Shannon's 8 months

Shannon's 8 month photo shoot.

And... as you can see, she's all over the place. Gone are the days of her sitting still on the couch just smiling back at me.

 

 Flynn is such a good boy. He just sits there and lets her bounce, climb, pull and even naw on him. "No big deal mom, We're besties!"

 This is by far my favorite picture of Shannon and Flynn. I'm for sure going to blow this one up to canvas size.

Shannon's 1st Easter.. and many firsts

 

Happy Easter!

We were able to go and celebrate Easter with Lee's family in Valencia. We had a great time with a house full of doggies who were all obsessed with Shannon, great food and even greater company.
Shannon did so well at church, she sat with Lee and just played with her teething ring. She even fell asleep on Lee's chest half way through the service. (woo hoo!) I just loved dressing her up in her Easter dress. I would've kept it on her all day, but she let me know when she was over it.

 The day before Easter, Shannon decided she wanted to crawl. (She is now a pro at crawling around) It's almost as if she has been crawling this whole time.

 This picture is a little bright, but if you can tell the look on her face... She's just not sure about the cold water. This was her first time going swimming.

She eventually got the hang of it (Well, for about a total of 10 minutes)

Here are a couple of her in her Easter dress

Top of the Mornin' to Ya!

 

Happy St. Patricks Day

(I know I'm really late on this post... It's still worth mentioning though)

 St. Patricks Day for us, is a fun time to get together with friends and have amazing food and drinks.
Although this year was not our ideal celebration. Lee left on St. Patty's Day morning for work and he wouldn't be home until the following week.  :(

I had to take pictures of Shannon in her many Irish outfits (and let me tell you... there are plenty to choose from). However, she had been dealing with some skin issues and was a little crabby that day. So these were the best ones I could get. I love this picture with her and Flynn (He's kind of hidden though because he's so dark). I love that you can clearly see the necklace that Lee bought her for Christmas. Its the claddaugh which symbolizes friendship, love and loyalty.

I just couldnt resist putting this picture up. She's like "Uh yeah mom, I'm done!" "Seriously, no more pictures"

Anyway, Hope everyone had a fabulous St. Patty's Day!

Best Buds

Shannon and Flynn are seriously each other's best bud. Whenever Flynn whines or barks, Shannon laughs. Whenever Flynn walks in front of us when we're sitting on the couch, she wants to reach over and touch him. When Shannon is sitting in her high chair, she looks for him in the room. Once she finds him, she starts smiling and "talking" to him.

 

Flynn loves the little girl too, he's just not as obsessed with her as she is with him. I knew this was going to be a strong friendship when Shannon was only a couple weeks old and we were on a walk. This owner let go of the leash and here comes this big dog running straight towards the stroller. Flynn got right in between the dog and stroller and let out a growl I have never heard before.

I quickly praised him and stared and the other owner like "Really Lady?!"

 

Ever since then, they've been inseperable...

 

 



What's New with Shanners

She's growing up so fast and wanting to explore everything. She's wanting so badly to crawl and move around and grab everything in her way. (Ahh! I'm not ready for her to be all over the place)
She's sitting up all by herself now...

She's eating more and more solids (she still hates sweet potatoes)

and is sleeping now with any swaddle at all! Yay! I sometimes will find her in such weird and uncomfortable sleeping positions.

Visit in Woodland

This trip was emotional and yet inspiring. Shannon and I flew up to Sacramento to spend a week with my mom who was in the hospital. First of all, I'm so proud of the baby girl. She slept for the majority of the flight(s). I received so many compliments from total strangers about how good of a baby she is. An older couple, who were sitting in front of us even said "We didn't even know a baby was behind us". She was also flirting with the people around us and the flight attendants. She's going to be trouble later on.

We arrived in Sacramento where we found out that the airline lost Shannon's car seat. (Ugh!) But it actually was a blessing in the end because not only did they lone us one for a couple hours (it was onn the next flight in) but they also gave us a $50 voucher for a future flight. Shannon was so happy to see her Auntie Amanda at the airport. Amanda was also A LOT of help. Not only was Amanda still working her full time job and getting up early (because of east coast time) to have conference calls, she helped me with Shannon. Amanda is such a great multi-tasker, I on the otherhand am NOT!

 

Shannon helping Aunti Manda work

Manda holding Shannon, diaper bag while on her cell phone

 

Shannon was also so happy to spend time with Auntie Lyssa too! She enjoyed playing with grandma's baby roly poly ball.

This toy is soooo old but it still makes noise and is pretty special to see my baby girl enjoy playing with it. My mom's grandma bought this for my mom when she was a baby and I also played with it when I was young too.

 

 

We visited grandma in the hospital where she received the best medicine... time with her grandbaby! Shannon brought so much joy to her and my Dad as well as every nurse who came in the room. She even had the hospital Chaplain smiling (He was from Dublin and had the full blown Irish accent). This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip...

Right before this picture was taken, Shannon was laying calmly with my mom just gazing into her eyes and reaching for her face. Then my Dad came over and started playing peek a boo, making Shannon laugh so hard. I will always cherish this memory.

 



 

All in all, it was a bittersweet trip. I loved being able to be with my mom have her hold Shannon as much as possible. I will never forget being in the room with Shannon and my parents, when the Dr. came in and told us that the cancer in her lungs and liver and shrunk considerably... and literally breaking down in happiness. I loved being their as my Dad leaned over and kissed my Mom on her forehead and looked her in the eyes and said "You're a Stud!" I will always cherish giving my mom a foot rub and kissing her beautiful bald head good night. She is an amazing Mom and Grandmother and such a strong fighter throughout all of this. I'm so proud of my Mom and how she has stayed positive and mentally strong throughout all of this. She's an amazing woman and as my Dad says "Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali have nothing on this beautiful woman!" My Dad posts updated on how she is doing, if you would like to get caught up or just find out about her battle you can go to this website:

 



http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lisapielstick

(you can also sign up for email updates)

 

And to end this post, I felt like My Dad summed it up best on one of his post on Caring Bridge:

 

And so we prayed and I am asking you to pray.

We know now that if Lisa recovers from this disease it will only be because of Almighty God. After our prayer we talked about how awesome it would be for Lisa to be able to stand infront of every person that has prayed for her so she could give her testimony and proclaim the name of Christ. I talked about how we could travel up and down the west coast and bring a worship team with us and speak the truth of who God is and how He is our Rock and our Salvation.

But I also know that if God doesn't heal her, she gets to do this with an even mightier worship team if front of Almighty God Himself. And that...that will be glorious.

Colossians 1:3-6 "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace."

Amen



Shannon's 6 Months

My baby girl is 6 months old! Wowza! Where did the time go?

She loves eating oatmeal and is now taking a bottle! Yay! (it only took 6 months but better late than never!) We're working on introducing vegetables and then fruit to her.

She is so ready to crawl but is instead just makes the swimming motion.

She can prop herself up and sometimes grab for toys while sitting up all by herself.

The little girl and pup are absolutely in LOVE with each other. Every time Flynn walks by Shannon, she always reaches for him and smiles and giggles. He always surprises her with wet kisses right on the face.

Even though the little girl has been having a rough time sleeping lately (probably because of a growth spurt) she still makes me smile, even in the middle of the night.

 

I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to have this little girl in my life and such a loving family.

Love you baby girl!