Happy New Year Oregon

Dad put up two fences. One on each side of the house to protect little kids from the lake.

To Oregon we go

We left at 2:00 this morning. A huge storm hit right after school and so we waited. Stan left before us. He had car trouble with snow chains. They really worked his van over. It did something to his brake line. So we are now in Winemucca with them. They are going to get it fixed this morning. It is the beginning of a great adventure. We have been watching the webcams.

Family Christmas Party

Tonight we had our dress-up Christmas Party. We all had a good time eating turkey, green beans, baked potato, and rolls. We then played the white elephant game where a older play station, cook book, big romote and computer camera were traded around. Grandma and Grandpa came up to it. It is hard for mom to get around. She is in pain a lot of the time. They liked our new dog. The grand babies were all dressed up so cute.

Dad bought a dog

On Friday, Dad told me he has been thinking all day about a dog. I thought he was joking. He woke up this morning, saying, "Let's go check out the Humane Society today". My mouth was dragging on the ground. So we went and found a really nice girl dog. She is nice to everyone. We are going to call her Hot Chocolate...well...cocoa for short. She is very friendly to everyone. She is 6 months old from California. She she a chihuahua Short Hair. We are all in love with her. She is our Christmas present.

Happy Birthday George! Now you are 2

BYU winter Youth Concert

The three boys danced tonight! They were great. Here is James solo. When as a senior, you might be get invited to do a solo, and James did. It is beautiful.

Great News! We are going to Hill Cumorah

Through James letter we learned that our family is going to be in the Hill Cumorah pageant! Yeah! We are all excited. It has sent our heads spinning.

Happy Russian Missionary

Dear Family, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving was great! We had a turkey bowl in the morning with about 10 missionaries. We played soccer first but that easily gave way to the real sport of the holiday...football. I'm proud to say that the team I was on dominated. :) We afterwards had thanksgiving dinner at the branch building in Rostov. Really good! Rolls, potatoes, salads, soup, dessert-cakes, cookies, pies ( pumpkin, which the sisters made. It was realllly good).

I got my Christmas package. I probably wasn't supposed to know but I just happened to be in Presidents office, and lo and behold, my name written in a big black marker. Thank you very much. I'll get to open it at conference within the next few weeks. Yes, it's getting cold. We've only had it snow once (lightly) but other than that, It's pretty much just getting colder and colder.

Love you all. I thought I already was an angel :)
Love,
Elder McShinsky

(In my letter to Mike, I told him to be an angel this season...so you see his remark back.)

Heely Tennis Shoes on Bob's feet

Wow..last year I tried to find a pair of heelies for Bob for Christmas. They were too expensive, so he didn't get it. This year when shopping at DI Bob found a pair for $6.00. We should have hid them for this Christmas. He is having a great time on his wheels. His Christmas will be boring this year compared to his Christmas season. He is having a ball.

Big Tree

This year we went out late to get a tree. We didn't think we would get a very good tree. We went to the store, "Smiths" and there were 2 choices...a little one or for $10 bucks more..the bigger size. Well, there was one that was huge...so we picked that one. It fills about 1/2 our little family room. It is very pretty.

Flipping Bob

Bob decided to make some dives into the bag.
More of Bob

Madi Tagged me..I'm it

This is James at Nationals at BYU in March 2008. He won this event. I'm an easy call to have ballroom pics.

Two days with playing with Grandma Raynes

I have taken off two days to spend playing with grandma. I told her ahead of time that it sure would be fun to go to the movies with her. So we did yesterday. We went to Twilight at 12:45 and we had a great time. She didn't think about cancer for 2 hours. Here are pics of her getting her nails done and toe nails. She has a great house maid that came and did it.