A Flash from the Past

I just started blogging at the first of 2008, and I try to keep a chronological log of events in our lives….which means I missed a lot of cool stuff from the past. So, I was digging through old photos and decide to throw a few “Oldies but Goodies” in here. It’s very RANDOM, but kinda cool (for us anyway .

Unfortunately, we don’t have any baby photos of Liz & Mikayla since they joined the family later in life (Mikayla was 9 and Liz was 12).

Enjoy the FLASHBACK……

Above: 2004 – Donovan (age 4) and PJ (age 6 3/4).

Above: Karen (Frank’s late wife) was a professional photographer and she got some awesome photos of Liz, Mikayla and Ashley. This one of Mikayla (age 10) was taken in the summer of 2006 after a day of playing in the water.

Above: 2004 – Cody (age 18) on his last Nauvoo (Illinois) trip before his mission. I’m not sure what he is pointing at. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Nauvoo…it is a town of historical significance to people that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can learn more here: NAUVOO.

Above: Liz in the summer of 2006 (age 13). Las Vegas.

Above: Ashley when she was about 1 and 1/2 or 2.

Above: This was taken in November 2003. Donovan was 3, Megan was 9, and PJ was 6.

Above: This is another portrait of Mikayla taken by Karen. I think she was probably 10 here.

Above: This is Liz at Red Rock near Las Vegas. She was probably13 here.

Above: This is Donovan right after he turned 1 in 2001. We will always have an easy time remembering how old he is…since he was born in the year 2000.

Above: This is another photo that Karen took. This is Ashley (not sure of age) with the Elvis that Karen would work with in the wedding photos she would take on the Strip (in Vegas).

Above: 2002 – This is one of my all-time favorite photos. This is right after Donovan turned 2. We were living in DuPont, Washington, and this was our favorite bunny “Bun-Bun.” He was the most mellow bunny.

Above: 2004 – Frank and Cody (18) in Nauvoo.

Above: This is Liz with Franzi – our favorite German Exchange Student. She became part of the family when she went to school at Las Vegas High School during the 05-06 year. This was at the Calico Ghost Town in California.

Above: June 2005 – Ashley (6), Liz (12) and Mikayla (9) at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Above: This is the cutest picture of Cody…he fell asleep reading the scriptures.

Above: This is PJ right after he turned 1 year old. He wouldn’t sit still for the photo unless he had something to hold onto.

Above: Portrait taken in 2001. PJ (3), Megan(6) & Donovan (9 months). We were living in DuPont, Washington then.

Above: 2004 – Ashley (5) learning about the pioneer life in Nauvoo.

Above: Cody when he was a preteen.

Above: This is Mikayla. I think this would’ve been in 2005 or 2006 and she would’ve been 9 or 10.

Above: This is Megan right after she turned 2. She was being a little stinker and wouldn’t sit still or smile for the camera. After about 2 hours of this (ok, I remember it seemed that long anyway)…I pulled a sucker out of my purse and told her she could have it if she was good. The photographer caught her reaction just in time. We were living in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at this time.

Above: Ashley (age 7) in the summer of 2006….Las Vegas.

Above: 2006: Mikayla (9) and Ashley (7) after being “made up” at Universal Studios.

Above: The day Frank and Shayne got married in the LDS St. George Temple back in 2007.
Above: Frank and Shayne on their honeymoon cruise back in early 2007. That was the most relaxed I had been in years! We had the BEST time.

Above: Cody as a cute little baby….

Above: This is Frank when he was a little boy. He looks a lot like Cody. His dad was stationed in Las Vegas at the time. Frank later served his mission in Las Vegas and was later on in life recruited to work for the IRS in Las Vegas and stayed there for 20 years. His connections to “Sin City” run deep .

Above: This is me (Shayne) when I was 1 and a 1/2. My mom said I had been woken up from a nap to get this taken and they couldn’t get me to smile for anything.

Above: Liz, Ashley & Mikayla. I think this was taken in 2005…maybe 2006.

Above: This is the whole family back in September of 2007. Liz’s adoption hadn’t been finalized before Karen passed away and neither she nor Mikayla had been sealed to them yet (Mikayla’s adoption had just been recently finalized). So, we ALL got to go to the Las Vegas Temple and take care of that. It was such an awesome day.

Cody’s Korean Mission Pictures

Cody is a million miles away from us, so we never get many photos of him to put on here. So, I was digging through some of his photos from his 2 year LDS mission to Korea (he’s been home over a year now) and thought I would put some of them on here. I’ll try and get some more current ones of him at school!!

Above: Cody and a companion in front of the LDS Seoul Korea Temple.

Above: Cody got to eat a lot of “interesting” things on his mission. (Ok…so the onion is not so “interesting” …but ask him about all of the other slimy things…)

Above: Cody, his companion, and a young boy they taught and baptized (with his family).

Above: Cody (on the far Right) with other missionaries and another family that got baptized.

Above: Cody with his Mission President at a place that looks like a Korean version of Vegas .

Above: Cody with Seoul in the background.

Above: A bunch of missionaries on a “P-Day” (Preparation Day)…having fun the way only missionaries can. Cody’s on the far Right.

Above: Even more Missionary Fun!

Above: WOW! Korea is beautiful!!

Above: Frank got to go to Korea to pick Cody up from his mission back in June of 07. He stayed for a week and Cody got to show him around before they came home.

Megan’s 14th Birthday

Megan turned 14 on Halloween. She had a group of school friends over on a different day (it’s hard to celebrate on Halloween) and they seemed to have a lot of fun. Megan was very “animated.”

Above: PJ and Donovan waiting for the presents to be over so they can have cake.

Above: What a cute picture of Mikayla!

Above: Megan’s friend Kanise.

Above: Megan’s other friends Adriana (Left) and Marianna (far Right).

Above: Adriana again.

Above: Megan told Liz she wanted a Pony for her birthday…so that’s what she got.

Above: Megan wanted this book: “How to be Totally Miserable” by John Bytheway. I’m pretty sure it does the opposite.

Above: This was the number one thing on Megan’s Birthday Wish List: An Idiom Dictionary. Go figure. She collects dictionaries.

Above: Marianna and her brother Max.

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008 was Awesome! Everyone had a great time. We did a little early trick-or-treating, went to Trunk-or-Treat at the church, and then we got some nighttime, door-to-door trick-or-treating in as well. We had butt-loads of candy!! Waaaayyyy too much!!! I think we are all still on a sugar HIGH!!!

Above: What a group! Very scary!!

Above: Donovan was a “Mixture” again this year. That’s what he calls it…he just throws a bunch of stuff together.

Above: We even did the nails.

Above: And his hair looked pretty cool (if I do say so myself .

Above: Where did we go wrong???!!! We have a jailbird and a gangsta. Actually, Megan was a “Mormon Gangster.” The CTR stands for “Choose The Right.” And the “W” hand signal stands for “The Word of Wisdom.”

Above: PJ couldn’t wait to be “Ketchup” this year.

Above: Ashley was a “Zombie Princess” again this year. That’s a Hannah Montana wig gone wild.
Above: Hannah (our niece) did what Hannah does best…be Hannah (Montana, that is). But since she is already Hannah, she decided just to be a “Diva.”

Above: Seth (our nephew) was a very scary “Ghoul.”

Above: Mikayla was a “Basketball Player.”

Above: Megan’s headphones were playing songs from “Sons of Provo.”

Above: This is looking away from our house down our street. That’s Frank getting home late from work because we found out that EVERYONE in Atlanta wants to get home early for Halloween…who knew?? The Leaves didn’t start turning pretty colors until about a week later.

Above: We just threw everyone in the back of the truck so they could get in and out easily. It was a blast. It was such a perfect night for Halloween!! It wasn’t so cold that you needed a coat, but there was just enough chill in the air to make it feel like Fall.

Above: This is at the Church Trunk-or-Treat. I think we had a brilliant costume!!

Above: Aunt Sandi with the “Diva.”

Above: Sandy and Larry….I haven’t figured out what their costumes were yet .

Above: I can’t explain the sock on the head.

Above: All I can say is: “Scary!”

Random Fall Kid Events

Here are some random events from the Fall of 2008:

Above: Donovan was named the “Stallion of the Month” for his 3rd Grade class the first two months of the school year. One kid from each class is chosen for excellence in academics as well as citizenship.

Above: This is Shayne and Ashley at an Achievement Days (Church group for girls ages 8-11) Mother and Daughter activity. We got to do each other’s hair and makeup. Luckily Ashley went easy on me in the makeup department (I’m allergic to a lot of things)…but she begged me to go crazy on her makeup…so I did .

Above: Who needs to go camping? We just made a fire pit in the backyard. The kids LOVED it. We roasted marshmallows.

Above: We finally got the hot tub fired up that is on the back porch. We hadn’t done anything with it since we moved into the house at the end of July. The kids obviously were pleased.

Above: One of the perks of being a stay-at-home mom is that you get to go on all of the field trips that the kids go on. In October Ashley and I got to go to the Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center. We got to learn a lot about plants and animals that are naturally found in Georgia.

The picture above is of Ashley (Left), her friend Ka, and her teacher, Mrs. Simpson. Oh, yeah, and the bear.

Above: This is Shayne and Ashley having a gourmet sack lunch on the floor during the field trip.

Above: This is Ashley’s class outside enjoying nature at the Wildlife Center. It was really beautiful there.