Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well, I am quite behind on blog updates! 3 holidays have passed since I last wrote! We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving at home since Drew had to work that Fri., then headed up to OK to visit my family after he got home. Had a fun weekend of football and eating leftovers. Shelby spent a week with Granny & Granpa in Dec while I went to Puerto Rico to visit my best friend. She had a baby in September and I was dying to see her and meet the lil one. It was a lot of fun and I had a nice little break from being Mom...we didn't do much, just lots of talking & hanging out & playing with the baby, which I thought was perfect. Then I went to OK to see my lil munchkin and we spent a week there through Christmas. This year was so much more fun since she & Mason could open their presents and were more into it. Shelby had quite the cold since Thanksgiving...we finally went to the Dr. after she had it for over 5 weeks. She did really well, letting the Dr. check her ears & lungs. He gave us an antibiotic and said it probably was a sinus infection. It does seems like she is finally getting over it. Thank goodness, I'm tired of wiping her runny nose! She has been chatting it up quite a bit these days, oftentimes just babbling as if she's telling me something really important...I just agree with her and pretend like I know what she said. But she has been saying a lot of words lately, often repeating a word right after she hears Drew or I say it. SO we are watching carefully what we say! Lately we've heard truck, cheese, kick, cold, out, go, trash and football is known as "ba-ba". We're really getting a kick out of this phase, definitely keeps us on our toes. We're headed to CA to visit Drew's family in a couple of weeks and I'll be keeping Abby again starting mid-January when Leslie returns to school. I think Shelby will be happy to have her playmate back! She has seemed to wonder where she's been. All in all we had a blessed holiday, so much to be thankful for with Drew home. We're looking forward to 2008 and all that it brings!



I like reading books with Granny.

Mom, look I gathered some leaves!

Mom's lil Snuggle Bunny!!

Dad & Shelby watching some football.

Mom calls this my lime sherbet outfit - the shirt is from Auntie Meena, so cute!

Shelby tickling Mason....she would say "diggi-diggi". Cracked us all up!


I like Mason's ATV he got - vroom!!

I could barely get her to be still for a photo.

Ready for the OU game! (unfortunately they lost and badly...sigh)

Daddy is HOME & Shelby's 15-month checkup

Well, what a busy month we've had! Drew arrived home Nov. 2nd and how excited Shelby & I were to see him. The Customs line was really long, so it took about an hour for him to get through the gates, but when we saw him she RAN to him. It was so sweet. And then of course, she was ready to take off running around the airport some more....it was quite challenging keeping her entertained all that time while we had waited. We are so blessed Drew made it home safely and the Lord returned him to us - truly answered prayers. Shelby has been having a lot of fun with her Daddy, playing & laughing and just being plain silly. She loves it when he tosses her around on the couch, which I try not to watch as I get nervous she will fall. We also had Shelby's 15-month checkup last week and everything went great. She is 26 lb/1 oz and 32 3/8 inches in length. I cannot believe big she is getting! She has also been cutting eye teeth this past month, so she's up to 15 teeth now and we're watching for the next one to surface. She is big time into pushing things around....still loves to push the cart, but has also been finding other things to push such as her tricycle, the blocks bucket, drum and today she tried pushing her music chair! This past week Shelby also got her first skinned knee running down the sidewalk - I wouldn't have even known it if I had not seen the blood on her knee when she turned and faced me; she had not cried or anything, was just ready to keep running. So, she had her first bandaided boo-boo, the first of many I imagine. Here are some recent pictures below of our lil' munchkin and the mischief she gets in to.

Come on little bug, you're supposed to follow me. (cute camo t & skirt from Aunty Meena!!)

GET IN MY BELLY!!!!

Let's go shopping!

I'm sure Mom needs my help unloading this stuff from Target.

Me and Abby, just chillin' in da crib...literally. :)

Here we are, going for a stroll - Mom bought a double stroller so we can get outside for walks. It's really fun!!

Shelby & Daddy, right after he came through the gates.

Come on Abby, let's RACE!

Shelby's practicing riding her tricycle - she can go backwards easier than forwards right now, but she's working on it!

OU/TX and The Shelby 500!!

We went to Oklahoma to watch the OU/TX game with Gma & Gpa C and Uncle Russ. It was LOTS of fun, mostly because we won! Had some great BBQ courtesy of Russ (I am addicted to his pulled pork) and had a good day of football watching. The kiddos were so cute in their OU shirts, but they slept through most of the game. But they were up for the 2nd half and I think they brought some OU magic that the team desperately needed to win! Shelby recently "rediscovered" her walking cart. I had put this toy up for awhile to clear space in the living room, as it feels like it is Romper Room these days! Well, brought it out the other day and you would've thought she had a brand new toy! She pushed this cart from the back living room through the kitchen to the front door and back about 20 times. It was like watching a race car go down the straightaway! So I dubbed it the "Shelby 500". She figured out how to turn the cart around to go the other way and everything. And she likes to load up Citgo bear in the cart and take him for the ride....guess he is her co-captain. :) I hope she'll still be doing this when Drew gets home so he can see it. I also noticed this evening she is now EATING like her Dad. FAST How is this possible?? She was eating her dinner so fast tonight, I just knew she was going to choke! I kept telling her to slow down, "It's not a race!!", as I am always telling Drew when I think he is eating too fast. *Sigh* I just marvel at seeing Shelby discover new things. Like this week she figured out she could put her rings on her arms....she smiled so proudly at me, she really thought that was quite great! She's also working on a couple of new teeth....Last week I noticed her upper eye teeth are beginning to poke through. Haven't had any fussiness or anything so grateful for that, but she has been gnawing on things like there is NO tomorrow. This week we went to one nap/day versus the 2. For the last few weeks it seemed she was going to change and then it became clear I could no longer push off the inevitable. So, this week was a bit rough for me as we adjust to this new routine. Abby is still on 2 naps, so during the day I was not getting much of a break. BUT, such that is life, we'll adjust.

It's the Shelby 500, start your engines, I'm ready to GO-GO-GO!!

I am SO ready for the game....bring it on TX!

Come on Mason, let's go watch the game! Boomer Sooner!

Trying to get a pic of the kids, you can see Mason is not really interested. :)

What's that you say Mom? Be careful on the fireplace???

I think these bracelets look FABULOUS!

Got my bear and my sippy....what more does a gal need?!

Mom finally got me smiling big for Dad...but not looking at the camera! HA!