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.