8 months, Easter and Graduation

I CANNOT believe it has taken me so long to update this blog. BUT in my defense the last few weeks/months have been CRAZY INSANELY busy! So, here's a recap.

A few weeks ago a mommy group that I was (that past tense is a little sad) a part of went to the aquarium up in Sandy. The aquarium was LAME (or maybe I was just spoiled as a kid growing up right next to the coast) but the company was fun and Bowen seemed to really enjoy the fish! He loved to watch them swim around. But nothing captivated him as much as the sea turtle! He was huge and awesome and kept swimming RIGHT in front of us. Bowen was IN LOVE! There was a display of penguins and just outside of it was a place to compare your height with that of a penguin, so of course I stood Bo up next to one. He just happened to be one of the same species from Happy Feet, there was a little smile in my heart as that's one of my favorite movies! Here he is:

He had a great time. 

Just a couple of weeks ago was Easter and we dressed Bo up. Here he is in his Easter outfit:

Complete with the ball Uncle Chad gave him!

He is such a happy little boy. He's always smiling and laughing and trying to get into things.

About a month and a half ago Bo learned to pull up to standing and he's been trying to conquer the entire world since then. He wants to be standing ALL THE TIME. He only wants to be on his belly to crawl to a place where he can stand. He's working on standing by himself, but he's only made it up to 30 seconds so far and we have to trick him into it. (He FREAKS out if he's holding on to something and then lets go and just stands there, he can do it, but it scares him, or something.)

At his 6 month check up he was 15 lbs 4 oz and 25 1/4 inches. He's just a growing. We threw him on the scale today at my dad's house and he's ALMOST 17lbs. Still little for his age, but growing!

He's doing great with solids, though he still hasn't had much. He tried English muffin today, and LOVED that. Tonight we had some watermelon and that was a new instant favorite. He gummed a piece to death! And then asked for more!  Just today Bowen woke up from a nap and had a tooth in this mouth! I couldn't believe it! I was so excited and so happy, who would have known?! Just from my baby getting a tooth! He's got one that's basically all capped out, and one that's just started to appear, I swear he didn't have either this morning!

Bo now says babababa and dadadadada and mamamama and several other things we haven't figured out yet. He knows milk in sign language, though he's yet to sign it himself.  He also tackled a flight of stairs the other day! I couldn't believe it! He just crawled right up to them and started climbing! I didn't even know he knew what to do!  He's a new adventure every day!

The next big thing that happened was HUGE!!!! Shaun finished his undergrad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that statement deserves a whole page of exclamation points! :)

The last year and a half that we spent in Provo was rough, soo rough. 8 months I was pregnant, 8 months we had Bo there. I know that it was NOT easy for Shaun at all, but he did it. I am so ridiculously proud of him. A week ago he walked and got his "diploma" (the real one will come in the mail in a few months). It was an early morning for us, since he had to be AT the Marriott Center at 7 (and Bowen doesn't normally wake up until AT LEAST 8). So by the time Shaun had walked Bo was DONE with the day and with us, but he managed to get some cute pictures in. See below.

Shaun walking across the stage:

Afterwards:

Bowen decided that Shaun's cap would make a good hide and seek device. :)

And this is what happened as we walked back home. Bo passed out. Thank heavens for the ergo because I know he wouldn't have slept in the stroller! Sweet boy.

Once we got home we realized we had forgotten something! In Shaun's early morning haste to make it to the  Marriott on time he forgot his lei's. I remembered to grab them on my way out of the door to watch him walk, but just put them in my bag, so we totally forgot while taking pictures too! But as soon as we got BACK home we remembered and walked back outside to get some more pictures. I think you can see the news/feelings/relief/holy-crap-we-have-to-pack hitting Shaun in these pictures. :D

Well, he's done. We're so glad, and so grateful that he's finished, and from what grades have been submitted so far he did AWESOME! I'm soo proud of him. 

We've also made it to Florida, and have basically everything unpacked (who am I kidding, no we don't!, but we're working on it.)

We're trying to get settled in and Shaun has already started applying for jobs. Lots, and lots and LOTS of jobs. We're keeping our fingers crossed and prayers upwards. Hopefully something soon will appear. As for me, I hope to start taking some online classes now that Shaun has a little more time (YES he does have MORE time now, that's how crazy his schooling was.) Not too serious, just a few here and there until we figure out where we're going to be settling down.  But we'll see!  We're so thrilled to be out of Utah (though someone, the smallest someone, misses their Uncle Chad a LOT!) and moving on with our lives.  A whole bunch more of really big changes are coming, and we're excited about the prospects! Hopefully sometime soon we'll be dealing with the following BIG things: finding Shaun's first REAL (as I call them) big person job, moving? staying?, finding our own apartment?, townhouse?, condo?, House?!, me going to school, me graduating from school???!, babies? (not now!), new car for Shaun....

"life, everything, we're just beginning...."-Shaun

I think he said it just perfectly, we're just beginning.