The McOmbers

Nathan's Grand Entrance

2012-02-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

(Nathan at 2 Weeks)

Well... It has been two and a half weeks since our Nathan arrived into our lives, and I cannot believe how fast the time has flown! He is just the sweetest little guy. We love him so much. Even though he looks so much like Owen, he is already such a different baby! He is such a good baby. A champion sleeper and eater! Last Friday, at his two week check up he already weighed 8 pounds 8oz... and is already growing out of newborn outfits! It took Owen 6 weeks to grow out of these! He sleeps and sleeps... most nights he just wakes up once between 3-5am, eats, then goes back to sleep until 7 or 8. I know, I'm SPOILED! Owen was never like that! And when he is awake he is just quiet and observes his new crazy family. I love him so much.

Both boys are asleep right now, so I thought I would take these precious few minutes of mommy-time to document the birth experience I had with Nathan.

I went into labor Saturday (1/28) night. I had my eye on going into labor that Saturday all along... it just seemed like a good/convenient (For Shad) day to have a baby. At my doctors appointment on the previous Friday (1/27) when it looked like I was not going to have him anytime soon I decided to use the weekend to "induce" labor myself! I told Shad we were going to eat all kinds of spicy food, walk the mall until I dropped, and re-create the night my water broke with Owen! So that's what we did; We ate Mexican food and walked the mall while I contracted. The night my water broke with Owen we had gone out on a double date with our friends, the Fischers, to Olive Garden and then played games afterwards. An hour after we got home... my water broke unexpectedly! So on Saturday, as a joke, we went out with the Fischers to Olive Garden and then back to their place to play games!! This time, however, I was contracting all through the meal every 9 minutes! They weren't very intense and not close enough together to get me really excited... plus I just assumed it was from all the walking around earlier. We went back to their place and played the SAME games we played two years ago before I had Owen... and then the contractions stopped. **sigh** False alarm. Shad and I came home and put in a movie... and about an HOUR after we got home my contractions came back... FULL BLOWN every 4-7 minutes and HARD! We timed them for about an hour, but I was in serious pain. So at about midnight we started packing our hospital bag... I took a shower to help with the pain and Shad called the hospital. They told us to come in, because it sounded like this was for real! We arrived at the hospital at about 2 AM... about an hour later I was checked into the hospital waiting for a labor/delivery room already dilated to a 5 and contracting every 3-4 minutes!

Finally, after what felt like hours and hours of contractions I had my epidural in around 4:30... and tried to get some sleep. (Shad had NO problem catching some Zz's on the couch!) The doctor came in at some point and broke my water to help me progress faster. And that seemed to do the trick... by 7 AM I was fully dilated and ready to push! We woke up Shad and told him baby is on the way and the nurse left to find the doctor. Unfortunately there were 3 other women who were ready to push and have a baby... so I was last in line!! After waiting about 45 minutes... trying NOT to push (And Shad slightly panicking that he MIGHT have to catch this baby! haha!) the doctor came (Poor lady... she had a busy morning!!). Luckily, Nathan came out less then 10 minutes later at 7:55AM! Completely perfect, healthy, and looking EXACTLY like Owen! He weighed in at 7 pounds 5 oz, 20 inches long, and LOTS and LOTS of luscious dark hair!

The doctor and commotion was all over within about 20 minutes and Shad, Nathan, and I were able to have some quiet family time together, just the three of us. Shad and I couldn't help but laugh about the irony that yes, the combination of Olive Garden and games worked again! Apparently that is the perfect recipe to induce labor for me! We discussed, debated, and re-hashed all the names we had been talking about for the last 6 months... and FINALLY decided on Nathan Samuli. Which, ended up being the perfect name for him. It was still a little weird, because I kept wanting to call him Owen... it really is crazy how much they look alike! We, of course, had my parents and BIG brother Owen come visit us. And were able to go home the next day with a clean bill of health!!

Overall the whole birthing experience was MUCH faster and quite a bit smoother than with Owen. It was quieter, the last time I was the only patient in the birthing center... so I had every doctor and nurse in the room swirling around me. This time it was much less chaotic. Also, the healing process has also gone a lot smoother, I pretty much am feeling back to my normal self... with the exception of the few extra pounds on my belly! :)

We are so blessed and extremely grateful to have such a sweet, perfectly healthy little boy. He is perfect. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a mother to two of the sweetest best little boys around. We are so lucky!

Owen Turns 2!!

2012-02-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

My baby turned 2 yesterday! I cannot believe it. He has grown SO much over this last year and we have come to know and love his BIG fun personality! We love him more and more everyday. He is so much fun, and like always I am praying for a way to FREEZE time with him. Shad and I cherish every moment of him and love watching him grow into such a fun little boy.

We actually had a little party for Owen about two weeks ago, because I wasn't sure when I was going to have Nathan... so we decided to do it early. Which ended up being a good idea since Nathan came a week after the party! We just had us, my parents, Shad's sister Heidi, and our friends the Fischers come over for dinner, cake, and ice cream. Owen loved being the center of attention. He loves his cousins, and those girls are so good with him! He also loves his best friends Harrison and Mason. He had so much fun opening all his gifts and then getting to eat cake! It was a great party!

Here he is with his cousins (He INSISTED on wearing his new Thomas PJ top for the party! haha!):

This is his new excited face!

Opening presents!

The cake. I just googled "Car Cakes" and found this on someone's blog... very easy... very cute...very Owen!
The cake got Owen's approval! Ready to dig in!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Finally... getting to eat cake!

But he asked for a napkin and a fork after the first bite!! Classic Owen.

Owen with his best buddy, Harrison.

Yesterday, Monday, was his actual birthday. My mom has taken off a couple of weeks from work to help me adjust to having two babies at home! (I know, I have the BEST mom!) Her birthday was actually on Saturday, so she took Owen out yesterday for a grandma/Owen birthday outing! He LOVED it! They had so much fun. She took him to the toy store, let him pick out a toy, he of course, picked a Thomas train. Then she took him to the supermall, which is one of his favorite places, let him play in the play area, ride the carousel, and then topped it off with hot dog, fries, and ice cream for lunch! What a lucky boy! Plus it gave me some mommy time at home with baby Nathan! Grandma's are the BEST!

Then when Shad came home from work we gave him some MORE presents from mommy and daddy... play doh! He immediately wanted to open it and play with daddy!

It was number play doh and because of his obsession with letters and numbers, he LOVES it! :)

Happy Birthday, little man! We love you!

Introducing...

2012-01-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

Nathan Samuli McOmber

Born: 1/29/2012 7:55AM
7 Pounds 5 Oz; 19 inches long
Lots of dark hair, completely healthy, and perfect!! And the spitting image of his BIG brother Owen!!! (Here are pics of Owen after he was born: Seen here)

Sucking his little thumb! He must've done this in the belly, because he's a pro!

We are absoutely in love with our little peanut, he is just so sweet and we are enjoying our snuggle time together. I cannot believe he is here!

Our first family-of-four photo:
PROUD grandparents!
TWO adorable grandsons!
Our handsome, awake little guy:
Some of our first visitors: Aunt Heidi and Cousin Victoria
One proud daddy!

My Family of 3...

2012-01-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

(Most recent picture I have of the 3 of us... not MY best...BIG BELLY!)

...Soon to be family of 4!!! I cannot believe that I am just days away from having my new little baby boy, and that my small little family of three will become a family of four! We are so excited to welcome this new little bundle and take this next step in our family. We know that Heavenly Father has a plan for our little family and that this baby, although a surprise to us... is part of his plan as well. Shad and I are so blessed to be parents to TWO little boys! We are so lucky and excited for this new chapter.

That being said... a part of me really can't help but mourn the end to my perfect little family of 3! The moment I found out I was pregnant with baby number two, I knew that suddenly my days of just Owen and I were numbered. I have enjoyed being a mother to him so much, he is just my perfect little man. We have been BEST BUDS since the day he was born and he continues to remain my little momma's boy and best little helper. I have had two years with him, where most days it has just been the two of us hanging out. Two years of me just belonging to him... just a mommy to Owen. They have been the most challenging and emotional two years of my life! But they have also been the most rewarding and wonderful two years. This baby can truly come any day now (although I have a feeling it will be later rather than sooner... ugh!), I have relished in the last few days that it will just be me and Owen and the time I get to spend with him. We have spent hours upon hours playing in his room with cars, trucks, and puzzles. He backs up into my lap and asks me to read books upon books to him, and I find it impossible to say no. He melts my heart whenever I hear him call "Hi Mommy..." or "Mommy where are you!?" I've been standing outside his room and listening to him read his many books to himself or play trains. I rocked and sang to him until he fell asleep in my arms for his nap today. Its little moments like this that make me wonder how much will change when baby #2 comes?

Being a mother has taught me so much about myself and about the truthfulness of the gospel. These last two years have truly opened up my eyes to our Heavenly Father's eternal plan for us and how families really are the biggest part of his plan. I always knew that I wanted to be a mother, but after having Owen I have never realized how much I was missing and how much I really wanted to be a mother until then. I never truly understood the meaning of unconditional love... and have just a tiny glimpse of how our Heavenly Father can love each of us. Today I was looking on people.com (Yes, I do read People.com semi-regularly... go ahead and judge me!), and there were comments on a story that somehow lead to people talking/discussing the Mormon religion. People were criticizing and writing comments how we have been brainwashed since birth to dress modestly, get married young, have babies and families because we don't know any better... etc. Besides laughing off their complete ignorance, I cannot help but feel sorry for these people who don't have the truth. Because raising a family and being a mother and wife is the greatest happiness and joy I will ever know!

Owen is the love of my life. I am so beyond blessed with such a perfect family. I don't know what I did deserve such happiness. Being a mother of two scares me to death! Will I have enough love and enough of me to go around? Will I be able to have TWO best little buddies that follow me around all day and make my heart swell with so much joy and love its overwhelming? Its hard to imagine... but I'm excited to find out! I know its going to be hard, challenging, and there will be some days where I wonder how I will survive. But I also know that there will be no greater love in my life than that of motherhood and family.

So here's to hoping he comes ANY DAY NOW... because I am SO over being pregnant! This is officially the most pregnant I have ever been... Owen was 10 days early, and I am now past that point with this one, and still feel like it will be while!

Snow Days

2012-01-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

Well we have been stuck inside the house for about three days due to the snow and ice storms outside!!! It has been crazy.

It started Sunday, with a bit of snow... that is when Shad took Owen out for his first snow adventure. Owen LOVED every minute of being outside. He loved making a snowman and "really biiiiig snowballs!" Then Monday hit with more snow, luckily Shad had the day off due to Martin Luther King Day, but we braved the mild snowstorm and stocked up on groceries that day just in case. Good thing we did because Tuesday hit with MORE snow, but Shad and my mom both braved the weather and went into work, while I stayed in with Owen. Then came Wednesday...EVEN MORE SNOW... and lots of it. We ALL stayed home yesterday, it was not safe enough to get anywhere. And today we have been now hit with freezing rain and ice storms, which has made driving conditions even WORSE! Shad is still at home today working from home (luckily he got access to his work station!) but is planning on going in later after the ice melts a bit. All the schools, government buildings, and my doctors office (So lets hope I don't go into labor anytime too soon!!!) are closed and people are staying inside! Luckily we have remained with power, internet, food, and warmth. The only thing we are missing out on is TV... and I can't say that has been too big of a sacrifice.

Just when Shad and I thought we were in the CLEAR of no snow moving out of Spokane. Maybe its us... because record breaking snow seems to follow us EVERYWHERE. UGH! (I've blogged about our winters in Spokane...Seen here and here) Geez, we have the snow curse!

Here is Shad and Owen playing in the snow on Sunday. They are so cute.

Owen was saying "Yeah Daddy! Yeah Owen!"

Helping pat down the snowman:

I know he is kind of a sad looking snowman, but Owen sure had fun! (Now all you can see of our little snowman is the top of his head... he has been buried in snow and ice!)

Here are some pics I took this morning of the ice... really pretty even though its so dangerous.

Seattle Children's Museum

2012-01-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

While Shad's sister, Jessica and her husband Chad, were in town we tried to spend as much time with them as possible. Especially since we don't get to see them that often. Caydence, their little girl, and Owen are just a few days apart in age, so its fun to get them together! The Monday after Christmas Shad and Heidi both had the day off work, so we decided to spend the afternoon in Seattle. We took the kiddos to the Children's Museum downtown, and they all seemed to have a pretty good time!

There were slides to play on...

Water to play in...

Lots of cars to drive! Here is Owen in the Police car:

Talking on his CB radio...

A Firetruck to drive!

And a bus too!! (If you couldn't tell, he really enjoyed driving all the different vehicles!)

Driving Mommy and Daddy, check out that concentration!

Owen also enjoyed building a "house" with "Uncle Steven"

Owen LOVES his cousin, Victoria. She can make him laugh and laugh. Its so sweet! (She is our future babysitter for sure!)

Owen and Caydence dancing to the 'beat!'

Caydence was a "free spirit" when it came to her dance moves! It was so hilarious.
I think he's driving a boat here...

Owen steering (again) his cousins around!

I know this picture is insanely blurry... but I had to post a picture of the International Water Fountain just outside the museum. Owen still talks about this "Biiiiiiiiiiig Water Mountain," Oh man, did he LOVE it!

Also while Jessica was here all 6 of us adults (Heidi & Steven, Jessica & Chad, and Shad & I) met Shad in Tacoma after work and went out to eat at Anthony's on the water... a Northwest favorite (fresh seafood)! That was a really fun evening to just talk and talk and talk... and truly enjoy each others company. We miss them already!

Holidays 2011

2012-01-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

We are always lucky to have such a great Christmas time together... this year was no exception. This year wasn't much different then the past few years, but we LOVE those same traditions!! This year I felt a little frantic in my Christmas shopping, for some reason Shad and I had a hard time coming up with gift ideas for everyone. And as always, Shad proved hard to shop for! But it all came together very well!

Christmas Eve started off for me by going into work for most of the morning into the afternoon. When I got home I had a little bit of time to relax before we started our annual festivities. We went to the Lomeli's home for a delicious dinner and dessert, a gift exchange, reading the Christmas story from Luke, and a small talent show.

Karen brought out one of Isaac's old wooden trains for Owen to play with during dinner, Owen LOVED it!

And to all our surprise, they surprised Owen with one of his own!!!

We had our little talent show, and Isaac WOWED us (as always) with his amazing singing/songwriting skills.

Owen, like all of us, were amazed by his talent! He enjoyed listening to the music with Grandpa.

When we got home from the Lomeli's we started on our own Christmas Eve Traditions, by taking the annual family pictures in front of the tree.

My cute boys... soon to add another little guy!!!

After the pictures we got Owen all ready for bed, passed out our gifts (most of which were for the Owenator!), and opened presents! Like always, my parents spoiled us all rotten! Shad got a much needed upgrade to his work/professional wardrobe with new socks, shoes, ties, slacks, shirts, etc. I was totally spoiled with a brand new wide angle lens from my parents, and Shad got me a beautiful necklace to match one of my favorite rings my dad got for me when I graduated high school! And Owen was spoiled from both us and my parents; getting TONS of trains, cars, trucks, play doh, clothes, books, and toys!

Opening gifts, we all took turns helping Owen rip into each one:

Owen kept saying "Amazing!" every time he opened a new gift. We didn't even know he knew that word! So cute!

One of his favorite gifts was a "biiiiiiiiiiiiig pillow" from grandma and grandpa with cars and trucks on it.

Here is the necklace Shad got me, he was very proud of his find that matched so well to my ring! (Its my birthstone)

Christmas morning was special this year because Shad's sister Jessica came into town from Las Vegas for the Holiday, so we got to go over and join Shad's two sisters (Heidi and Jessica) and their families and exchange MORE gifts and enjoy a traditional 'McOmber Christmas' morning with them. (Since my family doesn't open gifts in the morning and Shad's does.) It was so much fun to hang out with all of our 4 nieces (and Owen) and watch them open presents. We ate DELICIOUS homemade cinnamon rolls and breakfast, and just enjoyed each others company. It made Christmas THAT much more special, especially for Shad to get some time with his family.

Heidi's beautiful girls:

Heidi opening her "mystery gift" from her husband Steven:

Our cute niece, Caydence. She is about 10 days older than Owen.

I, for some reason, didn't get a good picture of them two together. Owen got some 'Cars' characters from Heidi for Christmas, which he loved; but that also happens to be Caydence's favorite movie too! So... we had some sharing issues!

After we spent Christmas morning with them we came home, got dressed, and helped set up for my parents annual Christmas dinner. This year we had close to 25 guests! My parents always go ALL OUT on food, dessert, decorations, and games. We had a HUGE dinner complete with turkey, prime rib, and salmon, plus all the side fix-in's!

Here is the beautiful Christmas set up... taken with my NEW wide angle!

My dad and Shad opened up the evening to our guests with a Traditional Finnish Christmas welcoming song. (Owen was dancing along side them!)

Owen, of course, stole the show with his sheer cuteness!

Our yummy dessert table... my mom baked for days!

Some of our best friends, The Fischer's, joined us for all the Christmas fun. They don't have any family here, so we are happy to step in and be family to them as well! :)

Shad and I also went over to their house for New Years Eve, we played some games, and indulged in some yummy cheese fondue, ice cream, and other goodies! We didn't actually stay and ring in the New Year with them because I am 8+ months pregnant and can hardly stay up past ten, and because we wanted to get home before all those crazy drunks got out on the road. Shad and I did end up watching the Space Needle fireworks on TV together before I completely zonked out!

Happy Christmas and New Year!! I hope yours was filled with as much love as ours. We always have so much to be grateful for, and are especially grateful to our Savior who has given us everything. I love to celebrate his birth and life at Christmas time. He is the reason we are so blessed.

December Happenings

2012-01-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick look into what we were up too in the weeks before Christmas!!

Owen often asked us to take pictures of him in front of the "Biiiiiiig Christmas tree!"... here he is posing with his new bus from Grandma and Grandpa! He stood there posing until we went and got the camera! Funny boy!

-Shad started his new Job!! He enjoys the work, the people, and the overall work experience he is getting there. He commutes to Tacoma everyday, which is only about 25-30 minutes away and in the opposite direction of most traffic... so that is a blessing! Owen and I are trying to adjust to being just the two of us all day again! :)

-We kicked off the month with our annual ward Christmas Party. Its a breakfast, where everyone comes dressed in comfy jammies and enjoys a huge spread of various delicious breakfast food. They also did a "Polar Express" theme/show this year, which Owen LOVED. Since like most little boys, he is very into trains.

- Just a couple weeks after Shad started at the law firm, they had their work Christmas Party. It was the first time I got to meet all the people that work there with him. Everyone is SUPER nice, and hilarious! Most of them are LDS, and BYU fans as well... so we fit right in! It was fun to talk and get to know the people he works with. Apparently they get pretty into their annual elephant gift exchange! Shad and I walked away with these gems:

The glass (Yes, real glass!) shoe soap dispenser was a highly coveted item. I was happy to end up with it! Shad got the magnet dart board, which was actually the coolest gift there. However, most gifts were pretty hilarious. Shad and I took a trip to the "As Seen on TV" to purchase our items: a pink snuggie and HD sunglasses (both were hits!).

-Owen was/is really excited about Christmas Trees and Christmas Lights. One night Shad and I decided to take Owen out around the neighborhood and check out the local lights. Owen LOVED it! He kept saying "Christmas nights!" and "Look at that!!" It was actually a really fun family outing. We bundled up, walked and drove around the neighborhood and admired the lights. Afterward we stopped for some hot chocolate!

Out walking looking at lights, seriously... he is SO CUTE!

Trespassing to get a closer look at the Reindeer!

"So fun!!"

-Owen is started to get pretty social, he is finally starting to do nursery by himself and is making friends. So I decided to host a little Christmas playgroup at our house with some of our friends from nursery. We had 8 kiddos here, and decorated sugar cookies. Then enjoyed our creations with some hot chocolate! It was so much fun to get with other moms and have other kids over for Owen. I think it is something we will have to do again. I, of course, did not take any pictures because it was a little crazy with all those kiddos and all that frosting, cookies, and sprinkled mess! :)

-Since showing Owen the lights around the neighborhood was such a big success Shad and I took Owen to Zoolights! The Point Definace Zoo & Aquarium puts together a pretty big light show at the zoo with lit up animals and Tacoma landmarks (Rainier, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, etc). Then they open up the aquarium portion of the zoo to check out all the fish and Owen's personal favorite: the Shark Tank! I totally brought my camera to this little outing... and when we got there we realized it was out of batteries. LAME pregnant-brain mommy moment!

Here's a pic I found of The Narrows bridge and Rainier:

Very Cool Zoolights!

Its so fun to do little things to celebrate Christmas! Owen is at such a fun age to enjoy just the simplest of things!

A VERY late Thanksgiving Post

2011-12-19T14:08:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know this is about a month late, and I was even debating whether or not to even do it. But for journal purposes I want to put something up about our Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We always have so much to be thankful for. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve such a blessed life and family. Lucky for me I didn't have to work on Thanksgiving, because the crazy people at Old Navy were open ALL DAY on Thanksgiving until 6, then re-opened at 10PM for 24 hours! NUTS! I did work the black Friday sale, in the morning, but it wasn't bad at all, and with how busy it was the day flew by! But we, us and my parents, spent Thanksgiving Day with our family friends the Lomeli's, per tradition. My best friend, Kambria and her husband Preston, came into town from Salt Lake City. It was SO awesome to see them, since its so rare that we get to spend time together. She was only in town for 3 days, and we tried to spend as much time together as possible! Love her! The food was DELICIOUS and everyone could barely move after such a good meal. It was the perfect Thanksgiving filled with yummy food, dessert, friends and family!

I, unfortunately, hardly took any pictures. But here are a few...

Owen, if course, was the center of attention. And he LOVED every minute of it! "Uncle" Ben and "Aunt" Karen are just too sweet to him! He loves his new extended family!

Here he is playing with Karen:

The group photo:
Me and Kam:
Me and my little guy:
Owen with Daddy:
Hopefully now that Shad and I are getting out of the funk we've been in lately, because YES the job search took a huge toll on us emotionally, I just wasn't up for blogging. But I should get back into a routine of being a better blogger. (maybe... who knows when the next munchkin comes along though... ONLY 6 MORE WEEKS!!)

A JOB!

2011-12-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

Shad finally received the phone call we have been PRAYING for! He was offered a job as an associate attorney at a small Tacoma firm yesterday and was asked to start right away!!! The firm does business and real estate law, which is something he has always wanted to do. He is already busy plugging away at work and I am so proud of him. We are so grateful for this opportunity and for the timing; Right before Christmas and before our second sweet little baby boy comes. Which means I also get to go back to being a stay at home momma! We are very blessed.

"T-R-U-C-K spells Truck!!!"

2011-11-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

Owen asked me to take a picture of him with the "Big Christmas Tree and Train..." This was the result...Dang Cuteness!

I know its late and I should be sleeping (Almost 1 AM!). But I am definitely at the point in pregnancy where I just cannot sleep! I'm getting uncomfortable and starting to have anxiety about having TWO kids!! So... What better time to blog! I will have to blog about our wonderful Thanksgiving later... but tonight I just wanted to blog about the love of my life... OWEN. He amazes me everyday. I cannot believe how much I love him and how fast he growing. I have been bad about blogging lately, because he keeps me so busy and I love just hanging out with him! Here are a few things that Owen is into, just things that Shad and I don't want to forget about our little boy at 21 months:

Christmas Tree and Christmas Lights! He is in love with the Christmas tree and the lights outside. One of the first things he says in the morning is "Big Christmas Tree!" and races outside his room to see it. He also LOVES the train around the bottom! :) He can watch it go around and around for hours.

When I asked Owen to show me his smile, this is what I got!

He is still obsessed with letters and numbers! His favorite activity is to "Make BIG X's" on the computer with grandpa (or anyone else). He loves to type HUGE font letters on the computer and spell his name and other words. He loves to make letters out of playdoh, on the magna doodle, on paper, on the fridge with magnets, on TV when he sees letters... Anywhere! He knows all his letters, can spell his name, he can also spell TRUCK, CAR, and BUS. And he can count to 30. I'm not sure what is fueling this obsession, but I LOVE it!

He is 100% BOY. He loves trains, cars, trucks, and buses. He loves Lightening McQueen and all the 'Cars' characters. He loves to say "Kachow!" Christmas shopping will be SO easy for him! When we are driving in "Mommy's and Daddy's red car" he loves to point all the "big white trucks," "school bus," and "choo choo trains!"

Playing with his Cars:

He talks, talks, talks. He speaks in full sentences now and is very articulate. He is a parrot! He copies EVERYTHING we say! I'm shocked by what comes out of his mouth somedays! Like today he pulled his Elmo Potty Time DVD off the shelf and said "Watch Elmo Pee!!" He is a constant crack up! Also when he learns a new word or sentence he repeats it OVER and OVER again.

Helping Mommy "Sweep!"

He likes to sing! He loves it when mommy and daddy sing to him. His current favorites are "Bring back my Bonnie(or any other word he wants to insert here!) to Me!" "All Aboard the Choo Choo Train," The Little Einsteins theme song, "Twinkle Twinkle," "Jingle Bells," and of course... "ABCDEFG!!"

Whenever I ask him what he wants to do today he always answers "Punchin' Patch!" I guess the Pumpkin Patch made a vary positive impression on him, because he is always asking to go back! Sometimes he will say that he wants to "Go to Harrison and Mason's house," some of our dear friends from law school that moved over here... he LOVES going to play their house.

He can be outside ALL day everyday if we'd let him! He is happiest when he is outside playing. He runs all over the place... no matter rain, cold, sun, cloudy....etc. He doesn't care, he just wants to be outside!

He loves grandma and grandpa! As soon as they walk in the door from work he is at their side. He follows them around ALL day long. When my dad works at home, it is pure torture for Owen to stay downstairs or in his room when grandpa is working! He just wants to play with them all day long!

He also LOVES his daddy! Here he is helping Shad build his table and chairs, but he kept calling the pieces "BIG train tracks!"

Like any little boy, he also likes being read too. However, his favorite books are the "Mighty Machines" collection, which are real picture books that teach all about trucks and machines. His current favorite one is Tow Trucks. (Before it was Tractors!) He also is really into Thomas the Train books and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Because of the letters!).

He LOVES his little "Froggy" he takes him everywhere, Froggy is his little snuggle buddy.

Instead of saying "yes" to something... he says "Okay." But most of the time if you ask him a question he will say "Nooooo," even if he doesn't mean it! And if he doesn't want to go somewhere he always answers with "No, stay with ____ (Whatever he is playing with or whoever he is playing with!)" The other day we asked if wanted to take a bath and he said, "No stay with green train, yellow train, and red caboose!" (He was playing with the Christmas train).

He puts a lot of emphasis on the word "BIG." Like "BIIIIIIIIG Christmas Tree" or "Make a really really really really BIIIIIIIIIG X" on the computer. Or when we are driving on the freeway and he sees a "BIIIIIIIG white truck!"

We. Love. This. Boy.

He may be a tiny squirt, but he has got a BIIIIIIIIIG personality!

The Belly

2011-11-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Yes... so here is the BELLY in all its glory. I am almost 29 weeks and in complete SHOCK that I only have 11 WEEKS left!!! This pregnancy has completely flown by! There are some days where I feel more than ready to hold, snuggle, and love on my sweet little boy, but most days I am not quite ready to give up our little family of three yet. Owen keeps me on my toes and so busy most days that I am just enjoying all the Owen-Mommy time I get with him. He is seriously so much fun right now, learning news sentences, words, and things everyday... getting into everything... and just being hilarious!

I've been feeling good, for the most part. Entering into my 3rd and final trimester always comes with uncomfortable things, like constant bathroom trips at night, not sleeping well, back pain, and swift, hard kicks to the bladder and ribs! I am starting to really feel LARGE; these last few weeks I have really blossomed!

Work has proven to be much more physically taxing than I had expected, and I come home completely EXHAUSTED and barely able to walk! I had sciatica in the last two months of my pregnancy with Owen, and this one has been no exception! It showed up even earlier this time around (around 20 weeks!), so being on my feet all day really aggravates my back pain! I worked my entire pregnancy with Owen, mostly on my feet, so I thought this wouldn't be any different... but I am finding it much harder on my body. Luckily its only been around 18 hours a week, and I am hoping to stay below 20 hours... I just don't think I can handle much more!

Shad has been great. He knows how tired I am when I get home from work and is always there to help with Owen or whatever I need. :) He has been great with Owen all day, and they are just best buds! He is very excited to welcome our second little boy!

And no, we don't have a name picked out yet. But we do have a top 5 list! And I think its pretty consistant. My favorite name changes weekly... but it always seems to stay within the same 5 or so names. We may just have to wait until we meet our little guy to figure out what his name will be! :)

Fall Festivities

2011-11-01T14:14:00.001-07:00

We've been throughly enjoying this wonderful Fall we've been having. The trees and colors are amazing right now. I'm just going to lump all of our fall activities, including Halloween, into one big blog. So beware: Lots of pictures! Here is what we've been up too!

Playing in the Fall leaves:

And yes, I realize that ALL our outside pictures of Owen feature THIS same hoodie... oh well! :) He does have more clothes/jackets... I promise!

Exploring:

Taking pretty Fall pictures:

Baking yummy pumpkin cookies!

Owen's first time really helping me bake. I think he enjoyed it.

Owen, did you eat the chocolate chips??? Guilty...?

Trunk or treating at our friends ward. "Where's the candy!?"

And trick or treating in our neighborhood. 'I'm ready to go!!!'

First stop: Grandma!

He was very good at saying "Trick or Treat" as well as monkey noises!!

We found this GIANT pumpkin while we out and Owen loved it!

Our cute little Monkey with his good buddy, Harrison! Harrison was a GREAT trick or treating buddy! They loved it!

Back to Grandma's to play and indulge in the M&Ms... Owen's favorite.

Chocolate face!

And we also carved our pumpkins!! We decided to do a video again this year. :) They are fun to make!

Hope you all are enjoying your fall too!

Let's Make it Official

2011-10-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-18T20:17:00.001-07:00

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!

2011-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

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!

Name Dilemma!

2011-09-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

I have been really bad at blogging lately. I haven't been feeling all that motivated these last few weeks. Plus, we really haven't had a lot going on: Shad is still job searching... we are STILL waiting on bar exam results... so life feels a bit on hold right now. But we are enjoying all the time we get to spend together. We spend a lot of time at home together, going to parks, the library, and walks. Owen absolutely LOVES having both mommy and daddy around at his constant beck and call, and we are happily enjoying our family of three until the new babe makes his appearance. Owen is so fun to hang around all day and watch him just soak up everything around him. He is a constant surprise! For example...

This post isn't much about pictures, which I haven't taken too many lately. (I should get on that!) But this was too funny. Owen found one of my shirts and insisted on wearing it! He didn't want to take it off, until we were leaving the house and we HAD to get it off him. But he loved wearing "Ma's purp shirt!"

Funny little boy.

Now for the name dilemma. Once we found out we were pregnant one of our first thoughts was, "What if its a boy... What are we going to name him???" We decided not to stress out too much about it until we actually knew it was a boy. Shad and I are not the couple who has all their names picked out and are dead set on one or two names. It is VERY hard for us to agree on something and we are both very indecisive. Always going back and forth between names. Owen didn't have a name until a few hours after he was born. Why is this so hard? Boy names are harder for a few reasons: First, girls are taking many good boy names. Second, you have to find a name that is suitable for both an adult/man and child. Third, all the good boy names are EXTREMELY popular and never changing. (For example: all biblical boy names are GREAT... but too overdone?) Forth, there are so many weird, dull, and overused nicknames associated with good boy names. Not a fan of the nicknames. I know we have a good while before we really have to decide on anything, BUT it would be nice to have at least a good top 5. Right? In short: we'd love any name suggestions you have. :) Anything... really.

Outnumbered!

2011-09-15T16:44:00.001-07:00

Well, it looks like I am really going to be outnumbered around here, because...

WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BOY!!!!!!

We are thrilled! I am not going to lie, Shad and I were really hoping for a little brother playmate for Owen. Especially since they will have such close birthdays and will be so close in age. Also financially this is a plus, because we already have all the boy stuff! We are just SO EXCITED... ITS A BOY!

We didn't get a digital copy of the pictures, like we did with Owen. Nor did we get a 3D ultrasound, so these are no where near as good as Owen's pics. But he still looks like a real cutie!

Got any name ideas??? Boy names are SO hard... we have NO idea.

What we've been up too...

2011-09-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would give a little update on what we've been up too since Finland. Summer has been treating us well!! The weather here in Seattle has been amazing... we are experiencing one of the BEST late summers ever. Everyday has been gorgeous! Naturally we are taking full advantage of nice summer days, before the rain comes, and before Shad hopefully lands a job. Here is a bit of what we have been doing on these lazy summer days:

-Shad has been job searching, job searching, job searching... even though the odds of him landing a "real" attorney position are slim before he receives bar results our hopes are high! (Keep us in your prayers!) But he has stayed pretty busy applying for jobs, revising his resume, sending emails to contacts... just waiting for that right something to come along.

-I've been busy growing a baby! The belly has popped out and I can certainly feel our little peanut moving. It feels more and more real everyday and we are eagerly COUNTING down the days until we find out BOY or GIRL!!! We find out in THREE days... Thursday! (Leave your guess as a comment!! What do you think??) I honestly have NO idea what this little one will be. I thought by now I would have some sort of incline towards one or other, but I don't! With Owen, I KNEW it was a boy from the beginning.

-We've been CHEERING on our Cougars. Despite the sad loss on Saturday, we are staying TRUE to our Cougars! This picture is blurry because I was trying to capture Owen running around and saying "TOUCHDOWN" just after we scored!

-We've been playing in the Pool! This little $5 pool was a GREAT investment, HOURS of fun!

-We've been hanging out at the parks and lakes! I think everyday or at least every other day we go and explore some new park/lake. Its fun to go out as a family pack a lunch or dinner and enjoy the summer sun! Owen is pretty fearless when it comes to water!

-We've been enjoying friends at the lake! This was on Labor Day at Dashpoint State Park, a little bit crowded and a little bit smelly, but still lots of fun! Also our great friends from law school moved over here last month, and we have been enjoying lots of time with them! (This is Owen and Harrison)

-Owen has been busy playing! His new passion: cars, trucks, tractors, & trains!!! All day long that's all we hear about "cars...pease!!" He also loves "Pa's truck" in the garage and repeatedly asks to go out and play in it.

-Shad's been busy with his calling with the YM. He really enjoys his calling serving with the deacons... and our ward sure has a big deacons quorum! Last week he went on a 10 mile biking trip, and this last weekend he went on a campout with the boys to do a 20 mile bike trip! He enjoyed it!

-We enjoyed a family day at the Puyallup fair! So fun, so HOT, and so crowded!! After we finally found a parking spot and got in for FREE, we hogged out on some serious fair food! Owen LOVED all the animals and was really excited to see all the TRACTORS!! It made his day!

-Shad and I had a fun date night at the Mariners game! We watched them WIN, complete with two home runs! Made for a fun game and night out together. Even better, it was "value night" so each ticket was $5 off and they had $2 hot dogs!! (I ate two... one for me... one for baby!)

- Owen has also been busy learning, talking, and growing!!! Oh man, he is learning SO much everyday. He talks all day long. And is constatly surprising Shad and I with new words. I swear everyday Shad and I look at each other and say "I didn't even know he knew that... did you!?" Here is my mommy BRAG moment... Owen is a smarty pants. After showing off his skills to many other moms, friends, strangers, etc. I'm convinced he just loves to learn! Here is what our little 19 month old can do:

-Count to 12

- Recognize numbers

- Recognize his letters (almost all of them)/Recite ABCs

- Spell his name

- Knows shapes

- Learning colors

- Knows animals sounds

Overall we've just been trying to enjoy this family time that we have together and wonderful weather!

Finland Part 3: Helsinki

2011-09-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's about time I post part 3 of this Finland vacation!! But we have been having too much fun enjoying the AMAZING summer weather we have here! And this post will have the most pictures and stories to tell, so I have been avoiding it!

The last two full days we had of vacation in Finland we decided to spend in Helsinki doing all kinds of tourist activities, shopping, and eating. It was fun to be "touristy" in Finland, even though we have been there so many times. It was nice to spend some time in the capital and getting to know more about Helsinki and its interesting history. Here is how we spent our time there, in pictures:

Our first stop coming into Helsinki was the temple, dedicated October 2006. It was very neat to be there on the grounds.

Sadly, it started raining shortly after we arrived. And then it started POURING buckets! So it was a brief visit.

Owen loved the temple grounds. He loves rocks.

When Shad and I were first married we were lucky enough to attend the broadcast of the dedication of this temple in SLC with my parents. It was the last temple dedicated by President Hinckley.

The next day was a full day of sightseeing! Luckily it was beautiful both days we were there! It started off with a bus ride into town... this was the HIGHLIGHT of the entire trip for Owen. He still talks about riding a "Bus," and begs to go on one!!

After arriving downtown at the train station, we walked around downtown for a bit. We found our way to the famous Helsinki farmers market. It had wonderful looking fruit and berries, and I couldn't resist and bought Owen some blueberries. (Which he scarfed down 3 at a time!)

Typical Finnish food spread: herring, salmon, & potatoes!

We made our way to the docks, to catch a boat ride over to Suomenlinna Fortress.

Owen enjoyed the boat ride both there and back!

Pulling up to Suomenlinna. This fortress was started in 1748, by Sweden (When Finland was under Swedish rule). It has since been used by the Russians when Finland was under Russian rule, it was also used in World War I & World War II, and many other historical wars and events for various reasons. It spreads over 6 different islands. Very cool place.

This is the burial site of Augustin Ehrensvard who built and designed the fortress. Shad is pulling the sword from the stone. No such luck!

Gotta be tough when near cannons!

View of the Fortress:

It provided spectacular views of Helsinki & the Gulf of Finland:

"The Kings Gate:" Where the King of Sweden entered to inspect the new fortress.

Our last stop was the church located on the fortress:

Taking a break with Daddy, poor kid was running on no naps and long/hot days! But he was still a trooper!

On the boat leaving:

After we arrived back on the main land, we stopped at the beautiful Uspenski Cathedral. An Eastern Orthodox church, built under Russian rule (1862-1868).

It had great views of Helsinki downtown:

Love this!

The Helsinki Cathedral, the main jewel of Helsinki and center of downtown. (Built 1830-1856)

Some views of the inside:

Owen zonked out at this point... so he missed the church. I don't think he minded.

The view from the church steps: Senate Square, what used to be the main city center.

Our last stop of the day: Karl Fazer Cafe. Karl Fazer is a Finnish chocolatier, who makes most of our favorite candy in Finland. We just HAD to stop at this iconic cafe, built in 1891, and indulge ourselves. We also stopped in again the next morning for hot chocolate!

Look at all those treats!

Our picks:

Mmmm...

Day 2 of Helsinki was made up of a lot of walking around and enjoying the city. And a lot of shopping! (Not as many pictures!) However, Shad and my dad stopped into Finnish Parliment and took a tour. It was one of the most enjoyable stops of the trip for both of them. The parliament building (built 1926-1931):

These are pictures Shad took of the inside:

The Parliament Chamber:

Some sights we saw during the day, but didn't have time to visit in depth. The National Museum:

Olympic Stadium, built for the 1940 Summer Olympics, but due to World War II those games were not held. So it was used for the 1952 games:

The Opera House:

Lots of walking... and shopping:

Our first and last stop, the railway station to catch the bus back to the hotel. A very popular and iconic building in Helsinki (Opened 1919) .

A very memorable family trip for us. Goodbye Finland...Until next time! As always, you did not disappoint!

Finland Part 2: Some Sightseeing

2011-08-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Part Two of Finland blogging consists of some sightseeing and some fun things we did together while still at my Grandmothers. The third and final installment of this trip blog will be the last two days we spend being "American Tourists" in Helsinki! :) But here are some fun things we did up north.

As many of you probably know, Shad is a HUGE sports fan. His two favorites include college football and baseball. So when Shad found out that Finland had it's own bizarre version of baseball, he really wanted to check it out! This particular version of "baseball" is unique to Finland. Here is a peak at the field and players (notice: no pitcher's mound... I'm not sure how it works you'll have to ask Shad!):

Just Shad and my dad went. It was a really rainy and cold that day, and it was far away (about two hours) so we didn't want to take Owen. But they had a good time. Us girls at home caught highlights of the game on TV!

One evening my parents ventured out and found this really gorgeous spot to do some fishing and roast some Makara! The many, many times that we have been to Finland we never discovered this spot, just a few minutes from Mummo's house!

It had a fire pit, perfect for roasting Makara. A Finn favorite.

And yes, we are wet! We got caught in a brief rainstorm, but it quickly passed!

Owen, as always, enjoyed playing outside.

He particularly liked collecting pinecones, which he calls "pops," and sharing with Mummo.

After Makara, we went fishing! One of my all time favorite things to do in Finland!

That's me! The fish were definitely biting...

GQ Shad... ruggedly handsome!

Owen with one of the two teeny-tiny fish we caught. Both caught by my dad! He loved it!

A family pic, before we left.

We took Owen back to the park where he had fun playing in the water/dirt...

And we enjoyed the sights...

A Finnish road trip isn't complete without seeing some Reindeer in the street!

We saw our fair share of them! This guy even posed for us!

Finland isn't exactly known for its high elevation and waterfalls, but there is one small waterfall near Mummo's house that we stopped to see one evening.

It was a fun stop to check out.

Owen actually really liked it, he kept saying "Wow!" (And yes, there is the baby bump)
Another fun thing about Finland is how the berries grow wild everywhere! These are what we think are Lingonberries, there are Currents that grow, and Blueberries EVERYWHERE.

The final thing we did while up north is visit an area called Hossa. It is so BEAUTIFUL there. Its known for its camping, hiking, and fishing. And also for these ancient rock painting discovered in the 1970s that date back 7000 years! We decided to make the drive up north and take the 3 mile hike to see these painting. I vaguely remember going there before when I was younger, because this was the second time around for us, but the first time for Shad (and Owen!).

Hiking:

Taking a brief break for juice and a snack.

We made it! (It actually felt like a REALLY long hike)

Here they are, can you spot them?

How about now?

Hmm?? What do they mean? (There was an explanation of each painting there, it was mostly people and animals, moose and swans supposedly... but who really knows right? They're 7000 years old!!)

We, of course, had to take our family pictures with the rock.

And take some silly pictures with the rock too! My cavemen...

This is the view just across the river from these rock painting:

And on the way home, we stopped and took some scenic shots of Hossa... it was so beautiful there.

And so ends Part Two! Next and final stop... Helsinki!

Finland Part 1: At Mummo's House

2011-08-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

We're back!!! And we actually have been back for just over a week now, but I am just now getting sorted through all 1200 of our trip pictures and have had MANY requests to post pics. So finally here I am. Shad is DONE with the BAR exam and we will have results in October (UGH so long to wait!!)... but I'm happy to have a husband again.

I will mostly let the pictures tell the story of our trip with this blog and a couple more the follow. But I will start off by saying that Owen was GREAT on the trip!! He did so well, much better than I could have ever imagined. So thanks for all your advice, tips, and helpful hints! They all worked, and we just have a master world traveler on our hands! :) Both the plane ride there and back was smooth... A few meltdowns here and there, but nothing we couldn't quickly handle with a toy/grandma/or snacks. He adjusted better than any of us to a new sleep schedule. In face he slept better and later there than he does here!!! We really only had one rough night right after we got there, and it wasn't so bad... and then he was cured of jet-lag!

The only hiccup of the trip, as far as Owen is concerned, was two days before the trip he had started getting a watery eye. He has had it several times before, I always credited it to allergies, and it always went away after a day or two. Well... being on a nasty airplane for close to 14 hours, you will pick up all kinds of germs. After we got there the eye started getting worse and worse, and was red all on the OUTSIDE and eyelid, plus it started gooping. So we had to take him to the local doctors office, pay a nice non-resident fee, spend about two seconds with the actual doctor for him to prescribe an eye drop that cleared it up within three days. But other than that... nothing too major. :)

Our trip was mostly a quiet one. It was a lot of family time and not a lot of adventure. We spent most of the trip at my Grandma's (Mummo's) house up in northern Finland. Getting there always takes a long time... after two plane rides and 20-24 hours of travel we arrive in Helsinki. We then rented a car and drove about two hours to my aunts house where we spend a couple days recovering from jet-lag. Then we drive another 9 HOURS to my Mummo's house way up north! We spent about two weeks there, where my dad and Shad did many household projects for her and helped all around the yard and house. We played outside everyday with Owen and spent a lot of time reading and down time. It was actually nice to have some quiet time, especially after Shad had been SO busy taking the bar exam!

Here come the MANY, many pictures (Remember this is PART 1 of 3!!):

This me with two of my cousins: Heli and Henri. It was fun to catch up with them for a bit.

We arrived in Finland the day before my 26th birthday, so on my birthday I was totally spoiled with gifts and this decadent chocolate cake... Mmmm.

In front of my aunts house the day we left for Mummos, before the 9 hour trek!

My parents with my Aunt:

After we got to Mummo's we got right to work with berry (currents) picking!

Owen LOVED to pick berries...
...And then EAT them! Caught in the act...So delicious!

Just up the street from Mummo's is this wonderful little park, with beautiful Finnish sights to see.

Very typical Finland, complete with tour boat!

Just near the park, is also an old steam train... we just HAD to show Owen. He loved it!

My Mummo can make anything grow... seriously. She has the most amazing garden and collection of flowers. And a HUGE yard.

Owen absolutely LOVED being outside, all day, everyday. He enjoyed running, and pulling his little truck around. So much FREE space to play!

Did I mention he LOVED being outside?

Shad helped out with yard work, including mowing the lawn, which took about 4-5 hours!

My dad and his brother built new Sauna benches for her. Which turned out awesome.

Owen also got some time with his great-grandma... It took some time to warm up to her, but he eventually did!

Mummo made us a delicious dinner everyday. Including one night of Moose meat! (Not exactly my favorite!)

Owen was excited when he saw the smoke coming from the Sauna, because that meant...

...BATH TIME!! He loved it in the Sauna! A true Finn!

Clean boy... all ready for bed!

The last day at Mummo's we took some nice family pictures together.

Me with my sweet, amazing grandmother:
My dad with his mom:
Owen with his great-grandma!
Four generations:

This is the end of Part 1. Its a little out of order because you will see more pictures with my grandma in them, but I thought the way I divided it up worked out better. You'll see... For now, its 11 PM and I'm going to bed! More pictures from Finland SOON! :)

See Ya Later!

2011-07-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we leave for FINLAND!!! I still cannot believe the trip is actually here, we have been waiting for this trip for a year pretty much. We are busy, busy, busy! Packin', shoppin', running errands, doing laundry, and trying to get ready to go! 3 weeks is a long time to be gone! By the time we get back:

-Owen will be in NURSERY!

-I will most definitely have some form of a baby belly (Its already starting to pop!)

-I'll be a year older, 26! (My Birthday is Tuesday!)

-Shad will hit the job search HARD... please pray he finds something soon!

-We'll have less than a month until we find out what BABY is! :)

-We'll all be SUPER jet-lagged!

I hope everything goes well and Owen does GREAT with the travel and with the time change!

Wish us luck and we'll see you in 3 WEEKS!!!

Are you in there Baby...??

2011-07-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Baby McOmber #2 Due: February 3, 2012!!!

We are all very excited for Owen to be a BIG brother!

Shocked?! Us too! Of course many people are going to ask... so I'll just address the issue: Was this planned? And the answer: Yes... and... No! Since it took us awhile to get our little Owen into our family, we were under the assumption that every pregnancy would be hard to come by. Obviously this time that was not the case this time and it happened pretty quickly for us. Owen's birthday is Feb. 6th, so they will be EXACTLY two years apart. Almost to the day! :)

We are thrilled to welcome a new baby into the family. And Shad and I are still not totally convinced that this is actually going to happen. It still doesn't feel quite real. Is there really a baby in there?! That being said, I have been actually feeling pretty good. I'm 12 weeks along. We've had about 3 or 4 ultrasounds to check out that little heartbeat and make sure everything is good. I have had some morning sickness and nausea, more so than with Owen I think, but I haven't actually thrown up. And I feel like I can barely make it to the bed at night I'm so exhausted. But the last week I have been feeling my energy coming back a bit and less and less sick. Overall, pretty similar to my pregnancy with Owen.

17.5 Months

2011-07-20T19:48:00.001-07:00

Our little Owen is growing like CRAZY. He is such a little boy now, and less of our little baby boy. I was going to do an 18 month post about him... but since we are going to be in FINLAND when he turns 18 months I thought I would do it now. :) Before the packing, planning, shopping, and craziness starts before the trip! Its more a journal entry about our little guy... and so I can look back and see what our little man was up to!

Owen has changed SO much in these last 6 months, oh my goodness! These last 6 months I've seen a more drastic change in him than any other time. Its amazing how much he is learning everyday. Walking seemed to be the real turning point in everything: how he thinks, what he does, and how much he has learned. He is like a sponge. He soaks up everything, and copies everything! He is our little chatter box. I swear he learns 2-5 new words a day! And oh boy is he smart! He can recite some of his ABCs, he can help count to 10, he knows his animal sounds (and MANY other sounds), he points at pictures and identifies the object, letter, or animal. I wish I could list out all the words you say and know... but there are just too many! And he is starting to put two words together and create mini-sentences! It just amazes me how much he is learning and growing each day!

As always, Owen loves books. Books, books, books... all day long. He loves to go to the library weekly and pick out new ones. He loves storytime at the library. And he loves his room because he knows that he can get free roam of his own personal library. Anytime I leave him alone in his room, I come back to a room covered in books, and hardly any left on the shelf! If I let him, he would read all day everyday!

He is also our little spit-fire! He is ALL boy... he likes to hit, scratch, bite, pull hair, scream, and my not-so personal favorite head-butt. Luckily he seems to keep this to only those he is close to, and not other children. But with mommy, daddy, grandma, and grandpa he sure likes to test his boundaries and push that fine line! But he really is our sweet little boy. Even though he often scratches and bites in "self-defense" he makes up for in kisses and hugs. And he really tries to be helpful and share with others.

When he is not at home, he is just my little shy guy. He won't say much to others, and he clings to mommy and daddy at the park, library, store, etc. He likes other children, however, he is still very leery about them. But he is getting better and more outgoing as I take him out more and more.

He LOVES outside. He always wants to grab his "shoes" and go "outside" everyday. He loves trees, plants, rocks, grass, and birds. He loves our little outings to the parks, zoos, or aquariums. He loves animals: all kinds. He'll stop for any dog or cat on the street and try to follow them, hug them, kiss them, and pet them! He's really into sharks and turtles right now. "Charks" is one of his new favorite words. Owen also is really into CARS. He loves to play with cars, and anytime he seems the movie CARS on the self he begs to watch it! He is always exploring the world around him at all times! Everything is new and exciting!

(This was at the Shark Tank at Point Defiance on Monday!)

He kept shouting "Whoa!" and knocking on the glass to get their attention. I don't think he really knows how dangerous Sharks are since he loves them so much.... Hmm??

Overall... I LOVE this stage! It definitely has its hard days, and by the end of the day I'm beat! But its so fun to watch him learn and grow. He is just so much fun. This is what being a mother is all about!

Dear Owen,

I love you more than I can ever put into words. When your little face lights up with that big cheesy smile my heart just melts. I want nothing more to make sure you are happy and healthy, and taken care of. Your sheer cuteness allows you to be spoiled by ALL those who know you! You are nothing but a joy to us and a blessing.

You are my feisty little guy! You know how to get what you want and you certainly fight for it! Your BIG personality comes shinning through everything you do. You have a certain eye for detail and have many little personality quirks that show your perfectionist preferences! And I love it! It shows that you take after your momma! You love to learn new words, letters, numbers, books, etc. Your thirst for knowledge is so amazing. Your memory is so keen and vibrant. You have a talent for learning new things and retaining lots of information. You are so vocal and I often get many compliments on how smart you are and how much you know and recognize! Its just who you are... you are just smart. I take no credit. :) Maybe its all those books...???

Like always your family loves and adores you. You absolutely ADORE your daddy. Just tonight, you would not let anyone put you to bed, comfort you, or anything except him. Your face lights up when he enters the room. And the same goes for Shad. You two are a match made in heaven! Your grandparents just eat you up. I don't think there are two people who appreciate you and adore you more than them. They never take any moment with you for granted. You are so lucky.

You are my greatest accomplishment. I am still amazed at the fact that I get to be your mother. You make me CRAZY some days and let me chase you all day long... but there is nothing I would rather do then spend my days with you. I love you.

Love,

Momma

5 Years...

2011-07-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

5 Years Ago today I married my best friend! And never looked back! It has been the best 5 years and we have a whole lifetime ahead!

Happy Anniversary Shad! I love you!

Harry Potter and dinner tonight... seems the PERFECT way to celebrate! (Shad also spoiled me with a new Nook for our Finland trip! Best Husband Ever!)

'He makes me melt like a popsicle on the 4th of the ly!'

2011-07-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

I. LOVE. INDEPENDENCE. DAY. It is by far my favorite holiday. I'm not really sure what exactly it is about 4th of July that I love so much. We don't have any grand traditions or do anything super special, I just love everything it seems to represent: summer, family, food, freedom, liberty, founding fathers, American history, swimming, friends, and fireworks! I just love it all!

This year was nothing special. Shad was able to pretty much take this ONE day off from Bar prep to spend with us! YAY! Shad and I have an annual 4th of July breakfast where we make red, white, and blue waffles (raspberries, blueberries, whip cream!) along with all other fancy breakfast fixings. This year we did our big breakfast on Saturday, because our new ward has an annual breakfast and flag ceremony on the 4th that we decided to attend as a family. Yum! The weather was incredible this year, which almost never seems to happen here... everytime I can remember 4th of July it is always raining/cloudy in Seattle. But not this year! We went for a walk, played outside, ate outside, took out Owen's new "pool" and had a great day! Later Shad and I decided to leave Owen with the grandparents and venture on our own to Tacoma's freedom festival to eat good food and walk along the sound. We stayed a bit for some of the firework show, but left early to miss the traffic. Overall... a day well spent! And Owen slept through the entire night of firework booming!

Owen and Shad walking around the park after the breakfast!

Loves balloons!

He's really into smelling flowers right now... he sticks his WHOLE face in them and takes a huge whiff!!

Pool time!

Owen was so funny... he would stand up just to plop right back down in the water on his bum and make a splash!

What's better than this!?

No picture of our date night... but it was so fun to get out together and enjoy the Holiday! Hope you did too!

Seeking Advice: Traveling with Toddlers

2011-06-28T13:03:00.001-07:00

This post is mainly posing a question and concern I have; any advice, input, comments, and stories would be appreciated!

So... we are all traveling out of the country to Finland in about a month. (We leave July 30th, after the BAR exam! YAY!) We will be gone for three weeks. Luckily when I say ALL of us, I do mean Shad, me, Owen, AND the grandparents... so extra help will be available! But I am just looking for some ideas on how to handle and help Owen on the looooooong flight, maybe some advice on how to handle the time change/sleeping patterns, new food (OWEN is SO PICKY!), and all the new family/faces. Does anyone out there have any experience on traveling so far with little ones?? Any ideas?? I have a few tricks up my sleeve for the actual travel, but am sincerely DREADING the time change and jet lag. Oh dear! Any tips?

Thanks!

Photo Shoot with the Babies!

2011-06-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

While Kirsten was here with her little girl, I decided I wanted to do a little photo shoot with the babies! Since they are both so busy and all over the place, it was a little crazy (lots of movement and blurry pics!). But they were just so dang cute in their sunday best!

McKinley girl is such a little model! She loves to smile, clap, and wave at the camera! I wish I had more time to shoot her at better timing!

It was close to impossible to get a great shoot of the both of them looking at the camera. Owen is past the point where you can just dance and smile behind the camera to get him to look and laugh. So... these were a little difficult, they were both all over the place!!

McKinely loved Owen, but Owen was not as "touchy-feely" as her... so its funny how he has his backed turned to her all the time!

I just loved this one, because this was Owen all week. Everytime we'd ask "Where's McKinley?" he would point to her, and NEVER EVER touch her! One time I asked Owen "Do you stink?" and he immediately pointed at McKinley! Funny boy.

Cute babies... thanks for coming Kirsten and McKinley!

Visitors

2011-06-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Last week my family and I were lucky enough to have some fun visitors in town-- One of my oldest and dearest friends, Kirsten and her little baby girl McKinley!!! Her husband was sweet enough to buy her a plane ticket up here for a mother's day treat.... yay for us!! It was the first time I got to meet 9 month old McKinley, and the first time they got to see Owen. We had a blast with them here for a whole week! Shad is crazy busy prepping for the bar exam, he is CONSTANTLY studying... so it was so nice to have some company while he cracks down on his studying. My mom was also able to take a few days off from work and tag along! We ventured out a bit here and there. We shopped, ate out, had a girls night out, and took the kids out to some fun places. However, with the babies both teething, not sleeping well, and on opposite napping schedules it was hard to plan for all day events when we only had about a 3 or 4 hour window of time! But somehow we made it work and had a great time!

I miss them already!

One of the first days they were here we took the kids to the Seattle Science Center. Here is Kirsten and McKinley:

Owen and McKinley LOVED the water fountain/play area:

Big smiles!

Owen threw a really embarrassing tantrum when we had to leave the water. I got a lot of funny looks, many from moms who I could tell where like "oh I've been there..." ha!

They had a really beautiful butterfly garden, that was really fun!

I love how you can see the little straws they drink from:

When we first got in the garden there was actually a big butterfly on Owen's back that we didn't notice until someone told us, then TONS of people came over to look and take pictures! It was a little weird. But I did get a pic of the one on Owen's tummy:

My mom was like the butterfly whisperer, she could catch any of them!

Owen thought these masks were great! He could wear it all day! So funny...

Such a sweet girl:

We also took the kiddos to the Seattle Aquarium, which they also loved! It is so fun to take them and just look at the awe on their faces! The pictures in the aquarium were really hard to get, because it was really dark, and with the flash on it looked darker and over exposed, so just ignore the blurriness!

When we first arrvied, they have this HUGE wall of fish. Owen immediately went up to it and was saying "WHOA... Whoa... Whoa... WOW!" It was so cute!

Me and my cute boy!

They also had this "wave simulator" which both the kids loved. McKinley is such a little model... she always poses for the camera!

I love these faces of McKinley and Owen, such wonder:

So much fun!

Owen and I were checking out the salmon swimming up above:

"Whoa!!!"

Owen loves to point at everything right now...

They were really cute together... it took Owen a while to get used to having her around. But he eventually learned to share, and appreciate her presence!

Owen sure loves his grandma!

I sure love her!

We had such fun together! I miss them both already... it feels lonely now around here. I did a little photo shoot with the two babies at the house after church all dressed up...so cute! I will post more pics of that later. I figured there was already TONS here! So more to come! :)

Woodland Park Zoo!

2011-06-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Like I had mentioned in my last post, on Memorial Day we took Owen to the Seattle Zoo! Oh man, we had so much fun!!! We decided to head over there right when it opened to ensure optimal zoo time, and before nap time! :) We ended up spending most of the day there! Owen loves animals, and is actually pretty fearless when it comes to petting animals and wanting to be close. So much so, that he was ready to literally climb/jump the fence of some of the animals and run after them! (e.i. the Giraffe!) He loved every second. Watching his face expressions and reactions to the animals was priceless! He is at such a fun age right now where he is just exploring the world around him. He loves to walk around and jabber all day long! He loves to make animal noises and I swear this kid is learning 2 or 3 words a day! I know I always say this, but really... can we PLEASE freeze time... please???

Please enjoy the many faces of Owen:

"Oh my gosh dad! Did you see that!?!" When he is super excited he grabs our faces!

"Whoa..."

Don't they look like you could just snuggle them??

I like this one because he was smiling for me!

For anyone of you who know Shad really well... you know that this is TOTALLY a Shad face!!!

Waving at the monkeys:

I think Owen may have enjoyed "petting" these statues more than the actual animals.

He loves to take our hands and guide us around. He's pretty much the boss around here.

More statues... I actually have a similar picture in the same spot when I am just a few years older than Owen!

The Lion... Owen growled at him the whole time!

The Giraffe exhibit was actually kind of lame, which is why Owen wanted to climb the fences to get a better look!

Trying to get a better look... at Daddy's expense!

Owen LOVES birds... daily he requests all the window blinds open so he can "bird watch." So getting to feed the birds was a real treat!

And the zoo did not disappoint in the bird department, it offered A LOT of types!

The mountain goat posed for us nicely.

The gorillas ended up being one of our favorite exhibits. Very cool.

They actually had a dinosaur exhibit too, but you had to pay to get in. So we decided against it... but this was a "preview" to it. And the only family picture we took.

And finally, I think this picture pretty much sums up the day:

I'm excited for our next zoo trip!!

Family Time (before Bar Prep/Exam!)

2011-06-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Shad's Bar Prep class started yesterday. **SIGH** He had a SUPER SHORT two week break before he hit the books again. We tried to fit in a lot of family time together before he had to go back to studying. Most days consisted of being lazy around the house, just being together, and we played a lot of wii!! :) haha! Shad's sister Wendy was supposed to fly in for four days and that was a part of our "fun" plans, but sadly with the mix of bad weather and oversold flights, they didn't make it past Dallas. DANG. We were all really bummed. But we did get to spend a fair amount of time with Shad's other sister, Heidi, and her family. Yay! Its so fun to live so close by now!! I love it! Here is what we did most of those two weeks, like I said it was a lot of lazy time:

This is at Heidi's house... I just wanted to illustrate why Owen would like going there. They have a dog, Happy, who Owen LOVES! And Owen has three older girl cousins who just LOVE Owen to death! So he gets a lot of attention over there! Lucky boy!

Like I said... he LOVES Happy. He follows her around and tries to give her hugs and kisses!

We also had a "Craft Day" where I busted out the play dough, crayons, and markers! It was so funny to watch Owen try to figure everything out. I have been waiting to do crafts with Owen ever since he was born... isn't this what being a mom is all about!?! I LOVE it! :)

Look at that masterpiece! (Its hanging proudly on the fridge!)

Although... He's still figuring things out!

First time with Playdough...

Look at that concentration!

Finally got some smiles out of him!

Shad and I also had a date night, where we went and watched...

...The Mariners win!!!!

We went outside... a lot. Even though there weren't very many sunny/warm days, that doesn't seem to stop Owen from running to the door everyday in hopes to go out and play! He LOVES outside. The other day when we took him out he repeated "Outside...Outside...Outside" over and over!

He even experienced his first skinned knee. :(

But later that same day he was still begging to out and play! But I decided to give him more protection this time... with the baby leg warmers!

We also went to the zoo on Memorial Day, Shad's last day of "freedom"... and I was going to post zoo pics in this post as well. But its going to take me awhile to sort through all the zoo pictures. And this post already has a lot of photos. So coming soon... zoo pictures and Owen's first zoo trip!! We had a blast!

My Hubby, the LAW Grad

2011-05-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Shad Graduated Law School last Saturday, May 14th! We are all so proud of him and this HUGE accomplishment. He poured everything into law school and it totally paid off. He graduated with honors and he received a lot of recognition for his work on the law review and the website he put together for them (Check it out! seen here). During law school he made the deans list twice, callied (received the TOP grade in his class) twice, made law review business editor, was in the J. Rueben Clark Law Society presidency, held a two year paid internship, and maintained three year scholarship. Seriously awesome!

My parents, Shad's Mom, and Shad's sister Heidi, her husband, and one of thier daughters, Karissa all came to support Shad for his graduation. It was a fun day! The graduation was early in the morning. So afterward we were able to have a fancy lunch together, and then walk around downtown Spokane. CONGRATS Shad!!!!!!!!!

My parents with Shad and I

Shad's Mom
Left to Right: Karissa, Stephen, Heidi(Shad's sister), Shad, Krista, Owen, Rosalie

Shad with two of his good buddies, Brooks and Forrest, we made some GREAT friends in law school

Shad walking out of graduation with his DIPLOMA!

Shad and Heidi walking around the downtown falls after lunch

Owen with Grandma and Grandpa, such the gentleman!

He will take the BAR exam at the end of July. His bar prep class starts June 1st, so he has a SHORT break before he hits the books again! Then hopefully... a job! (Keep your fingers crossed for us... and toes!)

Kambria's Wedding Weekend

2011-05-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I tried to blog about this LAST week... but the ONE DAY I had time to do it, blogger was DOWN ALL DAY LONG!!! Grrr. And it didn't save my post. ARGH! I'm ticked. So... I had to start ALL OVER!

On the weekend of Mothers Day my best friend, Kambria, was sealed and married to her sweetheart in the SLC temple on May 7th. It was so wonderful to be a part of her BIG day and be there for all the wedding hype and the day itself. It tuned out beautiful, nothing short of perfection, per Kam's excellent planning and taste! :) The whole fam had a great time!

Getting there was a whole other story! Since I have known Kam, my entire life (since I was 3) she is also very close to my parents and family, so we all had to travel down there. Shad was still in Spokane in the midst of finals, so he was going to fly down Friday morning to meet us in SLC. I flew on Thursday, without Owen to enjoy a pampered girls day with Kambria and all the bridesmaids. And my saintly parents drove down all day Thursday with Owen from Washington to Utah!! I know, they are AWESOME! All day long with a toddler in the car! Oh man! They didn't make it there until close to 1 AM! But we all made it there safe and sound!

Thursday, like I said was a day of pampering and fun. We all got manicures and pedicures. And then later we went out for a Cinco de Mayo Bachelorette celebration with authentic Mexican food, and dancing! So fun, but sadly I didn't have my camera, so no pics.

Friday I went to the Bountiful Temple with my parents while Kambria went through the temple for the first time. It was very sweet to see Kambria and her fiancee, Preston together the day before their wedding in the temple. Shad flew in that morning and stayed behind with Owen, since it had been TWO WEEKS since he'd seen us, he wanted some quality time with Owen. Also his mom drove up from Orem to visit with him and Owen. And so did his sister-in-law Megan, with her two boys, Keldan and Konner to visit! It was good to see them!

Me, with my parents outside the Temple:

The Happy Couple: Kambria and Preston

Me and Kam, with her brother Isaac

Our Nephews: Keldan and Konner!

Then Friday night Shad and I attended the rehearsal dinner. It was an intimate affair with just immediate family and the wedding party. It was an excellent meal, filled with tears of joy for the couple and many speeches dedicated to them!

A sweet moment I caught of the two of them!

This is the only decent picture I had of all the bridesmaids at the dinner, of course Isaac HAD to be in this one! :)

Saturday, the BIG day! I got ready with the girls in Kambria's hotel suite and sent her off to get married!! The other bridesmaids, who were not members, graciously volunteered to watch Owen while Shad and I, along with my parents, could attend the sealing. Sadly, I did not take my camera to the temple grounds so I got NO outside shots of them coming out, or all of us girls waiting outside, or cute Owen dressed up outside. After picture-mania, we went out for a quick bite at Rumbi (a personal Utah FAV of Shad and mine!) and got ready to go to the reception. The reception was beautiful, it was very formal... all black and white. And everything came together beautifully!

The only picture I have of "outside" the temple, and this was the night before walking home from the rehearsal dinner. But I was pretty proud of this shot!

Here is the reception ballroom. Everything was so pretty

The Cake:
The table settings:

Owen fell asleep during the dinner portion of the evening... and was not too happy to wake up!

First Dance:

Cutting the Cake:

They had a Mariachi band come in and play, and of course everyone got crazy! My mother, could not resist! This is with Karen, Kam's mom... they are also BEST FRIENDS!!

Even Owen got in on the dancing!

This as the only OK picture I have of the two of us! She looked stunning!

Me with my pal, Alyssa, she was a bridesmaid at my wedding!!!!

My parents all dressed up!

Me with my boys all dressed up!

Sending them off to a blissful honeymoon in Mexico!!!

And I realized after I got home that I never took a picture of the full bridesmaid get-up. It was obviously, just a basic black dress... but these were the SHOES she made me wear... all 5+ inches of them...

It was such a fast and furious trip to Utah it was weird not going down to Provo! But I'm so glad that we could all be there to celebrate Kambria and Preston's wedding day. I loved every second! CONGRATS Mr. & Mrs. Thomas!

The Robot Walk

2011-05-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

Owen is officially walking!!! Here is the video I took today of him finally getting brave enough to walk all around by himself. He has been able to walk for sometime, just needed to courage to do it alone! Owen sticks out his arms straight out when he walks; Shad calls it the 'Frankenstein walk', the 'Mummy Walk', or the 'Robot Walk'... which ever you want to call it those little steps are CUTE! :) And I'm happy Owen waited those two weeks for his daddy to come home, so he could be here to witness the main event!

So... this is a cell phone video, it isn't exactly "quality" and I couldn't figure out how to get it into imovie to put music to it to block our conversation. So.... just ignore our excited chatter in the background. (My mom calls my dad in excitement, stuff like that...etc!). Plus we just got back from our trip to Utah yesterday (which I will blog about soon!) so try and ignore the mess and our luggage still out on the floor! Also I couldn't figure out how to edit it down, so its about 4 1/2 minutes long. Don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing! :) Just enjoy a minute or so of our little man walking around!

The Robot Walk:

Settling In

2011-04-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well... we survived the move!

Shad is back in Spokane finishing up finals and classes, he has been there for a week and we still have ONE MORE WEEK to go! :( It's hard being without him, but he is so crazy busy with finals it's a good thing we are apart...maybe?! And thanks to the magic of Skype we get to see him daily!

We are almost all settled in here; still trying to move some rooms around. And it will take some getting used to being back home. I feel like I'm on vacation, it still hasn't sunk in that I am not going back to Spokane.

And just as we get settled in here, Owen and I have a Utah trip coming up! My best friend, Kambria, is getting married on Saturday!!! I am SO excited to go down and be a part of her big day! And its a bonus that we will also get to see some of Shad's family too! Hooray! Then the Saturday after that, May 14th, we will all travel back to Spokane because... Shad GRADUATES from Law School!!!! Whoop! I am just bursting with pride! So lots of new and exciting things coming our way! Its going to be a CRAZY couple of weeks! But at least we got the move out of the way!!! Phew!

Owen is sure enjoying his new diggs!

We have the "Owen-Suite," as my dad likes to call it. AKA my old room!

Its so big! Lots of room for mischief! :)

There are now stairs to climb up!

... more trouble coming our way!

The walking is SLOWLY coming along. He definitely can walk and stand on his own... he just is still too timid to venture out on his own. But he loves to walk back and forth between people (my mom and I)! I LOVE these little wobbly steps!

Whenever he is excited and has a new achievement, he loves to throw his arms up whenever we say "TOUCHDOWN!" (He will surely be ready for COUGAR football come Fall!)

And everything is better with Grandma around!

Owen gives my mom this cheesy little smirk every time she enters the room! He LOVES to play with her!

The move is still hard on this little guy... change always is. I'm not sure how much he understands, but he knows there was a major change and disruption. His naps have been affected, and I know that he misses his daddy. But everyday gets a little bit better... and feels more and more like home. :)

Packin' & Walkin'

2011-04-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

We are packin' up! We move on Friday! I cannot believe it's here. Goodness, we have already started to say our goodbyes to the ward, and some dear friends. Its so sad. And packing is making me CRAZY!! I hate having such a messy house in such a disarray! I can't stand the unoragnized feeling. Yuck. Somedays I feel like this will NEVER get done, especially not by Friday! So. much. stuff. Did I mention that I HATE packing?

I think Owen is excited to move in with grandma and have 4 adults at his constant beck and call!

Also, yesterday, Owen finally got brave enough to take some MAJOR walking steps on his own!! Yay Owen!

He's cruising and running ALL over the house with his walker, so I KNEW he was capable of walking. Just needed the guts! :)

Our video camera was out of commission and I took some OK video with my phone. But he is so wobbly we constantly had to catch him, that the video is just ALL over the place. So here are my action shots! I had my portrait lens on, not so good for the "action" so these are blurry. But you get the idea...

Forward!!

Then back:
Forward again:
And back to daddy:

Sweet success!

I tried and tried to get Owen to walk again today, but he was just too afraid. I'm sure before I know it he will be all over the house! But... He still gets around pretty good:

Just because... this was tonight just before bed time. So cute!

Lake Chelan

2011-04-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, conference weekend, Shad and I traveled over to Lake Chelan with two other couples from law school. Lake Chelan is north/central WA up by the Cascades (click here for the map/info). We rented out a condo for the weekend, stocked up on TONS of food for all of us, packed up our things and our little boys (yes, we ALL have boys!) and took the 3 hour drive over there. We had three familes: 6 adults, 5 kiddos. Shad and I mainly wanted to do this trip as a last hang out with our good friends here before we move in a couple weeks. Shad had a BIG project due on the Monday after, and he wanted to get it finished before we left, but no such luck. So he spent A LOT of time over the weekend working on that. And since I was still working on some sleep/nap training with Owen I wasn't willing to skip out on naps and such... meaning... we ended up spending lots of time indoors. But we had so much fun eating lots of food, staying up late, playing games, talking, and laughing! Come to think of it I really should have taken more pictures of us just hanging out in the NICE condo, because that is what most of the weekend consisted of. But here are some pics I got to document the weekend, the time we spent outdoors! :)

The view from our condo, walking out the front door:

The first day most of us walked down to the beach to take a look around. The boys loved "skipping" rocks and throwing other things into the water. (Landon & Elliot are twins)

Harrison:

Landon:

Elliot:

Brooks and Shelci (Parents to Landon and Elliot!):

The water was super low, because it is still so early in the spring, so the beach was full of shells:

Later the guys went out and took some evening pics:

The next day we scouted a hike we all wanted to do. Unfortuately, it turned out to be more of a drive to the top. But we all got out and explored anyway.

Owen LOVED hiking around and being strapped on our backs:

He had this little self satisfied smirk on his face the entire hike!

Harrison wasn't a big fan of the "hike":

This is Mason (Harrison's little brother), he was pretty chill the entire weekend! I just loved his little eyes peeking out at me!

The View:

Shad later decided along with Brooks and Shelci that he wanted to hike up to the tippy top (Where those two trees are in the back of this pic) It had a lot of up and down that you can't see in this picture. So I stayed behind with the others and Owen.

Here is the view from the tippy top:

We did end up having a good time despite traveling with a sleep deprived Owen (and mommy!) and Shad's looming project. It was fun to just getaway and enjoy the time with our friends. We are sure going to miss them!

Things I'll Miss...

2011-04-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

Shad and I are getting ready to move at the end of the month... in 3 weeks to be exact!! AHHH! I am so not even ready for the move, but that is a whole other subject. We are moving over to the west side of WA, with my family for the summer while Shad takes the BAR exam and looks for a job in the Seattle area.We've always known that is where we wanted to end up living, and we feel pretty good about moving over there to try and find employment. However, it totally snuck up on me!! About a month ago is when I really realized that this is happening! Shad graduates MAY 14th, and he is done with school FOREVER! Crazy! So this last month I have been trying to think of things that I want to do here before we move, and it has really gotten me thinking about all the things that I will miss about this area. Even though I am stoked to be closer to family and finally able to move on and out with student life. It's sad to leave Spokane, something I never thought I'd say. It really does grow on ya!

Here are some things I will miss:

The Parks. Riverside Park is my FAVORITE park in this area. Its only about 20 minutes away, but you feel miles away from the city. I LOVE it. I am totally making Shad take me back here before we move!

Manito Park is another personal fav.

And Mirabeau Park, which is walking distance from us, and we love it!

The Lakes. There are SO many beautiful lakes in this area. Couer D'Alene is also so close by and very beautiful. I'm sure most of you can remember my deep love for Priest Lake. I REALLY wanted to fit in another trip up there before we move, but I doubt it will happen. :( Look at it, how can you not LOVE it there?!

Clean Water!

Spokane in general. I love the downtown riverfront park, the falls are so fun to walk around. Spokane is in interesting place sometimes. It's a big city with a smaller city feel. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. (But there are things that I will def. NOT miss about Spokane, like the fact that Shad's car was broken into twice in 6 months, the constant smoke smell that floods our apartment, the long winters, etc...)

The Falls downtown.

Memories. Owen was born here, and spent his first year here. Shad will always remember his years spent in Law school. We will always have deep connections to Spokane.

This is a bad picture, but this is the view from our apartment. The cream colored building with the red 'vh' near the left side of the picture is Valley Hospital. That is were Owen was born. Sometimes I look out the window and have fond memories of that CRAZY day just across the freeway!

The Law school:

THE WARD. We. Love. Our. Ward. Its going to be really hard to leave the ward members here. Going back to my home ward will be a nice transition because of the familiar faces, but we just don't want to let go. Shad and I are both in the youth (Laurel and Priest advisors) and we just LOVE being involved with that.

And of course, our dear friends. Shad and I have been lucky enough to meet so many good friends here. We've already had to say goodbye to a couple (*cough* Brooksbys & Greens *cough*) who've moved on from school sooner than us. But we still have many law school friends who are all going separate ways. And that is what we will miss MOST about Spokane.

On the upside: We really are excited to move over to Auburn. Closer to family, and I still have many high school friends over there. I love Western WA, and Seattle is one of my favorite places. I'm excited to explore more of the Northwest with Shad, and SO excited to move forward with life. :) Change is always sad and hard, but its also very welcome and exciting!

Long Overdue Haircut

2011-04-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally cut off Owen's cute little baby curls (See post below). It was sad to say goodbye, but I have to admit it looks pretty dang cute now. And I'm sure they will grow back, right?! Although Owen has had two "haircuts" or trims I should say done by yours truly. This was his first "official" haircut from a professional. He was a champ. He hardly squirmed around at all, and my Visiting Teacher did a stand up job on both my boys (Shad also got one done). He looks like a little gentlemen! :)

Most of the time he just sat like this (as long as he had a distraction):

'Aw, Mom... Do I have to do this!?'

Watch Out ladies...!

...Take a look at that HUNK!

(I love this picture!)

Shad styled him today and called it "the messy look." Very GQ.

So handsome! He now looks like my little boy, instead of baby! *Sigh*