Annual Update!

It appears my blogging is becoming just an annual event...geeeeezzz!!! If only there were more time in the day. Since it's been SO long since I've written anything, this post may take me a while to complete, especially to add photos, etc.

2009 has been quite a ride. As for everyone, the down economy has been an unfortunate large part of our lives. The good news is that our business is still in-tact. We did have to down size a bit, but we are feeling good about the changes we've made and are hopeful about the future!

Since the football season ended (for Scottie), he has committed to a healthier lifestyle...gives him something to focus on besides work and money! He's been working out faithfully every morning and trying to eat somewhat better. We all have work to do in that arena! He's feeling good and looking stronger and hotter!!! Haha. The football team that he played for last year just announced that it will be changing to another league, Arena Football 1, which will allow them to play in a bigger arena in Salt Lake City (The E Center). He's excited about his football future and we are excited about attending another great season. It's quite fun!

Shayn started back to school in August, so we have all been running wild since then. Fall thru Spring is soooo busy! I am helping on a few PTA committees this year, and I am also the Room Mom for his 1st grade class. It's fun to be involved, and I actually function better when I am busy. Outside of Mom stuff, I have been busy helping my brother-in-law and his fiance plan their wedding (shout out to Neil and Leslie!!). I took their engagement pics for them, and I am also catering their reception. I now dream about baking!!! I am making approximately 1400 desserts, starting in the next few weeks. It is going to be quite the undertaking, but it has all opened my eyes to a world that I never really considered pursuing as a career. I love photography and to bake, so it's been fun. I also have a few other business ideas brewing, but I will share those another time! If I wasn't busy enough with all of this, I just starting playing on a co-ed soccer team. I've never played in my life, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. It will be a good break for me though, and it will be a fun way to squeeze some excerise into my life!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Shayn is growing up too fast! It's amazing how much school life changes them. He is enjoying the first grade and has a great 1st-year teacher. He's doing so well with his reading and spelling, we're really proud of him! He also was one of two students in his class to be chosen for a Star Student award in September, so that was pretty cool! Going to full days of school has been an adjustment for all of us. Once he gets home and completes his homework, the day is almost over! He hasn't been too involved in extra-curricular activities since Spring Soccer. He wanted to play flag football, but we missed the deadline. I thought we should let him adjust to school a bit before we jumped into a bunch of stuff anyhow! He is looking forward to basketball in January. This is the first year he's old enough to play. He's already counting down the days to his 7th birthday...in February! He's such a funny kid.




Jace is coming up on his second birthday at the beginning of January. Time flies!!! He is so fun. He is talking some (mostly words that parents could only understand). He also does some signing, so that's been a great way to communicate. He can also sing the alphabet and count to 10...not perfected, but you can tell that's what he is doing! He loves to kick, EVERYTHING! Balls, rocks, toys, dogs (we're working on that one), etc. The list goes on! He absolutely adores his big brother and is constantly shouting his name, Shayn!!! He copies everything brother does, so Shayn has had to learn to think before acting, so Jace doesn't do something unsafe. He also loves to eat paper. We joke that there's a mouse in the house because we are always finding paper products chewed up (toilet paper, unused of course :), books, boxes, mail...) -- it would be soooooo nice if he would enjoy FOOD as much as he does paper. Gotta love him!




The dogs are doing well. Jazzi is slowing down some, so that's kinda sad to watch. She is middle-aged now! She still keeps up with Max pretty well when she's in the mood. They play really well together. Max is still a puppy, and it's still very apparent! He LOVES to play, and he loves to chew stuff up. Not my favorite thing! I want to beat him sometimes, so it's a good thing I don't have an ounce of violence in my body. Thanks, Mom! Our lives would be very different without them, though. They are definitely a huge part of our family!




I will leave it at this for now. I'm sure we've had some other exciting events going on, but it's still morning, and my brain doesn't seem to really kick in until bed time. Yikes! I will add some pics soon and any other fun stories that come to mind. We will have lots of pics to add soon from the upcoming wedding!!!

TTFN!

The Football Life

Okay, so from my previous post (an update on our year so far), our lives seem a bit boring. Truthfully, up until mid-June, much of our lives were consumed with football. Scottie had the opportunity to play for the Utah Valley Thunder, an expansion team in the AIFA. He had practice every week-day morning and also team meetings and appearances many evenings. They played nearly every weekend, sometimes traveling for 3 days at a time. It was so much fun for all of us, but it was also hard to have Scott gone so much. It made it a little tricky to keep our business running as well. We all made it through the season and made a lot of great memories along the way. We went to all of the home games at the McKay Events Center and also traveled to a few away games. The most recent game we traveled to was the playoffs in Casper, WY. It was such a LONG drive for such a short amount of time, but we're glad we were able to go support Scottie and the team! They, unfortunatly, lost that game (though, it was a great game). Being a first year team, they came in second in their division, so they did such an amazing job! Now we are already looking forward to the new season.

2009 Update

Can I say slacker? I love these blogs, I think they are such a great way to "journal", but I never remember to do it. I am thinking that I need to pick one Sunday a month to sit down and take the time...monthly updates are much less time consuming than 6-month updates. Yikes! Since I'm so far behind, I figured I would break things up into Seasons.

Winter 2009

Our big event in January was Jace's 1st birthday. It was a pretty "chill" day with our little guy and we had a nice family party at the house. He also decided to take his first steps after everyone left. He has been on the run ever since!



Shayn also had a birthday, in February. He turned the big 6! His birthday is kinda tricky because it falls so close to Valentines Day. We decided to have a weekday party at Chuck E Cheese, so it was a little more low-key than usual. It's tougher to get a bunch of people together during the week. It was still fun (except for the fact that I had a migraine that day). Ouch! Shayn also had a rough day...he was not feeling well either. We ended up at the Doc after his party. We made the best of it though, and he ended up having a pretty nice birthday.
*I can't seem to find Shayn's birthday pics...I'm afraid they might be lost with my lost camera. Doh!

Spring 2009

Well, I don't feel like we had much of a Spring with the crazy weather this year! We managed to keep pretty busy anyhow. We had a fun Easter and actually enjoyed some sunshine. We also went to some birthday parties, hit a Bees baseball game, and Shayn graduated from Kindergarten! We also made some great "every day" memories as a family.







Summer 2009

I can't say that we've had a very exciting summer. It's been HOT, so we haven't spent a whole lot of time outside. We've enjoyed evenings outside on the deck and playing on the trampoline. That's a family favorite! We've also enjoyed some great BBQs! We had a fun 4th of July at the fair and watched lots of fireworks with some of the fam. And, we just enjoyed a fun 24th (Pioneer Day). This time we had our own fireworks, but patrolling police put a damper on our show. We still enjoyed the ones we were able to do. The dogs, however, went CRAZY!!!

Now we are counting down to the new school year. It is growing so much out by our house, that they are building a new Elementary school, even closer to home. Shayn is excited to be a first grader and to be able to eat lunch at school. We'll see how long that lasts!