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???

Wells Family Reunion

The first weekend in June we made our way down to Cannonville, right outside of Bryce Canyon National Park for the Wells Family Reunion campout. I was a bit nervous at first because it would be the first time camping on my own with Shelby (Scott had to work the first night) and her first time ever camping. On top of that, the first night was supposed to get as low as 38 degrees and Shelby had a nasty cough.

All I can say is thank goodness for family! Thanks to them, we camped in an RV the first night and a cabin the second night, instead of freezing our buns off in a tent. It was definately a life saver and made our first campout with Shelby a breeze (THANKS AGAIN)! The next morning we went on a family friendly hike with beautiful red rock as the back drop and a nice stream to cool off in.
Aunt Rebecca with us on the trail. Thanks Aunt Sarah for the backpack for Shelby!

We also had a chance to drive through Bryce Canyon for the first time and snap some photos. The views were breathtaking! If you ever have a chance to visit that area, make sure you plan on going through Bryce Canyon. You won't regret it!

Scott and I were very grateful that we were able to go and spend time with everyone as it may be our last campout for a while :( Maybe when its our turn to plan it we'll do it in Canada, eh? ;)
Thanks so much Heidi for planning it and making it possible. We had a wonderful time!

And it wouldn't be a complete post without some more photos of my Shelby...

You know you're a Mom when...

You are at the Hot Air Balloon Fest at 6:30am!!

The Hot Air Balloon Fest is one of the many events of the Freedom Fest that goes on every year here in Provo. It has always been on my list to go, but I, being the morning person that I am (haha yeah right!) end up missing it every year because it goes on way before I want to be up. Every 4th of July for the past 4 years Scott and I say we're going to go, but have never managed to get our lazy butts out of bed. The closest we've ever come is one year waking up just in time to see, from our porch, the last 1 or 2 balloons land. Well I must be a mother because I wasn't sleeping in this year--oh no! Shelby must have been wanting to go too because she woke us both up at 6:10am, for the first time in a long time. Since we were up and at em, I figured we might as well mosey on down to the Balloon Fest and check it out! It wasn't as fun without Scott there (he had to work) but we enjoyed the scenery. And just incase you don't believe that I, Lindsay, sleeper in-er of all sleeper in-ers, was there THAT early, I took pictures to prove it!

This is from the parking lot of our apt on my way to the car.

Up above us at the launch site...

A flattering close up I know, but its the best I could do by myself. Besides its 6:45am,give me some credit :).

I convinced a nice lady to take this one. I was hoping for more balloons in the background but at least she got one--not to shabby.

HAPPY 4th EVERYBODY! ENJOY IT! :)