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..