Oh how time flies!!!

Well, it has been a BIT long since a blog update. We've had such a busy & fun few months with exciting news too. First off, as many of you already know, we are expecting another baby this summer, due July 10th. We found out two weeks ago that Shelby will have a Baby BROTHER!! Yes, we are expecting a little boy and starting to mentally prepare ourselves for it, ha! We think we're pretty spoiled by Shelby. :) We know it will be great and we're super excited to add a new little one to our family. Shelby is especially psyched about being a big sister, she is talking a lot about teaching the baby how to play with toys as well as how to crawl and walk..."Because the baby won't know how to walk Mommy." (As she explained to me a few weeks ago. ) Now Drew will have two Jeepin' buddies.....I've suggested that when he wants to go on Jeepin' trips, he can take the kids and I will go to a spa! We'll see if that actually works out. :)

Our last blog update was October and I found out I was pregnant at the end of that month. The start of this pregnancy was a little nerve-wracking because I had to have a breast biopsy in November. So at 5 weeks pregnant I went in for that procedure. After waiting for two days (being a bit anxious I'll admit), doing a lot of praying, we received the wonderful news that the cysts were benign and diagnosed as fibroadenoma cysts, something very common. All looked good and I would just have them rechecked at my next annual. God is SO great and truly provided the answer we had hoped for. SO, now I could focus on our pregnancy and looking ahead!

And then......the morning sickness started. This pregnancy was much more difficult than what I went through with Shelby, I was much more nauseous and really struggled to have an appetite for anything. I lost 7lbs. in one week!! I opted for taking medicine this time to help with the nausea just so I could get food down, but then that knocks you out! Poor Shelby watched a lot of DVDs and didn't have much of a playmate for a couple of months. She was so excited when Drew would get home. I hadn't planned to tell her about the baby until much later, but she would ask so often why I didn't feel good and finally Drew explained to her that Mommy had a baby in her tummy, and sometimes she would feel sick, but that it would go away soon. I didn't know this and the next morning we get up and she tells me that she does not feel well. When I asked her what was wrong, her response was "I have a baby in my tummy." I was like "HUH?!?!" She was having sympathy pains, ha!! Later I found out what Drew had explained and it all made more sense, but I admit that stunned me just a bit that day! Thankfully around week 16/17 I felt like I was pretty well past the roughest part, although I'm at 20 weeks now and have still had a bout with it here & there, oh well, those are the "joys" of pregnancy right?! Because it lasted much longer than with Shelby and was so much worse, we kept thinking it was a boy. I've also had other different symptoms that made us think it had to be a boy. Needless to say it's been a rough time for me, but not anything out of the ordinary according to my Dr....she says I am "textbook"!! (Not what you really want to hear though when you are suffering!!)

We made it through Thanksgiving, with my family coming down here to visit. It was great, everyone else cooked and allowed me to just lie on the couch in my misery. Russ cooks awesome breakfasts by the way, so we loved that. Along with his chili, the fried turkey, etc.! In early Dec. I went to Oklahoma for the Deeper Still Women's Conference....it featured 3 Christian speakers, Kay Arthur, Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. It was amazing and so much fun. We had a big group from our church go and it was just a wonderful time of fellowship and studying God's Word. Drew had Shelby for the weekend and learned that you really have to worry when it gets TOO quiet. Shelby gave herself a little haircut in front, mostly her sides. We probably should've guessed that might happen, she had been playing salon a lot and pretending to cut & color our hair like her Aunt Kellie (she'd just use her fingers for scissors though and a crayon for the color). It had not occurred to me that she'd actually CUT her own hair for real. But all the Mom's with me that weekend reassured me not to be too worried and shared all their kids' haircut stories! It does grow back! But Shelby's front hair grows sooooo slowly, we've got a ways to go! We had Christmas in Oklahoma and got to enjoy the AWESOME snow they had! It was so much fun! We built a snowman, made snow angels and had a snowball fight. Shelby & Mason seemed to enjoy throwing snowballs the most, ha! We all got a kick out of watching the kids in the snow, it's so fun to see things through their eyes!! Kellie & I were trying to remember the last time we played in the snow like that, we had a blast too!

January came & went with just getting back in the groove of preschool after winter break, Dr. appts. and I started a bible study at church. Drew is starting a new Jeep build for a customer. So, we are in process of getting a ton of Jeep parts delivered to the house, so far I think we've had about 40 boxes or so and there's more to come! It's going to be a really nice Jeep, I think he will have a hard time giving it to its owner, ha! This is his 2nd Jeep build for a customer other than family...he did his own lift kit and my Dad's and then another Jeep for a friend in Iraq. He's super excited about it. Our biggest challenge is shifting cars around so he has room to work on it. We're trying to come up with a plan for storing the Mustang short-term, we've stored his government car downtown at his office parking garage for now. We need a bigger garage!! :) Next month we are planning a trip to California to visit Drew's family, Shelby is super excited. She loves going to visit and it's exciting to take a plane ride. But we're only flying out one way because we'll be driving back in an RV!! We are going in w/Russ to buy Drew's parents' RV. I never thought I would be an RV person, but this thing is so awesome! I will love "camping" even more now, ha!! Russ will be out there for training and we've coordinated our trip with that so we can drive it back together. Think we're going to stop off at the Grand Canyon too, try to make a good road trip out of it. Can't wait!!

Quick update on what Shelby's in to these days.....she loves to help cook. She pulls up a chair to the counter and wants to help stir, pour ingredients, etc. Little messy, but that's ok, that's what Clorox wipes are for! She is also very into cleaning these days....she helps me do laundry, even getting it out of the dryer by herself when the buzzer goes off! She enjoys doing the swiffer, dusting the TV, putting away the silverware and yesterday even tidied up her room all by herself! I was so excited! She has also enjoyed helping Daddy unload all these Jeep parts and helps him gather all the peanuts for trash. She also loves Tinkerbell, we watch that DVD most I think, and still loves Mickey Mouse. And lately she has been getting into listending to audio book CDs in her room...she got a couple from Chick-fil-A in her happy meals and loves to go to her room and just listen to them. She'll be in there for like an hour! I'm looking online for some books like that, thinking what a great thing that may be for her to do when I need a little rest or something after the baby is here!

Well, I think that is about all we have for an update.....Hope everyone's doing well, enjoy the pics below!

At the park when Grandma & Grandpa Bomar visited...just think it's a cute shot of Shelby walking with her Daddy...they would then run down the hill, so fun!

Running down the hill to Grandma Bomar!! Be ready!

All princesses need a castle! She loves to build castles with her megablocks, and now thanks to Zachary she likes building rocket ships too!

Cooking w/Uncle Russ.

All dressed up for her Christmas program at preschool!

Dressing up in princess outfits she got for Christmas, Ariel seems to be her favorite.

Another princess outfit (these were f/Aunt Kellie ) ~ this time has jewelry & tiara too!

Building a snowman ~ isn't that snow awesome?!

Making snow angels

Drew shoveling the driveway so we could get cars out! It was a lot of work!

So funny story on this....Russ had just pushed Kellie down in the snow and then.....

Mason pushed Uncle Russ down! It was so funny & Russ was totally not ready.

Uncle Russ ought not pick on Mason's Momma! :)

Our friends Charlie, Alycia & Zachary came over for the Super Bowl.

Here's Zachary & Shelby helping Alycia cook the brownies, what good helpers!

Here's our snow in TX in February ~ you know us Texans aren't used to that!!

Being a Princess, Preschool, Oktoberfest, Football, Six Flags & a Pumpkin Patch!!

WHEW!!! That is a lot of stuff and it all has kept us very busy! September started off busy and it seems we haven't stopped. Shelby started preschool at our church for her 2nd year and really enjoys it. She looks so big this year walking in w/her bag and I have to ask for goodbye hugs & kisses. She immediately goes to the table & starts doing puzzles, not missin' me too much. I'm happy she likes preschool so much, but it also makes me really sad as I realize how much my sweet girl is growing and no longer a baby. :( They forget to tell you this part in the books!! We also went to Oktoberfest in downtown McKinney in Sept., which is goofy because it's Sept. and not Oct. But oh well....we had a lot of fun, enjoyed some good sauerkraut and a good beer. They had lots of neat stuff for kids, pony rides, petting zoo and other things. She rode a horse & didn't need Dad to hold her, she was a big girl she told him. She loved petting the animals, thought that was really fun. Football has become our regular thing on Saturdays, we have taught Shelby well. :) She tells us "College GameDay is on!" and that's how we start our Sat. mornings....she will root for Offense or Defense, whichever she hears us cheer for, which I find funny. She even learned how to do the downward hook'em horns against our rival TX. In Oct. we took Shelby & Abby to Six Flags. Uncle Russ was in town to visit his friends f/New Mexico and we joined them for some rides. It was a lot of fun, the girls did really well...A LOT better than I expected....was preparing myself to carry them, figured they would get too tired...but they didn't, they walked the whole time and had really good attitudes. We found out that Shelby was a little thrill seeker as she went on several rides. The only one she didn't like was a little roller coaster that Drew took her on...and she was asking us "Why do the people raise their hands?" Then the next week we got to visit with Aunty Meena & Zara from Puerto Rico! SO fun!! We took the girls to a Pumpkin Patch in hopes of getting some really cute pictures.....well, proved harder than expected. They were just so distracted and not wanting to sit still, but we did manage to get a few. We also enjoyed a surprise visit from Grandma & Grandpa Bomar in Oct. We finally had some gorgeous sunshine after all the rain and were able to go to the park, feed the ducks and enjoy being outside. It was a nice visit & Shelby sure missed them later that week after they had left. She keeps telling us we need to go on a plane to California for a visit.

Right around Shelby's birthday she fell in love with everything Princess. Whenever we go to Target, Toys R Us, Kohls or any other store that has anything Princess, she just goes nuts over it. Drew & I were quite perplexed by this seeing as she had not ever seen a Princess movie or knew anything about them. We have come to the conclusion that it is a "girl thing" as many of my friends w/girls have had similar experiences. So, these days she loves to build castles w/her mega blocks and put her princess figures in it, loves dressing up like a princess and wearing her crown and loves to do princess stickers. One thing she did notice was that every princess story ends with "They lived happily ever after."...she has asked both Drew & I why the story ends that way. Tough to explain, but we just told her they want to end the story on a happy note.

Below are some pics from the past couple of months...I'll write a more current update soon. I actually wrote this several weeks ago & just never got around to posting it.

Our little Princess...the funny thing is this is 2 outfits that she likes to wear as one. Nana got her these and wearing just one was not enough....the bottom is a skirt and she likes to wear it under the top dress to make it "more poofy".

Boomer Sooner!! Of course didn't help us this season, oh well!

1st day of Preschool ~ such a big girl!!

Ridin' a pony @ Oktoberfest...she really enjoyed this!

Pettin' the animals w/Daddy. (I was really quite glad he did that instead of me!)

Arriving @ Six Flags ~ very excited!!!

1st ride, drivin' a truck!

Teacups! Funny story on this....so, Drew & I climbed in w/each girl and we were thinking, "Man these seats are a little tight!" Then the operator comes by and tells us we can't ride on this, it's just for the kids. We felt so embarrassed and quite annoyed that she had not told us this BEFORE we'd gotten in & buckled up.

Drew & Shelby in the ferris wheel...so cute that they looked like hot air balloons.

Can't see Shelby, but that's Drew in the last car that they were in. I could not believe she went on this!! Of course afterwards I think she wished she hadn't.

Last ride!!

Leaving the park, still happy kids!!

And then they were OUT! I think Abby fell asleep before we were even out of the parking lot...Shelby took a little longer. But they were 2 tired little girls.

At the pumpkin patch

Shelby turns 3!!

Boy has August been FUN!! First Aunty Andrea came to visit the 1st week of August. We had a lot of fun hanging out, shopping and she & I got out one day by ourselves and saw a movie. Shelby was Andrea's little shadow and just thought everything she said was funny. We had a great visit. Then Shelby turned 3 on August 8th. So hard to believe, she is growing up so fast. She got lots of great presents like a bike, basketball goal, a little diner, an easel and LOTS of princess stuff! She even got her own tiara & wand along with all the Disney Princess figurines. She was one happy little girl. We had a cake w/Daisy on it, her favorite Disney character, and some good food & fun. (We sweet-talked Uncle Russ into making some pulled pork for us, delicious!!) We also learned out of that weekend that the guys do not watch the kids closely enough. :) Shelby & Mason had a lot of fun w/the dry erase markers for the easel.....only they found it to be WAY more fun to color themselves & the floor vs. the writing board!! See the picture of Mason as proof, it is hilarious. Thankfully Crayola makes things easy to wash off!! All in all, Shelby really enjoyed her birthday party, most of all because of all her family & friends that were here.

Last Friday, I took Shelby for her well baby visit. She was 36.8 lbs and 39 3/4 inches, so still in the 90/95% ranges. She is one big kiddo! These days she loves to play dressup like a Princess, enjoys doing puzzles, still loves to read books w/us, still enjoys her trains and likes to do stickers & coloring. We have "crafty time" and she will tell me she's "scrapbooking" when doing stickers. She is always making us laugh with her little antics and conversation. She recently has said things like "When I was a little girl" and will refer to an old toy or something she did when younger. But the "little girl" cracks me up, because it seems like she considers that as the time before she turned 3. She loves to get on the phone w/her grandparents and really anybody else that I will let her say Hi to. The other day Abby came over to play and it was like they were teenagers or something! They went off to play in the spare room by themselves and when I would poke my head in to see if they needed anything, Shelby would just say "We're fine Mom" and push the door shut on me! It caught me SO off guard! I knew she was excited to have Abby over, but man she just wanted no part of me intruding on her playtime w/her. It was too funny. I got a lot done that morning which was nice!

We're looking forward to the cooler temps, football and preschool starting in September. Uncle Russ came down this weekend to hang out, so that will be lots of fun. Shelby always enjoys her time w/Uncle Russ. Enjoy the birthday pics below!!

On her new bike, SO excited! Uncle Russ got her this.

A princess who serves coffee! I have NO idea how she posed like this,

I just said to smile for a picture. She is too silly!

Cute Cousins!!

The evidence of the dry erase marker incident.

Playing at the diner. They were "customers" while Uncle Russ was the "cook".

Easy Rider! By the 3rd day of practice she was able to pedal w/out our help.

Now she goes a little too fast & we sometimes have to jog to catch up!

Mommy & her little Princess. :)

Takin' a Jeep ride!