A few more random happenings from September...

We headed out to St. Louis to meet with people at Peabody. We ate out a lot. I think Cheesecake factory was the biggest hit with everyone. The hotel restaurants, not so much. Here we are eating out cheesecake. Did we share, you ask, nope.



We had a little time before catching our plane so we went to the St. Louis zoo again. It is much more fun when it isn't scorching hot.


They had Doctor day at Paige's preschool. They let the kids put bandaids all over the dolls. The kids LOVED it. It was pretty cute!


I had bought a Groupon to go bowling so last Monday for family night, we finally went. No fighting or tears from J this time, thank heavens. It was a lot of fun and the kids keep begging to do it again.



Jackson had his first fun run. They made the kids run forever and it was a HOT day! J was hilarious. He would walk the whole way until he got right in front of me and then sprint past me. He sure fooled me!

And, that is it for now.

First Day of School!

I can never say that without thinking of Finding Nemo. No, school didn't just start...I am just getting around to posting about it! The boys and girlie are in the thick of it now and I think everyone is enjoying it! In fact, Douglas has just one week left in the term before his finals (and then we will have only three terms left. What the what??

J is loving his teacher this year. I think she is just a great fit for him. He is happy to go everyday and happy when I come to get him. It is so great as a mom to know your child is doing well. Her name is Mrs. Seals and she is known to be one of the best teachers in the school. She is musical and sings a lot with the kids. She is strict with things that matter (like writing) and doesn't make a big deal about things that don't, like a child who thinks his way is always the right way or has to do things just a bit different...always with his own creative spin. I am so happy J ended up with her!

I decided at the last minute to change preschools with Paige. It is still a COOP (where parent's rotate through and come in and help on their day and provide snacks. It is a good set up and so much less expensive than a traditional preschool. I don't mind it though it is really nice when I get to have some time to myself. I have been there almost every day since she started trying to get my assisting days in before the baby comes. I am done now and won't go back until January. I am so glad I switched. She was at a school really close to us which was so nice, but I didn't love the teacher and most of the kids that were in her class were from last year and I didn't care for them. The class can hold up to 20, but only 6 kids had signed up. Anyway, I went back and forth deciding what to do. The biggest drawback to the other school was the distance from us and that it is smack dab in the middle of Ann Arbor which means I basically have to drive through campus which is zero fun (I will tell you all about lame U of M pedestrians another day!). I finally decided to change her over though and I am so glad I did. I love her new teachers, there are lots of little girls in her class, they have so many fun activities, great moms to work with. It really is an answer to prayers (I did pray about it...a simple thing, but important to me). I think prayer is interesting (on a different vein) because it seems most of the time the answer doesn't come until you finally make your own decision and move forward with it. As soon as I signed Paige up, I just felt like I had made the best choice and that has been reaffirmed over and over.

Douglas has a very busy, tough semester. He is a great student and has learned to manage school and family fairly well. He still has a lot of evenings where he gets home late, but in general he leaves early and tries to be home around 6pm. He has been trying to go and swim at 6:30am three times a week (we are obviously not cut from the same mold in terms of early morning stuff). He wants to do a triathlon in the future so he is starting now. I am proud of him for working so hard. He signed his job offer for the coming year so we will be in St. Louis this next summer. It has been really nice that he hasn't had to recruit on top of everything else school related.

As for me. I am a mom. That keeps me busy. I juggle schedules, make breakfast, lunch and dinner, help with homework and chores, grocery shop, clean clothes. It is pretty mundane a lot of the time, but some how, every once and a while, makes me feel pretty fulfilled. I admit that it isn't all the time. There are many days when I ask myself what keeps me doing it all, but I do. I just trust that the day of payoff will come as my children grow and I can (hopefully) see what great people they turn out to be. Until then, I enjoy the fleeting moments when I feel very content doing what I do. I love when my children will look at me and there is such love in their eyes for me, despite all the stupid things I do. I sure love them.

So, here are some pictures of first days...none of me. I am just on the sidelines cheering them all on.

Here are the kids eating their Aebleskiever breakfast. These are so much work so they are only for birthdays and first day of school!!



Douglas enjoyed his first day of school that day as well! Here he is heading off to the bus.



J is a great bike rider. He will take off in the morning and I follow behind to make sure the bike got locked up and say goodbye. It always is and he is always happily playing with friends while he waits for the bell to ring!



Paige wanted to be in all the pictures too! Welcome to Carpenter, Jackson!



J was SO thrilled to have a real desk this year. He came home and told me that he was going to keep it really neat and organized!



Here is Miss P on her first day. They have all sorts of activities set out for when they arrive...painting, play-do, stamping etc. This is her teacher Miss Juli.



Decorating her hat.

Circle time.

This little girl could do arts and crafts all day long. Between that and dress ups, school is heaven.



As I was saying...they have tons of dress ups and a little house for the kids. This is her school/church friend Audrey.



Dancing during rug time.

A couple of stories from the Shaw archives

First, let me tell you about how my son was almost killed. Yes, that is right, killed. I am not exaggerating. It was a scary scary experience. So, being the great mom I am I decided to go on a bike ride with the kids to McDonald's for lunch. It is close...less than a quarter mile (if even close to that). The only challenge is that we have to cross a very busy rode...probably the likes of Bluff Street in St. George. There is a cross walk with a light though so I thought we would be fine. We each rode our own bike, Paige with her training wheels and J on his two wheeler. So, we ride a block over to Washtenaw and push the button for the signal to change and give us the walking man to cross. I had the kids get off their bikes to walk them across. So, the light changes, traffic has stopped and I send J across while I help Paige manage her as well as my own. Out of no where the car in the turn lane starts laying on her horn. I look up just in time to see a car flying down the street from the opposite direction slam on her breaks as she runs the red light. Angels were looking down on J because she stopped literally 5 feet from him. In slow motion I watched her barrel toward my son at 45 miles an hour and barely miss hitting and most likely kill him. She didn't stop to apologize or anything, Jackson hurried and got out of the way and she drove off.

Jackson, of course, was very shaken up by this. He was sobbing on the sidewalk as I quickly helped Paige and the bikes get across the street. I was in tears. It was so traumatic. Thank God, literally, that the lady in the turn lane saw what was happening. Had she not honked, who knows what would have happened. I tear up just thinking about it.

It made me eternally grateful to know that someone watches down on us. I truly believe that angels are around us protecting us. Cheesy, I know, but makes me feel so blessed.

I think from now on we will drive to McDonald's.

Second, we got burglarized. There have been a string of burglaries in our neighborhood and we got in on the action too. We went to St. Louis for two nights in September. A few days after we got home, Douglas asked why I moved the air compressor in the garage. It normally sits right against the side door into the garage. Let me assure you that I have no reason or desire to move that monstrosity. I told D that I hadn't touched it. That was what tipped us off. I asked how much it had been moved and he said to the middle of the garage. We got home and Douglas went to check the side door and sure enough, someone busted right through the lock. He opened it and I asked him if his road bike (aka pride and joy) was still there. He replied, "no." They had broken through the door and taken his bike which interestingly enough was to the back and side of the garage. It was clear that they knew what they wanted.

Then we realized today that a set of his tools (actually they are technically mine, but I never use them) were stolen too. So inconvenient!

Luckily the insurance should cover the losses. Thank heavens I got renter's insurance. We just feel violated at this point and a little nervous that they will come back (this happened to a neighbor who they stole from).

So, there are two sad stories from the Shaw house. Let's just hope this baby shows up soon so we can have something happy to talk about :)!!

So, I finally am getting around to putting some pictures on here. I always feel a bit behind on this thing! I guess if I stop taking pictures, I will stop having posts to make? I guess that doesn't make sense either. So, here we go...

Here is our camp site. Douglas does a good job setting things up in style.


Yummy peach cobbler. Okay, I must confess, I don't really like cobbler, but you kind of have to make dutch oven cobbler when you camp.


Jackson decided to climb a tree...


and then couldn't get down. Douglas was nice enough to help him. I was going to make him stay up there.





Testing out the waters of Lake Michigan...too cold for me, but didn't phase the rest of the crew!


Fishing. The kids, especially Jackson are obsessed. This little lake was a bust. All we caught was moss which really isn't very exciting.




Sleeping Bear Dunes. You have never seen dunes quite like this. Even with Douglas' lesson on how to walk up sand dunes, it was hard, hot and very tiring. I was the wimpiest of the family. Of course, being 32 weeks prego makes everything that requires energy a challenge.




If you have the stamina to hike miles across the sand dunes, I have been told you will eventually arrive at a gorgeous stretch of Lake Michigan that few ever see. I don't believe it. Who would really hike miles across sand dunes. Now, if I had a camel, maybe.


The kids rolled down. Whatever floats your boat. I really can't think of anything I would less like to do than cover myself in sand.

We took a beautiful scenic drive around the area. The kids were less than thrilled to have to get in and out of the car to see water and land, but Douglas and I really enjoyed it.
It was such a gorgeous view.


Crystal clear water.



Our little family. How cute are we?




When we got back we drove a mile from our camp site so the kids could play in the lake with their great dad. I sat on the beach chair and watched. I felt no sadness about not getting in the water.



Douglas would love this picture. Too bad he never reads my blog and will never know there was a picture of him of this nature. Hahaha!





The kids loved to climb all over Douglas and have him swim them around. Dad's are great like that.



The next morning we got up early and found a good spot to fish. Prepare yourself for a lot of fishing photos. I was made to take a picture of almost all of them. We caught a ton too. I have to mention that it was actually I, who caught the first one.





Paige felt the need to touch every fish. She wanted to touch their eyeballs. I don't claim to understand her.









They were massive, little, suckers.





That's the worm coming out of his mouth.







and Miss P would have been content just spending all her time playing with worms. That is a worm, not a necklace, by the way.



We went to a little town called Frankfurt. It was obviously very foggy. We started walking out on the pier, but P was so whiney I told the boys to continue and headed back with her. It wasn't until half way back that the fog cleared enough that I saw that there was actually a lighthouse at the end of the pier. We decided to turn around and catch up to the boys so we could see it.

That is J and D to the right of the picture before I spotted the lighthouse.



and there it is.





purty cool, if I do say so myself.



We let the kids dig around on the beach for a while after our walk down the pier. The weather was awesome and there were bench swings on the beach that D and I hung out on.







and then we decided to take a picture of ourselves.



We walked into the quaint little town and got ice cream. Have I ever mentioned what a messy eater Paige is?

Case in point...



There was a cool spot down from our camp spot where a river ran into the lake so we joined many other people and went to play there. Is there anything much cuter than a little girl in a swimsuit with a ruffle? I think not.



Douglas dug a big hole and buried the kiddos. It was all fun until Douglas helped Paige get out and hurt her back. I don't know if it just popped or what, but she laid in pain for a while, finally got over it and was back to herself. Douglas felt so bad for that while.













The sea horsey.


Your's truly.


Ferry ride to Mackinaw Island. Did you know it is actually spelled Mackinac? Confusing.



You can see the tip top of the large bridge that connects the lower and upper peninsula of Michigan.



All packed up and ready to head home. Douglas is a great packer. I hardly have to do anything.



The Grand hotel on Mackinaw.



Riding bikes on Mackinaw. A family in the ward gave us this bike that attaches to the back of Douglas' bike for Paige to ride on. We have used it so much and love it. It allows us to go on real family bike rides.



Looking out on another of the great lakes. I can't remember which.



The arch on Mackinaw Island.



These stairs were so fun to climb. There is nothing more enjoyable than climbing a ton of stairs in my state.





Here you can see the bridge in the background again. And, my cute family.






There are so many fudge shops on the island. If you hit it just right they will just be finishing up and will give you a taste. Yummy. I have to admit though, I still like BYU fudge better.



Looking down the main drag on Mackinaw.



Jackson decided he needed to find some sort of junk to waste his money on while we were on the island. My body was done moving so Paige and I patiently (or not so patiently for me) waited. I won't even get started on the girl smoking in the one piece of shade here. Nope, not going to get started.



Douglas talked J out of a fake gun and broken shark tooth and he ended up with a frisbee.



Heading back to the car to head home.



Both kids totally zonked out on the ferry ride back. I wish I had too. It was the end of a long day and week.



and there you have it....