Christmas 2011

This Christmas has been a blessing in many ways. In no particular order, here are five blessings of this holiday season.

1. On the first Sunday of advent season, BJ and I got this:If the joy and anticipation of a second child isn't a blessing, I don't know what is. I am 9-1/2 weeks along, and our due date is July 23rd!

2. This was my first Christmas hosting at my own home. Due to all-day morning sickness for the past four weeks, I was totally useless, but it was still wonderful having my family in my home for a holiday. And of course, my work horses of a mother and father made up for my inability to do much more than lay around and moan.

3. This was also our first Christmas with my brother's fiance, Stephanie. She entertained Shepherd during the moments my nausea subsided enough for me to get in the kitchen, did a lot of her own delicious cooking to contribute to our feast, and washed lots and lots of dishes. Like I said, this is a list of blessings.
4. Yet another first, this was our first Christmas to share with our new church family. The Christmas Eve service was touching and a wonderful reminder of what we were all celebrating in the first place. Just in case you were wondering, we did wake Shepherd up and take him to the service. He was in a daze the whole hour, so we are pretty sure he thought it was a really bazaar dream. Here is a picture of our family at church Christmas morning, and for the record, my appearance in this picture is not due to over-indulgence over the holidays, but rather to the fact that woman show a lot earlier in second pregnancies.
5. And last but not least, Shepherd was, as always, a blessing to watch this Christmas. He still is too young to really get the whole present thing, but his personality is developing in big ways, and he did really enjoy studying all of his new toys. So on that note, here are some pictures of our little guy playing with his loot.

A Very Important Announcement

Just in case you haven't heard yet, my brother and his girlfriend, Stephanie, got engaged last weekend. Wedding plans have begun, and we are all so excited! Shepherd is so very happy to be gaining an aunt. The more people to dote on him, the happier he is.

So congratulations Bro and Stephanie! We love you guys! Here is a not-so-good picture of all of us from last summer.

It couldn't possibly be two weeks

It is amazing how fast time flies between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm sorry it has been 2 weeks since I posted, but I'm afraid I've spent the last week in the nearly internet-less abyss of Menard. It was relaxing and wonderful, but I guess I better get back on the ball.

My mother got on to me while I was in Menard for not bringing my camera and for never doing blog posts on my trips down there. So to make up for it, here are a few poignant and deeply moving (though pictureless) points about my week in Menard.

1. Shepherd's cheeks are a little chubbier after a week in Menard. For every meal, he had total access to three plates as well as his own. And if you know anything about my son, you know that where there is food, he is there to eat it.

2. I got to eat all the Southern food I love that BJ is not too keen on. One night, we had pinto beans and corn bread. It was divine. Shepherd ate a full serving and then some.

3. I was lazier than any one has a right to be last week. One day, Shepherd and I were both still in our pajamas when Mom and Dad got home for their lunch hour. That just isn't like me.

4. While Shepherd relentlessly ran around creating complete and total chaos, my parents kept marveling that they don't remember me ever doing these things. I have already concluded that Shepherd got almost nothing from me, but I've also concluded that I'm perfectly fine with that. He is so his own person, and it is just fascinating to watch the big personality God made growing in Shepherd. He is a hand full, but we are all having fun chasing him.

5. Speaking of Shepherd being a hand full, he has decided that he does not like having poopy diapers changed. His response is to cry while doing everything in his power to escape. One day, I was needing to make some phone calls, so Mom and Dad were watching him. When I was done, I walked in their room to find them changing a poopy diaper. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, Shepherd was hanging halfway off the bed screaming with his little naked hind end sticking up in the air, and Mom and Dad where just trying to get wet wipes out as quickly as possible. By the time they finally finished, my Dad said, "I don't remember you or your brother doing that." I have a funny feeling we never did.

A wonderful Thanksgiving

One of the many bonuses of living in Oklahoma is that we are no longer so far away from many of our closest friends. In fact, we are now a pretty even halfway point between two of our favorite couples: Josh, Allison, and their 8-month old daughter, Emily, in Lubbock and Jeff and Rebekah in Houston. This Thanksgiving, we spent the holiday with these very wonderful people. Here is a brief synopsis.

Of course, most of the week was spent watching Emily and Shepherd and their budding friendship. This is the picture we will use at their wedding (hehe).
After getting better acquainted, Shepherd decided to sit on Emily.

After escaping the bazaar behavior of my goofy son, Emily likely questioned the wisdom of this friendship.
The adults played lots of board games. Their was a lot of strategizing going on.
Thanksgiving day brought beautiful weather, so Allie and I took the babies to the park. I ran around chasing my little guy trying to keep him from eating all the mulch,...

...while Emily and Allie basked in the sun.
Throughout the day, we three ladies cooked. We cooked a lot of food. A whole lot of food.

BJ, however, did the turkey. It was his first attempt, and it was delicious.
Soon after dark on Thanksgiving day, we sat down to a HUGE meal. Shepherd ate and ate and ate. He literally had three helpings of dressing and gravy. He is such a pig.

Before Jeff and Rebekah headed out on Saturday, we managed to get a group pictures. Emily was really into the whole picture thing.

All and all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks to everyone for the cooking, gaming, and fun times. And thanks to Allie for taking better pictures than mine (most of these came from her). I hope everyone else's holiday was as good as ours. Now I'm ready to get started on Christmas!

First Drawing

The other day, I took a pen, positioned it in Shepherd's cute little chubby hand and started drawing with him. After just a little bit, I let go and watched him do his first drawing all by himself. I then framed it and put it on the desk where I do all of my artwork. I am both a proud mommy and a proud artist. Go son!

The reason I'm behind on posting

Christmas season is approaching (yay!), so I've been trying to get some stationary up on my shop for gifts. Of course, that means doing the artwork, assembling the cards, taking pictures, editing pictures, and then posting them on Etsy. To make it all more interesting, Shepherd has started walking (running, really) this week, so I'm busier than ever. So anyways, I should be getting more cards up over the next few days. Keep an eye out for them! Here are a few shots of some cards that will be going up soon:

Exploring (Taste-Testing) with Shepherd

Shepherd is starting to really like spending time outside. I really like watching him spend time outside. Partially, this is the wonder of seeing a child discover the world. Also partially, it is because he looks so cute in his little coat and tennis shoes. Allow me to demonstrate:

When we venture out into the great outdoors, Shepherd starts examining everything: dirt, rocks, leaves, everything.

Then, he starts eating it.

To distract him from eating everything, we brought his walker out.

Unfortunately, while walking with his walker, he spotted a dandelion.

So he ate it.

He then resumed his search for more culinary delights (think rocks).

I'm not sure what he was doing here, but I hope this is him telling us that he found the taste of some of the dirt wanting.

To top off this particular outing outside, I took a picture of my two favorite guys.

I then joined the photo time myself, but that just made it crazy. Sometimes, I have that affect on them.

Happy Halloween!!!

BJ's mom knit Shepherd a viking hat for this winter. As Shepherd's first real Halloween approached, so did my first costume-making responsibilities as a mom. Seeing how cute the viking hat was, I decided to just make a fur vest, shoes with leather straps, and a leather skirt thingy and call Shepherd a viking. It worked splendidly.

Here are some photos of our Halloween evening. First, here are some pictures that show his costume really well.


Now for some pictures of BJ and I at home with our little viking.



And lastly, just in case you were wondering, here are some pictures of what Shepherd thought of having to dress up.

The Artist Gene

It has yet to be seen whether Shepherd has inherited my love and talent for art. But I do know one thing for certain; he really likes to bite off the tips of crayons.


I'm going to call it promising and leave it at that.

Shepherd's Birthday in Exhausting Detail

Well, my intention was to get this blog done much earlier today, but Shepherd has been under the weather with a fever, runny nose, and mild cough, so I've been playing nurse. He is now in bed trying to sleep off that fever (please say a little prayer that he will soon recover), so I'm going to take a moment to recount his birthday.

I put the camera by my bed the night before so that I could get a first-thing-in-the-morning picture. He is always really happy when he wakes up.

Because I have no patience when it comes to giving gifts, we opened presents first thing after everyone was awake. Ninety percent of these presents were from Aunt Marcy. One of them was from BJ and I. He is going to really love his Aunt Marcy.

His Nana knit him an awesome hat for the winter.

He was unsure about the whole unwrapping process. He mostly just wanted to eat the paper.

Our gift to him was a walker that turns into a scooter when he gets older. He thought it was big fun helping his dad put it together. (Everyone take a moment to laugh at BJ's bed head.)

Later that day, it was time to eat, and eat we did. But first, we took pictures in ridiculous hats I got because birthday parties for one-year-olds should be cheesy, and dang it if I wasn't going to go all out on the cheesy.

Now, I have always objected to the idea of giving a baby their own cake on their birthday and letting them dig into it. However, when I started planning out the big monster cake, I couldn't help but think how cute a little monster cake would be. Before I knew it, I was sitting with my camera taking 40 pictures of Shepherd tearing into his own chocolate cake. Here is what I learned from the experience: giving a one-year old their own cake is one of the funnest things you can possible do on earth, it doesn't hurt them, and you will laugh until your face hurts if you ever actually experience it. In other words, I've been converted.

At first, Shepherd was hesitant with the cake. He would only stick a finger in, lick it, and then look at us to see if we really were condoning this behavior.

Once he got his monster's horn, though, he tore in, and there was no stopping him.

After he had eaten about a third of his little cake and we took it away, he sat in his chair laughing for no apparent reason. It was as if he was just really happy to have discovered that the world had something as beautiful as cake in it.
So that was Shepherd's birthday. It was a great day. And despite the sickness, today had a pretty awesome moment as well. Shepherd took his first steps totally unaided. He did about four little steps to get from me to a chair. He really is growing up on me *sniff sniff*.