Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas! I have noticed this year that miss the excitement brought to the Holiday by the excited little ones. It's not the same when you don't have the same excitment you use to or have those around you that do. The other night we went to a Munson party and it was so nice to see two little guys get so excited at the mention of Santas name in our Christmas Carol.
Regardless I love the season and love the perty lights and all the giving. Shay and i went looking at lights on Sunday for TWO HOURS. The ones in Meridian to the music were our favorites. It was the perfect activity to get us in the Christmas mood. Hope everyone has a VERRYYY Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too!!

The past month or so...

Today Shay and I made lots of Christmas cookies. Ok...I made them and he helped me frost the cookies. It's a fun tradition we have started (since those are his favorite treat). We are looking forward to the Holiday's and all the fun parties comming up.
We spent Thanksgiving this year in Burley with the Hewards. I wish I had taken more pictures. We had a day full of black friday shopping which is always an adventure. We played lots of fun games and made lots of new memories. On Thanksgiving Day and the next day everyone went paintballing on the farm. Me trying to find something that fits to wear. These were so big Shay ended up wearing them.
Shay in his coveralls getting ready to go paintballing.
The gang before they went paintballing on Thanksgiving day.

Dairy Convention 2009

Dairy Convention 2009. For those of you that dont remember the convetion last year...we won a lot of stuff. Most of the prizes were smaller, but I won one of the door prizes which was a 20 inch TV. So this year the first day at lunch, Shay wins one of the doorprizes...a 12 megapixel Sony digital camera. I was so excited because it was top of my list for Christmas this year. So the next day at lunch Shay's sister wins the Grand Prize...a 40 inch Samsung TV (worth $1079)! Then that night at dinner she won a Nintendo DS as well. So let's just say there was a lot of winning to be had again this year.
They feed us SO much food! The lunches are like 5 course meals and huge dinners...huge servings everymeal. By the end of the weekend, I felt like I wouldn't eat again for days.

Shay with his...or OUR new camera..haha.

Us kids messing around.

Here is the group at the last lunch. It was so fun to have most of the famliy here to enjoy in the crazy amounts of food and great prizes. Until next November...

The Better To See You With My Dear...

I realized this year that I love dressing up and coming up with costume ideas. This year we were the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. Shay was a pretty good sport about wearing a nightgown two full nights in a row!! In the picture he has pants on under the night gown, but on the second night he actually wore shorts with slippers which made the costume much better! We had lots of fun at both the parties we went to. Here are some goodies I made for the parties.
Scary Veggy dip
choclate covered rice crispie ghosts.

No bake spiders. Yum Yum.

What is that SMELL????

So I struggled with whether or not I wants to post this post. Seems like most posts are sharing happy or funny times with friends and family. Well I decided to post it with a warning because I know a lot of you will be amazingly grossed out and then laugh about it for years to come. This will be the story that you say...did you hear what happened to Kira. This post is not for those with weak stomachs or young children. haha. So with that....continue if you would like.
So Conference Weekend, Friday night, we are at Shays parents house (dairy farm) and a whole bunch of cousins, friends, roomates, and other people come over to play night games on the farm. Shay got caught so I was trying not to get caught by myself. A few minutes later the people that were it were running in my direction and i thought they saw me. Me and another gal started running. I saw Shays brother Kurt run around one of the Silo's and I ran after him. I saw him disapear ahead of me and was running for my life and before I know it the ground has disapeared under my feet and I am in liquid.
So the milk barn gets sprayed out (to clean up the cow crap and pee) and gets sprayed into this concrete pool area. Ya that's what I fell into. I went completly under and feared drowning even though it was only 4.5 feet deep. When I came up the girl that had been running behind me pulled me out (my feet were kind of stuck because it was a bit thicker on the bottom.)
I was led to the milk barn and sprayed off where I stripped off my layers of clothing and tryed to escape the terrible smell. Turns out when I went under i got the crap up me nose. A lot of it. I showered for a long time and washed me hair 4 times by the next morning. We had to wash my clothes 4 times before the smell came all of the way out. I had the smell stuck in my nose for about 3 days and I swear I still smell it on my sweatshirt sometimes.

This is the pool that I fell into. This picture was taken a couple of days later after it had snowed. You can see it's very full. It was actually drained a couple of days later. So when I fell in it was at the fullest level it ever gets.

Here is me after waiting for my sister in law Amber to hurry and get a camera so I can remember this night forever. haha. Notice how thick it is on my face and in my hair. Turns out I am the first person to ever fall in, which definetly suprised me with how many kids have been raised there. I can only imagine how funny it would have been to see a girl full out sprinting and disapear into a pool of...whatever. haha. It was an interesting experience and definetly made topic easy for all conference weekend.

Kurt is Home!

Last weekend we went to Burley for Kurts Homecoming and see all the family. Here is a picture of Kurty James and Shay at the afterparty. We are so glad Kurt set the example and went on a mission, but definetly glad to see him again.
Sunday after church we took some family pictures. We wanted to get one of all the boys. Well you can imagine how hard it is to get all these boys to be serious for 2 minutes, so this is what we got.
Here is our newest family picture! Sheesh our family is getting so big! I love it! Saturday we went to Steadmans which is the funnest place ever. It is in the middle of nowhere Idaho and there are two big slides, a zipline, a mudpit and lots of other fun. We were putting all seven of us on one giant tube. So fun. I like this picture because it looks like I am flying. All seven of us on the big orange tube. We found a bunch of different ways to all ride it at once. This one didn't work so well. Can you tell which way we are about to flip?? Yup, right over me!
This is us after all falling off into the big mud pit at the end of the slide. This picture does not do justice of exactly how muddy we were.

Shed adventures and Canoeing in the Dark

A couple of weeks ago we found this shed for a killer deal on craigslist (love it). It was quite the chore finding a way to get it in our backyard (clear on the opposite corner) But our friend Quinn and Shay were pretty good problem solvers and got i figured out. Now we have an awesomely big shed and all of our stuff fits!! Yahoo. Thanks for your help Quinn, Liz, Adam, and Tay Tay, and all my family that helped too.

This past weekend we went canoeing with some friends on the Payette. It was dark (little bit of moon light) when we finished which was kind of scary when we went over the rapids, but it was so much fun. Here's Shay and I before we embarked on our adventure.

Blake and Katie on their busted canoe. Sorry Brian and Clarisa the picture I had of you turned our blurry.

It was light when we started but dark when we went over the final rapids (aka water wiggles) The sights were amazingly beautiful. I found myself not wanting to grap my camera in fear I would miss seeing some of the beautiful sights. Here's this awesomely hot guy that I was hanging out with.

Shay and Blake unloading the canoes.

Clarisa, Katie, and I before our canoe trip. So there are no pictures of the end of the trip because our ziploc baggy turned out not to be so water tight and our camera got wet. Have no fear though, it was ok after airing out a bit.

After 5 years Finally Got Him Skiing

Shay got up on a slolemn ski last week and did so good. This video has an awesome wipeout at the end too. Way to go Shay!

Vacation in Northern Idaho

Shay and I went on vacation a couple weeks ago to Courd A'lene and stayed at a resort on the lake. It was SO nice and relaxing and exaclty our kind of vacation. We went on a couple of hikes, kayaking, biking and had such a good time. Here's some pictures of our adventure.

Happy 5 Years!!

I'm here I'm here! So things have been a little crazy lately! Working at Aamco has been going well but has definetly kept me busy. I am working more hours so lets just say poor Shay has been having to fend a lot more for himself, but he has been such a good sport about it. We have had some other things come up that have challenged my skills at time managment and made me realize how important it is. I also went from a calling in the Primary to one in Young Womans which I am completly stoked about, just that whole time thing again. Where do all the hours of the day go?
Tomorrow we are leaving for a long needed vacation! First one in two years! We are celebrating our 5 year anniversary which actually takes place next week! I can't believe it has been that long and at the same time I can't remember what it was like before I was with Shay. He is so great and has been working so hard in school. I love you babe! Happy Anniversary!
So below I have put some random pictures of the last couple months.
My sister in law Amber and I at Broadside Harbor just hanging out.
Jared with his birthday cake (homemade Boston Cream Pie...yum) on his 18th Birthday. I can't beleive my BABY bro is 18!
Shay and I went for a 4 wheeler ride when we were in Kuna for Jared's birthday. We rode for a long time through some beautiful fields and saw parts of Kuna I had never seen. There were some bugs so I let him wear my glasses since he was driving. I think he pulled them off just great!
Shay and I after a bike ride last week. We went a little bit later and the weather was perfect. It was a great ride and a beautiful night.

Double A* Honk*Honk* M-C-O

My Dad has owned the Aamco on State Street for about 20 years, and his Dad owned it before him. He is closing next week on buying the other Aamco in Boise. It is very exciting and a life long dream for him. THe other exciting part is that I am going to be the one running it! I have been training all this week and already love my new job. It will be challenging, but kind of cool to have another family member in the mix. I will have pictures soon, no worries.

Cheesecake Factory With Old Friends

Yesterday we were finally able to meet up with our good friends. My Mom and I had lunch with my friend Liz, her Mom Anne Marie and her daughter Tayler. It was fun to see them after so long and carry on an old tradition, and enjoy some yummy yummy food and cheesecake! Thanks friends for spending some time with us!

Easter Weekend

Majority of this Easter weekend was spent ripping our bathroom apart. Our tub installed on an un-level surface. So that was just SO much fun. The neverending stench of caulk is burned into my nose. haha...but hopefully our fix-it job will last.
Sunday I got to wear my new Easter Dress that my Dad bought me. I was SO excited. It has been so long since I got a new church outfit...like 5 years. My Dad decided he was going to start buying my Mom and I an Easter dress every year. So here is My new dress...Kindof...This picture was taken Easter morning of Shay and I together...but I kind of cut off the skirt. That's what happens when you have it set up on the entertainment center with a timer.
Sunday we went over to my family's house for Thai Seafood Easter Dinner. It was yummy yummy. My Grandma and Grandpa came too.<
Here is all of us playing Botchee Ball. I have no idea if I spelled that right. Turns out my Grandpa was a natural! We had great fun playing outside in the beautiful weather with family. It was a great relaxing end to a crazy weekend. Happy Easter!

What we have been up to the last...2 months

So once again. Long time no post. Sorry. No excuses this time. Not a whole lot new going on with us. Oh, as many of you know Shay was a state employee, so he got laid off a week ago, but got another job after only one day of being unemloyed. We are so blessed. He now paints around campus and helps with other maintenece for housing owned by Boise State. Here is a little of what we have been up to besides school school school and work.

Liz and I at the basketball games at the Idhao Center.

Shay and his Dad at the High School State Championships at the Idaho Center yesterday. Shay's dad always gets free passes, so we go every year to get the free choclate milk...haha

My brother Jared and I at the Rascal Flats Concert....which was AMAZING!!! Best concert ever!

Steak Night at Clarisa's and Brian's. We were all laughing way too hard.

Shay reffing a church basketball game. Turning into those that he use to dislike so much. haha...growing up.

My cousin Stacy, my mom and I at Katie's baby shower. Lots of baby showers lately...and lots of cute babies!

Brian and Shay setting up Settlers of Catan

Happy New Year

ppy New Year Everyone! I spent New Years Eve with my family since Shay was still in Burley. We played games, had fun and went to PF Changs for dinner. It is also the last night before Buddy left for school.
The family at PF Changs

Here's us kids being silly in the car ride home.