Christmas in Santa Barbara

 Logan loves his aunt Kristin and uncle Ken!

 The Shrode Clan

Logan trying to open a gift (he didn't really get the concept)

After returning home from Utah we had Christmas at our house with the Shrode Clan. Justin's mom came up to stay at our home while we were away to take care of our animals. She made an awesome dinner for us with some pasta salad, green salad, and so much more! Justin BBQ'd a couple of tri-tips. Logan finally has his own Jumperoo so no more borrowing from Nicole, he can now jump at his leisure :) Thank you all for making it such a fun Post-Christmas Christmas!

Christmas in Utah

Little cousins Logan and Brooklyn

Can you tell if Kelsey likes her gift?!

We were so happy to be able to go to Utah for Christmas this year since that is where Grandma Ruth is living now. Karen made a wonderful dinner (minus the yams that got left in the oven and created this charred volcano of marshmellows), and we all ate until we were too stuffed for dessert. Kelsey cleaned up with so much princess stuff and Logan got the cutest dump truck and cement mixer truck and some adorable outfits! We went to the St. George LDS Temple to see the lights after we opened gifts. It was so pretty but Nicole said didn't have nearly as many lights as the Los Angeles Temple did. Kelsey is a runner so Aunt Holly volunteered to chase her (mostly because I needed the exercise). Thank you all for a wonderful christmas!

Temple at night.

Great Aunt Terry-Ann

 Logan got to meet his great-aunt Terry-Ann on our way to Utah. We feel so bad because everytime we are in Las Vegas we are on such a time crunch that we haven't been able to go visit her (eventhough come to find out she's only a 7 min drive from Holly's cousin's house). So this time we made it a priority and thank goodness. She is such a sweetheart and she even had a little christmas gift for Logan (a soft book with teething corners, such a lifesaver for the last 2 hours in to Utah!!!). Next time we are going to spend more time with her but so happy that she finally got to meet Logan (and Holly).

6 Months Old

Here is my 6mo old little man. He is getting cuter and cuter as the days go by (although I'm totally biased but a girl at Babies r Us said he was really cute, and she would know!). He is now rocking on his hands and knees scooting to where he wants to be on his belly. Babbling all the time except on command for other people. Loves to be held at church by all the older kids. Still sleeps in my arms which is so precious. Still sleeping for 12hrs at night and still no teeth! Happy 1/2 Birthday Baby!!!

Santa!

 Meeting Santa

 He was so chill the whole time!

 Logan's first letter to Santa. He wants a puppy and a bicycle!

Daddy's turn!

Logan was such a good boy on Santa's lap. Not a single cry out of him, but we could not coax a smile out of him for our lives! After seeing Santa we meandered over to Macy's so that Logan could send a letter off to the North Pole.

Thanksgiving 2010

 

Our table

 Kelsey loving on Logan

Logan loving on Brooklyn

This was the first year we had thanksgiving without Grandma at home :(. So it was up to me to throw our shindig together. At first it was just going to be Justin, Logan and I, but as the weeks drew closer we had just about all our family rsvp! Justin's mom Susan came and made her famous sweet potatoes (and I got to see her make them this time so I now know how), Ken (Justin's brother) and his dad Ted; Nicole and Evan brought their daughters Kelsey and Brooklyn. Nicole even made spicy sausage stuffing like our Grandma Nutt used to make. By request I made pumpkin chiffon pie, to be honest I'd never really cared for pumpkin pie, but I am now converted to the chiffon style...yum! 

Originally we were only going to have ham, but remember how I said that we were getting more guests as the weeks went by, well we got the ham in the mail on Wed. (that's right folks, online ordering) and it looked so tiny!! Looking back it was for sure enough but Justin went to the store to buy a small turkey just the same. So lets add it all up: Nicole made stuffing, Susan made sweet potatoes, that leaves me with: Mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin chiffon pie, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls (store bought thankfully) and the infamous Turkey. Guess what, everything came out great! I am so surprised to be honest. Couldn't have done it without my helpers though.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holly and Justin's New Websites

Please check out Holly's new venture at http://kissyfacedesigns.blogspot.com/

And Justin's NEW website at http://justintimemcr.com/

New Endeavors

As a few of you already know Justin doesn't plan on humping lumber for the rest of his natural life. This last month they were given the opportunity to show off the artistic side of the business. The sculpture he and his buddy created was a 5 foot tall 6 foot long bronze welded piece. It was commissioned as a gift from a husband to his wife of 50 years. The abstract piece symbolized the eternity of them coming together as well as abstract male and female pieces meeting in the middle. We hope to get more of these jobs in the future and it was a really nice break from the norm.

 In the trailer to be delivered. (Better pictures are coming later)

Thank you to all our friends that helped us move this beast!

4 Months Old

Oh man, time is flying by. Logan is a champ in the rolling dept and he's started going up on his elbows and knees. We got to go to LA to be a part of his little cousin Brooklyn's blessing which was a lot of fun and Logan was able to meet his cousins-in-law. This little guy is still a blessing in the sleeping and crying dept. and mommy has been able to get little breaks here and there now that the naps have a schedule. He's trying out new foods (see other post) and is so much more interactive now. Mom has to be careful what's in her hands because it or her hands will eventually end up in his mouth.

 "Yeah I'm cute!"

 The family at Brooklyn's blessing

 "Whuzzzz uuuuup?!"

Trying to crawl

I love to Eat, Eat, Eat, Eat

We're in for it, our love of food has reared it's head in our child. He's been smacking his lips for a couple months now watching as we eat and when we got the go ahead from our Doc to start introducing food we were pleasantly surprised/shocked at how well he took to eating. So far it's been rice cereal and green beans (which even though he made a face he kept eating). Since we're introducing food on the early side of the spectrum we're doing just one small "tasting" a day. And mom got smart and mixed a little apple juice with the green beans to make them a bit more appetizing (because reenacting the Exorcist scene was not my idea of a fun afternoon). So far so good, we'll finish off the green beans today and then on to something orange, perhaps carrots!

PS I love my camera!!!!!!!

3 months old already!

This little guy has some personality to spare for sure! I snapped these for his 3 month birthday. I must say he is one little handsome devil. He's so strong too! Already doing push ups and rolling over. He likes to blow bubbles and talks up a storm! Sleeps from 8:30pm until 7 am everyday and is usually really good about going down for naps (I say usually because today was a bit of a challenge). We got to welcome his little cousin Brooklyn into the world, we've gone to the zoo (but he was asleep the whole time), we go for walks by the mission and we're so excited to finally get his nursery decorated (previously sharing it with our office stuff left little room for flair).

Happy Birthday little Logan, we all love you so much :)

Logan's first giggle!

I was so lucky last night to hear Logan's first giggle and Justin was home too! I was changing his diaper and tickling him and out it burst, I yelled at Justin "Hurry Hurry" (and he's starting to get that when I'm yelling for him to kick it in to high gear so that he doesn't miss anything) he grabbed the video camera and we got it on video. Now I just need to record him rolling over, I never seem to have the camera handy when he does that!

Kelsey=future american idol

So she is obsessed with Little Mermaid and since my sister posted a video I figured I should too.

Logan Month Two

Logan finally smiled!!!!!

He did it this past week when Grandpa Nutt and Grandma Chloe and Great-Grandma Nutt were visiting. We had a great time just hanging around the house, even got some of Nicoles craft projects done, thanks for helping me sew!

Logan Month One

From top right going clockwise: Logan's first official bath (the real first one happened at 2am when he spit up all over himself), Aunt Nicole and Kelsey, Logan's "Kissy Face", Grandpa Ted/Aunt Kristin/Uncle Ken, Angela and Jared, Kelsey loving baby Logan.

Logan's Birth

Nicole has been bugging me to join the Picasa collage revolution...so here are some images from Logans birth.

Sorry about the graphic nature of the poop, hope you didn't eat lunch yet!

Kissy Face

I finally got a picture of the "kissy face". Thanks for your help Nicole :)

Logan Theodore Shrode

Born on 6/10/10 at 8:14pm; 9lbs, 5oz; 20 3/4 inches long; head and chest circ. 14cm (what!!??)

Here is baby Logan finally making his appearance into the world. It was a very long day, I had a bad reaction to the induction meds and ended up with a 3 hour long rollercoaster contraction, then 5 hours later had the craziest contractions before my epidural (needless to say I was screaming "GIVE ME THE DRUGS!!!". He was really big 9lbs, 5oz, and we were all worried about him fitting. Luckily for me I have the greatest doc ever and she was so supportive and encouraging (not to mention all the physical labor she put into it all as well) and we were able to have him naturally, HOORAY!!!

On our way in!!!





















Kisses for good luck!
















Little Baby Logan!!!!!!

The Preggers Twins

So nice to be able to be going through this with my sis! She's a few months behind me (I'm 37 weeks and she's 24 weeks) and just now starting to look pregnant. Good thing too because I'm about to pop!

Work, Work, Work

So I figured since I'll be taking some time off fairly soon that I'd show off a little of the work I do. I'll be going back to my graphic design job after the baby, but taking less responsibility than before. Hope you enjoy!

These are some websites I've designed (but not put up on the web, someone else does that), I did the artistic creation of the pieces and the design of how things should look as a whole.
Ponderosa Arabians
Magnum Arabians
Congressional Arabians
Green Pastures Arabians (soon to be on the web)

And some ads

Hennessey Arabians

Ponderosa Arabians

Mirage V
Hennessey Arabians

Maternity Shoot

Here's a sneak peek of what I spent my afternoon doing today. Rachel was amazing and holy cow went above and beyond what I expected. Four hours and many outfits later this is just one of what's to come! Thanks Rachel!!!! Steele The Moment Photography rocks!
Justin was playing with these blocks for like 10 min after we used them for another shot, he came up with some great photos on our camera and then shoved his hand into this shot. It turned out awesome!
Can I tell you how freakin' happy I am that we finally have some awesome family shots of us!!! After the wedding (which we got some awesome shots from, so don't think I didn't like them) we were still kinda missing "that one" that was just us and deserved to be blown up and be on our wall. I'm really excited to see what else Rachel has in store for us!

Busy Busy Busy

Well, so much is going on right now. First Nicole and I took Kelsey to Texas to visit our dad and grandma. We had a great time, Kelsey loved bread, hated bed time. Thanks darling for preparing me for motherhood. Grandma was so happy to meet Kelsey for the first time and it was great to see her too, the last time was at my wedding almost 2 years ago! Way too long.

Justin and I are having...... A BOY!!! We are so excited because that is what we were hoping for. When I was in Texas my step mom Chloe took Nicole and I to a kids resale store and i'm not even kidding bought out the store! It was so fun to get prepared for the little one and we found some amazing deals (like a $50 vest for $5, and a super cute wool jacket for $4).

So it's back to the grind for a few weeks then Justin and I are going on a weekend couple retreat with our church. We've never done anything like this so it'll be interesting for sure. I'm looking forward to just being able to focus on us. Hope all is well with all of you and we'll keep you posted on any other new news.

It's a Boy!!!