Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a very Merry
Christmas. We woke
up around 6:00 am and
opened up our gifts
then lounged around
the house til about noon
and then traveled to
Shad's sister Shantels
house. We ate a great
dinner and spent time talking and letting the kids play.
We are very grateful for all that we have been
given and thankful for our family and friends.
I hope eveybody had a Very Merry Christmas.

Bell Ringing!!!!

For a youth and ward
activity we volunteered at
various locations and rang
bells for the Salvation Army.
We sang christmas carols
(ok we brought a cd player
and played christmas cds
since we have no singing
ablility in our family). We
had a great time even though it was freezing outside I think it
was a balmy -5 degrees. BRRRR!!!! Gotta Love Minnesota!

Jingle Bell 5K Race

My Friend Kim and 

her daughter Lyndsey

and me ran a 5K race

together. It was fun and for

a good cause they collected

toys for the Toys for Tots 

program.  It was pretty cold

the day we ran the race but

we finished and it felt good.

Way Cool!!!!!

Shad and I were very lucky
and got to meet Jason Mraz
in person. I won tickets
on the radio for a Live
pre-show concert for
about 25 peoople. It
really ended up being
a soundcheck but still
was really cool to be
able to listen to the band working on some new songs.
We were supposed to go to the concert later that night
but we had to get back to St. Cloud for the kids since it
was a school night. Still was really awesome to meet
Jason and shake his hand, he is a very genuine person.

Best Vacation Ever!!!!

Shad and I went on cruise to  Europe for our  15th  Wedding Anniversary 

and it was the the best vacation we have ever taken. My dad came and stayed with the kids while we were gone. So big Thank You to grandpa the kids had a blast which wasn't hard to do since grandpa took them out to dinner every night.  We saw so many beautiful sites while we were in Europe and wanted to share some of them with you.  Although this is just a snapshot of what we saw it was truly amazing.  We feel so very blest that we were able to go on this trip it took alot of planning and saving but was well worth it. So I hope you enjoy the pictures.

 Sorrento, Italy

   The Vatican in Rome

The Colosseum in Rome

         Nice, France

The Amalfi Coast in Italy

The Pumpkin Patch

                                                     

   

We went to a pumpkin patch a couple weekends ago

and had alot of fun.  Sydney had a birthday party that 

she really wanted to go to so she wasn't with us. 

We picked out pumpkins and went through the corn maze.

Ashtyn found her Pumpkin!!

Austin just loves his picture taken.  Shad

said it reminds him of how much he loved

getting his picture taken at his age. 

Disney Playhouse!

My friend Kim and I clean houses together and one of the ladies we clean for had some extra tickets to the "Playhouse Disney Live on Tour" she asked us if we would like them and we said sure so I took Sydney and she took her son Nathan. We arrived at the Xcel Energy Center for the show and realized we were in a Suite which was alot of fun for the kids (and not too bad for the moms either). It was nice to spend some one on one time with Sydney it made me realize that I should try to do this with each of the kids.




Sydney and I waiting for
the show to start.


Sydney and Nathan are
best buddies.

Way to go Austin!!!

Austin has been running Cross Country on the High School team.
He has been running the 2 mile race and improving his time. Good
job Austin!!!!

Fall is Here!

We spent this past weekend up North at our friends
cabin. We had a relaxing weekend watching
conference together. The trees we so pretty with leaves already changing. This is one of the reason we love
Minnesota so much. We are looking forward to the Fall and spending time outdoors.

First Day of School

Ashtyn on her first day of 6th Grade.



Sydney on her first day of 3rd grade.



Ausitn on his first day of 8th grade.

Blog Bandwagon

Well I guess I should get on the Blog Bandwagon have been reading my sister in law Shantel's for the past few months and have really enjoyed it plus everybody is doing it LOL. So I guess if I have any questions on how to do something I can call and ask her, which is actually funny for those of you that know Shantel since up until about a year ago she wasn't too computer savvy. Well we have had another great Minnesota summer I am sad that it has come to an end. We went to the lake and to our friends cabin many times. Shad went with two good friends on his epic 9 day ride. The kids and I went on a road trip back to Utah and down to Lake Powell had a wonderful time but wasn't the same without Shad.







Here is some pictures of Shad's summer ride and the
kids at Lake Powell.