Just Us!

Pictures with Santa from the ward party

2011-12-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

Santa and his cute little elf!

Santa and Mrs Claus

Christmas Eve dinner!

2011-12-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve we had shrimp, chips and dips, crackers and cheese. Just our small family of three. We played games and watched Christmas movies. Earlier in the day we went to see the movie "The Adventures of Tintin" and finished up our Christmas shopping.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.......

2011-12-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas lights on the patio.

Tree to put presents under.

Our after Christmas, on sale at Lowe's Christmas trees

Thanksgiving for 3

2011-12-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

Turkey breast on the BBQ!

The Thanksgiving day table!

Mike's yummy plate!

Look out.....I am in the baking mood!!

2011-11-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Fall is in the air. Holidays are almost here. Time to bake some yummy treats! Here are a few things I made today. Sundays afternoons are the best for baking!

Pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting dipped in turbinado sugar!

Maple BACON cupcakes!

Pumpkin choc chip cookies with a little sugar sprinkled on top!

Young Women In Excellence

2011-11-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

Sweet Shellie and her Personal Progress items she displayed for Young Women In Excellence night. She had her quilt and her cookbook binder. She is a beautiful young woman. She is on track to earn her medalion next spring just before she turns 16. We are very proud of her!

Stake Service Project

2011-11-11T16:53:00.000-08:00

Shellie and Julie volunteered for the El Dorado Stake service project on Saturday 11/5. They pulled weeds and cleaned the grounds around the south entrance of the Veterans Memorial Cemetary in Boulder City. Very hard but rewarding. The place looked amazing after all the volunteers left 3+ hours later.

Dixie is funny!

2011-10-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Shellie got her 1st letter from Cody!!

2011-10-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

Shellie has been waiting and hoping she would get her own letter from her big brother. And she did!!!

My 40th Birthday

2011-10-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Waiting for The Lion King to start.

Birthday Dinner!

What a great Birthday! It started on Friday at work and last all weekend. Friday morning was not so great since I backed into Mike's truck. But it got better at work. We had great food and fun!
Saturday morning Mike took me to The Coffee Cup Cafe in Boulder City that we had recently seen on Diners Drive Ins and Dives. It was yummy! Later Mike took all 3 of us girls to see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. It was so good! Then we ended the night at BJ's for appetizers and desserts-my favorite kind of meal!! I was missing my Cody all day but when I got home I had a card from him waiting for me. It was wonderful. It made my birthday complete. Thanks to my family and friends, I had a great 40th birthday!

Cody's Mission Blog

2011-10-13T23:10:00.001-07:00

eldercodygronning.blogspot.com

Cody is in the MTC now!

2011-10-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying dropping Cody off at the MTC was absolutely the hardest most emotional thing I have ever done. I am so glad I only had one son because I seriously do not know how I could ever do that again. It was raining all that day and it felt like it was raining inside the truck on the way home too! Melissa rode up with us and she was sick with the flu poor girl. But she was a trooper and was there to support Cody. She is awesome!
We got our first email Monday and it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of me. My cute son was doing great and having a good time. So relieved! Even though I expected nothing less, I still needed to hear from him to be sure. What a special young man he is. We are so blessed to be given such a choice son of God to be part of our family. Cody is a wonderful example to us!
Here are a few of the pictures he sent us from the MTC:

I Hope The Call Me On A Mission-Cody's Farewell

2011-10-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Cody got his mission call the first of July and opened it while on Skype with everyone. Washington DC South here he comes!! He reports to the Provo MTC on October 5th, He will fly to DC on October 26. We are so excited!! His soon to be mission President & wife keep a cute blog- www.armiesofhelaman2.blogspot.com. Check it out-Cody will be on it soon!

Shellie survived pioneer trek!

2011-06-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Shellie had a wonderful, spiritual time at the Pioneer Trek in Kolob. She walked 3.5-5 miles each day pushing a handcart with her family the Dow Dots(Depending On The Savior). She did not die or get hurt so that is good! Shellie spoke in church today with other youth and did a terrific job. We are so glad to have her home. Can't wait till those blisters heal up!

Morning she left for Trek-all clean and excited!

Back from trek-dirty!

Dixie missed Shellie too!

Dirty Nasty Sore Feet!

That blister has to hurt!

Happy Father's Day to Mike!

2011-06-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

The BEST father in the world!!

Where in the world will Elder Cody Gronning go?

2011-06-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

Cody met with our stake president tonight for his final interview for his mission. President Petersen got everything ready and let Cody hit the last SUBMIT button. Then he refreshed the page and it showed SUBMITTED TO THE MISSION OFFICE. Yahoo!! Cody will get his official mission call in 2-3 weeks. Where in the world do you think Elder Gronning will go?

Cody submitted his mission papers online today!!!

2011-05-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

2 More Value Projects done!!

2011-05-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Shellie has completed 5 of the 8 required Value projects in her Personal Progress Book. By this time next year she should be done and will earn her Young Women's medallion. We are so proud of her progress!

Knowledge Project-Shellie learned how to sew a quilt. Completed 4-20-11

Divine Nature Project-Made a cookbook binder she can add to and use for her own family someday.

Typed up & printed over 100 recipes. Laminated each page. Covered the binder. Completed 5-15-11

My kids are so cute!!

2011-05-19T22:24:00.001-07:00

Shellie's 15th Birthday Pool Party

2011-05-15T14:31:00.001-07:00

Birthday Flip Flops!!!

Hot Tub April 2011

2011-05-15T14:24:00.001-07:00

Josh, Kinna, Julie & Mike

Baja Mexico 3 night cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada April 8-10th

2011-04-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

At home-ready to drive to CA!

First Evening on Cruise

Still at Port in Long Beach

Little Windy & Cold!

1st night at dinner

Yummy Hot Chocolate!

Melissa likes Hot Chocolate too!

Ensenada in the back ground

Beef(maybe) Tacos!

Frozen Yogurt-cleanest place in town!

Making Shellie's bracelet

Spent at least 30 minutes looking
at rings but no one bought any!!

Mcdonalds-cleanest free bathrooms
in Ensenada!

Breakfast!

Breakfast time!

Does he look like a real captain?

We had little bit of sunshine!

BINGO!!

Go SODA SPRINGS CARDINALS!!

2011-03-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

Mike and I had fun last weekend at the State basketball games in Boise. It was great to be there to support Mat and Greg as they coached the boys. The boys lost the 2 games I was there to see. Hope I wasn't bad luck!!

On Thursday--My office cheering all the way from Vegas!

Me and my girls ready for the game!!

Cody soon to be ordained to the office of an Elder!!!

2011-02-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

We are so proud of Cody and the choices he makes. On May 13th Cody will be ordained to the office of an Elder. For those of my friends and family that do not share our Faith- that means Cody is ready to serve a fulltime 2 year mission for our Church. http://www.mormon.org/ He hopes to leave in August this year and would love to go on a foreign mission. He will be putting in his papers for that soon. My sweet baby boy is all grown up-waaahh!

More pix of the house.

2011-02-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Looking down from upstairs. We have not painted or decorated this room yet!

Nope Cody didn't move out. Just not much to show in a guys room. He did paint it himself though.

Looking from the front room up.

Making Progress on the New House :)

2011-02-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Guess who's room this is?

View from kitchen.

Opposite view looking towards kitchen.

Closer view of little room off the kitchen/dining area.

Master Bedroom in progress

Master Bedroom all done!

Dixie's Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day!

2010-12-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

My present from Cody!

DESPICABLE MikE! (cute movie)

We are matching!

Little Messy!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was pretty calm. Cody was with Melissa's family this year so it was just Mike, Shellie and I. We got hot chocolate from the 7-11 and drove around looking at Christmas lights. We let Shellie open a family present-it was Jenga. We played that a few times and snacked all night.

Christmas Eve Eve(Dec 23rd)

2010-12-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

Ethel M's Chocolate Factory and Cactus Gardens!

Cody and Melissa

Posing!

Shellie poses better than her parents!

Cute Santa!

2010-12-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

The new house

2010-12-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Who knew buying a home was such an exhausting process. Our house buying story started several months ago. We have always loved the house across the street from ours. Most recently it was a rental but we noticed it was empty in February and wondered if they were going to sell it. Mike and I had toyed with the idea that we might want to buy a second house and rent ours out. We decided that if the house across the street was put up for sale we would try and buy it. As soon as I noticed the house stayed empty and no new renters, I just knew it was going to be for sale soon. This was May. We got approved for a home loan and 2 days later the house across the street went up for sale. It was Friday and by Monday we had our offer in. It was a short sale and the 2nd mortgage was larger than the first so to make a long story a little shorter, our offer was accepted by the 1st but not the 2nd and after 3 months we pulled our offer.

Then as luck would have it in late October it became a foreclosure and then became a Fannie Mae bank owned home. We immediately put another offer in($10,000 less than the offer in May) and it was accepted.

Fannie Mae would pay our closing costs if we closed before the end of the year. Date was set to close 12/17 or sooner. Appraisal came in at $10,000 less than our offer and Fannie Mae agreed to that new price. Now we were getting the house for $20,000 less than our original offer in May. Go figure!

Well we didn't close 12/17. Hiccup with the inspection and releasing the final appraisal papers to the underwriter. We had another inspection this week and now everything is back in the hands of the underwriter. We hope to get a closing date soon as the year is running out and we have renters ready to move in as of 12/28. So much for moving in before Christmas. And for those who really know me and are wondering.........yes I have had my house packed and ready for weeks now. Mike is frustrated that every time he goes to find something I already have packed it! I did bring the boxes that had our food back into the house at least! LOL

We will keep everyone posted and hope to have a closing date this week. But who really wants to move the weekend of Christmas? Ugh!

Our Christmas Tree!!

2010-12-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

Ok. So you know that point in one's life when you realize you might really have some "issues"? Well that hit me this weekend when I was at Target. We put up a smaller tree this year since we are moving to our new house the weekend before Christmas. It is a small white tree with white lights. I decorated it with purple(my fav) and silver. Picture is below. Then at Target yesterday while shopping for purple ribbon for my silver wrapped presents, I found ribbon that I fell in love with. It was a big package of ribbon and bows in Green, Pink and Turquoise. Well I just had to have it. But the purple & silver tree wouldn't match the presents! Sooooo I bought a few new ornaments in the exact colors of the ribbon and bows. I went home, took all the purple off and put on the new ornaments along with some I had boxed up from years gone by. Final tree is the picture at the bottom. I know.....I have issues!!!!

Merry Christmas from our office staff. Med-Ex Paramedical Las Vegas!!

2010-12-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

Left-Right Back: Christina, Mike, Julie Front: Marshall, Stacey, Rachel, Haley, Cody

Jacksonville Florida

2010-12-01T22:34:00.000-08:00

Very quick(20 minutes) stop at Jacksonville Beach!
We made it to the airport 15 minutes before we had to board the plane!

Oops...Shellie got a little wet!

More great Georgia trip pictures!

2010-12-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

Steak n Shake!

Family Photo!
Julie, Cody, Shellie, Mike
Holly(Julie's sis), Jean(Mom), Benny(stepdad)

Thanksgiving in Georgia!!

2010-12-01T22:21:00.000-08:00

Turkey and all the fixings!

Who's the best shot? Oh yeah!

Cody & Shellie

2010-11-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Kids are growing up too darn fast!!

Happy Halloween Everybody!!

2010-10-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

CHILI COOK-OFF AT WORK 10/29

2010-10-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Dixie is a water dog!!

2010-10-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

We had Dixie at the little lake at the park in Boulder City. Who knew she liked to swim? She nevers jumps in Lake Mead when Mike takes her fishing on the boat!

Hair cut!!

2010-09-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hairy little beast!

Cute little girl again!

Fishing with Curtiss!!

2010-09-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Now that's a nice fish!

Dove Hunting-Mike, Josh and Devin. Good times.

2010-09-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express.....

2010-09-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Off to an old school tennis match!

Church dance!

2010-09-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

Shell loves going to church dances!!

LAKE MEAD SUMMER FUN!!

2010-08-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Olive Garden Fun!

2010-08-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mike looking at the bill. 7 people eating at Olive Garden.
You do the math!

Very full. Too full maybe?

Lied Discovery Children's Museum

2010-08-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon at Boulder City Park

2010-08-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

Girly Fun!

2010-08-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

Cosmic Bowling at Sunset Station!

2010-08-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

T=Tosh(Callie), J=JuneBug(Sadie), S=Smoothie(Shellie), B=Babe(Julie), M=Mikey

Summer Fun with the girls-Buffalo Wild Wings!!!

2010-08-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

Cody's Graduation June 11, 2010

2010-06-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Cody Graduates June 11th

2010-05-12T18:06:00.001-07:00

My Baby Girl is 14 today!!

2010-05-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

Prom Night!! Cody & Melissa 5-8-10

2010-05-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Family Pictures coming soon!

2010-04-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

We had familym pictures taken at Lake Las Vegas yesterday. We will have them in a week or two. Lori(loriwongphotography.com) took about a 1000 pictures. Seems like alot but Cody and I have this bad habit of blinking constantly so odds are maybe 50 will have both our eyes open and have all of us smiling! Here is a cute one of Shellie that I took with my phone while Lori was taking Cody's senior pictures.

What goes on at my house.......I remodel and Mike naps!

2010-04-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

Mike is nice to share his popcorn!

2010-03-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Granny and Pa are going to Moscow Russia!

2010-03-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Granny and Pa(Mike's Mom and Dad) are finally old enough to go on a Mission! They have been traveling the tropical island parts of the world since retiring. They put their mission papers in a short while ago and went on one last exotic 2 week getaway to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. A week or so after they returned to the real world, their mission call arrived. Hello Moscow Russia!! Other than the Artic, I am not sure if any other place could be farther from the tropical paradises that they love.
We are very proud of them and know the Lord has great plans for them in Moscow. The people of Russia will be blessed to meet such wonderful and faithful Latter Day Saints!

Bad day of fishing is better than a good day of working!

2010-03-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Mike's in the bishopric!

2010-03-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Never too late for Disneyland Pictures!

2010-01-23T17:35:00.001-08:00

Raining!
We are soooo cool!
Dang Goofy!
Now they're really cool!
Family Photo-making memories!
Disneyland December 2009

Finally Christmas Pictures!

2010-01-23T17:26:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves holiday food!

New Shades!

Hello spoiled-how's the new iphones?

Christmas Morning!

Our fisherman!

2009-12-15T21:52:00.001-08:00

Mike, Cody and Dixie went fishing early this past Saturday and look what Cody caught! A 6 lb striper out of Lake Mohave. It was sooooo yummy!

Christmastime in Vegas!

2009-11-29T23:16:00.001-08:00

We are ready for Christmas here in Las Vegas!!

WOW time flies!

2009-11-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

Ok so you are either wondering what happened to the Gronnings in Vegas for the last 6 weeks or you just stopped checking the blog........either way, here is a recap.

Kids busy with school, parents busy at work. Wow bet you are sad we didn't keep up on the blog huh? Really, we have been busy but it has been more exciting than that.
Mike has done some hunting, some fishing, and scheduled his knee surgery for 12/16. Me and the kids went to NC for Robyn's spectacular wedding. Before that Kinna, Shellie and I spent a few days at my Scentsy booth at a church off Rancho and 95. Cody spent 2 weeks without a car. Yes it had to have the entire engine replaced 3 weeks after we got it! Other than that he is doing good in school and working a few days with us in the office each week. Shellie continues to spend hours on facebook and texting......can that be a job? Hey Sonya, how do we get Shellie on at your work so she can get paid to Tweet all day? :)

Shellie did complete one of her Young Women value projects. She made about 30 hair clips for all her girl cousins. She is planning 2 more projects now to complete 2 other values. We are proud of her hard work.

Scentsy Open House 10/24 12-4pm

2009-10-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

You're Invited to my Scentsy Open House!

Date: Saturday, October 24th

Time: 12-4 p.m.

Place: My home-820 Grape Vine Ave, Henderson

Come and see the new Fall/Winter Catalog! Some of the new products will be available for you to see, including a new mid-size warmer, new Fall/Winter scents and some of the travel tins.

Refreshments and chances to win a prize!

Everyone is invited and please bring a friend!

Cody won 1st Place!!!

2009-10-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Cody was in his second Forensics competition this weekend. It was held at his high school this time-Foothill. He participated in Novice Congress and Novice Foreign Extemp(unprepared speaking). He took 1st place in Foreign Extemp!! This is Cody's first year in Forensics and this was his first time competiting in Foreign Extemp. He was given a foreign topic and 30 minutes to prepare before giving his speech. We are so proud of him!!

Only a real man wears purple!!

2009-10-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Cody on Homecoming Night. Isn't he handsome!!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh Don't tell Cody...................

2009-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

We bought Cody a car!!!! Only he doesn't know! He is in Long Beach this weekend and will not be back till Monday. What a fun surprise!! It's a 2002 Dodge Stratus R/T, sunroof, leather interior and a whole bunch of miles! We will have better pictures tomorrow with Cody sitting in it!!!!

Updates on us

2009-09-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

Family--We just got back from Lake Powell(will post pix soon). We were there over Labor Day weekend with the Gronning families on a house boat. We can never go back to sleeping in tents at Powell!

Shellie is all teenager all the time- I think she texts in her sleep!! She got braces last month and should only have to wear them for 12-18 months. Most likely 12. So not too bad except for the price! Wow-can you say used car? Sorry Cody, you are still walking to school this year! Shellie had her 8th grade school pictures today. Can't wait to see how they turned out! She is really liking her last year of middle school. Can't believe she will be in high school next year! Where does the time go!

Cody turned 17 this summer and got his "real" drivers license after 2 tries at the driving test. Look out everyone! :) He went to Kansas City and competed in the Skills USA National competion and took 8 out of 40+ so not too bad at all! He will be in Skills again this year. Cody has a full schedule for his senior year. He is taking college credit Algebra-I wish him luck! He has been elected this years President of YES-Young, Empowered & Skilled. We are very proud of him! Cody is also taking Forensics and will travel around competing most likely in unprepared public speaking. Yep-doesn't get that from his mother! I hate being unprepared and hate public speaking. =O

Mike is trying to battle out a bad cold that is kicking his butt while getting ready to go on his week long elk hunt in Idaho. He gets real excited for this time of year. He loves spending time up in the mountains and needs that time away to unwind. Mike had a weird hamstring injury this summer that is taking forever to heal. Hope that doesn't cause too much pain hiking up those mountains! He is also getting an estimate and filing an insurance claim on the boat to repair the prop and other stuff on the motor that broke coming home from Powell. To say that he was mad when it happened would be an understatement! Wow what a long drive home that was!!

Dixie will be getting "fixed" the end of this month. We will never ever ever have a dog in heat again. Wow that was not fun! Do dogs in heat eat more, gain weight, bleed for 3 weeks and have PMS? The answer is yes! But she is still the cutest ugly dog ever. :) We love her!

Daisy just does whatever cats do. Sleep, eat, sleep, shed, sleep, chase the dog, sleep, sleep. Oh the life of a cat! How would it be?!

As for me-still working hard; currently reading book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse(True Blood) books; trying to get through season 1 of Lost on Netflix(on 17 of 24); trying to get in bed before midnight(unsuccessfully) so I can be up by 5:15a; just started a Bunco group that meets once a month(first one was tonight-so much fun!); trying to not completely stink at being the HFPE leader(that's Enrichment Night for those of you not up with the HFPE lingo) by coordinating(and sometimes attending) once a month meetings of our Food Storage Group, Cooking/Baking Group and regular Enrichment Night; making regular & frequent trips to my fav place-Island Frozen Yogurt Bar; and whatever else I might have time for! Hoping to start going to either Belly Dance or Zumba classes again soon. I love both of those and have missed it since I messed up my ankle in June.

Hope that brings everyone up to date. There is so much I didn't blog this summer. Our trip to Georgia and my high school reunion was in July. Mike and I spent a weekend in Dallas at the EMSI National Conference. And a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't remember now!

Loser!!

2009-08-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ok yes I am a loser! I will update this soon I promise. We have not fallen off the face of the Earth, just been really super busy. Oh and on a side note-our cute little girl is in heat. That would be the pup Dixie, not Shellie, for those of you that just got really confused! LOL

Day on the Lake-June 14th

2009-07-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sadie!Shellie and Callie!

Pix from our stay at Mandalay Bay 6/11-6/13

2009-07-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Courtnee......she's so cute!

Ahhhh.....this is the life!

People everywhere!

Shellie in the fast moving, not so lazy- Lazy River!

Cute girls-Callie and Shellie in matching suits!

Yes- my legs need some sun! I was trying!

Mat and Courtnee

Callie and Sadie in the lazy river!

More Summer Pix-June 10th

2009-07-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Me and Callie
Mike and I and the girls at Tropical Smoothie-
Cody and Shellie were at Mutual. So stinkin cute!

Tuesday Six Flags Hurricane Harbor

2009-06-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

If you are thinking....man that looks cold! You are right....it was about 60* and cloudy. We managed to stay a few chilly hours and then packed it up.

The end of a long day at Six Flags!

2009-06-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Monday-Six Flags Magic Mountain

2009-06-09T21:30:00.001-07:00

Goliath-the 1st ride of the day!

Julie's kind of ride!
The girls had fun too!

It was 7pm and it was COLD! The girls had the ride all to themselves!

Above you can kind of tell that its Mike and Callie in the front row. Shellie and Sadie are just behind them. The old school coaster was the first loopy coaster built on the west coast.
If you are thinking Shellie is too big for this ride....you're right!

Look below and you will see $40 of food! They totally rip you off on the food at theme parks!

Below is The Terminator!
The girls trying to climb the rope ladder.

Superman-the ride! 0-100 mph in 6 heart-stopping seconds!

Mike and the girls rode it five(yes I said 5) times!!

YUM-funnel cake. The perfect way to end the night!

Our mini vacation to California

2009-06-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

Here's how the day & trip started.

This is at our house Sunday morning. We went to church & then drove to CA.

Below is the last morning. The girls are just as tired as they were

the first morning of our little vacation. Such sleepy heads!

Saturday-2nd day with the girls!

2009-06-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

We had a fun 2nd day with the girls. We went to the Henderson Mulit-Gen Rec Center. The girls swam in the pool, did fancy tricks off the diving boards and climbed the rock wall. We also played frisbee at the park and ended the day with frozen yogurt!

Shellie above doing her trick!
Shellie got about 1/2 way up the rock wall!

Callie above almost to the top!

Callie above doing her dive!

Sadie above reaching the top of the rock wall!

Sadie going off the highest diving board!!

The Girls Are Here!!

2009-06-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Mike & Shellie went to UT to pick up Callie and Sadie Friday.

Let the fun begin!!

Everybody loves HOT Wings!!

Count Down!!

2009-05-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

We are counting down to summer at our house. Summer doesn't start around here till Callie comes to visit. And this year we have a special treat....Sadie is coming too!!!! Our summer starts this weekend. We have a fun trip to CA planned....sshhhh the girls don't know yet! Here is a sneak peek of our three summer girls!!!!

Me and My Dad

2009-05-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

My Dad and Linda came to town and we had a great dinner at the Paris Le Village Buffet. It was great to see them again after so many years!

It all starts with a tree!

2009-05-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

Those of you unfortunate enough to have seen my backyard, you will be happy to know we have planted a tree! Yes-we are going to give landscaping a whirl. With a little luck and lots of help from our very good friend(and favorite handy man) Josh, we may have a nice backyard soon!

This is MY Mesquite tree, given to me on Mother's Day by my ever so awesome son, CODY!

Fathers & Sons at Lake Mead 5/15/09

2009-05-16T23:08:00.001-07:00

Mike & Cody
Josh & Devon

19 years and counting!

2009-05-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

Mike and Julie

MAY 9, 1990

We were so young but ready to start our life together. We were married in the Jordan River Temple and honeymooned at Bryce Canyon, Zions Natl Park and Mesquite, NV.

MAY 9, 1996

We left the hospital with our 2nd child, our beautiful 1 day old daughter.

MAY 9, 2009

We went to an early dinner with our wonderful teenage children at the Cheesecake Factory. Went to the Temple. Spent time together enjoying a Keva Juice and a scone from Panera Bread.

Shellie's birthday!

2009-05-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

Shellie had a great bday. She woke up to new sheets, bed skirt and comforter on her bed.(I let her fall asleep in our bed and then changed everything and moved her later-magic!)She got to open 1 present before school and wore that new outfit right then. She had pizza and a few friends came over. Shellie and her 3 friends got to hang out at Island Frozen Yogurt Bar. She opened the rest of her presents and had cake later that night. I made her a flip flop cake. Hard to believe she is 13!

Our baby is 13 today!!

2009-05-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to our sweet and beautiful Shellie! She is 13 today!!

We are very blessed to have her as the caboose to our little family. She has such a sweet and gentle spirit. Shellie has been a joy since she was born. Always so quiet and so content, even when she was so sick & miserable with all her ear infections(4 sets of tubes) and seizures(high fevers) she hardly ever cried! We worried when she didn't crawl till 1 yr old and didn't walk till almost 2- but that was just her personality. Not quick at anything-just happy to be around!!

We love Shellie so very much and are proud to have her as our little(BIG!) girl!!

My new hobby!!

2009-05-07T05:57:00.001-07:00

My new hobby is cake decorating. It fits into my passion for baking. I am thankful to Jo Wilkins for teaching a cake decorating class at Church that has me now hooked! (Even though I am still finding it hard to find time-between working 50+ hrs a week, Zumba, cleaning house, raising Mike & the kids, my new puppy, my Church calling, etc-but sleep is overrated right?)

I am posting my first cake that was decorated during that class-it wasn't all me. The class all took turns practicing on it. I have made a few since but forgot to take pictures. I hope I get the hang of it and it becomes easier. The basics are simple but darn it if I can make a rose! UGH!!

Our Gold Medalist!

2009-05-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

The results are in......Cody placed 1st in the Promotional Bulletin Board competition for Skill USA Champions at Work. YAHOO!! He came home late tonight wearing a Gold Medal and Huge Smile. We are so proud of him! Cody moves on to the National Championship in Kansas City in June.

Cody and Skills USA

2009-04-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well I am officially old! Cody is in Reno this week pretty much unchaperoned. He is competing in Reno as a part of Skills USA in Promotional Bulletin Boards and Customer Service. He has a partner(Preet) for the promo board competition and she was a huge help in preparing everything. But Cody was the one who presented it and was interviewed by the judges yesterday-they wouldn't even let his partner be in the room! Cody said it was awesome and he thinks they did great! This competition is the State Conference. If he does well he can go to the National Skills USA Conference in June in Kansas City! He has been in Reno since Tuesday and won't be home till tomorrow night. He is staying at Circus Circus in a room with 2 other boys from school but he doesn't know them at all. All the kids get a schedule of the events for the 3 days and a 10pm curfew. Other than that-they are all on their own. Cody and his friend Preet took a cab Tuesday night to an Indian Restaurant. Sounds like he liked the food-however he did call me to see how many Zantac he could take in 1 day! I cant wait to see how he did in his competitions!! I still cant believe he is old enough to be in Reno for 3 days unsupervised!!!

Mirrors Mirrors Mirrors

2009-04-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

What is it with us and mirrors lately? Ugh! Less than 2 weeks ago Mike's driver side mirror was stolen right off his truck while parked at work. Also his F150 logo on the tailgate was stolen too! A coworker saw who did it and tried to follow the punks but lost them at a red light.
Then Saturday I decided I wanted a new mattress and box spring so I had them delivered a few hours later. Cody and I took the old box spring out to the garage and leaned it against the wall of the garage just to the side of my car. Well a few short minutes and big gust of wind later I have the passenger side mirror hanging on by nothing but the wires!!
I hope we can get some kind of 2 for 1 deal!! In the meantime Mike is driving around without a drivers side mirror and I am praying the black electrical tape holds on mine!!

Getting Big!

2009-04-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some newer pix of our BOBBLE HEAD..........Dixie. Hope she will grow into her big head.

(anyone have photo tips on "blue eye" reduction?-I've tried all the camera settings and picasa edits!)

Easter Years Past

2009-04-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

April 2007(not exactly on Easter)

Easter 2006

Easter 2005

Easter 2004 (with Macee & Ky)

Evidently we stopped taking pictures on Easter after 2006!

Dixie Fresh Out Of The Bath

2009-04-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Is there a sweeter face than this?

2009-04-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Meet our new little girl-DIXIE

2009-03-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

We added to our family this weekend. Meet DIXIE-she is a Boshih, that's Boston Terrier and Shihtzu mix. She is almost 8 weeks old and cute as can be! We survived our first night with her last night. She slept in her little pink bed all night and didn't cry till 6am. That cute pink princess bed was a gift from our friends-Chanda, Alesha & Kylie Holt. They were so nice to give that to her and Dixie loves it so much!

For those of you that are wondering how our cat Daisy is taking the new 'friend'. Well, we are taking that slowly. So far Dixie hasn't noticed Daisy. Mostly because Daisy hasn't left our bedroom very much since 1:30p yesterday. She will come out when the pup is sleeping. We are hoping that relationship blossoms soon. But right now Daisy is a little(ok alot) freaked out. She loved our Lefty and was so sad when he was gone-I just know she will love this new little pup soon. Ok, so I am hoping she will like Dixie soon or at least tolerate her! =)