Jenny 2012

Jenny accomplished many wonderful, challenging things in 2012. With regards to her physical health, she lost much of the weight she hoped to, and finally lowered her body fat percentage to 23.8%, with is the "Fitness" zone. She began teaching Zumba classes as the permanent substitute teacher for both Kim & Krista, the Zumba instructors she takes classes from. Zumba has brought a smile to her face nearly everyday, except for the days she spent recovering from plantar fasciitis, which she most likely developed from favoring her right side while running, as her left hip has FAI with a torn labrum. She has had to tone things down a bit to compensate for these injuries so that she can still exercise and dance as much as she wants to. She began 2012 with a Just Dance semester that ended in a fabulous recital The Princess & The Frog, a Mardi Gras Spectacular! I must add that this Mardi Gras Spectacular was actually one with Mormon standards, but nonetheless, was very fun and fabulous. She incorporated a Flash Mob to the song Dynamite, by Taio Cruz, which included all of the brave audience members in attendance, and the entire cast of the show. The end of 2012 found her preparing for a Winter recital with a dance semester that was spread over the holidays because the Sanford School was to be under construction when we would have been performing in the Spring. Perhaps this is why she stopped blogging? It was a very busy and crazy time. Jenny also spent a lot of time running in 2012. She ran her very first official races with a Mud Run and the annual Adams State Homecoming 5k. While training for these races, she reached some of her fitness goals, as mentioned before, and felt that she was finally back to where she felt comfortable, physically. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving found her in charge of pies for the Sowards Family Thanksgiving feast, and so she ate way too many leftover pumpkin & bourbon chocolate pecan pies. This major sugar indulgence seemed to put her in a funk which she is still trying to pull out of 9 months later. At church, Jenny began the year as Ward Choir Director, which she truly loved. Shortly after performing at Stake Conference, her Ward leaders asked her if she would simultaneously serve as Ward Nursery Leader (and the ONLY Nursery Leader I might add). She served in both of these callings until her husband began serving in the bishopric, then she requested to be released of one of the callings. The ward leaders considered calling her to be the YW President, but instead decided to keep her as the lone Nursery Leader. This calling makes her very happy, as she teaches the most adorable, well-behaved children she has ever seen in Nursery before. No hitters. No biters. No problems. They are the sweetest kids. At home, Jenny was very busy with her adorable, intelligent, amazingly talented children. She had Emma in TONS of dance classes, helped her get started in Pointe Ballet class, and helped her maintain a 4.0 GPA in her first semester of Middle School. Jenny kept Emma in piano throughout the year, and also kept Emma practicing her clarinet for 6th Grade Band. Jenny served as chaperone on many band fieldtrips. Shelton began the year in Wrestling, and ended it in Soccer. In the Summer, he played T-Ball, and Jenny served as the Vice President of Manassa-Romeo Little League, over Fundraising. Sasha also took a lot of dance classes, and gymnastics lessons, and kept Jenny busy as the last kid home with Mom for most of the day, except for when she was at pre-school. Jenny spent a great deal of 2012 in her minivan, driving her kids to and fro, with half of her bumper gone. She is truly a redneck woman.



Shane 2012

Shane was very busy in 2012. He spent 55-72 hpw at Chili's, as a Manager, and received top notch scores on his evaluations, which earned him 2 pay raises throughout the year. His employees love him, and the customers rave about him. I only hear good things from those that he is contact with. At church, he began the year as the Primary Teacher/Guardian of Luke Anderson, an 8-year-old boy in our ward, with down syndrome. He is very violent, and has smacked each of my kids in the face at different times while attending Primary. This is why he needs someone to physically hold him down during Primary each week. Shane loved working with Luke, but it was a very challenging, and discouraging calling for him. In June, Shane was ordained a High Priest and called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Manassa 1st Ward. He serves with his good friends Kirk Jarvies (Bishop) & Joe Horton (1st Counselor). These men work very well together, and love serving in our ward. When Shane was not working, serving at church, doing work around our house, or spending time with his family, he liked to run. He is very good at running both long and short distances, but seems to enjoy his longer runs. He especially likes to race competitively, and has quite a collection of trophies and medals to show for his success. Shane spent a lot of time doing the Insanity workouts with Shawn T. They were buds, and he lost a lot of weight and greatly improved his muscular physique. The videos were his Christmas gift from me in December 2011, so I would say that he did a great job on keeping up with his 2012 New Year's Resolutions. Go Shane!



Sowards Family Pictures

Just before Thanksgiving we had a fun family photo session by a local, amateur photographer, Tandra Dunn. We met at the old, abandoned barn on Main St., in Manassa, next door to where Grandpa Shelton's home was.

Our favorite! The Sowards Family

Emma (11,) Jenny, Sasha (5), Shane, Shelton (7)

 

 The funniest!

 

Another good shot.

(I'm pretty sure that a very young Shane used to shoot his gun here).

 

Jenny & Shane

Looking healthy & happy.

 

Then we ended our session on the tracks of the Cumbers Toltec Railroad, on the Conejos River.

 

I thought this was a very cool spot, but Shelton & Sasha were very nervous that a train would be coming, and Shane did not like crossing the busy highway (which is about as busy as California traffic in a very, very small city, at 3 o'clock in the morning).



General Conference Sunday

As many of you may know, we do not have TV. OK, we have a TV, but we don't have satellite, cable, or even antenna channels. So, we don't get General Conference at our house, unless we watch it on our iPhones or iPods. We did just that during the morning session, but I will admit that we skipped the afternoon session, and went on a family drive, instead. (We can read it later, or watch it online). Our drive took us to the Fox Creek area, near the Conejos River. This is near some land that Shane's Dad, Jim, leases for cows to graze on during the Winter.

Her are the kids, enjoying the scenery.

And here I am with Shane, enjoying our little cuties.

 Emma, Shelton, & Sasha. Respectively.

Shelton laughs as he poses for the camera.

Emma acts like a goofball as she fakes us out. Too funny!

Sasha is also getting goofy with the camera! Don't fall in, Sasha!

I wonder who they get it from? Hmmm...

I love this one.

They found lots of sticks. They pretended that they were canes, like Grandpa Shelton used.

They thought about hand fishing, but the water was too cold.

This is after a long walk, so they are starting to lose their steam.

What a great day!

All Aboard for Autumn & Alpacas

Each year, Little Treasures Pre-School has a field trip in the Fall for all of the little ones that attend the school. For the past 4 years, I have had a child go on this fun-filled day that they refer to as: All Aboard for Autumn & Alpacas. Obviously, the letter of that week is "A". He he he.

First, we board the train in Bountiful.

Then, we ride it to Antonito.

We look around at the old trains, and take a class picture. Cheese!

Then, it's off we go on the buses, to the Alpaca Farm in Fox Creek. The kids get to pet and feed the Alpacas.

Then, we go on a nature walk to enjoy the lovely Autumn colors.

Sasha loves her friends! Here she is with one of the Norton triplets (sorry, I can't tell them apart), Emily Vannoy, and Chloe Tailleur.

Class picture time, again!

Little Treasures is especially good at taking lots of pictures of the kids for their end-of-the-year memory scrapbook.

And of course, the kids always gravitate towards the Conejos River, where they scare the teachers and parents by getting way too close. Yikes!

The kids also scare the adults as they throw rocks into the river, over the heads of other classmates. Sometimes, the rocks they choose to throw are pretty big, as they realize that bigger rocks=bigger splashes.

And I must say that I love every bit of it!

I can't believe that this is the last year I get to go on this awesome "A" field trip, because Sasha will graduate from Little Treasures next year. Sniff, sniff.

What a great day! I love this field trip. Trains, Alpacas, and the river are all huge selling points with pre-schoolers. Worthy of mention is the fact that Emma's Pre-K class did not go on this field trip when she attended Little Treasures 7 years ago. Back then, they used to go to the Alligator Farm in Hooper, CO, near the Sand Dunes. Why don't they go there anymore, you ask? Funny story... the alligators should all stay in their swampy, watery, caged-in areas, but one day, that was not the case. At the end of one of the class field trips at the alligator farm, the Little Treasures teachers lined up all of the little 3 and 4-year-old pre-schoolers on the side of the bus. One of the teachers boarded the bus to get a camera for one of those notorious class photos, and as she leaned over one of the bench seats, she noticed that an alligator was resting on the ground on the other side of the bus!!! Needless to say, they boarded those kids as fast as they could, and have never returned for any more field trips where pre-schoolers could possibly become a tasty snack. Personally, I like the new "All Aboard for Autumn & Alpacas" field trip, and will miss it in the future as all of my children are growing up way too quickly. 

This IS Halloween, HALLoween, HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween had quite a few activities for us to enjoy. Sasha's Pre-School class performed some darling and spooky Halloween songs for the parents. Earlier that day they performed at the nearby Nursing Home. Each year on Halloween, the Manassa Elementary School has a parade in town, with the kids in Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grades. They wear their costumes and collect candy from the local businesses, and parents of the kids. This year, Sasha and I brought our Zombie Van to the parade, and delighted the kids with my Halloween music mix. Shelton's teacher liked it so much, that she asked if I could bring the CD to class for the kids to listen to during their class party. Sasha and I went to Shelton's 1st grade Halloween class party, and I brought 2 bags of chips for him to share with his classmates and their families. This is significant to me because last year I brought elaborately decorated monster cupcakes to his Kindergarten party, and Frankenstein Monster pudding cups to Emma's 5th grade party. That night, we also had a Halloween Open House Party at our home, so I baked all day, and got pretty stressed-out. This year was a dream compared to that. I really got to enjoy the day with the kids.

Sasha & Shelton are having some snacks and Halloween treats at Shelton's class party.

Shelton and his classmates enjoyed playing musical chairs to our spooky Halloween songs.

After school, we picked up Emma, and then went to Kim McCarroll's house to play a little Halloween prank on her. After leading our Zumba class, on Tuesday, she asked the class what time kids in this area start their trick-or-treating. We told her, thinking she would be taking her 7-year-old son, Robbie, out on the town, but then realized that she actually wanted to know what time to skip out of town. Not only did she want to avoid giving out candy, but she also planned on skipping Robbie's treat collecting. Well, since my girlfriends and I have made it a habit to play pranks on Kim, we took this opportunity to continue on in that tradition. At 4pm, 6 Zumba Moms, and their many kids, went trick-or-treating at Kim's house! Since she didn't have treats for us, we played a trick on her, and did our Zumba Thriller routine on her lawn with the music blaring from my Zombie Van's play list, which has really gotten a lot of mileage this year. It was great fun! She loved it.

Emma's Middle School had a carnival for all of the students that day, and Emma won an award for the best costume, in her Pirate Wench outfit. They got tickets for the carnival by bringing canned food items for donation to needy families in the area. There was a kissing booth, that had little Hershey's kisses that one could give to other students, and a hitching post, where Emma married 3 different boys! 

At home, the kids got in a little bit of rest, and for dinner we enjoyed Mom's homemade chili, mummy's in a blanket hot dogs, and Halloween cookies for dessert. Dad was late, as usual, which may have made me a bit grouchy, but since he usually misses out on trick-or-treating, I should be grateful he made it at all. Emma went off with a friend, and so Shane and I took Shelton and Sasha around town. It was the best year ever for me, because it was the first one that I didn't have to walk my kids to and from each of the houses. They went by themselves, and I got to stay toasty-warm in the car. Bonus! Too bad I had to hang out with a Zombie that night...

All of the Chili's managers dressed up as Zombies this year. Eew!!!

Manassa 1st Ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat

Here I am, dressed as Sandy, from Grease.

A few years ago, I thought it would be fun to dress as Sandy for Halloween, but opted against it because I was a little too overweight to pull it off. Shane had a HUGE crush on Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) as a young lad, and so I had to be at my best in order to surprise him with the ultimate Halloween treat. This year, I figured I might as well go for it, and I dressed up as the "Bad-Girl Sandy" instead of a Kitty Cat, like I've been dressing as for the past 11 years. When we arrived at the Ward Trunk-or-Treat, I was delighted to find Danny Zuko there!

 Sandy & Danny!

(Jenny & Luke Anderson)

The kids had been so excited for this night when they could finally wear their Halloween costumes and get lots of candy. We were blessed with wonderful weather on this October night, and enjoyed the party as the Stake Pavilion, until the sun went down, and the cold set in. There were hot dogs, doughnuts, and hot chocolate to snack on while the kids played games and earned prizes.

MARIO! Shelton was a perfect Mario, with sound effects and actions that perfectly mimicked his favorite video game character.

Sasha was a lovely Rapunzel in her pretty, pink ballet dress, and a Tangled wig.

Emma & Chico

Emma, a Pirate Wench, and Chico, a Jack-o-Lantern.

And check out Emma's new braces!!!

Sasha poses with her friend, Corbyn Thomas, a Candy Corn Witch.

Mario gets spooky!



What a fun night! We decorated our Zombie Van for the Trunk-or-Treating, and had spooky Halloween music blasting for all to hear. Thriller, Monster Mash, and music from The Nightmare Before Christmas, were enjoyed by all. Shane didn't make it to the party, after all. He was supposed to get off of work at 5, but got held up, as he often does. Afterwards, we went home and watched Grease so that the kids could see who Sandy was. They liked the movie a lot, but didn't think I looked like Sandy. Not one bit. Emma asked if I would be dressing up as Sandy for the next 11 years, and I told her that I wasn't sure, but that I thought it was a good idea. "A 40-year-old Sandy?" she questioned with a very surprised look on her face. Oh, well. I tried, right?