First time for everything...

Well I guess there is always a first time for everything... yes even I am now branching out to the blogging phase. I do think this is a great way to branch out and keep better track of family and friends. So here it goes.

Well as m0st of you know Chris and I have been married now for just over 6.5 years. On Dec. 13th it will be our 7th year anniversary. Although we have had our ups and downs in married life, it has been a true blessing to be married to my best friend, and wonderful husband. We now have two amazing children Kennedy age 2.5 and Kelden 11 months.

Chris and I {Shanell} keep very busy with work, and life. Chris is now selling credit card processing to business' he is now the 3rd best sales person for Eliot Management Group nationwide and was offered a great job to advance within the company. He was offered a District Sales Manager job where he would be in charge of 14 states and all the sales force within those states. We both decided the 6 figure salary would not be worth the move to the East Coast, and never seeing Chris as he would be traveling each week. So with much thought we turned down the position and are here to stay in Utah for now.

I {Shanell} stay busy working as a manufacturer's representative a big name for sale rep. I work for Milne & Associates which is out of Englewood, CO. I get the wonderful opportunity of working from my home office, and traveling some between Southern Utah, and Idaho. I hold sales meetings, sales trainings, and give reps some samples of new Office Supplies, and show whats new for business furniture. It is a great job, and very fun and rewarding to be able to see my kids most days, and work from home alot of the time. I also have finished my degree in Travel and Tourism, from Penn Foster Career School. I have my travel agent license and we {Chris and I} have just opened our own travel agency. We named it: Streamline Travel LLC. I am truly excited to be finished with school, and also am glad that I have finally accomplished my dream of owning my own business and becoming a travel agent. We have a website for the agency where you can book your own travel http://streamlinetravel.agenthub.net

Kennedy is our little princess. She is busy to say the least. She is an amazing daughter! She has blessed our life with here presence since she was born on Feb. 12, 2006. She is 2.5 years old now, and with that comes the terrible twos, throwing fits, and potty training. On most days she is pretty good, and tries to share with her little brother, and play nicely. But at least once per day we have to stop the tantrum of Kelden took my blankie and I want all of the ones available in the house for me. But I guess this is part of the age. Kenders or Kendi as we call her loves to stack things... yes stack! Anything possible whether it be spoons, forks, toys, cards, puzzle pieces etc. She loves to stack them up as tall as she can. Then she places them all on the floor in a perfect row. It is amazing to see just how smart she truly is. She also loves to count and learn colors, and numbers. Thanks for Dora on TV she is even picking up some Spanish words. We also try and teach her how to count from 1-10 in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Korean.

Kelden is our little prince. He has alot different temperment then Kennedy ever had. He is very much to say a MaMa's boy. If I am around or even close to him he wants me to hold him, or pay attention to him. He is now 11 months old and we are planning his 1st birthday party! He was born on Sept. 6th 2007. He has been an amazing child, but has had so many health problems since he was born. He was due on Sept. 30th so as you can see he was born almost 3.5 weeks early or at 36.5 weeks. When I gave birth to him, he was breathing and doing well and thankfully did not have any complications at delivery, as was able to go home the next day from the hospital. The very next week at 7 days old he was struggling to breathe and was a turning at grayish blue at about 11 PM at night. Chris took him up to Wee Care Pediatrics and they rushed him to McKay Dee by ambulance. The Dr.s had told us one of his lungs was not working properly and he would be in the NICU. As I lived at the hospital for the next three days waiting to praying that my son would live. It was a scary experience and one that I hope will never have to do again. I remember while I was nursing him in the NICU and it was just Kelden and I... I remember telling him, if angels were coming to him to don't go with them, and stay with mommy because I needed him in my life. To say the least with that experience my testimony of the power of the priesthood has grown in leaps and bounds. A few days later, he was sent home with a monitor that would wake us up if he stopped breathing. Thank goodness it never happened again! The next month later he aquired pink eye. So we were giving him drops every few hours. And in Jan. 2008 he went in for his 4 month check up and was diagnosed with RSV and was placed in the hospital for another few days. Thank goodness since then we have had no problems to report other then the common cold.

After everything that has happened this past year...I am blessed and grateful to know how precious life is, and how wonderful family is. My family and Chris' family has helped us so much by watching Kennedy while I was in the hospital alot with Kelden. They also help all the time with Free babysitting of both kids so Chris and I can rejuvinate our relationship with a date night.

Well hopefully this is enough to get us starting on our quest to blog. We love you all, and our so happy you are apart of our lives.