Most Recent Entries

I just did another huge “Blog Update.”  Here are the entries that are new:

1.  Odds & Ends
2.  Sam (my sister) Visits Georgia
3.  Dancing Elves Videos
4.  Coke World with Grandma and Grandpa Slade
5.  …and More Christmas Stuff
6.  Christmas with the Noldens
7.  Christmas Morning 2009
8.  Nolden Family Christmas Letter
9.  Young Women in Excellence 2009
10.  Youth Conference 2009
11.  Thanksgiving 2009
12.  Teacher Appreciation Dinner 2009
13.  Church Service Project:  Spreading Mulch
14.  The Amazing Frank

Odds and Ends

Here are some things that have been happening recently…

This is Cody playing Foursquare with his Family Home Evening Group last semester out at BYU...

...more Foursquare...

Cody and his roommates making dessert for their Family Home Evening Group. (LtoR: Eric, Cody, Jon, and Tyler)

Ashley ice skating. This is in Old Towne Conyers...it is an outside rink that opens up every winter.

Ashley and her friends ice skating...

There is a family in our ward (The Kimbles) that have the coolest game room. Instead of painting the sheetrock...over the years they have let visitors sign their name on the wall...so now it is covered in names from all of those people. We had Family Home Evening there in December. The kids are always excited to go to their house.

There is a cabinet against one wall where you walk into the cabinet and then there is a ladder to climb to the top of it...totally kid friendly. This is Megan at the top...

...and Mikayla at the top...

...playing foosball...

PJ and Don playing foosball...

School got cancelled this year because we got 1/2 an inch of snow! The kids, of course, LOVED that. This is PJ (in Megan's hat) getting the most out of that 1/2 an inch that he possible could.

...and Don in the snow...

...and Megan giving you a good visual of the depth of the snow...

This was Elder Delgado's last dinner at our house. This is him with Julie (in front, he baptized her), their friend Edward, and Liz.

 

Sam (my sister) Visits Georgia

So, I have a really cool brother-in-law. He (Corey) gave my one and only sibling (Samantha) a great gift for Christmas…a plane ticket to come see me!!! She lives in Northern Utah and had never been out to visit. So, for 5 days Sam hung out with us in Georgia. Hopefully it wasn’t too boring for her…we tried to do a few fun things . We all enjoyed having her around!

One of the funnest things we did was go take the tour of the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta.

This is inside the CNN Center.

This was the one photo op allowed on the tour....unless you were part of the group of middle-easterner men in our group who kept taking photos anyway and got in trouble by the security guard several times. That was a little disconcerting.

On the way to take Sam to the airport, we took her to have lunch at an Atlanta landmark...The Varsity. I had never been there either, but had heard that it was a "happenin' place" to eat....so we tried it. The food is REALLY greasy and not spectacular...but at least I can say I ate there, I guess :-).

 

 

Dancing Elves Videos

I love it when Jib Jab comes out with their holiday “Me Videos” where YOU are the star of the show.  The ones this year were really cute. Check out our family dancing and singing.

Elf Dance: Frank and Shayne doing the Disco from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: Frank, Shayne and Cody Singing from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: Liz, Megan & Mikayla doing a Country Dance from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: PJ, Ashley & Don doing Hip Hop from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: Grandpa & Grandma Slade Disco from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: Grandma and Grandpa Slade Singing from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Elf Dance: Grandpa & Grandma Slade Country from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Coke World with Gr & Gr Slade

After all of the festivities, we still had time for a little bit of non-Christmas fun. We took Grandma and Grandpa Slade to downtown Atlanta to check out “The World of Coca-Cola.” Part of the tour includes a room that has like 60 different fountain drinks that they sell around the world at your disposal. You can drink as much as you want. Some of them are REALLY gross and others are good. I definitely couldn’t try all of them. I was sick after just a few. But the kids loved it.  (Mikayla didn’t go with us)

 

Us in front of the Coke Tree...

Grandma and Grandpa Slade with the Grandkids...getting ready to go into Coke World.

Ashley, Frank and Don having fun before the tour.

Frank with Grandma and Grandpa Slade.

We had to wait for a while outside...this is when we FINALLY got it.

This is the first part of the tour where they give you some background info on Coke. (Frank, Cody & Grandma)

PJ, Megan and Frank waiting for the tour to start.

The Coke Bear...he was pretty cute.

Us and the Coke Bear...

This is Grandpa Slade's famous, "Wo is me" look. He was sitting across the room waiting while we all waited in line.

Ashley and Don on the tour...

More Ashley and Don...

And Ashley...

Grandpa and Grandma Slade after the big tour of Coke World...

 

…and More Christmas Stuff

Here are some odds ands ends that went on at Christmastime…

That Sophie! Awe...she's so cute...when she's not taking off up the driveway and making us hunt her down...

Grandma and Grandpa Slade...they're so cute!

Liz and Megan hanging out with Grandma Slade...

That's my dad..."Pard."

Liz with Grandpa...

Lizzie with her dad...

I love this picture. That's Frank walking up the driveway with Grandma and Grandpa Slade...I'm not sure where they were going...

We invited the missionaries over on Christmas Night and some neighbors. We had lots of goodies (like we hadn't already had tons of goodies for the past week) and played a mean game of Charades...that's Elder Delgado with Frank.

 

 

The missionaries and Ashley trying to decipher the charade going on....

Sister Whitworth up at bat...

Elders Eversole and Delgado. We gave them stockings full of goodies...

The fam with the Spanish Speaking Elders (Delgado and Eversole-who is from Vegas)...

This was at the Ward Christmas Party. Ashley hanging out with Santa.

Donovan and Santa...

These are all of the full-time missionaries in Conyers (at the time). They did a Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer song and dance at the ward Christmas Party. See the video below. Back L to R: Eversole, Peterson (aka Santa), Folker, Delgado, & Kilpelainen. Front L to R: Whitworth & Leavitt.

 

***Watch the missionaries doing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at the Ward Christmas Party. Too cute!! (You can click on the link below it to watch a LARGER version on the Vimeo website).

Missionaries Doing the Rudolph Story from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

***All of our kids did a skit at the Ward Christmas Party as well. This is a skit they saw when we visited Nauvoo back in the Summer of 2007. Liz recorded it and they brought it home, learned it, and perform it every now and then. I think they did a really good job!

Makin’ Eggs Skit from Shayne Nolden on Vimeo.

Christmas with the Noldens

We were able to have a second Christmas celebration with the Noldens & Jacksons again this year. Grandpa and Grandma Nolden were there as well as Sandi and Larry. Marc and Lynn weren’t able to make it this time.

Sandi's family opening up presents...

Frank and his mom watching kids open presents...

Shayne, "Woohoo, an ergonomic keyboard!!!"

The Jackson Bunch

Ashley scoring another cool present...

Grandpa Nolden, Grandpa Slade and Grandma Slade....Wake Up Grandpa Slade!!!

More presents...

Grandma Nolden, Frank and Liz

Mikayla, "Woohoo, iTunes cards for my new iPod - and socks to wear while I buy music!!!"

 

Sandi and Seth...

Cody

Hannah Banana striking a pose...

...and another...

So, we had a non-traditional Christmas Dinner (the day after Christmas). Grandma Slade helped us make her famous chili beans and we had Navajo Tacos. Yum!!! She did a LOT of cooking while she was there....which we all loved.

More cooking with Gr. Slade...

We all pitched in...Cody, Shayne & Mikayla hard at work.

Cody...it was so great to have him home...if only for a short visit...

Grandpa Slade supervising the action...

We rolled out massive amounts of dough for the fry bread...

I love this picture of the girls with Grandma Slade. We were on our way over to Sandi and Larry's house for another great dinner...this time it was a German affair...

Cody holding one of the pies that Gr. Slade made.

Larry and Gr. Nolden busy in the kitchen. Gr. Nolden was born in Germany and has passed on her great German recipes to Sandi.

This is a shirt that Frank made PJ for Christmas. PJ wants to get a Smart Car really bad when he is old enough.

Time to eat.

Cody chillin' by the fireplace before dinner.

More chillin...

Larry hanging out before dinner...

 

Christmas Morning 2009

We had a GREAT Christmas.  Grandpa and Grandma Slade flew out from Utah to be with us…which made it that much better.  They were with us a for a week and we had a lot of fun.

Grandma and Grandpa Slade

Mikayla, Liz and PJ opening presents....

Ashley opening presents...

Liz and PJ mugging for the camera...

Cody got a nice racquetball racquet...he and his dad are avid RB players...

Megan and Sophie opening presents...

Frank opening his presents...

Donovan, "Woohoo! Finally, more Wii games!"

Grandma and Grandpa Slade still hanging out...watching the festivities...

 

Nolden Family Christmas Letter

Click below:

2009 FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER

Young Women in Excellence

Every year our Young Women (ages 12-18) at church have a program called “Young Women in Excellence.”  This is where we celebrate the goals they have set and then completed in the “Personal Progress” Program over the past year.  This year we had theme of:  “The Oscars: A Night of Stars.”  The girls dressed up in formals and we did it like an awards show.  Liz and her friend Alex were the hosts.  They also were instrumental in putting on the program…it was one of the 10 hour projects they did for Personal Progress as well.

Liz all dressed up...

Megan all dressed up...

Mikayla all dressed up...

Ashley wasn't technically old enough to be there, but she didn't have her church activity that night, so she got to attend some of it too.

This is Liz and Alex (at the podium) acting as the hosts...

All of the girls won some kind of award for their efforts over the year. This is Liz asking them questions after they received their award.

More Questions...

More Questions...

Even the Bishop got an award! Kirstin is overcome with the honor of the award :-).

Liz interviewing Kirstin...

Liz interviewing Sariah...

Liz interviewing Laura Z...

Liz interviewing Laura W...our newest Beehive.

Liz, Mikayla and Megan sang a song for part of the program as well...they did a fabulous job!

Liz interviewing Daija and Dorian....

Our fearless leaders, Betsy and Julie, in a deep discussion...

This is such a cute picture (Liz took it)...Melissa (our Laurel advisor) with her little man, Sawyer.