We will miss them!

We have been living in Matthew's parents basement for the past few months and now the Graffs found out that they are having to move because of employment. They will be in D.C. for a while and then somewhere else but we are not sure where. We are going to be staying in the basement until the house sells. That could be a couple of months or a year, we just don't know. (I don't want to move, so hopefully a long time!) I feel bad not wanting the house to sell but I like the area we are in and love the family ward we attend. Both Matthew and I have callings in Young Mens and Young Womens. So last weekend we helped haul boxes into two huge trucks. It was a tiring day, but I had to work most of the day so I really didn't have to do much of the lifting! :) Anyway I think it has just hit Matthew that his family is moving away and we won't be able to see them for a while. The whole time while Matthew has been at BYU, his family has either been in Salt Lake or Orem--very close to go visit often. He is not used to having them far away (except for his mission of course!) But now its like the house is always so quiet. We used to always play games all day Sunday with them, and Matthew loved being close with is teenage brothers. So its a new change to be all alone in this big house even though we are only in the basement part of it. His family was so fun to be with and we will miss them. I guess the only good thing about this situation is now we are able to park in tha garage!

One Year Anniversary!

Last weekend Matthew and I celebrated our 1 yr anniversasry!! I can't believe its already been a year. Some people say that is the hardest year but for me this has been the most rewarding and blessed year so far! My husband is so wonderful and perfect for me. He takes such good care of me and I feel so lucky to have him! We have so much fun together whether we are going out together or just at home chillin. Our anniversary was on Sunday (thats what you get when you get married on a Saturday!) and then I had to work until about 10:30 on saturday night so we celebrated on Friday night. We didn't do anything over the top, but just went out to dinner and had a really good time. I forgot to bring my camera so I put up a weddig picture! One year down and many more to go!

Shanna appearently needs...

My cousin did this and it was really funny to read so I thought I would give it a try. You just go to google and type in "(Your name) needs" and then look at the first top ten things. So this is what I need according to Google:
1. Shanna needs a temporary husband (no thank you, I have a permanent one that I love)
2. Shanna needs to spend more time out of bed (I really don't sleep in THAT late!)
3. Shanna needs a kick in the pants (for what??)
4. Shanna needs a new pair of lungs (I think mine are just fine!)
5. Shanna needs to write a book (umm i beg to differ)
6. Shanna needs to be wearing a bikini. (No, believe me she doesn't!)
7. Shanna needs prayers too. (Don't mind getting prayers!)
8. Shanna needs help moving a file cabinet. (I have a strong husband to move things for me!)
9. Shanna needs love and care (yes!)
10. Shanna needs a new place to call home (I actually have a great home!)

Kind of fun to do and also kind of random!

Open Gym!

Jenna won our handstand contest!

So the other night my former roommates and I went to a gymnastics gym that had been rented out for the night. We got to play on all the equipment and trapolines. It was the funnest thing I have done in a while. We were doing all sorts of tricks and flips and I was tring to remember all the tumbeling I had done years ago in gymnastics. We were being really goofy but it was great! But it was also about midnight so we were kind of wired as well. So here are some pictures of us tumbeling or at least trying to. In the picture above we were jumping off this huge mat onto a trampoline and cole was nice enough to take our picture--we had to redo it about 10 times becuase everyone wanted to look somewhat coordinated! The morning after this I was so sore!

Graduation and Summer plans

I know I have some serious updating to do so here we go. First and the most exciting is that I am now a BYU grad! Graduation was so fun and it was nice to have my parents come in town. I was suprised to see President Hinckley at graduation. The whole crowd cheered when he came in. I also really enjoyed Dick Cheney's speech. Friday when I walked I was glad to not have tripped while on the stage but disappointed that I was called "Shauna" as I walked across. But I am so glad to be graduated and now for summer plans. I will be in Orem all summer. I will be working for my dad part time and for Ann Taylor part time. Other than that I will be setting up my classroom for next fall. Matthew is taking a biochem class and golfing this spring semester and them a chem class and english for summer term. He will also be working as a chem TA both spring and summer. I am loving the warm weather and the activities we can do outside now that it is warm! I am sad that most of my friends are not staying here for the summer but I will probably be keeping myself busy. Well thats it for now!

We Moved!

I know i haven't in written in forever, but my husband and I moved to a new apartment and haven't had the internet for a couple of weeks. The move was very last minute but i love our new place. It was big---big enough to have parties! So i will be planning one shortly. Anyway we have spend the last couple of weekends moving and cleaning our old apartment. Now we live in a basement apartment in Orem. Actually, Matthew's parents just bought a house in Orem and we are now living in their basement. It is working out really nice! So anyway update on the student teaching, it is going a lot better compared to how it started out for me. My teacher is just a very differnet person and teacher than i am used to. But he is an awesome teacher! Anyway i was really nervous to do this but i invited my principal to come in and observe me and he did yesterday! So today he came up to me and wanted to let me know that he is starting the interview process next week so i better get in my application and resume to him! So that could be promising! Anyway things are going great!

Student Teaching so far

Well I am excited to be in a fifth grade classroom this block of student teaching. I am in Payson and the school is very nice and new. I also have a male teacher for the first time. So far I am not sure what to think about my first couple of days. My mentor teacher doesn't seem very friendly and has hardly talked to me at all. So I have yet to sit down and talk about planning, classroom procedures, what I am expected to do or anything like that. However he did mention that I will be doing two weeks of solo teaching which is really frightning at the moment. I know this is a busy week for all the teacher with parent-teacher conferences so hopefully after this week things will get better. As far as the students go, it seems like a very good class and I really like all the students.

Texas Trip

Besides the adventure of getting to Texas, the rest of the trip was so fun and very worth going! It was so nice to hang out with my family for New Years. We played lots of games, DDR and continued our tradition of going bowling on New Years Day. This was the first time our whole family has been together with two married siblings and the spouses. My sisters are definitly not used to having boys around! However, my dad loved it! Our trip back home felt like a breeze compared to getting to Texas.

Snowed In

So my husband had this crazy spur of the moment decision to drive to Texas to be with my family for New Years. I had a hard time being away from my family for the first Christmas ever so i kinda liked the idea. So pretty much the next day we packed up and just left! I didn't really tell anyone, we just did it.Jenna and Cole came with us. However, on the way down, we got stranded on I-40 in the middle of New Mexico. The snow was so bad and the roads were so slippery that I got really scared we were going to slip off the road. Well then we got stopped in bumper to bumper traffic and found out they had closed the road for the rest of the night! So we played a little rock, played in the snow and talked to some of the truckers. We tried to sleep but it was very uncomfortable. Honestly it was miserable trying to sleep! Now we have a fun adventure story to tell.

Here is what we saw in front of us--an endless stream of backlights
Here is what was behind us stopped on the highway.

The Polar Express

On the Eve of Christmas Eve, Matthew and I went with his family on the Polar Express. They change the Heber Creeper train into the Polar Express for the holidays. It was so fun. We all went in our pajamas just like the book. Here is the whole family including Matthew's grandparents and his brothers' dates.

It was such a cute idea! They served hot chocoate and cookies, we read the book, sang Christmas songs and even saw Santa. It was a really fun family event. They had elves, a chef, and a conductor just like the book!

Here is Matthew leading our train car in Christmas carols!

Twins Skiing

This weekend both of our husbands went down for the Vegas Bowl game, so Jenna and I went skiing at Snowbird. It was so fun just the two of us. We both had to take our last final early in the morning and then went to the slopes right after that. Yay! Done with finals! It was a clear day but cold! Towards the end of the day we accidently found ourselves on a black diamond. Not sure how we did that but there was only one way down! After we got home we relaxed and watched the victorious bowl game. Nice way to begin the break!

Matthew's Birthday

Tuesday was Matthew's birthday. He is a whoppin 24! He thinks he is getting old! I took him out to Carrabba's for dinner and then had a party for him when we got home. His favorite cake is carrot cake so I am proud to say that I made my first homemade carrot cake with homemade frosting! We had some friends over for cake and ice-cream and played games. It was a bummer that his birthday fell on finals week. He took two of his hardest finals on his birthday. Good thing they are all over now. See that sweater he is wearing--gave that to him for his B-day!

Scrapbooking Party

I went to an amazing scrapbooking party on Friday. Emily was an amazing hostess and let us all come to her house. My cohort friends and I had lunch, a white elephant party and some good talk! And I guess we did some scrapbooking on the side. (We also have many plans to set Alisa up with good guys!)It was so much fun and a much needed break from the stress of finals! We laughed so much and are excited to do it again. So we better make it happen!

Teaching Matthew to Ski

Matthew finally had his first experience skiing! He did such a good job and I am so proud of him. We went to Brighton on Saturday and it was the perfect day. It was so warm we were actually hot most of the day! Matthew spent a lot of the first few runs on the ground sliding down the mountian, but really got the hang of it in the afternoon. I am just glad he is ok after his really bad fall. He had quite the face plant and tumble down one of the runs. He ended up with a gash on his face, a bruised shoulder and, we found out today, a broken thumb! He is ok but just has a really sore shoulder and bum! Here he is all bandaged up and still skiing!

Flag Football

It was so fun going to Alisa's flag football game last night. This is a side of her that we have never seen before and never knew existed! I had no idea she was a football guru! We are just consistantly learning new things about her. It was cold but so fun to see her play. We are all rooting for her championship game tomorrow. This was our "tough" pose after the game--I love Alisa's the best!

Cool Pic!

Check out this cool picture that my mom sent me. This is a picture of camels in the desert from overhead. However the camals that you see are really the shadows of the camals. The camals are the skinny shapes you see below each shadow. Cool huh! I love this type of stuff.

Dance Dance!

When ever Matthew gets together with his brothers and sisters they always eventually have a Dance Dance Revolution Competition! They are hooked on it! Its actually quite tiring and is a good workout! They get so hot and sweaty doing it! So here is just one of the many times we pull out this addicting game. Matthew and his brothers can do it so fast its amazing. He is so much better than me and I thought I was the dancer between the two of us! It really is so much fun! I wish Matthew and I had it in our apartment but we are on the third floor and I don't know how the people below us would feel about that!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving was a wonderful needed break! Matthew and I drove with his family to California to visit his grandparents. I had never met them before so it was really good to meet them. We did a lot of relaxing, ate lots of yummy food and had my favorite thing--pumpkin pie! Here we are at his aunt's house eating In-N-Out the day after Thanksgiving! It was so warm there! The road trip was actually really fun! We drove home just in time to watch the second half of the amazing BYU game! Matthew's little sister was so cute in the car. She was watching a movie with the headphone on all wrong! It was the cutest thing!

Cohort Party

Well this was about the funnest party I have been to in a while!! Some girls from my Elementary Education cohort decided to have a couples party. We all have classes together every day but I had not meet any of thier husbands. Also we don't get to see each other for a month while out in our schools teaching. So we all got together had a wonderful dinner and played games! Pretty much we killed the boys in Taboo! Then we had such a fun chat while the boys played Xbox. I am so excited to get together again!

Homecoming

Hey! I know i am really behind in posting but now I am trying to catch up! My wonderful husband asked me to go to homecoming with him so here we are at the dance! It was so much fun! We went with a few other couples and just had a blast! Here is a picture of me and Melissa after the dance.