Happy Birthday Kathryn!

After realizing that #1 I have no pictures of you and Zeke together and #2 I can't seem to find any of us together, I am thinking that when you are here in August, we will be taking A LOT of pictures together.

Hope you have a wonderful birthday! Zeke and I can't wait to see you soon!

VBS

Hey guys. I wanted to send a quick update. Things have been insane this week. We have had VBS every night and I am super tired! Zeke and I have gone swimming twice this week so that definitely has added to my exhaustion. I will probably be on hiatus next week as well. The Shelton family will be living it up at the beach. This will be Zeke's first beach trip, so be on the look out for pictures of our fun once we get back. I will soon be back to posting ridiculous amounts of pictures of that kid that has taken over our house. :-)

It's a...

BOY!!! Spence and I found out this morning that we are expecting our second boy. We are so excited for a ton of reasons. Spence actually told Dr. Brannon before the ultrasound that he thought we were having a girl. We quickly found out that would not be the case. We are once again having a child that has no problem with being shy. The really cute thing about the ultrasound, though, was that our son kept pulling his hands up over his face. I'm not sure if he was hiding, dancing, or was scratching his head like Zeke does when he is sleepy. But it was precious and we got a picture of it. Oh, and the due date that kept coming up on the screen during the measuring was Oct 25. The dr. did say that it wasn't accurate (the 9 week is more accurate apparently) and to continue going with Oct 29, but I can hope for earlier, right?

Happy Father's Day!

I have to sing my husbands praises for a few minutes. Please humor me while I tell you just a few of the things that make him an incredible dad (this is not everything, but just a couple to give you an idea):

• he doesn't flinch at dirty diapers
• he works hard so that I can basically stay home
• he gets up with Zeke every morning and lets me sleep for another hour
• he lets me decide meals according to my cravings
• he prays for me and Zeke
• he plays with Zeke in a way I just can't
• he lights up when he sees or hears Zeke (Zeke does the same thing with him)
• he always does the dishes because I hate dishes
• he loves me and shows and tells me all the time
• he talks to baby dos
• he comes home if things are going crazy and I need him
• he likes it when we visit the office
• he checks on Zeke before coming to bed

These are some of my favorite pictures of my two favorite guys...

Happy Father's Day, Spencer!! Zeke and I love you so much.

Farmer's Market

In light of all the farming we have been doing at our house ;-) I decided that Spence and Zeke needed to go to the farmer's market. We got up and headed out before Zeke's first nap last Friday. We got strawberries, corn, green beans, peaches, and we had some biscuits for breakfast.

Farmer Spence

Spence has been fascinated by the thought of "living off the land" for a couple years now. My parents have had a garden for a while and Spence enjoys talking with daddy about what he grows. One of our neighbors has a garden and had extra cucumbers and peppers. Spence has obsessed over these plants since we got them. He has carefully watered, made sure they were growing, kept the bugs away as much as possible, and checked and rechecked on them continuously. Much to our surprise we found this cucumber growing the other night. Spence pulled it and gave it to our neighbor who originally gave us the plants.

Cucumber ready

Pepper not quite ready

Spence picking the pepper

Proud farmer Spence

The Chase

You know in those old silent films how when there is a car chase or a silly fight scene there is that quick fun music. That could totally be the background sound for our house these days. Check out Zeke and Spence's newest favorite game.

From Dad's Eyes

Ok people, this has got to be quick. I've hacked in while courtney is out with the ladies. Quick word: I know my wife. Took 10 minutes but I hacked this puppy.

Ok, onto why I am posting. Here is what you need to know: My family is awesome. I probably check this blog as much as anybody out there and I hang with this crew every day. Courtney is brilliant with the camera. I know you dont get to see her and Zeke too much in the shots but she is hard at work with this little guy. Not to mention baby dos who is now clocking in at 21 weeks and counting.

Seriously, the Shelton home is a riot. Today Zeke saw a preview commercial for the Masters tourney coming up this week and I swear I heard him from across the room say "heck yeah!" I'm sure he was referring to the cheerio he found in one of his rolls but still, i was pumped. My boy is such a boy. Loves throwing the ball and eating.

And back to Courtney, she rocks. When you finish reading this ADHD post, be sure to comment and let her know how glad you are she keeps up with this thing as well as she does. She is a freaking great wife and an awesome mom. I love her. Zeke loves her. And Baby Dos seems to love her as well.

After 9 months of sleepless chaos around here, the Shelton home is in a fun groove right now. Glad to have you joining us on our adventures through this picture blog (the way blogs should be done right!).

Oh, just heard door shut. She's here. Im out!

Playdate with Owen

Zeke and I ventured to Nashville, NC this week for a playdate with the Cox family. Shannon and Jeremy were neighbors of ours in seminary, and they had a little boy a few weeks after Zeke was born. This was the second playdate we have had. The first involved more of the mommies chatting than the babies playing. Zeke and Owen had fun hanging out, sharing toys, and chatting with one another. Of course Shannon and I had a blast catching up, and Jeremy probably enjoyed listening to Shannon and I.

Owen kept trying to bite Zeke's toes. I agree with Owen that they are totally biteable.

Such cute boys!

Cute boys in diapers

Close up of the handsome boys

Our handsome boy

What's up ladies?

Zoolander

So grown up

Pool boy

Zeke had his first pool experience this week. Spence and I were both really excited about Zeke liking the pool because we both grew up pool rats. You know what I mean, we were those kids beating down the gate to get in when it opened, the ones who stayed to wait out the storms, and the ones who walked out with the staff after closing. Zeke loves taking baths, so we of course had high hopes.

This did not make me think it was going to be a good day...

He quickly got used to the water

The toys I think made all the difference

He enjoyed watching the big kids play.

This is a close up of the rocking cool float that Keva gave us, thanks Keva!

Addie decided he was baby Moses and she was Miriam. She kept trying to float him away. We had to tell her there was no pharoah, and he was in no trouble and needed to stay with his mommy.

Addie taking "baby Moses"

Micah being silly

Not sure what Isaac was doing here, could have been drinking the water...

Eliza HATED the water. She only got in once, and screamed like we were removing her toenails.

I think overall the first pool day was successful. I took Zeke out of the float at one point, and he loved when I spun around. He was so happy and splashed the water. We will definitely be having lots of pool days in our future. Hopefully, Spence will be able to come to the next one.

Boy genius

Zeke loves books. He loves looking at the pictures, he even loves hearing us read to him. His current favorite is this animal book. He loves when we make the animal sounds. (Amber, I am sure he would love for you to try to elephant again) We have been reading this book practically since birth, but he has really taken to it the past couple weeks. His favorite page is the page with the dogs and cats, but he also likes the page with penguins, polar bears, and a puffin (not sure why- we don't know what those sound like).

pointing to the animals

actually posing for me, what a ham!

One berry, two berry...

We have been trying to get to pick strawberries for weeks now. Everytime we get ready to go it either has started raining or it has rained recently, and I don't care to have berries that only taste like water. What I didn't realize was that it wouldn't be just Zeke's first time going, Spencer had never been! (Julie, what a deprived child you have!) Spence held Zeke and let me pick, oh, about 4 berries before he passed Zeke to me and went to town. We ate the berries in about 4 days and are ready for more! (no Zeke did not get any berries)

Our little strawberry

With mommy

With daddy

20 weeks

We have reached the half way point of this race with Baby Dos! Woo Hoo! We find out the gender on June 22, so be on the look out for that. This pregnancy has been easier compared to Zeke. I am not sure if it is because I know what to expect, that I don't have the time to dwell on everything, or if it truly is different. I wasn't as sick as long and never as bad this time. I felt the baby at 13 weeks. I haven't gained as much weight as I did with Zeke at this point. Some days I feel like it is very obvious that I am pregnant and then some days I feel like I am still just in that awkward, chubby looking phase (which I HATE). I am still mostly wearing my regular clothes, but with a bella band. This has been nice because I am getting to wear summer stuff that I didn't get to wear last year. Here are some much anticipated prego pictures. I absolutely hate having my pictures taken during pregnancy, so Amber and Kathryn these are especially for you!

Little bump

Boy, I look tired...

10 months

Zeke is 10 months today!!! I can't believe that in two months we will be celebrating his first birthday. He is now army crawling all over the place, nothing is safe in our house. He says mama, dada, and hey. He is clapping and waving. He loves music and appreciates my singing :-) He is making the "k" and "g" sound recently. He shakes while he is eating and I say "mmmmm". He will also pretend to eat and make an eating sound if he wants another bite. He is also, as I have said recently, sleeping really well lately. This has been huge because I was so worried about the fact that he wasn't sleeping and we are expecting another soon. I really wanted to have a least a handful of nights, and now I have a couple of months. We are so excited about each stage. We are having so much fun with him right now and feel so absolutely blessed to have him. We are loving his personality coming out and enjoying getting to know him.

Sierra came and hung out with Zeke today.

Zeke getting into everything

Polly want a cracker?

Zeke does! I bought some graham crackers (and marshmellows and chocolate bars) because I have been dying for s'mores! I don't think Z is quite ready for a s'more, but I thought I could share a cracker with him. This is his new favorite snack. He loves being able to feed it to himself and he does a really good job taking bites off of it.

First taste

YUM!

Of course, dad had to have a snack too

Yes, those are my boys- eating and watching tv

Hurry home, Daddy!

Zeke waits for his dad to get home many days. He watches out the window and when he sees the car pull in, he starts bouncing and squealing. Spence's face is always pretty awesome when he sees that Zeke is waiting for him. He runs over to the window and waves and talks, then comes rushing inside to his boy.

taking a break for a quick smile

hmmm... do you think he is coming sooner or later?

Good night, sweetheart

Zeke has become a GREAT sleeper lately. Not only does he sleep through most nights (7pm-7am), but he is taking two great naps at about 1.5 hours each. At the risk of waking him, I had to snap these sweet pictures.

Snaps watches over him while he sleeps

Not sure that is where that goes, Zeke...

New trick

We have been trying to get Zeke to clap for a while now. I think that because we also work with him on sign language, he may have been confused with clapping and the more sign. He now has totally gotten clapping down. It cracks me up that he claps the most when he is eating. It is like he is cheering himself on to eat.

Happy Birthday Aunt Michelle