Christmas

We had two wonderful Christmases.  We left on Wednesday for Idaho , after being up all night sick, and the weather was a little rough so it was a long drive, but we made it.  Alex 

was home too, so it was the first time my whole family had been together since last Christmas.  My friend Heather made me the cutest crafty gifts, and I had fun seeing friends I haven't seen in a while.   My family has big Christmas Eve traditions that are really important to me, and I love sharing them with Erik.  On Sunday morning we woke up and opened presents and went to church.  The little girl in front of us, probably about 2, walked right over and sat on my Dad's lap and started showing him all her necklaces.  It was so cute to watch him with that little blonde girl on his lap, he's gonna be the best grandpa (but not yet, no one get excited).  

Matching purple Christmas ties

We came home on Monday and had Christmas with Erik's family on Tuesday.  Between the two Christmases and my wonderful husband (who knows to cheat when I put a spending limit on gifts) I was so spoiled it's embarrassing.  I'm excited to be blogging on our brand new laptop, which will really help facilitate my next semester of school.  It was a gadget Christmas for my family; they all got iphones, my brothers got kindles, we got a laptop, and Erik got me a GPS.  We got stockings full of cough drops and Emergen-C from Erik's mom, which was definitely much needed, we've had a hard time staying healthy this winter.  Erik's parents got him a new Iphone, and I got wedding China and super cute earrings.  We are too spoiled.  

 In other news my piano recital went well, I wanted to take lots of pictures and print them out for the parents, but my camera ran out of batteries and I walked away with just this one. 

My cute little student Jace.  He brought me flowers, how sweet was that?

I've been enjoying aweek of pre-child-stay-at-home-wifehood (PCSHW), but will be ready to go back to work next week. It's been nice to have a break from school, but I'm looking forward to my classes this semester.   Come visit us.  After a whole week of PCSHW, my house will probably even be clean. 

It's been a busy month or so.  We had Thanksgiving with Erik's family, I finished my first round of graduate school finals, and we went to Seattle to see a Seahawks game.  My Christmas piano recital is tomorrow, and we're heading to idaho in a few days for Christmas.

1) Thanksgiving

I am not a good cook.   Most nights Erik's dinner choices are leftovers from last time we ate at his parents' house, taquitos, cereal, or a baked potato.  But I really tried for Thanksgiving.  Erik and I volunteered to bring cinnamon rolls, orange sherbert salad, and fudge.  I woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and got cooking.  Toward the end I got Erik to join in, and everything turned out decent. 

 We had Thanksgiving at Erik's parents' house with his immediate family, both grandmas, and an aunt and uncle.  Both Debbie and Aunt Karole and amazing cooks, so it was pretty dang yummy. 

 After dinner Debbie really wanted pictures of her three boys together.  They're 27, 26, and 24 respectively, but watching that photo shoot they were closer to 7, 6, and 4.  They all insisted they were too full and sleepy to take pictures, but I thought this one was kinda cute .

The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree.  I love Christmas so much and couldn't wait to get our tree up.

The next two weeks were all about studying for finals and final papers.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I did not handle the stress well and was a tiny bit grumpy. Erik was patient with me though and we got through it. Grades aren't posted yet, but I'm more than a little nervous about my health care policy class.

Just this last weekend we went to Seattle to go to a Seahawks game.  Erik was able to get really good tickets through a customer at the dealership, and he was so excited.  It was cute.  We had fun having a little weekend away together.  We saw our friends Blaine and Mel, went shopping, and went to the game.  It was freezing, but a lot of fun.

Photo courtesy of Blaine.  Turns out he's a super photographer

Shopping.  I heart H&M.

In the hotel lobby right before the game.  Look at that big smile.  I clearly did not know how cold I was going to get.

The Sea Gals were so stinking cute.  I love them.  I want to be them.

We had a great time.  It was a great kickoff to Christmas.  We'll be in
idaho next week.  Call me to do something so Erik will think I have friends.  Awesome, thanks.

Christmas Card

My mom emailed me a copy of this year's family Christmas card.  It looks like this:

The dog is like four times larger than anyone else.  Erik is on it three times as much as me despite me reminding my mother that he is the one who dragged me away from her loving arms.

In case my mom changes her mind last minute, I'd like to propose an alternate Christmas card.

During the summer Erik and I do lots of fun things.  During the fall and winter all we really do is hibernate.  I like blogging though, so the following paragraphs are a summary of our hibernation.

Social Update:

Ummm nothing.

Just kidding.  We had a pretty fun Halloween, and celebrated our two year anniversary of being together.  We had some of our friends over for food, games, and Ghostbusters.  It was mellow, but nice.

Work Update:

Erik is a busy little bee at the business.  Not to brag or anything, but he got a big reward or something.  I'm not entirely sure what he actually does at work despite his repeatedly telling me, all I know is that he works super hard and it maintains my standard of living.  He's off on a business trip this month to Detroit, and I'm having a Twilight marathon while he's gone.

Headstart is going well.  Those kids crack me up every day.  The weather was finally good enough for the cheerleaders to perform their homecoming routine on the football field, and it was pretty cool for me to see my routine performed in a space that big.  They did great. Piano is going well too, I'm up to 12 students, which is right where I want to be.

School Update:

I'm in the homestretch of my first semester in the MPA program.  I've learned a lot, mostly about how to write papers that sound like I know what I'm talking about when I super don't.  My "L" button on my computer is sticking and sometimes doesn't work so when I try to type public I actually type....you know what, nevermind. 

Anyways, nothing exciting here.  We'd love to see you though!

Baby Bears

So I've been a bad blogger lately.  Partly because we're boring and there's nothing new to blog about ("and in other ground breaking news, Erik found a long dark hair in his dinner tonight, breaking our two day streak of hair-free meals"), and partly because I have to write so much for school that I've been a little burned out.  I will post a legitimate post sometime in the near future, I promise, but I just had to share these pictures Erik sent me from his drive home from work.

We live in a place where you see bears on your commute home.  Crazy, huh?  Good thing I love animals.

Picture Dump

Sometimes when I go a long time between blog posts it's because nothing new has happened.  Other times it's because we're so busy that I can't seem to find time to blog.  This last month falls under the latter category.  We've had such a fun month!  Here's what we've been up to:
1) For our one-year anniversary we wanted to go to the temple.  Stuff kept coming up and we just couldn't seem to find a whole day that neither of us had work or something else going on.  So almost a month after our actual anniversary (July 31st) we finally made it to the temple. 

2)  Alex and his girlfriend (insert kissy noises here) came to visit us for labor day.  I always get so excited when we have visitors and so depressed when they leave.  They had a pretty mellow visit, we watched a lot of football, drove through the park, and hung out at the lake.

3)  I'm continuing to love coaching cheerleading.  Our football team is 2-1 so far, and the girls are doing well.  I started piano lessons this week and I start a new job at Headstart tomorrow that I'm really excited for.  Grad school is kicking my rear end, and everytime I participate in an online discussion I'm reminded how limited my vocabulary is and how many pretentious ways there are to say something simple.  I'm really excited about the stuff I'm learning though, and really grateful to be in school this semester.

Varsity

All-Squad

4) Erik has retired his cowboy boots until next year's rodeo, much to the disappointment of his wife.  He's very excited that football season has started, and is currently watching a game on the TV and a different game on the computer. He's trying to fit in as many hikes and other outdoorsy activities as possible during our last dwindling days of summer.

Ziplining

 

5) Yesterday was my MIL Debbie's birthday.  We went out to eat and came back to the house for cake and ice cream.  It was a good time. 

I'm coming to Utah at the end of the month for scrapbook weekend.  I can't even wait. Come visit us.

PS-- If you are my friend and you have a blog and you are not regularly updating it, I want you to know I'm disappointed in you.  After a long day, all I want to do is read blogs.  If none of my friends have updated, then I'm forced to blog-stalk people I don't know.  That's a weird thing to do, and I blame you.  Thank you.

Cowboy Up

Those of you who know Erik know that he is not exactly a cowboy.  However, since starting his new job at the business, he has had to appeal to a number of truck drivers, many of whom fall into the cowboy category.  This was never more evident than this past week, where Erik played a big role in the Rodeo (T.  It was like my dream come true.
         1) Erik had got to dress up like a cowboy.  I scored him some boots at a thrift store and we scrounged up the rest.
         2) He had got to wear a pink shirt
         3) I got to go to the fair twice.  And what has two thumbs and loves the fair?  Shanna
Since this is a family blog, I will refrain from going into great detail about how much I enjoyed Erik's cowboy get up.  All I will say is that it worked for me.  

That is one sexy cowboy.

The rodeo itself was super fun.  Because we are all that and a bag of chips, we got spiffy VIP passes, which meant we got good seats and food, so besides great entertainment, I didn't have to make dinner for 3 nights.  SCORE.  We had a really good time doing something different together.

I just can't get enough of Cowboy Erik

Another thing I can't get enough of

Erik is the one in the middle.  I think Erik and Don look so much alike in this picture

I got to meet the princesses.  I was like a teeny bopper meeting Justin Bieber, they were so dang cute.

The gang getting some kind of award.  I'm not really sure what it was, as I was busy trying to get close enough for a picture but far away enough that the bull wasn't smelling my hair.