The First Day of the Rest of our Lives (and updates from the rest of June)

Today was the first day of Shaun's REAL job! He went up to the Portland office for some training and a pretty low-key first day! I made him stay in his work clothes until I had a minute to take his picture! I am so glad that he has the patience to humor me. I have really enjoyed the last month and a half that we have spent together. We have never spent that much time together since we have been married because we are always either going to school or working. But this last little bit has been a good break for us. I am really going to miss him during the days! Also, yesterday was Father's Day and I just wanted to add that Shaun is a great father to our little Maisey, and a great husband to me. I am so thankful that I have the privalge to spend eternity with him.

The REST of June

Our Trip to Spokane:

We went to Spokane a few weeks ago. It was a short trip, but it went very well. Things usually get pretty chaotic when all of the fam gets together, but I thought things went better than expected. We played lots of games, ate some yummy food, and took family pictures. Here are a few of our shots:





I had to add the picture of Mais with the dog. If you know me, you would be surprised that I let Maisey get close to a dog, let alone actually touch it. But Madison (Shaun's dog) was really good and for some reason, Maisey was just mesmorized by her.

Thanks Janel for spending time getting us all matching shirts. They turned out really well.


The Oregon Zoo:

We took my cousin's kids and Mais to the zoo last week. This was Maisey's first time at the zoo. She liked it for about the first hour and then wasn't such a happy camper the rest of the time. I think it's because she likes to roam free by crawling and walking, but we kept her confined in ther stroller.
Here are the 4 kids that I babysit. Left to Right: Madi (3), Shaun (25), Maisey (10 mo.), and Alex (6). They are quite the bunch!

Maisey loved to play with the monkey. And I think the monkey really liked her!

At the end of the day we took a train ride through the rose gardens and past a lot of the exhibits at the zoo. Everyone really enjoyed it, and Maisey eventually fell asleep! :)

OMSI:

OMSI is a science museum in Portland. Janel came into town to visit, so we thought it would be fun to do something special. We also took my brother Scott, and Alex and Madi with us. Shaun's favorite part of the museum was a REAL submarine that is in the Willamette River just behind OMSI. They got to take a tour of it and really enjoyed it.

This summer, OMSI has a special dinosaur exhibit. Maisey was a little scared and wouldn't take her eyes off of them.

These stuffed animals were more her type of dinosaur.

In one of the exhibits they showed how the human ear worked. Shaun put these head phones on Maisey for her to hear different sounds. They look so big on her!

Maisey and her Aunt Janel! They were such buddies!

On the way home from OMSI, the three boys all fell asleep in the back seat! OMSI must have worn them out!

Tagged:

I have also been tagged by Kira, but I figured this was a long enough post, so I may just have to do it a different night.

So far we have had a pretty busy June, with plenty more to look forward to (My cousin's baby, The Grimmett Family Reunion, and my 2 week vacation). We will work on keeping you better updated!

Playing Chase

I would love to have spent this last week and a half posting about all of the cute things Mais has been doing, but I have been spending every waking minute chasing her around. She totally started taking off this week, both crawling and cruising furniture. She's been scooting around here and there for a while, but now she is sneaky and quick. She has been so cute lately with her new gellie shoes that her daddy bought her and with her one little tooth she has on the bottom, and with all of the kisses she has been giving. But, she hasn't been sleeping well at all! I am sure it has something to do with the teething, but she has been waking up 2-4 times a night and only sleeping like 8 hours at night with 2 short 20 minute naps during the day! This is quite a big adjustment from when we lived in Provo and she was sleeping 12-13 hours a night with out waking up! I sure do miss those days! Anyway, if any of you have any tips on how to deal with this sleep problem, or should I say lack of sleep problem, feel free to send them my way!



As far as other news goes...

My mom and I took Maisey with us to get our haircuts this week! Maisey was being so dang cute and she wanted to get her hair cut too. Daddy said no because she doesn't have much to cut! Maybe one day Mais! (Also, she is wearing her new gellies that Daddy picked out!)

"Look Mom, No Hands!"

My cousin's little girl, Madi, has this pink Barbie Power Wheel. It is Maisey's new best friend (especially now that she doesn't play with Tori). She is getting to be pretty brave on it! I took this picture and the video below on my cell phone so the quality isn't the best, but she has been so funny on it so I had to post them.

In the video below, Maisey learned how to push the button all by her self. She pushes it for 2 seconds and then she stops and claps for her self. She is so silly!

So, that's the latest! Shaun's sister is coming tonight to stay with us until Friday, then we are headed up to Spokane to visit the fam! It should be a busy and fun weekend!

Hawaiian Surprise

So, yesterday was my little sister's birthdays. We knew that Kelsey was coming home for the long weekend and her birthday, but we didn't know that Katelyn was coming all the way from Hawaii too. So we woke up Saturday morning to her sleeping on our couch in the living room! How fun! We shopped for like 7 hours on Saturday then had a bbq and played lots of games! It was so fun to have them home this weekend!

Katelyn brought a drum home for Maisey! She caught on very quickly and is a great music maker!

So, a while back, Kelsey bought me this book that has all of these really cool cakes in it. I think I blogged about it in February. But I made Maisey's 6th month birthday cake from that book. So I picked out this flower cake to make for the girls. It tasted so good and it turned out totally cute!





The girls blowing out their 19 candles!

I made them scrapbooks for their birthday presents. Katelyn's is for her semester in Hawaii. Kelsey's is for her semester in Jerusalem that she leaves for in a few weeks!

All of the girlies that were home this weekend! We missed Christina and Shayla!

So, after the girls opened their gifts, Shaun was trying to get Maisey to crawl. He was crawling all around the house. Maisey thought it was so funny to hold on the the back of him and walk behind him as he crawled. She was giggling so hard! She has been army crawling alot lately. She loves to go for the cell phones, the wallets, or the remotes. She also loves to walk while holding on to our fingers. She is getting really strong in her legs!

I LOVE this picture! We finally had the perfect opportunity to paint her toenails after trying for 2 days. I stuck it in the diaper bag so that when she fell asleep in the car we could do it! Sure enough she fell asleep! I can't wait to do more girly things with her!

Called to Serve

Shaun's Brother, Ryan opened his mission call this afternoon! He is going to the Tampico, Mexico Mission (Spanish Speaking, of course!). He reports to the MTC on August 27. We are so excited for him to help in moving the Lord's Kingdom forward! What an exciting time in his life!
If you can't find Tampico, it is along the Gulf of Mexico.

A random pic of Tampico that I found on Google images!

The LDS temple in Tampico, Mexico! It looks beautiful!

Congrats Ryan! We are so proud of you!

Sippies, and Festival, and Obama, Oh My!

It's been quite a week! Maisey has hit a few milestones worth noting! First off, she started drinking really well from a sippy (we have been trying for months) and she is now not drinking from a bottle anymore! YAY! I have read that it is recommended that infants be off a bottle by the age 1, so we have accomplished that with 3 months to spare! Woohooo! The sippy that did the trick was the Nuby brand. Which is the safest, least toxic brand of plastic cups out there (there was a big news special on plastic cups and bottles having a toxin in them). She likes the one without handles. She just puts her cute little hands around the middle of the cup! She thinks she is so big! She also started scooting forward quite a bit this week! The trick... putting a phone in front of her. She loves to go after that. She also likes to get Shaun's Harry Potter book that he is reading. Hey, we'll put anything in front of her as long as she goes forward, because for the last few weeks she was only going backwards! There was the big Keizer Iris Festival this weekend. We went to the parade on Saturday morning. This was Maisey's first parade. She didn't like the sirens from the fire trucks, but after that, she loved it! She especially liked the popsicle she got from the Schwann's truck. We took my cousin's little girl, Madi, with us. She had a great time too. We are babysitting her and her brother Alex this weekend while my cousin is in Vegas. We took them to the carnival part of the festival last night. They had a blast and were very well mannered. We let them ride tons of rides and play the carnival games. They won some cheap little stuffed animals but they were so excited.

I rode down the big slide with Madi. Alex rode with Shaun. They had a great time.

Maisey stayed home with my mom during the festival (It was up close to 100 degrees). While we were taking her to my mom's house we got stopped by a road block of police cars. We were wondering what was going on. Was there a police stand off? Was there a fugitive in the area? Was there a bad accident ahead? Nope!!! Barrack Obama was coming to the Keizer Iris Festival. His motor brigade drove right by us! We could see him in his big black bus! So by the time we took Mais to my mom's he was already at the festival. Shaun shook his hand and took some really close up pictures. Even though we may or may not support him, it was still kind of cool to think that he would come to the LITTLE town of Keizer, OR.
The big black bus!
Obama--Pleasing the crowd!
His wifey, Michelle, visited also!

In other news...

I spoke in church today! I don't think it was very good though. It was all about finances. I prepared pretty well, but I didn't have much time to practice because of all the babysitting this weekend. Oh well, at least it is over and I don't have to speak on the Allegory of the Olive Tree like Shaun does next week! Thanks hun for letting me have the easier topic!

Also, church was pretty crazy cuz we took the two extra kiddos with us! After my talk I came back and sat by the zoo on the fifth row (you know, Shaun and three kids, one which was ours!) We left after Sacrament Meeting, but not before Shaun said that we aren't having anymore kids! It was pretty wild! I felt bad for those who came to Sacrament meeting to actually feel the spirit and learn something!

To end the post on a sad note... my uncle had a heart attack this morning. He is in Vegas too, so it's kind of a weird situation. Anyway, it just brings back memories of my dad and being in the hospital and stuff. I do not wish that upon any person in the whole world! It totally sucks, and I feel bad that my aunt and cousins have to go through this! Please keep them in your prayers!

My Mom is the BEST!

Happy Mother's Day to a great Mom, Grandma, confidant, and BEST GIRLFRIEND! I love you so much and so does Mais! We are so glad we could share this day with you!

A few pictures of my wonderful mom!

We had a GREAT pre-Mother's day day today! We got massages this morning and then went shopping all day long! We attended Keizer's Junior Miss pageant tonight. It was so much fun and one of our friends ending up winning it all! YAY! That means we get to go to state in August! I can't wait. After Junior Miss we opened our Mother's Day presents because my brother won't be home tomorrow. Shaun gave me a new digital thermometer! I was so glad because everytime I thought Maisey had a temperature I couldn't ever get an acurate reading because our thermometer was horrible! This one is great! I went around and took everyone's temperatures! (Don't worry... it was ear style!) Maisey gave me some Dr. Pepper Otter Pops! I put them in the freezer and can't wait to try them tomorrow. I love Dr. Pepper and I love Otter Pops, so they must be great together, right? Anyway, today was great and I am looking forward to tomorrow when Shaun bbq's us up some yummy steaks! Being a mom is great!!!!!!!!

In a tribute to Katelyn and Kelsey's days of Junior Miss... here is a great picture!

I wish all of the mothers out there a happy Mother's Day!

Amen Sista

So Maisey has been jabbering so much lately and I love it! This morning when she woke up she was just laying in her crib talking to her giraffe saying, "Mama, Dada, Mama, Dada" It was so cute!

We sat down for dinner tonight and we put Mais in her exersaucer. She gets all crazy in her exersaucer and bounces up and down and spins around. We said a blessing on the food and we said "Amen" afterwards. Maisey very clearly said, "Amen" after we said it. We thought it was so cute and funny, so Shaun said "Amen" again. And again she said it. We both kept saying it to her and she would repeat it. It was so funny. So besides Mama and Dada, her first word was Amen I guess.

She also ate a tulip today. I gave one to her to play with and I turned my back. When I turned back around, there were only 3 petals left on the tulip. Hopefully nothing was poisonous. But it must have tasted pretty good! (It probably just looked appetizing because it was pink) We will most likely find it in her diaper tomorrow!

Anyway, I am babysitting my cousin's two kids from May 1 to August 1. They are 6 and 3 and pretty wild and fun! It is Friday evening and I am still alive, so that means I survived my first week! Woohoo!!! It actually wasn't too bad. We did some fun things like make maracas for Cinco de Mayo, make puppets for our puppet show, and plant flowers for Mother's day. They always call Maisey "Baby Maisey" and they love to get up close and personal (i.e. always in her face!).

Maisey has also been working on her crawling a lot lately. She doesn't make it forward, but she can go pretty far backwards! Hey at least she's moving!

One more thing, if anyone is looking to indulge in a little dessert, I just ate the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sundae from Baskin Robbins. (I literally just threw the dish away 5 minutes ago) It was absolutely delicious. I have been craving this sundae since we moved here and we went last Wednesday night to get one but it was like free ice cream day or something and the line was out the door and around the building. So... tonight I FINALLY got it! Yay! :)

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Ours will be filled with shopping. I am on a hunt for a new swimming suit, so if anyone has seen anything cute lately... let me know!

FINALLY! 8 Month Pics

I've had these forever, and now that she is almost 9 months I thought I should try posting them again! It amazes me how much cuter she gets everyday! I know I am probably biased, but I love everything about her!

Baller

We went to a BYU Baseball game for our last Saturday in Provo. Our neighbors, Tim and Jenny came with us. Tim is from Germany and had never been to a baseball game before. I had a great time explaining to him all of the rules and what was happening with each play! It was a nice, sunny afternoon. Perfect for a ball game! The girlies in their matching outfits!
Maisey is going to be a ball player! YAY!
Best Buds!
They are ready to play catch...
... or fight for the ball!



I miss Tim and Jenny, but Maisey really, really, really misses Tori. They played together daily! Life is just boring now! We need to make some friends in Oregon.

Graduation

This was a crazy time for us because both of our families were here. Things were pretty busy, but we managed to get some fun pictures!





Shaun is wearing his Master's hood. He looks like a Jedi or a Dark Sith. (He had to tell me what those were!)
Shaun and I just received our diploma covers! Woohooooo! Now we are waitin for the actual diplomas!
I love this picture with the pretty flowers! You can kind of see campus behind us!
Maisey and her Daddy! She was such a good girl in her dress and cap!
I ordered Maisey a graduation cap online! Of course it was pink. Her favorite color (because it is mine)! She thought she was so cute. Who could argue?





So I am kind of glad that all of the hassle is over, but we got some good pictures, ate some good food, and definitely made some memories.



BYU is a great place to go to school. We really enjoyed our years there, and we feel like it really prepared us for the next phase of our lives! Thanks BYU!!!