11 mo old!!!

So, girlie is now 11 mo old and is a very fast crawler! We have a hard time shutting the doors in time before she crawls to escape the confines of living room and dining room life :).














Shaylen LOVES climbing the stairs, so yes that door behind her stays closed almost ALL the time!














Even perfect little girls have bad hair days!



















She loves standing up next to her toy box and getting out all of her toys. Sometimes I have seen her do lunges next to the toy box.




















Shaylen and uncle Jamie hangin out!

We did go blueberry picking. While she was in the pack with Shawn, she grabbed a leaf and ate it. She started coughing really bad, and Shawn took her to the car to get her some water, where she proceeded to throw up on him, kind of funny. All in all, we had fun :).















She already has a favorite movie, yum!














This is how I would trap her in the living room till the rest of the living room dining room area was conducive to a scavenger.














This is Shaylen's little pumpkin growing behind the garage! :)














"Helping" me with laundry. Yes quite the lil helper.















Shaylen with some buddies, Cameron and Camden.



















I did break down and buy her a pumpkin which she LOVES :)
but its kind of heavy !!




























and we now have enough hair to do pigtails!!!!

9 mo old

Another month has gone by with our punkie, and she is now an expert crawler!
Yes, she started crawling on July 27th. She crawled in her room right before bed. She didn't do it again for a couple of days then went crazy again over this past weekend.

This is another collage of pictures from our block party on June26th all the way to Shaylen's first visit to the beach. On July 10th Shawn and I celebrated our 6th year of marriage! We took a trip up north, staying in Petoskey, and then taking a day trip to see the Mackinac Bridge and the Island (which Shawn had never seen!) It was a good trip even though I was sick for most of it.

All in All its been a great month, just enjoying the HOT weather, gardening, going for walks downtown, and hanging with friends and family.












































A playdate with a friends little girl, Alexis. Apparently Shaylen doesn't always share very well with that scowl on her face!















Shaylen rolled all the way over to the vent and then got stuck!





















Shaylen in her beach tent on the deck.















On the fourth of July we ventured to Kollen park for some of their free entertainment :). It was fun to go for a walk and get outside. Shaylen LOVES park swings! and it was really Shawn who was fascinated by mario!
















































US in Petoskey while Shaylen stayed home with grandma.















It only took her like 5 mo to like a bath, now she loves them!



















A day at the beach.

8 mo and pictures of randomness of last two months!!

So yes it has taken me forever to write about girlie, but here we go. In the last two months, she is completely gotten the hang of rolling over, which means, finding her on her stomach in the middle of the night, and her looking up at us in the morning while on her tummy. She wears 12mo and 18 mo clothing now and enjoys eating! She loves her sweet potatoes, apples, pears, jarred (only) bananas, and she just loves cheerios. She can pick up and feed herself the cheerios which is so fun to watch. She completely sits up on her own, and almost goes into a tummy position. This past saturday while enjoying the outdoors at our block party (pictures to come) she just barely lifted up her tummy off of the ground, so crawling is NOT far away!! She just loves gabbing with our neighbor Liam, who is about 6 weeks younger than her.

All these pics are pretty random! we have some from just chilaxing in her pj's, to trying to ride on her princess pony. We got her an adorable bathing suit from "peekaboutique" in holland (peekaboutiqueholland.com ) for 4$!!!! and a lil kiddy pool, which she hated! She loves going on walks, eats her toes, got to see grandpas animals (the pigs were her fav) and continuously roots for the tigers!!! She also loves to chew on raw carrots (this is easy cuz there are NO teeth yet) She had a great poop story, which she will never live down, and is now in a bigger car seat. (which we LOVE) besides that life is pretty enjoyable with lil girlie, who gives kisses, and makes a face now when daddy leaves for work. She doesn't quite cry but she is definitely upset. We are enjoying every minute with her!!

6 mo old and HUGE!!!

So our lil lady is now 27 inches long, and 17.5 lbs; a hefty girl if you ask me ;). She is getting very heavy in her car seat, and technically really too long for an infant seat. So the girlie is continuing to sit up great and reach for everything, like mugs, plates, cups, anything we are eating or drinking. She has iried and is okay with rice cereal, and carrots but she would just rather suck on the spoon. She squeals and smiles all the time and humors me as we spend 2 hours each Monday morning at Jp's. She is such a happy girl, content with almost everything, we are so blessed.
We did take her to centennial park and took some pictures of the girlie in her dutch costume on her 6 mo birthday. It was fun, and people thought she was so cute. One couple from India, wanted to hold her and have us take a pic of them with their camera, then they took a pic with their camera of us holding her. Quite interesting I must say, but hey, in some cultures it is bad luck if you don't touch someones baby, even if you don't know them. So Shaylen, you are now good lucked :).



















Shaylen and her free T-shirt!















"I smell elephant ears!"















"This Dutch Costume tastes good mommy"















Out on the deck in her exersaucer.















Chilaxing on the floor :)


















This lil girlie was eating, and I was looking at a catalog. She proceeded to reach over and rip out the page I was looking at, and start eating it!! lil stinker!

5 mo, Easter, and spring weather :)

Our baby girl is 5 mo old now. It has gone by so quickly. She is still just eating milk since the doc recommended we stay on milk till she is sitting up on her own. She is such a happy girl who continues to make us smile every single day!

Easter Sunday was a whirlwind but it was a nice day with to celebrate Gods forever promise with family and good food.




















Shaylen in her beautiful easter/spring dress. She was SO tired at this point that she was just like, hey, why are you taking my picture.















"I like newspaper, can i eat it dad?"

'sitting' on the couch :) Shaylen is not sitting up on her own, but getting close. She loves her feet, can roll from stomach to back, and she can almost roll from back to stomach, she got really close. She also LOVES her exersaucer and could probably stay there for a very long time. The hail that we got, just a little 'welcome to spring' weather.

She is almost rolling over in this video, of course trying to see the television.

California and 4mo old already!

Shaylen is now 4 mo old and at her appt she weighed in at 14lb's 11 oz and 25 inches long! She is still right around the 75th percentile both height and weight. She has now started to spit, and keeps making very funny noises. She will continue eating milk since the doc recommended that since she cannot sit up on her own yet, that it would be best to wait on the solid foods till 6 mo.

At the end of February, Shawn spoke at two computer conferences in Los Angeles, so Shaylen and I packed up and went with him! It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we truly enjoyed seeing our friends and seeing some new babies that were born around the same time Shaylen was born.
We got together with three other couples and each of us have one kid. They ranged from ages almost 4 mo to 21 mo.
















This is our friend Suzanne, Shaylen loves her too!


Below, Shaylen and her friend Alianna are hanging
out. Alianna's mom and I were in grad school together
and the girls are 3 weeks apart!
Our friend Gilbert and Shawn are holding the girls and they were due
2 days apart, but ended up being born about a week apart.
oh the dad's and their girls! (sorry the wording and pics are all weird, blogger is posting it weird, cannot figure it out)

3 months old

So our precious little girl is now three months old. (and I decided to take a few pics myself with a homemade studio.) She is getting so big, and we are estimating she will be driving soon. No not really but it feels like things just change so fast. She is officially just over 3 months and is technically now 15 weeks old. She can smile, giggle, bat at her toys, grab her toys, suck on her hands with vigor, kick, and she is just starting to pick up her butt while lying on her back. No rolling, and hates tummy time with passion, but we get by. She smiles at mom and dad and really knows who we are. Bath time is still a struggle, but 11 hour nights are FANTASTIC. That is right, almost two weeks ago she slept about 11 hours. We were in shock! People said that at 3 months she might get on a schedule and sleep more at night, but when you are in the midst of getting up all the time, you just don't believe it.

On Wednesday we fly to LA. Shawn is speaking at two conferences and we get to visit with our old friends in CA :). We are very excited to see our friends, but very nervous about traveling with Shaylen. We are hoping that she sleeps on this early evening flight :) and does not catch a cold on the plane! We have been very lucky that she has not gotten sick yet and we are hoping that it lasts for a while.

We had a photographer come to our home last saturday to take family pictures and 3 mo pictures of our lil punkie. It went very well, and we are excited to see the pictures soon!! Her name is Anna Ellerbroek (www.expressionsofgrace.info) and she was so good with Shaylen.

Shawn's sister had a lil baby boy on Jan 28th. We went to go visit him and Shawn ended up with both babies on his lap!

This is our lil girl all ready
for valentines day.
Happy Valentines day to everyone :)
its not just a day for
couples but a day to
remind us how much our
family and friends mean
to us!!!
So, Shaylen says "hi" and "love you!!"