"Um Bishop . . ."

This past Sunday we attended a baptism for a new convert. During the talks Trenton asked me a couple of times how old the lady was (probably late 30's) and I, avoiding the question, told him he needed to pay attention to the talk on baptism. Well, finally the time for the baptism came and like all little kids, Trent was excited and placed himself right in front in the middle, prime real estate for a baptism. Everything went smooth, and they were closing the accordion doors, with about a foot to go, Trent sticks his arm through, with one finger raised as says, quite matter-a-factly, "Um, Bishop, Is she 18?" What follows is an immediate burst of laughter and a swarm of question pointed at me and Jamie as to why he wanted to know if she was 18. Honestly we have no idea other than she was to old to be 8 and be baptized, so she must therefore be 18. Leave it to one of our boys to provide a little comic relief, as usual. We love them both and they keep us on the edge of our seats.

The BIG 5!!

November 7th was Trentons 5th b-day. It really snuck up on us. We were almost asleep the Sunday night before and Travis asked what I had planned for his birthday. OOPS!! That morning Trav made chocolate chip smiley face pancakes and for dinner we had bacon and scrambled eggs. Since he has been inviting every person he meets on street to his party, which was unplanned, I decided last minute to call a few friends who didn't have kids in school and we met at Chuck-E-Cheese for an hour then pizza and cup cakes at our house. Trenton only has friends that are girls and younger than he is. He has a couple of boy friends but they are all from school, I told him when he turns 8 then he can have a huge friend party. He keeps saying it so I guess I'm off the hook for a few more years.

Halloween

The boys are really into Star Wars right now, and when the Grandparents came to town they bought them a couple of light sabers, gotta love grandparents. So figuring out what they would be for Halloween was easy, and so was their costumes. The only part that I got hung up on was the hoods. I cannot think three dementionally. It took me a couple of times unstitching and resewing to get them right. And believe it or not, Jacobs head is much bigger than Trentons. While Trenton was at school I tried his costume on Jacob and it didn't fit!! Anyway, here they are.

Grandma and Poppy's visit

We had a great time with Travis' parents. Trenton was so very excited to see them. He tells us all the time that he wishes he were closer to his "Utah" family. We spent a couple of days in Nashville and saw the Country Music Hall of fame, Ryman Auditorium (original home of the Grand Ole' Opry), and the Grand Ole' Opry where Trenton and Jacob entertained a crowd by dancing to a live band! They love to perform. Huber farms for pumpkin pickin' was a must while they were here. Jacob loved it! And we knew which pumpkin he was sold on when he bent over and kissed it. The only things we did in Louisville were our favorites, eat at Smokey Bones, the greatest ice cream ever at Graters, and visit the bat museum. We are always amazed at how quickly the machines can whip out those bats. Less than 15 seconds for minors and less that 45 for majors.

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Happy 2nd Birthday Jacob

Gotta Love the Presents
Cake and Homemade Icecream, nothing better for your second b-day.
We can't tell if he is more excited about his new bike or the sucker.

Soft Ball Champs!!!

We joined a local co-ed Inter-faith softball league. We started the first game of the season with a sore loss, 10 to 0. We lost 2 games in the regular season, but found the right groove in the play-offs and finished in first place. It was quite an accomplishment considering the team we threw together and the competition we faced. Gotta love the trophy!

Kentucky State Fair 2006

We made it out to the KY State fair and had a good time. There is nothing like blue ribbons, fair food (corn dogs and funnel cake - yum yum), games, rides, and carnies. We had a good time looking at all of the awards that were given, we included some of our favorites for you to enjoy.

The blue ribbon bail of hay?

Only in KY do you find Blue Ribbon Tobacco

The Tobacco wall of fame

This was absolutely amazing, this was the grand champion smoked ham, which as you can see sold for $500,000. Some one is sure about quality and not quantity when it comes to their ham.

Trent's First Day of Pre-K

Trent missed Kindergarten by about a month, but we enrolled him in a pre-K class. Turns out he probably won't learn to much new stuff, but he is loving going to "Big School" and making new friends.

Crabby Ernie

We decided to bring home a local with us from Myrtle Beach. Crabby Ernie, as named by Trent, is a hermit crab which is the newest member of the Shepherd Family. We have not seen our boys so excited about anything for a long time. Trent says that we will keep him until he gets bigger and then we will give him back to the wild.

Myrtle Beach Trip: Day 5

For some strange reason they have a Mars exhibit at the aquarium, ??? It was interesting and they boys loved the astronaut suit.

Even mommies can enjoy the horseshoe crabs at the aquarium.

The most amazing thing was the shark and sea ray exhibit. We spent a long time watching them glide around. They had another area where you could touch the rays - they feel like slimy rubber.

Dada ...... Dada......Dada

Day 5: Most of the day was spent at the Ripley's Aquarium. Early in the morning I got up and walked the beach for a couple of miles looking for sea shells and taking a few early morning ocean pictures. I had no success with shells and the pictures turned out fine, but I took them with my 35mm, so I can't post them. In the late afternoon when we had plans on going back to the beach a huge rain storm came through, so we headed to the outlet mall to burn a little time and money. All in all it was a fun day and good closing day to our vacation. We recommend Myrtle Beach to anyone for a good time.

Myrtle Beach Trip: Day 4

Day 4: It was a wonderful long day at the beach. Jacob had a lot of fun just playing in the sand while Trent and I tried to keep ourselves busy on the boogie board. As you can tell from the pictures he was born to ride the waves. After his first time he was hooked. The water was a cool 86 degrees. Jamie and I were so concerned about keeping sun screen on the boys that we neglected ourselves and both ended up with a nice sun burn. After we had our fill of the beach we headed to a highly recommended seafood buffet in town, "Captain George's." Anyone that knows me well knows that I am not a big seafood eater, but I took a lot of chances and tried most everything "seafood" on the buffet. Crab was better than expected, but to much work for so little reward. Although I wasn't extremely impressed, Jamie said it was some of the best seafood she has ever eaten, so if you ever find yourself in Myrtle Beach, try Captain George's.

Myrtle Beach Trip: Day 3

LDS Church in Myrtle Beach

Trenton and Jacob were amazed at the fact that there were outside showers.

Day 3 was pretty uneventful, we got online and found the Myrtle Beach Ward. Turns out that the church building is 2 minutes up the road from the La Quinta we are staying in. It is always nice to be so far away from home and still find familiarity on Sunday. After church and naps and dinner we took a walk on the beach to find sea shells. Trent found a lot of shells and Jacob found a yellow shovel and all had a good time. They are excited for tomorrow to actually go swimming and play in the ocean.

Myrtle Beach Trip: Day 2

50 ' below ground in the Reed Gold Mine just outside of Charlotte NC. The mine is the first "documented" gold rush on the American continent (1799). The son of Mr. Reed found a 17 lb gold nugget, the family being unable to identify the strange rock used it for a door stop for 3 years before selling it for $3.50 ( going weekly wage for a farmer) to a jeweler who sold it for over $3,000.

"Can I take it home and put it in the fish tank?" Trent was a little hesitant to leave the frog in the mine all by itself.

Jamie intently trying to pay for our trip by panning for gold. She came up empty handed, but the girls scout troop did good!

At Last!

MYRTLE BEACH !!!

Day 2 was one of those times you wonder if the directions you print out on map quest are the long scenic route guaranteed to get you lost at least 5 times before arriving at your destination. Instead of following instinct and sticking to the freeways, we decided to follow the map quest directions - estimated travel time: 4 hrs 11 min, actual travel time: 6 hrs 20 min. The nice part is that we got to see just how hillbilly South Carolina is by taking a tour through the back country, woods, and towns they make those crazy TV specials on.