Our new nephew Aiden

My brother and sis-in-law were able to adopt a baby this week. We are so happy for them!! They are the best parents and now they have two of the cutest boys I've ever seen. We got to spend some time with Drew this week while Mike and Steph were at the hospital. It was so great. I love that kid. Unfortunately Burke has our camera with him on his annual motorcycle trip so I couldn't take any pictures. very frustrating. So instead I stole some from Steph's Blog. Check out this cute little peanut! He is only 6lbs 0 oz. wow! Oh... and they named him Aiden James Postma which was what I wanted to name Mason if you all remember. But Mason is a Mason and we got our Aiden after all. Yay!
Drew will be the best big brother. He is so strong and so loving. He constantly wants to snuggle with everbody so it might take him awhile to learn some boundaries with this little one. Here is a sample of Drew with Tess who, although you can't tell in this picture, adores Drew. She is constantly grinning at him and loves to climb on him or crawl after him.


Since Burke is gone this week, my life is kids kids kids. Just so they wouldn't get bored to death, we had Charlie and Lillee over to play. Lillee and Tess hung out in her room and played dress up. Lillee liked to put bows on Tess. I guess she also noticed that um.... Tess is bald. But Tess didn't care. She loved the attention.

Mason and Charlie loved cruisin' in their friend's cars although you also can't tell from this picture. (I can't get Mason to smile for the camera no matter what I do. I guess it's a good thing. He is a new driver and should keep his eyes on the road.)They loved running in circles around this tree. I guess everything is fun when you are with your best friend and you are two years old!

One last minute plug. Can I just say how excited I am that So you think you can dance has started again!! I love it!!! Can't wait for the choreography to start next week! It's the only show I have to watch every second of. I keep them on my DVR for months and watch them over and over and over. Someday maybe I'll get reincarnated as a dancer.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Some pics of my beautiful Tess in one of her new dresses! It is so nice to have some warm weather so she can wear some of her beautiful summer clothes! (I love having a girl to dress up!)

So.... We have had an interesting week leading up to Mother's day. My cute brother and sister-in-law found out last week that a baby had just been born that was their's to adopt. They were beyond excited and flew out to North Carolina to pick up their new baby boy. But... apparently it wasn't meant to be their little boy after all. After much disappointment they flew back home with their baby carrier empty and all their baby clothes still folded neatly in their suitcases. Luckily they were able to come home and be comforted by their enthusiastic little 18 month old Drew. We love you Mike and Steph and know that there will be another baby coming to your little family soon.

On a happier note... Jeff and Haylee found out Friday that they would be having a boy in September! Hooray! They will be wonderful parents and we are thrilled to have yet another boy in the family. And congrats Jeff on your excellent job on the DAT.
Happy Mother's day Grandma Tori!
Drew giving Tess a kiss. Does it look like he is ready to be an older brother or what!

Happy Mother's Day Grandma Sallie!!! Wish we could be closer to you!

We love you Grandma Sallie! (with all the cousin's except Mason who is asleep :( )

The most beautiful children in the world! - in my unbiased opinion

First day of May and it's snowing!!

It's the first day of May and I have my brand new bike trailer to hit the road with my kiddos and it's snowing! But Charlie and Mason had fun with it anyway. They both sat in it with their juice cups and watched backyardagains.

We have been so busy the last few weeks. We are almost done with our basement. We are starting to do the trim work. Burke is in the middle of a bear hunt. (can you believe it! and he's hunting it with his bow!) We just finished the Pinewood Derby with my scouts last night. and our little Tessa got hand, foot and mouth disease! She had a fever of 102 and big canker sores all over in her mouth! It was awful. She cried and cried for about 3 days straight and it is extremely contagious so I got to sit home and hold her while Mason was bored out of his mind and jealous because I was holding her all day. It was awful. But she's doing great now and has learned to crawl. Hooray!

We got a "bounce house" for Mason for the backyard this year. I wanted to show a few cute pictures of him.

And... Last weekend, Burke had the chance to drive some awesome cars. Check these out!

Weekend in Boise

Last weekend we go to spend the weekend in Boise with the Shields fam. It was great. We got to see Makayla kick some bootay in her soccor game. She scored 3 of the 6 goals for her team. She has skills.

We got to go to a discovery kid center and hang out with the cousins. And we had a fabulous family dinner on Sunday. Then the long and horrible drive home with both Tess and Mason crying about three hours straight. Burke and I decided that it might be a little while before we make the trip again. But in spite of the drive, it was great to see the family and we got to say happy birthday to Sallie.

We didn't get to see much of conference though and I'm watching it right now on our DVR. It's awesome. Can I just say that I am stoked to have Pres. Monson lead our Church what an amazing man.

This is Tess with her newest cousin Claire who is 3 months old. And pictures of Mason in the discovery center. They had a kid size store where all the kids got to shop and work the cash registers and everything. The kids loved it.

Is summer ever coming?

I have summer fever so so bad! Today was my scouting wednesday. (I am a cubscout leader. um... much more work then I thought when I accepted the calling. not that I'm complaning. It's just a simple fact that ten 9 year olds in my living room for an hour every week can be ...uh... noisy...at the very least.) My scouts and I were going to race our veggie cars today. (cars made from cucumbers) but hello! MAJOR SNOWSTORM! omigosh.. I am going nuts!!! But things are looking up. The weatherman assures me that there will be nice weather next week... finally... And my blog with it's blah brown background and drab music was starting to depress me. Fine for January but not acceptable for April, so I mixed things up. I like these twinkle twinkle stars. It reminded me of warm summer nights which are on their way. It made me smile. I hope you all are smiling tonight too.

Happy days

Just the daily stuff goin' on here. But at least somebody's having fun. What a smile on my girlie!

Life changing event

Wow... my life changed in one day. We finally installed the last section of fence along our street and had gates installed so I can lock Mason in the backyard. Oh my gosh! I knew it would be wonderful but I definately under-estimated. For the first time in two-plus years Mason played by himself for more than 5 minutes. I just opened the back door and out he went. He was outside for about two hours. I couldn't believe it. I kept peeking out the window every few minutes to make sure he was okay. Maybe everyone out there doesn't understand but Mason has been my shadow since he was born. He won't do anything without me. If I walk out of the room he follows me. If I go to the bathroom, he is right there flushing the toilet while I'm trying to go. If I mop the floor he is right there leaving little footprints all the wet floor. Anyway... you get the picture. I'll move on...

I have a few pics though. Of course life is always more fun with a friend. Here is Mason with his best bud Charlie.

Swimming with the Family

Hey all!

We are all a pack of sickies here in the Shields home. I have absolutely no voice whatsoever, Tess and Mason have a constant stream running from each nostril, (ewww!) Burke is starting to get a sore throat so he thought he would stay in bed today. (Men are such wusses!) So I'm running around trying to get stuff done and Mason is lifting Tess by the feet so her face is smooshing into the carpet and I yell MASON!! LEAVE YOUR SISTER ALONE! but all that comes out is a MA... and the rest is just a whisper. For some reason Mason thinks it is funny and whispers back a bunch of jibberish and laughs. But at least he lets go of her feet and she plops back down onto her tummy.

So... The real point to my posting is that we went swimming for family night a couple weeks ago and I wanted to post some pics of my sweet little baby in her swimsuit debut. Sports Illustrated look out!

I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful girl in a swimsuit!!

And... check out this happy boy and his Daddy! Man...... it just makes me smile to look at my cute men.

Sorry folks... but unfortunately there will be no pics of me in my swimsuit. Tune in for further opportunities this summer. (or not.)

It's been awhile

Okay, so I was so excited about starting a blog that I forgot I have to update it every once and awhile.
So Burke is finishing our basement. HOORRAY!!! It will double the size of our home. It will be wonderful. And we are finally putting in a fence so the kiddos can play outside this summer. I can't wait! He has just about finished framing the basement. We hope to have it finished by April.
We also had our 4 year anniversary a couple weeks ago and valentine's day was two days ago so Burke and I have been able to bask in our love this month. For valentine's, we went to dinner and then came home to watch a movie and I fell asleep on the couch by 10:00 pm. I am a hopeless romantic.
I really am grateful for my man. After four years, I think we are finally starting to figure this marriage thing out. He is my best friend and we have learned to laugh at ourselves. I have learned not to be so sensitive about everything and he has learned to try to be sensitive about some things (or at least just fake it.)
Anyway... life is getting better everyday. Oh... and did I mention that Tess cut her first tooth on Wednesday and Mason can count to ten almost all by himself!