Made by Memilyrae

I seriously love these pictures and the artistic feel to them! And Mike, I gotta say that I think it’s great to see how much you love Nicole and Gavin in these pictures. I can’t wait to see you kiss your sweet son on the head when he comes! Nicole, you totally radiate even with the ‘grunge’ feel of the pictures! (Oh, don’t worry Mike…I think you only look THAT gray because of the contrast change!) 😉

http://t2ophoto.sk8erord.com/index.php

My friend, Triana, who is starting her photography business took our family pictures last Saturday. She’s been a busy bee and I’m so excited for her! We met her at the BYU duck pond at the south end of campus and started playing. We took a few family shots playing on the ground (until Spencer bumped his nose and got a nose bleed), let Mikey & Coley do their family shots and maternity shots, then did a few more family shots. While Mikey and Coley were up, Spencer and Evie played. Triana snapped a few shots of my kids but Evie NEVER SMILED. What an attitude!!!! 🙂 But she’s my attitude, right!?!? 😀 We tried pleasing the kids by sitting where they wanted to see if we could get them to smile…it worked with Spencer, plus Mikey throwing little pod berry things at him, but not with Evie. Triana was awesome though and always tried looking for an artistic and expressive look. She put this picture on her photography blog of Evie and her ‘tude and I just love it!

I am SO going to have her take our family pictures every year and for those of you who read this and live in Utah, you should totally consider her to take yours as well.  I’ll post more pictures once she’s done editing them and giving them this “grungy/rustic” feel that I love so much. Seriously, take a look at her site and HIRE HER! She’s wonderful and amazing!!!!   http://ordfamily.sk8erord.com/

Here’s a few more:

We are SO excited! We got tickets to see Brian Regan in August! It’ll be hot since it’s outdoors but we’ll sit through the heat to see him! He is HILARIOUS! (comedian).

We like to see how Spencer thinks through everything…his mind is just amazing to us and we know we’re in for a laugh! Here’s some from this morning:

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I’m talking to daddy and Spencer is trying to tell me something.

Mommy? Mommy?

Hold on Spencer. When I put this finger up {my pointer finger} it means ‘wait a sec.’

Spencer pauses.

Mommy? Mommy?

Steve and I just laughed and let Spencer tell us his story.

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Steve: “Spencer, why did we buy a new van?”

Spencer – Answer #1: “Because I like the color.”

Spencer – Answer #2: “Because I wanted it.”

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Steve: “I’ll snap you like a twig!”

Spencer: “I”ll snap YOU like a PIG!”

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About a month (or was it two) ago Steve was contacted by a guy at Novell who is looking to hire a few more people. Steve has worked at Novell before in an intern position, and like many other people, experienced the not-so-surprising Novell layoffs. His previous boss thought really highly of him and the work he does and told others about him. Steve went in for the interview, waited for the interview week(s) to be done and was called and given an verbal offer. We wanted to wait until Steve actually signed the papers and started his job and that was yesterday! He’ll be working full time as an…Engineering something or other (I’ll let you know once I know for sure what it is)…and start doing evening classes at Utah Valley University (official July 1…UVSC will be UVU!!! YIPPIE!). I’m so proud of my wonderful hubby and this just goes to show that others see the quality work he does and the potential he has to continue to do great work. I’m also very excited because we’ll have insurance (yippie skippie!) and the wage will allow us to get out of debt. Thank you, Steve, for being the man that you are and for all you do to take care of our family emotionally, financially, spiritually and physically! You’re wonderful!

Steve and I were THRILLED to have an anniversary where we could actually get away from real life for more than just a couple of hours. Our family and friends helped out so much by watching the kids so Steve and I could spend 24 hours away from them. We sure missed them but, like I explained to Spencer, daddy and I need time by ourselves to make sure we still love each other! 🙂 I sure do love that man of mine!

Spencer and Evie’s schedule:

Friday afternoon/evening: Play with Aunt Netty and cousins – Sounded like everything went okay. Spencer got an scratch on his leg but it wasn’t a big deal. He was very proud of his 2 Scooby Doo bandaids.

Friday night/Saturday morning: Our neighbor, Katie, slept upstairs at our apartment. She refused to sleep on our bed (we bought new sheets!) so when Spencer woke up at 4, he whimpered a little when he didn’t see her in our bed but she hear him and he decided he wanted to sleep on the couch with her. Spencer decided to tell Katie all about how mommy and daddy moved the computer to our room and out of the living room. Too funny! Evie made a noise so she told Spencer she needed to put him back in bed and he went willingly. Luckily, Evie didn’t wake up.

Saturday morning: Mikey and Coley came over to pick up the kids and relieve Katie from babysitting. 🙂 Katie has her own kids to worry about! The took Twitch for a walk to the park and Spencer walked almost the whole time! I think he got tired the last 3 houses and said “My legs are tired.” so Mikey carried him.  Then they decided to take the kids for lunch/ice cream to the BYU Creamery. Needless to say Evie got messy and so did Aunt Coley!

Saturday afternoon: Coley and Mikey had a baby shower to attend (she was the guest of honor) so Steve’s parents came down to pick up the kids. They had fallen asleep in Mike and Nicole’s car and Alec and Mike picked them up in their carseats and transferred them to the Shaw’s van. The kids slept another hour and a half and spent the rest of the time outside in the sandbox. We showed up around 4 and Evie was quite excited to see us. Spencer, on the other hand, just walked up to Steve and said “Cut this off?” (there was a tag in his Spiderman hat that bugged him).

Now, as for Steve and I…Friday we ditched the kids, headed home to pack and headed up to SLC. We made a pit stop at Walmart then to Olive Garden for dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly! We had a gift card so we ended up spending about $9 on dinner plus a tip. We went searching for the Annivesary Inn on 5th South but had a difficult time finding it because 5th South turns into 4th South. We finally got there and the room was tons of fun! Aye Matey! Here’s a few pics:

After breakfast and a shower (plus getting ready for the day) we decided to go enjoy Temple Square without having to worry about if our kids are causing trouble or not. We went on a tour of the Conference Center, watch the new movie about Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Building, Steve bought new scriptures (since his last pair got lost/stolen) and the lady at Deseret was so sweet she gave Steve 20% off because of his sad story 🙂

Before we headed to lunch and home we stopped off to sign a few papers…

We finished our day at Applebees (Steve picked so I could get the Chocolate Meltdown!). Take a look at what I’m eating. (It was actually what Steve was eating…but it’s definitely NOT my first hamburger in the past month). Yep…I think my body decided that 13 or so years without hamburgers is just wrong (minus the one week I ate a few when I was prego with Evie)

On Thursday we went to the Living Aquarium with Chris, Julie and Sam. They had some neat fish and different displays but I think our favorite parts were the stingrays and the play area. I wanted to take more pictures but my battery was dying. The kids were WAY cute and I think they had lots of fun.

Last Saturday we had breakfast with Steve’s cousins. It was really nice getting together with them again. Since it was such a nice day we ended up at a duck pond. Chris, Julie and Sam; Kyle Wheeler (Julie’s brother), Steve, Spencer, Evie and I were all there. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun. There were tons of ducks, a handful of turtles, 4 fish (or that’s all I saw), and lots of birds who also wanted to be fed. Oh! And we saw7 (I think) eggs…not being guarded plus 3 of them were in the water…so they might be duds. We also went to 2 parks after that…but it’s nearly 2 and I really should go to bed! YAWN!

Today was such a fun and wonderful day! Steve has one week off before his new job and we are loving every minute of it! Today we woke up, got ready and headed to the Hogle Zoo. The kids have been excited for days (Evie is mainly excited because she sees Spencer talking about the animals). We packed the stroller with water and fishie crackers, and I, of course, had the camera ready. The kids were SO cute in their little hats!!!!

We started off with the monkeys. Most of them were outside (it was SUCH a nice morning!) Two monkeys (too bad I can’t remember what kind they were…they were hairy, mostly black with a white tummy…I think) were playing tag, jumping around the whole caged area and just having a blast! The kids thought it was great!

Steve and I would ask the kids “Should we see the bears next or the penguins?” and Spencer’s answer was “I want to see the lions” every single time! (Poor kid…there wasn’t a single lion in the whole zoo…but he did see a few other wild cats) We would try to point to the animals to show Evie where they were and sometimes we’d wonder if she could see them or not…but we finally clued in that she would wave “hi” to the animals once she saw them.

Spencer’s favorite animals too see were the “Ghost of the Bayou” alligator (the white alligator) and the “Little” American alligator. But YUCK to all the humidity in that exhibit! Steve said that’s how New Jersey feels…plus lots more heat. ICK ICK YUCKY YUCKY!

We ran into our neighbors who reminded us about the “shows” they do. We started watching the elephant show…but Steve and I were more distracted by a big black bird with blue wings (what were they called again Coley?) kill…yes KILL…a small sparrow-like bird. The Elephant swung its trunk at the black bird and scared it away but as soon as the elephant turned its back the black bird came back to finish the job. By that time it was probably best that the poor little bird be “finished off.” It was SO sad. The kids liked the elephants show…but they seemed to get bored of all the talking and not enough ‘showing.’

We visited the black bears and zebras (the “little Cosmo” cougar wasn’t out yet) before visiting the penguins.

I was SO excited that the kids weren’t scared to take a drink from the lion’s mouth water fountain. I love these pictures and think it should be a MUST with every zoo visit.

The kids liked the funny giraffes. One giraffe was licking/kissing the doorframe and Spencer thought that was extremely funny. Steve liked when the giraffe picked its nose with its tongue! Yuck! (although I believe TWO of my old roommates could barely stick their tongues in their noses…not each others, mind you…and I thought it was funny…but gross…you know who you are!) Notice Evie’s new obsession? Her belly button!

I was so excited when we could actually SEE the cheetah! We NEVER see the cheetah! We had to stand at the top of the hill but he was rolling around in the grass (the movement helped Spencer find it). YAY!

Evie wanted to be held and wanted to lay her head on my shoulder. Needless to say we missed the reptile house but we didn’t mind.

We ended the trip with a ride on the Zoofari Express. Spencer has always loved trains so this is an extra bonus for him. Evie enjoyed it too.

They seemed to get their second wind as we were leaving…probably due to the extremely huge ball/globe that rotates with the water pressure from underneath. They loved running their hands in the water.

We decided to have lunch at Village Inn…yum…breakfast foods!

And then it was time to rest and relax….at least for the kids. I needed a nap too…but look at the time! It’s 1:00 am and I’m still not asleep. 🙂

We had such a great time with just our little family. We realized that sometimes it’s more enjoyable to do things with a smaller group than it is a larger one (and sometimes just the opposite). I think the kids truly loved today and I can say I truly did too!

Seven years. Can you believe it’s been SEVEN YEARS since we’ve had our bathroom set. I got it when I moved out of Annette’s house after I graduated high school in 2001. I decided to change the whole scheme when Spencer threw up on it the other day. Here’s the old verses the new.