In The Pod

One of the best features of our neighborhood is the park that is just down the street. When house-hunting we figured that once kiddos came along, trips to the park would be a regular occurrence. We often take walks on the weekends, but this is the first time we stopped at the playground. As you'll see Shelby is still too small for most the activities, but with a little assistance from Dad, she had as much fun as the next kid. I look forward to making more trips to the neighborhood park in the future!

Yes, her outfit clashes. It was chilly out, so I had to put her in her warmest coat.

The Swing

Teeter Todder

Not Sure What To Call This Thing

Slide

Baby Crafts

I know the holidays are long-gone, but I still wanted to share. Throughout December I would pick my lovebug up from school and notice a little paint on her hands, feet, or clothes from time to time. The ladies would always tell me not to worry and that Shelby was working on a surprise for me. That she was.

On the final day of class before the holiday, Miss Ethel gave me a package labeled "To Mom & Dad - Love, Shelby." I waited until I got home to open it so Jack could take part as well. Inside was a mix of Christmas crafts they had completed at school. Too cute and my goodness, what patience to  complete all these projects with such little kits.

These are our sweet holiday presents from my Shelby Pie:

My favorite (and super clever) were Shelby's "Mistle Toes."

One Week Later...

...you can see a whole lot more tooth!

Say Cheese!

Shelby's teeth are coming in fast and furious. Poor thing is not get one, nor two, or even three new teeth, but rather all FOUR of her top teeth at once. She has not been sleeping as well for the past month or so and I would have to think this is a contributing factor. The outter set are coming in faster than the middle two, but just this evening I saw the white of her upper middle tooth (now 3 are poking through). I have a feeling in a couple of weeks she'll have an all new smile.

On Saturday I took out the camera, hoping to snap a photo of her emerging chompers. Well, she worked with me rather nicely and gave me the grin below. This was Saturday and by today (Thursday), things look different in there. Who knows, her teeth may have been the cause of her fever and all that came with it earlier this week.

Say Cheese Shelby!

She was being particularly cute that day and I caught some more fun photos. Her hair has an auburn cast in the natural light.

On The Move

Yes, we have lift-off. She has been doing the inch-worm across the floor for a while now, but just recently has she started a normal crawl (and stand, but that is a whole other post). It's sometimes tough to grab on camera since she always gets so fixated on the camera itself. I have no doubt that in blink of an eye, she'll be darting around the house and into everything. For now, she just tries to eat everything.

The best motivator for her to hit the road: My iPhone.

Go Shelby go!!

Christmas - Part 2

One of the more stand out events of the holiday was having the opportunity to watch my sweet nieces play volleyball at their club tournament. Yes, it was definitely different having a baby in tow than actually spiking the balls themselves, but it was a really nice feeling to be back in the gym. Some things have changed, but most things remain the same. They now call what we called "games," "sets." They were not playing best of 3 or best of 5, but rather just 2 games per match (but I think there was a different name for that too) . I was also amused at all the Texas mamas who dressed like kids. It cracked me up. I think the moms had just as much sparkle on as kids did, but I digress. It was a really fun moment in time and a really lovely reminder about how much I really do love volleyball.

I also love, love, loved seeing Dylan and Dom with Shelby. Both are really sweet boys and were just adorable with her. Dom would love to talk to Shelby and wait for her to reach out and touch her face. On one of our last nights in Texas Dylan (left) played with Shelby before bedtime - they both had a great time and it warmed my heart. Dylan sacrificed his bedroom for the week, so we could have our own space. There is no doubt in my mind they will be awesome big brothers.

Like at my own house, there was lots of game playing too. Even a NYE poker tournament that I won! Shelby was not so interested in the games, but loved her Auntie Liffey's red hair.

And I love this one. Sweet baby Davin took a bath in the kitchen sink and I caught this raw moment of cuteness. Rough life being a sweet baby boy. Rough life.

Till next time Texas, till next time.

A Very Texas Christmas  - Part 1

I am sure whatever I put below will in no way do our holiday trip justice. It's difficult to sum up a week and a half of wonderful family time into a small blog post, but I will do my best.

It was wonderful. Wonderful to see Jack's side of the family. Wonderful to spend time with my own family. Wonderful to relax. To meet sweet baby Davin. To play volleyball. To not have to cook. To have a white Christmas. To see TWO movies with my husband.....it was very nice all around.

We stayed with Jack's sister and her newly expanded family. They had a 3 week old baby and a house full of people and they could not have been happier about. I was amazed. They generously let us borrow several essential baby gear items (and a car!) that made our stay much easier. In the past we would go between his two sisters' houses, but with Shelby and all that comes with her - we stayed at the one house. It was great.

Meet the handsome baby Davin....the only cousin that is younger than Shelby. He is a bundle of sweetness.

Things started a little rocky with the flu being passed around the house and an out-of-the-blue case of pink eye for Shelby. Fortunately the flu only traveled so far and I caught the pink eye early and had her at a Quick Care pretty rapidly.

On Christmas Eve we had a family dinner at Olive Garden (sans sick G-Ma), which has become a bit of a tradition. Then Christmas morning was spent with the Kuehn/Ezzo family - opening family gifts and finding Santa's surprises. This is a video of Shelby opening her Santa gift. She got into it, but in her heart of hearts, she just wants to eat everything.

Christmas morning - waiting for Uncle Jack to wake up....

During the day we just hang around the house and worked on the dinner that we would all later eat together. It was a beautiful white Christmas so I decided to snap some photo by the window. I actually got a whole bunch of good ones, she was in good spirits. G-ma surprised us with the adorable Christmas outfit upon arrival.

After a delicious Christmas dinner, we all got together to sing Christmas songs - another Schenk family tradition. This year we were without songbooks, so it was a little trickier, but still a wonderful memory and tradition; one I would love to adopt for our family. Below is not the most fantastic photo, but I like it because it shows the whole family/scene. Notice the sweet peanut int he middle.

To be continued....

***I decided to break up this post, for fear I would never have time to get it all up at once!