Valentine's Day 2012

We hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day!

Love to all of you,

Stacy, Christina & Shelby

Nonna & Nonny Visit

Here is a video of Shelby's Nonna and Nonny visit over his birthday weekend. Thank you both for coming and I hope you had as much fun as Shelby did.

Shelby's 5th Birthday

Link to over 250 photos from Shelby's party! HUGE thanks to my friend, Brent, for agreeing to be the party photographer. There are some amazing action shots and tons of keepsake memories captured.

Click Here for Photos

Here is a video of Shelby's 5th Birthday party at his Karate place. We had tons of fun and plenty of food.

That doesn't go there!!!!

I wanted to share something about Shelby that continues to bring a smile to my face. It's not something you'd likely notice on a one time outing with him, but definitely something I've found to be a pattern of behavior. OCD at almost 5 yrs old....or simply a product of his mother, watching me carefully put everything back in its place throughout a weekend day or every evening before bed...just like my own mother did.

The behavior: Every time we're in a store...Target, The Dollar Tree, or Cooleykatz toy store here in Livermore, Shelby quickly notices when something is out of place on the shelves and refuses to tolerate such chaos. It's so funny! We were at the toy store Friday picking out a gift for his friend Kyle's party. The owners of the store even had to laugh at how Shelby was matching back up products and rearranging what other children throughout the day had carelessly done. They offered him a job! Hahahahaha

Just wanted to share a glimpse into the young man my son is becoming. :->

Feel it, Shelby!

Shelby definitely "feels" the music. Stacy and I could laugh all night at how much this kid loves music and loves to dance. At the end you'll find 2 recent videos that cracked us up, but to start, I thought I'd remind you just how long this kid has been showing us his moves.....

Elmo was one of his first inspirations. I laughed so hard watching this one yesterday that I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. Stacy had to ask if I was going to be alright. I just thought it was the funniest thing ever!

Last Christmas on the 11th day, we created "11 Shelby Dance Moves"

This year's it's about Flo Ryda's "Low" and a little fun dancing in skates. Hope they make you smile as much as they do us.

TDLC's 2011 Christmas Program

TDLC put on another successful Christmas program. I cracked up at this first pic. Shelby came on stage and was freaked out by the gentleman playing Joseph. LOL...."God made the animals a lot like me....a lot like me....."
So cute.

All the classes came together at the end and sang a few songs, including "We wish you a merry Christmas"

Jakie on left and Nicholas on right. You know both of them well from previous blogs. :-> I love ALL these kids!!!! And thank goodness of the amazing program we have.

You did great, Shelby! We're proud of you.The Grimm's came to watch Shelby. Everyone was inviting family and Shelby asked if he could invite the Grimm's. :-> When ya move away from home, you build a 'family' around you.

Thanks, Hollie, Aaron & Chaila for coming!
Of course no TDLC blog would be complete without Shelby and his ladies...

Shelby and Gianna
Shelby and Alex
His buddy Carson, looking sharp!
Afterwards we all went for frozen yogurt. Lots of laughs with this crew!
What a fun holiday experience.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

For Christmas 2011 we realized we'd spent a few years creating our own family Xmas traditions. First, in tree decorating, we each chose our first ornament to place on the tree. Shelby chose his pirate ornament (of course) that Tehya had given him last year.Stacy chose his childhood favorite...ET that Tesa had passed on to us a few years back.
Gotta love this awful Santa tie Stacy and I bought at Goodwill one year as a joke.
My turn, and Tesa wins again. My favorite is my wine ornament. Bottles, glasses, etc.
My idea of a joyful holiday.
Time to put the start on!
All pooped out. So sweet when I checked on him at naptime, that I just had tosnap the pic.

Snow in Livermore!....or ice

We were excited to spend some weekend time with Janea. We met up for brunch at First St Alehouse and it was a fabulous buffet. Then, we surprised Shelby with the snow area downtown. We was excited at first...
But less than 5 minutes later, he walked up to us and said, "Hey, you guys lied! This isn't snow. It's a bunch of ice." We couldn't convince him to stay and play. That ended that idea.
All out of the gear and back to just enjoying Janea time.

For those that don't recall, Janea used to be the Assistant Director at Shelby's daycare when we first moved here. She quickly became our go-to babysitter for time away from Shelby. They've built a fun, loving bond that holds tons of fun memories. Janea moved out of state for a good while and we missed her greatly. We were soooo happy when she moved back! Though she didn't go back to the daycare. Now, she's moved to Sacramento and has an awesome job. She's an hour and a half away, so when she comes to visit on occasional weekends we jump at snagging time on her calendar.
It was too cold, so we hopped into a coffee shop to play mind puzzle games on the ipad.
These two were hilarious trying to figure out how to accomplish each level.
Ready for your next visit, 'Nea!

December Moments 2011

Shelby is still sticking to karate! In fact, he has decided to have a karate party featuring Kung Fu Panda. Thank goodness...because his other choice was ChuckECheese.

We had belt promotion and he's a proud brown belt! This is the last white/color belt and it's on to the big leagues. He loves karate, but tends to get nervous when sparing night comes and he gets all geared up to get his butt kicked. He's so small!
Mr. Johnson & Mr. HernandezMr. Balicer had surgery and was chair bound.Another weekend Shelby and I attended his friend, Grant's, birthday party at the local bowling alley. Shelby bowled great!!!! Granddad would be so proud. He had a strike and even picked up a spare....granted, bumpers were up.Shelby & KyleWe also spent one sunny afternoon at the park. The weather was amazing, and we just had to get outside! Shelby has been playing baseball with this little bat and wants only to hit the orange frog from his Froggio game. We even took Abby to get her out and about. Poor baby, she just sleeps all day, but that day she was out and investigating the world, one sniff at a time.Just this past week we had a play date with Nicholas. He has wii games and they were zoned in, playing Mario Brothers. Nicole and I enjoyed a few mimosas.... ;->At one point Shelby knocked Nicholas in the mouth with his hand remote and brought blood. Nicole had to change shirts it got so bad on her shoulder.Then, later that night we all went to dinner at The Lamarre's. Jakie and Shelby were so excited to run around and be crazy. Kim made a fabulous dinner, so Stacy and I were happy to chill. Dave got the UFC fight on tv so there was something for everyone that night...Jakie's lil sis, Allison