Family Christmas Photos

This past weekend we "finally" went out and took our family Christmas pictures. We had so much fun being together in search of the perfect picture! I was finally able to have everyone match for Christmas! No complaining either! Miracles do happen! Hope you enjoy the pictures! Elizabeth and Amberly
Elizabeth and Eyn (Elizabeth was attempting to be taller than Eyn. I think she sometimes gets mistaken for being younger than him because she is so much shorter than him. Sorry Elizabeth! You'll appreciate that someday!)

Eyn and Amberly

McShane family

McShane Children

Absolutely Hillarious!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween!

Halloween is such a fun holiday! It was extra special this year because it was on a Friday and we didn't have to worry about getting up for school/work the next day! Here's how our night went...

Elizabeth had to sing the National Anthem at the High School Football game so she went there first and then left the game after singing and came home and changed into her costume and went to a party some friends from choir were having. She had a blast and got home around Midnight wanting to tell us all about it! I failed to get a picture of her on my camera. Bummer!!

Eyn was our candy disperser for the evening. We noticed that there wasn't as many trick or treaters this year. I don't think he minded because he liked the leftovers.

Trent and Amberly had a great time roaming throughout our entire neighborhood. We followed them around part of the time with the top down in Darin's car. It was a beautiful night to be out!

They returned home exhausted but with bags full of treasure! I guess you can say it was a successful evening!

Trent has become quite the Star Trek fan and so of course he had to go as out

as Captain Trent McShane.

Trent and Amberly ready to attack the neighborhood!

Amberly as Dorothy. She was excited because Elizabeth did her make-up for the night. Amberly loves to dress up!

Happy Halloween 2008!!

Kindergarten Book Character Parade

Today the Kindergarten classes at our school had a Book Character Parade. Each student picked a book and dressed up as a character in it. Amberly chose The Wizard of Oz and dressed up as Dorothy. She looked adorable! She really wanted to be Dorothy because she wanted to take her Puppy to school. Here is Ms. Ljungdahl Amberly's Kindergarten teacher dressed up as Minnie Mouse. Her class is lined up after her.
Here comes Amberly! Aren't they all cute! They invited all the parents to come up and after the children paraded the school for all the other grade levels they came out and paraded for us!

Beautiful Amberly starring as Dorothy!

Pumpkin Carving

Each year our family has fun carving pumpkins. We have always done a boys pumpkin and a girls pumpkin. It's a fun family tradition we all look forward to. With everyone's crazy schedule it's sometimes hard to accomplish, but we always do it!

I love Amberly's face in this picture as she was reaching in to pull some gooey seeds and guts out of the pumpkin. Trent and Darin hard at work on their pumpkin.

Amberly and Elizabeth working together on our masterpiece!

Love the face expression Trent!

Elizabeth getting her hands all gooey!

The Boy's Finished pumpkin!

Great job!

Introducing the girls finished pumpkin!

We call him Edward the vampire M & M pumpkin!

(Edward from the Twilight book series!)

Tricia's Birthday

We celebrated my 39Th birthday on October 23rd. My family and friends really made it a great day for me! The day started by smelling fresh homemade muffins. Elizabeth had gotten up before Seminary (by 5:00 AM) to make them to be ready when I got up. They were yummy!

When I went out to take Amberly and Trent to school we found that 3 sneaky people had painted my van! Before they left they had painted my windows with words like - Honk It's my birthday, 39 (for the first time), pictures of a cake with candles, balloons, etc. It was funny! It was kind of fun to get honked at! (I always jumped first and then laughed.) I went out to lunch with a sweet friend and was able to talk to friends on the phone throughout the day. That evening we ended up eating Subway and enjoyed yummy birthday pie. I told Darin I wanted Pie instead of a cake. It was yummy! It was a great day! Thanks everyone!

Eyn's Birthday Party

We had a fun time celebrating Eyn's Birthday! Its nice having a Sunday birthday because we could celebrate the entire day! Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon came over for the day. Eyn wanted to play Monopoly so the boys had a fun time playing that. We had hamburgers and hot dogs cooked out on the grill and Eyn's favorite potato salad. It was yummy and fun!

Eyn had said several months ago that he wanted a pink chocolate cake. I'm sure it was a joke, but no one would let it be forgotten! So he had a HUGE 3 layer chocolate cake with pink and green frosting. It actually was really good!First bite of cake. (Family tradition - no hands allowed!) Eyn was excited about the new stereo he got for his room. I don't know if my ears were ready for it!
Money is always one of Eyn's favorite gifts!

We hope you had a great birthday Eyn! We're so glad your a part of our family!

Happy Birthday Eyn!

Happy 15th Birthday Eyn!
How grateful we are to have Eyn as a part of our family.

He adds more than he will ever know to our family.

Eyn was born in Tucson Arizona on October 12, 1993. He was by far my easiest labor! I ended up having to have a C-section at the end, but being in labor was an incredible spiritual experience for me. He arrived weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz. with lots of red hair! Over the years the red has diminished into a beautiful strawberry blond. Eyn came out long and has never stopped growing. At 15 he now stands at around 6'2. Out of all of our children I have to say that Eyn is my most obedient child. I'm afraid I may take advantage of that sometimes. Whenever I ask him to do something, he does it. We can trust him to get the job done and do it without all the complaining. I love my moments with Eyn when he opens up and talks to me. I love Eyn's love for sports! I absolutely love watching him play basketball! It is my favorite season of the year! He is sooo competitive and hard on himself, but he is incredibly talented! Our family has been greatly blessed with Eyn in our family.

Happy Birthday Eyn!

Eyn and PawPaw at about 8 months old.

Eyn with his 1st Basketball trophy! He's acquired quite a few now!
My gentle Giant. I love this picture!


October 12th - Happy Birthday Eyn!

Ice Cream for pictures

Last night I took Elizabeth, Eyn and Amberly out for ice cream. Going to get ice cream was just a bribery to try and get Eyn to take some pictures. Well, I failed miserably! He did not want to cooperate and take pictures but I did get a few cute ones of Elizabeth and Amberly. (Eyn said I only wanted them so I could put them on my blog and he didn't want that. UGH!! It was actually for Elizabeth's birthday project for him. His 15th birthday is tomorrow.) Amberly is enjoying spending the weekend with the kindergarten huskies this weekend. She got to bring home Holland Husky and her baby Binny for the weekend. She has had fun documenting their activities together which she will share with her class on Monday.

Spartan Homecoming 2008

Last week was Seven Lakes High School's Homecoming. We went to the parade on Wednesday evening where Elizabeth was on the Super Choir float. All of the choir students had dressed up in Super Hero outfits. They won the best float award! ($300) It was a lot of fun! These are just a few of the pictures from the parade. I added this one because Elizabeth is a Senior!
The Spartan Football Team.
I spent ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT working on Elizabeth's Homecoming overalls. Its a cute tradition here in Texas. She looked cute all ready to go to school here. (Elizabeth made the flip flops that matched the overalls)
Here is Elizabeth again getting ready to go to the football game. The chorale sings the National Anthem for each home game. They sound awesome!! Doesn't she look cute!!
Senior 2009! Go Spartans!

Ike Service Project

Each year before the Relief Society General Broadcast session our Stake puts on a special dinner for all the women in our Stake. It has become quite a big thing for the women here! Considering we were still recovering from hurricane Ike we decided to do a service project instead. Our incredible Stake Relief Society president came up with the fabulous idea of thanking the first responders in our area. We gathered all the women in our stake and made 50 "Sunshine" Baskets and then the next day sisters from all over the stake took these baskets to various locations to express appreciation for all that they had done and continue to do. It was an amazing event! We are constantly trying to find ways to bridge the community with the church and this was perfect! Baskets were delivered to various fire stations, police stations, hospitals, red cross shelters, the Houston and Galveston Mayors. The outpouring of love put into each basket could be felt in the room as they were assembled because each one of us there had been affected by the hurricane one way or another and are so grateful for those who put their lives on hold to go out and help others in need.

Happy 18th Anniversary!

(I know this is late, but I could not not write about this special day in my life.)

On September 21st, 1990 Darin and I Were married in the Dallas Texas LDS Temple. What a wonderful day it was! It was so wonderful to have family and friends with us there to share this special day. But that was only the beginning! 18 years have gone by since that beautiful day and words cannot express the feelings I have for this wonderful man in my life. My life has been greatly blessed by having him in my life. He is more than a husband. He is my best friend. He is my strength. He is everything to me. I look at my life and the love we have for each other and especially the love that I feel from him daily and it is sometimes hard to believe that I could be so blessed. We have had our rough spots over the years, but together we have been strengthened and made stronger for those times. My favorite time of day is when he comes home from work and just holds me in his arms. I love those moments!
Our story:
My first memory of Darin is seeing him in Sunday School class at church. I had come home from BYU for Christmas and saw him sitting by his mom. He had just recently moved to Midland. We had a young single adult activity during the break and played volleyball. (Darin hates this memory!) Well, we were all playing volleyball and my brother Tom went up and spiked the ball, right in Darin's face! Needless to say, I laughed. :)
My next memories of Darin is the next summer after a semester at school. Darin was the young single adult rep. for our ward. I talked to him occasionally, thought he was weird. I started dating a guy I worked with, but I really didn't tell anyone about this guy. Well, Darin started calling me and reminding me of different activities happening. I was never at home so he and my mom started talking quite a bit. He found out I sang and wanted to sing a duet with me. I said, "Sure", but I never did anything more about it. He kept coming around and I just wanted him to leave me alone. But, I didn't say it. He asked me out and I actually stood up the guy I had been dating to go out with Darin. (Ouch!) We had fun, but I still didn't want anything to do with him. He kept coming around and even showed up where I worked one day. Yes, the other guy was there too! Talk about uncomfortable! I recorded in my journal at that time that I didn't know why, but I just couldn't tell him I was dating this other guy. Well, during this time I was serving as the temporary Primary secretary in our ward for the summer and Darin was a primary teacher. One Sunday as I was sitting in the back of the primary room I had one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life. I sat there crying during the experience and knew that I had to break up with this other guy. I knew that my future children depended on that. It was a moment I will never forget. A few weeks later I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting about what I was doing now to prepare for my future family. I hadn't shared this experience with anyone and decided to share it. After the meeting Darin came up to me and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. I was like, OH great. Now what. We walked over to be alone and he asked me if the experience I had shared really happened. YES. Did it happen at this specific time on this date. YES. "Well, that's interesting. Because at that specific time I had the same experience myself." I just looked at him and said. "That's nice. Talk to you later." and left. I went out to my car where Delisa (my best buddy) was waiting. I got in the car and just started screaming! I told Delisa what had happened and she just started laughing! I wasn't happy. Well, the next Sunday was the last Sunday of the summer before heading back to BYU and after church as Delisa and I were in my car ready to leave she rolled down the window and called Darin over. I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING!! She then asked him for his address so that we could write to him. UGH!! Well, a month later I finally did decide to write to him. I wrote to him and apologized for the way I had acted and told him that I had been dating another guy all summer and just didn't know how to tell him. From that point on we began to write each other and occasionally talk on the phone. I went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and spent time with him during each trip. I was confused and scared of this whole relationship. I had been hurt by a few guys and honestly didn't trust my own feelings. It was funny because my roommates would always tell me if you don't like the guy just tell him to get lost. I couldn't. On April 1st he called and I decided to play an April fools joke on him. Let's just say that over the years I have played too many of these jokes on him and they always backfire on me!! Well, I told him I was dating this guy and that it was really serious and I felt like he was the one. He was really quiet on the phone. He then told me "That's interesting. Because theres this girl here that has been really interested in me and we just spent some time at the beach together. (He was in Mississippi at the time) I was shocked! I then told him April Fools. Silence on the phone. Of course his wasn't a joke. I can't really explain what happened at that moment, but everything changed within me. I was still scared, but it was different. Yes, I was jealous, but I finally realized just how much he meant to me. Over the next few weeks our conversations changed and we started talking about our future together. I went to the temple during that time and was praying and truly felt in my heart that Yes, he was the one for me. On the night before my first final (not a good idea!) Darin got down on one knee in a telephone booth in Mississippi and proposed to me. I wouldn't answer him over the phone, but we both knew what my answer was! (Let's just say I didn't do too well on that final the next day!) A month later I drove to see Darin in Mississippi and we became officially engaged. Our engagement was a long distance relationship. The amazing thing about our relationship is that we truly became friends first.
Each day I thank my Heavenly Father for bringing this man into my life. I love him with all my heart and I truly do look forward to spending Time and all Eternity with him by my side.

This picture was one of our engagement pictures.

While we were engaged Darin was going through technical training in the Air Force. We were fortunate that a few weeks after we were engaged he went to Wichita Falls Texas for further training. I was able to go and visit him on some weekends and he even was able to come to Midland some too. This picture was taking on a weekend that Delisa and I went there to go to an Air Force banquet. (I have the funniest story about Delisa from that weekend!)
We were married in the Dallas Texas Temple. While we were in the Temple it had begun to drizzle rain but right before we came out the clouds cleared and it was a beautiful breezy day!
We were able to go to Colorado for our Honeymoon. We spent 5 glorious days together there!
I'm looking forward to many more memories with this wonderful man!

IKE Aftermath

The last few days have definitely been different here. School, work, church, have all been cancelled and so we have all had lots of time at home. School is suppose to start back tomorrow here and we will find out later today if Darin gets to go back to work yet. (Update: School cancelled the remainder of this week and Darin will be home all week as well. UGH!!!!!)

Darin and I went to the grocery store yesterday to get milk and luckily they had just received a shipment of it. The HEB by our house in the largest one in the Houston area so they are working hard to get it stocked. It was strange going through there and seeing so many shelves empty. No lunch meats, cheese, yogurts, juices, no bananas but they were stocking lots of the produce. People were leaving the store with baskets full of ice and water. Oh how thankful I am that we have power and water!! There are still so many people without power in our area and I am so thankful!

We have been greatly blessed with the cooler weather. We worked outside in the yard yesterday a long time and it was nice to have a cool breeze. We have definitely been blessed! We also drove around yesterday and viewed some of the destruction. Our neighbors parents will be staying with them for a while due to all the damage at their home.

With church being cancelled this last Sunday we were asked to hold our own devotionals in our homes. For part of ours we divided into two groups (Elizabeth, Eyn, and Trent and Mom, Dad and Amberly) and had to choose scripture stories and act them out without speaking. The other group had to guess which story it was. Monday night for family home evening we expounded on this had we had to pick Scripture stories and apply them to our time. I was really impressed with how great they did!! Everyone seemed to have lots of fun doing it and I loved how well E, E and Trent worked together. It was fun both days!

Darin went out today and did some power washing to our house and sidewalks. There was leaves and dirt splattered all over our house. It looks so much better now! Here is what our garbage pile looks like thus far. All of our backyard hasn't been picked up yet. Garbage was scheduled to be picked up yesterday, but there is no telling how long we will have to wait for it.