A Week in Review

My sister’s family came down from Canada last week for Missy’s Spring Break. Here is a quick review of the fun we had!

Friday: Matt and Missy and Jonathan arrive! YAY!!!!

Saturday evening: Everyone came over for supper and then we went to my Grandma’s for cards. Everyone includes:

Robbie, Jessica, Austin and Mikaela;

Stephen and Christina;

Matt, Missy and Jonathan;

Dad, Mom and I.

Sunday Morning: Everyone (listed above) came to Emmanuel with me for church. It was really neat to have my whole family together and for them to see where Kenny and I are going to live and work!

Monday: Matt, Missy and Jonathan came to the Barbershop for haircuts :) After work Lisa, the boss of me :) was having a Celebrating Home Party, formerly known as Home Interiors, The girls from the shop surprised me with some money they collected for me to “shop” with for the evening! I bought some nice things I had my eye on in the preview catalog, I’ll blog about that later, and some candles that were on clearance sale to give as gifts at the wedding. Another exciting thing that happened Monday night was that my car sold! Praise the Lord, now begins the serious search for a new vehicle.

Tuesday evening: Jonathan’s Birthday Party!!!!!

This picture is proof that grandkids get away with EVERYTHING! I was never allowed to put my foot on the table! – not jealous.

It took a little while to figure out how to blowout the candles but he made it!

He didn’t have any problems with unwrapping his presents though.

Tuesday and Wednesday: One of the reasons Missy came down over her spring break was so we could find a dress for her to wear for the wedding… we went through at least 6 stores before finding the right dress at David’s Bridal. *sigh* Glad that’s over.

Friday: Shannon was in town for a visit(she got in Thursday afternoon) and Kenny came down from the mountains. We took Missy and Matt’s car to the car wash and then loaded Jonathan into Shannon’s convertible mustang and took off to the duck pond. I thought Jonathan might be scared but he chased all the ducks around and enjoyed watching them eat the bread. – All these pictures are on my Mom’s camera, I’ll have to upload some of those later.

Saturday Morning: We said all of our goodbye’s to Matt, Missy and Jonathan before they left for Canada.

I’d like to say life is back to normal at the Shahan house but I just don’t want to put Jonathan’s toys away yet… sniff, sniff :’( As soon as I get everything put away they’ll be back to stay again. Can’t wait!

Happy Birthday Stephy!

Stephany is my one of Bestest Friends from College and today is her 23rd Birthday.

Happy Birthday Stephy, I hope you have a wonderful day!

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.  ~Donna Roberts

(can’t touch this, nah nah nah naaaaah!)

Christmas Traditions

There were a lot of things I wanted to share about how my family celebrates Christmas but I kind of let it sneak up on me. So for my last “Christmas Traditions” post for this year I’m just going to give a summary of what we do on Christmas Eve.

My Grandpa was born on Christmas Eve so my Grandma tries very hard to keep his birthday special but separate from Christmas celebrations. So, Christmas Eve dinner(supper, depending on where your from) is his birthday part of the day.

 

Grandpa blows out his candle (its a grave stone that says, “Over the Hill, too OLD to count!”) and opens his birthday presents. After cake is done and the dishes washed, only then does Christmas begin.

My Dad always tells Grandpa that he is the only man he knows older than Jesus!

 

My Grandparents give each of the un-married, grandkids “Christmas Clothes Money” to pick out a new Sunday outfit for Christmas. So once dinner is cleaned up we all go change into our Christmas clothes and take way too many pictures.

We’ve been doing this for a long time! When we were little they only lined us up by age, now its done by age and then height to see how we’ve changed and grown over the years.

 

This picture (taken in 1988) from left to right:

Robbie Shahan, Missy Shahan-Hutchins, Ben Heffernan, Stephen Shahan, Abby Heffernan-Townsend, Becky Shahan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture on the left is all of us in 2008 (the last year everyone was at Grandma’s for Christmas) lined up by age and the one on the right is us lined up by height. :)

 

This is just my family Right to Left: Dad, Mom, Robbie, Jessica,(sis-in-law) Matt, (bro-in-law) Missy, Stephen, Christina,(sis-in-law) Me, Austin(the only grandchild at the time, Missy was expecting Jonathan!)

 

 

This is my Mom’s sisters family Right to Left: Dale, Jody, Ben, Elizabeth,(Ben’s wife) Candace, Abby, Marcus

 

 

After all the pictures we have what my Grandma calls a candle light service. Christmas is so commercial and this is a good way to get your focus off of the presents and on thanking the Lord for what he’s done in our lives through the year. We always start with my grandpa (since he’s the oldest) and everyone shares what they are thankful for in the past year. This picture is of Austin, he was still pretty young when this was taken, but he said he was thankful for Mommy and Daddy :)

One year Grandma decided not to do our candle-light service anymore, she said she thought that none of the grandkids would miss it (and I’m sure it made a mess). The next year my oldest brother, Robbie, I think he was 16 at the time, came to her and said, “we’re doing a candle-light service aren’t we?” She immediately started breaking out the candles! I don’t think we’ve missed doing it since. Its always been my favorite part of Christmas.

Well that’s pretty much it for the Christmas Traditions I hope you’ve enjoyed a peek into our family and maybe you’ll use some of these idea’s with your own families.

Merry Christmas!

Colorado Trip Pictures

You didn’t really think the pictures on my last post were the only ones I took did you? This post is mainly just some pictures that were taken on our trip out west.

I didn’t see how it happened but Mr. Godby came off his snow mobile :) He made the comment that that was not how to ride!

 

 

 

 

 

I think this one is Wesley stuck on the hill.

 

Here’s Kenny.

 

 

 

 

 

Wes and I got the 2 seater stuck :S

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you get when you add me wanting a picture with Kenny and Him not wanting to remove his helmet?

Two alien looking people hugging in the snow! :)

This one is defiantly Kenny stuck on the side of the mountain with Matt and Mr. Godby trying to dig him out.

 

 

 

 

 

I finally got my picture with Kenny! :)

 

Do you see Wesley’s pink cleats?

 

 

 

 

 

I thought it was really neat/special that they prayed together after the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we all got into the house, after the initial surprise, Mr. Godby wanted to know where Andrea and Elaine were :S  I wish they could have been there it would have just added a bonus to an already perfect week.

 

Mr. Godby is trying to talk Alethea’s little girl into sticking her finger in the icing… She did!

 

 

 

 

 

Aunt Joe, Uncle Scott, and Grandpa Paul

Wesley in the living room with all the kids… He fits in well don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

This is what Colorado looks like from the air. I thought it was pretty neat. :)

As you can probably tell we had a good time and can’t wait to go back.