Chitter Chatter

Nothing, and I mean nothing makes me laugh and smile more than the chitter chatter and rambling from Elem these days. As he learns 3-5 new words each day, he is slowly stringing them together and making complete sentences to communicate with us. I never thought we would get to this day so fast as I think back to when he was sleeping all night in our bed, learning to stand up on his own, and crying to desperately let us know what he was thinking. Little things like letting me know he was hungry. When now, he actually says, "I hungwey mommy, I hungwey". It is truly an amazing transformation. My mom has always told me that I was a loud kid when I was younger and that I liked to talk alot. Not really about anything in particular-just talk. So every time I hear Elem just a talking away-I like to think its something he inherited from me. Since those things are pretty minimal as far as we can tell for now! haha.

Here is Elem talking away. As a heads up, the main things he is talking about are: the football, and how he wants to catch it, and he wants daddy to catch it, and how the ball is "mine", and Elms. Thats how he says his name. So if you listen carefully, you can understand pretty much everything he is chattering away about.



As a side note-during this filming we were in the process of tiling our floors, so there is lots of furniture crammed into our living room, and then the living room is also suffering from toy overload. This was right after Christmas. So bear with me on the mess!

Twilight

Yes I am referring to the book series, of which the first book has most recently turned into a movie. I have been wanting to read more , like I mentioned in my New Years resolutions, but I never seem to start out with a good enough book to keep me interested. Luckily, this go around, my sister in law-Ali, let me know that she was reading the Twilight series. She went on and on about how good they were, and when she finished the book in just a few days, I knew I would love it. I started out the first night and read over 150 pages. As soon as I began reading, I got sucked in. It may seem a bit silly when you think about it-the book being about a love story between a human 17 girl and a vampire! But actually it is great. It is such easy reading, flows very smooth, and simply lets me settle down at night, and almost get away for a few hours. I get so wrapped up in these books that I read for 3-4 hours before I even realize what time it is! So the first book Twilight, was so good that I read it in 3 days. And then of course I called Ali and we headed to see the movie. The movie was pretty good but nothing in comparison to the book. Once I saw the movie I immediately started reading the second book-New Moon. A week late, I have finished that one as well. This one was just as easy reading, but not as much love story, as the previous book. So tonight I will be starting the 3rd one-Eclipse. So far, my new years resolution seems to be in sight, at least for January, I have already exceeded my book goal! Anyone looking for a great read-something light hearted and romantic-Twilight is a perfect fit.

Happy New Year

With the Christmas season coming to a close, Seth and I were really excited about celebrating New Years out with our friends this year. Last year since it was our first New Year's with Elem, we decided to stay in and not do too much, but the grandparents offered to babysit and have a little sleepover with Elem and Cecilia, so we took full advantage. Not too often that we get to get all dressed up and head over to hang out till all hours of the night. Now in honor of the upcoming holiday I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong, like any of us getting sick and what not. But the inevitable happened, and Elem Zane got an ear infection about 3 days before. His Poppa took him to the doctor for me so I wouldnt miss any work, and they checked him out, found that he had ANOTHER ear infection, and got him on some meds right away. We were so lucky to catch this one super fast, seeing as he just got off of antibiotics for another ear infection 4 days earlier. Luckily, he was feeling pretty good by Wednesday and we were still good to go. The plan was to meet up with Ali and Dustin at there house for dinner and then drop the kids off around 7 or 8pm just in time to get them in bed, so the grandparents wouldnt have to do to much. And that is just what we did. We headed over to some of our great friends Karla and Troys house for some food, poker, and lots of New Years celebrating.

All dressed up and ready to party. I love this man. He loves me even though I spent numerous time trying to find something to wear, and he helped me decide.

Some of my best girls!!! All in one place at one time. Very rare to get all of us together with kiddos. Left to right-Mandi, Ali, Karla, Me, Leslie F.)

Some of the boys, from left to right-Dustin, Chad, Spoon, Seth, Tommy-and the birthday boy right in front-Troy!

Me and the best sis in law ever-celebrating 2009!


We had so much fun hanging out with some of our dearest friends. Although I didnt do my best in poker, I did hang with the boys at the table the whole night. Seth did pretty good, and at least he made it home with a little bit of money in his pocket. :) I did my best so thats what counts. The rest of the night I chilled with my girls. Just catching up on some gossip, and how all of our kids are. Actually the only ones with kids are myself, Ali, and Leslie, but still it was a great time to share some stories with the others. Before we knew it, it was already 3:30am, and trust me we NEVER stay out or even up that late, so we decided to head on home-by cab of course.

With the new year here, I am reminded how quickly 2008 has flown by. It seems almost in an instant that my little baby has grown into a little boy. It was quicker than I could have ever imagined and I still am somewhat in shock of actually how fast they grow up. Its seem like a few ago that Seth and I got married but it has already been about 8 months! Crazy. Another year of lots of work, lots of laughing, and lots of loving in the Shelby household. And with any luck we hope to keep it up and have an even better 2009. In regards to New Years resolutions, I am not usually one to keep up with those, so I have decided to jot down a few small ones that I would like to keep:

1. Read to Elem every single night. This is pretty much already a routine for our family, but I do catch myself slacking off every once in a while. So that is one thing I would like to commit to going forward. It is so great to read to your kids, and expose them to more each day, and not to mention the best bonding time ever-just relaxing, holding your baby and spending a few quiet moments together.
2. I want to read more! I just got started reading the past few weeks and my goal is to read at least one book a month, if not more! I know I can do this. :) I never seem to make time for things like this, so this is a must.
3. Take more time for family, and less time for work. I tend to be a work a holic-always have been, and Im sure I always will be. But every day when I get home , bringing all the stresses a normal day of working at a homeless shelter can bring, it takes me a while to disconnect from work and reconnect to family. So I am making a resolution to leave work at work -the best I can, and to commit totally to my family while I am at home. (I know there will be a few nights I have to work, but for the most part-I want to spend that time with my family)

Okay those seem simple enough. I think I can maintain those. Happy New Year everybody!

...Christmas morning 2008 -finally

It is safe to say that January has hit our family full force and we have been busier than ever! Work has really been taking its toll on me, the holidays are always so hectic-at the shelter. Holidays= more people needing a place to stay, more people needing childcare, more volunteers wanting to do their part, and more grant reports for me to work on! So although I am swamped at work, it is nothing compared to this craziness we like to call life. Our home is just as insane. We have had our fair share of sickness, freezing cold weather, and remodeling to keep things crazy. I need to get caught up so I can document things in the order in which they happen, so wayyyy back to Christmas morning is where I am picking up. I promise to go faster for the later part of January.

Christmas morning, we woke up same time as always, right about 7:45am, and went right into Elem's room to let him know that Santa had come to see him while he slept away all night long. Santa did a good job and worked very hard to put Elem's big present together, in hopes that Elem would love it as much as we thought he would. Here is Elem waking up first thing Christmas morning 2008. This little video is so special to me. I love how sleepy he is right when he first wakes up, and how once he realizes what he is looking at, he gets this little grin across his face. priceless. The little giggles are my favorite too.



In action:


Once the 4 wheeler was out, there wasnt really much that could compare-so the opening of a few presents went pretty quick.
However, balls and big trucks seemed to be the theme of the day-since those are 2 of his most favorite things. (except Barney)
How many balls he actually got, I cant even remember. Lets just say you dont have to look far from wherever you might be standing in our house so find one that would best suit you.


Right outside for a quick ride on the 4 wheeler. He likes it.


After Elem got to play with a few toys we threw on our coats and headed over to Grammy and Poppas to celebrate Christmas with them, Ali, Dustin, and Cecilia. These two are 2 peas in a pod. Cute jammies-courtesy of Aunt Ali. :)


We all opened gifts, ate breakfast, had a few mimosas, and spent some time watching the kids play with their goodies. Then grammy and poppa came out with the big surprises, that poppa and Aunt Ali had apparently spent several hours putting together and decorating the night before.

Happy faces all around. I'd say they like em. **Please note Elem's serious face here-tongue out, fierce determination. He means business.


Sadly, it was right about this time, that I started feeling not so hot. After about an hour or so, I told Seth we had to leave because I was getting soooo nauseated. I know what you might be thinking -but the answer is no. I am NOT pregnant. I think I got that question about 19 times from every single person I told I was feeling sick. So there it is in bold-not pregnant. But I was super sick. I ended up with some kind of stomach virus and was out for 3 days. :( my whole Christmas break. No fun. So even though Christmas morning was fun, I didnt get to experience the whole fun filled weekend and time off with my baby boy and hubby. Seth kept Elem out of the house for the most part to ensure that I didnt pass the germs along to either of them and I spent the majority of my time asleep on the couch. I finally got rested up, and ready to get back in the swing of things just in time to head right back into work bright and early on Monday morning. Christmas was so much fun, and hopefully next year we can skip out on the pink eye and stomach virus if at all possible. I was so excited to embrace the holiday season when it arrived-getting a tree, decorating Elem's little tree, shopping for gifts, making the christmas cards, spending time with family and friends, but just as excited as I was for it to get here, I was excited for it to be done as well. The holidays take so much out of me!!! But with my fabulous family, we made lots of great memories, and thejam packed holiday season was all worth it.

Christmas Eve 08'

Almost caught up with Christmas, so this one will be a quicky! I just want to make sure I document what all we did for Christmas Eve. After the cookie baking was over, and we had spent the day together, my mom and dad headed out and back to Memphis so they could head straight on to Rossville, GA to meet up with my sis and her family. Although we hated to see them go, we were excited to celebrate with Seth's side of the family too! Which always means Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, my body was not so excited. I woke up around 2am on the night of the 23rd, with both my eyes matted shut, and I knew, of course that I had pink eye. I had a feeling about it, and it came true. So I jumped up, and grabbed Elem's medicine and started putting it in my eyes. I went back to bed in hopes of a clearer morning, but no such luck. Same old pink eye :( So I continued the meds and threw away those contacts! Such a waste. Geez! Now It was Christmas Eve, and I couldnt very well go missing Christmas Eve, even though elem and I both slightly had pink eye. So we washed up, and headed over to Aunt Nancy, as we always do on Christmas Eve for all the holiday festivities.

Us "pink-eye-ers" gots to stick together. hence the glasses. Hey we still have fun when we're together, even if we are sick. :(

Seth, Pawpaw and Grammy, Aunty Ali, Elem and Sissy's grammy in front with Elem and Cecilia


First things first-food! They always have insane spreads at these events-at least for the normal person they do. I always get the same thing-ham or turkey, mashed potatoes, and rolls. I am too picky I know, but I'm too old to be making changes. Elem and I tend to eat the same food. Dont think thats a good sign, but it sure makes for easy grocery shopping! Here is where Elem and Cecilia spent the majority of the night. In the windowsill with a pretzel dipped in icing. Who wouldnt want to join them?!

Aunt Leslie and the newest addition to the entire family-baby Avery. So sweet and so cute.

Mommy and Daddy. He loves me even though I have the pink eye.

Four generations. Grammy, Grammy, Ali, and Cecilia. Elem's Grammy has been wanting a pic like this, so here you go grammy!

And then it was onto the presents. Of course Elem, Cecilia, and Avery racked up since Ali is the next youngest kid. We had a lot of fun, and we ended up staying over there for about 3 hours. Elem and Cecilia did great and there were no major meltdowns. Its always so good to spend time with family and friends, just relaxing, talking, and eating some good food! By the end of the visit we were ready to get home and start planning for Santa Clause to come and visit our house. Elem had no idea what he was in for the next morning! Now I would like to add here that we went back to the house and let Elem pick one gift of his choice from under the tree to open, because that is what we always did as kids, and I really loved it! Although one present was never enough! But it kept you in the spirit and not wanting to wait till morning. But the whole present idea was still kind of new to Elem so we had actually been letting him pick one gift from under the tree every day until Christmas. It was only for about a week, but still by Christmas Eve he was finally getting the idea. Hey all the wrapped up things under the tree are called presents and I get to open them! He did open another present, jump in his jammies. His Hugh Hefner Christmas jammies that is. :)

I attempted to get a Christmas Eve photo shoot, but al the pics kept looking something like this:


So I called it quits. He was too wiggily and even with the bribe of candy, all I could get was one of these:

And thus the photo shoot was called to an end, and Elem Zane hit the hay. Santa stopped by and spent a good hour putting together Elem's big Christmas present for the next morning and it was all ready for when the little sweet baby would wake up from his long nights sleep.

Cookie Time

Yes this documents Elem's first ever cookie baking experience! And what better time of year to get started than Christmas!! While my parents were here we decided to bake Christmas cookies with Elem, and I am so glad we did it. He surely has a sweet tooth on him, so I knew even if he got side tracked along the way, the cookies, candy, and icing would bring him crawling back. :) On the flip side, Elem is super obsessed with stirring things up, filling up cups and pouring them out, etc. etc. So this little project was right up his alley. Here he is starting right off the bat, diving right on in and stirring up that cookie dough.


Mimi gave him all the pointers-since we all know I am not one to give cooking pointers to anyone! As you can tell, I a missing a few cooking utensils, in this case, a rolling pin. But hey, the kitchen is really seth's area, so I am blaming him for us not having one. Thank goodness for Mimi or mommy wouldnt have a clue what she was doing in regards to the flour and all.

Didnt take any time for Elem to jump right in on the rolling either. He really wanted to pat out the dough and roll it all by himself.

Onto the good part-the icing and all those sweet toppers. So many to choose from, where does one start? We couldnt leave Barney out of the mix either-he joined us at the table to make sure all went smooth. Elem was excited for Barney to be at the table.

And then of course one minute into decorating, Elem had to taste the cookie to make sure it was done. :)

Very into the cookie making here-and a little annoyed that I am trying to document it.

And the finished product. His very first ever decorated cookie. Very well done if I do say so myself.

Although he was done decorating the actual cookie at this point, he was not done playing with all the goodies. He was really deep into work here with the pouring of the sweets into one bowl and then the next, and so on and so on.

Had to get a quick pic with mommy and daddy, and after that I was done!


Baking cookies was so much fun, and they really turned out good! Thanks for cooking with us Mimi, this will have to be added to my much loved Christmas tradition list. Super fun, and really not even all that messy.