Frosty The BIG Snowman

Michael and I got this certificate in our staking to go and get a prepaid pizza at Little Ceasars. I just love pizza so I was really excited about this gift. After we had gotten our pizza we were driving home our normal way that we do when coming home and we saw something that was the coolest thing ever. You just have to see it!Isn't that just amazing? Well Michael and I both thought that it was and we actually went home and got our camera just to take a picture of it but it was so dark when we got back that we had to wait until the next day. Don't worry the snowman doesn't look any different then the previous day.Can you believe that the snowman is actually taller then the house?!? The guys that worked on this and their was several of them, they actually had to use a ladder to get to the snowman's head. I don't think that I will ever do this but the one thing that I wonder is where did they get all of the snow? If you look they still have plenty in the front of the yard and the neighbors also still had plenty so where did it come from? If you can figure it out then you are really smart.

Silly Hope

I just love how Hope can always make me smile, even when I do not feel like it. I think that it is really funny when she lies upside down and all. She did it to get Michael's attention but it is still cute of her. Hope you enjoyed it as well.

Shipley's Go To Temple Square

It was so exciting but Michael's family were able to make it down here to visit us and other family members and so we got to see them and hang out with them on Monday this week. We have not seen them for awhile and have missed them a lot so it was a very special thing for Michael and I. So, again we got a puppy sister for Hope (my dad) and went out for the night. First we all ate dinner at Olive Garden, a favorite restaurant in the family.If you can not tell we love to take pictures in our family and that is what we were all doing at the table. Taking pictures and showing pictures too. Maren and Gary both got caught by Michael's mad picture taking skills!After dinner we went and walked around Temple Square to see the beautiful lights that they have up right now. We went inside the tabernacle and it is still as beautiful in there as it ever has been before.Here is us Shipley's together (except Mark is on his mission in Brazil and Robert couldn't make it). From the left to the right it goes: Maren, Me, Michael, Mom, Dad, Julie.Michael and I really liked how bright the lights were and I loved the pink lights so Michael and I had to get a picture with one of the trees that color. I'm just glad that earlier that day Michael had found a really great sale on some nice gloves and was able to get them for me. Finally, my hands will no long be cold!Another thing that was great about this night was that Michael and I was finally able to meet Julie's boyfriend. They are so cute together!It was wonderful to do this together as a family and I love how the last thing that we saw was this of the nativity that they have at temple square. It just looks so beautiful on the water and all with all of the lights everywhere. It just has a nice sense of peace that comes with it.The lights sure was beautiful this year, like they are every year but it was so nice to do this together as a family. I'm just glad that we are going to be a family forever.

Little Sara's Wedding

I still can not believe it but Sara got married on the 27th of this month and I am just so happy for her. Michael and I were able to go to her reception because it was close enough to were we are living at. So we got a puppy sister for Hope and took off for it. I had so much seeing her and she just looked so happy as well.Here is the cute new happy couple, Sara and Andrew Moss.Here they are both saying, "Hi," to everyone that came with the normal line thing. I still think that they are just so cute together and I am really glad that I got to meet Andrew at least one time before the wedding too. He is such a nice man and will really take great care of Sara.

Linda is just being silly right now but everyone looks so nice in the line. I couldn't get a picture with everyone in the line though so sorry about that. You can at least see all of Sara's family side of the line.Linda and Me and Rebecca (Linda's niece) is hanging out with us. Rebecca loves to have her picture taken and who can blame her with just how cute she is.Sara and I had a picture taken together even too! That is amazing since normally it is almost impossible to get near a bride on her wedding day. I'm just glad I got this picture with her because I will not be seeing her for a long time since she is moving so far away.Here is their beautiful wedding cake. I love this picture because of the accidental effect I did with the top of the cake and have it look like it is glowing or something. I just love it when things like that happen!Aren't these very beautiful quilts? I love quilting and I think that these just look fantastic! Each one of these were made for the couple by different family members. It sure was a lot of fun being able to go and I know that they are going to have a lot of fun together and many happy memories as well.

The Dogs Christmas Night

All of the dogs in the family were also invited/allowed to come to the dinner party at my sisters house too which was very nice of them to allow that.

The party was at little Rakkstan and Raelee house. They are attacking my sister to get a present that Penny gave to them, treats!Here Brandon is holding Penny because I think she was a little tired of Matty chasing after so much that night. Penny also just likes to be held too. So where is Hope you say?Hope had to be outside locked up in her cage. All of the other dogs were allowed inside because they are small. There is also that, "It's my house my rules," kind of thing so pretty much Hope had to be outside. I must say that I am glad that she is a Husky or else I would cry more then what I normally do for her. Hope had to be left all alone with pretty much only one toy for her to play with. I am glad that she likes to look around and the neighbor has horses and all but it is still sad to me.I would try and check on her a lot so that she wouldn't be to lonely but it was kind of cold. I would come and check on her through the window to make sure she was ok and sometimes I would find her asleep. That is actually the first time that she has slept outside too. The only reason that I think that she slept outside though was because she never got in a nap after all of the excitement from that morning.This is what Hope does when she is angry/upset with you. She turns her back on you and doesn't want to look at you. She is angry with me because I could not let her come inside where it was warm. My sister did offer to put her into the garage but that wouldn't work because there is no window to the garage so that we could check on her and I know that she would cry or end up hurting herself like a time before. So it was better for her to be outside so that she could see us a little but still I felt so bad for her. I went inside and told Michael how I felt so bad for Hope and that I wanted to cry because of her situation and so he did something really sweet for Hope and me.Michael took hope outside of her cage and played with her in the snow in the backyard. I'm sure that she was still cold but at least this way she was able to move around more. He sure did make her really happy with throwing snowballs around for her to try and catch.Michael even started to make a igloo for Hope to play in so that it would hopefully keep her a little bit warmer and all but he didn't get very far on it. Hope did at least like to sit in it and relax for a moment. It was raining a little while Michael was building it so this thing was really strong!Here is Hope just relaxing a little bit before we have to go back home. I am so glad that I have such a sweet husband that thinks about my feeling and concerns even when no one else may understand. Hope did really good on the car ride home and really enjoyed being held and cuddled up in her blanket. She did sleep a little bit on the way home but the road was so bumpy that it kept on waking her up. I'm just glad that over all she did have a really good Christmas especially for her first one too.

Christmas Night

Normally on Christmas night my mother cooks for everyone in the family and we all eat at my parents house. Well this year one of my older sisters offered to have it at her house and it was a lot of fun to do something different. There was also a ton of food there and we weren't able to eat it all but it tasted wonderful.Here is Hope and me on the car ride up to my sisters house. I am so glad that Hope loves to go on car rides and sits really good when I have to hold her in my lap too.Michael brought up his radio so that he could listen to the weather report anytime that he wanted to and Emi was really interesting in it as you can see.Future radio licence handler!!! I think she looks so cute and I am glad that she had a lot of fun listening to the radio. She even hit a couple of buttons but that didn't do anything bad.It was also Jossy's first Christmas too and she was so cute to watch her open up her gifts and just how the entire thing seems to fascinated her too.Koreena did have to help her but over all I think Jossy did a wonderful job for it being her first time. Man, she is just growing up so fast I can't believe it.Matty was so excited to open up presents that he went around the house getting everyone to come to the room and then he helped pass out gifts and sometimes he even helped you open them up. I just love him a ton!Emi also had a lot of fun opening her gifts and when she got a book as a present she had to read it before she opened up her next gift which was so cute. It was a very fun night and it was just so nice to have my sister willing to host all of us in her home too.

Lilly's Christmas Gift

This is not Lilly's first Christmas, which I have told you before, so he had a little bit more of a low key Christmas. For Lilly we have been saving like crazy and looking for some really good deals to get her a larger tank since she has been needing one since the very first day that we got her. So this Christmas Lilly was really blessed in being able to finally get a larger tank.I know that Lilly really hasn't minded that she got her present from us a little before Christmas. She has really just loved having all of the space to swim around in and it is way nice that we can make the water deeper for her to swim in also. She also got a heater for her tank since the only place that we could put the tank was on the window set. Hope also likes how now she is a little lower so that she can watch her more and Lilly likes to watch her too. They are so cute.Here is another view of the size of the tank so that you can see it better. Another fun thing that Michael and I were both surprised that we got was this hood light. Michael brought it home from work because it was in pretty bad shape and it was a item that I guess had been lost for a long time so Michael brought it home and cleaned it up really good and it works great as a night light.The last thing that Lilly got for her Christmas was some fishes! That always makes her happy and you can just see the cute little smile that she has no her face. I'm so glad that she is so happy and in a much better environment too.

Hopes Christmas Day

Hope had a very wonderful Christmas and maybe got a little spoiled too but that is ok since this was her very first Christmas. She actually did a lot better then what I thought might happen with her. By the end of it all she really understood how it all worked.The first thing that we let her do was open up her gift that was in her stalking from Santa. He was nice enough to bring her a bone to chew on so that her parents could open up their gifts first before she got helped opening up her other gifts. Hope really did have a wonderful time chewing on her new bone and actually made a great dent on the thing.

Hope needed a little help in the start but then she really got the hang of how to get the paper off of the present. I think it is funny that she didn't realize right away that the paper was not the present. I guess that is what every child does for there first Christmas; more interested in playing with the paper and boxes then the actually gift.

Now she has the hang of it finally and did really great opening up this gift. She really had a lot of fun with the wrapping paper. I was a little worried that she wouldn't know to spit it out of her mouth once she got it off of the present but she is so smart that I shouldn't have worried about that at all.In my family it is a tradition to get your picture taken with all of the gifts that you received that Christmas. I guess it just helps you know when you actually got the item. So I did that with Hope for her very first Christmas. I took her picture by our tree that we have in our room. You can see just how spoiled she was this Christmas too. Also, if you look at the tree you can see her first Christmas ornament that she got on Christmas Eve too.Hope had such a great Christmas that she was actually starting to get a little tired so that is why she is laying down in this shot. She still looks cute with all that happened this morning.Now she is ready to play with her gifts. She sure is going to have a lot of fun and plenty of things to do to keep her busy for quite some time.

Here hope is playing with her gift finally. I'm glad that she really likes it too. I'm also sure that it will become a favorite toy to with time (all of her toys are pretty much her favorite).From her Grandparent Shipley's, Hope received a bone which was so nice of them to do for her. She has taken that thing everywhere and has just loved it. So thank you very much Grandpa and Grandma Shipley!!! We love ya' guys!!!

On The 24th Day of December

On the 24th of December Hope had her..................................
very first Christmas Eve.
Hope is such a special puppy to me and so Michael and I decided that since this was her first Christmas we wanted to do as many special things with her as we could. Well since tonight is Christmas Even and all and in my family each person gets to open up one gift. So, Hope also got to open up one gift too but we picked out which gift she got to open. Here is how she reached to it.

I think next year she will be a little better about knowing what to do with the gift. We may have to think about this more but I think that it went just fine for her first gift. We hope that you all have a wonderful night and a terrific day tomorrow as well.

On The 23rd of December

On the 23rd of December Hope.........................

hung her little stocking with care.

.

All in hope that Santa would soon come here.

To give her a present that she could use,

A little bone to chew on or something good to eat

Since she has been nothing but sweet.

We All Love Snow

Today sure has been a day full of fun things and I am very grateful for that. After all of the excitement inside of the house I talked Michael and Brandon into playing outside in the snow since it snowed really good today that we just had to play in it.While Brandon was waiting for Michael and I to get ready and to get Hope ready he made this cute little snowman. He put it on top of Hopes house and right after I took this one and only shot of it Hope, the stinker, ran up and grabbed the entire snowman and ran away with him braking him into several pieces. The poor snowman never had a chance.Remember how I told you that Brandon had a class where they learned how to make a igloo right? Well this is what Brandon and Michael are doing and they are actually going pretty fast with it too.Michael being a big helper and gathering up some more snow since they have used all of the snow around the thing already.Brandon working on the front wall of the igloo. They both sure did make this thing really strong.This is as far as the boys got on the igloo because it was getting way to cold and dark to work on it anymore. The sad thing is that they had started this igloo at the bottom of a really great sledding hill and they didn't want anyone to get hurt on it so they had to brake the thing in. It was actually really hard to brake in because they had packed the snow down so well.

I was trying really hard to get Hope to dig in the snow because she was doing it just a couple of seconds ago. She doesn't do it very often and I'm ok with her doing it in the snow because she really can't hurt anything.After Hope was tired of me throwing snow at her trying to get her to dig in it again for you she found a tree with a lot of dead branches on it that was much more interesting to her. I was surprised that she didn't get any of them to come off of the tree though.This is really funny but Hope has been sticking her entire face into the snow to get close to the ground and find a animal trail. I am actually really shocked that she can even find anything in the snow. Sometimes she will even drag her face like this in the snow for several minutes too.

You can see that she is very serious when she is trying to find something. Michael said that she would probably make a good hunting dog if she had the training for it but I am just fine with the way that she is.Hope finally is taking a brake from tracking whatever it was she was trying to find. I'm glad that she didn't find what she was looking for because then we could have a large problem on our hands.

Hope Meets Santa!

Something fun that I did today with Hope was let her meet several Santa Clauses. It was a ton of fun to see her with all of the them and I will let you decided which one she looks the best with.Santa #1: I got my little brother Brandon to dress up like Santa for Hope since Hope missed seeing Santa while he was visiting the pet store one day. Don't you just love his bread and how long he was able to go it just in time for the picture? I thought so; I will also let you guess what the beard is made out of and here is a hint: not hair.Santa #2: This Santa hope sees everyday but has never really gotten to meet. This Santa was also so nice to actually let his wife be in the picture too, what a great guy. These two actually can move but they were not plugged in to do so.Santa #3: Hope liked this Santa because he is actually made of wood! If you know hope she just loves sticks so I was a little worried that she might try chewing on Santa but she knows to be a good girl so that she gets her presents on Christmas from him. I also almost forgot this funny thing I wanted you to see.

I hoped you enjoyed watching Hope greet Santa for the first time. I'm just glad that Santa survived the visit to her. She was just so excited to meet him and normally she is shy with strangers but not Santa. Maybe one day we will be able to have Hope meet Rudolph.