Going on a Mission

My sister Camille put in her mission papers, and I was lucky enough to be in Utah when she opened her call! She is going to the Chicago, Illinois North mission, and she enters the MTC on May 21. Congratulations Camille!!!

An Easter Blessing

We had a great day today for Easter. This whole past week, Shane's mom has been here with us helping out, and yesterday afternoon, my parents drove up to visit also. We had a fun Easter egg hunt in the backyard, and Landon enjoyed coloring the Easter eggs last night. This morning, he jumped out of bed, excited to go see if the Easter bunny had hid his eggs, and he liked the new helicopter he got in his Easter basket.

This morning, Shane blessed Davis in church. It was a really nice blessing, blessing Davis with, among other things, a "sound mind and a soft heart," a "sense of service for his fellowman," and "a special relationship with his siblings." Fortunately, Davis was good for the blessing, and he pretty much slept right through it.

After church, we had a great Easter dinner with ham, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls, rainbow Jello, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was delicious, and nice to have so many moms and dads and husbands around to help put such a great dinner together! Before dinner, Landon was coloring a picture of Jesus he had got in nursery. My dad asked him who it was in the picture, and he said, "Jesus." He then asked him what he learned about Jesus in nursery, and he said something about a garden, then said, "He died and went to live with Heavenly Father." Then dad asked him what happened next, and he said, "He came back!" I guess he does listen in nursery and when we have family home evening!

A Smilling One-Monther

Can you believe Davis is already one month old? I sure can't. Jsut a couple of days ago, we started seeing Davis's first smiles. Landon especially gets excited to see his little brother smile at him. Davis has especially been excited to meet his Grandma Malan, and we have loved having her here for the week! She has been such a good help to me, and Landon loves having his Grandma here to take him on walks, read stories to him, and play with him!

We have tried capturing some pictures of Davis smiling this week. We haven't been super successful, but here are a few that kind of captured it.

We should have moved to Sweden

As many of you know, Shane had a job offer in Sweden with Accenture at the same time that he got his job offer with Stockamp in Oregon. Although I have been grateful we took the Oregon job, this last Saturday and Sunday, I was changing my mind, just a little bit. In Sweden, all men are given at least six weeks paid leave when their wife has a baby. Shane was home on Saturday all day, and it was so nice to have someone here during the day! He unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it, washed some pots I had sitting on the counter for a couple of days, played with Landon, put Davis down for his nap, changed some diapers, raked and mowed the lawn, picked up the toys, installed the keypad for our garage door opener, . . . plus much more. Isn't he great!!! I wish he was home every day to help out, but I guess I just have to be satisfied with living in Oregon and having him on the evenings and weekends to help out!

Here are just a couple new pictures of Davis:

We've got to pray just to make it today

Shane likes to quote that MC Hammer song to get Landon to fold his arms for the dinner prayer. Landon has been doing better and better at repeating us to say prayers for the meals or for his bedtime prayer. Last night, for the first time, he decided to say his bedtime prayer on his own. It went something like this: "Heavenly Father. Thank for the food. Please bless it. Bless the food. Thank thee for my room. Thank thee could go on walk and see the rainbow and the duckies swim." He got a little stuck after that, so Shane helped him finish, but I thought it was pretty good for his first prayer, even if he did bless the food!

Somehow, Shane started telling Landon "little boy" stories. It has become one of their favorite things to do together. Shane starts a sentence with "When I was a little boy, . . . " then completes it with some random comment, like "I had a dog," or "I rode my bike to school, " etc. Then, Landon laughs hysterically like it's the funniest story he's heard. Landon now likes to tell his own little boy stories, and fills in random things like, "when I was a little boy, I didn't have curtains," then he laughs. I'm not sure how far in the past he's referring to when he was a little boy, as I still think of him as my little boy!!!

More Newborn Photos

Here are a few more photos of Davis that my friend took. If you didn't get to see the first ones, click here: http://www.nfocusphotography.blogspot.com/

Landon is still enjoying live with his new baby brother. Today at lunch, he suddenly said, "Daddy, I love you. And I love baby Davis and Mommy, . . . and my milk!" I'm glad to know we're all up there with his milk. He also has quite the imagination these days. He often will be carrying around something imaginary in his hand. When we ask him what it is, he usually says a kitty, but also it might be a bird or a dog, or . . . who knows. He even took the kitty to nursery today, so Shane had to tell his nursery leader what it was. When I was making breakfast yesterday morning, I walked to open the fridge and he told me I had just walked through his cave and broke it, and I needed to be careful.

Landon also loves letters, and he is more and more interested in how things are spelled. He spells mom and dad, but he also has a recent interest in Exit signs, and he's always pointing them out to me. Today, we went on a walk, and on our way home, and said, "Daddy, E-X-I-T spells exit." I guess he's seen the exit signs enough to remember what letters are in it.

Here are just a couple of pictures of him talking to Davis this evening.

Baby Kallie Arrives!

Early this morning, Jacob and Stacey's little baby Kallie was born. She was 8lbs 4oz and 19 inches long. She looks like a cutie! If you want to see some pictures, check out their blog at http://jacobandstacey.blogspot.com/. Congratulations Jake and Stacey!