Santa was very generous!!

 The children were so excited to wake up and see so many gifts under the tree. Since Christmas was on Sunday, we had church at 10:00am. We let the children open their stockings before church, and then we ate a nice breakfast together. I was so proud of them for making the decision (or at least agreeing to go along with it) to wait until after church to open their gifts.

Ben received his own ipad which means he won't have to use Dad's anymore!

Haley was very happy to open an itouch with her name on it!

....and she got the purse that she really really wanted.

Hannah was thrilled to find out that there was an itouch with her name on it too.

...plus that zebra pillow pet that she really really wanted!!

Can you tell by the gifts who is moving out in a week?!?

You can never be too prepared, right?

Tyler was very happy to see this playstation with his name on it!
Allison just hopes that he lets her have a turn to play!

Zazzoo was very happy to get a bowl of milk.
It did not take him long to lick it clean!

We're having a Grandbaby!!!!

Tyler and Allison gave Russ and I a very special gift.
There were screams of delight when we opened it!
I actually knew about this ahead of time, but didn't let anyone else in on the surprise!

Grandpa and Grandma Judd received their own special gift!

The excited grandparents-to-be!!!!

Christmas Eve + chocolate fountain = one great night!!!

  What an awesome evening....we had a nice meal, exchanged sibling gifts, read from Luke 2, and wrote our annual  "what I will give to Christ this year" notes to put in our box under the tree.

              Cleaning up the chocolate fountain is quite entertaining!

Ben picked out Tyler's gift all by himself while he was on a field trip with school.  It was so fun to see what Ben chose for Tyler....salsa bowls, a mug, and a WWF belt buckle.

The children received new pajamas...

.....and then showed them off!

Veteran's Day Parade

Hannah and I met some friends downtown for the Veteran's Day parade. Haley's band from school was performing so we were excited to see her march past us. Recently I have been reading the book, Unbroken, about a WWII fighter pilot. After learning more about what our armed forces endure for our freedom, I am even more appreciative of the sacrifices our Veterans make.

Here comes the Warren Junior High Wildcat Marching Band........
They stopped right in front of us and began to play "God Bless America". It was so fun to see Haley playing her flute, looking so cute in her uniform!!

Halloween

Ben had to get dressed up for a big Halloween dance at school so he came up with this idea.....

Meet D J Ben Judd. He gave us a show the night before his party. We all laughed pretty hard as he busted a move! Ben has such a fun sense of humor, we never know quite what to expect with him!

The next day we went to the church trunk or treat. Ben decided to go as a cowboy this time. Haley was a fairy. She enjoyed wearing Emily's old costume from a play she was in a few years ago. Hannah donned the charm witch costume.....
she's quite a character!!!!

No Halloween is complete without a little pumpkin carving and pumpkin seed roasting!

Our strange visitor....

I went outside one morning to sweep the front porch and noticed this little fellow hanging on the wall. What in the world was a bat doing there? Just in time for Halloween! The poor little guy must have inhaled too much bug spray courtesy of Dewey Pest Control, because when I nudged him with the broom handle he fell off the wall and I discovered he was dead.

Time flies......

People often comment, "You don't look old enough to have a married daughter" when I tell them about Allison and Tyler. I must admit that it does seem strange to have a married child, but I love it. I remember well the day I was married, which does not seem that long ago. Where does the time go? It is wonderful how the relationship with a child develops into something much deeper when they move out on their own and become an adult. I love to watch Allison and Tyler find their way in life together, making big important mature decisions.

Go Cougars!!!!!

Since Russ is a dedicated BYU fan, he buys season tickets each year. He usually takes the children to one of the games. They really enjoy this special trip with dad!

Our budding politician.....

Now that Hannah was in fifth grade, she was eligible to run for a position on student council. She decided to run for Director of Safety. She chose a campaign manager and together they made t shirts to wear and a poster to put up in the cafeteria. Hannah wrote her own speech, complete with Hannah's humor and flair for the dramatics! It was fun to watch her give her speech to the student body. She said she was nervous, but she did a fantastic job and looked as cool as a cucumber. She ended up winning the election and is now proudly serving as Ronald Reagan Elementary School's Director of Safety. You've got to start somewhere.....who knows where this political career may end up!

Special Olympics Bowling

Another great season of bowling has come to an end for Ben, but what made it so special was that Russ was able go each week as a "mentor" bowler on Ben's team. Ben really looked forward to Tuesday nights when he and dad had their date night at the bowling alley! Ben was able to participate in a few tournaments. He received a huge trophy at the awards ceremony. That brought a very big smile to his face!!!

St George Marathon

Back in April, Russ approached me with the idea of running a marathon. I thought he was crazy....how could we run a marathon? The most we had ever run was 6.2 miles and a marathon is 26.2 miles. I laughed. His idea was that we would enter the lottery for the St. George marathon, and if we were picked we would do it, if we were not picked it wasn't meant to be. I agreed to the terms, thinking there was no way we would be picked. Well, guess what....we found out in May that WE WERE IN! That meant that we had to start training.....in Bakersfield....in the summer!! We found a training program that would have us marathon ready by October, so we began running. And running. And running. We mixed it up with runs on the bike path and on the treadmill. We trained together as much as possible to keep each other motivated. (My favorite part of training was coming home and entering my time and mileage onto the computer. My total training miles were 387!)

We rented a 4 br. condo in St George so that the whole family could come. Allison and Tyler, Grandpa and Grandma Judd, Stacy and Abby joined us as well.

We drove the course the day before to get mentally prepared for what lay ahead....

Rise and shine!! We were up at 4:30 so that we could catch the bus at 5:15 to take us up to the start of the race. I don't think I really ever slept the night before the race, my mind was busy thinking about everything all night long.
There were 7500 runners! We were the last people to cross the starting line. It took 12 minutes from the gun start to when we actually crossed the starting line. We planned it that way so as to avoid being boxed in and trampled!
We are coming up to mile 8, otherwise known as "Veyo Hill". The hill is quite steep and goes on for 1 mile. We walked the whole way to save precious energy for later in the race.
(I'm not running backwards...I just turned around for Russ to take the picture)

Here I am at mile 15...the scenery was beautiful. Russ and I were both feeling really good at this point!

Our children made such cute signs for us!
We came out of the canyon at mile 24, and then ran through town for two miles. I was so energized that first mile when I saw so many people cheering the runners on. Then I came to my family. It was awesome to see them holding signs and encouraging me!
Russ was a little ways behind me. His knee was really hurting!

Ben gave him some love!


The last mile was tough until I rounded the corner and saw the finish line. In the final stretch I saw friends and family cheering for me. It was an awesome feeling to cross the finish line!!

Russ and I had just completed a marathon!!!!

Shawna's official finish time 4:58.

Russ's official finish time 5:07
WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!