2010

This year has been full of blessings for our family. On March 15^th, exactly on my due date, Jacob Boyd Shepherd was born. He was 8lbs and 14 ounces. I won't tell you how much weight I gained during my pregnancy. Let me just say, I thought the more I ate the faster my baby would grow. I was quite disappointed when I couldn't fit into my prepregnancy jeans a week after giving birth. I was quite disappointed when I couldn't fit into my jeans several months after giving birth. Actually, I had to keep wearing my maternity clothes for quite a while. Boyd has brought so much happiness and joy into our lives. He is so precious and so, so cute.

I stopped working at the dental office in February because I grew out of all my scrubs, and I really hated working when I was pregnant. It was hard enough going to work when I didn't sleep the night before, but seeing some of the things we pulled out of people's mouths really made me want to vomit. A half chewed hot dog? Come on. Anyway, I decided to stay home and eat my way into labor.

Over the summer, Jacob graduated from ASU with his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering!! I thought that day would never come. He was offered a job at Goodrich in September and loves it! We lived through the summer without any income and learned that we could live without the Internet and make good dinners with our food storage....thanks to me. I'm a great cook.

Jacob and I are busy serving in our ward. Jacob is the 1^st counselor in the Young Mens Presidency and varsity scout leader. I'm quite busy serving as the 2^nd counselor in the Young Womens Presidency and as the ward camp director. I was recently called to be the stake assistant camp director for next year's camp... a calling I secretly wanted. In the summer, Jacob and Boyd both came to girls camp with me. It was fantastic.

Jacob and I are farmers. We raise chickens, rabbits and, undesirably, several cats as well. The cats come and go as they please and use our yard as their litter box. This makes us very, very angry. Our neighbor feeds these stray cats and they told all their feline friends. Now, the entire population of cats live around our house! Lucky us.

It's been a year since we moved near the Temple. We love our ward and our callings! We love this home we live in. I love a few of our animals and love our garden. We love living so close to both our families. We have been so blessed!!! Merry Christmas!!

It's been a while...

Our baby Boyd is growing so fast!! We just got over being sick at our house. I laid on the floor as Boyd had the house to himself. When Jacob got home from work all our CDs were spread over the floor and magazines and ads were torn up and spread everywhere. I watched Boyd do all this and really didn't care to stop him. I feel great now and our house is back in order.

He's getting so BiG!

Boyd is such a fun little guy. I can't believe how quickly he is growing.

Our Garden

After a few set backs, our garden is finally growing. It was hard to find time to get it planted and when we did, the chickens got in and tore up half of it. They ate almost all the leaves off our tomato and pepper plant. We replanted a section and now things are growing rapidly... especially our zucchini plants. We've already picked 3 zucchinis and they were HUGE!! We're still waiting for everything else to mature and start producing. Heather can't wait for the okra to come on. I'm real impressed with the potatoes that I planted. He had a few in the house that started growing eyes so I cut them up and buried them. Now there are 10-12 plants thriving. I can't wait until harvest time.

Now we keep the chickens safe behind bars.

I love baby noises!

Boyd's first video

When I watch this video it makes me want to hold my baby... if I'm not already doing so. I love being a mom and love loving this precious baby so much. He is so amazing. He is getting big so fast... I cherish every moment I have with him.

baby baby baby

Here is our amazing baby Boyd. He definitely looks like his daddy. He was born march 15 at 12:30 pm weighing 8lbs and 14 oz. He is a good baby and I love being his mama.

Our big guy

I had an ultrasound yesterday to determine how big our baby was. In this picture you can see his little face and hands smashed together because there is no room. His poor nose is smashed. The technician pointed out to us that our baby has lots of hair. We actually saw it floating around the amniotic fluid . It is estimated that he is weighing around 7 pounds and 11 ounces right now. (84th percentile) I'm definitely having him early. The doctor says he hopes to see me before my next appointment...only this time in the hospital delivering. I hope so. I can see the look of concern on my baby's face as he wonders how he'll ever get out of there.

Snow Trip

I took the Young Women in my ward to my parents' cabin so they could play in the snow. There was plenty of snow for them to play in.
Some signs were completely covered with snow. We passed a couple snow plows on the way home.

Jacob's Birthday Cake!

It's Jacob's birthday on Tuesday and I wanted to make him a cake like he's never had before.....worth 27 years of waiting for. Not only is this my first cake, it's my best. It's banana cream cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate flakes sprinkled on top to show off the five layers all made from scratch. Jacob was overjoyed. Every year I'll add another layer to his cake.

January 20

Heather reminded me of a family tradition that my mom started around the time my oldest brother went on his mission. We chose a day and recorded what everyone did that day. So, here's what Heather and I did on January 20th.

Heather rolled out of bed (helped by Jacob) at 6:59am after a long night of tossing and turning, which had been interrupted frequently with bathroom breaks. While Heather got ready for work, Jacob made breakfast - French Toast. Heather went to work (as a dental assistant at Synergy Dental Group), while Jacob started getting ready for the second day of his last semester in school. He is getting a master's degree in mechanical engineering at Arizona State University. After going to math and institute class, Jacob returned home for lunch and to study. In the afternoon he went back to school to be a Teaching Assistant for a class. He then returned home a second time. Heather looked in people's mouths all day.

Just before Heather got off work, Jacob started warming up the chicken enchiladas that Heather had made the night before. Boy were they delicious. Heather does a lot for being 32 weeks pregnant. After quickly eating, Jacob hurried off to another class at ASU and Heather got ready for mutual. Heather is an advisor for the Beehives and Jacob is a counselor in the young men's, over the teachers' quorum. After Jacob's class, he hurried home to make it to the last 30 minutes of mutual.

We got Chickens!

Here Jacob is making the coop out of scrap wood we found in the back yard. The only thing we bought was the chicken fencing and screws.


We decided we wanted to get chickens for a few reasons. Chickens eat bugs including scorpions. They also lay one organic egg a day. Every morning they march together out of their coop and eat from their feeder then graze the yard the rest of the day. When the sun goes down they march up into their coop until the next day. We've only tried to catch them once before we realized they would go back into the coop by themselves. They are fast! As soon as you stop chasing them they immediately start pecking the ground again.


We named them all "Lady" because we can't tell them apart.