My trip to Utah

Here are a few pictures from my recent trip to Utah in May. Shane had Memorial weekend off so I jumped on the opportunity to fly out BY MYSELF! and spend some time with my family. Here's my sister Emily and her husband Ryan with their new baby girl Annie. She's so sweet.

MMMmm Out for chinese food at the Mandarin. Mom, me, Dad, Ryan, John, and Em

Dad with Caleb, Isaac, and Mckay at Caleb's soccer game

My brave sister..mother of 5!!

I was able to spend some much needed quality one on one time with my parents. It was wonderful. I love them so much.

Thanksgiving pics

My little brother Matt and his wife Chrissy traveled from Des Moines, Iowa to be with us on Thanksgiving. Zach and Tirzah and their girls also joined us. Good times were had catching up with each other, the girls making jewelry with Aunt Chrissy, playing Blokus, and attempting to moisten up the turkey by letting it bathe a while in a pool of gravy (oh well...Thanksgiving side dishes are my favorite anyway..who needs turkey really?) Thanksgiving is always the most difficult holiday away from family so I loved having them here!

Zach, Tirzah, Chrissy, Matt, Erin and Shane

Me with my girls Liza bear and Hailey bug

Tirzah, Sarah, and Zach

Matt and Chrissy

Hailey, Kayti and Sarah at 'the kids table'

Eliza and Anna

10 Random Things

I've been 'tagged' for the very first time in my blogging career! My good friend Hilary (whom I love and miss dearly :)) challenged me to write ten random things about myself. So even though it's very unlike me to do something like this..I thought what the heck! Plus I feel extremely honored that Hilary would pick me. So here goes....

1. I hate being the center of attention. Whenever I know that all eyes are on me my face always goes red.

2. I love watching cooking shows and painting shows. Two things that I would love to be able to do really well.

3. I prefer hand, arm, and face massages over a back massage.

4. My fears are spiders(although I've had to overcome this fear somewhat since my husband is never home to kill them for me..I have to take matters into my own hands), water (when I don't know how deep it is, also fear of my kids drowning), and car accidents-or one of my kids getting hit by a car.

5. I used to walk in my sleep when I was a kid...frequently. Sorry mom and dad!

6. I never forward e-mails..especially when the e-mail specifically tells me to forward it to X number of people. I refuse. I know..I'm such a rebel.

7. I always sleep with a pillow between my knees. I started doing that out of necessity when I was pregnant and it's just become a habit. I can't sleep without it.

8. I really want to learn how to play the guitar. It's one of my favorite instruments. Eliza and I just picked up a 'learn to play guitar' book from the library and have since mastered 3 chords! Well, maybe not quite 'mastered'. But I am really determined to learn. I love music...it is something that I've always been passionate about.

9. I have a habit of picking at my eyebrows. I'm sure one of these days I'll regret this when I have to start drawing on my eyebrows with eye liner.

10. I'm a very indecisive person. I don't like being in charge and I don't like making decisions. Having too many options overwhelms me.

Alright..that wasn't so hard. Thanks Hil, good times were had!
Am I supposed to tag someone now? (sorry-I'm still new at this)
If so..I TAG Jen, Chrissy, Nanette, and Mom.

My little artist

Back in September Eliza had the opportunity to submit some artwork to the Oakland county "Arts, Beats, and Eats" festival. Children from schools all over Oakland county were invited to participate and were given several different themes to choose from. Eliza chose three different themes: 'What I love about Michigan'(Picture of the beach and lighthouse in Ludington, MI-Painting), 'Pop Culture' (Picture of Phineas and Ferb-Pastels on black paper), and 'Nature' (3-D Bumlebee sitting on a paper flower).

Eliza was selected as one of the winners for her "What I Love About Michigan" painting of Ludington! She won a $25 gift card to Target and her painting was displayed in the Oakland County Executive Offices. Pretty cool, huh?!

I'm so proud of my Liza Bear. She really is such a smart and creative girl. Congratulations Eliza! We love you!

10 Years

Shane and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on August 18th. 10 years! I can't believe it. We were able to go on an overnight getaway (thanks to Zach and Tirzah for watching our girls) to a cute little German town here in Michigan called Frankenmuth. It was so much fun to spend some time together, just the two of us. We haven't done that in years. I'm so grateful for Shane and for the life we have together. There's no one else I'd rather share it with.

Still catching up! Cory and Angie's Wedding, July 2009

We had such a great trip to Utah in July. The main event and reason we went out was for Shane's brother Cory's wedding. Cory married an incredible girl named Angie and we all just love her. The wedding was beautiful and we loved being with our family and friends. I was also able to celebrate my 30th birthday while we were there which was so much fun. I had a spoil day with mom and Emily-we went out to lunch, shopping and pedicures! It was a great trip. Here are some highlights..

Family Meeting

Last night I went to Enrichment Meeting while Shane stayed home and watched the girls. Because he is having to wake up at 4:00 in the morning for work he usually goes to bed pretty early...so after he got Ava to sleep he went to bed and let Eliza and Hailey stay up and watch a movie until I got home. After I arrived home I sat with the girls and as we talked about what they did with daddy while I was gone Eliza informed me that they had a family meeting in the fort that they had built downstairs. Of course Eliza was the one who called the meeting and decided that the topic of discussion would be 'how to make our family stronger'. She handed out paper and asked that everyone write down ways in which we could make our family stronger. Here were the results:

Hailey: wrote 'Family' at the top of her paper and proceded to draw a picture of our family 'trying to be like Jesus' and a picture of her going to school with her backpack.

Eliza's list: Family Meeting. Stronger Family. Try to go to church every Sunday, have family game night, family home evening, family outings, family fun night, have family meetings more often, and have family morning prayer.

So at this point I'm thinking...oh how sweet...I wonder what Shane wrote.

Shane's list: Family Meeting. Becoming a stronger family.
1. Lift weights
2. Do lots and lots of work
3. Enter weight lifting competitions
4. Work out
5. Wear speedos

Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard. I could just picture Eliza getting upset with Shane at the 'family meeting' because he wasn't taking the assignment seriously. Anyway, I got a good laugh out of it. Does anyone else think my husband is hilarious?