Haley and Eden Cheer Clinic

Hey, family... I recorded some phone video from Haley and Eden's Cheer clinic, next Monday they are cheering at the girls basketball game for Liberty High. I'll try and record some there also.

Also I took some phone video from Haley's School music group's performance at the local minor league Hockey game.....

Haley 1

Haley 2

Haley 3

Haley 4

Haley 5

Haley 6

Haley 7

I couldn't figure out how to embed video into the website.... also you can check out our family youtube channel @ www.youtube.com/zionssuburb

Thanksgiving at the Cabin

Our first Thanksgiving at the cabin was wonderful. Great pies made by Chris, Haley and Eden. Some sleigh riding. A well written and acted play by all the kids. Decisions made by the men. Let's have a little less shut up around here. Post your pictures! I love you all.

Building the new fort!

Everyone worked hard on the new fort at the cabin. It looks great. Checked it just the other day and all is still perfect.

Vacation Starts

well, thanks to the core of engineers and suv owners, our first day of travel to near mount rushmore was across roads untravelled by us and due to I29 being closed in several places along our route we did it pioneer style. our first day of travel proved that you dont need a freeway to get places in america. we are staying at a koa outside interior south dakota for our first night anx plan on visiting mt rushmore, andd wall drug tomorrow.

At the zoo

My house is almost put back together. Thanks to dad for the bedroom set and Joe and Chris for being my moving men. I'm excited for Joe and Steph's sealing on the 24th and excited to see everyone. Meg and Chris were here last week and we went to the zoo on Saturday. Can you find the real monkies?

A New addition to the Family!!!

Here it is the new ASUS Transformer.... Based on the Android Honeycomb OS which totally kicks but over the iAnything.

I did not purchase the keyboard docking station... I'm in a wait and see mode on that one.

Here is a picture comparing the ASUS and the iWhatever. The biggest difference in form factor for the Android tablets is they are truly in a 16:9 aspect ratio for viewing movies, where the iThing must still use something that isn't 16:9 (this is widescreen vs tv stuff) - but it means that it isn't as cool.

The iTablets are a bit better in my opinion from a pure e-reader perspective, the are more like a real page where the Androids feel a bit skinny in that area.

Anyway... I'm still trying to ignore Carries eyes as they roll, and roll, and roll.

Put your heads together?

Me and Hannah and Lexi were all putting Lexi's big girl bed together last night. I was getting a little frustrated because those things are not the easiest to figure out without the instructions! Hannah kept asking me "You okay mommy?" I would say "No, I need your daddy so he can do this or we need to put our heads together and figure this out." Hannah would just blink and say "okay mommy, I'll be right back." Then she would zoom off to one thing or another. Until the time she decided to jump really high, right into my head. We both immediately broke into tears, followed by Lexi who had no idea why we were crying, she just does everything Hannah does even if it is crying. I got the bed together in the end, even though I was a little dizzy the rest of the night. I can imagine how Hannah must have felt. Poor thing.

What not to do

I have a little desk-office thing in my kitchen. The cupboard above the desk starts about my chin-level and goes up to just a foot below the ceiling. This is where we store tape and scissors and pens, pencils, paper, phone books, etc. On the bottom shelf I have a little wooden bowl into which I drop paper clips or safety pins when Ezra brings them home from school. I needed a paper clip the other day so instead of pulling the bowl out of the cupboard (which I normally do), I stuck my head inside the cupboard, I guess it made sense at the time to look for the clip before I put my hand in to get it out. Anyway, just as i stuck my head over the bowl, I sneezed.

It has been about a week and the mark on the bridge of my nose where it hit the razor-sharp edge of the cupboard is still an red-open wound and I am still getting questions about it from many small children.

Easter sickness

I hope everyone and a great Easter. Ours was actually quite fun, however, little Mags got really sick. She threw up early in the morning, but we thought maybe it was because she was coughing, so we put her in her little Easter dress and went to church. She ate a couple of goldfish, then laid on chris's shoulder like raggedy-Ann. I looked over at her, then up at the clock, there were still 20 minutes left of sacrament meeting, then I looked over at her again and stood straight up and walked out. I got home, laid her down on a blanket and out jumped the goldfish. It was very well timed, luckily. Poor little thing. I held her pretty much all the rest of the day and all day Monday. She had a high temperature and wouldn't eat or move. She just looked miserable. Today she is much improved with no fever and she even ate dinner. We'll see how tonight goes, hopefully her tummy will let her sleep through the night. I hope nobody else was sick over a holiday.

Art Gallery

My girls and I were talking about the talent show that we had last time we were in Utah. They had such a good time. So we came up the idea of having some type of art show when we come in June. The girls suggested that everyone who wants to participate can draw or paint something, create a sculpture out of clay or legos, write a poem or a story, show some special photography or anything that can be put on display. You can make more than one thing if you like. No pressure, of course.

What do you think? Can't wait to see you all this summer.

What the?

Okay so Carrie, I literally just found peanut butter in Lexi's ear!

Okay here is Steph's old table! Thank you Steph for the table, I am so excited not to have to hold on to my table so the kids don't knock it over anymore! Thank you Mom and Meghan for bringing it all the way out here and helping me refinish it! Thank you Carrie for already doing yours so that this was easy!

Hannah opened this present last, just moments after Grandma said, "She won't care about that one, it's not a toy." What a great birthday Hannah had! Thanks for the gifts Grandma!

Shaw fam adventures on sharkstooth

Here's a plan for anyone interested in high altitude hiking August 2012. Everyday, I look out my front door and see the coolest peak. It's called Sharkstooth because it looks like a huge, cool shark's tooth. Chris and I started hiking it last year with the kids. We got about a mile and a half in and it was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. The wild flowers were huge and it was very green. Ezra hiked the whole time while I carried mags and Chris carried trav for some of it. Of course, we turned around before Ezra got tired, but it left us wanting more. So anyway, for anyone interested, me and mom and dad and John are going to be on-line training partners to get ijn shape to hike this next year. Anybody who wants to do this with us, ,just let us know and we'll get you a training schedule and you have to be ok with one of us calling you to check up on whether or not you exercised that day. I think most of the kids 6 and up could go hike to the peak just before sharkstooth, called Centennial. It is not a difficult hike except for the altitude. It starts at 10,900 feet and ends about 13,000 feet. Put it on your calendars!

Happy Birthday Hannah! We are off to have a party at John's Incredible Pizza Co. with her cousins and Grandma and Aunt Megan!!

Birthday fun

I had the best birthday this week! My friends surprised me with a big luncheon. John and the girls decorated the house with canes and walkers and over the hill things. My mom was in town and took us to dinner. I was pretty busy on my actual birthday with school and church meetings so John sent a cake to my camp meeting. Yesterday during church John told everyone in his testimony that I was forty and asked them to wish me happy birthday. So everywhere I turned people were going out of their way to say happy birthday. It was quite funny! All of this was a surprise to me and to top it all off....John booked our trip to Europe!!! Pretty great day!

Happy 40th Birthday to Carrie yesterday

Wonder if you've been shopping yet for all the new and exciting things a woman of your age ought to have? Don't forget what I said about the teenagers. Life really doesn't begin until Anna starts pretending she doesn't know you. Hope your day was a memorable one with lots of love.

hello to all! With much trepidation, I have finally accepted the invitation to join in. I am equipped with my ipad and will now be an active contributor. It only took driving 10 hours to Sarah's and mom forcing me to sit down right this very second and sign in. Thanks to Sarah and Mom for allowing me this opportunity. They can now take off the blindfold and put the gun away. I am here to stay.

Hello?

Is anyone there? (crickets)

New diet techniques

Anna got an expander today for her mouth. It is a temporary metal thing attached to the roof of her mouth. It should enlarge her pallate. It looks painful. So it's mashed potaotos and ice cream for the next month. Yeah! (I wonder if that's on my diet, too, or if she just meant Anna?)

PB, where?

I was sitting next to Ivy watching cartoons and glanced over at her. It looked like she had something in her ear. So I brushed her hair aside and said, "Do you have something in your ear?" To which she looked at me out of the corner of her eye and flipped her hair aside and said, "Just peanut butter." And kept on watching tv. (There was nothing in her ear, in case you were wondering.)

Summer visit

The cabin looks great! Can't wait to see it. I have a friend getting married in Logan on June 25 this summer. I was hoping we could make it a long visit. The tentative plan is to leave KC on June 23 and stay with one of you guys until July 5. If John can get the time off, we are planning on going to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore on the way home. Anyone going to be around & need some house guests?

The Cabin is ours!

The cabin is finally ours. We went today to get the keys but Steph had to break in....no keys were where they were suppose to be.

Ivy!!

You gotta love that Ivy. There's just an honesty that cuts to the core. From getting eaten by her Mom to noticing how handsome I am. Love that girl.. She's the same one I forgot to call on her birthday I believe. If only I had what's inside that bald head she thinks belongs to her Grandpa.

It sounds like high tech means high anxiety for John on those broadcast days. Maybe you should work for Bonneville International.. Way to bring the word to the people.

Dad

Stake Conference... I'm glad it's over

It seems like the minute one Stake Conference is finished, that we are planning the next one. I thought I'd give you the play by play of my typical Stake Conference weekend.

Saturday, March 5

Saturday 12:00 pm - Arrive at Church, setup camera system and projector to view the Pulpit in the back cultural hall... Inevitably, each time something with the technology goes wrong, So, this time after putting all the wire down, running it so nobody will trip, I had to pull it back up again and run it to the other side of the gym. Prep work for my presentation to the Bishoprics and Branch Presidencies in our stake - you will fill out the paperwork... it is important not to spend more money than you have, you know the simple, easy things, we skip.

Saturday 3:00 pm - Priesthood Leadership Meeting - of course, 5 minutes before the meeting a person who is presenting asks whether I have a laptop or not, and where is he going to project his presentation? What? His presentation? news to me... well, we could setup here.. quickly scramble around while the meeting is still starting... looking like a total unprepared goof, I'm sweating and setting up a computer screen.. Setup everything for the technology piece, and take my seat behind the Stake Presidency on the stand. Well.. of couse, I review the schedule and this brother is scheduled to present the same time I was.... In a different part of the building well, what do we do now, I signal the man and we walk out of the session, and figure out what to do, He can't use my laptop to do the presentation, so we disrupt another brother on the High Council I know usually carries a laptop, and we set them up together. I take my place on the stand for 1 minute and the Stake President dismisses us to our separate meetings. I take my 20 minutes with the Bishoprics and Branch Presidencies. I leave that portion of the meeting and sit with the rest of the MP and hear a presentation on temple work.

5:00 pm - Setup the projector again, etc.. that we tore down to make this brother's presentation. Test the camera feed, then deal with the 7 or 8 interruptions from members wanting or needing something that only I can help with apparently. We run down items in the stake center, find a cable someone needs for a different building tomorrow, and email several people a URL for the feed in case the satellite is not working in the morning. Turn the camera on in time for the Adult Session to start.... missing completly the finger food intended for those attending the 3-5 session and the 6 - 8 session....

6:00 pm - Adult Session - This went very well, a wonderful session, I take the count in the middle (where I also took the time to setup two tv's (one in RS and one in Primary for the Sunday Morning session), but otherwise, enjoyed the session. After the session, mingle, then look around in horror as someone has so lovingly put away the projector and equipment in the cultural hall. In my best annoyed tone I ask, why he was taking the equipment down... well, uh.. we need it for tomorrow morning. He looks very sorry, and I am...well, tomorrow morning I'll have to get up earlier.

Sunday Morning, March 6

5:00 am - Arrive ahead of Stake Presidency meeting to setup the projector in the chappel which will be used to broadcast the session from SLC and redo the work from yesterday to setup the projector for the cultural hall.

6:00 am - 8:30 am - Stake Presidency Meeting - and last minute preparation for stake business to be conducted during the session, we are late getting this information to the High Councilors that are presiding at the different locations in the stake (all members attended in their own buildings, Trenton, Chillicothe, Cameron, Wood Heights, Kearney, Liberty, North Kansas City) - each has a sattelite with the exception of Kearney, which we hooked up the Web URL feed over the Internet. coordinating a 15 minute stake business across each of those locations is harder than it seems

8:30 am - Save a seat for the family, (I'm always in trouble because I don't do this for the family so I remembered today), and locate myself next to the projector to prep for the meeting. Make assignments to someone in the cultural hall to handle the lights and the projector when the SLC broadcast starts, and lights in the chappel when the broadcast starts. Find the remaining Branch President who wasn't in the leadership training yesterday and give him the materials I had prepared.

10:00 am - The meetings starts with a hymn and the stake business. The stake president switches the sound to the sattellite and we light up the projectors. The volume low so the Stake President walks up to the stand and ups the volume. Now there is an annoying high squeal in the sound, and the Stake President and I are unable to communicate well to fix it. He sits back with his family, and I go up to the stand to vary the volumes between the chappel system and the Sattelite system... I find the right combination and teh squeal is now gone. I then do the count and sit back down with the family for the rest of the meeting.

12:00 pm - The meeting ended quite early, around 11:40 - I now go undo all that other stuff. Projectors and VCR's in the chappel and the cultural hall, the tv's in the primary and Relief Society room, put the equipment back in the closet. Complete the Stake Conference form, to mail to SLC, pack up.

1:30 pm - head home for a nap.....

5:30 pm - Receive a phone call from Bro. Tervort in the Liberty 1 ward, they were just in the building and the camera is still setup and turned on.... well, I must have forgot that after I closed the curtains. I even said to myself, "Self, you're going to forget to get the camera" and it looks like I did.

Just my small part of Stake Conference.

So, we were sitting in Stake Conference today, which was the type the church broadcasts from SLC. The concluding speaker was Pres. Eyring, after he came on the screen, Ivy, looked up and said, "Is that Grandpa?"

New music for your listening pleasure

Try it, you'll like it! New group for this month....The Avett Brothers. You can vote 1 through 10, ten is best you've ever heard in your life. Listen to them on one of your music channels or short versions on amazon. I and Love and You is their best song. Cast your vote and add your comments.

Dad

Children for lunch!

Ivy was looking at a picture of Anna, Haley & Eden. It was one taken before she was born. She asked me, "Where am I?" I told her that she was in my tummy then. Looking totally mortified, her response, "You eat me?!?" Gotta love her!

Yeah cabin!

Maybe I found it. I guess I have to log in first. Oh my. Okay, here is a picture of our old cabin . Our new cabin does not look like this. But the news is we are getting the new cabin. We are set to close on February 28. The inspection went great. The inspector was very positive about the good condition of the cabin. I have taken my camera both times I have been there and have not taken a picture yet. Sorry. Old memories of the cabin above will always be strong. New memories will be even greater at the new cabin!!

Happy Birthdays - Meg and Chris

Just a quick note, that Meg and Chris will probably not see, but Happy Birthday to you !

think she's ready for a night out on the town!

Ivy's art project

I've been wanting to have Ivy do this art project for awhile. She did a great job! I put stickers on the canvas and she painted over them. After it was dry, I just peeled the stickers off. Lots of fun! New bunk beds are coming on Monday. So we've been rearranging rooms ALL day long. Still not even close to being finished. Where did we get all this stuff?!

Last time!

Let the potty training begin!! Wish us luck!

What happened to my foot???

Whoops! The boot's coming off! Great! Now my wonderful warm socks are wet and freezing!

Carrie ripping the sledding hill

I can't resist putting this great pic of Carrie on the great sledding outing to Trappers Loop road near Snowbasin. The hair gives an idea of the speed. A gutsy ride.

Chris and Meg's next vehicle

I found a picture of this in a blog I read... Thought it would be perfect for Chris and Meg!!!

Furniture Shopping this weekend!

The Shaw family took off to Nebraska Furniture Mart (The RC Willey's of the central plains) to look for bunk beds. It's time for Ivy to sleep in a real bed. We plan on switching the office and Anna and Ivy's room and make one room for Ivy & Eden, and Anna & Haley. We didn't purchase all the desk and drawer junk, only the beds, but here is a picture of them... They are very low to the ground.

Snow day today for the girls, we're expecting a bunch of snow for the next couple of days. Carrie is always happy to have the girls home

Okay I think I worked out the glitches with adding the nativity video so here you go! What a great Christmas!

Shaw Family Christmas Nativity Play

Family blog up and running!

Thanks to Steph we are ready to roll out this blog. And here are a few kids rolling.

What a great Christmas we had. Grandma is tired but ready to do it all again. Love you all.

Hey I love this blog.