Middle of the Night Noise.

Okay so this is my only outage to rant about the neighborhood dogs. I fully understand allowing your dogs out in the day and them barking. I might not like it, but I can not always stop my two large dogs from barking right away during the day, but you better believe that after the sun goes down you will not hear a peep out of my dogs. This is not true for the houses surrounding me. I don't know names yet, but lets just say that it is 1:30 in the morning and everyone in the house is wide-awake. Also I must say a random bark in the night is okay, but for your dogs to be barking hog wild at who knows what, is not good.

So for all of you responsible dog owners out there please keep your dogs quite at night. Especially the middle of the night. Some of us work for a living and have to be up extremely early the next day.

Hi my name is Sarah and I am a workaholic....

Okay so following Erin's blog format...

By the way no I am not a workaholic, but I used to be one.

The following post will be who am I now. Right now I am a mother (still weird for me to say), a wife (not always a good one) an employee, a daughter and so much more.

Right now I feel defined by being a mother. My life is consumed with Ava. I must say that is not a bad thing at all and I love it, but I feel as though my other rolls are suffering.

I believe in traditional male female rolls even though my life does not follow one. I also would love to be taken care of instead of doing all the taking care, but not sure that my personality would allow this to happen.

I remember almost every thing that is said to me (or should I say that I have fought with someone about) Just ask Mike.

I am cranky, moody, hyper (when I have gotten sleep) slightly neurotic, compulsive about some things and not about others, and most of all I love to have things my way.

I know this last one is not a shocker to anyone.

Sometimes I cry, but try not to in front of others, sometimes I want to be held, but will not make the first move, and sometimes I think you should know what I want and just do it without me saying something, even when I don't know what it is that I want myself. Oh wait isn't that a typical woman?

Lastly I am me. An only child loved so much by my mom.

I have been this way for 26 years, and while this is not a long time in my life as a whole, it is going to be that way for another 26+ years, and even if I try to change, I cannot. The only thing is to hope that I am soon able to devote enough individual time to each roll that I now have in life.

Thrice is nice

Well maybe we have a new habit!!!!! AVA SLEPT. Let me explain, the past three nights she has slept 9 hours each night. Each night I slowly let go and I get more sleep to. Last night I only woke up twice to check on her. If you are a mother you will understand. I just am not used to so much sleep in a row. It is NICE. Now she still gets up at 4am, but that hour comes much easier when you go to bed at 7! Not sure if my rocking Ava to sleep is helping her stay a sleep, but I would like to say it is. Also to those who say let a baby cry it out and they will learn to sooth themselves....no no no....my way did work. I went to Ava anytime she cried and she new I would be there...now she does not have to sooth herself back to sleep she will just sleep...in her own crib I must add. Sorry horrible run on I know. I just had to get out the Na Na bo bo part to the insensitive men who told me to let my baby cry. This is why a woman should always follow her gut. It will pay off. It might take five months, but it works. I now have a well rested baby that is extremely happy.

Here are a few pics from last night.


Ava and I just after her bath...bundle up the baby!


Ava's new PJ's....thanks Grandma


I love to rock Ava to sleep!

Drummer Girl....

Well Mike has started Ava young in playing the drums. I thought guitar would be cool, but a girl drummer would be okay also. I just hope she sticks to beating on the drums and not on me or the dogs.

We all took a trip this weekend to see the Tulsa crew. It was fun. We took some more 4 generations pictures. Also got a good one of the great grand parents and Ava.


On a growing note...Ava is 20 weeks old....or 5 months and now is eating rice cereal. Mom says it tastes like wall paper paste, but I am not willing to give that one a try. Ava seems to enjoy it. That or she enjoys me making a mess on her. Either way she would be better at feeding her self than I am, see.
As for sleeping...Ava is now sleeping 5 hours... she then wakes, eats and sleeps two more in her crib. Then she wakes and sleeps 2-3 more with me in our chair. One of these days she will sleep straight through the night, until then I will get up when she gets up.

Nothing else too new here, will post again soon.

Photo Contest

I just entered Ava Lynn in the Great American Photo Contest. The baby with most votes this month wins $2,500 (that could be a nice amount to put away now for college!!). Please do me a big favor and click on this https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index.aspx?
referid=EmailFriends&p=304578&x=.JPG and vote for Ava Lynn. It takes a minute. I really appreciate it, and so does Ava Lynn . Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Sarah Shelby

p.s. Tell your friends to tell their friends

Here is a copy of the photo!

2 lbs of Meat, 1-1/2 lbs of shrimp and 24 rolls later...

Okay two big things went on this weekend. First I started redoing our master bathroom. Well actually I started picking at the wall paper when I was still pregnant with Ava and now I am officially going to finish it. Pat and Amber came over on Friday and helped me pick off all the wall paper. Then Saturday Pat, Mike and I primed the walls. Sunday we would have done the textureizing part, but Mike and I decided to have a cookout.

I will post pictures of the bathroom when it is all done. I will put them in sequence for yall and everything.

As for the cookout...Mike spent 5 straight hours in the kitchen preparing/cutting up 2 lbs of red meat, potatoes, orange peppers, pineapple and shrimp to put onto a million wooden and metal scures. We then had Chance, Courtney, Pat and Amber over for a good time.


Amazingly through this all Ava fell asleep at her normal bed time and stayed in bed until midnight, when she was hungry again. After she went to bed we cleaned, had ice cream cake and continued to be loud adults having fun. If only every night could be a party. Wait maybe not, it is Monday and I am super tired and my bathroom is not done. ARRRRRR

That's My Daughter!

As I was changing Ava's poopy diaper this morning, I found her making a face back at me. This was no ordinary nice morning face this was my face....she was sticking out her tongue and grunting at me. Something I have done many times to her. Yup that is my daughter, stick me with a dirty diaper and make a face to me. Nice.

Oh last night it was a bit chilly here, but no wind, so sticking to my New Years Resolution we all went for a walk. What a site we must be. Me with Ava all bundled up and Mike with these two large dogs walking him.

Right now our adventures maybe few or small for some every day is a new one for us. Hope you like the pictures from last night. I think we might be getting carried away.

New High Chair!!!

Well the last Christmas gift arrived yesterday. Meme and Grandpa (aka Old Man) got Ava a very nice high chair for Christmas. Just after we left to pick up dog food the UPS man dropped it off! I will have to add a towel to keep Ava from falling completely over, since she is still a bit wobbly sitting up, but it is a very nice chair.



Also Mike took more pics of Ava while we were goofing around on the couch. She was very sleepy at this point of the evening. On a pleasant note Ava slept 7 hours last night. 7pm to 2 am!!! Now if we could just get that 10pm to 5am. I think a full belly is helping get her on a more regulated sleep pattern, but with all things we will see how long this lasts.






So tired. Fingers taste good!

Growing?

I must say I do love talking about Ava to everyone, but I feel bad when expecting mothers ask me how is she doing and I say, fine, just working on the sleeping thing. They always want me to elaborate. So I do....I tell them she has not figured out how to sleep through the night yet, but soon hopefully. I also say she must be growing in hope of giving them the idea that their baby will sleep 7-8 hours at 8 weeks old and that my little girl is just not normal or growing all the time. Truth be told....she is very normal. I have decided that every other baby is weird and sleep is over rated? Maybe Ava will be a night person. Or maybe she will be one of those people that does not require much sleep, sort of like me in college. What ever she ends up being, I would just like a few nights of 7 hours of normal sleep time. I feel normal hours would be 10pm to 5am. I understand that it will be much later in life that I can sleep in. Of course sleeping in to me would be 7am.

No pictures for this post this time around, just me ranting. Please keep your fingers crossed that Mike and Ava have a good day today, since I had three days in a row with her and according to Mike I spoil her. Then if it is a good day maybe tonight she will not repeat last night's sleep schedule. Bed at 6pm, up at 9, 12:30, 2 and finally 4.

On a more pleasant note, while doing makeup this morning Ava was extremely interested in everything I was doing. Eyeshadow, mascara, hair and my stripped robe. I love it when she pulls at me, even if it is just to put my hand or arm in her mouth to suck on.

New Years Resolutions....?

Okay, I am trying to blog a lot more now days. Even if I don't have anything to say I will try to at least post pictures. I however do have a few things to get off my chest. Ava is now over four months old and I am unable to loose any more weight. I don't believe in New Years resolutions, but this year I am going to try, like most adults, to loose weight and get in shape. We should all be a fortunate as hollywood superstars to have personal trainers, nannys and chefs. Then we can all drop or put on any amount of weight we like. For us normal wives...no such luck, except for those few lucky son of a guns. This resolution has me in such a perdicament. I know have to watch what I eat, walk/workout, spend time with Ava, Mike, Bella, Beau and Flicka and work. How do you woman out there get it done? Oh I forgot the most important thing of all and have time for myself. What the heck. Guess this is why I get up at 5am most days.

Okay off my soap box and on to a few new pics. Enjoy....

Christmas Crazyness.

Well this year was Ava's first Christmas and she had three of them. First we did Christmas at home with Aunt Kay. Early of course. Then we traveled, with out our doggies (unfortunately) to Tulsa. Tulsa is about a 4 hour drive with no stops...so we stopped and it took about 5 hours. Don't worry Bella and Beau stayed behind with aunt Kay and had a blast with the large bones we left for them to open on Christmas.

While in Tulsa we finally took the four generations picture. We also went out to eat Christmas Eve with the whole Mavers Clan. Ava did very well. She even fell asleep when the Carolers were singing.


Then Christmas day we left for a six hour drive to Missouri. Ava and I slept most of the way. We ran into lots of snow on our drive and the entire time we were there. You would think I would take a picture of that...but no I forgot. Sorry to disappoint. We stayed in Missouri for a few days catching up with the entire Shelby kids and wives. Talk about a fun and loud time. Ava finally got to meet her other uncles Tom and Jay and aunt Monique.

As for gifts we all got way too much. So much that Ava was surrounded in the car on the way home. Again another great picture I missed. I really should get better at this picture thing.

If Ava could talk I think she would agree that her best gift is the new bouncer that hangs in the doorway and allows her to be free for a bit and at the same level as Bella and Beau.


Now for the last update of information. Ava had her four month check up. She is currently 26" long/tall and 14.5lbs. At this rate she will be taller than Mike and myself!

Thanksgiving

Okay I know this is old, but here is a few pics from Thanksgiving. For those of you that don't know Thanksgiving was at our new house this year. We had every room filled with a guest and enjoyed every minute of it. Thank goodness we got such a large house, or I would have gone crazy.









P.S. Sorry I didn't take as many photos of the food and surrounding events as I thought I had.