Jarom's Mission Homecoming

The day finally arrived when Jarom came home from Malaga Spain where he served a faithful mission for 2 years.  I was thankful that he was able to go out and serve so diligently and do the work of the Lord.  I think one of the best feelings is when you know you are doing something that He would be doing if He were here on earth.  What a spiritually satisfying accomplishment.

Many times Jarom's emails that he would write once a week were just what I needed to hear to get me out of my spiritual ruts and back on track.  He was always so tender and genuine with his feelings and sharing the experiences he was having while on his mission.  I'm truly blessed to have a brother who was courageous enough to sacrifice 2 years and serve such a noble mission.  It was so amazing to see the transformation in Jarom from when he first left to the last letter he wrote to us before he boarded the plane.  I've always told him and Jocelyn that they are my angels, and Heavenly Father knew that I needed them by my side to get the rest of the family back.

His plane flew into Tucson Az on December 6, 2012.  A couple weeks before Jeff and Annabelle had been fighting off a vicious stomach bug that was going around, that unfortunately included a lot of throwing up.  With my luck I was the last one to catch it and when I did it hit hard.  I woke up the morning of his homecoming feeling so sick to my stomach.  The original plan was to head all the way to Sierra Vista and drop Annabelle off and have someone babysit her, then we would go to the airport with the rest of the fam without her because he had a late flight.

The whole day I kept debating on what to do and knew that Satan was playing a hand in me not feeling well.  I knew that regardless of how I was feeling that I had to be at the airport for Jarom, I knew that he needed me there.  I was one of his main supports while he was out on his mission, one that believed in the work he was doing and fully believed in it with my own testimony.

We changed our plans and just decided to take Annabelle to the airport with us and surprise Jarom with her being there.  We had told him earlier through email that she wouldn't make it because it was too late, so he wasn't expecting to see her until the next morning.  Jeff thought that it would be best if I stayed home and got my rest for as long as I could before we made the long car ride. We were going to drive straight to Tucson with a pit stop in Mesa for Annabelle to take a break.  The car ride went better than I thought, although Jeff had to stop a lot for me to go to the bathroom.  My stomach had just been in knots and ached so badly.  I just kept telling myself to tough it out and it would all be worth it, I  just couldn't miss such a sweet and long awaited reunion with my little bro.

I gave assignments out to Tara and Joc to make welcome home posters for Jarom, and they actually did!  I wanted to do something fun for him when he saw us at the airport for the first time. So, I came up with these ridiculous t-shirts where all of us are making silly faces.  I knew my family would not be on board to wear matching t-shirts unless it was something immature and funny. This is what I came up with: 

My favorite has to be Peter in his shark helmet.  I got everyone's approval and they all showed up with them on.  Even my Mom and Dad were wearing them! 

It was a true "Shaver style" way to celebrate him coming home to us! 

AnnaB was in good spirits considering how late we kept her up. 

We thought it was appropriate to let her wear her pj's! 

Amber even flew down for the occasion too, it was so great having everyone there minus Paul.

Jarom's reaction to us bringing Annabelle was priceless!  He was so shocked and very happy!  

My Mom couldn't be happier in this moment!  What a special thing for a mother to 

have her son return home with honor.

It was all I could do to get myself dressed that day and to put on a tad bit of make up on….I felt and looked so gross, but that didn't matter.  Seeing Jarom's after mission glow was all worth it!

Jarom couldn't wait to reunite with the dogs!

To no surprise Annabelle loved sitting on the little bench my mom has by the front door.

Catching up on time with Uncle Jarom, they bonded instantly! 

We ordered an extra shirt for Jarom to wear too.

AnnaB helping Grammy with the dishes.

  

My Mom wanted the house to be all decked out in her beautiful Christmas decorations before Jarom came home, it's seriously like a Winter Wonderland.

Anytime Amber is in town I make her bake a pineapple upside cake, it's one of my favs 

and tasted even better with a side of a Qwirkle!

Jeff and I were the only ones that were able to stay for the whole weekend and attend Jarom's homecoming talk on Sunday.  I'm so glad that we did.  He did so well on his talk and shared a powerful testimony in the end of his experiences and what the gospel meant to him. 

Last time he would get to wear his Elder Shaver name tag. 

It took me awhile to put together, but I had compiled all of Jarom's emails that he had written to us while he was out and put it in a book for him.  I knew it would be something that he would always cherish.  Dad helped me out to get it printed and bound at Staples and it turned out really nice.  I knew it would be something that you could always reflect back on for a spiritual boost.  Good reminder that you can do hard things too.

Thank you Jarom for living up to all that I knew you could be.  You gave it your all and to this day I can see the blessings still coming into your life from having served a full mission.  I'm appreciative for the gospel bond that we share and that we can go to the temple together.  I'm thankful for your example and endless reminders to say my prayers, read my scriptures and to attend the temple often.  I'm lucky to have a righteous little brother like you. I LOVE YOU ELDER SHAVER!

Annabelle 15/16 Months

15/16 Month Accomplishments for Annabelle:

1. You can now climb on the couches and get so excited about it

2. You follow me around and call me Mimi

3. When you dance it looks like you are clogging

4. You always fall asleep now holding one of your teddy bears

5. You started to run and it's so cute

6. You are repeating a lot of words we say to you 

7. One of your favorite things to say is "Whoa...whoa...whoa!"

8. You like to put your hands in your coat pockets

9. You love to just sit on the couch with your snack and a blanket

10. You can point out your head, nose, tongue, eyes, belly button, ears, feet and hands

11. You can climb up on the kitchen chairs

12. You always say, "side, side" which means you want to go outside

13. Your favorite snacks as of late have been the little cutie oranges and grapes

14. You are still completely attached to your dad and get so excited when he gets home from work

15. You can say "bike"

16. You run straight into our bedroom and your first thing to touch is all my makeup

17. You like to shut doors on ppl and laugh so much when you do

18. Random people still tell us all the time that you are one of the most well behaved babies they have ever seen

I let my sisters convince me again to do something I regretted with you and it was cut your straggly little hair. We just took you to a cost cutters in Sierra Vista and they did not know how to cut baby hair.  I was not pleased with how it turned out, but you couldn't really tell because you hardly had hair. 

Aunt Amber would say that you had Smeagol hair!

When you sleep on the couch you are very specific with the things you need.  

You always have to have your hippo pillow pet, a certain blanket and some of your stuffed animals. 

Chilling on Grammy Schaub's counter in the kitchen, you and her just love to laugh together in there.

We made a Costco trip and you just fell in love with the pillow pets, so we had you pick one and you loved the purple hippo. It's still your favorite to sleep on while you drink your milk on the couch. 

You found my socks laying around one day and you were determined to put them on. 

They were so big on you but you had fun walking around in them.  Made Mommy laugh! 

We found this gigantic teddy bear at Home Depot and Grammy Schaub thought it would be a good idea to put you in the box.  You were sinking into the large stuffed animal!

In your pink coat that your Aunt Tara & Amber bought for you.

We have a big tree in our front yard and when the leaves started falling we had so many in our driveway.  You thought it was so fun to go out there and play in them, or rather crunch them!

At the burger place in Laughlin that we love to go to they have this stage in the restaurant and you always like to play on it while we wait for our food and for Jeff's co-workers to finish drinking! Ha!

Rachael Adams babysat you one night and she had made this adorable craft with you and Charly.  I love how your little hand prints made the branches of the tree.  She is so good with you girls!

You always want to be around Daddy and help him with whatever he is doing. This picture is so precious.  You have such an incredible Daddy who is so in love with you. 

I got this owl beanie on this website called Pick Your Plum and it's 

one of my favorite things to put you in. I only paid $6 for it.

Over Thanksgiving break while we were in Mesa we had our good friend Liisa Sharp take family pictures for us so that I could use them in our Christmas cards for 2012.  

We just love you to the moon and back Annabelle! You make our lives that much happier and better!

Christmas Stockings

Debbie had these cute chubby stockings for her family that I had loved and wanted to replicate them for our own little family.  Even before Jeff and I had started to have kids I found this cute snowman matching material at Walmart and decided to plan ahead and to make some stockings for our future family.

Dennis and Debbie came to visit us right before the Thanksgiving Holiday for the weekend and we were so happy to have them here.  I asked Debbie to help me start the stockings and of course she was more than willing to show me the correct way to sew them.  I was so proud of myself because this was one of the first sewing projects I had accomplished! They turned out so, so very cute.  I even freehanded the names on the sewing machine.  I'm thankful for such a sweet Mother-in-law who didn't hesitate to help me with this project. We had a fun time doing it!

The weekend wouldn't have been complete without a couple of games of Qwirkle!

The finished product! 

Debbie was so sweet and brought me a big can of Starbucks hot chocolate mix because she knew it was my favorite!  Doo Doo and Jeff went to the bike store and I think he found a new toy that he wants!  AnnaB loves spending time with her Papa.  It's so nice having people come to visit us.