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!

Busy Summer!!

I can't believe it has been so long since our last update. You know, it seems like 1 month goes by, then another and before you know it, 3 months have gone by! Our summer has been jam-packed with activities. But first I'll update you on our big medical drama this past week.

Shelby had her first major boo-boo requiring stitches. Yes, you read right, STITCHES! This required more than just Mom's kiss & an ice pack. We came in from the pool and she tripped and fell, smacking her chin on the floor. I had her all wrapped up in a towel and she couldn't put out her hands to brace her fall (I probably won't do that again!). I scooped her up quickly thinking she probably had a busted lip, but oh no, it was much worse. She was crying HARD and I saw the blood gushing from her chin. I applied pressure and then pulled it away to check the damage, once I saw the gash , I hollered for Drew, thinking she needed stitches. He quickly came in, assessed it & agreed, so we quickly headed out, initially planning to go to the ER. But I remembered Leslie telling me of a kids urgent care center close by and we decided to try there first. Thought maybe they could handle this situation AND get us out faster than sitting at the ER. THANKFULLY they did! She got 6 stitches and did not enjoy it one bit. My heart just ached for her and I quickly scooped her up in my arms as soon as they were done. We came home and she wanted to watch Mickey Mouse, so she & Drew set themselves up on the couch and watched cartoons. I asked her if she wanted a snack, she initially said goldfish....but then Daddy explained she could have whatever she wanted because she was hurt and we felt bad for her. He suggested pudding and I heard this little voice call out "I want pudding". I said alrighty and she got pudding & milk while watching Mickey Mouse. She seemed pretty happy about that! It was a rough day and we just couldn't get over our lil munchkin having her first stitches. Thought we'd at least make it to like age 5! But she rebounded quickly and by Tues. felt great and back to her old self. As my very experienced Mom friend (has 8 kids!) told me, "the memory of this will last longer for you & Drew than it will her". :) How right she is. But we've been able to laugh about it and called them her blue whiskers, and she enjoyed telling every person she encountered who asked about her boo-boo her big story. Today I took her to get them out and she did really well ~ just cried a little at first because I think the anticipation made her anxious. But once she realized it didn't really hurt, she was all good. And of course I also promised her a special treat afterwards, which she chose a chocolate milkshake from Braums. I first said Sonic or Chick-Fil-A (which were closer to us), but she said "No, Braums has the best ones." So that's where we went. All in all, a very eventful week for us and we're glad it is over!

Let's see what else....May was pretty busy for us finishing up preschool, Drew & I celebrated our 10-year anniversary, attended a few graduations, Mother's Day and wrapping up things with Leslie. I'm not babysitting Abby anymore and we really miss her. Shelby has definitely missed her little buddy. But we've had a few playdates and they'll be in preschool together, so we'll still get to see her often. We also went up to Tulsa to see Russ and attend a BBQ comp in Bixby. They had lots of activities for kids, kind of like a mini-fair, so Shelby & I ran around playing while the judging was going on. And boy was she excited to see her Uncle Russ!! We hadn't seen him since Christmas, which is a really long time for us to go w/out a visit. I was second fiddle once we were there, it was all about Uncle Russ. Very cute & I think he loved that.

In June we had Vacation Bible School, which I was Director of Preschool this year. Boy, was THAT a task!! Our class had ages 6-months to 5 years old. That's quite an age range to plan for and keep busy! It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but Shelby really had fun this year. Then we headed up to Nana & Papa's to help out after Papa's shoulder surgery (torn rotator cuff). We stayed up there for 2 weeks then came home for the 4th. We went to Julie's July 4th party and she had rented a big water slide. Shelby loved it! Once she figured out how to do it herself, we couldn't get her off it. Only when it got dark and all the kids got out, she finally did. Fell asleep in the car ride home, which is only 10 minutes, ha! We were home for 2 weeks, just recuperating a bit and catching up on some things at home, along with a few playdates. Then headed back up to OK for Mason's birthday. It was at the water park and of course Shelby most enjoyed eating cake. :) We started swim lessons last week but unfortunately couldn't finish out the session this week due to her stitches. But she really enjoyed the water and is anxious to go again. She would tell me (I was in the pool w/her), "Let me go, I can do all by myself!" I think we'll enroll her in the next session in the fall after school starts.

Shelby will turn 3 next week on Saturday and we're having a Daisy themed party ~ that's her favorite character on Mickey Mouse. We've got family & a few friends coming for her party. She is counting the days down, it is so funny! And my best friend Andrea is coming to visit on Tues. for a few days, so we will try to do some fun things while she's here.

Drew is keeping busy at work, has had some interesting cases this summer. He also got a promotion, so we're excited about that. In addition to my wife & Mom duties, I am keeping busy with my church, still running our meals ministry and have just recently joined our Women's Ministry Team. I am super excited about that and looking forward to participating more in our Women's ministry.

I think that is just about it! Enjoy the pics below!!

Shelby with her "blue whiskers"! :)

Going out to dinner for our anniversary ~ Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - YUM!!!

Shelby's last day of preschool ~ she was so excited to wear her "pretty dress".

Jumpin' in the bounce house @ the Bixby BBQ Comp.

Getting her hands painted w/a ladybug & flower. So smart of the lady

to do her hands so she could see them! She thought this was really fun.

Playing basketball @ Bixby ~ maybe a future athlete??!! :)

My little fashionista, ha! She actually walked pretty good in these heels!

Going down the slide on July 4th.

So fun to put stickers on our leg!

Shelby invited a few "friends" to join us for dinner.

Easter fun & more "Big" girl changes!

Hard to believe that Easter has come & gone and we're looking ahead to May! Where is 2009 GOING??!! Shelby had a lot of fun this Easter, she had an Easter party at school and then I took her to the local McKinney Easter egg hunt. They had lots of neat things for the kids to do, she rode on a little train, pet some animals and hunted Easter eggs. She really enjoyed the animals, petting a little duck and some chicks. It was a fun day, but a tad windy. At least it was a clear day & warm enough to be out.

I took her to a little gazebo by a church nearby the other day & captured some cute shots. She enjoyed running around and especially wearing her flowery dress. She LOVES dresses....asks me every day if she can wear one. Since it has still been cool this Spring, she has had to wear leggings w/them, but she doesn't care, as long as she is wearing a dress. My Mom said I was the same way and would have to wear pants (don't think leggings were quite "in" for kids back then) w/my dresses because we lived in Oregon and it was way too cold a good part of the year. But we're also learning that she is quite the little tomboy too.....really enjoyed digging in the dirt a couple of weeks ago w/Daddy. Our neighbor had a trailer of dirt he was using in his backyard, and Drew gave Shelby a little garden shovel & bucket. For 2 hours she loaded dirt in her little bucket.....resulted in a 4-HOUR NAP!! I couldn't believe how tired she was ~ I had to wake her up by 6pm, otherwise I don't know how long she would've napped. Probably until midnight then been up & ready to play, ha!

Potty training is going really well, I cannot believe in a month's time how great Shelby is doing. After that first week and having very little success, I was ready to give up. But thankfully Drew remained practical and encouraged me to stick w/it. It did seem once she finally went in the potty a few times, it just clicked. She has not had an accident in 2 weeks, hooray! She loves wearing her big girl panties and she wears pullups on school days. So many people warned me about pullups and that kids regress thinking it's just like a diaper. Shelby hasn't had that issue ~ I think since there are princesses on her pullups like her panties, she treats them the same, I don't know. We also bought this awesome adult/kid toilet seat at Home Depot. It is soooo much better than cleaning out the little potty seat. I think that's another reason I was kind of frustrated, cleaning out the potty seat was just like changing a diaper. I was thinking, how is this really any different?!! But this toilet seat is great & I think has helped her do better w/the potty training too.

We also moved Shelby out of her crib into a big bed. I was really quite content to leave her in the crib ~ my thought was why move her out unless she is trying to get out??? She never crawled out of it, she never screamed to get out (like when awake, etc.), she was always content playing in her crib til we came & got her. But Drew was really ready to move her out, he said she was a big girl now and thought she needed more space, he thought she was cramped in the crib. (I explained if she just took fewer animals & books to bed, she wouldn't need space, ha!) So we put a spare set of Queen size mattresses that we had in her room and took out the crib. It's just the box spring & mattress on the floor, simple & if she rolls off, she won't go far! But she has been scrunching up in the far right corner against the wall so I am really not concerned about her rolling off. It's so funny to check on her during the night, there is alllll this space and there she is balled up in the corner. Oh well, her animals have more room now, ha! But so far so good, she has been good about staying in bed, which Isurprised me. So, guess Drew was right & she was ready.

Shelby gave me a good laugh the other day ~ I try really hard not to say "crap" or "darn" when I do something by accident, so I typically say "man" or "dude" like she learned before. Well I said that and she responded with "I hate it when that happens." Ha!! Just cracked me up! She has also explained to us a few times "That's ok, accidents happen." when I guess we make a mess or do something accidentally. Today we went driving around in the country, looking at land, and Shelby asked "Are we in the jungle?" There were so many trees, she thought it was the jungle and that we would see an elephant. HA! It's just funny to me how they become these little persons, just chattin' it up. We're looking forward to the summer and visiting Nana & Papa in OK, we're also planning a trip to Uncle Russ' BBQ competition and hopefully a trip to Colorado to meet up with Drew's family. We're also going to take some swimming lessons and plan some other activities to keep our days busy. Hope everyone is well, enjoy the pics!!

Taking an Easter picture after church ~ we reused her flower girl dress, got one more wear out of it!!

Her Daisy sunglasses f/Easter Bunny ~ she loves them, ha!


Observing the little duck take a bath ~ she was quite fascinated with the animals.

The duck & some baby chicks ~ they dyed them colors, I thought that was strange.

Hunting Easter eggs ~ it was pretty easy, just a big soccer field w/eggs all over it.

Taking the train ride, she's in the 1st car. She was SO excited about this, but we had to wait in line forever!

Taking a little Jeep ride ~ she can sorta reach the peddle now! Needs help stearing f/Dad though.

Class Easter egg party ~ very windy that day too!

This was my favorite picture of the whole bunch ~ showin' that personality!!

Dirty Jr. ~ dumpin out the dirt! (Drew's nickname as a kid was Dirty)