Happy Halloween

 We had a fantastic Halloween this year. Thanks to Aunt Kris we had awesome costumes and thanks to our cute girls they played the parts perfectly! Kaylee definitely got into her Cruella De Vil character. She ran around all night shouting. "Anita darling," accent and all and who could be more cute than Kennie as a puppy! We had a blast trick or treating with friends and family

 The best we could get...Kaylee was mad at my dad who was stealing her candy!

 Miss De Vil

 

One dang cute Puppy

 

And of course for Preschool we must dress as someone else! 

 

Firestation fun, year 2!

Who doesn't love a fun field trip especially when its to the Fire Station. Kennady came along this year and we had a lot of fun eating cotton candy and popcorn, spraying the fire hose, learning how to be safe during a fire and being with friends.

Big Kids

Yes. It is true. Shane and I are officially big kids now. Shane got a job at Fidelity. His first REAL job. Not alarms or commision only, not $8 an hour or at absurd hours, but a real with benefits and paid time off kind of job. We are so excited to start living like realy people. Now just a few more weeks till he officialy graduates. Oh the joy.

Because at the Packs...

We LOVE to throw parties. One day I dream of owning a bigger house to throw parties in, but regardless we love having our friends and family over. I mean you have a great reason to celebrate then you add in some yummy food and you've got a party. Obviously we had to celebrate Mr. Pack graduating college, so we did!! Thanks to all who came to show love and support for Shane. We love you all! Congrats again babe!

Preschool andJoyschool

 The girls both started Preschool and Joyschool the same day. They were both super excited and super cute.

 Best Friends

My Grandpa Shepherd is an amazing man. He keeps our family close with his tiring efforts to plan and organize our chaos. He is the epitome of selflessness and kindness and is the greatest Super Grandpa there is making sure he tries to attend everything his 29 grand kids do. I feel blessed to be the oldest grandchild so that I have had the opportunity to create a friendship with my grandparents. Bottom line, he rocks!

Father's Day this year was the same picture as before with all the family up at my grandparents where the men had their own special room where they were waited on and served dinner. It's fun and we get the same royal treatment on Mother's Day. The only thing different this year was that Grandpa was missing. He was not feeling well. The next day he ended up in the ER with severe back pain and later we found out he had suffered a heart attack without having the usual symptoms. This horrible news seemed to start a chain of crazy events. The family came to found out that our overly-energetic-loves-to-golf grandfather had some serious clogged arteries and needed bypass surgery. Unfortunately because of the pain in his back, which turned out to be an abscess caused by a pulled tooth gone bad, he could not receive the surgery until he was more mobile and to kill the infection he had to be on antibiotics for months. It literally felt like every time something looked to be getting better something else, like his esophagus tearing, would happen.

Luckily my grandpa is ok. After a lot of fasting and praying things started to get better. He received a 6 bypass, crazy, and the antibiotics started to help his back feel better and get rid of the abscess. After some time in rehab he is home and recovering well. Now if only he would take it easy :)

Although this was a crazy and hard time for our family it taught me personally a lot about Heavenly Father's plan. In my mind my grandparents are invincible. This was a sad reminder that they are not. However I was able to see that all his pain had been a blessing. If he would not have had such severe back pain he would have never gone to the hospital which would have never revealed the weak condition of his heart. Also his having to wait so long for his body to get strong only helped him be able to recover better after his intense surgery. The Lord does have a plan. The seemingly unusual or bad luck moments in our lives always seem to bring about the best in the end leaving us looking back saying, "Wow, that was why."

I am grateful to the Lord for letting us keep my Grandpa Shepherd around for a while longer and I am grateful to my Grandpa Shepherd who is an amazing person. God does grant us tender mercies and this was truly one of them.

Alert the press

On this day marks a monumental occasion..My wonderful husband has earned his degree! Yes, We are thrilled. Not only did he graduate in Accounting, but he got amazing grades too. So finally after years of changing majors and taking breaks he is finished. The last two years with no school breaks, crappy jobs and living like college kids for what seems like forever has been hard, but it is over. I am SO proud of his hard work and dedication. Well done Shane. Now to the next part of our lives.

Vegaversary

Shane and I headed to Vegas to celebrate 7 years of bliss......and babies, school, stress, crazy, constant moving etc. We hitched a ride with Ryan and Halie and spent a wonderful kid free weekend together. It was filled with sleep, delicious food and fun. We went and saw Phantom of the Opera and it was AMAZING. We had a good time just the two of us. We sure did miss the girls, but it was fun being all fun and flirty together again.

Thanks for the first 7 years Shane. I love you and am exited to spend forever with you.

True Blue

I always love the time of year where we get to celebrate our freedom and the blessing it is to live in this country. The food and fun is nice too. I feel proud to be an American and cherish every small and simple thing in my life! This year we were up in Alpine celebrating the 4th of July. We camped in the Packs backyard and then the girls went to the parade with Grandma and Grandpa to watch for Hattie and Katie. Later we went to celebrate with the Shepherd family with some delicious BBQ then of course some good ol fireworks. It was a fun day.