It's a ...

BOY!!!

We had the ultrasound yesterday and everything looks great. They say it is definitely a boy, but we still have our doubts considering our previous experience. :)

I was going to post this news in a really cute and creative way, but I have been in bed the last couple of days and don't feel well enough to come up with anything. Therefore, this is all you are getting for now.

New Favorite Activity

Shawn's favorite thing to do lately is help his daddy shovel. We bought him a little shovel and he takes every opportunity to use it. I thought these pictures were too cute not to post. Shawn is always very proud of himself once they have finished the job.

We went to a little party/dinner with some of Jon's friends from high school. They had Santa come visit. Shawn liked to look at him in awe from a distance, but did not want Santa holding him. This is Shawn diving off of his lap.
He was much more content just sitting next to Santa and looking at him. Whatever works I guess.

Recent Events

We have done a lot of fun things lately but I have just been a slacker on blogging about it. My brother James and his wife Allison were in town this last week for Thanksgiving so we were able to do many things while they were here. Instead of posting a bunch of short blog entries I am just doing one big one with all the pictures and videos. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We went to Wheeler Farm and saw lots of animals. Shawn's favorite part was still the tractor.

Shawn helped me decorate the tree for Christmas. "Shawn, open your eyes and smile"....
how Shawn interpretted the request

Reading the book, I Am a Child of God, to Santa

Playing tetherball with cousin Jack

First merry-go-round ride. Of course he had to pick the dragon instead of the horses.

Shawn and I went four-wheeling with some of my family. Shawn was not too sure about the helmet and goggles, but he seemed to enjoy "going fast". However, the next day he was telling me about it and said in reference to the "hammer" (helmet) on his head that "it no fit"

For part of the time we rode in the back of this side-by-side

Love this picture

Watching a movie with the boy cousins on Thanksgiving

We went to This is the Place park with some of my family. Shawn loved the "choo choo" ride even if you can't tell from this picture.
Shawn, Aunt Tiff, Natalie

I just had to take a picture of this house. They said it is 8 feet by 8 feet and it was for a family of 9. My question is, how did they have 7 children when they all slept in the same tiny room? ;)

Shawn loved the wood train.

They had a really cute childrens area with these small houses. Shawn has not happy that all the doors were locked.

He really tried to get into this one.

At the entrance

Happy Birthday Heather!

Happy 27th Birthday Sweetie! I hope you have a really great day even if we don't officially celebrate until Friday. Thank you for all that you do for me and Shawn. I love you more with every year that passes. "Volim Te!" Shawn says, "I Love You", too.
Happy Birthday!!

Shawn's going to be a big brother

Yep....baby #2 is on the way. I had my three month appointment today and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. Everything is going well and looking good. I am due in the middle of May. I am starting to feel better so hopefully the "morning' sickness phase will be done soon. We are really excited and can't wait for the new little baby to join the family.

Happy Halloween

We had an interesting Halloween this year. We were supposed to have a ward Halloween party, but they canceled it due to the large amount of sick kids. Then Friday we had a couple parties we were planning on going to. First was my dad's work party, which included a whole afternoon of activities and trick or treating around the office. Then that night was our family Halloween party at J.P. and Jessica's. Well about an hour before we were supposed to leave for the work party Shawn threw up. He had been fine all morning, but started whining and wanting me to hold him. I thought it was because I had been running around getting things ready all morning instead of playing with him. I decided to sit down and hold him for a little while before we left. Right when I put him on my lap he exploded. We spent the rest of the day on a towell on the floor watching movies. We missed all the parties. Luckily Shawn was completely better the next morning so we were able to do some fun things on Halloween and we went out trick-or-treating. I think Jon would have been more sad than Shawn if he didn't get a chance to wear his Rubix Cube costume.

Our neighborhood was crazy. We bought a 150 piece bag of candy. It was GONE by 7 PM. I ran to the store and bought a couple more regular size bags. Right when I drove back into the driveway, Jon was giving out the last piece of Shawn's candy he had gotten. Let's just say it was different than our Boise neighborhood where we only got 5 kids all night last year. 5 kids....total.

The boys getting ready to head out trick-or-treating.

Going to the first house

We had to tell Shawn a couple times not to open the people's doors. He still stood right up against the doors, which didn't go well at the house with the hyper dog.

First piece of candy... I think he likes this idea

I was a Lite-Brite (Jon and I were 1980's games)
Passing out candy

Family Halloween photo.

2nd cousin Saddie came to visit a couple days before Halloween

I'M BACK

I am sure you have all been having withdrawls while I've been away. It has been a crazy month. We moved into our new house and we love it. It is so nice to finally have a place that is all ours and we can do what we want to it without worrying what the landlord would say. We have been super busy unpacking, setting up furniture, installing blinds, etc. The last two weeks have been the busiest weeks for Jon at work. He works long days and then comes home and helps with the million things we have to do around the house. Thanks Honey for all your hard work. Luckily things have started to calm down. We just got the internet yesterday, which is another reason I haven't been updating at all. We still don't have TV. We really don't want to get cable, but no size or type of antenna is working to get regular TV. Apparently we are in a completely dead zone. It looks like we will be ordering Dish tomorrow. Now all we need to do is hang all our paintings and pictures, continue unpacking the last few things, reorganize the kitchen, start figuring out all the boxes in the basement, put in sprinklers, put in sod, do some landscaping, and put up a fence. Okay, don't worry we aren't going to do any of the yard until the Spring. :)

Here is a little look into what Shawn's life was like for a few days. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player. Too bad Shawn threw it across the room about a week ago and now no longer works. At least Jon got the DVD player set up to the TV so we can watch movies.




We have done some fun things along with being busy. We go out for dinner with the whole family on conference weekend. We decided to take all the kids to the park while we were up at Grandpas for the dinner outing. Shawn loves playing with all of his cousins. I must say that I grew up by the best mountains in Utah. Sorry to anyone that doesn't agree, but I am right.

We spent some time in the mountains. Jon, Shawn, and I went through Alpine Loop a couple times. It was so amazing. I love fall. Amy and I took the kids up to a little lake to let them run around and throw rocks. We did not plan on them getting in the water, but we let them anyway. Let's just say that I was sitting on the shore wearing long pants, a jacket and shivering. Now that's a good mom.

TEXAS!!!!

For Labor Day weekend we flew down to Austin to visit James and Allison. They live in Round Rock about 30 minutes outside of Austin. We had a really fun long weekend. Dad and Robyn went down to Dallas for the weekend and were in Austin with us a couple of the days. We were able to do a lot of things in the few days we were there. Thanks James and Allison for being such great hosts. We had a great time.

Our first views of Austin

The state capitol (largest in the country)

On Saturday we went to Sea World. We were afraid it was going to rain on us, but it only sprinkled for about 5 minutes the whole day. There was so much to do and we didn't get to it all. It was a very fun day.

This is where you can feed the dolphins

Shawn loved being so close to the fish


Sharks

more fish

There is a big water park that is part of Sea World. It had lots of rides, play areas for the kids, lazy river, wave pool, etc. This was the highlight of the day for Shawn. He just loves swimming.

The boys loved the waterpark

pretty fancy tricks

Shamu

Shawn was completely worn out by about 7 PM

The entrance