Care Bears

I would like to introduce a couple of regulars in the Shaw household.

From left to right we have Harmony, Cheer (Elle's favorite), Grumpy, Tenderheart, and Funshine.  

Missing from this group shot is another regular, 

Wonderheart and Floppy Bunny.  We like love are obsessed with Care Bears and Elle watches them every. single. day.

Yesterday, Elle made an observation shall we call it.  Elle had been watching about 15 minutes of her beloved friends when she says...

"Mommy, Care Bears doesn't have boobies."

Me:  "Hmm... What's that???"

Elle:  "The Care Bears doesn't have boobies."

End of discussion.

S.U.M.M.E.R!

Who loves summer?!

This child.

And this one.

We've brought out the sprinklers and blown up the kiddie pools because summer is unofficially here!  

This explains so much.  I have told Jay many a times, first parent teacher conference is all him.  

Dr. Whiggager would be so proud!  Look at the remains of that fried chicken!  I'm surprised she didn't eat the bone (Lucy did for the record...).

Steel City Pops.  Enough said.

Happy Summer Y'all!!!

Cwalin is Hawd

Today Elle informed me "sometimes cwalin is hawd to do."  

Enter Caroline.  Caroline is now 10 1/2 months old.  She is a remarkably happy child (this coming from a mom whose only other child had reflux for 11 months, colic for 4, had to wear a horrible evil harness for 3 months at 20 hours a day... I may have a skewed version of "happy").  I will say that Caroline has cut 4 teeth and we had no idea they were coming.  She really is a pretty chill baby.  Well, that is until recently.  She has suddenly gotten her grumpy.bear on.  We believe this to be on account of not being able to figure out how to crawl.

Gerber baby can spin and turn and push up.  But when she tries to get anywhere,

she does the superman.  She looks like a turtle caught on its backside trying to flip over.  She has spent hours like this... arms and legs thrashing at the same time, hoping that their momentum may propel her forward.  

 

Elle loves to get down and show her the appropriate means to crawl...

... to no avail.  

She typically gives up trying and rolls to her desired destination. 

I had to include this picture for the sake of baby bed head.  Poor child wakes up in the dark every morning until I can pin her hair back.  It is hilarious!

The Countdown Begins....

January 25 marked our 10 YEAR anniversary.  

I know... what?  Yes, I was a baby when we got married and it should perhaps be illegal to get married so young.  Praise the Lord that He answered my prayers and I married Jay.  I don't mean to sound cheesy or like we have a utopia.esc marriage.  Jay has probably grown more in patience than he ever dreamed possible and I have, well, I would like to think I have grown too.  If I haven't then that's just plain sad and pathetic because I need/ed to more than anyone I've ever known.  The whole 2 becoming 1 bit... it's umm... hard.  But Praise The Lord we're not in it alone.  By His grace, Jay is not only my best friend, but the man I admire more than anyone else.  Mostly because he puts up with me :)

Well, we are celebrating by going to (drumroll) HAWAII!!!

We have all these awesome travel points and are getting to cash them in finally!  We are so so SO excited!  4-5 days in Maui and 2-3 days in Kauai.  

We just got our travel shoes in and are ready for them to take us on an adventure!

My ALL time best!

Some call it savvy, thrifty, and smart.  Others call it cheap, frugal and embarrassing.  

I call it "thank you Lord!"

Overall, I am pretty dedicated to cutting coupons and trying to stretch the dollar.  Yes, it helps, but also, it's hard to start spending willy nilly when you can do this...

My friends, this is my all time best!  (Other than making money at CVS a couple of times, but that's only a buck or 2.)

Yay me!

Birthday Par.dees

Anyone with a young child can probably agree that little ones seem to live for "birthday par.dees."  Elle has been talking about her 4 year old birthday since she was 3 years old and 1 day.  And every day that has followed... even up unto 20 minutes ago when I was informed she would like another princess par.dee.  This is no exaggeration.  

Our sweet cousin Blakely is about to turn 3 and had her par.dee this weekend.

She had a PINK princess par.dee complete with a crown and wand bedazzling station.

Elle was rather happy pumped excited thrilled over this craft.  Elle gets rather thrilled about lots of things.

They had a jump jump and the girls had to take a break here and there.  (Side note:  It was nearly impossible to catch a picture of them in action that didn't include a pantie shot).

They giggled and gabbed like best buds.  When oh when did they get this big?!

Elle somehow got Blakely to leave Raffie behind.  He probably needed a break anyway.

Big girl turning 3!!!

Uncle Gray Gray got lots of bonding time with Hair.pie.  Thanks for letting me run around with my camera!

I think he is most excited that my kids like to play hard and you can do just about anything and it doesn't surprise them.  Not sure what that says about Jay and I as parents...

There were many juice and cookie breaks after all that jumping!

Yes, I know.  My mom is beautiful.  She also has less cellulite than me.  Just a random FYI.

Caroline got all the lovin' because Elle was too busy being busy.

I love my sweet girls!

Birthday Par.dees really are the bomb.diggity.

(Or for Gray Gray, I'll say they are the bomb dot com).

Happenings

Let's see... so many random happenings of late have occurred around the Shaw household.

First there was an incident.  Have I mentioned that one of my blog titles I threw around was "Natural Blonde" with the tagline reading "I do unnatural things naturally."  Albeit true, I felt this was a bit narcissistic since the intent of this blog is to document family happenings.

A couple of weeks ago Elle started screaming because there was a "scary stingy thing" in the house.  It was a wasp, and I too thought it was a scary stingy thing.  I put the girls in Elle's room and grabbed a broom.  In my attempt to get rid of him, this happened.

Insert picture of shattered window.

Oopsies.

On the up side it gave Jay some time to exercise his handyman skills.

Dad of course was there to provide direction and comic relief to my natural way of modernizing our home.

And Lu is aways just Lu... happy whether she's parading around in broken glass or not.

A few days later Dad and I went paddling in his newest creation. 

This is dad's signature of sorts.  He has drawn this character on everything for as long as I can remember.  I am quite certain it his self-portrait.

He thought it would be fun to hang over the side of the dam.  I didn't get too nervous until I saw onlookers covering their mouths with an audible (over the water) gasp.

I know... most awesome selfie of all time!

Times with my Wolfie are always an adventure!

Later that week, Elle came home from "school" with our newest family addition.  

Please meet Hairy Harry.

Apparently Harry is short for Harriet.  Elle thought he/she needed an accessory.

Caroline broke out in her first fever virus.  Actually, it was the first for the house.  Elle has never had one before and all my poor nurse friends had to direct me on motherhood 101 meets Tylenol basics.

She ended up with this rash which meant she had Roseola.

Elle was super bummed because this meant she missed a much anticipated birthday party.  We decided to make the most of it and headed to Aunt Tracie's the next week.

We watched Juju run and Elle was her very best "chick.a.later."  (Interpretation = Cheerleader)

While not cheering for Juju...

she is the fastest one with the most toned legs in red and black...

Elle gorged on cheetos.

Caroline was just sweet Caroline the whole time.  She got a bit restless once her bedtime had come and gone twice over, but overall she was great.

Fun times!  I know these are the best days and I try to appreciate them!!  Thanks Aunt Tracie for being the most hospitable person I know and letting us wreak havoc upon your previously clean home!

And lastly, I got to celebrate my third mother's day, first as a mom of two.

These are my loves.