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!

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!