Before Shea and I left to Utah to return the rental car, we were able to cut down our Christmas Tree. It was a lot of fun, and a smart idea to go Tree Hunting before. It was quick and painless with a 2 year old. Our first choice was already gone (what are the odds) so we cut our 2ND choice down.
After cutting it down, Shea asked if we could cut another one down. She was having way to much fun out there. We also saw bunny tracks which she thought were pretty neat. Wayne told her that he would take her bunny hunting when she is older. Lately, Shea has been scared of Hunters so that didn't turn out well. ha ha.

We left the tree home with Wayne so that he could decorate it. Haven't seen it yet, but Wayne is pretty proud of himself. ha ha! When we got to Utah we decided to go and see the Christmas Lights on Temple Square. That was a blast. I thought it was going to be freezing, but it wasn't bad. It was a good night to go.

Today, we were able to visit my best friend Shalyse and her cute family. Well, everyone except for her husband Mike, who was off making money!!! She is so adorable and has the family to match. This is her little boy Westin. Such a good baby. She is extremely lucky.

Her little girl Ryann and Shea are already the best of friends. They play so well together. I was pretty nervous because Shea isn't around kids very often. Mostly adults, but they played like they have known each other for years. So adorable.

These are their funny faces.

Having a ball dancing!

Eating bananas in Ryann's bed. What sneaks!

I am so glad we were able to see the Bennions. We love them so much. Shalyse - please thank Ry Ry for wearing Shea out for me. She is sleeping like a baby! My car is all fixed thanks to my dad and his buddy. They had to replace the transmission. AHHH! I had to promise them not to hit anything else. Also, Wayne's department at work has a running bet on what I will break next. NOT FUNNY GUYS! My car is running great and it is back to Idaho tomorrow. I was glad we got to see my family once more before Christmas. We are having Christmas in Idaho this year and we will miss them. Also, I forgot to mention that we have our first nephew. Wayne's sister Cyndi had her first baby boy on Tuesday. We are so glad everything went okay, and can't wait to see our NEPHEW! We love you guys.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We had a spectacular Thanksgiving dinner thanks to my wonderful mom! This holiday was extra special because we also celebrated our 4Th wedding anniversary. Yep, its been 4 years! Time has flown by. We celebrated by driving down to Utah. My gift to Wayne was a surprise. I DROVE! Wayne's gift to me was getting off early from work, so that we could make it to Utah in time for dinner. To be honest, this anniversary snuck up on us both. We were caught of guard, and totally unprepared! ha ha. But each gift was great! ha ha. The past 3 years we have had a huge snow storm on our anniversary. Not this year! Instead of snow we got car problems! Of course. I need to point out that this was totally my fault. About a week ago I hit a rock in my car. It made a lot of noise under my car, but the check engine light didn't come on and my car wasn't acting funny. I just brushed it off, and of course didn't tell Wayne. Well, it came back to haunt me on Thanksgiving Day. We made it to Utah fine, but with no Reverse! Turns out I banged in the transmission pan, which shattered the transmission filter and broke an engine bracket. My dad and Wayne worked on it all day Friday. They replaced everything but it still didn't have reverse. I guess when the transmission filter shattered the little pieces went into the transmission and burnt up the Reverse! Not good! We had to get a rental car for the week until my car is fixed. So this week, it is back to Utah. Shea is loving it. She loves going to grandma's house and playing with Teby! Us girls went shopping on Black Friday, but not until noon. So we missed everything. We still had fun though. All and all, it was a great Thanksgiving holiday. I am so grateful for my family and everything they do for me. I am grateful for my baby girl Shea. Even though she isn't a baby anymore, she is a big girl. I am ready to announce that she is Potty Trained! YEAH! She hasn't worn diapers in about 2 months, and I would say she is about 98% there. I am grateful for my husband, and all the changes he has made in his life. I am also grateful for Heavenly Father, and all the blessings he has given us. Through all the hard times, it is nice to know that he is there going through them with us. With every trial comes a blessing, and I can see that now.

Hiking (Well, more like a walk.)

Today, we all decided to go up to the woods and go Christmas Tree hunting. We wanted to scope out a couple areas for the best Christmas Tree. We were in luck and found about 3 good possibilities for this years Tree. Hopefully we can come back before someone else gets to them. Here are some pictures of our wonderful day.

Yes, Shea has two black eyes still. She did really well with the stitches and was extremely careful. We had the stitches removed on Wednesday.

I love this picture.

Here is Wayne giving Shea a lesson on erosion and dirt. (Typical Wayne.)

I was able to convince Wayne into getting a couple family pictures while we were out there. He did fine for the first one, then got a little irritated with me. (He hates posing for pictures. AS you can tell! ha ha.)

Trip to the Hospital

Well, it finally happened. I am actually surprised that it has taken this long, but Shea had to get stitches! Yes, she had a terrible accident playing horsey with dad. She wasn't ready for the surprise BUCK and she flew over Wayne's head right into the filing cabinet. She sliced her eyebrow right open. It was a pretty intense moment for the two, well three of us. Once I saw the blood I knew it was stitches time, so with out hesitation Wayne and her were in the car headed to the ER. Shea was in shock and didn't know what was happening. As I was putting her in her car seat she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm scared." It was so sad. I told her everything is okay and dad is taking you to see the doctor for some medicine. Once they got to the ER the kind nurses took over. Shea had a blast at the hospital with all the nurses. They numbed the wound and started playing games. (Trash basketball!) When one of the doctors saw Shea he said "Let me guess, coffee table." Wayne said "Nope, filing cabinet." The doctor replied "Ooh, wouldn't have guessed that one." They gave her some drug to make her sleepy while they did the stitches. The doctor was so surprised at how strong she was, it took 6 people to hold this kid down. It was so hard for them not to laugh, because with a red ANGRY face she was yelling "GET OFF OF ME! LET ME GO!" She got a total of 8 stitches. The wound was so deep they gave her 5 inside and 3 outside. I am just glad she is okay and that it wasn't her eye.

The drugs they gave her made her so loopy, and she doesn't remember a thing. It was pretty funny when she got home because she was slurring her words and laughing randomly. While she was drugged up, she looked right at Wayne and said "Daddy, no more horsey okay." She also said "I told you not to hit people, don't hit Shea Shea."

It's still pretty swollen, but it has to get worse before it gets better.

Snowmobile Show

A couple weeks ago, while we were down in Utah, my dad forced us all to go to the Annual Snowmobile Show in Salt Lake. While we were at the show, Shea went up to my sister Mandie and asked her if she liked to Snowmobile. Mandie replied "Yes, do you?" Shea then asked her if she wanted to go. Mandie told her that we have to wait until it snows. Though out the rest of the day, Shea would ask Mandie if it was snowing yet. Well, at the beginning of this week, it snowed where we live. When Shea woke up I told her to look out the window. This is what she said, "What the heck. It's snowing! We have to go snowmobiling!" Shea just had to call Grandpa and Mandie, it was pretty cute. For all who don't know, my sister and dad are huge into snowmobiling. (Side note: Arctic Cat is the best, or so I have been taught.) And it is looking like Shea will be raised that way too.

This is a picture of Shea on her first Arctic Cat! (A moment that will be cherished in my family.)

Here, Shea is in a sweet little car that goes up to 80 mpg. Street legal and everything!

Here is a picture of Grandpa and Shea watching a snowmobile movie, that of course, he got from the snowmobile show.

And for everyone who didn't believe me about how much my dad loves to snowmobile. Here is a picture the next day, of my dad cooking breakfast in his new snowmobile pants! (My family is hilarious!)

Day at the Movies

Yesterday we decided to take Shea to the movie theater for the first time. Wayne and I have been thinking about it for a while, but never was brave enough to do it. (Anyone who knows our daughter would understand why.) We both agreed to wait until the perfect movie. Well, Friday that movie opened, Madagascar 2. She was pretty excited to go see a movie on the "Big TV." So we all piled into the car and had to drive an hour to the theater. (Oh the things parents do!) In the theater they have an arcade room by the entrance and Shea had it eyed the moment we walked in. About 20 minutes into the movie she wanted to go play with the "toys." Wayne and I agreed only 2 games and then back to the movie, and of course Wayne volunteered to take her. MEN! Before I knew it they were back and Wayne was holding a big black garbage bag. Confused I leaned over and all he said was "Shea won the jackpot." We had about 4 potty runs and only 1 arcade run, so Wayne and I were pretty impressed on how it went. In more ways then one. It turns out Shea really did win the jackpot. The garbage bag was full of tickets. After the movie we had to go to the ticket counter machine, which took us 20 minutes to count all of them. Wayne and I were excited to get free movie passes or something sweet with the 2000 tickets, but no. Shea got to choose from a collection of cheap toys made in China. We had so much toys that we ended up giving them out to all the kids in the arcade. Shea was able to walk away with 5 crappy toys, but she would have been happy with a rope. Which happened to be one of the toys, so she was thrilled!

After the long day, we are all sitting around the fireplace at work, eating root beer floats. I am listening to Wayne tease Shea in a British accent. It is pretty darn cute because Shea is trying to tease him back and trying the accent out herself. Too bad my camera is dead! I love my kids! (Yes, I do consider Wayne a kid!)

Here is a pictures of my little Rockstar performing! Thanks Aunt Mandie for the Rockstar skirt, she loves it.

Happy Halloween

The beginning of our Halloween started with the perfect sunrise. I had to run over to work Halloween morning and this was what I saw. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was red, but my the time I got to work it had turned to this vibrant orange. What a perfect Halloween sunrise!

Wayne had to spend practically all day over in Jackson. He had about an hour in between meetings so we decided to go trick or treating over there. Besides, you don't go house to house where we live. Instead they do trunk or treat where you go car to car in a parking lot. That to me didn't sound like fun, so we had planned to go to a neighborhood in Jackson. On our way to town we noticed tons of trick or treater's going store to store around town square. Turns out, that's what they do in Jackson. Let me tell ya, that was a blast. We are going to make that a annual tradition! Shea loved it. She's the Skunk, if you couldn't tell from the pictures. She got so much candy that the bottom of her bag started to come apart. Luckily we made it into the car before a disaster.