One Week!

Ben's home from school today because of a teacher inservice day. I used to dread days off because he always turns into a little maniac completely bored out of his mind at home. But that was Kindergarten and something switched in 1st grade and he's much more mellow (most days, anyway!)

This morning we went on our usual donut run. We go every Friday if Ben hasn't gotten his binder signed at school. So basically we go every Friday morning on our way to school. He NEVER gets his binder signed! I know, never say never, but I should probably institute some other rule for getting donuts since this one is obviously too easy for him. But despite all that we headed to Shipley's and ate inside (gasp!) but only if they both promised to be good while we went to half price day at Thrift Town. They were both great, even though the sugar high started to turn into complete exhaustion for both of them after we'd been shopping for an hour.

The usual every day things are things that I love a lot with my kids. Stuff I'm enjoying while they're both so portable and mostly well behaved in public. We can actually eat at sit-down restaurants with a 2-year old and she rarely gives us a lick of trouble. (Trust me, we adore our kids and have to remind ourselves that their occasional whining and complaining are way more easily tolerable than what we could get from them!)

So in a little over a week on October 1st we find out what we're having! And how much it's going to change our life early next year. Not that girls and boys can't both be well behaved but there is definitely a difference! I'm hoping it's a girl because we already have a girl name (that we've had since I was pregnant with Ben, but we knew that wasn't supposed to be Shelby's name) but John is pretty certain it's a boy and he's 2-0 on guessing the gender of our babies. We don't have a boys name. Not even a middle name or an IDEA of a name. Parker is the only one we've even agreed that we both like, but we also both agree that our baby probably isn't supposed to be Parker. I'd love boy name suggestions! Nothing wacky, just simple, not too trendy, doesn't end in -y boy names. Just in case! Our girl name is Cameron Elizabeth. (The spelling of Cameron is still undecided, though.)

Anyway. Not a lot going on around here. Just trying to keep my house clean, picking a realtor in the next couple of weeks, constantly looking at houses online, praying to find a buyer, trying not to pass out at 8pm every night, trying not to eat too much since I finally feel good again, watching lots of girly movies while Ben's at school, spending time at baseball practice. Loving times like these and hoping for big changes soon!

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The one where I ruined my kids' summer.

Otherwise known as the summer I unintentionally got pregnant. Okay so my post title is a little dramatic, but that doesn't mean I don't feel that way a small bit! So in other words, we're having our 3rd baby next year!

Rewind to early this spring. I realized I might be pregnant around the time that I had started planning my kids' birthday parties early April. We were not trying to get pregnant because we've wanted to wait until we are in a bigger house. I had a positive pregnancy test and I was not happy about it. After a week I knew that it wasn't a viable pregnancy because I had zero symptoms and sure enough, I miscarried less than a week later. I was feeling incredibly guilty for being so relieved. It was unfortunate timing with the incident that happened at Ben's school and I probably reacted more irrationally than I otherwise would have because of what was going on. We pulled Ben out of his class with 6 weeks left in school and put him in a new class. I'm pretty sure some people thought we were crazy, but blame it on hormones or whatever, we still think it was the right decision. Anyway.

So imagine my surprise in June when AGAIN I just knew I was pregnant. I didn't tell John right away because we had a big wedding coming up in a couple of days and we needed to focus. So on Sunday, June 17, I took a pregnancy test early in the morning and gave it to him, you know, as a Father's Day present. :) He was so confused because he was so tired! We were both much more prepared for it this time around. But we weren't trying to get pregnant... I think someone else had plans on when we needed to have another kid...

After going to the doctor and hearing the heart beat I'm a lot more relieved about this pregnancy. And the fact that I've been so much more sick than I ever remember being with Ben or Shelby. I eat, I get sick, I don't eat, I get sick, I think about food, I get sick. ESPECIALLY sugar! It totally sucks!! And I've been completely, insanely exhausted all. the. time. I hate it! I'm about 13 weeks now and hoping I feel better soon!

In a way I do feel like I ruined Ben's summer, Shelby is still a little too small to understand. But I had all of these great plans for what we were going to do and that lasted about two weeks into being pregnant and my energy level went to ZERO. So I'm doing my best to buck up and finish out the summer on a good note, taking them to the park more, swimming more, letting Ben play more Wii, that kind of stuff. It's definitely not the summer I was hoping we'd have, but Ben doesn't seem to be too bothered by it at least! And he's so excited to have another sibling, especially with the two new cousins he got this summer.

Ben has been a great helper this past week helping me clean the entire house! The cleanness suffered a little over the weekend, but it's a start at least. We're hoping to pick a realtor in the next couple of weeks so we can actually sell since having it for sale by owner hasn't been that successful (4 showings, no offers). You can see our Zillow listing here. I need to add more pictures of the outside and of the other things around the property, but if you know anyone looking let me know!

Anyway, my due date is Valentine's Day and we are excited about having another baby in our family! Especially if he/she is as awesome as our first two. :)

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Comparison

I thought this was kind of fun. What a difference a year makes! (And especially, what a difference some hair makes!)

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Two Year Pics

I know only a few people even read this blog anymore (thanks to Facebook!) but I wanted to post these anyway so I can look back and have a better record of stuff that goes on in our life! So here are a few pictures I took of Shelby last night with the adorable outfit her Aunt Nikki gave her for her birthday!

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Shelby is TWO!

So our little baby girl turned two a week ago today. We cannot even believe she is already two. I mean, where does time go? It's crazy!

Well, I thought I'd write a little list like I usually do about them on their birthdays. It may sound silly but I really can't put in words how awesome we think she is and just how much we love her!

1. Shelby loves her pacifier and blanket. She only gets her pacifier during naps and at night because we're honestly afraid of the excruciating time we're going to have getting rid of the pacifier. It's not going to be pretty! She cries "Want patter! Want patter!" for at least 15 minutes after I take it when she wakes up.

2. She is 36-1/2" and weighs 30lbs. I might actually have her weight wrong I can't remember, but I know she's 95th+ for height and 75th for weight.

3. She talks all the time! She can even talk in multiple word sentences. The other day she came up to me and goes "Mommy I found a penny!" and proudly showed me the quarter she had found.

4. She loves coins. She begs for them. She finds my jar of coins and cries until I hand her one. She carries them around and cries if she loses on. It's really quite ridiculous sometimes!

5. She hates getting her diaper changed and is incredibly interested in the potty.

6. She LOVES to dance and loves Ben's impromptu dance parties at night before bed.

7. She loves pretty much everyone. Especially if you play with her. She will grab you by the hand and make you her best friend. I guess we'll work on the whole "don't talk to strangers" when she's a little older. I have a feeling it will be a problem!

8. She loves Harry Potter. She's sitting in my lap right now going "Harry Potter! Harry Potter. Potter Potter. Harry Potter!"

9. She can identify some letters and numbers.

10. Laughs maniacally at herself all the time. She finds herself hilarious!

11. She is not a big eater at all but her favorite things to eat are chicken nuggets, goldfish, noodles, Fuzzy's potatoes and black beans, and of course french fries.

12. She could live outside. We need a back yard!

13. She loves Toy Story, Bolt, and Nemo. Ben got her a Nemo stuffed toy for her birthday and she is obsessed with it.

14. She likes to scream. And boy can she scream when she is mad!

15. She loves Cat in the Hat and Phineas and Ferb. She also loves Star Wars (thanks to you know who).

16. She is quite polite. She says please, thank you, sorry and bless you.

17. She does NOT like to share.

18. She LOVES her dad. Still. He is like the Shelby whisperer!

19. She has nightmares at night and wakes up screaming uncontrollably. The only person who can calm her is John. He had to work past 10 one night last week and she woke up screaming around 9:45 and I could not get her to calm down. So she screamed until John got home and two seconds after he walked in her room she was calm and falling back asleep. It's such a sweet little relationship they have.

20. She loves to have her nails painted. If they aren't painted and she finds a bottle nail polish she'll bring it to me and yell NAILS!!!! until I paint them.

21. She will actually wear headbands and clip in bows. She hates the elastic kind now.

22. She has hair! Lots of hair. It's not terribly long, but long enough to clip in a bow or put in pig tails (which she absolutely hates).

23. She still steals my necklaces. One of my favorites is currently missing 'cause she snuck it out of my bathroom drawer and who knows where it is now!

24. Recently learned how to flush the toilet. I'm just glad she didn't discover that sooner!

25. She rubs her ear with her little dog or blanket when she's falling asleep or if she's really tired.

26. She still takes about a 2-hr nap every day. Most days she cries for a while, other days she goes down without a peep. Some days she only sleeps for an hour. But at least she still naps!

27. She still prefers boy toys over girl toys.

28. She is a typical 2-year old that throws tantrums in stores, screams when you take a toy from her, cries when you don't let her sit on the counter all afternoon, plays with things she's not supposed to, climbs on the chairs and table when she shouldn't and can be a real terror.

29. But she also loves to give hugs and kisses, snuggles with me on the couch after she wakes up from a nap, is perfectly content in John's lap any time of day (and especially at church), idolizes and terrorizes her big brother, knows and loves each and every one of her family members (including most of her extended family), loves her little friends in nursery and talks about them at home, and is incredibly loving and sweet.

30. Seriously we just love her to death!

I haven't taken her 2-year pics yet but here's one of her and Ben on Easter! She will only smile for John! I mean, seriously, are they not the cutest things EVER??

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Shelby's Current Favorites

1. Cars 2. She LOVES anything to do with Cars the movie. She plays with the cars all day and she says Cars 2 (by rolling the two like you roll your r's). It's the strangest thing but a-freakin-dorable!

2. Her blanket. She has two of the same blanket and has to have them all the time. In the car. On the couch. Playing on the floor. And if I don't hide one then she wants both at the same time. It's a little ridiculous sometimes! She sleeps with her blanket next to her head and she rubs it on her ear till she falls asleep. She'll even do that when she's snuggling with me on the couch watching a movie when she's tired.

3. Her pacifier. It's just about time to get rid of it, but since we've waited so long it's only going to make it harder on her and us. But I mean when she'll just come lay on you with her blanket and pacifier and is perfectly content snuggling it's hard to take that away. If she's without it she even walks around going "Where patter? Where patter? Oh dere is!" when she finds it. Right now she just realized she didn't have it in her mouth and is running around with her blanket going "Patter?!! Where PATTER??!!!" We have created a monster!

4. The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That and Curious George. They're her two favorite TV shows (besides maybe Mickey Mouse). It's funny how much she picks up on these shows. When Cat in the Hat comes on she goes "It's hat!" During Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when they ask for Toodles she goes "Where toodles? Oh dere is!" It's so cute.

5. Her Daddy. She's always been super concerned about where John is at all times. She is still very much that way still! In the morning the first thing she asks me when I go get her out of bed is "Where Daddy?" If I put her down and don't say anything she knows he's still home and runs straight to find him. If I say he's at work she pouts and goes "Daddy work? Work?" like I'm just kidding and he is going to appear at any minute.

6. No! It's mine! She chased her cousin up and down the hallway at my mom's house on Sunday going "No! It's mine! No! It's mine!" Funny...and yet not...

7. Thank you! Your welcome! Bless you! She's said "tay too" for a long time but has added "you welcome!" to her repertoire recently and will even say besshyou when you sneeze! It's really freaking cute (as you can imagine!)

 8. Pooping. She poops so much it's ridiculous. That's about all I'll say about that.

9. Hugs. She will hug pretty much anyone I ask her to hug. It takes like 10 minutes to leave anywhere because she wants to hug everyone! We kind of encourage it, especially when it's family members, but the other day I was at a friend's house and she insisted on hugging everyone before we left.

10. Screaming. This is my least favorite of all of them. Even more than pooping (even in the bathtub). She screams when Ben has something she wants. She screams when Ben touches her. She screams when I'm on the phone. She screams for no reason when she's playing. She screams in her cart at the store. She just screams and screams. I have no idea how to stop her and even giving her the pacifier doesn't make her stop!

She also loves going to the park and screams and screams when we have to go home. Hopefully she will get better with that! This is from a couple weeks ago at our favorite park that no one ever plays at but us! Lots of little nature trails, swings and that's about it. But it's always vacant so who needs a slide when there aren't 20 other kids to fight over them with?

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Saunders 2011 Recap

This year has been crazy, fun, busy, exhausting, inspiring, test-filled, and all around great. here are some recaps (I stole this idea from Jenny G).

Shelby:
- Turned 1 this year.
- Is now 20 months old.
- Learned how to walk around 14-months.
- Suddenly started talking around 18-months and doesn't stop.
- Learned how to color on walls. And doors. And chairs. And tables.
- Quickly learned you're not supposed to color on walls or doors or chairs or tables.
- Tightened her grip on John's heart strings and refuses to let go.
- Developed a close connection with many of her extended family members (Cecily, Nikki, Chrystal, Grandma, Ginny).
- Learned to walk then learned to dance and she just can't stop. Can't stop!
- Has refused to grow hair past her ears.
- Learned all her body parts and can say them all.
- Developed a huge affection for boy toys, baby dolls and "pincess" dolls (as she calls them).
- Started nursery at church and we are so grateful! It just makes church so much easier. Especially since we have 11am church!

Ben:
- Turned 5 this year in spectacular Star Wars birthday party style complete with Obi Wan Kenobi and defeating Darth Vader AND destroying the death star.
- Started Kindergarten this fall.
- Learned how to read.
- Can do simple math (addition), something he's learned on his own.
- Grows hair about 100x faster than his sister.
- Misses his mom and Shelby while he's at school. He's grown a little jealous of the attention Shelby gets at home by herself.
- Misses John more than anything when he works late days (which is pretty often).
- Has super human kid strength and can lift/carry/flip to the point where I'm considering putting him in a tumbling class. Probably just baseball in the fall, though.
- Spent his 6th Christmas away from home for the first time and almost discovered that Mom and Dad are Santa.
- Refuses to play Wii anymore because he says it's boring. I honestly don't mind.
- Learned that smothering his little sister is not the way to make her happy.
- He's made tons of friends at school and his teachers and the staff adore him. I'm so glad he is so well behaved at school because he lets it all out at home. It's tough being a good kid all the time!
- Learned about life and death when my Uncle Mitch passed away this year. It really concerned Ben he never knew Mitch (he had been sick for many years) and he still talks about Mitch being in heaven and not sick anymore and can't wait till Jesus comes so he can see Mitch again.
- He says really, really great prayers.
- Wants to read all the HP books this year (one of his goals for me and him).

Missy:
- Shot 6 weddings this year.
- Got to shoot the wedding of one of my past young women. It was so awesome to be able to do that and I hope I get to do more!
- Did a ton of family shoots this year. But I kept it light because I've wanted to slow down photography to keep up with all we wanted to do this year on our house.
- Laid tile, organized closets and the kitchen, painted and painted and painted, framed out our master bath mirror, put down baseboards, grouted, caulked, painted and painted, oh, and I painted some more.
- Kept myself sane half the year with 2 kids at home and happily sent Ben to school this fall.
- Spent most of the year with my young women only to get abruptly released a few months ago and am now the Relief Society Weekday Meeting Coordinator. It's been great being back in Relief Society but I MISS MY GIRLS!
- Has lost 15lbs and am working on more.
- Planned, budgeted and survived a family trip to Florida for Christmas. BEST. TRIP. EVER.
- Continued my love of Pinterest, Harry Potter, and photography.

John:
- Was promoted to Repair Manager at work. It came with lots of perks. He's so happy. Which makes me happy.
- Works and works and works. He works hard so I can stay home with the kids and I love him for it.
- Got to go pig hunting with his brother this year.
- Went golfing a few times with buddies at church.
- Grew a beard.
- Is still the Assistant Executive Secretary at church a calling he's had for years!
- Lost over 30 pounds.
- Developed a ganglion cyst on his wrist from his work and will have to have surgery in 2012. Nothing major though.
- Got to go to Donuts with Dad at school with Ben.
- Drove more on our road trip than I could have ever hoped and I have no idea how he stayed awake the entire time. He's just awesome.
- Misses our kids to death when he has to work so much. They adore him!
- Continues to shoot weddings and families (when he can) with me and I am so grateful to have him with me on shoots. It's so fun! He takes great pictures.

As a family:
- We've been reading the Book of Mormon.
- We got our home ready to put on the market (though we're still in the process of doing the final touches on that).
- Spent lots of Saturdays at Fuzzy's Tacos for lunch. Our favorite place!
- Watched lots and lots of movies together on Saturday afternoons. Especially Star Wars on Bluray and Harry Potter and watched Thor so many times I've lost track.
- Spent 5 days in Orlando, Florida for Christmas this year and had the greatest time. It was just completely awesome!

It was a really great year and we have some goals planned out or 2012 we are excited about as well. Here are a few pictures from our trip! (Oh, and Jalei and Regina. We ran into Marnie Cochran at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! What are the odds??)

Christmas Day at the Magic Kingdom

Soooo many people. Nothing like Hogsmeade in the middle of the day, though!

Day 2, Disney Hollywood Studios

Ben doing Jedi Training Academy. Awesome. And free!

Okay, not technically free because we bought the tshirt.

Days 3 and 4 at Universal (specifically Wizarding World of Harry Potter). My new favorite place! This was how crowded it is at 8:30am!

Breakfast at the Three Broomsticks

Jurassic Park area at Universal (we spent most of our time in WWoHP though)

Don't you just love this place?

The Sorting Hat! I'm such a dork!

My favorite pic of the entire trip. It's just magical. I know, I'm a dork and I'm proud of it!

Frozen Butter Beer. It's so good!

We had THE BEST time! And we want to go back every year if we can. Something we're adding to our 2012 goals. :)

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Shelby is ONE!

Don't even get me started on how crazy it is that our little baby girl is already a year old! It's crazy how fast the first months go, but we love her so much and she's more and more fun every day. Here are some stats/tidbits about our one-year-old!

1. She weighs 23.9lbs (75th)
2. She's 32" tall (off the chart)
3. Her head is small at 17-3/4" (25-50th)
4. She says go, mama, dada, bye bye, uh oh.
5. She signs milk, done, bye bye.
6. She's cruising but not walking.
7. She loves to sing If You're Happy and You Know It and do the motions with me and Ben (pat her tummy is her favorite).
8. She is in love with her dad.
9. She hates when Ben holds her. He thinks she loves it but oh man does she hate it.
10. Bath time is her most favorite thing in the whole world.
11. She loves books and points at pictures trying to mimic words.
12. She hates when I get her dressed. Whether in the morning or in her pjs she hates it!
13. She loves to dance.
14. She can jump up and down (while holding something) but still can't walk. I know she's just holding out on us (but honestly I don't mind).
15. Her favorite foods are beans, strawberries, goldfish, veggie chips, cheese and noodles.
16. She definitely has a sweet tooth. Almost immediately after we eat lunch or dinner she finds her way into the pantry and tries to pry open a bag of fruit snacks.
17. No I don't let her eat fruit snacks. I did let her eat a piece of a tootsie roll today but she prefers Smarties.
18. She tries to put shirts over her head and shoes on her feet.
19. She loves necklaces.
20. She is extremely happy almost 100% of the time. If she ever gets cranky I know she's either sick or exhausted. But those moments are few and far between.
21. She's just awesome.

I haven't taken her official 1-year pics yet but here's a couple from a little session I did with her and Ben the other day. I tried for bluebonnets but it was a fairly unsuccessful attempt!

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All About Shelby

I'm not sure I was very good at recording where Ben was developmentally when he was a baby so I'll try and do that more with Shelby!

1. Shelby is 10 months old! Seriously! SERIOUSLY? Where does the time go??

2. She crawls, stands, cruises from object to object. She's not walking yet and perfectly happy with crawling, but I would expect she will walk around 11 months like Ben did (and Ben didn't crawl till he was almost 9 months old. Heck, he didn't even sit up till 8 months!)

3. She babbles constantly. My favorite thing is when she is crawling around the house to find me I can hear her going Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma till she finds me!

4. She thinks Ben is HILARIOUS. This is adorable, yet somewhat irritating because Ben does crazy antics to make her laugh and will not stop even if Shelby isn't laughing anymore.

5. She will have nothing to do with being spoon fed. She'll only eat something if she can pick it up and put it in her mouth herself. Ben was completely opposite. I couldn't get him to pick up a piece of food till he was 11 months old! Shelby will eat almost anything. Her favorites are potatoes, beans, carrots, cheese and noodles. Ben to this day won't eat beans or potatoes. She does NOT like bananas (my sister Ginny will be so proud).

6. After her bout with bronchitis she got in some bad habits of waking up 3 or 4 times a night hungry. We were dealing with it and trying to decide whether or not we should let her cry it out because her and Ben share a room. So one night last week she'd been fed, changed, given Ibuprofen for her teeth and gas drops and yet she still woke up screaming her head off around 11:30pm. I told John there was nothing else I could do for her except give her a bottle and put her back to sleep. So we let her cry. I think she cried for almost an hour (maybe longer) before she finally went back to sleep and we had Ben sleep on the couch. The next night she slept 100% through the night. There were a couple of other times where she woke up crying but for the most part she's done GREAT. And I can sleep all night again!

7. She takes two 2-hr naps a day. Or one 2-hr and one 1-1/2 hr. Either way it's great!

8. She wears 18 month tops and 12 month bottoms, just like Ben did. Long torso, short legs!

9. She will no longer let me put headbands on her. I'm so sad about this because she kind of had a signature look and people actually expected to see her in one all the time. But now she just pulls them off. I can't wait for her hair to grow in so I can just clip her flowers on! We may buzz her head like we did with Ben. I know, aren't we crazy!?

10. She still loves playing peekaboo. She'll use any object to do it, a book, blanket, shirt. My mom thinks it's funny when she puts books over her head to play peekaboo. I think it's so cute!

11. She has two teeth on bottom and two teeth on top. The top ones have taken FOREVER and the right  front tooth kept going back into her gums and out again. Her incisors are on their way to coming in, too and I'm sure her canines are not far behind.

12. She screams a lot when she wants something. I'm trying to start doing sign language with her but so far she just stares at me!

13. She's starting to use objects for their intended purpose. Like she picks up Ben's hat and tries to put it on her head. She tries to drink out of the cups he leaves laying around and she takes shirts and holds them up to her body. It's so fun to see her making connections.

14. We went to the park for the first time yesterday since it's been SO COLD. Shelby is almost impossible to take to the park because she wants to eat everything she finds. So of course she tries to eat all of the mulch at the park. And spit up all over me. We'll try the baby swings next time, but I thought she still might be too small for those...

15. She likes to search for snacks in my purse. She always finds them (usually in a snack bag) and tries to eat through the bag.

16. She is poopy seriously like 5 times a day now. I blame it on the food she eats. See #5. I'm sure the beans have nothing to do with it.

17. Okay one more so I don't end with poop! When she laughs she inhales and exhales really dramatically. I will have to get this on video because it's hard to explain, but it's so cute. Her eyes also squint into tiny slits when she laughs or smiles big so her eyes disappear. She's SO CUTE!

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Shelby's 9-month Stats

I'll get back to the regularly scheduled 30-day posts one of these days, but for now here are Shelby's 9-month stats:

Height: 30-1/2" above 95th
Weight: 21.25lbs 70-90th
Head: 17 (and something inches) 50th

For comparison here are Ben's 9-month stats.

She's gone through a rough couple of months, meaning it's been a rough couple of months for us. She randomly started waking up during the night, waking up early, not taking good naps. She's getting in 4 front teeth so I attributed it to that. Then she came down with bronchitis and there was one night she only slept for MAYBE 3 hours. A week of breathing treatments and antibiotics later she's much better. But now she's back to waking up furiously hungry during the night. I don't know what's up. Growth spurt? The teeth still? All I know is I'm tired!! She woke up 4 times last night.... We're going to make Ben sleep on the couch for a few nights and see if we can get her to cry it out to get her sleeping through the night again. Major downfall of having them share a room!

I'll leave you with one picture!

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Documentation

Busy season + photographer + Christmas + 2 kids + home improvement = NO TIME!!

I've neglected my blog. But I really need to document a few of Shelby's milestones here for fear of never writing them down and forgetting them completely!

Shelby started sitting up a few weeks ago, right at about 7 months. Then BAM a week ago she started crawling!

She got her first two teeth on bottom. Both within a week's time of each other. She is now back to her awesome sleeping self. MAN this girl is a good sleeper!

I've starting paring her down to 2 naps (she's been taking 3 a day!) So now she takes 2 almost 2-hour naps a day. It's AWESOME.

Ben, on the other hand keeps growing and growing. He's grown an inch and a half since September! We still haven't cut his hair either. It's looking pretty awesomely bad!

He also saw his first naked Barbie today while playing at a friends' house. He was completely enthralled by this naked barbie! Oh boy....

So how are you guys doing?

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Bragging on my babies

Since they're all I really blog about anymore I though I'd give you a few little updates on Ben and Shelby.

BEN
1. Still hasn't gotten a hair cut since Shelby was born. It's getting REALLLY long. We weren't planning on cutting it till after Halloween because of what he wanted to be.
2. Broke the screen on our front door yesterday from running into it (after I told him three times not to touch the door). It might have been funny if I wasn't so mad.
3. Was absolutely THE BEST Harry Potter for Halloween this year. He LOVES dressing up. I have a feeling Halloween will be one of our more elaborate holidays because of him.
4. Can count to 100.
5. Can count to 100 by 10s.
6. Finally sleeps till 7:30am every morning. This is a vast improvement from the 5:30-6:30 he was doing for a few months!
7. Has a hard time listening to Mommy. I think his awesome superiority complex is hindering his ability to listen and obey (see #2).
8. Loves the Rangers. Wears his Rangers hat every single day.
9. Calls the Yankees the Stankees.
10. Can read quite a few words and spell words in rhyming sequences (big, dig, rig, cat, hat, mat).

SHELBY
1. Can ALMOST sit up independently. Ben didn't sit up till almost 8 months!
2. She can go from back to knees and hands pretty quickly, but still tips over when she's sitting upright for an extended period of time.
3. She's a consistent napper and sleeps best in her own bed. Great when we're at home, not so great when we're out (or at a babysitter).
4. Is eating baby food, but still prefers rice cereal over any other fruit or vegetable (exactly how Ben was).
5. Talks ALL the time. Ma ma ma ma, da da da da, ba ba ba ba, ga ga ga ga. Ga ga is my favorite. She LOVES when you mimic her!
6. Has no teeth.
7. Has the chunkiest thighs I have seen in my entire life. And I've seen some chunky thighs!
8. Was a pink skeleton baby for Halloween but I didn't get a very good picture of her. I want to take a new picture of her in her costume but I'm afraid it won't fit her since I already washed it.
9. LOVES John. Like has no eyes for me when he's home. I honestly don't mind!
10. She loves to play peekaboo. I'll find her wrapped in her play mat waiting for me to peekaboo. And if she finds a burp rag or one of her shirts on the floor she'll immediately grab it and put it over her face. I really don't know if she does it on purpose but she get SO excited when you find her!

Here's a pic of Ben as the best Harry Potter ever!

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Shelby is 6 months old!

I guess since the only thing I ever post on here anymore are Shelby updates why stop now? :) Here are her 6-month stats:

Length: 28" (100th percentile)
Weight: 18lbs 9oz (75-90th percentile)
Head: 16.75" (50th percentile)

She's pretty much huge like Ben was. She seems so much chunkier but Ben had the world's biggest head (still does) so maybe that's where he was keeping all his weight!

Shelby is getting more cute and more mobile and more difficult! She's not sitting 100% independently yet, but she's really close. She can get onto her knees from being on her stomach, which is something I am not encouraging! She rolls everywhere and will pick up any toy and play with it. Ben HATES it when she picks up a toy of his. Thankfully she doesn't put everything in her mouth. Ben never did either. She does pick things up and analyzes it for a really long time. She's still really laid back and observant.

Except when she's screaming. Man does she like to scream! We haven't quite figured out what causes it, but I think it's usually fatigue. It's crazy how loud she can get! She's growing so fast, I can't believe it's already been 6 months.

We think she's just crazy cute!

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Our 4-month old!

Can you believe Shelby is already 4 months old? I can't! Some days when she starts pulling off her head bands and gets mad when I try to rock her to sleep (and falls asleep just fine on her own in her own bed) and when she tries to sit up when I'm holding her and talking to her, I just wish she'd stay little just a little while longer. I was never really a baby person till I had her. She is just the BEST BABY EVER!

She rolls side to side and sometimes back to front (and HATES it because she always gets stuck). She belly laughs when she's tickled when she's naked (right before bath time is prime laugh-getting time). She gets to start rice cereal but I'm waiting till Monday after all of the weekend wedding shooting we're doing! She still can't really wear shoes because her feet are so skinny and long! But it's so darn hot I wouldn't subject her to shoes now anyway. We stick to the occasional pair of socks. She grabs her feet. She's still sleeping through the night, setting her bedtime earlier and earlier. She's pushing 13 hours at night, but I try and keep her till 12 (except those mornings when I snooze on the couch with Ben watching cartoons).

Anyway! She had her 4-month appt yesterday. Here's how her stats break down:

Length: 25-3/4in (90th)
Weight: 16lbs 3oz (90th)
Head: I don't remember, but they said it was 50th

So even though she's insanely chunky and has no neck, she's proportionate at least! But she does have some SERIOUS cheekage:






And if anyone is wondering, I got this headband (and the small pink one in the previous post) at CocoLicious Couture's Etsy Shop. They're adorable!

AND these pics of Shelby remind me of these pics of Ben when he was 6 months old. Such cute babies!!

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