A Day in the Life of Rivers McKean Shepherd

Rivers days pretty much the same, and I think he's a pretty lucky kid! Here is a glimpse in to the life of Rivers McKean Shepherd:

Wake up around 7:00.  nurse on one side, diaper change, then play and watch TV while mommy gets ready for the day.

 Nurse on the other side and naps around 8:00. After that... Real breakfast, which includes oatmeal, a fruit and usually some cheerio's or a graham cracker...

 We usually have errands to do, this day I was helping dad fix something, I love to play with rolls of duct tape!

 I'm one lucky kid, I get to go on walks and sometimes I get rained on, but I'm lucky because mommy usually makes it up to me by going on another walk later :)

 I also get to explore outside, there is so much to see in our front yard.

 When I'm really lucky mommy lets me try some of her slurpee, I love slurpees!  I also love going on walks at the park!

 I recently learned how to pull myself up onto the furniture.  But mommy is always pulling me away from the TV  it's not fair...

 Have I told you how much I love the park!! Mommy says we're really lucky to live by Liberty Park, I get to play on swings and eat the grass, and all the old people stop to tell me how cute I am :)

 I love books, this is my current favorite, it's call "Eight silly monkey's"  Have you read it? It's a must!!

 My mom and dad also put this awesome fan in my room.  Now that I can crawl and stand, whenever mom isn't looking I go into my room and try to knock it over.  If you can't find me I'll be in here trying to cut my fingers off...

 I also love my sippy cup!  Nothing like a refreshing drink to help you relax.  I learned to do this after our road trip, that trip might have been more enjoyable if I would have learned sooner I think :)

 Lately I've refused to take my afternoon nap, so sometimes I get super sleepy during dinner.  On this night I get chicken and apples in my eyelashes and all over my arms.  Mom hated to wake me up, but I was a mess!

 So I had a bubble bath, but I found out you can't eat bubbles...

After baths we get ready for bed, and say good night to the house.  Once I'm convinced that nothing exciting is happening with out me I go right to sleep.  These are just the highlights of the day, there's lots more I don't like, like scripture study, family prays, naps.  Those things just stop me from playing and exploring.  I think they'll be more fun when I have discovered everything ever in the world.  For now I'll just pull mommy's hair, climb over daddy and get on my way.  I'm pretty lucky, I have a great mommy and daddy who love me and let me play, explore and learn.
Mommy is right, I live the life :)

Fourth of July!!

So I know I'm a bit behind on this post, but Scott got sick, then I got sick at the same time Rivers got sick and cut a tooth.  I spent many nights sleeping in a rocking chair comforting an unhappy little boy.  Loosing sleep sucks, but I"ll gladly loose sleep to take care of my sick baby who needs his mommy.  He isn't always sick, and he won't always want his mommy, so I'll take the extra snuggles and loves now while he's still so eager to give them.  We're all on the mend now, and we had a great holiday that need to be remember :)
I love any holiday that involves a chance to dress up, eat junk food, and stay up late.  Rivers sure know how to party!!

isn't his outfit just the cutest! My auntie Debi gave it to us, and it's a great summer outfit, plus he looked so festive :)

Here's how our Fourth of July we went down:

Was told by the Bishop in a meeting to spend time with family, have a BBQ, and blow something up with fire.  So, I did.

Scott got a 2 day Holiday from work, which never happens, but magically happened twice this month. With Scott's calling in the Sunday School presidency, and my in the Young Women presidency our Sunday's are pretty busy, and this weekend we both had to teach, so sadly we were unable to attend the baby blessing of Scott's cousins baby (with me on that one?).

After church however, we went down to Scott's grandma's house for the luncheon after.  It was so fun to hang out with all of Scotty's cousins, and show off my super cute little guy.  He loves being around people, and made sure to show off for everyone :)

While we were down there we took the opportunity to see Scott's great Grandma Alta, Rivers other Great Great Grandma, lucky kid has 2!

 Rivers LOVED her!  He was all hugs and stares, which means he thinks that person is important :)

 He was so cute!  He played in Grandma's yarn, and crawled around her house.  I don't think Grandma Alta was up for someone so excited, but she sure seemed happy to see the little guy

  After we visited Grandma Alta we drove over to see Scott's Grandfathers grave.  Rivers, Scott, Scott's dad Mark, and Grandpa Lee all have the middle name McKean after Jean McKean Shepherd. Jean is Scott's Great Great Grandma.  We took a photo, but It wouldn't upload.  I thought it was important for Rivers to visit his great grandpa's grave.  I never met Scott's grandpa, but he seemed like a great man and I hope we will try to go out there every year.  After we got home, we stayed up (including Rivers) and watched the neighbors fireworks.  Rivers loved them!  He only got scared once when one was really loud.  This kid has no fear :)

We woke up Monday and had great fun!  We went to breakfast, played with the neighbors, made cupcakes, and had a BBQ with Scott's other side of the family.  After we came home and watched the fireworks at Liberty Park from the comfort of our front lawn.  Rivers slept through all the chaos, which meant Scott and I got to enjoy the fireworks with our friends with out chasing a rug rat.

I'm grateful for Scott's family, and how wonderful they have been to us.  I'm also grateful for the chance we have to celebrate with all of them.  I want Rivers to know he's loved, and be proud of who he is.

I'm also grateful to live in a free country, and to be able to celebrate those freedoms :)

8 Months

Well it's that time again, for me to wonder how my little guy is getting so big.  After seeing some of the pictures of me with him on vacation I can't believe how big he really is getting.

Rivers is so much fun, I feel so blessed everyday I get to be his mom, even on nights like tonight when he throws a fit and won't go to sleep.

Rivers is becoming a trouble maker, ever since he learned to crawl he had found a way to get into everything. 

This is the before picture, first thing in the morning after he wakes up before breakfast and family prayer and scripture study, notice how clean the living room is, but also note the mischievous little child already looking for a mess to make.

 This is the after, taken the same day, after breakfast,t lunch and a nap.  I'm still not sure how he managed to pull that shelf out.  I have not altered anything in this room, in fact I would only poke my head and check on him while I was packing for our trip to California.  He has been so great with all the chaos of packing and washing and cleaning.  I love that he can crawl, because when he needs or wants me and I'm in another room he can find me.  His freedom has been a huge blessing for both of us.

Here is my guy at 8 months old!  Always with that little tongue out :)

At 8 months Rivers:

Still sleeps well, and wakes up at about 6:30 every morning no matter how early or late he goes to sleep

LOVES to eat

Still nurses, although lately he's been a bit... Distracted maybe, he only feeds for a short time, then wants to play, then wants to nurse then wants to play, so on and so on, not sure what to make of it.

Has a favorite blanket, and it's the ugliest out of all the ones he got, it's blue with angel kitties on it, and is a weird fleece material.  He has so many cute soft, silky blankets, and he goes for the one I almost re-gifted, go figure.

Is so curious!  I love it, he's always looking around or past me to see something, then wants to go over and investigate it.  It's so cute.

Follows me around the house.  Whatever room I'm in, whatever I'm doing, he just has to be there with me and know what I'm up to

Loves bath time.

Loves books

Loves to watch the weather forecast on the news, and any commercial with bright lights of fire.

Loves the swings and splash pad at the park.  I get mad when we go to the splash pad because there are always older children there covering the water with their feet, and Rivers can't crawl through it, I may start looking for a more baby friendly splash pad.

Loves people.  He will go to anyone who wants to hold him, but will only be held for a short time before he wants to explore, and once he warms up to people he babbles to them non-stop.

Still loves to go on walks

Demands the attention from everyone in the room. 

Figured out how to pull himself into a standing position.  He mastered this in California on the day he turned 8 months old.  Now he's trying to walk along the furniture.  I have a feeling he's going to be an earlier walker, much to my dismay.

He loves texture, he wants to touch and rub and knock on every surface, I live my life in complete fear of germs.  He licks people, walls, windows, clothes, toys, everything.

Loves to open cabinets and drawers, then close them again.

Can say da da, ga ga, ba ba, mmmmm, ah ah ah ah, and bap bap bap, but still hasn't mastered ma ma ma, which is the one I want to hear the most.

He is still the biggest mama's boy, but again no complaints there.

I just adore my amazing little man, and I'm so very blessed to be his mama :) 

Beach!!

So our whole trip is within the next four posts, They start with the road trip and end with the beach.  Please take a minute to read all of them, it was a great big trip!

We got to take Rivers to the beach while we were in San Diego, and to say he loved it was a bit of an understatement!  He thought it was great!  Right at the beginning he struggled, but only because he wanted to lick the sand, and ate I think more than he wanted to :)  After we got him cleaned off, and let him run around for a bit, he was incredibly happy.  Scott went boogie boarding with Uncle John (Rivers Uncle John, our brother-in-Law) and I played in the sand with my sweet boy. 

                                     
 Look at his cute swimming trunks :)

 Trying to find away to eat the sand with out it tasting bad...

 You can't tell in the picture, but his little face is covered with sand.  I'm still finding sand in his ears.

 Rivers didn't like the ocean too much, I think it was a bit too cold for him...

 He really wanted to build a sand castle...

 But we decided to bury Aunt Allison instead...

 For the record, we didn't put him on top of her like that, he wanted to be in the middle of all the action and climbed his way there.

Doesn't Allison make a lovely mermaid?  We loved the Beach and hope to go again soon :)

San Diego Zoo!!

Also on our trip we went to the famous San Diego Zoo.  We had a choice between the Zoo and Sea World, I thought the baby would like the zoo more, but I think I was wrong.  I think he was just a little vacationed out!  He whined and cried for the first half of the zoo, finally fell asleep for about half an hour, then was fussy the rest of the time.  The Zoo was awesome, but not as baby friendly.  It did have a cool bus tour where you could see a lot of the animals, and they had so many cute baby animals, I just didn't have a cute baby.  If I were to go again I would wait until he was a bit older and potty trained.

 Rivers is still super cute even at his worst! The above photo helped me realize I still have some weight loss work to do :( Look at he adorable child not his bloated mother ok...

 On the bus tour before the tantrum began...

 WE did see one interesting monkey on the way :)

 Look at the cute baby Flamingos! That little gray puff ball, only a few days old, so cute :)

 Baby Hippo snuggling with his mama, so cute!  Well for a hippo anyway...

 Daddy and Rivers by the mama Panda, she's sleeping in the back ground.  Don't you love Rivers Gilligan hat?

We saw a lot of animals, but I only took a few photos, the Polar Bear was swimming around, I thought I should get a photo since they're endangered and all...
I was really glad to go to the zoo, it was huge, and had so many more animals that our dinky little Hogle Zoo has.  I wish the baby would have been better, but you can't win them all...

DISNEYLAND!!!

So, Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth...  Rivers loved it! and was good while we were there.  He'd only have little bouts of fussiness when he was hungry, and Disneyland is super baby friendly!  They have a whole baby care center that provides everything you need.  I was able to nurse him, and change him, and feed him solids all in a comfortable cool place.  It made our time there so much easier!

Here are my sweet guys getting ready for our first day in Disneyland.  We spend two days there, and we were able to do pretty much everything I wanted to do, it was both mine, and Rivers first visits to Disneyland. In the above picture Rivers has on the cute homemade mouse ears his cousin Emily wore the day before, too cute!

 Classic picture in front of the garden, both Rivers and I have on our 1st visit pins :)  Too bad that family behind us had to look at the photos they took right there...

 Rivers and daddy, with a churro in front of the castle, I thought it would be bigger, and Rivers thought his pin was amazing :)

 Needless to say on a trip like this naps and schedules go out the window.  Rivers never got grumpy before naps, but he did fall asleep on my lap while in the Tiki room.  He slept this way while we waited in line for Pirate of  the Caribbean.   He loved both rides :)

 The next day around the same time he fell asleep in the Haunted Mansion.

 Mommy and Daddy went on Splash Mountain with a fast pass, while Aunt Christy, Uncle Matt, and cousin Emily watched Rivers, them they went with a stroller pass.  Genius! For some reason Scott and I got soaked on Splash mountain while others only got a bit wet.  Rivers thought it was funny.We waited in very few lines, and had such a good time that way.  Here is Mommy and Rivers on the train headed over to another part of the park.

 I thought this picture was really funny, it was nright before lunch time, and Rivers was such a grumpy pants waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride with Grandma and Grandpa.  He loved the ride, well all except the jerk at the end.  But the girl in the car behind him didn't like the jerk either.

 Just about the cutest mouseketeer I've ever seen :)

Before the fireworks at night, we tried to not stay our too late.  Luckily for us Rivers is a pretty good sleeper, and our hotel had a great view of the fireworks from the roof.  We were able to put him to bed then go out there with the monitor and watch the fireworks at night. 
Rivers loved every minute of Disneyland, no naps, being either in his stroller or held all day, lots of people to see, and lots of people telling him how cute he is.  Often Disney actors would stop and look at Rivers, I was tempted to start charging to take pictures with him!!  By my count at least 6 actors stopped to look and talk to him. 
It was truly magical, and we are already planning our next trip!

Road Trip!

We were very blessed this year to get to take a family vacation with Scott's family to California!! I'll post about the actual vacation separately, this post is just about our travel to and from. Scott's family left I believe Sunday afternoon, and arrived in California Monday morning. Scott had to work Monday, so we planned on leaving Tuesday morning and driving all day with Scott's brother Nathan. That all day drive was the hardest part of our journey. We had plenty of stops, and stayed cool with the AC, but we left at 6:45 in the morning Utah time, and didn't arrive at our hotel until 9:30 California time. That is one long day!! Scott and Nathan were troopers, stopping so Rivers could eat and play. Here are some photos of our trek...

 Our first stop was in Fillmore.  Here we had some breakfast, and diaper change and got to play for a bit.  Fillmore had a nice little rest stop/visitors center with a park.  It was a nice place to rest, but only for a few minutes, then back on the road!

 Our next stop was in Beaver, to stop in the Cheese factory.  I'd never been there, and Nathan really wanted to stop, and it's a good thing we did!  They were having customer appreciation day, and it was a real treat! We got entered into a raffle, got a free lunch (including a sandwich, chips, drink, cheese, and free ice cream) and bought some cheese curds.  Took a bit more time out of our journey than we planned, but was so worth it!!

 Here we are at the state line of Nevada and California.  We stopped many more times before this, in St. George, Mesquite, Baker, Barstow, and finally Anaheim.  We stayed there for a few days, then spent some time in San Diego.  We left there Sunday afternoon, then headed to St. George were we spend the night with Scott's Aunt and Uncle who live there.

 Also in St. George we stopped and visited Scott's Grandma and Grandpa who also live there.  This was the first time Rivers got to meet his Great Grand parents.  They're great friends now :)

 If you know me at all I love Palm trees. The whole trip I wanted a picture by a palm tree, St. George was our last shot to get one, this tree is in front of Scott's Grandpa's house.

Here is Rivers doing his part to get us home safely from St. George.  When he'd get really fussy and whiny, I really wished I could just put him on my lap drive with him.  He was a real trooper!!

On our trip back we also stopped and visited Scott's other Grandma in Spanish fork. 

If you decide to make this journey yourself with an 8 month old I recommend leaving early and spending the night in St. George.  The trip back was so much better than the trip there, we weren't pressed for time and could pull over and let the baby play when ever he needed.  Plus we got to see Scott's family which is always fun :)

Stay tuned for the rest of our journey.