Parents receive mission call!

For those who don't know yet, my parents have been called to serve as Mission Presidente and companion. We are excited for them. They will be reporting to the MTC around July 1. We will miss them, but wish them the best.

Starting New Hobbies

So a few months ago we moved into a new ward and the RS asked me what some of my hobbies are. I realized that I don't have many hobbies so I took up painting. This is something that I have always wanted to do but I am not good at all. I told my sister Astyn that I would post pictures of my first two paintings. These are just Acrylic paints so it is really cheap top do. I did not know that you could use acrylic paints until I got on the internet and watched this clip of an artist who only uses acrylic paints. If you are looking for a new hobbies I highly recommend painting!

I made this one for Mercedes room.


This one looks really dark in the picture and I am not sure why?

Party!

Well we finally made it back home after 2 and a half weeks of vacation. This Christmas was full of family fun and we loved every minute of it. Our first week we spent in Florida with my family and the second we spent with the Trayner's on a cruise in the Caribbean. So here are a few highlights of each week.

As you can see we made a Crab on the beach in Mexico
It was really fun!


Here is Josh and Nate with the babies standing in front
of the Mayan ruins.


This is in Mexico and the Giant turtle that was supposed
to be in the picture swam away.


Here is proof that we all made it to the top of the
Mayan temple. The stairs are a lot steeper than they look.


Look how cute Mercedes looks Christmas Morning
with all the presents that Santa brought to the Shaw's.


This is on the beach in Honduras. As you can tell Mercedes
is very tired.


While we were on vacation Mercedes has become quite
the chatter box. She is constantly making noise now. Here she
is caught in the act.


Here we are on the bus going to the beach. as you can see
we were all excited to go!


We also discovered that Mercedes hair is very curly.
Once we got in the humidity it curled right up. This
picture is not the best but it gives you an idea.


This is my cute nephew Clark. He is all dressed
up for our anual Christmas pageant and he is looking
fabulous as a Shepard.


Eean played the part of the sheep while Emery was also a great shephard.
As you can see the twins made great angels!



Here we are standing in front of the big Christmas tree
in the middle of Sea World!




This clip was taken on formal night on the cruise. In the background there was
a crowd of older people that were just watching her. Every time she smiles you can
hear the crowd of Grandmas get all excited. Mercedes does not know
what to do with all the attention!

What a Nasty Bug

So yesterday was a very exciting day. I spent the entire day sleeping or kneeling over the porcelain princess. I think that I picked up the 24 hour flu from a patient at work and was lucky enough to bring it home with me. Luckily Sandy came and spent the entire day with Mercedes so I could sleep. A few hours after Sandy left however Mercedes started to throw up too. She woke up every 20 min last night until about 1. She finally slept and seems relatively happy this morning except for the explosive diarrhea. Well on a happier note Mercedes got to celebrate Christmas early this year. Steve and Sandy gave Mercedes her Christmas present on Thanksgiving because we will not be around on Christmas day. She got a jumper! It was so fun to help her open it but as you can see from the pictures she was just as excited about the bow as she was the jumper. I love that children are so easy to please!


Here she is enjoying such a bright and colorful bow!



The box was bigger than her so we just put her on top.



Look at this really girly pose.

Haloween and More

Here are more pictures from Halloween. As you can see I am a beautiful flower and Mercedes is my cute little bee. Please notice the high quality and great craftsmanship of my costume.


Here is Mercedes very happy to go to church





We recently bought her a coat and she is way to small for it right now. Don't worry she will grow into it by the end of december.


These are some pictures that I have been wanting to post. These were taken when she was just a week old. My favorite one is not up here but these are still cute.





Look how cute she is even on her way to bed.

So here is a recap of the last few weeks. We finally settled down into a new ward and we are very excited that it is a family ward! As you can see in the pictures below we were so happy to have Dad come out for Mercedes's baby blessing. She looked so cute in the huge fluffy dress. Mercedes has also officially been to her first BYU football game, GO COUGARS! This week we decided to carve pumpkins and make Carmel apples for family night. They were so good and we finished just in time for me to put Mercedes down for bed and head out to work.

Here is the pumpkin that Josh carved while I made the apples. If you can't tell in the picture the pumpkin is a mummy.


THis is sme and Mercedes just before I am off to work.


Here is Josh showing off his handy work


This is Mercedes and Dad relaxing before game day.


This is Mercedes dressed up in her bee outfit just before we went to a party.


Mercedes has started to give a sneaky smile and this is a mild form of that smile.


We often like to nod off in the middle of the day.


Here is beautiful Mercedes in her blessing dress.



Mercedes now likes to put anything and everything in her mouth.


Mercedes and Grandpa


Happy girl


Mercedes loves to look at the camera. The only problem is that she stops smiling the second that we pull it out.


Four generations

New Adventures

Howdie,

Can you believe Mercedes is going to be 8 weeks old next week! Now that we are parents we have learned a thing or two. I would have to say that we have had our share of all-night parities but all in all we are alive and well. Luckily I worked the night shift up until Mercedes was born so it was not to bad for me but Josh had to quickly adapt. Well these last two months have been so fun for many reasons. We have officially moved out of married student housing and we should be closing on the townhouse sometime in the near future. Today was also Josh's first day of law school (go BYU) and he is really excited. We also have had so much fun watching and learning from Mercedes. I just love how babies think that everything is so interesting. It is so fun to just sit and watch them discover everything around them. This week Mercedes has started to smile in response to things that we do. I have tried to catch her smiling in the pictures below but our camera is delayed so some of them are only half smiles. Mercedes has also discovered that if she moves her lips and tongue just right that she can make spit bubbles. So most of the day is filled with eating, sleeping and making spit bubbles. Just look how much she has grown in the last two months!!

Relaxation

Discovering the Camera

Sneaky

Good Morning

Hanging out at Grandma's

Bed Head

Waking up

Hanging out at home

Deer in the headlights