Christmas!

We had a very wonderful Christmas and hope that all of you did too. Here are some fun pictures from our Christmas Morning.

Dad and Ian digging in to the presents!


Mom really likes her new shirts.

A gift for Mom and Ian, wow we both got gloves!

Wow, Santa puts cool stuff in Stockings.

Ian was so excited about his gift from Santa

Ian's new winter coat.

One hat, two hat,

White hat!

Blue hat!

Ok folks, I know,

this is not a gift you give to an

average six year old.

But when that six year old is Ian!

You Just Have to Trust Me !

My first gun!

A Davey Crickett

bolt action, single shot, 22 rifle

so I can go shooting

with my DAD!

Sure Beats that "Red Rider BB Gun"!

Bring on the bucks!

All I want for Christmas

next year is a

life time membership

to the NRA

Just Click to Join!

Last, But not Least!

To the sender of the marshmallow shooter.....

We know that you have a

birthday coming up soon.

and we think we'll get you........

a Puppy !

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's that wonderful time of year again. Time to decorate the house and the Christmas Tree. It was fun in so many different ways this year. It was the first time in our first home. We got to use decorations that have been given to Brian every year from his Mom since he was born. It was great to look over those special decorations. We have continued on with that tradition and mingled Ian's 6 ornaments too. You can see how very excited Ian was to "finally" get to do this.

Brian helping Ian to choose which of his special ornaments would go on the tree.

Yes, I got in on it too! It was a blast!

Brian is the best on knowing just where things need to go.

The finished product!

Ian in his Christmas Sweater

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Season! We are so thankful that Christ was born in such humble circumstances and we are SOOO very thankful for his wonderful influence in our lives. Happy Holidays Everyone. We love you!

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll

We had a very nice Thanksgiving and hope that all of you did too. We went to Tropic and spent some wonderful time with Family and Friends. Thank you all for helping us to have a wonderful weekend. Here's a picture of Ian with Dylan, Mickell, Tyce, and the neighbors cat (that all of them just loved on).

Ian and Mickell were best buds for the weekend, they would not be separated.

Nothing is better than playing battleship in your pajamas with cousins.


I think Ian is one of the cutest cowboys I've ever seen, don't you agree! Ian found an old hat of Grandpa's or Uncle Ryans, not sure who's, but he thought it was great and he looked good too!

Knee Surgery

Brian had his knee surgery yesterday. As far as we know things went well (we actually never talked to the Dr. afterwards and just had to hope that if something went wrong they would have told us that). For those of you who are not faint of heart, part of the surgery is posted right here. It was nice of the Dr. to burn us a copy of the surgery. :-) Below are some pictures of the scars from the laproscope holes. Isn't is such a great time when you can have surgery and come home with 3 pockmarks smaller than your fingernail!




CLICK TO PLAY

Ian sure loves the crutches!

Ian Turns 6

Ian just had his 6th birthay yesterday. We watched him open presents, play with his presents, blow out his candles, and we saw lots of smiles. We love you Ian and are so glad that you are growing and learning and are healthy and strong!

Ian and his new Jacket

Ian and all of his gifts.

Ian really had fun drawing Super Mario Pics.

Halloween

Ian has been soooooooo excited for Halloween. I think he's been counting down the days for months now. I have usually made costumes for Ian, but............. Spider Man is one I was not going to attempt at home. Instead we came up with a reward system and for him to earn his costume. He was excited and it took him about 2 weeks to earn it. He loves being Spider Man.

Well, the jack-o-lantern e-mails must have made the rounds because I've noticed we are not the only ones to think this one was cool and carve it. That's okay, it's still great. We had fun doing it too!

We hope you all had a safe and wonderful Halloween!!!

Ah, Fall

We sure have been enjoying the fall, although not necessarily the weather. We went to the Schmidts pumpkin patch to let Ian pick out a pumpkin. I think we picked the coldest day to do it. It was on the first day that we got snow this fall. It was a chilly one, but Ian said he got just the right pumpkin. We'll have to post pics later after we get to carve it.

Generally we get plastic bags at the grocery store, but for once I took them up on getting a paper bag. Then I had the brilliant idea to give Ian some fun like we used to have at home. We made him a fun robot vest.

I think he enjoyed it for about 5 minutes! :-)

Fun Stuff

Ian's teacher gives assigned show and tells each week. It's been fun to see what we need to bring each week. For this week the kids were to decorate a paper picture of a pumpkin, or a real pumpkin. We opted for the real pumpkin. Ian drew the face on by himself. Mom came up with the idea for the funny hair. This time of season sure allows us to be very creative. I love being creative!

If you look close enough you can see that Ian made

his name look very spooky. Again, something

he did all by himself! I thought that was

so cute!

And some more fun. When I woke up this morning

I found this love note displayed from my

hubby. Awwwww. :-)

I love that my husband is so very thoughtful! He is the best!!!

My Cool Men

While there are a few nice days left of the newcoming fall weather Brian took Ian to school on his motorcycle. When they pulled up to school Ian hollered "Hi everybody, look at me!" It was a big letdown to him that he can't go to school every day this way. It sure was fun for him. I think Brian had fun too.

Heading off down the road!



I (Shelly) have been sick lately and haven't been doing much of anything. Brian has been finalizing arrangements for his knee surgery (which is scheduled for November 13th). Ian has been doing very well at school and doesn't argue too much when we ask him to sit down and do his homework every night.

I am very thankful to my 2 cool men. They have been very understanding and patient with me while I have been sick. Brian is the most wonderful husband any gal could ask for. He does so many things for me and Ian and I know I don't thank him enought. Love you babe!

Quick Update

Just a quick update. Ian is doing well in school still. We got kind of frustrated when he got home every day and we would ask him what he learned in school. All he would say is "Crafts." We had to think about that one for a bit. It sure does take a lot to get that many short attention spans in control for very long.

Ian has homework every night and is supposed to read 20 minutes a day. That's kind of a hard thing to get a Kindergartener to do, and we have tried our best to help him with that. It's hard for us too, but I guess it counts for us to read to him, so that's much easier. His homework is very academic oriented and he does well there.

Brian is getting antsy for his Dr. appointment tomorrow. He was going to have knee surgery about 6 months ago, but conflicts with work came up. He's been suffering ever since. Brian is going to try and hold off untill November so he can hold on to his sick time. But its more likey to be around the 1st of October. Anyone out there had a torn Miniscus before and had surgery on it? We'd love to hear from you what your recovery time was like and your surgery experience.

I (Shelly) just got set apart as a Relief Society Assistant Secretary. I didn't know that I was only assistant secretary until they set me apart. Anyone heard of an assistant secretary in a R.S. Presidency before? Don't know what I'll be doing yet, but bring on the meetings I guess!

Love to you all!!! Keep in touch. Leave a comment so we know your keeping up with us! :-)

Hogle Zoo

Saturday we had the pleasure of meeting David and Candace (Shelly's brother and sister-in-law) and their kids at the Hogle Zoo.

Ian was so very excited to see the Giraffes. Lately they have been his very favorite animals.

I was really impressed with the bird show. A hawk even grazed my hair as it came swooping over the audience. I was surprised that Ian didn't freak out, but he quite liked it too.

I'm so glad that we got to go as a family (even though Brian was very sleep deprived I wouldn't trade this time with him for anything!).

When you enter the zoo there is this cool black ball "floating" on a water base. Brian and Ian really enjoyed manipulating its spin and playing with the water. It sure was fun to watch.

This is the zoo's famous Albino Alligator

Don't you just love how regal this bird is. Brian caught it in just the right angle. It's beautiful.

This was about the only place where Ian volunteered to pose for a picture, go figure!

And yes, my dear, if you stick out your tongue like that in pictures I get to post them on the blog! :-) Love you honey!