Meet the Family

Hi, I'm Shelley. I wasn't born a Texas girl, but I was raised one, and up until age 28, I never thought I'd leave. However, God had plans for me to travel to Alaska in 2007, meet a native Pennsylvania also visiting Anchorage, fall in love and start a new life in a new location. Before the birth of our twins, I spent 11 years working in the aviation industry. It was bittersweet leaving the corporate world, but exciting to start a new career as a full-time wife and mom. Now, instead of aircraft records, it's diapers. There are no more eight-hour shifts, but rather round-the-clock service. Direct deposit, now a thing of the past, has been replaced by payment in hugs, kisses and smiles. I even get to put my journalism degree to use by dabbling in a little freelance writing. All in all, it's a pretty sweet deal.

This is the love of my life, Nathan. He also works in aviation, which made swapping work stories after long days pretty entertaining for us. Not only is he handsome, he's smart, funny, patient, hard-working and romantic. He proposed marriage on my 30th birthday, while hovering over the city of Pittsburgh, on a private plane. Yep, romantic. We were married in May of 2009.

This is Dylan, my Pickle, who is big brother by a whole minute. If you were to put him in a dress, it would be like looking at my old baby pictures. He's the inquisitive one, always checking things out around him. He loves to have people talk to him and his laugh is infectious. I have a feeling that he'll be keeping me on my toes in the years to come. 

This is Leah, my little Peanut, posing pretty with her favorite toy, Ellie. She is the mirror image of her daddy. Recently, she has found her voice and entertains us with all sorts of new sounds! She's soft, cuddly and has a smile that could melt an iceberg. To put it simply, she's all girl. 

 

This is our black lab Fred, who happens to be, a female doggie (but, that's a different story for different day). She's probably the sweetest pooch I've ever met and we are so glad she became part of our family. At this time, she's not quite sure what to make of the newest additions, but since they did get her "sniff of approval" I'm assuming she's more than OK with them being here. Whenever she's not pestering us to throw her favorite ball, she can be found basking in the sun or curled up in her house. 

Last, but not least, is Beacon. Traveling home one day, I almost hit what I thought was a baby groundhog. It wasn't a groundhog though. It was a kitten, who couldn't have been more than 6 weeks old. The location led me to believe she had been born in the field by the road or abandoned in it. She was the cutest little thing, so I scooped her up, took her home and there she stayed.