Christmas in Keokuk

We spent the last few days with my family in Keokuk and Quincy. She got to meet a lot of her family for the first time: Great Grandpa Chuck, Great Grandma Elly, Great Grandma Lois, Uncle Seth, Aunt Andrea and Aunt Elisabeth.

While we were there Seth took some cute pictures of Audrey. I'm going to post some of them here. But I have a bunch more that I'm not going to put here, so if you want to see more pics from our time in Keokuk, click here to go to my facebook album.

Christmas at our house

Since we are spending Christmas away from home, we wanted to celebrate our own family Christmas at our house before we left. Friday night we didn't have anything to do and the presents were all bought, so we decided to have Christmas then!

We didn't buy Audrey any presents as I have a feeling she will get plenty of presents from our family. But we had this stocking for her, and I felt like she should have something in it! I wrapped a couple of toys that we had unopened and unused and put them in her stocking so she wouldn't feel left out.

Maggie got a present too--some treats and a rawhide. She was happy.
Daniel got me lots of things--some sweatpants, a sweater, a Wii game, an itunes gift card, and a new pen holder for my desk.

It looks like I didn't get Daniel as much, but we spent equal amounts of money. Daniel got this canvas print of him and Audrey for his office, and he got money to buy new tennis shoes.
(these are his old shoes that I wrapped so he would have something to open)

And now for some more pictures of Audrey. This poor little girl probably feels like she is growing up with the paparazzi as she always has a camera in her face. I can't help myself, she's just too cute!

This morning I put Audrey in this sweatsuit for the first time. It's a little baggy, but she is still wearing it to church this morning, because changing outfits is not a fun process. And plus she needs a warm outfit today, because it is incredibly cold outside this morning...I am really dreading leaving the house. (Good thing the church is only 1 block away and Daniel fixed the remote start on my car, so it will be nice and toasty for our 20 second drive!)

And I caught a smile! It's not a good angle, but her smiles are quick, so there's no time for posing when I am trying to get a picture of one.

Merry Christmas from the Shelton's!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I took these pictures while Daniel was burping Audrey last night. She looks like such a big girl, holding her head up like this!!

6 weeks old

This past week has been a big week for Audrey. She is really changing and is starting to be more active and aware of her surroundings. Here are some pictures of what she has done in the past week.

She has outgrown a few of her newborn outfits and moved up to the 0-3 month clothes. They are long enough for her, but still pretty baggy. Here she is showing off how big she is getting!

One of her favorite things to do now is lay on her back and stare to the side. It doesn't matter which side and it doesn't matter what she is staring at...the couch, the Christmas tree, the wall...she just likes to stare. We have a mirror in her crib and she will sit and stare at herself for quite a while.

Sheis now flailing her arms and kicking her legs, happily. This is a big change for her, because for the first month, all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball. Any arm flailing or leg kicking was not because she was happy...now she seems to like it more.

She is working on lifting her head while on her tummy. If she is on her tummy on your chest, she will lift it up and look around, even make eye contact with you. She doesn't like to be on her tummy on the floor as much, but she will still lift her head briefly.

We set up her play gym on the floor and she really likes it. Again, she likes to stare at the toys, but she will also flail her arms around and hit the ball.


We're still waiting for good, consistent smiles. Occasionally, it seems like she tries to smile and a few times I think she really has...but it is not a regular thing yet.

A Video!

I'm experimenting today with uploading a video. Audrey is starting to be a little more active and is now making some sounds that seem more happy than sad or angry. I think it sounds like she says "Hi" sometimes. She is also starting to pay attention to her rattle if you shake it in front of her.

So, here's a video I took this morning. It's not too exciting, as she still doesn't do a whole lot. But she's cute, and I thought her grandparents especially might want to see her in action.

A New One Month Picture

Audrey and I ventured to Toys R Us yesterday and I found this big Raggedy Anne Doll. I had Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls when I was little and remember them fondly. So I decided to get one for Audrey, and now that's what I'm going to use for her monthly pictures. So we had to come home and take all new pictures.

The sad part about this trip was the injury Audrey incurred on herself while we were shopping. As we were coming into the store, I put her carseat in the cart (not an easy task, our carseat is heavy!) and heard a loud wail from her. When I opened the cover to check on her, she had a huge gash (well it wasn't that huge, but it did draw a little blood) on her left cheek. I'm assuming she startled and scratched herself. It seems like we just cut her nails, but already they were long enough for her to hurt herself. Besides the one cry, she didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. I, on the other hand, was so upset and ready to cry right there in the store. Now she has this scratch on her face, and every time I look at her it makes me sad.

While I had the camera out, I tried to get some more pictures. But as hard as I tried to get her to look at me and the camera, her attention could not be pulled away from the couch. She was intently studying it and refused to look away!

I left Audrey for the 2nd time yesterday to get my haircut (the 1st time was to go see Twilight), so Daniel was in charge. Daniel took this self-portrait of what they did while I was gone...all 3 of them were nice and cozy on the couch!

More pics

Audrey had her one month checkup on Friday. She is a growing girl! She now weighs 7 lbs, 13 oz (1 1/2 lbs more than her birth weight), she is 21 1/2 inches long (1 1/2 inches longer than birth), and her head was 14 inches around (2 inches more than birth).

Everyone comments that she has really long fingers...and that she is going to be a good piano player some day. I think everyone says that because Daniel and I play the piano. I don't think her fingers seem all that long, but her feet are what I think are abnormally long. Maybe she'll learn to play the piano with her feet?? Here is a picture of her feet in comparison to her skinny legs. If you measure her feet, they are about the same length as from her knee to her ankle!

Friday night was our small group Christmas party. Between the 3 young adult small groups, there has been quite the baby boom! in the past year. We had 4 kids at the party on Friday...they tend to provide the entertainment for everyone. Here is Daniel with one of our favorite little boys, Cael.

Audrey spent the whole night sound asleep. That didn't stop us from trying to get a picture of her and Cael together. Now Cael is promised to another girl (and Audrey is not trying to steal him away from Ava, notice she is sound asleep and completely innocent), but that didn't stop Cael from checking her out!

It kind of looks like she is smiling in this last picture, but she really was crying. We have seen a few little smiles from her we think. It's hard to tell because sometimes the smiles and cries look a lot alike!

If you've followed my blog for a while, I wrote back in October about how I bought a new laptop. That has been the best thing ever now that Audrey is here, as I spend a lot of time with her just hanging out on the couch. I have become pretty good at one handed typing. She is sound asleep in my arms right now...this whole post was typed with one hand!

One month old!

Audrey is now one month old. She is spending more time awake and alert, looking around and staring at our faces. Tonight she even started making some cooing noises.

Some of our friends have taken pictures with their babies and a stuffed animal each month to document how much they are growing. I thought that was a fun idea and wanted to do this too...but we don't really have a stuffed animal to use yet. So, we decided that we're going to try and take a picture of Audrey and Maggie (our dog) each month. I don't think Maggie is going to grow anymore, she's been the same size for a long time now. So, it should be fun to compare the two of them each month. There's only one problem with this idea: Maggie is a real dog, as opposed to a stuffed animal, and therefore she moves around and isn't always cooperative. So this may not work each month, but we're going to give it a try. Here are the one month pictures:

Cousins!

I have just been blogging like crazy this week! 3 posts in 3 days, that's got to be a record for me.

In the past week, Audrey has met all of her cousins. Last weekend, Grandpa and Grandma Shelton, Aunt Beth, and cousins Ben and Brandon came to visit. Here is a picture of Brandon holding Audrey. I think he is trying to compare how big he was as a baby to how big Audrey is.

And here is Ben, along with Aunt Beth and Mimi (Grandma Shelton).

Today, Uncle Matt, Aunt Monica, and cousins Mariah and Mark came to visit. Here is Mariah holding the baby. She is very excited to have another girl cousin!

Mark didn't sit still long enough to get a picture with the baby. But here he is being flipped upside down by Uncle Daniel.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Audrey received a Thanksgiving onesie from her friend Cael that we wanted her to wear today. It was too big for her, and we had to search through all of her clothes (and try on lots of things, which she hated) to find a pair of pants that would fit her and still match. Daniel thought it was OK if she wore blue or pink pants with this outfit, but I said no way! She has to match for all the first Thanksgiving pictures we were going to take.

And here she is with Cael, who was also celebrating his first Thanksgiving today. Cael was supposed to wear this Thanksgiving onesie last year...but he was born a couple of weeks too late!

Christmas Tree

We went to get our Christmas tree today. I grew up getting a real Christmas tree every year. We often went to the Christmas tree farm. We looked for the biggest, fattest tree that could possibly fit in our house. Daniel grew up with artificial trees. When we got married, it was a dilemma...should we get a real tree or a fake tree? Well, it really wasn't much of a dilemma...I was pretty insistent that we must get a real tree every year. The first year we lived in Springfield I even made Daniel go to the Christmas tree farm and cut it down himself.

So today we took Audrey to get her first real Christmas tree. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience...she slept the entire time!

She finally started to wake up as I was finishing decorating the tree. She was not too happy about this picture. I think she is trying to say, "Enough already...don't you know I'm 3 weeks old and could care less about any of this?"

Who Does She Look Like?

That is probably one of the most common questions we are asked...but we don't really know the answer. Sometimes I see me, and sometimes I see Daniel, and sometimes I see neither! I've never been very good at figuring out who babies look like. I think the easiest way to tell is to compare baby pictures.

What do you think? Does she look more like Daniel's baby pictures? I think she does in this picture.

But in real life, I think she looks more like this picture of me. I don't know...like I said, I'm not very good at the who does baby look like guessing game.

This is a picture of how we spend most of our days at home. Audrey seems most content when she is snuggled up on your chest. Maggie is also most content when she is snuggled up right next to you. Therefore, this is what it looks like. Just add a computer on my lap and you get the idea. The only problem with this situation is that with everyone so comfy on the couch, it makes it nearly impossible to get up and get anything productive done!

And here's a fun face Audrey has been making lately, usually when she wakes up. It is very cute!