Happy 1st Birthday, Natalie!

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I must admit that I was a little sad to see Natalie's first birthday roll around.  I wanted her to stay a baby for a little while longer.  But I really am excited to see her walk and talk and run around with her big sister.  We had a party for her at my parents' house and had some fun activities for the kids. We had flower pots for the kids to paint any way they wanted, then we filled them up with spring flowers.  It was so much fun to watch them paint and loved that they could take it home with them as a little gift. :) We also had an Easter egg hunt. Watching the kids run around finding eggs was so cute! It was such a great party.  Happy birthday to our little spitfire Natalie! We love you.

Palm Springs

In mid-February, we went from this...

...to this!

We had a great vacation in Palm Springs! And it was such a short drive (about 90 miles) to Disneyland so we did that one day, too.  The kids had a blast despite Avery feeling a little under the weather. She caught a cold that day (she looked a little dazed in the picture with Ariel, poor girl). :)  We took Natalie on most of the rides (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan) but her favorite ride was It's A Small World. She danced and giggled and clapped her hands. It was the cutest! Here are some pictures from our trip.

 

Family Fun

I've been so horrible about updating this blog. Everytime I sit down to do it, I have to clean up spilled chocolate milk, wipe down ketchup fingers, or grab Natalie off the floor before she eats a fistful of dog hair that she so lovingly yanked out of Grace's behind.

We had a great holiday season and enjoyed watching our little girl turn 3. She is such a sweet girl but she is a pro at being a 3 year old. We took her to Build-A-Bear where she created a cute little stuffed dog she named Bear. Then right after she was done dressing her beloved Bear, she threw an epic 3 year old fit and tossed Bear as far as she could throw her and cried all the way from the Tacoma mall to Fred's parents house in Silverdale.  I just love that we spent $45 on a stuffed animal that she probably hasn't even looked at since.  Lesson learned.  Although I must say that those fits are few and far between.  And while those kinds of things are inevitable, she has such a great personality and is really fun to be around.  I chuckle at this Build-A-Bear story now, but while it was happening it was a completely different story! :)

This year started out great and continues to be a fun year. I have enjoyed having Freddie at home, but I know that his time off from working on the farm is slowing coming to an end. It'll pick up fast next month. Speaking of next month...Natalie is going to be 1 on March 26th. I can't believe it. She is such a fun baby. She can say ma-ma, da-da, and sissy (although it sounds more like "hissy"). If you ask her what a dog does, she tries to bark. It's just the cutest thing. And she LOVES her big sister so much.

In about 10 days we leave for Palm Springs. We are looking forward to this much needed family trip. Since it's only about 90 miles away from Disneyland, we plan to take the kids for a day or two. Avery is going to be so excited. The look on her face will be priceless. We are excited to be staying with my mom and dad who rented a house in the desert for a month. Jody, Ryan and Grayson will be there too. Apparently there is a new water park not far from the house and of course tons of other stuff to do: College of the Desert, and the zoo, and shopping!!

Busy, busy!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted! We've been busy! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Fred's family.  Yesterday our sweet Avery turned 3! Grammy, Papa and the 4 of us went out to dinner to celebrate.  The festivities continue this weekend as we are headed to Silverdale and Gig Harbor.  On Sunday, we'll be going with mom and dad, Jody, Ryan and Grayson and Fred's parents to the Canterwood Country Club where the girls and Grayson will get to have brunch with Santa. Avery will also get to pick out her own new friend at Build-A-Bear. I hope she's going to love it!

Our sweet little sis Natalie is 8 months old now.  She is a big eater and her favorites right now are puffs, yogurt melts, cheese, pieces of bread, bits of banana and canned green beans! The other day I cut little pieces of cream cheese and rolled them in smashed up cheerios so she could pick them up easier and she ate those faster than I've ever seen her eat anything! I'm so glad I have a good eater.  It's definitely a switch from Avery. :) Natalie also loves to sip on water after she eats. She became a pro at the sippy cup in about 2 days, which really surprised me. She still has "stranger danger" so it'll be fun to see what she does when she meets Santa!

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving weekend. My friend Delayna of http://www.quietstarsphotography.com/ took these photos.  She did an amazing job! 

Our crazy girls!

Our girls are as different as night and day. Which is great, but I think we've got a little someone who is going to give us a run for our money!  Natalie is so sensitive. She will definitely let you know when she is not happy. Avery is always so easy going.  Natalie LOVES to eat and she will let you know when you don't move the spoon to her mouth fast enough.  Avery hardly ever ate much when she was a baby and Natalie will finish two jars of pureed food in two minutes flat.  Avery always let people hold her...she didn't care who it was.  Natalie has "stranger danger" like nobody's business!  I always feel bad for whoever asks to hold her.  They're taking a gamble on that girl!  As her dad would say, "she's sassy like her mom."  Hey, she just knows what she wants! Gotta love her for that.  But she and Avery get along so well together.  I like watching Avery make her little sister laugh and how Natalie's face lights up when she sees her.  It's so great that they have eachother!



Avery is doing well. She loves watching Disney movies and she has such a great imagination! Her stories are so funny.  The other day she was asking me about my wedding ring. I told her that I wear my ring and daddy wears his ring and it means that we are married.  She looked at me and said, "oh, just like me and Theo."  Theo was the ring bearer in Nik and Lilian's wedding back in July! I couldn't believe she remembered his name and made that connection of marriage and being in a wedding.  She's too smart for her own good!

Family Pictures

A couple of weeks ago we had family pictures taken.  Irina Cyr works with my friend Alice and I've always been in such awe of her work ever since I saw the pictures she took at Alice's twins' birthday party.  She sent these to me as a little sneak peek. I can't wait to see them all! Thanks Irina for taking pictures for us and for working with a 2.5 year old who never wanted to look at the camera!

5 Months

So now that Natalie is almost 6 months old, I thought I'd post some 5 month pictures!

She started rice cereal awhile ago and really liked it. She is now eating one meal a day of rice cereal and a puree of a fruit or a veggie and she is such a good eater. I'm getting used to it now, but I wasn't at first because Avery never ate much - and she still doesn't. I'm excited for her to try puffs and yogurt soon!