Justin's room

I wish I could find the photos of the beginning of this project, but no luck right now (I'll keep looking)

What actually started out to be finishing off part of our gigantic storage room for another room to be my office, turned in to being a bedroom for Justin when he came home from his mission.

The main thinking for that came from me - this new room was empty but smaller than the other bedroom.  I decided it was easier to fix up a bedroom for him from an empty room than one that had been used as a storage room and was full of stuff.

So here's the mostly finished project (still a few thing left to do and Justin's been home for over a month, its how we roll - get to 98% complete and never quite finish all the way):

new paint and carpet

Paul did ALL of the work himself on finishing this room
from bare concrete walls

the view looking out to the closet

Paul did all the closet insert work himself too

nice dresser big dresser I got on KSL

this little corner table is from Paul's room growing up 

Paul calls this the "coat of many colors" bedding :)

Paul also installed all of the new LED lighting

 Its so handy having a handy husband - it may take him awhile to finish a project but he is a perfectionist and does beautiful work.

Sadly I never got another picture with the artwork hung and the rest of the room all set up.  I worked hard to get it all just so for Justin.  When its clean again, I'll take a finished picture.

Festival of Trees

Like I said before, Kamryn performed at the Festival of Trees.  Jared, Taylor, Brooke and I all went to watch her.  And so did Susan, Jadon, Kierra and Katie.  It was fun to have that many people there.  Of course we stayed after her dance to see the trees and get some treats. Its probably not the best idea to take teenage boys there - they are not interested for long enough.  We did get to see a lot of the trees, the gingerbread houses and the quilts.  Here's some of my favorites:

Kamryn in front of this cool tree
made from the plastic that holds 6 packs of pop together

Our Festival groupies

super cool UTES puzzle

awesome baseball tree

 

Kamryn standing by her dream house

amazing gingerbread houses there
this one is Nelson's Mercantile from
Little House on the Prairie

I think my favorite part is actually all the amazing quilts.
Someday I want to really get into making quilts.

cool countdown quilt

Kamryn's Dance Recital

 Kamryn always has a Christmas dance recital and its always really good - gets you in the Christmas spirit with great music and beautiful dances.  She also got to dance at the Festival of Trees for the first time.  That was fun and made it so we went to the festival this year.

Utah Football

We LOVE college football

especially going to UTAH games.

We were lucky and were able to go to several games

this past fall season.

Paul was given four tickets to one of the games

and I was super nice and let him take

Taylor and his cousins, Jaxon and Jadon

(it was easy to stay home 

since it was a night game in the cold)

Our awesome friends, Eric and Melody, always take care of us for one game.

This year they set us up for 2 games :)

We went to the season opener and the last game of the season.

Both games the UTES won -

guess I should have gone to all their games.

It was super nice weather for the last day of November

great to be out in the sunshine

not too cold

until the sun went behind the stadium

Primary Talent Show

In November our Primary held a talent show.  

It was a great event.

My awesome friend Jenny

organized our kids and practiced with them 

so they could perform a Primary song

on the handbells.

Thanksgiving

 It was the "off" year for the Shingletons for Thanksgiving.  As much as I would rather go out on Thanksgiving, I volunteered to do dinner at my parents house so it would be easier for my mom.  Luckily the Byers joined us - its impossible to make Thanksgiving dinner by yourself.
The boys all had a great time playing football while we slaved away in the kitchen :)

Susan and Kierra made these adorable edible decorations

It was great to have Paul's dad and my grandma join us for dinner too.

our cheeseball turkey made by Brooke

and our veggie turkey

with his eyes

Jadon working on BLACK Thursday/Friday

Every year we go out with the masses and do the BLACK Friday shopping thing.  It started out with just Susan and I but as our kids have gotten older we've brought some of them along.  This year we had Kierra, Taylor and Jadon with us.  Sadly Jadon had to leave us at 11:30 to go work the madness at the mall.  It made us crazy that Black Friday started so early this year - we really should have boycotted, but we didn't.  We didn't go when any of the stores opened though - we showed THEM.

We did go to Target, got everything we wanted and were in and out of there in 30 minutes. Kohls was another story though - 90 minutes, but this time we put someone right in line and then took turns shopping and holding our place in line.  Its a crazy tradition but we do it anyway.

Layton Calendar Contest

Layton Construction holds a safety calendar contest every year - its open to all employees relatives under 12.  Jared and Kamryn have both entered the last few years.  Kamryn won last year.
So it was awesome that Jared's photo was selected this year as one of the month winners.  His prize was a gift card to Barnes and Noble, and he got his own hard hat and safety glasses.  He was very excited that his picture was chosen.

this is his drawing 

Trying to decide what to get at Barnes and Noble was very difficult - he finally ended up with a Rubiks Cube and a mini book light - both cool things!

The Zoo in November

The Utah Hogle Zoo has free days in the winter - the last Wed of each month Nov - Feb (I think).  The last Wed in November my friend Jenny reminded me of this and told me she was going to the zoo that day.  I had a lot to do that day to get ready for Thanksgiving and we had a big project to do cleaning out a bedroom that Paul was going to start remodeling that night.  But we had great incentive to get the work done so we could go to the zoo.  Jared and Kamryn hadn't been to the zoo since they were in kindergarten.  It was also a perfect day to go to the zoo, especially for late November.  

It was pretty crowded but that's not too big a deal at the zoo.  We had a great time!

Taylor and his friend Logan came with us.
Brooke did too.

Cool rooster just walking along the sidewalk with us

super creepy bats - YUCK!

Jared checking out the tiger

Skype with Elsa

Skype is a wonderful thing!

We in November we were able to skype with Elsa, our French daughter, who we miss so much.  It was so great to hear her voice again and find out how she's doing.  It was hard to say good-bye but we knew we would talk to her again soon - we look forward to introducing her to Justin and listening to her speak in french with Justin.

Paul was a good sport and held the ipad out so we could all see and she could see us.

Book Club 20th Anniversary Dinner

This wonderful group of ladies have been meeting together for 20 years to discuss books and life in general.  We've saved each other $$$ in therapy bills.  Book club night is sacred and we rarely miss getting together.  Thank you ladies for your friendship, love of good books, and each other.
We met at The Roof for our 10th anniversary so it was fitting to meet there again for our 20th anniversary in November. It was a lovely evening and a nice start to the holiday season.

Layton Christmas Party

Since i'm so far behind on posting, I decided to just catch up when and how I can, so things will be a little out of order and crazy for a bit :)

The Layton Christmas party is always a "must go" event for us - its a great dinner, always awesome entertainment, a chance of maybe winning a good prize in the raffle, and the super entertaining "photo booth"  For the last few years, this company, has been there with their fun photo booth, complete with props.  One of these years we might get all 4 photos right :)

Try to post more

I got a new laptop for Christmas - so hopefully that means I will be able to post more :)