Friday, September 28, 2007

Christmas Letter

Every year about this time I begin my annual Christmas Letter.

I know, I know it’s WAY early, but I try to get stuff put down “on paper” so I don’t miss anything fun or interesting that has happened to us during the year. It also takes me this long to agonize over how boring and the same my life is every year - I need time to come up with interesting things about us.

Sadly this year I realized that everything of interest is on our blog. I’m just rehashing what I post daily. I suppose there are some who don’t read the blog and the news I’m providing in letter format is new to them, but still…

Perhaps I could just send out Christmas letterhead with “See our latest news at
http://jhshepherd.blogspot.com” printed in really big letters along with our family photo (which we need to get taken…)

For those of you who blog, how are you handling this little situation?

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Bowling with Cosmo

For weeks all we've heard around our house was "I want to go bowling with Cosmo!!!" K-BYU (tv station) had created Cosmo's Kids Club and if you joined (among other things), you could attend events with Cosmo, the BYU mascot. This month's activity was bowling at the BYU Games Center.

The pestering worked, we finally joined. Then we waited for our shirts and membership cards to arrive. They didn’t. We called and were told to just go down and they’d have a card waiting for them there. They would then be able to bowl with Cosmo for $1.

After leaving late from home on a Friday night and getting caught in no less than 3 accidents on I-15, and construction in Provo, we made it to BYU at 6:15 p.m. The event was scheduled from 6-7 p.m. I then had to do the whole search for VISITORS parking, but ended up hoping that the signs weren’t tricking me when I parked in the Permit Parking lot that also sported the words “Faculty Parking Only 7 am – 4 pm”. At this point, I didn’t care if I got a ticket, I was parking there!

We headed for the Games Center inside the Wilkinson Center. At 6:20 it wasn’t super crowded, and the kids saw Cosmo and began freaking out (not in a good way). As I comforted them, I paid the $1 per kid to bowl (there was no membership card waiting BTW) and we headed out to find balls and get set up on our lane.
At this time, Brooke is freaking out. She has no desire to bowl and wants Cosmo to stay FAR away from her. While I try to put shoes on her she is shaking and crying to go home. Luke is overcome by his love of bowling and is willing to watch Cosmo from a distance as he has not yet discovered we are there.
So, Luke begins to bowl his turn and then I take Brooke out and together we bowl. As time goes on, she remembers that she likes bowling and mom’s assistance is no longer required. She is doing little dances to the Disney kids’ music they are playing. All the while, we are watching Cosmo visit with others.
Finally, Luke asks me when Cosmo is going to come over and say “hi” to him. I call Cosmo over and he and Luke high-five. Brooke sees that Luke hasn’t been harmed in any way and comes over for a high-five too. I am able to get 2 shots of them all together and then Cosmo watches Brooke bowl and congratulates her on hitting some pins.

My kids were in heaven! Cosmo wasn’t scary Mom! He was cool! As a treat, we went up to the Cougar Creamery and got ice cream cones. What did the kids have? LaVell’s Vanilla.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Loose Tooth

Luke woke us up yesterday yelling "I have a loose tooth!!!!"

Oh, my! Is it already time for that? I'm not sure I'm ready to see my little guy missing his front teeth (it's on the bottom). It's not super loose, so it will be a while (I think) before it goes, but still (sniff, sniff), it's going to go, his first baby tooth.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Vices

Last weekend while camping with my in-laws, Luke was asked what Mom & Dad would be doing while they were home alone.

"They're going to stay home and SMOKE."

Today, I told Luke to have Dad help him with breakfast. Luke threw a fit and said he didn’t like Dad because he does bad things. “Like what?” I asked in my most annoyed voice.

“He drinks alcohol!”

A very surprised Jason yelled from the kitchen “I have never touched alcohol in my life, son!!”

I sincerely hope our kids aren’t telling strangers and teachers this stuff!! Where they came up with these two vices for their parents, I’ll never know!!!

The World According to 5 Year Olds

This week I have been informed of some interesting facts about 5 year olds (by my 5 year old):

Fact: "Mom, did you know five year olds think carrots make you fart?"

Fact: "Five year olds don't have to go to Kindergarten!"

Fact: "Five year olds don't have to eat Noodle Roni (or whatever else they don't want to eat)!!"

It seems that five year olds have their own set of rules and ways of doing things that no other age has ever had before. This year should be very interesting!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Must Read

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Identity Crisis

My daughter has informed me several times this evening that her name is Spinach Shepherd.

Gotta Dance!

Brooke started dance class today. She will be learning tap and ballet. She has been so excited to start. After class she told me she had SO MUCH FUN!!!

What a poser!

Thumbs Up!

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Day at the Museum

Yesterday while Jason was covering the BYU game, Paul & Karlie and I took the kids to the Children's Museum downtown at the Gateway.
Luke, Sam & Brooke try rock climbing... The waterworks was the kids' favorite play area.
"May I help you ma'am?"
Playing house
with Abby









Wish she'd do this for real at home!






Playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Despite the ridiculous cost ($8.50 a person) it was a fun time had by all. I would avoid going on a Saturday afternoon next time – it was rather crowded. The kids had so much fun. It was great spending time with family. We don’t see Paul and Karlie often enough!

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Game Day

It's BYU's season opener today. Here we are decked out in our "Y" gear!


Final Score:
BYU 20
Arizona 7

Child Labor

After eating a cookie on the couch, despite being told not to, Brooke was taught how to vacuum the crumbs up. She has repeated this chore numerous times recently. She tells me how much fun it is, so I'm pretty sure she's making messes on purpose!
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Luke's 5th Birthday

For Luke's 5th Birthday he had a Jupiter cake.
He's an old man now, he got clothes and cash for this birthday (Mom & Dad said "We have too many toys!!!")

We decided not to have a party with friends this year. Instead it was a dinner with family. Nanny and Papa took Luke bowling and mini golfing and Grandma was going to take Luke to lunch, but she had to join Grandpa in Washington D.C. Instead, we took Aunt Megan to Carl's Jr. and had a blast playing in the playland.