Christmas Happenings!

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already. I love the Christmas season and this year has been one of my favorites. Watching the anticipation in a 4 year old is quite exciting! Thank goodness for countdowns and fun activities leading up to Christmas. Here are some pictures of our festivities from this month.

Morgan had 2 dance recitals this month, 1 at the Festival of trees (see video on post below) and another one with her the school of dance that she attends. She did a great job and I was surprised that she wasn't shy or scared about dancing in front of people.

For one of our F.H.E. activities we rode TRAX downtown Salt Lake to look at the lights on Temple square. It sure beats finding a place to park.

Morgan's awesome pre-school teacher had a Christmas program. All the kids in the class were cute little elves, they sang songs and memorized parts for the program. Morgan said her part loud and clear (unlike last year, when she was so incredibly shy and didn't mouth a word the whole night).

cute little props for the songs

Christmas Eve was spent at my sisters house. We ate A LOT of yummy food and had the kids act out the nativity.

Morgan and Seth as Mary & Joseph - Clare was a sheep and Grey was a Shepard, Ian was our narrator. We also sang a few songs afterwards despite my VERY rusty piano fingers.

This year I decided not to get the kids new jammies, because they have so many, but instead I bought "The night before Christmas" for the kids to open up on Christmas Eve. We read a few books and the kids were so excited about the next morning that they were in bed by 9:00. Ian slept on Morgan's floor and they laughed and giggled for a while. Jeff and I were able to enjoy watching a Movie together before Santa came.

Santa left a lot of loot for the kids - Morgan got her much wanted Lala Loopsy doll, Barbies and Make-up. Ian got a new watch, a skateboard and a wallet - he also left them Lion King and Cars 2.

After going to church and opening our other presents we drove down to Provo to be with Great Grandma Shane and Aunt Mary. We had a delicious Ham dinner together. Morgan is showing Grandma Shane her new barbies.

I'm already looking forward to next years Christmas with more new memories made.

Dance Recital

This is from Morgan's first dance recital with her class. She performed at the Festival of Trees earlier this month. She did an awesome job!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was different for us this year. Usually it's just the 4 of us, but we were delighted to spend time with Jeff's Grandma Shane in her house in Provo. She lives in a really cool famous house (a few scenes from footloose were filmed there). She is nearly 90 years old and had 19 of us over for Thanksgiving day. We saw some of Jeff's Aunts, Uncles, and cousins that we rarely get to see, and Jeff's Mom and Dad were there too. I made A LOT of rolls and a chocolate pie for the occasion. Here are a few pictures. I wish I would have taken more, but I got too busy helping with dinner and visiting with family.

Morgan and Grandma Jo

Enjoying Football before Dinner

One of the beautiful tables

Place Setting that Ian and Grandma Jo Made

Halloween

Morgan dressed as a witch for Halloween this year. She wanted to be a mean witch with a green face but this costume was bought last year after Halloween and was more of a whimsical witch than a mean witch. Ian dressed as a skater dude, but I didn't get any pictures of him this year. Morgan's preschool went to Gardner Village to find all the cool witches. My favorite witch was the one on the "eye" phone, it was awesome, it was super chilly that day and I didn't take too many pictures.

Morgan with one of her very good friends!

Dancing

Morgan has been wanting to start dance class since she was 3. She loves music, dancing and singing. She'll sing along to radio songs in the car, she'll dance to music whenever and wherever she has the chance. So, this fall she started dance class at Becky's school of Dance. She is in the 3-5 year old combo class. The first 30 minuets they do ballet and the last 15 minuets they do tap. She absolutely LOVES it and has been a fast learner. Right now the class is getting ready for their Christmas recital. She loves to practice at home and last week she insisted that her daddy come watch her dance.

Another Birthday in the Shane Household

Jeff turned 41 last Friday. He is not big into celebrating too big, and Birthday's are just another day for him. He did take the day off of work and spent most of the day in the garage working on his Halloween project. We celebrated with the kids on Thursday night. I made a cake (it was SO incredibly hard for me not to have some) and he opened his presents. Jeff is really hard to buy for, but this year he mentioned that he would like to have the Star Wars Saga on Blu Ray, and that is what he got. We stayed up that night to watch Episode 1. On Friday night Jeff and I went to one of his favorite places Tucanos at the Gateway and then we went to see a Laser/light show at the Planetarium. Only 1 word came to my mind the whole time watching it "trippy", It was to Led Zeplin music (jeff is a fan), and honestly it was just weird to me. You must have to be high on something to understand it fully. We had a great time together though and I just love spending time alone with Jeff. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to an amazing husband & father.

It's been tradition that Jeff gets chocolate with his gifts

Powdered Sugar Flew everywhere :)!

Mars & The Moon

Last Friday I took the kids on TRAX. Ian had been once or twice when he was a lot younger, and Morgan had never been. Morgan was pretty quiet the whole way until we got into Salt Lake, she was so amazed that the train could be on the street and I explained that we were still on the train tracks, but in the middle of the street. We took TRAX downtown to the Gateway Mall and spent sometime in the Planitarium. We were too early to see any of the IMAX movies so we just hung out and I gave them each $5 to spend in the gift shop.

Here are a few pictures from our day!

No Sugar!

My beautiful sister and I are doing a challenge together with a couple other ladies. We are trying to avoid sugar until the challenge is over (January 29th) Yes, you saw that right...January 29th. That is 4 months of no sugar. We will be paying ourselves up to $10/week, and at the end of the challenge the person with the highest points gets to either keep all the money that everyone in the challenge contributied to or they can split it. We can have sugar substitues, we are trying to use these only occasionally since they are not good for you, stevia, honey & agave syrup are o.k.

This is by far the hardest time of year to avoid sugar. It's hard for me normally, but this time of year especially. Here are just some of the things the upcoming events that I will have to say "no" to sugar:

Jeff's Birthday (this Friday)
Halloween (the kids are excited about no mommy tax on their candy this year)
Thanksgiving
Christmas (I won't be baking this year, which is my very favorite thing to do, tear tear)
New Years
Ian's Birthday

I have a serious sweet tooth, and when I want a snack the only thing that comes to mind is a sweet snack. Forget the popcorn and chips bring on the chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. The first week and a half has been hard, I'm feeling a bit deprived, but I also have a sense of accomplishment. I don't think I have every gone without sugar for this long EVER. I've heard that the first 2 weeks are hard and then it gets easier as time goes on. I've been chewing a lot of gum, eating more fruit that I usually do. Wish me luck, I seriously need it!

Back to School

The kids headed back to school on Monday. I'm a little sad to see summer coming to an end. I'm really missing our mornings of sleeping in and our late nights watching movies.

After church on Sunday the kids had their annual school fathers blessings. We all felt the spirit very strong in our home. This year I made it a point to write down the blessings and I will type them up so they can refer to it throughout the year.

Ian is super excited about middle school, I could tell the night before he had the jitters though. He was worried about when his lunch break was going to be (it wasn't listed on his schedule), he was worried about his locker combination, and he was worried about getting to his classes on time. On Monday morning he walked across the street to meet his friends to go to the bus stop, and I secretly wanted to walk with him and hold his hand to make sure he made it there o.k. I'm still glad that he doesn't think giving his mom a hug goodbye is not cool.



Morgan was also super excited about starting her second year in pre-school. She loves her teacher and is excited about making new friends.

A Much Needed Break

As most of you know, I was able to attend BYU Education week with my Mom. In years past we've made it a tradition to be able to take 1 or 2 days, but this year we had the opportunity to go to a full week of classes.

In March I received the housing application in the mail, and I had always heard that getting on campus housing was pretty difficult. You put in your application and then you are randomly drawn. I had very high hopes that we would get in, but I wasn't keeping my fingers crossed. We received our housing assignment along with our name badge for classes in the mail at the beginning of April. Man was I seriously stoked, I feel darn lucky that we were able to get in.

So last Monday my Mom and I headed down to Provo to check into our dorm (I seriously felt, like I was back in College). That night we ate at The Brick Oven and went to see "The Help" (AMAZING movie, and now I'm reading the book) On Tuesday we started classes at 8:30. My favorite class the whole week was taught by the Eyer's. The title of the class was "Entitlement: How it snares our kids" Each day they had different topics related to teaching our children ownership. I can't wait to buy the book. I feel as a parent I'm doing a pretty good job of not letting my children have thing just because they want them. I was taught at a young age to save money to buy something that I really wanted. My parents didn't have the money to buy us a lot of things growing-up, so I learned to work for what I wanted and often needed. I feel like I've passed on those values as I've become a parent myself. I know there is a lot more that I could be doing to teach my children and this class and the book will help me put into practice what I've learned.

My other favorite class was taught by Ryan Eggett. The first day I went the topic was "Marriage: Building Love that Lasts" He talked a lot about the Love President Hinckley and his wife shared. I wish Jeff would have been able to come to this class with me. I feel as if we have a great marriage, but there is always room for improvement, he gave some great tips on how to stay in an enjoyable and exciting marriage.

Another class the Bro. Eggett taught was "Loving Your Children and Having the Love you Back". With a pre-teen in the house, this is definitely a challenge a lot of the time. He taught us about having an "emotional bank" with your children and to teach them that when we say and do things that are hurtful to each other, then that is like taking out a withdrawal from the emotional bank, but when we are saying and doing kind things then that is like a deposit into the bank.

I could go on and on about the amazing classes that I took, but these were just a couple of my favs. I SO needed this break to get recharged. I have been feeling so emotionally drained and I know I was not a happy person to be around. I feel like I came back as a new person fully recharged and ready to be the Mom, Wife, Sister, daughter and friend that everybody needs me to be. I am so grateful that Jeff was able to take the week off of work and play Mr. Mom. It was a win-win situation for the both of us, he needed the time off of work and I needed the time away from home.

I'm already thinking about next year :)!!!

Oh What do you do in the Summertime...

This summer is going by way too fast...please slow it down. I'm loving having my kids home from school. Our Summer has been busy, but also relaxing & enjoyable.

So far this summer we have had Morgan in swimming lessons. She has been a little fish and is enjoying it so much more than she did last year.





Jeff spent a week in South Africa for work. I was totally jealous that he "had" to go to South Africa for work. He had a day of leisure and got some fun pictures and video in the Lion Park. He also brought us home some fun treasures. He's hoping he get to go back in a month or so, but it's not for sure yet. I'm hoping that he gets to go to, only because it means that he'll have earned enough frequent flyer miles for 2 round trip tickets anywhere in the U.S. I'm already working up plans in my head for a trip to NYC for our anniversary.







We recently went to Wyoming for my Grandpa's 90th Birthday celebration. It was so fun visiting with him and family and friends that I haven't seen in ages.

This is a picture of my Grandpa Huff in his younger years. I think he is very handsome.

Right after we returned from Wyoming I sent the boys (Jeff and Ian) off to scout camp for a week. This was Ian's first time camping and I had some anxiety about sending him since the week before there were 3 death from boys and scout camp...ugh. Luckily Jeff was there to keep an eye out for him and to make sure he changed his underwear and brushed his teeth daily (NOT).

Ian is working hard on his merit badges. He came home with 4 completed :)!!!

While the boys were gone Morgan and I had a very relaxing week. Lots of late night movie parties, toenail painting and swimming days. I almost hated having it come to an end we had some fun girl time bonding!

Ian moved down into our basement/spare bedroom recently and I moved all my office things from our master bedroom into his old bedroom. I spruced it up with a fresh coat of medium brown paint and organized my desk and filing cabinet. It is so clean and refreshing to have my own place to work. The walls are still bare, but I'm working on getting some decorations in there. I wish I would have taken before and after pictures.

I'm throwing some pictures in from our 4th of July. We watched the West Jordan Parade and later went to my Sisters house for a BBQ.



I hoping to pack some more fun into our summer before school starts!

Morgan Turned 4!

We celebrated Morgan turning 4 yesterday! It was so fun to see the excitement and anticipation of her Birthday coming up. Every time we went to the store, anything she saw that she thought she might want, she'd ask if she could have it, my reply was always "no, not right now", and then she would respond "for my Birthday?", and I'd say "maybe", and that would always suffice her.

We started our celebration on Friday night with dinner at TGIF's, we looked at going to a place called Incredible Pizza, but found out it had closed :(.





On Saturday My sister and I got together to celebrate both of our girls born on the same day, 2 years apart. My sister's daughter brought a friend, and Morgan brought a friend and we went to Thanksgiving Point to see the baby farm animals. They were so adorable from baby pigs, to cows, they couldn't have been cuter and the girls LOVED them. The kids rode the horses, we went on a horse drawn wagon ride, and the kids finished up by going on the tractor that pulled several little "cow" cars around the field.








On Monday Morgan woke up to a decorated pink door and a decorated pink chair at the dining table and a chocolate doughnut with a candle for Breakfast. She took cupcakes to pre-school and then we met Jeff for lunch at her favorite place, McDonalds. We came home and she helped me make her cake, and then we invited her friend over to play. She got to see what she got for her Birthday and played for a while and then we picked up Subway sandwiches so we could eat dinner and watch Ian play baseball. We came home and ate cake and Ice Cream and by that time she was super tired from her fun filled day.















I love our little girl so much, my life is so much richer and fuller with her in it. She's my princess, my "girls night in buddy" (when the boys go camping) and I'm so grateful to have her as part of our little family. Happy Birthday Princess, I LOVE YOU!!!!!