Thursday, December 23, 2010

New Blog

Please check out our new blog... I don't know if there is a way to combine the 2 (if there is and anyone wants to share, please do!) I could continue to write on this one, but I like the other one better. Kyle and I are in such a great place and want to share!

ksavance.blogspot.com

Monday, June 21, 2010

Going Private?

I know a lot of people have their blogs private and I never really understood why you wouldn't want people to read up on your life and your adventures. I LOVE updating our blog and I love looking back and seeing what we did and when we did it. But lately I have been seeing more and more why people go private. Kyle and I do what we want to do, we care about other people's feelings but lately we have realized that it is our lives and we want to do what we want to do, regardless. So when I post our adventures and activities, people attempt to make Kyle feel guilty for spending time with his wife and son. We know that other people are important, but our lives and job schedules are so hectic that more often than not, the little time we do have to spend, we want to spend alone together. I feel that since some people seem to not know boundaries and when it is appropriate to add their "two cents", it might be best to go private so we don't have to deal with the drama. It is not something we need right now nor is it something neither Kyle or I want to deal with anymore. So what do you think? Any opinions are greatly appreciated. And send me your email if you want to be invited, if I do decide to do it, there will not be a notice... I will just do it. Thanks!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Jay's Homecoming

We traveled down to Las Vegas for my little brother's homecoming talk in church. It was a fun weeked with family and friends. I am glad we were there to be able to support my little brother, especially considering how supportive of our family he has been. He gave an amazing talk and truly invited the Spirit into the meeting.
Kyle's best friend was in town for a few weeks so we got to go to dinner with him and his wife and their cute little boy! It was a lot of fun! Great food and even better company!
The Kyle's and their boys Our little family at dinner.

After church, the kids wanted to play outside and it was a nice day, so what better way to play than in the water! We attempted to play with Jaxton... he didn't mind so much as long as someone was holding him! When Jaxton started crying, cousin Ethan came over to check on him! It was so sweet!We thought it was so funny to play jokes on the kids. This is my brother's son, Conley. We would tell him the water broke and he had to shake it to fix it. He would start to shake the hose and we would turn it back on. That joke just didn't get old!
What a great weekend we had! And it is great to have Jay home!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Crazy Hair

I actually have a lot to update in just the past couple weeks, but for now I just want to share this picture of my sweet little boy. No matter what I do with his hair, it usually ends up looking like this...

Jaxton will be thanking his dad for the lovely cowlick in the back of his hair causing such a fabulous 'do! I guess I should be grateful that he has hair, and I am, but I refuse to cut his hair yet and unfortunately by the end of the day, it always looks like this!

EXCEPT for the days that I don't bother to comb it at all... then the top curls and the bottom stays straight! Sorry for the bad luck kid!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Jaxton's baby blessing

We had Jaxton's baby blessing this past Sunday, May 23, 2010 in our ward in Cedar City. Kyle and I decided when we first found out I was pregnant that we wanted to wait until my brother returned from his mission to bless our little boy. It was such a great day and we truly appreciate the people who love and support Jaxton enough to come. Kyle did a great job with the blessing, he was definitely in-tune with the Spirit and knew what Jaxton needed. It was an incredibly special day for our family!
Cute side note... I went out looking for Jaxton a tie for his blessing and there are not a lot of options here in Cedar City. We do have a consignment store, so I figured, why not... they usually have a lot of random stuff. The girl pulled out all of the ties that they had and I saw the one Jaxton is wearing and remembered Kyle having the exact same tie, only real size! So I got it. It made Kyle so happy that he could match his little boy! Our little family after the blessing.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Elder LaPratt no more...

My little brother came home from his mission on Monday, May 17, 2010. What an exciting and special experience for my family. Jay was in a brutal motorcycle accident about 3 years ago, leaving him in a position to barely be able to use his his arms and having struggle with the skill of walking, which I think we all take for granted and we all wondered if it would cause him to not go, but ultimately it made him stronger and more determined to go. He would write me so many letters about knowing that the Lord prepared him to come on a mission when he was ready and when the time was right so that he could effectively preach the gospel to the people of Spokane, WA. He was almost 2 years older than most of the other "new" missionaries, but Jay has a determined spirit and he will not be held down. I remember talking to him once and he said he was grateful for his mission because of the blessings it has brought into the lives of him family. But now he is home, and he is still in that awkward, new missionary stage... but time will change that. He already loves Kyle and Jaxton, and that means the world to me. I am so proud of Jay and the choices he has made in life. He has been my best friend since high school and has always stuck up for me, even when I am wrong, he had my back. When I got to hug him in the airport, it took us awhile to let go... he kissed the top of my head and said "I love you sis"... and then Kyle reached out for a handshake and Jay wasn't having that... Brother's don't shake hands, brother's gotta hug, right? So the LaPratt clan is all back together and I am excited to see where our lives take us!

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago, I wanted to do some family pictures so we could give them to our moms for Mothers Day. We have a good friend who is really into photography and he offered to do them for us. I love the way they turned out!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother's Day

This was my first mother's day and Kyle is always trying to do things to make everything so special for me. Kyle's class that he is taking is every Saturday, usually all day. The day before Mother's Day, his class was from 8 am until 8 pm... so imagine my surprise when Kyle showed up at 2 pm finished for the day!!! We didn't have anything planned really, so I asked Kyle if he wanted to go down to Vegas. His eye has really been botering him so he said no, and that he wanted to spend my first Mother's Day with just us. So instead, Kyle made reservations down in Mesquite so we could spend the day laying around by the pool or in our underwear and not have to clean up after ourselves. It was the best. The first picture is Jaxton's first time in a hotel room!
My two favorite men of all time.

I woke up on Mother's Day and this was next to my pillow... when I asked Kyle what is was, he responded "Oh, the Mother's Day Fairy must have come by"


Opening the gift from Kyle and Jaxton (the Mother's Day Fairy)



It's a necklace that has Jaxton's birthstone. It was SO thoughtful! I LOVE IT!!! Sorry that I do look like that in the morning!




We went out to breakfast and when we were little we would always take the jelly packets, so I took some in honor of my grandma.

This was Jaxton's first time swimming... actually the water was too cold to put all of him in... so just his feet.

I LOVE this picture... We got this look a few times throughout the swimming experience.

Daddy can always cheer him up!

It was so much fun!
I also got to talk to my little brother who will be coming home a week from today! I am so excited! I can not wait! I got an email from him today and he said he is so excited to come home. He is so excited to meet Kyle and Jaxton. I am so blessed to have such an amazing brother who was willing to serve the Lord and for the blessings his mission has brought our lives in the past 2 years!! Now I know why they let missionaries call on mother's day, and Jay is my brother!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

And the gloves come off...

I think it's true what everyone always says... being married is HARD work! In the beginning, it's all about having fun and making sure you don't piss your partner off. But it doesn't stay that way for long, and it shouldn't. This first year has been extremely rough... with lots of tears and a lot of hurt feelings, but when I look back on what kyle and I have been through, I wouldn't change it for the world. Yeah, we have our problems and we are working through them, but I can't even believe how close I feel to him even when we are not getting along. I am learning to rely on him for emotional strength and I am learning to accept his help and his love. He has been my best friend since we started dating but I am starting to see now that he wants that and that I'm his too. There is so much that we don't agree on and I used to think that wasn't ok, but when I really stop and think about it, we don't need to. We are learning to compromise and learning to know each others needs without even having to express them. I have learned so much lately from my brother and my sister in law. Kyle and I had a big fight a few days ago (I will not go into detail because it's not important) but I called Sheena because I needed to cry and my mom wasn't home. She talked me down and the best thing I took out of that conversation is that her and my brother are not on "Team Shannon", but they are on "Team Kyle AND Shannon" and after talking to my mom, I realized she is on that team too. Whenever I am in a lot of pain I email my brother who is coming home from his mission in less than 2 months... Jay has never even met kyle but he knows how good Kyle is for me and he knows how much I love him. He is nothing but supportive to us. They have never once said anything negative about kyle because they know how much I truley do love him and how much I want to be with him. I have spent a lot of time thinking and praying about everything lately and I have come to the realization that for most of our marriage, I was on "Team Kyle" or "Team Shannon". I support Kyle in everything that he does and I love him with everything that I am, but it's time for me to stop being on one side or the other. I need to stop beating myself up for things that I have no control over. School is finally out so we hopefully have more time to do more fun things. I also need to stop beating up Kyle for things he has no control over. So starting today (I actually started a few days ago, but I'm writing the blog today) I am officially on "Team Kyle AND Shannon"!

So thanks mom and Sheena and Alan. What great examples I have to help me be a better me! And I will forever be grateful for Jay and the blessings that his mission has brought into our lives!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

So big

While I have been finishing up school, some girls in my ward have been so kind to watch Jaxton for us. It is always hard leaving him, but one of the girls took some pictures of him and got them to me recently. He is changing so much... but is so cute!


Saturday, April 24, 2010

While we were down in Mexico back in March, Brigett took some family pictures and some pictures of Jaxton. I have been so busy with school and Kyle has been busy with work, we just got them. I love looking back at my little man and seeing how much he has changed!

On a completely different note, I take my finals next week and then I am done with college (for now). I cannot believe it is finally here! What an amazing feeling! Kyle is finishing up his EMT-I class (which will finish in May) and then hopefully we can move away from Cedar City. I love that Kyle is taking this class, but the class is literally every Friday night from 6-10 and every Saturday from 8 in the morning until usually 6 at night! Makes for a long and lonely weekend!!! However, I have been working on Jaxton's scrapbook and I love getting to show Kyle everything I have done when he gets home! All of this is for our future, so I just need to quit whining about it!

And on a completely different side note, Alan and Sheena found out they are having another BOY! If it wasn't for Ella and Cortney, Jaxton wouldn't even know what a girl cousin is! Our families are definitely blessed to have so many boys but I think someone needs to have a girl!!! With our record, it seems doubtful that it will be a LaPratt! Congratulations Alan and Sheena, we can't wait for his arrival!!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Easter 2010









It must be a curse that I always have to work on Easter Sunday. I am never ever scheduled during the day, except when Easter rolls around. So I went to work from 8-4. I guess if you can't attend church on Easter (or this year it was General Conference) a good way to make up for that is to attend an A.A. meeting. So that's what I did. I took the clients to a Sunday meeting and it was actually not that bad. Some people had some good things to share! So I came home from work and there were little Easter eggs laid all over the house and Kyle had a little smirk on his face. "What is this?" I asked him and he replied "It's from Jaxton". I go get all of the eggs and start to open them. Kyle knows I have been trying to lose all of my baby weight so instead of candy, he (I mean Jaxton) put little notes in each one. Some said things like "Thanks for being my mommy" or "I love you mom" and some were from Kyle. I may have even cried (big shocker)! Then I made some enchiladas and Kyle and I decided we would celebrate our anniversary since I was finally feeling better. So we pulled out the top layer of our wedding cake and just enjoyed our time together. It was a great day. I love being Jaxton's mom and Kyle's wife.



I am not a photographer, and I do not pretend to be but I wanted to get a few pictures of Jaxton with with eggs he got me for Easter

The top of our wedding cake 1 year later... it got a little mushed!


The love of my whole life!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and remembered the reason for such a special holiday!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Anniversary

Kyle and I celebrated our first anniversary on March 28, 2010. Actually, that is not a true statement. We haven't celebrated at all yet! The sunday before our anniversary was the first Sunday we took Jaxton to church. As we were sitting there, I kept getting really cold and chills all over my body so we went home after sacrament meeting. By the time we got home I had a full blown fever. Suck!! I called my mom to see when her spring break was so she could come up and help me. Unfortunately I was a week off but Sheena (my brother's wife) offered to come up. I thought my fever would break within a few days so she could help me while I got completely caught up with school. She came up with her 2 boys and it was such a help! I was sick the whole week! We finally went to the dr (he actually left procedures at the hospital to come over to the office to do a quick exam) and he treated me for an infection (which is what was causing the fevers). Then on the weekend, my parents came up to Cedar and my dad drove Alan and Sheena up to Ikea. My mom ended up staying with us until Thursday and she even offered to stay later. It was such a great help! And I loved having her here. She is an amazing grandma and a great mom! So thanks to Sheena and mom for all of the help! I will be graduating in May... I promise! I refuse to be one of those girls who gets married and drops out of college. I have too much potential for that!

Conley kissing Jaxton
Conley loved helping with Jaxton. It was really sweet!

So I have no pictures from any birthday celebration because I was in bed sick with a fever and an infection (Happy Anniversary Kyle, I have an infection) and we had house guests. While I spent to much time in bed I did a lot of thinking about the past year. I absolutely HATED our wedding. Too many people trying to make the day about them, not about me and kyle. But this first year of marriage has been really hard but totally worth it. I thought I would mention some of the highlights...

Getting married

Wedding night ;)

Moving in together


Selling Kyle's truck

Buying our car

Finding out we were accidentally pregnant

Finding out it was a boy

Our first christmas being married

Having Jaxton

Lots of other stuff has happened, but it is late and I am TOO tired to be thinking! But Happy 1st Anniversary Kyle... I love you forever and ever and always!