My 4th Grader....

I'm still in denial that I have a 10 year old. Even with his new school picture that makes him look 13, I refuse to believe that he is 10. I will probably remain in denial until he leaves for college....and even then I may shut my eyes to the whole business. Love you Ian!

Happy Veterans Day!

It's weird but I never really thought at some point in my life I would ever reflect on Veterans Day with as much pride as I do now. I wasn't in the Air Force for any real length of time...6 years is all. But, they still call me a Veteran and I almost feel guilty claiming that title. I joined the Air Force for selfish reasons really. Not with the idea that I would be proudly serving my country, but as a means to end. I wanted to get my student loans paid off and then finish school while I was serving. Perhaps even get a job with the FBI when I got out. I never realized that I would ever get to the point where I could truly feel pride when I told someone I had been in the Air Force. I didn't understand that concept at all. Now here I am, some 15 years later and I'm lucky if I can get through the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem without bawling. I learned a lot while I was selfishly serving, but I think the most important lessons that I took from the experience were these:

1. I came to know exactly what Patriotism means and why it is so important to pass on to my children.
2. I became associated with true Patriots and Veterans who chose to selflessly serve our country for the right reasons and loved/love doing it. I think of these people often, especially during this time of war and wonder where they are; but I know exactly what they are doing and I feel much love and gratitude for these soldiers/airmen/seamen/marines.
3. I learned a lot of lessons in patience, strength; both emotional and physical, perseverance, and even more lessons in self awareness.
4. I learned that despite its flaws, we live in a pretty great country.... and I understand fully what it means to be "Proud to be an American".

So, on this Veterans Day I guess I not only want to send out a cyber 'Thank You' to those who have served and continue to serve but I wanted to also express thanks for my experience in those 6 short years and say that even though I didn't physically fight or even sacrifice much, I am very proud of what I did give and even more proud to tell those stories to my children. I love that they are proud to tell their friends that their Mom was in the Air Force (even though they are really just excited to tell them that I shot guns...Hoo-Rah!)

ESPN & Pizza...(and a flat tire)

Seems like a strange combination for me, I know. But, here is the story... Today was the boys' last soccer games for the Fall season. Thank heavens. I dont know that I have ever been so glad to have one of their activities be over with. Not that I don't enjoy watching them but this was a crazy Fall and truthfully I never really got to watch much of any game completely due to running back and forth between fields!!

After Ian's first game at 8am, his coach cooked up pancakes/sausage/eggs...I brought fresh fruit and we all enjoyed a great breakfast before they played a second game at 10:30....after we ate, I had to run Evan over to his field for a 10am game. Sadly, when I got up to the van, the back tire was completely flat. It has a nail in it. I didn't have time to do anything so a nice mom took us over to the game and then another mom from Evan's team drove us back to the other field to deal with the tire. Ive never changed a flat tire before so I figured I may as well learn how! I got the van jacked up but was having major trouble getting the lug nuts off. They were on soooo tight. I was completely floored by the number of soccer Dad's who walked right past me as I sat on the ground struggling with the tire, and didn't so much as look at me let alone offer to help. It actually became quite comical and the boys even were in on the joke. I took the opportunity to point out to them how important it is to offer help when you see someone in need. Hopefully they will remember it. Ian did announce the situation once we returned to the apartment to one of the women in our court....obviously the whole thing made an impression on him. But, I did get the tire changed all by myself and I felt accomplished for doing so!

When we got home, we had planned on watching some of the Harry Potter movies but a friend of mine from the choir that I sing in called me and asked for some help.

She is friends with Trevor Matich who is an announcer for ESPN (he played football at BYU and then the Redskins in the NFL).... she wanted to stop by and say hello to him since they were set up at the University of Utah for the big game today (which the Utes lost miserably).

She lives in Provo though and wanted to know if I could drive her to where he was because she isn't familiar with the campus up here. It was fun for the boys to watch the live broadcast of ESPN and then get to take pictures with Trevor Matich.

Ian kept saying "I cant believe I am watching this live!" Afterward, we all went out for pizza. It was a good time...I'm so glad she called me. She has really become such a great friend! Here are a couple of more pics.....

Halloween....

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I hate to admit that...It seems so stuffy and lame of me. Im not sure where my dislike came from...especially considering my own Mom was so obsessed with the holiday. She made it so much fun.... (this is her in costume circa 1981)


but... I just cant get into it. Cant figure out why. This year, however...I seemed to have found a small bit of enjoyment out of it at the last minute. I dont know if it was the fact that my children all chose relatively simple and inexpensive costumes...

(Addison in the costume she wore last year)

(Evan chose to be a skeleton, wearing the cloak he wore for his last years costume..and I had already bought the face paint last year when Halloween items were on clearance!)

(Ian chose to be Indiana Jones..in his own clothing with uncle Nates fly fishing hat and a leather jacket we found at the D.I. for $20...the whip was from scout camp...)

Maybe it was the fact that I was just too dang busy to stress over everything like I normally do, but whatever happened, I really had a good time tonight! It did start out kinda miserable though with the rain...

but thankfully, by the time we actually went out to trick or treat, it had mostly stopped. We went to Nate and Alisa's first to show costumes and ended up trick or treating with Soren. That was fun...I love that age (2-4) when holiday's really start to become THE MOST EXCITING THING IN THE WORLD to the kids. Soren was having a ball! We left there after hitting a few streets and went back to our old neighborhood to finish up. It was fun seeing all the people from our old ward/neighborhood. The kids made a haul of candy that ought to last them 6 months but will actually only last about 6 hours....ugh. I, of course felt obliged to eat all of Ian's "peanut" items. Darn that peanut allergy!
(Here is Ian "re-creating the cover of the Indiana Jones DVD cover...can you tell he was really into this costume? )

After being home for about 20 minutes, I noticed that I hadnt seen or heard from Addison...this is how I found her. Completely Sacked out!

10 Years Ago....

I gave birth to my first baby...Ian Kenneth Shannon.

It was not an uneventful birth. After my water broke early, the contractions stopped and 19.5 hours later I was finally ready to push. Unfortunately, due to an epidural that never completely "took", I was forced to push without much pain medication.... it took 2.5 hours of pushing to finally hold him in my arms. 2.5 hours of pushing, puking on the nurse, and tearing....a lot. Lets not forget the fact that the doctor had to twist him a full 3 times to get his gigantor shoulders out. "Here is your future football player" the doctor said... all 9 pounds 13 ounces of him. Well, guess what Doc.... Football player he is not. What I got though, was the most lovable, squeezable, kissable, teddy bear of a son that a mother could ever hope for (and he would probably be mortified that I wrote that :) I cannot believe it has been 10 years already. It feels like it was just a couple of years ago..... Words can't express how much I love this kid so I wont bother trying. I am so proud of him....my little Alex P. Keaton :)



We promised him a big birthday party for his entrance into the "double digits". He has been very excited to hit this milestone...much more so than I have - that is for sure. So we invited his entire school class since they have all been together since Kindergarten. I figured half might show up.... out of 24 kids, we had 18 come to the party! It was a smashing success. I rented out the bowling alley at the University of Utah for 2 hours and let the kids go for it. Self contained entertainment....it was awesome, and loud, and crazy but totally worth it. Ian was on cloud 9. Denver was in town for a visit too so that made it even better for him. Also, my mom was in town helping my brother with his boys since Alisa had been out of town on business....it was fun to have her at the party as well.

Here is Addie striking a pose for the camera since she wasn't doing much "striking" on the bowling lanes!

And here is Ian methodically explaining the scientific facts about bowling and how to properly pick up the ball and throw it down the lane.....

Here is my nephew Soren, "secretly" assisting his big cousin in the gift opening department ;)

If you know me, then you know I love to make my kids' birthday cake from scratch each year. This year however, Ian was kind enough to allow me to purchase his cake from Sams Club #1. because I would have had to bake 3 cakes to feed all the guests..... and #2. between my school and our weekly chaos, I would have never had time to do so. It killed me to do it but I have to admit it was such a huge relief!!! By the way, I have to say that for store bought cake, this was pretty dang good...and I am picky.

He got a lot of really fun gifts and his friends were all so cute...they were huddled so close to him while he was opening the gifts that I thought they might literally smother him. It was Awesome....he had such a great time :)

He Is Growing Up....

Well, Evan has passed out of the little boy stage and this picture really shows it! Look at those 3rd grade chompers. Isn't he handsome....?