Perfect example of what I am talking about

Yesterday after I wrote my blog entry I gave Shawn a piece of bread as a snack he could carry around. A minute later I see him walking around with his piece of bread in some tupperware. I thought it was so funny because of the blog I had just written about him being so proper. I had to take a picture and share it with you.

I just thought this picture was really funny

Like father like son

Shawn has a few things that I see he gets from me. However, the older he gets the more I realize that he is just a smaller version of his dad. Jon is a very clean person and likes things clean. Although Shawn is not clean himself, he wants us to be clean and organized. I have a few examples.
*I was folding whites the other day on the bed. I put them all away but left a couple shirts out that I needed to hang up. I went in the other room and started something else. Shawn came up and kept pointing to the bedroom. He made me follow him where he continued to point at the two shirts until I put them away and then he was fine.

*If I try to put his sippy cup on the ground so he can reach it he fusses and grabs it off the ground until I put it up on the table.

*He likes his food on a plate not just on his high chair tray.

*He doesn't like us to pick him up from his crib until he has carefully gathered his blanket and his teddy bear.

*When the phone rings he goes and stands in front of it and points at it until I answer it.

It is just really funny to me to watch the different things he does everyday. I love seeing his little personality. I love both of my boys and I think they are the greatest!

A couple of weeks ago we went to a park to see the colors. We weren't the only ones. The parking lot was full and every single spot in the park had a family taking their family portraits. We weren't the only ones there, but we were the only ones not wearing matching clothes!

Jon was watching Shawn and decided that getting all the toys out wasn't as effective as just putting Shawn in with all the toys.


Speaking of being like his dad. One day Shawn kept going to the computer chair and crying until I would put him up in it so he could pretend to type on the keyboard. This was fun until he starting pounding on the keyboard.

We get a ton of leaves in our yard so we raked them up and put Shawn in one of the piles. I wish you could see his face better. He is purely disgusted and didn't want to touch them at all.

This is a video of Shawn starting to like the leaves. He was throwing them over his head for a while before I got the camera so I missed the best part.

Who needs a gallbladder anyway??

As most of you know I went in for surgery last Friday to have my gallbladder removed. I have been having problems with it since I was pregnant with Shawn. The surgeon I went and saw said that if I was done having kids then I didn't need to get it out. However, I am not done having kids. He said that being pregnant makes it a lot worse and having the surgery during pregnancy can cause preterm labor or miscarriages. That convinced me to get it taken care of sooner than later.

The day of the surgery:

I wake up to Jon sick with the what we think was the flu. I call the hospital and the doctor to see if I should reschedule because of the odds that I would get sick also. They said to just go ahead with the surgery (a decision I bet was based more on not wanting a cancellation that late then really worrying about my recovery time). We decided to go along with it anyway.
We dropped Shawn off at my friend, Maria's, house with no promise of what time we would be back (what a friend :) ). We got to the hospital and waited to be taken back. About 2 minutes before I get called to go back, an inmate dressed in his orange jumper gets taken back with two cops following him. That makes me feel safe. At least I won't be alert and awake if anything happens. :)
They do all the preparations and finally take me back to the operation room where they strap me to a table and ask me if I am ready to go to sleep. I say, "sure" and then next thing I know i wake up in the rocovery room in a lot of pain. They quickly get me more pain pills and the pain lessens.
I am taken to another room where they let Jon come back to see me. Poor guy wasn't without his share of drama for the day either considering he had to leave the hospital for a while because he got sick. Luckily he made it back in time for the Dr. to find him in the waiting room and tell him how everything went.
So I went in for surgery at 2 and by 4 I am ready to go home. However, the medicine they gave me made my blood pressure really low so I was dizzy and weak. They watched me for a while and then sent me home at about 5:30.

My new visiting teacher brought us dinner. I don't know if she thought I had 10 kids or what, but she brought enough food to feed the whole ward. Maybe I will put it in my freezer and it can be my three month supply of food that the church tells us to have.

Anyway, I am feeling okay. Yesterday I decided to stop taking the pain pills because I didn't like how I felt on them. Now that those are out of my system and I am taking a little IBProfin, I am feeling okay. Jon went back to work and I am able to take care of Shawn. I can't stand or sit up for too long, but it isn't too bad. I should be ready to go for Halloween.
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me so far in this event either directly or with your phone calls and prayers and thanks to those that I know are planning to bring meals for the next couple of days. You are all the greatest!

P.S. my gallbladder did not weigh 20 lbs. like I was hoping it did. Shoot!

Forecast for winter

Shawn LOVES to be outside. He definitely takes after his mom in that regard. If he had to be stuck outside or inside I think he would always choose outside. We have been going to the park almost everyday this summer. However, with the cold days we have been having we haven't gone out much. Yesterday it warmed up a bit so we went and played in the backyard and Shawn was so excited. I thought I would take a few pictures so you can all see him. I think it is going to be a long long winter for both of us. I know the pictures are all fuzzy. We are working on buying a new camera.




Shawn sitting on his "big boy" bike


Opening and shutting the gate never gets old


Running around on the grass (impressive for how uneven the ground is)
Shawn can't figure out how to get his bike out of the vines

We love having visitors!

We were excited to have visitors come for the weekend of general conference. When you live away from family you cherish the times they come to visit. Before they came I was very unhappy that the forecast kept saying it was going to rain all weekend. All of the fun things I had planned were outside. Luckily the rain worked with us. Every time we had an outdoor activity it wasn't raining. The pictures below are of our paddle boat outing. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. You would never believe that five minutes after we were done it started to downpour and then hail. Good timing! We had a great weekend and were glad they came up to visit. We apologize to all of those who missed out on the traditional free meal before priesthood session because Dad was gone. We look forward to having more visitors soon (hint hint to anyone that wants to come).


Yes, we got a paddle boat that looks like a pelican.

This is Tiffany in the middle of the pond feeding the ducks all around her.

Dad was afraid his boat was going to capsize. That would have been hilarious. :)

Tiffany in her pelican boat. Too bad she didn't get the swan like she wanted.

Jon & Shawn waiting for the boats