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. 

My Family Comes to Visit

Last week my family came to visit.  I've been looking forward to this visit since we moved and we had so much fun.  They got in on Saturday night, on Sunday we went and had dinner with Erik's family, Monday and Tuesday we went to the lake, and Thursday they toured the Park Canada.  Here is a photo-dump chronicalling their visit.

Both my families together (with Debbie at the camera).  Precious, huh?

 Dad, Erik, Nina, and Jack jumping into the lake at peak waviness.  Just for the record, as a recent graduate of the country club's' junior lifeguard program (age group 10 and under), I did not approve of this activity.

Dad doing a back flip.  See above caption.

Shanna skiing just to prove to Jack that I could.

We rented jet skis and had so much fun, though Erik's...ahem...manhood is still in recovery

Erik being cute cuddling his wifey

Erik being less cute, throwing his wife in the lake

Everyone in front of our house right before they left.  Please note that the lawn is mowed, as this is somewhat of an irregular occurrence

 I was so sad when they left.  It felt like the day after Christmas.  However through eating an entire batch of cupcakes and watching the whole season 5 of 30 Rock I managed to hang in there.  Come visit us and I'll blog about you. 

So my family is coming tomorrow and I'm soooo excited I can't even sleep.  I can't vacuum because Erik is asleep, so I'm blogging instead.
Chris and Beez's wedding was wonderful.  Beez looked stunningly beautiful.  So gorgeous I would probably hate her if she wasn't one of my best friends.  And being maid of honor was so much fun. 

The rest of my time in Idaho was awesome as well.  Nina, my mom and me got feathers, I ate at Panda Express twice, I went shopping with my bff Heather, and I caught up on what all those kids from high school who I don't care enough about to be facebook friends with are up to.  All in all, a perfect visit.

The day after I got back from Idaho was Erik's birthday.  Debbie (his mom) and I took him birthday cake at work, and the next day his family came over for a little party.  Erik chose sweet and sour meatballs, Cesare salad, fruit kabobs, and confetti cake for  his birthday meal.

Birthday ride in his brother's cool car

Erik and I recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary.  It feels like I've been married to Erik forever, but it doesn't feel like our wedding was a year ago.  Does that even make sense?  Anyways, I love that boy to death and I'm so glad we're sealed together.  He's a good catch, all you single girls should be jealous.

Come visit us.  But not this week or over labor day, because my brother is coming then. Any other time though.  Sound like a plan?