Let's Make it Official

Just wanted to pay quick tribute to my guy! As you probably read/heard Shad PASSED the WA State Bar exam!! Whoo hoo! Well, yesterday it was made officially official! Shad was sworn in at the Kent Justice Center as a new attorney in WA state. We are all pretty proud of him! This has been a LONG time coming. He always knew that he wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer and now... He is!!! Congrats, Shad! (Now... I job!)

Shad getting sworn in... you can't tell in the picture but his right arm is raised.

Its official... signed by the judge!

The congratulatory handshake!

Family picture, all saying "cheese" to get Owen to smile!

Shad and I... it was a RAINY Seattle day what else!
You may now come to Shad with all your legal needs! :)

Shad's BIG Birthday Weekend!

Shad's birthday weekend was a HUGE success!! It was everything and more we could've hoped for!

First off, Shad PASSED the Bar Exam!! Yes, that's right, he's awesome. Its one BIG step closer to landing that big-time lawyer job we are hoping and praying for! He worked extremely hard at passing the bar exam and it paid off!! I am so grateful for a husband who works hard at studying, schooling, and work.

This is how we spent our weekend: On early Friday afternoon we left Owen (for the FIRST time overnight) with grandma and grandpa and drove down to Portland, OR! After a nice, scenic and somewhat silent drive without Owen there, we arrived about three in the afternoon. We got to spend the afternoon and evening with some dear friends from our BYU married ward, the Terrazas. They were awesome enough to let Shad and I stay there for the night so that on Saturday afternoon we could attend to BYU vs. Oregon State game. It was fun to play games, talk, and reminisce with them about our Provo days and talk about where life has taken us since then.

Shad with David:
Me and Rachel:
David and Rachel's ADORABLE kiddos!

Shad and I decided to take advantage of our kid-free night on Friday and enjoy a date night out downtown. Neither of us had really been to/explored Portland before. Recently we saw an episode of 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives' featuring a restaurant in Portland called Blueplate. So, we decided to go there! Shad had their NW sliders and I just kept it simple with a GIANT Cesar salad. We enjoyed the experience. The place was TINY, but had a unique feel to it. They made their own sodas, which were yummy, and kept everything to a "northwest" feel. Overall, I'd say we'd recommend it!

My salad (After I'd already eaten a good portion):
Shad's Sliders:

Saturday after having a fun, lazy morning with our friends we said our goodbyes and took the 1 and 1/2 hour drive down to Corvallis to arrive JUST before the game started. Too bad parking took FOREVER, so we missed a bit of the first quarter. But we found our seats and thoroughly enjoyed every second of the game.

It was a nice stadium. Good scenic views.

At half-time we found out that Shad had passed to bar! We called home to check in on Owen, to be informed that the news had arrived in the mail! At this point, the game was tied, so that happy news helped ease our anxiety a little bit!

Shad and I were surrounded by Oregon State Fans, with only a few Cougars around here and there. So... We weren't as loud as we normally would have been! Even though our seats were high up and in a sea of Orange, I feel as though we had good seats. And were treated pretty well by Oregon State fans.


After we had realized that we had this game in the bag with a SURE victory... with about 2 minutes left Shad and I headed down to the BYU section to celebrate with our fellow COUGARS and COSMO!
28-38 COUGARS WIN!!!! Awesome.
So. Much. Fun.

We got home late Saturday night, and woke up Sunday to be happily reunited with Owen! I missed him so much! But he did GREAT with grandma and grandpa and is so lucky to have wonderful grandparents that he LOVES so much (and vice versa!). :)

We topped off the weekend with a small group of friends and family on Sunday evening with dinner and pumpkin pie, Shad's traditional birthday treat!

Happy Birthday Shad, here's to your LAST year in your 20s!!!!!! Love you!

A Pumpkin Patch and BIG events!

I've said it once and I'll say it again: I LOVE FALL! It's that time of year again, and I love it all! What's not to love about fall?? The trees, the leaves, the colors, the smells, the cool/crisp air, the rain, the FOOTBALL, the pumpkins treats, the soup. It's great.

This last weekend, Shad, Owen, and I did our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and enjoyed some nice fall festivities. We decided to go last minute, and it was so much fun! The weather was PERFECT. We've had a pretty wet/gloomy/soggy couple of weeks (to be expected this time of year in Seattle), but Saturday was 65 and sunny! Owen had a blast! And it was pretty cheap entertainment for us all! Here is what we did (All for under $20, pumpkins and all!):

We picked our "Punkos" as Owen would say.

He was determined to pick them all up! No matter how heavy!

He even attempted to lift this monster... with no luck.

So he sat on it instead! Very proudly!

We took Owen on his first Hayride!

He LOVES tractors, its actually an obsession really. So he was throughly entertained.

Owen had to get a closer look of the tractor after the ride. He was sad to have to say goodbye.

Back to the pumpkin patch, to keep his mind off the tractor!

He eventually moved on to collecting tiny pumpkins to "take home, peeeeease."

We ended up with two pumpkins: one smaller sugar pumpkin (Seen in the first photos)... and one big family one!

And of course... we sampled the roasted corn. So delicious. Owen kept asking for "Big Bite, Corn!" Shad was generous enough to share with Owen... I gobbled mine down!

I was looking at our pumpkin patch pictures from last year (Seen here), and I cannot believe how much Owen has grown! He couldn't even really stand on his own yet and he would cry every time we put him down! He is such a little boy now!

In other McOmber news, we have a BIG week coming up! First: I got a job!! I start orientation tomorrow, and then will probably start next week. Since it takes so long to get Bar results in and Shad is having such a hard time finding work, I decided to hit the job search as well. Not really believing that I would actually land something (being 5 months pregnant and all). But seasonal retail jobs are out there, and they are looking! The first job I applied for, I got! I will be working at Old Navy at the local mall here, as a part time employee. They know all about my situation with being a mom, being pregnant, not working Sundays, and not wanting too many hours. And they seem pretty flexible about hours and scheduling. The down side is having to leave Owen at all during the week, and having to work Holidays will probably be a drag. BUT I feel very blessed to have found something so quickly and which potentially looks like will be a good fit for our family situation. And we'll see how Shad does as a stay at home daddy! Hehe. :)

Second: It's Shad's Birthday on Sunday! He will be 29! (Only ONE year left in the 20s!) And his birthday present this year is a road trip down to Oregon to see the BYU vs. Oregon State game!! Needless to say we are STOKED to go down and see our beloved Cougs. We haven't been to a game in 3 YEARS!!! WAHOO! And since his actual birthday is on Sunday we will be back in time to celebrate with family and friends with Shad's favorite dessert: pumpkin pie! But I will surely post more on this later.

And third: Along with Sunday being Shad's birthday it is also the day that we will receive bar exam results. For better... or worse. But I'm pretty confident that Shad passed. Right...???

So hopefully all these new events will prompt a blog post soon in the near future. I have been so bad lately. We will definitely be posting about the BYU game for sure!