The Coolest House on the Block!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-21T22:17:00.000-06:00

The "blizzard" of the decade

2010-11-24T11:22:00.008-07:00

Many of you probably heard that Utah was supposed to get the blizzard of the decade last night. While they didn't forecast a lot of snow in the valley, the winds were going to be 50 mph. Afternoon school activities were canceled and many were let out early and because the storm was supposed to roll in at about 5pm, many businesses closed early. Brittney and I needed to run to the grocery store at about 3:30 to do some quick grocery shopping. Brittney's car was out of gas so we stopped to get some gas, the gas station was packed with cars filling up as well as people filling up gas cans. When we got to the store, it was worse than the Orem Wal-Mart on a Saturday night. No carts, no room in the aisles, incredibly long lines to check out. Exactly my idea of fun :)! Anyway, the storm finally rolled in and we survived. In fact, the storm was really weak. We got maybe 2" of snow and the winds were not even close to 50mph. There were some strong gusts, but it was not Armageddon like the news had made it out to be. The temperatures are cold, it was about 7 degrees this morning and it is about 19 right now. We decided to let Mercedes go out in the snow this morning. Her pants were way too big and her gloves were not warm enough. Let's just say her first experience wasn't exactly one to remember. As soon as she face planted it into the snow, she had had enough.

Rachel's Birthday

2010-10-20T08:00:00.005-06:00

Today is Rachel's birthday! We got up early to make her breakfast and blew up a lot of balloons. I think Mercedes thought they were for her. We spent half hour this morning just running through them.

Here is the birthday girl!

I tried out my cake decorating skills on Rachel

Mercedes loved eating the scraps.

Family Pictures

2010-10-12T15:39:00.007-06:00

This last week we had family pictures taken. Family pictures are always fun and stressful at the same time. Ours was more stressful this year because it rained for most of the day. Well after sitting in the car for almost a half hour the rain slowed down enough for us to take pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Mercedes Happenings

2010-10-10T20:15:00.006-06:00

Mercedes has now learned how to open doors. You can only imagine how much more interesting this makes life (let's just say that Mercedes doesn't want you to get lonely while using the bathroom).

She also thinks it's hilarious to put her jacket on her head and run around.

Mercedes misses her cousins and wishes that she had some nearby. This video was taken when we stopped at the Dallas Trayner's home on our way home from Georgia. This one is for you mom.

Interesting Quote

2010-10-05T10:49:00.003-06:00

Brittney and I were organizing our collection of books last night and I came across a paper that I had inserted into The Chosen. I read the book when I first got home from my mission and loved it. Apparently, I liked a quote from the book so much that I wrote it down on a piece of paper and placed it at the front of the book. Hope you enjoy.

Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man that lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant . . . . A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning . . . . A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest.

Summer Fun

2010-09-21T22:26:00.007-06:00

This past summer has been so fun. We spent two and a half months in Georgia while Josh was working with the Georgia Court of Appeals. Luckily my parents let us bum with them. It was really fun to see my family and let Mercedes get to know them a little. We decided that if we had to drive to Georgia we might as well make it fun so we stopped and did things along the way. Too bad that Mercedes wont remember any of it. For those who don't know yet we are living in Josh's parents house while they are on a mission. We are all settled now and I think that the dog has adjusted to us.

Here are some fun pics of the last few months

Playing dress up! She is a natural diva.

The joy of spaghetti

Us at arches.

Fun at Nate and Megan's house.

Walking in Memphis.

Having fun with cousin Jane.

Every girl needs one of these.

Emery's third birthday. My sister made the cutest cake!

Mercedes first birthday. She shares a birthday with uncle Dallin so they each got an inchworm cake.

At the pool with cousins.

My brother Parkers high school graduation.

Looking cute in my suit.

Some Pictures

2010-08-08T21:27:00.005-06:00

I thought I would just upload some pictures really quick. This summer has been very busy. Hopefully, we can get a full update soon. For now, enjoy the Mercedes show, because we know that's all you really want to see anyway.

Mercedes enjoying the view from the St. Louis Arch

At the Kansas City Zoo

Enjoying ALL her bows!

Having a good time learning how to stand (this was taken at Christmas -- She is nearly walking now)

Arches National Park

Typical happy Mercedes

Famous Route 66 ice cream at Ted Drewes (they hold your ice cream upside down when they give it to you to show how thick it is)

Jealous of the lions...

sleeping

How big is Mercedes?

More to come later!

Crawling

2010-06-07T09:11:00.000-06:00

Yes it is true...Mercedes is finally crawling.

Parents receive mission call!

2010-02-14T21:02:00.007-07:00

For those who don't know yet, my parents have been called to serve as Mission Presidente and companion. We are excited for them. They will be reporting to the MTC around July 1. We will miss them, but wish them the best.

Starting New Hobbies

2010-01-08T11:14:00.006-07:00

So a few months ago we moved into a new ward and the RS asked me what some of my hobbies are. I realized that I don't have many hobbies so I took up painting. This is something that I have always wanted to do but I am not good at all. I told my sister Astyn that I would post pictures of my first two paintings. These are just Acrylic paints so it is really cheap top do. I did not know that you could use acrylic paints until I got on the internet and watched this clip of an artist who only uses acrylic paints. If you are looking for a new hobbies I highly recommend painting!

I made this one for Mercedes room.

This one looks really dark in the picture and I am not sure why?

Party!

2010-01-04T13:50:00.006-07:00

Well we finally made it back home after 2 and a half weeks of vacation. This Christmas was full of family fun and we loved every minute of it. Our first week we spent in Florida with my family and the second we spent with the Trayner's on a cruise in the Caribbean. So here are a few highlights of each week.

As you can see we made a Crab on the beach in Mexico
It was really fun!

Here is Josh and Nate with the babies standing in front
of the Mayan ruins.

This is in Mexico and the Giant turtle that was supposed
to be in the picture swam away.

Here is proof that we all made it to the top of the
Mayan temple. The stairs are a lot steeper than they look.

Look how cute Mercedes looks Christmas Morning
with all the presents that Santa brought to the Shaw's.

This is on the beach in Honduras. As you can tell Mercedes
is very tired.

While we were on vacation Mercedes has become quite
the chatter box. She is constantly making noise now. Here she
is caught in the act.

Here we are on the bus going to the beach. as you can see
we were all excited to go!

We also discovered that Mercedes hair is very curly.
Once we got in the humidity it curled right up. This
picture is not the best but it gives you an idea.

This is my cute nephew Clark. He is all dressed
up for our anual Christmas pageant and he is looking
fabulous as a Shepard.

Eean played the part of the sheep while Emery was also a great shephard.
As you can see the twins made great angels!

Here we are standing in front of the big Christmas tree
in the middle of Sea World!

This clip was taken on formal night on the cruise. In the background there was
a crowd of older people that were just watching her. Every time she smiles you can
hear the crowd of Grandmas get all excited. Mercedes does not know
what to do with all the attention!

What a Nasty Bug

2009-12-02T07:37:00.003-07:00

So yesterday was a very exciting day. I spent the entire day sleeping or kneeling over the porcelain princess. I think that I picked up the 24 hour flu from a patient at work and was lucky enough to bring it home with me. Luckily Sandy came and spent the entire day with Mercedes so I could sleep. A few hours after Sandy left however Mercedes started to throw up too. She woke up every 20 min last night until about 1. She finally slept and seems relatively happy this morning except for the explosive diarrhea. Well on a happier note Mercedes got to celebrate Christmas early this year. Steve and Sandy gave Mercedes her Christmas present on Thanksgiving because we will not be around on Christmas day. She got a jumper! It was so fun to help her open it but as you can see from the pictures she was just as excited about the bow as she was the jumper. I love that children are so easy to please!

Here she is enjoying such a bright and colorful bow!

The box was bigger than her so we just put her on top.

Look at this really girly pose.

Haloween and More

2009-11-02T23:07:00.007-07:00

Here are more pictures from Halloween. As you can see I am a beautiful flower and Mercedes is my cute little bee. Please notice the high quality and great craftsmanship of my costume.

Here is Mercedes very happy to go to church

We recently bought her a coat and she is way to small for it right now. Don't worry she will grow into it by the end of december.

These are some pictures that I have been wanting to post. These were taken when she was just a week old. My favorite one is not up here but these are still cute.

Look how cute she is even on her way to bed.

2009-10-29T16:36:00.012-06:00

So here is a recap of the last few weeks. We finally settled down into a new ward and we are very excited that it is a family ward! As you can see in the pictures below we were so happy to have Dad come out for Mercedes's baby blessing. She looked so cute in the huge fluffy dress. Mercedes has also officially been to her first BYU football game, GO COUGARS! This week we decided to carve pumpkins and make Carmel apples for family night. They were so good and we finished just in time for me to put Mercedes down for bed and head out to work.

Here is the pumpkin that Josh carved while I made the apples. If you can't tell in the picture the pumpkin is a mummy.

THis is sme and Mercedes just before I am off to work.

Here is Josh showing off his handy work

This is Mercedes and Dad relaxing before game day.

This is Mercedes dressed up in her bee outfit just before we went to a party.

Mercedes has started to give a sneaky smile and this is a mild form of that smile.

We often like to nod off in the middle of the day.

Here is beautiful Mercedes in her blessing dress.

Mercedes now likes to put anything and everything in her mouth.

Mercedes and Grandpa

Happy girl

Mercedes loves to look at the camera. The only problem is that she stops smiling the second that we pull it out.

Four generations

New Adventures

2009-08-19T20:15:00.007-06:00

Howdie,

Can you believe Mercedes is going to be 8 weeks old next week! Now that we are parents we have learned a thing or two. I would have to say that we have had our share of all-night parities but all in all we are alive and well. Luckily I worked the night shift up until Mercedes was born so it was not to bad for me but Josh had to quickly adapt. Well these last two months have been so fun for many reasons. We have officially moved out of married student housing and we should be closing on the townhouse sometime in the near future. Today was also Josh's first day of law school (go BYU) and he is really excited. We also have had so much fun watching and learning from Mercedes. I just love how babies think that everything is so interesting. It is so fun to just sit and watch them discover everything around them. This week Mercedes has started to smile in response to things that we do. I have tried to catch her smiling in the pictures below but our camera is delayed so some of them are only half smiles. Mercedes has also discovered that if she moves her lips and tongue just right that she can make spit bubbles. So most of the day is filled with eating, sleeping and making spit bubbles. Just look how much she has grown in the last two months!!

Relaxation

Discovering the Camera

Sneaky

Good Morning

Hanging out at Grandma's

Bed Head

Waking up

Hanging out at home

Deer in the headlights

Housing Update

2009-07-21T17:03:00.005-06:00

Many of you have asked how our house is coming. We are hoping to be in at the end of this month or beginning of August. We are getting so excited!!! If you want to see what the model home looks like, click here.

More Baby and 4th of July Pictures

2009-07-05T21:26:00.008-06:00

First bath

Mercedes already has the touchdown signal down!

Zach enjoying far too much cake

The baby has arrived

2009-07-02T09:53:00.008-06:00

We are so thrilled to announce the arrival of our baby girl, Mercedes. It was quite the ordeal to get her here, but mother and baby are doing just great. I'll go ahead and share the story from my perspective and perhaps in a couple days you can all get Brittney's perspective (which will be much more painful than mine).
I'll go ahead and start on Monday when we went and had our last checkup with the OB. As you all know, the official due date was last Saturday, June 27. When we went in, Brittney was dilated to about a 3 and was a good 85-90% effaced. The doctor was sure that she would likely go into labor at any time, but went ahead and scheduled an inducement date for Thursday, which was great because we didn't want to have to wait until after the 4th of July weekend to have the baby. The OB went ahead and stripped Brittney's membranes for a second time (it had been done the previous week) and told us he wasn't sure we'd even last until Thursday and that he planned on seeing us at the hospital that night as he was the doctor on call. When we arrived home, we got a call from the doctor saying that UVRMC was booked solid for Thursday so he thought we would stand a better chance of getting Brittney induced on Wednesday, when they had fewer planned c-sections and other inducements. We agreed without any hesitation to have the baby on Wednesday, July 3.
On Tuesday, we welcomed Brittney's mom into our home and Brittney enjoyed a day with her mom and her sister Brynn. On Tuesday evening around 8pm, Brittney started having pretty strong and painful contractions. Typically they were separated by 10-20 minute intervals, not close enough to go into the hospital. We decided to pass some time by playing one of the only games I can convince Brittney to play with me, Syzygy (it is like speed Scrabble -- for those who have never played the game, I would highly recommend it). The contractions continued into the night and kept Brittney up the entire night and me up for most of the night. The contractions hadn't quite gotten to the 3-5 minute interval stage when they recommend you go into the hospital, but Brittney was in so much pain that we decided that it may be helpful to walk around our apartment complex for a bit, that was around 2:30am. After walking a bit, Brittney had decided that she was in too much pain and that we were going to go to the hospital. We grabbed the bag Brittney had packed several days earlier and headed out.
We arrived at the hospital around 3am and Brittney was immediately admitted. The hospital wasn't too busy and they took us to a room and placed a contraction monitor and a heart beat monitor on Brittney's stomach. Because Brittney was in so much pain she asked that they check her immediately and see if she could get the epidural started. Unfortunately, she was only dilated to a 3 and so they decided to monitor her for the next hour and would consult with the doctor to see if they would send her back home. After the hour was up they decided to keep her at the hospital and around finally around 5:30 to 6am they placed the epidural. Let me tell you, that was a huge relief! Brittney was finally able to relax a little and get some much needed sleep. She was able to sleep on the very comfy hospital bed while I got to attempt to sleep and a very uncomfy recliner. I am sure it was the only time during the whole procedure that Brittney was more comfortable than I was, and deservedly so.
Brittney continued to progress fairly quickly and by 11:30 or so had dilated to a 7. About that same time, the doctor arrived on the scene and decided to break Brittney's water, which had yet to occur. Around 12:30 they checked her again and she was fully dilated. The nurses checked in with the doctor and the doctor gave the go ahead to have her start pushing. Brittney had been complaining since she was dilated to a 7 that she was starting to feel her contractions again and that she had regained quite a bit of feeling in her legs, which shouldn't have been the case with the epidural. The anesthesiologist decided that she just needed an extra couple dosages to alleviate the pain. It seemed to help a bit, but as we would learn later, her epidural had become displaced and was not functioning properly. By the end of the birth, Brittney could basically feel everything that was going on - it was difficult on her to say the least.
Since we hadn't gone to any prenatal or birthing classes, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect during the process. Since Brittney had witnessed a couple of births herself during her clinical rotations, she explained things to me a couple times and helped me to know what to expect. Even if we had gone to a birthing class, I don't think it would have prepared me for the final stage of the birth. For the first 30-45 minutes, Brittney did very well and the pain wasn't too substantial. After that, things went downhill very quickly. Things started to become very painful, Brittney started clutching to the side of the bed as she pushed and tried to forget the pain and push as hard as she could. Finally the pain become too much so the nurse called the anesthesiologist who was stuck in a c-section and would not show up for another 30 minutes, when it would be too late to do anything. I could go into many more details about this stage, but for everyone's sake I'll stop there and say that after nearly 2 hours of pushing and after enduring more pain than I think she could ever withstand, Brittney gave birth to a beautiful 8 pound 2 ounce, 20.5" baby on July 1 at 2:33pm!
We have decided to name her Mercedes Nicole Trayner (thanks for sharing your name Nicole - you nearly shared your birthday as well). She is such a doll and we are so happy to have her a part of our life. We love her so much already and are so thankful for her. The tears just started to stream down my face when I was finally able to see her. She has a beautiful head of dark brown hair, though we're not sure where she got all that dark hair (Nicole as well???). I'd also like to thank you all for your love and support. Now to the good stuff...some pictures (I know that most of you will probably skip over the novel of a post I just created and look only at the pictures).

Brittney's Birthday

2009-03-29T15:44:00.006-06:00

Hi Everyone-

I recently talked to Astyn on the phone and she told me that I really needed to start blogging. So for all of you that don't know this is my very first entry. I am excited to finally try this out! Well just to catch up on what is happening in our life we have a baby girl coming in June which is really exciting. Yesterday was also my birthday so Josh got up early to make me breakfast. I then went and got a new hair cut and opened my presents ( also featured in my picture below). Josh bought me a pair of prego capris because it is going to be warming up soon and I felt like I needed a pair if I was going to last until June. We then went to see a play at Pioneer Theater called Dial M for Murder. It was really good and there is a surprise twist at the end!! For all of my family in Georgia I will be sure to add lots of prego pictures of yesterday so you can see how big I am getting. I would like to think that it is all baby but the would be lying haha. Josh and I would also like to say congrats to Shannyn and Caleb who just had their little baby Jane. She is so cute and definitely looks like a Weiler. I did not think that any Shaw baby could have that much hair or brown skin. I bet that if you were to compare Jane's legs to Papa Shaws you would see a stark contrast of color hahaha.

This is a close up!!

These are the beautiful flowers that Dad sent me for my birthday.

Here we are at the play!

Here I am opening my presents

Amazing Video

2008-05-08T09:09:00.002-06:00

Back by popular demand!

2008-05-04T22:09:00.010-06:00

Okay, so I'm not sure I can say popular demand, but alas an update to the blog. Much has happened since I last posted, just haven't gotten to time to put anything up. I'll start with the oldest event and post some pictures and lead up to the most recent event. In the beginning of March, Brittney was officially inducted into the nursing honors society, Sigma Theta Tau. Basically that means she's a genius and is in the top of her nursing class. I was very proud of her.

Next, during March we participated in a Hindu festival at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. Not sure how large the Indian population is in Spanish Fork, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Basically, they hold this "color festival" every year to celebrate the onset of spring. They burn a huge effigy of a witch and then the throwing of the powder begins. Here is the result with before and after pictures.

All clean...

Oh the insanity!

It felt as if we were in the middle of a war zone

James, Josh, Tim, Creighton

As you can tell, we had a blast. Those same colors you see in the pictures were coming out of our noses for a week, but we enjoyed it immensely. Next, at the end of March we celebrated Brittney's birthday and then we celebrated mine at the beginning of April. Here are some pictures.

One of Brittney's new favorite movies...Dan in Real Life

Josh getting a new shirt (hmm...looks similar to the one Brittney got her Dad)

Next, on April 24th and 25th, BYU held its Graduation ceremonies and believe it or not, I have finally graduated. Just for the record, I did NOT graduate in English, but rather English Language (or Linguistics for that matter). If you don't know the difference, I will be glad to explain. I also got a minor in Business Management. I loved my time at BYU and wouldn't trade it in for anything. However, with that said, I have decided to forgo law school for a year and apply next year. In the meantime, I am looking to start up a business (more details to be disclosed later) and work for a year. Brittney, meanwhile, has another year left and is attending school during Spring term. She will be going to the Utah state prison and doing clinicals there - not because she has broken the law. By the way, thank you to all who have sent cards and other mementos. Here are some pics from graduation.

Finally, May 2nd was our 2 year anniversary. We celebrated by going to a restaurant in Bountiful called The Mandarin, which I would highly recommend, watched an improv comedy show, and stayed at the Little America (complements of Nana and Forrest - thank you). We have loved being married the past two years and can't wait to see what the future may hold.

Take the test, if you dare

2008-03-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

Go to http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ to take an interesting test. Let me know how you did!

Not much happening

2008-03-02T22:48:00.007-07:00

Since not a lot has been going on this week, I don't have much to write about. We did have a good time this past Saturday night with our friends Matt and Stacy Serafine. Ever since I met Brittney, she has been asking to go to a Cougarettes concert. Since they perform at lots of the sporting events she comes to me with, she always says that we need to balance the sporting events with the Cougarettes. Well, I was actually paying attention and decided to surprise her on Saturday night (forgoing a basketball game even) and took her to the show. The Cougarettes have won the national championship the past 3 years in a row and several more during the past decade. The show was entertaining and we even tried a different restaurant out. It is called La Dolce Vita and is a small Italian restaurant on 100 E. and about 60 N. in Provo. The restaurant was cozy and the food was pretty good.
In other news, Brittney and I have been reading the biography of Gordon B. Hinckley, called Go Forward with Faith. Let me just say that we have both been deeply impressed with the service and dedication that Pres. Hinckley showed during the years. He worked his hardest throughout his life and is a great example. We were sad at his passing a little while ago, but thankful that our lives were blessed by him. I recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn more about his life.

Additionally, I am taking an Economics course this semester and have been assigned to read New Ideas From Dead Economists. The book has provided me with some invaluable insight into economic theory and how the economy runs. Todd Buchholz is a professor of economics at Harvard and has served as director of economic policy for President Bush (considering the economic troubles we seem to be in right now that might not be such a great thing). Nevertheless, though economics may not sound like the most interesting topic in the world, Buchholz does an excellent job of keeping the book humorous and insightful at the same time and so I highly recommend the reading.

Our Travels

2008-02-24T22:35:00.007-07:00

Brittney and I have been keeping pretty busy with school and work. As typical college students, our lives are pretty mundane. We have, however, been able to get out a little bit the past couple weeks and have a little bit of fun. Last weekend we headed to Drigss, ID (in between Rexburg and Jackson Hole) with my family. It was great because we were able to meet up with Nicole and even see her symphony. They did an excellent job and we were highly impressed. The family also decided to go on a little snowmobiling trip. I think it is safe to say that the snowmobile trip was more of a learning experience that anything else. If you want details on why that is the case, I will feel free to provide those. However, for the sake of my Mom, I must say that we did have an enjoyable time and it is always great to be with family. I guess the downfall of the trip is that Brittney seemed to catch the flu that has been going around and she still has not fully recovered (she is coughing as I type). Not only did she get the respiratory virus, but she also got the stomach flu at the same time. She got so bad during the week that she even missed her clinical on Wednesday and barely made it to her clinical on Thursday. By Friday she was starting to feel better and now she just has a lingering cough. Luckily for me, I have managed to remain healthy thus far.
This past Friday I flew out to Minneapolis to check out the law school. I was happy to go see the school for myself and meet some new people. Overall I would say the trip was a success and I thoroughly enjoyed my time out there. The insane part is that everyone was talking about 34 degree weather as if it were a heat wave. I guess, it's all according to your perspective, especially when it has been negative temperatures there for a while. I thought that everyone would get a kick out of a building I saw near my hotel. It had caught on fire and the water they used to put out the fire turned to ice. It was really cool.

While there I was also able to go to check out downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America, the largest mall in the world. Downtown Minneapolis was really neat because of the sky bridges that have been constructed, connecting practically every high rise downtown. Because so many "pedestrians" walk through these bridges, the first two or three floors of every building are completely commercial space. They all form quite a complex maze and I'm surprised I didn't get lost while walking around. Unfortunately Brittney wasn't able to come out with me, but she had a great time staying home studying and babysitting!

(This picture was actually taken at the Minneapolis airport during Christmas when we had a three hour layover there)

Minneapolis sky bridges

These two pictures were taken at the Mall of America. It has an amusement park in the middle and retail stores going all around the park. Oh yea, it is also three stories high.

We're Back!

2008-01-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

I know, you're all probably so sick of coming here and not seeing any updates that you have already given up. Good news! We're still alive and Thanksgiving is now over. Anyway, school has started up again. I will be my last semester at BYU. In April, I will graduate with a BA in English Language (NOT English) and a minor is Business Management. Brittney still has another year after this semester to finish up her nursing degree. We enjoyed our Christmas break in Atlanta. The day before we left it was a nice 64 degrees. We left some of the wintery weather behind us in GA, with snow falling this past week there. As far as law schools go, I have heard back from both of the schools that I applied to. I first heard from the University of Minnesota where I have been accepted. It is an excellent school in a great location and we are looking at the possibility of Brittney transferring to their nursing school. Yes, we are aware that it is very cold there, but have been impressed with the opportunities we would have there. The only other school I ended up applying to was BYU. I got an email from them this week that I could check my application status online by logging onto a web page. I logged on and the page had a part that said "Decision Rendered" with a "Congratulations" next to it. I assumed from that that I had been accepted, but just to make sure I sent them an email to verify. I got an email back verifying that I had been accepted and they resent an email that I apparently should have received on January 10. What was really interesting about the email is that it said I should expect to get a formal acceptance letter in the mail, along with my scholarship offer! I'm hoping that they didn't send me the wrong email and that I will actually be getting a scholarship offer, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I've gone on for a long time now. I will try to get some pictures up and make things a little more interesting. I would also encourage you to check out http://whoaremormons.blogspot.com, a web page that my good friend Jonathan Beutler has created.

Happy Thanksgiving & Reception Pics

2007-11-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have a whole lot to share this week. Eean and Astyn (Brittney's sister and husband) have arrived in town with their baby Emory. It is exciting to finally meet him. His chubby cheeks and affable personality have made him very enjoyable. There have been some requests for our wedding pictures, so I uploaded the pictures from our reception and will heopfully get more loaded. If you click on a picture in the slideshow, it will take you to an album where you can download the pictures to your computer. If you have a specific picture you want in higher quality, I can email it to you, just let me know. I will be posting more pictures of our wedding in the coming days. Finally, Brittney and I would also like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Dallin's MTC Entry

2007-11-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sorta new to this whole blogging thing so this might be a little weird. Anyway, I thought that the family would enjoy seeing some pictures of Dallin's little visit here to Provo. We decided to get together on Monday evening to have a Shaw family home evening together. Of course we had the future Elder give the lesson even though he had to be coerced a little bit. He shared 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 which discusses Paul's thorn in the flesh. He's probably sure to fine plenty of "thorns in the flesh" as he enters the mission field. After the lesson we carved some pumpkins and just had a great time. It was great to have the family together and to see Dallin off. On Tuesday, Dallin came to my financial management class with me and quickly fell asleep - I have to admit I wanted to do the same thing. Finally he entered the MTC on Wednesday, a little nervous, but excited for his new adventure. He will be a great missionary and we were so happy we could see him off. For those who may not have his address, it will be the following while he is in the MTC:

Elder Dallin Shaw
MTC Mailbox 250
Arg-BAN 1231
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

Anyway, that's enough of me talking, let's see some pictures...