Sacramento or Bust

I know they look gentle and harmless, if we only knew

Kaylee showing her true colors (Shad looks so miserable)

Since Dan will be starting the Post Academy in January and we finally had a car that would make it we decided to go to Sacramento to visits Dan's family and friends. Bekah was here for Thanksgiving so she rode with us back to CA, which was nice because I got to spend a little more time with her. This was the first time Shad had met his cousins on Dan's side so that was fun especially because they love dolls and thought that Shad was just a real live doll, I still dont think that they can hurt him eventhough everytime they picked him up he whined in protest. Overall it was a very eventfull evening, but I think Shad will enjoy his cousins more when he can defend himself. I drove up to Chico one of the days to play with Bekah and meet her freinds, it was really nice to see that she is being taken care of by some pretty good people. The last night we were there we went to Dan's best childhood freinds house for some dinner and games, which always includes a game of Killer Bunnies which didnt dissapoint. The trip home was much easier then the one there because we stopped half way in Winnemucca so each day we only drove about 5 hours. Shad holds his ground with hating the car seat but Im sure I will break him in eventually and he will learn to love road trips, the sooner the better.

Dan finally gave in

Well our two cars have been slowly dying for about a year now and we are just waiting for one of them to finally go toward the light, so it was inevitable that we would need to get a new car. So around August I told Dan that all I wanted for my birthday was a new car, and he just laughed and said yeah right. Well when my birthday came around and Dan took me to Park City for the weekend, my new phrase was "all I want for Christmas is a new car, and maybe some front teeth for Shad so he will stop teething". He just laughed like before, well we thought the Explorer had driven its last mile so we went car shopping, just to see what was out there. I think that a new car is an appropriate Thanksgiving gift after all I would be very thankful for it. We finally decided on the car we wanted and went to a friend to see if he could find one at an auction for us. I must have been our lucky day because he ended up getting the car we wanted with a few extras along with it, it had about 30,000 less miles than we expected to get along with leather interior and a built in DVD player which we probably wont be using much until Shad is older and we are needing to entertain him on road trips. We are very happy with our new purchase, especially after taking our first road trip out to Sacramento last weekend to visit Dan's family and my sister in Chico.

Just like Daddy

Ever since Shad was born he has always had a nice head of hair which I am very proud of not like I really had any say in what he looked like. We gave Shad is first haircut at 2 months and again every month after that. Because his hair was growing so fast I gave in to Dan's request to buzz his hair this time and I really like how it turned out. I was worried about cutting off to much so I wanted to use a #8 guard and if Dan had his way he would use no guard at all so we compromised on a #6 guard and were both happy with the results so I think this will be our hair cutting methods from now on. Maybe next time I will be more adventurous and go with a shorter length.

Dan's Update

Dan stopped working for the Canyon's ski resort in July of this year and since then has been trying to get his business going which has actually paid off a bit, we have actually taken a pay check for the first time since he started it over a year ago. However since his business is not yet able to pay all the bill he is in the process of registering to go to the post academy. He actually applied to get a job with a few police departments and in the end he was always on the top of the list of candidates but they all turned him down because they did not want to pay to put him through post and told him that if he was already certified he would be one of their top choices. So that made our decision. When Dan was in the military we knew that some benefits would come our way when his service was through but we never thought we would need them so badly. Because Dan is a veteran the state is actually paying for his academy training and his GI bill will be giving us money for living expenses and we are so grateful for that opportunity that he has. If everything goes as planned then he will be starting his training in the end of January and will be finished in July, and hopefully hired with a PD soon after.

Hangin with the cousins

These are just a few pictures of the whole family well the little ones anyway. This is all the grandkids with Nana and Pop from left to right; Violet, Mason, Grace, Lily, Shad, Hannah, and Sam.
These little ones were all born within 1 year, well almost 1 year Grace's Birthday is exactly 1 year and 1 day older than shad. Grace 16 mo, Mason 13 mo, Violet 10 mo, Shad 4 mo.
I guess it was twinner day, JK. Jay Kim and Mason came over for Sunday dinner and I told Jay that shad had the same onesie so I put it on so we could get some twinner shots. Arent they the cuttest little boys.

Eating Cereal

Well we decided to start Shad on Rice Cereal a little early hoping that it would help him sleep a bit longer and it may end up biting us in the butt. As it turns out he absolutely hates it. I don't know if he doesn't like the taste texture or just the fact that it takes to long and is to much work but for whatever the reason we cannot seem to reason with him long enough to get a bite down so I think we might give up for at least a few weeks and try again, maybe then he will be ready.

And then there were 2

I can't believe it only took 2 weeks but he got his second tooth. He was not quite as fussy as with the first but we could deffinately tell when the tooth came in cause he cheered right up.

Just showing off how freaking adorable my little boy is

Playing in his Johnny Jump-Up

What a stud with his fo-hawk, in his church clothes

Halloween

Well Halloween was a week long event. The Saturday before Halloween we had a Ward party, I went to help my mom with a both she was in charge of and also to show off Shad and his adorable costume. We had a fun evening watching all the kids run around in there costumes and at the end of the night they gave out different awards for costumes and to my surprise Shad got the first one which was the baby category, I didn't even know he was in a category. So pretty much the bishop announced what I already knew, that my son was the cutest baby in the ward hehe JK. The next week I worked on making Pinatas with Angie, we thought it would be fun to set up Pinatas instead of just handing out the candy. The Pinatas were a bit of a challange to figure out how to make but in the end turned out looking really cute. On Halloween we just hung out at the house, outside for a good portion of the evening waiting for groups of kids to come so we could "wack" the pinatas. We were very lucky because it was a beautiful night and was actually pretty warm however it did sprinkle a couple of times. The rest of the night we spent watching a semi-scary movie Aracnaphobia, it was a fun Halloween.

Vegas Baby!!

Every year my sisters, mom, aunt and I go on a girls retreat and we usually end up going to Vegas because it is in the middle of where everyone lives. Last year we went to see Celine Dion before she retired her show and it was absolutely fabulous. This year we first stopped in Cedar City on the 15th of October to see the Shakespeare Festival. The next day we drove down to Vegas and picked up my sister from the airport. On Friday we hung out at the pool and later that evening my sister and I went shopping while my mom and aunt went to see the play Menopause which they said was halarious. The next day we toured the strip which consisted of getting show tickets, walking around the Venitian, Belagio, and eating at the Excalibur Buffet. Two of my sisters rode the New York New York rollercoaster but I would'nt dare in fear of passing out on a down slope. That evening we went to see Mystere which is a Cirque du sole show at Treasure Island and it was fantastic I enjoyed almost every minute of it (I hated the baby part in it and for those who have seen the show know what I am talking about). The next morning we woke up just in time to check out and head to the M&M store for suveniers and watch the fountain at the Belagio to pass by the time till my sister had to be back at the airport. The whole trip was very relaxing and enjoyable trip but by the time the 4 days were up I was ready to get home, I really missed my boys.

Family Pics

What, a tooth!!

We found a tooth, well not actually found it we just noticed it. Shad was acting really gumpy and not eating well at all, he would it about 2 oz. then just scream. We went on like this for about a week or so not knowing what to do. I looked on the internet and all of his symptoms matched Thrush (I didnt know much about it but is seemed to match) so I pinned the crying on that. He had a check-up with his doctor the next day and I brought it up and he doubted that it was thrush and said it could be caused by teething. I really didnt think that was possible considering he was so young so I continued to treat Thrush which is pretty much just sterelizing everything to the extreme including his hands. Well the next day we were out running errands and he was talking (cooing) and when he opened his mouth my sister noticed something white and low and behold it was a tooth. I cant believe his first tooth came in a just 4 months old. I am so glad that I am not breastfeeding. We are not sure if he ever had Thrush but either way the tylenol helped out tremendously whether it was just teething or Thrush so I am so greatful for modern medicine.