Just a few things...

I have had a few things I have by dying to blog about but they had to wait as to not spoil the surprises for others. The first is Shelby's made her first art project.

One of her favorite friends "Erica the Great" came over to help. I was so glad for the help because who else would have taken the pictures?? She made handprint turkeys for some of her relatives who would not be spending Thanksgiving with her and one for her grandparents who would be seeing her on her first Thanksgiving. Here is a little glimpse of her project in progress. On the back was this sweet picture of Shelby in her Thanksgiving attire.

I can only think of one thing that could make this little outfit more precious......

Cousin Henry in the boy version. SOOOOO CUTE!!!!

The children were quite taken with each other and very curious about one another. I think this is the first of may sweet picture of the two together!

You may notice the cute hat and bow that Shelby is wearing. I bought the hat but I made the bow. Here is a close up picture of it.

Shelby also made her first batch of Chex Mix- the thing we are responsible to bring each year.

Shelby had fun at her first Thanksgiving and has slept most of the day today to recover from it. She had a fun outing this morning with Aunt Meredith and Henry. Since we got back she has slept for 5 hours so far.

Here is another little surprise I couldn't share before. This is a picture of Shelby in her Great Grandmother Bea's baby dress.

Bea is 89 years old. This dress was so fragile but looked so beautiful.

OK one last dose of cute and then I have to go.

Thanks Kate for the Pilgrim lady hat.

Thursday 13: Thirteen things about my Momma

1) Today is her 56th birthday.

2) She loves to sing and makes up song to sing all the time.

3) She is loves her job and works hard at it.

4) She is always there to help with whatever it is. If I had not been for her generosity then we would not have been able to finance our adoption. She has never asked for anything in return and we are so thankful that she had the means to make our dream come true.

5) She is very giving of her time. When she is not working she makes sure her father is taken care of. She run errands for him and even picks up things for his roommate who rarely gets visited by his family at the nursing home.

6) She is a fun Nonnie and Aunt. Donovan, Kaleigh, Shelby, Charlie and Rylee are spoiled by her every chance she gets.

7) She is a great storyteller and knows so much about our family's history. She really takes to time to learn about the past from others.

8) She is loving and respectful of Mr. D and treats him as if he were her own child. She genuinely cares about him not because she HAS to, but because she WANTS to. As her daughter this means a lot to me.

9) She pitches in and helps out without needing to be asked to help. This helped tremendously those first few weeks home with Shelby. And, she doesn't mind doing the grunt work like washing dishes and cleaning toilets.

10) She is a great cook. There are so many wonderful things that she makes!

11) She embraces technology. She is very computer savvy and even knows how to text.

12) She is a very encouraging person. We found out about the possibility of Shelby only 40 days after our failed adoption. Our feeling were still raw and Mr. D. and I didn't know what to think, feel or do and she gave us great advice. We are glad (obviously) that we pursued this opportunity.

13) She's my Momma. She taught me so many things and helped to make me the person I am today. She has been a great role model to me and I am thrilled at the wonderful, sweet, caring and loving Grandmother that she is to Shelby.

life on fast forward

Time to catch up this little blog-a-roo. We have been super busy. Let's see..... Mr. D. had a birthday. We are the same age for 74 days and then Mr. D. gets to be a year older! Shelby helped to make his cake.

She had so much fun. She thought the eggs were funny when they would roll on her tray. We also had a visit that weekend from Shelby's grandparents Linda and Tom.

They brought Shelby a case of Similac and a very fun box to play in.

Linda made Shelby a lightweight blanket. She was tuckered out after their visit.

Shelby has to have lightweight blankets because she is so hot natured that she can not stand to be wrapped in a blanket. We have found one blanket that she absolutely loves. We just ordered three more for Christmas. I literally have been washing this blanket every night.

You can see how she's really starting to use her hands to tug on the blanket and play with it. It is an Aden+Anais bamboo swaddler. I think she loves it because it always seems to feel cool like the flip side of a pillow. If you have a hot natured child like I do, I highly recommend this blanket. It is SO soft and seems to get softer with each washing.

Let's see... what else.... Shelby had her three month birthday. She never ceases to amaze us. She loves to stand up and once she gets just a little better with her balance she will probably just take off walking. Today she "Army crawled" herself about 7 inches across the floor to get a toy.

She was very proud of herself and her parents were simply shocked.

Can you believe it's less than two weeks until Thanksgiving and my petunias still look this amazing?

Yesterday,we tried taking a few pictures of Shelby with her cousins Rylee and Charlie. We decided to put them on my Aunt Patsy's fall scene and started clicking pictures to see what happened. Here is a cute one!

The entire photo shoot lasted less that two minutes. I am sure it's the first of many many times these three ladies will be photographed together. NOW- if you are one of those people who do not like Christmas things before Thanksgiving - STOP reading NOW!

Here are some pictures of the girls in their Christmas shirts. We never got a picture of all three of them together wearing the shirts, but each girls is CUTE alone wearing the shirts.

Henry and Shelby also have matching Christmas shirts, so stay tuned for pictures of that.

ladybug

This is one of Shelby's many halloween outfits. It was tucked in a drawer and our nanny Hanny found it last Friday. I came home to see my precious little girl all ladybugged up.

PRECIOUS!

almost a half a dozen cousins

Here are some pictures of Shelby's sweet cousins on Halloween. I put the pictures of the children in age order.

Darth Vader (aka ... Donovan)

Princess (aka... Kaleigh)

Abby Cadabby (...aka Rylee)

Pumpkin (aka.... Henry)

and who is this cute little pink poodle????

It's Charlie of course!!!