Announcing...

Our newest niece, Aurora!
Born Friday
5 lbs. 12 oz. 20 inches

My sister is officially a mom, and my mom is a grandma! It's unreal. I can't wait to meet this little blessing.
Love,
Chianne

We made it!

I know this is almost a month overdue, but we did make it safely to the East Coast. It was a crazy trek involving lots of weather, family, and friends. Poor Devin got food poisoning the day after his birthday, and I came down with a nasty cold, but we pressed on.

two of our nieces

Devin carrying around Gus.

Funny photo time!

Devin's bite from Dillon

our nephew!

How said bite occured

In Vegas with family and friends!

Roxi chasing cranes in Albuquerque

Albuquerque

a crazy amount of birds in Oklahoma...you don't want to know what our car looked like the next morning.

potty break!

Roxi being a parrot in Tennessee

Poor Zombie got his tail caught in the door :(

Roxi preferred to sleep on the cooler.

Our new home for the next 5 months!

The dogs are really enjoying this backyard!

Devin is doing well in school. I was blessed with a job as soon as we got here in a salon. It's very busy, so that is great! I'm going to try to be more diligent in updating this thing!

love,

chianne

Official

Well, I'm officially slacking at uploading pictures as I promised. I'm also slacking as updating as much as I would like. It's amazing what isn't done for us moving in 3 weeks. Yep, it's official. We got the orders yesterday. We knew we were going to go to North Carolina eventually, but I still don't really feel like it was going to happen until we had that piece of paper in our hands. Provo, expect us the 25th-28th of this month. Location TBD. Las Vegas, expect us the 28th-30th of this month. I think we'll be staying at the La Quinta on Tenaya (closest place to the NW area that allowed dogs.), but of course during the day you can find us at my Mom's. Please let us know if you want to spend time with us before we venture to the East Coast!

North Carolina, expect us the 2nd or 3rd of February! :)

-Chianne

Holidays

Well, Christmas has come and gone in the Shepherd household. No really, it's gone. We've already taken down the tree, all the decorations, and the outdoor lights. We usually keep them up until New Years, but since we are moving in less than a month, we figured we better pack them up right away to facilitate the bigger packing process. It's strange - with Christmas done, it's like a light switch has turned on in both of our brains saying, "Start packing!" Devin and I went and picked up some supplies yesterday and started packing a few boxes and listing some of the furniture we won't be taking on Craigslist. Everything is feeling like a dream right now. I feel like we have so much time before we move, but when I look at the calendar, my heart jumps when I see less than 4 weeks. That's all for now. Pictures to come still as promised (especially since Devin got be a beautiful Canon Rebel for Christmas!).

-chianne.

Busy Weekend

We started last weekend with Devin's work holiday party. It was at a lovely resort in Cannon Beach. We opted to stay there because it was stinking cheap since the CG was having their party there, and we split a room with some friends. Our room was on the top floor with the most spectacular view of Haystack Rock and the Pacific. I'll show you one photo I took while there as a teaser, but I will have to show you the rest later.

View from our room!

Saturday morning, after we had checked out of the hotel, we hopped in the car and drove to Salem to pick up Devin's mom and brother. (They had rode out with family that were going to stay in Salem, which is why we picked them up.) We drove back 3 hours to where we live on the Coast, but before we got home made a pit stop at the beach. You see, in all of Devin's mother's fifty-something years - she has never been to the ocean. Devin and Dillon made her close her eyes while we drove directly onto the beach. Then, they got her out of the car and made her face with her back to the ocean. They made her just breath the salty air and listen to the sounds for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they let her turn around and face the majesty of the powerful Pacific Ocean. It was amazing to see the awe in her eyes. It made me realize how lucky I was to grow up visiting the beach often and that I get to live next to it now. We played in the cold sand for a bit and then went home. We had lots of laugh and delicious meals. Their trip ended too quickly.

Dillon wearing the scarf I made him! I need to find the rest of the pictures....

Now we're gearing up for Christmas which leads into packing up the house to move. It's weird to think in just about one month we'll be traveling cross country to our new home in North Carolina. Boy, do I have a lot to do!

-chianne.