Happy 11th Birthday Shadow-man!

I can't believe how time has flown by and now my baby is 11 years old. What a great kid he is! I'm so lucky to be his mom and feel so blessed everyday. Shad has the greatest laugh in the whole world, he can always make me smile with his jokes or funny stories. He is smart and gets good grades in school. He loves the gospel and tries to be a good example to everyone around him. He is thoughtful to others feelings and caring to those in need. He's always willing to give something he has to someone less fortunate. I can not even express in words how much I love this boy of mine. He is truly my little piece of heaven on earth. I always used to sing the Carpenters "Close to you" song to him when he was little and as long as I live whenever I hear it I will think of my little blue eyed baby boy. I love you Shad! Happy Birthday!

Happy Holidays...A little late!

I can't believe I haven't posted any of our fun holiday pictures. I thought I had misplaced the cord to connect my camera to the computer but it was right were I left it. Imagine that!
Here is a quick view of what we did for the holidays. Hope all our family and friends enjoyed their holidays as much as we did.

4 Days and Nights...

Our Christmas village is finally up!
It only took me 4 days to finish it! I'm really happy with the end result so the many hours spent on it were well worth it. I realize I could have finished it in one day if I didn't have to fit other responsibilities into my decorating schedule such as work, grocery shopping, church. I'm so grateful to Uncle Lynn for creating the display stand for me. He is amazing when it comes to creating with wood all I had to do was tell him what I wanted and the measurement and he did the rest. Amazing!
We refer to Minni-Moe as "Kat Kong" as she is always walking around trying to find a place to lay on the fluffy white snow. Crazy Cat!


I'd love to show you a picture of our Christmas tree but it's too pathetic to acknowledge. Some day I'm going to have a big house with a big kitchen and a big living room so that I can make a christmas tree that looks like this.
This is my friend Stacy's tree and I love it! I love how she made garland out of red ornaments. She is so creative. I hope she doesn't mind that I stole the picture from her blog.

They're part of the family

Maybe I'm a dork for posting about our animals but I was looking through my camera and ran across these pictures and since this is family history in the making I thought there is no better way to always remember them then to post about them.
Chewbacca. Sweet, lovable, huge, good dog in training.
I walked into the kitchen one day and found Salem getting a drink out of the soapy water. I guess his water dish is no longer acceptable now that the dog drinks from it too.
Shad playing with Mini-Moe. Notice all the scratches on his hand. If it's not a scratch from her then it's a scratch from Chewy. Mini-Moe and Salem sleep with Shad every night while Chewy just sleeps were ever her wants. I never thought I could love another dog the way I loved Brigham but I guess it's just like children, you don't love any one of them more then the others, you just love them. We love our animals.

Making Time..

I often think about the fact that I haven't made any updates to our blog for a few weeks but I just haven't had the time to sit down and post one.
Let me tell you why...
First there was a wedding.That's Meghen and Clayton. Meghen is Lisa's oldest daughter and the first of all of our kids to tie the knot. They are an adorable couple and we wish them an eternity of happiness.
Us at the reception. What a cute family don't you think.

Then there was TWILIGHT!
I didn't get any pictures because they wouldn't let us take camera's into the theater. I have to say...I didn't love it! I guess I need to go see it again because everyone else liked it. Maybe I just wanted too much from it. We had great seats & VIP passes.

Let's not forget about PHANTOM!!!For our birthdays in October Brett and I bought tickets to Phantom of the Opera in Vegas. We were able to go with the Wardell's and met up with Dave and Amy in Vegas for dinner and the show. While in St. George we visited Brigham Youngs house. The tour guide was so nice and offered to take pictures of us. I love that he let Brett and Martin pose with the hats on.


We also visited the St. George Temple visitors center. If you haven't been there for a while you need to check it out. They have put together a really great display/film on families. I loved it and was totally bawling!

Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the show.Hot Mama's ready for Vegas!
We had a fantastic dinner together and then enjoyed the show. I hope someday I can see it again. I loved it!
I should also mention that we lived through another 24 hours Black Friday. Started at 2:30 am on Friday morning and went until 3:00 am Saturday. Shopping, Breakfast, more shopping, then more shopping, Movie (4 Christmases, funny..not for kids), Brick Oven for dinner then back to my house to wrap and laugh and watch movies. Yes this is truly my most favorite time of the year! Crazy Ladies at Wal-Mart!
Now it's time to decorate the house for Christmas. That should take about a week and I'll be sure to post pictures when it's complete.

It's the most Wonderful time of the year!

I am so excited for the holidays! Shad is constantly updating his Christmas list and I'm hoping he will have a final copy ready for Santa by next week. We can't wait for snow and the chance to use our new snow blower, build a snowman and make snow angles. I've started putting the pressure on Brett to get the christmas lights up outside and I'm feeling the excitement of decorating inside. I can't wait to put my villages up. Shad and I have talked about getting a real tree this year but Dad doesn't want us to, he's such a party pooper! Who knows Shad and I may just go get one anyway. It wouldn't be the first time we did something he didn't want us to. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for our family pictures this year, any suggestions? Christmas...it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Mr. Z

I know that I have told a lot of you about Shad's amazing teacher but I need to share this with you too. He is also an amazing photographer. He just set up this new web site

Along the backroads photography

and has some of his pictures displayed there. He has done the most amazing thing using letters so be sure to check out Alphabetography. Leave him a comment and you may win his contest.

BTW, this picture was taken on Halloween, he doesn't always dress like a Jedi, but wouldn't it be cool if he did!

The "Season" is upon us

It's true the "season" is approaching but even Lisa who decorates her entire house before Thanksgiving thinks this is a little too much.

This is what we saw when we were driving home on November 1st! Yes, November 1st people. Will a Christmas tree last 2 months...I've never had one last 2 weeks. I have to admit though...it got me excited! Tis' the Season to be JOLLY! Fa la la la la la la la la...

Surprise!

My sweet husband whom I adore with every part of me turned 40 years old on Halloween. He thought he got away with nothing more then a family dinner Monday and some trick or treating on Halloween, but he should no me better then that by now don't you think. I planned a surprise party for him and he didn't have a clue! It was great watching him walk in and seeing the surprise on his face. I truly am so lucky to be his wife. I love him more then words could ever express. Happy Birthday lover-boy! I also want to thank everyone who came to show their love and support for the old man. We are truly blessed to have such good friends and family.

Trick or Treat

In-N-Out

Do to our love for In-N-Out burgers Shad and I decided to dress up as In-N-Out workers this year for Halloween. Needless to say it was a huge hit. Everyone loved it but was disappointed that the only hamburgers we had to hand out were very yucky gummy burgers. We had such a fun time at school. Shad's teacher wore 4 different costumes throughout the day and made the day so fun for his class. I had every class that came into the computer lab call Brett and sing him happy birthday. It was a lot of fun. Brett came over at lunch time with tuna sandwiches and ate with me. It was a really good day. The classes paraded through the halls and it was fun to see all the creative costumes the kids were wearing. Have I mentioned before that I LOVE working at the school.

Halloween Fun!

Wacky Hair Day

This week is Red Ribbon Week and today was Wacky Hair Day. I wore my hair in pig tails with red ribbons tied in it and Shad has his hair all spiked out. I kinda wish we would have waited to have his hair cut cause we could have done something awesome with his shaggy hair.

And I kinda wish I still had hair like I did in 9th grade so I could sport this hairdo again. Oh, the 80's! You had to love them! Maybe I'll try this next year. The funny thing is everyone had this feathered hairdo, it's just that I also sported a perm.

St. George Trip

Thriller!

We had so much fun at Thriller with Cathy and Brenna. The dances were awesome and there was a lot of spooky parts. The Grudge was really creepy and when they did the Salem witches dance the fire alarm went off so we all had to go outside in the
SNOW! Yes it was snowing....lightly but snowing none the less. We hope to make it a yearly Halloween tradition. I wish we could have taken some pictures of some of the dances but they wouldn't let us so I'll just share some pictures of cute us!

Spooky...

Shad's most favorite part of Halloween has always been dressing up. Thanks to his dad he has a love for Universal Studios monsters. I love the way he gets so into character making scary sounds.

or DANCING in a SANTA HAT!