Christmas newsletter 2008

Here is our newsletter and picture we tried to send out to most people...

December 2008
Dear Friends and Family,

I love this time of year when we get to think more of others and all of our blessings. We have so many things to be thankful for. One of our greatest blessings is to have good friends and family!

This past year I have started a blog, (http://rdmkshoop.blogspot.com/) it is a fun way to let our family &friends know what we’ve been doing and share our pictures. I love it when people comment on it and say they have read about what we are doing. That is what it is meant for! So, please go check it out. I feel like I’ve written on it so much this year, I’m not sure what to write for our newsletter.

This year we have had big changes with Melissa going to Middle school (7th grade). Unfortunately, though she has had mono and missed a lot of school. We recently withdrew her from her morning classes at the counselor’s suggestion so she can focus on her afternoon classes. (math and science) She was gone for 2 weeks and has been doing half days since the beginning of October. We’re grateful she is starting to get better, but are ready to have her back to “normal”! Which I am sure is an understatement for her!

One of our highlights this year was going to Disneyland! Melissa’s dance group got to perform at CA adventure and Disneyland. We had a great time and the kids keep asking when we can go again. The only bad thing was it was in the middle of Melissa having mono, so we got a Drs. Note and took a wheelchair for her. I don’t think she could have done it with out it! An added benefit was it got us to the front of the lines… She is still enjoying her dancing and recently started taking a hip hop class, too. She also participated in a church regional dance festival and now that it is all over she says she had a good time.

Keagan loves cub scouts! He really enjoys going and especially loves summer day camp! He is in 3rd grade now and growing like a weed! He has always said that he wants to be taller than me when he turns 10 because Melissa was, and I think he might make it or be really close. I wish I knew how much he has grown this year, but I know every time I turn around he has gotten taller! We recently got him back into power tap dancing again. He had done it before, but when he started cub scouts it was on the same night and couldn’t do both, but now dance is on a different night. It is an all boys’ class and he really likes that!

As for Ray & I it is pretty much the same, we are still in the same house, Ray is still working at the capitol and sharing an early morning paper route. He keeps busy with that and his church calling! I am teaching preschool again this year and loving it. It is a lot of work sometimes, but it is fun! I have my niece, Aurora this year, she is in kindergarten and that is a lot of fun, too. I’m still in Primary, working on sharing times and other fun things.

One of Ray’s big accomplishments this year was our front yard! It has been a huge undertaking! When we first moved to our house there really wasn’t a yard, we had numerous bushes, moss, and a huge cedar tree in the front yard. Last year the tree came out and this year we finally got grass. It looks nice! On my blog I have before/after pics. Sometimes we are still in awe of how much a change it is! Next year… the back yard… that is pretty scary, too. One of these days we’ll have it looking nice…

We hope everyone is doing well and would love to hear from you!

Love,
Ray, Donna, Melissa, and Keagan Shoop

random pictures of the snow

I took pictures of almost every day it snowed, thinking wow, that is a lot of snow for here and then it snowed more. These pictures are of the past week when it snowed more and more every day. It started on Wed, Dec. 17th and hopefully we'll be able to drive around on the side streets soon! The forecast is for rain! Yeah! It was pretty, though. I like being from WA where usually you can drive to go play in the snow, have fun, and then LEAVE it there and drive home! I haven't even gotten all of the snow pics off of the camera yet!

Looking down our street on one of the first snow days.

One of the first snowmen...

This is from our bedroom window - upstairs. It was beautiful!

a ruler in the ground on our 2nd snow storm (I think), I just lots more came after that.

In Keagan's room there was an icicle hanging beside his window.

When we thought we had a lot of snow! The back yard doesn't always get a lot of snow, either because of soo many trees.

Some teenagers came down our street (it is a hill) on a pallet.

Ray pulling the neighborhood kids on the sled.

Haha

making another one of the many snowmen in our yard.

yeast

Keagan wanted homemade pizza last night and even printed out a dough recipe for me. (It was yummy!) He said after reading over the ingredients, what is yeast? Oh I know like in the scriptures, unto the yeast of my brotheren" LOL! No, Keagan, that is unto the least...

some more calendar pictures 2001 (year of 2000)

Thank goodness the kids pictures are soo cute, I never have been that great of a scrapbooker, I like them simple. Every year I make scrapbook pages from the previous year and make a calendar for the family. I had no idea it would turn out to be such a hit and a tradition I can't stop doing.... even if I wanted to.
It has been fun scanning them and looking at the kids pictures!

January

February

at the temple grounds

He is such a cutie!
March

April

May

The east coast Shoops came to visit us!

Melissa took ballet lessons, she wasn't that great (grace and balance don't run in our family), but she sure looked cute in her tutu, she does a lot better at power tap!

June

Joy school graduation, fun at the beach (in the rain... I know only in WA)

July

is Melissa's and Keagan's birthdays.

Keagan's 1st and Melissa's 5th

August

Thurston county fair- Porter and Hayden

August

Umm.. I'm missing Sept

October

There are the Falters!

November

I love fall pictures!

December

Melissa & Hayden as Mary & Joseph for the joy school play

snow, snow, snow

It is still snowing! Who knows how much snow we have, its hard to say because the kids played in it, I don't know where to measure it. I would say at least a foot and the weather forecast said more tonight and tomorrow!
It started snowing yesterday around noon and didn't stop until sometime after I went to bed. Then it started again this afternoon.
Church was canceled today. I didn't remember it being canceled before, but Melissa said she did a couple of years ago. We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional for church today.
I'm just glad our power hasn't gone out!! We would be ok if it did, but I don't really want to go there! In 2006 it went out for 6 days and it wasn't soo fun. It was ok the first couple of days, but got old fast and then when we could see the power on to the streets behind us and in front of us....... Thank goodness for wood stoves!
I get to help Ray with the papers tomorrow. Poor Alan, it took him 4 hours this morning, it usually takes 1.5 hours! Yikes!
I'll post more snow pics later.

duh mom

A couple of days ago Keagan & I were sitting in the hottub and I asked him if he knew if the church was true. He told me, "duh mom!"
A few days later I told Melissa I'm going to ask you a question I asked Keagan to see what your answer is and then I'll tell you what Keagan said, I asked her and she said yes, she knows the church is true, and then she said, "I bet I know what Keagan said... he said , duh mom!" How funny that she knows her brother so well!
If you want to know more about what we believe click here, don't worry, missionaries won't come knocking at your door.... unless you want them to. ;)

snow day

It started snowing in the middle of the night (at least 3:30 a.m., it was snowing when I got up to go to the bathroom) and it snowed most of the day. Later in the day it snowed hard! It was soo pretty. Keagan was out playing for a few hours a couple of different times, Melissa just went out once and wasn't out for very long. Of course in Wa everything shuts down for the cold and snow and we didn't have school, they even announced by the end of the day that there was no school the next day, too. The forcast is for more cold and more snow later in the week or beginning of next week... I wonder if we'll have a white Christmas.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Yikes!

Thanksgiving weekend we were decorating for Christmas, playing Christmas music, having the candles going - enjoying the season. Here is our mantel shelf with some of our candles burning. Soo pretty.

The shelf from a different angle.

That night when we were getting ready to go to bed, Ray told me he blew out all of the candles, except the one I don't let him because I have to "hug" it to make sure it burns down, etc, etc. I was getting ready for bed and heard a noise, I stopped and listened, I thought it was our precious our cat, I looked down stairs and Precious looked up at me, from being asleep on the stool. I stood there and listened again, heard the pop noise again and went downstairs to find a candle burning the little plant beside it, the flames were about 6 to 8 inches high. Yikes! I yelled for Ray to come help me and then the fire alarm went off. Thank goodness we found it when we did!

The burnt offering - whats left of it - about 1/2 of it burnt.

Some of the burnt marks before we got it cleaned up.... uhh ... I guess I had spiderwebs up on the ceiling.... they were burnt, too.

I had 2 of these plants, one on each end of my mantle, so this is what it looked like originally.

We are soo blessed, Thank goodness no one was hurt and we found it right before the fire alarm went off. I can see why there are soo many fires from candles now. Be careful with candles! I know I will!

Melissa's concert

Melissa has had 2 concerts the past couple of weeks. The first was at the high school gym w/ the elementary & high school orchestras. It was a nice concert. Last year it was canceled because of the rain storm, the HS flooded so they couldn't have it. The next concert was at the High school auditorium w/ only the middle school, but w/ the band, too. That one was really good and I had forgot my camera for that one.
This is a pic of Mr. Lee, her teacher, he conducted the all student orchestra, he came up and stood by me on the risers and I took this picture of him.

We couldn't find Melissa, they forgot to put a spot out for her because she wasn't at the rehearsal because it was in the morning when she doesn't come to school.

We were kind of laughing because we couldn't find her for a long time, she was behind the announcer guy.

Maleah


Here is a short video of Miss that just cracks me up, I couldn't find her forever and then when I did, I was zooming the camera on her, but I could only get pictures of her at first when the guy was announcing, the other video wouldn't load of them playing their songs. She wasn't very happy with me blowing her kisses and zooming in on her....

Thanksgiving pictures

I thought that I had lost a bunch of pictures that I have downloaded the last couple of months - but when I put a new battery in my camera, it made the date go to 1/08 and all my pictures have the wrong date on them and they were in the January - Feb. folder of this year. Its kind of funny these pictures say 1/18 - that is Ray's bday.
Almost every year we go to my dad's for Thanksgiving. He lives in Elma, this year we went and had dinner w/ dad, judy, my brother Eric & his wife brandi, my step brothers and their wives, & judy's sister and their families! Lots of people, we met in the rec room of the apartment buildings that my step brother/sis in law manage.

Ray

Judy

My dad

Me and my brother Eric

Hot tub

Almost a month ago we (Ray found it) got a free hotub from craig's list. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first, I thought it was going to be a money pit and would it really work, etc, etc. I know bah humbug!
So, Ray got a group of people to help bring it over, Thank -you! That is the pictures at the end, which was interesting because it just happened to be the day when there was an accident a couple of streets over and our street was the main street for the detour! You can read about that on Amy's blog and Melissa's blog
So, this week we had everything working, and got a used cover for it - We have gotten to use it a few times, Keagan almost every day - and now I'm glad Ray got it, it has been fun sitting in the hot tub when it is cold outside.
Here is Keagan enjoying it, I wish the picture could capture the steam coming up, that was pretty cool, when it is just Keagan going in it, we don't take the cover off all of the way because it is such a pain to get back on.

Here are some of our helpers getting it over here and our neighbor checking it out.

This is the spot before the hot tub-

Whoo hoo! Getting ready to go in the back yard!

this past week

This past week has been a little crazy which happens at this time of the year. Something every night, a orchestra concert, dance lessons for the kids, and a ward christmas party. All were fun... but a little crazy in one week. I even skipped out on a couple of things.... just couldn't do it all. I got my Christmas calendar made, but can't share it until after Christmas so I don't ruin my families presents. :) This year I did use smilebox and printed it out, they turned out pretty cute. I love digital scrapbooking!

Disco Elf

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