Shawn's Birthday Pictures

Every year I take Shawn to get his pictures taken for his birthday.  I like to have a nice dressed up picture and then lots of fun pictures in his birthday outfit which reflects the theme of his party. 

His first birthday party was Elmo.

His second birthday party was Veggie Tales.

And this year is Thomas the Train. 
I know he's not looking at the camera but it's rare these days to get a good picture with Shawn looking at the camera.  I thought, oh well, this is his temperment at this stage, may as well capture it on film!

Here are some other good shots from his birthday photo shoot:

We also took advantage of the studio time and took some family pictures:

And here are the super silly outakes from Shawn's birthday shoot.  I like these candid shots because they really show his personality and his "oh so enthusiastic" attitude towards photo sessions:

Randomness

Well, since it had been a while since I posted consistently AND I got a new camera AND I've been up since 3:00am with a wide awake child... this post is going to be random pictures and happenings over the last few months. That way if I ramble and seem incoherant, I can blame something.

Shawn woke up about 3:00am needing to use the bathroom (yea, he actually woke up to use the toilet!) and we had to do the whole really excited he used the toilet thing even at 3:00am.  Ater all the commotion, he had a hard time going back to sleep.  Needless to say, I am exhausted but Shawn is NOT and is still awake so I need to do something to stay awake too.  What better way to stay occupied than to update pictures.  I used a sick day today so hopefully Shawn will get sleepy soon and we can both take a nap.  But enough rambling for now... onto the pictures.  

My sister was in a wedding in early May.  She was the maid-of-honor in her best friend's wedding.  Jenn and Jackie have been best friends since second grade and are still inseparable to this day.

Chris, Jackie, Ruby, and Jenn all met in second grade and have been friends ever since!

Jenn had to give the maid-of-honor speech and was scared to death!  She followed through with it and I was very proud of her.  

The flower girl is the daughter of the couple getting married, she's 2.  After she walked down the isle and the ceremony started she walked back down the isle collecting the flower petals she dropped.  It was so cute, you never know what children are going to do.  

 

Here is the only picture Jenn and I took together, it's not the best, but it's the only one I have.

One day, Shawn was playing outside and came running inside yelling, "Mom, quick get your camera I did something cute and you have to take a picture!"   He had put several of his outside toys in this swimming pool and evidently found that quite impressive.  This is what I saw when I went outside.

My aunt has a ranch and we frequently go out there to walk in the evenings.  It's an easy way to get my exercise in and I don't have to worry about Shawn running around and getting into trouble.  Lately, every time we go out there he picks me wild flowers (aka weeds). My aunt takes him for a walk while I walk and when I get back, Shawn runs up to me and pulls flowers out of his pocket and hands them to me with the proudest look on his face.  The flowers in the pocket are such a little boy thing, it makes me laugh every time I see him reach into his pocket.  He just knows they are the most beautiful flowers in the world... and they are!

Here are Shawn and Ethan looking like such grown-ups playing dominoes.  My great grandfather would have loved to see this, he was an avid domino player.

The other day Shawn found the monkey costume from his first Halloween in his closet.  He walked around the rest of the day with this monkey hat on his head!  Such a silly boy.

Komen Walk

Shawn, my mom, Ethan and I were fortunate enough to be able to go to the Komen Walk this year.  It was especially important for me to go this year because I lost a friend in March to a ten-year battle with breast cancer.  We were walking on my friend Lisa's team, her sister has five small children and is currently fighting breast cancer.  We also had a co-worker diagnosed with breast cancer just a month or so ago.  There was plenty on our minds during this walk.

Here is Jenn, Lisa's sister at the walk. 

I was very impressed to see all of the people there to support the fight against breast cancer. I was also very impressed to see the number of survivors walking, some one them obviously still in chemo.  There was one woman in particular who was walking with her arm bandaged up where she had an IV port still in her arm.   Here are a few pictures of the crowds.

This is all of the people walking on Jenn's Chemo Buddies team. 

  

There were other teams there with cute names like: Bosom Buddies, Tutu's for tatas, Jogging for juggs, and my favorite Bippity, Boppity, Boobs. There was a huge group walking for a woman named Hope, they chanted, "Hope for Hope!" the entire walk.

We followed this couple the entire walk.  They walked holding hands the entire time, not saying a word.  They just walked in silence.  I found that so moving.  There was also an older woman walking by herself simply carrying a sign that read, "I'm walking because my daughter can't right now."  I just about lost it at that point. 

The boys really enjoyed the walk and all of the activity.  There was definitely a sense of comradery in the air.  Everyone was simply happy to be alive and there were countless examples of bravery every where you turned around. 

Here's Ethan making silly faces.

Finally, we crossed the finish line.

After crossing the finish line, I looked around at all of the women in pink shirts and I thanked God for good health and supportive families.  I was so humbled by the experience and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Nana's Birthday Party

On April 24th we had a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law at my house.  It was a lot of fun and thankfully some of her friends got to surprise her too. 

The day started out pretty hectic because I had to work and then I had to pick up the cake from Sam's on my way home.  When I got there to pick up the cake, they couldn't find it and had to make me a new one.  The new one was slightly less glamorous than the one I ordered... and her name was spelled strangely!

 Here are a few of guests at the party.

There are a lot of kids in Jacin's familyso we rented a bouncy house to keep them entertained.

Michael and AJ

CJ (and Shawn in the background)

AJ, Michael, and Shawn

Cayden watching the kids play.

I LOVE this picture of Michael.

Daiden playing with T-Rex

Ethan and Shawn on the swing set.

Nana had lots of help opening her presents!

... and lots of help blowing out her candles!