Christmas PJ Party

John and I started a tradition a few years back--we started giving each other pajama pants for Christmas and Valentine's Day. We decided we'd do it for our kids as well. Eventually, I plan to make quilts out of the pajama pants we accumulate, and each child will get their own. Anyway, we got Evan his first pair of Christmas pajama pants. He's such a cutie in them!



Here a photo of us in this year's pj pants. John and I bought the same pair for each other--unplanned!



We wish you all a very merry Christmas!!

Bumbo Time

I thought Evan might be ready for his Bumbo today. Not quite. His head kept slumping over, but we're getting close. We took some fun photos anyway and thought we'd share.

Not a creature was stirring....

...except for a mouse! Yep, we had our own little furry friend make an appearance. Unfortunately, it ran into the nursery, and we were NOT excited about waiting for it to get caught in a trap. So we invited the cat into the room. Shai thought the mouse was a toy, not food. Guess we're feeding her too well. She chased it like she was serious, but when she would corner it, she'd just sit and wait for it to make it's next move! Eventually John took matters into his own hands--he cornered it himself, built a wall around it, and had me grab a box and kitchen tongs. He held the box and I reached in with the tongs and grabbed the mouse and dropped it in the box. Poor little guy! Then we took a walk to a field far, far away from our home and dropped him off. Yeah, the tongs went in the garbage can.

Awwww.

One of the great things about my husband is that he does spontaneous nice things for me. It doesn't have to be a holiday or a special occasion for him to be thoughtful--for example, despite the fact that he's in the middle of his finals for the semester, he ran to the store for me the other day, and when he came home he surprised me with the following:



Yep, I got a good one. Thanks for being so sweet, John. I love you!

All Smiles!

Evan started smiling a couple of weeks ago. It's darling, and his parents will go to any lengths to see one--including singing the last line of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which he apparently loves!) a million bazillion times!

What a cutie!!

Sleepy boy.


First real bath in a tub--oh yeah, he loved it! :)


All tuckered out after dinner.


Daddy/Evan bonding time.

Guys Night Out

Tonight I needed to go to Best Buy to get a micro SD card for my phone, so I packed Evan up in the car and we headed out. It was his first trip to Best Buy and it was some good quality time with daddy and his little man. Of course, he had no idea what was going on considering he was asleep by the time we left the driveway and was still asleep when we got home. I know he could sense the manliness of the trip though... he knew... he knew.

Ode to our Kitty

Well, I know this may seem a little strange to some of you out there, but to those who have animals, you will understand. Sunday was Shai's one year anniversary of being our little kitty cat. Shes a lot of fun and we have really enjoyed her. Those who don't have pets just can't understand. Its a lot of fun when she comes and snuggles up to watch TV or when you wake up because she is attacking your feet under the covers. We love you Shaianne.

Happy Halloween!

Aunt Randi sent us a cute orange and white outfit that we thought was appropriate for Halloween since Evan didn't have a costume for his first holiday. He got a cute jack o lantern hat and some fun socks from Nana and Papa, so we decked him out in all his Halloween goodies. Unfortunately, he wasn't as fond of the hat as he was of the rest of the ensemble. Though that didn't last too long either--during the next diaper change he soaked himself. Ah, boys!

Baby Evan

Cousin Caleb Comes To Visit

Baby Caleb Ketcher came to visit Evan today. He brought his parents with him. They had a good time getting to know each other as the two newest men of the Ketcher family. They both commented on how fun it would have been to have baby Gracie here as well, but they had fun none-the-less. Evan is excited to meet all of his new friends.

Evan Magnus Ketcher

Alright, now that Jen is feeling better, we decided on his official name: Evan Magnus Ketcher. I have to say, though, that this was actually Jen's second favorite name choice this morning. I told her, however, that we were not going to officially name him Cutie Patootie. They are still both doing great. Daddy is also learning how much sleep he will NOT be getting over the next MANY nights.

Baby Boy Ketcher Has Arrived!

I just wanted to take a quick second and announce the arrival of our son, Baby Boy Ketcher. We are leaning towards a name, but we want to wait until morning when Jen is feeling better to make it official. He arrived by way of c-section at 11:55am on Thursday. He weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and was 20 3/4in long. Both baby boy and Mom are doing extremely well. I can't even begin to express how proud I am of Jen. She trudged right through 4 hours of contractions coming one minute apart without complaining until she received her epidural (which she is a huge fan of). We are both extremely excited for this new little addition to our family.

Ugh

It's been far too long since we've posted anything. We've had lots going on trying to get the house organized and get baby things in order. Two weeks from today I'll go into the hospital and two weeks from tomorrow they'll be inducing me. So yeah, we've been busy. So here's a photo of me looking fat and tired. Enjoy!

Aah...a visit to NOT Memphis.

We took a fun little trip with some friend to see the sights in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend. Neither John nor I had ever been. We left on a Thursday evening, and at the advice of some locals who had moved into our area, stopped at Lambert's Cafe, the home of the throwed roll--that's right, throwed. I'll post a clip of the experience in a bit. It was great. It's home-style cooking, lots of southern fried food. Yum. They walk around with pots of sides and just pile them on your plate, not to mention the huge rolls. My kind of eating.

We went to the temple Friday morning, then went over to Union Station and walked around. We took a Mississippi riverboat tour as well, and walked around the arch.

The City Museum was our favorite part of the trip. What a place! It's designed so that any little nook or cranny that you can fit in, you're supposed to go in. It'll lead somewhere. I wasn't feeling very adventurous (being seven months pregnant will do that) so I didn't squeeze anywhere exciting. But they had a whole spelunking area, a whale you could crawl around in, an aquarium, a seven-story slide, and a whole outside cage climbing area that was pretty fantastic. I'd love to go back with kids. Below is a photo of the outside area. At the very top is the tunnel the guys crawled through. Then there's a photo of the group of us in the first room with the whale. It's such a cool place!


We went to the top of the arch aferward--pretty anticlimactic. I'd say it was worth it to do it once, but that's about it. Here's the view from the top:

We also went to the St. Louis Zoo and Grant's Farm, and took the Budweiser plant tour--those Clydesdales are amazing horses. The zoo was pretty impressive, though we didn't spend a whole lot of time there. The Science Center was also fun--kind of Omniplex-ish, for those who grew up in OK. Then there was the Cathedral Basilica, home of the most extravagant mosaics in the country--also pretty cool. One of the great things about St. Louis is that most all these exhibits are free--you just pay for parking.

We had a great time on the trip! It was a great break from school and work, and a nice little last hurrah for John and I before little boy Ketcher comes along.

Its about time! We got it!

After months of waiting and praying, we finally found out Friday that we received the Indian Health Services Health Professions Scholarship. I turned in my application 6 months ago and have been waiting patiently ever since. They were switching from paper applications to online applications this year, so they were a little behind the deadlines that they had proposed, considering its the end of August and the website initially said they would let recipients know by the middle of June. None-the-less, I can't begin to explain how excited Jen and I are. For those of you who aren't familiar with the scholarship, it includes full tuition, books, equipment, and a monthly living stipend. In exchange for taking the scholarship, I agree to work for IHS for two years. I looked up job openings for IHS on Saturday just to get an idea of the kinds of places that we may end up... OH MY! We're more than likely to end up somewhere extremely remote. For example, for those of you who are curious, they had an opening in Kotzebue, AK. Look it up on wikipedia, it gives a nice picture. Again, Jen and I are extremely excited and grateful for this HUGE blessing and for another strong confirmation that Heavenly Father is watching out for and taking care of us. Thanks to all of you who have offered prayers on our behalf. We appreciate it.

My favorite times of the year

Some people really love Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or New Years. While all of these are great times of year that I enjoy just as much as the next person, my favorite time of the year is driving home from my last final exam. I experienced one of those moments just 30 minutes ago. I hate all the stress that is involved with taking 7 tests in 7 days and I love the stress relief knowing that all those tests are done and I now have almost two weeks to just relax. I think I may finish the gate for our fence. It has needed a gate for over a year now. I think I will also finish the hardwood floors in our master bedroom. That has needed finishing since November. I blame this lack of being able to finish projects on my genes (before you get defensive, mom and dad, remember the wall in our entry way on Brookdale that only needed to have the sheetrock painted, but stayed unpainted from when I was 8 until sometime when I was on my mission?). Anyway, thats what has been going on lately here in Mississippi. We are also expecting to hear from IHS soon about the scholarship I applied for. We will let you all know as soon as we find out about anything.

...and so you see, we are a happy family!

I recently attended my family reunion in Payson, UT. It was soooo nice to see my parents and all my brothers and sisters and their kids all together. The only person who was missing was John, and I just heard that he was going around telling our friends that he was the only person in the family that wasn't invited! Goober.

We camped for a couple of nights up at the Payson Lakes, which was fun, then wrapped up with a picnic at a park in Payson. It was a great weekend. I wish I could have hung around for the Sunday feast.

Here are my photos from the reunion--enjoy!

With the number 1 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, the Memphis Grizzlies select... SCO Student Intern JOHN KETCHER

I love optometry school. As third years we are required to participate in two vision health fairs throughout the year. When an email was send out asking for volunteers to help with the Grizzlies Academy basketball camp, I figured that was a no-brainer. Turns out, it was even better than I expected. We were supposed to see kids from 8:45-12:00, but there was a mix-up with some of the people running the camp and the kids that were supposed to come and we ended up only seeing kids from 9:00-10:00. For the next three hours I just hung out at the FedEx Forum (home stadium of the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team) playing basketball (I won a half-court shooting contest with the head coach from Illinois Central College against two of the kids playing in the camp) eating pizza, and hanging out with one of the Grizzlies VPs of Basketball Operations. He gave us a tour of the Forum, like where the refs hangout before and after the games. Then after we had eaten our pizza, he took us on a tour of all the Grizzlies facilities under the stands. We went through the weight room (he offered me a 10 day contract with the team if I could curl a 110# barbell 10 times, but alas, too much for me) the showers with 10 ft high shower heads, we went through the equipment room where they keep all the players jerseys and shoes, the players lounge where they hang out and watch tv, eat, play ping-ping or pool, we we went through the coaches offices, playing on the practice court, and my favorite, the Grizzlies locker room. It was pretty sweet. They had little fridges with Gatorade all over the place. What sweet Gatorade heaven... except that it wasn't Gatorade Tiger as I have become accustomed to drinking in my efforts to be a better golfer simply by drinking Tiger's brand of Gatorade. It was a pretty cool day. The first picture I posted is me in the Grizzlies locker room.The second picture is me in the media room where they do all the press conferences. It is me announcing that we just signed LeBron James to a 10 year $1,000,000,000 contract. Actually, the VP kept assuring me that there was no way LeBron James would ever come to Memphis no matter how much money we had.

Announcing a Contest!!!!!!!

Alright dudes, and dudettes! This is the opportunity of a lifetime! Due to the fact that Jen and I are having a hard time coming up with boy names, we would like to announce a fun little contest. The winner will receive A $10 gift card to the location of their choosing. Heres how you play: submit a comment to this entry giving two baby BOY names that you like. If it so happens that Jen and I decide to name our baby boy the name that you submitted, we will award you with the gift card. This is in an effort for us to come up with as many baby boy names as possible. Plus I thought it would be kind of fun. Now, there are no duplicates allowed. If someone has already suggested your name, TOO BAD. Also, you are only allowed to submit TWO names at a time per day. You can come back to our blog the next day and submit two more names if you would like, but only two a day. Jen has also informed me that she will be playing because she wants the gift card too. But don't worry, I won't let that bias me. Please do not go through a book and just start listing off names. We want names that you sincerely like. Thank you. And good luck.

Thank You

I would just like to take a minute this 4th of July weekend and express my gratitude to all of the men and women serving in our countries armed forces. I will never forget my first Sunday home from my mission. It was the Sunday before the 4th and consequently, all the hymns in sacrament meeting were patriotic. The closing hymn was The Star-Spangled Banner and Sister Marshall (our ward organist who is one of my favorite ladies in the whole world) really made it special. I made it through about 1/4 of the first verse before I started ballin' and it didn't stop until the song was over. Spending two years in Portugal made me appreciate all the freedoms that we enjoy here in this country and it was a very special experience for me to come home and on my first Sunday have a chance to reflect on my feelings. I am proud to say that that emotion and that experience are not forgotten and I still have to fight back tears any time I hear the national anthem. So, I again would like to thank all those serving to preserve those freedoms that we enjoy. I would also like to send a special shout-out to my best friend from high school, Jordan Darrington, who is on his second tour in Iraq right now, serving with the US Army. Thanks bud.

Chicken salad, fireworks, and (LOUD) christian rock

What a great Fourth of July! We are lucky to have such good friends here in Southaven, MS, to spend the holiday with. We went over to the Snowden Grove ampitheater with the Pratts, Collins', Allreds, Kents, Fishers, Brumleys and Pursers, then ran into the Bakers and the Ross' while there. John got his five seconds of fame when he was interviewed and actually made the news! (Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it.) The fireworks were impressive, and everyone had a fun time. Enjoy the photos!

Oh Baby!

I think there must be something about seeing a pregnant person that turns off the filter in people's brains--you know, the one that tells them what NOT to say out loud. I recently started showing to the general public, I guess you could say, and a woman I work with confronted me in the restroom and said that until recently she thought that the whole pregnancy was in my head. Nice, huh? How do you respond to that? 

But my favorite comment this month was from one of the vice presidents at work. Monday I was chatting with a friend and he walked by, then paused and turned. He said, "You know, over the last week or so you've actually started to look like you're carrying a baby in there--as opposed to just looking like you're letting yourself go, or that you overindulged at the Shoney's buffet." Again, response?

I know there are several other doozies out there--so I'd love it if you posted some of your personal favorites. I'm trying to keep track of the ones that I get. It does make me laugh! I'll try to attach a really good bit from Brian Regan on the subject soon. 

Missippi

I was over at some friends of ours yesterday. As I was telling them about where I would be going on my externships, their 14 year old son came in and said, "oh, you're going to Nevahda?" I responded by saying, "no, I am going to Nevada." This started a conversation about the correct pronunciation of various locations throughout the US. So, for all of you who have not had the opportunity to spend some good quality time in the south, let me share a few things that I have learned. 

1. The state I live in is pronounced Missippi (slur all the s's together), not Mississippi.

2. It is not New Orleans (emphasis on the "leans"), its Norlynns (emphasis on the Nor).

3. You are the one that is weird for not saying, "sir" or "ma'am," not the other way around.

So if you're fixin to be a little more southern, practice these three things and you might could pass for a southerner in no time.

What happens in Vegas...

Well, today was a big day for us "third years" at SCO. Dr. Gibson (director of externships) posted our assignments for our fourth year rotations. We will be leaving Memphis (which we are soooo sad about... well... not really) in August of 2009 for beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I say its beautiful despite the fact that the only things I know about it are what I learned on Wikipedia. After a short four months there, we will head off to the bright lights of Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada. Pronounced Nevaaaaaada (with a nasally emphasis), not Nevahhhhhda as they say here in the south. Maybe I can turn my student loans into millions playing the nickel slots at the Bellagio. Although that might be kind of hard considering that I don't gamble. We will be there from January to May 2010. After that, I have no idea. 

Okay, okay...

It's really too bad that we've had this blog for so long and have never posted anything. It's not because we have nothing to report--just not as much time as we'd like to do the reporting. But I'm trying to be better about it. Despite the fact that I still want to modify how this site looks, I can't put off writing anything anymore just because of that. So here goes.

To catch you up: John's started his third year of optometry school, and is now spending a lot of the week in the Eye Center on campus. Thankfully, he still likes it. I really think he chose the right profession. (Yay!) One more year to go--a year of externships. One in Tennessee and two still yet to be determined. We've talked about a few sites in Colorado, one in Las Vegas, and one in Phoenix. We'll see!

We are expecting a little boy in October, which is fantastic! John's already bought him a little Air Jordan onesie with a matching beanie and booties. It's really cute. He also plans to decorate the nursery (that's right, HE plans to decorate it) with lots of Tiger Woods posters and a baby blue blanket with the Nike swoosh on it. He claims it's just because we're having a boy that he wants to do the planning, but when I pointed out that if we were having a girl he'd be doing exactly the same thing, he considered for a minute, then told me I was right. If it was a girl, it'd be a "pretty, pretty princess room." What a cute daddy he'll be!

I'm including a photo of the onesie. I've got to admit, it's cute!