Catching up-from 11/7/08-Ballet

The Ballet was coming to town & Emily really wanted to go, so I went with her and what a fantastic time we had!! The Ballet Magnificat dancers (from Mississippi) performed The Scarlet Cord and it was amazing! Here are a few photos, some are kind of blurry (sorry, they move fast!), but we both enjoyed it greatly! Terrific idea Emmy!!!

Christmas Trees & Thanksgiving

As Andrew & I were driving home from our friend's house last night we counted 8 Christmas Trees with lights aglow! WOW, I feel so behind. How about you, is your Christmas Tree up yet?
We normally put ours up the Saturday after Thanksgiving; however we've had to put it up a little earlier a few years, but we didn't light it up until after Thanksgiving. I don't know why we wait, but I guess we like to celebrate each Holiday and sometimes feel that Christmas overshadows the awesome Thanksgiving Holiday. I for one am super excited about Christmas this year, maybe the people in those 8 homes are too. In fact, Emily & I have already started watching Christmas Movies, 1/weekend! Fun!

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?
Our activities start on Wednesday, after work when we clean our house for the long weekend & usually makes some Pumpkin Pie.
On Thursday, we always watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, enjoy our Thanksgiving meal & plans (whatever the the plan is for each year), and Emily & I strategically plan our shopping for Friday, oh so fun!!!
Friday we are usually up & shopping by 4/4:30am (ouch!), but it is so fun and so worth the pain of waking up that early! Friday afternoon is nap time, LOL!
Saturday our Christmas Tree goes up and we decorate our home for the Holidays.
Then Sunday is Church and our recovery day! We usually watch a Christmas Movie on Sunday too.
Well whatever you do, please know we are thankful for you & all that you mean to us.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Gobble, Gobble!

Snow Shovel?

Check out Andrew's new "snow shovel". Pretty cool, huh! He is excited to have it and is putting a snow plow on so he can do our shoveling quick and easy this year! We are all thrilled!


Andrew is already doing tricks too! Impressive! He actually was a lot farther off the ground, but when I snapped the photo this is where he was.

He took his quad up to Gladwin with his good friend Vince and they went riding for several hours on Thursday! They had a great time and came home with lots of fun stories to tell us.

Catching Up-from 10/10-12-Women's Retreat!

So I went to my very 1st Women's Retreat in October! It was at Spring Hill, in Evart, Michigan and it was AMAZING!!!!
My friend Emily invited me to go along with her & a few other people she knew and we had a blast! I ended up knowing quite a few people there too.
The weather turned out to be a perfect low to mid 70's each day! We didn't sleep a lot, but we learned, giggled, and ate a ton! It was super fun!
Spring Hill is a fabulous facility! They have everything organized and set up extremely well, I was very impressed and had the best time.
Below are some photos I want to share with you!

This was our welcome in the eating area! Isn't that nice!?!

Here was Emily, Susan, Mary & my room (Virgina), in Freedom Hall. Man, top bunks are not as fun as I use to think they were! LOL!

Here is my adorable friend Emily with our AWESOME speaker, Liz Curtis-Higgs! She is SO amazing and SO real/down to earth, I totally love her and I really learned a lot from Liz. Ta-dah!

Here is Jennifer (Erin's friend), Erin (who I actually went to high school with!) and me.

This is Susan (Emily's friend), Emily, and Heidi (Erin's friend).

Spring Hill has a plethora of activities you can participate in (in addition to the learning and praise times). Here is a really high Rock Climbing Wall and you can be sure I was certainly not anywhere near that thing! Yikes, way too scary for me!

Just some of the other activities that are offered at Spring Hill are: swimming, game room, nature hikes, bon-fires, zip lines, shopping, horse back riding, shooting, kayaking, archery, etc.

Emily and I went horseback riding together and here she is on Red! Aren't they adorable together!?!?!? I think so!

Here is me with Bold and his name fit too! I had a super fun time, but I am really glad I know how to handle horses (at least a little), as he was stubborn and did not want to follow the trail, but I still love him!

This is Jennifer Stanley and she led our praise & worship time for the entire weekend! She did a great job & is such a sweetie!

I took a walk around just 1 small area of Spring Hill called, Copper Country, and came across a pond with these gorgeous colors on the trees and reflecting in the water. It was breathtaking. I spent quite a while here just enjoying the warm sun and beautiful view. I also called Andrew & our Emily while I was relaxing here and they were just on their way back from eating at Famous Dave's! They love that place, and were having a fun weekend of their own.

The Spring Hill staff performed a few pretty powerful skits prior to our learning times. This one was set to that song by Leona Lewis called "Bleeding Love". They did such a fantastic job, I have never seen such a powerful skit ever! WOW!

Well that wraps up my conference weekend! What a fun and terrific time! If you ever have the chance to go to Spring Hill or to see Liz Curtis-Higgs in person, I strongly recommend both! You will love them!

By the way Liz writes that series on "Bad Girls of the Bible". I have not read any of them yet, but I want to. If you have, please let me know what you think/thought?

Thank you for viewing my photos! Have a wonderful day!!!!!

Catching Up-from 8/24/08-Family Get Together

Hi, I have some major catching up to do. Here are some photos of a small family get together we had when our cousin Tallen and Aunt Lori from Arizona came to visit in August.

From Left to Right, is Tallen, me, Aunt Lori, and Emily.

Here are our Aunts: Julie, Lori and Cathy.

This is a "cousins" photo and there I am again, with Breeann, Tallen and Emily in the back row. And in the front row are our cousin Jennifer's boys Brenden and Tharyn.

This is only the 3rd time I have ever seen Tallen. We all had a real fun visit and are glad they came!

My Friend's Kids

Hi! I thought I would put a blog entry in on all my friends kids, since so many of my friends have kids now and they are all so cute!!! I just need to brag a little! Tee-hee!
For the record, if your kid(s) isn't below, then you haven't sent me a recent photo. Send me one and I will happily update this entry right away!
This is Linden (with me), who will be 16 months old later this month. She is the adorable daughter of my friend Erin! (We were watching my Emily Cheer! What fun!)

Here is my lovely friend Sandra, with her husband Mike, and their newborn (Oct 2008) son, Jonathon. Isn't he precious!! And what a happy family they are!

Here is Andrew's cousin, Marianne, who I love to pieces so she totally belongs on the "My Friend's Kids" blog entry, and her beautiful son, Grant. Grant is 19 months old, this month! What a cutie!

Here am I with my friend Amy's sweet daughter, Gloria, who is just 1 month old now. Amy also has a 3 year old son, Michael, but I don't have a recent photo of him. Gloria is so cute!

Here is my dear friend Fanny with her newborn (Oct 2008) son, Justin. What a handsome boy! And what a proud Momma!

And finally, here are my friend Shannon's gorgeous children, Erin and Evan! Erin is 4 (this month) and Evan will be turning 2 in January! Shannon has another son, Blake, but I don't have an updated photo of him at this time. Aren't they absolutely adorable!!!

So now you see why I needed to brag a little! These kids are all terrific!!! And what cuties, they all are so adorable!! I love them all lots! I also want to say Thanks to all my friends for having such amazing and adorable children for me enjoy along with them!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Shannon

P.S. I hope you had the chance to vote today! If not, I believe there is still time, the polls are open until 8pm. Go Sarah Palin!