jack's new favorite is hide and seek. he says "hide, hide, hide" and shawn and him jump under his blankie. once they're under, you can hear him say "ssshh" and i have to "find" them. if i don't he yells, "momma" until i come. this is the newest spot. then we have jack and his friend annika hiding under the table. their buddy jack was there but was a little too shy for the camera.
i'm finally getting a chance to blog our trip to cali over christmas break. last year, we went to chicago so i think this is going to be a tradition. anyway, shawn and i were lucky enough to run away for a second and see our good friends emily and alden lawrence. they were fantastic hosts/tour guides, we had so much fun with them. we got out and saw a few things, but otherwise did A LOT of talking and eating. emily and i are both pregnant-o, and it was nice to have someone as hungry as i was CONSTANTLY. thanks, em. 
emily took us to this awesome restaurant (how the heck do you spell that?) called the beachcomber. it was right on the beach, so the above pic is of me in front of the restaurant, and below is shawn and i turned around with the ocean behind us. so not only is the location amazing with the ocean breeze blowing on you (you can eat outside on the deck), but the food was great too. we had breakfast which is my favorite meal anyway. i ate mine and the rest of shawn's. 
this is in front of san diego zoo, which was the only park we wanted to go to. i'd been like 15 yrs. ago and shawn had never been. one of the best zoos in the world. alden had the day off so we all got to go, with emily's bro. jeff, who is a fine young lad and has some of the greatest dance-in-the-car moves you've ever seen. 
they took us to balboa island, on newport beach, super cool place, and as we're walking along the boardwalk we saw a gang of segwes. it was a class/tour and it was so funny cuz they all had their helmets on and went everywhere together in single file. shawn wanted a part in the fun.
and this is the official new year's eve celebration. it pretty much went by unnoticed unfortunately because we all agreed that it is overrated. i don't think the martinellis even happened at midnight. whatever. again, a shout out to emily and alden. thanks and it better happen again. we love you guys.
i was so excited for christmas this year because jack is finally old enough to get it. i could not sleep at all the night before and had all these christmassy expectations, and then my kid was sick. he got the stomach flu and was miserable all day. we still did christmas with all of our families and had a good time but it was pretty stressful trying to help him feel better. needless, to say, i did not get one picture christmas day of him with his presents because he was not happy. so this is a shot of the day after, with his new chair and basketball hoop, which he LOVES!!! he goes around yelling all the time "hoot, hoot!" (shoot) and then yells "made it" when he makes it in the hoop. it's stinking cute. and he is good. shawn and i didn't really get anything because our present is a trip to cali to see our good friends alden and emily, WITHOUT jack. we'll miss him, but we're so excited. we leave tomorrow so it's like christmas eve all over again.
these are our latest family pics. they were taken by our good friend, mckenzie. we shot them in october but haven't been able to post them till now because they were a surprise for the grandparents for christmas. a shout out to mckenzie, who is amazing. if anyone is looking for a photographer for anything, check out her website by clicking on "mckenzie's photos" under my family and friends. you'll love her stuff! the photo above made daddy really proud.
i know this is a cute grin, but it's actually devious cuz he was eating the dirt the whole time and thinking he was pretty cool cuz mom and dad weren't doing anything about it.
mmmm, he's all mine.
so it is time to announce that we are expecting our second child. i'm not very far along, about 8 weeks, and feeling pretty gross so it's a little hard to be excited right now, but it will come. kind of crazy, i know. at least, i think i'm crazy every day when i wake up. was it planned, you ask? well, shawn and i weren't really thinking about it at all, and then the powers above pointed His loving finger at us and said "time to have another one". and then it was planned. make sense?
i want to apologize to all those who are finding out through the blogging world. i would have loved to call everyone whom i love so much, but between work, school, jack, teaching, and feeling yucky, i knew i would probably have the baby before i was able to call everyone. please don't hate me.
we feel very blessed to be able to have our children so easily because we know many loved ones who struggle. we love you all so much and we pray for you often.
now that it's almost thanksgiving, i thought maybe i should post our halloween pics. jack was an adorable turtle and shawn was "brent". he found this disgusting home depot shirt (with sleeves already kindly removed) at work and the nametag says "brent". with the help of our good friend nate (also pictured at the infamous ward party), the rest was hideously created. nate went all out by growing his hair and shaving a real cul-de-sac. where's my costume, you ask? refer to previous post about my most hated holiday, halloween.
