The Shelby Show

In honor of Shelby's 4 month birthday, here are some of her latest pictures.  

Her latest tricks include:  

- rolling over from back to front (one time so far)

 - laughing

- sleeping 12 hours most nights

- craning her head to crazy angles to see the TV

- eating 8 ozs of milk in under 6 minutes and then crying because the bottle is empty so fast 

- being a fun, sweet, easy going baby that we all adore

It's a sink bath!  Shelby has outgrown her Puj Tub (though she clearly hasn't outgrown her pudge) so we moved her bathtime to the kitchen sink.  

Go Duke!  (notice the girly jeans lest she be mistaken for a boy!)

Sweet Shop

I was on point to bring goodies for Mallory's Valentine's Day party.  I must say, my first attempt at real buttercream frosting made a convert out of me.  While the appearance may have left room for improvement, the taste was unbeatable!  Not that I had a tough audience with a bunch of kindergartners!

I also attempted some fudge covered Oreos.  Yum!

Sunday Funday

This is the scene I stumbled upon when I came downstairs on Sunday.  Sunday is the day we allow the girls to take the pillows off the sofa in the playroom and build forts, caves, cars, boats and as seen below - airplanes.  Yes, that is Shelby as the Captain of the plane in her jumperoo.  She took them all the way to Australia!

These 24 hour flights can wear a girl out!

J is for Jump

Shelby has graduated to a new toy - the Jumperoo.  She has waited patiently to open the box from Santa but it was well worth the wait.  

 Feet don't quite touch yet

And they closed school for this...

Much to the delight of the poor snow deprived children of Austin, last Friday we had a snow day!  We had about 1/4 of an inch of snow (with ice underneath).  You can tell by the girls outfits (nightgowns with pj pants + jackets + shoes with no socks) that I knew they wouldn't play long.  I mean, how much fun can you have with 1/4 inch of snow and some ice?  But they stomped around for a bit and enjoyed the idea of snow and a snow day.  

 Poor Hadley is suffering from winter hair.  The dry air has taken away all her curl and left her with crazy flyaways.  At least Shelby can relate...

 Mallory's school friend, Tavi, walked over to play.  The girls painted (Hadley a birdhouse, Mallory and Tavi a horse barn).  

The Middle Place

Mallory said, "Mom, you aren't young and you aren't old.  I guess that means you are in the middle."  Somehow, I don't feel middle aged!

Random January

And boy was it a Random January!  It all started off quite nicely with a visit from Jim Ko and his family.  Jim is one of Clint's good friends from Duke.  He and his wife are taking their 2 kids on the adventure of a lifetime by moving to Taiwan!  Before leaving the US, they embarked on a cross country trip and lucky for us, Austin was on their path!  I wasn't feeling 100% so this is the only picture I have of the girls working diligently on their jeweled crowns.  But even without pictures, it was a very fun and special visit.  

The day after Jim and his family left and the first day the girls went back to school, I ended up in severe pain.  Long story short, I had appendicitis and by 10pm that evening, I was in surgery having my appendix removed.  It was very painful and scary but I am confident I won't ever have to have my appendix removed again!  :)

 For the third time in as many months, my mom came to our rescue.  She stayed with us for a week while I recovered.  All three girls love having her here and Clint and I couldn't manage without her!  (I am not sure why Mallory is holding up one of Shelby's outfits...)

Silly girls at Kerbey Lane

 Look how much her feet have grown!

 Smile Shelby!

 The girls have been taking swimming lessons and now Hadley can swim totally underwater!

 Yawn

 Clint has been out of town for work recently which means I have to bundle up all 3 kids for the morning walk to school.  It is a whirlwind to get out of the house by 7:25am but we have somehow made it happen every morning.  

 Hadley went to a pirate b-day party and came home with these earrings.  Eek - I am not ready for pierced ears!

Shelby and I went to NC to visit my friend Stacey and her family.  Sadly, this is the only picture I have (on the plane).  I will try to bribe them to send me any cute ones they took.  

Shelby and Clint in their matching navy T's

Retirement Photo outtakes

Most of you have probably seen the picture I used when I sent my last email from Accenture.   But you haven't seen some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.  Getting a decent picture of 3 kids is NOT easy!  

 Hadley was not feeling it - until I bribed with ice cream.  Yes, Dairy Queen was the way we officially celebrated my last day with Accenture.  I do love my Blizzards!

 Waiting on #3 to join the crowd...

 Almost - except for some crazy hand positions

 The winning picture 

 Pausing for a spit up clean up

 Funny faces

SMOOCH!