holidays

Playing with Uncle Zach's ipad

first bball hoop....gotta start young!

New Chair!!

I get to tear this open?!?

<3

Loved opening presents!

My auntie is #1


Sorry people...I can't keep up with updates. Life is a little crazy in our world so it's hard to find time to upload pictures and write up novels lately....so here's a semi-short version:

We had a great Christmas and New Years spending lots of time with family, especially my (Kelly) family this year and a few days in Karlstad with Aaron's. It was a wonderful holiday as it was Shea's first Christmas, which really changes the meaning and excitement of it by being her parents and providing wonderful memories for her to cherish like our parents did for us... but of course it was in the back of our hearts and minds that it was most likely my mom's last Christmas with us. My mom is done trying treatments to stop the cancer, there is just nothing that will work, so now we pray that we have as many days left as possible to spend with her. I am just so thankful my mom beat the odds and fought as long as she has to be able to see me get married, become a mom, and now watch Shea grow into the most amazing baby girl with a unique personality and love for her family (grandma included). I hope you all don't take a day for granted and spend as much time with the people you love as you can, you never know what God will have planned for you.

Shea is changing SO much lately! She learns a new trick every day. She has started pulling herself up from a sitting position to standing. She still isn't crawling but she is rocking on all fours ready to take off (she still gets annoyed with being on her tummy for too long so she just may skip crawling and just walk like her daddy). We swear she's a big girl trapped in a baby body. :) She loves to clap and and can rock her body to music. She says "dada dada" all the time, which Aaron loves and ignores me when I tell him she doesn't know what she is saying yet. She is definitely a mommy's girl but thinks daddy is so funny and gets so excited to play with him when he walks into the room. She is just a blessing to so many people, little girl doesn't know how important and special she is to everyone in her life.

Other than those updates our time has been spent surviving the flu (me, Aaron, my mom, my grandma, and my sister all had it), spending LOTS of time with my family, working on school work (I am getting a SMART board for my classroom so my free time lately has been consumed with creating activities for that...look it up if you don't know what it is, I am SO excited to use it in my classroom!), and keeping up with Shea. Aaron is getting VERY excited lately for his annual trip to Scottsdale in February for the PGA tournament. I am very jealous and he owes me a trip hopefully later this spring! :)

Ok, I am probably forgetting things but that's all my mind can come up with for now... not promising another update any time soon but you can check back just in case... :)

6 Month Pictures

Here are a few of Shea's 6 month pictures my friend Lindsey took of her in November...they turned out great!

6 Months & Other News

Shea was 6 months old on the 14th! Wow, people aren't kidding when they say babies grow up too fast! We just had her 6 month checkup yesterday and she is doing great! We just have to beef her up a little bit because she kinda fell off her weight curve and is down to about the 8th percentile at a whopping 13 lbs 7 oz. The doctor of course isn't concerned at all, obviously the girl will probably never be on the heavy side looking at both her parents! We are just supposed to add a little formula for some extra calories in her bottles at night and we just started her on baby food finally! The girl never sits still so I'm sure she burns everything off the second she takes it down! :)
She has so many new tricks & skills she is able to do now. She LOVES jumping in her baby Einstein activity center seat. She rolls around like crazy and definitely tolerates being on her stomach more...don't think she will be crawling yet soon, but that's ok! It will come soon enough, knowing her and if she takes after her dad she will skip crawling and go right to walking! She sits herself up all the time laying in her bouncy chair but is still a little wobbly sitting up by herself on the floor. She laughs at us when we are being silly and LOVES watching us when we do things around the house...she likes to just take everything in that goes on around her.
Shea also moved up to the next room at daycare last week and I think the likes the new room a lot better. The teachers have said she does great every day and is usually is the best baby. I think she got a little bored in the old room with less action to watch around her...now she likes to sit in an exercauser and spin herself around to watch all the other kiddos that can crawl and walk around her...much more entertaining for her.
Her sleeping at night seems to be slowly getting better again...About a month ago she got her first ear infection and her teething pain got a lot worse so needless to say there was very little sleep happening at our house! The ear infection cleared up with some antibiotics but her sleeping patterns were all messed up and we are still trying to get back to normal. No teeth have broken through yet either and the Doctor said yesterday that she doesn't think they will for awhile...so unfortunately her teething process might be a long one! Ugh! Oh well, don't people say when babies teethe later their teeth end up being stronger? Hopefully now that we will be giving her more formula and baby food that will help with the sleep too. At least we are getting in a lot of cuddling time at night before she grows up and doesn't want to cuddle anymore!

Ok, that brings you up-to-date on Shea...now my mom...

My mom decided to give chemo another shot about 2 weeks ago here in Fargo. When they met with the oncologist in the cities he was cautiously optimistic about the treatment since she rebounded so well from the first treatment and had been feeling pretty good with an appetite and even a little energy. So...she tried it again. This time went much better, she didn't end up in the hospital, but it really wiped the energy right out of her again so she has been in bed and on the couch for the past two weeks. She is slowly getting energy back and will hopefully continue to feel better. She has a scan at the beginning of December and will know more then what is going on and what the plan will be next. I think she continues to surprise and amaze the doctors. Her oncologist in Fargo couldn't even believe she was able to WALK into the clinic for her appointment with him after her stay in the hospital last month, he thought she would have needed a wheelchair because of the state she was in when she was in the hospital. Never underestimate my mom!

Now Aaron and me...
We have mostly been busy spending time with family, work, and Shea.
I finished fall conferences last week at school and they all went very well. I seem to have a bright group this year who love to learn, I just need to get a handle on all the talking...they are a VERY social group and just love to talk ALL the time! :)
Aaron started city league basketball a couple weeks ago and he plays on 2 teams 2 nights a week so that will keep him busy through the winter...along with watching as many football & basketball games as he can get in on TV! I hope Shea likes to watch sports when she grows up because she's not going to have much of a choice at this house!
Aaron's family stayed with us last weekend to babysit while we went to a work party for Aaron and we also all celebrated Aaron's dad's birthday together on Sunday. Grandma Jodie even bought and set up a pink Christmas tree for Shea in her room when she was here! It's so pretty!! She is one lucky little girl!

Ok, that's all for now. I will try to be better at updating this thing in the future, but I'm not making any promises. :)