Almost One!

      Now that Charlotte is almost one year old, she has gained quite a personality.  She loves Tinker Bell, she loves purses and she loves shoes. Sometimes she'll rummage through her shoes and have me put them on her for fun. One day, she had me put her pretty pink shoes on her and she was walking around the house with her purse in one hand and my cell phone in the other hand and she was having a whole conversation while walking around the house. When she noticed I was trying to take pictures of it, she through a fit. I guess she wasn't wearing her makeup?

(Charlotte throws a fit because she doesn't want her picture taken)

     Then she realized it wasn't so bad to have her picture taken, because I wasn't interested in her temper tantrum, but she wouldn't walk around like she was before, she just wanted to show off her purse Mrs. Holly got for her. (Her friend Aubrey has one just like it, and Aubrey is a big girl!).

("Oh! Look at my pretty purse!")

     I have an amazing family, my father-in-law sent me roses with a note that commented on what a good little mom he thought I was. It was such a surprise and it was so thoughtful it brought a huge smile to my face! I love my in-laws, I'm so lucky to have the love and support they give me!

(My beautiful roses from PawPaw)

     I wasn't the only one who loved my roses. Charlotte thought they were so pretty, too, but she also really loved the box they came in! I guess there is a lot of truth to babies preferring boxes to the toys that come inside them...

(Charlotte sets up shop in the flower box)

(Charlotte's shop falls through!) 

     In less than a week Charlotte will be turning one. I can't believe that a year ago she was just a new born and now she's just like a 2 year old. It really does go by so quickly. If only I could get her to sleep through the night now!



August 2010

It's been a while since I've been able to make any new posts, so there is plenty to write about!

Jelly Time

(5 lbs. of Muscadine Grapes)

     August 25, 2010 Craig brought home a slat of Muscadine Grapes. Muscadines are a wild grape that many people convert into a jelly, which was exactly what Craig had in mind for these Muscadines! So that is exactly what we did! I found a recipe online and we turned 5 pounds of grapes into 11 jars of jelly!  For those of you who are considering making your own at-home jelly, I would suggest being extremely careful because when you add the sugar to the boiling brew, it tends to overflow very quickly! We STILL have some Jelly on one of our burners that I can't seem to get to go away! Also we mounded the dirty dishes in the sink and without a dishwasher, this was a feat of its own! (Which I saved for the following day)

(5 lbs. of Muscadine Grapes all mushed up)

(Mommy mushing grapes!)

(Mommy mushing grapes with style!)

(Daddy is organizing all the jelly jars)

(11 jars of homemade jelly)

The Jelly was quite a success and we still have a couple of jars left. This is something I think Craig and I could do for fun every once in a while - provided clean up was a bit easier!

(Jelly spilled over and made a big sticky mess)

(There were lots of dirty dishes, but it was fun!)

Walking

Charlotte has been walking for more than a month now, but she's added a few fun twists to her adventures. She climbs, and she has learned to unzip her diaper bag and open caps on shampoo - which led to my most recent adventure. Charlotte drank a half of a bottle of baby shampoo I keep in my diaper bag in case, and she spent a whole morning vomiting. Poor baby, hopefully she'll learn never to do that again!

(Charlotte, 10 months, climbed on top of the coffee table)

(Charlotte, 11 months)

My sweet girl has also got 7 teeth now which you can see in a few of the photo's.

(Charlotte loves being outside!)

(Daddy lets his little girl man the wheel!)

Charlotte loves being outside. One day Craig came home briefly from having been gone on business and had to leave abruptly again. Once he was out the door, Charlotte brought me her shoes. I put the shoes on her feet and then she wanted to go outside. When we got outside she started looking around and then started saying "Da-da?" And when she realized he was gone, she broke down on the side walk. She loves her daddy!

(She says "MUSH!")

(She loves her doggy!)

She really loves going on morning walks/runs with me and Shiner and has gotten into the habit of "walking" Shiner herself. She'll lean over and grab his leash and start bossing him around. It's really cute to watch, less cute when she offers him her sippy cup! She's also started to say "Dog" along with "Apple", "Mama", "Dada", "Book" and she tries for "Butterfly" but she's not quite there yet!

Craig

(This one for the benefit of the camera!)

(This one to practice his aim!)

Hunting season is right around the corner, so Craig has been running out to the nearby woods when he gets the chance (which isn't often) and practices with his bow. His aim is still really good despite how little he's been able to practice and he's really excited about "putting some meat on the ground." I don't much care for venison, but I'd like him to get a few hogs!

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!)