Isn't she lovely....

Psalm 127:3-5 (The Message)

Don't you see that children are God's best gift?

the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?

Like a  warrior's fistful of arrows

are the children of a vigorous youth.

Oh, how blessed are you parents,

with your quivers full of children!

Your enemies don't stand a chance against you;

you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

 

 
Welcome, little miss Shelby Claire!! Oh, how proud of you we are!
 
We chose the name, "Shelby Claire", because her Daddy's name is Shelby Clay. Her Daddy really likes the name Claire, and I really liked Shelby so we have decided to call her the double name, "Shelby Claire". We think it is a beautiful name that fits a perfect little baby.
 
She was born February 21st, 2011 at 7:07 am. She weighed 7 lbs 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. She shares the same birthdate as her Great-Grandfather Watts and her Uncle Shad.
 
Side note: Her big sister was born on August 21st, sharing the same birthdate as her grandmother and her cousin, Laura!
 

 

Happy Heart Day

Clay and I planned a "date" to celebrate Valentines Day for the Saturday before the 14th. Our sitter called us that day and cancelled so we ended up taking Audrey with us. At first, we were disapointed that we were not going to get to spend some time alone together but in the end, it was a great date. We went to Panera Bread, Buy Buy Baby and ended the night at Yolo Dessert Bar. Audrey was as precious as ever and we had a great time!


Here our sweet girl is giving her daddy his Valentine from her. Every day last week when we checked the mail, Audrey would have a Valentine from someone. Each and EVERY time, she would hug it and say, "For me!??!" in the sweetest little voice. It was so much fun to see her enjoy Valentine's Day this year!

She loves Strawberry Shortcake and anything related to it. We gave her a Strawberry Shortcake purse that was filled with an "Eye Spy" book, "lipstick" (chapstick) and M&M's. She loved it! She quickly renamed the "purse" lunchbox and that's what I have to put her lunch in for MDO now!

It was a sweet day with a sweet little girl!

Random stuff

Shelby Claire----------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this moment, I am 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Unless Shelby Claire comes early, we have a c-section scheduled for Monday, the 21st (39 weeks, 4days). Parts of me wish she were here right now and other parts of me wish I had a few more weeks! I absolutely can't wait to meet her though! I wonder if she will have a head full of hair like Audrey did? After Audrey was born numerous people made comments like, "Wow, you must have had a lot of heartburn with all that hair she has!". I never did--not once with Audrey. I have had a few episodes with Shelby Claire so does that mean she'll be bald? Or have a head full of hair? Ha! I just knew that Audrey was going to be a red-headed baby also. Nope. Her hair was as black as black could get! I really don't have any expectations for Shelby Claire. I just pray for a healthy little baby.

Here I am at 38 weeks with my girls.

Just in case you are curious, that belly is 41.5 inches in circumference. Um.. hmm.. big baby belly. :)

Audrey Lynn-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think we've prepped sweet Audrey as much as we can for the arrival of her baby sister. We've read books about being a sister, we drive by the hospital and talk about where we are going to go get baby sister, we have a baby doll that we've pretended IS baby sister since Christmas, we pray for baby sister, and we really talk up how Audrey gets to stay with Aunt Lesa when Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital to get baby sister. She's really excited about Aunt Lesa and asks me almost everyday, "Where Wesa?". I know nothing can really prepare her for our new addition but we've definitely done all we know to do! I *think* she is excited about it because she tells everyone she meets that she is "getting" a baby sister.

Here my precious girl is enjoying some one-on-one attention from her Daddy. Every night after her bath, they play a game that she calls "Moses" (as in Moses in the basket, ha!). Clay wraps her up in her towel and swings her around and around. She giggles and cackles the entire time. In the photos of her with her thumb in her mouth, she is pretending to be "baby Moses".

I am hoping to get a few more blog posts in before Monday! I have to catch up because after that I will be enjoying my new little baby and blog time will be put on the back burner.

Snow

We are predicted to get 1-3 inches of snow tonight.

Please don't snow here again tonight. I will be 38 weeks tomorrow and I really need all the roads to be clear so I can make it to the hospital just in case Shelby Claire decides to come early.

I have no reason to think she will come early, Audrey was only 8 DAYS late! Hopefully Shelby Claire will hold tight at least until this weekend. Hopefully.


It will be fine.
It will be fine.
It will be fine.

The Greatest Show on Earth!

We took Audrey (and her little friend, Jackson) to the circus last Friday and it was so much fun! Audrey loved the "horseys", "tigers" and the "tall man" the most!

Audrey asked me a couple of times during the show where the elephants were and when they were coming out. Unfortunately, the elephants were the grand finale and poor Audrey couldn't hold out long enough to see them. She surprisingly fell asleep in her daddy's arms and missed the entire elephant show!

Um, yes, that's a bunch of elephants teetering on stools. They also sat on them and spun around. Clay and I were pretty entertained by the entire show!

Here's a blooper family of "three" shot that Clay and I think is hilarious. I was showing all my chins off (due to the daily Dairy Queen trips) and Clay was projecting his smile onto Audrey (who looks like she just lost a fight with all her boo-boos). :)

After the circus, we took the two, two-year-olds on a date to Chik-fil-a and let them eat ice cream and play their hearts out. We turned our trip to the circus into a day-long event! It was fun! We are happy/sad for our sweet friends, Jessica and Jackson, though. They will only be here with us a couple more weeks before they move two hours away! Jackson's Daddy got a new job at a great hospital so we are excited for them, just going to miss them like crazy!

ER's are yucky places.

Last week, I got one of those dreaded calls from MDO. Audrey had fallen out of her toddler chair and busted her chin. They said they didn't think she needed stitches and that they were able to stop the bleeding, they just wanted me to be aware of what happened.

It was about an hour before I was supposed to pick her up but I decided to go ahead and get her. I wanted to check on her and to see that chin! When I got there, she was lying on the floor, against the wall, on a pillow. Normally she will run and squeal, "Mooommy!" when she sees me but this time, she just looked at me with sad little eyes and continued to suck her thumb. I told her that we were going to go home and she became pretty insistent that she DID NOT want to go home. She has a way about her lately that lets you know exactly how she feels with no questions asked! Usually it involves her pointing her finger and yelling! Anyway, I had to literally drag her out of there-- the whole time she's crying that she wants to stay.

When we got home, I tried to clean her up as best I could but she was having no part in that. I did see that she was still bleeding but it was really hard to see exactly what sort of cut she had. I emailed pics of her to Clay and to my MIL (a nurse) in order for them to give me their opinions on whether she needed stitches or not. Ended up, neither of them could really tell from the picture so I called my pediatrician and he recommended that I go ahead and take her to the Children's Hospital to be checked out. They said they could stitch her in the office but because she was so young and the cut was on her face, they would rather a plastic surgeon who was experienced with two year olds to do it. Soooo.... off we go.

We met Clay and he was able to get the wound cleaned up so we could see it better and after we both looked at it, we didn't think she needed stitches after all so we went back home! THEN we put her in the tub and got it REALLY clean and changed our minds! Ha! Back in the car we went and we ended up at the ER at 5:30 that afternoon.

The ER wasn't very busy but places like that gross me out. The vinyl chairs, the toys, all of it make me want to scream at Audrey to "NOT TOUCH!". I didn't though! Clay held her the entire time and they watched "Caillou" on the ipad. That ipad was the best gift Audrey's I've ever gotten! She was so sweet and precious the entire time we were there. From the time we got there until the time we left was a total of two hours. Not too bad we didn't think!!

Anyway, to make a long story short, they opted to glue her chin rather than stitch it up. They said that would be less traumatic on everyone. We agreed!! It's been over a week since it happened and the wound is all better now. It's still a little pink but other than that, it's fine. One positive from that day, Audrey was able to overcome her fear of band aids! She now loves them and wants to wear one everyday! She calls them "bambaids".

This is the picture that I sent Clay and my MIL. She looks super pitiful but she's crying because I put her down, not because she's in pain or anything like that!

Oh, and notice the bruise on her cheek? That is almost a whole separate post but what we THINK happened was that she was bit in the Chik-fil-a play place by a random little girl. Clay had taken her to eat there and let her play. He said she went to the second level and that a little girl was standing there and that Audrey just started screaming! He climbed in after her and all she could tell him was that she'd been bitten. That happened two weeks ago Saturday and it is still purple today! :(