Family Visit and Nine Month Update

By: Shelsy

On New Year's Eve Ryan's family got here for a visit, including his grandparents and Aunt Kathy from Iowa. They stayed in a hotel near SeaWorld, so we went to visit them every day. We didn't really do anything for New Year's Eve--they had just gotten in and Ryan had to work early the next day. But we had dinner and then headed home. We celebrated Christmas the next day--it was so nice being able to celebrate with both of our families the week before and the week after Christmas!

Catching Up

By: Shelsy

Well, Amber's 8 months old now. Unbelievable. She is growing right up and her little personality is starting to come out. She's also more aware of what's going on around her, which means she's wanting to play more, she wants more attention, and she especially wants mommy. It's been increasingly difficult to find time to get online--which is why I completely missed her 7 month update. :-) She gained almost a pound this month. She's up to 19 pounds, 12 ounces. Here's a picture of her at 7 months for a comparison.

My Magical Birthday

By: Shelsy

For those of you who don't know, my birthday was Monday. Ryan worked in the morning and he wished me happy birthday before he left at 5am (I didn't even remember it was my birthday that early in the morning!). Then I got some happy birthday calls from family, which I always look forward to. :-)

Family Visit!

By: Shelsy

July isn't even over yet and this has already been quite a month! Her Grandma, Aunt Shanna, and Uncle Aaron came down to visit for two weeks, and were joined by other visitors at different points during their stay. It was very exciting! And very busy. :-)

They arrived on the 4th, and Amber was all ready to go in her 4th of July outfit (the back of it is blue with stars).

The next day we were joined by the O'Neills and we went all kinds of fun places! We hit some of the parks, of course. Here are a couple of pictures of us at SeaWorld:

And here's a picture of her hanging out with Uncle Aaron at Universal:

The O'Neills left after the first week and then we were joined by Jidu and Ryan's Nana and Papa. Here she is meeting Nana and Papa for the first time!

And of course her grandparents and great grandparents were fully prepared to spoil her rotten. :-) Papa made her some beautiful wooden puzzles. I can't wait until she's old enough to play with them!

This one has the alphabet painted on the other side!

We went to Downtown Disney and, as I said, she got very spoiled! This Mickey was the first thing she's ever really grabbed and put in her mouth. As soon as Nana showed it to her she started chewing on his ear! She continued to chew on his ear (and anything else we gave her) for the rest of the week.

She was also dedicated at church on the 18th. We were excited that Ryan's family and his grandparents were able to be there. We were planning on having her dedicated anyway, but we were glad that it happened to fall during the time they would be here!

We did some swimming while they were here, which is always fun. Amber seems to really enjoy the water. Here's a video of her making some of her signature noises to express her excitement.

Speaking of noises, the day after everyone left, she started doing this screaming thing. It's just a new noise she figured out, so she enjoys practicing all the time. It's very loud and high pitched and gives me a headache. But it's hilarious at the same time. I've started referring to her affectionately as my pterodactyl baby. Mom thinks she'll sing higher than Mariah Carey if she keeps it up. See for yourself:

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Birthday at the Magic Kingdom

By: Ryan



This past Friday was my birthday and in case you haven't heard, Disney is running a promotion where anyone can get free admission to one theme park on their birthday. So, being that we only live half an hour away, what better way to spend a birthday? :-)

When we got to the park to pick up our tickets, the guy at the ticket window said, "You have a popular birthday. This is the most birthday people we've had yet." And he was right. As we explored the park, I saw dozens of other people sporting the Happy Birthday button.

We went to Magic Kingdom, because there are quite a few rides there that Shelsy can still go on, being pregnant and all. :-) The weather was perfect all day and we had a great time.








Shelsy even got to try on one of the super huge hats for sale in the Pirates gift shop:

We had a super fun day and even stayed for the fireworks. After the park closed, we decided to head over to Downtown Disney and see if it was still open. Heh. Not only was it open, it was quite crowded. We got something to eat, explored around a little, and then headed home.

Definitely a quality birthday, I have to say. If any of you feel like celebrating your birthday with a free trip to Disney World, you're always welcome to stay with us. :-)

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Two New Things

By: Shelsy

Well, I am happy to say that I have two new things to announce today. The first thing is already four days old, and that is my brand new little nephew! Mindy finally had her baby! His name is Carter Tyrone and he's adorable. He was born this past Monday night on the 19th at around 8:45pm. Mindy's been neglecting to send me pictures though, so I only have a couple. He's about an hour old in that one. Isn't he awesome?! :-D I can't wait to meet the little guy--hopefully I'll be able to soon, depending on the whole job situation.


Which brings me to my second new thing. As you all know, I auditioned for a singing role at Disney last Friday that didn't work out. I also auditioned yesterday for a character role. That also didn't work out. But, they say the third time's a charm.. I went into the Casting office today and applied for a regular castmember position. I got hired to work in attractions at the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland and Liberty Square. That means I'll be able to work at quality attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean--two of my absolute favorites. :-) Don't ask me about the pay--it's not really worth talking about--but I've heard that you tend to move up pretty quickly once you get in. We'll see about that. Even if not, though, it'll still be a fun, active, non-office job for me while we're in this season.



So I'm really excited. Especially after those two auditions I was starting to get a little discouraged. But the person who did my interview said I was only the second person to be hired that day so far and he had already seen quite a few. People were lined up for interviews, so I felt pretty good about it. :-) He said he knew right away that I had a great personality and that I would be perfect. I hope so! I have to go back tomorrow to fill out some more paperwork and then I should be starting very soon!

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Disney Audition!

By: Shelsy

Tomorrow is my audition for a singing role at Disney World! (Click on the picture for an awesome promo video. :-) The website says they're auditioning for over 60 shows, so I'm hoping I have a relatively good chance of getting cast in one of them. There was no other information about what shows they're casting for, but I don't really have a preference, so it doesn't matter.

I'm really nervous, though. I don't even remember the last time I auditioned for something--I think it might have been as far back as high school. That's a long time ago. :-) So if you guys could be praying that I just am confident and do my best and that God takes care of the rest. I have to be there at 11am tomorrow.

In other news, we went to our first care group meeting last night (I think down here they're called home groups or something..) Apparently the married couples and singles go to the same groups, but on the second Wednesday of the month (they meet every week) only the couples meet. So last night was the couples only night. It was a lot of fun. We met some really nice people. We actually have plans to hang out with one of the girls tomorrow night--she wants to show us some of the stuff there is to do down here.

We're slowly getting settled in. It helps that now we know at least a few people, and I'm sure we'll meet more on Sunday. I promise there will be pictures or video or something of the apartment up soon. Although, really, there's not much to see yet--just piles of boxes and stuff. But we'll put something up anyway. :-)

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