umm...surprise?

this is my husband. he loves to surprise me, and it doesn't happen too often, so when it does, it's usually pretty good, but he's not very good at the act of surprising. so last night, we're sitting down to dinner and he suddenly bursts out with "kay, it was supposed to be a surprise but i just can't hold it in any longer. i'm taking you to see Lion King on monday and my parents are going to watch the kids (they're coming into town tomorrow). i'm so excited." ha!! so cute. i just laughed. and was delightfully surprised and excited.

it totally reminded me of when we were first married, we were laying in bed and all the sudden he explodes with "ijustcan'ttakeitanymore-we'regoingtoseecelinedioninvegasinamonthSURPRISE!!!" i love celine with my whole heart.


ooo, i love him more.

happy birthday

jack has been a little obsessed with birthdays because his is coming up, so last night he presents this - without the band-aid, at first - to shawn with a grand "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!" then took it back real quick to put the band-aid on it. i asked him what he was doing and he said "just puttin' the bow on." then gave it back to shawn. he kills me sometimes.

the swings

we don't have church till 1 so shawn and i just about go crazy trying to think of ways to entertain the boys BEFORE we even get to church. so here we are at the swings. sam LOVES them.

mother's group!

isaac, william, atty, dutch, jackaroo, landon, miss erika (love those eyes), and kailer.
so when we moved down here, i started a mother's group. every friday, the kids come to play and the mothers come to chat/vent/release/breathe. it's our favorite part of the week and we've made some great friends.

here's a shout out to my 54th ward mommy chums: i sure miss you all and think of you often. i feel so grateful to have started my mommy-journey with all of you. you were my sanity, you should all know that. i love you all.

two peas in a pod

watchin' a little curious george.

sam-boy

this is how my little one goes to sleep. i stick him in on his stomach, he reaches back for a corner of his blanket to hold in his little hand, and then sticks his two middle fingers in his mouth and sucks away. priceless.

ugh

so i just got a call from the guy at rc willeys who informed me that our gorgeous couches that were SUPPOSED to come in yesterday will be delayed another week. he says to me "i hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience...blah, blah, blah". and i want to scream at him "YES, ACTUALLY IT IS!! you see, i have wanted, desired, coveted new couches for 5 years, and i finally bought some which i couldn't have for a week and half to begin with (because they had just sold the last set in their store...literally, a day before we bought them) and now you're telling me it's going to be ANOTHER week. we sold our old couches a few days ago (we didn't) to be ready for the new ones, and we've been sitting on our floor (we haven't) which we now get to do for ANOTHER week." i couldn't say that because none of it was true, but i wanted to say something.

because that's the kind of week it's been. because i think i deserve to pout every so often. i don't, but i think i do.

classic

i just got these from my brother. they are a little old, jack looks like he's between 18 mos. and 2 yrs. but i had to post them. remember the tongue?

ahhh...

happy spring!

i think it's finally here. it's 70 degrees and there is an awesome breeze. it's days like this when i'm especially thankful to my Heavenly Father for this beautiful earth.

holy moley

ahh, i can finally breathe, for i have updated the blog. i apologize for the lack of posting. i just save it all up and post it all at once. so it's a bunch of posts, i know. but i have officially decided to quit scrapbooking and make my blog into a book each year. therefore, i have to include much more juicyness.

some more tidbits...

sam has 6 teeth and is A L M O S T crawling. oh, i'm so in love with him.

jack is a hard 2-almost-3-yr-old. that's all i have to say about that.

shawn started his 3rd session. we have one more after this and then he starts his rotations.

what?!?!?

our ward split while we were in texas and when we came back i was called to be in the RS presidency. it is an odd thing. i felt i had a lot of time on my hands, time to give, let's say, a couple of months ago. then i started rehearsals and now i'm in the RS presidency. so now there is no time. none to be had. but i'm so grateful for the chance to serve. it is better to be busy than to be idle, yes?

missing shirts

this is my sweet one "flexing".
and this...i don't even know what to say about this tasty morsel. there are no words.

all boxed up

it was time for shawn to go back to school after coming home for lunch one day and he asked me what he should do with sam and i said to just put him down somewhere. this is where i found him.

mommy, i ate all my toast

this is what he said to me the other morning and i turned to find this. craziness all around.


my cutie-patootie

TEXAS

for shawn's last break, we dropped the boys off with our parents in utah and then headed to dallas, texas to visit some of our besties, nate and callie. this is what i have to say - i did not know that dallas was ever cold, but it was. everyone said it was abnormally cold, which is typical, shawn and i seem to bring cold weather with us everywhere we go. however, we had a most wonderful time. here's some of the happenings.
one of the highlights was going to the stock yards in fort worth. here we are in front of the signature longhorns. for day-to-day goings-on, pretty cool animals. for your bridal pictures? not so much. true story, at the very moment we were taking these pics, there was a bride 15 feet from us capturing her special moment with these magnificent creatures, wallowing in the mud. only in texas. i said that many times on this trip.

this is the train that comes through the stock yards, and honest to goodness, i felt like i was about to hop on the hogwarts express. geeky? possibly.
have you ever noticed that when you have a group of boys, when one does something, they all HAVE to do it, like their manhood is about it expire if they don't? folks, that continues well into adulthood as manifested here. in all fairness, i THINK shawn is bending his knees to look short. i think.


here we have a diagram of how a stampede takes place, and shawn kindly stopped to enlighten nathan.
our favorite thing to do with these guys is play the beloved game of dirty marbles. it is ritualistic, you might say. shawn and nate are on a team, callie and i are on a team. we did a lot of this, as well as some fantastic card playing. i didn't even have to go to bed at 11 because i didn't have to worry about the kiddos. it was seriously great.
nate and callie...thanks from the bottom of our big hearts. our lives and bellies have been touched and expanded (respectively) and will never be the same after living the texas way. love you.

mr. wiggle worm

because jack is such an ACTIVE little one, i was sure Heavenly Father would send me a calm, contented one for number two, but that is not the case. sam is just as crazy as jack was. so we bought him a johnny-jumper to wiggle and bounce in and the only doorway i have to put it in while we are downstairs is the door to my garage. so here's some lovely pics of that. we started by taking pics of sam (below) but jack cannot stand it when there are pictures being taken and he is not involved so...

still sporting the chub legs. love it.

bath time

this is their first official bath together. until now, i have been bathing sam in the kitchen sink cuz it was way easier. he loved the sink, it was his own personal hot tub. but he's just too darn big so i popped him in the tub with jack. there were a couple of times he looked at me like "what the heck is going on?"