Sponge Ornament

After being up late working on Christmas cards (yes, procrastinator as always with this!) I walked by the Christmas tree and something caught my eye. Yes, a kitchen sponge delicately placed on our tree for all to see! I am guessing that the perpetrator is our very active and creative two year old. I don't know how long this has been there, but something really profound hit me in that moment as I chuckled out loud. How much have I missed over these past few weeks? Those little moments during the day when I am too busy to stop and play, or stop and listen...... I don't want to miss those Lord!!! Thank you for using my two year old's sponge ornament to remind me of that this Christmas season. I think I might make the sponge a permanent fixture on the tree this year......and maybe the next, too:)
Moral to the story: Soak in every moment with those you love!

Merry Christmas!

Cousins from Saint Louis

The Shaw Grandkids Together

Hummmm.....what move should I make next?
Two cuties:)
Muscle men

Hangin' out with my cuz

Two heart-throbs

Poor Sick Sarah.....couldn't miss the action though

Brothers......(and rivals!)

The Shaw Grandsons

Over Thanksgiving week we got to spend some quality time with David's brother and his family from Saint Louis. The kids had so much fun hanging out at Grandad and Grandma's and playing together. Unfortunately their time here went by WAY too quickly. Sarah was sick on our last day and Grandma made a makeshift recovery bed in the living room floor so that she could still be part of the action. Sarah picked the best place to get sick on earth! I got some really cute shots of the kids together. We miss them and hope to make tons of fun memories in the years ahead. We love you guys so much!!

"Girl Time" with Sarah

Gabby, Maddie and Sarah

Getting the dancers autographs

Sarah and the Sugar Plum Fairy

The Mommas

Notice the hot cocoa on the table:)

BFF's and the hot cocoa

Sarah with "Samantha" in front of American Girl Store

Looking over the menu together:)

Mmmmm.....hot cocoa! Sarah's fav!

The birthday girl (Aunt Joy), Samantha and Sarah

A few weeks ago all the "girls" got together at the American Girl Bistro to have lunch. Sarah brought her favorite doll, "Samantha", and we met Grandma, Grammie and Aunt Joy for a special lunch. Of course Sarah had to order some hot cocoa..... she is the biggest chocoholic I know! She and I also got to spend some mother/daughter time at the Nutcracker Tea last weekend. We went with two of her best friends and their mommies. Wouldn't you know that they served hot cocoa there too! She is going to wake up one of these days with chocolate fever!!

Fall Festivities

A spiderman, sleeping beauty and tiger
Where is Luke?

Our Tenacious Tiger:)


Look what I have!

Cowboy Shaw

Go Sarah! Go!

Our Indian Princess

Little Punkin'

Brothers: Spidy and Punkin?

The last week of October was full of all kinds of fall activities. Sarah's school had a fall festival where the kids dressed up as Indians, Pilgrims, Scarecrows, Cowboys or anything fall related. Sarah was determined to be an Indian girl this year (Last year she was a cowgirl:) I bought some brown felt and beads and we used our imagination to come up with an outfit. We came up with an Indian tunic/shawl/vest "thingy" and Sarah had a ball working on adding beads to it. It really turned out pretty cute.....since I have no sewing skills whatsoever, I was stuck with a pair of scissors, and I really was not sure what the end product was doing to be! I was thankful after a few "cuts" that it still looked fairly "Indian-like". The school had organized sack races, three-legged races, face painting etc.. Luke and Andrew dressed up like cowboys and everyone had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful fall day. The Lord's creation is truly breath-taking this time of year!! What an incredibly creative Father!! Thank you, Lord, for giving us so much beauty to enjoy!

(The other pictures are from Luke and Andrew's fall festival at preschool and hanging out with our friends and their children on Halloween night)

Happy Fall everyone!

Andrew's 2nd Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Andrew's 2nd birthday with a little get-together with family. The theme was "trucks, trucks and more trucks!" Andrew LOVES any kind of truck imaginable!! We had a lot of fun grilling hamburgers, playing with cousins and grandparents, eating Aunt Julie's adorable handmade truck cookies and celebrating the birthday of our youngest son. Happy Birthday, Andrew!! We love you more than you can fathom:):):)

Things Andrew is doing at two:

-loves to scribble and draw like his brother and sister

-points and names all the trucks and "choo-choo's" he sees wherever we go

-loves books......especially ones about (you got it!) trucks and trains!

-likes to dance and listen to music....always wants me to play the praise song "Holy" in the car (He sings holy, holy right on que too!)

-loves bath time....epecially splash time!

-loves food....pretty much everything but broccoli and green beans

-smiles and laughs all the time....very friendly and loves to greet people with a "hi" or "bye-bye"

-extremely independent (He walked into the first day at MMO with his own bookbag over his shoulder, ready to start the day!)

-likes to give his brother and sister (and mom and dad) a kiss and hug goodnight at bedtime almost every night

-squints his eyes really tight when we say the blessing at mealtimes....too cute!

-loves to help with dinner clean-up....grabs the mop or broom and does his best to maneuver it around the table!

-extremely ticklish especially when Daddy does the "tickle" monster game!

-loves riding his "big" wheel with his big brother and mowing the lawn (gotta train 'em early!)

-still love your pacifier (as you call it, "acy") gotta tackle that issue soon...not looking forward to it though:(

We love you big boy!! You are growing up way too fast, but what an honor it is to be your parents and have a front row seat to watch God's awesome plan for your life unfold.

Packing Up

Well, I am really still here..... the summer came quickly to an end and school started with a bang! Now here it is October already!! Yikes!! I will do a little recap of the summer/early fall soon of some of the Shaw family adventures. As for now, we have been packing and getting ready to put our house on the market.... I captured Andrew the other day playing with some of the tape and boxes!

Susanna's One!

Two weeks ago we celebrated my little niece's first birthday with a family celebration at Papa and Grammie's house. It was so much fun! I have posted some pictures from that special celebration. We also got to spend some awesome quality time with my sister and two nieces over at our home for 3 nights. We spent time at Great Grandma Dot's farm, going swimming at the Y, jumping at the local bounce house and going to Build-A-Bear. What a blessing to make such precious memories with our children! I love my little sis so much!!

Florida....Here we come!

Our home for the week
All the kiddos
Family Shot
The Emersons

Posing at the beach
"I got my paci and piece of ice....what more could a little man want?"
Momma and her boys (in a "pink" float?)

The digging crew
Showing brother how to dig
Still digging....

Daddy and the girls

Andrew's favorite beach activity
Oops! Lost a wheel!!
There he goes!

Pool time!
Fearless Andrew diving in face first
Watch out boys...big sis is gonna get ya!
Popcicle time.....always a favorite at the beach
Time to go "crabbing!"
"The catch"

I wanted to post some pictures from our trip last week to Ormond Beach, Florida. We spent a week playing in the ocean, building sand tunnels, riding the waves on our infamous "pink" float, eating delicious food, playing with friends, hunting for crabs at night, swimming in the pool and spending quality time with our precious kids. We were so blessed to go with our friends, the Emersons, and their three kids. We spent a long weekend with them last year, but we were able to stay a week this time! Probably the highlight of the trip was going to Disney World for a day. It was only about a 1 1/2 hour drive from where we were staying. We took our three kids and Ben (the Emerson's 7 year old). He was such a great help! The kids had never been and it has been 25 years since I visited there, so we needed the expertise of an "experienced" Disney World vacationer:) The kids had a ball! It was extremely hot and pretty crowded, but they hung in there! We got there about 10:15 am and did not leave until around 11:00pm.....we were exhausted, but it was so much fun. They got to ride "It's a small world", "Peter Pan", "Buzz Lightyear (2x), Thunder Mountain and the race cars. We also saw two shows, ate lots of ice cream, met Buzz Lightyear, saw the parade (both daytime and nighttime parades) and finished the day off with the fireworks show right over the castle. I think we took a total of over 200 pictures during the week (thanks to digital cameras) and here are a few (well , a lot.....I couldn't help myself!) of the highlights.