Made by Memilyrae

I saw this paper and thought it would be so cute with Ayva. Here it is!

I wasn’t able to attend but Steve said he had lots of fun. The Elders Quorem had their own Pinewood Derby and each guy designed their own car. I stole these pictures from one of the blogs from a family in our ward…hope that’s okay Lai’s! 🙂 Steve took 6th in each race.

Today hits our 15 week mark. Only 5 more weeks til we find out if Evie is right, or Spencer is. Babycenter is saying the baby “measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces” – or about the size of an apple. I can feel my tummy getting a little harder between my pelvic bone and belly button and I’m guessing it won’t be much longer until my bump forces me to do the rubber band trick. I’m still feeling fairly well except for the daily headaches. I’ve been told that it’s more common in pregnant women so I don’t need to worry. My dad said maybe I’m getting them because of chocolate withdrawals since sweets don’t sound too appealing to me when I’m prego. LOL

Steve’s been super busy this semester. His homework is just taking TONS of time out of his life so I usually only get to spend some time with him on the weekend and mainly when he’s ready for a break. So it’s kind of sad but I’m just praying he’ll be able to continue so well for the rest of the semester.

Spencer is starting to read!!!! I love his preschool! Miss Jamie has the kids reading the BOB books which are great for beginning readers. We have ‘sight words’ that we’re working on with him as well as the BOB books. He’s so excited that he’s starting to read. So are we!

Evie is…well, female. She’s been so cute lately, but then again she’s been so emotional too. Everything she does she says “Please I…” like “Please I throw this away” or “Please I play on the floor”, etc. I’m glad she’s saying please and being so nice but she asks about everything! She’s cute though.

Okay, now that we went to our first visit and we visually know there’s something there…it’s time to share!

So last February (’09) we found out we were pregnant…not because I took a home test or anything, but because something wasn’t happening that should have (you catch the drift, right?). After 3 months I had my doctor’s appointment and he told me it showed up positive. We did an internal ultrasound, but other than the placenta forming, nothing was visible. Dr Young thought it was maybe too early to see anything so I went in the following week for another ultrasound. Dr Young apologized and said I had a “miscarriage”…I’ve also heard others call it a “ghost pregnancy”. The body thought it was pregnant but there was never a baby. Steve and I didn’t take it hard…we didn’t actually feel like we were pregnant physically or emotionally. So it wasn’t too hard to “deal” with. My body did not have it’s ‘monthly cycle’ all year long. I wondered if something was going on and that my two cute kids was all we were supposed to have…and we were okay with that. We are luckier than others who can’t or have to have extra help getting a child. Monthly visit came once and Steve and I were “content” with our little family. Well, I guess you shouldn’t fool yourself into being content cause Heavenly Father had other ideas. 🙂

I was getting tired early and wanting naps in the afternoon…I wanted to sleep in (which is normal) but wanting to sleep until 11 or noon was a bit extreme even for me. That was when I figured I should take a test. My family kept teasing me at Thanksgiving that I was pregnant, and to prove to them that I wasn’t, I stole a test from my sister, Annette, right before Thanksgiving dinner. There…I proved it…no more teasing me. But in December I finally stopped by the store and grabbed a test. Positive. Looks like I was a liar at Thanksgiving dinner! 😐 oops!

When I went in for my appointment, we told Dr Young about the Thanksgiving test and he thought maybe we were not as far along as we originally guessed. He measured the baby (and thank goodness there was only 1! Dreaming of twins made me nervous!) and the due date was right on. I’m at 11 weeks (and 1 day as of today). Due August 11, 2010. But now the fun begins and I get to see if I go 2 weeks early like with Spencer, or really preemie (6.5 weeks) like with Evie. Hopefully no earlier than that! Maybe 2-3 weeks? That’d be nice…or maybe Aug 2 so the baby can share a b-day with Uncle Matt…or Aug 8 to share with Uncle John. Who knows! 🙂

Here’s where we are:

the baby is the size of a fig (and it’s showing it compared to a quarter…which when spencer saw this, said “Can I have the money?” LOL)

So, I almost posted this on Facebook, but then I realized my boss is on Facebook and out of town so I need to wait until next week when he gets back so I can have a little chat with him. Wish me luck!

Our New Years week was quite fun and full of activities…mostly cleaning and dejunking. We did spend some time outside of the home and with friends and family:

Mini Golfing with Mike, Nicole and Gavin:

We had a small get together for New Years. By midnight, all the kids where at home in bed (or upstairs in bed) and 3 of us stayed up to ring in the new year with Super Mario Brothers Wii. Love how we each have our own bottle? Well, we had more bottles to ourselves still in the fridge! We stayed up til 3:15 when Matt left and then hit the pillows around 3:30 AM. YAWN!

On Saturday we went sledding with Joel and Annette and kids. Spencer wasn’t worried but it took a bit of convincing for Evie. She only wanted to go down with Steve or me, mostly me, but after a while she decided she would go with the others. We had a grand old time!

Love Lauren’s screaming face!

There goes Evan…

Always smiling

There he goes again!

Come here little girls…I’m going to get you!

Yeah…that’s me sitting on Steve’s lap on a little disk made for 1.

And now Annette and Joel’s turn

Keep it PG please! There’s kids around!

L-O-V-E this picture of Annette and Joel!

Love this one from far away…up close it looks like my one cheek is swollen and the other cheek has shape to it. ick

Dramatic, Dying Lauren

See…she learned to love it…and has an open mouth in most pictures.

He he he he he…had to put these up

Does he look like a 4-legged animal to anyone else, or is it just me?

The end.

After we cleaned up at the Shaws’ on Christmas morning, we headed down to my sister’s house for more presents (by this time we already knew the kids received too much and we were going to have to find room to put it all!!!) We hung out and played games, napped (poor tired Steve!) or read (uh, yeah…I was trying to finish reading OUR gift TO Lauren before she opened it) while Gavin took his nap.

(Look: Matchy-Matchy and we didn’t even plan it!)

Mr G woke up happy and it was on to the presents. Look at his cute face!

Can you say HOLY ADORABLE JACKET, BATMAN! Yeah…that’s her 2nd DIVA coat in a month…I think we’re in trouble!

Steve was excited for this present. He knew he got something from me from the Robot store but he didn’t know he’d be getting more from Grams and Papa. At least one gift was a surprise to him! LOL

Lauren and Kayley were great with their gifts to my kiddos. Lauren printed and created cute characters as magnets for Spencer and Evie’s magnetic wall in their room. Now they have Spiderman, Princesses, sports, etc. etc. etc to play with on there! Kayley created Spencer a puzzle book. His favorite puzzles lately are the “hangman-like” phrases with numbers underneath them. You have to use a chart to match the number to a letter and fill in the blank. Kayley made him a whole book like that and on each page it describes someone in our family. Such creativity girls!

Okay, have to explain this one. Back in March for Spencer’s birthday we had a Superhero Party and everyone came dressed as their own super hero (Whoa…I just realized I never posted pictures! What a slacker! I’ll have to do that soon…for those of you who have me on facebook, it’s in my pictures). My sister, Annette, was Wonder Woman and instantly became Evie’s favorite girl super hero. Now, EVERY TIME she seems Wonder Woman she calls her “Netty”. Annette is still AUNT Netty, but Wonder Woman is Netty. She even has an action figure Netty…and now, thanks to Aunt Netty, she has a Netty book too. Funny, huh?

That evening Steve and the kids and I went to our own house for our own Christmas. They opened their last few presents (like Legos) and then daddy gave them their own kid computer…each with their own account to allow for Princess or Batman backgrounds! It’s great cause it’s Linux and it’s free and it’s the education version so it has great games for the kids already on it. What a hit!

And I just think this is a cute Diva picture with Evie and her Cheetah friend, both animals of the Feline Family.
Welp, these 2 posts describe our fantastic Christmas celebration filled with family and fun. Thank you all for your generosity, for letting us sleep in your bed, for making us breakfast, for allowing us to ransack your house, for not getting mad for ditching dinner, and for just being there and for loving our little family. We love you all – Merry Christmas (all year round!)

What a busy time of year! But boy oh boy do I love it! And NOT just because of all the time I got to sleep in, but also to spend time with our families.

On Christmas Eve day both Steve and I had to work half days. Luckily Steve can work from just about anywhere so he and the kids came with me to my work. At 1:00 we packed up and headed to Steve’s parents’ house. The past few years we’ve really enjoyed sleeping over on Christmas Eve and being there first thing Christmas morning. We put our things away (in John’s room…thanks!), played games, ate dinner, put the kids to bed (next to the Christmas tree) and went to bed…well, everyone but John and Steve…they stayed up all night playing computer games. Eh – it’s good bonding time, right? At 9 we heard Alec making crapes (yum yum) so we headed downstairs. The kids were just waking up and we all gathered around the table. Then (how mean is this?) we made the kids take a bath! LOL oh well…they didn’t mind TOO much! Then we got to opening presents. Thank you everyone for the fabulous and very generous things you gave us! (Steve and I are so excited! We got the first and second season of our favorite British Comedy…Allo’ Allo’! AND a new card shuffler…as well as other things of course!) Here are a few pics from our morning:

At lunchtime Steve’s other brothers and their families came over. We had lunch together and then finished opening presents:

(Thank you JoJo for a GREAT picture! See…now I’m done trying to take one!)

We were able to head down to St George with my family for the weekend. Annette and her family and Stephanie headed down on Thursday to enjoy hiking and some fun in the sun.  Steve, Mike, Nicole, and I plus our kiddos headed down Saturday morning. We put our things away and headed to the tennis court and swimming pool. It was nice to get away and just relax and be with my family.

(darn…it’s sideways!)

After dinner and showers, we got ready for AIDA at Tuacahn. All the girls went, except for little Evie. She’s still a little too young.

I’ve seen Aida at BYU and the Hale Center Theater in Orem and I love Love LOVE that musical! Annette, Stephanie, Nicole, Lauren, Kayley and I got tickets a while back and were so excited to see it! We drove to Tuacahn, got in our seats and were dazzled by the stage. I loved being outdoors! They had live animals, lots of room for the set, fireworks and even running water from the waterfall! It was really good….BUT, in all honesty, I liked it from the Hale Center much better! It was cozier so I really FELT it and really EXPERIENCED it, plus the vocals at the Hale Center were amazing! BUT, I still really enjoyed it at Tuacahn.

The next day we packed up and went on a little hike or two. Unfortunately a lot of the pictures came out blurry….here are a few that came out not so bad.

—-Friday—-

Steve and I took a 3 day trip to New Jersey for his best friend’s wedding (Bryan). We were so grateful to my sister and her family for keeping our kiddos while we were gone. We flew out Friday morning, arriving at the JFK airport around 5 pm. We rented a car and were a bit nervous about driving from New York to New Jersey at rush hour. Lucky for us, it was a holiday weekend. Most everyone seemed to be traveling north. We only had to turn around twice, and mainly right outside of the airport.

Steve told me about the Verrazzano Bridge and I really wanted to take a picture of it…but there were signs everywhere saying cameras were not allowed. Bummer. Steve said it’s probably because tourists would take pictures and cause an accident. With that traffic I could understand why! Luckily we made it to New Jersey with no problems and in decent time too.

I took this picture for Spencer…it’s only SOME of the train yard that I could get in the frame

And look what they have…2 highways…one for long distances, the other for local exits. Brilliant!

Steve took me to the best pizza place ever! Villa Pizza baby. He used to eat there often when he was working at a computer store (Bryan was his co-worker). Oh, and don’t forget…you have to fold your pizza. Don’t ask…just do it. 🙂 The slices were huge and the garlic knots were the best! I want to steal the recipe! For both! Yum Yum YUMMY!

——Saturday——

We checked into our hotel, went to sleep on Mountain Time…and the next morning the cleaning woman woke us up by knocking on our door after 10 AM. We got up, got showered and ready and went driving. Steve showed me lots of places where he spent time as a kid/teenager. I love the trees lining the roads, the view of the ocean (and New York) from Sandy Hook, and all the colonial style homes out there. They have MY wrap around porches!!!!

Does this look funny to anyone else?

Yeah…that’s right…if you want to do a U Turn or TURN LEFT, you take a “Jug Handle” – let me explain…instead of “Suicide Lanes” you have to go on a Jug Handle (from the right lane) so it can change your direction so you’re going straight where you would have turned left…if it was legal. This may or may not help….

These cars went off on the right and then are looping around to the left to the light (ahead of us) so they can go left. Confused? Hope not!

Look how gorgeous it is with trees EVERYWHERE! The streets are lined in them. It’s beautiful! We need more trees in Utah. Lots more.

We drove to his High School (Raritan Rockets) and saw his old home, his cousins’ home and a few others.

He took me to a  look out point (don’t remember the name) that we also visited after we got married (6 years ago).

Can you see why it’s called Sandy Hook?

There was something new there….a monument. Once I realized what it was, I had tears brought to my eyes as I touched a piece of one of the Twin Towers that were attacked on 9/11.  Below the eagle (who had the piece of the building clutched in its claws) were the names of those who died from Monmouth County grouped by cities. It was a powerful feeling, especially looking at the New York skyline and realizing where those buildings stood. Wow.

We found the church building we THOUGHT was the church where Bryan and Melissa were going to be married that afternoon, but the address on Google Maps lead us elsewhere. We went back to the hotel, got ready and headed back to the church. We were so glad to see Bryan’s parents – we knew we were in the right place. I wish I would have taken my camera it to get pictures (Lucky for me I stole some pictures off of Bryan’s sister’s Facebook page!) of how beautiful Melissa looked, and how happy Bryan was to see her walk down the aisle. I started crying when I turned and looked at Bryan when Melissa came down the aisle. He was so happy and you could see how much he loves her.

She’s trying to dry his eyes by blowing in his face. LOL

I’m so glad that Bryan’s family are the great people that they are. When we were leaving the church, Bryan’s mom told us that this special day was even more special because we came and how much it meant to them that we were there for Bryan’s big day. They also invited us to their daughter’s house while we waited for the reception. It was fun talking to everyone there and boy did I feel like the odd ball out without a great accent!

The reception was a lot of fun. Different than any I’d ever been to. We arrive at the reception hall, and into the cocktail room. For those of you who know me, you know we don’t drink and it was quite humorous to see us go to the open bar and ask “do you have any soda?” and then say “Wow! That’s pretty neat!” to the soda dispenser that has 12 or so different kinds using one handle! The bartender even asked, “You’re not from around here are you?” LOL

After light hors d’oeuvres (which I thought was the actual ‘meal’) we were sent to the reception room. We were seated next to some of Bryan’s co-workers and they were some of the nicest people ever! We found out so much about them and what they do, and best of all, the co-worker and I snuck up to the chocolate fountain right when they were done getting it started and before they announced that it was ready. And he let me go first! YUM! The DJ was pretty good, although he was so loud that we didn’t understand half of what he was saying. There was tons of dancing, the garter, the bouquet, the cutting of the cake and the thing I loved most (****for those of you who are getting married soon or know someone who is…this is a great suggestion that I wish I would have done at our reception!***) was that the DJ had all married couples come dance. Then he started having couples sit down “Any couple married less than 1 year (minus the bride and groom), sit down”   “5 years”   “10 years”  “20 years”  etc until they found the couple married the longest. This couple was about to celebrate their 60th (I think). The bride and groom took a picture with this couple so that they could have an example to strive for in their marriage. I thought that was so neat!

Oh…I forgot…before the chocolate fountain came dinner. Yum-diddly-um. Filet Minon. Mmmm Mmmm Good. 🙂 And another open bar….with soda! 🙂 The reception started at 6 and we didn’t leave until 11:30. It was quite a night and the bride and groom were fabulous.  We knew we wouldn’t be able to spend much time with Bryan and Melissa but we were so glad to be there and share in their special day.

—–Sunday—–

On Sunday we got up, got ready and packed and headed to Steve’s old ward. We walked in and a few people did a double take when they saw Steve. One man even said, “Hi. Are you new here?” and the guy next to him said “You really don’t recognize him?” Then it hit him. LOL We sat towards the back and Grandma Peggy walked in, saw us, gave a big smile and sat next to us. Grandpa George walked right past and sat by himself. After a minute he started looking around trying to find Peggy until he saw us! 🙂 (PS – these are not Steve’s real grandparents, but they’re “adopted” grandparent….friends with Alec and Pat and they are just like family to us all). It was fast and testimony meeting at church and George kept telling me to get up there. I told him to since it was his ward, not mine. He said “So if I go up, you will too?” “Sure!”

So we sauntered up to the front, and George went before me. He said how glad he was to see teenagers grow up, go on missions, come home and start a family and how true the Gospel is. Then he gave me my own personal introduction. “And now we’ll here from Sister Emily Shaw” LOL What a hoot! I bore my testimony about how grateful I was for Temple marriages. I am so glad to know that once Steve or I die, we will still be together after this life and that our families are sealed to us.

After sacrament meeting we talked in the hallway with those who knew Steve and his family, said our farewells, and changed into jeans in the bathrooms. 🙂 We were going to eat at a place called Friendlies (we typically don’t go shopping or eat out on Sundays since it’s the Sabbath day but we kind of had to since we were traveling). I BEGGED Steve to take me back to Villa Pizza. And he laughed and said OK. 🙂 I am hooked! Little Ceasars is so Blah compared to Villa Pizza! Like really BLAH.

I don’t know why…but this made me laugh. We call them Speed BUMPS. LOL (Click on the picture to see it larger)

We made our way back to New York and took a few too many wrong turns. I think we might have added on an extra 30-45 minutes driving time. Luckily we left early enough! This time (coming from the Jersey side) the Verrazzano Bridge did not say that cameras were prohibited! So I took out the camera and started taking pictures. It was great.

The barges out at sea were so big, and there were so many big cities in the distance, I’m not sure which was which….Brooklyn, NYC, or what?! Then I saw these great signs. I love them!

We made it to the car rental place and inside the airport with plenty of time before our flight. Check in and security were not too bad, especially since there was an Italian in front of us and we started conversation with him. Steve got to practice his Italian and did really well but the noise in that place had him asking for the guy to repeat himself. I caught a word every once in  a while that I understood but it was so fun listening to them talk back and forth.

We walked around the airport a lot…looking for things for the kids, finding a place to plug in our laptops (and Steve take a nap) and then got some dinner. Look what they have at the airport! (From different stores too)

We were ready to board our plane when we realized where we were headed was DOOR 12 at GATE #?….not GATE 12 where we were supposed to be. We had to book it across the terminals to get to our plane. Whew! That would have been bad!

I made Steve take a few pictures with me….

Pretending he was asleep

Trying not to smile

And finally a smile…although I hate the angles of me. ICK.

My sister came and picked us up at the airport and was sweet enough to drive home (driving our van). She had our kids in their seats asleep so all we had to do was drive her home then head home ourselves. The next morning we told the kids how much we missed them. Want to know what they said?

“Can we go back to Netty’s?”

WHAT? 🙂 LOL Guess they didn’t miss us, huh? Thanks again Netty and family! You’re the best!