Christmas!!!!

Jason, Noah & Ryan Christmas Day....ahhhh

Bill and Heather, Christmas Eve....

The blanket I made Noah with his football #...

This picture cracks me up....look closely and you

will see the nerf bullet Ryan shot towards me...

Christmas Eve outstide PapaDeaux's

Noah tries frog legs..... :)

The boys get to touch a live lobster....

Mom and her boys before dinner.....

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year! My parents came down on Christmas Eve and we all went to PapaDeaux for dinner. The boys loved it and were able to try Frog Legs for the first time..LOL (See pics above) Nanny and Grandpa were able to see first hand how much food their grandsons can take in......now they understand how expensive it is for us to take them out...LOL I have to admit, it was great to just relax and not have to cook the food and clean up after....I ordered my favorite Coconut Shrimp and just sat back and enjoyed my family. The boys....and by boys...I mean the kids, Dad and Grandpa, were able to touch one of the lobsters they had in a tank which was very cool.

Christmas Day was very relaxing as well. We played numerous games and hardly saw Ryan due to the XBox in his room...LOL He felt so grown up to have it in his room! We played a great game called Pictureka with Noah and we were laughing so hard we almost fell off the chairs....this was NOT Nanny's game. LOL Its like "Find Waldo" where you have 30 seconds to find a certain picture in a huge map of pictures. Too funny!

The men disappeared for a bit to play pool...(Their Christmas Tradition) while Mom and I cooked. Dinner was OUTSTANDING....prime rib, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs....yum, yum, yum.

The next morning I picked Mom up at 5:30am and we hit the mall to go shopping with gift cards we had.....that too, is a tradition...LOL We got some amazing deals and were back at the house by 8:30am.....Can't beat it!

I hope you all had a wonderful, crazy, relaxed, humorous Christmas and I wish you all a BLESSED New Year!

Love to all,

Heather

Prelude to Christmas....

We have had a wonderful December and while I am very bummed that my good camera is out of commission....I was able to use my backup and get a few great pics to share. We started out with the Boys "Winter Concert" at school. The music teacher got up and said, "Good evening...its that time of year where I should say Happy Holidays". My friend and I looked at each other and set wonderful examples for our children as we yelled, "Merry Christmas" at the top of our longs. To which we received "The Look" from the music teacher...LOL We proceeded to watch 2 1/2 hours of classes singing winter songs which was cute at times when it is your own child singing. Poor Ryan had a child standing next to him that should have had his own stage. He was a performer in every way. When he would sing, he would fling his arms right in Ryan's face and Ryan would jump up and down trying to see out in the crowd..LOL

Noah's class was very cute, singing "You Can't Catch Me I'm the Gingerbread Man" Christian was at the very end of the concert playing with the advanced guitar class and they were great! It was a bit frustrating to have the principal interrupt their songs and ask everyone to put their chairs up...but that is typical of her. (As you can tell, there is no love lost between myself and the principal)

What is December without Christmas Cookies? The boys had a great time decorating a TON of cookies and when I came back a half hour later I saw that the dogs had EATEN MORE THEN HALF OF THE COOKIES! Urggg.... those dogs! Suffice it to say they were outside for the next 2 days straight...lots of whining going on out back! LOL

Here are some pics of the boys right before the concert wearing White and decorating the cookies. NOTE: For those of you that have heard stories about how our dog Sasha acts like a human and takes over the bed.....hope you love the picture! :)

Night Terrors Passed On......

If you are reading this post, I am sure you know me well enough to understand that I have frequent, powerful Night Terrors. Unfortunately, I have passed this on to Noah. I thought at first that it was just an infrequent event that happened once in a while throughout a year but that is no longer the case. He is afraid to go to sleep now as he KNOWS he will have a nightmare. I have to promise him that he can come to my room if he gets one before I can turn out the light each night! Within an hour or two, he is in my bed shaking and clings to me. :(

I cannot tell you how this saddens me. These night terrors have plagued my life and controlled my sleep for as long as I can remember. I spent more nights in my Mom's bed then I did in mine growing up....even when I was a teenager! Now, Jason is constantly having to tell me "Its okay, you are just dreaming...go back to sleep". Its hard to explain the anxiety they produce but I will try.....

These are not your average little nightmare that you can't remember. Noah and I wake up screaming and running, breathing to the point of hyper-ventalating and it takes awhile to calm down. The images in our dreams are so vivid it is hard to separate the dream from reality. I am seeing the same characteristics in Noah that my entire family has explained about me my entire life. Even my SIC's had to witness my lovely Night Terror/Sleep Walking bit when we shared a room for the Women of Faith Conference! So frustrating!

I have tried prayer, my Mom had me in counseling when I was younger....nothing helps and to know that Noah is showing severe signs of following in my footsteps does not make me feel great!

We want better for our children and trust me this is an extremely dibilitating experience that controls your sleep, or lack thereof, as it is easier to not sleep sometimes. :(

Please pray for Noah that this will pass for him and not consume his life the way it has mine.......

Shaver Happenings...

As usual we have have been extremely busy lately in the Shaver household. We spent Thanksgiving with Jason's sister in Prescott Valley. It was so surreal to be back there and see that I hardly recognized it anymore. Who would have thought that PV would have Kohl's...LOL We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with tons of food, the boys played on the rhino and dirt bikes and then had a blast with the potato launcher stuffing mashed potatoes, rolls, creamed corn etc, into a tube and firing it across the yard...(you women realize that by boys I mean MEN right? LOL) Jason and I took all 7 cousins up to Jerome and then we saw a hockey game in PV. PV has a professional arena...who would have thought?????

I was able to go Black Friday shopping with my SIL's neighbor Lisa and had a great time. It seems that we were destined to meet! We instantly had alot in common including our love for the Lord and Lisa opened a door to a potential 2nd income for me while Jason's industry of work is suffering. I am going to start selling Cookie Lee Jewelry and hope to bring in a little extra $$ while having a blast wearing jewelry I love! I plan on taking off with it in January full force so if you are interested in a party or buying from a catalog if you are out of state, let me know! :)

This past weekend, we spent our 11th Anniversary in Laughlin, Nevada for a Pop Warner Bowl Game with Ryan's team. We had so much FUN! Cosmic Bowling with the team, hanging out in hotel rooms and at the arcade, car shows, etc. We went dancing with 2 other couples and had a phenomenal time. What a blessing to share our joy with good friends. :)

As we near CHRISTmas I can't help but be thankful that I have my family. We may be having a hard time financially at the moment but we are blessed in so many ways. Family, Friends, new opportunities, and the ever constant love of our FATHER. May we all remember that with HIM all things are possible.

I'm off for now...Christian is home from school with Strep Throat....poor kid!

I SURVIVED the 3Day Walk!!!!!!

Its official....I survived a 60 mile walk! It was a BLAST! The stories from survivors and their spouses were unbelievably heart wrenching, the main speaker lifted us up each night and got us dancing, I took my first shower in a semi trailer, I cried as the last walker came in each night, I was over-come with thankfullness to see all the people that came out to support the walkers, I met a group of ladies I hope to be friends with for a long time to come and.....drumroll please.......I won the 3Day Rockstar Karaoke competition! LOL

It was so amazing....I highly recommend the event to everyone! It is just so empowering and really brings you back to the important things in life. Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

Crossing the Finish Line
Taking a picture with the firemen
Cancer can kiss my blisters...to which I had many..LOL
Raising our shoes to honor the survivors
The boys made posters for me - Total "Dad Had me for the weekend Hair! LOL)
"Superstar" pose with the ladies I met on the last day

She's Off......

Okay everyone......lots of prayer is needed for me this weekend. I will be leaving my house at 4:30am on Friday morning to start the 3Day Breast Cancer Walk. I will start in Gilbert, walk 20 miles to Camp where there will be food, karaoke, rembembrance tents etc. I will then camp out in one of the thousands of pink tents in the "Village". Saturday morning I will wake up and start it all over again walking thru Tempe, over the Tempe Town Lakes, etc. and back to camp. Sunday morning I will walk thru Old Town Scottsdale and end up at the Scottsdale Stadium for Closing Ceremonies where Jason and the boys will meet me after walking a total of 60 MILES!!!

I cannot express how excited I am for this. I have trained for an entire year, raised $2200 and I am SO READY!

Please pray for my endurance and strength physically and mentally this weekend. There will be numerous stories of sadness and triumph from fellow walkers, many of which have battled cancer.

I appreciate all your support over the past year and can't wait to show you all the pictures!!!!!

Check in next week to see the details.

Love,
Heather

The Banana Man.....

I'm sure you never thought it was possible but this past weekend the Shaver clan attended a Halloween Party and Jason was...... a BANANA! LOL He was hilarious! He kept standing next to people putting his hand in their pocket and saying, "Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" LOL Too funny. We were all in the kitchen and Jason said to the room...."Gotta split" and too off running. Oh my gosh he was too funny that night. He ended up winning the best costume of the night due to his ability to BE THE BANANA...LOL
(I was Jason's girl....wearing his lettermen's jacket, class ring and crazy 90's hair)

I am less than 3 weeks from my 3Day Breast Cancer Walk....So EXCITED! I am only about $200 short of my goal of $2200 and hope to get it this weekend. After training and fundraising for a year....I can't believe it is almost here...very cool and of course....I will have my trusty camera with me to take snapshots for everyone :)

Have you ever wished you would have stopped something five minutes earlier? The boys and their friends...about 16 of them meet each Sunday afternoon to play a game of football for fun. This is of course after playing all day on Saturday in Pop Warner...LOL So they get together and I walk 8 miles during their play. The Mom's are standing around watching them and we call out "5 minutes" and they are all bummed as they have been having a great time for the past 3 hours! In the next five minutes we managed to have a bloody nose, 1 child went after another trying to punch him and then Christian and Ryan went after each other. It was CRAZY.....we should have stopped it 5 minutes earlier when everyone was happy.....uggg Hindsight hugh?