Unpacking Scentsy

Being that Melissa was born after I started my Scentsy business she has grown up (in her long life of 11 months) with Scentsy stuff everywhere. She helped me unpack a Scentsy order even though I didn't quite ask her for her help, but she insisted on helping me anyways.
I think she really enjoyed this one! It's her favorite!

Dancing with Daddy

Jon has recently found the melodious music of Frank Sinatra and being that we (me) like to dance Jon and Melissa have started the tradition of dancing together to his music. Melissa seems to love it especially since she loves her daddy so dearly.

First Tooth

Melissa's first tooth has finally come in! She has done many first this month but this was by far the worst that we as parents had to experience. For most of this week she has been hopped up on meds and Orajel until it finally broke through. After a ton of twisting and turning Jon was finally able to keep her mouth open and her tongue out of the way just long enough to get a picture. Enjoy the view!

Faith is like a Little Seed

So tonight for Family Home Evening, we decided that we wanted to try growing our own flowers. We originally received the idea from Jon's brother Steve and we thought that it was a great idea too. All of us went to the store and found the flower box kit and along with the seeds that we found in Texas and we got started as soon as we got home.
First, we started by reading the directions.

Melissa thought that they were quite interesting and kept wanting to play in the dirt.
She even tried to eat one of the dirt packs. She soon realized that it wasn't a good idea.
She even helped her daddy plant the seeds.
Then we poured the water into the container. Melissa loved this part! She was so fascinated. Melissa has recently started crawling and pulling up. She even attempts to stand by herself. We all new it was just at matter of time. She was very interested in what her daddy was doing she went on over and decided to see for herself.
She took the opportunity to grab one of the soaked dirt pods. She wasn't sure about since it was wet and yucky but she can say that she has played in the muddy dirt.
So hopefully in about 3 weeks will have some very beautiful Texas Bluebonnets!

Tales from the Crypt

So, I know a few of you are wondering...hmm...where is Shellie and what is she doing? I know, you were just sitting around waiting for me to update my blog. Crying every night and asking 'Why? Why hasn't she written anything?' Thinking that I had fallen off the face of the earth, but cry no longer because I am back...I think.

I have been super busy lately with getting my business back on track that by the end of the day I am just too tired or burnt out to update the blogaroo. So I am making a pact with myself that I will update at least once a week. I have A LOT of posting to do so hopefully I won't let my dear friends down!

Pregos Everywhere!!!

So it has come to my attention that there are A LOT of pregnant ladies out there. To celebrate this great and wonderful blessing in everyone's lives and to make complete fun at how many people I know that are pregnant - I am keeping a list on my blog for everyone to see. If you aren't on the list or you know someone that I know that is pregnant and they aren't on the list then please tell me. I just can't get over it. There are at least 10 ladies in my ward alone that are pregnant. I don't know 3 of them but that's still a lot and more and more keep getting pregnant every day!! Don't drink the water....

Orphan Face

Whenever Melissa has a dirty face Jon calls her an orphan baby. It's inevitable that she will get messy while she is eating but it's the clean up that gets me every time! No matter how well I scrub her face I always seem to miss a part. Now whenever we see kids at church or at the store and they have a messy face we start to chuckle and say orphan face!

No matter clean or dirty, she is still the cutest baby ever!

A Day at the Office

Recently Melissa has been a little fussy, especially when I walk away. To make her happy we have been allowing her to have a little more "fun" than usual.
She is actually really good at it. She presses so many buttons that she ends up changing the look of the screen. Needless to say, we now limit her time on the computer.

Give Me a Break

It was so nice to leave and visit our families for Christmas but it was even better to come home. This was one of the most stressful, fun, and busy vacations we have ever had not to mention most expensive. On the way to our half way point in Omaha, our car started making a funny noise. Needless to say it wasn't a good noise at all. We made it to Omaha where my grandma lives. We took our car to a mechanic friend of hers and it turned out that after being stuck there for 2 days 3 valves needed to be replaced in cylinder one. This was all thanks to Pep Boys who replaced our timing belt in August (we did this as a preventative measure) and they didn't get the timing right which over time hurt the car. We ended up renting a van to get down to Texas so that we would still have enough time to spend with our families. $1600 poorer we did end up getting our car back when we drove back through. On a side note, we are currently trying to get our money back from Pep Boys for the crappy work that they did.

Here is an overview of our Christmas break. I think this just might be the longest post in history but if you can stick it out, I hope you enjoy!

This was at dinner with my grandparents when we were visiting them in Omaha. It was so fun to see them!
Finally we're on the road again! Melissa and Maggie did very well together. Maggie entertained Melissa many times and we appreciated that very much!
YEAH! We finally made it and Melissa spent most of her time in her Grandma's lap!
Grandma also bought her a jumper and I can't describe to you how much enjoyment she gets out this thing! She can spend at least an hour in it just bouncing and bouncing!
And how can you resist these little feet?
Here's my sister Jenny. She is a big freshman now! Woot! I'm so proud of her!
Here's my mom's tree. She changes the theme of it every year. This year it was silver and touches of gold. It was so elegant and wonderful to look at.
We took a quick trip out to Arlington on Monday and made a pit stop at Wal-Mart. Here is the new Cowboys stadium taken from the parking lot across the street. It's so freakin' huge!
As a Christmas present for my parents, we redid the hall bathroom. I redid it when I was a Senior in high school. The kiddos were much younger then and now the duckies on the wall are a bit outdated.
Jon had to re texture the side wall. He is so professional!
We even bought them new tile and laid the floor. Jon was the main guy behind this project but I did help paint and hand him tile. He did a great job and they loved the finished product!
My sister Annie loved having the opportunity to feed Melissa. She is such a little mommy and will make a great one some day!
Being that we are on vacation, we had to improvise when it came to bath time. That being said we often took to the kitchen sink to give Melissa a bath. I have never seen her so excited for bath time! She figured out that she could splash the water and she just fell in love!

How can you resist such a cute baby?
Christmas eve morning I spent with my girls from high school. We shared time at Ihop and I haven't eaten that great in so long! After we came back to my house to smell Scentsy and see Melissa. It was so great to spend time with them!

Christmas Eve finally rolled around and we traveled back out to Arlington to spend it with Jon's family. His parents bought a new tree which I absolutely love! It's pre-lit with berries and wood pieces on it. It hardly needs any decorations at all because of this reason but it looks so beautiful and simple. This picture doesn't do it justice at all.
All of our nieces and nephews put on the Nativity for all of us.
And we had a few musical numbers by Jon, his brother Jim, and Bob and his wife Mary.
Then we got down to business and opened the presents. Melissa had the right idea but went about it the wrong way. Boy, she loves paper!
Here is the cute dress and toy that her Granny and Grandpa got her. She loves this toy! Anything that makes music and lights up is a great toy in her book.
We also spent time playing Guitar Hero on the Wii we got ourselves for Christmas.

Later I went out to find Jon and his nephew Bobby playing with Bobby's new toy.
The toy was so popular that Owls living in the neighborhood starting chasing it. Here were the two that I was able to capture in the tree.
When then came in to talk to Steve, Melinda, and Lizzie via web cam. Needless to say that everyone had a good time playing around with it. It was good to "see" them and we can't wait to visit them in March!
Melissa ended the evening enjoying her favorite drink. Mmmm good.

Christmas day was a blast! Melissa really enjoyed her toys and it was fun spending it with my family.
She had such a great time that she fell asleep on her Grandpa.
During her nap, Jon and Corey spent time blasting his rocket into the air. I just love this kid!

Nap time came to an end. We opened all of our presents and even created a present of our very own!
Before we went to bed we gave Maggie her present and even let her open it.
After Christmas we made our way out to Arlington to spend a week with Jon's family. We had a blast seeing everyone again. Melissa was able to spend time with her cousins throughout the week. Clay and Jack came over to play. Clay is a great big brother and had fun with Melissa.
On New Years Eve I went to visit my old coworkers. It was so much fun to see them again. I think that is the one and only thing I miss about working.
That night we celebrated the New Year at Jon's parents. Everyone came over to rock out on Rock Band and eat lots of good food! Melissa even got in on the action.
There's cute little Jack. He spent half the night wondering around with this hat on his head. He was so cute!
Good ol' Bobby! He such a good kid!
Here's Melissa with her cousin Claira. Claira was born exactly one month and one day before Melissa.
A baby in one arm and a fire arm in the other. Nothing is could be better in Jon's eyes. (BTW, it's not loaded.)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
By the end of the night, Melissa had come down with the bug that was going around. She had spewed all over her Auny Mary TWICE! Needless to say she was all tuckered out. I got the bug two days later and Jon somehow never got it.
Do to our illnesses we weren't able to do the rest of our activities that we had planned but we had a great time seeing everyone. We went back to Greenville on Saturday night to spend our last day with my family before we headed out. The primary needed a family picture and we were able to be there that day. Here is my family form left to right: Jenny, Dad, Mom, Annie, Melissa, Corey, Me, Ricky, and Jon.