12.27.15

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I talked to or saw pictures of almost everyone's skype pictures. How was talking to home?

We had a great Christmas starting on Christmas eve by going to my mom's house. It was the first year in quite a few that all my siblings were there. Even though we are close(ish) in proximity, the 4 of us don't get together that often. My mom was in heaven!

Christmas morning we had the Virgo family and our 3 missionaries over for brunch. We had a fun time with them! 

It helped having people over to make me not so sad with out Melissa and Chaz here. I missed them a lot! Thankfully for modern technology we got to skype her a few times over the weekend. At my mom's, Aurora facetimed her a few times and proudly took them around to talk to everyone and Keagan held her up to be in the grandkids picture!

One of the many things I love about this time of the year is seeing all the families gathered home for the holidays. And we got to hear Josh williamson talk today. (of course he did such a good job!) And see Isabella's baby be blessed by Luis Hernandez. (sp?) 

I have sent out all your cards, so if you haven't received it, look for it soon!

Pictures 

*Our Christmas tree

*One of my favorite ornaments. I love nativities! I have several and several ornaments.

*My siblings. Cindy (Auroras mom), Adam, Eric, and me. I'm the oldest, then Eric, Cindy, and Adam.

*The grandkids..Keagan is holding Melissa up for the picture.

*us at Tumwater Falls. It has been raining so much lately that is a little crazy, but not as bad as it was earlier when it was overflowing the fence and banks!

* our missionaries with the stockings we gave them. 

* Melissa and Chazs cute picture of their first Christmas they posted.

* and my siblings with my mom

And a Christmas card that I originally made, but it didn't work for the Costco format. Darn it!

Love you all!

Sis shoop

12.20.15

Merry Christmas! Christmas cards are on the way. A couple of you I still need addresses for, sorry if they're late! But I was thinking if all of you! I'm excited to hear about your skyping home next week.

I love this time of the year! All the fun parties, lights, movies, and people thinking about the Savior.

It's been a fun few days. We got to have the missionaries over yesterday. They are a fun group. They've heard how much I love the missionaries and they're trying to become my favorites. Haha! We get them over for a little bit Christmas morning. I'm excited! 

We're also having the Virgo family over. They have a 3year old son, Chuck and 5 year old girl Layla. I've had both in my preschool and Keagan babysits them, so it will be fun!

This will be Melissa's first Christmas away from home. Im trying to not be too sad... I sure missed her today at church! The best Sunday of the year! The music was beautiful. I recorded a few seconds of the prelude music before church started. I hope you can hear it.

12.13.15

My newer phone was acting up. So luckily I didn't get rid of my old one yet and most of my addresses are on this one.

I can't really remember much from this week.  

We took Keagan and a girl from oly 1 on a date (Amanda) before the stake formal dance.They went to this really fun and yummy restaurant in Chehalis called the quesadilla factory. You get to choose your tortilla and all your fillings. It has air hockey tables, pool table, basketball,  and arcade games. All the fun things! Then we drove them to the dance in Chehalis.  They were fun to listen to their chatter.

 It still seems strange to me that he is dating and Melissa is married! 

All my memories on Facebook the last couple of days have been melissa and her friends going to the formal stake dance. 

Keagan started working this week at the clothes store- Marshalls.  He likes it. Mostly he likes the paycheck!  :) Bro. Shoop works there one night a week too.

It has been crazy rainy here. Super big downpours, even massive thunder and lighting! There has been flooding in all the normal places and several road closures. I 5 was eve n closed for a day near Vancouver wa because of a mudslide! 

This week will be fun. We are celebrating Christmas in preschool.  Our ward Christmas party is Friday night and then next week starts winter break! 

Love you all!

Sister shoop

Keagan getting ready for the formal dance.

And 3 pics from 5 years ago of winter formal.

12.6.15 round 2 in Utah

This was an awesome weekend! With not a lot of sleep..

We started off leaving Thursday afternoon to drive to Portland. It was cheaper to fly out of there and stay in a hotel than fly out of seatac. We had to get up at 445 to get started.

We drove to Ogden to visit the Ericksons in their new house. It was a great visit! Ray really misses old bishop.

One of the best parts of my weekend was seeing my "old" friends. Leslie Oliver and I acted like teenagers for a few days before, sending each other crazy texts and pictures. I can't believe she drove all night to come see us (Melissa).

We stayed with Bro. Shoops friends that moved to utah from Penn. Their house us huge and amazing! They are so nice, too!

They live in Orem.

We spent some time with the Oliver clan. I hadn't seen Hayden in probably 3 years. It was so fun.

Now her open house was in this cute old house. And then we got to see so many great friends! And several of my rms! Kearney, Green, Cichoski, and Muir. I seriously felt like I was in heaven! I think that is what heaven will feel like! Getting to see and hug people that you love and maybe haven't seen in a while. I can't wait for the real pictures to come back, but for now, here are some of my cell phone pics.

Merla coleman was there, too!

Lacey 2 kids at one time or another..

Keagan, landon oliver, shane rackham, stephanie rackham, katelynd bean (guinto), melissa and regan oliver.

Back row caleb woodbury, hayden oliver, josh williamson.

And I got to meet josh and green's girlfriends!

#blessed

Riding the plane on the way home now.

Love you all!

Sis shoop