Changes...

There have been quite a few changes around here lately...

1. Little Guy turns out to be Little Girl. We took the bunnies in to get them neutered. The vet called back. She said, "I have two things... one: Chunky is so big- we will have to treat him as a dog and two: do you know the the one you call Little Guy is actually girl?" We had no clue and are thankful there were no little bunnies. Although that could have been fun!

2. I quit my job at the Montessori preschool. Shawn and I decided it would be better for our growing family if I moved to Rexburg with him when he went back to school. Originally, I was going to stay here and work till the end of the school year, but things change. I am excited to be back in Rexburg and can hardly believe those words are coming out of my mouth. I will miss Boise a lot- especially the Iversons. I will miss hearing Morgan and Levi's little feet come running over to "our house." And Levi's concerned call, "Me need Morgan."

3. Shawn is in Idaho Falls and I am in Boise! It has only been for less than a week, but I am not sure how people do being apart! And to think... I thought I could do it for four months. I guess I could have made it work, but am thankful I don't have to try now. I miss him a lot and can't sleep at night. The only night I slept was when Morgan slept with me and kicked me all night. She was an "ok" replacement.

4. There is going to be a little baby Catmull. That is really what brought on all the changes. Shawn and I found out we are going to be having a precious little baby. I knew I could not do working/pregnant/husbandless all at once! I have been lucky to not be too sick so far. Hopefully, it only gets better. I am so excited and nervous. It doesn't seem real yet.

Well, that is about all of our changes... I am sure there are more and will be more, but that is all for now!

Chunky and Little Guy update...

This is Chunky! He is our dominate male. He is a little slow, but makes up for it in muscle.

This is Little Guy. He is our smart little bunny. He is tired of being manhandled by Chunky though.

We have been working on potty training and realized that Chunky thinks he owns Little Guy. Little Guy is starting to build up some anxiety. We need to go get Chunky neutered or something. They are both males- we thought that would be enough!

Shawn is setting the example for the bunnies. Shawn is litter box trained!

We did it!

Posing for our six month update :)

Shawn and I did it- we have been married six months! It has been a wild, but fun six months. Here are our six months stats:

Weight: Shawn has lost 10 lbs since we got married- I think I know where it went.
Sleep Schedule: We are OLD! We can't stay up till midnight anymore :( Shawn is finally learning to sleep through the night despite being kicked and elbowed all night long.
Learning Log: We have both learned marriage takes a lot of work, but are having fun working together and getting to know each other even better.

We are healthy and loving life!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time tonight cleaning and carving pumpkins. Morgan was so excited to help me clean out her pumpkin. We had a little setback when she put her hand in the pumpkin and it started itching and turning red. Maybe she is slightly allergic to pumpkins? She recovered though and everyone thought it was so cool to light the candles in the pumpkins. Allison dare to ask a question to a Shaver. "What happens if a pumpkin lights on fire?" She got the usual Shaver response as we laughed at her, but later felt bad when smoke started coming out of Levi's pumpkin. Guess the candle was too hot and the pumpkin was too short?

Shawn, Levi, Morgan, me, and all of our pumpkins! Note: Liz, being a wonderful mom, carved Levi's and Morgan's.

In Home Salon...

Shawn and I have opened an in home salon... I specialize in men's hair cuts and Shawn in dye jobs...

Yes, I had to shave his back too :) Ok, just kidding... but it is gross looking.

Going dark... but wish I still had blonde hair.

Coeur D'Alenes

One of my favorite places is Coeur D'Alenes. I absolutely love it there. Last summer, my dad, mom, Carrie, and I went to Coeur D'Alenes altogether. We stayed in Harrison and biked, swam, shopped, ate, and had a great time.

From last year's trip.

 My dad invited us to go again to Coeur D' Alene this year. So Shawn and I made sure we were free to go. We had a great time. This year was even better (especially because Shawn was there this time.) The whole Iverson family came and added for more entertainment. We made it almost 100 miles on our bike. It was a great trip- we look forward to doing another biking trip next year.

Liz- she made it up the bridge, but she did have to stop for a piece of gum to give her energy :)

Papa leading the non road bike bikers.

Shawn and I (oh and Levi.) He really wanted to be in our picture.

We even got to see a moose. 

 

 

 

Things work out...

Everything has slowly, but surely worked out for Shawn and I. Here is a little update on what we are up to these days...

Shawn has started his internship with the "lean" program at the hospital. He seems to be enjoying it a lot, but is ready for a little more responsibility. The other day, he got to organize his "own" shelf and did such a good job that a women from the hospital asked if he could come in and do other shelves for her. (This doesn't surprise me with how organized and how much of a neat freak Shawn is. I think it is slowly wearing on him how messy I am.) The only downfall is that he has to wake up at 4 am to make it to the hospital on time- he is CRAZY!

I have started working at a Montessori Preschool. I am really enjoying it and am learning a lot about different teaching/ parenting philosophies. There are a lot of concepts I want to incorporate and quite a few I don't believe in so much. It has been an eye opening experience to have this opportunity to get to spend so much time with young children. I am pretty sure I made the right career choice to teach middle school. Teaching preschool is fun, but I don't think I could do it for forever- it takes so much energy to stay so upbeat and keep up with them. I teach a kindergarten PE class once a week. No matter how much we run and play, I still feel like they could keep going forever. I wish I had that much energy again.

Chunkie and Little Guy (aka Tails.)
Chunkie and Little Guy are part of the family now. Chunkie is by far my favorite, but Little Guy seems to be everyone else's favorite. Both bunnies are happy. They love their two story cage that Shawn built for them. It has gotten pretty fancy lately. It now has a metal roof (thanks to the scraps left at Parma.) The deck is completed- although Shawn jokes about putting a railing on it. Both bunnies love to come inside and don't find baths miserable. Life for the bunnies is good.

None of us have anything to complain about :) Well, maybe Shawn does- he does have to wake up at 4am. I still can't get over that!

Bitter to Excited!

"Patience—the ability to put our desires on hold for a time—is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter," Pres Dieter F Uchtdorf, General Conference April 2010.

My desires have been out on hold a lot lately, but I am pleased to say I am already out of the "bitter" stage and am excited for what is coming.

Shawn and I are staying in Eagle, ID until at least January and maybe longer. I found a job at an amazing Montessori preschool and am really excited to be able to be in a classroom. Having found out about China so late in the summer,  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find any job in a classroom, but things work out! Tomorrow is my first day of "work" and I am a little nervous and excited. Shawn is still waiting to hear back on an internship, but for now things are great.

And I am learning a lot about patience. My mom always said never to pray for patience because then it would be tested, so I guess now I am learning all about it since I never prayed for it.

China or Eagle?!?!

Eagle, ID it is! Shawn and I ended up not being able to obtain a work visa for China. We were really bummed at first, but now we realize everything happens for a reason. And for some reason, we are supposed to be in Eagle, ID! Shawn and I are staying in Eagle until school starts in the winter (for Shawn and not me because I am a college graduate!) It should be quite the experience living in the same house as the Iverson gang. Levi sure loves Shawn now- we will see what he thinks in January.

China?!?!

I think so! Shawn and I received our initial contract for teaching English in China. We have signed it and sent it back. All we need to do now is send them my diploma and teaching certificate! This all seems like a dream to me.

Last semester, I was student teaching in Clearfield, Utah. There was a Chinese teacher at the junior high who was from China. At one of the teacher work day lunches, I sat next to the Chinese teacher and began talking to her. She asked if I wanted to teach English in China. I didn't give it much consideration at the beginning because I wasn't sure Shawn would want to go or could even go. I didn't respond right away and that turned out to be a benefit in the end. They raised the salary because we "waited" it out. In the end, Shawn is excited to go and so am I!

 

I can hardly wait for the adventures that lie ahead of Shawn and I. We are going to go very used to each other. Poor Shawn, I am going to be the only person he can have real conversations with.

 

Champions...

I played on two different soccer teams this semester. One was a recreational beginners league and the other one was a competitive team. Both teams ended up winning their leagues and I got two champion t-shirts! It was a fun season, but what made it even better was Shawn was on my team and rocked it! His first soccer team and he is a champion. Some students never win a t-shirt and Shawn won one his first semester, LUCKY!

Our Garden.

Shawn and I both were looking forward to having a garden this summer. We don't have a yard at our apartment so we had to get creative. We got a giftcard to Home Depot for our wedding and decided to put it towards our garden. Here is what we came up with. 

 

We have two different types of tomato plants, peas, and a habanero plant. 

 

The tomatoes and peas are kind of going crazy.

But at least they are growing!

We ate our first peas, but are still waiting for our first tomatoes! Oh to summer!

Google it!

Today I was trying to surprise Shawn by getting Chuck and Bob's cage all clean and not stinky before he got home from class. Well, in the process I managed to knock over our scentsy candle and wax went everywhere- all over the carpet in our rented apartment :( I began to panic and had no idea what to do... then an idea popped into my head. GOOGLE IT!

So I googled it (my education technology teacher absolutely hates when people say they googled something... oops!) I learned that the best way to get wax out of carpet is to use paper towels and an iron. You lay the paper towel down on the wax and then iron the paper towel and it magically sucks up the wax. And it really is magic! By the time Shawn got home from class, the cage was cleaned and the wax was gone... he had no idea... (except for that I left the iron out and he asked what I had used the iron for.)

Exhausted...

For as long as I can remember, I have always been one to go go go... I hated sitting around doing nothing and have been known to drive quite a few people crazy because I am always wanting to do something. Well, this last weekend I meet my match...

Maggie

and

Amos

 

Laura needed to find a babysitter in a crunch and  Shawn and I were the lucky ones who got to babysit. Amos and Maggie came to Rexburg for a week and lived the Rexburg life. We had a lot of fun playing, running, going to the park, playing guitar, playing more, and running more.

One day, I thought I could wear the kids out enough so that they'd go to bed... my well executed plan didn't even work. We went to the park for 2 hours, soccer practice for 1 1/2 hours, and then to a soccer game for another hour. The whole time, they ran around like wild children. (Maggie even got the bright idea to jump off of the bleachers and try to land on top of a hurdle. Yeah, that didn't work out so well.) After the soccer game, I just knew they were going to be tired since it was 9:30 at night, but nope, the minute we got home they asked what we were going to do next. 

Amos and Maggie are officially more energetic than me- I must be getting OLD! It took me three hour nap to recover from our week together. How does Laura do it?

Chuck and Bob.

Shawn and I decided that it was time to make an addition to our family. We decided we may not be ready for a baby just yet so we did some research and found the perfect addition. We found two adorable male sugar gliders that were looking for a home. Meet Chuck and Bob.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po2nKs_ULYc

The video is Chuck and Bob eating cantaloupe. This was their first day at home and they have perked up a lot and are not very bashful anymore. We bought them hamster balls and they have been running around our apt like crazy in them. I am sure there will be a video of that to follow.

One neat thing about sugar gliders is that they can "bond" to their owner. Ours are slowly making progress towards that. They like to hang out on our shoulders. Chuck has taken to hiding in my hair... he uses it as a nest... yes, that is gross! But he loves it. Bob has taken to nibbling on Shawn's neck while he hides in his shirt. Yeah, I am not a fan of Bob yet, but Shawn is determined to train Bob. We'll see how it goes!

Those who came...

We were very fortunate to have so many friends and family to support us at the temple.

Our amazing parents.

All of my sisters and company.

All of Shawn's siblings and company.

We especially loved having all of our nieces and nephews there.
They sure take cute pictures.

Shawn got the boy one and I got the girl one. Thank you, Morgan.

Baby Audrey probably wins the award for best picture. She "outshined" everyone!

The Salisbury and Bennion families were so kind to come all the way from Eugene, OR
for the wedding. It was really special to have them there. It really meant a lot.

We are, also, lucky enough to get all of the Shaver men together for the wedding- they came from MN, CO, and Canada. How lucky we were... I should, also, mention Aunt Becky was here to- she helped out so much and saved us a little of time and headaches.

04.14.11

Shawn Paul Catmull and I were marrried on 04.14.11 at 12:00 pm.
We were married in the Boise Idaho Temple.

Shawn and I outside of the Boise Idaho Temple.

Coming out of the temple married was such a neat experience. I kept looking at Shawn to make sure it was real and I wasn't dreaming. I am so excited to be married and even more excited to be married to Shawn Paul!

One of my favorite pictures of Shawn. He loves to make creepy eyes...

Why would our wedding pictures be any different?

A couple of my favorite wedding pictures. We went and took pictures the day before our wedding. I highly suggest doing it that way- it was really nice to be able to take our time and take as many pictures as we wanted to and not be rushed. I think our families appreciated it the next day when they didn't have to wait around for us to take pictures. Everyone was hungry and ready to be at Chuck-a-ramas! Our photographer, Jamie Jacobsen, did a great job!

We clean up nicely :) Or photoshop does wonders?

The diamond from my wedding ring was my Grandma Margaret's diamond. I feel so lucky
that it has such meaning to me. Shawn and I can't wait for it to continue to get passed down.

It rained the day of our pictures, but that didn't stop us. We had lots of fun running around and taking pictures. Plus we got to use my favorite "vintage" umbrella!

I need to be sure to thank my wonderful mom for helping me get dressed so many times.
She probably spent five hours of her life lacing and unlacing my dress. She is a trooper!