Shannon is 17

And the countdown begins again for yet another year! She is finally 16, wait, didn't I say that last year about turning 16?

It was fun to be able to celebrate with family this year. I didn't even think to invite them till Saturday night cause I am so used to not having anyone around to come! ha ha silly me... anyway,
Aunt Susan got her a gag gift and this is what it was......modeling the beautiful shirt.... Aunt Susan and fam came thru and gave her a yummy smelling candle and a really cute 4 frame picture frame for her room. Aunt Linda and fam gave her this cool lava lamp and a blankie!! yay!!!

Here is the cute birthday girl with her cake. 17 candles in the shape of 17!

Wow I am so creative!

Both sets of grandparents got to come too! How fun to have our family here! We love you!!

Shannon is becoming a beautiful, strong, talented, spiritual daughter of God and I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to be her parents...(the first years were a bit hard but oh so worth it now!) Love you Shan!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Rachel and Jenna had their first "Daddy Daughter Date" for activity days about 2 weeks ago. Since both of the girls are in there now, we asked Uncle Clark to be Rachel's daddy for the evening.

When my sister Susan and I were young, (we are only 1 year apart) when they would have daddy daughter dates, we would take turns with dad and the other would take our neighbor for our date. He was a nice guy but not the same as dad. I was always sad when it was my turn not to have dad.

But the girls were lucky to have Uncle Clark. He was a great sport! They had a dinner and then played some games. The dad's had to guess some info on the girls and Clark did pretty good.

Jenna was the most excited to be able to ride to the activity in Uncle Clark's truck! They had a great time!!

Asking to "Sadies"

Here in Vernal there is a girls choice dance called "Sadie Hawkins" It is in the fall and happened to be just a few weeks after homecoming this year. Shannon wanted to ask a boy in our ward (he's a cowboy! I know, don't faint!!) He is a really great guy just a couple of months younger than her so he is a Junior. She kindof has a crush on him and was really afraid to ask him. She thought he had a girlfriend and didn't want to step on any toes. So I asked his mom if he did have a girlfriend and she said no. So after working up some courage and getting the help from her cute cousin Preston, she did it! This is how she asked.

Here is Preston being the gentleman getting the bale of hay for her. Shannon hiding her name hooked to a needle in the (haystack) ha ha

poking other pieces of paper into the hay to throw him off...... This is the finished product. She and Preston took the hay to his house around 9:00 that night and almost got caught by his dad coming home.... whew!

and this is how he answered her...he he he

He gave Michelle an alarm clock set to go off at 3:00 a.m. with this note that read "Don't be alarmed, it's just Chet ringing in to say "yes" I'd love to go to Sadies with you"

So Michelle hides it in Shannon's room under her futon but it didn't wake her up cause she was so tired and she slept thru it. The next morning, he text ed her and said "ha ha" and she said "what?" He said "did it work?" she said "did what work" He said "let me talk to your sister" So after Michelle explained what had happened, he told her to hide it closer to her head the next night. and it worked! It turned out good and they are excited to go. More to come......

Poor Michelle :(

Last week, Michelle started getting red stuff around her eye. It wasn't too bad the first day but progressively got worse. We weren't sure what it might be. My first thought was that her mascara was causing it. Or maybe her contact solution. So she stopped wearing her contacts and mascara till things cleared up. We are sure it was the mascara that was causing this. It was sore and itchy. When she stopped using the mascara it cleared up in like 2 days. So needless to say, we threw that away.

Things are back to normal now and she can wear her contacts again and a DIFFERENT brand of mascara. WHEW!

School spirit!! Go UTES!

Le me start off by saying the Utes we are talking about are Uintah Utes, NOT University of Utah Utes. Spencer is still a true blue BYU fan (even though they aren't doing so great this season) ah oh, what if Shan decides to go to U of U next fall? What will Spencer do then? :)

Anyway, there is ALOT of school spirit here and Shannon has joined right in. The homecoming game she and her friends sprayed their hair and wore headbands (Indian) and screamed and yelled till they were hoarse.This past week's game she and her yearbook friends dressed up a little like nerds and had a great time (even though the football team didn't do well at all) they left before it was over.. and went to Wendy's. The final score was 41-7 (I think) This is her friend Sarah. She is making some good friends here.

So thankful for that.

Shannon the nerd

Homecoming 2010

Shannon had a fun time at Homecoming even if it WAS with a sophomore. He is a nice guy in our ward that asked her because he wanted her to have the "experience" of going to Homecoming her senior year. They went to the lake on their day date. She was a bit chilly but said it was fun. Then quick presto chango she got ready in 45 minutes! She looks super cute I think.

Shannon an Chad Whitmire

They had a yummy dinner at the Shewels's house and then went to the dance. They all danced with different people and had a fun time. Thanks Chad!

Our Missionary

Brad is doing amazing!!! He absolutely loves it in Africa. I think if he could change one thing it would be the sweat that constantly runs down his back. Oh and maybe that they have cheese and (real) chocolate there. I set up a blog for him elderbradkendall.blogspot.com or just click on the link on the right side to get full updates. I just felt weird not including him in our family blog. so......

This is a picture of Patrick pictured next to Brad and Bohan then Elder Rennie Brad's companion. (Till Wednesday then transfers...) Elder Rennie is moving on. The two in the back are members of the ward who baptised them. This is a pic of "the best meal on the mission" provided by a Muslim investigator's dad (who is rich so is able to get this kind of food) This is one of the pictures from the primary (elementary) school they were invited to teach at. He said there are over 700 kids that go there! There are lots more pics on his blog.

It is so great to hear from him each week. He is so happy and loves it there. He said there is no other place in the world he would rather be.

Dating, Dances & Drama

Shannon was just SURE that she would NEVER go on another date again since we made her move to Vernal, away from all of her friends. but I KNEW that would NOT be the case. Here we are just a few weeks later and she has already gone on 2 dates and has been asked to Homecoming. This doesn't happen without a little drama though. so here is the story.

The first date was with a guy who took her up on "U" hill (with her friend since the other guy had to work at the last minute) and they played games and watched the sunset. (That was on Tuesday) Then on Saturday, her friend Shelby set her up on a blind date and they all went riding quads. (college boy...yikes!)

And then on Sunday, she got asked to Homecoming by a different boy....Here is where the drama begins! because this boy is the boy Michelle likes! Yes! Shannon DOES NOT like him, but Michelle REALLY DOES! Ahhhhh
We came home to a big ice thing on our porch with this clue. It lead us on a scavenger hunt to a park, gas station and back to grandma's house..... all the while Shannon was sure that it was Kaydn (a guy in our ward) was the one who was asking her. (I knew it was Chad (the one Michelle likes because his mom gave me a heads up that he would be asking her because he wanted her to have the opportunity to go to Homecoming her senior year. ) I wasn't really sure how this was going to work out. Because I think Chad likes Michelle since he has sat by her on the bus every day and opened her locker for her when she couldn't do it and also walked her to class several times. so anyway, the last clue was sitting on grandma's table in her toaster but her door was locked! They had already left for church, but good old grandpa left the key in a place for us to find. Well, when Shannon read that it was Chad who was asking her, she didn't know how to react because she knew how much Michelle liked him. Michelle started to cry and Shannon felt soooooo bad. But after a little chat and some explanations, both were ok with it all. Michelle even helped Shannon answer him. They blew up tons of balloons but the answer was on a poster inside his bed.....

They hung streamers all over and then put the poster with the answer in side his bed.
The poster said..."Roses are red, violets are blue, I'd be a "dum dum" not to go with you" and she put two big bags of dum dum suckers inside his bed.

But the story doesn't end there.....Then Chad called last night and offered Michelle a ride to school. Now how can you not let her after she was so sad? But we compromised and said yes just this one time and we had Rachel go with them and they dropped her off at her school which is almost by the high school. So..... we will see if this story has a happy ending.

Cool cars and cute cousins!!

Jenna somehow charmed her way into a ride in Hayden's cool convertable after the family BBQ on Labor day. Keith and Kayla went along for the ride. Preston and Brigham had to wait their turn. The girls are so lucky to have so many cousins to look out for them. Thanks guys!!

Don't let her fool you!

Oh yes, she looks just like a little angel but don't let her cute little exterior fool you! She is a little pistol! Holy cow she keeps us busy! We took this pic right before church because the little bracelet and hair bow was given to her by one of her "cousins" and we wanted to send him a picture of her wearing them. They became good buddies at the Kendall reunion this summer. Thanks CJ!! (p.s. thanks for sharing your root beer with her too!)

Hot tub fun

Well, with the house we rented came a hot tub! Spencer wasn't sure it would be worth the trouble keeping it maintained but oh....how soon he changed his mind after the first time he got in it! He loves to sit and relax in it in the evenings after the girls are in bed. It is getting a bit nippy outside by then so it feels so nice sitting in nice warm water surrounded with cool air. These pictures are from our last FHE activity. The older girls got in the hot tub and Spencer played "tackle football" with Jenna. Then she got in the hot tub with daddy.

" Help! I'm in jail! Let me out!!"

Rachel just chillin.