Here are a few things that we have been up to...

Shawn and I have just been waking up, going to school/work, hanging out, and going to bed. Nothing to exciting going on, just living and loving life.
Shawn started another semester of school and he is doing well and he is also a TA for Chem 106, he has 75 students that he teaches once a week and has loved it. He is also taking a Pre-Dental class right now and just finished carving his first tooth (the teacher said that he did the best one in the class....I am oh-so proud at my husbands tooth carving skills)! He has also went out and skied a few times with Brock, it makes me so happy that Brock and Shawn have become such good friends.
As for me, I have been working each day and still really enjoying my job. I have also been working on some fun craft projects and watching the new season of LOST (for all those who know me know that LOST is way above my geeky Si-fi level but I have to admit that I love it!)
Here are some of my scrapbook pages that have been keeping me busy while Shawn reads, studies, and prepares for his chem 106 class. Shawn and Brock before a ski trip to Park City.

Shawn getting all of ski stuff on and ready to go skiing at Sundance for the day!

And Shawn getting a fire ready for the evening, we have a heater, but I love having a fire going in the winter time!

First day of winter semester

Shawn just started a new semester of school, so I had to put up a picture of my handsome man right before he walked out the door for his first day of Winter Semester 2009!

We love Brocky!

We have loved having my little brother, Brock, living here in Provo with us, we have seen him a few times a week since he has been out here. It has been fun helping him move into his new apartment, buy his books, get to know Provo and BYU campus and to feed him. He will look at the menu I will have planned on for the week and let me know which days he will stop by for dinner. It has also been fun for Shawn to have Brock around, they have become fast friends and enjoyed spending time together. Just yesterday Shawn came home from school/work and said he had called to invite Brock over and told him that I would make him a special dinner (this was a 5 and Brock was coming over at 6). But we don't mind feeding him. We truly have loved getting to spend time with Brocky and helping him start his first years as a college man!
Here is Brock and Shawn 2 weeks ago when they left me and went skiing for the day!!!

Family Pictures

Here are a few cute family pictures that we got taken back in November by Bethany, I finally downloaded the pictures on to my computer so I thought I would add a few to my blog.

Here are all of the Boys!

This picture is one of my favorites....everyone beating up on Kyle (the story of his life) my favorite is Shawn's facial expression.

Dont worry they were not really trying to hurt him.

My mom and dad with Jared

Family picture...it was a sunny day

Shawn and I





A cute one of Jared and Amy

Family picture

Kyle and Brock

Kyle

Brock

And my parents

Thanks again Bethany for taking our pictures.

Christmas in Oregon

So, our Christmas break really started back on December 13th with a week long stay in the beautiful and warm tropics of Hawaii...then we took an over night flight home and we got stuck and could not fly into the Portland Airport because of all of the snow and ice that they were constantly getting in Oregon. With all of our flights canceled from Salt Lake to Portland and the next flight out of Friday (the day after Christmas). Blake and Savannah called us up and proposed the option to drive....so we took it and left Monday night at 8 pm. We arrived home after a long, snowy, and scary drive on Tuesday morning at 9 am.
We were all so happy to be home together. This was our families first year to have everyone together in over 7 years...we have had a missonary out for over 7 years straight...and now we were finally all home together again.
Blake and Shawn got the old snowmobiles running and spent the rest of the day riding around the farm, i finally found them so I could go on a ride too and I went with Shawn and he tipped us both off the snowmobile-I was not very happy! Tuesday night we met up at the church with all of our cousins and aunts and uncles and made gingerbread houses while the bigger boys all played basketball.
This is me with cute little, Charlie, the youngest of all the Nelson cousins and he is the cutest and sweetest baby ever, I spent the rest of the trip holding and playing with him.

Here is everyone making their gingerbread houses...

Shawn, Brock, Brandalyn, and Kyle after playing some basketball

We have a family tradition of opening up a pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve, this year we all went into Jareds room and piled up all the presents on him and then we opened them all. The girls got fun pajama sets and the boys all got NIKE shorts to sleep in.

Everyone in Jared's room after opening up our PJs.

Christmas morning...we all woke up and sat by our piles of presents and then opened them up one by one in order from youngest to oldest. from my parents/Santa Shawn got some new clothes, a ski helmet, a racquetball racket and balls, church shoes, I Tunes card, and a pistol and bullets. I got some clothes, some kitchen stuff, black shoes, scrapbook stuff, and a Tiffanys bracelet from my dad. And together Shawn and I got a church book about strengthening marriage and a new little video camera also from my parents. I am excited about our new video camera, it will be fun to use and to make family videos with-now we just have to learn how to use it.

Blake and Savannah in their matching North Face jackets.

Here is Kyle trying to set up one of Jared's new toys

Blake and my dad making the Nelson family breakfast tradition of aebleskie (which are little pancake balls that are dipped in butter and sugar-so yummy! On Christmas morning all of the cousins and aunts and uncles and my grandparents come over for this yummy danish breakfast and for the cousin gift exchange.

Shawn and Brock playing pool downstairs

Everyone loves helping Jared play with his new toys, he always gets lots of fun ones at Christmas

Shawn was telling me about a Platt family tradition of eating a grapefruit on Christmas morning, so we made sure and got him one to eat before he ate the aebleskives bacon, and nation eggs with us.....we are just trying to mesh our family traditions.

The day after Christmas we again got together with our cousins, and aunts and uncles and went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes and then spent the evening bowling. We all had such a good time! Shawn got 2nd place out of everyone.

Here is Brandalyn and Brocky at the bowling ally.

Shawn and I

Bridger, Max, and Shawn

And my dad helping Jared bowl...he did awesome! They have this cool bowling thing that comes right up to his wheelchair and he then gets to push the ball down alittle ramp thing and right down the ally.

We had such a great time in Oregon over Christmas, but of course the time went much to quickly. We loved having all of the snow and yummy food and quality time spent with all of the family. Thanks for another great trip home to Oregon!!!

The trip of a lifetime!

So, I have been working on this Hawaii APX trip since June, and the time finally came to head out. So, APX takes their executives, regional managers, and regional techs and their spouses on a week long trip to Hawaii, Shawn and I had to fabulous opportunity to go as well since I have been working many many hours putting this all together and since I was going to be there to help everyone out and to help make their Hawaii experience great. This year we went to the Grand Wialea in Maui. This place was huge and beautiful and absolutely the most amazing place I have ever been to. I flew out on Saturday the 13th of December and then Shawn came out a few days later on the 17th after he finished his finals. I still worked alittle and helped people out while we were all in Hawaii (but still so worth it) but we also had plenty of time to relax, swim, and have fun with everyone there.
We had a huge beautiful room with a fantastic view of the resort and all of the pools and the beach. We had a breakfast buffet each morning with yummy omelets, and french toast, and fresh fruit and then we would go out and relax all day outside, hanging at the beach, swimming in the pool, and lounging in the cabanas.
Each night we got together with different APX groups for yummy dinners of steaks and seafood. This trip was so great, we are so grateful for the chance we had to go and live the "good life" for a few days and for the opportunity to get to know so many fellow APX friends and their spouses.

The Grand Wialea has one of the top spas in the the US, we got some certificates to go get some spa treatments, so I booked a couples massage for Shawn and I (without him knowing) he did not want to go, but I surprised him with is...and he actually did love it. Here is Shawn and I out on the Spa balcony waiting for our massages And Shawn looking so handsom with his lemon water, robe, and spa sandals.

Shawn at the beach

And yet another picture of Shawn, this time playing volleyball with the rest of the APX guys, they played volleyball eveyday.

Here are some views of the Grand Wailea, our absolutely amazing hotel!
This is the view once you pass though the entry way of the hotel, everything is open and outside and there are trees and water everywhere.

Here is the view once you walk right outside of the hotel to the beach side, so beautiful.
Here is the view from our hotel room, right off of our balcony. We were so close to the beach, it was so great hearing the waves crash all day and night long.

There were waterfalls and waterways all over the resorts grounds with trees and plants everywhere. If any of you have ever seen the Shawn John & Kate +8, then you know that the Grand Wailea is were they just went with their family and renewed their vows (I love that show!)

Here we are right outside on our room balcony...it was an amazing view. There was lots of pool volleyball, you might not be able to tell but Shawn is standing far right on the closest side of the net. The APX guys ruled the pool volleyball, they were not that welcoming to others that wanted to join in.

Shawn and I going down the rapid slide. This hotel was incredible, there were probably 10 different pools all connected with slides, and little rivers and waterways, it was so fun, it even had the only water elevator in the whole world! Shawn and I just spent a day playing in all of the different pools and going down all of the slides and pretending that we were little kids again.

And Shawn got his favorite (dippin dots) everyday at the poolside restaurant, the food was all so yummy. We got free lunch everyday at the pool cabanas which always had fresh fruit and pineapple...I ate so much of the pineapple that I got sick my last few days.

Here we are at our private little beach, it was so nice and the water warm. Shawn went out on the kayak one day with a couple other guys from APX and then Shawn and I went out snorkeling one day too.

And then we had to get ready and go home. Here I am with my backpack ready to head out to the airport. Before I went I had to make sure that everything was taken care of between us and the hotel.

Shawn with our luggage, waiting to head out and take a long flight home.

What an amazing opportunity we had to go to Maui for a week with everyone from APX, although I stayed busy working; Shawn and I had the times of our lives. This is defiantly a trip we will never forget!

Thank You APX for a wonderful week in Hawaii!