Back at it

School is in session! It's been a weird week. It's hard to come back from a break as long as the Christmas one and get back into the swing of things. I'm still trying to remind myself that I have a whole semester to accomplish the tasks before me. It's a struggle that I have at the beginning of each one. The teachers give you a syllabus of everything you will need to do, and it's hard to tell myself it'll be okay.

I'm taking New Testament for my institute course. Brother Harding is my teacher. He began his CES career in Lovel over 20 years ago. He still has all the energy he did back then. I think it will be a great course. I have 3 classes I am taking for my master's. I don't think they'll be difficult, but they will be a lot of work. One of them is research methods. I'm not so sure about that one. It isn't my favorite subject.

I also am a TA for a class this semester. It's a little different than the one from last semester. It's the same class, just a different format. There are over 100 students in the class. I taught for the first time on Thursday. I think it went okay. I went over my alotted time, but I think the students still understood what I was trying to say. I enjoyed it. Being critiqued by the professor isn't a fun thing. I always hate being told how to improve. Not good for the ego.

Happy Birthday, Bryan

Happy Birthday to my hot-stuff brother, Bryan.

Christmas Break - 2nd Half

The rest of Christmas break went by way too quickly. I was home for over 3 weeks, but it only felt like 1. I miss being able to see the nieces and nephews more often. I was going to go to Gillette to visit Bryan and his family, but I was sick too much of the time. So, I stayed home.

Christmas was fun. Nicole's family was there. Aunt Susan came from Oregon for Sariah's baptism. We had a full house.

Nicole's brother Kletey with Bekah and Whitney on Christmas morning.

It seemed there was a theme most of the week...trying to see who was the strongest of the boys. To test this, they had the girls get on their backs to see who could do the most push-ups. This is just one of the many photos. Whitney, Bekah, and Sariah on Kletey's back.

Bryan and his family came over the day after Christmas. This is a picture of Hannah and Whitney wrapped like babies in their blankets from Grandma H. They had ring suckers in their mouths that looked like binkies. Silly girls.

A day or two after Christmas Eli blessed his and Kristin's new baby, Ava. Here is a picture of her with my mom.

Picture of me with Eli's family.

Elle, BrookeLynn, Eli, Shawnee, Ava, Kristin

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always a special occasion for our family. Especially since my oldest niece Sariah was born on Christmas Eve 8 years ago. For the past couple of years we have headed to Powell to eat breakfast at McDonald's. The kids get to play and we get to eat. I think we're going to have to do something different from now on because Sariah is getting too tall to play their.

Here is a picture of Sariah and I on her birthday.

This is Sariah getting her hair done by Aunt Nicole for her baptism. She actually looks pretty happy considering just a few minutes before that she was screaming at me because I was puting in her earrings. (She had her ears pierced not too long ago and are still tender. She doesn't "really" cry very often, so we knew it was real.)

This is of Sariah and her dad Erik before heading to the church for her baptism.

After the baptism we headed over the the church gym for our annual Mayes' Family Christmas Eve Dinner. We have grown so big over the years that we can no longer meet at just one home. This year it seemed small because it was the "off" year for family to come home. Also, Richard's family had their own Christmas Eve at their house. (We missed them and the little ones.) One tradition that we have on Christmas Eve is to read the Christmas story and have the little ones dress up for it. I don't think they pay much attention, but they have fun.

Whitney came up to us and stated, "Look, I am a cute little angel." Her grandpa Klete laughed at that one. (I really like the red-ringed mouth from the punch. Matches her dress to a T.)

Here are the majority of the little ones. My mom got to tell the story this year. The kids generally listen to her better that some of the others.

We also had a Fish Pond for the children under 12 years old. This has been a tradition in the family since my great-grandpa's generation. Since some of the families are getting pretty darn big, I decided I would cover it this year and get small gifts for the children. It makes Aunt Shawnee all the more popular. We usually put up a sheet so the "fish" can hide behind it. My mom and brother Mike got to help on the other side. My mom said that the children's faces when they got their "fish" was one of pure joy. I wish I could have seen them. I did get a lot of hugs afterwards, though.

Tragic but True

I drove back to Logan today. On the way I listened to the radio, which played news every hour. I heard some tragic stories.

1. A lady in Florida drowned her 5 year old grandson in their bath tub. The reason? So he wouldn't grow up with divorced parents.

2. A lady in the midwest (I want to say OH, but I could be wrong) recently went to McDonald's and order some chicken nuggets. When she found out they didn't have any, she became furious. She ended up punching a teller and punching through the glass at the drive thru.

3. A recent study (done in the UK, I think) found that most children didn't learn their first word until they were 3. According to the study, by this age children should know hundreds of words. Their suggestion to help the learning of words? Interact with your children, read to them, and talk with them. Wow, groundbreaking advice. (I think 3 is a little extreme. My nieces were holding full conversations at 2.)

Christmas Break- the First Half

I have been home for almost 2 weeks now. I've had a lot of fun with the nieces and nephews. The weekend I got home my brother Bryan and his family came into town so that everyone was home. We decided to go bowling. This is me with the nieces watching someone else bowl. I think the younger girls outscored all of the adults. Of course they had bumpers and some help with a ramp to put the ball on.

This is Wilson, Whitney and Hannah. The two girls usually play so well together. Here they are sharing a bike.

These are the boys right before we took family pictures. They are the binky boys. The hat Wilson is wearing was made by Nicole. She has been a crafting freak.

The past two weeks has gone by so quickly. I have been sick for a lot of it, so I really haven't had time to do the projects that I need to get done before next semester comes. I'll get on those right away. ;) On Wednesday I got to spend some time with my brother Kirk. Those who usually take care of him went up to Billings. It was great to spend a few hours with him. He's getting so much better with his vocabulary. He usually just says one word when he wants to communicate. While I was over there he was using sentances in asking to go see mom. I felt so bad having to turn him down, but it was crazy at home. So we listened to music and I tickled his feet; he was in 7th heaven. It was nice to spend some quiet time with him.

Sicker Than a Boo-Boo

As my Uncle Lloyd would say, I have been "sicker than a boo-boo" this past week. I'm not exactly how sick that is, but I'm guessing that's how I've felt this past week. When I got home last weekend my niece and nephew had a few sniffles. I didn't think much of it until I started getting a REALLY sore throat. I think I would rather have the stomach flu than a sore throat. It makes life miserable. On top of that I couldn't breathe through my nose, making it necessary to breathe through my mouth...drying out my throat even more. Makes sleeping difficult. I finally went to the doctor on Thursday and got some antibiotics. It really hasn't helped, but I'm hoping.

Being at home has been great. Since my brother and his family currently live with my mom (he's building a house), I get to see Whitney and Wilson, my niece and nephew, every day. Wilson is learning to walk/waddle. He's getting more sure of himself every day. Whitney keeps me entertained with dancing and singing. I wish I had even 1 percent of her energy. She amazes me.

I've been very lazy so far. I'm supposed to get ready for next semester and finish a project from this last semester, but that hasn't really happened yet. I need to get on that this week. I hate having to work over a break, but it must be done.

Family Photos

We had family photos taken last weekend. Catherine did a great job...especially at photo shopping the background so it looked good. It was a crazy 20 minutes with screaming kids and adults trying to get their attention. I think they turned out for how crazy it really was.

Kirk, Me, Mom

Me and my cute mommy

The girls (Chelsey, Shawnee, Mom, Sandy, Nicole, Sariah, Bekah, Hannah, Whitney)

A few of us girls

The grandchildren (Hayden, Hannah, Whitney, Sariah, Wilson, Bekah)

Mike's Family (Mike, Whitney, Nicole, Wilson)

Erik's Family (Sandy, Erik, Bekah, Sariah)

Bryan's Family (Chelsey, Hannah, Hayden, Bryan)

The whole gang.

Taco Bell Birthday

The other night my friend Jess and I went through the drive-thru at Taco Bell, one of our favorite eateries. The guy who took our order was hillarious, and very patient with us. (We tend to be a bit hyper when we are together). When we pulled up to the window, he happened to mention it was his birthday. One of us (I think it was Jess, she thinks it was me) had the bright idea to make him a card since he had to work on his birthday. So, we ran around the corner back to my apartment. This is us thinking we are so creative in writing a poem to him.


The following is the card. It uploaded upside down. We wrote a poem to him.

We also decided to give him some cake. It's one of those microwave brownie things. Very yummy.

This is Jess making an order for some tap water and hot sauce. Since we had already been through about 20 minutes before that, we really didn't want anything.

This is Jason. He was nice enough to offer the water and hot sauce free of charge. We gave him his cake and card. I think he was very surprised by the whole thing. He probably thought we were psycho. (Which we really are, we just try not to let on about that part).

All in all it was a great evening. One of the best nights of our lives. (Earlier that night we saw "The Blind Side", which is an amazing move.)

Windex or Febreeze?

It was one of "those" days. The first picture is of me after dinner. That would be dip from Chile's...the chips were pretty weak. I could see it coming, but I still moved it towards my mouth. Sucker for punishment, I guess.

This morning took me a while to get going. When the alarm went off I started to push the minute button instead of the snooze button, thinking it would give me more time to sleep. Now my clock is way off, but I got a couple of minutes more before I realized what I had done. When I went to leave the house, I noticed my jacket smelled like food. I grabbed what I thought was the Febreeze and started spraying. Afterwards, I realized it was the Windex. (as you can see from the picture below, they look NOTHING alike) At school I was walking on a brick walkway and twisted my ankle. At least I didn't fall all the way to the ground. Later, I was walking down the hall, talking with a friend, when I ran into a wall. As you can tell, it was one of "those" days. Glad it's done.

Beauty All Around

I drove home from WY today. These are pictures taken in the canyon between Logan and Bear Lake. My camera doesn't do it justice. It was gorgeous. I love fall!

There's a Monster in my Nose!

This book was written by my cousins, Richard and Beth Hawley, and illustrated by another cousin, Spencer Hawley. Check it out at http://www.publishamerica.net/product85079.html.

Sleep? What's that?

It seems my body is getting old. That's when people start sleeping less, right? It hit me all in one night. Last night I went to bed a little early, at least early for me. I had lights out at 11:30. I thought I'd go to sleep quickly since I was tired. Well, I lied there until 4:30. By then I was fuming mad. I should have gotten up earlier but thought I would fall asleep soon. WRONG! I did 2 hours of homework and then went back to bed. I think I fell asleep at 7 and then got up at 8:30. Only 90 minutes of sleep for the longest day of my week. And I still feel pretty good. At least I'm still coherant. ;) But, I am DEFINATELY going to bed early tonight!

The Popes

These are the Popes. Tish and I have known each other a long time. I've known Josh a long time, too. They actually met because of me.... You're welcome. :) They moved to Logan a few weeks before me. They have been a lifesaver. They feed me, entertain me, and let me play with the kids. It's great.

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Kade being the cutie that he is.

Only The Temple

I went to the Logan temple tonight and had a great experience. I noticed a few things while there. Only at the temple do you see a sign that says "Thou shalt not park here." Only in the temple will I be complimented on my Spanish. Only by the temple will you see an old man who shuffles behind his wife carrying her suitcase for her. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!