Shaw Squad: 2013

Miss J turns 6

Yesterday Jordyn turned 6. She is tall, vibrant, beautiful, stubborn, sweet as heck, and more. She wanted an all girl party in our backyard. Our home teacher has a bounce house and cotton candy machine that he graciously let us borrow. She woke up to her bed and ceiling decorated with balloons, streamers and kind words about her. She also wanted donuts for breakfast and a kit kat cake. I brought her chick-fil-a for lunch and we ate together. She was sad that I had to leave. Once she got home from school her party pretty much started. The kids played in the bounce house, we ate pizza, Jeff did the cotton candy machine, cake, and then presents. Jordyn cried once at her party. She gave a friend a toy to keep and then wanted it back. She loved the attention. In the morning when she got dressed she said, "I'm famous. Red is a famous color." She of course was wearing a red shirt.

at school enjoying our lunch outside

another kit kat cake

enjoying some awesome cotton candy.

Jeff made Jordyn a cotton candy lei

Happy birthday to this wonderful person

Opening presents

We love Jordyn. She brings so much laughter and fun times in our home.

Christmas Jammies

On Dec. 1st we start the holiday with a tradition. We open our Christmas jammies, eat a yummy treat, read the Elf on the Shelf story because he, Jack Sherman, comes the next morning. He doesn't do anything fancy. Just shows up in a new spot every morning and the kids find him every morning. He might start giving the kids acts of service to do everyday like complimenting someone or holding a door open for someone, etc.

The kids in their new jambes they can wear for the Christmas season. We also like watching Christmas movies for family night in December.

Our yummy snowmen donuts. Levi is adorable in this picture if I must say.

This year we went to the light parade and tree lighting ceremony in downtown Chandler. Well, the "tree" is actually a tumbleweed tree they decorate. The kids loved the parade. It was actually cold outside.

the kids secretly wishing they were walking in the parade

Macie was a good sport as usual. It was her bed time but she stayed up and participated.

Santa on the back of the fire truck.

They had this huge snow globe and took pictures of individuals inside. Yes, I made our family wait in line to get a family photo. I was a little bummed that there wasn't fake snow swirling around inside.

Christmas fun already

We had the sister missionaries over: Sis, Kaumans and Sis. Brock to help us decorate our tree.

It was Jordyn's year to put the angel on top.

After Alaska, we're all about REAL trees. We buy ours at Costco along with everything else in our house.

A nativity set I made at church a few years ago.

Macie was helping untangle the lights…or was she helping to tangle them? I don't know but she sure is cute.

Jordyn in the holiday spirit

Levi and Sydney getting in on the tree-decorating action. Sydney bought this blue sequined christmas hat with birthday money.

Needing a ladder to decorate the top

I love the glow of the christmas tree. Now it's a mission to let others feel of our glow from the gospel. It's rather difficult with birthdays and school stuff. I'm finding that there aren't a lot of service things for kids. For example they have to be 12 to help with feeding the homeless. I know service isn't about seeing people's reaction, but with young kids I really feel that "seeing is believing" in terms of homeless people, poor, sick, and other disadvantaged people. Leave a comment for advice.

Levi was so cute getting all into it and excited.

After we went to our ward Christmas party and the next day Jeff baptized Caleb Tan. It was a great weekend.

This is the 2nd person Jeff has baptized since his mission. Caleb is 23. 3 months ago Caleb was homeless and a drug addict in Portland, OR. He came to live with his aunt in our ward to get his life back together. Jeff just kinda befriended him and invited him on his campouts and the next thing we knew he was committed to baptism. He's a good guy.

Jeff got 1/3 of the deacons to attend his baptism and sing "We have been born…"

It's great to be 8

I can't believe our little girl turned 8 on Dec. 5th. She's turning into a beautiful, bright, and loving girl. Time is going way to fast and she's getting way to big for my liking. With her getting big has brought some fun times. Now that she's older she's fun to talk to and really get to know. She has great ideas and is a joy. I'm so thankful she's my daughter and part of our family. As she gets older, my hope for her to see how beautiful she really is grows larger. I want her to think high of herself without being boastful. I have no doubt she will make good choices in life. She always seeks to do good. I'm trying to teach her no give and serve others so we're working on that. Anyway for her birthday, this is the year she has a party (every other year we do parties) she wanted a skate party at skate land. It was our first party at a place. It was so nice not to have to plan and stress about party stuff. I just showed up with the cake and got to skate with her and her friends. It was a lot of fun and she definitely felt the love. The kids got soda, pizza, and coins to play games with, and of course skate. Sydney got to stand in the ticket booth and grab at a bunch of tickets. She also got to be the DJ for a little bit. It was a hit and the icing on the cake was the groupon deal we used for skate land. I surprised her and made a kit kat cake with rainbow cake inside. She thought it was awesome. Our present to her was the party, she got a total of $75 from grandpa levin, uncle ryan, and my friend Amie. Gammie and grandpa got her a pogo stick, grandma karen got her some paper, pens, and candy, grandma marianne and gordon got her "printies," and she got lots of neat things from her friends.