walking home from school the other day and ran into these fun kids playing hacky sack!
Cutest brothers in the world. We love our Braden!

Janae looked gorgeous and sang beautifully in Women's Chorus when we went to see her in
BYU's Homecoming Spectacular!

Janae also spent the night with us after our autumn party and we watched the homecoming parade together!

My latest project at work: Marketing & Promotions for the new Research & Writing Center in the HBLL! This is, by far, my favorite aspect of the job. I've been busy designing the logo and creating lots of posters and handouts and working with lots of neat people to make sure students know about the RWC. It's so fun--more to come!

I caught Travis during a break between interviews and meetings.
He's off to Chicago next week for an interview with Marriott hotels!

And we just happened to run into the other Hancocks!

--H&T--

A Little Bit of Autumn Love

The Becks

We had so much fun at our autumn party last Friday! We were so happy to have all of our friends over (a.k.a. Janae, Braden, a big group of Beck cousins, and the Grabau's) to celebrate our favorite season!

I made some yummy fall foods, and Travis came up with our activities: watching a classic football play, part of Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, and drawing pictures of our favorite things about fall! Thanks to Melissa & Ethan for bringing some creative fall snacks!

We also played the bag game for a good couple hours! Jaime and I came close to beating Dallas, but he's just got too much finesse (noun courtesy of Travis). I think Braden won the 2-legged competition, but since he technically got out first, I think we should hand 1st place to Lauren. ;)  Also...I may or may not have face planted straight into the carpet...

Kelsi!

Colby tried really hard, but I think Garrick's comic relief threw him off ;)

"I was feeling like a Pokemon trainer and wanted to 'catch 'em all', referring to the Becks. Just missing Kasey & Emily!" --Travis
"Dallas did not like Travis' plan." --Holly

All in all, it was a great little kick-off to fall and we had so much fun :)

--HOLLY--

5 Reasons Why We're So Happy

1. 

We're finally "stable," meaning we'll be living in one place for at least 4 months!

2.

We finally met our adorable new niece, Caitlin & Isaac's baby Laila! We love her so much!

And we got to see this little toddler again who has grown so much! She is a GOOF!

3.

We love being able to hang out with Braden & Janae so much!

We're close to our siblings again!

4.

We're loving the Provo music scene.

And the art scene.

And all the fun stuff here in Provo!

5. We made this video in which I look pretty unintelligent.

--H&T--

Cutest Sleeper Ever?

So, sometimes Holly falls fast asleep with her legs sticking up in the air. My wife is too cute!

 

Holly Has Been Thinking...

That she really likes living in the country.  I mean, can you blame her??

The sky is blue,

The grass is green,

And the corn is tall.

Oh, and then there's Mac (short for Macintosh).  He's old and he gets scared when it rains.  And he loves good food--just like me.

Last week, a crop-duster flew RIGHT OVER OUR ROOF more than a few times.

We ate breakfast outside and just watched.

Travis & I have been blessed beyond measure since we've been together--especially this summer.

We've been close to our families and have gotten to visit and make fun memories.

We had a huge adventure living in Chicago.

We.

Soaked.

That.

City.

Dry.

We've met lots of people, widened some perspectives, and focused others.

There have been loving family, friends, and strangers helping us at every turn.

We're a couple of incredibly blessed kids.

I mean, look at those clouds.  Pixar couldn't have made any more perfect--those are a reminder from a sweet Father in Heaven that He is here, He loves His children, and hopes we all progress and find true, eternal happiness! Don't forget that :)

Love you all!

--H&T--

Nauvoo, IL

Last weekend we drove to the other side of the state for a Hancock Family Reunion in Nauvoo!  It was fun for me to meet more of the Hancocks and we had a great time!  Travis and I got there before everyone else, so we explored Nauvoo and had a little lunch date at Grandpa Joe's:

The weather was beautiful the whole weekend!

Love it.

Before the pageant, we played at the country fair!

Stilts!

Janae & I are just a couple o' regular log sawers!

I <3 Nauvoo!

Sack Races...

...I think I won..? :)

Pictures of Hancocks making weird faces:

Travis had a lot of fun playing games with his younger cousins in the lodge at our campsite.  Sunday night, Grandma Hancock gave an incredible fireside on family history.  She had so many wonderful stories to share about the Hancocks--she worked so hard putting it all together.  She is amazing!  The Hancock family has a great legacy and I'm so happy I get to be a part of it!

On Monday we took a wagon ride, a carriage ride, explored Nauvoo a bit more, and visited the temple--it's a beautiful place and it reminded me of when I was there 4 years ago with my Creek Family!

Since they have so many more missionaries available now, the YPMs have really stepped it up!  They now do little vignettes around the town--they are so neat!  It's like you're really back in Nauvoo's glory days watching kids run around and play, listening to missionaries share their stories, and watching the youth interact.  And as expected, we ran into a bajillion people that know Travis (okay, more like 5, but still! He's a popular guy)!

"Are you sure this wagon is sanitary? It looks questionable to me!" --Travis

Presto the Best-o!

Learning an "easy" dance with the Nauvoo Brass Band on Main Street.  Poor Travis, his wife will never be able to dance as well as he can!

We've got a pretty great family, huh? :)

Now that Travis has finished his internship with Weber Shandwick, we're taking it easy in a gorgeous part of the state called Oswego.  Our life is so different now than it was two weeks ago, but we LOVE it!  Travis has started his internship with Bookoo and he fits right in!  He really loves that place and from what I've seen, I'm also a fan!  They had a community picnic last week and I got to go meet all the people he works with--they are so neat!!

We're living with a really nice couple in our ward and their little dog (Travis & I are realizing that we have no idea how to help take care of the dog since neither of our families are into pets, hahah).  I spend my days running little errands, working on our button website (hancockbuttons.com now exists! But is very much under construction), babysitting the Fishers' grandchildren, watching my hair grow out, journaling, watching the grass grow, jogging, liking pins of yummy foods I wish I could afford to make on pinterest, playing tennis with Travis, and watching things on Netflix...you know, spending my time doing things I'll never have time to do again! (Here's to hoping I NEVER have this much free time ever again! hahah)

We are Provo bound in 5 weeks!

The time that our life was crazy.

So in between moving out of our apartment and starting Trav's new internship with Oswego, this was our life:

• Pack a bag to live out of for 2 weeks.
• Pack everything else, move out of apartment, drive to Yorkville, IL.
• Meet the family who is letting us crash in their house for 7 weeks, spend the night.
• Leave at 5:30am to get back to the city in time for Travis to get to work.
• Oh wait...at 5:45am, pull over to the side of the highway while car dies and blows smoke everywhere.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• At 6:00 am, call tow truck.
• 6:15am: "What are you guys doing in IL? This state sucks." --IL State Police Officer
• At 7:40am, call to make sure the tow truck is on its way.
• 8:30: call again for tow truck.  Find out the tow truck was almost there about an hour ago, but just decided to turn around instead of come help us.
• 9:00am: tow truck arrives.

  

  "What are you guys doing in IL? This state sucks." --Tow Truck Driver

• Settle in while the mechanic looks at our car.  In a few minutes he comes in to share the bad news: Charles is down for the count.
• Rent a car for the next two weeks.
• Drive into Chicago and check in at the Chicago Getaway Hostel.
• By this time, Travis is not going to make it into work.
• Wait in line at Comcast for an hour, just to give them back all of their stuff.
• Spend a few days in this room:
  
• With this creepy gal on the wall:
  
• Laugh together and love each other the whole time :)

• Drive to Ohio, then Pennsylvania for 4th of July vacation (it rocked!)
• Go caving, white water rafting, and have an awesome time.
• Steal Janae's car from her for the summer (Mom & Dad Hancock were so helpful in letting us buy that from them.  Such a great blessing!)
• Drive to Indiana where Holly stays, and Travis drives on to Chicago to spend another week at the hostel.

  

  Caitlin's job.
  Sorry, Alyssa.

  
  

  

  Lipstick fight at the mall

  
  

  

  Who knew Greenwood Park mall had a summer concert series??

  

  Free food & cute costumes. Win/Win!

  
  

  

  Found my new motto for life at Chick-Fil-A.

• Meet at Hertz to return the rental car, begin our life in Yorkville/Oswego!