Prom 2010

So my Senior Prom was pretty amazing!! Thais and I went and got our hair done together by Jim Day, who did an amazing job!! Then My mom, sister, and I picked up the flower thing for Ryan.



After I got home I did my makeup and thais's, then fixed her hair a billion times ;)
The boys arrived early which was awesome but they had to wait a while for us to get ready, then we walked out, down the stairs and did the flowers!!


Ryan drove to the Marriott where we met everyone for pictures, We listened to Naturally by Salena Gomez haha Ryans ew favorite song!!
So we took pictures in the water way for the parents, then the Hummer Limo picked us up and took us to the Japanese Garden in down town Houston!!





Ryan was so sweet to me the whole night, he really made a effort to making this night special! I felt as if I was back in the summer of before my Jr year of high school =), something has just always clicked with Ryan and I, its kinda weird... However After all the pictures and goofing around we all got back into the limo and went to the Aquarium which was awesome!! The food was great and We got to see these huge fish in the Fish tanks they had!!




Thais and I also got the best compliment of our life we went to the bathrooms together and this lady complimented us on having modest dresses! Then after we walked out of the bathroom that same lady was saying "look hunny these are the girls with modest dresses, we want to aspire to have our daughter be like them" wow how special did we feel =)!! Well after dinner we headed to the dance where Ryan let loose, he was a dancing machine haha I have never seen him let loose in the 3 years I have known him, it was funny and exciting he just just made the night even better!! After that we headed home but first stopped at Wal-Mart to get Red Bull to keep us awake, then we headed to my house to change. We got to the school and was told we can't bring drinks in so I had two Red Bulls then went in haha Trey and Ryan had more then me and Thais also haha.

But we had a great time beating each other up with all the bow up games!! We played twister first where we ended up just wrestling haha and then the zip line and boxing.

By the end of the night we were whipped out, Thais fell asleep in my lap, Ryan was laying on the table and so was I!! haha after Project Prom We came back to my house the guys slept in the living room, and Thais and I slept my bed room!! I woke up and Thais and I began to laugh so Ryan walked in and was asking what we were laughing at!! Well I got up and got ready to go to the lake with Ryan, we dropped everyone off and then went to Ryan's house where I talked to Cne (Twin) and his mom!!


We talked about prom and Joel; Ryan's brother who is coming home in 2 weeks from his mission!! Well after that chat we went to the lake with Brother Beckstead and his two daughters Madlin and Emma (way cute, they loved me and wanted to do everything with me) haha well Brother Beckstead helped me with the wake skate and I got up a few seconds which was tight!! Then I put the Wake board on and after a few tries I got up!!!! So cool, but then my whole body was tired so I took a break hhaha Then Ryan and I got on the tube and had lots of fun!! By the end of the day my body started to shake I think it was from the red bulls haha... Well Ryan drove me home and we had a good chat and I was trying to keep him from falling asleep!! He walked me to my door he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek good night!! Aw so sweet, he made this weekend amazing and way fun!!! Except I woke up with my whole body hurting!! haha What a great prom experience!!!

Mother's Day on Sunday

My mom got the earrings she wanted from me and the flowers from my Brother TJ and Kristina!!

So Today was a great day going to church and learning the importance of Motherhood! Sister Julander talked about being a mom to her new twin boys. "Motherhood isn't easy, if it was husbands would do it" haha that is the quote of the day! After Sacrament the Bishop got up and all the moms got flowers, well then he said for the young women who are 18 and older need to stand up and get flowers!! OMG seriously are they trying to get me married all ready haha jk it was nice though!


In Sunday school Papa Duiguid taught our class about "lest you forget" he asked us what kind of pictures we had hanging in our house we mostly said family, temple, Jesus Christ, art and ect. He asked us what those pictures help us to remember? Well they help us to remember the importance of family and what the plan is if we stay on the right track. Then he asked what if we had pictures of gold and jewelry what would that represent? He told us it would represent idealism and went on to talk about Satan and his temptations to deceive and lull the youth!! it was really good


Sunday School we learned about the importance of record keeping and writing a journal especially now!! So when our daughters are our age we can have them read things we went through. She gave us a letter from our mothers also talking about the day we were born mine said:
"Shanel Sorensen's birthday- September 30, 2010
Shanel's birthday was a very special day for me. It was a day that started out with lots of fear and concern and ended with the greatest feeling I ever thought possible.
It was a day that I had wished for most of my life, a wish that I wasn't sure was ever going to happen, after a problem delivering her older brothers 7 years before. I was told 7 years before that to have more children could endanger the babies life as well as my own and that we both would probably die. But I knew that I had little girls in heaven and I didn't care if I died trying to have them it was worth the risk for me.
The morning I was to go to the hospital to have her I prayed harder then I had ever prayed in my life. After having the doctors tell me from the beginning of my pregnancy with Shanel to not get my hopes up that I would probably never be able to carry her to term, to be going to the hospital, even though they had said I could still lose her at this point, because they thought she was several weeks early, my heart was filled with so much love and desire to just hold her and bring her home that I could not stop crying. I was excited beyond measure and after my prayer I knew she would be okay.
After the doctor brought her into the world, with an incubator and special care nurses all around us ready to snatch her and save her if needed, he held her feet up with tears rolling down his face and proclaimed that we didn't need the incubator that she was big and healthy and that he thought she would be fine! They washed her up and checked her out and then finally I got to hold her for the first time.
With her dad and grandparents all there with tears filled faces, I felt that I could never be as happy and grateful as I was at that moment again. I knew that God had preserved us and that he loved us. I felt like the most blessed mom in the world, and knew that she was special daughter of God and that she must have a special purpose here on this earth. I have always taken great pride and joy being honored to have been chosen to be her mom. Raising her and her sister has been my greatest joy."

My first Birhtday!!

I was 6 and Jessica was 1
This showed me how important my mom is to me, and how much she sacrificed just to have my sister and i!!! I can see were I get my stubbornness from also haha never give up especially when its something you really want!

My mom always being by my side!!
\
Mom I love you and I am so grateful for you in my life!!!
Love,
Shanel

Girls Just Want to Have Fun!!!

So this week as been filled with lost of fun!! Wed Thais and I went and got Tie dye to do some Project Prom shirts For our and dates and us!! Well Chris came and picked us up at Hobby Lobby and then we made the shirts at my house actually more like I made the shirts haha. Well the guys i put to much dye on but they still looked great, Thais and my shirt came out great! Well we ordered pizza and then watched a movie.
Thursday we went to institute and learned more about the Plan of Salvation and what it means to us. Then we played volleyball and had a lot of fun.
Friday I went out to lunch with my parents and sister. We went to Rancheros, which i hate Mexican food in Texas!! But oh well we celebrated Mothers Day and my dad's Birthday! After work Thais Geoff Chris Jakob and I went to see Iron Man 2!! Which was sooo funny and pretty much awesome! But first we got the tickets and went to Market street where Thais and I found a great store!!

haha Then we went and ate at Johnny Rockets which is always yummy!!!



after the movie Chris took us home and I went to bed Because i had work in the morning.

Saturday was pretty much a very long day. I got up at 6 to go go to work and then guarded a swim meet all morning. After that I went and made my Graduation invites with my mom which they came out awesome!!! After that i came home cleaned the house, took a shower and then took a nap I was woken up by Thais, Katie and Geoff who jumped on top of me and then we all laid in my bed because i put the covers over my head because i didn't want to be woken up hahah. Well Thais insisted so i got up and we left for 2nd Saturday at the Stutz's house and watched a weird movie for a little bit, then had some food. We left because we really didn't feel like swimming and my mom had made dinner!! So we left had more food which was spaghetti with melted cheese and peperoni's haha it was pretty good.Then we watched 50 first dates which is a hilarious movie!! then they left and I went to bed haha its just another typical senior week!!

The Best Week of A Seniors life!!!

So this week is TAK'S testing except for Seniors because we passed it last year! So at my school the seniors have a meeting at 8 and then get to leave the rest of the day! So Thais and I loved it! We mainly slept a lot, but this weekend was so much fun! So we have made some pretty fun friends name Jakcob and Geoff. I have known who they are and talked to Jakob but really never hung out with them.



So this Friday I had a movie night at my house and we watch Princess and the Frog the best all time princess movie!! Goeff and I couldn't stop laughing during the whole movie, it was kinda crazy. We made food and just had a lot of fun. Yesterday Thais and I went shopping for Prom we got our shoes but still have to find jewelry! Geoff picked us up at the mall and then went to Market Street to dinner at Johnny Rockets! Thais and I shared food because we knew we wouldn't eat it all and Geoff just ate alot haha. Then we were going to go to this birthday party but then decided to go to Geoffs house where we met his parents and siblings. He has some siblings with handicaps but are so sweet i knew his sister April from Girls camp and she is always so nice. Well we all just hung out up stairs and Geoff and I played Pool haha that was interesting. I love playing pool but I'm not very good at it. After Chris showed up to hang out we left and went to the park!! haha Thais told me "Shanel you and Geoff act like little kids" haha which we do! Geoff is definitely not the boy I thought he was, he told me that he feels comfortable around me, and feels that he can just be friends with me which he says doesn't happen a lot. Wow he really showed me that how I act as a girl really affects boys. See I love just being friends with boys because it helps me to understand them from a different point. Geoff has some really good counsel especially to Thais and I. Especially at the park we were just sitting and talking and he was telling me that people keep an image of someone because they know their past. Even if some repents and tries change. It really opened my eyes to this, Boys are dumb and make mistakes but so do girls, if someone See's what they are doing is wrong and changes we should help them not just push them to the side and think they will never change. Also I learned that Girls should not always expect a boy to become their boyfriend! seriously I love the friendship i get from being just friends with guys and if a relationship comes it comes! But I am really not in a rush haha I have so much to accomplish I don't think most boys could keep up right now, but for now being friends and watching them grow and mature a little is amazing. Also it helps to understand them a little more. I think that's why we are advised to not steady date because just being friends and getting know people is so much fun :) Well I love my Best Friends in my life we help each other all the time and are always there for each other!!
lOVE Shanel



I forgot to talk about Thais First experience cleaning!!! So before I had to go to work on Friday Thais and I cleaned up the house so good!! She helped me with the kitchen and then She insisted on vacuuming!! hahah this was an experience, the top part of our vacuum kinda broke so a little bit of suction takes affect and Thais kept getting her arm stuck on it hahah "ouch Shanel this hurts" hahah I moved the furniture for her and she did a great job!! We also listened to music as we did it so we got a little into the it haha enjoy the pictures!!!!

Fast Sunday How Glorious!!

So today is the first Sunday of the month which means for the Latter Day Saints it's Fast Sunday!! This Sunday everyone in my ward was supposed to fast for Kayla Hughes who is having some health issues! As my sister and I walked into to church you could just feel the spirit so strong. It seemed that everyone talks were sequenced together! I really showed that everyone right now is having a hard time, or going through a trial right now, but the one thing that is constant and everyone is relying on is Heavenly Father, the scriptures, and prayer! That is the only thing that keeps our lives consistent when everything is spiraling out of control! Brother Miller who is my all time favorite Sunday school teacher talked to us about testimony meeting. He asked each of us what we got out of testimony meeting? this is what we learned: trails, pain, self improvement, trust and faith in the Lord, prayer and scriptures are consistent, and reaching out to others not of the same faith. Brother Miller told us that the lord has set a path for everyone, which our church symbolizes as the Iron Rod. We can take two paths of life, we can either accept Gods will and become humble or we can become mad at God and fall away from the church and our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father gives us trials in or life and hardships because he loves us! I know hard to believe right, but I kind of think about my mom who loves to ground me at the worst moments (such as going to the zoo haha) but she told me its not because you did anything wrong, its just i see that you are doing to much and will tire yourself out that i make you chill for a weekend to relax. She always says she does it because she loves me haha. But even though i don't like it i know she is right, God is the same way! Maybe that is why women have such a Divine Nature with Heavenly Father. :)
Brother Miller summed up the point of the lesson by pointing out that as we go through trials we learn humility, we notice the pains and sufferings of others and begin to help others people with their trails which is what the lord wants! He is helping us to become more like him so we can be with him again! this was my favorite quote of the day by Brother Miller "The church is a hospital of the suffering" how that is so true! With the church in our lives and the gospel that is how we get through those hard trials in our lives. We also have to think that the church "is not about the rules we don't want to follow, its about what is Gods will" and will i accepted his will and be willing to do what he asks!
I think the Testimony that really stuck out to me today was Brother Hydrics, he told us that this weekend his car broke down, so he walked over to the Wal-Greens to get some chocolate milk. When he walked out he noticed a bench on the side and there was an 80 year old man sitting there. So Brother Hydric wet over and asked if he could sit down? The an said yes and then they began to talk. Brother Hydric asked the man "so did you just walk here, or are you waiting for a ride?" the man simply turned to him and said that he walks 4 miles everyday so he will be tired enough to go to sleep at night because his wife of 50 years had died and it was so hard for him to go to sleep. The man went on to tell him that he had such a loving bond with his wife it was just to hard to go to sleep with out her! they began to kinda talk about religion after that, Brother Hydirc said that this mans church believed something along the lines of him and his wife wouldn't see each other again (i don't really remember) but how Brother Hydric told him through the bible that he will see his wife again! How sad it is for this man who has had his wife for over 50 years just to believe he would never see her again! How glorious it is to know the plan to know what happens after this life and how I can lean on my Heavenly Father for guidance and protection.

Okay so after Sunday school I had Young Women's which was on Temple Marriage (of course) haha but I love it. Sister Stutz did a great job at teaching us the importance of getting married in the temple. She showed us a picture of the ceiling room and told us what happens and who can be in there with us. Not only is it a commandment to get married but getting there is the hard part! She told us that we risk our virtue living on the edge and not being cautious of our actions especially right now. She asked the girl what we think it takes to get to the temple? We all came up with: Dress modestly, stay morally clean, date wisely, church!, fasting, going to meetings (being where you are supposed to be), scriptures, maintaining a relationship with our Heavenly Father, clean language, personal progress, clean thoughts, Patriarchal Blessing, goals, prayer, tithing, and Word of Wisdom!
One thing that is key in my eyes is if you set the goal to get married in the temple and no where else that is where you will go because that goal in life not only sticks with you but also helps you to do the things which are supposed to do to get there. Life is hard but making the right decisions will help those though times seem easier! How I am so happy that I went to church and learned these important aspects of life. It also has helped me to realize that as I go to college I will not have my parents to be there to tell me what to do, to be there for me at a split second if i need help! I will have my Heavenly Father however who no matter what loves me for me! Who cares for me through thick and thin and no matter what will be in my life through hard times and will feel my pain and help me become the person he knows and wants me to be!
Love Shanel