one

We have been working with Shelby on holding up a one. How precious is this photo.

project central

I have been working on lots of extra projects lately. One of my main projects has been planning Shelby's first birthday party. I have had a lot of fun doing this. Every detail has been planned out and almost every day now we are getting a delivery of stuff we need. I think it is going to be a super party. I wish I could share photos but I want the guest to be surprised, SO.... you will have to wait for the recap after the party. I am so sorry. The invitations went out today so some of you will have an inkling as to what the theme is. I have found SO many things for her party on ETSY and SO SO SO many ideas on the internet. I received some of her decorations this week from California. Her Aunt Dawn is making a few things from Minnesota. Her favors came in today from Massachusetts. We ordered some other things from Nebraska. I am making her headpiece- which is going to be precious. Her outfit is currently being made in Texas. I chose her theme around this precious outfit. I LOVE picking out Shelby's outfits for special occasions. I rarely get to purchase outfits for my child because we have SO many clothes for every day. That being said, you can probably see why special occasion wear is my pride and joy. I have been shopping for her things to wear for several upcoming events. Meredith and I have been planning for months what the children are going to wear to an upcoming wedding. It is gonna be fabulous. We have SO much fun shopping for the kids together..,. I guess you could say it is kind of "our thing" that we bond over. I have also been shopping for her outfits for an upcoming Fairy Tale Ball, Eden's 10th Birthday with a decades theme, Halloween and I have even picked her out a few things to wear over the week we spend at Thanksgiving. So that's some of what has been going on around here. Stay tuned for more party stuff.

OH--- and since you read this LONG rambling blog entry, I will reward you with a SNEAK PEEK of Shelby's professional photos that she had made on the 16th. I can hardly wait to see the rest. Shelby was very serious for most of the shoot. I kept thinking ...who is this straight faced kid??? She was not showing her spunky little personality at all. However, as you can see--- the photos are still very precious!

I highly recommend this photographer is you live in my area. Her website is HERE. She is using her photography to raise money to adopt a child in Uganda. You all know how close to our hearts adoption is! She was wonderful to work with and we will definitely be using her again!

what a big kid looks like

This is Shelby before our big shopping adventure on Saturday. She is a professional walker now. She even walked from the front door out to the driveway and into the garage where her Daddy put her in the car.

Here she pretended to like a sippy cup just long enough for the photo op. Fast forward 15 minutes later when we got to Chipotle for Lunch.... I open her door and she had pulled her rubber band out of her hair. It was in that very parking lot that Shelby got her first spit slicking down of the hair... I am such a mother now! We have yet to find the rubber bands.

tale of two cousins

Maggie texted me this photo of Charlie earlier in the week...........Since Shelby had similar Pajamas--- I decided to try and recreate it with Shelby.

an evening with Shelby

This evening I decided to snap a few photos of Shelby just being herself. Here they are.

We had our pictures made on Saturday and I had worn this necklace. Shelby spied it during the photo session and could not keep her hands or eyes off of it. While I was unpacking our bags today I decided to let her look at it. She loved it so much!










She also watched a little TV. Her favorite show is Little Einsteins. She watches them every evening while I get dinner ready. This is her sitting and watching TV position.
Once her Daddy came home we practiced walking. Last night was the first night she was confident enough to turn loose of things. Here is a video we made tonight. She is really picking this up quickly!!

After dinner she got her first taste of a cake bite. There are from a local bakery and they are insanely delicious! She wasn't too sure about it at first. She kept eyeing mine which was vanilla. I am not a chocolate cake fan- maybe she won't be either. Needless to say, I let her taste mine too.








I am glad she finally got a piece of cake since she missed the birthday parties of both of her cousins- Rylee and Henry. Speaking of cake and parties--- Her birthday is right around the corner.

Weekend trials

This weekend we have tried every single sippy cup we own...all 28 of them.   Guess how many Shelby enjoyed......yep...none of them.  Now I have to figure out how to put them all back together so we can try again tomorrow. 

The Trio In Tankinis

Today we got to take Shelby to see her cousins Rylee (2) and Charlie (19 months)-- or as I like the call them when they are all together - The Trio.

Here are some photos of their fun in the baby pool.

a quiet morning

I have, in a rare change of circumstance, found myself with some extra alone time this morning. Everyone in the house is sleeping in. I had the choice of working on one of about 10 million project I am working on----OR blogging. I hope you think I made the right choice. These have been busy busy days in our household. I have had the major clothes sorting mission. My sweet neighbor Jill came over last night and took two boxes for her little girl. I have 2 boxes packed and ready to go back to their rightful owners today. I have a box for Shelby's bestie Stella. I have a bag of clothes that belong to someone else. I am diligently making progress all the while taking care of running this house, caring for my family and working full time. I have a dead line though because I need the guest room ready for a stay in 28 days. It's definitely crunch time based on it's current condition. I will be SO glad when it is clean and off of my to-do list. I think it has had a permanent spot on there for a while.

Things are going well here. Shelby is growing up very very quickly. She is learning at least one or two new things every day. Here is a list of some things she has learned this week.

* pillow fights with Daddy are fun

* holding up her finger for being 1 (we had to start early to get her ready)

* blueberry muffins are delicious

* trying to say the word cup... or more trying to say NO CUP

* there is nothing more fancy than painted toenails

* She can stand as well as sit in her little chair

* standing in it helps her to reach really cool things

* she can feed Brady with her spoon... kinda wish that hadn't been a lesson learned....

* the 8th tooth coming in was not as bad as the first 7

I am sure there is more, but that is all that comes to mind.

This week we started bottle weaning. And in doing so have spent a small fortune on sippy cups that Shelby hates. Honestly I bought 4 new one yesterday and only one got even a second try before it was hurled across the room. I have told you all this girl LOVES her bottle. None the less we are down to two bottles a day, morning and night (or as Shelby calls them "mmmmm's"). She is begrudgingly getting enough from those dreaded cups to stay hydrated and well nourished. I am hopeful we find something she likes soon or my lessons in drinking out of a straw start to take on a new meaning of cool to her. Of course, she is seeing her much older and more sophisticated cousins today who will be sporting some sippy cup actions on their ends--- so hopefully Shelby will fall for some peer pressure and give her Mommy's bank account a little break from the cup fund.

OK- now for what you come to the blog for--- Photos of Shelby this week... in no particular order....

Swimming in a sea of clothes

This post will no have photos as I would be horrified to show the predicament I am in. My entire guest bed is covered (and I mean a big hearing mountain covered) in clothes Shelby has out grown...along with about 7 diaper boxes and a laundry basket. Her drawers and closet is bursting at the seams with even more clothes that she can wear now... And also in sizes 24m, 2t and 3t. It is insane the amount of outfits she has only worn once. It is even more insane the clothes she never even wore. I am super sad about some well meaning people who bought for next fall or Christmas only to have her in those sizes this summer. My job now is to sort the old clothes into groups depending on where they go. Some are mine going to a friend, some belong to others that I need to return and a select few are in waiting to pass along to a new niece...someday. I know we are so incredibly blessed to have all of these wonderful blessings of clothes...but right now I feel like I should be on an episode of hoarders.

Shelby at 11 months

Shelby turned 11 months old yesterday. Here are some facts about Shelby at 11 months.

* She has taken her first steps. 3 to start, then two a week later and then last night 2 more. Last night she also stood alone for about 45 seconds.

*We started weaning her from the bottle yesterday. Not cold turkey- just a slow reduction until they are all gone.

* She is still not a fan of any of the 9 different sippy cups that we own. Thank goodness we know where Buy Buy Baby is.

* She is laughing out loud and much more often these days.

* She has added YoGabbaGabba to her list of favorite shows along with Little Einsteins.

* She has become increasingly more difficult to photograph. She is either too busy for us to get a face shot or too intrigued/ perplexed by the lights on the camera. See example below.

Also, forget a camera phone photo- she is too quick on the move or closes her eyes from the brightness of the flash.

* She enjoys taking things out of baskets.

* She can run in a full sprint around our ottoman. It is funny and a preview of what is to come when she is more confident to just let go.

* She continues her love for the piano. Her favorite App on the Ipad is a piano and last night her Daddy bought her a little piano for her 11 month birthday. She played and played it all night long.

* Her hair is getting longer and just the week we had to buy her hair product to help train it to go to the side instead of in her face. She will only wear a hair clip long enough to yank it out.

* She has started clearing her high chair with her arms as soon as you put anything on it. She has become a hot mess in the eating department.

* She continues to be the cutest, sweetest, funniest little baby in the whole world.

one more thing......

I TOTALLY FORGOT............ to tell you that on Father's Day weekend we also bought Shelby a water table. Now, as exciting as it was you also have to know that we didn't get to use it until the 4th of July. With our traveling and the fact that it has thunder/lightening/rained every afternoon made it hard to play. So tonight when it started to rain again... Mr. D. said to heck with it and brought the water table on to the screen porch. Here are some photos of the fun.

toy judgement day

Today I arranged all of Shelby's toys like this.  This is just a sampling of her collection.  Actually this is just the living room edition.  Whatever she has not played with by the end of the day will be moved to the playroom.  We have to start making room because someone has a birthday coming up and I have noticed her eyeing some new things at the stores lately.