Why I Tweet...

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Alright friends & family. I know many of you think that I'm nuts because I'm on twitter and foursquare. I have an active Facebook account and I even put videos of my darling daughter on You Tube. It's silly you say. You don't want to know when I'm using the facilities. You don't care if I'm having turkey for lunch.

I get it.

What you don't get is that the social world via the internet is a frontier that will revolutionize the way people interact. I want to know how my daughter talks to her friends. I want to know how the "bad guys" find their targets. I want to be very informed. So I tweet… and now you know. :) And I continue to tweet because I enjoy meeting people I would never have met before. So if you want to learn how to do it, just ask me. It's actually really easy and not nearly as crazy as you think.



Oh and also because it's fun.

I feel like pumpkin pie

Last weekend Dan and I took Laina to her first Numismatic Society Money Show. What does that mean? It means there was a bunch of Senior Citizens who gathered at Lenexa Community Center to buy/sell/trade their old money. I personally don't get it but Dan is crazy about money (as if I needed to say that) and really enjoys collecting it. This show happens once/year so we decided to head on over there and see what they had.


I wasn't prepared for what happened.


They had pumpkin pie.


Perfectly shaped triangle individual pieces of pumpkin pie for sale served on a styrofoam dessert plate with plastic wrap covering it.


What is it about little concession stands where the goods have been donated by the wife of the man who runs the event that make me feel so at home? Maybe it's because I grew up with a Grandma who made the best pumpkin pie… and just about anything else that had at least a stick of butter in it… Maybe it's because Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE meal of the year…. Or maybe it's just because fall is here and pumpkin pie served on a tiny little styrofoam dessert plate sounds delicious.


Maybe I will make a little pumpkin pie. From the can of course… what do you think I am, Martha?

From here to Timbuktu

The Shepards have been traveling like mad the past few months. I'd love to blame my lack of blogging on work but sadly that's just my own procrastination that turned into a ridiculously long hiatus.

 
 

This past summer I had the privilege to travel to two conferences in Washington D.C. The first one was for Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference which was my first time attending and the most awesome geek trip I've ever taken. The second time was for my company's international conference which was even more tiring than the first trip since my night owl co-workers were all there. You'd think that after a summer full of trips to the East Coast we'd be done. Well you would be wrong, my friend.

 
 

Dan has recently started his new job and has been traveling all over the South in his new territory of Ark, TN & Miss. So let's take a tally… we conquered the East Coast (that is clear), Dan is off conquering the Bible Belt and what does that leave? The Western US? Oh well let me just tell you that I recently returned from a trip to Seattle where I visited Microsoft's Campus…

 
 

So yes, we have been from here to Timbuktu and we made all the areas in between our ______. (insert your word of choice, I personally like "friend")

 
 

 
 

Kitty Love Hurts

We've been trying to show Laina that petting the cat is something that can be fun, but we have to be GENTLE... so far the cat has been tolerant of Laina. The more and more that she discovers, the more and more we have to show her the ways of the world. This is just one little glimpse into that.

Laina's First Year

1 Year of Bears

As a gift from our close friends, Laina got 1 full year of bears! So each month, she will receive a new bear. The first two months have already proven to be very cute themed bears so I'm excited to see the future ones. Thanks Shawn & Jill for such a fun & memorable gift!

Laina and Mr. June:

Laina and Mr. July (with Mr. June hangin out)

As a side note, Dan was disappointed it wasn't 1 year of beer even though the inappropriate nature of that as a gift for a toddler was obvious.

Zootiful Life

We went to the zoo and it was H-O-T.... Laina still enjoyed seeing the sights and being outside, despite the amount of sweat that was coming out of our pores. I think she really enjoyed watching the animals sleep, especially when they were toe to toe with her.

Baby Girl On The Move!

Laina has been considering her options when traveling lately. "Do I take the mature, more accepted route of transportation by walking? Or do I go with the faster more efficient method of crawling... decisions, decisions." Usually she takes a couple steps and then get impatient and proceeds to crawl to her destination. However, more recently she has started to WALK there. That's right, my tiny little baby girl is walking. The doctor said she was officially considered a walker once she consistently took 5 steps or more on her own. Well that occurred officially on July 21st, 2010 when she went from point A to point B (A=Dan, B=Me) on her own two feet. We were so proud but it was a few more weeks before we actually got it on tape. You can see the video here:



We are so excited about this milestone. It has been such an exciting year and I can't wait for the coming months as her language expands to include more than mama & ball.

Laina's First Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating Laina's first birthday party. It poured rain just before the party was about to start but then the clouds parted to a beautiful afternoon! Laina really enjoyed her cupcake (although she wasn't sure about the icing and really wasn't sure about everyone staring at her while she ate it...). She got lots of great presents including clothes, toys and some keepsakes like a silver engraved cup from "GG" aka Great Grandmother Elaine.
I tried to make everything I could from the cupcake picks to the happy birthday pennant banner to the shrimp & watermelon ceviche. The light was incredible that day which meant all the pictures came out wonky. Enjoy nonetheless.

Wedding Bliss

It only has taken me 3 weeks to finally get this post up about Kelly's Wedding.

Kelly & Kevin's wedding was picture perfect over Memorial Day weekend. We had such a good time celebrating their day! See pics below.