Friday Date Night

This semester we've been trading babysitting with the Fredericks on Friday nights, and it has been great.  Josh and I get a date night every other weekend, and Shane gets to play with Emmy every Friday night.  The best part is, I can enjoy the night because I know he is having the time of his life with Jason, Liz, and Emmy instead of screaming for someone at home.  This Friday was our turn and we had a picnic of mini-corn dogs on the beach and ice cream at a new ice cream place. After a morning of blood, sweat, and tears (literally- I think Shane may have his daddy's propensity for accidents), it was just what the doctor ordered.  The beach always makes me feel better, and so does this guy  

Things We've Been Up To Lately...

Probably first and foremost, play groups!  My friend Jessie has done a great job of organizing different things to do with our little guys. There is something to do almost every morning of the weekday if we want, and most days we do!  Shane is very happy to be with his little friends, I'm happy to get to chat with my friends, and we get to get out of our warm house for a little bit.  It's always very low key and usually at someone's house or the Campus Activities Center, but on Thursdays we go somewhere.  Here are the "triplets" playing at the beach.  (I never imagined I would have a child who would fit into this blonde-haired blue-eyed category, but they are sure cute!)

Last week we played in the river.  Here is the fun group of friends that came. 

Shane had a great time for about 30 minutes,

 then promptly decided he was done and wanted to go home.  He walked me up to where our stroller was parked, pointed to it and said, "This!  This!"  I do love that he's learning new words, but sometimes it was easier when I could just pretend I didn't know what he wanted!

Josh convinced me to put on a movie for Shane for the first time (Cars) and it was fun to watch his reaction! The paranoid "I'-don't-wanna-turn-my-son-into-a-couch-potato" part of me was glad to see he didn't sit very long at any given time to watch it, but he would play and then go watch it for a minute.  He especially liked the tractor-tipping scene.

 We went to a friend's wedding on Sunday at the beach and had a really good time, and got some cute pictures too.

And I figured out how to french braid my own hair, which has been nice to do some days to keep it cool.  We only have a small handheld mirror so I couldn't really see it, but then I saw this picture Josh took of me and thought "dang, I actually did a pretty good job!"  (Nevermind that it's an embarrassing picture of me singing to Shane at bedtime)

And Body Trackers started up again for this semester and Josh and I were pleased with our weigh-ins!  His BMI is not considered overweight anymore (though if you ask me it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo that he was a pound or two ago!), and I reached a sort of goal weight I've hand in mind since freshman year of college.  Too bad I look too white trash here most of the time to feel very cute, but I'll take it!

On Our List of Things to Buy...

... a hook for our screen door so Shane doesn't push it open and do this again:

I Love This Little Boy

I love the way he lights up when he is around his little friends.

I think it is pretty cute when he wants to kiss all the animals in his books, the baby on the Huggies box, and even the Quaker Oats man...

I probably shouldn't encourage it, but I think it is hilarious when I grab a diaper and tell him to come here and he gets a huge grin on his face and runs and hides.

I get so excited every time I hear him say a new word.

I love watching his eyes just soaking in the pages of the books I read him- over and over and over again.

And as much as I sometimes tire of it, I can't help but give in when we get to the end of a book and he looks up at me and says, "more!"

But probably most of all, I love how loving he is.  Whenever he feels affection he shows it, and I feel lucky to be the recipient. 

Trips Up North

We had less than two weeks in Utah and it went by really fast, but we were able to sneak in some time with my sister Jamie who lives a couple hours from Josh's family.  We had such a short time with her that I was glad Shane instantly bonded with her.  It started with a game of "throw the ball up the stairs".  Stairs in Dominica are only ever outside, so it was pretty exciting that there was a whole staircase for him inside her house. 

We checked out her new house and then went to dinner at Chili's.

Then came home and enjoyed some good old TV on the sectional

Shane thoroughly enjoyed it

Go Lakers!

We enjoyed our 2nd round of Easter spoils

and I especially enjoyed sleeping in my own bed!  Ha ha it is in my sister's guest room so it won't get gross in storage 

Then we woke up early the next morning to make it down to Provo so I could run a 5k with Jake and Becca.  Despite the freezing rain and hail blasting our faces through most of the run, I had a really fun time and it felt good to run a race again.

Later that week we came back up to see their new house and go swimming at an indoor pool.  Man, looking at our siblings' houses may be a teensy bit jealous.  Someday we'll live in a house.  Right?  For now I'll just have to find a way to visit them lots.  We love you guys! 

Highlights of our Trip to Manti

We had so much fun in Manti!  Two weeks flew by.  Sure, it may be a small small town, but it sure seemed like a lot to us coming from here!  Some of the things we enjoyed were:

• going to Target and seeing Shane get all wide-eyed.  Okay, so we had to drive an hour and a half to get to Target, but Manti does have a small Walmart and Shane was equally thrilled.  We walked down the cereal aisle and grabbed a box of Cheerios and put it in the cart.  He turned himself around, said "more," grabbed the box and wouldn't let go of it until we got home.  Such simple pleasures!
• eating Mexican food!!!
• heck, eating all kinds of food!  It was just nice to have some variety and Shelley did a great job of fattening us up.
• going to a park.
• attending the temple.
• going to see Date Night with Josh while Josh's parents babysat.
• having a big house and yard for Shane to explore.
• having a car to drive.
• being able to lay under the covers in bed.  We don't even have covers here, ha!
• going to Women's Conference at BYU.
• Watching Matthew's soccer game.  In a cemetary.  That's how they do it in Manti. 

Shane thought it was hilarious when of the kids tripped and fell.

But of course, the best part of our trip was being with family.  And there was lots of it!  Three of Josh's sisters (we missed you Sarah!), his brother and family, his grandparents, and two aunts.  We hadn't seen most of them in almost a year, which felt so long after living so close to them in Provo.  Shane warmed up to the girls; Jessika,

Rachel,

and Hannah

but he would scream and push Jake away when we tried to hold him or sometimes even talk to him.  What a little stink!

He eventually warmed up to Grandpa

even though we didn't let him give him Pepsi!

But Matthew was definitely his favorite

You pretty much knew wherever Matthew was Shane would be close by

Matthew even got up the courage to take a bath with him!  But only the first night...

They would chase each other around the house

And Shane would walk around hissing with his scary face on

Matthew was a really good sport and put up with lots of kisses.  Grandma was a close second.  He loved being her little helper

From the minute he saw her at the airport he just knew she was grandma.  And he would just magically fall asleep with her!

And of course he loved his cousins, Taylor and James

He never quite warmed up to Josh's grandparents, darn it.  But we were sure glad they came, and as a nice added bonus they brought us some real California strawberries!  Storebought ones just don't compare with fresh from the stand.

And, we even got to see my sister Jamie.  More on that in the next post...

Happy to Be Back

We're back!

(on the nature isle)

something about going home lit a fire underneath me

I caught myself thinking and dreaming about being settled in the states

then I realized

I have the rest of my life to live in the states

we are 3rd semester now!!!

these are the last 7 months I have here

to learn whatever lessons my Heavenly Father wants me to

and hopefully keep them engrained in my heart

to soak in the beauty and simplicity and joy in life here

to remind myself that I really don't need much

3rd semester!

something about that sounds so good

I keep saying it to myself and can't help but smile

I am happy.  Life is good.

(Snapped this on my way home from the pool this evening.  Thought it was fitting.)

 

*I still have a couple posts about our trip to Manti, I will post one hopefully tomorrow when the internet is hopefully fast enough to upload the thousands of pictures I took.

In Heaven

Grandma's backyard is pretty much heaven on earth for little boys.

Except when it looks like this