A White Christmas

This is what happened on Christmas Eve afternoon. The boys were so excited to play in the snow. But there was not quite enough for a snowman but I was hit by a snowball, thanks Peter!

Arabella only stayed outside for a few minutes. I don't blame her it was cold!!

Peter and Joey lasted the longest. Joey took a nose dive literally on the trampoline and scraped his nose, chin, and upper lip. But they had a great time.

We opened our Christmas Eve pajamas before I left for work. (Yes, Jon has taken his shirt off and I can not remember why. Usually it is because it is "too itchy".

Such cute PJ's.

I had to leave for work after this. The roads were so nasty because before it snowed it had been raining and sleeting for about 10 hours. Now there was ice under the snow and just not fun to drive in. The worst was coming home on Christmas morning. Now the ice was really hard and so some places, like the parking lot at work were like ice arenas. I made it home safe and I only slid through one intersection. My wheels were not moving there was just enough of a slope to keep the truck moving. Crazy!!!

Joey and Jon checking to make sure Santa and the reindeer found their carrots and cookies. Santa left a note saying thanks. Santa is so good!

Check out that half eaten carrot.

Arabella loved her seat at her new table and chairs (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Rabner).

There was a great deal of excitement over the Bakugan that dad got from Santa. Now he can play with Joey and Jon. He was so happy!

Joey did not believe that this was his bike, "it was to big"! Peter climbed on and said it must be for him then, but that did not seem right, too small.

Finally, Joey gave it a try and sure enough it was a bike for him.

Jon is going to be a great puppeteer. We got quite a few new puppets and he makes great sound effects.

Arabella liked how soft her puppets were.

Jon opened his new Bakugan.

Joey opening his Bakugan. Check out that pile of chaos in the middle.

Peter got a hold of the camera so here is a shot of me still in my work clothes. I do have on my festive jacket. Jon was so eager to help me and Arabella unwrap our gifts.

Christmas was wonderful! Jon got a scooter and some dinosaurs; one even walks. Arabella a shopping cart and play food and bath toys. Joey got a bike and a bowling set and legos.

This is after I have had some sleep. Ahhh! I helped free a few more toys from packaging before starting on dinner. Peter and I had a great time making a Christmas dinner for our family and the missionaries. The elders called their families (and one girlfriend) from our house. We loved sharing our Christmas day with them.

This a picture of Arabella today. Nice horn hair after she pulled her pigtails out. Yesterday we took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakuel. They loved it.

Today, I gave a talk and it was fun to watch Peter manage the kids, he did a great job! I was also sustained as the Releif Society President. I don't think I really know what I am in for but I am always up for a challenge. We have great people in our ward and I am anxious to get to know more of them. The sisters I have for a counselor and secretary are so sweet and I think we will make a great team. I hope everyone had a magical holiday and felt the love of our Savior.

December Activities

I wanted to share some photos of what we have been up to this month.

The kids were struggling during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional so we made a hut and became the coolest parents in a snap.
Arabella thought it was pretty cool too until the boys blocked off all of the exits.

Our ward Christmas party was last Friday night. Arabella discovered the delicious joy of the peanut butter hershey kiss cookies. She is clutching it in her hand.

The kids sang a few great songs and sounded like angels but in this picture with their red eyes they look a bit devlish. Freaky, eh?

There was an adorable puppet show with Grover and Oscar the Grouch.

I really don't know what to say about this picture. Peter states it is a very "Shellie Picture". My eyes certainly show excitement, or suprise?!

Santa arrived and made many children very happy. The boys were so excited and Arabella tolerated his lap for about 30 seconds and then she was done.

I took this picture this morning because they looked so cute in their Christmas Duds.

I love my kids!

More pictures to come of our outing at the beginning of December to Holiday At the Hall at the Lewisville City Hall. It was great and now my desktop is working again so I will be able to get to my pictures.

Happy Holidays!
Oh and if any of you can figure out what flying pigs have to do with Christmas let me know. This is in the yard of a house down the street. The wings even move up and down.

Jon turns 4!

I was going to post some pictures of Jon over the years but our desktop is on the fritz and so, I can not get to my pictures. Argh, computers.

Either way Jon had a great day and we can not believe he is 4 already! We love him so much and are so grateful he is a part of our family!

Opening presents on birthday morning. It was a very dinosaur filled birthday and he loved it!
Dinosaur face! Jon was able to take treats to his preschool class and also a favorite book to share. They gave him a Mickey Mouse birthday crown and he felt way cool!

Monday I baked three cake mixes so that while I was at work Peter could sculpt this cake for Jon. Peter is feeling a bit like "the Cake Boss". I am so grateful for his hard work and late night putting this together. And yes, those would be Jon's feet on the table because he was standing on it in all of his excitement. We had two families from our ward over to share the cake. So much fun playing.

Another dinosaur face. Happy birthday my Jonny! We love you!

Christmas Time

For Christmas my parents gave our family a new trampoline. Peter and I braved the Black Friday sales at Walmart to save about $80 on it. Yippee! I love a bargain! We set it up that day and all of us had fun on it. Peter and I like that it is bigger becasue we feel we can jump with the kids more safely. Arabella even took a turn on it and seemed to like it.

Oh the fun to be had!

Another promise made and kept. Joey was rather disappointed that I only put up a few Halloween decorations. Then he saw people starting to put up Christmas decorations he wanted to but we were moving and I said no but promised that our first family home evening we would get a tree. That is just what we did on Monday night. We did not get home in time to get lights on and decorate the tree but it was up and smelled wonderful!
Tuesday night we decorated. Arabella loved all of the little balls and the ones that made noise were her favorite (jingle bells). It was a fun evening for all.

I decided not to worry too much about what my tree looks like with young kids around because they will be redecorating it daily- at least as high as they can reach.

A picure of some of Joey's ornament hanging skills-photo by the artist himself.

Jon was so very proud of his spot. He also took this picture. Arabella has already done some adjusting to these sparkling beauties. She would place the balls and bells on the tree and of course they would just roll of but she was so pleased with her work.

Peter trying to get the star to stay up straight.

It rained off and on all day yesterday and then all during the night. This morning it turned to snow. It stopped by 9:00am. There was a thicker layer than this but it was all metled by 11:30. Jon did venture out for a few minutes but came back in saying the wind was way to chilly and it was making him shake.

Thanksgiving

We had several people from our new ward show up on that Monday night to help us get in moved in. We had a lot of boxes and the stairs were a killer after awhile. My parents were huge helpers in getting us moved in. They helped unpack a ton of boxes and my mom and I worked hard for hours on just the kitchen.

We did take some time out on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving!

We had more than our fair share to be thankful for this year! New jobs for both me and Peter and a new house, three beautiful kids and two great families that love and support us.

She is so stinkin' cute!
Jon wanted to make silly faces and I think he did a pretty good job!

Joey was his usually smiley happy self and was so excited to eat, especially the pie.

Birthday Celebrations

I put these pictures in backwards but oh well. Joey was very concerned about Arabella getting a birthday cake. I promised him that the Wednesday after her birthday we would do a cake. After some last minute purchasing, the promise was kept. She loved the cake and frosting as you can see. Joey felt satisfied that Arabella got her full birthday festivities and Jon had fun helping her blow out the candle.

This is just a cute picture taken the last morning or our drive to Lewisville. She is so cute!

We ate out on Saturday night in Flagstaff and the waitress and other staff members brought Arabella ice cream and a candle which again Jon helped blow out because "she is too little and does not know how to do it." She loved the ice cream. She has gotten two new teeth in the week we have been here so that may have something to do with it.

Also on the night before we moved, the Larsen's showed up with cupcakes to celebrate. I try not to think too much about what we are going to do without the Larsen's. Jon thought that he would see them at church for sure and was disappointed when we explained he would not be seeing any of our old friends there. He was good though and eagerly shared his name with everyone and asked them what their names were. Changes.

Moving

The week of moving began with Joey and Jon earning one last belt in Taekwondo. They loved their teachers there and we are hoping to find equally great ones here.

Joey will really miss his teacher Mrs. Gardner. She gave Joey the best start to his years of schooling we could have possibly hoped for. Jon will miss his teacher Miss Keiko so much too. He has talked about her quite a bit already.

It is a strange thing to see rooms that you have so many memories in empty. It will always be our first house where we brought home to of our children and learned so much as a family. I loved my house and the way we were able to turn it into our home.

The boys think they want their new room to be painted just like their old room. But, this time they want to help paint it. I think we just might be willing to do that. Last time I think it was Jon spilled about 1/4-1/2 gallon of paint gratefully on a drop cloth with only a little bit on the carpet.

I loved Arabella's room. It was the first time I really was able to decorate a nursery. I loved the colors and beadboard so much we area doing it again. Although, Peter suprised me and painted the purple in stripes of high-gloss and semi-gloss. It looks so good.

The Lord had a hand in our trailer being given away before we decided to pick it up and so we ended up with a bigger one which we completely filled.

And this is our jam-packed moving truck. We lucked out and had the coolest moving truck with a dinosaur on the side. Somehow that helped the boys as they watched all of their belongings being placed inside. We had so many great people help us from our ward. If you are reading this, know that we love you and you will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Saturday morning we had to do some repacking of the truck and trailer to make the last few things fit but we did it. Yea!! Peter is amazing at making things fit. My mom was wonderful and helped me get the final cleaning done. Even the boys helped out!

Arabella's first birthday was moving day! She is decked out in her cool new 1 shirt from the Larsen's. She was a trooper especially when I was holding her.

Our last picture with our house.