She's Here!

This week another Shirley cousin was born to Levi & Amber. Amber, the original Lou, was the oldest with all brothers. Now she has 3 very cute boys and FINALLY a girl!! We are so excited for you! Here is the long awaited little princess!

Verin Brooke Shirley

Despite what Levi says I really doubt she will be treated just like one of the boys! I predict that within the year she will have Levi wrapped around her little finger! ;)

Welcome to the Main Event!

And that is pretty much how it was, an event! Don't get me wrong. I think our Relief Society Birthday Enrichment turned out really well. It was well attended, and both of the activities turned out great. It was just getting to the point that was one event after another. (When I say event, I don't necessarily mean it was pleasant!)

It all started on Monday, the day before Enrichment, when I went to pick up the pictures I had sent to Wal-Mart to be printed. (We were using baby pictures of some of the sisters in the ward, and then we were having everyone guess whose bay pictures was whose.) It had taken me a couple weeks to round them all up and get the all scanned so that we didn't have to use any originals. So I go to pick them up and the clerk tells me there was a problem with some of my pictures. She then proceeds to sort, them in front of me, into two piles. She said that HALF of them were "professional" photos and so she couldn't give them to me without a release form. I couldn't believe it. The youngest of all the photos is OVER 24 years old! I explained that most of the pictures were 30-40 years old and it would me impossible to track down where the photos where taken. She still said she couldn't give them to me. Then when I asked her what she was going to do with them she said she was going to shred them! For a brief moment I thought about quickly grabbing them from her hand and running for all I was worth for the front door. Then I pictured myself being asked, "Have you ever been arrested?" "Well yes, once. I stole pictures from Wal-Mart. In my defence I did pay for them first!" This didn't seem like the best thing to do so I let her know how very displeased I was to not have ALL the pictures I needed for the next day and left. I did get the pictures by going to a near by grocery store and printing them at a kiosk. They never questioned me once. From now on I will NEVER print any pictures at Wal-Mart again! (Yes, I am still a little bit bitter!)

The next snag came when I realized, Monday night, that the Leon Valley Young Women, who we share the building with, was planning to use the gym for their activity. AAAAAAAAAAH! We already had chairs and tables set up! I called their Y.W. Pres., I knew her from our old ward, and left her a message saying we really needed the gym. She called me back Tuesday morning as I was getting ready to go finish decorating the gym for our Enrichment that evening. She said two other activities had fallen through and she didn't know what else to do with the Y.W. She was the only leader that could be there, so as a last resort they were going to play scripture basketball. I could see her predicament and asked her if she was interested in playing a game called 'Are You Smarter Than A CTR5?' She thought that sounded perfect! So in the end it helped relief her stress to already have an activity planned and greatly relieved me to know I got the gym!

With the problem solved I was loading the car with 15 minutes to be at the church and suddenly I realize I didn't have a key to the building! I had forgotten to ask Andy to leave his key for me. I grab the kids and ran to the school where Andy was VERY surprised to see us, and got the key. Then I got caught by his schedulers, who think the boys are the cutest things, on my way out. It was the first time I was grateful Daniel has separation anxiety! I usually love to visit with them, but I was supposed to already be at the church. We were able to slip out quickly and arrived 15 minutes late. Fortunately I have great members on my enrichment board and Audrey waited with her two little boys for me. (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) The decorating went pretty well. Daniel only bailed out of his stroller once, but I caught him before he hit the floor; and he only got a small cut from the scissors when I was trying to use them. (For more details about the stroller you will have to call!)

Anyway, now that this has been a novel, we got everything decorated and set up. Andy skipped his meeting to come home and take over so I could get a couple more things set up at 6 pm. The slide projector worked for our game, thanks to John Wirthlin and the Dials! John was also good enough to be our game show host. He did a great job, although he may be a little hoarse today. Our cake also turned out really well. Linsay Jarvis of the Leon Valley Ward made it for us! She did awesome! I guess I just want to say "Thank You" to everyone who helped me get this activity organized and for those who listened while I vented my many frustrations! Without you I couldn't have done it!! Now for a few pictures.

This is our cake made by the lovely and oh so talented Linsay Jarvis!
She did a great job. Thanks again!
And we have the center piece for our serving table. Andy was so good to pack the camera for me so I could get pictures and then I find out the batteries were almost dead. I got all of 4 pictures! (Three were of the cake.) I promise the other decorations were better than the serving table. I just didn't get a picture of them. I have felt a little bit bad about it, but oh well! We had a great time and that is all the matters. Thanks again to everyone involved!

In preparation for...

...Enrichment. For the last couple weeks I have been in Enrichment mode. This means that on occassion I get so focused on things for the activity that I don't realize what Bradley is up to. The other day I was typing up the answer to one of our games and I heard Bradley in the bathroom. The light was off so I wasn't too worried about him getting into things. Then he came out holding my eyelash curler. He was trying to use it and saying, "Mommy eye." I took it away from him only to realize my mascara was open on the counter. After a closer inspection I found that Bradley had been using it. He did a pretty good job! He didn't get very much on his eay at all, and there is actually a little bit on his eye lashes.

You may have to click on the picture to see it better.

He looks so cute! I got a pretty good laugh. His father was not nearly as amused as I was. :)

The next couple of pictures I thought were pretty creative on Bradley's part. He has this balloon snake from the party last week and he loves to drag it around. Daniel unwound it a little so only the eyes are still in shape. Bradley has recently been sticking things in between the eyes and carrying it around. The other night I found him watching a movie like this.

I guess he got tired of holding on to it so he pulled his shirt through the eyes and it stayed. He started trying to hit things with it after he realized I thought it was funny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are a couple more recent pictures of Daniel. Bradley got 4 pairs of sunglasses from the party we went to last week and they are scattered around the apartment! Daniel found a pair while he was scooting around, so I put them on him. I love his little smile!

I think the shirt really says it all though. Daddy is wrapped around his little finger!

(Bradley's too!)

Elders Quorum Activity

Last weekend was our ward's Elders Quorum activity. They invited the whole ward to come have a picnic at the park. Andy went to the park a couple hours early so we could get some bbq pits near the playground. We had hamburgers and hotdogs. The weather was perfect! Not too hot and not too cold. We played on the play ground and then visited and eat lunch. We had some great cooks who kept things cookin'! Thanks guys! The oh so handsome Pres. Shirley

(Richard is to the rt.)

THe Barton Family

The Grindstaff Family

Two cute primary girls!
Bro. Sheffield & Merrils Gavin & Eric
Caleb & his dad Chris
Every time Chris caught the football Caleb would clap and say "Yay Dad!" Bradley enjoying the swings Smithy
The Wirthlins Webbs
Another Webb
Everyone just starting to dig in! My cute little pig!
My cute big pig!
Wirthlins and Bartons

The full time missionaries, Bro. Konkle & Bro. Clark

Robert & Richard our full time cooks!

The CunninghamsThe Rays & Gavin

The Powells

The lovely Diane

The Geddes

Kelly Barton & Tara Bradbury

Susan & Luke (Luke's mom is below)Amber & Adelle Webb

Thanks everyone for coming! We had lots of fun and hope you did too!

Pump It Up Birthday Party!

Today we went to a birthday party for a little girl from our playgroup. It was at a place called Pump It Up. The saddest thing is that the little girl got sick and didn't get to play at all. She came just in time for the cake and presents. Here are some pictures of the fun we had today.

Daniel with the boxing gloves!
He is soooooooooo cute! I might be a little bit dias.

You can't tell very well, but Daniel, Bradley and I are at the top of this slide.

We got haulin' on the way down!
Bradley after going down a slide. He ran nonstop the entire time we were there.
We talked Stephanie into going down the slide.

Bradley in action!!
Jazmin & Olivia
Emma, Bradley & Caleb behind Bradley

Cade & Bradley climbing up the backside of one of the slides.
Cade & Bradley racing down. I think Cade won.
Bradley & Caleb

Caleb, Bradley & Nathan watching the guy make balloon animals, hats, etc...

Daniel with the snake the guy made for Bradley.
The Birthday Girl! We hope you feel better Maddie.

Bradley while he was suppose to be eating his lunch. He was so tired he didn't even finish the food in his mouth. I had to wake him to finish chewing!

Bradley got a new a outfit from Aunt Janna. It turned out that Daniel has one similar outfit so I thought I would get a picture of them together.

They are so cute!