Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my mom's 50th birthday at Tasha's house this weekend and had a great turn out of friends and family! Pictures of the Birthday girl are on a different camera so those will be on a later post, but here's part of the night :)

The kids had a blast playing upstairs - Grady chilling upstairs

Getting a lift from Truman

Jake showing off his piano skills ;) with Brock nearby

Brock, me and Bree Erin

Cousins! Brock showin Taiji some love!

me and kali faith

Weston and his buddy Truman

Some of the ladies :)

a few of the guests...

And Brock after his cat nap playing by the tree

Gorgeous day on the mountain

Well Thanksgiving wouldn't have been complete if we didn't go check out the snow...so on Friday my dad, shannon, Jeff Vander Yacht and I headed up to Mt Baker for some skiing! With the dry roads our amazing driver got us there at 8 am sharp :) Of course the chair lifts don't start running till 9 am...so we chilled in the lodge, got some much needed lattes, and took our time getting dressed. We were quite entertained by the cats that roamed the lodge which Shannon had never seen before ;)

We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day! We had sun, clear blue skies, no wind and amazing views! I wish I would've had my camera when we were on the lifts but wasn't that on top of it lol This is from the parking lot (by our front row parking spot)
Definitely still early (even for me even tho I've been getting up at 6 all quarter...it was still rough getting up before 6 on my "break" lol)
Me and shannon getting ready to go :) I'm glad she's still able to come with her dad and sister even though she's off and married :)

Except for a litte icy snow and some fog near the end of the day it was an amazing day! The sore muscles the next morning were totally worth it :)

Thanksgiving weekend

This year it was Shannon's turn to cook the turkey!

The before picture...

Table decorations ~ cranberries are so festive :) I love them! Appetizers

So much delicious food!

The after picture :) I think she did very well for it being her first one!

mom getting the turkey all sliced up

Dad (aka Papa)

Guela :)

The group #1

And #2 from the other side

Not quite sure what Brock was doing (or saying....)

Time to go outside and take pics!

Me and my little man Brock (love his smile in this one!)

Brock was pretty fond of Grizz

Best buddies :) Brock is still trying to figure out why Grizz is at Dave and Shannon's but not Tucker...Brock is convinced they are cousins and should BOTH be at Auntie Shannon's house ;)

This started out being one of just shannon and I but Brock and Grizz joined in and it's one of my favorites!

Sisters :)

Or daughters #3 and #4 as dad would put it ;)

Tasha was inside with the baby...but 2 out of 4 isn't bad lol

After hanging out at Shane and Amy's, Guela and Becky took all of us cousins (I think there was 11 of us total!) to go see The Christmas Carol in 3D at Bellis Fair, and it was definitely an adventure! Going with those 2 are quite entertaining :) I think Truman, Taylor, Stacey, Jake and I quite enjoyed watching the craziness of our family :)

hopefully someone who had their camera will put some of those up!

we've got a performer on our hands...

Ok so in case you didn't already know, Brock has CD's that he loves to sing and dance to, well at least when I've over I'm pretty sure it happens every time I visit :) I'm bummed the video is sideways but you'll get the point of it I'm sure!

Brock's dance moves to "Life is a Highway"

So I totally forgot about these videos I took when I was home for Halloween, and thought if I have one niece on the blog I should have my nephew on here too :) plus his dancing is pretty entertaining :)

song #2 starring Caitlin

So the pictures are kinda blurry but I took them from our skype date with the web cam so I can't complain lol but the next song she was singing with guela and her enthusiasm was so precious! I just can't get over it!

Nephew #3!
The singer and cheeser! how can you not love that smile!

Skype date!

Well ever since little Andrew made his arrival I have been skyping with the whole gang up in juneau and this last skype date Caitlin was singing me all sorts of songs :) I really hope the sound works on it, it was so cute! She was singing me the ABC's and then asked me to join in, but ignore that part, not nearly as cute lol

consecration part 2

On Friday night we had our nursing consecration ceremony with all our parents, family, professors and friends. It was a great ceremony that recognized our calling to be a nurse :)

Love these girls! We've been through it all :)
Me and sara
One of the prayers that a student read was passed down from her grandma:

Prayer for a Nurse – Severena Skreen

Oh, my God: I am about to begin the day’s work.
Teach me to receive the sick in Thy name.
Give to my efforts success, sweet Jesus, for the glory of Thy holy Name.
It is Thy work: Without Thee I cannot succeed.
Grant that the sick Thou hast placed in my care, may be abundantly blessed, and not one of them be lost, because of anything that is lacking in me.
Help Thou me, to overcome every temporal weakness, and strengthen in me, whatever may enable me, to bring the sunshine of joy, to the lives that are gathered round me day by day.
Make me beautiful within for the sake of Thy sick ones and those lives, which will be influenced by them. Amen.

Charis read a few verses about "Holy Ground" from Exodus 3:1-6

I was able to read 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 and Crystal read a prayer that she wrote for our class. It was such a blessing and meant so much to all of us!
The whole group singing, "Speak, O Lord"

Me and Crystal afterwards - so glad we made it through our parts :)

Stacey DeJong came to support us :)

and...one more with the parents

My fan club :)

Thanks guela for coming and for the new devotional book, I know it'll come in use

Part of the ceremony was also receiving a white Gideon's Bible - I know grandpa scholten would be proud!