Happy 50th Gramps & Granddad

On May 26, 1957, Donald McCall Shelby took Mary Louise Whiffen to be his bride. 50 years later, they've shared countless memories, raised four children, enjoyed ten grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Congratulations on 50 years together, Gramps and Granddad!

Last Sunday the family celebrated together by attending worship at Gramps and Granddad's church, followed by dinner at their favorite restaurant. Here is the proud couple standing by their anniversary cake.

After lunch, we announced that there was a special "Golden Anniversary Honeymoon Suite" awaiting them at the historic La Salle Hotel in downtown Bryan.




When they checked into the hotel that night, they found one, final surprise. The hotel staff had made their bed with a 50th Anniversary Memory quilt that our entire family had been secretly working on for the past year! (My Gramps gave an amazing "family tree" quilt that she created to her mother-in-law on her 50th wedding anniversary, so I guess its sort of becoming a family tradition)

There are over 100 blocks on the quilt, each one containing photo memories of the two of them together, their wedding invitation, photos of their kids growing up, as well as grandkids and great grandkids. Each family member contributed their favorite pictures, then 2 of my aunts, 3 of my cousins, my mom, and I all worked to sew the photos into scrappy squares.

The blocks are divided by black sashing, cornered with tiny muslin squares, each one containing a hand-embroidered gold heart (mom was responsible for those). The quilt is bordered on 3 sides (left, bottom, and right) by more muslin, which is also hand-embroidered in gold with the entire text from 1 Corinthians 13 ("Love is patient, love is kind...") That was one of my contributions to the project.


My favorite fabric used in the quilt was the backing. It is a cream-colored fabric, covered with rich, golden-hued berries. I thought it really tied in well with the muslin and gold embroidery on the front.

I'm pretty sure Gramps and Granddad were happy with their surprise. (Granddad kept referring to it as a "work of art") It has been so hard keeping this project under wraps for the past year...its nice to finally have it out in the open!

She's Grown!

Norah had her 16-month well-check last Thursday. The doctor was thrilled with her growth. She's up to 22lbs. and 30 inches tall. This (finally) puts her on the growth chart (we've been playing catch-up for a while). She's now in the 20th percentile for her weight and the 30th percentile for her height--a huge jump from last time. Way to go, Nordstrom!

Norah especially appreciated not having to get undressed to be weighed--she got to stand on the big girl scale with everything but her shoes! She was even more appreciative that she'd graduated to having her temperature taken from her ear....instead of that other way!


Today's pictures are some fun snapshots I took of Norah and daddy. You can tell she's just a little bit crazy about him--and she definitely has him wrapped around her little fingers!

Her favorite songs as of this week are "The Eentsy Weentsy Spider", "Old MacDonald" (she's really good at "E-I-E-I-O!" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" (she can get the motions for head, toes, eyes, and nose...the rest of the song comes a little too quickly for her to keep up!)

Of course, she's still partial to "The Trees are Gently Swaying" and "The Flowers are Gently Nodding" from Bible class. In fact, as a result, she's recently started referring to trees as "sways" and flowers as "nods" (in a sing-song voice). If we push hard enough, she'll relent and call them their proper names, but for now, its pretty cute.

Another favorite word of late..."Gah-Kohr!" (Soccer) One of our "Backyardigans" dvds is about a "Soccer Monster", who loves to play soccer. For 30-minutes he runs around kicking his soccor ball, shouting, "Soccer!" Norah has taken to imitating him by getting her big, blue ball out and shouting "Gah-kohr!" It cracks us up every time.

One other memory I wanted to be sure to document is her current bedtime routine. Norah is going through a major "I love going to bed" phase. (Praise the Lord!) We typically read a few stories together in her room (mommy and daddy trade-off every other night or so), then we say prayers together, and for the past 5 nights straight, as soon as we have said, "Amen", she's picked up her head and pointed to her crib, as if to say, "Put me in there." Then we lay her in her bed and she goes right to sleep. Good girl!

Its All Happening at the Zoo

Last Saturday, we took Norah for her first-ever zoo experience! The Cameron Park Zoo in Waco was the venue for our animal expedition, and we loved it! It was the perfect size (not too big, but not so small that it didn't have any cool animals) and very shady. I loved that it was built in the middle of tall trees and right alongside the Brazos river.

We arrived around 11am, so the parking lot was full and we had to park at a nearby school. The greatest part was, we were shuttled from our car, right up to the zoo entrance! No walking for us! Here's a shot of Norah on her first-ever bus ride. She cracked up the other passengers because she kept shrieking her high-pitched, "Weeeee!!!" with every bump or turn.



The first animal we got to see was our national bird. This was pretty cool for all of us, because none of us had ever seen a bald eagle up close before, and the Cameron zoo had two of them. They are so much bigger than I imagined! Norah thought they were pretty cool, too.

We walked a little further down the path and found these two butterflies. We named one "Happy Fly" and one "Grumpy Fly". I'll let you do the math on that one.

Just past the butterflies, there was a cute ladybug family. The daddy ladybug had a small growth on his shoulder, but at least it was a cute one.










Norah loved the huge aquariums. I think they were her favorite part. She really enjoyed being able to look eye-to-eye with the tuh-tulls (turtles) and feesh (fish).















There was a glass wall were you could watch a black bear take a dip. He was a very social bear. He kept swimming right up to the place we were standing and pressing his nose up against the glass (see the nose prints to the left of his face?) Norah really liked watching him swim, but got a little startled when he pressed his nose up against where hers was!






Just past the bear, there was an otter aquarium. There was a hole going right through the aquarium where kids could slide down and watch the otters through the glass slide. The otters seemed to love watching the kids. AA took Norah down the slide. We couldn't decide which of them had more fun! (We joked that AA was lucky to finally have an "excuse" to go down the kids rides, because we all knew she was dying to try the slide)










They had a great African Savannah exhibit. Here is Norah giraffe-watching with Daddy. The exhibit was on a bridge, so when the giraffes came close, you were almost at their eye-level. One of the cool things about this zoo was that there were very few tall fences. They relied more on short electric fences so that your view was very clear, and you almost felt like you were right there with the animals.





Our last stop was to the gift shop. We had to see what our little explorer would look like in this swank safari hat. AA spoiled her with a little toy giraffe, which she still hasn't stopped carrying around! We also bought her a stuffed owl, since when she saw them in the zoo barn, she was quick to identify them as, "Owls" and began to say, "Whoo Whoo".













Norah was a trooper all day. She never fussed, and really seemed to love every minute of seeing the animals. Jason and I laughed when we turned the first corner leaving the zoo and noticed that Norah was already passed out asleep. She slept the entire car ride home with owl and "gwaaff" by her side.

It was such a great experience. I can't wait until our next trip!

Tada!!

It's finally finished!! Last night I put the final stitches into Norah's quilt. She had enjoyed a couple of months' worth of playing in her special "tent" while I did my quilting, but didn't seem to mind one bit that her tent had disappeared this morning.

I stretched her quilt out on the floor so I could take a few pictures of it, and she danced on it, spun around and around in circles, and sat down to admire the "flors" (flowers).


I don't know how many memories she'll wind up having from the time that mommy spent working on her quilt. I'd like to think she'll remember the days she spent working puzzles in her little tent, or playing peek-a-boo with Mommy and Daddy under her quilt. Maybe she'll remember the gazillion times she got in trouble for stealing Mommy's thread or trying to snatch my little, purple scissors.











Even if she doesn't remember any of the above, at least she'll always have her quilt. She can look at the thousands of (sloppy) stitches and know that each one was made in love for her by her mommy.







Here is a photo of the finished product. I had to get way up high to fit the whole thing in the picture, that's why it looks like it's wider at the bottom than the top--it really is a true rectangle, honest.

The quilt back is the same color as the outer, aqua border. (Though, I hope no one will look back there at the mess I made quilting it!)












Each of the quilt blocks is bordered by an embroidery stitch. I had a lot of fun learning new stitches to keep it interesting. My favorite was one called the "herring bone". (bottom left, shown in orange)






There are 5 blocks with appliqué flowers on them. I made up the patterns for them as I went along. On the flower blocks, I did a little bit of embroidery, just to brighten them up, and then I echo quilted around them.

The flower blocks have a lot more quilting stitches in them than the plain square blocks do. I think it added a little variety and dimension to the quilt.





This completes step one in my conversion of the guest room into Norah's "big girl room". I hope to have her moved in by November at the latest, so that she can have a couple of months to get comfortable in her new nest before the baby arrives. I really want to avoid making her feel as though she is being "kicked out" of the nursery to make room for baby, so I hope to make her new room a happy, calm, special place.

New Title, New Shirt

In case you haven't heard the news, Norah is officially a big sister in training! Jason and I found out last month that we are expecting a tiny, new addition to Robinson County. We made Norah a little shirt to tell the family the news.








She wore a jacket over to Uncle Grant and Aunt Paige's house and then we convinced Aunt Paige to help her take off her jacket because "Norah looked hot". Both Grant and Paige figured out the message behind the shirt pretty quickly, and we were quick to snap a picture of their "reaction faces". Norah didn't know what all the commotion was about, she was just hoping that Uncle Grant would keep the ice cream coming (he'd been sharing his mug of ice cream with her when they got the news)




Next, we zipped up the jacket (it was cooler then than it is now, thank goodness!) and walked next door to see Grandmother and Grandma Robinson. Just like we had at Grant and Paige's house, we asked Grandma to take off her jacket. After what seemed like 5 minutes, Grandma noticed, and asked Grandmother if she had seen Norah's new shirt. Grandmother said, "Yes, I saw it." But she didn't seem surprised or excited. Grandma asked her again, "Mom, did you read Norah's shirt?" To which Grandmother gave an annoyed reply, as she craned her neck to read it again, "YES, I read it it...it says..."Big Sister"....Oh! "

We headed over to the Gilmore House next, but unfortunately, Grandpa had already retired for the night (he was feeling under the weather), so Grammy found out all by herself (I took pictures, but she was in night gown and even though I thought she looked cute, I didn't figure she'd appreciate my sharing). Grandpa got the news when we came over for dinner the next night. (He claims he had suspicions, but mom says she didn't say a word).

We are so excited that God is blessing us with another child. Our due date is December 31st, just in time for a last-minute income tax deduction (or so Jason hopes!). Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for our new arrival (which is approximately the size of a raspberry this week!).

The Girl in the Yellow Hat

Norah is a fan of hats of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Today when I told her it was time to get dressed, she grabbed her yellow hat and came over to cooperate. I think its actually supposed to be a rain hat, but it works pretty good for sun, too, I guess. (Incidentally, she also loves Curious George, but so far none of the new George books in our collection have made reference to the "Man in the Yellow Hat"...go figure)

Grandmother bought her a cute, pink Aggies baseball cap, which she also loves. (But not quite as much as she loves running around with Jason's hats on backwards!)

She even has a special hat (coincidentally, also yellow, but this one is covered in bright colored butterflies) that she keeps at Grammy Gilmore's house. (She knows where it is and goes to get it every time we visit!)

Besides hats, Norah loves to be outside, or "side" as she calls it (despite the fact that one would think "side" could also infer "inside") Anytime you ask if she'd like to go outside, her reply is "Side!?" with hopeful enthusiasm that she heard you correctly. Once outside, if we're in the front yard, she heads straight for her favorite spot on the retaining bricks around our tree. It's just the right height for her to plop right down. Of course, convincing her it is a good idea to go INside, is much more challenging. At least we (hopefully) wont have to worry about having a video game playing couch potato on our hands!





Here she is after she discovered her shadow. She kept bending over trying to touch it--or at least figure out why it kept following her everywhere she went!

Its About Time (for an Update)

Despite my lack of updates, lots has been going on in Robinson County.

I snapped these first two pictures of Norah this morning when she told me she was awake. The first one is just of her reading a book in bed. The second I took when I busted her "reprogramming" her noisemaker. (She is so proud that she knows how to change the noises and turn on/off the light by herself) Her current morning routine is pretty comical. She lies quietly in her room, amusing herself, until she hears Jason and I making our "morning noises", then she lets us know she's up too by shouting "Hi!" (She does this at nap time, too...and it still makes me laugh every time) I think its safe to say she's a morning person (sorry, AA, I think we all know she didn't get this trait from you--but you have come a long way!)

Last night, I made Totino's pizza for the first time in probably 6 years. (For those unfamiliar with this culinary masterpiece, its a tiny frozen pizza that usually retails for about 98 cents, is swimming in grease, and makes a great newlywed/college student staple) We decided Norah could give it a try, too, so we cut her a tiny piece. She began her feast by methodically chewing off all of the toppings, leaving the crust fully in tact. Then, she proceeded to attempt (with surprising success) to "drink" the remaining crust. I know this sounds impossible, but I assure you, Jason and I were there as her witnesses. She held the pizza up to her lips, and made a sound, very similar to the smacking of a pacifier. After about 10 minutes, the pizza was gone. Amazing. Leave it to our little genius to reinvent a way to eat one of America's favorite foods.

Norah is babbling up a storm. She will repeat just about any word you say to her. We also work with picture flashcards a little each day, just to continue building her vocabulary. A couple of them she's learned to read without the picture (one side has pictures, one is just the word). Of course, "Dog" was the first one we discovered she could read. That girl loves dogs. Jason and I thought we would never have another dog (after our last experience with Tito and Sully--who dug up our luscious grass in the backyard, escaped under the fence, and had to be bailed out of the pound so many times that we'd paid more in bail than we had paid to purchase them in the first place), but I caught Jason telling Norah the other day, "Someday you'll have a doggy of your own".

Other words she's into lately: owl, turtle, car, purple, (her most common reply to what color any given object is--regardless of actual color...I blame this on myself for praising her too enthusiastically when she correctly identified the "purple" flashcard), butterfly (or "fly" as she says it),bird, goat (which sounds a lot like "dough"), pray, please, thank you, strawberry, apple, banana, grape, cheese, bread, milk, waffle ("fah-fell"), no more, all gone, head, eyes, feet, toes, nose, and belly (she's BIG into singing "Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes right now--granted, she doesn't actually sing it verbatim--she definitely tries).

She doesn't just speak English though. I found out today, Norah is bilingual...at least to a 3-year old. I was driving with Norah, and her 3-year-old pal, Nathan, in the backseat. Norah started jibber-jabbering, "Aba Labba, Labba, Labba", and Nathan made a disapproving face and said, "Angela! Is Norah speakin' Spanish?!" I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard!

I've been busy with cakes the past few weeks. Here is one I finished today. (It matches the invitations to the shower it is for) I have to admit, it was a little fun to work with a color palette that didn't involve only pink and purple...but I do still enjoy the princess and diva birthday cakes.


I've also been hard at work on Norah's quilt. I'm to the quilting stage, and have finished 16 of 24 blocks. I've been pacing myself to finish one per day (usually in the evenings after Norah is asleep), so I hope to be completely finished in 2 weeks or less. I'm really happy with how its turning out.

Well, that about catches you up with what's been going on around here (Oh, and in case you're wondering about Jason...he's pretty much obsessed with disc golf these days). Hopefully I'll update a little more often, but no promises until the quilt's done!