Christmas in arizona

this was our first year spending Christmas at home. of course i missed going to utah or california but we were lucky enough to have family here. nanna and papa came from california and we got together for christmas eve at laura and kevin's house. my sister steph and family came over and we had some old friends, the modrells from our california ward there too. that is one of the cool things about marry people from your home stake you always get to keep in touch.

christmas eve we had the traditional christmas dinner that we all contributed to and then the little kids performed the nativity. jack was the star of david and he actually kept his "star" on his head.




after the nativity there was a small talent show, with original songs as well as some of the traditional favorites. jack sang jingle bells all by himself. we were worried that he would get stage fright and not want to do it but he seemed to really relish being in the spot light.

christmas morning was very nice and relaxing. jack didn't want up until 6:30 and we came down to find that santa ate jack's treat that he made him. yes jack actually helped me make santa rice crispie treats, a first and hopefully not the last. opened our stockings and saw what santa left for jack. the presents were opened in about 15 minutes and then it was time to break out jack's ultimate gift. this year we bought jack a bounce house which he loves but also serves therapy purposes. after playing with our presents we went to denny's for breakfast, a newer family tradition that i really quite like.

jack discovering that santa came and ate his treat

in his stocking he got a notebook because he is really into blues clues and he needs a place to write down his clues.

opening his presents

that's right we have the bounce house in our living room!

later that morning nanna and papa came up to spend the weekend with us and we had a second round of presents. jack got a 500 piece marble coaster that john was lucky enough to set up. all in all it was a really wonderful christmas and we got a chance to reflect upon the things that are most important about the christmas season, the Savior, family and friends. we hope you all had a wonderful christmas and have a happy new year.

jack loves his papa

the early stages of setting up the marble coaster. doesn't john look so excited to be doing this?

the finished product and it only took him 4 hours

Christmas cards?

this one is more for me because i didn't get a belly picture with jack, but the new man cub is in there.

i wasn't really feeling the need to do an official chirstmas card this year but i thought i would just do a little update on the family on the good old blog.

we have been living here in anthem, arizona for two years already. time really does fly when you get old. we are blessed to live in a really safe and family friendly little town. as much grief as i give john about living here i really do appreciate all that anthem has to offer. we have a great ward and i can finally say that i feel like we are finally feeling like we are a part of things. john has been serving as the teacher's quorum advisor/assistant varsity scout leader. i've been in the primary as a teacher for almost 2 years. they "officially" released me several weeks ago but asked if i could keep teaching until they find my replacement, which of course they still haven't. my new calling is as an activity days leader, i'm really excited to be able to work with the girls i taught my first year in the primary.

john is still working for citi financial as a district manager for 7 of arizona's branches. it keeps him really busy and traveling quite a bit. lucky for us this means he gets to rack up the hotel points. hopefully in the next year or so we will have enough points to be able to come and visit our friends and family. the job is still challenging for john, which means he isn't bored yet. we are just truly grateful and blessed to have a job during such unstable times and take nothing for granted.

jack is in his second year of preschool and still loving it. he is making huge strides with all therapies and we are lucky to have such great people in our support system helping us. jack loves to play the wii, much to my dismay. john assures me it is really helping him with his hand/eye coordination, i'm not sure i buy it. jack also performed in his first primary program and did a great job. he continues to amaze us and keep us on our toes. we love this little man and are glad to have been blessed to have him as our son.

i've have been keeping busy trying to keep up with jack and all that he has going on throughout the week. this "spring" we will be blessed with another baby boy and we are very excited for the new arrival. i'm nervous and excited and can't wait to see how jack deals with not being the center of attention all the time. i'm sure he will be a great big brother. pray for us that i will be able to keep this baby in a little longer then i did jack.

we hope that you all have had a great year and we wish you all a very merry christmas. we love you all, come out and visit us sometime.

love,
john, shannyn, jack and baby yet to be named.

drum roll please

so it looks like we are going to be welcoming another baby boy into the family. i'm really excited and kind of relieved because i know what to expect with boys. everything during the ultrasound looked fine, the man cub has everything he is suppose to have.

Halloween Preview

Halloween is still a week away, but we had no choice but to get in to the festivies early. Fortunately for us, Jack absolutely loves his Halloween costume so any opportunity we have to put it on him, we take advantage of. Today's opportunity came in the form of our ward's trunk or treat.

Here is one of Jack in his costume. He's a bee (in case you couldn't tell)

Jack and Dad enjoying some of the bounty. Word to the wise, giant lemon heads are pretty sour. Nothing like the little ones that came in a box for a quarter from the ice cream truck...nothing at all like those.

Here's Mom working the trunk or treat

Last but not least, here are some pics we took a little while ago but haven't got around to posting. Jack had so much fun with the gingerbread around Christmas, we saw a Halloween themed house at Wal Mart and knew it would be perfect.

Here is the finished product and proof that some of it made on the actual house and not just on Jack's face!

Great Day for Up, Jack Style

Jack said he wanted to read a story. So he grabbed the book on the floor which happened to be Dr. Suess' "Great Day for Up." He had a surprise for me this time though. Instead of me reading to him, he read the story to me. Hopefully you can see the video. It was a little dark when I took it, but here is Jack's rendition of a Dr. Suess classic.


My favorite part is the end when he says, "I'm sleeping in."

I am man, hear me roar

Just wanted to share with everyone my latest accomplishment. That's right, you are looking at the giant scorpion that I squashed in our garage last night. Bad boy went scurrying across the floor and I introduced him to my size 13 Steve Maddens. That's how I do...

happy birthday, my little jack

september 1, 2005 was the day you were born and it was a complete surprise! although you come during a chaotic time you have brought nothing but joy and happiness into our lives. you started out a fighter and continued on in the same fashion. you amaze me everyday with all that you have accomplished and all that you will accomplish in your life.

your first birthday was so much fun. you were a happy baby who loved to be out in the sun shine. you were easy going and had just started to battle crawl. even though you weren't very fast you were always on the go looking for something or someone to play with.

your second year of life was full of a lot of first. shortly after you turned two you took your fist steps and ever since then you haven't stopped moving. you liked to be out and about all the time.

your third year marked a big change in your life, you started preschool. you have grown leaps and bounds in all areas of your life when you turned three. you started to sing songs more, you started to recognize your letters and numbers and you became a little bit more interested in friends. you are a very smart and sweet boy.



now you are four and we can't wait to see what this year brings for your life. i love your sense of adventure and am proud to be able to call myself your mom. i love you very much and am blessed everyday that i get to be with you. happy birthday jack jack.

bowl-a-rama

technically jack doesn't really turn four until tuesday but we celebrated a little early so we could have all our friends and family come up and celebrate with us. we are so lucky to have so many great people in our lives and that they are willing to come all the way up to anthem for our jack. we had a great time and we just wanted to say thanks to everyone. happy birthday jack we love you very much!

friends and families are the best

as stated before this summer was pretty busy for us. the last two weeks of summer where the craziest. we were lucky enough to have two family reunions, john's side and then my dad's side of the family. to start the reunion tour off i went up to st george and got to see my aunt marcia, uncle rick, aunt mimi, dennis, cousin laurie and kids and cousin mary and kids. we had a good time just hanging out trying to visit while 10 crazy kids ran around and had fun. as is tradition when we go to st george in the summer time we went to what we call the dolly parton pool (because it has two domes shaped like huge boobs) and the main street little river.


the second leg of the trip we went up to willard bay in northern utah for the workman reunion. it was so much fun to get to go camping and hang out on the lake for three days. uncle bert brought up his boat and jack loved cruising the lake and "going super fast." but his absolute favorite part was playing in the kayak and putting sand in the bucket. so lucky that boys are entertained fairly easily. we were pretty much in the water the whole time i didn't really take any pictures. on this trip i had a first, my first time tubing behind a boat. i was really pumped to go, i get on the tube go for about 30 seconds and of course the boat died. we were stranded in the middle of the lake for a good 30 minutes. though my ride wasn't long it was really fun. i was going to experience another first on the trip, water skiing. john and my borther in law kevin talked uncle bert into letting us take the boat out early before any of the kids woke up. so i get up at like 6 something in the morning freezing my butt off and get into to the boat so we can launch it. boats in the water, kevin trys to fire it up and it won't start. uncle bert messed with it for a little while and still nothing. life experience number two didn't happen. don't be fooled we all still had a great time at the reunion and i loved having a chance to reunite with family we hadn't seen in forever.

see the smiles on our faces we had a blast (sorry i stole this picture from your blog.)

during the reunion i was lucky enough to be able to go out with my girls becky, buffy and sarah from our condo days. we all live in different states now and it was really lucky that we were all in utah at the same time. we went to the gateway to shop, have dinner and do what we do best, talk! it was so nice to have the girls night and be with them all again. i haven't and i'm sure i never will be able to find friends as great as them again. i really miss my girls.

the last leg of the tour was up in jackson hole wyomming for my dad's side of the family's reunion. we drove from st george up to pocatello idaho and stayed the night, because of this i was lucky enough to get a chance to see my melinda. it had been about three years since the last time i got to see her and that i might add is way to long. melinda is my one friend that no matter how much time passes since the last time i saw her i instantly feel comfortable and fall right back into the ways things are when we are together no awkwardness at all. i got to see her beautiful boys and her super cute house. i love my smellin head you are one of a kind and i will have you for my friend for the rest of my life.

melinda and tyler's newest addition to their little family, ezra. super cute and super good baby.


melinda's other boys river in my arms and joseph with the drink cup.



after visiting with melinda in idaho falls we drove over to jackson hole. that has got to be some of the most beautiful parts of this country i have ever seen. if i wasn't so attached to say target and having serious medical facilities for jack i would move there in a heart beat. it is so green and amazing. once we got to jackson there was a ton of everetts there to greet us. i love it in jackson hole and it was awesome because my dad did all the cooking pretty much so we were "forced" to hang out with each other and get to know each other better. i have so many cousins that i don't really even know so it was great to be with them.



jackson hole decided to give me a really early christmas present and rain everyday we were there. it cleared up long enough to have a few adventures and cook dinner. it was so nice to be in weather that reminded me that there are other seasons besides summer. while we were there we went to jenny lake and went on a hike, swam at the community center, did the bungee trampline and much more. i owe my parents a huge thank you for arrange this reunion and letting jack and i tag along for the ride. you guys are the best and i cherish all the trips you have taken me on. i hope to be able to do the same for my little family.



proof that they really do like each other and get a long well for the most part.

you can't really see the mountains in this picture but they were beautiful. this is right before we embark on a little hike.

jack loves him some grandma. you can see the mountains in this one. it was a beautiful day.

jacks favorite part of the hike was climbing on the rocks.

half way through the hike when i was still able to carry jack. we didn't have our daddy with us to help me carry the turkey so my dad and heather were kind enough to help me with that. jack couldn't really see the rocks in the trail and kept tripping which is why he needed to be carried.


riding the boat over jenny lake to the hidden falls hiking trail.

some of our group up at hidden falls

jack and i relieved to have made it to the falls and great for the little rest and beautiful surroundings.

back at our lodging jack had a blast playing "baseball" and dumping rocks into that parking cone. again i'm grateful that boys are so easily entertained.

so all in all our last two weeks of summer were awesome, great and wonderful and i'm ready for the next go around next year. i'm one lucky girl because i have the greatest froms a girl could ask for and the best family.

why is blogging so hard for me lately?

this summer has been crazy, fun and very busy. but i find myself at a loss as what to post and what to say about what we did. to start with our summer vacation has ended because our sweet boy jack has started his second year of preschool. happy to report that jack did great, he didn't fuss once and wasn't apprehensive about taking the bus to school. my how things change so fast. my toddler has grown into a boy and i don't know when or how that happened. he has become more independent and adventurous. he now snatches the utensil from my hands says "i can do it." he is a lot better at playgrounds and going over, under and through things. he swings from the monkey bars and i'm getting a lot better at letting him do it. i still worry but i'm trying to let go. i'm so happy to have such a fun, loving and sweet boy. here's to another fun year of preschool.

Usual pose...

Just to prove that Jack is a wipeout addict (for those of you that haven't spent any time at our house), I took this picture of him today. Good night and big balls.

What a goof

Funny story. We were walking in the parking lot of the outlet mall and there was an SUV pulling out that looked like Shannyn's car. Jack saw it pulling out and yelled, "hey that's my mom's!" It was pretty funny. What a goof ball.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

my little fish

as per summer tradition i signed jack up for swimming lesson and to my surprise he is doing great. i elected to go the private lesson route because jack is not afraid of the water at all and i was afraid he would just jump in while the teacher wasn't paying attention. we've had 4 lessons so far and he gets better everytime. he only had one lesson where he cried the whole time, not because he was scared but because he just woke up in a bad mood that morning. it is awesome to see his natural instincts kicking in. when he goes under water he knows to "kick" to the surface and he is learning that if he falls in he needs to swim to the wall. i'm really happy with his teacher, she works really well with him and he trusts her which is huge. jack will even "jump" off the diving board on his own to his teacher. i'm glad i have a little swimmer boy because that is what i love to do. i can't have a kid who can't swim, that is just unheard of in my family. needless to say we have a ways to go but i'm really proud of him.

he actually goes off by himself, john is just there to make sure he clears the board.



back floats are a little ruff. he tends to get really tense and won't relax his arms, but we are making progress.

after every lesson jack gets to bask in his accomplishments with a lollipop.