seven things you probably don't know about me

1. When I was a kid I used to get excited when I got a stomach ache because it meant I got to have some Tums. I thought they tasted like candy. 

2. I sleep with ear plugs. I started doing this back in college when I had noisy roommates and kept doing it when I transitioned to the snoring husband. 

3. I hate dogs. A lot. Did I ever mention I married a dog lover? What was I thinking...?

4. The day I got engaged to Ben and the day Shawn was born are exactly 3 years apart (February 13, 2010 and 2013).

5. One of my favorite snacks is popcorn. I could eat it every day. I had popcorn for dinner last night.

6. Growing up I always dreamed of having a beautiful winter wedding. I got married in August.

7. My left foot is bigger than my right foot by 1/2 a size.

Playing Catch-Up

Yeah, it's been like a million years since I've written anything. The truth is, we moved and since then I haven't felt like it. I still don't really want to be writing right now but I'm forcing myself to do it. Even if no one else reads this, one day I'll look back and wonder what happened during the 4 month gap of no posts. So, here's a quick run-down.

December

My last post was in mid-December so this seems like a good place to start. We moved from Nampa back to Richland, Washington the weekend before Christmas. We had a large group of people from our ward come help us clean our apartment and load our truck, for which we were so grateful. I think about and miss all the friends we made there often.

Our Christmas was fun! Shawn got so spoiled. He didn't really understand how to unwrap the presents but he got really excited once he saw what was inside. It was nice to spend the holidays with my family.

Playing in Uncle Keegan's new luggage

Snuggles with Daddy

January

Shawn started exclusively walking in mid-January (around his 11-month mark). One day he just took off and hasn't hardly crawled since.

We took advantage of a random warm(ish) day and ventured to the park

Can't get much cuter than a baby in a suit!

January was also month one of unemployment. Turns out you need a Washington teaching certificate just to be a substitute, so Ben couldn't start subbing immediately like we'd hoped. Ben applied for his Idaho license and finally received it at the end of January. He started the application process for his Washington license.   

February

Ben submitted the application for his Washington license, but they told him they are currently implementing a new system so they are 3 months behind on processing applications. Thanks, Washington.

Month two of unemployment. Ben started applying to McDonalds, Walmart, etc. We weren't really sure what else to do since substituting wasn't an option. You'd think a college grad could get hired at one of these places, right? Not a single one called. We were getting quite discouraged and deeper and deeper into debt.

On a happier note, Shawn turned one on the 13th! The year absolutely flew by. We had a small family party with cake and presents. He is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight. He's built like his uncle Cody who's 6'4" (really long torso with shorter legs), so we may have a very tall son!

Not bad for my first cake.

Yum!

The week of Shawn's birthday, a history teaching job opened up in Pasco (a neighboring town to where we live). Ben hastily applied. The only way he could have his teaching certificate rushed was if a district wanted to hire him. The next week he was called in for an interview. It went great! Then the waiting began.

March

Shawn started regularly sleeping through the night this month! Hallelujah! Ironically, now that I can finally sleep to my heart's content, my insomnia has come back to haunt me. I'm not sure what causes it, but I often lay in bed for hours...or all night...unable to sleep. It's extremely frustrating. Shawn cut two molars on the top this month. So now he has 6 teeth on top and only 2 on the bottom. He has also become obsessed with Elmo and baseball bats. 

After bath time

Albertsons has the coolest carts! I might actually start grocery shopping there just for that reason.

On March 11, almost three weeks after his interview, Ben was offered the teaching position at Chiawana High School. He started two days later. He is absolutely loving it. He's finally getting to do what he loves! He is what's called a "floating teacher," which means he doesn't have his own classroom. He has to share rooms with two different teachers and his desk is in a conference room. You have to start somewhere, right? He's teaching 10th grade World History and 11th grade U.S. History. We are quite excited to receive our first paycheck since last summer! (yes you read that right!)

Now that it's finally warming up a bit, Shawn and I have started going on walks every morning. He loves his stroller and would stay outside all day if I'd let him. He babbles constantly and should start saying some words pretty soon.

I let Mickey come with us one day. Shawn is already taking selfies.

This month my little brother Keegan received his LDS mission call to the Nicaragua Managua South mission. He leaves on June 11th and will be gone for two years. He is so thrilled to learn Spanish. We'll miss you Keegan!

Well, that should catch you up. I'll try to post again before July! :)

10 Months!

I feel like I just wrote about Shawn turning 9 months, and now he's already 10 months. Seriously, where is the time going? In two months he'll have his first birthday. What?? Last week he started walking a little. He still prefers crawling as his main form of transportation, but he can walk short distances. We bribe him with food when we want him to do it. That's what good parents do, right? Ha. He is trying more and more foods and he likes most of what we give him. Except Cheerios. What baby doesn't like Cheerios? Of course I bought the biggest box I could find. If I try to give him a bite of something too soon, he'll just spit out whatever is in his mouth to make room for the next bite. Goof. He's still not sleeping real well, but I just keep telling myself it could always be worse. This past week he is getting up twice a night on average. He has also cut his naps from two a day to only one. I am not quite ready for that because his naps were the only times I got anything done!

I also can't believe Christmas is next week. I have had a hard time getting in the Christmas mood this year because we have exactly zero Christmas decorations up. Listening to Christmas music as I type this helps a little. I usually do a tree and nativity and all that jazz, but we're moving this weekend! Yep, 4 days before Christmas. What a fun time to move. Not. The last month and a half has been extremely stressful as we try to figure out where to go and what to do next with our lives. Ben finishes up student teaching this week and has been trying so hard to find work. Nothing has worked out so we will be returning to Washington where Ben will be a substitute teacher until next school year. We were thankfully able to find a tenant to take over our apartment contract, which was supposed to go until April. That was a little worrisome since this is not a very popular time of year to move! We have truly enjoyed our short time in Nampa and we will miss all the wonderful people we have met here.

The Christmas song that just came on is the "extra festive" version. Thanks, Pandora. 

And now, a bombardment of blurry cell phone pictures. Here's what we've been up to since I last posted about Thanksgiving.

Shawn got his first Christmas present. He didn't really know what to do with it! He was much more interested once we opened it for him and he got to play with the Buzz Lightyear flashlight inside.

It's much more fun if you actually climb inside the drawer.

Yum, spoons. My table now has dents in it from where Shawn decided to use it as a drumstick.

Trying baby cookies for the first time. He was a fan.

It looks like his foot is all twisted, but I promise these pajamas are just a little too long :) That ladle is now cracked in half and in the trash.

He loves it when daddy shares his popsicles.

Bath time is still the best time.

Ward Christmas Party. Shawn was totally happy and pleasant the entire time except the 5 seconds I was taking this picture. And also this one:

Classic.

Those lips! He's enjoying playing with all the boxes and mess of random stuff that's everywhere as we prepare to move. It's like a jungle gym for babies.

Merry Christmas!

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.