the dashing of my Christmas card vision

I had high hopes for the Christmas card this year... I mean after all last year I was able to pull this off---

Mind you with a 4 months old child who could not even stand and was wobbly at holding herself up.  Perfection.....

This year, my vision was a Little Drummer Girl theme...because after all, Shelby has developed a passion for drumming.  We definitely see percussion in her future.  This child drums on everything and can even keep a beat.   Here is a version of my vision... except I was hoping for a little more joy.

 

Here is the picture we went with in our Christmas card

Hmmmm.... maybe I should go ahead and start working on next year...................

Shelby at 17 months

It is hard to believe that Shelby is now 17 months old.  My, how she has changed!

Shelby has recently started school-- which you will have to wait to read about in a later post.
Here is a list of things about Shelby at 17 months!

* She continues to LOVE music.  In any capacity.  She loves pianos, cymbals, rhythm sticks, the triangle, drums--SHE LOVES DRUMS! She has started singing, though just melody not really words.  She can and will turn anything into a drum.

* She is very VERY independent.  She wants to do most everything for her self.  She 100% is a self feeder. She even has started helping to pull her clothes on herself.

* She sits at the table with us now and does a great job for the most part.   She hates a place mat and if we give her one she will quickly throw it and everything on top of it off of the table (we are working on that).

* She drinks from a straw cup now and is dabbling in drinking from a cup without a lid at all.

* She loves playing outside, climbing, swinging and running!

* She finds and loses words constantly.  She tries to repeat what we say ...when she wants to.  She has one phase that I just love-- she says "Hi Beauty".  Precious--- and maybe showing that she watches Beauty and the Beast more than we should allow.  This week her Heddo-- has turned into Hello... more like Hellllllllooo.  Her everyday words are (consistently used) Mama, Daddy, Brady, up, go, Hello, Hi, Beauty, yes, bye bye, and eat.  Like I said, other words come and go-- but these are the constants.  She talks non-stop, but her long conversations are mostly indecipherable.

* Her favorite foods are yogurt, cheese puffs, fruit, pureed fruit/veggies in a drinkable pouch, bread (in any form- crackers, toast, bagels, cereal, whatever).  She is still not a big meat eater but will eat some meats- when she wants to.

*She is always busy, and is a great sleeper.   She loves to stay busy and stays focused on task for a long period of time.  She is happiest when she is carrying around two items (can be anything) one in each hand.  When it is bed time we put her in bed and that's all she wrote.  She goes to sleep and sleeps through anything.  We are SO blessed with a great sleeper!

*She still has her passion for SHOES!

Santa

button books

Buttons are very special in my family.  So, when I saw these button books at my school's book fair I decided it was time to introduce a love of buttons to the next generation of girls.   They loved them!

accidentally artistic

While we were in the hotel in Atlanta, Shelby found my camera.   Some how it must have gotten banged and the lense didn't open all of the way when I snapped this picture--- but I think it is very artistic looking.

Thanksgiving

Here are some photos from our annual trip to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mr. D's family in Atlanta.  You can also check out Meredith's photos here and here.  She is a much better blogger than I am and had them posted in a timely manner.  Here are some of my photos! 

95% of November in just one post!

In an effort to catch up my blog, I am going to post 95% of November in this post.   Here is goes: 

GYMBOREE

Shelbs continues to love love love the Gymboree.  I always say it is "her" place.  She enjoys every second. 

Shelby went for her 15 month check up in November.  She is 31 inches long and weighs 23 lbs.   She did not enjoy their trying to measure her so I suspect the length measurement is a little on the short side.  

MOVEMBER:

In memory of my good friend Russell, his brother Steven ( whom I am so please to be good friends with now!) participated in MOvember.  He grew a moustache and raise money for men related cancers.  Shelby is his biggest fan and we did a couple of things to support his plight.  Here is a super fun pic of Shelby sporting her Mo (in her Mo-veralls).   

 Here she is writing him a card... which took pretty much a million days to get to him (or a week).

Here is a photo of Steven with his month long MO growth. 

And here is his clean face after the shave.  

Wanna know something else??? Steven is GETTING MARRIED!!! He proposed to Rachel at the Chuck E. Cheese and she said yes!!!!   They are the world's CUTEST couple!! 

CRAFT PROJECT:

This:

 Plus This:

 Turned into this! It's my version of an ornament tree chandelier. 

 CRAFT PROJECT 2:

 This is the lamp of the Mayflower that Shelby and I made for her Grandma Linda for Thanksgiving.