Introducing...

Shelby, the Yellow-nosed Reindeer

(Click for a closer look)

Yes, I said yellow and no, you don't need to adjust the color of your computer screen. You might have already noticed but Shelby really does have a bit of a yellow-ish tint to her skin, especially her nose.

A few months back,I was a bit perplexed when I started noticing her yellowish nose. At first I only saw it when I viewed pics from our then,new camera. I just figured it was the camera. Then a few days later, while out on a walk with Shelby, an old Scottish lady asked me if Shelby was jaundiced. Shelby had newborn jaundice for a week or so right after she was born and it had been long gone since then,as far as I knew. She then asked me if I fed Shelby a lot of carrots. I answered no pretty quickly feeling confident it wasn't carrots. Before we moved here, I had made sure to buy a wide variety of baby food with all kinds of veggies and fruits. Besides, since we had moved to Vancouver, Shelby had been mostly breastfeed with the exception of a few snacks and jar of various flavors of baby food,IE, Chicken Noodle,Turkey &Veggies, Beef&Veggies,Lasagna,Spaghetti,etc, for dinner each night. She's eaten carrots a few times before, but definately not enough to make her skin turn yellow. Or so I thought...

When I got home, it was really bugging me that I wasn't the only one now who noticed her yellow coloring. So I immediately went to the cupboard and pulled out all her baby food searching the ingredients on every can. Turns out almost every single jar of baby food we had read as follows, "Ingredients: Water, CARROTS,..." then beef, or turkey or chicken and so on. Even the Lasagna and Spaghetti listed carrots as the second ingredient! Carrots must give some good flavor or be pretty dang cheap as a filler. I felt so stupid and pretty guilty for being so oblivious to it. But who could blame me? Not one jar had a picture of carrots on it! To ease my mind and just to make sure the cause of her yellow nose was the carrots, I googled "yellow nose" and found this article on Wikipedia, CLICK--->"Carotenoderma" (I don't know what's up with the black bar across the baby's eyes. I guess her parents didn't want her identity disclosed-lol) Thank goodness for google parenting and Wikipedia! What would I ever do without them?

Thankfully carotenoderma is harmless and only temporary. Hopefully it will go away soon, as we have run out of baby food and are now feeding her what we eat, for the most part.

So long yellow-nose!

And now a brief clip of Shelby's latest accomplishment,

The Birthday Cake

I am no artist and and am definately no cook. However, on occasion, I will bake some cookies or brownies only to satisfy my own selfish craving for something sweet or because I got suckered into bringing something for a potluck. I highly admire anyone who can spend hours in the kitchen preparing anything and enjoy every minute of it. Growing up, I admit I was a bit spoiled being the youngest. Instead of laboring in the kitchen with my mom (heaven bless her!) I was with my brother and dad watching football or whatever sport was on that day. I guess I just always figured I would love cooking once I became a mother....haha, boy was I ever naive. Well my friends, the day has finally come...the tables have turned.

For the first time, I Lindsay Bryson Wells made a cake all by myself...


well almost by myself. I had a little help from my friends, Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines ;) And I even did it knowing I may not get to enjoy any of it. Aren't you proud of me? ;)

I'll be the first to admit it's no work of art and I got a little crazy with the sprinkled dots, but it fufilled its purpose. Turns out baking isn't so hard when you have an easy to please 1year-old. Hopefully I'll get better at this cooking/baking thing with practice. Either way,any effort is totally worth it for this face,

Don't you agree?

To Little Miss Shelby

We can't believe it's already here. Shelby, you are 1 year old! From the moment we found out you were coming we knew our lives would be changed forever, for the better. It's been one heck of a year since you arrived; from sleepless nights, endless feedings, poopy diapers, and crying (by all of us), to the present with more restful nights, less frequent but more stinky diapers, and more grins and giggles. You have really blossomed this past year and are becoming more fun and beautiful everyday. Sometimes we look at you and wonder, "How is it possible? Not only are you a real, living and breathing little human being, but you are healthy, happy, and you are OURS. Shelby, you are our greatest blessing, our joy, our little miracle.

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Shelby's 1st Halloween

If I would've known what Shelby was going to be like on her first Halloween, I would've purchased a monkey costume for her. She loves to crawl, cruise, and make monkey-like sounds everywhere she goes. Instead of dressing up as a monkey, we were fortunate enough to have my oldest sister donate a pink cheetah costume that her girls used. Shelby was just a tad big for it, but as soon as we put it on her, she quickly acted the part. She became a feisty feline, ready to lash out at whomever or whatever got in her way.

We decided it was best not to take her trick-or-treating this year as she was already tired and a bit cranky, and with the weather being cold and wet that evening, it didn't seem to add up to a good combination. Instead, we let her prance around in her cheetah outfit for about 20 minutes, took some photos and then changed her into her PJ's and she was off to bed by 7pm. Oh well, not much of a Halloween for her first, but I figure next year she'll appreciate it more because she'll actually be able to eat the candy.

Caught in the Act

Fill in the blank...

"Oh _____!"

One of Shelby's favorite things to do these days is to, when I'm not looking, crawl as fast she can to the kitchen, open whatever doors are within reach, and empty it's contents. With her mobility I find that she is becoming more mischievous by the day...hmmm,

I wonder where she gets it from?

Fall at UBC

It's seriously crazy how fast 2008 is passing by. I guess that's the case every year, but it seems especially so the last 11 months and 8 days. Fall is almost over and most of the leaves have turned various colors and fallen off already. We wanted to get more pics of our surroundings with all the beautiful colors, but only managed to snap a few here and there. Hopefully there are enough to give you a good idea of what we've been seeing for the last 3 weeks.

Here's a snapshot along 16th Ave where I go walking with my neighbor and friend Hyun-Ju.

Scott on campus near the Asian studies building.

At first Shelby was just loving playing in the leaves, but then her fun quickly turned to curiosity.

She literally tried to digest her new surroundings

and just couldn't get enough of the colorful "candy"

I guess I should've warned her to save room for the real stuff with Halloween just around the corner-oops!

My Man's Blog

Some of you may have already noticed, but for those of you who haven't, my hubby Scott has his own blog called My Girls and Me at UBC. So being the sweet and wonderful wife that I am, I'm going to do what I can to promote his site. I know, I know, I'm so awesome right?

Rrrrrrrright....the truth is I'm just too darn tired to do my own post tonight. Here's a good one to start with, CLICK HERE. It's an older post, from before the election, but it still makes me laugh. Go ahead,you know you want too, just check it out!

Hiking Adventures

Before we moved here I had no idea that we'd be living right in the middle of a beautiful forest. Access to the Pacific Spirit Regional Park is less than a 5 minute walk away from our back door. It's funny because I feel like we are more "active" here than we ever were in Utah, although Utah had just as many, if not more, opportunities for us to be so. But on the other hand, I must say the weather here is much more mild and cool so it makes it easier to get out and about most of the year. Needless to say, I am extremely grateful that we have such opportunities here, especially now as Shelby grows older and can appreciate it more.

Scott trying to figure out the best trail to take
The trees here are huge!
We were fortunate enough to see this owl sitting here a few feet away there waiting to have his picture taken

Our sad attempt at a family portrait

Here is a video of the beginning of another hike we took nearby. It kinda shows the way into the trails and the surrounding area.

Shelby's new "toys"

Shelby seems to be pretty excited about two recent purchases over the last month. The first is her new car seat we bought over the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. She's heavy enough to be in it now(somewhere around 23 pounds) but everyone tells me I'm supposed to wait until she's had her 1st birthday. Until then it's just a really expensive source of amusement for her, sitting upstairs in her room.





Shelby also loves to spend a good amount of time playing with the straps on her highchair. Give her a baby toy and she'll be amused for a few seconds, but then quickly drops it like it's hot and makes a b-line to the dining room to play with her chair. I guess she's just too good for real baby toys. Give her anything with a strap and a buckle and she'll act like its the coolest thing since sliced bread.

I want more,more, MORE!

After Shelby just turned 10 months old, I almost gave up on trying to teach Shelby this because I had no idea what I was doing and felt like it would never happen. I only knew that it might help lessen Shelby's frusteration and help us communicate better. Well folks, after months of what I thought were failed attempts,something finally clicked and the stars aligned...





Now, if she could only understand "NO"...any pointers on how that works?

My First Marathon

So I know what you're thinking...

Lindsay and a marathon?? Aren't those complete opposites?Well, yes you are right if you're thinking of the type of marathon where you run...run.... and then run some more, but that is not what I'm talking about here.

I've decided to do a different kind of marathon; one we can all participate in and hopefully, by the end, not feel like you have to pass out or puke your guts out. I'm going to post a video or picture of Shelby everyday for the next week or so until I run out of things to post. There are just too many from this last month to chose from,so I'm taking little baby steps and posting one at a time. Hopefully by doing it this way it will be a little more interesting rather than boring.

So stay tuned folks for the beginning of the SHELBY MAKES 3 Marathon!

Just Because

Tonight Shelby was being extra fun so we decided to film her just because she was being so cute. Enjoy!

Da Beach

I've been told by the locals that around October you can pretty much expect to not see the sun for weeks on end, and that it rains almost everyday until February. Fortunately, the weather has been fabulous since we moved here, and we haven't seen too many rainy days. So last week, in anticipation of sunless weather to come, I decided to be spontaneous and drive to the beach to soak up the sun with Shelby while we still had the chance.

Shelby seemed to enjoy herself for the most part. She had fun watching the seagulls fly around and the dogs run with their owners. She was having a grand 'ole time sitting in the sand, letting it run through her fingers. Then I stood her up to put her feet in it, and she suddenly FREAKED out. You would've thought I'd put her feet on hot coals the way she reacted, screaming and diving towards me with outstreched arms. But after a quick assesment of her feet, she wasn't hurt at all, just surprised by the new feeling of sand between her toes.

In this video clip you may find it a little cruel to put her back in the sand again, but I thought she just might like it the second time around.

Obviously, I was wrong. Luckily, I was able to distract her with a yellow leaf I found. She quickly forgot how upset she was and spent the rest of the time sitting on this log waving her leaf around. I guess Shelby isn't my little beach bum...yet. Oh well, I can always try again next summer :) Goodbye warm sunny weather! We'll miss you!

September Fun

Wow, I can't believe another month has passed since my last post! Shelby is just a few days over 10 months and she is getting smarter and cuter by the day. It's been a lot of fun watching Shelby discover new things and seeing her personality unfold more and more. Some of the things she has been doing the last month are:

*She waves hello and goodbye to random strangers and especially to daddy as he leaves for school. Its really cute because she kind of does it in a Miss America motion but not quite as fluid and graceful.

*She really loves to smile with her whole face by squinting her eyes and sticking out her chin while giving a huge wide cheesy grin. I have yet to capture the complete essence of it on camera, but people really get a kick out of it--especially old Asian women.

*She is just as stubborn as her mom and dad and still refuses to crawl on her hands and knees. However, on a few occasions she proved she could do it with proper motivation, ie. hunger and jealousy (I was holding another baby). Instead of crawling, she's taken to other ways of getting around. She'd rather scoot, army crawl, or cruise along furniture and anything else that will support her.

*She now has 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom and loves to use them...to my dismay(yup I'm still nursing. My goal is to make it to 1 year but some days I wonder if I'm going to make it!)

*She has been sleeping 12-13 hours through the night without any feedings pretty much since the second week we moved here. HALLELUJAH, its a miracle! Must be something in the Vancouver air...

*Tonight I noticed that her balance has improved over the last month so I thought I'd see if she could stand on her own. To our surprise she actually stood with no support for an impressive 5 seconds or so until we ruined it by startling her with our excitement.

That's all I could think of for now but needless to say, she's growing up so fast! It's already getting hard for me to remember what it was like to hold a wee little newborn.

And now some more pics from last month...(don't forget to click for a closer look :)

9 months going on 18...

...months that is. You'll see what I mean later.

It's hard for me to believe, but as of the 1st Shelby has been outside of me as long as she was inside. My little baby girl isn't so little anymore. Toting her around this summer has been a good workout for me. At her 6 month checkup in June she weighed 17lbs and was 24'' tall. A few weeks ago at her "9 month" checkup she weighed in at 21.4lbs (92 percentile) and was 27'' tall(50 percentile). I'm a bit curious what her stats are now considering her checkup was 3 weeks early due to our move.

Well so now that we have the majority of our things unpacked and somewhat presentable, (I say somewhat because I'm still not happy enough with it to take pics yet-sorry Heidi :)) I had time today to focus on Shelby's wardrobe. Needless to say, she has quickly outgrown her 6-9 mo. clothes, and I spent a good chunk of time going through two tubs of 12 - 24 month clothing my sister generously donated. And I thought women's sizes were annoying. Well, baby clothes are way worse!

It's understandable why sizes vary so much but it makes it REALLY hard to organize a child's closet. So according to OLD NAVY's sizing Shelby is 12-18 months old...well at least her bottom half is. My daughter seems to have a lot of junk in her trunk and voluptuous, ever so squeezable thunder thighs. So how does it work when your bottom half grows faster than your top??? Then again at least it's the bottom half and not the top. I'd hate to be buying her a bra at 8 years old.

But seriously, how in the world do other moms out there know what size to buy for their constantly growing and ever changing kids? I've had a hard enough time figuring out what size I am, post-baby, and now I'm supposed to be figuring it out for Shelby? Thank goodness for sisters who have kindly donated practically all the clothing and shoes Shelby has now. (Don't even get me started on sizing for shoes either!) I have no idea what I'm going to do when Shelby has outgrown everything and the bins are finally empty.

Anyone feeling charitable? Alms, alms for the poor? :)

And now for more pics of Shelby sporting one of her "new" outfits

Shelby likes to stand with support and pick things up now. She's starting to show interest in "cruising" too.

This last one is of Shelby concentrating really hard while she "bakes some brownies" :)

It's Official

Well, after months of anticipation and a little anxiety, we are finally here in beautiful Vancouver. I must apologize upfront for the lack of blogging, but its been a little crazy in the Wells household the last few months preparing for this move, getting here, and unpacking everything.

I never realized how dependent we've become on the internet until I had to go without it for the first week we were here. I kept wanting to "google" things to find the best place to shop, set up utilities, pay bills, email, etc., but was quickly reminded we had no way to do many of those things without an internet connection. Its hard to imagine how our parents ever managed to get anything done without it. Hehe.

Anyhoo...

So getting here was a bit tricky in the beginning. On Tuesday the 12th we had plenty of help from our ward and neighbors (THANK YOU!!) and emptied our apartment of 4 years in just one day. It is amazing how much stuff/junk we've accumulated over 5 years of marriage. Even more amazing is how Scott managed to pack it all in a 17' UHAUL. Halfway through the day the truck looked plum full but we still had alot of stuff waiting to be loaded. I was worried we'd have to take everything out and go exchange our truck for a larger one but somehow (by a miracle or pure genius) Scott was able to rearrange things and make every last thing fit.

The next morning Scott, with all our belongings in tow, headed for Ontario, Oregon to stay with his Aunt Paulette. After Oregon, he was only 11 hours from our new home here in Vancouver (Thanks again Aunt Paulette for letting Scott stay with you--what a lifesaver!) Shelby and I stayed behind to spend our last days in Utah with my sister, and say our last goodbyes to other friends. The plan was to have Scott pick us up from the airport in Vancouver on Friday evening. When planning the move back in May, I figured Shelby would do better on a 2 hour flight than 20+ hours in a truck. She was a great traveler in the car at 5 months, but not knowing how she'd be at 8 months, I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

Unforunately, the last days I spent in Utah were not quite as relaxing and fun as I'd originally imagined. Shelby seemed to have an allergic reaction to my sister's new cat and hardly slept, resulting in a fever which didn't go away fully until the night before we left. I'm not sure if it was the cat, teething, the stress of the move or what, but Shelby was not her normal self for the remainder of our time in Utah. Her daddy says it's because she missed him so much. Thank goodness for my wonderful sisters Sarah and Melissa, and my awesome friends from Provo for feeding us, babysitting, giving rides, cleaning, etc! If it weren't for them I never would've made it through that last week. (Seriously--THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! I really can't thank everyone enough for all the love and support! THANKS AGAIN!!! LOVE YOU!!)

On Friday, Shelby and I said our last goodbye's to my sister and her kids, and headed towards our gate. I didn't know how to feel at that moment. I was too exhausted from the previous days' events to feel or think about anything really. The only thing I could think was to pray "please Heavenly Father just let me get through this 2hr flight with Shelby, peacefully" I was shouting hallelujiah by the end of the flight because she did actually sleep and didn't cry like last time. Just a few whines on take-off, but after she had her bottle she passed out for most of the flight--phew!

Nothing really hit me until we landed and I was getting off the plane. I had said goodbye to my life in Utah, the place I'd spent the last 7 years since highschool, and I was now in a completely foreign place. Plus, Vancouver airport is HUGE! I mean GIANORMOUS! I felt a bit overwhelmed at first, but felt good at the same time. As I walked to baggage claim and through customs, the signs were in at least 4 different languages and then I heard several different languages being spoken as I passed different groups of people. The anxiety I had felt about moving and coming to this new place melted away, and was quickly replaced with excitement. It was clear we weren't in Provo anymore, and yet it was strangely refreshing. Don't get me wrong, I am very greatful for all the experiences I had living in Provo. I loved it there, and miss alot about it, especially our friends and family. But I must say here in Vancouver the diversity and the change is really refreshing. I can't think of a better word to describe it. It's definately the beginning of a new adventure--a new chapter in our life.

And now, what you've all really been waiting for...some pictures of our place and Shelby since moving. Enjoy :) (Don't forget to click to see them closer mom!)

Shelby at 6 Months

I just wanted to take a minute to share some pics we had taken of Shelby when we went up to Idaho in June. They were taken by my sister-in-law Katie Wells. She is AMAZING! She also did Shelby's portraits when Shelby was just over 1 month old. We are so grateful to her for capturing Shelby's personality and expressions so well! To see more of Katie's work go to www.katieportraits.blogspot.com. Here's a preview...more pics to come soon!

Shelby's 1st Boyfriend

Last year when I was about 5 months pregnant we became friends with an awesome couple in our ward, Erin and Bridger Field. They were also expecting in December, but a boy instead. Erin and I were due 1 week apart, she on Dec 15th and myself on Dec 9th. As nature would have it our babies ended up 3 weeks apart, Shelby on Dec 1st and Forest on Dec 19th. It's been alot of fun watching our babies grow and develop,each with different personalities. We try to get together often so they can have plenty of opportunities to play and interact. As the months go by, they really seem to be taking a liking to each other. The video and photos are from May, but you can see how they've become buddies for yourself.

At first they were apprehensive, "What are you doing to us guys?!"

and then just stared at each other and weren't quite sure what to do...

Then Forest inched a little closer to make the first move...

And soon enough they didn't waste anymore time...

"Shelby and Forest sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G",lol

Sadly in August, Shelby and Forest will be going their seperate ways, Shelby to Vancouver, BC and Forest to Portland,OR. Who knows...maybe Shelby and Forest will actually get to date someday???