Reading In The Little Red Chair

My little Cheeser =)

Eoin was not sure what to think at his first time sitting in the Little Red Chair.

He wants to see himself in the camara. (He knows that he can see his picture in the back of the camara. Smarty Pants!!)

I asked him, "How big is Eoin?"

"Maybe I' ll pull out ALL the books!!"

Making Cinnamon Rolls!!

We LOVE Baking!!!

Eoin likes to bang his measuring cup!!!

Mommy decided to be brave and make her first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls on Friday. I never work with yeast because it makes me soooo nervous. My Mother-in-Law makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world, so I never even wanted to try because I knew mine would pale in comparison. The kids ask every day what we are going to do that is FUN. I decided that we would do this for fun and if the rolls were yucky that was O.K. Other than forgetting to put in the butter and egg they tasted okay, just were a little tough =). I made WAYYYY too much icing. I just started following the recipe never even processing that 9 cups of powdered sugar was a whole bag =} I said, "Oh, well, we will just have to make more rolls."

We made another batch on Monday using my new hand mixer with dough hooks, and remembering the butter and egg. They were much better =). I don't know if I will ever make them as well as the Master Baker next door, but we will have fun trying!

We still have half the icing left after 2 batches, and sharing the icing with Mimi (this is what the kids call my Mother-in-Law) for the cinnamon rolls she made. Maybe we will make some sugar cookie cut-outs and dye the icing fun colors?! Guess we will just have to wait and see what the week brings.

The Wonderful World of Imagination!

Thanks for the new PJ's Annie (Aunt Anna)! Princess, Fireman, and Sherriff Who knew wearing PJ's in the middle of the day could be soooo much fun!!

There's a New Sherriff in Town ;)

What a Beautiful Princess!

Annie I Oakley with her little pet dog "Floxie" (She plays that Eoin is her dog Floxie at least once every day. He follows her around crawling and carrying his toy in his mouth. Soooo cute!)

One handsome cowboy!!

Annie I Oakley (This is what Elysia named her cowgirl character?And you better not leave out the I !!) & Cowboy Adam riding their helicopter (Not a horse, or bucking bronco, but their own personal helicopter??!!)

Crawling With Perfect Form

Eoin is crawling everywhere. We thought maybe he never would, but when he finally did around 11 months he did so with perfection. He reminds me of one of those crawling dolls. His arms and legs move in perfect rhythm. Ethan and Elysia crawled, but with their own flare. Ethan did the army crawl, and Elysia her own version entirely. I love how each child is soooo different in each and every way.

Get Ready!

Get Set!

And He's Off!!

"I won!!!"

Changes!

First, we are very excited about our fourth baby due in September! We are thrilled to be having a third boy!! This makes Elysia the official Princess of the family, a title and position she does not mind in the least. =)

Second, Eoin is mobile in a wierd way I guess. He rolls all over the house?! He can scoot backwards, but crawling on his hands and knees has yet to occur. He prefers to roll to wherever he wants to go because he gets very frustrated with being stuck in reverse. =) He can stand up if he is holding onto something. He really wants to walk, but just hasn't gotten the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other part yet. Eoin has his 2 bottom teeth now. He is soooo cute!!

Catching Up!!!

Waiting!

This photo was taken less than 2 weeks before Eoin's arrival. We were READY!!

The Newest Shaver

Just Born!

3 Days Old1 month

Ivan Eoin Esmund Shaver was born June 23, 2008. He weighed 7lbs. 15oz. and was 20in. long. We were soooooo happy to finally have Eoin here! Eoin is the Irish spelling of Owen. We named him after Joshua's Poppy Ivan Wilson, and my Great-Grandfather Virgil Owens (he was Irish, hence the Irish spelling). Esmund means protected by grace. We chose this name after Joshua's car accident on Good Friday.

The Car

He was driving my parent's little car up to meet us at their house in Michigan for Easter weekend. My parent's picked up the kids and I in Lima, OH the Sunday before. They drove our van up and left their car for Josh to drive back up on Friday. There was a random snow storm that day. Josh was 5 miles into Michigan when he hit a patch of black ice. He lost control and spun around into a tow truck parked on the side of the highway facing on-coming traffic. His head hit the driver's side window. He was taken to The Toledo Hospital, and was in and out of consciousness for over 2 hours. He was relesed that same night, but we were unable to go and pick him up because of road conditions. The section of highway that he wrecked on was shut down only 10 min. after his accident. There were over 27 accidents in that same stretch of highway over the course of 1 hour. Joshua walked out of the hospital with me on Saturday afternoon. My Grandpa, my little brother Connor, and I were finally able to get through to pick him up around noon. Josh had scratches on his scalp, very bruised ribs, and bad whiplash. We continue to PRAISE THE LORD for his protection!!!

Mommy Meets Eoin!!After over a month of bedrest and being in and out of the hospital the Dr. finally delivered Eoin at 11:18pm. by c-section. I was scheduled for my 3rd c-section June 26th. The Dr. decided it would be best to take him early, since I was hospitalized for severe pain from my "gallbladder". Since then I have had numerous tests and procedures, and they have determined that the "attacks" I have been dealing with since May 2005 are not from my gallbladder. We still do not know the cause of the pain. However we certainly did not mind Eoin coming 3 days earlier than we planned =) .

We LOVE our baby brother!!!
Meeting Eoin Holding Our Brother =)Ethan and Elysia were and still are THRILLED with their baby brother. They LOVE him, and enjoy watching him reach every new milestone, no matter how small.

1 month oldLife is exhausting!1st Laugh Outloud =)Elysia was ecstatic the first time Eoin accidently touched her face, while she was staring only inches from his =).

I Love Eoin's Fat Cheeks!Oh, Yeah? Take that, Elysia!!
1st Rice Cereal

Rolled Over for the 1st time in my crib, while no one was watching!! Sneaky =)1st Veggie Hmm...I'm not sure about Green Beans?

I do, I do, I do, I do, I do so like Green Beans!!!

I'm a Big Boy in my Bumbo Seat!

Now the kids love that Eoin is able to sit up in his Bumbo seat and "play" with them. Mostly Eoin loves to watch the chaos ;) . Elysia is determined that Eoin needs to walk. "C'mon O'n-O'n (she calls him Eoin-Eoin, but it comes out more like this), like dis. Watch a'me!!", she squeals as she repeatedly "shows" him how to walk and sometimes even crawl. I am always amazed Eoin is able to do anything as he has SOOOO much "help" =) .

"Dross!!! I hate babysood Dreen Beans ={ "

Elysia insisted on tasting Eoin's 1st green beans. I think she may be cured of wanting to taste Eoin's food ever again. At least until he is eating table food =) .

The Many Moods of Ethan & Elysia

My First Snowman!

Shy Girl?

Big Tease!

Mr. Fix It

Wild Woman

I Love Being Messy!

Can You Wash My Face?

Being Daddy

Being Mommy

Best Friends!

Ethan and Elysia love to sit in their red chairs. (Elysia thinks she is big stuff!)
They love each other too!
Ethan often tells Elysia and others that Elysia is his best friend. We are very thankful for our 2 wonderful children. They are daily a blessing to us. We pray they will continue to be best friends as the Lord is sending us far from family and friends to a new home. We look forward to watching them grow. We also look forward to seeing them make new friends in Uruguay.

Pando, Uruguay

This is a picture of Josh with a Ovideo, a pastor we met at teen Camp. He told Josh the next day that he was his new friend. He spoke a good bit of English. Josh played soccer with him and the teen boys at game time. He loved it!
This is part of the 50 teens and children at Sunday School the first week.
The teen girls begged me to come and play the piano for them to sing their camp choruses. Before long all the kids and Hector one of the teen boys were singing too. I loved every minute of it!

Joshua and I went on our missions survey trip to Pando, Uruguay from July 8-23. We stayed with Don and Pat Garwood a missionary couple from our church here in Zanesville. Don is 71 years old, yet he wore us out more with his running than do our two small children. We were able to visit several families from Iglesia Biblica Maranatha. The church consists mostly of children and teens. There are a handful of ladies who attend, but only one man. Josh was able to speak 4 times in the services there. I was able to speak 3 times. We both had to use translators of course. This was a first time experience for us both. We are definitely looking forward to being able to speak in Spanish for the lessons without an interpreter. The second week we were there a 14 girl from the church, Evelyn, was hit and killed by a bus right in front of the church. She was running to catch the bus to go to school, and failed to look the other way before running out. It was a very difficult time. She was saved as are her mother, Rosana, and little brother, Facundo. Her step-father, George, is not. He has raised her since she was a toddler and took her death very hard. He did request Don to have a funeral service. This is very uncommon in Uruguay as burials take place the same day or the day after a death. They do not embalm. He wanted there to be scripture and hymns. This was a huge testimony to the over 300 people who came to the graveside for the funeral. Please continue to pray for Evelyn's family, and that her testimony would continue to bring many souls to the Lord.

We absolutely loved it there. We are planning to begin deputation ASAP. We just received a brand new laptop computer from our home to church. This is a huge blessing as we were going to have to wait to begin deputation until we could afford one. Please pray for us as we begin to prepare our power point presentation, and deputation in general.

Grandpa's Farm

We travelled to Michigan to see Rebekah's family over Memorial Day. Ethan was very excited to see family and the animals. All the way up there (5 hours) Ethan begged to listen to his "Farmer" CD. This is full of songs about farm animals. The first song is called "Down On Grandpa's Farm". We had to play this one over, and over, and over. . . (you get the point). Ethan and Elysia LOVED the animals. There was a new litter of kittens that Ethan begged to see about 100 times a day. Thankfully Rebekah's sister Katie loved to take Ethan out to see them. Elysia was amazed by the dogs. Every time she woke up, whether from a nap or nighttime, the first thing out of her mouth was "Daw-Daw-Daw" meaning take me to see the dog or I will scream =) She knows exactly what she wants and when she wants it, which is NOW of course. The dogs were not so enthusiastic about Elysia. Who can blame them? I would not want to be attacked by a squealing wild child, who liked to chew my tail! It is always nice to see family and farm. We wish that we lived closer. We miss our family very much, and I never realized how much I loved the farm until I moved away.