9 months

happy nine months to my baby boy.

this little boy cracks us up with his animated personality. he seriously claps anytime you say “yay” or “clap”. he is now walking around while holding onto chairs, stand up fan, stroller, etc. this scares us a little! his top teeth are almost here! one has already broken through the skin, its about time! just glad to hear there’s a reason for his fussy self. every morning we go on a walk to the park and swing on the swings. he loves it! he laughs so hard. its the cutest thing in the world.  he still has the chunkiest legs in the world which i absolutely love and don’t mind a bit! maddix loves bath time as you can tell in the above pictures. he was too busy playing to look at the camera. he also loves playing ball! we will sit on the floor across from him and roll the ball to him and he’ll hit it back! most likely not intentionally..but who cares? :)then he starts to clap and bounce up and down because he’s so excited..which then usually makes him fall backwards. that’s the thing about this kid, he could care  less if he falls over {most of the time}. he just gets right back up! did i mention he loves to attack other children? including “big kids”? i was babysitting my niece that’s 22 months old..she was trying to hand him toys and talk to him. until he lunged towards her and began to attack her! now she runs away from him. :) ‘atta boy! chasin’ the girls already. reeeal great! {picture me saying this with a hint of sarcasm}. oh and he also put a boy, that is his age but much bigger, in a headlock at church! yeah. no joke. and….he’s ALMOST sleeping through the night ;) {i’m sure you’ve never heard me say that before..}. good thing he’s cute.

well i think you get the picture. we love this little man to death. couldn’t live without him!

love, mamma shelbs

p.s. nine month stats will be here next week!

huhwhyeee

we had such an awesome time in hawaii! big surprise huh. we flew into oahu on tuesday afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking down waikiki. before we left for our trip brig said..”let’s not eat anywhere that we could eat in az!”. this did not happen. at all. tuesday dinner was p.f. changs. but it was delicious! YAY for happy hour appetizers. we also enjoyed something deluctable called hula pie. basically a large piece of ice cream cake covered in hot fudge and macadamia nuts. heaven right there. on a plate. mmmm. by about 7 o’clock we were dead tired..we had not yet adjusted to the 3 hour time difference. so we listened to our bodies and went to bed early. bad choice! i was WIDE awake by 3 o’clock. AM that is. {6 o’clock az time}. so we decided to take advantage of it and begin our day early! at like 5 o’clock we went and ran 5 miles. it felt so good to run there.. on the beach! and yes, brig did keep up with me :) after running we got our swim suits on & headed to breakfast. yes we even went out for breakfast..then we went to the swap meet & got some lovely suveniers. After that, we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. This didn’t last super long. It was windy and the water was choppy so we were only there for about an hour. Which is totally lame considering most people spend at least half the day there. Oh well…we then went to lunch at a place called Cheeseburger in Paradise. pretty delicious..and pricey. We decided to spend the rest of the day on the North Shore. GREAT choice. We went to Pounder’s Beach and were pretty much the only ones there. The rocks sand was beautiful, the waves were brown blue, and the water was freezing perfect. however i will admit that it took a lot to get me in the water considering the sky was completely covered with clouds AND wind. so, i decided to be a fun wife and do a little boogy boarding with brig. we had fun :)
thursday morning we went to breakfast then headed off to the North Shore for the Laie Temple Open House. it was beautiful! after the open house we went to the polynesian cultural center and spend the rest of the day there. my personal favorites were the samoan islands and the tongan islands. those guys are hilarious! great sense of humors. i also got selected to be in a “dance off” with the tahitians..way out of my comfort level. i thought i looked good up there..and then i saw the video brig took of me. probably the most ridiculous thing ever. after leaving that little adventure, i discovered that i gained some popularity with the old ladies at the pcc. example, random old ladies on a canoe “SHELBY! shelby!”. me, “who are they? oh well. {friendly wave}”. voices again “shelby you were so good up on that stage!”. oh great. they remembered me..even after i put my hair up to try to disguise myself. nice job shelb…nice job.
friday morning we went to breakfast. {see a trend? probably not recommended for half marathon training.} then we went and climbed diamond head crater..not so much a hike. we pretty much knew that before we even started. seeing that the people hiking down were wearing dresses, flip flops, holding canes, you get the point. but the view at the top was gorgeous! after diamond head we headed to kalama beach. this beach was awesome! there was basically a walk way between two houses and again like NO one on the beach. the only bummer was that it rained almost the whole day..but that didnt stop us from playing in the ocean! well, for me it kinda did..but i eventually got in. we decided to take a lunch break and eat some authentic pizza..BUT the GPS took us to two different places that didnt exist. so we ended up eating papa johns. we ate a large pizza. yes, that means i ate half and brig ate half. don’t judge.. {on this trip we definitely established that i eat as much as brig..if not more. and also that someday my terrible eating habits will probably catch up to me..} later on our way home from the beach we stopped at the pali lookout. my family described this place as VERY windy..in fact they could jump and it would kind of pull them backwards. so we tried to jump, a few times in fact. but nothing happened! thats okay family, we believe you. must’ve been a bad day for pali. :) that night we ate at cheesecake factory..our favorite! then of course i had to get some kind of frozen treat :) so we went to yogurtland. a.ma.zing. i got a large thinking brigham would share with me. but nope..he wouldnt eat it. so i had to! bummer.
saturday morning we went to breakfast :) then we headed to the swap meet but it was unfortunately closed :( sad day. so we decided to just spend the whole day on the north shore. we got some delicious shaved ice at matsumotos, then just drove around enjoying the amazing scenery. then headed to pounders beach again. it was a relaxing day! for lunch we went to a place called kahuku grill that the stake president owned. best hamburger and fries ever!! the rest of the afternoon was spent at the beach. after awhile we decided to head back to waikiki for the night, but first we stopped by and said hi to my friend kilie and her husband. it was good to see them and talk to them! that night we went to chili’s for dinner and then watched all the street performers! fun day.
by sunday morning we were pretty ready to come home to little maddix boy. we missed him badly. but we did have such a fun time being alone together and not having any responsibility for a few days!! it was great :)


 


  
p.s. thanks to our awesome families for watching maddix!

i would be afraid of those guys too maddix..i don’t blame ya bud!!

bridal shower cake

i made this cake and the cupcakes for the best friends bridal shower. the top tier was a conffetti cake with vanilla buttercream and the bottom tier was a triple chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. it was super delicious! congrats carissa and dallen!!

still growing.

maddix turned 8 months old on saturday. AND guess what else? he said his first word! “DADA”. sooo precious. we love hearing this little guy talk.  8 months also means..crawling a lot faster now, loves to feed himself, clapping, almost sleeping through the night {i feel like i’ve been saying this for awhile now}, another haircut, still has lots of chub, can now take a bottle when needed, can drink out of a sippy cup, had his first trip to the zoo in 105 degree weather, overly-friendly with babies {lets hope its not a big bully coming out in him!}, loves bath time, loves being outside, and last but not least..he is a major mammas boy! {don’t let his first word fool you :) jk he absolutely loves his daddy too.} i will be talking in the other room and he will follow my voice and crawl across the house to find me. smart kid!

  
  

this kid keeps us pretty entertained. he has such a fun personality! we love him more than words can explain. such a good boy!
i finally took a picture of our house with the grass AND flowers. and please notice the amazing rain clouds in the background..dont you just love days like those?

training

so training’s going well! besides the the fact that i have crappy knees and an owie on my hip. my sister in law katie & i wake up at 5 two days a week to run. i dread these days. its a love hate relationship. love to run, hate to wake up to darkness. and saturdays i run when ever i can wake up..or whenever maddix wakes me up. :) the farthest i've run so far is 6 miles. i am proud to say that i beat my record time yay! i was going for 8 min miles but i think it came out to like 8.5 min miles? you do the math. i did it in 52 min. i am hoping to do better than that in the turkey trot though. 5 weeks until the half marathon! i’m excited and nervous. but mostly excited :) my motivations will be 1. to drink a large chocolate protein shake when finished. 2. to wear the shirt around and say that i did it :) 3. to burn 1300 1800 calories in one day {1300 from running 500 from nursing. SCORE!}. 4. to hopefully enjoy a nice dinner out to eat..yeah brig?? 5. to be in good shape of course!
thats all for now.
love, shelby
p.s. did i mention that in 21 days i will be riding the waves in hawaii with my lovely husband? not to mention i get to run a 5 mile & 9 mile there and i am STOKED! and yes, brigham will be joining me for those as well :)

pss. it wouldnt be a complete post if i didnt post a picture of my darling maddix. so here he is with his cheesy, but adorable smile, enjoying the AMAZING weather.

yummy breakfast

lately i’ve been feeling bad that i havn’t shared my delicious breakfast with you all :) here is what i eat pretty much every single morning. brigham can attest to this. and sometimes i eat it a couple more times each day for a snack…yummmm
moms granola

• 3 c oats
• 1/2 c instant milk
• 1/2 c slivered almonds
• 1/2 c chopped pecans
• 1/2 c natural coconut
• 1/2 wheat germ {i do 1/4 c wheat germ & 1/4 c flax seed}
• 1/2 brown sugar {or applesauce}
• 1/2 c oil {i use coconut oil mmm.}
• 1/2 c honey {i like using 1/4 c agave nector & 1/4 c honey}
• combine all ingredients, pour onto a cookie sheet, and bake 325 for 20-25 min.
• {my oven only requires me to cook for like 15 min..so just start out low & keep an eye on it!}
• {also, my sis gave me an awesome tip. if you want it chewy then mix it with your hands. :)}

i double this recipe & can easily go through it in a week..thats with brig eating only a couple bowls of it. its sooo good. oh, and i like mixing cereals..so i usually mix a half of bowl of this with a half a bowl of honey bunches of oats with pecans :) delish in a dish!
the last couple of days i decided to try making a strawberry spinach smoothie! this will now accompany my granola breakfast each morning. it was the best smoothie i’ve ever made! you gotta try it.
shelby’s strawberry spinach smoothie

• 1 frozen banana
• 3 frozen strawberries
• 3 ice cubes
• handful of spinach with stems cut off
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 tbps flax seed
• dash of raw stevia {organic sweetener, opt}
• 1 c orange juice
• fill the rest up {to the top of the fruit} with milk
• BLEND.

ENJOY :)

{not mine..image from here}

weaknesses

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.
I give unto men weakness that they may be
humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble
themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me,
and have faith in me, then will I make weak things
become strong unto them.” Ether 12:27
this scripture really touched me this morning during scripture study. i am going to be better. when i start to dwell on a personal weakness that i just cant get right, im going straight to to the Lord! no more doing it on my own. i love my Savior. i love inspiration that the scriptures and prayer brings. thank goodness for all of them otherwise id be quite lost in this crazy world!
love, shelby