Christmas 2012!!!

Oh what a year it has been!  We've had our ups and downs, trials and triumphs, and we are so blessed to have another great year in the books!!!  Our sweet babies have really brightened our lives and give us so much joy in our daily life.  We ended the year with another great celebration of Christ's birth with our families and enjoyed every minute of it!

Of course we had to celebrate our time off together with days upon days of festive PJs!  We really did lay around the house in our PJs most of break (and it was awesome!!!)  It is unreal how many pairs of Christmas PJs my children own!!! LOL  

Reindeer PJs!!!

Connor enjoyed some Da-da time! He's such a daddy's boy and loved every second!

Activity of choice: Reading books! :)

More Christmas PJs!!! Gotta love Rudolph!

 We stayed with my parents for a few days since we had TWO recovering from surgeries!!! The extra help was so nice!  Connor thoroughly enjoyed Mamaw's friends... they all sing and dance Christmas songs! 

(Notice my silly boy is on TOP of the table!)

We got to spend LOTS of time with our families! Sweet Tyler loved entertaining his little cousin, Liam!

Ryan made the mistake of opening the piano! Ear plugs were SO needed! LOL

Each year on the anniversary of my sister's death (December 23rd), we attend a memorial service at our church.  It is so nice to remember our loved ones who can't be with us at Christmastime.  I love that we have a day each year that we get together as a family and celebrate her life! She was such a special person and I miss her so much!

All of our babies were together on Christmas Eve! It was so nice having everyone together!

My sister, Jennifer's children are so grown up now!!! Ryan is 18 and Ginny is 17!  My brother Andrew's two boys (in the middle) are growing up right before our eyes as well! Colby is 9 and Tyler is 3. And, our course, our two stinkers are such big boys now! Connor is 2 and Liam is 8 months!

Silly boys!!! The cookies and milk are for Santa!!!

We were still staying at my parent's on Christmas Eve.  Did you know that Santa knew that?!?! He's such a clever guy! ;)  Look what he left for our sweet boys:

They made out like bandits!!!

Later on Christmas Day we got to spend some time with James' parents, uncles, and sister.  The boys are the first grandchildren so they are SO SPOILED!! :)

We hope you and your family had a great Christmas!
Merry Christmas to your family from ours!!! :)

29 months!

That's right, my sweet boy, another month older, another month wiser! ;) It seems so weird to type 29 months!!! Especially when I started this blog with your 4 month update! It often seems that time is our greatest enemy... it slips away so fast and we'll never get it back! :( So it is best to cherish every moment we do have, and here is what I cherish about this month...

• You give sneak attack hugs! That's right, you run up out of nowhere, and scream HUG! as you lay one on us! I LOVE this!
• You are really into green beans at the moment! THANK YOU JESUS!!! I have prayed long and hard that you would FINALLY eat some vegetables!
• You LOVE to sing! Your favorites at the moment are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Ba Ba Black sheep.
• You have to count EVERYTHING! Anytime you see a number you count... at the grocery store, in the car, at home, outside... everywhere!
• You are a BIG boy! You are 34.5 pounds, putting you at the 93rd percentile for weight, and 38.5 inches, putting you at the 95th percentile for height!
• You've been having a lot of trouble with ear infections.  BAD ear infections! :( So, you just got tubes in your ears! We are praying this will make a HUGE difference for you!!!
• You are such a boy! You think you have to climb on everything! Beds, Tables, and Chairs OH MY!
• You are LOVING the holiday season!  You are fascinated with the tree and ornaments! You are very curious of the presents that are wrapped, and you even sat on Santa's lap for about 30 seconds! (Long enough to grab your candy cane and run!)
• You are in desperate need of a haircut! But longer hair also suits you.
• You created a game called, "Let's see how many times I can turn off the lights before Momma and Dada can get me."  You typically win big time.
• You are really into Sesame Street and Curious George at the moment! I love George too!
• You are loving trucks and cars at the moment.
• You are an apple-aholic! Apple granola bars, applesauce, apple juice, apple slices...
• You are my little reader! You love to read books on your own and with us. Sometimes you just curl up with a basket of books and read to yourself for a long time, or you bring us books to read aloud to you! It is sooooooooo sweet!
• You are more interested in playing with your brother now... now that he is actually big enough to be interested in toys! lol He was so boring before, all he did was sleep, right!?!
• Every time we get in the car, I ask you where you want to go. The answer is always Papaw's.
• You don't believe in sleeping in. I'm sure you think its a waste of a perfectly good day.

Everyone needs to have a two year old living with them at some point in their life.  It is without a doubt the most entertainment I have ever had in my life! You are the most precious, good-natured, fun, energetic, sweet, caring, wild child I have ever met and I'm so lucky you are my son!  Your Dada and I love you so much, Connor!  We love you to the moon and back an infinite number of times!  Happy 29 months, baby boy!

You are so loved!

 

 

 

 

Liam is 8 months old!

Our sweet boy is 8 months old!

This month you were more aware of your friend in the photos with you.  It was pretty much impossible to get your attention! lol  BUT, we can still see how much you've grown!  Can you believe you used to be smaller than Monkey?

Here's what we want to remember about all that you are doing at 8 months:

• You LOVE food.  Yup, you pretty much think you need to eat ALL.THE.TIME.  You are especially interested when someone else had food. Pears are your absolute favorite right now!
• You are officially wearing 12 month clothing! You are my long & lean boy!  Not much chunkiness to you!!
• You roll, slide, slither, and now ARMY CRAWL to where you want to go! That's right, you are INTO EVERYTHING!
• You are a hold me baby! You think someone needs to hold you at all times! You are quite the attention hog! hehe!
• You are teething MAJOR!  AND you have TWO TEETH!!!!!!!!!!! Such a big boy!
• You babble, coo, and "talk" to us all the time! You are quite the socialite! You can even hear a "ma-ma," "da-da," and "hi!" in there.  I think you are telling stories about us! ;)
• You love to play with everything BUT your toys! You love car keys, cell phones, ipads, empty boxes, magazines, remotes, combs, you know... all the fun stuff!
• You are a great sleeper... at night! LOL Not so much during the day.  You still like to cat nap.  You are too afraid you are going to miss out on something.  Mr. Nosy!
• You are the HAPPIEST baby EVER! No really, you are!  We absolutely LOVE that about you!  You are always happy and smiling! I hope you always enjoy life this much! :)

Here's some of our favorite pics of you from this month:

You are the cutest little brother ever!

You love to read with Papaw!

Your big brother decided to teach you how to stack blocks!  He's so sweet to you! 

 My sweet, smiling boy!

Reading with Dada and big brother!

You absolutely LOVE patty cake!

More reading with Dada and big brother! :)

My teething boy!

You are ALL ABOUT food! lol

You roll ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!!!

On the move!!!

Trying to steal the ipad from your Cousin, Colby!
You are such a turkey!

Happy 8 months Liam!!!

We love you so much!!! We can't wait to see how you learn and grow next month!! You are such a special blessing to our family and it is so hard to imagine that there was ever a time without your sweet face!  We love you to the moon and back an infinite number of times! 

You are our whole world!!! :)

Oh what fun it is...

We've had quite the eventful week in our little fam.  Two, yes, I repeat, TWO surgeries within three days. PHEW! To be even more precise, one-half of our little Shacklett family went under the knife! EEK!!!!

James was first... he had a tonsillectomy on Tuesday. It went surprisingly well!!! (Thank you Jesus!!) EVERYONE we know that had their tonsils out as an adult said that it was a terrible surgery to recover from.  Fortunately, James has recovered really well! We were prepared for worst-case-scenario, I guess, from what we had heard.  We are only 4 days out, but hopefully things continue to go as well as they have!!

Connor, on the other hand, got tubes in both ears!  The surgery went fantastic! I was more worried about him, I guess, because I was picturing IVs and a screaming, inconsolable child being wheeled away from me. Thank goodness that wasn't the case! The anesthesiologist gave him some medicine to help him relax, and OH MY, did he relax!! LOL  He was having the time of his life! Everything was just so funny to him! He was pretty much the equivalent of a sloppy, but happy drunk!

My "happy" boy! lol

After he was nice and "happy," they wheeled him back for the procedure, and he was back in my arms within 15 minutes!

I'm so happy that my sweet boy will finally have some relief from these horrible ear infections!

He was a little grumpy when he first came out of the anesthesia, and he was pretty upset with me that I packed water for him instead of milk! lol So we had to stop and get some milk on the way home.  Once we were home, and after a big nap, my lil guy was right back to his normal self! He was laughing, eating, and playing.  I even noticed some immediate improvements in his speech!  He wanted an apple granola bar, and we were trying to get him to eat something more sustaining, but he thought we just didn't hear his request, so he CLEARLY enunciated, "AP-PLE BAR BAR!!" so we would know what he wanted! LOL He's such a turkey!

Da-da recovering with some Liam therapy!! :)

Liam is 7 months old!!! :)

I can't believe this was 7 months ago!!!

I just LOVE this picture from your "birth" day. 

Just look at how big you are now! Time sure does fly by when you're having fun!! :)

 

 

Here's a few things we want to remember about you at this age:
        • You are 17.5 lbs.
        • You just started wearing 12 month clothing!!! Oh my!!
           How did that happen?!?!
        • You love to pull my glasses off my face over and over! lol
        • You think EVERYTHING needs to go in your mouth.
        • You LOVE to babble!
        • You are a little piglet... Your chunky cheeks prove it too!!
        • You can go from sitting to your belly... Mostly from falling over! ;)
        • You love pears and apples!
        • You love to snuggle with momma! :)
           But you are starting to become more independent!! :(

Mr. Independent! You rolled all the way across the room!

• You are really nosy! haha! Really, you are! You are so interested in what everyone else is doing or saying.  You have to be right there in the middle of it to take it all in!
• You are ON THE MOVE!!!  No, you aren't crawling or walking just yet, but you can roll to anywhere you want to go!!
• I'm pretty sure you said "Da Da!" Your da da is letting this go to his head! He thinks that means you are a daddy's boy.  We'll just let him think that, cause you and I know that's not true! lol
• You work SO hard to get toys that are out of reach!
• You love peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake!
• You love to have songs sung to you!
• You had to go to the emergency room TWICE this month! :( Are you trying to give your momma a heart attack???  You had a stomach bug the first time and had to be treated for dehydration.  This time you had pneumonia! Poor little guy!
• You are a great sleeper!
• You are the happiest baby I have EVER met.  I have never seen a baby that smiles and laughs as much as you do! I absolutely LOVE that about you! 

Seriously the happiest baby ever! Just look at that smile!

There's just something so sweet about a sleeping baby!

 

You have the biggest blue eyes!

 

Blowing raspberries! Look at those chipmunk cheeks!!! :)

 

HAPPY 7 MONTHS, LIAM!!!

We love you so much! What a great 7 months it has been! We are so excited to see all that you will do next! We love you to the moon and back an infinite number of times!