Shiloh the Giant!

School is starting this week, and I'll be leading the junior high girls in practice now!! I'm excited to be there coach, but a little nervous because I've never coached before. Wish me luck!!

Shiloh is 10 months old now and almost walking!! She will let go of things and try to stand for a few seconds, but she's just a little afraid of standing by herself. She will crawl right off of any edge and try to get in the pool, but standing . . . she's not too sure about that!

Shiloh is a giant!!! Two of the outfits from this post are size 18 months!! Our 10 month old wears 12 to 18 month sized clothes!! She's VERY tall!

On Saturday I went to a baby shower and dad was on duty!!! He sends me this picture of Shiloh trying to drink diet coke (the can wasn't opened)!! I guess I drink enough diet cokes that Shiloh has figured out what your supposed to do with it!!

Saturday evening Frank and Connie watched Shiloh, and she was enamored with the waterfall in their pool! Here she is kicking the water and putting her hands in it.

My mom gave Shiloh this really cute outfit!!

I just love these pjs!! (They are size 18 months!!!)

Time Flies!

WOW!! Life has been moving pretty quickly lately. In just TWO days, Shiloh will be 10 months old!! She's learning so much daily that it is very exciting being her mama! Lately, she enjoys crawling under things (ie tables, chairs), banging against the wall, pushing buttons (turning the TV on and off, pushing the top of her toy train, etc), turning the light switch on and off, pulling up, babble constantly and trying to go from sitting to standing pushing from the ground! She's also said her 6th and 7th words, "Ohhh, wow!"

As far as life for me goes, I am officially employed part-time (VERY part-time, about 7-10 hours a week)! I'm a junior high cheerleading coach and I'm loving it! I feel like I'm getting to know the girls better, which is really exciting. Having the opportunity to pour into their lives not just as a cheerleading coach but as a sister in Christ is wonderful. Because Canyon Creek is a Christian school, we are able to work on memory verses and character qualities as well as cheerleading moves! I'm loving it!!

Shiloh woke up at 6:45 one morning last week. I thought that it would be cool outside so I decided to take Shiloh to the park. As it turns out, at 7 am it was 100 degrees already!! We headed home quickly, only after I got a picture of her!!

Last week, we had two cheerleading practices and team pictures!! I snapped a shot of Shiloh with some of my 7th graders. She's entirely too distracted by the pom poms but I still think this is a cute picture!

On Friday the 13 (ooooohh), Marc's mom Connie graduated with her Masters from North Texas!!! We all went to the ceremony and here is a picture of Master Connie with her grandaughter!

On Saturday Frank threw a graduation party for Connie!! I made two cakes, a yummy chocolate one and an Italian Cream Cake. Here are the pictures of that!

Shiloh is growing so much! She hit another growth spurt and I know this because she is able to pull things off of the kitchen table now. :) Her hair is also growing!! I tried to give her a pony tail, but it's NOT quite there yet. Here's a picture of my attempt. In this picture she's saying "Ohhh, wow!" thus the lack of smile.

Lastly, I brought my camera to cheerleading practice today!! I snapped a photo of Shiloh and Luke (the head coach Andrea's son)

Sleep training update: Yes, 16 days into it and Shiloh is STILL fighting her sleep!! Oh our energetic bundle of joy! She is improving (slowly) but it's still taking her about 30 minutes to fall asleep; however, the BIGGEST improvement comes from her ability to sleep through the night!!! She's sleeping 7-9 hours consistently!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!

And the Best Husband Award goes to . . .

As women, we have the reputation for being indecisive. True? True!! Atleast in my case it's very true. One of my cousins on my dad's side of the family got married this past Saturday!! Congrats David! I wasn't sure if Marc, Shiloh and I should go because of Shiloh's sleep training and because of the duration of the trip for her. I know that may seem like a lame reason not to take a trip, BUT she's been improving soo much and I was really hating the idea of set backs in this sleep training thing. I decided- Family is Family and we needed to go!!

My plan to not mess with Shiloh's sleep schedule was to leave after it was time for her to go to bad so that she could sleep the entire car ride there. All day Friday, I was feeling a little under the weather, but I had decided that we were going so I couldn't back out now. I also would have felt really silly for backing out because of a small headache and tummy ache. 8 pm Friday night comes along . . . we load up the car and head to Austin. I've always gotten a little car sick, but man it was awful!! The more that we drove the worse that I felt. Finally, about 1.5 hours into the drive, I couldn't take it anymore!! I looked up how much farther and we still had about 3.5 to 4 more hours left!!! Marc asked if I wanted to turn around and head home. I said yes and apologized to no avail!! He told me that he loved me and was glad to spend some time with me!! He wasn't even frustrated!! I LOVE HIM! The Best Husband Award goes to . . . Marc!!

I slept much of Saturday and felt much better! Here are some pictures from this weekend!

Here are some pictures of the dress that I made Shiloh! I wanted to put a fun mommy daughter picture on here!!
On Sunday, Marc's parent's new pool was ready for us to use! Here are some pictures!!

Sleep training update: Shiloh is still taking quite a while to fall asleep, but the amount that she cries has drastically been reduced!! She typically only cries for a bit, BUT then she plays for about 45 minutes before falling asleep!! Crazy girl! I've tried all kinds of things to reduce the amount of time that she plays in the crib, including moving her nap to a later time. No no, our stubborn little one will play until she can't move anymore! Love her though!

Crafty!!

I'm sooo excited because I'm getting better at my crafts!! Here are two pictures of Shiloh in the pumpkin onesie that I made her and a picture of a dress that I just made!!! That's right . . . I made a dress for Shiloh!! There is a little part of me that is contemplating waking Shiloh up just to see if the dress fits her, BUT I would never actually do that!! If it does indeed fit, she'll be wearing it to church tomorrow!

Fun Times in the Smith Family

We've been up to lots of fun stuff lately!!

First of all, I must say that I'm very excited about my new job as a junior high cheerleading coach for Canyon Creek Christian Academy! I am looking most forward to teaching them Christian character traits and what following Christ as a junior high girl should look like! My prayer is that I will be able to impact these girls lives rather than just coaching them!! If you happen to be praying for me, I would really appreciate a prayer for that.

At our practice on Wednesday, I dropped Shiloh off at the Mother's Day Out program! They said she did wonderfully and went down for her nap very well. She only cried for 10 minutes, which is a huge improvement! They also gave me this really cute caterpillar report card that told me, Shiloh played well, behaved well, ate well, and napped well! Overall she did great! Here is a picture of me dropping her off at Mother's Day out!We hit A MILESTONE yesterday as well!!! She said "Mama," wooo hooo!!!!! Now in her repertoire she can say Hi, Dada, Uh Oh, and Mama!

Last night I got to see one of my best friends from college, the newly married Erin Neely!! Sadly I didn't take a picture with her, but I got a cute one of Shiloh and Marc whie we were waiting to see Erin and her husband Brandon, who are in town for the weekend for her birthday!! Here is a picture of Daddy and Daughter both NOT looking at the camera!

We went to the park today, and that will be our last trip for a while! Whew, it was hot outside!!

Two of my other hobbies are sewing and monogramming!! I'm very encouraged because I finally feel like I'm getting better at sewing! Here is a little onesie that I decorated for Shiloh!!

Here is a closer view of the pumpkin! (I know it's not perfect, but I'm getting better!! AKA don't look too closely)

Shiloh and I went to Becca's house today!! Here's a cute picture of Shiloh and Fun Aunt Becca!
Lastly, a sleep training update!! Shiloh has been improving dramatically each day and night!! She's still crying when I put her down, but overall she's doing much better!!! These past few nights putting Shiloh down has gone so much more smoothly that I can't even express my relief about that! She is also sleeping about 6 1/2 to 7 hours consistently! I'd like to add a special thanks to everyone who has encouraged me through this training . . . THANK YOU!! I've felt your prayers and I REALLY REALLY appreciate them!

I feel like I must give credit to the source of my sleep training knowledge, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I STRONGLY recommend this book to any parent!!

Grocery Shopping Faux Pas and Sleep Training Update!

Attention Rude Lady in the grocery store: please do not give me mean looks for my 9 month old screaming out of excitement! Yesterday I was grocery shopping and the dreaded mother moment happened. Shiloh started squealing and screaming so loudly that you could hear her clear across the grocery store . . . eeek! Although she was screaming, she wasn't angry. She was excited and laughing and smiling; however, if you were just listening it would sound like a temper tantrum from a much older child. All that to say, I got a few rude looks. I almost said to one lady, "Excuse me, can you explain to my nine month old daughter that screaming out of excitement is inappropriate in public places. If the answer to that is no, then please refrain from giving me that look." I didn't say it though!

Yesterday did start the stricter nap times for sleep training. The first nap went really well because something happened that never does. She needed to eat right before she went down, so when I placed her in her crib drowsily she remained calm. She didn't really cry, but she did play for 45 minutes before going down. Nap #2 on the other hand was a different story. She cried and whined for 45 minutes (the magic number of yesterday) and finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, her taking so long to go down for naps interfered with her bed time schedule. This threw her off, which caused a HUGE MELT DOWN last night!!! She finally fell asleep and I was feeling like a horrible mommy!

I woke up this morning recharged and ready to go again! My mind set has changed. I know this is good for Shiloh, so I'm going to be okay with the training. At least I'm going to try to force myself . . . so there, I'm trying to keep my emotions in check!

Sadly, cheerleading practice has already thrown off Shiloh's nap schedule for the day. Life in the Marc and Reci Smith family is always crazy! She went down for her first nap much to late and only slept for 45 minutes . . . boooo(she needed more sleep). I can actually hear her crying as I type this blog entry. If at 2 o clock she hasn't gone down, I'm going to pick her up and try again at 3. (That is advice straight from my wonderful book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) . That's the sleep training update for now!!!

I already kind of mentioned this, but today was also the first cheerleading practice for my team!! It went well, and I'm excited about this upcoming year! At the end of practice, the church that partners with Canyon Creek told me that Shiloh could stay in Mother's Day Out while we have cheerleading practice! That's GREAT news so that I don't have to let her crawl across the gym floor and stick her in the pack in play for hours like I did today! I'm a little nervous though because they are going to put her down for her first nap!!! Please pray she goes down well for them!!! I'm also hoping for graceful attitudes from the Mother's Day Out ladies!! :)

Here are some cute pictures of Shiloh at cheerleading practice!

Here are some other pictures of Shiloh helping mommy with the Laundry! One of Shiloh's favorite things to do is pull things out of drawers and throw them on the ground. I try to channel that little hobby into something useful. It actually entertains her and helps me to fold the laundry quickly when I let her do that with the dryer.

This is a picture of Shiloh finally down for nap #2 yesterday!

A Fun Weekend

We had an eventful weekend!! It started on Friday night at the hospital with the Marvin Family and their new addition!! Marc got to meet Tyler for the first time and tell Robbie congratulations in person!! Psalm 127:3, "Behold, children are a blessing from the Lord," rang in my ears as I got to watch Susan hold her new baby! Babies really are precious miracles!

Saturday morning Marc spent helping his dad build a trench. His parents are building a pool and needed some help with a few things before water can be added!! By next weekend, we should be swimming in it!! Woo hoo!!

While they were digging a trench, Shiloh and I decided that we missed Marc. We went over to his parents house and went to the park near by!! Here is one picture from the park!

The 20s group at our church had a Lake Day today, which was a blast!! Originally I had the date wrong and thought we couldn't go. We weren't planning on going because I RSVPd no and we weren't sure how Shioh would do. She napped really well after church, so at the last minute we decided that we should go to the lake! We had a blast and Shiloh was great!!! Here are some pictures!

Jackie, (the twins in her belly) and Michael

Lindsey and and her niece Rylie

Sami and Baby Lilley (coming to us this October!)

Our family in the Lake

Shiloh on the car ride home!

A few people asked me about the sleep training . . . eeek! That's right, tomorrow starts the stricter nap time!! Please pray for me if it crosses your mind. My goal for nap time is to briefly walk Shiloh around our house (no more than 1 minute) and then place her in her crib. I want to keep her in there until she falls asleep. I hope there aren't too many tears (from me or Shiloh)!

This week also starts my job as a cheerleading coach!! For those of you who don't know, I will be coaching the 7th and 8th grade cheerleading squad at Canyon Creek Christian Academy (CCCA)! Tuesday is our first practice- wish me luck!!!