Dancing Queen

On Tuesday I had the opportunity of going to a dance recital for a place that my sister-in-law teaches tap at. My niece Whitney was one of the cute little dancers. It was so fun watching all the different age groups dance. There was one group in particular that kept us highly entertained with their antics (that were not part of the dance, of course).

Whitney in her cute costume. She was so excited to dance on a stage with spot lights.

Me with the cutie pie.

Whitney and her friend Marissa.

Kinda fuzzy, but still so cute. This is while she was dancing.

Gingerbread Boxes

One of the first nights home Aunt Nicole invited everyone out to their house to make gingerbread houses. Well, they turned out to be more like boxes, and they didn't even hold together too well. The kids had fun eating the candy while making the boxes.

Grandma and Mike watching the progress.

Sariah and her house. It turned out very cute.

Sariah and Wilson

Hannah and Whitney in their princess dresses, making their boxes.

Hayden being a cheeser.

Hayden, Whitney, Damen, Marissa, and Bekah

Marissa and Bekah

Goo, Hannah, and Whity

Musical Lights

Here is part of one of the shows I got to see in Idaho Falls (see previous post)...I was very impressed.

Detour through Rexburg

On the way home for Christmas break, I spent a few days in Rexburg visiting friends. I spent most of my time at my friends' the Wildes. I hadn't seen them in quite a while. How the kids have grown! I used to spend quite a bit of time with them when I lived in Rexburg. I miss being able to see them whenever I needed a kid fix. Here are a few pictures from the visit.

This is Madelyn...she is just too cute.

Me and the two boys-Cannon and Preston. I used to watch Preston all the time when he was a baby and toddler. Now he's in 1st grade! Yikes.

The boys waiting for their funny faced pancakes at IHop.
(They were HUGE!)

After dinner, we went and looked at lights in Idaho Falls. There are two houses within a mile of each other that have a huge light show set to music. They even had their own radio stations so people could sit in their own cars and watch the show. The kids loved it. (So did I.)

Also while in the area I got to go to lunch with my friend Stephanie. As with most of my friends, it had been too long since I had seen her. She's an amazing woman and I am so grateful for her friendship. I have been so blessed with good friends!

Happy Birthday, Erik!

Happy birthday to my little brother, Erik!
(Shown here with is son, Ethan.)

School and Thesis Update

School has been going well this semester. I really am only taking one class and working on my thesis. The class I'm taking is on family theories. It's been interesting because I've been trained to think developmentally (individually) rather than from the standpoint of a family. It's definitely broadened my thinking. In fact, I'm taking another family class next semester, one on family policy, so I can better understand the family framework. (I need to in order to pass successfully through my PhD program...so I thought I'd get a head start.)

A couple of weeks ago another girl and I gave a presentation in the Family Theories class on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. His theory is one of my favorites. Probably because it ties nicely into human development. :) Anyway, I was pretty stressed about it because the teacher would mention her critiques of other presentations to me in passing. Needless to say, my partner and I put a lot of work into the presentation. Afterward the presentation and during the break, the teacher gave me a high 5 and smiled. Later she wrote this: "You are an excellent teacher. Your goal of a ph.d. is well worth achieving. I was mesmerized by the way you drew the class to the level of involvement you got." I was so thrilled to get such positive feedback. Most of the time I feel like I'm the dummy of the class because I have to background training in family theory. At least I can teach!

As for my thesis, I did my proposal today. Basically, I presented what I want to do with my thesis to my committee members. (I had to write my intro, a literature review, and a methods section for the proposal. Three chapters down, two to go!) Again, I was pretty stressed. My committee members are wonderful, but I still worried. As I told my advisor, when you put so much effort into something you don't want to hear anything negative about it. Kind of like when you become a parent, you wouldn't be able to hear anyone say anything negative about your newborn, even if it was something insignificant, like about its clothes. Anyway, this morning I got a call from the department secretary saying that the room I had been scheduled for had been double booked and I needed to move since she was actually defending her thesis and I was 'only' doing a proposal. Good thing they had another room readily available or I might have lost it. I really didn't mind, but any hurdle at this point seems like a mountain. The proposal meeting went fine. My committee had many good suggestions to help clarify my methods and my analysis. It's nice to get an 'outsider's' point of view...someone who is not 'entrenched' in the process so they can see things more clearly. It was a lot to take in, but very useful. So now I go back to my thesis and make the suggested changes and enhancements and REALLY begin work on the data analysis. I don't mind this part. It's a lot less stressful.

The next thing on my plate is studying for a stats pretest so that I can get into a stats class next semester. It's amazing how much I can forget in such a short time from when I took it. Okay, it was 2 years ago, but it wasn't in high school. I can remember a lot of the basics, it's just some of the formulas I'll need to try and remember.

Onward and upward!

More Thanksgiving

Here are a few more pictures from my Thanksgiving break.

Hannah 'hiding' in a storage box.

Hayden, Bryan, and Wilson watching sledding.

Hayden helping Grandma bake rolls and cookies.

Hayden and Hannah with balls in their shirts.
(This is what I always do when I take a ball from them...put it up my shirt. They love it.)

Heidi (2 1/2 months) and Ethan (5 1/2 months)

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving break has been fun. I love being with my family, especially the little ones. Here are a few highlights from the fun-filled week.

Sariah, Bekah, Hannah, and Whitney wrestling with Bryan

Nicole making snow ice cream (VERY yummy)

Wilson, Whitney, and Ethan

Hannah and Whitney

Me visiting Uncle Richard's family
Hayden, me, Kayla, McKay, Callie, Nina, Karren, Hailey,
and Uncle Richard

Hayden out in the cold

Wilson, Hayden, and Whitney sledding
(Being pulled by Bryan)

Sariah and Hannah waiting their turns for sledding

Bekah bowling

Scary Bryan, Pretty Chelsey, Grumpy Hayden, Sweet Hannah
waiting their turns for bowling

Who's going to marry you?

Lately, my 4 year old niece has been concerned about who will marry me. I think her real concern is when she can next be a flower girl. This is a conversation we had a few days ago.

Hannah: Shawnee, who's going to marry you?
Me: That's a really good question, Hannah.
Hannah: How about Kirk? (My youngest brother.)
Hannah's mom: His name might be Kirk, but it won't be Uncle Kirk.
Hannah: Oh. Well, who's going to marry you then?

Another conversation the next day.

Hannah: Shawnee, who's going to marry you?
Me: I don't know, Hannah. Maybe no one.
Hannah, with a confused/concerned look on her face says: You can marry my daddy.
Me: He's already married.
Hannah: That's okay. He can marry you, too. Can I be your flower girl?

Too cute.

Dreams

For those of you who know me fairly well, you can attest to the fact that I have weird and vivid dreams almost every night. At one point in my life, while working at BYU, a costar would automatically ask me every day what I had dreamed the night before. And usually I could remember.

Last night's dream was a doozy. It started out with me being at church in my single's ward. Then, all of a sudden, our ward was in a huge arena (much like the Marriott Center at BYU). My bishop then announced that instead of having normal meetings, we are going to have a stake conference. The arena begins filling with people from other wards. Our speaker then arrives, with much applause (which doesn't normally happen during church meetings). It's Dr. Steven Covey. He shyly smiles while the crowd goes wild. Soon, we begin to hear music and Gladys Knight is on stage grooving to "Amazing Grace". I yell to my neighbor over all of the loud music and clapping, "My mom is going to be SOOO jealous." During all of this, Janice Kapp Perry also makes a showing. During her singing, the congregation decides to put on a show of dancing. I was so flustered because everyone around me knew what to do. But I had no clue! So I stomped around holding my scriptures and wallet. At one point, one of the performers took my scriptures as a prop. They're brand new, so I was NOT happy about this. I finally found them at the end of everything, and was back at the church in my home town. I couldn't remember where I had parked. So, I waited for the parking lot to empty out to see if I could find my car quickly. It was snowing hard, and I couldn't find my car. So, I ended up walking to my mom's house, in the snow, in heels.

Very strange dream. Wonder what it means?

Loner....Continued

So I woefully stayed in Logan over the weekend instead of heading home to see family. I worked hard on my paper that was due on Tuesday. I called a co-student of mine on Monday to reschedule a meeting because I was so stressed by the paper. When I said I was stressed, she seemed confused and said, "It's only a paragraph with 3-5 references we'll use for the final paper, right?" So then I became confused. Turns out, I was looking at the requirements for the FINAL paper that's due in December, not the outline that was due this week. (In my defense, the assignment title I was going off of in the syllabus had "outline" in the title so I thought I was doing the correct assignment.) If I had gone back to the BEGINNING of the syllabus where there was a short description of the assignments, I would have read about the paragraph with 3-5 references instead of the summary I wrote of 8 references. (It would have been 10 except I quit after talking with my friend.) So, in other words, I stayed in Logan to write a paper that wasn't due instead of going to visit family. I was SO not happy when I found this out. On the bright side, I guess I'm a little further along on the paper than I would have been....

The Loner of Logan

So it seems I'm destined to be alone....all of the time. I planned on going home - almost (Gillette) - for my newest niece's baby blessing. On Tuesday I realized I had a heck of a paper due next week and there was no way I would get it done if I spent the weekend playing with the nieces and nephews. So, I made the decision to stay in Logan. Alone. Even though I know it's what I need to do, it's still tough not to be with my family when they are all together. I keep thinking that in the long run, family is what's important. But then I also know I need to take my education seriously. Tough decisions. Needless to say I am REALLY bummed about not being with them this weekend. I just couldn't justify spending 18+ hours in the car when I could use them for writing my paper. *sigh* Here I go on to face my lonesome weekend. (Not that it's different than any other weekend I spend in Logan.) I made sure to tell my mom to pinch all their bums for me....'cause they're just so cute!

On a brighter (sort of) note, I did get a new calling in my single's ward. It's probably the lowest calling on the totem pole, but that'll be fine, I guess. I'm the new chorister. No, I don't get to pick the hymns, the bishopric will do that. No, I don't get to lead the choir, there's a different chic for that. All I get to do is wave my ugly arm for 3-4 songs each Sunday. That's it. Nothing more. Kinda lame and it doesn't really get me involved. Plus, I won't get to sit with people during Sacrament meeting. At least I have a calling in this ward. Last year I didn't and it was a bit strange. (By the way, this is the ONLY thing I marked 'no' on in my info sheet....I HATE leading music during church. Guess that'll teach me to say no.)

Gillette Visit

My niece Heidi was born at the beginning of September and I couldn't wait any longer to see her. So, last week I decided to skip town and head to Gillette to visit Bryan and his family. I left Logan on Wednesday and got back on Sunday. It was a very good visit. I needed a kid fix. I've been having trouble focusing this semester, and I think being able to see some of the family helped a bit. Here are some pictures of the visit.

Hayden wearing his hat.
(A lady in my old ward makes them. They are so cute. I didn't think she would get them done so quickly and I couldn't wait for cold weather to give them to the kids.)

Hannah in her cute hat, 'skating' across the kitchen floor.

Hayden in his boots, ready to go outside.

Here's Hannah loving on Heidi. (Hannah adores her.)

The cutie herself.
Hannah calls her Squeaker because she makes squeaking noises.

Singles Ward, parts 31-45

I went to a singles ward on Sunday for the first time in a while. This singles ward is different than anything I've experienced before. It's a ward for singles aged 31-45. The only singles wards I've gone to are for 18-30. I've been on the older end of things for those types of wards. In this new ward, I'm on the younger end. A very strange feeling. It was amazing to realize how diverse the ward really is. There are people there who've been divorced and who have children. There are some, I'm sure, who are widows/widowers. Then there are those like me who have never been married. It's quite the mixture of people. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about attending a singles ward again. I'm tired of all the games that people play in the dating world. But I figure that I need friends in Logan, since the 2 I had last year moved. I have friends in my program, but they are all married. I need friends who are single....thus my decision to attend a singles ward. Plus, I was reminded in my institute class last week that every person needs to keep marriage as their first priority, even those who are single. Most days I'm okay with being single. It's a lot easier than being married for sure. But with that reminder, I guess I need to keep my options open. (Ug. Thanks a lot, Brother Harding.) What better way to do that than attend a singles ward for old people like me. ;)

Perry the Platypus

All of my nieces and nephews are amazingly talented. (That statement has no bias whatsoever.) Once in a while I am able to record their amazingness. While visiting Bryan and Chelsey last month, Hannah amazed me with her Perry the Platypus immitation. For those of you who don't know, Perry is a Platypus that stars on the Disney show "Phinneas and Pherb". She is an avid watcher. (It's actually pretty creative and funny. I've laughed during every episode I've seen.) Anyway, one day she made this noise. I called her Perry and she thought it was great. So, this video is of us singing Old McDonald had a Perry on his farm. For a reference of what the real Perry sounds like, you can see that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONgjXrOShlc. Definitely not as good as Hannah, though.

Happy Birthday, Kirk!

I can't believe that it's that time of year...Happy birthday to my youngest brother, Kirk. I know I cried when you were born because I wanted a sister instead of another brother, but I am so grateful that you are you. I cried more tears as the years passed by, either because I was frustrated that you wouldn't listen or because of how special you are. I have laughed because of the funny things you've said at the most inappropriate times (like during church when you yelled 'shut up' during a talk). I have been frustrated by your incessant asking to go the Red Apple. I have loved sitting on the couch with you to tickle your feet and arms. When you sing your songs, it brings a smile to my face. It's been amazing to see how much you have grown through the years, and especially this year working with Janet. I would give anything to be able to know what you are thinking at any given moment. But most of all, it brings joy to my heart to know that one of God's special children was sent to be my brother. I love you, Kirk.

Miles and Motorcylces

Summer is over. Can you hear me sighing? I can't believe it went by so quickly. At the beginning I thought, "What in the heck am I going to do with all of my free time?" I look back and wonder where all that 'free time' was. I guess being lazy was easier than I thought.

I did a calculation of the miles I traveled this summer. The sum? About 6,500. That's right. I could have driven across the US and back with all the driving that I did. Well, I did drive half way across (to MN, IL, and IA) making up 2600 of my miles. I also went to Bryan's house in Gillette about 5 times. It's 400 miles each trip, totaling 2000 miles. I also drove to Logan a few times, each trip about 1000 miles (more when coming from Gillette), for a total of 2000 miles. This doesn't count the trips to Billings (200 miles round trip) or to Cody (100 round trip). So you can see that I was on the road....A LOT this summer.

On one trip from Gillette to Lovell, I decided to count the motorcycles going the opposite way. It was the weekend before the Sturgis rally (Harley Davidson circus), so there were lots. (Gillette is half way between Lovell and Sturgis.) On the 200 mile trip, I counted over 400 motorcycles. That means 2 motorcycles for every mile I traveled that day. NUTS!

On the trip back to Logan, I drove from Gillette and was on I-80 most of the way. As many of you know, I-80 is the road of truckers. They OWN the road. I decided to count how many trucks I passed on I-80. There were over 150 that I passed....they were going the same way as me. If I had counted those on the other side of the freeway, my brain would probably be fried right now...too many.

Anyhow, a summer of traveling is done. I expect that I'll be stuck in Logan until Thanksgiving. That's so sad because Ethan will be 5 months by then, and the little one who'll be born in a few weeks will be so big! Can you hear me sighing again?

One Last Visit

Before heading back to Logan, I wanted to see Bryan's family just one more time. I spent a few days with them just hanging out. Here are some pictures of us outside.

Hayden being his cute self.

Hayden and Hannah playing in their sandbox.

Hannah showing how to pose.

Cute, cute

It's kind of a two-edged sword when I visit. It's good to get my fill, but then I miss them that much more.

Being Aunt Shawnee

At the beginning of August, I took Hayden and Hannah to my mom's to give Chelsey a small break during her last month of pregnancy. We had some good times. We went to the pool (shown previously). We also just played lots outside. Following are some of the pictures of the good times.

Hannah and Wilson riding bikes.

Hayden with a bow on his nose.

How cute. ;)

Hannah after eating some yummy ice cream.

Wilson riding bikes.

Hayden riding bikes.

Swimming in Lovell

At the beginning of the month, I had Hannah and Hayden with me in Lovell. One day we decided to go to the whale pool that's at the park a block from my mom's house. They were so excited. Hayden was pretty excited after his last time there. He finally got comfortable going into the water. Unfortunately, this time he tried to drown himself by being too independent. After that he stuck pretty close to me at the side of the pool. Whitney and Hannah had a blast. They're just the right size/age for this type of pool.

Whitney going down the whale.

Whitney and Hannah on the way to the park.
(They are so cute in their suits!)

The girls enjoying the pool.

Hayden being his cute self.

Whitney

I LOVE this picture of him.
(He usually avoids the camera as much as possible.)

Hannah enjoying the water.