Valentines Day by Matthew

I have never written a post on our family blog and feel that now would be a great time. The reason I wanted to write a message today is so the world might know that Shanna is the most amazing wife and mother ever. There is rarely ever a time when you will find Shanna angry or upset and in the few moments where she does feel those emotions, they quickly pass and all is forgotten. It is so wonderful to come home to a wife who is excited to see me and wants nothing more than my comfort and happiness. Even after a long day with a crying baby, and not being able to accomplish all the things she had planned, she still greets me with a smile and a kiss and is just genuinely happy to be alive.
Shanna is so optimistic about everything and helps cynical me see the best side of every situation and person. I love the way she can make me smile even when I feel like I will never be able to beat the challenges I might be facing at the time. I know that she loves me, my son and the Lord and I will eternally be grateful for that fact.
The pure heart and sweet naivety allow me to trust her completely. I know that she is mine forever and that she would never leave me. The fact that I have someone so perfect in so many ways is a blessing I know I don't deserve, but give thanks for every day.
It amazes me to no end to watch how patient and sweet Shanna is with our little Austin. I love him but, I hate him compared to how much Shanna loves him. (Madagascar) She will spend hours with him reading books and playing with annoying toys that play the same stupid song over and over again. The way she holds him and protects him allow me to leave home and go to work knowing that my children are in the best possible hands that exist. I thank her with all of my heart for the sacrifice she has made to be a mother and give up some of her personal ambition to be home with our children and teach them how to become strong men and women of faith. She is the right person for the job and I know now that I could never do what mothers do every day.
This ode to Shanna would be incomplete if I didn't mention how incredibly gorgeous my wife is. Every so often we will be watching a show and I will notice an attractive woman on the screen, but when I look back at my wife every woman pales in comparison to her beauty. It would be inappropriate for me to elaborate more but I know that I am the luckiest man alive.
Thank you Shanna for the life you have lived and for deciding to be my wife and the mother of my children. You are the love of my life and I am forever yours.

With all the love I have,
Your husband

We have News!

No, I'm not pregnant. I guess this is more Matthew's news that I get to share. He will be finishing his Masters program this year and for these past two years Matthew has had a tough time deciding what to do once he graduates. He has gone through many options like medical school, getting a doctorate in Neuroscience, dental school, and others. He really didn't feel quite right about any of them but knew he needed to make a decision. He sent out several dental school applications recently, however in the meantime found another option that he is really excited about. He found podiatry school. He sent out applications and within a week got 4 interviews. I really feel that this is the route we are suppose to take. I have never seen Matthew more excited about a career choice. He loves that he will be going to Medical School but will come out specialized in the foot and ankle instead of graduating from med school and then having to specialize after that. He also loves that he will be doing office visits and surgeries. Matthew has been interviewing and has been accepted to several places and we have made our decision....We will be moving to Arizona!! Matthew will be attending Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona. We will be moving this summer. I am so proud of Matthew and all that he has done and we are both excited to start this new phase of our life.

We Match

I didn't plan this and didn't even notice until we were already at church, but Austin and I completely match! We are just sporting our BYU colors!

Road Trip

Matthew and I just got back from driving to LA. The reason for the trip will be for my next post but we sure did pick the wrong weekend to go to California. If you have seen or heard on the news about the weather there, apparently it has been record setting. They have been getting tons of heavy winds and rains and we were right in the middle of it. When we planned on driving out there we were expecting sunny days with temperatures in the 70's. Well maybe on any other week except this one. On one of the days I was alone with Austin in our hotel with a tornado warning! There have been mud slides, flooding and lots of issues not conducive to trying to drive cross-country. But we were safe! While out there I was able to see my friend Taryn who lives in the area. It was so fun to see her and her two cute kids. We went to Downtown Disney, right by Disney Land, to hang out and have lunch until we got rained out! We got soaked trying to walk back to our car both pushing strollers with umbrellas! But I am so glad we got to spend some time together. We also got to visit Matthew's grandparents who also live in the area. We hadn't seen them in a long time and it was nice to catch up and introduce Austin to them. It was a quick but productive trip.

Visiting with Taryn!


Swimming in the heated pool at the hotel


Austin really wanted to help drive.

Austin Update

Austin is 6 months already! I can't believe how quickly he is growing up! Now I can't imagine life without him. He is such a blessing to us and we just love him so much. Here are some of the things Austin has been doing lately:
-On our last day in Texas over the holidays, Austin rolled over! Now he is a rolling machine. Only he won't do it on command.
-He loves to laugh and coo all the time.
-He is going through a rough phase with sleeping during the night but hopefully it will pass soon.
-Austin loves books and he tries to read them to me now whenever I pull them out. It's so cute!
-He weighs about 18 pounds.
-Does not enjoy bath time.
-His new trick is spitting and he thinks it's really funny.
-He is getting so good at grabbing and playing with toys.
-We have started him on eating cereal. He hasn't quite got the hang of it yet.
-He has been teething but no teeth have come through yet.
-He loves being out and about and seeing new things.
-He loves music and songs especially if they have actions to go along with them.

The Holdiays

We have just come home from being away for almost 3 weeks. We are happy to be back but we sure had a great time with family and friends. We first went to Alabama to be with Matthew's family for Christmas. The whole family was together for the first time in years and it will probably be the last time for a few more years. We really loved being there and I love watching Matthew interact with his brothers. They are so competitive with each other and its pretty funny to watch. While we were there we played lots of games, had a girls day and just had fun with the whole family. Christmas morning we had homemade cinnamon rolls and Austin loved watching everyone get excited about opening presents. He is a little young to get excited about opening his own presents but he sure got some great toys that I am pretty excited about. Then we were able to go to Texas to spend New Years with my family. I can't believe how fast my little sisters are growing up! We watched movies, played the Wii, went shopping and hung out with Alexi and Tim. Austin was a big hit with everyone. He loves being with other people. On our last day with my family Austin rolled over for the first time! We loved being able to spend so much time with so much family.

Need a gift idea?

Jenna and I love being crafty. We finally put our projects on Etsy and it has been very fulfilling.

Check out our Etsy store for a fun Christmas gift idea!

www.etsy.com/shop/reddthreadds

Thanksgiving Break

Last week for Thanksgiving we drove to Colorado to meet up with Jenna and Cole. We did this last year and has so much fun we decided to do it again! We stayed in a cute little town up in the mountains called Estes Park. Ciera came along with us and we had such a great time! Mostly the boys played video games, Jenna and I did crafty things and Ciera did a little of both! We also made our own Thanksgiving dinner. We had the tiniest kitchen but we were still able to make pies, a turkey, mashed potatoes, yams and lots of other yummies. Cade and Austin were friendly for about 2 minutes until they each wanted the full attention of all the adults. Also, Austin started teething that week which led to a few sleepless nights. But overall I am so thankful we were able to meet up with family for the break!

Meteor

Last night around midnight, both Matthew and I were awake after putting Austin back to sleep when he woke up crying. Anyway, all of a sudden we see this bright light outside. It lasted for about 3 seconds but it was so bright! It was like a bright white spotlight shining in our window. We were a little freaked out about it but in the morning we found out on the news that there was a little meteor shower over Utah during the night. I wish I would have been outside to see it but I still think it's pretty cool to have seen the flash from it. Apparently the flash lit up the whole sky as if it were daytime for a few seconds. Pretty cool!

We Have Laughter

Austin gives us so many smiles now! We love them. We also love his little laughs which we don't get as often. But we caught him on tape giving us some laughs!

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween weekend! On Friday we went to a ward Halloween Party. It was so fun to see all the great costumes. My favorite are the themed costumes! It was Austin's first Halloween. He went as a dragon, I was a princess and Matthew was a knight. Austin was the cutest dragon I have ever seen! My friend Betsy rents costumes out of her basement so we were able to find everything in one place! Thanks Betsy!
On Saturday we went to my grandparents in the afternoon for our annual Halloween party. The Allens always put on superb Halloween parties. My cousin Paul arranged for us to do a Murder Mystery. We all had a different character to dress up as and to act as. We had to try to find out who was the murderer. Ciera ended up guessing correctly which was ironic because her character was a fortune teller! The murderer was Austin (my cousin Daniel's friend) not to be confused with my Austin! Then we decorated cookies which is always a big hit! Later that night we went over to Aubrey and Jon's house to make haunted houses and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters!
Austin and our neighbor's cute baby girl dressed up as Tinkerbell

Our Medieval Family

Austin giving his best Dragon roar!

Ciera dressed at a "Mystic Advisor" and Jenne as a NY Times Reporter at the Murdery Mystery

Matthew was dressed at a rich, mean business man and I was his wife. Notice Genevieve in the background!

My cookie!

Ciera's amazing cookie!

Matthew's very unique cookie!

I really liked Gen's cookie!

Grandpa's awesome witch hat cookies!

Matthew's haunted coffin

Aubrey's haunted spider house! The Graff's are so much more creative than me! My haunted house looked more like a Christmas gingerbread house!

BYU Homecoming

Last weekend Matthew took me to Homecoming! It was such a great excuse to get all dressed up and go on a date. We went with Matthew's sister, Aubrey and her husband Jon. It was at BYU and we enjoyed amazing food catered by Tucanos and fun entertainment by a BYU comedy group. My cousin was able to babysit Austin for us. Thanks Gen! And thanks Matthew for the wonderful date!

Girls Weekend

Last weekend my sister-in-law Aubrey and I drove to Malad Idado to meet up with some of Aubrey's friends. There were 5 of us with 3 pregnant and 4 little boys running around. This was my first little trip with Austin and without Matthew. But it was so fun. I had never been to Idaho and it was just so peaceful and quiet. The mountains were also very pretty with the sun setting behind them. We all just hung out and talked about girl stuff. We were all moms and it was fun swapping stories and advice. We also had yummy food on the taco bus and shakes at the drive-in. Austin was great! He slept a lot and smiled at everyone! We had a great time and a nice get away for the weekend!

Pictures with Dad

Matthew is such a great father. He is always so excited to see Austin when he gets home from school. Here are some moments I caught of my boys together.

Shade Coupon

Shade Clothing is having a friends/family event this weekend. You can get 30% off this weekend. Here is the link to print out the coupon!

Dancing

My sister-in-law Aubrey showed this to me! I think it's so cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPRxWsX50kI

Fun in the Sun

Austin's Blessing

We had Austin's blessing on Labor Day weekend. Thanks to all the family that came! Matthew gave a sweet blessing and then Grandma Black hosted a wonderful lunch for everyone. It was such a perfect day!

I know I am so behind in posting lately! Having a baby at home I thought I would have lots of time to blog but I have quickly learned that is not the case! Austin is two months now and here are the new things we have seen from him:
-lots of smiles!
-a few giggles
-lots and lots of spit-up
-sleeping 3-4 hours during the night
-loves looking out the windows
-grown out of newborn diapers and most of his newborn clothes
-12 lbs 5 oz
-23 inches long
-doesn't like baths but loves showers
-looking more and more like his daddy. (He really doesn't look like either one of us very much)
-holds his head up when laying on his tummy
-likes to look all around when outside

I just love this little guy so much and now can't imagine life without him! Here are some picture from Labor Day weekend.
The Blacks

Austin's Blessing Outfit

The Graffs

The twins and their boys

Proud Grandparents


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Tummy time

Pictures

I can't believe we have had Austin for a month already! He is so cute!! Austin hit 4 weeks yesterday and it seems that immediately we have seen some changes in Austin. First of all he has started drooling, second he is starting to spit up and last he is not sleeping nearly as well as he used to. Last night was the worst night we have had so far with Austin! I think Matthew and I each got about 3 hours of sleep. Well, Matthew's sister, Aubrey, has a sister-in-law who takes amazing pictures and offered to take some pictures of Austin. He was a week old at the time. They turned out so cute and I wanted to share! Thanks Jeannie!