How is life in Las Vegas?

Justifiably so, we've had a lot of questions from friends asking how we're doing. Let's see if I can briefly answer some of them:

How is Sean liking his new job?
Although it's very different than Real Estate, Sean is really enjoying his job. LVGI is a very small company, which means Sean is wearing a lot of hats and staying very busy. This is extremely important to someone like Sean. If he was just crunching numbers and pushing papers, he would go insane in a matter of days.

How is Lisa liking her new job?
I always joked about the term "Domestic Engineer", but it's not really that far from reality. There is a LOT that goes into this job as a mom and homemaker. I actually find myself looking forward to the weekends just as much as the "working folks" because it means there are more hands around to help out with Samantha, etc. Even though I am busy each and every day, I *LOVE* this job. Samantha is such a treasure and I love spending so much time with her (most of the time! :) )

How is the Vegas weather?
I gotta tell you... this weather is absolutely awesome. Oh sure... December dips into the 30s in the evenings, so you still need things like jeans, coats, and mittens in December. Here are a couple of pics of Sam wrapped up for a walk in December...




Although this January has been warmer than the average, it's crazy to think that we're pretty much heading into Spring now. I took Samantha and the dogs for a walk the other day in shorts and a tank top... and later in the day heard a story on the radio that gas pumps were freezing in the midwest. I'm guessing in a few years, this will feel "normal", but for now, it's really hard to wrap my head around the fact that it's January. I've taken the dogs on about 50 walks in the past 3 months... which is about 48 more than I would have taken during the winter in Portland. That's both a testimony to the beautiful, dry weather as well as how much Samantha likes walks! :)






How is living with your parents/in-laws... seriously?
Yes, it's true that my in-laws can read this blog, so I have to speak favorably of living with them. :) But I gotta tell you... I'M NOT LYING!!! Sean and I feel very blessed to be able to live here with Samantha and the dogs while we wait for the Portland house to sell. Sean and I have our own room and Samantha has her own, so we're able to have our own space even though we all share the house. Mom Shepard and I are home the most and we have really developed a great routine together when it comes to taking care of Samantha and the house. And even though Sean and I wouldn't move down to Las Vegas SOLELY for the abundant parental babysitting, knowing what we know now, we'd probably consider it! :) Samantha will surely hear some funny stories about the months living with her Papa and Nana, but for the most part, the stories will show just how wonderful it is going!


Have you guys found friends there yet?
In all honesty, we have been so busy with holidays, new jobs, and just figuring our lives out, we haven't really had a chance to delve into meeting people. We did start going to Life Baptist church about 2 months ago. It's way smaller than any church we've ever gone to (and that threw us off guard for the first couple of visits) but we are definitely liking it. And Lisa is going to a MOPS (Mothers of Pre Schoolers) group that is held nearby every other week. But other than that, we have just been concentrating on surviving day by day and week by week!

So, Mrs. Optimistic... is everything sweet and rosy in Las Vegas?
Okay... so I'm painting a pretty glorious picture, aren't I? For the sake of honesty, I'll share a couple of things that are tainting this place called Las Vegas
- It is TOUGH to find good medical care here in Las Vegas. By looking at our Explanations of Benefits from the insurance company, I'm guessing it has something to do with how little the doctors get paid from the insurance companies, but that's just a guess. From family docs, to pediatricians, to dentists, to veterinarians, we have definitely had an interesting time finding good doctors around here. No wonder Dad and Mom Shepard still fly up to Portland to see our beloved dentist! :-)
Here's a picture I couldn't resist taking as I drove home one evening. It's dark, but hopefully you can see how interesting our medical care is down here! :-)



- A week or two before Christmas, Lisa got here car broken into. The thieves popped the lock through the driver's side door and stole Lisa's GPS Navigation unit that she had "hidden" in the middle console as well as a couple of gifts she had stupidly left on the passenger side floor. Fortunately, they didn't steal anything in the back seat (Sam's car seat, Lisa's jacket or all our Christmas cards that needed to get taken to the post office), but overall, it will still ring in at about $1000 in losses ($600 damage to the car, $400 value of stolen items). And yes... both of those categories are on different parts of your insurance coverage, so our $500 deductible for each does very little for us!

- All that dry weather means VERY little "beauty" down here. We love the sunny days, but boy, we miss the green! Thanks to dirt and dust, we wash our dogs and cars more than we EVER did in Portland. I'm sure we will miss the green even more the longer we are down here, but we're trying to see the beauty in rocks! :-)


Well, I hope this answers some of your questions about our life in Las Vegas. Does it cover everything? Heck, no! But I want to get this posted before January of 2010! :)

Another photo shoot

While our friends (Don and Stacey) were in town, we just HAD to commission Don to take some more pics of our little family. Don's the guy who took my maternity pics and Samantha's newborn pics. He obviously wasn't able to bring down his lights and other equipment on the plane, but he brought his fancy camera and excellent photography skills. We got a lot of fun photos (even though Samantha was getting pretty tired near the end!). Here are some of our favorites (you can click on them to bring up bigger versions of them):

















THANK YOU DON! We have such treasured memories on "film" because of you!

More blabbing about Samantha

Okay, this blog post is for those that want a little more detail about our little munchkin (and it's also a place to put some pictures that don't really fit into any blog category... they're just cute photos of our little girl).

At this writing, here are some little facts about Samantha:


- Sam turned 7 months old on January 10th.
- Yes... we usually call her Sam. Sometimes Samantha. Rarely Sammy at this point, but I think that's because we figure if you're going to shorten her name, you might as well go with one syllable. I'm sure it will change later!
- Samantha is looking more and more like her dad, but she's definitely still keeping some mom characteristics. The most notable is her chin (she has mommy's chin). Her eyes are pretty big (so everyone thinks she has mom's eyes) but if you look closely, the shape actually looks more like dad's. Her eyelashes are exactly like dad's and they're growing every day. And her face is definitely more round (like dad's) and not oval (like mom's). Of course, this could all change as time goes by (they have a way of doing that!) but these are our observations at this time.
- Samantha's hair is growing beautifully, although this is one area where she appears to be a mix between dad and mom. Sean was born with a head full of hair (and kept it all) whereas Lisa was bald until she was about 2 1/2 years old! Looks like Samantha is trying the middle of the road on this one.
- At her last appointment, Samantha weighed 15 lbs 11 oz (which was about 25th percentile, I think).
- Her last doctor appointment was actually an unplanned one. We were worried about this weird twitching thing she was doing. Lisa noticed it first while feeding her and changing her diaper. It was like involuntary muscle spasms... mostly in her arms, but a little in her legs and head. It definitely didn't look like seizures, but anything involving twitching scares the poop out of new parents (and maybe even veteran parents, I don't know). Anyway, the pediatrician wasn't too concerned based on other indicators and our description of what was going on, and we decided to observe her for the next week. Within a couple days of the appointment, the twitches had decreased dramatically and we stopped seeing them. Every now and then, we see twitches again, but we're thinking it may be in response to sharp teething pains or just a fun thing she likes to do to get attention. Babies do so many weird things that are cute and we don't take them to the doctor for them... but a weird thing that involves twitching or muscle spasms freaks us out. Go figure!
- Samantha just learned the art of blowing raspberries a couple of days ago. Because they're sweet little raspberries at this time, we still think they're cute... but we can certainly see the potential for disaster later on! :)
- We JUST stopped swaddling Samantha at night last week. Yeah, that's a pretty long time for swaddling for a baby, but the pediatrician said if she was still sleeping through the night, then we didn't need to stop swaddling her. No matter when we stopped, we knew she'd be grown out of it by kindergarten! :) At the time that we quit swaddling her, she still didn't mind it, but we wanted her to have her arms free so she could get her little chew toy when she woke up in the morning (no... we don't think she's a dog, but there are some similarities when it comes to chew toys!) :) So far, it hasn't disrupted her sleep too much. She goes to bed around 7:30 pm, wakes up around 6:30 am and "plays" in her crib until about 7:15. Of course, as soon as I tell anyone that she's sleeping through the night well, she pulls a week of "oh yeah... I'll show you" just to keep us guessing, so we'll see if she holds to that pattern tonight! :)

Okay... those are all the "facts" I can think of off the top of my head. To reward you for reading this far, here are some more fun pics:

Samantha is wearing her "Horton Hears a Who" shirt
while chewing on poor Horton's trunk.

You can see it better if you click on the picture to make it bigger,
but the shirt says "Sam I Am".
(We should put something on the back that says "No... really. Sam I Am.")


Momma's Helper Numero Uno


Momma's Helper Number Dos



Should we send this in to Apple to see if they want to use it in their advertisements?


What a precious little face... and she puts up with us so much!

Shameless Photo Ops

We don't have recent pictures of Samantha with all the people she has seen recently, but here are a few photos of Sam with friends and family:

With Grandma Broman, Aunt Lorna and Cousins Channing and Charise at the airport in Boise

With Papa checking out his dental work

With Mom, sporting Samantha's "Peace" outfit

With Nana

Claiming the best seat in the house... on Dad's shoulder!

With Grandma Broman

With Aunt Lorna

With her 4-legged sisters: Charlie and Sadie

With Great Aunt Barb in Boise

In Boise, with Sean's Cousin Jeff and Coco
(the daughter of one of Sean's other cousins, Jamie)

With "Aunt" Robbie and "Uncle" Russ

Giving Robbie a workout by jumping in her arms

Lots of love and attention from "Aunt" Stacey and "Uncle" Don

Video of Samantha and her funny faces

This won't be a long blog post. I just wanted to upload this video where Samantha was absolutely cracking me up (as you'll hear) because she was making such funny faces and scaring herself. Hope you enjoy as much as I obviously did...

11/06/2008
5 months old
42 seconds - 38.5 Mb

What has Samantha been up to lately?

Here are a few pics of some fun times with Sam over the past few weeks...





Before we headed over to our friend's birthday party, Sean decided to wear the latest accesory... a baby!! :-)

On a Sunny day at the beach, Sam showed how excited she was to sport her England hat imported from Grandma Broman a few months before she was born.

A few weeks before moving away from the Oregon Coast, we took Sam to the beach to stake her claim in the sand.









Charlie and Sam are starting to enjoy their time together. Samantha is learning about dog fur... Charlie is learning about patience! :-)

On a quick trip to the mall, Samantha and Lisa got a chance to meet Franco Sarto, Lisa's favorite shoe designer. Samantha slept through the whole thing, but we know that when she's a teenager, she'll be begging mom for some Franco Sarto shoes and reminding me that I'm the one who introduced the two!

Samantha was super excited to help mommy and daddy pack for our Family Reunion (a 3-night cruise up to Canada).

Samantha enjoyed her first visit to the Zoo with "Aunt" Stacey and "Uncle" Don.

This summer, the Oregon Zoo was excited to introduce Samudra, a baby elephant born in late summer. So while at the zoo, our baby Sam got to meet the elephant baby "Sam".

A quick portrait of the Shepards on the back deck in Oregon. We wanted to capture the three of us with the trees in the background so we could remember what all those leaves look like!







Sean and Lisa in beautiful Nanaimo, Canada. While on the family reunion cruise, we were able to venture out and spend a few hours on an exciting tree course.






Samantha's first Broman family portrait with Grandma Broman, Aunt Lorna and Uncle Justin, Cousins Channing & Charise and Dad (Sean) & Mom (Lisa)









The funny part about this photo is that Samantha was asleep in her car seat under the table while it was taken! :-)








Samantha saying her "night night" prayers.







Sean and his 3 girls [the 4th is behind the camera!] :-)








Mom takes good care of Samantha... although by the scared look on her face, you wouldn't know it! :-)








Samantha wants to drink from mom's water bottle. Mmmm... everybody loves baby backwash!










Samantha loved her very first halloween costume. She was (and is) our precious pumpkin!!!










Tennis anyone??

Getting Settled in Las Vegas

Well... we're here in Las Vegas, our computers are up and running and we're gradually getting settled in. Hopefully I can take the next few minutes to update you on how we're doing!

How was the move down here?
Lisa and Samantha flew in on Monday, Oct 27. Samantha wasn't a nightmare child on the plane (i.e. screaming the whole time) but I did have to walk a few laps up and down the aisle of the plane to keep her happy. We don't typically cater to her wants and wishes to keep her from crying, but for the sake of the other dear passengers on the plane, I was much more complient! :)
Meanwhile, Sean (and the dogs) drove the SUV down (pulling the boat) and our hero of a friend, Don, drove one of the cars down. They also left on Monday, but they didn't arrive until Tuesday evening. There was an unforseen adventure about 45 minutes outside of Portland when the desk that was in the boat managed to rip the boat cover, causing it to flap uncontrollably in the wind. Don raced back to the house in Portland, grabbing all the tarps, rope and duct tape we own, and headed back to where Sean was waiting. They then did a fabulous(ly ugly) repair job and continued on their way. Not exactly the start they were looking for, but fortunately, it was the only mishap of the trip. They stopped in Sacramento where they saw some of Sean's family and got a good night's rest. They were up early on Tuesday and arrived in Las Vegas tired and sore around 6pm. Overall, they made good time, but it took about 20 hours of driving (thanks to that heavy boat loaded with all our stuff!).

How was our first week here?
BUSY! We can't believe that tomorrow will end our first week here. We have packed A LOT into this week.
On Tuesday night, we unloaded everything out of the two cars and boat. Man... we packed a lot in there!
On Wednesday, we got up early to say goodbye to Don and get him to the airport. Then, Sean drove the boat out to a storage facility near Lake Mead. About 10 minutes after returning from the storage facility, Sean got a call telling him that they had put him in the wrong spot and he needed to come back out and move the boat to the right spot. LOVELY!!! He told them they were out of luck for that day, but...
On Thursday, Sean, Samantha and I headed back out there to move the boat to the right spot. After moving it, we continued on down the road to check out Lake Mead, our new waterskiing/wakeboarding spot that we will be hopefully taking advantage of. Lake Mead is totally and completely different than the Willamette River in Oregon, so it will be interesting and exciting to get to know this new style of boating.
On Friday, Sean started his new job at LVGI. Yes, he had a 1-day work week! :-) Sean wanted to get in and get started at his new job, but one of the main advantages of starting on Oct 31 was that Sean's insurance benefits started on Nov 1. Phew... we're covered!
This weekend, we worked more on our unpacking and getting settled into the house. Although we have a little bit left to unpack in Sam's room, we're well on our way and should be all done unpacking by early this coming week.

How is Sean's job going?
Sean had a good first day with lots of paperwork and early training. Although he only worked 1 day last week, he was given plenty of "homework" to do over the weekend. He's been studying his new work computer (an Apple!) and iPhone and also doing a bunch of training/studying of the sales software that LVGI uses. He has a lot more training to do early this week and then will potentially be traveling for work at the end of the week. Needless to say, he's hitting the ground running!!

How is Lisa doing?
This week has been pretty good for me but tough as well. Leaving Portland broke my heart and I know I will miss it for a very long time. A lot of tears have been shed over the past week or two! One of my fellow passengers on the plane made the mistake of asking me if I was heading home and I bumbled some teary-eyed, stupid answer about it being my new home. I'm excited for this adventure... but sad all the same.
I haven't ventured out much this week (besides the trip to Lake Mead) because I'm focused on getting us all unpacked and organized. But this week, I'll hopefully be able to get out a bit more and start researching pediatricians, doctors, vets, dentists, swimming lessons, etc for the family. Sounds exciting, doesn't it!? :) Of course, my ability to get some of this done will depend on how well my little munchkin does. She had a mediocre fever all day today so we'll see if she's feeling better tomorrow.

Okay... I'm going to post this now or it will never get done. I'm going to do my ABSOLUTE best to get pictures uploaded here tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!!

Videos of 4-month-old Samantha

Okay... it has been a long while since I've posted pics and video of little Samantha... and it isn't due to lack of material. I haven't done an official count, but thanks to the age of digital cameras (and an extremely cute subject to shoot), I have approximately 2500 pictures and videos of our daughter. They aren't exactly all award winning pics, that's for sure, but since we don't have to get them developed, I just keep snapping pictures and shooting videos... and I'll just sort through them after she leaves for college! :) I know it's excessive, but digital memory is cheap and my memory is going, so it's safer to record her life on "film" rather than in my brain! :)





So without further ado, here are some of the most recent videos of Samantha so you can get a feel for what she's like right now.

In this clip, I'm sneaking in to video Sam while she is waking up from a nap.
If we're sure to let her sleep long enough, she wakes up so content and happy!

Samantha is experimenting with new sounds she can make.
Here, she is practicing her bird calls! :)

Bath times are JUST starting to become fun for Sam.
She still isn't 100% sure about how to play in the tub, but the kicking seems to be a hit.

Samantha is starting to develop her trunk strength more and more. A couple days before this video, if we put her in the BebePod chair, she would slump a little to the side. Now, if she's awake and full of energy, she can actually play sitting up a little bit on her own. In this video, we're trying not to laugh as she tries to pick up the circles that are part of the design on the placemat in the tray.

Of course, I have a bunch of other videos, but I'll keep it to these highlights. I'll post some pictures later (but I better publish this post now or who knows how long it might be before I remember to do so!)

The Shepards are on the move…

As you know, 2008 has been a crazy year for the Shepard family… most notably due to the amazing new addition of our daughter. Well… 2008 isn’t over yet, and as it turns out, we have one more very large change ahead of us.

A few weeks ago, Sean headed down to Las Vegas for a job interview. And thankfully, Sean “wowed” the interviewers, and in October, he will be one of the newest members of the sales crew at Las Vegas Gaming Incorporated (www.lvgi.com). Which means The Shepard Crew will be moving from beautiful Portland, Oregon down to a significantly drier Las Vegas, Nevada.

We have told some of our friends and family about this recent event… and have subsequently been asked a lot of questions. We figured we’d answer those questions here:
1. How long have you known about this?
Sean was approached about the open position in mid August, but didn’t interview for it until early September. We made the final decision some time around September 12th.
2. But what about your life here in Portland?
Although the time line leading up to this opportunity has been extremely short, the decision to make this move was not taken lightly. Sean has lived in Portland since he was nine years old and Lisa has called Oregon her home for over nine years. We met here, dated here, got married here, and our beautiful daughter was born here. We have extremely amazing friends, a great church, good jobs, and a wonderful life here. (Insert tears here) There are so many things we will miss.
3. Did Sean interview at other companies? Was he looking for a different job?
No, Sean was not actively looking for another job. He loves Real Estate and has taken so much pride in building his business over the last 7 or 8 years.
4. Then why are you moving? Why is he taking another job?
There are many benefits about our decision to move to Las Vegas. Although we weren’t proactively looking for another job for Sean, when this opportunity came up, we knew we had to consider it. Although there are some sacrifices that come with Sean rejoining the corporate world, there are a lot of positives with it, and he is excited to help an up-and-coming company develop their business and increase their sales. One notable benefit is that Lisa will be able to stay home with Samantha. As much as Lisa has enjoyed being a working woman and thriving in the professional world, we are very excited about this opportunity for her to be a full-time mom to Samantha.
Another significant perk to our move is that we will be close to Sean’s parents. Anyone who has a child will probably recognize what a value that is.
We also hope that living in a drier climate will allow us to squeeze in a bit more golfing and boating! And we are also aware that Las Vegas happens to be a pretty popular place to visit… so we hope that means we will get many visits from our family and friends across the country. Who doesn't want a place to stay in Las Vegas?! :-)
5. If Sean’s not available, who is going to help me when it comes time to buy/sell my house?
Sean will be working through some of his real estate deals straight up to the time we leave… and possibly even afterwards. Even after we move down there, if you are in the market to sell or buy a house, Sean knows a couple very qualified real estate brokers that he would refer you to. Sean always took great pride in making sure you got the best service he could possibly provide… and he would only refer you to someone who will do the same!
6. Isn’t Las Vegas just full of strippers and gamblers?
All our research we’ve done indicates that LIVING in Las Vegas is VERY different than VISITING Las Vegas… and we are banking on that. There are parks, hiking trails, farmers markets and all kinds of other activities for a family. We plan on spending much of our time in the suburbs and relatively little on The Strip.
7. Did you know that the summers are really hot in Las Vegas?
Hmmm… we weren’t aware of that. Gosh… I hope it doesn’t get too hot! JUST KIDDING!! We are very well aware that it gets scorching in the summer and we’ll just get used to it the same way we got used to the rain in Oregon. We’ll embrace the good parts about the weather (i.e. October – May), deal with the bad, and try to keep our complaints to a minimum. Of course… the dogs may not have the same attitude as us… but we hope they like getting shaved!! :)
8. When are you moving down? Where will you live?
Our plan is to live with Dad & Mom Shepard until our house up here in Oregon sells (or until we drive them nuts... whichever comes first! :-) ). This will give us plenty of time to learn more about the area and find the right place to get a house. We will move down in late October, although the exact date will be decided on shortly. Wow... there is a lot to get done in the next few weeks!!
9. Are you excited?
You bet! Are we nervous and scared? Of course! Is this one of the biggest decisions we've made in our lives? Undoubtedly! But we've prayed about it, pondered it, and talked it over a lot and we believe this is the right move for our family at this time. What an adventure!

We'll keep you posted on this crazy development in our lives, but until then... Viva Las Vegas!!!

Lots of Hugs,
Sean, Lisa, Samantha, Charlie & Sadie Shepard

Slideshow of Squishee growing

During Lisa's pregnancy, we had a slideshow of Lisa and Squishee growing on the right side of this blog. But "Squishee" is now Samantha and she's almost 3 months old. So it is time to move that slideshow to an "archive" post, rather than in its prominent position on the right hand side. Here it is...