Presenting Caleb Lee

It is with joy and thankfulness to the Lord that we announce the birth of Caleb Lee Shelor! He was born safely and healthily at 6:02 Pm on Tuesday, August 5th, one day before his due date. He was a whopping 10 pounds 1 ounce and is 22 inches long. It is our prayer that he will be "whole hearted" for the Lord as his name means!

Time to Predict Baby #4's Arrival

As most everyone knows we are quickly approaching the arrival of baby number four! It is a boy we found out and so there will be no predicting gender but as we have done in the past I love to have baby's arrival predicted (http://joshuaandstephanie.blogspot.com/2012/07/predict-our-babys-arrival.html). I am 32 weeks right now and baby is doing just fine and measuring right on time. My due date is August 6th. In the past Gideon was born at 35 weeks. Tirzah was born at 38 weeks and Chloe was born at 36 weeks. All perfectly healthy, just early. So feel free to predict: date of arrival, time of arrival and birth weight...I'll try to do another prize this time after baby comes. My wonderful sister took some great pictures of me last week to document how big I'm getting! My favorite is the first with Joshua and I...he is such a great husband and dad!!! Join in our excitement as baby boy is coming soon!

In Case You've Been Wondering Where I've Been...

Little Mommy

My little Tirzah is following in her Mommy's footsteps. I found her the other day trying to put a cloth diaper on here baby. She also tried to nurse her baby by placing her baby under her shirt. I love that she has these mothering instincts so early. She does try to mother Chloe all the time and I often have to rescue her.

Chloe's Abbreviated Birth Story

For those curious about Chloe's birth here is the short version, if you want the long version you can ask me about it... I went into labor on Monday night and labored all night but never progressed past 5cm and my contractions kind of slowed down to where my midwife went home...I felt like I had labored all night and gained nothing!

On Wednesday I went on like life was normal and that evening as I was getting ready for bed...contractions started kicking into gear and I started to think it could be the real thing again...so I called my midwife. They got to our house around 12:30.

I labored till about three in the morning when I was fully dilated and effaced and ready to push. I started to push and my cervix swelled to where I had to wait through some of the pushing till the swelling went down. That was hard stuff!

Around 5:06 Chloe Elise was born...she was crying as she was born! She was quite healthy. The midwives checked both of us and made sure we were doing well and cleaned up everything. Chloe started nursing and we called family members to tell them the good news.

The most amazing thing was that Gideon and Tirzah slept through the whole birth and didn't wake up till everyone was gone around seven in the morning. They were surprised to find a new member to the family.

I sure do love this sweet new baby of ours!

Announcing the Newest Shelor Arrival

 It is with joy and rejoicing that we announce the safe arrival of our new little daughter Chloe Elise Shelor. Born Thursday morning at 5:06. She weighed 6lbs. 2oz and is 19.5" long. She is perfectly healthy and we are all doing well enjoying her and praising the Lord for a sweet bundle of joy! Gideon and Tirzah seem quite happy with a new little sister--Tirzah likes to pat her on the head and give kisses and Gideon has all sorts of questions but is quite busy as well...he did say that he thought his sister Chloe was "nice". Thank you for all your prayers!

Predict our Baby's Arrival

I don't know if you realize it but the time for our baby's arrival is quickly approaching. I am 33 weeks along and I'm not on bedrest (yay)! The Lord has been very good in giving me strength for this pregnancy. I have had subtle signs that my body is preparing for baby but as of now I am hoping to make it to around 36 weeks!

For those of you who don't know, Gideon was born five weeks early and Tirzah was born three weeks early. They were both healthy and fine and it is supposed that I may have a shorter gestation. For those of you out there who are jealous of this fact that I don't go through the whole last month do realize it is stressful knowing I could go to early and having to be very careful not to let my body go into labor for a few weeks.

We do not know what gender our baby is as we love the excitement of the surprise and finding out ourselves instead of having someone tell us. With both Gideon and Tirzah people predicted through the whole pregnancy that Gideon would be a boy and Tirzah would be a girl, however with this pregnancy I have people very confused and they usually ask if I'm having twins--which I'm not.

So I thought I would have a little contest and a little prediction sheet going on to put in the baby book. Baby's due date is September 11, 2012. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think:

• Gender of baby
• What day baby will come
• What time baby will come
• And weight if you want

I will be giving out a small prize to the person who comes the closest to the actual date and time of baby's birth! Have fun and enjoy adding to our excitement!

 

Photo Credit goes to my friend Kelsey who did a beautiful photo shoot with my sisters and I...

Wedding #1

So we have a three weddings in a row this month and last weekend was our first. I was actually part of the wedding party so I let my parents watch my little ones for the wedding so I have no pictures of them there. However my family is heavily involved with most wedding plans going on around us and so my sister Maddie was the wedding planner and made the day beautiful, my sister-in-law Amy was the flower coordinator and made gorgeous bouquets and helped everywhere else and my sister Beth played the music for the ceremony...I just walked down the aisle and supported my good friend who was also one of my bridesmaids-Nicole! Anyway I got some pictures taken by my wonderful brother in law Brandon of Amy and I's baby bumps and I promise she is the same size as me I just look bigger in the pictures...

Down the walkway

Bride and her Daddy

Amy and I

Isn't she glowing?

Baby Bumps

God's Provision of a Van

So we've been praying for some time that God would provide with a van. Knowing that if our family increased we would need a little more space than our car could offer. We have been looking for a Toyota Sienna but found they were hard to get and rather expensive because they were such good vans, they hold their value to the end. We didn't really pursue it hard until recently as the need became more urgent with our family increasing! We had followed up on a couple leads but they all were dead ends and this past weekend we were going to look at a van in Richmond but it sold before our appointment. So we just told the Lord we would wait on His timing and we knew He had the perfect van from the perfect person for the perfect price. So we left it in His hands and all of a sudden things moved into place for us to get a van all on Sunday afternoon. It was being sold by someone known by both sides of our family, it was the only Sienna he had and he doesn't even usually get Toyotas, it was right at the right price, it looks amazing and it isn't white!!! (That was a huge thing for me.) It was a total blessing from the Lord. We brought it home on Sunday and enjoyed the excitement of discovering all the little added blessings the van has! We are overwhelmed with God's provision...there is plenty of room for three carseats! And we can take other people places as well! So yes, in case you haven't heard we are expecting baby number three! Due in September...we are super thrilled with this blessing!

Our new van!

Joshua and I and Baby #3