Shoes!

Thanksgiving just flew by and now here we are ready for Christmas!!  My last post was just after Halloween, so I'll fill you in before jumping into our more recent stuff!  November was quite the busy month for us as we celebrated Thanksgiving for about 10 days!  We started celebrating the weekend before (November 19-21), continued to celebrate on Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after and the Saturday after that!  On that Sunday, we partied with Mike and Amanda for their joint birthday party!!  Happy birthday to my wonderful sister in law and brother in law!

The Friday after Thanksgiving was our 3rd annual Friend Thanksgiving!!  This year we invited all of our church friends over and cooked a big Thanksgiving meal!  It is really special to because we get to spend some wonderful quality time with each other and we are all learning how to make the typical Thanksgiving food!  I'm proud to announce that this was my first year to cook a turkey by myself and I think it turned out GREAT!!  The past two years I've had some friends help me, but this year I flew solo!!

The week after Thanksgiving Marc and I wanted to rest, BUT CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!!  We began taking out our Christmas lights and decorations, which as it turns out are pretty scarce.  I thought we had more decorative stuff, but the only things that survived were lights and stockings.  We had some candles and a few other things, but the candles melted and ruined a few small things we had.  We're going to start adding to our Christmas decorating as the years go on.  I guess that's the beauty of time you can also improve with it!

In the traditional Marc and Reci style, we got extremely distracted as we began putting lights up on our bushes.  It was a beautiful 75 degree day, and Marc and I were enjoying the outdoors!  We started testing the lights and laying them out on the grass.  As we did this, we noticed that our garage was in desperate need of reorganizing.  We paused our Christmas decorating and began reorganizing our garage.  Excitedly, we can now fit TWO cars in our two car garage, and this is a first since we've lived in our house!!  On the other hand, our bushes just barely got Christmas lights on them when Shiloh woke up from her nap and stopped us from working!

How can I mention Shiloh without talking about how much she's changed!!!  Shiloh has mastered walking and has moved onto running!!  Just recently she's tried to hop, and it's really cute because she cannot quite figure it out.  She'll jump up onto her toes and then lose her balance.  This is usually followed by a huge grin and a few giggles!  I love it! 

Shiloh has also started to grasp talking!!  It's been really exciting for Marc and I as we've seen Shiloh begin to understand that objects have names.  For example, being the girl that she is, she's learned the word "Shoes." 

Funny story about shoes:  When Shiloh was about 7 months old and teething, she would pick up our shoes and try to bite them ... eeewwwww.  We thought this was gross and began putting out shoes away and out of Shiloh's grasp.  Anytime she ever saw a shoe, we'd run and put it away.  Apparently, she has learned that shoes do not go in random places on the floor.  When she sees shoes that are not put away, she'll repeat the word "shoes" over and over.  She'll then pick them up and hand them to Marc and I so that we will put them away!!  I guess that Shiloh is taking her cleaning to a new level, and that's okay with me!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving and some time with family!

Marc and I were riding with Shiloh on the paddle boat!! 

This is Marc's model picture! I cannot show pictures of our Thanksgiving at the lake without mentioning  our exciting motor cycle riding.  Marc and I both drove a motorcycle for the first time this weekend.  Marc turned out to be pretty good, and I almost died!

My dad and Marc walkingon the dock with Shiloh!

Shiloh running around

Daddy and daughter playing peek a boo with Mommy!

                                                                          Uncle CJ

 Everyone at the lake

It's been almost 3 weeks since Shiloh's first birthday, and I feel like I have so much to report!

I'm going to start this blog with pictures from our church's kids carnival for Halloween! Becuase I'm a beginning sewer, you can tell that Shiloh's costume is homemade. Overall, I was pretty happy with her costume though!

Prepare yourself because the rest of this blog post is full of silly Shiloh-isms and fun facts about her!

SHILOH FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! Last night, I put her down at 7 and she didn't wake up until 5am! Of course, we are going to work on turning that 5 am to 7-8, but still it's a huge improvement! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much because she's only slept through the night one time so far. I am currently praying that it wasn't a case of exhaustion, but that it's a new habit!! Either case though, it's a step in the right direction!

On another fun note, Shiloh has developed a new hobby! When she was a few months younger I turned her hobby of pulling things out of drawers into a useful chore. That is how I get her to help me with the laundry. Well . . . she's developed another cleaning hobby, only this time she's actually somewhat aware of what she's doing!

The other week, she picked up a paper towel and started scrubbing the floor. She then wiped off the walls and continued trying to clean with it! I laughed so hard that she started giggling. I think my laughter has encouraged this clean behavior because she continues to LOVE trying to clean the house! Of course, I love it too!! Here's a video of her cleaning the floor! I think my favorite part of this video is the fact that she picks up a piece of dirt and places it in the paper towel, just like mom!

Shiloh now looks like a toddler as she toddles around the house! It's adorable! She also had her first pony tail the other day, which makes her look even more grown up!! Here's a picture!

Shiloh's walking is starting to turn into running. I knew when she started walking that it would only be a matter of time, but she's getting fast enough to make me pick up my pace a little! Here's a video of Shiloh playing with Daddy! She's having so much fun that she falls over :)

Shiloh loves to pretend to talk on the phone! Here's a short video of her pretending to talk on my phone! I would also like to add that at one years old, Shiloh can unlock an iphone and play songs on itunes.

Shiloh's always been so energetic that she's never really been a cuddler, which is why Marc and I love that she's learned how to hug! Her hugs are very special to us! Here's a video of Shiloh hugging Daddy!

Shiloh is 1 Today!!!

At 4:29 pm one year ago today, Marc and I were celebrating the birth of our beautiful daughter!! We waited for several months to meet Shiloh, and here it is one year later . . . her first birthday!! What a great time for reflection. I think that's why I'm reminded of the first time I ever held Shiloh. It was beautiful, sweet, and a relief after such a long day. Here is a picture of me holding Shiloh for the first time!

I am so thankful for this past year with our precious little girl! The Lord has truly blessed Marc and I! Looking back, I cannot even say my favorite memory because Shiloh has developed so much! I've watched her learn to smile, laugh, eat, speak, roll over, crawl, and now walk. Wow! I love watching her grow and change, but I feel like she's growing so quickly that I can't even keep up.

Just yesterday our little lady decided that she didn't want to crawl anymore, she prefers walking! In the morning, she put on a little purse and walked out of her playroom!! It was so cute that I took a picture!

Being her first day of walking, of course, I took some videos of her!! Here is a video of Shiloh walking down the sidewalk!

Here are some pictures of her outside yesterday!

AND we can't forget today!! To celebrate Shiloh's birthday, we went to a little kids play area at Firewheel Mall! Since she only decided to walk yesterday, it's been so much fun watching her!! Here are some pictures from that!

Nightime Nightmare

After 9 LONG nights, Marc and I have concluded that Shiloh is NOT ready to sleep through the night! Gearing up for Shiloh's first birthday, Marc and I decided that we would take no more excuses Shiloh needed to be sleeping all night. We've slowly weaned a nighttime feeding away and now have a routine to put her down for the night. Shiloh has definately improved in her sleeping habits, but let's just be honest here, Shiloh is no sleeper.

Back to the story. About 11 days ago, Marc and I gave each other the loving pep talk "no matter what, we won't go in there. Shiloh will learn how to sleep through the night." As we expected, night one there was at least 3 HOURS of crying. Night two, same thing. Night three same thing. The first two nights were expected, but we still had hopes of a painless lesson for Shiloh. According to the sleep book it can take about 3-4 nights to break a bad sleeping habit, and Marc and I were prepared for this.

On night #4, we both said "okay, this should be the last bad night," and we wishfully thought "maybe tonight is the night that she'll sleep all night." Night #4 = HORRIBLE because there was lots of crying. :( Night 5, we are ready for the improvement that we read about. None, no improvement whatsoever. Night 6, "surely tonight she won't cry as long." No improvement. Night 7, no improvement. Night 8, no improvement. Night 9, no improvement and we ARE DONE with this for now.

Sadly, Shiloh never slept through the night. We are back to our 1-2 night time feedings. As it turns out, I actually get more sleep by feeding Shiloh for about 10 minutes at 2 am than I do attempting to teach her to sleep through the night. For now, the Marc and Reci Smith Family will continue to allow Shiloh to (I think the term is) "night feed."

A Step in the Right Direction

Fall is officially here, which means that our little pumpkin is almost 1!! Marc and I absolutely cannot believe how quickly this past year has flown by! Some of our favorite parenting moments consist of playing with Shiloh, hearing her sweet laugh, seeing her beautiful smile, and the loving cuddles she offers!

In the Marc and Reci Family we've been to the Dallas Arboretum while I ran in a 10K, I finally got to see Shiloh take a few steps, we had a birthday party for my mom, I've been helping to lead a ladies bible study at our church, and Marc has been busy being a loving father to Shiloh and husband to me!

For Shiloh, we are planning her first birthday party, she is now in a forward facing carseat, and we've been letting her remain in her crib from 6pm to 6am! Whew, it's been a wonderful, fun, and exciting few weeks in our family!

At the arboretum, we snapped some wonderful pictures of Shiloh and a professional photographer took some free of charge and unbeknownst to Marc until she asked him for his email address!! Here are some of the Teurs de Fleurs pictures!

These are the professional photos!

Yesterday, Shiloh ate a very "grown up" meal! She ate homemade pumpkin bread, green beans, ravoli, cheese, and some apples!
Here Shiloh is sitting in the carseat at the store so that I could decide which carseat looked best for her!
A pretty Sunday requires a family trip to the park! Here are some pictures Marc took!

Crying for Mama

Although this was supposed to be a sad moment, I LOVED it!! Yesterday, Shiloh was upset because Daddy took something away (that she shouldn't have had). Her bright blue eyes looked up at me with tears welling up in them, and she cried "Mamaaaaaa." She really knows me and wanted me to comfort her!!! It may seem silly that Shiloh's crying is incredibly endearing to me, but it is special!

On the home front in the Marc and Reci Smith Family, we had Shiloh's first tornado drill. The other day there were three tornados in the area, so our sirens were going off like crazy. Being the protective parents that we are, we loaded up the bath tub with all kinds of padding and hung out in there for a while. That sounds simple, but with a little girl on the go it was quite an experience for Shiloh. The first few minutes she thought it was great as she explored her new surroundings, but then she was ready to go!!

Here are some pictures of our Tornado Drill

My best friend got married over Labor Day weekend and I had a WONDERFUL time at her wedding!! This was also the longest I've ever been away from Shiloh. :)

While I was at the wedding, my dear husband sent me pictures and videos to help me not miss him and Shiloh too much!! These are the type of pictures I received all weekend!

I loved my bouquet from the wedding so much that I decided to take it home. That's right, I took it through security at the airport and flew from Denver to Dallas with my and one other bouquet. Here is a picture of Joanna and I with the bouquets, but don't let this picture fool you because I carried both bouquets during the traveling.

Here is a picture of what I made with our bouquets!!

Pointing things out!

Shiloh Milestones:

Shiloh's can now point!! I'm not quite sure if she grasps the idea of exactly how pointing to things can benefit her, but she's starting to get the idea. Marc and I will hold her and ask her where she wants to go, and when she points we'll take her in that direction. She usally giggles and has fun with this game. Soon she'll be able to tell us what she wants by pointing and that will be VERY helpful!

She is also getting much more confident at standing on her own. She can stand for a few seconds now and she'll let go of things and sit herself down instead of just fall. Those first steps are just around the corner. :)

Other news in the Marc and Reci Smith family is that we recently purchased a new car! I'm quite excited for Marc because he hasn't gotten a new car since we've been married. We traded in the Toyota and got Marc an Acura TL!

We also had one of my good family friends come in town last weekend!!! It was great to see the Pence family!! Marc got to meet Howard, who is practically my brother, and Howie's family!! Here are some pictures of the party!

They had these great floaties that worked for Shiloh too!! Here she is floating all on her own!

Shiloh was also starting to grasp the idea of kicking her legs while in the water! On Monday we had some rain, which cooled the temperatures off!! Meaning, we took a trip to the park!