Sunday, November 30, 2008

Please add your Thanksgiving Pictures

my first attempt

OK everyone please be forgiving of the amatuer posting of our Thanksgiving at the Craven's. This takes more time than I have at the moment to figure out how to insert the pics as I go and they are out of order too but I need to get ready for church and so my first attempt at this will have to do. --Shirlene

Thanksgiving at the Craven's









Thanks Kent & Caroline for hosting Thanksgiving for many of us. It was so fun to be together! The company, food and setting was all perfect. We all enjoyed the comfort of the Craven's beautiful home. We missed Gene's family, Shyla, Lani, Darci families, Janice's family, April--not fun to spend thanksgiving home peuking your guts up, Tawnya's family, Lanell's family and Shellie's family although we did get to hang out with Shellie and kids on Friday and Saturday morning.


It was a great time. Some of us brave (or crazy) ones stayed up till the wee hours (2:30 A.M) the first night playing Apples to Apples and we witnessed Dad (grandpa Mc) laughing so hard he could't talk. Dont know if I've ever seen dad laugh that hard. It was contageous just watching him!
The next night some of the die-hards stayed up late again sitting around the table exploring chinese medicine and the mysteries of face-reading completed with Challis's 'flapper' or 'flipper' revealed. Not sure what those single tooth things are called.
All in all, it was so much fun. the adults talking fast as we could to catch up and the kids playing as hard as they could to squeeze the most out of every moment. It's such a jpy to be together and see all the kids enjoy being together.
Thanks again Kent & Caroline and family; I know you all put in a lot of extra hours getting your house ready for all of us. Thanks too to the Craven kids for giving up your beds!

Friday, November 14, 2008

A Post By Kara...Finally!

It's taken me months to begin posting on this blog. SORRY!!! I have a blog of my own and I guess I get too consumed in it. Although, I have trouble blogging on that one regularly as well. I've just been busy but today I am home sick from work with a bad, yucky cold. I will give an update of Levi and I.....

Levi is still loving the Idaho Falls Fire Department! He never complains about going to work...he is so happy there. He works 24 hour shifts, for a week example (and this changes week to week too on when his days on shift land): Sunday 24 hours, Monday Off, Tuesday 24 hours, Wednesday Off, Thursday 24 hours, Friday Off, Saturday Off, Sunday Off, Monday Off...and then the three days start again on Tuesday. It is hard after he goes back to work after those 4 days off because we really miss each other. I know...gooey! After 5pm at the fire department, family members can come visit so I usually visit him maybe once every other week when he's working. And besides, I just love seeing him in his uniform...shhhhh. He started at Station #1, the downtown station, and he is now working at Station #4, off Sunnyside and Woodruff. 
I am still working full-time for the State of Idaho. And enjoying that as much as a person can....it does have it's stressful moments. I am a social worker for Health & Welfare and dealing with interesting AND sometimes crazy people and the joys (yeah right) of having to put children in foster care :(

Our dogs Bronco and Wrangler and our jobs pretty much consume our lives right now but our BIG NEWS is Levi and I are expecting our first child in April! I had a pretty easy first trimester, mostly just nausea and tired, more like exhaustion, a lot, I never threw up once though. In three weeks we find out what "IT" is! Somedays I feel like it's a boy and somedays I feel like it's a girl. We really don't care what it is...we'll be excited for either! I know Levi is really hoping for a boy the most :) This is a picture of the baby at 13 weeks.


Levi went to Boston with Mac and Tanner in October to see the Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots. It was a bad game because the Broncos lost :( They still had a blast though sight-seeing and just hanging out in Boston for a long weekend.

We are excited for the upcoming holidays and to see family. For Thanksgiving, we will be spending it with my parents and family in Farmington, Utah at my aunt Valerie's house. And Christmas, we will be at home Idaho Falls with McAffee's. 





Friday, November 7, 2008

Nicki and Mom take a whack at Blogging!

Okay, Nicki is determined that I learn to blog. This is quite distressing to me as I only learned a couple of weeks ago how to send an email to multiple people at one time. So my part in this learning curve was watching Nicki do all the work. When we (she) were (was) finished, I told her I would type something to add my hand to the effort.

As most of you know, our luck wasn't the best this past summer. Our efforts to attend the family reunion landed us only as far as Winnemucca, NV. What more can I say about that :( Then the last week of July our basement flooded and we spent the next 6 weeks doing repairs. It was a long process, with our entire basement moved into the garage, Nicki bunking with Trevor and Regan with Kenna. That was a long 6 weeks, especially when the repair guys would come to the house, do one thing and then leave for two or three days. But all in all, it wasn't too bad. The kids didn't complain too much, infact, when it was time for the girls to move back downstairs, Trevor and Kenna were kind of sad to see them go. We were pretty lucky, as no damage was done to any of our furniture and I got new carpet and paint out of the deal. So not the best of luck, but things in both situations could have been so much worse.

We are all doing great. Kent is having a bit of a mid-life crisis turning 50. I keep telling him he's only one day older, not a whole year. Get over it! I've been doing some foot zoning and loving it. Wishing I had kept with if the past 7 years. I would by now be the best foot-zoner ever. I took some classes and learned face-zoning too. It's pretty cool.

Nicki is working at a retirement center, and despite the physical abuse she tolerates on a daily basis, she loves working with the people there and always has a happy story to tell about someone cute. Serving the elderly has only increased her ablilty to love them, and they love her right back.

Regan is a Senior in high school this year. Hard to believe she is on her way out of the house. She is as anxious as ever to finish high school. Her plans are to take a year off, be a nanny to earn some money for college, get her degree as a teacher, and one day marry Kevin Jonas.

Kenna (8th grade) is on the gymnastics team this year and loves it. We spend many a Saturday getting up at the crack of dawn to get her some place south for a competition. She practices about 6 hours a week, and would do more if she could. She hates piano as much as she loves gymnastics and only practices under the utmost duress.

Trevor (4th grade) loves school, is playing Jr. Mustang basketball, decided to join the orchestra at school (playing the viola), tolerates piano, and loves to spend time with Kent. He loves Discovery Channel and the History Channel and can tell you anything you need to know about everything (just ask him, he knows it all). We love them all.

Nicki is home from school this semester. We're so happy to have her, she is the light of our lives! (-Nicki)















Turnips Anyone? We grow 'em big here in Ut.
















With our house flooding, Mom got way into the remodeling and decided to take it to a whole new level- the upstairs. Dad is in the process of tearing out this wall, the goal is to have it done and lovely by Thanksgiving. We're holding our breath...















Dad turned 50!!!! Birthday Celebration at Chili's. After a nice family celebration dinner, we went to a Japanese Tiako Drum performance, complete with a traditional bare-bummed dummer- Kenna loved it ;)















The Kids. We love Dad- Happy Birthday old man! We have a tradition, on birthday's everyone goes around the table and says one thing they love about the birthday person. Needless to say, we all had so many wonderful things to say about our Dad. He is the best and we are so blessed. After everyone finished Dad said, "I have one thing to add. You guys should all love me because I relentlessly chased after your Mom for three years before she agreed to marry me. You guys wouldn't even be here had I not been so persistant!". Thanks Dad! Your persistance paid off. Love you!





Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween Happenings

Kara dressed up as a dirty laundry basket. Uncle Sam... Uncle Mac
Tanner the PIMP, Uncle Sam, Aunt Debbie




Little Boy Blue (Nick), Little Bo Peep (Ash), and their little lamby (Hallie)


Taunya and John




Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Haloween. Email pictures if you have more!! We would love to see them. I hope at some point I am not the only one posting on this blog. The idea is for everyone to post as things happen!!!