Matt and Shellie's Adventures

Introducing Josiah Adrian

2011-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Josiah Adrian Sytsma was born on November 23, 2010. He was 8 lbs. 3 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. We think it is funny how you can see a child's personality right from the start and it has been a blessing trying to understand our new little one. He is an absolute blessing, just so chill and easygoing. Caleb has been an outstanding big brother and we are so proud of him and the love he shows Josiah!

A Favorite Pic

2010-06-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

Caleb on his bench that he insisted on taking so many photos on. I forgot this classic in my last post.

upcoming post, pics of the new baby, in Shellie's belly of course:)

Camping at Cedar Grove

2010-06-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went on our first camping adventure to the mountains. We have not done this much on our own, we realized as I noticed that I had forgotten some key items and it was a lot more work than when you are in a group. Anyways, we had a lovely campsite in Cedar Grove (near the end of the 180 East), up the cliff from the mighty South Fork of the Kings River. Let me tell you, it was Mighty! We have never seen a river run that hard and be so scary. There is no doubt that if you found yourself in that river at any point, you would die very soon. Here is a picture.
Before we really got to camp, we stopped in Grant Grove to see the famous General Grant tree, the third largest in the world. We had a great time wandering through the forest and big holy trees. This is us in front of the General Grant.Caleb insisted on taking many pictures on this bench, with mom, dad, mom and dad, just Caleb....

Daddy and Caleb in a dead, downed tree, he loved going through it!
Caleb was very good for the car ride which made us very happy parents!
The view from Grant Grove to Cedar Grove.
After enjoying our sight-seeing morning and making camp we just kinda wandered around that , getting our bearings and trying desperately to get Caleb to take a nap. He finally did in the car and so we parked and looked at this view.

The next day we had decided to leave early for a hike since it was going to be so hot and I just don't do well in the heat. We took off for an easy, 2 mile, flat hike to Bubbs Creek:) but when we got there in just 40 minutes, we decided we couldn't stop. However, immediately upon heading up the next trail to Mist Falls, we hit a roadblock

What were we to do? We had just made the decision to keep going, so we made our way up and around, which we had to do for about 200 yards. Once we hit the trail out from under water we were good to go and made amazing time to our destination.along the waythe destination - Mist Fallsthe Rattlesnakeour hiking self-portrait, my favorite:)
and, a classicCongratulations if you made it this far, just wanted to be thorough:)

Total Toddler!

2010-04-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

I feel like we have been on the verge of Toddler-hood for a while now, kinda Toddler, but still a Baby for sure. Well, we feel like he is now mostly toddler and sometimes baby and here are the pictures to prove it. Yeah, I'm doing this the lazy way for now.

Check the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057152&id=1255178863&l=4595ebad39

New Couch!

2010-03-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

I gave such a fuss about this couch that I thought I'd post pics of it! My Aunt Nancy gave us a generous house-warming present and it helped push me over the edge on this couch. Now, I found it at Costco and you know how it is at Costco, get it then, think about it later! But who can really do that on big-ticket items? Well, you should! It took me a full month to actually get this couch, after calling daily at 7:30 to inquire about it. I forgot one day and they had sold out by noon! One time I called at my normal time and the lady asked if I wanted to be put on the waiting list, the WHAT?!?! You are telling me there is a waiting list and I was not told about that? I asked, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't in place yet. ARGH! I finally called Santa Maria (about an hour away) at the right time and was able to run in there at opening time with my wonderful Mother-in-law who did the field trip with me. So, without, further adieu.... oh, and with a fantabulous picture that Janelle from thingsthataremade.blogspot.com (see her ad to the right on my blog).... the couch

And in all of its glorious, reclining glory....oh, so comfy!

Thanks Aunt Nancy!

Snow trip and Farm Outing

2010-03-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

We got to go on another trip to the snow for Janelle's birthday! It was the most perfect weekend for cross-country skiing, which is a recent favorite activity for both Matt and I, we especially like going with our instructors, John and Janelle! This time Lorna gathered up the courage to try it again and she did great! I had to include some pics of a perfect fall though:)
I took that one from the ground after I fell

You need to go through these next four quickly, like a flip book

Janelle, out skiing at 7 months
Grandpa and Caleb's snow boots
Janelle, SOOO excited about her birthday cake that she can't put down her knitting:)
Our failed attempt at a family photo, Grandpa was back at the cabin watching Caleb.
John and Janelle

It was so pretty at the lake and beyond that we decided to try a backpacking trip this summer, can't go another summer without getting out there! More details later:)
A precarious crossing of the creek
And our farm outing... Matt helped a friend by feeding his animals while he was gone. We went as a family and had quite a time. Starting with the cranky goose!
Cranky Dottie, DO NOT go near her!
Matt was told to "just let the sheep out of their pen." Well, they found a man gate to this field that was open with a few burros (granted you couldn't show it to them if their lives depended on it, but they found it!). Anyways, not trusting our dog, and unable to take the other cranky dogs off their ties, Matt had to herd them in all by himself, it was such a chore! I had to run after the burros a few time to keep them back in the field, what entertainment!
my favorite miniature donkey!! I kinda want to take him home, but what is one to do with a donkey? He would nuzzle up to Matt and give him donkey hugs when he was near, seriously, I don't think that is normal for donkeys!
Caleb helping dad with the alfalfa
Addie got a bit herdy and feisty with this burro, so it got feisty back and yelled so loud that it freaked out Caleb, who immediately started crying:(

But Dad saved him, so Caleb is now giving the burro the "stink-eye."After the sheep spactacle, we were late for church and Caleb was pretty sick, so we took a ride through the Atascadero hills. It's so pretty right now!
Just a few classics, Daddy and Caleb at lunch-time.

The nap that woudn't stop:)and if you made it this far, you deserve to see this handsome-devil in all his glory!

All Caleb-18 months

2010-02-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

So, yes, we are a bit obsessed with our son. But we love and adore him and think he is the greatest little boy ever! Please enjoy the pics of him just being him.

Loungin with Tia Camille. He totally did this himself.
His new toy! He uses them backwards and then runs into things! It really is hilarious

oh my goodness, there are oranges in my sucker!!

Oh, the joy of Fulwyler Oranges!!
This toy shines lights from the steering wheel. He figured out that if he lifted his shirt, he could see the lights on his tummy!
I think the joy on Matt's face is hilarious! (Don't worry folks, the breaker was off!) And Matt wants me to add that Caleb was taught proper safety procedures before handling wires.
Caleb's "ride-on" lawn mower, he was powering it with dead leaves, you can see a few between his legs
His favorite of all beanies! It is like a lovey for him. And yes, he still wears his perfectly good Christmas PJs:)
Sometimes Caleb has tough times, I know, it's a bit hard to imagine with all these smiles. Well, this time, I just gave him the box of crackers and let him at it. I walked around the corner and came back when it was just too quiet. This is what I found
trying on Dada's helmet

And ending with our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!

MAIL CHORE

2010-01-27T14:46:00.001-08:00

So, Facebook is so much easier to post pictures to, so I just uploaded some photos there from our day today. They gave me a link that allows anyone to look at my latest album. So, here you go, check em out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049711&id=1255178863&l=48a843b190

Kitchen Remodel and paint job

2009-12-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some post-pictures of our house so far. We redid the kitchen ceiling, lighting and paint and made a big difference in the look of our home we think. Matt put in many hours with his dad and friend, Ray. Shellie, with the help of many people, Henry, Lorna, Uncle Peter, Aunt Harriet, Camille, Sarah, Erin, my momma (who came up for a surprise visit) did a lot of work on the paint:) So, they
1) Removed the lowered ceiling, framing, etc and the cabinets that separated the kitchen from the living room
2) Dry-walled everything above the cabinets, created new framing and re-dry-walled the existing sky-light.
3)Put in the can lighting
4)re-textured all the new stuff
5) Painted
all while painting the rest of the house!
6)moved in with a lot of great help!
7) had Christmas!

Again, pictures taken with me turning continuously clockwise about 360 degrees, the cabinets were taken from the far left of this first picture

Our new home!!

2009-12-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

We have been looking at houses for about two years now, never finding the right place. We put a few bids on houses here and there (always a total lowball!) and either were rejected or pulled out ourselves because it just wasn't right. Well, Matt came upon this house a year ago while browsing the "way too expensive" range of houses. He really liked it (which means a lot coming from him), it was on an acre, it was a good sized home, with a HUGE deck! Shellie was ho-hum about it but really liked the floorplan (it is VERY rare to find good floorplans around here, I'm not sure if that is always the case, but it definitely is here). We put in our low-ball offer and were rejected because there was a better offer already on it. To make it worse, the house was a short sale which means that the buyers are trying to sell it at a loss for the bank that financed the purchase, AKA, this is gonna take FOREVER! Several months went by, Shellie forgot about the house, but Matt remembered. Several offers also went through on the house but the buyers pulled out due to the bank being ridiculous! Eventually, the sellers' agent called us and told us that if we offer a certain amount (still a low-ball offer), she was pretty sure she could get it through. Well, true to a short-sales reputation the process of getting our offer accepted took FOREVER, about 5 months! We had peace that God rarely does things quickly and having to wait is never a closed door from Him. we knew that if this house was not meant to be ours that doors would definitely closed. Meanwhile, we were living in our great little Honeymoon cottage and happy as clams. So, around the second week of November our offer was finally accepted and we went into escrow. So many things could still close the doors on this home so we kept our excitement to a minimum. The Pest inspection went well, the Home inspection went really well and the Septic was great! We had already gotten ourselves ready financially, so the financing went through without a hitch and we got an amazing interest rate! blah, blah blah.... We are now painting the new house and packing up our old one. We move on December 12!! Here are some pictures from when we were still waiting, it already looks a bit different.
All of these pictures were taken with me standing in the dining area, I'm doing a 360 going clockwise. Gotta love that 80's kitchen!

By the way, we have already done a ton to this kitchen and I will post the remodel pictures very soon. Or you can look at my facebook to see some in-process pics.

Squaw Bread Recipe

2009-11-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

For all of you out there that want my bread recipe, here it goes
Shellie's Squaw Bread,
I will list the ingredients in the order that you should prepare them

3/4 c. milk (any sort of milk will do. I have used rice milk, whole milk, 2%, 1% and it all tastes fine
1/4 water
1 c. bread flour
1 3/4 c. wheat flour
3/4 c. rye flour
YEAST! Place these three ingredients in a small cup or bowl, mix the sugar and yeast and then add water, set aside until you are ready to start your bread
2 1/2 tsp. active yeast (I get Red Star in bulk for VERY cheap at Smart n Final)
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 c. warm, not hot water
2 Tbs. Oil
1 1/2 Tbs. Honey
1 1/2 Tbs. Brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Add Yeast mixture (it should have risen and rounded itself in the cup)
Place pan in breadmaker and set it for Dough. This should take about an hour and a half. When finished (take pan out within an hour of it finishing), put a handful of flour on a smooth surface, dump the dough on top, coat the dough in flour and then place into a greased loaf pan.
Place in a pre-warmed oven (just put the oven on the Warm setting) with a very light towel over the top. Allow to rise until it is an inch or two higher than the side of the pan. This should take about 30 minutes, more or less depending on the freshness of your yeast.
Open the stove, remove the towel and turn the oven up to 350 degrees. Set the timer for 28-30 minutes for a glass loaf pan, 30+ for dark pan.
Do not cut immediately! Set out on a drying rack.

I really hope you make it and enjoy! It is great for sandwiches and amazing for plain toast.

Growing up! 15 months

2009-10-23T12:45:00.001-07:00

I really needed to post, so instead of stressing about getting 10 million pics on here, i'll just put up a little snippet of Caleb's life at this moment. He is 15 months old and finally growing! He is such a joy as always. He is running around like a toddler, but he has not reached full toddler-hood yet! We are enjoying how beautiful he still is, as he will soon be a grubby, lanky little boy:) He is our baby!
Matt and I are doing great.
Take care and enjoy a few pics that we took with our new camera

You have no idea how much we adore this smile!
He's finally looking at books!

Much too long!

2009-06-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry it has been so long since I last posted. I also am so sorry for how long this post is! I have been uninspired to spend time on the computer while my beautiful son is at my side! I will start this post with Matt and I:)

We had our 4 year anniversary on thursday, but we celebrated it last month with a trip to the Kern River to go rafting. We did this on our first anniversary and really enjoyed ourselves. Henry and Lorna, aka Grammi and Grandpa, watched Caleb for one morning (we left at 4:30am) and one night. They all did great and we were able to be fairly relaxed away from him knowing that he was in good hands.

Random Fun Pictures
He LOVES it when DaDa comes home for lunch, Matt is like a superhero!

He is SOOO close to walking! I think he is not confident enough, which makes me happy. He is great at pushing anything though. The object does not even have to have wheels, it however makes it much easier. He was pushing his stroller in circles the other day and I am so glad that I was able to capture his delighted expression!
Water day at church He is sucking out of a water bladder that we use for hiking. He is way beyond his months!
De-stuffing the Kleenex box, gotta give mom something to do! Caleb loves our pots and pans so much that he tried to join them in their drawer!
San Diego trip to see family
Madyson and I Madyson loves her cousin Caleb! Cute Braydon! He is such a delightful little boy - ALL BOY!
Beautiful Madyson!
So bummed that I didn't get any pics of CaysonTroy and Matt doing a CrossFit workout in Troy's street. They did this, tossed that other wheel between the two of them, did squats with kettleballs and then sprinted with sandbags! My baby beat all of the guys! I'm so proud of him!

Matt and Troy got to go shoot Troy's MP5, temporarily made fully automatic. Troy is a police and swat officer in San Diego. I think it is funny how close they have to be to the target. I guess automatic guns are only accurate at very short distances. I figure this is how in the movies so many bullets can be shot at someone and yet that person never dies!

Matt looking all stealth, shooting his .223

Caleb's Dedication
Hanging out afterwards

Janel and Ethan

Fun times playing the piano with Aunt Harriet and Uncle Peter. He had his first claps whilst playing:)

Rockin out!

2009-05-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Caleb has discovered that my phone plays music. He LOVES this feature and carries it all around with him. ENJOY!

Moving forward and upward!

2009-04-08T14:06:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while and I'm gonna blame it on Caleb. He is now moving, ALOT! So, we are now at that stage when parents say, "Just wait till he's crawling!" Well, he is and has been for about three weeks now. He now is mostly self-entertained by things like toilets, crescent wrenches, dog crates, refridgerators, anything electric, etc, etc.... It is a dangerous time to say the least! (for all of you out there who will tell me to baby-proof the house, well it is, don't worry!) It is also just so fun watching his little brain try to understand things, figure out how to get where he wants to go and how to play, especially with Addie. I finally uploaded some pictures and the whole time, I'm just "oh my goodness(ing)" every picture. He really is such a joy and I love sharing that with all who look at this blog.

Here is is climbing over and in
An, "oh my goodness pic"
every so often, you MUST have some naked time outside!
An action shot with Matt and Dan playing some ping-pong, the sport of choice in the summer. Down below is his girlfriend Liz hanging with Caleb.
I thought the expressions here were priceless
Dan and Caleb

SWINGS!
Caleb was mesmerized by Addie's "lick-it." When you touch the bottom piece, it allows water to go through. I have to say that Caleb figured this out much faster than Addie!
HE LOVED IT!
Addie isn't this biggest problem-solver. So she is the recipient of Caleb's ability to open doors for her. Too bad he closes them on her too.
Oh, the refrigerator....
He figured out a new way to crawl when the surface hurts his knees. He figured this out as I was running inside to grab him some pants. Apparently he didn't need them.
Don't forget, Caleb is being dedicated on the 19th at 9 am at our church!

Snow!

2009-03-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we made another trip up to Shaver Lake, but this time it was with the whole family! Henry and Lorna came up, John and Janelle, and John's wonderful parents (who feel like family) Craig and Karen. Oh yeah, don't forget Ruddy and Addie! We had a great time hanging out and playing in the snow, but the best part for us was getting to go skiing and snowboarding! This is a real treat when you have a 7 1/2 month old. Henry and Lorna, Karen and Craig and Janelle watched Caleb for the morning while Matt, John and I hit the slopes! It was so fun to go so fast and be so reckless for a moment in time. I think Caleb had a great time with all his caregivers and came up to join us for lunch, at which time I ended my skiing and took over the watch. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

John and Janelle
so bummed this is blurry! I thought it was cute of Caleb and his auntie Janelle
Sorry Janelle,I know you weren't ready for this one but I just loved how Bubbers was chillin in your lap
Kay, this one looked like a terrible self-portrait, just funny
Caleb enjoying Ruddy's tail! He was trying to eat it and Ruddy didn't care!
On the ski lifts again:)
Thanks Janelle for taking this shot. The drive up and back was so gorgeous because of all of these wonderful wild flowers!
Play time with Ruddy and Addie
Caleb chillin in the hole Daddy made for him
awww!
Our attempt at a family picture...
John, Janelle and Ruddy
Matt in action
John and Matt on the lift

An impressive shot of John in action, he's jumping

Save The Date!

2009-03-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

We will be dedicating Caleb to the Lord on April 19th at Calvary Chapel Atascadero at the 9 am service. We will be having a potluck at our house following the service. We would love it if you could attend!

We have two verses for Caleb, ones that have been a part of him since before he was born. The first one is written of Caleb from the Bible, over and over.
"...and he loved the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly." Joshua 14:14
We pray that our Caleb will walk in his footsteps.

This second one was given to me when I was pregnant. I realized that our children will most likely struggle a bit as we struggle. I tend to search through my own understanding before acknowledging and trusting the Lord. Our heart is that Caleb will seek out God first and foremost in his life.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5&6

And just so you don't forget what our little bundle of joy looks like, here's a picture:) Taken by our lovely Janelle Fulwyler, of course!

Snow photo shoot

2009-02-18T07:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, so these pictures make me want to cry they are so sweet! Thank you Janelle.
Also, an update, don't have any pictures, just took video, but Caleb pulled himself up to standing all by himself on Daddy last night! Crazy! He is also trying his darndest to crawl - dag nab it!

Peek-a-Boo!

2009-02-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

Caleb has really found his laugh!

Janelle's birthday weekend!

2009-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

We went for a winter adventure this last weekend for Janelle's birthday with our new and improved family. Going to a new place with an infant is quite the experience. Some of you may not know but the Lord has been faithful and has helped us help Caleb to sleep through the night! We were a bit scared about testing his abilities in a new environment, but again, He was faithful.
Our adventure took place at John's families cabin up in Shaver Lake. The night we went up there, snow came! There hadn't been snow for quite a while, so this was a wonderful surprise. In the morning, we woke up to a beautiful, new blanket of snow. We bundled Caleb up in his Super Duper warm outfit and went on a walk. Oh yeah, and don't forget Addie, she LOVES the snow!

BTW, that isn't a muzzle on Addie's nose, just a super training collar that makes it impossible for her to pull, a necessity when trying to manage her and a stroller simultaneously!
Matt falling down - good thing he didn't wake up Caleb!
Addie continually loses sticks in the snow since they would just fall through the super soft, fresh powder. We eventually landed ourselves this great stick and she never lost it:)
A Winter Wonderland!
Addie had snow all over her, including her belly hair. She ended up getting snowballs attached to all of her underside and it took a bit to get them off (see next pic).
We had to massage the snowballs while we had heat flowing on them. Needless to say, she had a bit of an impromptu hair cut before the next walk.Our sweet little boy! The red cheeks after his walk were just too much!
We decided that we all could go cross country skiing while Caleb napped. However we didn't want to stay in the cabin for that, so he just napped on Uncle John's back while we skiied. Uncle John is the best skiier, hence his safe back. And any guesses on Addie's occupation in the background? haha
She had 1/3 cup of butter the day before, oops!
We had sooo much fun skiing! This is Matt bombing down the hill:)
Then me of course!
Afterwards....Caleb is a bit grumpy since waking up from his nice schnooze. I wanted to put this picture in to show that he doesn't ALWAYS smile.
The other one was a great stick, this one however was great AND mighty! She never got this one thrown for her.
And, Matt falling down:)
The birthday girl!

Caleb and friends

2009-01-31T12:25:00.001-08:00

So aparently Caleb is now old enough to notice and interact a bit with other babies. This is kind of fun to see him discover other babies the same way he discovers new objects..usually by grabbing and putting them in his mouth. There is a great example of this down the blog a bit. This picture was taken at our Mommy group. The two other babies are Brandon (Bekah and Darrin Beady's boy - the one with the great expresssion!) and Micky (Lauren and Cory Raferty's boy). They kept taking toys away from eachother and every so often one would tip over, attempt to crawl, freak out cause they can't crawl yet and then get propped back up by mom again:)

Hang out time in the park with Ethan (Janel and Rick Armet's boy). This is what I was talking about.
Reaching....
Grabbing....
Trying to put in mouth (Darn it! He won't fit!)
Reassessing.....
Goin in! (Janel and I plan to use this as blackmail in the future - it should work we think)
He wanted my camera so badly that I just took advantage of the situation and took a self-portrait
I asked the pediatrician last week if he could eat some dirt yet and he said it was fine. So when Caleb picked up a dirty leaf, I just grabbed my camera
His first dirty boy face!
Thanks for lookin!

6 Months Old and ALL SMILES!

2009-01-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Daddy and Caleb
Caleb playing with his friend Bree. Well, maybe not "playing" exactly:) Discovering together may be a better term.
Caleb and Auntie Jessica - Caleb will have many aunties - many beautiful ladies that will love him for his lifetime.
Caleb is sporting a new smile, notice his two bottom teeth:)
Some lovely naked walking time with Grammi

Enjoying the view....

Our Family Christmas

2008-12-30T18:17:00.001-08:00

This was our first Christmas as a family with Mr. Caleb. What a fun experience! Caleb was sitting up and playing with ribbons and even opened up a few of his own presents. He is rolling onto his tummy proficiently now and has even budded his first tooth on the day before Christmas! His second one is on the way now and it is not such a pleasant experience, especially at night time when there is nothing to distract him:(
Shellie is going to try to go back to work this month, we'll see how Caleb likes that?!

Janelle took some family pictures of us and they came out great!

Caleb helped Me bake some cookies. I keep telling him that someday he will LOVE my cookies!

The day after his 5 month birthday, he sat up all by himself and kept himself there! As you can see, we were amazed!Every year the Hermanns family gets together to decorate Christmas cookies, it is pretty fun.Matt and Aunt Harriet, I'm sure he will love that I put this lovely picture of him up on the internet:) Just don't tell him!
Caleb liked playing with the bells

Christmas morning!New Blocks!
Daddy and Caleb
He looks cute all wrapped up, eh?

Grandma Brown and Caleb

At the dinner table

and just looking darn cute!

Five Months Old!

2008-12-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

Caleb is on the cusp of some great things right now...like rolling over to his tummy (which we have seen the result of, but not the act itself), sitting up, and getting onto his hands and knees. He is reaching and grabbing well now, so we have decided to get him his own high chair so we can all sit peacefully at the dinner table:) The booster chair in the picture below should work well in a month or so, he seems to be listing a bit in it now though:) He still super talkative, always making noise and we love it! We are all looking forward to Christmas with him, however I am sure the lights on the Christmas tree will steal the show for him. Have a Merry Christmas!
In his new jumper! He LOVES the yellow flower!

Caleb LOVES Addie! He reaches for her and just fixes her gaze on her whenever she is around. She is being very patient with him tugging on her hair whenever she gets in arms reach, this is good!The Sesnaks got us this backpack for Caleb. We tried it on a few weeks ago and it worked perfectly! We are looking forward to this summer, maybe we can get out:) He grabbed onto the handle and hung on while Matt walked around with him.
FEET! They are SOOOOO tasty!
Momma and Caleb!
Our favorite toothless smile!
Hanging out in his stroller
AWWW!

Grammi and Caleb

Hanging out in a basket

2008-11-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

I was busy doing laundry today and didn't have any place to put Caleb, so he landed in a basket full of Clean clothes - I thought he was awfully cute, so he got his picture taken:) He is four months old now by the way.

Caleb is about to grow out of his swing. He insists on practicing his sitting-up skills, meanwhile scaring his parents cause he looks like he is going to fall out! He has a lap belt, but no shoulder strap. We are looking forward to the jumper we are about to get!

12 weeks!

2008-10-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a bit since our last update and so much has changed! We seemed to hit a milestone at 6 weeks and then another at 10-11 weeks. He has slept through the night a few times and usually only wakes up once. He has just started taking some real naps in his cradle, which allows mom to do things like update blogs:) We are falling head-over-heels in love with him and are enjoying him completely! Now hold on while you scroll through many pictures of our little boy.

I just thought this one was funny, even though he is blurry.It was a cold morning:)
Bath time! I love that little bare butt! Now everyone can blackmail Caleb.
Standing practice continues...
Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Again, he is blurry (the darn baby just won't sit still for a photo!), but his expression is priceless!
Hello
He can hold a rattle now, if manipulated into his hand:)
Post-bath sweetness
Tummy time is serious business!
His first band-aid from his first shot.
Hanging out in San Diego at Mom's house
Cousins! Cousin Cayson is in my lap and Madyson is holding Caleb - she loves to hold him!

Kristin's infant photo shoot

2008-09-17T17:55:00.002-07:00

Troy, Kristin and Cayson Brown, Shellie's brother,sister-in-law and newphew came up to visit us when Caleb was just under 2 weeks old. Kristin is a professional photographer in San Diego and wanted to take some newborn shots of Caleb, which was wonderful for us! These are a few of the wonderful shots she took of our son and us:) Thank you Kristin!

This is my favorite! Papa and Caleb
Momma and CalebSleepy boy...
Bright Eyes
Our new family

There were a few accidents while trying to get this shot - Matt, you're my hero!

Bath time

2008-09-17T17:55:00.001-07:00

Janelle was going to help me give Caleb a bath but got a bit distracted by how cute he was through the view finder of her camera:) Trust me, this is a VERY small sampling of the pictures she took:)

Thanks John for censoring this one!
AHHH.... My little boy!

dressed and ready to go!

Happy Boy!

2008-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Almost laughing 3 expressions in 3 moments....We LOVE this little boy!

7 weeks!

2008-09-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

Caleb is 7 weeks old today:) He is getting to be fun now. He gives us big, toothless smiles and lots of coos and gurgles:) He is sleeping really well at night, just waking for a bit of nourishment before dosing off again. He is growing like crazy - 23.5 inches now and about 11 lbs! He loves being held by anyone, and shows a bit of particularity for mom and dad:)

Bath-time

Daddy's arms
Standing practice-He loves to do this about once a day
Big smiles!
Changing time-we think he likes being naked, he is always so content and happy when we change him:)
In Grammi's arms....

Caleb's first photo shoot

2008-07-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Caleb had his first photo shoot with Janelle yesterday. He was amazingly well behaved, except for the mid-shoot pee leakage and then the explosive poop at the end. Ah, infant photography! The pics came out great and I just had to share my favorites.

The Sweet Face

The Feet

The dirty diaper change

The Nuzzle

The scream

The Tongue

The Yawn

The Great Outdoors

The attempt to find his thumb

The whole story

2008-07-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

So, here is the story from Shellie's perspective....
I went into early labor tuesday evening (which was very manageable), took a shower at eleven (just in case this was the real thing), went to sleep at 11:30 pm and then woke up at 11:50 as my water was breaking and I was finally having a REAL contraction. We called the midwife right away as we were supposed to if my water broke and she told us that French Hospital was closed, they had filled up! We were told to check in to Sierra Vista Hospital. We were a bit hesitant about this since we heard that you have to share a room there and it is much more "hospital-like." I ended up with a great confidence about it and we headed down there. By the way, that afternoon I went in to see my midwife and I was already 5 cm dilated, 75% effaced and she could feel his head nice and low, so we knew we didn't have a ton of time before things started getting serious.
We arrived at the hospital and had to go through admitting, since we hadn't pre-registered there. Mental note, don't make that mistake again! I was standing there, in labor while they are asking for my stupid social security number and address! We made it to the room at about 1 am and the contractions were coming just about every other minute and they were very intense! I progressed quickly and by 4:15 am I was pushing. We had a solid hour and a half of that and then got to meet our Caleb, screaming as he was coming out! The midwife did a great job and I had no skin tears, yeah! He was very alert and was placed immediately on my tummy. He nursed within the first half hour and barely looked like a newborn! His skin was very pink and he was nice and plump. Matt cut the cord and we had our moment with our son. Matt was everything I expected him to be, wonderfully supportive, sensitive and just a great coach. Everyone was so impressed with him and I was very proud.
In the end, after a big poop, he was measured at 8 lbs. 9.5 oz, 21 inches and he got an Apgar score of 9:) He was 40 weeks, 6 days.

Caleb is now 1 week old and sleeping most of the time. He eats, sleeps, pees and poops and it is not a whole lot different than myself other than the fact that I feed as well. He is absolutely precious and Matt and I are crazy about him!
Thank you for all of your support and prayers. Email is the best way for me to communicate right now, so drop me a note if you like:)

Shellie

2008-07-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

This is the newest addition to our family baby Caleb Matthew. He was born at 5:45am July 16. Every thing went extremely well Shellie was in labor for about 6 hours and she did great. She said she didn't even feel any pain at all. Ha Ha just kidding. I am very proud of her for doing an all natural childbirth. Caleb is very happy and is feeding very well and we are just trying to get some rest

More pregnancy photos

2008-06-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

kay, well I am now 8 whole months pregnant! Reality is sinking in that I will actually have to remove this wiggling little baby from his current home! He should enter the world during July sometime. We are in our final preparation stages, having a baby shower next week, finishing the baby room that is adorable! I'll put pics up once it is finished. Here are some pictures that my other sister-in-law Kristin Brown took 2 weeks ago. I am so blessed to have such good photographers willing to use their talents on us!
Shellie

Pregnancy photos

2008-05-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

I know I never finished my europe blog, but I got a bit side-tracked once I got home. We have been thinking mostly BABY since then and I am trying to not be stressed about not finishing my last project:) Janelle, Matt's sister took some amazing photos of us and the hidden baby this weekend at Montana de Oro and I thought I'd share....

coming home to sweet America!

2008-04-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

We are starting our journey home today at 3 pm. We are flying into Venice and then will hopefully run into town for one last wandering-fest. We catch our flight home Friday morning. We'll arrive in LAX at 4:30 and have dinner with Megan, maybe crash at her place and then head home. There are a few things we are looking forward to in the states, here they are
1. A real grocery store
2. going into a store/restaurant and being understood
3. not being considered "a tourist."
4. not looking like "a tourist."
5. being with people we know and love
6. the dollar! this euro is killing us!

A few things we will miss
1. taking really cool pictures of really cool things
2. sleeping in till 8 or 9 every morning, then turning over to Matt and saying "what should we do today?"
3. waking up because the tram is going by, the construction workers are singing in the building across from us and our housemates are doing the dishes ridiculously loudly-oh wait, i think i put this in the wrong list.
4. GELATO! going from place to place, trying to find the best!
5. the best Gnocchi I have ever tasted! and probably ever will! oh, it was in gorgonzola cream sauce too!
6. the freedom to do what we want when we want.

I have been homesick though and am really looking forward to coming home. I'm gonna be in "nesting mode" as i have just 12 weeks to go:) Keep checking this blog next week as I will put pictures up of Rome and videos from the whole trip.
Ciao,
Matt and Shellie

a challenge....

2008-04-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

so, just want to put a challenge out there for you. there is a picture of a sign and then a vague picture underneath, if you can figure out what the sign says, you may be able to find something in the lower pic. what is it? Then I want some real guesses as to how we got the pictures of the wolf and bear, get creative. We got home late tonight, so i will put more details on the blog tomorrow. give me some good stories:)

The real tour-Slovenia to Spain

2008-04-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

So, we start this tour off back in Slovenia where it was really cold. Well, our last day there was gorgeous! Her is a picture of Matt on his awesome bike! We rode ourselves around the lake that morning before catching our train. Is it just me or does he remind you of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz? A very manly version of such though of course:)

Here we have a mere glimpse of our amazing trip through the Alps to Innsbruck. I tell you, the entire trip was at least this beautiful!

This is a wonderful self portrait of us up on top of the local ski area at Innsbruck. we took the Cable car and then two gondolas to get ourselves to the top and it was completely worth it!

Me, getting more and more pregnant in front of the cable car doo-hicky and the mountains. When we were in Spain, the family I was with swore that I had gotten bigger just in 4 days! take note of this, you will notice that I have had a big of a growth spurt in my belly region once I get back. Let's just say nice things like, "oh, the baby is growing!" not "YOU ARE GETTING HUGE/SOOO BIG/GINORMOUS!!!" I seem to be a bit sensitive as to my growth. Side note: I am now in my 3rd trimester! The baby is just over 2 lbs and about 9.5 inches from head to butt. He is a mover and a shaker for sure and I absolutely love having him! BTW, he is kicking right this very moment!

No comment yet, see "The challenge"

This is a picture of the ski jump in Innsbruck. We went up to the top cause we got a free ticket. Those guys that do that are insane! FYI, they had the Olympics in Innsbruck twice, in the 60's, then the 70's. They also do ski jumping in the summer, random,eh?

We made dinner for ourselves this night and ate on the little balcony of the apartment we were staying in. It was absolutely lovely!

We had a bit of a layover in Milan, so we quickly ran in to see this cathedral. It was pretty impressive! We also almost got nabbed by a pickpocket. This guy came up to me with popcorn seeds, trying to give them to me, which I was refusing as MANY pigeons started swarming both Matt and I. He then attempted giving them to Matt (actually shoving them in his hand), then it was revealed what he was trying to do, I saved the day as I grabbed our camera from his hand and took Matt away. The man immediately disappeared. I wasn't too into sightseeing after that, so we grabbed a Kebab and ate in our shoebox sized room.

Spain
This is a picture of the beach in La Coruna, where we landed and our hosts picked us up. Ill tell you more about them in a sec.

Our first day we took a walk around the little village where we were staying and ended up here at this cute little church.

Just on the other side of this river is where we stayed. You could see the river from our room in the morning, it was gorgeous. It had rained the entire week previously, and yet we came back from this walk sweating and I had to pull my pant legs up!

We took a walk up the river and went over this decent sized suspension bridge. Isabel, our mom for the week used to sit on this bridge when she was a kid and her brothers would jump on it, trying to scare her. The house they live in is a generational house that they have had in the family for a really long time. The house is made of granite stone. They have gutted it and it is nice inside now, and super cool!

Again, no comment, see "the challenge"

We went to a beach where Isabel used to spend her summers and she went out collecting snails to eat for dinner (she was nice and didn't make us eat them:). She brough us back this little hermit crab, I thought it was cute!

Portugal
This is the whole family. Stan (matt's old boss), Isabel, and Stephan, their son. We played on this wondeful beach and had lunch on our day trip to Portugal.

Portugal Fortress-this was a cool fortress right on the border, lots of stuff to buy, but no room in our bags for it!

We went to this amazing market in Padron sunday morning. It was the biggest market I have ever seen! Imagine Farmers Market times 20! They had everything there, but the produce was incredible! This woman was making churros right there in the market, in that big pot of oil behind her. The next pic is Matt and Stan eating them, they were delicious!

They sold these pots here as well. I don't know what to call them, but I think they fement whiskey/other liquors in them. Or they distill them, I can't remember.

Santiago Cathedral in Spain

Kay, that is the end of your tour for now. Rome will have to come later. We are enjoying ourselves. We saw the Vatican and St. Peters this morning. We leave thursday to go back to Venice, and Friday we go home. We are a bit homesick, but enjoying having eachother as we scour this city. Loves!

on our way to Spain

2008-03-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

sorry that there are again no photos, i really wish i could put some up, it is so darn beautiful! we took a cable car to the top of the mountains yesterday to see the Alps in all their glory, amazing! we also went to the top of the big ski jump thingy that they use in the Olympics, man those people who do that sport are insane! We have been staying in an adorable little b & b in oldtown Innsbruck for these past three nights, enjoying people drag hard objects over the cobblestone street:) Well, we have got to get going to catch our train to Milan and then we leave tomorrow super early for A Coruna, Spain. Matts old boss moved there 3 years ago and we are going to visit him. I think he lives in a super little town and i know he doesnt have internet, so you just may have to wait for us to get to Rome to hear any more. I am also sitting next to a very stinky man and must get out in order to breath through my nose again. ciao, matt and shellie. ps. thanks for the comments! ps. mom, you have to answer the phone in order to get a call from me!

from Austria

2008-03-30T11:49:00.001-07:00

real quick, we are in Innsbruck, Austria right now. The weather is incredible and the scenery is absolutely amazing. we will be here for tomorrow and then leaving wed. i will try to get some pictures of this place on tomorrow. the train ride here was the most incredible ride i have ever had, the alps are stupendous! we wish we could be backpacking right now! ciao

the future of the cat

2008-03-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

We had a comment about throwing the cat over the balcony and I just wanted to make sure that you all know that we were very tempted, we shall see how tomorrow goes.....

Cold in Bled,Slovenia

2008-03-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Kay, so we didn´t actually take this picture, cause it doesn´t actually look like this right now. What it actually looks like is this, which is not bad at all, but different. We are in Bled, Slovenia right now.Yesterday was a bit of a recovery day, we enjoyed the fact that we are on vacation and do not have to be doing something at all moments. After our rest we made it down to the lake and walked around in the rain (which never did stop all day). We wandered around a bit and Shellie got cranky in the rain, so we decided to go to some mineral hot springs at a ritzy hotel in town. This was soooo much fun! They had multiple pools, one with seats and bubbles! There was also a super fun slide that connected the pools. Here is a picture of Matt going down the slide.

We must have gone down that slide 20 times while we were there, it was great! We went to a Pizzeria for dinner and the menu was a huge variety of pizzas and of course, omelettes-um, weird! So Matt got a pizza and I got a ham and cheese omelette, which was good, cause I was craving eggs, you just never know where you will get them I guess. Today we were awoken to a cat screaming outside on our balcony, it was absolutely marvelous! Here is a picture of him...After that delightful awakening, we walked into town and took a bus to Bohinj, which is apparently a bit higher in elevation and super duper cold! Cherie, I forgot to grab leggings, HUGE mistake! I will be finding some very soon. The mountains are marvelous here that is for sure. The lake was gorgeous, but we enjoyed it, had some lunch and then went back to Bled. It is so cold that we decided just to walk back to our hotel to get re-energized and warm.
This is me looking like a total goon with a baby belly. No Janelle, no one has tried to rub my belly yet, thank goodness! It has been pretty well concealed by my many layers, so the temptation has not been there:) The town in the background is Bled, we are on our way back to the hotel via this scenic road. We are just going to hang out for a bit till dinner now. We leave tomorrow for Innsbruck, going deeper into the Alps. We are in the Julienne Alps right now by the way. Ciao

Boating Venice

2008-03-27T01:53:00.000-07:00

We just left Venice and I believe it will always hold a special place in our hearts. It is touristy yes, especially when one goes on a holiday for all Europeans, Easter Monday, but it is still Venice! We got in later than expected Sunday evening because of snow in Zurich where we had a bit of a layover. Our challenge was to get from the airport to the train station by bus and then pick up the water bus to take us to our stop, and then find our hotel amidst the winding streets and canals of Venice. Needless to say, we found it, but what an adventure! We woke up bright and early in the morning and went on a walk through St. Marks Piazza without any other tourists, it was wonderful! We will show you a pic of it. Then we went back to sleep:) We hit the streets again after our rest and picked up some tickets for the water bus and museums-we still get a bit of a break cause we are kids:) We went through a museum and then wandered a bit more till we got too tired and rested again-well call it jet-lag. Dinner was great, but challenging to figure out Italian, mainly because Matt forgot the language book, thankfully however we received the only english-speaking server! After a mad rush to find some good gelato and/or something else sweet-sadly we failed-it was too late-lame! The next day we found a grocery store that was INCREDIBLY small! You cannot imagine how much they tried to stuff in that store, along with carts and many people, it was a claustrophobic nightmare! We took a water bus to an island named Murano that afternoon with a million other people, which eventually gave me a bit of a panic attack, but thankfully not until we hit some land and I could get off. Im not sure if it is being pregnant but I seem to be prone to waves of nausea when squished tightly against other people lately, imagine that! Other than that, the bebe is doing fantastic! Anyways, Murano was delightful. We got panini sandwiches and gelato and shopped, it was great. They make beautiful glass on Murano, which we got to see them making, that was really neat-a safety hazard I believe as they let us walk right up to the workers with their hot pieces of glass. Yesterday was busy as we visited the Doges Palace (the palace of the "Kings" of Venice back in the day when Venice was an international business hotspot), St. Marks Bascilica, went shopping, hit the bus and came to Bled, Slovenia. We awoke to a gorgeous breakfast, which made us very happy. It is currently raining, so hopefully we will still be able to get out and about today. Sorry, there are no apostrophes on this keyboard, but there are some fun extras like č,ć, š, đ and ž! Well give you another post whenever possible, thanks for reading!

Day 5-Shadow Creek to Red's Meadow

2007-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Matt had insomnia again last night and Shellie slept fitfully. We still managed to wake up before the Boy scouts and get out of there before they made breakfast. There were very few people on the trail today, probably because it is a Monday. There was this one stretch that got so boring that Shellie pulled out her iPod and we both sang along. Shellie wore her Chaco's all day and can barely walk now. We are taking tomorrow off to go down to Mammoth to get some stuff and mail some junk home. We aren't sure if we will make it back on the trail at this point. We met a bunch of nice people in Red's today on the bus and at our lousy cheeseburger dinner:) Devil's Postpile was really cool. We got "lost" on our way to our campground at Red's Meadow. We looked at the map and prayed. When we opened our eyes we saw something bright blue in the trees, it was a tent! The campground was found! 10ish miles-5.5 hours

Day 4-Donahue Pass to Shadow Creek

2007-07-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

We did our first pass today. It was a long day. We were able to sleep so we didn't get up until 6:45 am and left at 8:30 am. The first 3.6 miles flew by, so when the nice, flat mileage came and went so slowly-we were frustrated. After going up and down Donahue Pass, we had to do Island Pass, then way down to Thousand Island Lake(where we had a hot, miserable lunch), then up to Emerald Lake, down to Ruby, up out of Ruby, down to very windy Garnet Lake, up and then down Shadow Canyon. Shellie's feet were killing her the whole way. We had a great time in the word and prayer through Shadow Canyon. We ended up making camp with a group of boy scouts from Connecticut, which was very nice. It was a long, but fun day. 11 hrs, 15 miles

Day 3

2007-06-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

We resupplied in Tuolumne and Shellie got a bear canister. This is truly where our fun began. We sent John and Janelle home on the bus after breakfast (the largest bisquit sandwich ever!). We met 3 people from Kentucky who are doing the JMT. Lyell Canyon was long and Shellie's feet hurt really bad. Things weren't looking good until we took a break and Shellie changed into her Chaco's. We made it to our destination - a lovely spot on the Lyell Fork. At lunch Matt saw a snake and kept getting woken up by a pesky mouse. We are super sleepy after crummy sleep last night. Too bad you have to set up camp, cook dinner, journal, and clean up before you relax!

Day 2

2007-06-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

We saw several deer, a buck, butterflies, an older lady that shouldn't continue on. Long Meadow and Sunrise was gorgeous, as was coming down Cathedral Pass. Today was a bit easier, physically and mentally. It helped that the terrain was completely gorgeous! It makes it very enjoyable. Janelle got some altitude sickness and had a hard time. We took a nice long break past Long Meadow. Matt carried Janelle's pack down Cathedral Pass. Matt didn't sleep last night or the night before, so we are praying for peaceful, deep sleep. We camped tonight at Upper Cathedral Lake. We played Farkel, ate dinner and did some laundry.

Day 1

2007-06-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

As we headed out of the Valley we passed Vernal and Nevada falls. We had lunch at Little Yosemite Valley and Matt jumped/fell in the water. He saw a rattlesnake try to get into John's boot. Matt picked it up with a hiking pole and threw it in the water. It swam really fast! This day was particularly challenging because of the difficult terrain and because it is just the start of what feels like an ominous and eternally long trip. We knew the first few days would be hard but we just keep daydreaming of luxurious cruises:) We are taking it day by day and trying to get into the swing of things. Our first goal is to get to Red's Meadow. 8.5 mi, 8:15 min, 3092 cal

Follow the bright red line that starts in the bottom left corner and continue diagonally across to the top right.

Preparing for the trip

2007-05-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

This chart shows the elevation gains and losses of our trip. The chart was made when we had a day and a half less time. We now have 18 days and will use that day and a half as roaming holidays:) The top peak at the end is Mt. Whitney. Excuse our wideness in the picture, it stretched us a bit.