The Day to Day

I've been blogging like a crazy person trying to get all caught up, but in documenting all the "big" moments and holidays, I don't want to leave out all the day-to-day snapshots of our life. (In other words, here's a huge iPhone photo dump!)

Building a bed of pillows with Daddy.

Charlotte LOVES the song "Treasure" by Bruno Mars. She calls it her "jam". So she seriously got down to his Super Bowl halftime performance. 

Jensen and Wyatt. These two...they are often found rolling around on the ground together. Their bond is so special.

You know, just hanging out in our Puddle Jumpers.

Learning guitar with Uncle Dot.

Hiding under the table at Grandma's with three golden retrievers. 

At it again.

And again.

Dress up with my favorite gal. I think between the two of us we had on every necklace I own.

She wanted nothing to do with the mermaid costume on Halloween, but on a random weekday? Why not?

Mmmmm.....

My pretty girl.

Hiding in the media cabinet.

A few more of the besties...

Enjoying some spaghetti

Leaves in Winter

Usually, fall comes before winter...but you never know what it's going to do here in Texas, and this year, we had lots of fun jumping in leaves AFTER our big snow. We went to Grandma's house one day over Christmas break while Grandma and Grandpa were still on their cruise, and we found the front yard full of great leaves!

They ran and ran and jumped and jumped and Mommy raked and re-raked and re-raked! It was a beautiful fall...er, winter day in Texas!

Happy New Year!

This year, we found ourselves with no babysitter on New Year's Eve (Grandma and Grandpa decided to go on a cruise! The nerve!). Brian's parents were out of town as well, so we decided to see if any of our friends with kids were in the same boat and wanted to hang with us. We actually got lots of takers...the Wrens, Baughmans, Vicaris and Dwinells all ended up coming over, kids in tow, for some NYE fun.

We had a lot of fun and the kids had a great time...up to a point. Charlotte and Jensen hadn't ever stayed up past 8 or 9, but we kept them up until 11 to watch the ball drop. As I think you can tell by the pics below, they were DONE by that point!

 Ha! Happy 2014 from the Sheltons! :)

The Not-So-Merry Christmas

Looking back, it kind of feels like Christmas never happened this year. It all started at Charlotte and Jensen's school Christmas party. I kept looking around the room at all the kids coughing and sneezing all over each other and I knew it was only a matter of time before my kids came down with "the crud." A few of their friends had already been diagnosed with the good old "mystery fever" so I figured they were next. And on the last day of school before Christmas break, both kids came home looking fine, but within the next few hours started running fever. They had to miss the annual Shelton Christmas party and were pretty sad about it. Poor kiddos.

They both perked up within a couple days, and I never even took them to the doctor because I figured it was just the "mystery fever" that all the other kids had. Then I woke up on Christmas Eve feeling awful. I spent that day and all of Christmas Day feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. But when mom gets sick, the show must go on...especially on Christmas!

The "hot gift" of Christmas 2013...the Doc McStuffins Check-Up Center. Does she ever play with it? Nope. And their joint big gift was those wooden blocks...which they play with EVERY DAY. Very good purchase!

Jensen's big gift was the Day of the Diesels set from Thomas the Train.

It was seriously all I could do to just hang out on the couch and take a few pics. Brian took these pics later in the morning, and I think they illustrate how horrible I felt.

My mom finally made me go to the doctor the next day and I found out that it was the flu. I felt awful because I'm sure that's what the kids had, too...I just assumed it was mystery fever because that's what all their friends had. But we all just toughed it out and luckily Brian never got it. We were certainly not alone in our sickness; it seemed like half the world missed out on Christmas fun due to flu, strep or "mystery fever". Fortunately we were all better in time to ring in 2014 together!

"Five Little Donkeys"

A few weeks before Charlotte and Jensen's Christmas program at their school (which, incidentally, was canceled and rescheduled due to all the snow and ice), Charlotte came home singing a song about "five little donkeys standing by the door" and told us it was her Christmas program song. We were a bit confused as to how donkeys standing by a door played into the birth of Jesus. It made much more sense a few days later when we figured out she was saying, "Five little donkeys standing by the LORD".

Anyways...both kids were so excited about their program. They knew all the words and were pumped to perform. I had my suspicions that they would get onstage and get nervous and just kinda stand there, but I was SO very wrong. They sang their little hearts out, right down to the part at the end where they hee haw'd like donkeys. Proud mommy moment for sure. I couldn't believe how well they did.

P.S. Yes, I know Jensen was in dire need of a haircut.

Snow(ish) Day(s)!

We had quite a few snowy/icy/not-really-much-of-anything-but-the-weathermen-flipped-out days this winter. Of course they all fell on a day when Charlotte and Jensen should've been in school. I am positive that there will come a time that I appreciate a no-school, lazy snow day at home, but when Mother's Day Out is cancelled it tends to throw me off a bit and by the end of it all we have no groceries and a bad case of cabin fever!

But we had some fun in the snow/ice/whatever...and we had our first sledding experience, too!

Sledding on the golf course, in a recycling bin. That's how we roll here in Texas!

Of course Wyatt enjoyed the cold weather, too!

And snowy days always call for a little baking.

Or, you know, sword fighting with blender parts.