A break in the heat!

Today was a first for us in Utah: it stayed under 90 degrees - yee-haw! I know the whole country is sweltering this summer, but since we moved here, we have only had about 4 days that haven't been over 100, so 89 felt downright cool today. We're practically turning cartwheels over the cooler weather!

Here's a picture of the boys in their funny new shirts:

Ben is rolling around from place to place. Poor guy gets so frustrated with his limited mobility. He keeps either flopping forward and face-planting from a sitting position or leaning forward from sitting and getting stuck with his legs. He'll figure it out soon though I think - hopefully that'll ease some of his frustration. He's entertaining to watch and cheer on.

The new hacienda - first floor

I took some pictures of the first floor of the new "oo-tah" house (as Max calls it) so you all could see where we're hanging our hats these days.

There's a 3-car side-load garage on the right side of the house.

You walk in the front door...
And the dining room is on the immediate left. We plan to have an electrician install a chandelier over the table.
The office is on the right side of the foyer.
A few steps back and the family room is on the left
And the kitchen's on the right.
The eating nook is off the back of the kitchen.

And here's a random picture of the boys from our evening stroll the other night. Ben tossed his cute khaki hat out of the wagon somewhere along our walk the previous night. Punk. This little hat has a chin-strap and we made it home w/out losing it.

Move over TomKat

Here are some pictures from July 8th, when my brother Jordan became a Lucky Man and married Becca Blackham in the wedding of the year. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a blast too! They had the same DJ that Andrew and I had at our reception - everyone had a great time at the party.

Max was the ring-bearer...everyone together now, "awwwww." The cutie-patootie flower-girls were Shelby and Abigail.


And some pics from the reception...

Becca & Jordan's first dance. Max stood there almost the whole dance as still as a statue, just watching them.

Jordan going in for the garter.

Max and Becca.

What a fun day - welcome to the family Becca!

Moving Day

OK, before I start adding current posts, I wanted to go back a few weeks & post some pictures. Here are some pics from moving day. Max and his best buddy Ben (our old next door neighbor) enjoying popsicles while checking out the big moving truck.


And then each one got to sit in the cab of the moving truck.

Ta-da, we're here

Disclaimer: this is my first post and I was kind of hoping for a tutorial or something, but it looks like I am winging it. So bear with me, I will get better as time goes by. Any helpful hints would be much appreciated.

Well, Team Shier is now settling into the promised land, AKA Utah. And no, we didn't have to don LDS undies as soon as we crossed the state line. In fact, I am clearly non-LDS because I wear shorts or tank tops in our 100-degree weather (I'm such a Jezebel!). But now that we're here, I thought I'd follow in the footsteps of my sisters-in-law Whitney & Becca & do the blog thing to keep you all updated. We've met some really nice neighbors & are excited about our neighborhood. The scenery is gorgeous. Things are finally feeling unpacked, we're down to basically decor & organizing the basement. Yeah!!

Our next big project will be landscaping (notice the green type - I am anxious to turn our brown lot into green). We have to have our plans approved by the HOA & then we can start getting bids. We are up in the air on the backyard fence. We can't have a little fence like we wanted, it has to be a taller fence with a semi-open top and you have to put in a fairly big planting-bed to screen the fence if you decide to have one, so you lose a fair amount of grass area. However, the openness is nice (w/out a fence), but it would be really nice from a practical standpoint to have part of our yard fenced with a dog and two small kids. Plus, our lot is .25 acres, so we'd still have a lot of open space in our yard besides the backyard even if we decide to fence. We're also on a corner lot, so we may feel a little "exposed" without a fence because we have a sidewalk running next to our patio and backyard. I don't know...any thoughts?? Experiences with or without fences good or bad??

Grandma and Grandpa Duvall came to visit last week. We were so grateful they came to visit and everyone had a fun time. Here's a picture of Grandma Jill and the boys on the front porch, where they spent a lot of time watching the real-life version of Cars and Trucks and Things that Go that is our neighborhood. Lots of tractors, trucks, etc to keep all of us, especially Max, entertained.

I will post some pics of the house so you can see where we live now. I've got to get Ben-Ben up from his nap & take Aspen to get her kennel-cough shot for her stay at the doggie-hotel next month when we go to the shore!