Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Ben was fortunate enough to have the entire week off so we spent the whole week in Washington with my family. Excuse my blurry cell phone pictures. 

This kid REALLY hates being in the car. I sit in the back with him, but it doesn't make much difference. Road trips are no fun for any of us. I'm glad we only live about 4 hours away from my parents right now. I don't think we could handle a further drive than that!

We were all very happy to arrive, but no one was as happy as my mom. She loves her little peanut! Check out all those toys in the background. My mom is the coolest grandma ever.

Yeah, it's pink. Shawn loved it anyway. He has a tiny highchair at home that straps onto a regular chair so it was fun for him to have a big highchair with a huge tray. 

If you look closely, you can see his two little teeth on the bottom. So cute! We were playing peek-a-boo behind the couch and he thought I was hilarious. I think I'm hilarious too.

Helping grandma unload the dishwasher.

Shawn woke up from his nap in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. He doesn't usually snuggle like this but I don't think he was quite ready to be awake!

The dinner was nice, but to be honest, I think Thanksgiving is way way way too much work. I don't even like the food that much. Turkey? Yeah I had a few pieces. Stuffing? Gross. Pumpkin pie? Ew. I can't even stand the smell. I'd rather order pizza every year. Pretty sure I'll never get my way!

Reading with Grandpa. Blurry but cute!

Black Friday shopping with the girls. It's a tradition! This was my first Thanksgiving home in 3 years so it had been a while! That store waaaay in the distance is where we were going. Despite the long line we were in and out in 1 hour, 8 minutes and I got everything on my list!

The trip home went a lot smoother than the trip there. It was so nice to see everyone! But it's always nice to be home and back to our own beds and familiar routine. Hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving too!

This month will be spent packing and moving. I have no idea when or where we're going. Should be fun.

P.S. Shawn has slept through the night 3 times in the last week! It's a miracle!

9 Months Old

Shawn has now been outside of me longer than he was inside me. He turned 9 months old last week! Here are his 9 month stats (I know you probably don't care, but this way I can remember!):

22 pounds, 6 ounces (86%)

29.5 inches tall (87%)

He is reaching most milestones that would be expected of a one year old. He can do pretty much everything except walk! We're working on that.

He brings so much joy and laughter to our home. No matter how hard I try, I just can't kiss those cheeks enough every day! He got his first two teeth in the last couple weeks. One on the top and one on the bottom. Ben says he looks like a Jack-o-Lantern! I imagine a couple more aren't too far behind.

He would stay in the tub all day if I let him.

He gets into EVERYTHING!

Caught red-handed.

 I thought I was so smart by putting a chair in front of the cabinet. It only took him like 3 seconds to figure out how to push it out of the way!

 This kid loves to eat. Even if I just gave him a full meal, he'll still want some of whatever I'm eating. 

We love you Shawn!

I Have Good News and Bad News

Which one do you want to hear first?

Okay, always good news first. Ben got himself a job interview. Yay!

The bad news?

The job is at a middle school in Enid, Oklahoma. 

Yeah, I hadn't heard of Enid either. 

I'm trying hard to have faith that we'll end up where we're supposed to, but dang! It's hard!

We have about a month left to figure out where we'll be calling home after student teaching. I'll keep you posted.

My Obsession

Since Shawn was born 9 months ago, I have gone to exactly one movie. One. Iron Man 3. In our life B.S. (before Shawn, haha) we went to movies all the time. Lots of weekends you could find us at the Dollar Theater for date night. But this month, I'm going to a movie. Nothing's going to stop me.

When a preview comes on TV, I make everyone be quiet and I jump up and down like a little girl. I don't have that many crazy obsessions, but this is one of them. Catching Fire was my favorite book in the Hunger Games series, so I've been waiting for this for a long time. Anyone else feel the same way?

P.S. Mom, will you babysit over Thanksgiving? :) I mean, how can you say no to this face?

P.P.S. You might want to hide your towels.

Look How Cute I Am!

Not me, my blog!

I got a major face lift courtesy of Jessica Olsen. You can find her blog here.

I love it! Tell me what you think.

Thanks Jessica!

November Update

I know many of you out there are wondering, "What's new with the Rawlinsons?"

Well, I'll tell you.

Not a whole lot.

But I decided that shouldn't keep me from blogging! 

Here's an update on all of us.

Ben- He's loving student teaching! He is doing so great and I'm proud of his hard work. He gets done right before Christmas. We are desperately searching for a teaching job...but how many teaching jobs open up in the middle of the school year? Not that many. We've applied all over- Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee, etc. etc. etc. We believe that we'll end up wherever we're supposed to go (But I'm secretly hoping it's NOT Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee, or any of those other states that are really really far away!) Now that the middle school football season is over, Ben is home a lot more. It's nice not only for me, but now Ben and Shawn get more time together too. He got put in as 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum in our ward. That calling plus all the job applications keep him very busy!

Me- Um...nothing. Just kidding. My life is really not that interesting. I play with Shawn, clean, do dishes, laundry, the typical mom stuff. But I love it. Sometimes when I get tired or sick of doing laundry for the millionth time, I remember how lucky I am to be able to stay home! Although speaking of that, I'm currently looking for a seasonal job. No luck so far. I should have started looking a month ago. Oops. I just got put in as the new primary pianist. I haven't been in primary since I was actually a primary kid. It's fun to do something different! We looooove our ward and are crossing our fingers we can find a job around here so we can stay. If you remember my last post, we are still doing insanity. It's still just as hard, if not harder, than the first day. But we aren't giving up!

Shawn- He'll be 9 months old next week! I'm telling you, this kid is ridiculously smart. He takes after his mom. Just kidding. Kind of. But he learns new things almost every day! He is constantly making me laugh. This last month he has stood without holding onto anything a couple times, so walking is probably in the near future. He learned how to give high fives and how to stick his tongue out.

Adorable.

 Sometimes at night after he's in bed I just look at pictures of him because I miss looking at his face. We're pretty sure he's going to be left-handed. He eats all his food with his left hand. If I put the food in his right hand, he'll transfer it to his left hand before putting it in his mouth. Oh well, I'm not that surprised. He takes after his left-handed dad! 

He loves to play in the fridge. Weirdo. His favorite thing is the bottle of mustard. He chews on the top. He has now slept through the night 3 times. Three glorious times! I'd love for that to become a regular occurrence. He growls a lot and crawls around saying "mamamama." I love it.

Our Journey to Insanity

Before I actually start this post, I would like to brag for a second. I just swatted a fly out of the air and it landed in the garbage can. Can't get more efficient than that!

Contrary to what you might think based on the title, this will not be a post about us entering an insane asylum. But we are definitely insane for what we are undertaking. 

This.

You've probably seen the infomercials in the middle of the night. Thanks to Craigslist, we got it for 1/3 of the price. I'm pretty sure I'm going to look like that girl on the right when we're done. If I survive. Yesterday was day 1 and I spend the majority of the time on the couch trying to breathe. 

Hopefully I'll spend a little less time on the couch tonight and a little more time getting stronger.