The Kitchen Is Getting Closer to Done

Slowly but surely the kitchen/dinning room are getting closer and closer to being done. A few weekends ago my dad and the Mr. began work on the trim. It's not all done yet, but it's a start and it looks great! Hopefully by the end of this summer our kitchen will finally be done!

Adorable Pictures of Samus and Her Owners

This was the picture on our Christmas card. Aren't we a cute little family.

The Mr.'s Birthday!

For the Mr.'s birthday I wanted to do something very special and unique. I had been playing close attention to comments the Mr. had been making about things he wants both joking and semi serious.

Since we joined Lifeline the Mr. has been addicted to the Homestar Runner website (www.homestarrunner.com). Check it out...it's pretty funny. Anyway, the Mr. jokingly said that he wanted a Homestar Runner shirt and I took note of that. He also jokingly said that he wanted a Hiro and Ando shirt (characters from the T.V. series "Heroes"). I also took note of that. Lastly he had said that he always wanted a thermos, which of course I took note of. Then I got to thinking and began to make it all happen.

I went to one of my favorite stores and bought some plain t-shirts and printable iron paper. Then I got to designing and making two t-shirts for the Mr. I was so nervous about the Mr. liking the shirts that I talked him into opening them early. It wasn't too hard to talk him into that. :) Guess what? I didn't have to worry...he loved them!




Then I was off in search of just the right thermos. I found it at the second store I looked in. Yeah! Then I decided to make opening a thermos a little more exciting. Here's how...one of our favorite movies is, "The Jerk." In it Steve Martin's character wants to get a thermos for his love. At the end when he is homeless he trades all of his belongings with another homeless person for their thermos...so to make a long story short...I put a clue about the thermos in the Mr.'s birthday card. He didn't get it at first, but then figured it out. See for yourself in this video.






The Mr. loved every single gift and thought I did a really good job this birthday.

Meeting Baby Peter

In early February the Mr. and I got to meet our new nephew Peter. We drove three and a half hours or so, missed an exit, and got "lost" in downtown Chicago. Thanks to the Mr.'s older sister we made it to their house safe and sound. Shortly after we got there we fell in love with Petey. He was so precious and made the cutest little sounds.

The next day the Mr.'s sister and our brother-in-law got us hooked on the T.V. series, Heroes. We watched it for like almost ten hours. Ridiculous I know, but it was so addicting. Later that day Mama Shep, the Mr.'s younger sister, and our nephew came back from visiting grandma in northern Michigan.

We had a great time hanging out with our family. It was so fun to see our nephew Collin. He has grown up so much and has the cutest little personality. It was also fun to see the Mr.'s sisters play the role of mommy. They are sooo good at it. Petey's dad was fun to see too. He loves his little man so much!

Sadly we had to leave knowing it would be a while before we got to see our family again. This living far apart stuff it tough...we miss so much, but we have to make do.

Lifeline SnoCamp 2008

Every year our church youth group, Lifeline, goes to what they call SnoCamp. It is a weekend of praise and worship, lessons, games, tubing, and fun! Somehow every year someone gets hurt and our friend T, one of the leaders, gets to bring that person to the nearest emergency room. This year it was a leader, he was tubing and got hit in the eye somehow by one of the kids. His eye was huge, but he was such a trooper. The weekend was so cold that the Mr. and I didn't even think for a second to go tubing. All the kids that tubed had a great time, but commented on being freezing cold.

One of the other activities that we could do was rock climbing. I didn't give it a try, but the Mr. did. He helped out too.

SnoCamp was a lot of fun, but we were left tired and ready to go home.

A New Family Member

On December 28th, 2007 the Shepherd family was blessed with a new family member! His name is Peter, but we like to call him Petey. Isn't he super sweet?!

The Holidays and My Birthday

For Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house. All three of my brother's were there, my sister-in-law was there, and so were Grandpa Van and Jo. We had some amazing food, but turkey was not part of the menu. The Mr. was so "upset" by this he wore black in memory of the turkey and I being the supportive wife I am I wore black too. After we ate the parents and grandparents chatted while the kids went off to play. The Mr. and my oldest brother played "Guitar Hero," my two younger brother's played on their computers, my sister-in-law took a nap, and I wondered from upstairs to downstairs taking pictures and watching the fun.





One of our friends has a Christmas party every year. There is always good food, good times, and crazy games. One of those games was a contest to make the best present in a limited amount of time with a limited amount of supplies out of one person in the group. The Mr. wasn't in my group, but he did get chosen to be the human present. He looks thrilled doesn't he?! Neither of our teams won, but it was a great time.



About a week before my birthday the Mr. and I went out to lunch with my family to celebrate. With a birthday so close to Christmas it's sometimes hard to plan something everyone can make it to on my birthday. Everyone made it except my brother Brian. He took a second job plowing snow and was several peoples' hero the whole night before. He was missed, but we still had a great time. We ate some yummy pizza, I opened some fabulous gifts, and we had some tasty dessert.



On the night before my birthday went out to eat with one of my best friends and her husband. We had Italian, then came back to our house where I talked the Mr. into letting my open my presents a little early.



Christmas Eve is the day that my family gets together to have a nice dinner and open presents. My mom always sets a beautiful table with her Grand Hotel china and makes an amazing dinner. This year we had prime rib and several yummy side dishes and of course dessert. Then it was time for presents. My parent's are super generous and got us all some awesome presents.



Christmas morning is when the Mr. and I celebrate our Christmas. It's very special to have the morning to share our gifts with each other. There are usually some silly stocking stuffers and even Samus gets some gifts too.



Then it's off to the Hall to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. My mom is one of seven kids and each of those kids had kids and now a lot of those kids have kids, which means a big family get together every year. We have been going to the Hall every Christmas for as long as I can remember. The day consists of all day eating and snacking, playing games, and watching the little one's open their presents from Grandpa and Grandma.

On New Year's day we were off to celebrate Christmas with my dad's side of the family. This day was filed with good eats and the traditional game of this family...Dirty Santa, a game that has cheap gifts that people steal from each other without even knowing what they are. There is usually a gift that gets stolen the most and ends up being something really silly. However, in the end everyone ends up with something and then they keep it or try to trade it. It's great fun!