Oh Deer!

Hey Everyone!

I was doing the dishes this morning and looked out of the window to see this: I love Pittsburgh. I live in an area that is surrounded by woods and it is no strange thing to look out of any window (or as you are driving) and see wild turkey, deer, bunnies, bull frogs, robins, butterflies, fireflies and all sorts of wild life that I never saw in the west (near home atleast). Jakie loves it and looks for animals everyday. I saw one, then the second, and then the third. Arent they beautiful. They were about 4& 1/2 ft tall. Quite large for females. We love our little animal wonderland here. I would say my favorite are the deer. I probably see them on a daily basis. Awe, arent they cute?

Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My!

I was able to take Jacob to the Zoo today for a "Safari," as Jake would call it. Jacob loves it there and it is so fun to see him get excited. He loved seeing the animals play and just enjoy the great afternoon outdoors. I had a great time too until lunch, or, otherwise known for us as danger zone. Danger of melt downs. I am 90% happy during this time as Jakie is such a good boy, but man, that 10% of the time that Jake looses it sucks. Well, today was the worst of the 10%. Jake fell and scraped his knee pretty badly and I ened up with a crying mess. Oh well, atleast it was just at the end of the day. Here is a look at what we got to see on our "safari".

Grandma And Grandpa Visit

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us a week ago (August 30-Sept 4th) and it was so fun. We love to have family and friends come and see us. It is always amazing how comforting it is to have parents come and stay. I feel so protected and like everything will be just great. Thanks for taking the time to visit Mom & Dad! You can come back anytime. That extends to all friends and family. Here is a run down of the fun that we got to have at home, Gettysburgh, PA and Valin (Amish country). Wish you were there too!

Blonde Joke

Hey everyone,

So, I have been so busy and just wanted to say that I will blog later today. I have a ton to tell about. I just wanted to post this funny joke that I found on a friends blog. Isn't it hysterical. I think this is my favorite blond joke I have ever heard. Do you know any funny blond jokes? Talk to you again soon!

YEAH!!!!! Finally!! We have POOP!

Today is one of the 3 happiest days of my life, so far. The day I was married, the day I had Jacob and today, the day Jake pooped on the potty all by himself. I am reeling from the happiness!

I have been trying since he turned 3 (8 months) to get him to go on the potty and he always said,"no, I am not ready". I have purchased 100's of diapers in frustration and promised treasures untold for Jake, if he would just go on the stinkin' potty, with no success. I did all of this for months praying for of the beautiful day of potty to come. Well, friends, that day is finally here.

I decided yesterday to just do a day without diapers (at Jake's request) and he was willing to do #1 all day long with no problem. It seemed that #2 was just out of the question. I went to bed happy that he did have a 1/2 success but hoping that Jake would try his luck with #2 today. I knew he had to go, but he is a kid with a strong will.

Well, today I got him all set up to watch Curious George (in the buff) and gave him cereal & Juice and voila, we had magic. One minute he was singing along to the theme song, and the next I heard, "uh oh, its time to hit the potty" and ran upstairs on his own . I waited downstairs thinking it was a false alarm again, but to my surprise, it was the real deal. He showed me the evidence and boy, I have never been happier to see poo! Cries of happiness and chants of "You did it, you did it" and "I did it, I did it" rang out in happy voices.

I was finally able to give Jake his reward: his "poo toy" (as we call it). You can see it in the picture below. We bought it back in Seattle. He has wanted to play with it from day one, but I held out and stayed strong. I refused to give it to him until he had his first successful "poo on the pot". Ahh, success is sweet. Well, maybe stinky in this case, but at least I don't have to clean it up! So I will call it a huge success none the less. Now we just have to have him naked all the time. Well, maybe not, but I am just glad that he gets the point now. I think clothes will be an option again in a few days. I guess we will be on house arrest until Grandma & Grandpa Shumway come to visit tomorrow. I want to see if I can get one more success from him before we clothe him again.

What Are We Up To You Ask??

Hi everyone,

I thought I would catch everyone up on what is going on in the household. We have been pretty busy but we are all looking forward to a visit from Ricks parents this weekend. I love when we can get family to come visit. Any of you who want to come out need only say the word. We miss you all. Anyway, I have been trying to catch up on household stuff so that when they come everything is tidy.

Rick is busy with work doing lots of great projects that will be great for his resume. He loves it and really likes his co-workers (thank goodness!! It sucks to work with people you don't like). Rick recently received a calling as ward mission leader and was set-apart on Sunday. He is excited to dig in and I think he will be wonderful at it. It plays on all of his strengths (communication, leadership, organization, enthusiasm for the gospel, and once again, he gets to be a great missionary). I cant wait to see how great he does in the calling.

As for me, I have been busy with Jacob and keeping him busy. We do park days, McDonald lunches (nuggets and the playground mostly), library days, pool, kids club at my gym daily, movies, water parks, etc. (here is are a few pictures of last Tuesday at the local water park, Sand Castle, with his budy David, and then alone on the rides):

Well, Summer is on the way out and Fall is not far off. I love fall and I am excited for the change of seasons. Speaking of change, her is some fun info: (well, fun /scary) I got another calling yesterday too. I was serving as the 2nd councilor of the Primary and yesterday the bishop let me know that they would like for me to serve as... guess...nope.....nope.... okay, I will tell you.... Primary ...PRESIDENT!!! HOLY COW! I have never served in the primary other than these last few months. I have a lot of reading, question asking, etc. to do.

To make things even better, I have to do a primary program for late Oct from scratch. Nothing was done on it before and now my only councilor and I get to do it. I get to call one more person to help us and then we are going to be off with a bang. Oh yeah, there is also a fall festival to plan and execute (probably before the program) and so much more. I am gong to be one busy lady! I was nervous at first but now I just figure it will be tough sometimes, but it can't be as scary as going to Italy and teaching people about religion (in a language that I don't know yet) right? I guess I will just do what I always do, ask for help, pray and work on it. I feel like what ever I cant do, others can, so look out, I may call you for help!

Aside from those things, not much else (big) is going on. We have done a few small things like on Saturday, Rick and I watched our friends 3 kids while they moved into their first home. They have a 7 year old girl (super cutie), a 4 year old boy (Jake's friend) and a little boy 18+ months (adorable child!!) and the mom is 5 months pregnant. They came over and we just played all day until their parents came to pick them up. I love the child swap thing. Our friends and us don't have to pay for child care to go do something. We just trade kids for a few hours a month for free time to go on dates, clean, shop, whatever. We almost never need it, but I am glad that there are people to help when we do. It was fun having 4 kids around. It made me excited to have more kids. A house full of kids running around is like music to my ears. Maybe I am crazy, but I think a day full of kids is a perfect day.

Anyway, we are good. I wish we could hang out with everyone I miss. Lots of new things are happening and I find myself missing family, my BFF's from Seattle & Utah (all the mission buddies too). I love my time here, but I wish I could drive over to bug everyone for a while and see the kids play. Oh well, maybe someday soon, right?

That is it for now. We love you guys! Keep in touch.

Sad News for Parr

Well, everyone read just below that we welcomed Parr (the fish) into the home on Thursday August 21st at exactly 1pm (.002 oz.) and that we were so excited for Jake to have a little pet.Sadly, I regret to inform everyone that Parr did not make it. We found him this morning at the top of his little bowl without his little spunky dart for the food that we have come to love these last 4 days. He was a very good fish and, though of the minnow persuasion, he had the spirit of a beta king. It was a short time to love our little fish, but it was real none the less.

I hope he is in heaven right now with Prince (1st fish), Pricoli (2nd fish), and any other fish that did not survive our home along the way. We all loved him and that we are very sad to see him go. I feel good to know that he surely had a few days longer life than if we had left him at Wal-Mart's "fish mill".

With that said, all I have to do now is find a way to break it to Jake. What do you think guys? Should I:
A. Give it to him strait and fess up that the fish is goners, or
B. Should I sneak back to Wal-Mart and replace it with another fish, or
C. Should I tell him Parr is dead (Explain death), offer to buy another one (beta this time) and get him an ice-cream cone on the way home?

I am leaning toward #3 but I am not sure. You guys vote and I have about a day or so to decide.