First few days of December

It's not snowing or even raining. There was just a lot of moisture in the air from fog and it made our pictures look like this for some reason.

Shawn making sure this tree feels the same as all the others
For FHE we went and picked out a real Christmas tree. Shawn had a blast running around the lot, touching every single tree. We chose to buy a smaller tree and put it up on the coffee table in an attempt to keep the ornaments higher away from Shawn.

As you can see our plan didnt' work. He still could reach the ornaments we thought we put up high enough. This is all the glitter Shawn dumped out of one of the balls.

Shawn trying to wipe the glitter off his hands. Little did he know it was all over his clothes and in his hair too.

I thought I would just write about a couple new things Shawn has started doing. First of all refuses to sit in his high chair anymore. He thinks he is too old for high chairs. If I happen to somehow get him into it, he won't eat. He insists upon sitting on the normal chairs, without a booster seat. He can barely see over the table, but he will eat if we put him there. He just sticks his fork up and tries to stab at whatever is on his plate. Silly boy.

Shawn very happy to be sitting like a big kid

When I shower in the morning I gather toys and bring Shawn in the bathroom with me so I can keep an eye on him. The last few days he has opened the shower door and handed me my towel whether the water is running or not. This is his way of telling me that my shower has been long enough. (sorry, I am not going to add photos of this event)

Thanksgiving trip

Ever since Shawn figured out what the ipod is used for, he insists upon having it if he sees it.

We were able to go to Utah for the Thanksgiving break. It was so much fun being back in the Salt Lake area. Boise is a nice place to live, but I LOVE Utah. It will always be home to me. We drove down on Wednesday. That night we had a birthday party for little James, J.P., and me.

Thursday we had a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandpa Jensen's home. Everything was so good. The only problem was that Grandma lost a pin somewhere in the stuffing and nobody found it. Hey, it added a little element of mystery. We spent time with Jon's family that afternoon and then went to J.P.'s for a movie and snacks. We watched Elf, which all of us love. We brought beds to put all the babies down. However, they were so hyper none of them went to bed. Shawn gets pushed around a bit by his two older boy cousins, but he stands his own. I saw him try to push those older boys down and he would get a really angry face and shake his fists. I have never seen Shawn's temper so much as I did on this trip.

Friday Jon and I went shopping with all the crazy people at 4 am. It was totally nuts, but pretty funny. Jon and I just kept laughing at everyone. We did find some great deals though. Tiff, Jon and I went to see Twilight that night. My expectations were so low for the movie, that I actually ended up liking it.

Saturday I went to lunch with my good friend Jen. We went to the Garden Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was great to spend time together with just the two of us. Saturday night Jon and I went to see the lights downtown. Then my whole family went to the Osmond 2nd Generation concert. My dad's fiancee is the Aunt of the boys who did the concert. They were very talented. There was a surprise visit by David Archuleta. You should have heard the girls scream. He is the tiniest little boy, but he has an amazing singing voice.

Well, I have babbled on about our trip, but I loved it. It was really nice to spend so much time with our families and friends.

Shawn and Jon digging in Grandpa's sandbox

Happy Birthday to me

I had a great 26th birthday. Jon woke up early, decorated the house, and made me breakfast. I went out to lunch with some friends to Costa Vida. It was the perfect place because they have good food, but it was also loud in there so having 5 little kids wasn't a problem. That night Jon brought me two dozen red roses and chocolates. We left Shawn with a babysitter and went to dinner at a place called Cottonwood Grille. Neither of us had been there. It was really nice and the food was good. I also received some nice presents. Overall, it was a nice birthday. Plus I am now older and wiser since I am in my "late" twenties. :)

This is where we ate. The table we sat at was the middle table on the far left. When we were there they had white christmas lights in all the trees outside and around the inside. It was a great environment.

Surprise visitors

My cousin Jenae called me two Fridays ago and said that she and her mom were coming down the next day to visit for a few days. I was so excited. We spent most of the weekend having quality Jenae/Heather time which we haven't had enough of in the last few years. It reminded me of the good old BYU days when we were roommates. It was a lot of fun getting to know her cute little baby girl whom I haven't seen since she was a week old. It was a great visit and I am really glad they got a chance to come up and spend some time with us.

Jon met Jenae and I for lunch at Cheesecake Factory

Shawn just chillin' with his great-great grandma Call


Shawn trying to figure out how he feels about this little girl being around so much

"Mom do I really have to sit this close to her?"

"This is so embarrassing"

New pictures

I thought I would post some pictures simply so you don't have to be reminded of my birthday every time you look at our blog. I will be posting more soon.

Why use just one toothbrush when you can get so much more done with two?

Chasing Shawn through the tunnel so he doesn't go down the steps on the other side
Shawn LOVES the playground

He always has to take time to drive a little

I just thought this was a cute smile

Ready for potty-training?.....I wish

I used the toilet as a seat this morning while I was blow-drying my hair. When I was done I went to put the stuff away in the other bathroom. I came back to find Shawn sitting on the toilet seat I had just been sitting on. I had to take a picture. I wish this was a sign that he is ready for potty- training. :) I couldn't get him to come off the toilet so I left him there while I went to put something else away. Then I heard a bang, silence for a couple seconds, then screaming. He had fallen off the side, hit his head on the shower, and was laying on the toilet brush. I guess we are going to have to start shutting the bathroom doors again. (side note: we had to keep the doors shut while he went through a toilet paper eating phase)

The Hot Happenings of Halloween

Shawn was a tiger for Halloween this year. He would not keep the head on even for a second so we could get a picture.
We went trick-or-treating at Jon's office in the afternoon. Shawn quickly caught on that the buckets around the office had candy. He was running from one to the other loading up his bucket. He would just take handfuls at a time. We had to keep up with him to make sure he didn't deminish their supplies.

We went to my cousin Mike's house for a little party/ dinner. It was fun to see other people's costumes.
Then my friend Maria brought her two little girls over and we walked down the street to a couple ward members' homes to trick-or-treat. That is all we were able to do because Shawn was tired and ready to go home.

We put Shawn in bed. Put in a movie and waited for the trick-or-treaters. We had five kids come the whole night. That is the exact same amount we had come last year.

Another Halloween has come and gone and I cannot believe that we are already into November. Crazy!

Shawn sitting in his dad's office holding his bucket of spoils

Saturday morning we decided to quickly rake up the leaves before it rains for the next week. I thought Shawn was standing funny in this picture pushing his belly out. That leaf bag is so much bigger than him