And my favorite is the picture with all the kids! Taryn was freaked out by the pumpkin and got mad when the kids laughed!
Monday, October 27, 2014
Halloween Pumpkin
The kids carved a family pumpkin. And we actually got them to touch the pumpkin guts this year.....with gloves on!
And my favorite is the picture with all the kids! Taryn was freaked out by the pumpkin and got mad when the kids laughed!
And my favorite is the picture with all the kids! Taryn was freaked out by the pumpkin and got mad when the kids laughed!
Yep I'm Still Here
So......yeah. The last time I posted was in May! Our little family has been plenty busy with summer, back to school, and now Halloween!
These past months have gone by so fast and the kids have grown even faster.
Taryn is now 11 months and will be 1 year old in 2 weeks! What happened to my tiny baby? She's growing into such a fun, sweet baby. She's still always so happy and constantly makes us laugh. She loves to give kisses and show off what a "big girl" she is!
Tate has gotten so big and it's hard to believe he'll be in kindergarten next fall. He is such a good big brother to Taryn and does a good job of taking care of her. She loves to wrestle with him and he is always so gentle with her. Even though he isn't doing preschool this year, he is always practicing his letters and numbers. He loves to write the entire alphabet! And as usual, he's our crazy boy!
Ellie is loving 2nd grade and works very hard to be a good student. She loves to read and play the piano. This summer she started gymnastics and loves it. She works very hard to get the techniques and correct positions. And she turns 8 in just a few days. I can't believe she'll be baptized!
Ayden is doing well in 5th grade. He stays busy doing piano, playing football, bugging his siblings, and working hard in school! He loves reading and stays up late (later than he should) finishing his books! We love watching him with Taryn, he is always so gentle and loving to her.
Spencer and I are staying busy with work, church callings and school. I just finished the primary program with my primary! That's big relief to have done. Spencer has been doing a lot of cabinet jobs working toward getting his installer's license. And to add to the chaos of our life, we just started a project selling mangers for Christmas! My family had the tradition of filling a manger with straw by doing acts of love and service for others, making a soft bed for Baby Jesus to lay on Christmas Eve. Spencer came up with a great design and we are in the process of filling orders! We're excited for this project and hope it will be something we can do each year.
These past months have gone by so fast and the kids have grown even faster.
Taryn is now 11 months and will be 1 year old in 2 weeks! What happened to my tiny baby? She's growing into such a fun, sweet baby. She's still always so happy and constantly makes us laugh. She loves to give kisses and show off what a "big girl" she is!
Tate has gotten so big and it's hard to believe he'll be in kindergarten next fall. He is such a good big brother to Taryn and does a good job of taking care of her. She loves to wrestle with him and he is always so gentle with her. Even though he isn't doing preschool this year, he is always practicing his letters and numbers. He loves to write the entire alphabet! And as usual, he's our crazy boy!
Ellie is loving 2nd grade and works very hard to be a good student. She loves to read and play the piano. This summer she started gymnastics and loves it. She works very hard to get the techniques and correct positions. And she turns 8 in just a few days. I can't believe she'll be baptized!
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| she's wearing my wedding dress before we took it apart to make it a baptism dress for her |
Ayden is doing well in 5th grade. He stays busy doing piano, playing football, bugging his siblings, and working hard in school! He loves reading and stays up late (later than he should) finishing his books! We love watching him with Taryn, he is always so gentle and loving to her.
Spencer and I are staying busy with work, church callings and school. I just finished the primary program with my primary! That's big relief to have done. Spencer has been doing a lot of cabinet jobs working toward getting his installer's license. And to add to the chaos of our life, we just started a project selling mangers for Christmas! My family had the tradition of filling a manger with straw by doing acts of love and service for others, making a soft bed for Baby Jesus to lay on Christmas Eve. Spencer came up with a great design and we are in the process of filling orders! We're excited for this project and hope it will be something we can do each year.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Photos from the past months
I love my children because they are beautiful, silly, funny, maddening, loving, frustrating, wonderful and mine ! I am dedicating this post to my 4 beautiful children: because of you I am blessed to be a mother. Many times I fall short and cry myself to sleep and pray that the next day will be better. But I hope you know that I am doing my best and how much you are deeply, truly loved.
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| At attention! |
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| watching general conference |
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| always my happy baby |
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| 5 months big |
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| created her own "Frozen" outfit and taped snowflakes on her dress |
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| "this is serious, mom" |
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| she wasn't too sure of the chick she got for Easter |
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| Happy Easter 2014 |
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| decorating Easter cookies with way more sprinkles than one could possibly need! |
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| snuggles with big brother |
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| Tate-man! |
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| "why do they make me do this?" |
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| playing with my baby sis |
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| Mother's Day 2014 |
Ellie's 1st Grade program
The school year is almost done which means end of year programs and activities. The whole first grade did a program about continents and took us on a "tour" of the world with songs about different continents and places. She was one of 2 kids from her class given a speaking part. She did a great job and e-nun-cia-ted her words very well! I can't get the video to load, but it was adorable. After the program, we went to her classroom to see her and to eat cookies.
I am proud of Ellie. I can't believe that she is finishing up 1st Grade, time is going by way too fast without my permission.
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| Tate walking with his friend Kaylie to Ellie's class. |
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| she looks so big |
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Taters Turns 4
4 years ago on Mother's day I went into labor with our Tate-man. He was 4 days overdue and finally decided to make his entrance into the world. It was the best Mother's Day gift I ever received!!
For his birthday this year, he asked for a 'Frozen' cake with just the "Frozen boys because I'm a boy, mom". Do you have any idea how hard it is to find 'Frozen' characters let alone just the boy characters? Luckily, Tate has an aunt who wanted him to make his birthday special. After lot of searching she finally found a character set that included the boy characters too.
Tate asked for a left handed baseball glove. He's been using Ayden's old one, but it doesn't work very well for him considering Ayden is right handed and Tate is left handed. He was very excited to receive his own "right hand glove, I mean left. But it's the right one."
He received other gifts from grandparents, friends, big brother but my favorite gift he got was the one Ellie gave him. She made it herself and wrapped it for him.
It's hard to believe that this guy is already 4. He has brought such adventure into our lives. Tate has such a fun, silly personality, but there is also a serious, grownup side to him. His preschool teacher tells us she loves listening to his "little man voice" and loves hearing some of the profound thoughts he has. He loves to sing and play mom and dad with his friends at daycare. His favorite thing to do right now is ride his bike, often without permission or knowledge of his parents. There have been many times we have found him down the block at the park....alone. This would be his independent side that is starting to come out. Here is a picture of him last year on his birthday riding his bike
And here is he this year
I am so thankful to be this boy's mom. Some days are so very hard and I wonder how I will ever make it through his childhood. Some days are so rewarding and wonderful that I just want him to stay little forever. He has definitely been the best Mother's Day gift I could ever ask for.
For his birthday this year, he asked for a 'Frozen' cake with just the "Frozen boys because I'm a boy, mom". Do you have any idea how hard it is to find 'Frozen' characters let alone just the boy characters? Luckily, Tate has an aunt who wanted him to make his birthday special. After lot of searching she finally found a character set that included the boy characters too.
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| he's so happy to "start" his birthday |
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| A birthday crown! ADORABLE |
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| age 3, 2013 |
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| age 4, 2014 |
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
It's been forever
Once again I've let weeks pass before writing a post. Life has been so busy and crazy that I haven't made time to blog. I've missed it. We've been doing the usual Shaw things: work, school, church, with a little bit of fun in between. We really enjoyed General Conference last weekend and spent a few weeks preparing our family for it. We prayed about specific things we wanted answered for our family and within the first few talks we had our answers! It was a great testimony builder for the kids and us too. The kids just finished Spring Break last week and had a very busy week. They went to the Zoo with friends and babysitter one day. And also went to the park and on bike rides. Ellie even had a friend party where Spencer helped paint the girls' nails! Everyone is happy and healthy.
I'll do my usual update for everyone.
Ayden
Ayden was able to get his cast off after 4 weeks. He still has to wear a soft brace for another week to help strengthen his wrist a little bit more. He finished his basketball season and will start baseball in a week. He's excited and has been playing with his pitch-back every day. He wants to play short stop or 2nd baseman. Ayden and Ellie switched piano teachers and he is enjoying the new teacher. She is excited because he is her oldest student right now. She's been giving him harder pieces and trying to push him a little bit more, which we love.
He is already thinking about his 10th birthday which isn't until July!
Ellie
Ellie has been working on reading 100 books through the month of April. The first grade classes are encouraging all students to read and if they accomplish the 100 book goal they will get to be part of a pizza party. Ellie doesn't like pizza but is determined to finish the goal! She's already at 80 books. They have the option of counting chapters as a book, but she didn't want to do that. She wants to read 100 books. I love that she is working so hard. She also started with the new piano teacher and loves it. She is very chatty though and has to be reminded to get back on task during the lessons. Both Ellie and Ayden signed up to be part of a Stake Primary children's choir for Stake conference Easter weekend. She is so excited but also nervous to sing in front of all those people and cameras. She has been loving this nice weather and spends all her extra time outside riding bikes or playing on the monkey bars. She has several calluses on her palms that I don't know will ever go away.
Tate
Tate has been going to preschool and daycare. He loves daycare and always asks if it's a "Keisha" day. School is a different story. He doesn't like going to school. He's good once he's there and has fun, but he just doesn't like the thought of going I guess. Thankfully he has a very patient, loving preschool teacher! Tate is still our crazy boy. He loves to play with the older kids, but is completely content doing his own thing and playing pretend. He is such a good big brother and loves to make Tayrn smile. He recently had his toe nails painted because "boys can like paint too, Mom." He chose blue like "BIU" (I love that he says BIU instead of BYU).
Taryn
Our sweet baby girl is already 5 months old. I can't believe how quickly time is going with her. She is such a content, happy baby. She is working on rolling over.....she's quite chubby so it's a little hard for her! She is a squawker and we lovingly refer to her as our "Taryn-dactyl" because she sounds like a pterodactyl (as if we know what one sounds like). Taryn loves her siblings. She gets so excited when they talk to her and her legs and arms start going a mile a minute. I miss her during the day when I'm at work, but she is such a good baby for the babysitter that I don't ever worry about her. We love having her in our family. I couldn't decide which picture of her to put on here so I did a few. she's so stinkin' cute!
Spencer and Loni
Spencer has been picking up extra cabinet jobs and stays pretty busy with that. It's nice having the extra money and it's good for him to get his name out there with builders. He really enjoys doing and I appreciate all his hard work. We both signed up to do a 5k run on April 26th so we've been training for that. The first night Spencer went out to run, he tore his lower calf muscle. Seriously! He wasn't able to do anything for on it for 2 weeks. We've got 1 1/2 weeks left before the race and we're both working hard to be ready. It's been great for him because he's lost 15 lbs doing this. Me......nothing! But at least we're getting healthier.
Spencer is working on his classes and this new school Western Governors has been great. He can go at his own pace which sometimes involves last minute panic before the end of the semester! We try to plan one a night a week where he goes to the library for a few hours.
I've been staying busy with my primary calling and started working full time again. For the last 4 weeks I've had a really bad headache that I cannot get rid of. I go to bed with it and wake up with it. I've been to one doctor (who honestly didn't really care and just gave me some meds to get me out the door). Some days are ok and I can function but other days are really bad and my head is throbbing and I feel dizzy/sick. I'm going to another doctor this week so hopefully he'll be more willing to help me figure this out. I'm starting to forget what it feels like to not have a headache!
So that's the Shaws!
I'll do my usual update for everyone.
Ayden
Ayden was able to get his cast off after 4 weeks. He still has to wear a soft brace for another week to help strengthen his wrist a little bit more. He finished his basketball season and will start baseball in a week. He's excited and has been playing with his pitch-back every day. He wants to play short stop or 2nd baseman. Ayden and Ellie switched piano teachers and he is enjoying the new teacher. She is excited because he is her oldest student right now. She's been giving him harder pieces and trying to push him a little bit more, which we love.
He is already thinking about his 10th birthday which isn't until July!
Ellie has been working on reading 100 books through the month of April. The first grade classes are encouraging all students to read and if they accomplish the 100 book goal they will get to be part of a pizza party. Ellie doesn't like pizza but is determined to finish the goal! She's already at 80 books. They have the option of counting chapters as a book, but she didn't want to do that. She wants to read 100 books. I love that she is working so hard. She also started with the new piano teacher and loves it. She is very chatty though and has to be reminded to get back on task during the lessons. Both Ellie and Ayden signed up to be part of a Stake Primary children's choir for Stake conference Easter weekend. She is so excited but also nervous to sing in front of all those people and cameras. She has been loving this nice weather and spends all her extra time outside riding bikes or playing on the monkey bars. She has several calluses on her palms that I don't know will ever go away.
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| crazy girl |
Tate has been going to preschool and daycare. He loves daycare and always asks if it's a "Keisha" day. School is a different story. He doesn't like going to school. He's good once he's there and has fun, but he just doesn't like the thought of going I guess. Thankfully he has a very patient, loving preschool teacher! Tate is still our crazy boy. He loves to play with the older kids, but is completely content doing his own thing and playing pretend. He is such a good big brother and loves to make Tayrn smile. He recently had his toe nails painted because "boys can like paint too, Mom." He chose blue like "BIU" (I love that he says BIU instead of BYU).
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| this was taken after a treadmill accident |
Our sweet baby girl is already 5 months old. I can't believe how quickly time is going with her. She is such a content, happy baby. She is working on rolling over.....she's quite chubby so it's a little hard for her! She is a squawker and we lovingly refer to her as our "Taryn-dactyl" because she sounds like a pterodactyl (as if we know what one sounds like). Taryn loves her siblings. She gets so excited when they talk to her and her legs and arms start going a mile a minute. I miss her during the day when I'm at work, but she is such a good baby for the babysitter that I don't ever worry about her. We love having her in our family. I couldn't decide which picture of her to put on here so I did a few. she's so stinkin' cute!
Spencer has been picking up extra cabinet jobs and stays pretty busy with that. It's nice having the extra money and it's good for him to get his name out there with builders. He really enjoys doing and I appreciate all his hard work. We both signed up to do a 5k run on April 26th so we've been training for that. The first night Spencer went out to run, he tore his lower calf muscle. Seriously! He wasn't able to do anything for on it for 2 weeks. We've got 1 1/2 weeks left before the race and we're both working hard to be ready. It's been great for him because he's lost 15 lbs doing this. Me......nothing! But at least we're getting healthier.
Spencer is working on his classes and this new school Western Governors has been great. He can go at his own pace which sometimes involves last minute panic before the end of the semester! We try to plan one a night a week where he goes to the library for a few hours.
I've been staying busy with my primary calling and started working full time again. For the last 4 weeks I've had a really bad headache that I cannot get rid of. I go to bed with it and wake up with it. I've been to one doctor (who honestly didn't really care and just gave me some meds to get me out the door). Some days are ok and I can function but other days are really bad and my head is throbbing and I feel dizzy/sick. I'm going to another doctor this week so hopefully he'll be more willing to help me figure this out. I'm starting to forget what it feels like to not have a headache!
So that's the Shaws!
Monday, March 3, 2014
When it rains, it pours
Friday was one of those days where it seemed the day would never end. Our morning started early with the rush of getting ready for work, school and daycare. I got to work and after about 40 minutes the school called saying that Ellie was sick. So I left work and got ready for a day of nursing. Ellie seemed ok at first, but went downhill pretty quickly. She had fever, chills, body aches. She looked miserable.
I had also made an appointment for Taryn because she's had a little problem with her neck and back. She can't hold her head up straight, it kind of kinks to one side. And instead of sitting up straight she curves to one side. The doctor checked her over and thought it might be torticollis, but ruled that out because that only affects the neck. He then looked at her spine and thinks we should take her to see a specialist because she might have slight scoliosis.
Later in the afternoon, Ayden had a friend over to play. They were in the back yard playing football. Ayden came inside crying saying he had fallen and hurt his arm. I thought he was being dramatic about a slight fall and tried to get him to calm down. He took a few breaths and then started crying again. I asked him if he could still play or if we needed to end the play date. I knew it must hurt because he said he couldn't play and just needed to rest. After about an hour of icing and resting, he was still in tears. We decided it was time to get his arm looked at. A trip to the doctor's office and a few xrays later and it was confirmed that Ayden broke his wrist. Seriously! This boy has broken so many bones it's not even funny. This time it's his dominant hand so that has been a little more challenging. Spencer had got Ayden a Gatorade and some pizza as an "I'm sorry you broke your arm, dude." And when they got home, Tate came to me with a sweet, sad little face and said with pouty lips "I wish I could break my arm." When I asked him why he said "because I want an atorgade too!"
Amidst all the chaos of the day, I had also said I would take dinner to someone in our neighborhood! It was quite a busy day that we were more than happy to end. Hopefully the next couple days and weeks will be less eventful!
I had also made an appointment for Taryn because she's had a little problem with her neck and back. She can't hold her head up straight, it kind of kinks to one side. And instead of sitting up straight she curves to one side. The doctor checked her over and thought it might be torticollis, but ruled that out because that only affects the neck. He then looked at her spine and thinks we should take her to see a specialist because she might have slight scoliosis.
Later in the afternoon, Ayden had a friend over to play. They were in the back yard playing football. Ayden came inside crying saying he had fallen and hurt his arm. I thought he was being dramatic about a slight fall and tried to get him to calm down. He took a few breaths and then started crying again. I asked him if he could still play or if we needed to end the play date. I knew it must hurt because he said he couldn't play and just needed to rest. After about an hour of icing and resting, he was still in tears. We decided it was time to get his arm looked at. A trip to the doctor's office and a few xrays later and it was confirmed that Ayden broke his wrist. Seriously! This boy has broken so many bones it's not even funny. This time it's his dominant hand so that has been a little more challenging. Spencer had got Ayden a Gatorade and some pizza as an "I'm sorry you broke your arm, dude." And when they got home, Tate came to me with a sweet, sad little face and said with pouty lips "I wish I could break my arm." When I asked him why he said "because I want an atorgade too!"
Amidst all the chaos of the day, I had also said I would take dinner to someone in our neighborhood! It was quite a busy day that we were more than happy to end. Hopefully the next couple days and weeks will be less eventful!
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| At the doctor's office waiting for xrays |
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Ellie's new 'Do'
She got her hair cut 2 weeks ago and LOVES it.
Jr Jazz and our All Star
Ayden started youth basketball a few weeks ago. It's called Jr. Jazz after the Utah Jazz and each player receives a team photo from the Jazz plus a ticket to one of their games. This is Ayden's first year playing and he's loving it. He plays well too. He understands the game and looks for the open man. He usually has several assists each game. But he also scores 2-4 points each game too. His very first game, he got a steal and ran down court for a perfect lay-up! *Ayden's jersey number is 0*
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| getting for the start of the game |
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| passing the ball |
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| get up court! |
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| watching from the bench |
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| this shot didn't make it, bounced off the rim |
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| but this one did, it was a perfect swish! |
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