B’s blog

I’m not going to write a whole lot about the awesome surprise party but check out Erik’s blog to read the details. Here’s some photos from the evening to make you feel like you were there…







Steve and his Mom and Dad

Garrett and Rachael Carter, friends from Life Group

Brent and Robin Clingerman (Brent works with Erik at KSBJ)

Chris and LaRanda Burke (LaRanda works at KSBJ and is in Life Group with Us)

LaRanda Burke, Haley Keiffer, Melissa Wallis (all Life Groupers)

Seth Keiffer (Haley’s Hubby)

Rebecca and Kaleb Roe (Avery’s school nurse and life grouper)

Jaelyn with Emma Dobbins from church and Macy Keiffer

Braden Salsa dancing

Johnny and Melissa Wallis (Melissa is in Life Group)

Tiffany Wallis-Jaleyn loves to scrapbook with her

Erik, his mom, and Steve peeking around the corner

Kevin and Tammi Luce (Kevin is one of our pastors) holding Blake, our nephew


Macy Keiffer

Michael Hutto and Seth Keiffer (They have a Christian band called Audience of One)

Tiffany Wallis, Chloe Burke, Jaelyn, and Emma Dobbins (friends from church)

Christine and Blake (Sister in law and nephew)

Ben and Riley (Brother in law 15yr old and neice Riley)

Haley Keiffer

Great Grandma Joanne and Jaelyn

Rachael Carter (mommy to be)


Jaelyn, Taleah, and Worthington (kids of Erik’s coworker)

As you can see, we had a housefull! Truly a wonderful night!

Today we decided that we’d let the kids open their gifts from us as Santa is hopefully coming tomorrow! This way they get the whole day to enjoy their gifts instead of running over to Grandma’s right after we open them on Christmas morning. And as Jaelyn validates, “it gives Santa more room to leave us more presents”. I thought I’d share with ya’ll some of what they got. Spoiled? Of course they are! And we are proud to be able to do that for our children. Erik’s dad sent the kids some Iowa State shirts since they are playing in Houston and he thought they needed to show our Iowa ties. I think there is a conspiracy to convert this Sheldon household into a cyclone loving household but it’s not gonna happen people! As you can see in one of the photos, Braden cried because we made him wear the Cyclone shirt! Poor boy! We are Hawkeyes through and through! Check out my new scrubs from my hubby! HAWKEYES! I did have to break down and buy Erik a Longhorns shirt since we have to start supporting the Texas teams sooner or later. Never fear though because we have a Hawkeye sticker in our front window for the whole world to know who we really support! Merry Christmas to you and to all a good night!

Last night our church had the chili/dessert cook off. Erik judged the chili part and I judged the desserts for best presentation so I didn’t actually have to eat a bite of each one. They had a category of Wild Game Chili…you do the math on that. In fact one of the chili’s was named Holy Hog Chili. It had parts of the wild hog that was was shot and killed by the men of the church on church property. I guess it’s a big thing that all the guys do, to go hunting in the woods around our church for deer and wild boars. Santa came for the kids to sit on his lap and get a candy cane. Avery passed it up because he was busy playing football with all the boys in the church, high school and middle school too. Jaelyn thought Santa was scary and didn’t want to sit on his lap. Braden kept trying to steal candy canes from Santa’s cute elves (who were the pastor’s daughters) and when he finally did sit on Santa’s lap, he screamed bloody murder! We had a great time with our small group and one of the husbands who doesn’t come to group because he’s a die hard Catholic actually was there. It’s a start…baby steps. She was in her height of glory having her husband sitting with her for once at a church function.

I’m on call today. Which basically means I have to get ready to goto work but actually can’t go anywhere all day. Kids went to daycare since I had to pay for it already anyways. I’m just gonna get ready and work around the house and then watch TV and relax all day. Maybe wrap presents. A ME day. A much needed ME day.

Here’s some photos from our busy weekend.
Wesley and Avery playing video game

Macey and Jaelyn

Seth with his white elephant gift

Avery after getting hit in the eye playing football and all his missing teeth

Jaelyn playing with her friend from Sunday school at Grandma’s party

Grandpa Steve (in all red), Kevin and Chuck playing Christmas tunes at the party

Braden playing the make-shift cymbals

Haley, Melissa, Chris and his wife Joy (Life Group members)

Kristi, Caleb, and Rebecca (Their hubbies couldn’t make it)

Garrett and Rachael (Oh and there’s Jeff behind Garrett’s shoulder)

Kim and Steve (my inlaws)

Avery and Mason filled their plates with desserts but
couldn’t finish hardly any of it. Check out A’s black eye!

Braden with Santa-enough said

Ok, so I’m WAY sad that this past week that I looked forward to for the last 4 months, had to come and go so quickly. I had the best time with my parents and sister. I can’t explain how much I needed that time with them. Everyone looks so good and it was so nice to be able to show them where we live, where we work, where we goto church, and all the other stuff. I will post photos when I get home I promise. I’m at work today and wanted to briefly write something as I have the best friends in the entire world who read this everyday and say such nice things in the comments. All of you know who you are and know that I’m thankful for each one of you! You all are the best! Ok, anyways, my thoughts are all over the place today so bear with me.

When my parents got off the plane we were there with our sign that said in bold colorful print “Texas welcomes Grandpa, Grandma, and Autumn!” Everyone that came down the escalator read it and instantly got a smile on their faces. The kids colored the sign and it was so nice. I saw my dad from across the hall and about dropped Braden as I ran up to him and hugged him. I instantly started to cry, tears of joy. Then I hugged mom and Autumn. The tears just swelled up in my eyes because I was so happy. Erik was able to take a late lunch and welcomed them in with me but then had to go back to work. I took them all around and then we had supper at the house. Wednesday night Mom, Autumn and I went Christmas shopping for the kids. We hit Target and got it all done. We decided that avoiding the Friday after Thanksgiving crowd was worth it!

With my mom’s recipes and guidance and my mother in laws help I pulled off feeding 14 people for Thanksgiving at my house! My first turkey turned out awesome which I’m sure it did because of our traditional turkey dance we do just prior to stuffing it!

We talked Erik and Dad into letting the kids open presents on Thursday night so they could have lots of time to play with them while Grandma and Grandpa were in town. Braden figured out fast how to open the gifts. His favorite seemed to be his sisters new doll though! He got one of those Little People Car Garages with the ramp/slide for the little cars to go down. Well Braden found a way to slide down it too. He also got some toy power tools complete with googles. Avery got Lego Star Wars for the Play station2, a watch, some Star Wars figurines, and some other magnetic guys. Jaelyn got a doll and stroller, a pink Fairytopia Barbie, tons of Polly Pockets, and a My Scene Barbie with a moped. Braden also got a Potato/Carrot/Corn shaped mini potato heads and a Simon Says Sit and Spin. All in all, they did good! We ended up getting new pillows for our bed, a coffee pot, and a new comforter set for our bedroom.

Friday while Erik was at work I took everyone to Galveston. We hit the Pier, saw a movie about the Great Storm of 1900 that killed 6000 people in Galveston and wiped out the town. The kids thought the hurricane movie was cool but I think it spooked them a little having just went through it with Rita. Then we went on the ferry and saw the dolphins and fed the seaguls and walked the beach. The kids talked Grandpa into buying them Volcanos, a brownie sundae dessert, at The Rainforest Cafe before we headed back home.

Saturday it rained so we spent the day inside at the Johnson Space Camp (Nasa). We’ve been there before but had just as much fun the 2nd time. Then we played cards that evening after supper at Pappasitos, a Tex-Mex restaurant.

Sunday morning was here before we knew it and we dropped them off at the airport at 9:45am. We couldn’t park and go in with them so we dropped them off at the front of the airport, said quick goodbyes, and cried all the way to church. Jaelyn was the worst. She said, “Mommy I think my heart is breaking.” Bless her heart! Mine was breaking too but I didn’t have the heart to let her see me weak too.

After church we all took naps and tried to recoop from the busy but fun weekend. I heard it was COLD in Marshall and foggy on the way home. I’m glad my family got to enjoy weather in the 70-80’s while they were here so they could see just how nice the weather can be. I think it helped alot too that they got to see where we were and how we lived. Just made it all better for them.

Now I’m already looking forward to March when we can fly back to the midwest! I can’t wait to see everyone again. Unfortunately we aren’t going home for Christmas this year, maybe next year.

PS. I almost forgot, Avery finally lost that eye tooth that I thought was starting to get infected. Erik accidently flicked it and then Avery begged me to pull it out the rest of the way. The tooth fairy found him in Texas and even left $1.25 for him in quarters. No state income tax must really pay off!

On Saturday morning we ventured out to the Houston Zoo, in downtown Houston. The zoo is on 55 acres and so we had alot of walking to do but it was a nice warm day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Braden getting a ride on Erik’s shoulders

In front of the sea lion display

At the petting zoo by the duck statue

Petting zoo

Jaelyn brushing the goat

Braden wasn’t quite as interested in the goats as he was the brush

At the Children’s zoo-Splash pad, Avery was soaked!

Jaelyn trying to stay some-what dry

Braden’s didn’t have a chance with Erik trying to get him wet!

Just relaxing

After the fun of the zoo, we decided since we were already half way there, we should goto the ocean! I really wanted to take a ride on the ferry and see the dolphins. We saw a ton of dolphins but couldn’t get any photos of them. The kids loved feeding the seaguls crackers.

On the Bolivar Ferry- feeding the seagulls and watching the dolphins play

The seagulls took the crackers right from our hands, even Avery’s!

We have found our own special part of the ocean/beach where we don’t have to pay and it’s right across the street from a ton of hotels and the Rain Forest Cafe. We we enjoyed the last of the sunlight for the day, ate a very yummy meal, and then took a moon lit walk on the beach after we ate. It felt like we were on vacation. Jaelyn begged to come back with shovels and buckets to have a sand castle contest.

In the ocean

Braden not so sure about the cold water on his toes

Avery the wave jumper

After supper, sitting on the rocks, looking out into the water, just relaxing

We ate at the Rain Forest Café- VERY COOL PLACE!

Avery thought he was cool with his Root Beer Bottle

This week I got Avery’s school photo back. Isn’t he looking so grown up?

Avery’s official First Grade Photo

On a side note, congrats to my friend Shayla and her husband Jon, as they welcomed 7 lb, 7 oz, Adi Ann Zeigler, their daughter, into the world on Thursday Oct. 13th! From the hospital photo, she’s got a ton of black hair and looks very beautiful! Good job Shayla and Jon!

Happy 23rd Birthday to my little sister Autumn tomorrow, the 17th! I hope you had fun on the East Coast this weekend!