love x 2

I'm sure you can see why but my heart just explodes with love everytime I see these two.

LESSONS and Carols

In no particular order here are some lessons learned this Christmas ~

Things I don't have but need for cooking a turkey and/or serving a turkey dinner include: margarine, turkey baster, roasting pan, gravy boat

Christmas Eve church lasts a lot longer when you think your child may make a loud bodily function during a silent moment.

With that said, taking your new daughter to church for the first time on Christmas Eve is really special.

Three week old babies don't like flutes being played.

Three week old babies really don't like the high G in O Holy Night.

You know you are a parent when the first thing you do on Christmas morning is think about doing laundry.

You know you are the parent of a newborn when you actually do laundry first thing on Christmas morning!

Starting Christmas at 9am and finishing at 5pm with numerous breaks for nursing a baby, snow picture adventures, and eating can be quite fun.

Taking a walk in the snow with a baby inside your jacket can be nerve-racking but also pretty cool.

Babies that can't open presents often get more presents than anyone else.

Every day with a baby is special but being with family on a holiday makes the day even sweeter.
A First Christmas is full of memories for a lifetime.

Christmas Photos

After church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning.

Anna's first present from Santa - a camera!!

Christmas Night before our snowy walk.

Merry Christmas to all

and to all a Goodnight.

Christmas Shirley Style

Christmas came early with the Shirley side of the family.  Check it out!



Anna wasn't that excited about any presents -although she got lots of cute things from her grandparents and her cousin!  She slept most of the day because her Granddaddy has a special power to put her to sleep and keep her asleep for long periods of time. She was super excited about that! We gave our nephew a new football and a DS game.  Both were a hit and Allen and Carson played football in the backyard while dinner cooked. We had a great dinner and enjoyed lots of cookies for dessert. 

Merry Christmas #1.

Wonderfully Made

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14

all dolled up

I took Anna into my office today to meet some folks there.  I decided that it was the perfect excuse to dress her in one of her Christmas dresses!

She was a huge hit!!

  

Yes, those are tights on my baby!  They are newborn size but are still way too big on her! hehe.

Sorry she's sleeping in this picture, like usual.  She actually slept the whole time we visited at the office.  They of course now think that's all she does.  A few more hours and we could have set them straight, right Anna?

Gifts

Anna has received more gifts in the mail than any two week old girl I know.  She's blessed to have so many generous people in her life.  You all are simply amazing and I'm so happy my daughter can call you friends and family.

Thank you.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.



With that said - this surprise gift came yesterday from the Jones family.

I LOVE these burp cloths! They are the perfect mix of being girlie but not too girlie! ;)

So I know what you are thinking - how do I get my hands on something so cute?

Easy enough - a friend from college ordered these from another friend from college who custom makes all types of adorable gifts.  Check out her business here!

I couldn't have a postcard with out a picture of my sweet girl - so here ya go....

Anna's still not sure about the bouncy seat but she tolerates it longer each day. 

all clean

Anna got her first real bath tonight - fun times!

Practicing her pirate face while in the tub. 

If only you could hear her "argh" as well! She's really good at it.

Getting dry and warm.

Sweet precious moment captured by Daddy.

Ready for bed and tuckered out after all the excitement.

Rough Day

Anna had a rough day yesterday.... take a look...

See what I mean?  She leads a hard life. :)

Things have been going well for us.  Anna has been sleeping well (obviously from this post) and she's been eating really well.  Day one of the cloth diaper adventure went well - we only had one leak but as wet as that diaper was I think anything would have leaked.  I'm going to have to look into the doubler inserts for this girl! Anna attended her first party this week and stole the show.  Some girls from work got together for a cookie exchange and we felt brave enough to drop in for a little while.  We are going to have to talk to Anna about being an attention hog eventually.  But she's so cute, I guess I'll let her do it for a little while longer.  Going to the party meant a longer car ride and she did wonderfully.  I'm so thankful she likes her carseat so far.  Yesterday, I ran some errands and left my two loves at home.  It felt very weird not having Anna with me but I don't think she would have liked all the errands -  I mean who wants to go to the bank? I was happy to get home and Anna was even happier because she was a hungry baby!  I guess my next challenge is to run errands with my sweet girl.  Maybe next week.  Aunt Abby will be here and maybe, just maybe, we will be crazy enough to try it.

Bee Bo!!!

If you aren't familiar with hippo language - bee bo means belly button and we've got one!!!

Isn't it the cutest?

Well, really the only reason we are excited that the umbilical cord stump fell off this morning is we can stop using disposable diapers and move on to the good stuff- CLOTH! :)  I can't believe how much money we've already spent on disposables and she's only 13 days old.  Geez - I'm glad we are up for trying cloth because in the long run we are going to be able to save lots of money not to mention keep a couple 1000s diapers out of the landfill.  Anyway, here's a picture of Anna sporting a prefold diaper and a Thristies cover. 

Isn't she lovely?

 

Ok, so this was taken right before I nursed her and I think that was what all the fuss was about.  She's happily sleeping now with the same diaper and if what I heard is what I think I heard she's not being gentle on breaking them in... lol.  I think I'm going to be changing her first cloth diaper soon. Very soon.

Weight

Anna had her second check up with the doctor today and we had her big weigh in.  At the hospital we had lots of different people doing their best to scare us that she was not getting enough to eat because she lost weight (almost 8% of her body weight) and she was slightly jaundice.   Since leaving the hospital, I've been nursing her every two to two and half hours and we've been putting her in the sun for short periods each day to help with the weight and jaundice.  At her first doctor's appointment she had gained a few ounces since leaving the hospital.  Then a few days later at the lactaction consultant appointment, she had gained a few more ounces, so again moving in the right direction.  When we were with the lactaction consultant, Anna was weighed, I fed her, and then she was weighed again.  This helped us figure out how much milk she was getting in a feeding.  Guess what? Anna was getting more than enough milk for her weight!  By ten days old breastfeed babies should be back up to their birth weight.  So even with all these positive signs, we were still really hoping that her weigh in today at ten days would go well and she would be back to her birth weight of 6lbs 10oz. 

And now for the results.....Little Miss Anna isn't so little anymore - she weighed in at 7lbs 4 oz today!  She gained just under a pound since her first doctor's appointment last week! Woo hoo!

Here's the view I have from the couch as I'm blogging... so sweet.

all in the family part 2

So here's where I would post the picture of my family from yesterday's visit IF I had remembered to get that batch of picture's off of Pop's (my dad's) camera before they left today.  Oh well, they'll be back in two weeks and there will be 100s of more pictures to swap by then.

Sticking with the family theme, here's a picture of me on the left when I was seven weeks old next to Anna on the right at eight days old.  Just a little family resemblance there...   :)

all in the family

We had both sides of the family visiting yesterday as well as great friends.  It was great to see everyone and introduce them to Anna. 

Here's a picture of the Shirley family.

My sister is here today so we'll have a picture of my family soon!

Speaking of all in the family - both of us are not feeling well so we can't blame anyone else for getting our daughter sick.  awesome. Hopefully we can keep her healthy and get better quickly.



Another week goes by...

Wait a minute, a week has gone by since Anna's arrival! 
She's eight days old now. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Only a week and I can't remember life without her. 
Life when it was just the two of us. 
Life before we were the parents to such a precious little girl. 

I'm sure this new life is what life is truly all about.

It was pointed out that I should clarify what "this new life" is. 

It is sharing the joy of new parenthood with the one I love.

Anna cuddling with Daddy.

Mama and Anna napping.

Baby Steps

As all parents know, there is a very steep learning curve once your baby arrives.

We are taking baby steps forward, and learning as quickly as we can just who this little girl is and what she's all about.  We have learned she loves to snuggle, loves to be warm, has plenty of patience, and captures the heart of everyone she meets. 

Good Morning!

When you read this, there is a good chance someone else is sleeping.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Anna had a wonderful St. Nicholas Day - presents all the way around.   You can't be apart of this family and not celebrate December 6th.

Thanks to Aunt Abby for the socks and Cousin/Honorary Aunt Holly for the onesie!!

day 2

I know it has been so long since you all got to see Anna, so here are some of our favorite shots from day 2.  Wow!  It's already day two.  Maybe it only seems so long to us since we are being stubborn and trying to soak up every minute (we will be in need of catching up with sleep when we get home...).

We love our little monkey, and she loves being burped.

We have a "bigfoot" spotting.  Are babies like puppies?  If so, we are going to have quite the basketball star.

Anna's first manicure...

This is what one end of an Anna burrito looks like...

So tiny and precious!

This bag will have a long life for her to fill it in.

I'm sure we will post more soon.  But hopefully, we will get everyone some more sleep first.  We should be going home later this morning if all goes well.  We had a good weigh-in at midnight, so things are looking good!

and then there were three of us

There's a new girl in town.

12.02.10 @ 11:13pm

6lbs 10oz

Finishing Touches

Well, we think we are done.... what did we forget?!?! :)

Nursery Overview.

Crib skirt close-up.

Waiting on a friend.

 Something from my childhood room painted by my Gma.

Baby S has an awesome start to a library!

Twas the Month before Christmas

Twas the month before Christmas, when all through our house

There was a creature stirring, much bigger than a mouse.

The diapers were folded by the crib with care,

In hopes that Baby S would soon be here.

The baby was nestled and running out of space,

While common hiccups bounced all over the place.

After mama grabbed a late night snack, we went off to bed

Forgetting about all the sleepless nights that lay ahead.

For the love of art (& history for that matter)

Ok - this takes a little bit of courage, but I've got at least a little so here goes...

You know we like pictures, and we like to take pictures that have a bit of artistic flare.  So why not of me in my pregnant state?  We've taken lots of shots throughout, but haven't shared because well, we took them for us to help remember this journey.

Anyway, this one was taken with the intent to share.   And I'm comfortable with this....(I think).....

There it is - the bump in all it's glory.
Taken at 35weeks 5days.

Zoo Decor

Here's a sneak peak of the nursery decorations - well at least the walls.  My seamstress (grandma-to-be) is still working on somethings, so we aren't going to show you the whole room yet.

Lion - Riverbanks Zoo May 2008

Tiger - San Diego Zoo December 2009

Panda - San Diego Zoo December 2009

 

Zebra - San Diego Zoo December 2009

Panda -AKA Sea Turtle Stand-in - Hawaii 2008

Giraffe - North Carolina Zoo September 2010

Elephant - North Carolina Zoo September 2010

Penguin - Riverbanks Zoo May 2008

Maybe you noticed that the panda is on two walls?  He's standing in for one last picture we are getting printed of a sea turtle.  Random fact - the sea turtle will be the only WILD animal on the walls of the nursery.

What are the favorite pictures?

Mine - Elephant

His - Tie between Tiger and Zebra

Do you have the answer?

A twist on the age old question....

If a baby has hiccups in utero and no one is there to hear them, do the hiccups make noise?

Hiccups round 5 of the day... poor kid!

A bit of everything

I'm sorry to those of you who faithfully check this blog and have been faced with the same pumpkin carving pictures for quite some time now.

Nothing too exciting to report which is why there hasn't been a blog update.

We enjoyed our first trick or treating here.  Typically we turn off the lights and escape to the Y or to a friend's house.  Yes, we have been Halloween bah humbugs in the past. We braced ourselves for hundreds of kids and only had about 50 come by the house.   Extra candy for us.  With the arrival of Baby S during holiday season, I've been shopping extra early for Christmas presents.  I'm 85% or more done.  Probably the first and last time Christmas presents will be done this early.  I dared myself to be done by Thanksgiving. You think it's possible?  I don't know... the last few may be hard to track down.

We've had our last trip before the baby arrives this past weekend.  We visited with family and friends and had a pretty hectic weekend which left me feeling very pregnant Sunday night and Monday.  You know - tired, swollen, and tired. :)

Speaking of being pregnant - everything is going very well.  We've got 5-7 weeks to go with Baby S choosing the exact arrival date.  I've been able to keep up exercising including going to Zumba class.  Not sure if I'll make it to 40 weeks of Zumba but I'm certainly going to try.  Everything has checked out great at our appointments - I'm doing well and the baby is growing on schedule.  We are really happy with the practice we choose and like the midwives we are seeing.  We toured the hospital and now we at least know which door to go in.  I can't say my bags are packed for the hospital but I can say that I have thought about what should go into the bag.

I've kept myself under control and haven't splurge on much baby stuff.  However, I just couldn't pass this up when my sister and I found it over the weekend.

What?  Every baby needs a Clemson outfit.

orange gourd-like squash

Sunday we got together with the best neighbors ever - they are such good neighbors that even though they aren't true neighbors anymore they still get the best neighbors ever distinction in our book. 

While we were at the balloon festival on Saturday, they went to a pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins.  They were nice enough to pick one out for me too!  Mine was the biggest pumpkin something about resembling my belly or something.  There was also a pumpkin for Baby Shirley that was baby size.  We had awesome weather to be outside carving our masterpieces.  We had a great time and dinner was fantastic afterwards.  Ohh and I made an apple crisp with some of the apples we picked a few weeks ago - I LOVE that stuff.

We tried to mimic my maternity halloween shirt with our  pumpkin design - how did we do?

Balloon Fest - Take 2

You may remember we tried to go to a balloon festival last spring - the weather didn't cooperate with us then but this weekend was a different story.  The weather was perfect for the balloons to take off.  We saw around 50 inflate and leave the ground within 30 minutes of eachother.  It was pure chaos - people and balloons everywhere.  Did I mention all the people?  The crowd was the biggest the festival had ever had and there were lines for tickets, lines for food (tickets required for food purchases), lines for the port-a-potties, you get the picture.  Lines aside, it was a great afternoon.  At the end of the night there was a balloon glow where all the balloons light up at the same time.  We witnessed the glow from a line, of course, and then got to walk through them as they were all lit up to get back to our camera.  Luckily, they weren't completely done by the time we got back to our seats and we were able to capture a few pictures.

Take a look -

Sunday was our pumpkin carving day....check back for pictures later this week.



Takeover

There's been a baby takeover at the Shirley household.  And the baby's not due to arrive for another two months!  No complaints here - but what did we do before we spent Saturday afternoons putting together a pack and play, a car seat, and a stroller?  What did we do before we spent a few hours on a Sunday organizing a nursery, washing loads of baby laundry, and sorting baby clothes by sizes?  And what used to take up all the space now filled with the previously mentioned car seat, pack and play, clothes, towels, etc?

I don't know the exact answers to these questions but I do know those old answers don't matter. 

The new answers, well those answers, they matter a whole lot.

One last question - aren't these winter socks great for the winter baby we are going to have?