Little Big Smiles

I had to smile when I opened up our blog because of the photos of Jonathan from Christmas 2010.  It really has been that long!  It caught me a little off-guard because it is still early enough in the year that Christmas (2011) wasn't that long ago, so I connected those pictures with this last Christmas and thought "Wow, he has grown alot the last couple months!"

I feel like alot has changed over the last year, since the last time Shauna posted to our blog; yet I also feel like nothing has changed.  I'm still at the same job, working for the Air Force.  We still live in the same house, attend the same ward, etc.  Just a few years ago, with college and the newlywed life, stuff happened fast and drastically--blog-worthy stuff--all the time!  I don't know how to explain it.  It's just different.

Jonathan is now nearly 18 months old.  New LDS parents know what that means: nursery!  Shauna has been way involved with her Primary calling, so I've been watching him at church.  I haven't really been attending church, per se, I just watch him physically at the church--wandering the halls, slamming doors, playing with the drinking fountains.  (And he's been doing some stuff too... Haha!)  So, in a couple weeks, I will gloriously return from less-activity... Or I'll drop him off at the nursery and go home to nap.  =)  You know, it's been tiring and frustrating on Sundays, especially when I've had a day full of meetings (I'm serving as Executive Secretary), but I think I'm really going to miss hanging out with him.

The last few months have been even more fun with Jonathan.  He has always been very expressive, but I think even more so recently.  It is a wonderful feeling showing him something new and cool and seeing the amazement in his eyes and the huge smile on his sweet, small face.  He hasn't started talking yet, really, but he is very close.  He can say "Bye bye" and "Night Night", and everything else is various intonations of "Meh" or, for Mommy and Daddy, "Dah".  Shauna informed me the other day that he can now expertly climb from the floor to the kitchen table using the rails on a chair's legs.  He also thinks it's a great idea to stand on the edge of the arm of our recliner, lean all the way to the dresser in his room, and form a little bridge with his body, placing all his weight on his hands in a push-up position, and then he'll complain for Mom to come get him (sometimes he doesn't even complain; we just walk in on him like that).

So what is happening other than Jonathan?  That is all I can ever talk about--ever!  I love it, and yet, there has to be other topics to engage other adults in other than kids or diapers or funny noises they make.  Well, for one, for a big one, Shauna is expecting!  Jonathan's little sister will be joining our family on (or around) July 2, 2012!  Shauna is amazingly taking care of Jonathan and growing a new baby girl.  We've already setup a matching crib in Jonathan's room (he's still sleeping in his, and will be for awhile, Mom tells me), and Shauna's friend gave us a bunch of cute girly clothes.

I really have to get used to the idea of having a daughter.  I actually just have to get used to having another child, period!  I feel like I've got Jonathan down, and I am happy with him.  I have all these great plans for when he gets older...  But, now another kid is coming?  And it's going to be a girl!?  I don't know about that!  It's safe to say that I'm mildly freaked out.  But, I will readily admit, I was warming up to the idea while we were sorting through the cute girly clothes, and seeing how small they are!  Jonathan is getting to be big boy now (though still quite cuddly), and I miss having a little snuggly baby.  So, I guess I can get used to having another baby and another girl in my life.  I can definitely get used to having some more sweet smiles running around our house.  Plus, then, as Shauna says, the girls and the boys will be evenly matched in our family.

Christmas

We took Christmas morning at an extremely leisurely pace. We didn't wake up until Jonathan woke us up. We then didn't run for the tree, but instead ran to the kitchen--we were starving! After our breakfast of waffles and sausage, we dressed Jonathan up and took pictures. He is the most patient child ever. We propped him up and he didn't mind, even when he slid out of position. Then we went ahead and opened our presents.

Mom-and-Baby Chat

I'm loving this whole mommy thing. I adore this kid! I do miss sleeping for long stretches, but we're down to waking up twice a night, and that's manageable. What makes being a mommy so great? I get to see Jonathan's adorably large smile (sorry, can't get the full-blown one in a picture yet) and getting to have mom-and-baby chats. Is there anything better? I think not.

Our Bundle of Boy Was Born!

Well, I guess I ought to let those of you who check blogs know that our sweet little boy, Jonathan, was born! :) Yeah, forgot to mention we were pregnant on here but Facebook friends knew and saw my belly expand.

I sort of forgot about/gave up on blogging what with having an hour commute... and then during my pregnant exhaustion and such. But today I was actually my trying to sort pictures by the year they were taken. Josh suggested I check our blog for clues. Oh yeah... that thing. So, I did some quick clicking and realized that I've seriously missed out on major information, like births, for my neglect. So... sorry.

Jonathan got his two month shots today. He was all kinds of happy for the check-up, but obviously didn't so much appreciated the three shots in his legs.

He really is such a calm, sweet kid. I don't think I deserve such a good baby, but I am sure grateful!

Here are his favorite pasttimes:

--waving his arms around
--kicking his legs
--looking at lights (especially when the ceiling fan is - gasp! - moving)
--studying faces
--observing the room with his lips pursed
--eating (well, drinking)
--dirtying diapers (especially if he was juuuust changed)
--napping occasionally
--being burped (Being patted on the back is soooo calming to him. He'll put his head back and enjoy with this sweet look of content on his face.)
--smiling
--"talking" which I love, because he can make his emotion known.. a happy coo or gurgle or a hey-I'm-bored MEH!
--playing patty-cake
--hitting the toys that hang over him
--listening to music
--snuggling with mom and dad
--taking his bath
--being (gently) bounced

Life 2.0

I can't believe it's been so long since our last post in June! So much has happened! Quick summary:

• We bought a house in Clinton, UT!
• Josh works at Hill AFB as an electronics engineer for the U.S. Air Force
• Shauna is still teaching third grade and commutes everyday to Lehi, UT! That's more than 1 hour each direction! (I owe her SO many backrubs!)
• We moved
• We unpacked (sort of... we're still unpacking)
• We cleaned, patched, painted
• We bought some new toys (Huge TV, Kitchen Table, and.... our OWN washer and dryer!)
• And we have thus far survived the winter

We could go on and on about each of the aforementioned topics, and we probably will in the future. For now, I'll post a little blurb I wrote a couple months ago.

LIFE 2.0

November 2009 -- Life is finally starting to unpack itself (with a little help from us, of course) from the boxes and piles that have held it captive for so many weeks. When we last posted, we were at the end of our house hunt. To fill you in, we did indeed follow what we felt to be right and we purchased the ranch style house that needed some work. The days that followed were full of last minute packing in Provo, cleaning out our apartment, taking care of some last minute management issues, and moving to Clinton. That brief list does not do justice to what a great ordeal that was!

Upon arriving in Clinton, we found the home pretty much like we expected to find it: in a mess. Nothing too bad, really, but there was a huge pile of junk in the garage that had to moved out so we could put our piles of junk in there. We didn't want to move in any of our stuff until the place was clean and space was how we wanted it (i.e., patched, painted, etc.). Basically, our stuff was in the garage until about a month and a half ago. We were met by a few brethren from the elders quorum who were a huge help. We've gotten to know them well over the past few weeks; the whole ward is wonderful. What took us pretty much all day to pack and load took them about 20 minutes to unload for us.

Throughout our first day and night here, Shauna's family was just wrapping up a trip to Orem that they graciously extended a few days so that they could help us out. I am especially grateful for that. My mother-in-law and Shauna did an incredible job cleaning everything--the fridge, the kitchen, the kitchen floor, the bathrooms--everything was filthy when we got here, but they made it all sparkle like new! I don't think the house had ever been cleaned or vacuumed. Shauna bought a new bagless vacuum with great filters and stuff; well, she vacuumed the carpet multiple times and she filled up an entire little garbage can full of the filth it took off the floor!

Anyways, enough about that for now. So far, here's what we've done: cleaned everything (see above), patched multiple holes in multiple walls, tore out the master bedroom door and jamb (it was destroyed), tore out the baseboard (it was beat up beyond repair), removed all the blinds for cleaning, removed and discarded all door knobs and faceplates, removed pantry and master bedroom closet doors for repair, removed all light fixtures from the ceiling, painted the ceiling (two coats), painted half of the walls one color (two coats), hated that color, discover dishwasher is filthy beyond repair, buy new dishwasher, install new dishwasher, dig out 2 of 6 window wells with flooding problem, contract out to repair split pipe at exterior spigot, order and setup DSL internet, arrange payment of other utilities, order curbside recycling, trim/prune monstrous trees to reveal sidewalk, clean blinds, hang blinds, replace some of the blinds, try to fix leaky jetted tub (no luck), discover leaky jetted tub doesn't work anyway, install water line to fridge, painted all of the walls a good color (two coats), moved stuff in from garage, contract out air duct cleaning, get screwed by air duct contractors, tore out main bathroom floor, contracted friends to retile bathroom floor, try to fix garage door opener, contract out for garage door repair, fix garage door opener (kinda) with remotes, weed landscape to plant gifted plant starts, buy baseboard for master bedroom, paint baseboard, buy door for master bedroom, paint door, install door (three times to get right), cut and install baseboard, patch nail holes in baseboard, caulk seams in baseboard, paint caulk, paint nail holes, install ceiling fan in master bedroom, drop ceiling fan from ceiling (oops), return ceiling fan, install new ceiling fan, officially move in to master bedroom, relax...

And I think that covers it. Next on our list is to finish the other two bedrooms and then finish unpacking for real! Keep in mind that while all of this is going on, both Shauna and I are working full-time, we're also having to do the normal chores like laundry and dishes, and we both recently were called to high-commitment jobs in the our new ward. I am now serving in the Young Mens Presidency over 12 Deacons and Shauna is the Young Womens Camp Director. So, in a word, life has been crazy! In two words, life has been effin' crazy (pardon my Utahn).

Chronicles of the House Hunt

Well, after about six weeks of house hunting it looks like we're nearing the end of that journey. We found a house that we loved, and we offered, went back and forth with terms and needed repairs, etc., and now we could be closing on it at the end of next week! I thought I'd just take a few minutes to chronicle some of the memorable things that happened throughout the course of this experience.

Drive Time
First of all, perhaps the thing that we'll remember the most about house hunting is the killer commute we had to take to get to the area where we're interested. Since I'm working at Hill AFB and Shauna's probably only going to be working another year, we decided to settle closer to my work rather than hers so that in the future, I'll be able to be home with the family sooner after work. However, we didn't rule out any houses more south than Hill (closer to Shauna's school) to try and cut time off her commute. That meant that we were looking in between Woods Cross and Ogden, or 45 minutes to an hour and a half drive from Provo. I think we took five or six trips total with our realtor (poor guy), and we must have looked at at least 60 houses.

After a couple trips, it became apparent that the houses and price range we started to love put us in Clinton, UT, a small town neither of us had heard of before. And, in fact that's where we found "the one".

"Ye are too superstitious..." (-St. Paul)
Now, I'm not the superstitious type. But after a few trips and so many choices, we started joking about how Shauna and I just needed some sort of sign to tell us which one to buy. After talking about this, we pulled up to a house, and I kid you not, as I got out of the car, I looked down and right where I was stepping was a dollar bill just chilling on the grass! I'm serious! I showed everyone and said, "Hey, here's our sign! This is the one! Where do we sign!" Haha. Fortunately, the house was in pretty bad shape and we walked away and I didn't stake our lives to a house based on a dollar bill superstition. But hey, it would've helped on our down payment!

Another "sign" that I noticed, and perhaps it was even on the same day, was the house number of one we looked at. The house I grew up in had the number 2090. I loved that house. It was home. This house we were looking at that day was on a street called 2090 West! And it was a sweet house! I just kept thinking, How ironic would it be to be in a 2090 house again! But, again probably fortunately, this house was a short sale and Shauna didn't like the view out the backyard. (The house backed up to a new medical clinic.)

Drumroll, Please
Now, I arrive at the ONE. What was really interesting about this experience was that there were actually two houses we loved that we saw on the same day. This one house was new, in a great neighborhood, and backed up to a brand new city park; it was just a beautiful area and the house itself was very nice. It was a multilevel house, so the garage entry was in the basement part, meaning we would have to bring the groceries or laundry up stairs, and it had some negative aspects, like all houses, but overall it was great. It was also priced like it was great, meaning that it was on the very high end of our price range.

This other house we looked at was a ranch style home, which Shauna and I both love. It has three bedrooms and two baths up stairs and a partially unfinished basement downstairs that we could do whatever we wanted to. The kitchen is very nice, the yard is huge, the house itself is newer, and overall we just really, really like it. It did have some things wrong with it too, but still, we loved it.

The Tiebreaker
So, Shauna and I went home that night and just didn't know what to do. We talked for hours about the pros and cons of each. We went back and forth about each house. Okay, let's take the parkside house. Well, I think I would like the ranch house better. And on and on. Before we knew it, it was after midnight, and we were no closer to a decision than we were when we started. Finally, Shauna said, You know, we haven't really said a prayer about this yet. We said a quick yet fervent prayer and then just sat quiet. It seemed simultaneous when we both took a deep breath, looked at each other, and said, It's the ranch house. And that's the one we decided on, and that's where we could be living a week from today!

The very next morning, we met with our realtor and did all the paperwork for our offer. We offered slightly under their asking price but felt comfortable with it. Six hours later, the realtor called us and told us that they had accepted our offer! From this point on--actually from the time we said our prayer and made our decision--everything has just seemed to work out, like the six hour response time on our offer! That was on a Friday! We didn't even expect to hear back until at least the following Monday.

Inspector Gadget
Something we knew we wanted to do was order a house inspection. Shauna and I both agree that it should just be mandatory, so we highly recommend it. We did order one on this house and we're very glad we did. He found some things that would have never noticed, such as a leak in the plumbing that only manifest when the master bathroom tub was draining! Who notices those things?? Well, I mean you'd notice eventually when there's a big mess in your basement, but remember, this basement isn't even finished yet, so perfect timing... Anyways, with our realtor, we went back to the seller and asked them to make that and other repairs that the inspector had found, and after they conducted their own investigation, they agreed! As we speak, they're making the repairs, and we're getting ready to close the deal next week. Incredible!

There will surely be more to post soon.

Curse of the Sunglasses

I cannot explain how frustrated I am with sunglasses! I love sunglasses. I wear them everywhere pretty much any time it is not dark. They cut down on glare and headaches and they just look cool. Well, shortly after I returned home from my mission, I was cursed with a horrible curse.

Something I'd always wanted was a nice pair of sunglasses. When I got home from my mission and started working, I finally decided it was time to splurge. Now, I do appreciate a pair of Oakleys or Rayban sunglasses, but there's no way I'm going to pay $200 for sunglasses--especially not with my curse! Anyways, I went down to the mall and stopped by a bunch of shops looking for the perfect glasses. I decided on the Dragon brand Cage stye. They were sweet! So I bought them and couldn't have been happier.

Around this time, I'd met my sweetheart Shauna. Come to think of it, she must've fallen for me because of those glasses! Haha. Well, I took Shauna to the movies in Vegas on one of our weekends together. Obviously you can't watch a movie with sunglasses on. Well, I guess you could, but... ya. So, I had taken off my sunglasses and put them on her purse which she then put next to her on the arm rest (still attached to her arm for security). After the movie, we got up to leave and I went to retrieve my glasses--and they weren't there! We searched everywhere. A nice theater worker even came with his flashlight and helped us search, but to no avail. It finally occurred to us that the guys behind us must have swiped them through the gap in the chairs right off Shauna's purse! And that, I believe, is when my curse started.

I haven't been able to keep a pair of sunglasses more than a few weeks since! The next pair I had got taken after I forgot them in a lecture hall at BYU. Countless pairs since have broken, both on their own prematurely or by my doing (sitting on them in my car, crunching them in my pocket helping people move large things, sending them to their early deaths in the hands of a curious baby, etc). Why is this on my mind, you ask? Well, four weeks ago, I went to Ross and bought two pairs of sunglasses. I have at least learned to not buy the expensive ones since they're just going to be destroyed or otherwise rended useless to me. On Friday, while house hunting, I reached up to take the glasses off and one of the blasted arms broke off right in the middle! Grrrr... That's when it donned it me: I'm cursed!