10 Month Old Shelby June!

10 Months!!

Shelby!  Oh my word you are 10 months old.

• You walk behind your walker so fast- you are so proud of yourself.  Ok I'm pretty proud of you too!
• You say "uh-OH", "ma-ma", "Yi-da" for Liza, "da" for dogs, "eye" for eye and you touch my eyes!
• You wave "Hi" and "Bye"
• You walk up and down the couch and laugh and pat the couch
• You mimic us all the time- you use the remote as a "phone" and talk to your friends- "He-yo? YA!"
• You will kiss your baby- SO sweet!
• We have had trouble keeping weight on you- you're so busy!  We started using bottles of breast milk and adding formula to them which is helping.

You are so silly!  You make me laugh EVERY day and I love every minute being with you.  Thank you for being such a sweet angel!

The picture below is your 9 month picture taken by Zach Cheatham.  We love it so much!

9 month pics

Shelby's First Halloween

Shelby was a puppy dog for her first Halloween.  We went to the Halloween Carnival at PV so she could wear her costume more than once!

Puppy dog angel baby!

Daddy and puppy Shelbs

That smile.  I'm smitten.

My favorite puppy, cowboy, and indian! 

She was 9 months old on Halloween!

I love you, Shelby!  

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Bo Brook Farms Pumpkin Patch with some dear friends!  Here are a few pictures.

Farmer Shelbs chewin' on some hay

Height chart!  Does it count if you're sitting down?

Sun Flower Shelbs

Bat Shelbs

My two favorites on the hay ride

Our family.


God is so good!  I am so thankful for great friends, fall, my baby Shelbs, and pumpkin patches!

Shelby is 9 Months Old

Oh my baby Shelby.  I can't believe how big you are!  Every day with you is an adventure. Here are the fun things you did during your 9th month of life.

• You think it's hilarious when I tell you "no".  You giggle every time!
• You had your first "boo boo". You bumped your head on one of mommy's weights in the hearth room.  Poor Angel!
• You love to clap!  When we say "Yay!" you stop whatever you're doing and clap your sweet hands.
• You wave- sometimes!  Sometimes you start out waving and that turns to clap haha.
• You pull up on EVERYTHING.  You are so proud and think you are a big girl when you do this.
• You took steps with the walker that we got you.
• You aren't gaining enough weight so we are adding formula to your bottles.  I can already tell a huge difference.  You are so busy, you're burning everything you eat!
• You pat things- including us when we pick you up.  I. LOVE. THIS.
• "Da-da" is your favorite thing to say.
• You have started to dance and bounce when music comes on.  I also love this!
• You also love Praise Baby.  We bought one of the DVDs and CDs and you love them both.

And I love you!  SOOOOO much.  You also had a snotty nose for basically the entire month.  Not fun!

Thank you for making me a mommy!

Shelby is 8 Months Old

Oh my goodness, Shelby June.  This has been a huge milestone month for you.  (You are so busy!  Look at your moving arms in this picture!)  I keep joking that I need to put out an Amber Alert because someone has taken my baby girl and replaced her with a big girl!  This is such a fun age!  You are so animated.  You smile at strangers in the grocery store.  You laugh at everything- but especially your daddy.  You love to facetime and giggle for the camera- what a ham!  Here is what you were up to during your 8th month of life:

• You crawled for the first time
• You pulled up to standing in your crib for the first time

(Let me insert here that both of these milestones were on the same day.  That was rough on your mommy!  I was not quite ready for these two things and my heart almost burst out of my chest!)

• You love to put your hands over your head and scream and giggle
• You make "de-de" noises in addition to the other noises you were already making... just waiting patiently for the "ma-ma" noises now
• You LOVE to laugh.  I will laugh with you and we will get going and just have giggle fits.  That's my favorite.
• You LOVE your puppies.  You kick and jump whenever we go outside to see them.  You will watch them and crawl up to them and pet them.  You love their collars and want to put them in your mouth- yuck!  They love you too.  Your daddy let you "ride" them around the room the other day and you thought it was hilarious.  We did too!
• You pull up on EVERYTHING.  Especially the baby gate.  You like to talk to the puppies on the other side and scoot your toys underneath and then squeal for them.  

I love you so much.  Your daddy and I are so proud of you and in love with your sweet, infectious spirit.  We dedicated your life to God at church last Sunday and I didn't take ONE picture.  But, you were precious.  The verse we picked for your life after prayerfully considering it is:

Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation-

                   whom shall I fear?

                  The LORD is the stronghold of my life-

                   of whom shall I be afraid?

We love you, toot!

Shelby is 7 Months Old

7 Month old Shelby June

Hey Sweet Shelby,

You are 7 months old and so very busy!  Oh my goodness what a fun age this is.  You are so silly.  You love to laugh and smile and giggle- especially at your daddy.  I love to watch you play by yourself.  You talk to your toys and oh how I wish I knew what you were saying to them.  Here's what's been going on this month:

• You rolled from front to back
• You sit up and play all by yourself
• You rock back and forth on your hands and knees like you are going to crawl
• You roll all over the room to get where you want to go
• You LOVE sweet potatoes -from the very first bite!
• You have eaten: zuchini, blueberries, apples, bananas, squash, potatoes, banana yogurt, peaches and oatmeal
• You got your first cold- awful.
• Your cousins James and Joshua were born!  We went down to Mobile to meet them
• We were worried your weight was too small- you weigh 14lbs and are in the 7th percentile
• You make "ba", "ma", and "da" noises
• You love to suck on your bottom lip
• Still no teeth, but you're still teething

We love you so much, baby angel.  Every day with you is a blessing.

A Super Fun Play Date!

My BFF Kelli came in town last week!  So, we were all very adventurous and decided to have a play date at my house!  Here are a few snap shots.

Two of my favorite boys, Connor and Dylan, putting together a puzzle

Sweet baby Reagan sitting in the bumbo!

Auntie Ash and Lilly girl!

Amanda and Shelbs!

 

Baby Caleb!

How gorgeous is Kelli?!

All 7 of them!  They did great for this picture. We were all shocked!  Ha

Thanks everyone for coming over to play!  What a special memory!

Shelby is 6 months

Shelby June!  You are 6 Months Old!  You are our sweet angel baby. 

Precious baby doll

 Here are your stats and milestones for your 6th month of life:

• You have started sucking on your bottom lip.  It's hilarious and so cute.
• You love to put your foot in your mouth and suck on your toes- especially your big toe
• You've started screaming a lot- happy squealing.  I laugh every time!
• You will roll over on to your side and play with your toys
• Boy do you love your jumperoo!  (see below)
• You have started drinking from a sippy cup. 
• This month (mainly thanks to your dad) you tried watermelon, lemon, water, banana, avocado, ice, and you started eating rice cereal every day
• You are DYING to sit up from a lying position.  You just can't quite do it.
• You started trying to pull up on things- especially on the changing table.
• YOU WILL NOW TAKE A BOTTLE... this is huge.
• You can sit up by yourself for a bit
• You can rock back and forth on your hands and knees... crawling is imminent.

Jumping in your jumperoo

More jumping

About to try rice cereal for the first time

You loved it!  You try to use the spoon yourself

Sitting like a big girl at the table in Heber

Trying bananas for the first time

Of course, laughing at the dogs during our photo shoot

90 mph!  You are all over the place!

We love you so very much!

Matt's 30th Birthday



Matt turned 30 last month!  I can't believe it either... We met the summer he turned 20.  It's officially been 10 years.  We had a birthday celebration with all of his favorite foods.  Stuffed jalapenos, shredded beef sliders, and strawberry cake were just a few.  We had some great friends in attendance as well.  I decorated with golf balls and old pictures for a "Matt Flare".  It was all about celebrating this special man!  Here are a few snap shots from the night:

Yummy food

Golf decorations

Delicious strawberry cake by request from PV

Family pic by the giant cake

Shelby and daddy blowing out the candles

Little friends celebrating!

I had so much fun putting everything together for him.  He has been the light of my life the last 10 years and I can't wait to spend the next 30 with him!  Love you, Matt!



Our July 4 Celebration

This was our first year to celebrate Independence Day with our baby.  PV has a huge family celebration each year including BBQ, jump houses, and Fireworks.  We were so excited to have a kiddo to take to the celebration this year.  We went last year knowing we were pregnant and loved watching all the other kiddos imagining what the future had in store for us.  Here are a few snap shots of the night.

Mommy, Daddy, and Shelby waiting for the sun to go down

Nothing like a big hill and cardboard boxes

Trying lemon...

Not her favorite
 

 I wasn't sure how Shelby would do with the fireworks.  In fact, for a while, I thought I may need to abort the plan all together.  She was so tired- it was 1 1/2 hours past her bed time after all- and she was crying.  I tried to get her to sleep and it just wasn't happening.  I had her in the club house after it emptied out and we waited for the fireworks to start while looking out the windows.  Well, the show started and the first firework shot into the sky.  She looked at me and I looked at her and I said, "Did you see that?  Boom!"  She thought it was hilarious!  I would say boom after every firework and she would just giggle.  I covered her ears, ran out the door, and joined the rest of our family to watch the show.  She laughed with her tiny ears covered in her daddy's lap until she fell asleep.  This is a magical memory with my baby that I will never forget.

Watching fireworks with daddy covering her ears

Sleeping through the fireworks in daddy's arms

I'm so thankful to our armed forces and for the sacrifices that they make for us everyday.  I'm proud to be an American and I'm thankful that my daughter is too!

Our Summer Vacation

Our family got to go to Destin, FL for vacation a couple of weeks ago.  Matt and I went on our own in 2008.  We love the sugar white beach there so much!  What is it about just staring at and listening to the ocean that can calm our senses?  Matt really needed a break and an escape from it all.  He has been working so hard and it's really hard for him to turn off his "work brain" each evening.  It was really nice to get away with him.  The Gilbert side of our family was able to join us.  We all split a condo and stayed in the Mediterranea complex.  We loved it!  It had 2 king beds and 2 1/2 baths.  Plenty of space for us all.  Lauren and Zac live in Mobile and were back and forth.  My dad also left for business for a few days.  The boys had a deep sea fishing expedition and and caught us a ton of yummy fish.  We took it to Fisherman's Wharf that night and let them cook it for us.  It was so delicious!  We like to eat breakfast and lunch at the condo and then go out for dinner each evening.  Some of our favorite places are The Donut Hole, The Crab Trap, Pompano Joe's, and Louisiana Lagniappe.  We definitely ate well.  Matt and I ran each morning and had a built in baby sitter in our Memommy!  It's crazy how humid it is there in the morning.  Get ready for another picture overload!

 

 

Memommy, Shelby, and Aunt Lauren- 6 1/2 Months pregnant and gorgeous!

Shelby and Aunt L in the swimming pool

Sometimes it's more fun to chew on your sunglasses than wear them...

Talking about the pool with daddy

First time to put her toes in the sand- she was fascinated!

Name in the sand courtesy of daddy

Ew she makes my heart happy!!!  Don't mind me in my mom suit...

Touching the ocean for the first time...

Poor little toot- she was quite scared of it touching her

But she loved watching it in daddy's arms!

Looking at the pool with Memommy

She watched us drink bottled water all week and insisted on trying... her favorite trick of the week!

Little nap under the umbrella with Memommy

Yup!  He's all mine!


We had a blast and we are already looking for our condo next year!  We are thinking we will go before the busy season and rent us a giant house- after all, we need to sleep 6 adults and 3 babies!