Boys will be boys

A few weeks ago after one of Jared's hockey games, Jared set all his stuff down on the ground for a few minutes while he went into the hockey store. Shad ran up to his stuff, grabbed a hockey stick, and started playing with it, holding it just like a pro without anyone even showing him what to do:

So of course the next day Jared cut one of his old sticks for Shad so he could start teaching him how to play hockey! And, of course, I had to document that too:

(Just ignore the perpetual mess shown in every picture of our home...)

I can't believe how easy and naturally Shad has picked it up, he really does a good job of moving the ball around with the stick. I think he will be really talented in the sports department.

Shad has also gotten very daring lately. When we go to the little playground at the mall he always goes down the slide face first, and then he cheers for himself. It's so funny!

He also climbs onto the coffee table and then dives face first onto the couch. I have a feeling we are in for some pretty good injuries in the future for this boy.... help!!

Very rarely we get the opportunity to spend a whole Saturday with Jared, and when we do, Shad likes to watch cartoons with him in the morning (usually while Jared sleeps):

What can I say? Boys will be boys! Oh how I love them!

New adventures to come!

Well, a very unexpected but very exciting thing happened last week during "The Match" process. Jared found out that he will be doing his preliminary year of residency at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona! We will move there in about 2 months, I can't even believe it! We are so excited to move close to home for a year before we move back to the other side of the country again in New York where Jared will be doing his Ophthalmology residency for 3 more years. We have some very exciting and new adventures ahead of us!

Where did September go?

Man, we have been so busy that I don't even know what happened to the month of September! Luckily I have some pictures on my phone reminding me of what happened:

Shad turned 11 months:

I can't believe he is almost 1! Time really does fly by when you have kids. (And when you are also in school and working....)

I threw a baby shower for a cute girl in my ward:

The theme was "Ready to Pop". I think it turned out really cute! My friend Jessica helped me plan it.

Jared ran his first duathalon. It started with a 5 mile run that went all through the sand dunes. He said it was the hardest run he had ever done. Not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous that I wasn't doing it.

Here he is before the run started:

While Shad and I waited for him, Shad hung out in the stroller and stuffed his face:

After finishing the run he jumped on his bike for a 17 mile bike ride:

After the race:

He did really well considering it was his first duathalon. I think he took 5th in his age group. I was so proud of him!

Yesterday Jared volunteered in the ophthalmology booth at MSU's annual Teddy Bear Picnic all day, so Shad and I came to visit him and he was able to go around to the different booths with us. The Teddy Bear picnic is where little kids can come and take their teddy bears and have them get "fixed up" by med students, doctors, and nurses. Shad had no idea what was going on but we did get a lot of free stuff! He just loved walking around showing everyone his new skills. And of course, he loved the balloons:

Here are a few more pictures that were just on my phone from the month of September:

Shad and I spend a lot of time reading when we are at home. This picture is really blurry, but I love his cute face and I love that he loves to read so much!

My sweet boys:

Shad really loves his daddy so much and is always so happy when he gets home (he cried the other day for the first time when Jared left in the morning. It was the saddest but sweetest!)

So there ya go, another busy month that just flew by! October here we come!

The hardest thing

This morning I had to say goodbye to my two sweet boys for two loooong weeks. :(  This is one of the hardest things I have had to do, but I know I will be ok. It will go by so fast because I am picking up extra shifts and I have a large To Do list of things I haven't had the time to do for a while (like finish by blog book!) plus I have a butt load of homework to get done by Sunday night and more next week too.

 Last night Shad was being so silly, so Alina filmed him laughing. I just can't get over his laugh!

I may be posting some random videos and pictures of Shad soon so I can get my blog book all caught up. Stay tuned!

Jared's Belated Birthday Party

Jared turned 30 on January 1st, but since it was around the time we were in the process of getting things finalized with Shad, we never really officially celebrated. So I threw a surprise party for him last week with some of our neighbors. He had no idea, it was perfect! Here are some pics:

Happy 30th Birthday Babe! (You're old!) We love you!

This hottie I call my husband

Since I don't have kids yet the only person I have to brag about is my hottie husband.

This picture is of when he went fishing with a friend a few weeks ago during his spring break. He caught the only fish of the day.

He also played in the annual MD vs DO hockey game again a few weeks ago. The MD students won this year (12-6 or something like that). I video-taped about half of it, the battery was dead for the first half and then I found a place to plug it in, but I have some good clips on my phone too. This clip is from my phone and is of Jared tripping a guy. I couldn't figure out how to shorten it or put it directly on my blog, so you get the link instead. (Hint: Click on the word "This"). He is #27 and he trips the guy at about 0:56 and then you can hear everyone say, "Yeah Jared!" He's quite the star around these parts. He's gotten a lot better since he played at Weber State too. I'm pretty proud of him. Well that's all the bragging I have for now.

It doesn't get any manlier than this!

This season is the first time Jared has ever been deer hunting. This week his tree stand got stolen, then his scope busted. He had been out a few times and hadn't seen anything. Yesterday was the last day he could go and he was pretty bummed that he might not shoot anything this year. Then he saw this buck, and shot it:

(Sorry all you Bambi lovers.... but we have a whole freezer full of meat now!)

 

Not only did he go out by himself and shoot it without a scope, but he gutted it and then dragged it over a mile by himself back to his truck. Does it get any manlier than that? I think not!

I'm so proud of my hot, manly husband!

Did I mention that my husband is amazing?

He can pretty much do anything, no joke. There's nothing that he's tried that he's not good at. Here's a few reasons why my husband is amazing:

#1- He can play any sport:




#2- He can fix ANYTHING. A few of his fixings:

This is the 1985 Nissan truck that Jared drove in high school (AKA "Old Blue"). When he went on his mission in 2002, it was broken down and his parents took it to several people who couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. So they gave it to one of their friends, who didn't have a place to store it so it ended up in a field behind his grandpa's house where it sat, not running, for eight years. Somehow this beauty ended back in Jared's hands. Jared, having never worked on cars before in his life, was the one who got it running. He put in carpet on the floors, seat covers on the seats, and is currently working on installing an air conditioner unit he got at the junk yard. I'm pretty proud of him.

He also fixed a tv that we bought on KSL that didn't work. He even brought in a tv repair man before fixing it, who told him it was hopeless and then charged him 90 bucks for his "service call". So he once again proved everyone wrong and fixed it on his own. AND he fixed my IPOD that was completely broken and wouldn't even turn on. He bought some parts online, got out a little welder and fixed it. Amazing, right?

#3- He is freaking smart. He had the hardest time deciding what he wanted to do with his career because he was so smart in every aspect of school, which is why he ended up with 3 minors.

#4- He is somewhat of a romantic. Every once in a while he will surprise me with something very heartfelt and thoughtful.

#5- He is genuinely a good person with a good heart. Whenever he hears people talking bad about someone, he is always the first to stick up for them, and be an advocate for them since they can't be there to defend themselves.

#6- He is a very good husband to me. He puts up with my stressed out "girl moments". He is always there to listen when I've had a bad day and to give me a shoulder to cry on. He is just a sweetheart.

I'm sure I could go on longer, but it's getting pretty late and I just worked 13 hours, so I think I'll call it a night. Just thought you should all know that my husband is amazing. The end. :)

Tribute to the Graduate

Jared graduated last week with a major in Spanish, and minors in Art, Chemistry, and Zoology. He has worked his butt off for this, especially this semester. Not only was he the student body vice president and had several activities to plan this semester, but he also played hockey through the end of February along with his 20 credit hours and 3 hours a week of research. Talk about burn-out! He ended up with a 3.5 this semester to top it off! I have to say, I'm pretty dang proud of him. He's kept a level head through it all.

*Note: all of these pictures were stolen from my sister-in-law Kendra's blog. I accidentally packed up our sd card that goes in my camera so I wasn't able to take any. Thanks Kendra!


A picture with the handsome graduate


President Monson was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities at the graduation ceremony that morning. Pretty dang cool. Jared got to sit on the floor with all of the important people because he was a student body officer.


After the ceremony, Jared had his two cute nephews come down with him on the floor to meet President Monson. They both got to give him a "high-five". How cool is that?

I am so proud of my husband for all of his accomplishments. Congratulations babe, you did it!

Look-alikes?

So there have been a lot of people who have told us that Jared looks a lot like Michael Buble. I was looking at pictures of Michael Buble online the other day to see the resemblance and I found a picture that looks very similar to one I have of Jared. The only problem is, it's a pretty crappy picture. It was taken with a disposable camera in a dark room. It was actually taken while he was waiting for my wedding shower to be done so he could hide in a box and pop out and give me my real ring that took so long to be made. I had a fake one for the majority of our engagement. Anyway, does anyone see the resemblance of my hot husband to Michael Buble?


They both have that same widow's peak hair, it's kind of cool.

My husband, the stud

This was on the front page of the "Sign Post" (Weber State's newspaper) a couple days ago. What a stud!

Happy New Year AND Happy Birthday (to my sweetheart)

We spent New Years Eve with all of Jared's friends at Cord and Adelle's house. Jared's friends Kevin and Jesse were here visiting from California. We ate Mexican food (homemade tacos made by Adelle - so good!) and then played games and watched a crazy kid jump on top of L'Arc de Triumph (the fake one in Las Vegas) with a motorcycle, and them jump back off of it onto another ramp. If you want to wach the youtube video, click here. It was nuts! We're just glad he didn't die on live tv. (He did break his hand though.)

We played Guitar Hero and Mario Kart on the Wii. It was a blast!


The two little girls didn't make it to midnight.



But Rem did. He's a little trooper, and he was so good the whole time. What a well behaved kid!


Jared and me. FINALLY a good picture of both of us. (except that my legs look ginormous- I'll blame it on the camera angle)


This isn't what it looks like. Ok it is. Jared is getting 26 birthday spankings from Kevin with a wooden paddle. Haha


This afternoon we ate "brunch" at Moore's family restaurant with Jared's family and his Grandma and Grandpa Meier


Jared and his mom (I just love this picture!)


Happy Birthday Jare Bear! You're getting old, but I still love you! ;)

Jared in D.C.!

Jared went to Washington D.C. last week for Student Government. (I didn't feel too bad because I've already been there with my family, I'm actually really glad he got to go.) He got to see a lot of cool things and they even got to meet members of the Senate. Here are some pics of his experience:

This is the underground tunnel between the Capitol building and the Senate building. He got to go to both; pretty sweet huh?


My handsome man in front of the White House, what a stud! (Notice his huge arms in the picture in front of the Washington monument.. ow ow!) ;)


The Museum of National History


The Hope Diamond (A little smaller than we all imagined it)

The signed Declaration of Independence


The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (When my family went it was about 100 something degrees with 9o something percent humidity.. let's just say we probably didn't appreciate it as much as Jared did. :) )

My Husband, the Science Geek

Jared just found out that he made "Science Senator" at Weber State. Although it sounds geeky, this "geek" gets $1100 (I can' remember if thats each semester or just per year) and it will look great on his application to dental school. I'm so happy for him, especially since he's spent so much time and effort making signs and handouts (he pulled an "all-nighter" one of the days makng his signs because he's such a perfectionist!) and he was worried that it would be for nothing. So he made it. Yay! Doesn't he look so handsome in this picture? He took it to put on one of his signs but then never had time to put it on.