Insta-Tuesday {9.21.15}

{8.28.15}

This boy. I'm glad he's mine forever. #motherhood #livejoyfully#evenifhesnotnapping

{8.29.15}

Hiking this weekend with a great group of girls from my ward. It was fabulous! Grateful for good friends and for a husband who held down the fort while I was gone. (Lydia woke up talking about all the things she wanted to do with Daddy while I was gone. She was so excited.)#stewartfalls#sunshineandfreshairforthewin#daddyisthefavoriteparent photocredit:@_amyperkins

{8.31.15}

Both kiddos are sick, fevers and rashes all around, so we are on a self imposed quarantine for the week. I gave David a list of things to pick up at the store on his way home. First three things 1. Popsicles 2. Peach rings + chocolate 3. Children's Tylenol. #hedidgood#cloroxwipesandcandy#havetosurvivethisweeksomehow

{9.3.15}

Her: "Mom, lets go on a walk this morning except I don't need to wear my shoes because my feet won't get hurt and then it will help me climb better."#pickyourbattles #dressesherself#wontwearshoes #butsheiswearingahelmet#wearefeelingmuchbetter

{9.1.15}

insta-david

I'm super excited for my lunch today, Lydia packed the whole thing by herself just for me. She always makes sure I don't forget my lunch. #2bananas#cheetosaredelicious #luckydaddy#thankyoulydia

{9.5.15}

It's not that I'm financially irresponsible, but online shopping makes spending money SOOOOOO easy.#onlinespendingspree#thisisonlyhalfofwhatiorderedthisweek#morecomingnextweek#somebodytakeawaymycreditcard

{9.7.15}

My baby started walking this weekend! Only a couple of steps, but such a big deal. His favorite part: getting close enough to dive into my arms then looking around and grinning while we all cheered.#alsolovesplayingthepiano#abadcameraisbetterthannocamera

{9.20.15}

I'm pretty much the worst Instagram-er ever but I've taken almost 2,000 pictures documenting the last ten days. That's worth something right?#phoenixroadtrip2015 #almosthome#giantblogpostcomingrightup#didntpostwhileweweregonebecauseihaveanirrationalfearofburglars

{9.21.15}

I don't even have the words. Last night after we got home from our trip and had gotten our kids down for bed, there was a knock at our door. Imagine my surprise when I saw some of my very dear friends carrying this breathtakingly beautiful birthday cake. @_amyperkins is a master baker and I am in awe that she would take so much time to create something so incredible for me. Both Amy and@karlishields know I love birthdays and surprises, and I'm so happy we got to have an impromtu birthday party. The cake was so gorgeous that it was hard for me to actually cut into it. I would still be feeling that regret, except it was so delicious! Today I'm feeling very loved and grateful for good friends in a wonderful neighborhood. (Bottom layer was chocolate cake filled with chocolate heaven, top layer was vanilla filled with raspberry cream. The wafer paper flowers are completely edible and the floral design is highlighted with handpainted gold accents. I'm still in awe.)#bestbirthdaysurpriseever #mademecry

My Birthday {28}

Early morning smiles and snuggles from my sweet baby boy. 

Birthday present opening sitting cross-legged on the floor with a child on each leg.

A three-year-old's "Happy Birthday" serenade. 

Breakfast in bed while reading my book and eating an inordinate amount of bacon.

Exploring new places, complete with antique carousels and mini-train rides. 

Ice cream cones to beat the heat and a late lunch at a new (to me) eatery.

Crying babies and major mom-guilt while leaving for... 

The perfect birthday-dinner-date-night at a new-and-fancy restaurant.

Surprise cake and more presents.

Feeling special and loved all day long thanks to the wonderful people I shared my birthday with and the many, many calls/texts/facebook messages from friends and family. 

----

Add this to the "Shantel gets a more wonderful birthday that she could possibly deserve" pile. 

Su-uh-uhmmmer. 2015.

The other night, David asked me what he could do to help me with the things I was doing/wanted to do (because he's wonderful and always thinking about me and doing things to take care of me) and I handed him the laptop computer and asked him to blog these summer pictures that I had loaded into this blog post and hadn't had time to do anything with. And, sweet boy that he is, he sat down and blogged all about these pictures even though they are mostly all summer pictures from my phone and he hadn't taken a single one of them. 

But this is the thing. He gave it to me to read through and "approve" but I was busy doing something else and when I finally had time to read through it - blogger had lost it all. It hadn't saved. I'm so sad, because I love when David blogs and I'm sad to lose all of his words and thoughts about our life. But I wanted to record that he did actually blog this for me, because I think it was so wonderful of him and it's just one of the many (many, many, many) reasons that I love him and that I'm so lucky to have him. 

*sigh* The pictures still need to be blogged. So here goes. 

We have had a great and very-very-very busy summer. We played hard and worked hard and hopefully did a lot of good a long the way. (The pictures are just of the play. Because the pictures of the work aren't as fun.) 

We played at the park and swang in the swings. (swinged in the swings?) 

We went to Farm Country to see the animals and loved watching the tractor pull the carriage. 

We played with our best friend Henry, a lot.

 (I'm pretty sure I love him almost as much as Lydia does). 

We grew up. 

(Seriously, who told this girl she could get so big. I didn't realize that 3 years old would be so incredibly different than 2 years old.) 

We went to the library at least twice a week, and sometimes twice in a day. Frequently we'd show up before they open and have to wait for them to unlock the doors. (They open at nine, which is right about the time that we head out to run errands, and the location of the library puts it as the first stop most of the time.) 

We practiced rolling around on the ground. 

We learned how to make Challah with our neighbors. It's a special Jewish bread that they make each Friday to eat on the Sabbath as part of their worship. We always enjoy spending time with them, especially when we get to learn more about their culture. 

And we spent as much time as possible with our other best friends, the Coopers. These girls are the best of friends and frequently tell each other "you are my best friend!".  It's so sweet. These guys are like family to us. 

 

This picture is titled "Panda Heaven" and includes about 7 different sized pandas found at our local* Toys R Us store. She loved them all and wanted each and every one to come home with us. 

*Local is said sarcastically because there is no close Toys R Us store. The one we ended up going to (because we were looking for something specific so we had to go into the store) was in West Valley. 

Hanging out with this cool dude in his slowly-but-surely (or-maybe-just-slowly) coming together nursery.

Who doesn't love eating watermelon while dressed like a pirate? Aargh!

Bounce-housing it up as often as we can. 

Going for a walk and ending up at the park:

(Austin loves to touch things, just like I do. I'm very tactile and can barely walk by... well... practially anything.. without reaching out to touch it. He gets it from me and it makes me smile.) 

So there is the big phone dump from Summer 2015. There are more pictures on my camera - but those will have to be tackled on another night.