6 Months in Shelton & the end of 2011

 We have officially lived in Shelton for six months!  We have enjoyed living in our house by the lake, Sheldon  has gotten into the swing of things with his job, and we have fully been put back into full church callings-after a year of no callings due to our year of rotations.  Sheldon is the 1st counselor in the young men's presidency and I served as the Beehive adviser and now I am the young women's president.  December was a busy month of work for Sheldon, church for both of us, and school for me.  We also spent December working on our adoption paper work as well, in anticipation of a new little one coming into our family.  We also enjoyed the Christmas season and had so much fun watching Jace enjoy Christmas traditions.  2011 was a good year for our family and it has been so nice that Sheldon is done with school and we have started real life again.

 Jace has grown up so much since we moved to Shelton.  He started potty training and is doing really well.  He refuses to go #2 in the potty so he will come and ask me for a diaper when he is ready to go.  Then he runs and hides behind something for a little privacy.  If I look at him he shakes his head and says, "no" or he will point his finger at me and say, "enough."  I think that means he wants a little privacy.  :)

 Jace has also started some mischievous acts.  He got into the lotion and had fun squirting it all over the floor and some of his toys.  He likes to do this with hand soap too, if he can do it without me noticing.  He also found the flour in the cupboard and dumped it all over his little table.  He had a lot of fun playing with it too.  I forgot to get pictures of that.  He loves dumping, throwing, and squirting things.

 Jace has started talking really well and says lots of cute things.  When he is trying to figure something out he likes to put his finger to his chin and say, "Oh, I know!"  Then he likes to tell us his idea.  He also loves to say, "No, mommy's turn," when I ask him to clean up his messes.  He's a pretty smart little boy who has a mind of his own.  :)

 On New Year's Eve, we flew to Las Vegas to spend some time with my family and see the new twins, Ben and Weston.  What a great way to start a new year!

 Here we are trying to make the number 12 to show 2012.  It was fun to celebrate with my parents.

 We went closer to the strip to get a view of the fireworks shows.  Happy New Year!!  Welcome 2012!!

December 26th

Sheldon had Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the 26th off for the holiday, and we were so excited to have him home for three days!  On the 26th we decided to go to the Point Defiance Zoo for a fun family outing.  We all had so much fun!

Jace loved the touch pool.

We also had fun trying to watch a squirrel in one of the bushes at the zoo.

Jace loved the walruses, but it was too hard for me to get him to pose for a picture by them with Sheldon.

We enjoyed watching the meerkats and playing on the slide in the children's section.

Jace was too scared to feed the goats and decided to play with this mushrooms instead.

At the end of our trip we stopped at the carousel and also bought some kettle corn for our drive home.  What a fun family outing!

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day started out with PRESENTS of course.  Jace was very happy to see his gifts and was instantly drawn to a set of Cars monster trucks.  He wanted them open immediately and played with them for about ten minutes before he noticed any other presents.  He then noticed his big digger given to him by his grandma GG and grandpa Steve and was very anxious for his daddy to get it out of the box.  Jace dumped out his stocking contents and wanted to eat candy right away.  While Jace was distracted with his new gifts Sheldon and I opened our presents.  We headed to church next and it was nice to reflect upon our Savior and all that He has done for us.  When we came back home Sheldon made us super yummy omelets for breakfast, which I am hoping will become a Christmas tradition.  I bought Sheldon a pair of rubber boots so we decided to all take a walk outside even though it was raining and enjoy the beautiful lake view we have in our backyard.  Later that evening we had a delicious ham and funeral potato meal with corn, jello, and rolls.  We also had delicious red velvet cake (also a Christmas tradition in our house) and enjoyed watching Jace play with all his new toys.  We are very blessed and enjoyed spending our Christmas day together.

Here is Jace pointing to his new monster trucks!!  He's been asking for them ever since we moved here and watched Mater Tales on the internet.

We also bought Jace a set of cars from the Cars movie and the wheels didn't roll.  Jace said they were broken.  I guess that present was a bust.

My new Nook!  Wahoo!

Sheldon's new flat screen TV.

Jace did not want to stop playing to get ready for church.  When we made it to church he kept telling us that we needed to go home since his digger was there and he wanted to play.

He looked very handsome in his new Christmas church outfit.

When I was growing up, after unwrapping presents we would always display them and take a picture.  So here's a picture of our loot in honor of a Galler family tradition!

Jace's gifts wouldn't fit on his little toddler bed.

This was Jace's first experience with play dough.  He loved it.

I didn't take any pictures of dinner since I was so busy getting everything ready.  But we had a delicious meal that we will probably enjoy for a few more days.  What a fun Christmas!!