December

Merry Christmas! 2007 was a very eventful year for us. You can see the full details in the posts below, but here is the summary. We left Texas after 5 years there and both got new jobs in Utah. We really miss all of our friends in the Lone Star State, but it is so wonderful to be close to our families now.

Shawn is now the Business Development and Lead Generation Manager for Infopia and Janell is the Accounting Manager for DownEast Outfitters. We bought a new house in Lehi, right across from Thanksgiving Point and it has been awesome to be here for so many wonderful family events this year; birthday parties, Jake’s baptism, Alison’s blessing, and Dave and Erin’s wedding.

We didn’t get to travel too much this year, until we got invited on a last minute trip to Hawaii with Shawn’s family the week before Christmas. There will be more to come on this after we get back. Well, that’s our life for now. Check out the posts below for the full details and come back often for updates.

Love, Shawn and Janell.

November

We really enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with my family for the first time since we've been married. But something else happened in November that I think we'll remember longer than the turkey. My sister and her husband went to Hawaii for 8 days for a much deserved vacation. Shawn and I moved into their house to care for their five kids, ages 4-13. Wow- what a week. With both of us working full-time, going from zero to five kids overnight was an experience. We just hung on for dear life during the week-- but we had a blast over the weekend.

Some of the craziness included: 8 yr old Jake's first pinewood derby, two unannounced birthday parties, last minute research projects, grading homework, signing papers, a school food drive, chores, piano, full-dress day, homework remembered at bedtime, and I think I've repressed the rest. Oh- and we totally went paper for the dishes after day one. Anyone caught using an actual dish or utensil would be put on trial. :)

Some of the highlights included: Bedtime stories, the Peanut Butter and Jelly song, spending the weekend at our house, dinner at IHOP, building forts, swimming at the Legacy Center, having Stephen & Anna in our primary class, and naptime! We also went to an awesome concert Saturday night with Shawn's sisters where the Passmore kids got to meet their "other cousins", Michael and Emma Pond (Shawn's niece & nephew).

Here are Michael & Emma enjoying their balloons at the concert.

October

The benefit for Shawn in moving to Utah is BYU football. So we got season tickets and took different family members to each game. When the fight song talks about "We will fight, day or night, rain or snow"-- they're SO not kidding. We had small kids sticking it out through the pouring rain. Dave & Erin sat through the blizzard with us. But we had an awesome time as they won every home game this season. Here's us enjoying the best weather of the season with Shawn's sisters, Stephanie and Jennifer, and Jennifer's husband Aaron.

September

So, when we say we moved to Utah to spend time with the family... In September we went up to Shawn's Grandparent's cabin in Island Park, Idaho. My family came up for the first few days, and then Shawn's parents and sisters came up for a few days after that. We had a blast hiking, tubing, and motorbiking and Shawn relived his fondest childhood memories by giving us all canoe rides. On our way home we took Stephanie Jones to her first term at BYU-Idaho.

August

We went camping with all of my siblings and Shawn's sister Stephanie. We camped up past Sundance and we all hiked to Stewart Falls the next day.

Shawn & Anna turn to some iTunes for a little quiet time by the fire.

July

For the 4th of July we went with my family to the Freedom Festival in Provo-- I ran the 5k race with my sister Lisa, her husband Dave, and her oldest daughter Maggie. Next year I'll definitely have to train better. Later that day, after the parade, we had everyone over to our house for running through the sprinklers and fireworks. We have a fabulous view of the Thanksgiving Point fireworks from our backyard.

We also went to an outdoor concert of the Fray with Nate & Karen Pusey. And of course we went to the midnight release of Harry Potter Book 7. This is my brother Rob (Mad Eye), his wife Stefani (Tonks) and Baby Alison-- they're big fans. :)

June

We visited Shawn's family in Oregon to see Shawn's youngest sister, Stephanie, graduate from high school. Then Shawn and Stephanie flew back East together; Stephanie was on her way to FYE in New York and Shawn attended eBay Live in Boston.

Also, my brother Dave got married in Sacramento to Erin Kotyk. She is wonderful, and we're so excited to have her as a sister. Here's one of my favorite photos - this is Erin with her newest niece Alison.


Oh! I almost forgot... The airline lost our luggage again! Thanks to some late night shuffle by the bride and groom, I didn't have to wear this to the wedding itself! My brother even had a suit for Shawn.

May

Last year my mom and I made plans for her to come see me in April 2007 since Wicked was going to be playing in Dallas. When I flaked out and moved to Utah-- we decided we still had to go. At this point it turned out to be less expensive to fly to Denver than to go back down to Dallas. So me, my mother, and my sister all went for 1 day to Denver to see Wicked. It was awesome! Also, since we grew up in Denver we were able to visit some old haunts and family there. At the last minute we even did lunch at Casa Bonita-- one of our very favorite places.

April

We had my entire family over for General Conference and to celebrate Easter a week early. It was wonderful to watch conference together, have a huge dinner, and watch our nieces and newphews hunt for eggs. Here's a bunch of us together. We are with my mom and all of my nieces and nephews except Alison our newly born niece.


My stint in construction accounting wasn't a good fit, so at the end of April I accepted a new position as the Accounting Manager for DownEast Outfitters. My office is in Orem right across the freeway from UVSC, so we are glad our new house is centrally located.

March

In March we moved into our new house! We live in Lehi City in an area called Traverse Mountain. We love the area-- it's as close as we can get to Salt Lake while remaining in Utah County (Go Cougars!). We were so glad to have our own place and to bring our stuff up from Texas. When we were down there we got to see so many of those awesome Texans that we miss so much!

February

On February 15th we celebrated our 5th anniversary by making a getaway to Southern California. Shawn had a conference that week in Palm Springs, so I came to meet him for the weekend. We went to Disneyland. :) We took some great pictures, but we lost our camera the next month. So, here's a wedding picture in honor of the occasion.

January

After spending Christmas in Newport, Oregon with Shawn's family, we flew home New Year's Day determined to drive to Utah the very next day as a final effort to get jobs closer to our families. Shawn was committed to start a job in DFW in a week and a half unless we found something better in Utah. Although we were delayed a day or two in our attempt since the airline lost our luggage on the flight home, we were soon off on our adventure...

We were blessed in our attempt and Shawn got a job offer on Tuesday and I got one on Wednesday. We knew it was time for us to move closer to family. The next day we flew back to Texas and put our first home up for sale.

After getting our house on the market, we loaded up our second car and drove back to Utah to start our new jobs. We moved in with my parents to wait for our house to sell and to look for a new house in Utah. Both of us started our jobs on January 22nd. Shawn is the Lead Generation Manager for Infopia - an eCommerce company in downtown Salt Lake City. I took an accounting position with the FrontGate Sundance Alliance - working in residential contruction for the first time.