Catch Up

Life has been pretty busy and crazy for the last month or so.  We found out on May 11th that our baby had a potential abdominal wall defect and on May 21st we had a level 2 ultrasound and appointment with maternal fetal medicine to determine that the baby does has an abdominal wall defect.  I have had doctor appointments and ultrasounds every 2 weeks.  We have found out a lot of information and are trying to absorb it and all of the things the various doctors we have talked have told us.  We are starting a separate blog for this baby to share more of the details that we find out (babyshookv3.blogspot.com - it isn't fully ready yet, but it is a work in progress).  Hopefully this will help to keep people updated and also help us to keep a record of everything we are going through.

We have also had some exciting stuff going on in the last month too- we spent a week in Virginia Beach with Eric's immediate family.  I am posting a bunch of pictures from that trip.  We all had a lot of fun- swimming in the pool and ocean, playing in the sand, watching movies in the theater room, going to Busch Gardens and an aquarium, a boat ride to see dolphins, a trip to the boardwalk, and lots of other fun things.

I went to Iowa on June 8th with the boys and my friend Val.  The boys and I spent the whole week there seeing lots of family and friends.  I helped throw a baby shower for my niece Kayla while we were back.  I also went to a McGarvey women's weekend which was a lot of fun.  Eric's cousin Kristin got married on the 17th so we were able to share in her and Tyler's special day.  Eric came and joined us Friday afternoon which all 3 of us were very happy to see him.  Eric and the boys went Friday night to let off a lantern at a suicide awareness event.  They also went and cheered on my sister Coco in a 5K the next morning.  We celebrated Father's Day with a few gifts to Eric- Oliver picked out a Superman T-shirt and a flashlight set for Eric.

Here are pictures from our Virginia Beach vacation.

Oliver and Braden playing in the pool at our beachhouse

Parker in the sand

Oliver and Grandma walking toward to ocean

The boys playing in the sand

Oliver looking for dolphins on a boat ride- the poor kid enjoyed the beginning, but got sick about halfway through.  Luckily he recovered quickly and didn't miss any vacation fun.

Sandy Parker

Parker hunting for crabs- there were lots of crabs all over in the sand.

Eric made a sand turtle :)

Oliver and Braden in their pajamas playing on Kindle Fires.

Parker and Oliver at the aquarium on a dolphin

Boys in a shark

Beginning of Busch Gardens pictures- ride number 1

Parker's first ride :)

A climbing area that Parker loved- they played Sesame Street music and Parker did a lot of dancing.

Eric and Parker wandering around the Forest of Fun.  It was a drizzly day, but was nice that it wasn't miserably hot and we never had to wait in line for a ride.

Dining with Elmo!

Oliver got an autograph book and had a lot of fun asking the characters to sign his book.

Parker liked all of the characters coming over to our table.

Oliver took his cookie over to show Cookie Monster!

Parker and Eric getting a hug from Cookie Monster

Oliver and Kaydence on a ride- Oliver's favorite ride was Grover's roller coaster, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  I think they went on it 7 or 8 times.

Savannah, Kaydence, Braden, Eric, and Oliver on a ride together.

Eric and Parker on a ride

Kaydence, Savannah, Braden, and Oliver on a swing ride- it was a little disappointing and they all kept asking for it to go faster.

Oliver, Braden, Savannah, Kaydence, and Parker in the dinosaur eggs.

Eric and the boys playing in the sand- we had to use buckets to bring water to the dry sand because the boys were too scared to be in the wet sand.

A view of our beachhouse from the beach.

A silly Parker

King Neptune statue- Eric is off to the left (with Parker on his back) and Oliver is standing in front of the statue.

We took a bike ride on the board walk.  It was a lot of fun- too bad we don't have a bike like this at home :)

The boys sitting on a wall at the boardwalk.

There was an air show while we were in town and the boardwalk had lots of vendors and booths.  The Navy had a trailer with a tank on it and a diver inside who played tic-tac-toe with Oliver.  He thought that was pretty cool :)

Braden and Oliver got quite a few tattoos

Our last morning on the beach :)

Parker's First Buzz

I buzzed Parker's hair for the first time tonight.  He actually did really well.  He did not like getting the cape put on (the first 2 pictures), but once I started cutting, he was fine and didn't fight at all.  

Parker with his newly trimmed hair.  He looks pretty proud of himself.

Oliver also got a haircut tonight.  He was very excited that "Parker was getting his first buzz."

Parker hanging upside down, he wasn't too into pictures after his bath, I think he was ready for bed :)

Ring-Around-The-Rosie

Last night the boys were playing ring-around-the-rosie.  Oliver likes to go fast and Parker likes to, but has a little bit of a hard time going fast- but luckily, he doesn't mind falling/being pulled down.

 Parker is a busy boy and into everything, but full of smiles and hugs.  He loves Thomas the train and spends lots of time playing in our Thomas tent and playing with trains.  He will go through books on our bookshelf until he finds a Thomas one and then bring it over to me to read.

 Here is a picture of Oliver in his new Superman shirt.  He loves super heroes right now.  As of today, his favorites seem to be Superman and Captain America, but it changes from day to day.  And I think we also hit the phase of doing laundry more often then I'd like because he wants to wear this shirt everyday.

 Here is a picture of me.  Yesterday marked 20 weeks for this pregnancy- it is hard to believe I am halfway through.

We are still alive!

3 months of no posting can only mean one thing in the Shook house- we're having another baby :)  Morning sickness is subsiding and life is returning to normal.  We've done a lot in the last few months- here is a brief recap with a few pictures.  I'll post more of the pictures later, but figure I won't completely overload everyone.

February:  We found out baby #3 is coming.  September 22nd is the big day (or somewhere around there).  We made a trip out to New York for a conference of Eric's.  The boys and I were able to stay and visit with Kathy & Dale and Randy & Kara.  Eric and I got away for a few days to NYC without the boys.  That was a fun time, I didn't feel great, but it was wonderful to sleep all night through and as late as wanted in the mornings.  We took in some of the sights of NYC and enjoyed some yummy food.  My mom went to Syracuse with us, but didn't come home with us- she stayed and continued on her trip with Kathy to Mississippi.

March:  March was filled with Eric working lots and me feeling pretty miserable.  Luckily, by the end of the month, I was filling better.  Kathy stopped on her way home from Iowa after dropping my mom off.  We had a good visit while she was here- Parker enjoyed his first ice cream cone.  We had some unseasonably warm weather (like 90s).  I did a lot of subbing at Head Start through February and March.

April:  We had visitors for Easter- Randy & Kara and there crew came out to visit.  They brought their new van (a 12 passenger) and Oliver was super excited that we were all able to fit in the van. Eric's parents stopped through with his sister and nieces on their way to Tennessee for Easter.  We had lunch with them, which was nice.  Our house was full- I think we had 17 people at for lunch that day (10 of them being 11 and under).   Eric has been doing more proposal work and is in the process of scheduling his defense for his proposal (the last big step prior to doing his dissertation).  We have been getting out of the house a little more although the weather has been quite a bit cooler (or normal for this time of year, just cooler compared to the 80s and 90s we were having).  Parker got a much needed haircut.  Eric gets a quiet weekend at home this weekend- the boys and I are riding with Coco, Kelli, and my mom out to New York for Max's first communion.  It will be a quick weekend, but it is sure to be a fun one.

And now the picture overload:

Oliver didn't want any ice cream in his ice cream cone...

Trying out his bike outside for the first time

New baby!

Pictures are a little out of order- this is the post hair cut picture.  He says cheese whenever he sees the camera and he definitely has my Steffen cheesy smile.  

The hair cut was long overdue as you can see from this pre-haircut picture.

Oliver spends lots of time in their room working on puzzles

Parker and Timmy taking a bath

Parker got a Thomas tray for Easter.  He was very excited about it.  He is seriously into Thomas right now - we probably read our 4 Thomas books about 10 times each every day.  He will actually look through books on the bookshelf until he finds a Thoams book.

This picture and the next should be reversed- this is after he got the peep-the next is while we were opening the peeps so he could have one.

Dressed up little boys!

Our family on Easter

Parker and his godmother- he is such a cooperative baby :)

Parker and Timmy during the egg hunt outside.