phrase of the week

When Shaun was working at Fidelity investments in New Hampshire. He had a Chinese women with a thick accent, who would call about her investments. She was a funny lady. One day she started telling Shaun about the people she worked for and then she said with a feisty attitude and thick Chinese accent, "What do they think I am? Cheap Chinese labor!....I don't think so!!"

Shaun and I have adopted this phrase. Every now and again we'll say it. Like the other day when Shaun asked me to do something for him. I turned to him and in my best Chinese accent I said, "Cheap Chinese labor!......I DON'T THINK SO!"

It makes us laugh every time. :)

The ZOO

On Saturday we went to the Phoenix Zoo. I love the Zoo and had a great time with Shaun and Max. Here's some photo's of our day at the Zoo.

This picture does not capture just how beautiful and huge this Golden Eagle was. So amazing.

Just LION around.

Isn't she lovely

Love bird Rhino's. These two are HUGE! Really cool to see. So cute snuggled together.

The ugliest animal.

Amazing color! So vivid.

The wildest of them all.

Freestone Park

Shaun only had to work a half day on Good Friday. So we went and had a picnic at Freestone Park. I love this park. It's beautiful. It has a huge waterfall feature, a lake full of ducks, playgrounds, rolling hills with trees, and cute little amusement park rides. With a train that runs around the park. It's a great place for a picnic.

I really am holding on to his hand in this picture. It just looks like he went down by himself. I love it!

big daddy in a little slide....

feeding the ducks

getting a lot of sand everywhere. Even having a taste of it.

Look at these adorable little duckies! I was thrilled when I saw them. So cute!

The monstrosity

We've had a 26 inch T.V. in the living room for a while now. Shaun has had it for 10 years. I guess in Men years that's like a 100 years to have such a small T.V. So Shaun went and got a 46 inch flat screen HD T.V.

When he brought home the box. I just about died. You're kidding me right? We're going to put that in our living room. So Whenever someone comes over, I can say, "Welcome to our house where the T.V. lives."

I told him it was way to big to be going into the living room. It's a small space. That big of a T.V. would over shadow everything in the room. I was sure I was going to have nightmares about being crushed by a giant T.V.

Shaun tells me that if he was single he would have gotten a 72 inch T.V. Oh thanks for bringing it down a bit for me. (insert playful eye roll) haha.

When we got it out of the box and put it in the corner for all to see. Even are neighbors across the street could watch T.V. comfortably. It was definitely large.

I do love watching T.V. and movies on it. It's a really nice T.V. The only problem is, Some channels have HD. So now, If the channel doesn't have HD. I think it looks like crap. Shaun is now pushing to get all the channels in HD. Ummmm.....We'll see. That of course, Would cost more money.

We also got Dish Network which has NESN (New England Sport Network). A channel that Shaun grew up watching in New Hampshire. He's really excited about it. I'm glad he can enjoy a little bit of the New England world while living in AZ. Especially because it's killing him that he wont be able to take Max out on the frozen pond to play hockey.

I guess it will always be that us women want more shoes and men want more inches on the T.V. Soon whole walls will be one ginormous T.V. :)

8 years

On March 2nd, Shaun and I celebrated 8 years of marriage.It was a wonderful day. Our plan was to go out that night to dinner. At about 10:30am Shaun calls me from work and tells me to go to the door because there's something there for me. I head to the door with a smile on my face, thinking that he's sent me flowers. He's never had flowers sent to me before. He's given me flowers but never has had them delivered to me.

I open the door and it's Shaun with flowers and some chocolate covered strawberries! I LOVED IT! What a great surprise! I got a little gitty, I have to admit. And the flowers were gorgeous.
Then he said that he got a babysitter for Max and he's taking me out to lunch and a movie. And It didn't end there. Shaun wrote me the most beautiful letter. He had spent months on it! MONTHS!! How sweet. It was even better because Shaun is more of the every day great husband. He normally has no idea what to do for the special occasions. I guess after 8 years he's learning. As am I. Which is a good thing. I loved that he went ahead and planned everything! And then surprised me.
The letter was cleaver, endearing, and made me cry....that was embarrassing....I don't like to cry. It meant so much to me that he really put a lot of thought and time into it. It was the kind of letter that will be going in my "important file box." You know, the one with all the important papers and things in it, the one that you would grab if there was ever a fire. It's the kind of letter I could and will read over and over again.
He read all the verses 8 in the Book of Mormon and then chose 8 of them and applied them to me with commentary. That was part of the letter. The whole letter was very cleaver, thoughtful, and touched me deeply.
Here is a sneak peak of the letter. Just a peak. I want the rest to be cherished by me only. to be shared between Shaun and I.
1 Nephi 8:8 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. Shaun's words: "This verse reminds me of you inner purity, goodness, and your beauty. You're naturally good, I saw this when we first met and this characteristic attracted me to you. This verse fits you perfectly."
AND....Shaun's words: "I love how you trust to confide in me all your feelings and thoughts. I know you do not open up to anyone else the way you do to me. This is what marriage is about, It's about being there for each other at all times.

There's a sneak peak for you. Except, Shaun also found things in history that happened on March 2nd, and put it in the letter. I thought I would share them with you. Dr. Seuss was born, 1904. The city of Boston was attacked in 1777. (The same city that Shaun and I got married. :) Grave robbers stole Charlie Chaplin's body in 1978. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one game in 1962.
AND, The best thing, Shaun and Ammie were married for time and all eternity in the Boston, Massachusetts temple.
Thank you Shaun for making me feel so special. :) As for the rest of you, I hope I didn't make you all want to throw-up or feel uncomfortable reading something so personal to me as the letter. Because for me it was more than just a sappy letter or post. It was real and it came from the heart with real intent and thought. Personalized just for me. That's why it meant so much to me. It wasen't just I love you, It was WHY I love you. :)

Phrase of the week

Sometimes, After Shaun has exhausted all his efforts to feed Max, Or to get him to go to sleep. I've rescued him and Max will guzzle down the food right away, Or I'm able to get him to sleep easily.
So, The other day after an attempt by Shaun to feed Max a bottle before he went to bed. With no success. I took Max and he begun drinking the milk right away. With no problems.
"What are you? The Max whisperer." Said Shaun. I burst out laughing. The Max whisperer! Not the horse whisperer, Not the dog whisperer, But..........The Max whisperer!
Shaun is an amazing daddy. But, I guess sometimes you just need the Max whisperer. :)

All though, As of late, Even the Max whisperer is having trouble! Now what are we going to do? ;)

The phrase of the week..................The Max whisperer.

Family Photos

On New Year's Day. I decided that we MUST go out and take some family photos. As soon as Max woke up from his afternoon nap. We headed out to take the pictures. My brother in law Thom let us borrow his really nice camera lens. I'm so happy we did this! I think the pictures turned out really nice.
I love how we were able to capture Max's little personality. :)

New Year's Eve

This is where Shaun and I spent New Year's Eve. On the couch.

In our pajamas

OK...

OK...

Not in sexy, silk, and overly cheesy matching pajamas

But.....

Maybe in head to toe matching leopard print?

NO...

NO...

NO...

We went for the more traditional. I had on my comfy striped flannel pajamas and Shaun had a T-shirt with his flannel pajama bottoms. They did not match. ;)

We watched a movie and ate popcorn.

I turned to Shaun and said, "When did we become so lame?" The last couple years we have been going over to our neighbors party. I just couldn't justify keeping Max up or waking him up to go over to the party at 10:30pm. So......we snuggled up on a comfy couch in our comfy pajamas, with popcorn, and watched a movie. While Max was sound asleep in his bed.

I then decided that being "lame" wasn't so bad. ;)

I told Shaun that when Max gets older. We had to party and make it super fun for him and for us. Until then? We might just continue to be...........lame. ;) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's to many more "lame" and "partying" Years together. :) :) :)

The M&M dilemma

For some neighbors and friends. I made some bags filled with pretzels and red and green M&M's. I rolled up a story on pretzels like a scroll and wrapped it all with a red bow. (see post below for pretzel story.)

While I was making the bags. I ran out of M&M's. While I was gone. Shaun went and got more M&M's. He then made up the bags. With scroll and bow. I was impressed. Until I came home and what do I find in the bags? REGULAR colored M&M's. Ahhhhhh! The horror of it! Why would you get regular colored M&M's? When you can find.........festive......red and green M&M's.......everywhere!! Why do men have no festive sense? I'm almost tempted to write a note with the bags that have regular colored M&M's. That would read, "Sorry the M&M's are the regular colored ones. I realize that you can buy the festive, Christmas colored M&M's everywhere. It's Shaun's fault." ;)

Zoo lights

Shaun, Max, and I went to see the zoo lights at the Phoenix zoo. Shaun was really disappointed. He thought the animals were going to be out. The only real animals we saw were a camel, zebra, and an otter. We did see a whole bunch of animals lit up through out the park. It was cute. If Max was older. He would really have enjoyed seeing all the animals lit up. It was a fun night out.
Here's some pictures of some of the animals. The pictures aren't the best. Enjoy!

Monkeys in the trees

One of the REAL animals. They were giving camel rides.

I had to put Max in his Zaney Zebra sweat shirt for the occasion. I'm weird like that. I also made his knitted hat. I really enjoy making them for him.

Max was more into dad's hat then the lights.

I love Christmas time.