Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thankgiving!  We have so many blessings and so much to be grateful for this holiday season.  I can't even count all the things I am grateful for, but I know that my family is one of the most important blessings in my life.  I have an amazing husband and 3 wonderful kids who make me laugh, and teach me so much.  Plus we have an fabulous extended family on both sides.
 

We spent time as a family this week, we went to Santa Barbara for Grandma Wall's funeral.  The week was spent seeing family and friends that we haven't seen for along time.  The funeral was very nice memorial of Lenna Marie Wall.  She was an amazing mother, grandmother, sister and friend to all who knew her. 

It was great to see sunny Santa Barbara, and let Taylor see where he was born. We spent some time at the beach. Taylor tried surfing, and boogie boarding in the icy cold water. He was very brave about getting in the water.  We had tons of fun playing in the sand, gathering shells, looking for tide pools, and even finding a live lobster on the shore!

These are the turkeys we made for FHE at the beginning of the month.  The kids had fun listing things they are grateful for, and loved having them displayed all month. 

 

It was nice to spend time with Danny's family, especially his siblings that we don't get to see very often.  We will always love to visit Santa Barbara. 

Thanks SO much to Katie & Adam for letting us stay with you!

Grandma Wall

Danny's sweet Grandma passed away today.  Everyone is sad to see her go, but happy because we know she is in a better place. 

Danny has always been close to his grandma from the time he was a little boy.  She holds a special place in his heart.  She became a wonderful friend and example to me when we lived with her in Santa Barbara.  We move to SB to live with her when I was pregnant with Taylor.  I was privledged to spend my days with her after he was born.  She was a sweet, funny, thoughtful, generous woman.  We lived with her for a about 18 months and it was full of wonderful memories and fun times together. 

Once Taylor was born she spoiled him rotten.  She was always holding him and rocking him and playing with him and he loved her!  When he was 5-6 months old, we were sleeping training and he was crying in his crib.  She would come downstairs and beg me to let her hold him so he wouldn't cry. I wouldn't let her get him out, because I wanted him to fall asleep without being rocked.  I am sure she thought I was so mean!   Taylor had his first taste of Diet Soda and cookies thanks to Grandma Wall and he was 8 months old. 

We will cherish our memories made while living in her home. 

I wish I had more pictures from when we lived in SB on my computer but here are a few pictures of Grandma Wall. 

We love you Grandma Wall!

Taylor finished his fall soccer season last Sat.  They had a great season and all the players really improved.  Tayor especially is running faster, shooting more goals, playing aggressively, and  learned to play goalie.  Way to go Tay!

Little Isaac has been making us laugh all week long!  He has such a funny personality and he talks constantly, telling us about everything, and asking a million questions.

His questions lately are about where we buy everything; food, clothes, toys, snacks, cleaning stuff etc..  We will be eating a meal and he'll ask over and over "Where you buy this cheese, mom?"  "Where you buy my sippy cups, mom" Etc, etc, etc....  He will repeat the questions until you answer him with a response he's satisfied wiht.  He asks about everything.  It's really cute, but gets hard after a whole day of questions. 

I took him to my Dr. appt. this week, and he was hilarious.  He made himself at home in the waiting room by making friends with other patients, and exploring everything in the room.  I had to go to the bathroom and pee in the cup, and he was announcing
 "Why you pee in that cup, mom?" and "I want to pee in the cup!" over and over in a loud voice!  Then when I was walking back to the room, he yells "I want to hold the pee cup, mom!"  I was trying to keep him quiet, but the staff and nurses were all laughing so hard! 

Love you Isaac!  You keep life entertaining!

Shields Family pics.

We had some family pictures taken this summer with the whole extended J&P Shields clan.  It was quite a production to get the kids all in good moods and hold still long enough to get some decent pictures. 

Thanks to Brandon, he did a great job and they turned out great!



This group was the hardest and funniest to try and get a picture.  They all love being cousins, and have so much fun playing when we all get together!