Motherhood: Not for Whimps

So, over the last few days I was reflecting on to the last few years, as I was making Thanksgiving plans and shopping lists.  I began to reflect on last year and how hard it was.  Hard for a few reasons.  One, I had a newborn.  Two, I was still on maternity leave so we had very little income.  Three, Rivers had Colic. Four, Still nursing every 2 hours. Five, Postpartum.
All these factors made Thanksgiving last year really hard on me. I spent the evening crying being mad at my husband and my baby.  It wasn't really either of their faults, but at the time I blamed them both.  It's amazing what a year can make!
Upon my reflection I began to think about all the insane things my child does. From that I began to wonder what his thought process was.  These are a few of the highlights of my wondering...

 He doesn't even like watching TV.  Why would he want to pull out all the DVDs?  He so happy about it too!!

 I'm not sure what's going on here, or how he managed to turn his chair or climb up on it, but he spent most of the morning here throwing toys yelling "Boooom!!"

 Why are there clean folded socks on the kitchen rug, and why would anyone leave them there? Further more why would you pull them out with no intention of wearing them?

 So, this one was actually really fun.  He climbed into my armour and would pop out and say "Boo".  I decided to climb in and try it out too.  Coolest mom ever!!!

 I'm not even sure what's going on here....

 Out of all of Rivers' cool toys he still finds my pots and pans and bowls more interesting.... He spends hours pulling them out and moving them around the house.  I found a pot lid in the tub the other day along with my work shoes and a book.  Really?

 One drink is never enough....

Why go trick or treating when you can just crawl under your high chair and eat food off the floor?

I love my baby, who is now a toddler.  A year ago I wouldn't have ever thought how cute and fun he would be.  I may not understand the way his changing brain works, but it certainly is fun trying to figure it out.
I must go now, there is a number of huge messes in my house I need to clean
Until next time....

Novembeard: Ummmm... lots of pictures of Scott's face

So I got super behind, and I maybe be missing a few days, but we are in full beard effect here at the Shepherd home.

It looks pretty awesome!
Oh what a crazy husband I have!!

One Year Photos

I have a ton of beard photos to up load, but these were on a CD and so much cuter...  Not that Scott's face isn't super cute, but Rivers face is just too cute!!
My sister-in-law got a new job at fotogenix in Sandy and needed a test child to take pictures of, it worked out great with me having a child I needed to photograph.
The photos turned out great! Poor Rivers was starting to get super sicky this day and was just in no mood to smile for the camera, but Allison did a great job and he still looks super cute!!
I still can't believe he's a year old.  Where is the time going seriously?
Enjoy my baby :)

This one is my favorite! He loved being in that barrel!

He is just so handsome!! 

Novembeard: Days 4-7

So I was lazy this weekend and got way behind on my beard posts, well Scott's beard posts :)

Day 4

Day 5

 Day 6

 Day 7

I may not have posted, but I did take pictures :).  He's so cute even though on Sunday he was being a poor sport about my close up photos. 

Funny story:  On Sunday, while in the chapel waiting for sacrament to start our sweet neighbors sat in front of us and we began chatting.  The father was at work so it was just the mom and her 3 kids, I also serve in the Young Women's with her, so we see them quite a bit (plus they live next door).  Well I guess it had been a while since they saw Scott, because their oldest daughter, Wynn,  looked at Scott and says "Scott!! Why do you have hair all over your face??" 

We chuckle and told her that for the month of November Scott has decided not so shave.  Wynn looks at Scott and laughs, and her mom turns to her and says "Don't tell dad ok!"

We laughed as she explained that she liked daddy without hair on his face and that she didn't want him to get any ideas. 

Scott seems to be getting a lot of attention form his beard :)

On a side note.  On Saturday before I headed to the store Scott and I decided to let Rivers run around outside and play briefly in the snow.  Poor guy was so excited that he fell flat on his face!!  I was so sad, and so was Rivers.  We cleaned him up and went out anyway.  His nose looks fine now, and he has a nice bruise on his forehead.  This adventurous little boy of mine....







Doctors Appointment

Rivers had his 1 year Doctors appointment today.
Same old same old.
Here are his stats:
Weight:  19 lbs 4% tile (He's never going to be big enough for a front facing car seat!)
Height:  31 Inches 86% tile (long and lean)
Head:  47 cm 68% tile

He shot up in height, and not so much in weight, but since he's growning everything is okay.
The sad part of this visit was that he had to have SEVEN shots!!!
I still hate shots, and I think I cried as much as he did.
These shots were pretty tough on him, and it's been a rough day.

 After a sucker at the doctors and saying hi to Grandpa the poor guy was pooped!!  He didn't even wake up when I took him out of the car. He's never done that.

 Look at all those band-aids :(  So sad, he didn't even want to walk or play, just sit in his chair playing with some beads and drinking his sippy cup.  He was so miserable.

 He just laid on the floor while I made dinner, he did have a sucker so it wasn't all bad.

 Look at those skinny little legs and cute little feet!!  you can also see some spots from the needles and the band-aids.

He was ready for dinner and for a bath, bedtime followed shortly after.  He was ready to call it a day!!

Now we are ready to ween and I can hopefully have that done by Thanksgiving.  I'm struggling with this idea.  He doesn't eat too much adult food and I'm nervous he won't get enough to eat with out nursing.  He did have some formula to kinda ease his way away from me, and I'm so glad I was able to nurse!  I found getting formula ready was harder than lifting my shirt, and it gave him a terrible tummy ache!! 
But now we can move to cows milk, which I hate, but seems like the best option for now. 

Novembeard: Day 3

Looking good honey, looking good!!

Novembeard: Day Two

Day two.  Looking nice and scruffy.  Looking good  honey, keep up that 5 o'clock shadow!!

Novembeard: Day One

We celebrate (ok that's a lie) a little thing around here called Novembeard.  Some people call it No Shave November, but we think Novembeard is such a cooler name.  Scott hasn't been able to celebrate because of his job (cooks with beards? Kinda creepy).  So he was stoked to do so this year!
All month long we post a picture to show off this awesome time of year :)

Halloween!!

We had a very busy weekend!!
Lots of being cute, and family stuff, and candy.
It's a hard life.
Our weekend started out with my Great-Grandma's 95 birthday party.

The birthday kids :)

We went to her home and had a Halloween themed party with all of my my mom's cousins and aunts and uncles, who just thought my little man was the cutest thing ever, and I'm not one to argue when people go crazy for my baby :)

After that we went to a dear friend of ours wedding reception, Congrats Holmsteads, we love you :)

Their reception was across the street from the Zoo, so after we decided to head over to the "Boo at the Zoo"
It was fun, we got some candy and got to see some animals, Rivers LOVED IT!!!

YUM YUM it's mom and her hamburger

He loved this turtle

all he wanted to do was bite this wire... gotta build up that immune system somehow

Rivers is taller than an infant gorilla, in case you were wondering...

After all this fun, we came home and slept and went to church (well most of church.. I'll tell you that story some other time)
Sunday night was my Grandma Hulses' annual Halloween party.  Rivers is finally big enough to play with all the other great grand kids and loved running around and eating everyone elses food.
I didn't take any photos while we were there, but I know some others did so I'll call that good.
We went home and carved pumpkins and made Carmel apples, YUM

Finally, Monday was Halloween!!

We had a busy day, Scott had class, then we went and saw Grandma Hulse before she went to work for some trick or treating, then went and got a pizza from my old boss, then to Grandma Shepherds for some more trick or treating.  After we cam home had dinner and got ready for our ward "trunk or treat"  so I've never participated in a trunk or treat outside of NY.  I had no idea what to expect.  Well after we ran out of candy we decided to go real trick or treating in the neighborhood.  Since most of our neighbors aren't LDS we got to go meet them and introduce ourselves.  They were super excited to see my cute hamburger, and glad that "younger families" are moving into the neighborhood.  Rivers got quite a haul and managed to grab a sucker from his bucket, he then ate it all night long.  He yet again stayed up past his bedtime for the third night in a row.
We had a great weekend, and now I've got to put up the Thanksgiving decorations, and take some photos of Scott... it is Novembeard after all....