Our Turkey Day

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3 this year! Due to Derek's busy schedule at the hospital, we had to stay here in Biloxi for the holiday...as did some of our neighbors, so we each made a couple of dishes and celebrated together. Although we really missed being with our families, we had a nice holiday. We were especially thankful that Derek got Thanksgiving Day off--he's been out of town working at a civilian hospital in Jackson (about 3 hours away) for all of November. So it was a pleasant surprise that he got to come and spend the day with us! And I'm even more thankful that November is almost over b/c that means Derek will be coming home, & I could not be more excited about that! :) Derek & I have done the long-distance thing quite a few times throughout our relationship (Field Training right after we started dating, multiple TDY's, & most notably a year apart when Derek was in VA & I was still living in GA finishing my master's degree); so even though we don't like being apart, we are used to it. But being apart with a newborn? Now that's a whole different story! It's definitely been a long & challenging month for both of us! Thankfully my mom stayed with Shelby & me for a good portion of the month, which made things a lot easier on me. But I will be a happy, happy girl when I get my hubby back in a couple of days! And I know Shelby will be a happy baby to have her Daddy home again! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

While you are feasting on turkey and all the trimmings tomorrow, this little girl will be feasting on her patties. She love-love-loves to suck on her hands. She does it all.day.long. And don't you just love her cute outfit for Turkey Day?! I too am very thankful for my Mama. We said goodbye to her earlier this week (I guess she had to go back to GA sometime!), and I don't know who misses her more..me or Shelby! Shelby's crying in this picture b/c she doesn't want her Grammy to go!

Do you see Shelby's cute little belly sticking out?!

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with family, friends, and good food! :)

A Change in Jobs

For those of you who may not know, for the three years we lived in Virginia I was a Kindergarten teacher. I did not look for a new teaching job when we moved to Mississippi b/c Derek and I had planned for me to stay at home once Miss Shelby arrived. Now that she's here, I am so thankful for the opportunity to stay at home with our baby girl b/c I know we will never get this sweet time with her back again.

But I would by lying if I didn't say that I missed my job. I love-love-love teaching Kindergarten. I heart five and six year-olds. There is just something about that age and their sweet innocence that is so refreshing. I love seeing the world through their eyes! However, I saw this video that someone posted on Facebook about parent-teacher conferences (and it's so true!) that reminded me that being a teacher isn't always so fun....

Now that I'm not in the classroom, I miss it more than I realize. In time, I've forgotten about all those not-so-fun parts of my job and can look back on it with nostalgia. I've forgotten about the difficult parents, the stacks upon stacks of papers to grade, the disgusting amount of work I brought home each evening & weekend...but I remember the sweet, fun moments like this and this.

Although I do miss teaching Kindergarten, I have a great new job. Now I'm spending my days loving on this sweet girl. :)

Happy Baby :)

Shelby has been smiling & cooing more & more each day, and I've been desperately trying to capture it without much success. Whenever I pull out the camera, she usually stops whatever cute thing she's doing and just starts staring at the camera. But yesterday when she started smiling & cooing, I kept the camera low to hide it from her. So I apologize for the bad angle of the video, but you can still enjoy her cuteness! :)

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

Two Months Old!

This sweet little girl turned two months old yesterday!

We had her two month check-up today at the pediatrician, and we learned this little girl is certainly not having any trouble with growing! She weighs 13 pounds & 2 ounces, which puts her in the 99th percentile. (Just to put things in perspective, she was only in the 50th percentile the last time we went to the doctor at her 2 week check-up.) She measured 23.5 inches, which puts her in the 95th percentile. So we have a big girl on our hands!

Along with Shelby's two month check-up today, she also had 3 shots & an oral vaccination. Shelby was an angel the whole time at the doctor's office and only cried for just a second with the shots. But once we got home, she started getting really fussy and running a low-grade fever because of the shots. We just now got some tylenol infant drops for her...so we're hoping that will help. I just hate seeing my little girl in pain. It's been a rough day for both of us...I'm so thankful my mom was here to help with it all!

On another note, Shelby was diagnosed last week with acid reflux and started taking medicine for it. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any improvements yet. So the pediatrician prescribed something new for Shelby today...I certainly hope this medicine kicks in soon!

Here's what Shelby is up to these days...

--smiling & cooing...and it's the sweetest.thing.ever.
--loves to grab a hold of things...the hair or shirt of whoever is holding her at the time, her pacifier, anything she can grasp in her fist!
--still likes to find lights and stare at them...lights in the ceiling, lamps, light from the tv, etc.
--fights naps tooth & nail...she takes a few cat naps each day. If we hold her, she'll sleep for-ev-er, but if I put her down for a nap it only lasts for a couple of minutes
--sleeping much better at night! She usually goes down around 7ish, and her first stretch of sleep is the longest at 4-6 hours most nights. After that, she sleeps in short 1-2 hour stretches...we're hoping that will get better with age!
--holding her head up more & more
--wearing 3 month & 6 month clothes

Thanks for checking in with us and caring enough to read about our sweet baby girl. :)

Shelby's First Trip to GA!

Right after Halloween, Shelby, my mom (who had been in Biloxi visiting/helping us), and I hit the road for GA. Sadly, Derek didn't get to join us b/c he was busy with work, but we had a fun time visiting with family & friends and experiencing GA for the first time with Miss Shelby!

One of the most challenging aspects of this trip (aside from traveling 400 miles in a car with a newborn!) was preparing for the weather! We left blue skies & temps in the mid-seventies in Biloxi for chilly, rainy weather in GA. Shelby had very little clothing for cold weather, and I hadn't worn jeans or anything with long sleeves since before I was pregnant...so I had no clue what even fit me! Needless to say, this was a challenging trip to pack for! Here's a photo of my sweet girl sporting some of her winter wear...

Thank you Lin & Nathan for the cute long sleeve onesies..we've gotten a lot of use out of them already!

We took Shelby up to my dad's dealership, and Grampy thoroughly enjoyed showing off his sweet grandbaby to everyone there! I think it's safe to say that Shelby is a very loved little girl. :)
We visited with Shelby's BooBoo & PopPop one evening...here they are loving on her!
They brought me dinner from Longhorn's and cheesecake from none other than Cheesecake Factory, which was such a treat b/c we don't have a Cheesecake Factory in Biloxi (or anywhere near us for that matter)...they certainly know the way to their daughter-in-law's heart! :)

Shelby & I took a trip to McDonough one day to spend the day with Auntie Em at her apartment...
We also spent one day with Shelby's Grandad & Grandma while we were in town. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our time with them, but we had a very nice visit! We also introduced Miss Shelby to several of our family's friends while we were in town..so we were busy, busy, busy!

On another note, today is Shelby's two month birthday! I will try to do her two month post after her doctor's appointment tomorrow...so check back in soon! Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Better late than never...

I just realized today that I never shared Shelby's birth announcement with the blogging world! So without further ado, here it is....
Although we may be a little biased, we were so pleased with how it turned out! I ordered the announcements from Tiny Prints (I also ordered our change of address announcements from them this summer), and they offer canvas prints of your cards...so I'm thinking of possibly ordering a canvas print of the announcement for her nursery..we'll see!

I'll try to get a post up about our trip to GA later this week...hope everyone is having a happy Monday! It's a rainy one here in Biloxi, but my flowers sure are enjoying it! (And saying that just made me feel so.old.)

True Life: Hallowen with a Baby

Okay, please bear with me as we travel back in time...to Halloween 2010. Derek & I were so excited to dress Shelby up in the costume that Derek's mom had gotten for us before she was born. We were so excited about this Halloween..it was our first Halloween as a family of 3, and it was our first Halloween with trick-or-treaters! We never had a single trick-or-treater in the 3 years we lived in Virginia, so we were so excited to experience Halloween on base.

One of my friends Cindy (who is an Air Force wife as well...and who I miss so much!) had always told me that living on base is like a throw-back to the fifties..and that analogy is certainly true for Keesler AFB. Our neighborhood is filled with sweet families, and the parents all feel safe enough to let their kids play and ride their bikes to school unsupervised. People don't feel the need to keep their doors locked at all times, and neighbors feel free to just "come on in." It's a very nice change of pace from living in Northern Virginia (although we did love our little life there, too!). I say all this to help you understand why we were so excited about Halloween...it was such a sweet night filled with families walking door to door with their precious kids. I've never seen so many trick-or-treaters!

Anyhow, back to my point of how excited we were about dressing Shelby up for her first Halloween. Well, she had other plans for us. It was, in all honesty, the roughest day of her short 6 weeks of life. She literally cried and screamed all.day.long. It was so hard on her and us. Needless to say, she didn't get to wear her costume. :( So we were very thankful that we did a little Halloween photo shoot with Shelby a few weeks ago when we were trying to get a photo for our Halloween card. So here's a pic of Derek & Shelby in their matching scrubs from back in September when she was about 1.5 weeks old. :)

Oh.my.gosh. I can't get over how tiny she looks in this picture!

Despite all of the crying, we were able to enjoy the trick-or-treaters and some yummy cupcakes that I made!
Although we really wanted a sweet family photo of our first Halloween together, that just wasn't in the stars. So here's the only picture we were able to capture!
And we know next year when we do get to dress Shelby up, we'll look back on her first Halloween and laugh.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jog

Sorry for being MIA the past couple of weeks! Right after Halloween, we loaded up the car to make the trek to GA. It was Shelby's first road trip, and I was so thankful my mom made the drive with me. I don't think Shelby & I would have survived that 400 mile trip without her. We learned that a six hour drive + a six week old baby = a nine hour drive. But we survived, and we had a great time taking Shelby to GA for her first of many visits. And I'm happy to report the drive back to Biloxi yesterday went much smoother. I'll try to catch you up on our trip & our life the past couple of weeks in the next few blog posts, so check back in soon!

And last but not least...Happy Belated Veterans Day to all those who have served our country--past & present! I am proud to be the daughter of an Army veteran and an Air Force wife!