HALLELUJAH!!!!

Cue the music! I know pictures of a baby with food on his face are not exactly a reason to sing Hallelujah - unless you have been me for the last two months! Shep has been SOOOOOO stubborn (he gets that from his dad) about eating food. Anytime I did get him to open his mouth for something it usually came right back up. Our Dr. suggested that we take him to a speech therapist (confused me too!) to see what she could do. I decided to call one of my teachers from massage therapy school (she works with preemies and has some amazing talents) and ask her to come over and see what she thought. She worked on Shep for about an hour and then fed him some bananas like it was no big deal. WHEW!!! So these long awaited pictures are of him with potatoes and gravy all over his face. He LOVED them. I think a bit too much because he ate WAY to many and threw them up all over his crib later that night. :> He is still not a HUGE fan of baby food, but he is taking it and keeping it down, which is a big relief to me. I was starting to get more than worried about him, so I am glad we have made progress. I think it is so easy to take our kids health for granted and to forget what little miracles they truly are.

The Yellow Rose of Texas

Adee had only been in dance for about 2 months before her first recital. I have to admit that I thought it was going to be a train wreck, but she totally proved me wrong. Everytime we went to dance I told Adee that she had to watch her teacher and do what she does because that is how she would learn the dance, and she rarely listened. Well recital time came and Adee blew me away. Let me describe for you the scene right before Adee went on stage. I was out in the hall with Shep and I see Adee, she has a huge goose egg on her head because even though Sam and I told her a million times NOT to run in her tap shoes she did anyway and fell, on her head, of course. She is getting a drink with one of the teachers and has water all down the front of her, not to mention the red from the licorice that the teacher has given her to help her stop crying. Her mascara (though waterproof) is running down her cheeks and blending with the red blush that she was required to wear - she was looking hot. She told me she was ready to go on stage. (SUPER!) :> I went back and sat next to Sam and informed him that Adee was in rare form and to get ready for who knows what. Well, Miss Adee came out on stage (they do not let you record the night of the performance, BUMMER) with a HUGE smile. The music starts and Adee steps forward from the line and zones in on her teacher who is down below doing the steps. She follows every step WITH the smile and at the end looks in the audience to find her dad and I and and gives us a big wave and HIIIII!! She totally pulled it together and amazed us. She really does listen to what we say, sometimes. :> What a good feeling.

Samuel Shepard Butler gets blessed

It only took us six months. ;> Before I start, no one get offended that we did not invite you, because we did not invite anyone. :> This was Sam's first blessing and he did not want anymore pressure then he already felt, so it was just our little fam. ;>. Sam did a great job, calm and cool. Shep was mellow as always. Adee was climbing all over the chairs in her dress, showing her bloomers, and I was crying - we all carried out our roles perfectly. It was very nice to have Sam holding our little boy and to hear him say we give you a name and that name is Samuel Shepard Butler, I love that his name is the same as Sam's but a little different. It was a very nice blessing and if I get too in-depth I will never get my blog up to date. :> We tried to get some family pictures beforehand, not alot you can do with one person taking the shots, but it works. Great husband, great kiddos. Love em. :>

Soccer, Cowboy Hats and Photographs.

So, Adee had her first soccer game last Saturday. I was stuck in the car with Shep while he slept, which was okay because it was cold! :> All I could do was laugh at Adee as she chased after the ball. She kept telling me before the game how fast she was and that she was going to get to the ball first so she could kick it. She did such a good job, and even though she is probably the youngest on the team she still keeps up with them all and does not give up. She had a lot of fun. She also found my "big cowboy hat" as she calls it, which is actually my hat from the Kentucky Derby (just wanted to clarify so that you all did not think I was wearing a hat like that to church or something. ;> It was hard enough to wear it to the Derby and not feel totally ridiculous :>) She loves to play dress up and has come up with some very interesting outfits. The pictures here are of her big cowboy hat (like Dora) and her wrappy thingy (like grandma B) - she was pretty impressed with how she looked in the mirror. :> And of course I have to add some pictures of Shep. I got a camera last summer and have yet to read the manual, someday I will take some really good pictures, but for now it is set to auto EVERYTHING. Shep is such a sweet little boy, and soooo charming. I know that is odd to say about a six month old, but trust me, he is. He knows just when to smile or whimper or laugh and he always works it to his advantage. The other day I was trying (again) to get him to take some food and he was refusing (again) and I looked at him and said "your stubborn" and he starting laughing like I had said the funniest thing in the world. Now everytime I tell him he is stubborn, he laughs, which gets him out of pretty much anything he does not want to do. I am such a sucker. ;>