A White Christmas

We ended up with over 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve, a one day record for Oklahoma. Casey came home from work early and we spent the evening at home. We missed Christmas Eve with Casey's family and we missed Christmas dinner in Edmond with my family. Luckily grandma and grandpa live next door so we still had a small family gift exchange Christmas evening. Miles had fun and now we start the task of figuring out where to put all the stuff he got. Despite the travel hassle the snow was very pretty and it was Miles' first snow. We had fun exploring the yard and making snowballs. Maybe tomorrow we'll make a snowman.


Leaving milk & cookies for Santa


Christmas morning at home


Trains from Santa


Our White Christmas

Gingerbread House

Miles loves to help in the kitchen and he loves anything crafty so I thought he would enjoy one of these gingerbread house kits. He actually did a very good job decorating and only snuck a couple of pieces of candy for himself. It's not perfect, but it was made with love and I think it's darned cute!


A cute Christmas story. I came home from work on Wednesday and Miles greets me at the door saying, "momma, jelly bean," over and over and over. I kept trying to decipher what he was saying not able to recognize the words. He was getting irritated that I wasn't understanding so he says, "momma, jelly beans in your stocking. Want some?" Casey laughs and I realize that Miles is spilling the beans on the Christmas shopping he did with daddy that day. I check the stocking and sure enough there are jelly beans. I tried to quiz him on what else they bought, but apparently the jelly beans were the only thing noteworthy in his mind. He really wanted to open those jelly beans so we did.

Festival of Light

Since cold wet weather is on the way we took advantage of one of the last nice days to take in the huge light display in Chickasha on Monday. Miles loved it. We walked through the park to get an up close view and then we drove the route to see it one more time. Miles had fun pointing out the different displays and it was a great family outing.

A Busy Holiday Weekend

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend! We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house with dad's side of the family. We were able to see some out of town relatives and meet their new addition. Miles seemed to really enjoy the other kids and of course we all stuffed our faces. As soon as we finished the Thanksgiving meal we drug out the presents and forged straight ahead into an early Christmas for the kids since not everyone would be able to make it back for Christmas.


Baby Connor's First Thanksgiving


Miles playing with Macy and Addyson

Friday Miles and I relaxed at home and had a fun morning decorating. Casey left in the middle of the night for a 3AM opening at his store. Ridiculous I know, but it actually worked out well because Casey came home in time to nap with Miles and then was available to help with the outdoor lights. The return on our labor was well worth the effort because we got lots of oohs and aahs out of Miles. We are going to have to take him to one of the big light displays in town for sure.




Saturday we had a ladies Christmas party with my mom's side of the family and Miles tagged along since Casey was working. Miles was fairly well behaved considering it was naptime. Miles started the party by incessantly requesting, "ready eat party food" and then as soon as the snacking was over he started up with a chorus of "ready go home." This was the 2nd year and hopefully this party will become an annual tradition because it's a fun get together. Sunday Miles and I braved the wind and wet to go see Santa Claus. I chose Crossroads Mall to avoid the crowds. Miles was surprisingly into the whole Santa visit. He hopped right up on Santa's lap and started jabbering away. He's not a smile on command kind of kid, but we did get an okay picture.

30 Weeks and Counting

This week I officially hit the 30 week mark and started 2 week checkups. I'm measuring right on target and everything looks great so far. Time has just flown by with this pregnancy probably because I haven't had to do hardly any planning. It's not that we are less excited, but we are pretty much already prepared. We did a one day refresher course on labor and delivery a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to relearn signs of labor and such since I never really experienced the natural onset of labor last time.


We also got a new stroller. It's a double stroller that can hold my baby carrier. The back seat is removable so it can convert to a sit and stand when we are ready. Other than that my only other big purchase is going to be more cloth diapers and I'm still wading through the sea of options.


We got Miles a doll and a manly blue stroller for Christmas. Time to start getting him prepared as well.

Sickness can be Torture

Miles has been sick this week, all week. It started Monday with a fever. Tuesday I took him to the doctor and I think he is forever scared by his experience. It started out nice enough, asking about symptoms, looking at his ears, nose and throat. He was tolerant. Next, the doctor did a strep test which basically amounts to gagging your child with a long q-tip and scraping some cells off the back of his throat. That didn't go well. Then, she decided that he had too much wax to get a proper view of his ear canal so a nurse came in with one of those water irrigation guns to blast away the wax. That was even worse. Apparently he is prone to harder earwax than most so the water blasting lasted forever and ended up not working. As a last resort the nurse pinned him down and the doctor scrapped out the now softer wax with a little plastic hook. He was in full meltdown by that point and it took him several hours to fully recover from the trauma.

After all that the diagnosis was "probably just some sort of virus". Not strep, not the flu, and not an ear infection. The only upside was that we had to see someone other than our usual pediatrician since we were worked in at the last minute. That was a plus because Miles certainly didn't make friends with the doctor and I am certain that he never wants to see her again. Tuesday was a bad day to say the least.


The fever broke on Wednesday, but he woke Thursday morning covered in hives. He had huge red welps the size of my fist covering his legs and arms. Very odd, but it started to clear up within the hour so the nurse I called didn't see any cause for alarm. Maybe allergic to Ibuprophin, maybe from the virus, or maybe from fever. The hives have been coming and going for the last 3 days. I don't know, but I am very glad that Miles is almost never sick because having a sick kid and trying to figure out what to do about it is stressful!

First Visit to the Dentist

Wednesday Miles had his first visit to the dentist and I have to say the pediatric dentist we found was awesome. I wasn't so sure about how cooperative he would be or what all a 1st visit for a 2 year old would entail, but he did great. In fact our only problem was that the waiting room was so fun that Miles didn't want to leave when we were called back for the appointment. I'm not sure what they teach dentists in those extra two years of pediatric specialization, but our visit came with grape flavored exam gloves, a glove balloon complete with drawn on face, counting games which lead up to counting teeth, stickers, a Pooh toothbrush, and dinosaur shaped floss sticks for kids. The office was so fun and cheerful with huge murals, cartoons in each exam room, and some dental toys like a stuffed dinosaur with huge teeth and his matching toy toothbrush. I'm pretty sure Miles never realized he was at a doctor's office. Why aren't the regular pediatricians that good?

Two Year Pictures

This Sunday we had fantastic weather and decided that we better start taking advantage of nice days. We headed to the park by our house and I brought the camera along so we could get some cute pictures before all the pretty leaves were gone. Miles was fairly cooperative and we got some good shots. Lots of smiles. True story...just before we got out of the car, Ice Ice Baby came on the radio. We just barely caught the intro where he says, "VIP...let's kick it." Miles thought that was hilarious and every time I needed a smile one of us would just yell out, "VIP" to which he would respond "let's kick it" and the giggles ensued. That was sort of his catch phrase for the day.

Trick-or-Treat

This was Miles' 1st year of trick-or-treating and he loved it! We practiced what to say and he had it down, but he would clam up everytime someone came to the door. He was still cute!

2 Year Stats

Miles has his 2 yr check up today and got a healthy report.

29.9 lbs- 75%
36 inches- 90%

Pumpkin Patch

This Friday we visited the Orr Family Farm where we picked our own pumpkins, took a hayride, and saw a few animals. Lots of fall fun was had by all.

Barnyard Bash

This weekend we had a little party for Miles' 2nd birthday. We did a farm theme which Miles loved and had a fun time celebrating with family.

Disney World

I finally got all my photos sorted and loaded.

We had a tiring, but fun week in Disney. I have decided that September is definitely not my preferred Disney month because it was hot (especially while pregnant), but we survived by taking lots of midday hotel breaks.

Miles seemed to enjoy the experience more this year. Last year he was a little nervous about the characters, but this year he was really into it. We talked about meeting the characters and what he was going to do when he saw them. He said he was going to give a hug, a kiss, and a high five. He did exactly that every time even refusing to leave until I hoisted him up for his Goofey kiss. He was such the ham entertaining the crowd behind us at the Pooh meet and greet with all his character affection.




He also had some favorite rides. Dumbo, It's a Small World, the Carousel, and Aladdin's Carpets topped his list. Luckily it wasn't too crowded so we rode some multiple times. He also really enjoyed the animals at the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we stayed. We saw Giraffes, Ox, Zebra, Okapi, and Ostrich off our savannah balcony. Miles always said, "but no lilons." He also really liked the resort pool and splash park. That may have been the highlight of his trip. He was always ready to "go wimmin".

If you want to see all the pictures just click our photo link in the side bar.

Emmett Lee Shults

We are 24 weeks today and I had a day of doctor's appointments. We had a level 2 ultrasound this morning to check out some pooling blood (placental lakes). There is sometimes a concern that pooling blood may mean less blood for baby which can mean slower growth rates, but this baby is measuring right on target for 24 weeks. Actually he measured 24 weeks 2 days. The doctors have assured me that it's nothing to worry about and it was kind of fun to get an extra peek at baby. This afternoon I had my regular monthly check up and everything is looking good so far. I feel like I am getting bigger everyday.


We also agreed on a name, Emmett Lee. Lee is my dad's middle name and since we did a family name for Miles' middle name we wanted to continue that with Emmett. Emmett we just liked- not too common, not too weird, and goes well with Miles.

Miles is starting to understand more and more. He knows the baby's name is Emmett, that the baby is in mommy's tummy, and that he will come out when he gets big. Last week he lifted my shirt, pressed his face to my belly and said, "Emmett come out!"

The Fair

We spent about 2 1/2 hours on Sunday morning at the fair. We started with the animal barns, checked out the petting zoo, and took a peek into the birthing center where we saw some newborn pigs. Miles talks about those pigs the most. Of course we also took some time to snack. It was a fun day.

8 years, 20 weeks

Today is a double milestone. I am officially halfway through this pregnancy and it's our 8th anniversary. Things have been hectic lately with Casey and I both traveling, but we'll probably celebrate this weekend. Here we are September 8, 2001.


This is likely my last pregnancy so I decided to take more pictures. I should have started a while back back because I'm already pretty big at this point.


I spent the weekend in GA at a friend's wedding and I was away from Miles for 2 nights. I really missed him, but I did have a good time. He was unphased. When he saw me he said "hola" and then asked if we could play play-doh. He's such a funny kid. I talked to him on the phone while I was gone and when I asked him what he was doing on Saturday night he said "green peppers....and olives". They were eatting pizza.

Crafty Creations

We're attending the Disney World Halloween party again this year and I've been busy making shirts for us to wear. It'll probably be hot so I didn't want to do full on costumes, but we needed something festive. I found some clip art online and just printed out iron on transfers. It was cheap and easy. They turned out really cute!

It's a Boy!

We had our 18 week ultrasound this morning and we are expecting another boy! We were both hoping for a boy, but had been psyching ourselves up for a girl so we'd be pleased either way. I personally think ultrasound pictures are kind of creepy since babies are not cute at this stage, but for anyone who cares to see my alien baby, here ya go.


3-D Face
The tech worked and worked to get us a face shot, but we had no problems getting good views of the goods.


Boy Parts- shot from feet up. Legs are tucked under frog style.

The Zoo

We had some wonderful weather so we took advantage and spent the morning at the zoo. Miles loves animals and being outside so the zoo is his kind of place.

Dear Totinos Pizza Co,

Please assume that the people who buy your disgusting $1 frozen pizzas have absolutely no kitchen skills (as evidenced by their willingness to buy and eat a $1 pizza with mystery meat). When you recommend cooking "on the rack" please give further instructions like:
1) Do not melt your wife's plastic spatula trying to remove the pizza that is now stuck to the rack
2) Do not get greasy pizza sauce all over wife's pot holder and oven mit.
3) Line the bottom of the oven with foil so when bits of your mystery meat fall off and burn to the bottom of the oven they can be removed without hassle. The foil also works great for catching all the crumbs that will result in the struggle to pry cooked pizza from the rack it is now firmly adhered to.

Thanks,

Irritated Wife

Beacuse Everybody Needs a Picture of Their Toddler Eatting Spaghetti

Busy Weekend

We started with a family pool party in Shawnee on Saturday. It was fun, but very, very hot! Miles really enjoyed the water and was not the least bit scared of the big pool. Casey had to work, but luckily Grandpa was on hand to help me keep him wrangled.


Sunday Casey and I had a lunch date and then embarked on a shopping spree to stock up on essentials for his upcoming conference at work. He only buys clothes this one time per year which is always right in the middle of the back to school madness. Sigh. He hates shopping so it's hard to get what we need before he gets bored with it and decides to quit.

Me: What size pants do you wear?

Casey: I don't know

Me: What size are the pants you have on?

Casey: I don't know

Me: Let's start with these.

Casey: These fit, let's go

Me: Are you going to come out and show me?

Casey: (stepping out of the door) They fit

Me: They look a little long. Do you want to try the next shorter length.

Casey: No, this is my size

Me: "your" size, you don't even know your size. They look bunchy at your feet.

Casey: I like them that way.

Me: You'll just step on them and ruin the hem.

Casey: I won't step on them if I'm wearing shoes.

Me: Yes, but they will still look bunchy.

Casey: I like them bunchy so they don't look like high waters when I sit down.

Me: Okay, what about the casual pants?

Casey: They're the same size, I don't need to try them on.

Me: Don't you usually like your casual pants a little more baggy than the pants you get for work?

Casey: Bring me the next size up

Shirt selection was even more tedious and I won't even go into his reaction when I suggested a pair of flip flops for the pool. In Casey's world men don't wear shorts and flip flops are only for prison. You can imagine how easy he is to shop for. Casey only managed to find two pairs of pants and one shirt that met all his narrow criteria and as it turns out he already has a shirt almost exactly like the one he bought. He decided to call it quits and we agreed he would look for shoes online.

In other news, I have my 18 week ultrasound on the 25th so we should find out the sex of the baby then.

Weddings are Boring

I learned this the hard way this weekend. Miles came to Brian's wedding. He was pumped to go to a party and have cake. That was his basic understanding of a wedding. So of course he expects cake the minute we walk in the door. Instead there's a lot of waiting and mingling and sitting. Then, things get started and there's even more waiting and sitting and now you have to be quiet. Miles lasted right up until the preacher started talking. We made the best of it for about an hour and then called it a night. We stopped by Braum's on our way home for a strawberry shortcake sundae and Miles had his cake.

Mascara

Lesson of the day: if your usually impatient toddler is sitting quietly while you get ready it could be because he is totally engrossed in his mascara application.

Play Date

Miles had a play date this week with Matthew. Matthew is 3 months younger than Miles, but close to the same size. It was funny because the boys have such different personalities. Matthew is all energy, adventurous, and more athletic. He gravitated towards balls and cars and water play while Miles was sweeping the porch and watering the flowers. Miles is cautious and less rambunctious. It's really amazing how personality comes out even at such a young age. They were pretty cute together, indulging us with several hugs and even a few kisses. We will definitely have to do this again!

Baby To Be

Here's the latest pic of our baby to be at 11 weeks 2 days. I can't believe it went from looking like a blob to looking like an actual baby in only a month. My nausea has faded and it's like a whole new pregnancy. I've felt fine for the last few days and I'm looking forward to resuming my life off the couch. :)

Family Update

I'm back from my hiatus. Not much new, just still trying to survive this pregnancy. I now have a new appreciation for how lucky I was to be symptom free with my 1st. Casey has been helping out more so it hasn't been too bad, but I've been feeling pretty crappy. Apparently I am eating enough because I'm starting to notice my pants feeling tighter. I am convinced that this one is a girl because it's just been such a different pregnancy. I have a really strong feeling about it so while I would still prefer a boy the idea of a girl is starting to grow on me. I've had 2 good days in a row now so I'm really hoping the worst is behind me.

Summer is in full swing and here's a couple of recent pictures of Miles. Enjoy!




A couple of weeks ago Casey took Miles to a dad's night at the library where they did manly things like hang out with firemen and eat M&Ms. Miles came home sweaty, dirty, and with a fireman's badge & helmet. It looked like he had a good time.



We've been beating the heat with water play.