To the Best Big Sister

Happy Birthday Month!

Day 22 - Thank you for being such a wonderful sister Trisha!

Trisha's not usually one to talk about herself, but she's such a wonderful person so in celebration of her almost-30th birthday, we wanted to tell you a little more about her.

1. Trisha is fun! She's fun to be with and makes others have fun too. Life is definitely more exciting with Trisha around.

2. Trisha is always willing to help. Even if we ask her to do tedious things, like help with homework assignments, she does it willingly.

3. Trisha is a good friend. Trisha is a friend to everyone and always makes you feel welcome. She goes out of her way to talk to people she hasn't seen in years and is best friends with them again in a matter of seconds.

4. Trisha is a spiritual person. She teaches by the spirit and spends time in preparation so she makes sure she is teaching what the Lord would have her teach. She is a great example to us on following the spirit.

5. Trisha really appreciates help. Even small acts of kindness, Trisha shows great appreciation for. You can do something as simple as call or give her a treat, and Trisha makes you feel like it was a big deal. It's always nice to serve, but it's especially nice to serve when you are appreciated.

6. Trisha is awesome with money. She can really stretch the dollar, and then some. Trisha doesn't realize it, but she makes due with a small amount what others can barely scrape by doing with a lot of money. Trisha is a great example of working hard and saving and will be better off in the future because of it.

7. Trisha is organized. I bet she'd beg to differ, but she always has her "to do" lists and is rearranging and changing things around so her house can be more in order.

8. Trisha is beautiful. She is beautiful inside and out, which makes you want to be around her even more.

9. Trisha is brave. Trisha is always wanting to try and really does new things. Whether it's cooking, running, crafting, etc.. And, she is a great motivator to us.

10. Trisha is a fabulous wife, mother, daughter and the best big sister we could have. Even when we were young, she let us tag along with friends and even now, she lets us tag along and be her friend.

We love you Trisha. We are so grateful to have you as our sister. Thanks for always making life exciting and for being our friend. We look up to you.

Love,

Jana and Heather

August 22, 2011.....First Day of Kindergarten

Shawn

Fun on the Farm

Shawn, Graham, Kate, and Nate

My boys love animals so we went to visit all of Graham's (and Jason & Ananda's) animals. They have a goat, chickens, chicks, turkeys, dogs, and they were babysitting a lamb when we went. We had lots of fun!
Caleb was especially enthralled with the chicks and chickens. He wasn't nervous and wanted to touch them and hold them.

Shawn, Caleb, Trisha (Ananda holding the chick)

Nate was a little nervous, but held the chicks too.

Shawn just wanted to observe and watch everyone else hold the chicks.

Christmas Tree

Nick is big on traditions and one of them he loves this time of year is cutting down your own Christmas tree so we headed out Saturday morning to find our tree.

Nate wasn't afraid of hiking in the snow. He actually got lost for a little bit. While Nick was off looking for the "perfect" tree, Lorie had told Nate and Shawn to stay by a tree so see could hike out to an opening and see where Nick and Heather were. Well Nate decided that he was going to find Nick. Nate fell down and starting to cry so they were able to find him.

Nate, Nick and Shawn

It was really winding where we were so Caleb and I spent a few hours in the truck waiting for them to find the trees.

Heather, Lorie and Nick pulling our tree up to the truck. There is always some kind of adventure when we cut down a tree. This year Nick said he cut down the perfect tree as far as bushiness but he didn't realize how big and heavy the tree was. It took a couple of them to pull the tree and they had to stop every few hundred of yards. The tree is actually just shy of 12 feet so it's a little too big for our house. Nick is going to have to cut some it off.

JC (Heather's dog) and Lorie pulling her tree.

Shawn, Nick, Nate, Trisha and Caleb

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Richfield. The kids love being down there, playing outside and seeing all the animals. It's always fun to get together we Nick's family. We did missed Travis, Wendy, Clara and Jaquel and Brandon (since we only saw them during dinner.)

Nate swinging on the horse walker swings.

Kandelyn and Shawn playing by Kip and Texaco

Nick and Josh helping put a fence up to split the pasture so the mules don't keep eating the horses tails. There are always lots of projects to be done on the farm and Nick really enjoys helping his dad out.

Trisha and Caleb enjoying the outside for a little bit. They were making fun of me because they said I looked funny. This is a very handy baby carrier and very comfortable. I love it! (Thanks Ananda!)

Happy Halloween

I had good intentions to catch up on my blog but it's just not going to happen anytime soon so I decided not to worry about it and just start blogging. I've had a few request for some Halloween pictures so here they are...

The Family

Caleb "The Cow"

Cowboy Nate

Shawn trick-or-treating in the rain. He was really into it this year and even though he was cold he didn't want to go home.

Nate and Shawn with their pumpkins. They decided how they wanted them carved and Nick did the hard work.

Boating

On Tuesday we went waterskiing with my family. I was so excited to go because this is one of my favorite things to do with my family. Growing up we went almost weekly to the lake and I have so many great memories of it. While we were there Tyler was getting ready to go wakeboarding. I ask Shawn if he wanted to go with Tyler and he said "no". Then I told him I'd pay him a dollar and he said "a paper one, okay." He jumped right out and went with Tyler. He even did a trick (sticks his leg up). He wakeboarded twice and knee boarded once (Jana was hanging off the back of the kneeboard). It's so exciting to see my kids loving boating and all that it entails as much as I do. Here's the video of Shawn Wakeboarding:

Shawn and Tyler getting ready to Wakeboarding

Tyler and Shawn Wakeboarding

Shawn kneeboarding with Jana
Trisha, Nate, Jana and Heather tubing
Shawn, Trisha, Josh, Jana and Heather tubing