Trying the new toys

Even though it was 12 degrees on Saturday the kids were dying to try out their new toys.
Jonah talked Granny B in to riding his electric scooter. She was whipping around the walking paths. And please note that my LITTLE mother is wearing Jonah's jacket.

Alexa was excited to try out her new bike. She had grown out of her last bike.

Post Christmas

We had Saturday brunch at The Grand America Hotel in down town Salt Lake City. It is a 4 star hotel and you could spend quite a while just admiring the architecture and interior design. We highly recommend the brunch...it is only $15 for adults and $7 for kids. This is a picture of my family.....yes we are a motley crew!!! We took a few moments to take some fun shots in the hotel.
Granny B and Grandpa J with the kids.

Christmas day

Well I did a really bad job of taking pictures on Christmas day. I have to admit I don't think taking pictures of the presents you get is really appropriate. I simply enjoyed the day cooking with my mom and spending time with our family. My entire family was in town and my in-laws were with us too. We had a crowded house!!!
Yes.....our dogs have their own stockings!

Lights

We spent a cold night seeing the lights at Temple Square. We went with the Lewis family. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at PF Changs and then braved the winter weather. As always the lights and nativity on temple square ignite the Christmas spirit with in.

Nutcracker

Alexa had her winter dance performance. They did their own little rendition of The Nutcracker. Jonah said "I didn't know they had hip-hop in The Nutcracker!". It was a great performance by all and we were especially proud of our toy soldier.

The season has begun

The Christmas season has arrived at our house. The gingerbread houses have been decorated....

The snow is falling and the sledding has started.....
Letters have been written for Santa. In this letter Jonah asked Santa for a picture of Paco and Bob. Paco and Bob are our Christmas elves that come check on the kids all year long. Wonder if his teacher knows Paco or Bob????
The ward Christmas party was so great. Steve was in charge of the musical program. Steve played Brigham Young, Alexa sang and Caleb was Joseph. Jonah and I got to sit back and relax. Well that isn't exactly true. I had to make Steve's vest and Alexa's pioneer skirt. Do you love Steve's Brigham beard.....I choose to pick my battles! :)
My Christmas tree is decorated. Yes the tree that the kids are not allowed to touch!
The kids decorated their tree.
They are hoping Santa will leave presents in the basement under their tree. We are filled with the Christmas spirit around here and we hope you are too!!!

Our anniversary

Time flies....we celebrated our second anniversary this weekend. We spent two days of complete peace and quiet in Park City. After the past month we have had all we wanted to do was relax. We stayed at The Hotel Park City and it was fabulous.

The front of the cottage we stayed in.


The best part...THE PRIVATE HOT TUB. We spent several hours out here. It is so fun to be in the warm hot tub when it is freezing out.

We had a wonderful time together. It is so nice to let the world stop, turn our phones off and just enjoy spending time together.

Thanksgiving

We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving this year. My friend Heather invited us to the bowling alley that her uncle runs in Tooele. We all bowled, ate and had a blast. I loved not having to cook a turkey.

Alexa is thankful

Do you ever wonder if your kids appreciate what you do? Alexa brought a project home from school today and this is what it said:

What I'm thankful for.....
BY: ALEXA SHIELDS
I'm thankful for my family because we do fun stuff and we have F.H.E (family home evening) and scripture study. I'm also thankful for my house because it has our food and everything we need to survive. The last thing I am thankful for is my friends because they are there for me.

Yes!

I am excited to say I officially gave notice at my job!

Yes this working girl of over 10 years is throwing in the towel. I am giddy at the idea of not having to be somewhere every morning, not having to worry about payroll, employee conflicts and numbers, numbers, numbers!!! I look forward to doing laundry at 11am, making dinner every day and cleaning house. I am not done working but I am done with stressful work. I have a great opportunity to work from home. I can basically set my schedule. I am so excited for a new adventure!!!

Update

We have been waiting during the past week for the medications I took to induce my miscarriage. It didn't work and I started to get sick. My body basically thought I was 9 weeks pregnant. I was bloated and was having major swelling in my legs and feet. Last Friday I went to see my specialist and he indicated I would need a D and C asap! Not what I wanted to hear but I knew for my health it needed to be done. Unfortunatley because I was so far along I had to have the procedure at the hospital and be put under for it. I had the procedure done yesterday. All went well and I am feeling pretty good today. I am so thankful for my specialist. Can you believe the first thing he asked me yesterday was "How are you doing? I mean not how are you physically but how are you doing emotionally?". It is so nice to have a doctor that really understands not only physically what I am going through but even more importantly emotionally. We have felt so blessed to have this doc and his staff at this time in our lives. When I was leaving their office on Friday several of the nurses that I have built close relationships with stopped what they were doing to give me a hug and tell me it was all going to be okay. They have all added a little sunshine in these truly dark times!

You know who else is my sunshine...my kids! In honor of Thanksgiving I thought I would post a little Thanksgiving book Jonah brought home from school.

*If you could invite a famous person to Thanksgiving dinner, I would invite Micheal Jackson.
*If I could eat anything I wanted for Thanksgiving dinner, I would eat candy.
*If I could thank anyone in this world I would thank The Indians.

No in the mood!

Have you ever not been in the mood to blog?

It's been almost a month since I put something on our blog and honestly I don't know when I will have the desire to add something new and exciting!

To put things in to perspective.....we have been going through fertility treatments for 18 months and I am EXHAUSTED. This last go round I ended up having to take meds to induce a miscarriage(second miscarriage in two months). So between throwing up, some days taking up to 6 medications, giving myself shots, gaining tons of weight, feeling super moody, super emotional, tired, visiting the doctor countless times, numerous ultra sounds, invasive tests, feeling like my body has been taken over by aliens, the emotional roller coaster and peoples unbelievable comments....I am tired and have no desire to blog! But the funny thing is I feel guilty about not wanting to blog! Ridiculous I know!!!

Visit from Granny B

My mom came to visit us from Oregon. She and I have birthdays two days apart. It is always fun to be together to celebrate. She was able to attend one of Jonah's soccer games. Where he scored two goals!!!

We went to get pumpkins at a local farm by our house.


You can see our new temple from the farm
We also went to Gardner Village. If you have not taken your kids to do the Witch Scavenger hunt it is a must. You can print the hunt off of the Gardner Village web sight. The best part is it's free!!! The kids can earn a chocolate chip cookie for 25 cents if you find all the witches.
We celebrated our birthdays a few days early...if we look worn out we are. Alexa was sick all day and had fluids coming out of both ends. I lost count of how many times I cleaned out the throw up bowl. Poor girl changed her clothes 3 times!!

All in all we were so lucky to have Granny B with us for a few days. We don't get to see her enough!

Zuri

Have you seen this little girl yet? We did and think she is just precious!

Bryce Canyon

The Cox Family invited us to Cedar City last weekend. We stayed in a beautiful cabin in the middle of the woods. We spent a day at Bryce Canyon. We had such a great time!!!