Yum, Yum!

We tried rice cereal for the first time with Miss Shelby when she turned 4 months, but she definitely wasn't ready just yet! Here's a video of her first taste...

As you can tell, she wasn't a huge fan! ;) We decided to just wait and try again at 5 months. She still wasn't loving it, but after a few days of practice with the spoon she has really gotten the hang of it! Now she actually leans in for another bite..it's too cute! Before she was fussing if I put the spoon anywhere near her mouth, and now she's fussing if I don't give her the spoon again fast enough! Here are 2 (much shorter) videos of her eating cereal last night.

And, yes that is her rice cereal in a shot glass. I know, we should really get the "Parents of the Year" award. But in our defense, we have been on a boil water alert for the past seven days, and I'm not a fan of boiling water to wash my dishes. (aka..the dishes are piling up almost to the ceiling at this point!) We didn't have any other small bowls/cups that were clean to put her cereal in, so we broke out a shot glass. And it worked perfectly! :)

In other more exciting news, Shelby is officially a big cousin! :) My sweet niece entered the world on Thursday evening, and we got to meet her this weekend! Details & pictures to follow soon...

Happy Monday, Everyone! :)

5 months!

Better late than never, right?!

This sweet girl turned 5 months old on the 17th. This month it was a bit harder to get her to sit still and pose for her photo...as you can tell by her blurry & oh-so-very chubby legs. ;)

With each passing day, we fall in love with her just a little bit more!
Here's what Miss Shelby is up to these days...

--smiles every evening when she sees her Daddy walk in the door. :)
--loves to stand up in my lap or Derek's lap and reach out to touch our face..it melts our hearts!
--she has really found her voice this month! Shelby is talking and squealing up a storm these days!
--loves sitting in our laps during dinner. She tracks our drinks or the food from the table all the way up to our mouths. It's so funny! She especially loves the Diet Coke cans. :)
--not a huge fan of the rice cereal. We offer it to her a couple of times each week to give her practice with eating from a spoon. Shelby's definitely making progress with the spoon, but she'd rather just nurse!
--still taking PrevAcid for her acid reflux. We had previously been giving her half of a 15mg tablet every day. Well, we started noticing some of her symptoms {acting like she's being tortured as I try to nurse her--super fun for both of us} were resurfacing a bit. The doctor recommended we start giving her the whole 15mg tablet, and we've definitely noticed improvement.
--bibs are a staple in Shelby's wardrobe. She pretty much has one on all the time unless she's in her crib. This way, we only have to change outfits 3 times a day as opposed to 13 due to the spit-up. :)
--she's currently in the "I'm not a fan of the stroller" phase. About one minute after I put her in the stroller, she starts to fuss. But as soon as I walk around to the front of the stroller where she can see my face, she's as happy as can be. She wants to be interacting with you all.the.time. :)
--sleeping great!!!! She's taking two good naps each day and is sleeping really well at night. I'm trying to get her morning wake-up time a little more regular though. We usually put her to bed at night around 7:15 or 7:30 and she's waking up between 5 and 6 to nurse. If she wakes up closer to 5am, she usually goes right back to sleep after eating and sleeps till 7:30-8:30 {yesterday it was 9am!}. But if she wakes up closer to 6 or a little after, she's sometimes ready to be up for the day after nursing. This may not seem like a huge deal, but I'm a fan of routine..and it's hard to be on a good routine if the morning starts at 6 on some days and 8:30 on others. So we're working on it. But for now, I'm just thankful that my baby is sleeping through the night! :)
--started going to Kindermusik & MOPS this month!
This is one of our favorite faces to see in the whole world. :) Whenever Shelby really likes something or is really happy, she opens her mouth up real wide like this and lunges toward whatever is making her happy. It's the cutest.thing.ever!

I can hardly believe that she will be a HALF YEAR OLD next month! Oh, how the time flies!

She's definitely my daughter!

Shelby may be the spitting image of her Daddy, but she's definitely my daughter!

Yes, my friends...that is a Diet Coke can in my baby girl's hands. Whenever I am drinking a Diet Coke, her eyes are fixated on the can. This afternoon as Derek and I were finishing lunch, Shelby kept leaning towards the table to try to grab the can. We finally gave in and let her hold the {empty} can. For those of you who don't know, I am an avid drinker of Diet Coke. Apparently, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. :)
And as hard as it is to believe, Shelby turned 5 months old last week! I keep forgetting to take her 5 month photo...hopefully I will take her picture tonight, so I can get her 5 month post up soon! Hope everyone is having a happy Monday! :)

Glorious

Sorry for the absence in blogging this week! We have been busy enjoying some glorious weather and some extra family time. {Derek is in the midst of 3 straight months of being on wards, which typically means only one day off a week at the most. Then after working 11 straight days, he unexpectedly got yesterday and today off..which has been even more glorious than the weather!}

Here's a quick re-cap of our week...
On Monday, Shelby and I decorated cupcakes & delivered them to our Valentine at the hospital.
That evening, we stayed home and enjoyed our first Valentine's Day together as family of three. Here are my two Valentines. :)

Every time we pull out the camera, she gets bug eyes and stares right at it! :)

On Tuesday, Derek and I had one of the sweet girls that lives across the street come over and watch Shelby for the evening while we enjoyed a much-needed date night! :) We went out to eat, saw a movie, and got ice cream. It was such a nice treat!

On Wednesday, Derek was on call. He came home post-call on Thursday afternoon, and we've been enjoying our family time ever since! :) We enjoyed a nice family walk yesterday, and we decided to take Shelby to the little playground behind our house this afternoon and let her try the swing for the first time. She loved it! I love how you can sweet her little smile behind her pacifier. :)
Derek is back on call tomorrow, but I'm so glad we've been able to soak up this beautiful weather and extra family time...we have really enjoyed it! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend as well!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone! :) Wishing you a day filled with lots of love & happiness!

Candy Hearts Valentine's Day 5x7 folded card

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A First for Me!

I came across this blog the other day and found a recipe on it for broccoli cheddar & potato soup that looked oh-so-very good. I was a bit hesitant to try it b/c I've never made soup before, and if I'm being honest the recipe called for "blanching" vegetables {definitely had to look up the term blanching} and suggested using a dutch oven, which is something I never even heard of. But I successfully made it with the help of my hubby who is a much better cook than me. {For the first three years of our marriage, he had dinner waiting on the table for me every night when I got home from work. I'm a lucky girl!}
But back to the soup, it is seriously so.good. I always order the broccoli cheese soup at Panera & Jason's Deli...and well, I'm pretty sure this recipe is better. Yep, that's right..I think it's better than Panera & Jason's Deli! You should definitely give it a try!! I promise, you'll thank me! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Squealy Shelby

Happy Wednesday, Friends! :)

This Makes me Happy!

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday morning due to lack of sleep. {Just when Shelby started sleeping consistently almost through the night, my body was getting used to waking up every few hours. So now Shelby is sleeping great these days, and I'm the one having trouble re-adjusting to sleeping through the night..go figure!} But thankfully, a few things brightened my day! When I got dressed, I put on this necklace...which instantly makes me happy when I wear it!

My sweet hubby gave this necklace to me for Christmas this year. The three diamonds symbolize our family of three, so not only is this necklace beautiful it is so very special to me and makes me so happy to wear it! I will always treasure this gift!
Then after Miss Shelby went down for her morning nap yesterday, my sweet neighbor brought over Starbucks and we sat and chit-chatted while we sipped on our yummy drinks. It was such a nice treat to enjoy some uninterrupted adult conversation for a little while! :)

Miss Shelby went to bed at 7:15 yesterday evening and slept through the night until 6:30 this morning and woke up talking up a storm in her crib! It was so cute! And to make things even better, my body let me sleep last night too! Hallelujah!

Top Five Friday: Random Thoughts

It's Friday, and I'm tired. So I thought we'd do a Top Five Friday with some random thoughts. Sound good? Okay, here we go....

{5} I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. But I am loving the new season of American Idol. I have to admit, I wasn't too pumped up about the new cast of judges...but now, I think the show is better than ever. Seriously. How cute is Jennifer Lopez? And while Steven Tyler makes me a bit uncomfortable at times, I'm loving the humor he adds to the show. I think my fave line of his so far was when one of the contestants said he was a pharmaceutical sales rep; to which Steven Tyler replied, "We've got a lot in common then b/c that was pretty much my whole seventies." At least he's honest! :) What does everyone else think about the new season?
{4} I am totally o.v.e.r. the spit-up. Any other mommies of babies w/ acid reflux feel my pain? I think Shelby & I each changed clothes no short of 3 times yesterday before I even got to eat my bagel. Ugh. And I really wish that every baby product could be covered in some type of vinyl or wipe-able surface. I can't even count how many times I've had to clean spit-up off of the car seat, swing, and every other not-easy-to-clean item. Thankfully, Shelby is real cute, which makes up for the yuckiness of the incessant spit-up.

{3} People seem to wear flip-flops year-round in Biloxi. I guess that's what comes with life on the Gulf Coast. But we have been having some serious wet and cold weather here this week..the kind of weather that makes you actually have to wear a jacket {gasp!} and put on socks. But low and behold, what did I see at Wal-Mart last night? A person wearing socks...with their flip-flops. Way to keep it classy.
{2} I heart Cold Stone. So my super-sweet & thoughtful mama searched high & low for Cold Stone hot chocolate {apparently it's a new item & hard to find in stores} and sent me some in a care package for my birthday. I had my first taste of it last night and it was quite delish, but I'm not sure it's any better than Nestle's hot chocolate.

{1} I'm wondering how long I can get away with keeping Shelby in her jammies exclusively. As a result of the excessive spit-up {please reference #4}, it is soooo much easier to keep her jammies all day b/c that's the easiest/quickest thing to change her in & out of all day. I used to just keep her in jammies all day at home and put her in a cute outfit whenever we'd leave the house. But then Derek brought up two good points in defense of leaving her in jammies even when we do go out...when we're out about, she's usually in her car seat 90% of the time so no one would even see the cute outfit and she's just a baby. So that's what we do most of the time these days. But, I can't help but wonder, when is it no longer appropriate to leave a kid in jammies anymore? {Or is it ever appropriate?!} Help!

And now you know why 99,9% of the pictures I take of Shelby are of her in her jammies. At least they're cute jammies, right? Does that make it any better??

Ahhh...much better!

Remember how I said I was on a little organizing kick? Well, I tackled our coat closet last Friday. It was one of those places in the house that every time I opened the door, it bothered me. But I just never made the time to fix it. Here's the before...
And after a quick trip to Tar-jay {for a desperately needed shoe rack and new coat hangers} and about 30 minutes of organizing the clutter, I present to you the the after...drum roll, please.....
I realized a large part of the reason why our closet looked like a hot mess before was because we had about 50 different kinds of hangers in there...it looks so much better now with uniform hangers! Not to mention, several of the hangers had broken under the weight of some of our heavier coats. As I was taking some of the coats off of the old hangers to put them on the new hangers, I discovered that my hubby had found yet another use for his beloved duct tape--he had duct taped 2 broken hangers together to make one functioning hanger. Classy, huh?? :) Another thing I added was a few baskets/containers at the top of the closet to make it easier to find the things we store in here. The bin on the left houses all of our sports paraphernalia, the basket in the middle has all of our hats/gloves/scarves (which we haven't yet used since we moved to Biloxi), and the pink container on the right has our sunscreen/lotions. Now that I'm thinking about it, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to keep your sunscreen in the same place with all of your winter wear...but where are you supposed to keep sunscreen?! But I am pleased to say that our closet is now functioning so much better for us, and I'm not scared to open the door anymore! :)

I am linking up to IHeart Organizing today..stop on by to see more simple/quick updates you can do around your house!