Charlotte's Bad Habit

     There once was a sweet little girl named Charlotte. Charlotte liked to go on rides with her parents, Craig and Jillian Shelton. One day, Charlotte's mother thought it would be fun to take pictures of Charlotte while she was in the back seat.

     Everything seemed normal, when Charlotte decided to try something new and unexpected.

     Jillian told Charlotte not to do that again, for it wasn't good for her little nose. Also, it is quite disgusting.

      But little Charlotte didn't listen, she thought it felt good!

     So she showed her mom what she had found, and it was gross! So Jillian said to Charlotte: "if you do that you might hurt your little nose! Please stop, little baby!"

     Little Charlotte did not like being told no. There is a good chance she'll keep her bad habit, but hopefully, with help, she will learn to stop! But we kind of doubt it!

VACATION!

     Craig and I finally got a vacation! Oma and Paw Paw came down from Arkansas and gave Charlotte a little spoiling! Okay, gave all of us some spoiling! OKay... Gave us all A LOT of spoiling! Craig's brother, Brad and his wife and their three girls came down, too, and we all had a lot of fun together. It all started Monday night at the Lazy River. That was so relaxing!

(Craig, Charlotte and I floating in the Lazy River)

     Afterwards, we all went to the condo and caught up. It was a lot of fun to get Hailey and Charlotte together and watch them play - they didn't acknowledge each other much, but when they did it was really cute. Kayla and Callie have grown so much since the last time we saw them. Kayla is already almost as tall as I am and will be before Christmas! Callie has such a vocabulary now, she's such a little person!

(Hailey and Charlotte)

     Oma and I went to Target Tuesday and Oma got Charlotte a new baby who came with a stroller. Lucky Charlotte! She loves that stroller and has gotten so good at running around the house with it.

(Charlotte practices walking her baby)

     Wednesday we all went to Magic Kingdom where we had such a great time. The girls were all so good and so cooperative and the rides (albeit, kept stopping) were a lot of fun! There just wasn't enough time in one day to do everything.

(In line at the River Safari at Magic Kingdom)

(Charlotte and Mommy)

(Charlotte and Hailey relaxing in the stroller)

(Kayla pulling out the sword in the stone)

(Callie pulling out the sword in the stone)

(Craig trying really hard to pull out the sword in the stone)

(Mommy and Daddy on the Peter Pan ride...)

(Craig, Charlotte and I in front of the Disney Castle)

     Charlotte's cousn Hailey turned one on vacation! We did have a small celebration for her with a cake and she thought that was a lot of fun. She's cheezin' really good in the next photo. (Nobody had a match so Kayla fashioned false fire out of a twist tie - that's love).

(Hailey turns one!)

     Craig, Paw Paw and Uncle Brad all got to go deep sea fishing. I think they may have enjoyed that the most on this vacation (aside from spending time with their loving families, of course) and were so excited, and really tired, when they got back. They caught just more than one stringer all together of gray snapper.

(Paw Paw and Uncle Brad enjoy the deck and their fish)

(Daddy shows off his catch)

Book Club

     Tonight I hosted Book Club at my house. We had read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini and had a riveting conversation particularly about the family dynamic between Mariam and her parents as well as Laila and her parents and Mariam as a mother to Laila - go figure, we were a bunch of women! Also we were in agreement that the Taliban is disgusting, and so was Rasheed. (Go figure, they were a bunch of male chauvanists!)

     I tried to be a good hostess by providing yummy appetizers and to go along with our book, I made middle-eastern themed dishes. Boboli (tomato salad), cucumber and dill, hummus and pita triangles, green olives and for dessert: Turkish Delight. It was all really good except the Turkish Delight started to melt a quarter of the way through the evening (which didn't stop the kids!) and resulted in being tossed - four hours of hard work gone down the drain.

     Overall I would say the night was quite a success - recipes to follow.

(Boboli: 6 Large Tomatoes, 3 Tablespoons chopped chives, 1 Tablespoon garlic vinegar, 3 Tablespoons Olive oil, salt and pepper.  Slice tomatoes, season and pour on them the olive oil, previously mixed with vinegar. Sprinkle chives and serve.)

(Turkish Delight a.k.a. Lokum http://mideastfood.about.com/ud/dessertssweetspastries/r/turkishdelight.com)

(What a nice spread)

Big Girl in a Big Girl Car Seat!

     Charlotte finally got the go ahead from her pediatrician to get a forward facing car seat because her rear facing car seat was no longer safe for her. She was one pound too heavy for it at her last appointment, so Craig and I were really excited to get her facing forward and she absolutely loved it!

(Charlotte loves facing forward!)

(Yes, she's blowing a raspberry for the camera!)

     Also, Craig discovered some friends that were helping Shiner eat his dog food in our pump house. These toads are enormous and at night there are tons of them!

(Large Floridian Toad)

     Craig really enjoyed taking the boys to Youth Conference in Bradenton and got a picture of him with everybody that was able to attend before the dance. Everybody had so much fun and got to tell us about it the following Sunday at church which was nice to hear about. I can't wait for Charlotte to be old enough to join in some of these activities!

(Craig is in the top right of the photo)

We finally found our photo's from Jacob and Sam Oat's wedding in Florida. We were so lucky to be able to attend and it was such a beautiful ceremony on the beach. Below are a few photo's that turned out really well.  Charlotte was a really good girl during the whole thing, as usual.

(Samantha Sowell-Oats being escorted down the aisle)

(Samantha and Jacob sealing their promises to one another with a kiss)

(Charlotte gets a kiss from daddy for being such a good girl!)

And All I Had Was a Screwdriver...

     Since Craig and I are going to be staying in our rent house for longer than we expected, we decided it was time to make it more of a home than temporary housing. So, while he was away on business, I dug around in his stuff to find the tools necessary to hang pictures. Of course, all I could find was a screwdriver. I decided that instead of waiting, I'd just try it out and see how I did. The following pictures were hung with nothing but a screwdriver. I had to eye it to make sure it was level but I think I did okay. I know I probably should have waited for Craig, but when I get something in my head to do, I just do it.

(The wall over my computer, it's not finished...)

(T: Wall sconces from Felicia for our wedding; B: Cross from Grandma for Christmas over my china cabinet)

(Butterfly pictures from Grandma Ray)

(T: Plaques from our wedding; B: My mom cross stitched this for her house and passed it to me!)

     So it's not a real professional job, but this is just a rent house! We have a really busy few weeks coming up and I am so excited. Craig will be gone a lot which I hate, but we will endure and have as much fun as we can otherwise. Tonight he took the boys from church to a youth conference and is supervising a 3 hour dance, good luck! Also, Monday through Wednesday he will be away on business. Tuesday I will be hosting my first book club and I'm ready for that! Afterwards we're going to be preparing for Craig's family to come and visit us and go to Disney World - I can't ask for anything more than that!

Our Summer So Far...

     Saturday, July 10, 2010 Charlotte and I headed to the beach with our friends Holly and her 2 year old Aubrey.  Charlotte and Aubrey had so much fun playing in the waves and in the sand. They're not quite to the point yet where they interact with each other, but we all still had a really good time. After we played at the beach we all went shopping! Charlotte and Aubrey were such good girls as Holly and I consistently stuck them in car seats and drug them all over Bradenten.

(Charlotte enjoys playing in the sand)

     Also, my birthday present finally came in. Craig did such a good job hiding what he'd gotten me and I really didn't guess it was going to be a custom made spice rack! I'd been looking for a spice rack for close to a year at every yard/garage sale and antique shop we'd gone to, but couldn't find one. So Craig decided he'd have one made especially for me and it is beautiful. I love having it where it is in the kitchen because I couldn't reach them where they were over the stove. I had a step-stool but it was such a pain to get that out without stepping on Charlotte to get down one spice! I love my new spice rack. Sorry the picture is sideways, I didn't even think to check it before I posted it!

(It's sideways, but it's beautiful)

     Charlotte is such a big girl. She's finally got in two bottom teeth. So, as any first time mom would, I went to walmart and picked out some stuff to help take care of those precious little baby teeth. I thought I would have to fight her to keep them clean - however, she liked the flavor of the raspberry, flouride-free toothpaste so much, she brushes her own teeth. I figure it's like a dog and a hygiene treat, if she chews on it it's still doing some good! Plus she's so cute while she does it!

(Big girl brushing her own teeth!)

     Craig had a peanut conference in Clearwater Beach, Fl. this week and he was allowed to bring his family. So naturally we came! When we first got to Clearwater we met with his coworker and his wife and had lunch. It was delicious. After, Craig, Charlotte and I went for a walk along the road adjacent to the hotel with a lot of shops and found a little ice-cream parlor proclaiming the best home made ice-cream around. So we tried it out and it was very good! Charlotte really liked it, too! While Craig was in meetings all week, Charlotte and I busied ourselves as tourists and teamed up with Julie and walked about a mile to the Aquarium. It was small but we had BOGO ticket vouchers and so got in for half the cost. They're claim to fame is a dolphin they rescued who had been attacked by a shark and lost it's tail. A dolphin without a tail is a sad sight, but Winter got along alright and even had a prosthetic tail. Also at the aquarium were turtles, fish, sharks, sting rays and otters. The otters were very playful, but all of the animals at the aquarium were rescue animals, so they all were in rough shape. Later, Charlotte and I went to the playground and she swang in the toddler swings. She had a lot of fun and even made a friend. Then we met Julie at the pool but only stayed a little bit because Charlotte's cheeks were starting to get red. That night was the Bayer dinner where Charlotte got to crawl around a little like she likes to do. She made a ton of friends and even a little boy who was also 9 months old. He had quite a bit more teeth than Charlotte and it was his bed time. He wanted nothing to do with her but she kept trying to play with him. It was pretty funny. I loved that he had a bed time. His mom said he was even sleeping through the night. I love my little baby, but when will she do that with me? Normally she goes to bed close to midnight and gets up 5-6 times in the night before she wakes up at 7. Lately she's been pretty good about going down at 9 and getting up at 7, but she still gets up several times in the night, nurses a moment, and falls back asleep. Should I just let her cry? My instincts tell me no, but maybe that's just because she's my first. After the dinner Craig, Charlotte and I went to the playground where Craig got to swing Charlotte and she loved it. That girl loves her daddy. We went to the beach for sunset and let Charlotte get dirty while we enjoyed the view. The next morning Craig DID NOT want to get out of bed. But he did and for lunch he took me to a place called Crabby Bills. It was my first sea-food of the whole trip and I'm glad I waited. It was SO GOOD! For an appetizer we got seared Ahi and it was delicious. I got a snow crab entree with an addition of sugar-cane skewered shrimp and Craig had a yellow-fin Tuna steak. They were both so good and we got out of there just in time to avoid a nasty storm.

(MMMM....Cookies and Cream on a Waffle Cone!)

(Charlotte got to touch a star fish!)

(Do you think she knows how cute she is?)

(Seymour the Sea-Turtle ready to educate!)

(Look mom! A Pickle!)

(Daddy pushes Charlotte at the playground)

(Daddy and Charlotte head to the beach at sunset)

(Charlotte loves to play in the crashing waves!)

(Guess who didn't want to get out of bed!)

     It has been such an exciting summer. So much has happened it's kept us so busy and we love it. But we're really excited about Craig's family coming to visit us in the first week of August! We miss our family back home and wish everybody could come, but we're happy with what we're getting. It's more than we could ask for. I know Charlotte and Hailie are going to have a really fun time together but especially Callie who is going to get to have breakfast with the Disney Princesses! Hailies birthday is in August and Callie's is in September, so Craig and I went ahead and got them birthday presents for when we see them and we're so excited for that!

Father's Day

(Craig and his coworkers model their catches)

     Well Father's Day has rolled around and what a wonderful one it must have been. The week before Father's Day, Craig had a three day long meeting in the Florida Keys where he was invited to go deep sea fishing. Not really a father's day present, but I'm going to lump it in there anyway. Craig and his coworkers kept 15 Mahi-Mahi and brought the fish to a restaurant called Lazy Days and they cooked the fish up for the men. What fun! On his way back home, he spotted a big screen television abandoned on the side of the road. It seemed as though the owners were throwing it away and he couldn't find any further information on it, so he loaded the hunk of machinery into his truck all by himself and brought it home. It was in perfect working condition with the exception of a dead lizard visible on the inside of the screen which fell off and into the television shortly after we discovered it. I hope that doesn't start smelling. So that is going to be counted as one of Craig's presents.

(Craig's pole is heavy from the weight of a fighting fish)

(Smiling Craig is happy he got a fish)

(Craig, the natural hunter, is ready for another kill)

     For Father's Day; however, Craig got to sleep in and wake up to breakfast burrito's with farm fresh eggs we were given as a gift from a member of the church who own 30 chickens. They were delicious! For Father's Day he got an axe and a day spent with his girls. What a lucky man!

(Craig models his new TV, his new axe, and his beautiful baby)

     Charlotte has been growing so much over the past month. It's unbelievable what leaps and bounds she has made. She kisses now! Everyone and everything! Also, she has begun to clap her hands and will make some farm animal noises (namely quack quack, baaaa and moooo) and she'll say duck and okay! I think she also says Amen, but it doesn't really sound like it.

(A memorable moment from camp of Aunt Rachel cuddling her little baby niece, Charlotte)

     Now that Craig and I have been living in Florida we thought it a good idea to go ahead and get our drivers licenses switched to Florida. We didn't have a whole lot of choice since we can't get Disney World discounts without it, plus my tags have been expired since April and I needed a Florida DL to get my tags updated. Now that we've gotten all of that craziness taken care of we feel much better - one more thing to cross off our list of things we have to get done.

(Charlotte obviously takes after Craig, at home in a tent!)

(Have you ever seen something so cute?)

     We are so looking forward to the first of August when Uncle Brad and Aunt Nina and their girls as well as Paw-Paw and Oma will be coming to Florida. We just can't wait to get Charlotte and Hailey together and go to Disney World (which I've been secretly waiting for with very little patience).