Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We hope you enjoy our eco-friendly Christmas letter this year. :)

2007 has been an exciting year for the Shackelford family. Beginning with a very pregnant Betsy in January and the arrival of our beautiful baby girl Elizabeth Charlotte on February 1st. It has been so fun to watch her develop and learn new things every day. She is now “cruising” which means that she takes steps while holding on to objects such as furniture, large toys and even Mikey. She says “dada” and “rara” and she likes to clap, wave, and play peek-a-boo with her blanket. If she gets the opportunity, another favorite pastime is tearing paper into tiny pieces. We are really looking forward to her excitement as she will actually be encouraged to rip the shiny wrapping paper on her Christmas presents. Elizabeth is such a blessing to us and we don’t have the words to describe how thankful we are to God for the gift of our daughter.

Keith is adjusting to his new role as Daddy and is having a great time. Elizabeth loves to listen to Daddy play the guitar and sometimes even try to help him strum the chords. Keith continues to play guitar in the worship band for our church H2O Orlando and loves the opportunity to serve there. In October, Keith was offered a promotion with Jet Blue. He is now working as a Systems Engineer Mon-Fri 8-5. This is a very welcome change from his previous schedule, which included working every Saturday. He is enjoying his new position and the opportunity to learn from this experience.

Betsy is absolutely loving being a full-time Mommy. Elizabeth keeps her very busy, especially as she is becoming more and more mobile every day. She continues to work for Florida Hospital as a Registered Dietitian, but only a few days a month. Our great friends and “Florida family” the McIntires live 28 houses down the street and Jenni McIntire is also a full-time Mommy to their 18 month old boy Landon. Elizabeth and Landon have play dates and enjoy going for walks around the neighborhood in Landon’s wagon. Betsy and Elizabeth both enjoy spending many afternoons with the McIntires.

How is Mikey doing with all this adjustment? Well, the truth is he loves Elizabeth and we know it, but he won’t admit it. He is the same Mikey as always. He still demands a lot of attention and when an 80 pound boxer demands attention, he gets it! His biggest complaint was that “his” back seat in the car is completely taken over by Elizabeth’s car seat. We remedied that situation by recently purchasing a 2003 Oldsmobile Sillouette. We call it the “Mommy-Mobile”. Mikey now has an entire third row seat all to himself.

We hope that you all are well and have a wonderful Christmas spent with your family and friends. We look forward to hearing from all of you this holiday season!

Love and God bless,
Keith, Betsy, Elizabeth, and Mikey Shackelford


Click here to view the Shackelford’s Christmas Pictures..

Future Cheerleader?

Elizabeth, Mommy and Grandma Smith took a trip to West Lafayette, IN last week and visited her Aunt Karen, Uncle Marc, and cousins Ellen, John, and Anna Engelhardt. Ellen is a freshman at Purdue this year. This picture was taken in Ellen's dorm room. The Purdue outfit and pom pom was a gift from all of the Engelhardts!

Getting ready for Halloween

Grandma Smith sent Lizzie a new Halloween bib and we decided to start using it to get pumped up for the big day!

Go Purdue!

Elizabeth was helping Mommy decorate for fall as we watched college football. Go Purdue!!

Laundry Helper

Mommy lets me help with laundry. I pull all of the clothes out of the basket and throw them on the floor, and Mommy picks them up. It's really hard work!

September 2007 album updated

8 months old

Elizabeth turned 8 months old October 1st. She is pulling up on the furniture (and Mikey) now!

Lizzie Crawling

Well the time has come to add a new feature to our web site. Video! We've got the picture thing down pretty good, so we thought we would join the rest of the cyberspace cadets and try out some you tube. Here is our first video of Elizabeth crawling. She started crawling at Grandma and Grandpa...

....sorry...

Grandma and Grand Daddy Shack's house over labor day. As soon as we got home we put her on the floor and got some video. Just click the play button in the middle of the pciture. I know some of you are on dial up, and you tube will be very slow. So click on the link below, right-click, go to save target as, and save the video to your desktop. Then go to your desktop and open up (double click the icon) the video.

Download Liz Crawling Here

How to post a comment

This is the day to answer all of your questions!

How do you post a comment?

You can submit a comment to any post on our website. We review the comments and publish them if we feel they are appropriate.

To submit a comment:

1. Click on the link below the post " ___ comments" (There will be a number of comments that have been posted in the blank)

2. The next screen will have a box with blank space entitled "leave your comment"

3. Type your comment in the box

4. Choose an identity by clicking on the appropriate circle

5. Type your name in the box provided

6. Click the orange button "publish your comment"

Thanks for your questions!

How to view our pictures

We have been getting several inquiries as to how to view our picture albums. It's very simple...

How do you view our pictures?

1. Click on "keith n betsy's pictures" on the right margin of this screen under "links" (this will send you to a website called shutterfly where we store our pictures online)

2. Select the album you want to view by clicking on the title of the album

3. Click the purple "view pictures" button

4. If you wish to view the pictures individually, you can click on each picture and it will enlarge for your viewing.

5. If you wish to see them in slideshow format, click the button above the pictures that says "slideshow"

6.. The show should automatically start.

7. You also have an option to purchase prints of any picture if you become a member of shutterfly.

Hope this "tutorial" was helpful!

Summer days, driftin' away...

Well, what is the best way to cool off on a hot summer day? Go for a dip in the pool, of course!

Elizabeth went swimming for the first time this month. She loves to kick her feet in the water and relax on her float.

More pics of Elizabeth swimming in our new album- August 2007 part 2.

Laughing Lizzie

...'nuff said
See our new album: August 2007

One smart puppy!

Elizabeth was pulling on Mikey's ears and he decided that he would use the situation to his advantage, so he rolled over and got a belly rub!

Sea World

Grandma and Grandad Shack visited us this weekend and we went to Sea World. Elizabeth loved watching bottlenose dolphins in the underwater viewing area. A future marine biologist, perhaps? We shall see... :)
July 2007 album updated.

America's Little Sweetheart

New pics of the 4th and more in Keith and Betsy's pictures.

Father's Day

Keith got to celebrate his first Father's Day this year with Elizabeth. We went out to lunch with Ryan, Jenni and Landon McIntire at Chipotle to celebrate. New pics in June 2007 album!

"Aunt B's" Vacation with the Shacks

Breanne Tisch (aka "Aunt B") came to Orlando to meet Elizabeth and to spend some quality time with the Shacks. During her visit, Elizabeth had her first trip to the beach. She loved the ocean breeze and the waves. Check out more pics from our vacation with Breanne in our photo album- Keith and Betsy's pictures.

Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to Indiana to see our niece Ellen graduate from High School and Elizabeth met Aunt Amy, Uncle Daniel and many other family and friends. She had her first plane ride and attended her first sporting event to watch her cousins Lincoln and Taylor play baseball. Check out pictures from our Indiana trip at Keith and Betsy's pics.

Mother's Day

Betsy celebrated her first Mother's Day this year. Our church also held a baby dedication the same day and we had Elizabeth dedicated. Check out Keith and Betsy's pics and choose Mother's day to see the new pictures.

Hard-Core Party Girl!

Elizabeth was very excited to wear her "hard-core-party-girl" skirt (as Miss Susan refers to them) for Girl's Night In with Miss Jenni and Miss Tia. Sadly, it was also the last Girls Night we will have before Tia moves to Colorado. We love Tia and will miss her very much. :(

Strollin' wit' da homeys...

We all went shopping when "Great-Ma" Huffine and G-ma Shack were visiting. Lizzie couldn't wait to show off her new digs to the neighborhood. Daddy was particularly proud of her pink Nike baseball cap! See new pics of the G-ma's visit and more by clicking on Keith n' Betsy's pictures link in the right column of this page.

Houdini

We woke up and found Elizabeth with her foot sticking out of her jammies! Our little Houdini!

Our Little Thumper

We hope you all had a Happy Easter! Fortunately it was a chilly Easter morning in Florida and Elizabeth was able to wear her furry bunny coat to Easter Sunday service. (To all concerned PETA members: The "fur" is 100% Polyester!)

Princess Elizabeth

Elizabeth's first trip to Disney World! Betsy's family was in town and we spent the evening in Downtown Disney. (We are slowly easing her into the world of "the Mouse". Someday we will attempt a day in the parks.) We received this precious princess dress from Keith's boss and of course had to get her picture by the statue of Cinderella. Check out our new pics of Disney and other fun April adventures in Keith and Betsy's pics!

Good Night

It certainly was a GOOD NIGHT!We reached a milestone... It is considered "sleeping through the night" when an infant sleeps 5 hours consecutively. Elizabeth pleasantly surprised us by sleeping 6 hours! Will it last??? We just hope and pray that she is not celebrating April Fool's a few days early!

Going Live in 5.....4.....3.....2.....1.....0

It's official! Welcome to KeithandBetsyShack.com! This is the place to find out what's going on with Keith, Betsy, Elizabeth, and (if you are really bored) Mikey. We thought we would start out with just a quick post and a family photo. I know you may have seen this one already, but there are some new pictures loaded you can view at Keith n Betsy's Pictures. Feel free to post and comment and we will try our best to keep up. I mean.....it's not like we're getting any sleep now anyway.

Love and God Bless

Keith, Betsy, Elizabeth, and Mikey