October 7, 2001

Dear Family,

Well I blew it last weekend getting a letter off so I’ll try to remember everything in this one. I’ll start with the weekends since they are the freshest in my mind. Last weekend, Mike had a daddy daughter date with Elicia and Kailey. IT was an Elder’s Quorum activity at the church. They ate "picnic" dinners and then played games. The girls thought it was a lot of fun. While they were gone, Keaton, Emilee and I went to Burger King (Keaton’s choice) with a friend of mine and her son. We also went to the mall for a little bit. After a couple hours we went home. The friends stayed and Alli and Don came over with a movie. We watched "The Wedding Planner" I thought it was really cute movie.

Saturday morning the kids and I had play practice for 3 hours. Actually we left after 2 ½ hours so Mike and I could make it to the temple. We went with our friends the MacCabes while their oldest daughter Stacy babysat for us. She brought over her youngest 2 siblings and Keaton went to their home. Emilee went to play with Shaylie. We ended up just barely making it into our session. We lucked out because we didn’t have time to wait for the next session. After we finished our session we had a quick bite to eat in the temple cafeteria before heading for home. Once we arrived in Pocatello, Rita MacCabe and I left for the Stake Center to set up our display table for the General Women’s Broadcast. Each of the wards had a table of different items their ward had done or may do in the future in Home, family and personal enrichment meetings. Rita had a lot of great stuff which helped make our table look really good. After setting up the table we had just a few minutes to go and get Emilee and take her home from Alli’s. When we got there, Alli decided she ride with us and after we dropped off Emilee we made our way back to the Stake Center. We got there just as our Stake RS President was opening the meeting. I enjoyed listening to the General Relief Society Presidency and President Monson speak.

Sunday morning I conducted RS. It’s really hard to get started on time. Mike is extremely prompt and so when he’s conducting the Priesthood they are always starting on time. I suppose it shouldn’t matter if we only have 2 sisters in RS but it’s hard to start when the opening prayer person isn’t there or the ladies doing the music. It’s a problem we have in our ward that I’m not quite sure how to remedy. After Sacrament meeting we had Visiting Teaching Interviews. The first sister I interviewed I ended up spending 45 minutes with (we only had a 10 minute slot)! I tried to hurry after that but found it hard. So many of the ladies just wanted to talk. I ended up being at the church an hour longer then I had planned on but really enjoyed getting to know several ladies in my ward much better. The other counselor was able to get done quickly but our RS President tended to take a lot longer with her interviews too, I didn’t feel so bad. Getting home later the expected meant that I had to hurry dinner up before Alli and Don got arrived. We trade off eating at each other’s homes on Sundays and it just so happened to be our Sunday.

This weekend was a long weekend for the kids. They didn’t have school on Thursday or Friday. On Thursday we went on a field trip for preschool. The older siblings came along too. We went to the "Cornfield Maze" here in Pocatello. The preschoolers didn’t seem to care for it as much as the older kids. Elicia and Keaton loved it. I thought it was a lot of fun but a little more difficult with little kids. I’m just glad we went in the morning and not at night.

On Friday, Mike got off work a little earlier and we took off in our motor home. We decided to go to Lava Hot Springs to camp for the night. When we arrived we took a walk through the town and looked in some of the shops. It’s only ½ hour away from Pocatello but it is the first time I’ve actually walked down the street and looked around the town. We have floated the river before and gone to the hot pools times. It was fun to see some of the stuff in the town. Elicia loved the little shops too. After walking for a while we went back to the motor home and got ready to go to the hot pools. IT probably would have been better to wait until evening. The water was really hot and it was pretty warm outside. We had a good time though and stayed for a couple hours. For dinner we went to a little pizza place. After that we got into our PJ’s and watched the Movie "Seven Alone". I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. I think Elicia and Keaton had their eye’s "opened" a bit seeing what it was like in pioneer times.

Saturday morning we drove to Utah. We listened to conference as we drove. We planned it to get to Hogel Zoo in SLC right as conference was ending. We bought a zoo pass this year and used it at the zoo in Omaha, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and now in Salt Lake. The kids loved the train ride, Giraffes, Elephants and Monkeys the most. After seeing everything we stopped for icecream and called and visited with Mom there. We left the zoo just about the time the afternoon session of conference was starting. While driving we decided to stop at the VF factory 0utlet center. That is a fun place! We got some good deals there! We arrived at Darren and Karen McCabes in Riverton at about 5:00. Mike went with Darren to the Priesthood session while Karen and I loaded up all of our 8 kids in her van and drove to Provo. It was hard not having enough seatbelts. We ended up with Kailey and Caitlyn double buckling and Michael and Keaton sitting on the floor. In Provo we went to a Soup and Salad all you can eat place. The food was pretty good but the kids weren’t…well not too bad but bad enough. Being in Utah though I don’t think they "stood out" much. There were several kids there, quite a few Moms and not many Dads. I got plates for Emilee and Kailey and then went to get mine. When I returned I found Emilee dumping a salt shaker all over her food. I went back to get her cottage cheese …only…and put the saltshaker on another table. She was happy then. Kelsi and Elicia decided they didn’t want to sit by us and enjoyed sitting at their own table. Walking out of the restaurant I noticed we were right next to a Burlington Coat Factory and so I asked Karen if we could go take a look. We have been looking for Elicia a winter coat. We found one that she really liked there and the price was right so we bought it. As you can imagine shopping with that many kids wasn’t easy. I bribed Keaton to watch Emilee which helped. While looking at coats in the back of the store, we heard over the loud speaker "Karen McCabe, will you please come to the front of the store and pick up you daughter"… :0) Apparently Caitlyn had wondered off. We hurried after that and got out of there. We then decided it would be a nice surprise for our husbands if we stopped and picked up Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The line was huge! There were probably 20 cars in front of us but we waited. The kids were restless but we kept telling them they’d get doughnuts if they were patient. After leaving Karen and I decided that if Mike and Darren complained about us being late getting back we would tell them that we felt bad and that they could take off with all 8 kids for the next couple of hours! It’s a good thing they didn’t complain J We put the kids to bed and then played cards until late.

This morning we left the McCabes and listened to conference as we traveled. We learned about the US missile strikes in Afghanistan from President Hinckley’s talk. Following conference we listened to the news on the radio. It is a strange feeling to feel "safe" yet at the same time not to feel safe. It gives me a great desire to live my life righteously. I think many feel that way and that is probably some of the good that has come out of this war.

I think there is probably a lot more I could write about but my mind is going blank…probably because it is late. So I’ll bring this letter to a close. Hope all of you are well and happy!

We love you!

Shan (and Family)

October 14, 2001

Dear Family,

This week has been really busy. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily more busy then normal…but normal is pretty busy ;o) It is definitely one week I’m glad is over though. This week coming up I think will be slightly less busy which I look forward to.

Our "Mommy and Me" preschool is so far a success. I am amazed at how talented each of the Moms are and at all the fun ideas they come up with. On Monday and Wednesday, I took my turn to teach preschool. Together with another Mom in our group we planned several activities for the 10 kids we have in our group. I decided to try the first day at home but on Wednesday we had it at the church. There are pros and cons both ways so I’m not sure what we’ll do next time we have a turn. We have such a great group of kids and Moms.

Mike had a short little trip to Boise for Meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. I don’t really mind him going on these short little trips but wish he could have been at our Home, Family and Personal Enrichment Night since it was for husbands and wives. We had our "Fall Harvest Moon" dinner. It was potluck and we each judged and chose our favorite dish from 6 different categories. I made a candy bar brownie and won 1^st place for deserts! I have to admit…It was good. Of course it was chocolate…and that always seems to do the trick J We collect all of the recipes and at Christmas time we make a book out of them to hand out to the sisters for a little Christmas gift.

I had a really frustrating moment during the week. I had several bills in the mailbox to be sent off. Before the mailman arrived I noticed the door on the mailbox was opened so I ran outside to check and see if the bills were okay. They were all gone! It was extremely windy out and apparently they had blown out and all over the neighborhood! Keaton and his friend were outside playing. They told me two of them were up against the fence. But that was only two out of 9. I sent Keaton and his buddy looking up the street next to us while I looked down it. I found 3 more but 4 are still out there. I’m not sure if I’ll just repay them or wait to see if the checks clear. Since they were stamped (and I’m not very good at putting return addresses on) I think if somebody found them they would perhaps just slip them in the mail.

On Friday Kailey and Emilee were invited to a birthday party. I went along also, to help out. It was for Joseph Vaupel, a little boy in Kailey’s preschool. He had a dinosaur theme with dinosaurs all over the house. The cake had a dinosaur and all the games had a dinosaur theme. Kailey was so excited for the party all week! She is really "into" birthdays. She has been inviting people to her birthday party for months now…and yes, her birthday isn’t until May!

Thusday, Friday and Saturday, I had play practice. I finally got some music I had ordered in the mail. One of the songs that Alli and I are going to be playing is a duet, Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony. I had ordered it on the Internet and was getting worried that it wouldn’t get here in time for the play. Once I did get it, Alli and I started practicing it like crazy. We are going to be playing it during a "duel" between the hero and the villain in the play. There will be strobe lights going while it happens. Should be pretty cool! Also this week the kids painted "train cars" out of boxes. There is around 20 children that will wear the boxes and make a train. This will be one part that Elicia, Keaton and Kailey will have. The girls and I painted boxes on Saturday for it. I thought maybe we’d be spray painting and that was it, so I didn’t really dress the kids in "paint attire". Instead, each of the kids were given a pallet of paint to use and let go. Elicia had a great time painting her box. She wrote on it "damsel in distress" . There was a 14 year old friend of ours there that helped Kailey paint her box and I helped Emilee paint one for Keaton. We tried hard to not get paint on us but Kailey still managed to get some on her overalls. It was kind of funny to see all these kids just having a blast painting away. They were quite creative! We painted in the assistant director’s garage. I’m not sure it survived. The sheets and newspaper covering the ground took a lot of abuse. The kids are also animals in a musical number that will be performed and Elicia is in a dance. For those that live close enough and would like to attend…It is Saturday Oct 20^th at 6:30 pm at our Stake Center which is on Oak. I’ve been promoting it to everyone I talk to because I know how much work has been put into it. We would love to have a huge turn out!

Saturday was ISU’s Homecoming. It made it a busy day for us. Mike’s company had a float in the parade and so he needed to be there early to help get it ready. At the same time I needed to be at mandatory meeting for music teachers in the Pocatello Music Association. Mike was able to take Elicia and Kailey with him and Don watched Emilee and Keaton. Later Alli and I met Don and kids set up in front of Pocatello High School to watch the parade. The parade was about 1 ½ hours altogether. Kailey and Elicia rode on the float and threw candy. Keaton jumped onto when the float came to us. He had already seen and collected candy from 2/3’s of the parade so it worked out pretty well for him. Emilee was excited about all the candy but liked it best when she held the bag and I collected the candy to put in the bag. We didn’t get quite as much as in years past but enough to last for several days. Saturday afternoon Mike, Keaton, Don and Connor went to the Football game. Alli and I would have liked to have gone but we had play practice. Turns out, they didn’t need us too much at play practice and probably could have missed the practice. Oh well! Don and Alli stayed for dinner and then we played some cards. At 8:00 one of the car companies had fireworks so we watched from our deck. IT was pretty windy out and we weren’t to excited to get all bundled up and actually go to the lot where they were being launched. Watching from our deck seemed to work out well.

Emilee is learning her address. IT’s really cute how she says she lives on Camas "Plane". We are trying to teach her how to say Camas Lane. Emilee surprised one of the ladies in the nursery today when she told her mine and Mike’s names. She still has problems saying Johnston…Sounds more like "johson" but she can say Mike and Shannon really well. We love to hear her talk so we constantly are asking her questions. There were books scattered on the floor in the living room today and I asked Emilee who did it (knowing she had). Keaton was telling her to say "me". So she turned to me and said "Keaton did it". IT was really funny. Another thing that happened tonight that had us laughing pretty hard was that Keaton had written a letter to his friend Eddy. Kailey had also written several letters and put them all in envelopes. In them she wrote alphabet letters and few scribbles. After Keaton had finished his and put it in the envelope I wrote Eddy’s address on it and sat it aside. He didn’t realize I had already put the address on and little while later I caught him writing Eddy’s address on one of Kailey’s letters. When I showed him that it wasn’t his, we had a good laugh thinking of Eddy getting one of Kailey’s letters instead of Keaton’s.

I think I’ve covered everything or at least enough. We hope that you are all doing well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

October 21, 2001

Dear Family,

Most of our week this past week was devoted to play practice. The play was Saturday night. I think it went really well. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it. We had a great turn out too. It would be fun to do it a couple more times but I think Saturday was it. Elicia, Keaton and Kailey played animals, orphans and were part of a train. Elicia was also in a Calypso where she danced with several other young girls. Alli and I played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (duet) during one of the scenes. They had a strobe light going while the hero and villain fought. The crowd was yelling and screaming so it was hard for me to hear Alli. We ended up finishing together so I guess it was okay. We played a couple other duets along with several other pieces and "bits" separately throughout the play.

We’ve been having fun teaching Emilee lots of different pieces of information. She knows where she lives (Pocatello), her address (998 Camas "Plane") and her birthday (June). She also knows her favorite foods are Cottage cheese, chocolate and candy. She knows how old she is and that her favorite color is purple. We are going to start working on her phone #. That might take some time though. We have been trying to convince her that she is not a boy. She goes back and forth when you ask her if she is a boy or a girl. She sometimes says she’s a girl and other times a boy. She knows that Elicia and Kailey are her sisters and Keaton is her brother though. Also that I’m the Mom and Mike’s the Dad :0)

Kailey absolutely loves preschool. She is a good buddy with a little boy that is 2 days younger than her…Quinton MacCabe. Whenever they see each other they hug and often walk around holding hands. IT is really cute! Quinton thinks he’s a buffalo, but Kailey doesn’t seem to mind. When Kailey isn’t at preschool, she spends a lot of time playing in her room (with fisher price people toys), writing "letters" on paper and playing on the computer. She is getting more and more independent on the computer. A lot of time when I exercise in the morning she will sit at the computer and "work".

Keaton has been writing lots of stories. I think it is neat that he likes to write them. HE will spend hours and make different chapters. The only problem is I don’t always like some of the content in his stories. He sometimes will write murder stories and "poop" stories. I thought maybe he was more careful about what he wrote at school but recently he brought home one of his assignments and it was "poop" story. I’m still embarrassed about it! I told him he shouldn’t have written it but he insisted that it was okay since it was a true story (YIKES). He did have good spelling and grammar in it though. He also is reading like crazy. His teacher has a competition going on where whoever reads the most books gets a prize. Keaton has read nearly 200 in the past month. He was ahead for a long time but on Friday he came home and said that another boy and a girl in his class past him up. We need to go to the library again tomorrow. We went on Monday and checked out 38 books. I don’t think there is a limit so we may have to check out even more than that tomorrow.

Elicia has been reading a lot also. She will wake up in the morning get dressed and sit in the living room and read. I usually will let her read until 7:30 and then I start getting on her to get her piano practiced. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings she is playing basketball (practices) She likes it better than she did at first, which we’re glad about. I try to get out and practice with her but if I don’t, she usually won’t do it herself. She would rather play with friends. There are 11 girls on her team. Her games start on Saturday. I’m kind of thinking it will be a low scoring game. What do you think? J They have 7 games altogether (on Saturdays) besides their practice 2 times/week. Her coach is a friend of mine. I teach her son piano lessons and so we talk about how basketball is going when she picks up her son. She told me I should think about coaching sometime. I think it would be fun, but too hard right now with little kids and also teaching piano lessons.

Mike went to Boise again on Monday. He was able to ride with his Dad and they stopped in Twin Falls to visit with Grandma Johnston. On Tuesday they had meetings and then drove home late Tuesday afternoon. This weekend Mike has been getting a satellite system set up to replace our cable TV. He’s really excited about it (as you can imagine). I think it sounds nifty but a little (okay a lot!) more complex then cable. Somehow we are going to have two satellite small dishes hooked up and two remote controls so we can watch two different stations in the house. You can also record up to 36 hours with the push of a button. He’s assured me that it’s not going to cost much more than cable and that I’ll really like it. We’ll have to see.

I’ve been working on Family Home Evening packets for my FHE group. There are 16 ladies in our ward that are in our group. We split the group into 2 groups of 8 and each of us chose a modern day Prophet. I chose John Taylor. I found out that in the other group my friend Rita MacCabe also chose John Taylor so we’ve been working together in putting packets together for everyone in our groups. We have to completely finish the packets. In ours we have a few games, a story, John Taylor’s favorite recipe and a song. The games are on cardstock and laminated. The cutting out of pieces has taken several hours. IT will be nice to receive 7 other packets of different Prophets though. We meet on Thursday to exchange packets and then will select another Prophet for the 2^nd round.

I think that catches you up on us. Hope all is well and that you’ve had a great weekend!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Oct. 28, 01

Dear Family,

It is hard to believe that October is coming to an end. Not just that "time flies" but the fact that the weather has been so nice lately. I hear that that is going to change but the last few days have been really nice. Especially Friday and Saturday. I was able to work on our backyard and get it ready for grass. I think we’ve decided to go the sod route. Hopefully it will be done really soon. I’m getting anxious to see grass instead of dirt out there. Also, I’m anxious to see cleaner clothes on the kids when the backyard is done. Don has been staining our deck too. IT looks really good. Last night we sat on our deck without coats on talking to friends until after 11 pm and just enjoyed the nice evening.

On Wednesday night, I was invited to a "How to host a Murder" mystery party with several lady friends. Since there were men parts in the script four of us were male characters. I just so happened to have been asked to be "Chief Breaking Wind" (yeah I know…LOL) I should have found a Whoopee cushion to bring, but instead settled with moccasin slippers and a feather headdress. My friend Julie Armstrong put it on and the food was really good. IT was a "Western" theme and a lot of fun.

On Thursday I met with my FHE group. We turned in the packets for the Latter-day Prophets we each did. It’s nice to have 8 complete packets done to use as a resource for FHE’s. Tomorrow night we are going to carve pumpkins and do some shopping for Halloween so we decided to do our FHE lesson today. We tried the packet out that I put together. It was on John Taylor and I think the kids really learned a lot. At least Keaton and Elicia. Mike and I too. There was a fishing game that Kailey and Emilee really liked but I don’t know that they could tell you much about John Taylor…just that it’s fun to catch fish.

Friday after school, Karen and Darren McCabe’s two oldest children came over to play. Karen and Darren had left their kids with Darren’s parents (here in Pocatello) while they went on a trip to Cancun. Friday night Mike and I went to a wedding reception and then I went with Alli and Elicia to another Pampered Chef party (I think I go to at least a couple a month!) This was one that Alli’s up line put on and was hosted by Deb Evan’s (a mutual friend of ours). The food was good even though it got burnt. Elicia was invited to stay the night with the Evan’s daughters so Alli and I left her there. When we got home Mike and Don were ready to watch a movie. It was kind of late but we decided we would do so. Keaton had a friend staying the night too.

Yesterday was kind of a busy day. Elicia came home from spending the night at the Evans. Keaton’s friend left that had spent the night here. We then went to the library to check out 44 books this time (the 2^nd library trip this week!). We also went to the store for some ingredients to make candy bar brownies. As soon as we got home I hurried and made the brownies (for the potluck cast party that afternoon.) While making the brownies I listened to my messages and found out that Elicia had to be at her basketball game by 2:00 instead of 2:30 so as soon as the brownies were done we rushed to the game. The game was late starting but we enjoyed watching the end of the game before Elicia’s. It was pretty entertaining to watch 4^th graders play basketball! Elicia’s game was even more so entertaining. They didn’t do so well against the other team. Elicia’s team just isn’t aggressive. In fact, not a single foul was called on Elicia’s team the entire game! It was fun to watch though. I think if Elicia sticks with it and practices hard she will be a good ballplayer someday.

After the game, we did some quick cleaning of the house when we got home. An hour or so later I took the kids and we went to our Melodrama Cast Party. It was a potluck dinner. I had the kids all eat but I didn’t eat (or at least not too much) because at 6:00 Mike and I left the kids with a babysitter and met some friends of ours at Sizzlers for dinner. We ate the "all you can eat ribs" which were really good. We also got to visit with Jeff, Mike’s brother that works there. While eating and visiting, Mike got a phone call and a lady from our ward (Marissa Smellie) was frantic telling Mike that Emilee had just been found in the middle of the street in front of her house by a stranger. IT was dark outside and Emilee had wandered down Rockypoint (a neighboring street that our street breaks off of). Apparently the stranger had found Emilee and brought her up to the closest house, which luckily are friends of ours. Marissa told the stranger she knew us and that she would take Emilee straight to us. She then immediately took Emilee to our house and said when she got here that the garage door was open (we had closed it when we left) and that she walked in and started yelling for me. Then she heard the TV going downstairs and went downstairs and found the kids and the babysitter. Apparently she really let the babysitter "have it" and the babysitter felt really bad. We got home shortly afterwards and the babysitter told us her side of the story and how bad she felt. It was pretty nerve wracking. Part of me is upset at the babysitter but yet at the same time I understand because Emilee has "escaped" other times (just never left our street). Emilee must have moved a stool to the garage door opener in the garage and opened it and let herself out. She said she was looking for me. She has let herself out of the house that way before too. In fact when the van is in the garage she will open the van doors and get in and find the garage door opener and open the garage door. I’m relieved that she was safe and not harmed. I think I’m going to have to really lecture the babysitters in the future on keeping a close eye on Emilee. AND hopefully this stage will pass soon. She is getting really bad whenever we go anywhere because she will get away from me and sometimes is hard to find. Kailey was always pretty good to stay close by me. When shopping if I ever got out of Kailey’s site, she would cry and I could find her. NOT EMILEE! She climbs out of the shopping carts by herself and will hide in clothes racks so I can’t find her. She thinks it’s funny. What a stinker she is! It’s a good thing she knows her name, address and who her Mom and Dad are. I don’t know if she tried to tell the stranger or not yesterday but I think if she would have tried she could have found out from Emilee.

Later last night, our friends the Lukers (the ones we also ate dinner with) came over so Mike could fix their computer. We stayed up talking until past midnight. Actually I think it was until about 1:00 am but fortunately we had the time change, which gave us an extra hour. It was nice to have the kids asleep (or at least most of them) so we weren’t being disturbed. Today we are a little tired though from being up so late. It’s now Sunday at 9:30 and both Mike and I are feeling quite tired. I think I’d better wrap this up so we can go to bed. Hope all is well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

November 4, 2001

Dear Family,

It’s been another busy week for the Johnstons. I don’t think we ever slow down!

On Monday I went to Kailey’s preschool Halloween party to help out. She was so excited for it and had her costume on first thing in the morning even though preschool doesn’t start until 12:15. Emilee also dressed up but she kept taking her costume off. IT was fun to see all the other preschooler’s in costume and to see their excitement. IT was fun party.

Tuesday was pretty crazy. After school I rushed Elicia and her friend Tiffani to piano lessons. Then 45 minutes later picked them up to take them to the primary Halloween party. I then was supposed to have my first piano lesson of 3 lessons but it canceled so I had a ½ hour to clean and vacuum out the van. Then Alli and Don brought over Shaylie and Connor so that they could leave for the temple. I watched them while teaching two piano lessons. Connor was a little upset after Alli left so I relied on the help of one of my piano student while I taught her brother his lesson. During my final lesson Connor fell asleep. After the lessons we had dinner and then I took Elicia to basketball practice. At 6:45 we picked up Elicia and headed to Idaho Falls. We got to the Temple at 7:45 and left the kids in the van for a few minutes while Mike and I went in. Alli and Don got out a few minutes later and drove the kids home. I guess it worked out pretty well even though I was worried about what would have happened if for some reason Don and Alli had been much longer getting out. We made it just barely in time for the 8:00 session. IT was a nice, small, session. I enjoyed the peacefulness. Afterwards we "had" to stop at Arctic Circle to get me a chocolate malt and then headed back to Pocatello.

Wednesday was Halloween of course. I spent a lot of the day figuring out how to decorate our trunk for the Trunk or Treat at the church that night. I decided to make a witch out of a life size doll Elicia has. I bought a cheap mask and hat and put it on the doll along with a black dress. I then made a caldron out of a laundry basket covered with a black bag. I made a sign that said "Trick or Treaters BEWARE" and set it to the side. Then stuffed the legs of a costume and had it look like a trick or treater’s legs were coming out of the pot. I also bought some dry ice to put inside the pot. I put up lights and cobwebs for a background. Then Kailey helped me scatter plastic spiders all over. We had spooky music to play too, which really set the mood. Before going to the church we let the kids trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. Elicia was dressed as Hermoine from Harry Potter, Keaton a Pokemon figure, Kailey a bear and Emilee a clown. Elicia thought that carrying around heavy books in her bag would add to her costume. You’d have to have read Harry Potter to get that. Most people that it was strange to add candy to a bag full of books. The Trunk or Treating was huge! There were lots of people there. We combined with the other ward in our building for it. Also, there were fliers sent around the neighborhoods inviting all people to join in. There was a dance (put on by Alli and Don) afterwards but we left to go visit the Grandma Sundrud, Grandpa and Grandma Johnston and a few other friends of ours. The next day I learned that we had won 1^st place in the trunk decorating contest! We won a couple years ago also when we had a spooky, morbid type of a display. Last year we had our McDonald Happy Meal decorated van (since we were Big Macs, Fries and Shakes in our costumes) and didn’t win. I guess for Halloween people like the scary and not "cutsie" trunks. The kids received tons of candy. They’ve eaten a lot of it too.

Mike left for a National Real Estate Convention in Chicago early Thursday morning. He traveled with Jim and Greg who also were attending the convention. He has called us several times to keep us updated on what he’s doing. He goes to classes and checks out the different booths but also gets to do things like see "Chicago" (the music group) in concert. He seems to be having a good time.

Since Mike was going to be gone I decided to put all housework on hold and start painting the girls’ room. I spent about 24 hours taking the room apart, preparing to paint, painting and putting the room back together. It was a pretty big process but now that it is done I think it looks really good. The whole house suffered mean while. The kids enjoyed watching TV and eating candy most of the time. After finishing the girls’ room I got to work on cleaning house. Elicia and I stayed up late Friday cleaning. It was midnight before we finished but nice to have the other kids asleep while we worked. It’s not easy when you are trying to complete one room while another is getting messed up.

On Saturday, Elicia had a basketball game. Trevor and Melissa came from Rexburg. They along with Don and Alli’s family met us at the game. They played a little more aggressively but still lost. IT was fun though to see them playing a little better. For being as young as they are they really aren’t too bad and are getting better. After the game we had lunch and then all of us left for Malad to see Grandma Pett. We spent the afternoon with her visiting and looking at scrapbooks of her trips. Elicia afterwards was a little upset at me for not telling her about all the trips Grandma Pett had been on. She thought it was really cool! We left Malad late in the afternoon and headed back to Pocatello. When we got home we ate dinner and then watched a movie (First Knight was the title I think---it was really good). While watching the movie my RS president called and asked if I would be in charge of giving a thought at our RS board meeting falling church. I had forgotten about the meeting so it was good she called. I stayed up late after the movie looking for something to speak on.

Today we went to church. We were all a little cranky and tired this morning. During Sacrament Meeting Keaton bore his testimony for the first time. He included the following "I believe in the church, I love my family and I believe in the Book of Mormon". I thought he did very well. I was worried he might go up there saying how thankful he was for Nintendo or something silly! It was not an easy task trying to keep everyone quiet during Sacrament meeting so I ended up taking Emilee and Kailey half way through the meeting. Keaton later came out too. After the Sacrament Meeting I sent Elicia, Keaton and Kailey walking home and Emilee went home with some friends of ours. I then went to my board meeting. I gave my thought on Gratitude. It wasn’t hard to speak on since I feel such an abundance of it. I shared with the sisters parts of President Hinckley’s chapter on Gratitude in his book "Standing for Something" along with my testimony.

This afternoon we went to Alli and Don’s house for dinner. Trevor and Melissa were still here. After we ate we decided to take a walk and look at the outside of a house that Trevor and Melissa are interested in looking at. They are planning on moving to Pocatello next month so they can go to school at ISU. We of course are really excited to have them come and live here.

It’s so nice and quiet right now because all the kids are asleep. I’m tired enough I could go to sleep too but it’s not even 10 yet and I hate to "waste" the time sleeping when I have this time all to myself! I think I’ll read for awhile—wow what a luxury!!! :0) Hope all is well! We love you all!!!

Love,

Shan (and family)

Nov 11, 2001

Dear Family,

This week as the subject suggests, we’ve been sick. And then, sick again! I think there was a "bug" going around nursery last week and affected several of the nursery kids. At least half. Monday night I heard coughing and then screaming coming from Kailey and Emilee’s room. I went in the room and Emilee said "Kailey pooped on my head". Not knowing what she was talking about I sat down beside her (she and Kailey share a bed). I then felt my hand wet and realized I had put it in throw up. I turned on the light and sure enough there was throw up all over the bed, Kailey and Emilee’s head! I put both girls in the tub and washed bedding. I wasn’t sure until later who it was that had thrown up. Emilee said it was Kailey but Kailey told me it wasn’t her and that she had been sleeping with her mouth shut. Emilee threw up several more times during the night so I realized it was her. After staying up all night with her I started to feel worn down and like a cold was coming on. I had a sore throat and just didn’t feel well. On Friday night Elicia and Kailey both threw up. On Saturday I didn’t feel well either. It was a rough day. We did a lot of lounging around and napping. Today we all feel much better except Emilee was coughing really hard earlier this evening and threw up. I’m thinking it was just because of the coughing though. Talking to friends and neighbors we’ve found that most families have been hit with this stomach flu. Fortunately it only lasts for a short time.

Well that was kind of a disgusting way to start the letter but consider yourself lucky that you haven’t had to deal with it! Except for Alli, because it’s probably going to be a long night for her tonight. Shaylie threw up twice while she was here tonight. Other then being sick, we’ve had other things going on this week. Mike returned home from Chicago close to midnight on Monday night. He had a really good time. It was Real Estate Convention where they learn a lot but also have a lot of fun. He was able to hear the music group "Chicago" in concert. Neat! On Thursday he went on a short trip to Seattle for a meeting. He returned home Saturday afternoon. While he was gone and we were somewhat healthy, Elicia and Keaton both had friends stay the night. I also had Don and Alli over and we watched movies.

The kids had Thursday and Friday off this past week for parent teacher conferences. They both got decent grades but there’s definitely room for improvement. Elicia’s teacher told us that Elicia had the best expression when she reads out of everyone else in the classroom. She complimented Elicia on it and Elicia told her she was practicing to be an actress. Keaton’s teacher told us she enjoyed Keaton’s sense of humor. I didn’t want to go into details about it though. I didn’t want her to comment on some of the stories he’s written in the past. The kids also had dental appointments on Thursday. We definitely need to do a lot more brushing and a lot less eating candy! They had 8 cavities between them!!! I couldn’t believe it! Last check up they didn’t have any. Oh well, maybe they’ll try to brush better. IT is so hard to make them do it. I ask them to do it every morning and night but sometimes don’t check to see if they have really done it. I think we’ll all try better. Also, the dentist recommended we take Elicia and Keaton to an orthodontist soon.

On Tuesday Kailey and Elicia began dance classes. Kailey loved it and looks forward to going every week! Elicia is going to find Tuesdays to be extra busy for her. She has piano lessons right after school, then dance class and in the evening basketball practice. Basketball ends in December though so we’ll just hang on for a few more weeks. Also on Tuesday, Trevor and Melissa came to get some things done before moving here. They are looking into jobs, going to school and buying a house. Mike showed them homes (us too) in the evening. It will be fun having them here in Pocatello.

We had our primary program today in Sacrament meeting. It was very nicely done and very organized. Keaton and Elicia both had speaking parts. We were proud of them for saying their parts memorized and doing a nice job. Keaton had a pretty long one and wasn’t overly thrilled about having to memorize it but he pulled through and did a nice job. After church later on this afternoon, Elicia had an Achievement day awards meeting. Her teacher displayed some of the things they had done including a cross stitch of President Hinckley’s "Bee’s" It is very nice. We need to get a frame for it now. For dinner today, Suzie and Brandon came from Idaho Falls to join us. It was fun to visit with them for a while.

I know that I’ve probably forgotten something since this is way to short, but It’s late and I have a dental appointment at 8:00 am in the morning. So it’s off to bed for us. Hope all is well!

Love,

Shan (and family)

 Dear Family,

Hard to believe we’re almost to Thanksgiving! I love this time of year! I love the food, the shopping, the music and wish it would snow!!! It’s hard to think about Christmas when your kids are wearing shorts to school! It’s nice the kids are able to still play outside without getting cold though. Actually today is a lot cooler out and perhaps a trend for cooler weather.

On Monday and Wednesday this past week it was my turn to team-teach at preschool. On Wednesday we had our Thanksgiving Feast. Instead of the traditional food we usually have on Thanksgiving we had several finger foods for the children to try. We also made Indian and Pilgrim costumes for them. They were very excited about the food and really cute! We sang Thanksgiving songs for the Mom’s and took lots of pictures.

I’m always relieved when we get through the month’s Home Family and Personal Enrichment Night. We had our Humanitarian Service night on Wednesday evening. For the past couple of months people have been bringing and donating items for personal hygiene kits and school kits. The evening went quite smoothly even though I stressed quite a bit over it. My Enrichment leader has been sick a lot lately and so I did the bulk of the organizing for it. I was so pleased with everyone’s generosity. We did more kits than I had anticipated.

Also, on Wednesday night, Mike was out of town again. This time it was only for one night and to Island Park. Which isn’t too far away. I think he gets to stick around for several weeks now. The kids and I miss him when he’s gone.

Thursday it has become a tradition to watch Survivor. Mike, Elicia, Keaton and I really like it. Keaton doesn’t care for all the in between "babbling" but loves the competitions and the voting at the end. It’s fun for us along with being an incentive for the kids to have all their chores and homework done so they can watch it.

Friday night Mike had tickets for the ISU Women’s Basketball game. It was a good game. ISU won by at least 20 points. We invited some friends of ours in the ward to go with us. We brought the kids along too. Elicia paid close attention to the game and seemed to really enjoy it. One of the title companies in town was sponsoring it and threw out lots of candy. The kids of course loved it. They would run to the front of the benches so they could grab for it more easily. It was a good thing we had baby wipes with us because most of us had chocolate all over us. After the game we took a trip to McDonalds. We let the kids play in the play center. They were the only ones and had a good time.

Saturday, we decided after Elicia’s basketball game that we would watch Don and Alli’s kids while they went to the temple and then meet them in IF and they watch ours while we go. (like we did last month) All went well until we got there and Mike realized he had forgotten his temple recommend. I’m glad Alli and Don were able to go through their session. We sent the kids home with them and then Mike and I did some shopping, went out to eat and then went to Suzie’s Opera Play that she was in. We joined Jim, Karen, Sherri and Greg at the Idaho Falls Civic Center. They had just been at the temple doing temple work for Jim’s father. Jim, we’re glad you’re no longer an Orphan! :0) Suzie was the understudy for the lead actress but since the lead was there she played one of the "extra’s" and did a lot of singing and flirting. Yes flirting! She kissed a bald man’s head several times! She looked really good with her ringlet hairpiece. It was fun to see the play and hopefully we’ll get to see some more in the future.

Today after church and eating lunch we decided to take a drive to the American Falls reservoir. We walked around and looked at the dam. The water was extremely low. We showed the kids where the watermarks on the rocks were so they could see how high the water has been in the past. I asked them if they remembered seeing the Owyhee dam (close to Nyssa) and they hadn’t so we might take a drive up there over Thanksgiving break. Too bad water won’t be going over the Glory Hole (at least I’m assuming it’s low there like everywhere else). Watching the water going into the Glory Hole is a fun childhood memory of mine. Whenever we went up to "The Dam" we always "had" to stop and look at the Glory Hole.

I attempted to finish this last night and send it off but our server was down so I’m going to finish up now and will send it. We can’t wait to see several of you in a few days and also to meet Jason’s girlfriend Christi!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Dec 2, 01

Dear Family,

Mike’s birthday was Wednesday, Nov 21st. We had eaten cake and sang to him the Sunday before since this was going to be a busy day. Elicia woke me up early to help her make "breakfast in bed" for her Dad. She went to work on making "cinnamon popups" which are a version of sticky buns made with refrigerated crescent rolls. She also made juice. I made hash browns, eggs and ham, which are some of Mike’s favorite breakfast foods. Meanwhile, Keaton made up a birthday poem. When we were ready we brought in Mike’s presents for him to open. The sticky popups were still baking so he took a shower and then ate breakfast. After breakfast Mike took the van in to get snow tires put on and then he went to work. I finished up packing and then took this week’s Real Estate pictures. Keaton and Elicia had a ½ day of school and then we were able to take off for Nyssa. On our way we stopped in Twin Falls to visit with Great Grandma Johnston. We arrived in Nyssa around 7:00. We visited with everyone that was there so far, including Trevor, Melissa, Ryan and Susan. After getting our kids in bed (or making our best attempts) Mike wanted to see a movie for his birthday. We invited Trevor and Melissa to go with us and met Jason and his girlfriend Christi at the theatre in Ontario. There we watched "Shallow Hal" . It was very funny and we all liked it. We went out for hot chocolate at Denny’s afterwards. IT was fun to get to know Christie a little better. She is a cute gal and very nice.

Thursday we of course had a very good Turkey dinner. Mom had us set up tables in the Family room so we could all fit in the same room. Everyone was there except Jared (on his mission in the Philippines). Jason brought Christi and that gave us a total of 25 people. It took a little practice to get the food rotating around but everything else went smoothly and tasted really good. After eating we worked on a tape for Jared. Keaton sang, "The Armies of Helaman" , Kailey and Shaylie sang "I am a Child of God" and Elicia played "Fur Elise" . Kimmi played the piano too and Chris sang " I hope they Call me on a Mission" with Keaton. We ate pie and played games the rest of the day. That evening we had to watch Survivor. It was on several of ours’ priority lists.

Friday was our big shopping day! Mom, Melissa and I took left Nyssa at about 5:30 am to hit the 6:00 am sale at Wal*Mart in Ontario. Meanwhile, Alli and Pam were hitting Shopko in Meridian. We were able to get our things at Wal*Mart fairly quickly and were on our way to Target in Meridian where we were to meet Alli and Pam. We got a little lost but made it. Alli and Pam had gotten there early enough to secure all the good sales before the store ran out of the sale items. We had walkie-talkies to communicate with each other and find out where they were when we got there. After our shopping at Target we all went to Karcher Mall in Nampa and to Ross and Pick n Save. We were pretty tired (and hungry) by the time we were done shopping. We got home to Nyssa around noon. After eating Mike suggested we go to the Owyhee Dam. Trevor, Melissa, Ryan, Susan, Riley and Kimmi all came too. That left Mom and Dad with an empty house. I think they probably enjoyed the peace and quiet. I had never seen the Reservoir so low. Trevor and Melissa walked around the Glory Hole which scared me to death! Someday we’ll have to take the kids back when the water is running over the Glory Hole. For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s pretty impressive. We also walked across the Dam and looked over the edge. From the Dam we headed to Troy and Pam’s house for a Taco Bar, games and movies. We had a really fun night.

Saturday we took the kids to see Harry Potter. I read all the books to Elicia and sometimes Keaton. I thought the movie was really good and didn’t ruin the images I had already had in my head. It only enhanced them. Kailey went with Trevor and Melissa to Monsters Inc. I was glad they took her because she wanted to see it really bad and didn’t want to watch Harry Potter. The rest of Saturday we finished up the pies and played games. Troy, Pam, Alli and Don all came over too.

Sunday after church we ate and then headed back to Pocatello. We had a quick uneventful trip back. Which was just fine with me. Toward the end of the week I had started to get a cold and wasn’t feeling too well Sunday evening. At one time I had told Elicia we would perhaps put up Christmas Decorations after we got home but I really didn’t feel up to it.

Monday I still wasn’t feeling too well so we put off the decorations again. On Wednesday I felt like I had a little more time so we started the 3 hour project and put up the tree and decorations. The kids were eager at first to help but I think I spent the last couple of hours doing it myself. Which is okay because I like having the tree done my way.

Thursday night Mike, along with several other people and business owners in the community, was given a special invitation to Golden Corral before they officially opened. The food was pretty good, especially the pot roast and German Chocolate Cake. I think we’ll go back often :0) Friday was it’s official opening and Mike went there for lunch.

Friday night Keaton and Elicia both had friends over. I took Elicia and her friend Melissa to see "Princess Diaries" at the Reel theatre. Mike took Keaton and his friend Devin, and the little girls, to the Dollar Store. They each got to pick out something.

Yesterday, Elicia had a basketball game. They lost again and Elicia was very disappointed. During the afternoon we stayed home and did housework, computer work and homework. Later Don, Alli, Shaylie and Connor came over to celebrate Connor’s 1^st birthday with us. The little girls were very eager to help him open his presents. He was cute trying to get at his car. Alli wanted him to finish up unwrapping presents but he just wanted to play with his car he had opened previously. Last night we had an Elder’s Quorum bowling party. The roads were horrible so not many attended. Those of us that did had a blast though! I scored a 126, which may be my highest ever, score. Mike scored a 136, which was the 2^nd highest score from our group. We laughed a lot with each other. After 2 games we went to our next-door neighbor’s house for pie and ice cream.

Today Mike and I both had lessons to teach. Emilee told me when she woke up this morning that she wasn’t going to nursery. I decided it might really make matters worst if I pushed her to go so I let her attend Relief Society with me. She did pretty good while I was teaching. IT wasn’t until the end that she started distracting me. Luckily I was able to finish up without much of a problem. After church Mike and I both had meetings so I took the kids home and let Elicia babysit for an hour. I figured we were only a couple blocks away and could be home in a just a couple minutes if the kids were to call. IT’s nice that she is getting old enough to help out in this way.

This evening we had dinner with Don and Alli’s family, and then played Rook. We ended up having a tied game, which was good enough for us! We’ve been in the mood for Rook after that "high spirited" game Mike and I played against Mom and Alli over Thanksgiving. In that game Mike and I had the lead with 8 hundred + points while Mom and Alli only had 150 points or so. They made a major comeback and beat us in the end. I also went visiting teaching tonight. Knowing how busy December gets, we want to be done early.

At this moment, It is now snowing really hard and several other storms are predicted. I love the snow, although I don’t like having to drive in it. Elicia especially likes to play in it. Keaton does a little but doesn’t spend nearly as much time as Elicia playing in it. Kailey and Emilee spend about 5 minutes playing in it and then are ready to come in. That is after spending 30 minutes getting them ready to go out.

Well I think that covers the last couple of weeks. I like it much better when I only have one week to write about. I’ll have to be really good about not skipping weeks from now on. Hope all is well and that you are enjoying this Christmas Season.

Love,

Shan (and family)

Dec 9, 01

Dear Family,

We’ve had an interesting week weather wise here. I imagine it has been that way for most of you. Sunday night we had a pretty huge storm come in and dumped quite a bit of snow. Then we had a blizzard Wednesday afternoon. I thought for sure they would cancel school on one of those days. But no, school wasn’t cancelled those days but it was on Thursday. We had the first "rain day" that I could ever remember! Just about the time the kids were supposed to head off to school it poured rain. Later it did turn to snow and was quite messy on the roads. I just thought it was funny that school was cancelled and it rained. The kids didn’t mind. Keaton really had hoped that Tuesday would have been a snow day. AT about 6:45 AM he came upstairs to tell me he had thrown up. He took a bath and then got dressed and insisted he was going to school. I told him he had to keep breakfast down and if he did I’d let him go to school. He ate some oatmeal, very slowly, and then left to go downstairs to get his boots. Fortunately he was carrying a bowl with him because he "lost" it. He then knew he couldn’t go to school, which made him very sad. This was the first day he had EVER missed school. He had perfect attendance throughout Kindergarten and 1^st Grade and so far in 2nd. He kept saying "why couldn’t this be a vacation day?!!!" He was sick throughout the rest of the morning but by mid afternoon was feeling much better. Elicia brought home the work he had missed at school, which he was happy about. On Wednesday he was very happy to be able to go to school.

Mike has had a busy week with traveling. He went to Boise Tuesday night for a banquet and Wednesday for meetings. Also, Mike is the East district Vice President for the Idaho Association of Realtors and went to three Installation Banquets in the area to install new officers during the week. He didn’t think he was going to have to here in Pocatello but Friday afternoon they called and asked if he would. So Friday night we sat at the head table once again. I would much rather sit somewhere else! I guess getting to be first in line at the buffets isn’t so bad though :0) A BYU Idaho singing group (From the Heart) performed for the night’s entertainment. They did a nice job and it was fun to listen to them.

Yesterday we went to Elicia’s basketball game. She has been begging for a cat. Mike felt safe in telling her that she could have one if she herself made 5 baskets during the game. Her whole team hasn’t ever made 5 baskets in a game so he wasn’t to worried. She played the best we had ever seen her play and although she came close to making a couple of baskets didn’t make one. We felt so bad for her! She cried after she was done playing. It was good seeing her try so hard on the court though. She has potential and if she works hard I think she will be a really good player someday.

After the ballgame we traveled to Preston Idaho (1 hour away) to visit our friends the Lukers. Alli and Don came too. We there were treated to a steak barbeque. The kids enjoyed playing in the huge snow piles after they had eaten and while we were eating. After eating (actually we never stopped the whole night) we played a few games before heading back to Pocatello. It was so neat to drive down the main street and see all of their decorations. It’s a small town that goes all out and has a wonderful Christmas display throughout the town and in their parks.

Keaton must have been bored a few days ago because he took a pair of scissors to his hair and butchered himself! I couldn’t believe it! He has bald spots on top of his head! I hope people don’t think that I gave him such a bad haircut. I’ve been hoping for his hair to grow out since I shaved it off over the summer. I just think he looks better with more hair. I guess we’ll have to wait a few more months though. Now I really have to try and comb it right or it looks really bad.

We’ve really enjoyed the Christmas season so far. I try not to take on anything more than what we already have going on in December so that we can spend a lot of family time together. The kids love it when I give them fruit "smoothies" or hot chocolate and they can sit around the table sipping while I read Christmas stories. Mike likes the hot chocolate but has a hard time with the smoothies because he always gets "brain freeze". It’s hilarious! (sorry Mike) I just know better than to drink them fast. Mike has been reading a lot of stories to the kids too. It’s nice because he’ll come home from work and if I’m not ready with dinner he’ll sit in the living room with the kids and read until I’m done.

Keaton hasn’t been the only one sick this past week. I’ve been fighting a cold all week. By the end of the day I’m coughing and hoarse. Emilee has been pretty warm this evening and not acting too well. I hope it’s something that will go through her system fast. I don’t know which is worst, having sick kids or being sick yourself. We hope that all of you are feeling all right or getting better if you’ve been sick. It’s a wonderful time of year and we don’t want to be sick, do we?

Have a great week!

Love,

Shan (and family)

December 16, 01

Dear Family,

We are in the midst of December! I can’t believe how quickly time goes! We’ve been really busy and I’m hoping to get less busy this next week.

Monday night we decided to take a drive and look at Christmas lights. We have a few favorite neighborhoods that we check out every year. I love to listen to the Christmas music as we drive. All of the kids fell asleep except Elicia, which made bedtime really simple that night.

My hurdle of the week was Enrichment night on Wednesday. We had a progressive dinner. When I was called to be the Enrichment counselor I learned that previously I had been assigned to be the dinner chairman in December. Several weeks ago I helped line up the homes that we would be eating at and also those that would be on the food committee with me. On Tuesday, one of the homes cancelled so I volunteered our home to be one of the homes. Since I was already planning on fixing the main course, I changed the home route around so that I could keep the main course at my house. I shopped on Tuesday for the food and on Wednesday I cleaned and cooked. I also fit in piano lessons and going to Elicia’s class. The night turned out well. I had originally thought 35 might attend. I suggested this to my Enrichment board and then later to our RS president and they all told me I had better plan on 60. So food wise that is what we planned for. About 30 showed up. Mike had an Elder’s Quorum meeting later on that night and they enjoyed stuffing themselves with the leftovers. We also had leftovers for the next few days…in fact we still are! LOL I think if I were to help plan another similar activity I would try to do it earlier and take more time at the homes. I felt like I had to hurry people up at each house. The joke of the evening was how I made everyone eat fast or throw away their food. One lady stuffed her ham in her pocket so she wouldn’t have to throw it away. Each house we planned on being at for 20 minutes where we would eat and also hear a Christmas story. We had an "appetizer" home, a "salad" home, a "bread" home and the "main dish" myh home. We were in two groups and apparently the other group didn’t hurry as quickly. They finished about 30 minutes behind us. They completely missed the combined lesson we were supposed to have at the 5th house along with desert. From the length of this paragraph can you tell how exhausted I was by the end of the day?

I can’t remember what we did on Thursday. OH, yeah, we went to the dentist after school and to Shaylie’s Joy school play that night. The rest of the day I think I tried to catch up on things I had gotten behind on.

Friday we enjoyed a snow day. For lunch we were invited over to a friends house where a few other moms and kids joined us. The kids played and sledded while the Mom’s ate and visited. It snowed most of the afternoon and was really pretty. After we got home I put the kids in the hot tub to warm up while I cleaned house and did laundry.

On Friday night we went on a hayride for an Elder’s quorum activity. It was cold and windy but we were bundled up pretty good. We sang Christmas carols and rode down nearly every street on our side of the hill. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and doughnuts at our next-door neighbors house (Mike’s counselor) and then a few people came over to our house to play games.

Saturday, Elicia had her last basketball game. She has improved so much throughout the season. They weren’t able to win a single game but I think they all had fun. I enjoyed going to the games. The rest of Saturday I worked on getting ready for Alli’s and my recital that night. The recital went smoothly. I made the mistake of decorating the desert table with "icycle-tinsel" scattered all over the table. If only it would have STAYED all over the table. We found it all over the church as we were cleaning up. I won’t do that again! Even though it did look pretty. Elicia played Fur Elise and Christmas Bells. She has played them a lot better at home but was nervous during the recital. She did pretty well though.

On Wednesday, Elicia gave a report on a local Indian tribe. She was in a group with 2 other classmates. They gave the report and then showed a diagrama, and acted out a skit. Mike and I were able to attend and watch. Elicia described their diagrama and what each of the items were. As she was telling about it, a bird they had made out of clay fell from the top. She picked it up and said "and here we have a dead bird"…It was funny!

Speaking of dead birds, tonight for dinner we thought we were going to eat goose. After cutting into it though, we aren’t exactly sure what we ate. A friend of Mike’s that is a hunter gave him some packages of meat. I pulled one out of the freezer that I thought it was faintly labeled "goose". I opened it and stuck it in the slow cooker this morning before church. I let it cook all day and then for tonight for dinner we ate it with Alli and Don. When we started cutting into it we decided it didn’t seem like the texture poultry should be. WE then thought maybe we were eating moose. The thought of eating "Bull Winkle" didn’t set too well with me but later when I was ICQ’ing Pam she reassured me at least it wasn’t "Rocky". Mike thinks perhaps it was venison. When Trevor and Melissa move here, Melissa will have to inform us what the wild game we eat is in the future.

Later this evening we went to some friends’ home for a combined FHE with 2 other families. We had a talent show for the children to perform their piano pieces, singing or whatever they wanted to share. We then sang Christmas songs all together and had treats.

I’m exhausted this evening. Emilee decided to pull an "all nighter" last night. As I was getting into bed late (around 1:00 am) she woke up. She wasn’t feeling too well so I did my best to rock her and whatever else she wanted. We were awake until 5:00 am! I then was able to get a couple hours of sleep before getting up at 7:00 am to get ready for church. I think it’s about time to close this and get to bed. We hope you’re all enjoying the Christmas Season.

Love,

Shan(and family)

Dear Family,

I have a few minutes and a lot of catching up to do! It’s been two weeks since I’ve written and two very busy weeks they were! (by the time I finished this letter it had actually been 3 weeks) Hopefully I can remember everything.

On Monday the 18^th we had a Keller Williams Company Party at TJ and Gail Merzlock’s home. I prepared the ham and also a pan of potatoes for it. Besides eating (which is always my favorite part) we had a gift exchange and then were entertained by the group "Four-mata" . We left Elicia and Keaton home and took the Emilee and Kailey over to Alli and Don. Alli and Don were "on-call" for the night in case Elicia and Keaton had any problems. Don and Alli attempted to check up on Keaton and Elicia by telephone but they didn’t answer. We weren’t worried though. Elicia or Keaton called Mike and I about every 15 minutes with a question of some sort.

On Tuesday the 19^th, we had our ward skating Christmas party. The kids again reminded me that we have to go skating more often so they can get good at it. I’m glad they recognize that they have to practice to get good at it. For some reason they have a difficult time comprehending that in other areas. Santa Clause came and visited with the kids, which the little ones enjoyed. Also, there were a few skating games. One game Elicia, Kailey and I all won. We each received a free soda for it. Kailey thought that was really cool and proudly told everyone that she was a winner. Emilee did rather well on the skates and had a fun time. None of the kids wanted to go home and unlike past years we stayed until 9:00 when it ended.

Wednesday was a break from the busyness, which was nice. On Thursday, Mike and I went out for our anniversary. We went to Red Lobster for dinner and then finished up some Christmas shopping.

Saturday morning, Jim invited all the family that were able to out for breakfast. We went to the Golden Corral and had a really good meal and fun visit. After eating we took Jakob home with us so he could play and Elicia went to Kristie’s to play with Kassie. They played all afternoon and then we made an exchange before dinner. Saturday night Don and Alli’s family came over to watch a movie. Later Trevor and Melissa showed up. They are going to live with us until they find jobs and a home.

Sunday after church Melissa, Elicia and I started working on gingerbread to make a gingerbread house. We made up the wrong recipe and it turned out more like a cake. A little later we tried another recipe and it worked great for gingerbread men but wasn’t sturdy enough for the walls of a house. So we ended up with a LOT of gingerbread cake and several gingerbread men. The kids had fun decorating the cookies regardless.

On Monday we started the day cleaning and getting ready for Christmas. I think Christmas Eve is about my favorite day of the year. I love to see the anticipation in the kids growing. It’s fun to spend time together playing games too. Elicia and Keaton are both getting to be pretty good scrabble players. IT is our "game of choice" lately. Mike went into work for a few hours and then came home to get us. We went to rent some videos and did one last little shopping trip. At home the kids watched a movie while I prepared food for the evening. Around 6:00 Don, Alli and kids came over. Also, we invited Richard to come and join us. We ate pizza and chips for dinner. Alli made superb pizzas! Following dinner we helped the kids put on the story of Jesus’ birth. Kailey was the angel, Elicia the Wiseman/inn keeper, Emilee a shepherd, Keaton the donkey, Connor was Joseph and Shaylie was Mary. Some of the kids were a little silly, especially our Donkey. Afterwards the kids each opened a gift. I picked out gifts for Elicia and Keaton. They were excited to receive Roller Runners. Before bedtime we went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. We had hoped that maybe they would fall asleep in the car but no such luck until the end when Emilee finally was out.

Christmas morning Elicia woke us up at 6:00 am. This is the first year we didn’t have to wake her up for Christmas!!! The rest of the kids started to wake up and went to check out what Santa had brought. After playing with some new toys for awhile we dove into opening gifts. I think everyone felt pretty good about would they received, At 1:00 we went to the Jim and Karen’s to eat, play games and open more gifts. The food was great and the games were a lot of fun. Especially Jim’s money game. It was super cold outside but that didn’t stop Elicia and Keaton from wanting to go on a walk with Grandpa. Keaton didn’t have gloves and had some pretty cold hands when he came back. We spent the whole afternoon there before heading home to relax and watch "Shrek".

Wednesday was a "catch up" day for us. There was lots of cleaning and laundry to get done. I had pictures to take and also some shopping to do too.

Thursday Trevor and Melissa finished moving in. Later, Dad, Mom, Riley and Kim arrived in the afternoon. Don, Alli and kids came over too. We had dinner, watched Survivor and then visited and relaxed the rest of the day.

On Friday we headed for Malad. Don volunteered to watch some of the kids so we left Shaylie, Kailey and Keaton with him. We had a nice visit with Grandma Pett. They have a lot of snow so Elicia of course was out in it. She loves playing in the snow. Around 4:00 we left for home so we could get dinner together. Don and Alli made a bean soup and I made Chicken noodle. After dinner several of us went to the Mall to walk (for exercise). It turned out that we did more shopping then walking. That’s fun too though! We also went to Wal*Mart.

Saturday we went to Golden Corral for lunch. IT was good. We like going there because of the variety and that we can satisfy everyone. The kids love it. The rest of Saturday we watched movies and played games.

Sunday we went to church. IT was a combined 5^th Sunday. It was nice to not have to worry about anything and not feel rushed to be there early. At least I didn’t feel rushed until 10 minutes before when Mike told me he had to give the opening prayer so we had to hurry. Our lesson was on preparedness. We talked about food storage and several other areas in which we can be prepared. We were given and hand out called the Noah’s Ark Project, which tells us exactly what we need to become prepared as a family spiritually and temporally month by month. Mike and I are setting a goal to try our best to meet each month’s goals that are outlined in the project. Anyone that might like a copy of this let me know because I copied it on my computer.

On Monday Mike went in to work. The rest of us went sledding at Crystal Summit. The sledding was pretty nice. Emilee loved it. Kailey was thirsty so she complained a lot and Keaton was cold. He’s not much of a winter lover. Elicia had a blast. She LOVES the snow. We have a sled that holds 4 people and it was fun to go down on it. It was snowing quite hard and so whoever was in front got covered with snow. Later in the afternoon we had Turkey dinner. Just as we were finishing Troy, Pam and kids arrived. We snacked and played games the rest of the evening. Darren, Karen, Kelsi and Michael McCabe also joined us. We played the Family Feud and a "sign" game, which were both fun. I think midnight came too soon for some of us. Even though the McCabes left, Don and Alli and family left, Dad, Mom, Riley and Kimmi left, Trevor, Melissa, Troy, Pam, Mike and I stayed up and played Rook until 2:30 am. It wasn’t only fun, but peaceful to not have all the kids up and running around.

On Tuesday those that live outside of Pocatello started to gradually leave. The rest of us played games and snacked throughout the day.

On Wednesday the kids went back to school and I played "catch up" again. In fact the rest of the week I’ve been catching up. Thursday evening Mike started running a fever. He was really sick on Friday and on Saturday I took him to the Dr. Turns out that he has a really bad strain of Strep throat. His neck, throat and tongue are really swollen. The Dr. gave him some Demerol (in a form of a shot) and also some other painkillers and of course antibiotics. Today he’s doing much better. He’s able to walk without being dizzy and he’s able to eat a little bit. He hasn’t been able to talk well and hadn’t eaten for 3 days. He jokes that it’s his new diet since he’s lost 14 lbs. Although I don’t think he’d recommend it to anyone. I think he’s been sicker than I’ve ever seen him.

I think that catches me up. Sorry about this being such a long letter. Hope everyone is in good health…and Mucho Congrats to Jason and Chrisi on their engagement!!! We’re so excited for them!

Dear Family,

We are just cruising through January! The weather has been a little bit warmer the past few days and has made me a little anxious for spring. I love the snow but at the same time I would like to see it just go away. New snow is much prettier than old snow.

If you recall in my last letter, I told of how sick Mike was with Strep throat. He started felling better on Sunday and was able to go to work on Monday, though still not completely better. About the same time he started feeling better I started to feel bad. I suspected Strep right off the bat and so Monday late afternoon I went in for a throat culture. It was a long wait in the Dr.s office since they were so busy. While sitting there I progressively got sicker. After a nurse finally was able to give me my throat culture I received positive results. I was pretty achy but my throat wasn’t extremely bad so I told the nurse I didn’t need a prescription for painkillers and would continue to just OTC medication along with my antibiotics. I had assumed that I would gradually get better once being on the antibiotics. Instead my throat continued to get worst. I was really bad until Thursday when it seemed to just go away. What a relief! I was well enough to watch Don and Alli’s kids while Alli went to the Dr. Apparently she had caught the strep too. She went in earlier in the week but received a negative culture. By Thursday she was really miserable. I think we are past the point where anyone else in our household can get it. I’m really glad the rest of our bunch didn’t get it.

Balancing being sick and getting through the week was a little tricky. I went ahead and taught piano lessons. I wasn’t sick enough on Monday to cancel, Tuesday I didn’t have lessons, and Wednesday and Thursday I was on antibiotics long enough to not be contagious so I went ahead and taught. Also, Enrichment night was Tuesday night. Along with the Enrichment counselor from the Valleyview ward I was in charge of it and didn’t want to miss it either. We had planned this night several months ago for the Sept 11 enrichment night. Because of the attacks we rescheduled our guest speaker for this night. The speaker was Bill McKee, the Chubbuck Stake President. He is a family counselor and very good. We invited husbands to it, also. He shared a lot of wisdom and answered many questions. Physically I didn’t feel well at all but other than that it was a nice night. I stayed to help clean up afterwards and then left for home to hop in bed.

Wednesday night Mike left for meetings he had in Boise on Thursday. On the way he had apparently talked to Jason and was told that Christi is getting baptized a week before their wedding. That is so cool! We are so happy for them. We think we’ll be able to go to both the baptism and to the wedding.

While being sick earlier in the week, I didn’t get a lot of housework accomplished so on Thursday and Friday I played catch up. Shaylie and Connor were here quite a bit so I also played mediator between the girls and worked hard to make better friends with Connor. He usually doesn’t want anything to do with me but warmed up a little to me. That is when Trevor wasn’t around. Trevor’s his best bud. I was able to rock him to sleep on Friday; Connor that is not Trevor, and carefully left him snuggled up in the rocking recliner. I pulled the girls out of the room and shut the door so he could sleep. I then told the girls they were to play in Kailey and Emilee’s room so they would disturb Connor. They did this really will for about an hour so I thought I could sneak downstairs to change laundry without any problems. When I returned upstairs I could hear the girls still playing in their bedroom with Shaylie but noticed my bedroom door open. When I went back to check on Connor he was sitting up in the chair looking around with his hair all slicked back. The girls had been playing dress up and apparently wanted Connor to look good too.

Yesterday I had music sign ups for Festival on March 9. This is where students perform 2 pieces in front of a judge. Trevor and Melissa went with me and helped me sign up my students along with Alli’s (since she was still sick). I have 8 students signed up this year which is the most I’ve ever had signed up. I’m excited about it but at the same time it’s a lot of work to get so many students ready for it. They can’t really afford to miss a single lesson and so I’m really working hard at fitting in makeup lessons whenever we have a scheduling conflict. Also, during the lesson I feel like we have to really get the most out of the lesson. Since I have a few students that procrastinate memorizing their pieces (which is required) I spend a lot of time teaching them how to memorize and helping them to do so during the actual lesson. Elicia will be in festival for the 3^rd time this year. Since she received superior ratings at both her 1^st and 2^nd Festivals she will receive a trophy this year if she can again receive a superior. After the signing up, Trevor and Melissa bought books for their classes.

On our way home we passed Mike leaving to go up to Crystal Summit for our ward sledding party. He was one of the ones in charge of it so had to be there early to make a bon fire. Trevor, Melissa and I got ready, the kids in their snow clothes and headed up to the mountains. We had around 80 people show up for it. It was a pretty good day for sledding except for a little windy. The hill we sledded down was really slick though which made it fun. I went down with Emilee a few times and just like the last time we went she loved it. We had chili for lunch along with hot chocolate, crackers and snacks.

Last night we went to the ISU basketball game. Don, Alli and kids and Trevor and Melissa went too. They sat in a different spot than us since Mike had tickets from one of his title company friends. Our kids went back and forth during the game. During the 2^nd half I ended up sitting with the others since Emilee wanted to play with Shaylie and Kailey. It wasn’t nearly crowded by Don, Alli and gang so the kids could play more easily. We also didn’t have the coach’s wife standing up in front of us every play so I could see better. The first half was very close but the 2^nd half ISU had at least a 10 point lead most of the game. ISU won the game. I think it was Northern Arizona that they played.

It’s Sunday morning now and I feel like I’m doing pretty good to have this letter almost ready to send off. There are some advantages to our 11:30 church schedule. The afternoons are short but if we can get a lot done in the morning then we can relax in the afternoons. We hope that all is well for everyone. Have a great Sunday!

Love,

Dear Family,

We have been bombarded by snow and we mostly love it! The kids made a big camel in the yard out of snow that they played on a lot yesterday. Keaton isn’t usually one that likes to play in the snow but even he had a good time. I really don’t like driving in it though. For those of you that have been to our home you know that we live on a hill. We have two roads that we can get up the hill on but with snow they are not fun. Last Tuesday I had so many errands to get done and attempted to do them during a snow storm. I had to get Kailey to dance class, which is also on the hill. I had been at the bottom of the hill doing the errands and as I attempted to get up the hill I found several cars stopped in front of me. A school bus was also stopped. Getting up the hill with a little momentum isn’t so bad but once you stop it is really hard to get going. There was a van in front of the bus that was holding everyone up. It eventually was able to turn around and get back down the hill. As the van passed I noticed it was Kailey’s dance teacher. With that I decided there probably wasn’t going to be dance class. Once the bus had some help getting up I decided to make a go for it even though the car in front of me was struggling. I floored it and moving about 5 miles per hour (wheels spinning the whole way) I went around the car and eventually made it up. I was pretty nervous. In the spot I had been stopped it would have been extremely difficult to turn around and even harder to back down the hill with so many cars behind me. Other than that and a little bit of sliding the snow hasn’t been too much of an inconvenience. It’s been so nice having Trevor here because he keeps the driveway and sidewalks clear of snow.

Wednesday morning early, Mike and I left to Las Vegas. He had a Real Estate class to take and decided he would like to take me along. IT was nice having Melissa and Trevor here to watch the kids. They did an awesome job. In fact we could leave more often! :0) Don and Alli helped with the kids when Trevor and Melissa had class. I was very nervous about leaving especially since Melissa came down with Strep a couple days before but with the help of Don and Alli everything worked out (or so they tell me). Major thanks to all of them!

IT took us around 8 ½ hours to get to Las Vegas from Pocatello. Once we got there we checked into our hotel, the Golden Nugget (which was where Mike’s class was to be held). It was on the "old strip". We then went to the "new strip" for dinner. Mike has been talking about the fabulous buffets in Las Vegas for a long time. He took me the first night to his favorite, which is in the Rio hotel/casino. It was an "all you can eat" seafood buffet. We engorged on Lobster tail and crab legs mostly. So yummy! Then Mike thought it would be fun to take me on a Roller coaster ride at New York, New York. I’m not quite sure what is fun about eating a huge amount of food and then riding a roller coaster but we did it! On Thursday during Mike’s class I did a little looking around but after our room had been cleaned I stayed in the room and read. It was so nice!!! To be able to spend all afternoon reading without being disturbed hasn’t happened to me in a long time (if ever!). Again on Friday I did the same, read all afternoon. I started and finished 2 books. In the evenings we hit the buffets (not quite as ritzy as the first one) and again went on roller coasters. After two nights in a row of eating and then going on the roller coasters I convinced Mike it would be much more fun if we did the roller coasters first. So we did. Friday night we drove out to Primm, which is on the California/Nevada state line and road on a HUGE roller coaster. Mike said he believed it was in the top 10 roller coasters of the world. On Saturday we rode the Stratosphere roller coaster and Blast off which is the highest roller coaster ride and also thrill ride in the world. (or at least claims to be). Both are on top of the Stratosphere, which is higher than the Eiffel tower and is only a couple hundred feet lower than the Empire State Building. It is one of those things that you do once just so you can say you’ve done it! LOL

Saturday morning we were able to attend the Las Vegas Temple. It was nice to enjoy a quiet, peaceful, so much different atmosphere. It wasn’t quite as busy and a little bit more laid back then the Idaho Falls Temple, very beautiful though. After our session I informed Mike I was starving (since it was past lunch time and we’d skipped breakfast). He wanted to fill up the car with gas though and also get it washed. While filling up we noticed a group of black men washing cars and Mike thought it would be a better wash then the mechanical wash across the street. It was kind of odd to be sitting there in the car while the men washing it shouted out Praises to Jesus and biblical references. It was comforting to know they were religious though. At first glance I suppose I was a little judgmental and didn’t see that in them. We decided to use the last bit of a $50 food credit we had from our room, at a restaurant in our hotel. IT just so happened that the most economical and quickest restaurant in the hotel was YES, another buffet. And if you haven’t figured it out I will just tell you that we did eat buffets both for lunch and dinner the days we were there. And YES, I did over eat, and YES I did gain weight but boy was it good!!! I’m being good this week though—slim fast and protein shakes :0).

We left for home on Sunday. We were glad to get back Sunday night not only to see the kids but also the roads would have been horrible on Monday. Sunday they were only partially bad the last part of the trip. When we got home the kids were with Trevor and Melissa at Don and Alli’s. We unpacked until the got home. It was good to see them. They were so sweet telling us they missed us and loved us. They had a good time while we were gone though. They got to go sledding and to McDonalds besides all the other fun stuff they did at home. Trevor and Melissa didn’t even seem to mind sleeping with Emilee. In fact, last night Emilee wanted to go sleep with them again. We kept her upstairs though. Now I think I’ve caught myself up. I told myself I just have to sit down and write this morning before I put it off until next week and have 2 weeks to write about. Hope all is well and we look forward to Christi’s baptism on Saturday!

Love,

Shan (and family)

January 27, 02

 Dear Family,

We’re getting more snow this year than we have had in the past several winters I think. Or if we’ve had this much I just don’t remember it. It’s snowing pretty hard right now as I type.

It seems like I just barely sent off a newsletter. Maybe because I was so late getting last weeks out. Not a whole lot happened during the week but maybe I can remember a few things. We taught Melissa and Trevor how to play Pinochle and have been playing it during the evenings. Thursday I was able to go to a birthday luncheon for a lady in my ward. Thursday night we went to Pizza Hut so Keaton could use his "book it" certificate he received for meeting his reading goal. Nothing else, besides the usual routine, really happened during the week. The weekend was a little bit more exciting.

On Friday we picked the kids up after school and headed for Nyssa. While there we played games and visited but our main reason for the trip was to attend Christi’s baptism. She and Jason came over Friday. We played Family Feud with Jason being the host and Rate your Mate. Jason, Christi, Don, Alli, Melissa and Trevor played with us while Kimmi and Elicia read the questions. Mike and I were losers in both games. We were last place in Rate your Mate (like the Newlywed game). You’d think we know each other better after being married for 11 years! I think I know Mike just fine but he doesn’t know himself well enough! He answered some of the questions just plain wrong.

Saturday afternoon was the baptism. We traveled to Weiser. Mike and I left a little early to try and visit my good friend Amy and her family who live in Weiser but they weren’t home. Jason baptized Christi while the rest of us watched on. They kissed before leaving the font, which was the first time most of us had seen that! It was so sweet though. There was a nice program to go along with the baptism. They have a very supportive ward. With ward members, family and friends the Relief Society room was so packed that some people had to listen from the hall. I know because I was in the hall most of the time with Emilee. She was stinker but fell asleep…during the closing prayer. When we got back to Nyssa we had delicious lasagna that Mom had made. We played a card game of Rage and I won! It was the first time I’ve won in a long time!

Today we went to Christi’s confirmation, which was during their ward’s sacrament meeting in Payette. Jason confirmed her. I had goose bumps throughout it. Afterwards Mike and I decided to head for home without going back to Nyssa. It started snowing pretty hard around Burley so we were glad we were able to go through it during daylight. When we got home we had 4-5 " of snow in our driveway with more coming down. I guess Trevor will have a fun chore tomorrow ;0) He claims to like to shovel snow. Mike and I don’t have a problem letting him do it either!

We hope all are well. We’ve been battling a few colds but other than that are happy and healthy.

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Feb 3, 02

Dear Family,

What a hectic week! We got back Sunday night from Nyssa so Monday morning consisted of unpacking and laundry. I also had to finish getting things together for preschool since this was my week to teach. We have preschool in the afternoon in the nursery room at the church. My teaching companion this half of the year (or should I say semester?) is Rita MacCabe. She is a good friend of mine and it was fun to teach with her. I can tell that the kids are growing up and maturing. They were a little bit better about paying attention. We taught about responsibility and gave each of the 10 children a hard boiled egg to take care of for a few days. They were to nurture it by singing and playing with it. Also, if the egg were to get a "boo boo" they were instructed to care for it with band-aids or give other medical attention to it. On Wednesday they were to bring the egg back to school and report on it. Kailey and Emilee were very excited about this. Kailey named her egg "Cola" . On the way home from preschool Emilee ate hers. Kailey, on returning home, wanted to play with Cola for a while so I let her. When she was finished we returned it to its bed in the refrigerator. A little later she decided she wanted to play with her egg again. She took it to her room and played with it like it was her baby but after awhile forgot about it while watching TV. She came to me a bit later with huge crocodile tears and the remains of Cola in her hands. Apparently Emilee had begun to feast on Cola when Kailey discovered her with the egg. No band-aid could "fix" the damage. I felt bad for Kailey but told her she would just have to put the egg back in her box and make the best of it. Elicia graciously made a sign for the little box. It consisted of three letters R.I.P. By the time Mike came home from work Kailey was still feeling bad. Even though I thought Kailey should suffer the consequences of not being responsible for her egg, Mike was sympathetic for her and made her a new egg. He drew a cute little face on it and hair but made a big mistake by making pants on it because Kailey didn’t want a "BOY" egg! She felt bad all over again. On Wednesday she decided to show the pieces of Cola to the class while Emilee showed the "BOY" egg. After preschool, unknown to the girls, I carefully discarded both eggs into the trash.

Tuesday appeared as if it might have been a more relaxing day for us. We casually got ready in the morning but then my list of pictures that I needed to take came in from the Real Estate Association office and was a lot bigger than usual. As soon as we could I got the girls ready and we headed off to take the pictures. It took about 3 hours even though none of the homes were very difficult to find. After school on Tuesday, Elicia had piano lessons and Kailey and Elicia both had dance class. Following dinner I took Keaton and Elicia to the library. The both picked out several books and read until bedtime (and beyond) In the evenings lately Melissa and I have been working out with weights and taking turns running on the treadmill. Afterwards we play pinochle with the guys. I suppose we taught Trevor and Melissa a little too well because they have been winning us lately.

When I woke up Wednesday morning I knew it was going to be busy because I had 2 visiting teaching appointments (procrastination doesn’t pay off!) , Preschool to teach in the afternoon, another visiting teaching appointment, 3 piano lessons to teach, visiting teachers coming to Melissa and me and after dinner my fourth visiting teaching appointment. About 7:30 am, my visiting teaching companion called and said her daughter was sick so she wouldn’t be able to go with me visiting teaching. A little later Don called and said Alli wasn’t feeling well and wondered if I would check up on her while he went to class. Since my visiting teaching companion’s daughter wouldn’t be in preschool I asked Don if I could take Shaylie with me to preschool and would pick her up right after I finished with my morning visiting teaching appointments. When I went to get Shaylie Alli was really feeling bad so I told her I took Connor also. When we got to the church in the back where the nursery is I noticed graffiti spray painted on the back of the church. It appeared to be gang writing and wasn’t pretty. Being there with 4 little kids and trying to get set up for preschool I just called Mike to see if he had time to make a few phone calls and handle it. He was able to call the Bishop, the person who is over taking care of the church along with the police. Preschool went along as normal. I was able to hold Connor in the sling the whole time. He was very good and slept most of it. A cop came and I had to leave the room to talk with him for a few moments. There were footprints in the snow around where the graffiti was. He asked me to not let anyone walk there until he got back with a camera. I didn’t expect anyone to go back there from our preschool so didn’t worry too much about it until I had to take something out to the van and saw some members of the church trying to clean the paint off the building standing write where they weren’t supposed to be standing. I guess I blew it. When I went out again the cop was back and talking to them so hopefully he was able to find an undisturbed spot to take a picture. After preschool Trevor was home and watched all the kids while I went visiting teaching again. Don came and got Connor while Shaylie stayed and spent the night. The rest of the day fell into place even though I remained quite busy. Mike had his presidency meeting at 9:00, I worked out during it (downstairs of course :0) and following it we played a game of pinochle with Trevor and Melissa.

Thursday morning Emilee, Kailey and I went to a big sale at Dillard’s with a friend of mine and her kids. There was major mark downs on their clearance racks. I bought several things for the kids to put away for school in the fall. It was fun but hard with the kids. Emilee was horrible. She kept wandering off. Thursday afternoon I went grocery shopping. Kailey stayed with Melissa and Trevor but Emilee really wanted to go with me. I’m not sure why I even considered taking her when Trevor and Melissa were able to watch her. She was again a pain to shop with.

Friday wasn’t too eventful I cleaned house and did laundry all day.

Saturday we woke up early, Mike 4:00am and me a bit later. We left a little after 5:00 for Jason’s wedding in Payette. Emilee and Kailey fell back asleep but UNFORTUNATELY Keaton and Elicia stayed awake. I tried to sleep but they kept talking to me. After it started to get light we put on a movie for the kids to watch. We went through a McDonald’s Drive through in Mountain Home for breakfast. We arrived in Payette at about 9:30. The wedding was at 10:00 at Jason and Christi’s church. It was a short and simple ceremony but nice. Keaton and Chris had to "steal the show" by "ooohing" (as in yuck) when Jason and Christi first kissed as husband and wife. I’m glad everybody thought it was funny. They had a nice little reception following the marriage. Afterwards we went to Mom and Dad’s to eat and then headed back to Pocatello.

Emilee Elizabeth Clifford Johnston (as she introduces herself) is doing great. She and Kailey have been playing so well together lately. They of course still fight but not as much. They will play together for sometimes upto an hour with no problems. It is cute when Kailey tells Emilee what to say when they play house. Emilee usually will say exactly what Kailey tells her so I get to hear it twice. Elicia will play with them too from time to time. When Keaton tries to join in it usually doesn’t last as long. He has been such a tease lately!

Kailey is learning to write letters and spell words. She knows a few combinations of words like her name, Mom, Dad but throws together other letters in attempts to make words. I had to laugh when she gave Melissa a "letter" with several letters on the page but one recognizable word right smack dab in the middle, NUDE. It was funny explaining to Kailey that the one word she had not knowingly written meant naked.

Keaton has been hooked on Marvin Redpost books. They are easy reading chapter books. He just read what I wrote and informed me that they are not easy and that he is just a good reader :0) He’s read 6 since we went to the library on Tuesday. He’s read a lot but this is the first time that he’s been "hooked" on a chapter book series. Besides Pokemon. Elicia finds series she likes too. It’s a lot nicer when we go to the library and they already know what they want.

Elicia can be such a big help. As I type this she is getting the little girls ready for church. She has dressed them with shoes and everything and is now fixing their hair. She also gave them breakfast. I think I’ll need to do a few adjustments to their hair but over all they look all right. She is also doing a little bit more babysitting for us. If we are going to be close by and have our cel phones handy we are able to leave her for an hour or so. Last night she babysat the very longest, which was the little girls for a couple of hours. We started a movie for them and let them watch it in Mike’s and my bed. I was going to just be at a lady in our ward’s house (less then 5 minutes away) while Mike and Keaton went to a basketball game. Mike and I got home about the same time and everything was fine.

It’s now time for me to get ready for church and try to get Keaton on the ball. Apparently he doesn’t like Elicia "taking care" of him as she has done the little girls. Hope all is well. CONGRATS TO JASON AND CHRISTI !!! Hope you enjoyed the hockey game.

Love,

Shan (and family)

Feb 10, 02

Dear Family,

From reading Don and Alli’s letter, and then Troy and Pam’s, sounds like we’ve all had a similar type of sickness. Emilee has gotten it the worst out of us. All day Friday, Saturday and off and on Sunday, she was feverish, coughing and even throwing up. She complained about an earache and so I put garlic in her ears and she hasn’t complained since. Kailey has also been coughing and feverish but not quite as bad as Emilee. She still functions, Emilee just lies around or wants to be held. I think it is something that is going around because several children in our ward have it too.

Mike was gone to Boise this week from Tuesday until Friday for meetings. When he’s gone it gives me an excuse to have to stay home a little more. This week he is going to New Orleans for a Real Estate Convention. I hope to be able to do a lot of scrap booking while he’s gone. Unlike Pam, I am SOOOOO behind. I don’t like it when he has to be gone for such a long time but hopefully I’ll distract myself enough to make the time seem to go by quickly. Ever other week does, so why should this one be any different? :0)

Saturday Mike announced he would like to take his girls out on dates. So Saturday morning he began with a date with Kailey. He asked her where she would like to go and she said she really wanted to go to the "Rainbow Store". Meanwhile Elicia began to get ready for her date with Dad. I wonder if she’ll get just as excited when she begins to date boys. She wore a new dress, some of my jewelry and of course perfume. She couldn’t convince Mike to wear a suit though. After Mike and Kailey were gone for a short while, they returned so Mike could take Elicia out. They decided on Dairy Queen, which was a good choice since it was Customer Appreciation day and Blizzards were only $ .89. After Mike and Elicia returned I handed over a sick Emilee to Mike and left for Keaton on a date. We went to Jack in the Box and then after only a little begging on Keaton’s part, we went to DI. He hadn’t been thrilled with his toy in his kid meal and thought he’d have a better chance at DI where there are tons of recycled Fast Food Kid meal toys! Saturday night it was my turn to go out on a date with Mike. We had our adult ward party. With Emilee still sick I decided I’d either have to stay home or take her with us. I thought she would just sit on my lap the whole time since she had wanted to do that all day. But no, she wanted to run around and play the whole time. We did have a really good Taco Bar meal and then played Balderdash with Mike hosting. The group was separated into 7 teams to work together on answers. I kept score. It was fun to hear the silly answers people came up with. I love that game! Afterwards, Mike, Emilee and I went to Dairy Queen for Peanut Buster Parfaits. They were also .89. So good!!!

Yesterday (Sunday) I was released from my calling in the RS Presidency. I’ve known since I was put in that it wouldn’t be a long calling for me since the RS President had already been in for a couple years and was going on 3 years. I at this time do not have a calling besides being a visiting teacher. The Bishop says he wants to meet with me but wants Mike to be there too and with Mike gone last week and leaving this week to New Orleans the Bishop is putting it on hold and letting me have a "vacation". I’m not complaining :0) Our next door neighbor Radene Barker was put in as RS President. She will be wonderful. She is such a neat lady!

Well it is 1:22 am in the morning on Monday and I think I’ll get ready to go to bed. Mike is just about ready to leave for his Dad’s house. From there they will head for Salt Lake to fly to New Orleans. With the Olympics there in SLC they want to make sure that they get to the airport in good time. We hope all is well for each of you. As for me, I’m falling asleep. Take care!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

February 17, 2002

This week we were "fatherless’ for most of the week. Mike flew to a convention in New Orleans early Monday morning and didn’t return until late afternoon on Saturday. He was very thoughtful to send flowers on Valentines Day. He also called several times (as he does usually) to check up on us. He wasn’t too thrilled that Keaton had left several messages in a row on his phone within minutes while he was in a meeting. He left the meeting thinking that there might be some emergency (caller ID showing several calls coming from home). Keaton just wanted to know if Mike had some tape.

I had decided since Mike was gone I’d pull out my scrapbook "mess" and work on pages in the evenings. On Monday a friend of mine told me about a challenge she and some other friends had and wanted to have me join them. It was to do "28 pages" in the 28 days of February. I was able to get quite a bit done. I have 13 pages to do before I meet the goal.

Wednesday, Kailey had her Valentines Party at preschool. She was so excited to fill out her Blues Clues cards. She had them done a week early! I helped her by telling her how to spell the names but she did all the writing. I think it’s funny how she would run out of room and put the last letter or letters somewhere else on the card. She didn’t want to quit until they were all done. I remember Elicia doing hers for preschool several years ago and she could only handle doing a few at a time before being bored. I was impressed that Kailey really wanted to stick with it and finish them all. During Kailey’s "circus themed" Valentine Party, Emilee was invited to a Valentine Tea Party at Terese MacCabes. I stayed for the 1^st half hour before heading off to do visiting teaching. There were 4 little girls all together. They used Terese’s big sister’s tea set. Emilee drank about 20 cups of kool-aid in her little teacup. It was funny because the tea cup was so tiny she could drink a cupful in one or two swallows. They also frosted sugar cookies.

For Valentines Day, I left Emilee and Kailey with Alli and went to the school to help with Keaton’s Valentines Party. He wanted me to come so badly. I am glad Alli was able to help me with the little girls so I could. I prepared a "cake walk" game for the kids using candy bars for the reward instead of cakes. After I finished the game I thought I had better go and visit Elicia in her class so I did. When I got there she was sitting at her desk nearly in tears. She was so sad because one of the little girls had made half the class homemade cards and gave the other half store bought cards. Elicia didn’t get a homemade one. I gave her a hug and joked with her that at least the store bought one wasn’t a "teletubbie" card. She laughed and started to feel better. Thursday night Trevor watched a movie with the kids while Melissa and I went to play Volleyball. After playing for a little over an hour, we left and went shopping for Valentines for our husbands.

On Friday Shaylie and Connor came over while Alli went back to the doctor. She had found out that she does have Rheumatic Fever from complications from strep. The girls played dress up most of the time. It is Shaylie’s favorite thing to play. Every time she comes over she wants to wear the fancy blue dress in the girls’ dress up clothes. My girls love to play it too. Connor slept the first hour but then wanted to be held most of the rest of the time. A little bit before Don and Alli arrived he decided he wanted to get down and throw things. I think it is so funny that everything you give him he throws. He’s bound to be a ballplayer someday.

Today we talked in Sacrament Meeting. Our topic was on family scripture study. Emilee was the only one excluded but we were proud of her for sitting so nicely with Don and Alli. During the sacrament Kailey very seriously asked me a question. After the bread was passed, she asked me why they give us so little to eat. I think sometimes we assume our children just know things. I explained the sacrament to her a little but think we’ll need to do a better job in a family home evening. That way all of our kids are reminded of the meaning of the sacrament. Kailey gave a talk on Ester from the Old Testament. I whispered the words to her and she repeated what I said. Except I did not tell her to say, "Her was so kind and beautiful". I’m sure people wondered though because I was up there whispering in her ear. Keaton spoke on learning about the scriptures through music. He told of different primary songs, for example "Follow the Prophet", that teach us stories from the scriptures. Following his talk he sang a solo "We’ll Bring the World His Truth" , also know as "The Army of Helaman". He did such a good job. I had a hard time playing the piano because I was so moved by it. Following Keaton, Elicia spoke. She prepared her talk herself and spoke about Abinadi. She didn’t use a paper and spoke in her own words. Even though she was nervous I thought she did an incredible job. When it was my turn, I spoke of different ways to make scripture study a habit in our homes. It has become a habit for us and a blessing in our lives. Mike spoke on ways to make reading the scriptures enjoyable. I was very proud of everyone for doing so well and relieved to have it over with.

This evening Don and Alli came over with dinner (we take turns). After eating we played some cards and around 7:30 Ryan and Susan showed up. They joined us playing cards. We had a good time visiting and eating throughout the night. We called Jason and Christi and had them on speakerphone telling us about their honeymoon. It was fun to hear from them. Ryan, Susan, Don and Alli left around 10:00. Trevor and Melissa are out of town staying at her family’s Cabin.

We are enjoying a long weekend. The kids didn’t have school on Friday and don’t have school tomorrow. The forecast calls for snow so they are hoping they’ll even get more time off. I think by Tuesday I’ll be ready for them to go back to school :o) We hope Troy and Pam’s family can get themselves completely healthy and stay that way for more than a day. We’ve had our share of sickness this year and we’re glad this past week nobody was sick. We also hope Alli will hang in there with her sickness and all will go well for her. Take care everyone!

Love ya,

Shan (and family)

Feb 24, 02

Dear Family,

Another week has gone by. The weather has been warming up and given us a little spring fever. We still have snow, dirty snow but lots of grass patches too. As much as I love the snow I am anxious for this dirty stuff to be gone and for the kids to have fun playing outside. Elicia and Keaton both received bikes for Christmas that haven’t even been put together yet. We keep promising them that as soon as the snow goes away we’ll put them together.

This week has been a fairly normal week, school, work, home etc. The kids did have "fund raiser fever". I know it’s a worth cause (for their school), but it drives me crazy! Both Elicia and Keaton came home from school on Thursday briefly and then were out the doors trying to sell chocolate around the neighborhood. Several other children were doing the same. Both Keaton and Elicia have had "stars in their eyes" thinking they are going to sell $700 a piece worth of chocolate so they can win a little robot thingy. Mike thinks I should have a better attitude and not spoil their "hope". I just don’t think it’s possible and even though I LOVE chocolate I’m not going to be the one to buy $1400 worth of it so they can get their prizes. Any volunteers? Anyway, maybe I should just have a little better attitude.

Friday night, we watched Shaylie and Connor for Don and Alli to go to the temple for their ward temple night. Shaylie, Kailey and Emilee played very well together. They didn’t fight the whole time! We took turns holding Connor. He had a new tooth popping up which made him not to excited to be without his Mom and Dad. He couldn’t make up his mind who he’d rather be with so he went back and forth with us. Greg and Jeff came over with their dates and we played games with them. Connor decided he liked being with Jeff. He also liked being on the table. We had fun playing games. Melissa was able to get Connor to sleep a few minutes before Don and Alli got back. They said they had a good time and we were glad they were able to go.

Saturday morning we took our turn at cleaning the church. Trevor and Melissa helped along with a couple other families in our ward. IT went quickly since there were a lot of us. Mike used a vacuum and vacuumed the chapel. Elicia and Kailey dumped garbage and Keaton helped me a little with washing the glass doors. I enjoy the work. It’s sort of like service but at the same time it’s being responsible for what is partially our own mess too. Anyway it’s good for us.

We have been watching the Olympics throughout the last few weeks and enjoying the different events. I think figure skating has always been my favorite but I also enjoy most of the other events. Yesterday we went to Park City and to Salt Lake for a little bit of the "Olympic Experience" . We didn’t go to any events but just walked around and looked. First we went to Park City. We could see from the parking lot where we parked our car where some of the events were taking place. We got on a bus and road into downtown Park City (there wasn’t public parking available in town.) There was lots of free entertainment to see. There was a garbage can drummer group from Coca Cola. They drummed away while the big Coca Cola Polar Bear danced. It was fun to watch. The bear gave Kailey a big hug. The kids also loved seeing a clown make them balloon gifts. Kailey and Emilee received poodles, Elicia a flower and Keaton a sword. There were also a lot of advertisers from different companies handing out free stuff. We were given hand warmers from Sears, toy monsters from Monsters.com and energy bars from another company. After awhile we got back on a bus and made our way to our van. We had to walk across a very muddy parking lot to get to the van. Our pants were all splattered with mud besides our shoes being muddy. I did the best I could in a patch of snow wiping everyone’s shoes off. We left for Salt Lake. Once getting there, as expected, it was quite crowded. We spent quite awhile finding a parking spot and just as we found one, Emilee threw up. Her coat and pants were mess and there was no way that we could clean her up well enough to have her stay in those clothes. We had friends that had told us to bring snow clothes for the kids and so even though it had been forecasted to be in the 50’s (which it was) we had brought all sorts of stuff. We took off Emilee’s pants and coat and put on her snow pants and jacket. She might have looked a little funny but it worked. We walked around temple square (lots of lights) and enjoyed the visiting center. We then walked around the Olympic square. It was quite a lot of walking to do and we were very hungry and tired by the time we made our way back to the van. On our way home we ate at Golden Corral. I think it is kind of funny the things the kids look forward to eating. Emilee in the van before getting there kept saying she wanted salad and ice-cream. Keaton couldn’t wait for the jello.

Today we have our ward conference. IT’s going to be a little different then usual. We will all meet together for 2 hours and then go home the final hour and meet with our families. Hopefully we can keep everyone happy for 2 hours. We told our kids we would watch our new video "Legacy" after church. IT’s about time to get going so I’d better bring this to a close. Hope all is well for everyone!

Love,

Shan (and family)

March 3, 02

Dear Family,

We just got back from Nyssa and boy do I have a case of spring fever! The weather was SO nice there. I’m getting really anxious for our dirty and old snow to go away.

Monday night Elicia took her turn to make treats for FHE. I decided to just let her do it without my help. She decided to make waffle cookies. I went downstairs to fold laundry while she worked in the kitchen. After awhile Trevor and Melissa came home and asked if I had been upstairs. They thought that perhaps it would be a good idea if I didn’t go up quite yet. When I finally did go up, I was greeted with a HUGE mess. I still don’t know how there could be such a big mess without it being made on purpose. Elicia blamed most of it on Kailey. I had Elicia help clean up but did quite a bit of the clean up myself. The cookies were "different" but tasted alright.

Tuesday night we were able to go to the temple. Alli babysat for us and Trevor and Melissa went with us. After our session we went over to visit with Suzie and Brandon for a few minutes. They have done a lot of neat things in their home. They recently finished the walls in their basement and are getting ready to have carpet put down. It’s going to look really nice.

Emilee is addicted to ABC videos. I’m glad because it’s an easy way to teach her the letters and their sounds. I try to get Kailey to watch the videos with her, but Kailey claims they are for babies. They are actually video’s that the school gave Keaton when he was in kindergarten and it was recommended that the kindergartners watch the videos a few times/week. Kailey does like to write letters though and is constantly writing letters on papers and asking me what it says.

Kailey was invited to a Princess Birthday Party this past week. She was so excited planning on what to wear. We let her wear a fancy dress up dress and put curlers in her hair to make it curly. I also put make up on her and painted her nails. She told me she wanted to have a Princess party too. She has been planning a big party since her last party. She invites anybody and everybody. I don’t know for sure what we’ll do for her birthday but at least we have a couple more months.

I finished my 28 pages for 28 days of scrap booking, barely. I found out that the friend of mine that gave me the challenge along with the others in the group didn’t finish theirs. They said they were starting another challenge though for March, 31 pages in 31 days. I might do it again because it’s a good way to get me caught up. Will that ever happen? I doubt it :0) It’s fun trying though. I love to scrapbook; just don’t like the mess and what happens to the rest of the house while I do it.

Friday night Mike had a meeting in Boise. Since we were already planning on going that direction for Chris’ baptism on Saturday we decided to go and stay with Mike in the hotel. While he was at his meeting we ate at Carls JR and then went swimming in the hotel pool. The kids loved playing in the water. It made me anxious for summer when we can go swimming on a regular basis again. Emilee was more fearful of the water than I ever remember. I took turns walking/running/swimming across the pool with them while racing Keaton while he swam. After swimming for an hour we went back to our room and watched some TV before going to bed. When Mike joined us a little later, bringing with him different types of deserts.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at buffet in our hotel. Afterwards we did some shopping. The baptism wasn’t until 4:00 so after eating lunch at the cheese factory in Nampa we decided to visit with Mike’s cousin Lori and her family who live in Nampa. It was fun to visit them but we kind of lost track of time and also had several little incidents keep us from getting away for the baptism soon enough. U