Springtime is here!

Boy March has flown by, but we are loving the gorgeous weather! We ended Feb. by catching the flu, which was miserable. Shelby had it first, then I got it. She bounced back pretty quickly, but it took me a good 5 days just to get my fever broken. I'd gone almost 10 years since having it last, so maybe I was just due. Thankfully Drew didn't get it and was able to take care of us. We had Spring Break last week, it was awesome. We went to the park every day and did a picnic two days. She played so hard at the park, she took really good naps all week, which was great for me to work on some church stuff. We also went to Oklahoma twice this month, so got lots of good Nana & Papa time in!

So last week we started potty training. Whew, this is tough. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be based upon her interest in it, but we did have some successes and this week seems to be going better, but it's only Tues., we'll see. :) This brought back memories of learning to nurse and how hard I thought that was. I feel completely lost, am grasping at ideas & techniques to help her understand and trying to keep my patience. Boy that first kid, they really get the brunt of our lack of parenting knowledge!! I took her shopping for panties, made a whole "Shelby & Mommy" fun day out of it. I picked out 4 packages of her size and told her she could pick 2. She responded with "How about all these?" I said "no, 2" and we went back & forth a few times on this! She is becoming quite the negotiator, which I am really having to watch so we don't create bad habits. So far it's been cute & on simple things, but I am definitely trying to be alert so that we're not negotiating on things like discipline, etc. Boy, this motherhood business keeps you on your toes! :) Anyways, she picked out her panties and was SO excited to come home and try them on. We also bought a potty training book that came w/a reward chart that has magnets. A friend at church recommended it and it is pretty neat. Shelby really likes picking out the magnets and her big reward is on days that she fills up the whole day (5 magnets), she can have a special treat, a dum-dum sucker. It didn't really click at first, but yesterday she actually did fill up the day and got to have the sucker today after school ~ didn't figure it'd be smart to give her that at 8:30 last night!! HA! I also find it so humorous how excited we as parents get when they go in the potty ~ I mean seriously, this is what makes me happy these days?? Clapping & cheering and making a big fuss over it. Ha! So, we'll keep at it and hopefully it will really start clicking soon.

Some funny stories....so Shelby loves the Sally car in the Cars movie. She has a stuffed Sally, the matchbox size car, stickers, a magnet, etc. The thing that cracks us up is carries the cover of her coloring book, w/Sally on the cover, all over the house and refers to Sally on it, like it's the real Sally. She will put the cover in the floor and have Sally watch her spin; she will bring it to the table so Sally can watch her eat. The funniest was last week when she did have her first successful "potty", she ran out of the bathroom, half-naked, and said "I gotta go tell Sally!!". HA! It just cracks us up! Another "funny", and this involves Abby too, was a few weeks ago when Maduro ran out the front door while we were saying goodbye to Abby & Leslie. As I was rounding him up, Abby says "Maduro, get in! One, two, three....I said two!!" LOL!! I just about fell over! I thought that was soooo funny, then Shelby said it the next day. She has said it a few more times since, which just makes me giggle. Poor Maduro, he is getting a lot of scolding by those 2. Shelby is also getting her exercise on, doing Pilates. I got out my video one afternoon and while I was doing the movements, she laid in the floor next to me, flapping her arms up & down, trying to lift her legs, etc. It was hilarious. Then a few nights later, she just laid in the floor on her back, and started flapping her arms at her side and said "Mom, I'm exercising!" LOL!! The things she comes up with, just really gets me sometimes. I had no idea this age would bring so much fun. Oh and she is also into wearing jewelry ~ we've bought her a couple of kid necklaces and she loves to put these on. She will ask me if I want to wear one, I say sure, and today she said "That is so cute!" HA!

Well that's about all for this post ~ Drew is headed on a men's campout this week at church and Sat. we'll celebrate my b-day. Shelby's been singing "Happy Birthday" to me every day, even though I keep explaining it's a few days away. :) Oh well, good practice. She's looking forward to cake she informed me, ha! Our Ladies Retreat is in 2 weeks and then I have a scrapbooking retreat at end of April ~ cannot wait for that! Mom break!! I finished Shelby's first year (finally!) and now get to start on her 2nd year. I have told myself to par down on the pics, we'll see. I'll have to try! Hope everyone is well & looking forward to having more free time in Summer when all these bible studies are done, etc. We are really hoping to get some good camping in this summer, I think Drew may even take Shelby when I am scrapbooking, we'll see.

This poor bear, Shelby wanted to put this headband on her ~ it was a bit snug, but did match her well!

1st trip ~ Aunt Kel's b-day ~ two peas in a pod! Bet we'll see this at future campouts!


B-day kisses for Momma!!



Eating yummy pancakes on day of shopping trip!



Notice the 4 she has in hand! Our negotiating, ha!

Spring Break at the park ~ she loves the swings. Always do those first.

Having a picnic lunch, sandwich & nutri-grain bar, yum!

Mason using his Jedi mind trick to repel Shelby, ha!

And now a duel of the Jedis!! LOL

Hot Poo-Poo, what?!

I just could not resist posting this funny little story, this is by far one of the funniest things Shelby has said. Last week she told me "Momma, I need a diaper change. I did a hot poo-poo." Just what every Mom wants to hear! I have no idea where she got this or if it just indeed felt very hot, who knows. Came up again today ~ I went in this morning to get her up and she informed me "I didn't do a hot poo-poo. I just did a hot tooter." HA!! And she was so matter of fact about it, just letting me know she'd only done a tooter, and a hot one at that I guess! LOL

A quick funny story about Abby, this gave me such a giggle.....she's informed Maduro a couple of times that he'd better watch it, or he'll get a timeout. :) Maduro (who I sometimes think also acts like a 2-year old!) jumped on the counter and I was hollering at him to get down. All of a sudden Abby shouts "Maduro, you get down! Get down or you do a timeout!" And the look on her face was so stern, she meant business! HA! She told him this again when he got under the bed in the spare room....she was on the floor, looking under the bed at him and instructing him that he'd "better get outta there, get out or you do a timeout!"

Ah kids, the funny things they say. Helps to balance out the rough times when they drive you nuts. :)

Are you happy?

This is the popular question Shelby utters to us several times a day ~ I don't know where she picked this up, but she asks us this a lot. She is also big into saying "Okayyyyy", drawn out a bit, which strikes me a little funny. And when driving in the car she asks "What's that?" to just about every building we pass. I noticed that her teachers have been marking "inquisitive" on her sheet quite a bit, so guess she is in that phase.

We are SO long overdue on an update. What can I say? Life chasing 2-year olds is busy....on top of keeping up the house, managing the church meals ministry, co-teaching a bible study and attending a bible study. I am starting to wonder when I have time to sleep these days! But that is a must, sleep is non-negotiable for me. December was quite busy due to holidays (as everyone is so busy), what is it about that time of year? I guess with the hustle & bustle of all the shoppers, you just feel in a rush with everything! I was crazy busy making Christmas cards (yea, that was a bright idea), making a few gifts and then the holidays themselves. We spent Christmas & New Years in Oklahoma and enjoyed the long visit home. Shelby & Mason had so much fun playing, I think they are really going to be good friends. I've also noticed the past few visits home that Shelby gets pretty attached to Nana. Whenever Nana leaves the room, Shelby is immediately looking for her. And as soon as we got home, she was asking "Where's Nana?" as if she just expected her to be at our house too. All in all a good visit home and then it was back to life in McKinney.

I signed on to co-teach a bible study for our young ladies (ages 13-22) at church. We are teaching a book "Lies Young Women Believe" and it is really good. I WISH I'd had this as a teenager, sure would've helped me make better choices in my young adult life. So, January quickly became filled with preparing to start that study. Last night (2/8) was my first night to teach a lesson ~ I just shared testimony about when Drew was in Iraq. Shared with the girls how God had helped me through that time. It was emotional, in a good way, to relive those memories and how I got through that time, all the while working full time and taking care of Shelby. God is an amazing comforter when we turn to Him and fully rely on His grace, love & support. I'm looking forward to teaching some of the other chapters in the book.

We started back to preschool after the winter break, Shelby was pretty excited to see her teachers. And Abby rejoined us on Jan. 19th ~ this is Leslie's last semester of nursing school and I am keeping Abby 3 days/week, with a few extra days here & there when additional things occur at school. The girls are doing well playing together and sharing toys ~ I think preschool has really helped with that. And cleaning up! We sing the "cleanup song" and Shelby seems to enjoy picking up her toys. One day at lunchtime, she didn't come when I called and I started to get frustrated. When I went to find her in the living room, all exasperated, she was singing the song & picking up her toys. Boy did I feel like an idiot. We've had a rough few weeks of illness, which had us all run down. Kept battling sinus colds and the drastic warm/cold weather changes certainly did not help. It'd be 70 one day, then overnight drop to 30 the next. Seriously, it has been the most bizarre winter I can recall in recent years. Well after 3 relapses, I finally went to the Dr. Shelby & I both had sinus infections, so got on antibiotics and a cough medicine for her and worked on getting better. We were coming out of that after a week and then she came down with a stomach bug. Just could not catch a break! Drew & I thought we'd missed it, but a few days after she was sick Drew came down with a mild case. I fortunately did not catch it. I was very blessed to not get that. But we are all recovered now & hoping to stay well for awhile.

So what Shelby is up to....she is LOVING her trains that she got for Christmas. Uncle Russ spoiled her with lots of Thomas train toys, some cool tracks, etc. I'm really having to get an "Engineer's mind" to set these things up ~ Drew is definitely better at it than me! She also got some play dishes & a tea set, that she just loves. She gets such a kick out of making us some tea or coffee, giving us "cake", etc. I had no idea she'd enjoy that as much as she has. She is conversing very well with us, Drew & I really enjoy the little conversations we have with her. I went to Houston for a girl's weekend and when I called home, she got on the phone and we'd have these little conversations about what they'd been doing. It was so cool! She knows her numbers & alphabet, shapes and colors. We're working on counting to 20, she gets a few of them, but usually just starts back over counting at 1 after she gets to 10. She has become a big Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan with Daisy being her favorite. She's been asking to wear underwear & pullups lately, and she is showing more signs of being ready for potty training. Diapers have been drier throughout the day, etc. We may try over Spring Break while we're just home for that week. I must be like the laziest Mom about this, but just haven't wanted to rush it. But since she's seeming so interested, figure I'd better take advantage of that and see how we do. Guess you just jump in & give it a try!
Well that's about all for us now ~ enjoy pics below & hope all of you are well!!

My big puffy coat for the cold mornings playing outside @ preschool!

Helping get the Christmas decorations out, she especially liked wearing these beads.

All decorated! She was a big help. :)

Just couldn't resist posting this picture ~ loved that expression!

Shelby w/Santa Clause ~ this is actually a guy at our church, the beard is real and his nickname at church really is "Ho-Ho" because he looks like Santa. Such a nice man & patient w/the kiddos.

Drew putting together Shelby's "Jeep" ~ I learned this Christmas that Drew can't go to Toys R Us by himself next year. I sent him for 2 small trains, he showed up with 5 and THIS. Guess it's true what they say, Toys R Us is really the place "where a kid can be a kid". :)

Thought it cute she was buckling Lamby in too. Safety first!

Definitely enjoyed tearing into presents this year ~ she really enjoyed all that fun!

Mommy & Me on Christmas Day ~ managed to get her to be still! (This took 5 shots to get!)

A preview of teenage years? She is talking to Granny Bomar on Drew's cell and would not give it back! Awhile back we couldn't get her to talk on it, now she won't stop! HA!