Shawn's 40th Birthday

I was dreading my 40th birthday all year, but was pleasantly surprised all day long. My day started with my mom's early morning birthday call. When I arrived to my office it was decorated to the max with balloons and streamers by my officemates. Then I received beautiful bouquets of flowers from Phil & Pat, my parents, my boss Julie, and also Jeff. My co-worker Tamara, coordinated a surprise lunch and cake and invited Jeff, the kids and Jeff's sister Michelle to the office to join us. Then when I got home from work, the kids surprised me with a large brownie cake that Jenna made (the candles melted into it, but it still tasted delicious.) The kids also made several birthday posters and posted them all over the house. We had reservations for "6" at Carrabbas for dinner, however a total of 18 relatives from Jeff's extended family were in attendance for an additional surprise. Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, e-mails, phone messages, lots of gifts, gift cards and love that was shown by all today. I felt much love. Thank you. Love, Shawn

Jenna's point of view

Jenna bought her own digital camera with her own money she received from Christmas and odd jobs. These pictures were taken by Jenna or with her new camera. Jenna wanted to type a few words of her own:

I have alot of stuffed animals and dolls that I took pictures of. I also took pictures of my family. I took several pictures of Jesse and my Dad sleeping. It wasn't easy to catch my brother sleeping.

As you know my mom got plenty of surprises today. As you can see my mother's 40th big day was today. I made a brownie cake my mom thought was delicious. The candles melted and turned into string. Me, my brother, and my auntie M, had fun waiting in the dark for my mom to come home so we could surprise her.

I am enjoying my new camera.

Dahlberg Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange 2008

Christmas dinner at Nana & Pop's house. This was the first time in 9 years that Jeff was able to spend Christmas Day with his whole family. Jeff's sister Michelle flew in from San Diego last night to spend time with everyone. We are always happy to see her. We all contributed to the meal and the men helped with the clean up.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! This was our first Christmas in 5 years where we weren't traveling on the road on Christmas Day. Jeff wasn't able to get vacation time off this year, so we missed our California Christmas. However, all of our California family still sent us gifts in time to open on Christmas Day. We were overwhelmed with the generosity and love. Thank you to Grammie & Pop, The Rowleys, The Hays, The Percivals, The Baxters, The Cutilis, The Jacobs, Grandma Jackson and Grandma Rowley.

Kids Choir

Jesse and Jenna were in Choir together for their school, Odyssey Elementary. They had two performances, one for Starbucks which was located inside an Albertson's grocery store and the other was a night performance at their school.

Holiday Spirit Song

Shanna enjoyed the holiday spirit song!

Do you know Blitzen?

Car ride home from California

Luckily, Grammie and Pop provided us with early Christmas stocking stuffers to open on our way back home. We left California at about 3:30pm on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. What is usually an 18 hour car ride turned into 30 hours. Besides Jeff getting a speeding ticket through Arizona, we had car trouble in Richfield, UT at about 3am. We had to stop and try and find a vacancy to sleep for a few hours until we could find a place to fix our cooling line. By the time we reached Colorado we were in a snow storm with almost zero visibility. We were so blessed when we finally reached home safely at 11pm on Saturday night. The kids however thought it was the best car ride ever. Of course they did, they had new toys to play with and movies to watch as well as snacks to eat.

Visiting cousins and Thanksgiving in California

Kid's at the beach

Visiting Grandma Rowley

Nephew Bracken's Lego B-day Party

Shanna shake

Jenna playing defense

Jesse and Jenna's first basketball games of the season

Jenna's team lost 24 - 0 against Ridgeview 4th grade girls, Jesse's team won against Evans 5th grade boys 25 - 16. Jenna played a team with two girls that were at least 5'7" tall. We were surprised Jesse's team did as well.

The Dahlberg Dimension

 

 

 

 

Shawn has had this stool since she was a child--It's gotten a lot of use!

 

 

This little stool is mine
I use it all the time
To reach the things I couldn't
And lots of things I shouldn't

Halloween 2008

We were excited to have good weather (no snow) for a change! This year Shanna was a Broncos cheerleader, Jenna was Padme' Amidala and Jesse was Anakin Skywalker (thanks to Grammmie & Pop's generosity). Shanna enjoyed her first trick-or-treating experience. She especially likes Skittles and also shaking the boxes of Nerds-- we call them "candy maracas". Jesse and Jenna brought in 5x each what we gave out! They even went back out for a second round with their cousins Levi and Benjamin, who were also Star Wars characters. This year Jenna created her "love" pumpkin which Dad carved.

Kids in White - Round 1

Quite the musiShanna

The Preserve at Walden

This weekend we visited The Preserve at Walden where there was a pumkin patch, a maze, tractor rides, goats and a straw slide. The pictures are from the day which were enjoyed by everyone.

Various pics from family birthdays (Nephew, Landon; Sister-in-law, Leslie; and Mom, Pat) and trip to mall

Guess what Shanna's favorite toy is lately--

 

 

Jesse's remote control tarantula!

Shanna Belle

This was a cell phone shot from Labor Day, but I still like it

 

We may have a musician on our hands...

Total Shannamation

Jesse and Shanna - A Meeting of the "MINEs"

Shanna: Neighborhood Star

I sure love watermelon. Too bad my dad only had his cell phone camera...

 

2008 Balloon Classic

Shanna is walking!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Shawn got me an edible arrangement of chocolate covered strawberries for my birthday. Shanna enjoyed them too!

Jesse lost another tooth!! Jenna shows off her new haircut!! They both show how much they love each other...

A little closer to the truth...

Where's your belly button?

Shawn and Shanna 2

Shawn and Shanna

Is it sleepy time yet?

Pretty eyes Sweetie Pie!

Look at this 6 foot snake in our backyard!

OK, I meant 6 inches...

Grandma Dahlberg's 85th Birthday Celebration

This past weekend we (me, Shawn, Jesse, Jenna, and Shanna) went over to Hotchkiss, on the Western Slope of Colorado, to celebrate my Grandma's 85th birthday (which actually is August 16th). We took quite a few pictures of the beautiful scenery on the way over and back, as well as many around her new property which she moved into last October. This was the first time all of her kids were together since probably 1992. This includes my dad, Phil, aunt Nora, and uncles Eric, Gregg, Terry, and Roger. Also in attendance were my mom, Pat; great uncle Bob (my late grandpa's brother) and Ann; Bob's daughter Kathy and husband Rick, their kids, Eric and Anna (who Jenna became fast friends with); Roger's kids, Zak and Mandy (and their friend Sam); Terry's wife Brenda; their son Josh, his wife Cara, and kids Isaiah, Abriella, and Lily; their daughter Tracey, her husband Brian, and kids, Kylah and Kinley; Gregg's wife Marla, and kids Scott and Kami.

Besides enjoying the food, the kids enjoyed catching grasshoppers, frogs, and a praying mantis; playing badminton, and playing fetch with the dog, Keeda. Most of the women enjoyed the kids and babies, and most of the men enjoyed shooting guns, throwing horseshoes, checking out great uncle Bob's LaSalle which he has owned for 58 years (he restores mostly Jaguars but restored this one also-- but with Jaguar headlights), as well as the Harley Eric rode up on and surprised everyone.

Probably the only downside to the weekend was some sunburns and getting eaten alive by mosquitos due to the extra rain they have been getting lately.

On the way back, we stopped by Silver Cliff Ranch, (Eric and Leta's camp) and the family was able to also meet their daughter (my cousin), Lanea, who I probably haven't seen in over 20 years myself.

P.S. My apologies for any mis-spellings. Feel free to e-mail me any corrections at jpdahlberg@gmail.com

Our baby blogger pointing at a picture of cousin Ainsley

First Day of School

FORE!

Yesterday was the U.S. Senior Open here in Colorado Springs. Shawn had the great idea of getting tickets for my dad for Father's Day, and the best package was tickets for four. So we stipulated he had to bring a blood relative named Jeff. Kids were free-- so Jesse and Jenna came along, as well as my brother, Todd, and his oldest boys, Levi and Benjamin, and my uncle, Gregg, too. We had a great time. At least us adults. The kids were a little bored, but they did get a free hat, as well as a picture of them chipping a few balls. We got a chance to see the whole line-up go by from the second row of the 16th hole grandstand, with the highlight being an amazing birdie chip-in by The Shark, Greg Norman. My mom even saw us on TV in the background. I knew that crazy loud Hawaiian shirt would pay off. It was a long, hot day, but well worth it. Once in a lifetime, most likely.

Jenna's Birthday-Slumber Party