Another Elf Yourself

I started out trying to do bad pictures of everyone in our family, but realized as I was searching for a bad picture of myself, that I've made a habit of deleting all bad pictures of myself as soon as they are uploaded. Oh well. So, instead I made an evil twin one for the kids. cute. My favorite one is Matthews smiley face.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1398609881

A few more updates

So I realized there were still more things that I hadn't posted for all y'all to read, so here goes:
Aaron has heard back from Oregon, USC (L.A), UOP (San Fransisco), and one more... I can't remember; all asking for more money for the application and some asking for more letters of recommendation and official DAT scores (which are different somehow from the DAT scores they received from the DAT testing place??).

I have a new fun musician to listen to: Jake Shimabukuro- check out a sample of his sweet ukulele skills on the playlist at the bottom of the blog. It's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Beatles cover). Be sure to click on the song twice.

Matthew will be going to preschool in January. Hopefully to a branch of CHIC (Center for Hearing Impaired Children) in Queen Creek. His class consists of 5 other children about his age, all of whom wear hearing aids just like him. He'll ride the short bus to school (about 8-10 miles away). Aaron is really nervous about putting a barely three year old on the bus in someone else's care. I don't know how I feel about it... I really want him to get the interaction with his peers and time with the speech therapist (he was seeing an in-home speech therapist, but those services end when he turns three in two weeks). I am just nervous about being a side-lines figure in his life. I'm used to having complete control over his environment and dealings. I was looking forward to two more years of him at home with me... I guess if it doesn't work out, I can just take him out. Please comment on this if you have an opinion, whatsoever. I'd love an outsider's perspective.

Megan is constantly saying hilarious things. The other night she told Aaron about a bad dream and how she was afraid of it being real. Aaron told her about her subconscious and how her brain just pulls things out to dream about. That seemed to appease her. A few nights later, she said her prayers and, as usual, prayed to have good dreams (as I had taught her years ago when she was scared to go to sleep for the dreams). When she was done she looked up at me and said "My brain and Heavenly Father make a GREAT TEAM! My brain and Heavenly Father make me some great dreams. My brain and Heavenly Father are good friends." I just started cracking up. I really wish I wrote down more of what she said. It's usually 3-4 things a day that she says that I should write down. I'm recommitted!

December updates

A few new things are happening in the Shumway household that I thought I'd write about:


1. Matthew is half-way potty trained... on his own. He says "I needa go cotty" and then goes in to the bathroom all by himself and poops on the potty. Holy Cow says I. It was totally opposite for Megan. She would go #1 on the potty but was so scared to go poop on the potty that she'd get constipated and not go for a few days... at least she didn't poop in her underware- That would NOT have been fun to clean up. I have no idea how to get Matthew to use the potty the rest of the time, but I'm sure he'll learn somehow.

2. Aaron is done with this semester (and not looking forward to one more semester of Physics) He stayed up half the night playing on xbox live to celebrate his independence (I don't know how that's different from any other night... LOL)


3. I was a little creative this winter and made cloven fruit or a pomander as some people know it- I used one of those California clementines (mini orange) and stuck cloves into the peel and tied it with ribbon. It was so much cuter than the one pictured (this is a stock photo) and smelled really good. Matthew ate it today. How sad. And no, it is not meant for consumption. Oh well, I guess he was hungry and it is non-toxic after all. I made a new one with the cloves I recovered. Not as cute, but it smells just as yummy. Wassail!

Awesome!

Megan said something funny last night in the car. We were on our way home from her grandparents house and she asked, "Mommy, does Jesus' birthday last until summer time?" I said, "Well, Jesus' birthday is actually in the spring, but we celebrate His birthday PARTY on Christmas." (She just had a birthday last month and got the concept of having your party on a different day than your actual birthday) She got really excited and said with a loud voice "Yeah, and Jesus' birthday is AWESOME!" I could just picture her doing a fisted elbow dig along with "awesome." She proceeded to tell me all about the stuff that was going to be at Jesus' birthday party; Christmas lights, yummy food, and I added "-and presents" to which she replied, "Yeah we're going to give Him presents. What should I get Him?" I almost corrected her and said "No, we get eachother presents," but I caught myself. Why the heck do we get EACHOTHER presents and not Jesus? I think I'd be a little upset at my birthday party if everyone came and gave eachother presents and I was left emptyhanded. I now have a challenge for myself and for anyone who reads this. Think about what you can get (do) for Jesus this year. What can you do for someone else in need or how can you change your own life to please Jesus? Obviously you would also benefit, so get started today!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Elf Yourself!

This is SO funny! My friend, Karen Andersen sent me this (thanks Karen!) and I had to share it with you all..... Follow the link- It might take a couple minutes to load but it's worth it!!!!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9611140303

Happy Fall..... template :o)

I just discovered a great site! This woman has posted the step by step directions to change your blog design! I love it! Thanks Suzanne!
http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/

daddy daughter date

Just thought I'd give a shout out to newly-weds, Lincoln and Michelle Matheson! Congratulations! I'm sorry I missed the whole day- Matthew was busy throwing up on everything he could. fun fun. Here's a pic of Meg and Daddy leaving for their date (the reception). She was so excited to go dance and eat cake!

I also had to post this picture from earlier that evening. Megan is so silly sometimes. Come on, Meg, pick ONE outfit and wear it! I guess she felt conflicted in her wardrobe choices.

Halloween Fun

Okey Dokey Artichokey... Here is an update of what's been happening in the last little while including Halloween:

I failed to mention earlier that Aaron has officially applied for dental school. I had the honor of entering his course work class by class into the ASDEA(?) website for him.... what fun!

I've been hired by my next door neighbor to make some bows for her 3 daughters. We went to the ribbon store with the outfits she wants the bows for and picked out ribbons for each of them. It was fun. I'll be making a lot of them today at Alex and Julie's (a.k.a. Rod and Norma's) house when we (Anna, Julie, Terry) get together to make bows for our girlies.

For halloween we went to our ward's trunk or treat and I worked a booth for YW. My booth was the classic bean bag toss into the pumpkin cutout. Matthew slept for 5/6 of the night and I finally had to wake him up so he could participate in at least a few of the festivities. He has been asking for "Camdy" every 5 minutes ever since because he knows we have some somewhere... bleh. The wings I made for angel Megan turned out to be very hardy, withstanding the unending race through the parking lot with all of the other costumed kids. They had a ball and nothing was ruined. phew! Aaron was a "Bad Dentist" for halloween complete with scrubs, a carpenter's drill, and a monkey wrench. Both Matthew and I were farmers with overalls, bandanas and cowboys hats. Our camera quit working in the middle of the festivities, so I had my friend take some family pictures of us in costumes which I will post on here as soon as I get her to email them to me.

Here are the kiddos and dad:

Guitar hero III!!

We got this game on Monday around lunchtime and by Tuesday morning I'd already finished this game on medium difficulty... it's a lot of fun. Aaron preordered this game a few months ago for his birthday present from me :o) I'm so thoughtful.... LOL

I can FLY!

(click on picture to view full size) I constructed these wings out of tights, 2 hangers, watered down glue, and glitter. It was a lot of fun and REALLY easy! I was going to make them look like the typical wings that you see on halloween which are actually butterfly or fairy wings and then I remembered that angel wings don't look like that. This was the best I could do with the size of the hangers and no advice. I like how they turned out. Had I thought of this earlier I'd have made a bunch of fairy wings and sold them to a high end boutique in Scottsdale before halloween... oh well. I was as they say, a day late and a dollar short..

Megan's no-cost Costume!

I just had to post this really quick- This is a pic of Megan's Angel costume I've been working on all day- I didn't spend a DIME!!!!! I made the under white skirt out of an old polo shirt of Aaron's and I already had a white boa that I cut and wired for the halo, and Aaron's mom had a huge bolt of lace from when his grandma Shumway passed away. Cute cute! I will have to spend money on two pairs of white tights when I make the wings next week, but we're going to a community halloween trunk or treat tonight without the wings.

Utah Trip - ....the other half

Hola!
Have you all been waiting for the second installment of the Utah trip? Welllllll, ok here's a little note on the rest of the trip....


Katie and Carter got married!

Thank you to our wonderful and over qualified babysitters, Sarah and the Gannaways... I think they should start a band... I like the sound of that... Sarah and the Gannaways.....

Afterward, we had a lovely luncheon at....a place in Provo... I think. Cute bib, Aaron.

...where among other crazy stories told, Rand proceeded to tell us all about his friend who, while on his honeymoon on some beach, got his nipple-ring snagged on the volleyball net as he jumped to spike the ball. Needless to say, we were the loudest and most rambunctious table there (as always).

Where is Aysha??? And Renee??? I think Renee was the photographer of one of these... we'll catch her later since I dont have any of her at the table... No, I'm not letting you off the hook Renee. Here's the only one of Aysha...I have no idea what Aaron said, but it must've been absurd, right Aysh?

Of course the Harward Family singers were featured singing uhhhh.. what did we sing? I'll Be Seeing You.

The reception was beautiful and a great time was had by all.

Especially Autumn and Megan who loved wearing matching flower girl dresses.

And both Matthew and Colin were too cute in their tuxes.

We called Colin the little executive because he had a serious face on most of the time... You're fired!

We told Colin to give Megan a kiss and instead he turned around and kissed the light post. It was pretty funny. There we go........... much better!

I had to include this last picture of our family. Unfortunatly, it was the best one of us....

Here's one that didn't make the cut... LOL! I love our family!
(Matthew reverse-head-butted me. Never a dull moment...)

Bye bye love birds! Have fun on your honeymoon!!!

No, Renee, I didn't forget you :o)

Utah Trip - First Installment

Welcome to the Shumway Family Blahhhg.

This last week Stephanie's sister got married in the Salt Lake Temple so we rented a car and drove up for the festivities. It was a lot of fun and really nice to see everyone (including Stephanie's brother, Rob, for the first time since he got back from Iraq).

The day after we got to Mom and Dad's house, Aysha and Stephanie decorated the lawn and trees with yellow hearts and ribbons, reminiscent of the song "tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree," and hung a big banner over the garage that said "Welcome home from Iraq! We love you Rob!" (Made by Mom, Cami, and Katie)

Colin (Rand and Aysha's son) and Matthew had a great time playing and really liked each other's company the whole trip. It was nice to have a buddy. When we drove up Mom and Dad's street the whole thing was torn up and there were large construction trucks.... I have no idea what kind of trucks they were. Matthew would start singing Bob the Builder everytime he went outside and would point to the truck excitedly and say "Mom! Bob the builder! Mom! Bob the Builder!"

Rand rode with Rob and Renee from the airport that afternoon and we were all waiting outside to welcome them.

That night all of the girls took Katie out for Sushi, which Stephanie had never tried before and was a little scared about. It turned out fine, however, the rolls Stephanie liked the best were tempura-ed, so it wasn't really true "blue" sushi anyway. They decided that every family gathering would include a girls night from now on, since they had so much fun.

From L to R: Stephanie(sister), Kaite (sister and the bride), Cami (sister), Aysha (Sis in law), Renee (sis in law)

After dinner, we raced to the reception center to take our family pictures. The dress code was blue jeans and a shirt ranging in color from navy to white. Both Aaron and Stephanie wished that they had started their dieting a little earlier (their plan is to start on August 22nd after Aaron takes the DAT) so they weren't the biggest people in each picture, but oh well. Our kids are still cute. The ones shown here are not the actual pictures, just us taking pictures while the photographer does her work.

What a cutie. This has been the first installment of The UT trip blog. Stay tuned for the wedding day and a day in Provo Canyon where we were visited by two moosen. Thank you Brian Regan.