BIG Bear

Kim & Adam gave us this ridiculously BIG bear and it just so happens that Shelby really likes stuffed animals. So we got the BIG bear out of storage this past week and Shelby loves it! She squeals with delight every time she sees it. She likes to sit in the bears lap and just relax. It is so cute!! Here are some pictures.

Friday one of our friends celebrated his 30th birthday and we joined in the fun. Shelby wore this cute little dress and looked like a doll! Grandma Mary - please thank your friends for this dress again (the Gleason's, I think) - it is adorable!

We will be heading to San Antonio on Tuesday where we'll be able to see our friends Matt & Jessica and stay the night with them. Should be fun! We plan to also do the Riverwalk, go shopping!, and so much more!!! :) Can't wait!

~ Shelby will be ONE in just one week!!! ~

Busy Walking

Shelby is doing SO GOOD at walking! While I was making cookies Sunday afternoon and talking with my mom I noticed it was really quite in Shelby's room. So I went to check on her and found that she had walked her way along the changing table, found the wipes and pulled almost all of them out. Although not something I want to encourage normally, I did say Good Job to her. :) We are so happy that she is wanting to walk so much. She is moving from one piece of furniture to the next and also loves to walk holding our hands. Such a sweet baby!

Josh is on the midnight schedule right now which means that we have had to black-out our room so that he can sleep during the day. The midnight shift has been a little boring, but he only has one more shift to do. Thursday he'll be in El Paso and it will be his last day in the FTO program and then he'll start his new shift and "actual" work on Sunday. We are very excited! The rest of the month of May he will be on the swing shift. The month of June will be the midnight shift again :( -- at least the weather is cooler at night!

Please keep praying with us that our condo in Greeley, Colorado will sell. We have lowered the price a bit, again. We are ever THANKFUL that GOD is in control!

Gone Fishing

Last Saturday we joined several Sanderson folk out at the Independence Creek Preserve - The Oasis - for some fishing, food, and fun. It really is an Oasis - two spring-fed lakes in a beautiful setting with a great lodge.

This is Shelby (left) with her great friend, Maddy. They have a love/hate relationship...Maddy is two months older than Shelby and thinks Shelby is a doll to be played with. Shelby doesn't appreciate that very much. Never-the-less their mothers are great friends so they must be friends.

Shelby really did enjoy the day even though she is not smiling here.

She was more interested in the tiny rocks than the fishing pole. Josh did catch one fish for her.

There were a lot of kids there fishing and Shelby loved hanging out with them. The blond girl is Katie - a neighbor of ours. The sweet girl with the life vest on is Gabby - her family goes to our church and they are a fun family!

Shelby (11 months), Max (3), Maddy (1)

Although young, they each "caught" a fish and won a prize!

We really are enjoying getting to know our new friends. Shelby is doing well in the nursery at church now and that is a huge blessing! In just one month she will be ONE YEAR OLD! My how time flies.

Getting so big!

Shelby is getting so big! Just the other day she was walking UNDER the table and today her head now touches the table as she walks under it! Shelby still refuses to crawl, but she loves to walk while holding our hands. She is getting her 7th tooth in! Here are some pictures of her over the past week ~

Shelby loves to "drive"

I pumped for the first time this week and she gobbled up the rice cereal with breast milk! The rest of the breast milk we put in a bottle to see what she would do and she held onto the bottle and sucked it down! It was great.

Now that she knows she can stand she likes playing at the changing table, in drawers, and anywhere else she can stand to play. She is now practicing holding onto the ottoman and turning around to hold onto the rocking chair ~ she is getting brave.

Whenever Josh starts brushing his teeth Shelby lets out this very excited squeal. Josh then comes over and picks her up so that she can help brush his teeth. So cute!

This push toy works pretty well, although it is still a bit too fast for how she walks. Josh thought it was pretty cute how she leans her head back to see whoever is talking to her.

We love you, Shelby Elaine! You will be ONE soon! We are so proud of you!

Getting used to "real" food

We started Shelby on some "real" food just a few days ago. We have been giving her rice cereal once a day. She makes the cutest faces - mostly saying that she doesn't care for it. Of course Josh and I try not to laugh, but to say "Umm, isn't that so yummy?!" or something like that. It is still just so easy to nurse her and I am sure the weening process will take some time. For now we'll just enjoy her learning new foods.
I am not sure if you can tell, but Shelby has a bum lip in this picture (bottom lip on her right side). Last Saturday we were at a friends house and Shelby was playing well, until she fell onto a toy and her tooth smashed her lip against the toy. It bled and she cried, but was fine after just 5 or 10 minutes. It didn't seem to bother her nursing, so that was good. Luckily God made our bodies, especially our mouths, to heal quickly and as of today her lip is almost healed!

Josh LOVES this and so do I! He came home from work on Saturday and Shelby needed a nap, so he put her to sleep and took a nap, too. It was so sweet.

The Dallas Arboretum

We made a last minute decision to go to Dallas for Easter! Josh had a 4-day weekend off from work, and so did Kim, so Friday morning we made the 8 hour drive to Dallas. We are soooo glad we went! We had a blast! On Easter Sunday we went to the Dallas Arboretum and got some great pictures ~

Ok, this one isn't the greatest, but you can see that it is hard to get four kids to look at the camera and smile. We (the adults) had lots of laughs.

Here is our sweet baby girl ~ so precious.

She loves being outdoors

...but hates sitting in the grass. Yep, she is her mother's daughter!

Shelby is 10 months old today. To add to an earlier post, she also loves to help us brush our teeth. You are a sweetheart, Shelby ~ we love you!!

Sweet times

Shelby is almost 10 months old!

We bought a nice fluffy rug for Shelby's room hoping that she will learn to crawl. So far no luck, but she is pushing backwards, she pulls herself up to stand, she loves to talk on the phone and comb her hair, and she can do a pretty mean fish-face!

I left her in her crib while I showered one day and came out to see her sacked out on her toys.

There she is with George! :)

Friends!! I haven't been very good about taking pictures, but I will work on that. Here is Shelby with the Bovat kiddos ~ Amriel and Elijah. Paul and Josh were at the Academy together. Now that we all live in Sanderson we have had fun getting together. Shelby loves playing with Amriel and Elijah!

I know the title of this post is "Sweet times" and I do not consider sunburns to be that, however she smiled so nicely for us. Shelby and I go on a walk just about every day. I love that there is so much sunshine here! But that means either long sleeves or sunscreen for those of us without skin pigment. Haha. We walk with Vanessa & Maddy (1) and Marcy & Adam (3). Sometimes we get to walk with Jill and Tammy. It is great because Shelby still loves to be outside and I enjoy the exercise.

Another thing that Shelby enjoys is "sharing" an apple with me. Although she isn't eating any foods yet I do let her lick my apple as I eat it and she thinks it is such a treat. She is so much fun.