6 Months Old

Natalie is 6 months old today!  

Her latest trick is flinging her toys.  Of course (like a monkey), I pick them all up and give them back to her....about a hundred times.  What a fun game (for her)! 

She's eating some solid foods now.  Still just rice cereal, but she likes it!  She reaches out with her mouth open and then uses her hand to push it in as fast as she can.  This is surprising because I tried it and it tastes like a bland paste.  Yummy!  

The other day I was rocking her and humming to her, desperately trying to get her to take a nap.  She promptly reached up and plugged my nose.  She's no dummy.  "Stop making that awful noise, Mom!".  She's also tried to cover my mouth when I sing.  How rude.

I finally decided to quit my job to stay home with her for a while.  I am so happy and so fortunate!

We're excited for Christmas this week.  I'm sure we'll take a zillion pictures so I'll post again soon.

Here are a few videos we took recently...

Santa!

We took Natalie to see Santa last week.  We weren't sure what she'd think of him, but she was all smiles...

Arctic Blast

Well, they weren't lying...the Arctic Blast has arrived.  It snowed all day yesterday and its COLD.  This morning it was 19 degrees!  

Here's our house yesterday afternoon.  The snow was so pretty!

Our backyard.  You can see the accumulation on the fence tops and the bird feeder.

The thermometer this morning...

I think our Christmas lights look especially pretty on a snowy night.

Don't Do It

I had to blog again tonight to share something funny.  We love Natalie's little voice and all the funny noises she makes.  The 3 of us were sitting together tonight and clear as day she says "Don't Do It".  We both looked at each other with surprise and laughed.  Dang, our kid is smart! 

So, we're here buckling down for the "Arctic Blast" that is supposedly coming our way.  The local news is always so dramatic.  I hope all of you in the Portland area have stocked up your food supplies and have your snow shovels and tire chains ready.  Apparently, we're in for a whopping "dusting to 3 inches" of snow tonight.  We'll see about that....

Our Tree - Part II

Here's the beautiful tree that Justin brought home...

Natalie is checking out the ornament that Dad bought for her 1st Christmas

Our Tree - Part I

We went to cut down our Christmas tree last weekend.  If it were up to my husband (and everyone else it seems), we'd have a plastic tree, but I'm not ready to give up that tradition yet.  So we went out to a little farm that Suzy found and bundled up our little kiddo for the search...

This is me putting on her fleece suit.  Check out the shirt she's wearing.  I love it!

See, we really were on a farm.  It was actually a beautiful sunny morning.

Suzy and Sam found their tree right away.  I didn't get the focus quite right, but I still think its a cool picture.

Check out Mimi's sweatshirt, classic Peanuts Christmas!

I love this picture...

This is on our way back to the car.  Unfortunately, we didn't find our tree here. 

Natalie decided she didn't want to go to another place, so we went home and Justin got the tree without us.  Stay tuned for Part II where I'll post a picture of the final result....

Thanksgiving 2008

We had Thanksgiving at our house again this year and it turned out to be a great day! Somehow I got out of cooking entirely...yet another thing to be thankful for!  :)  Here are some pictures from the day...

Justin, Riley, and Jenni

Jenni, Justin, and Suzy

Rachel making her famous rolls.  I've decided they're my favorite part of our meal.

Sam carving the turkey

Riley has the biggest blue eyes

Justin and our parents at table #2

Natalie and Justin

Peyton's sweet face

Suzy and Natalie

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  We hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving.  Eat well and enjoy your family and friends! 

Natalie is ready for the holidays....

5 Months Old

Natalie is 5 months old today!  

She's laughing a lot more these days and its a variety of giggles, laughs, and squeals now.  She does this weird sharp inhale that sounds like a combination of a scream and a laugh....or maybe some kind of wild animal under attack.

It looks like her eyes are going to stay blue and her hair is starting to grow back!

I'd like to say that she's rolling over...but she's not.  Why would she want to do that when she hates being on her tummy!  Tummy time is getting more bearable these days but she still won't rest her head.  You can imagine how tired she gets trying to hold up those giant cheeks!

Sitting up might be more her speed.  She does pretty good for a few seconds...and then folds in half into a little baby ball.  We'll keep working on it!

I just can't get over how happy she is to see us when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap.  Every morning when I pick her up she gives me the biggest squeeze hug and doesn't want to let go.  When I finally pull her away, she has the biggest smile on her face.  That is the best thing ever.

She's definitely in a phase of discovery.  She's constantly inspecting things.  She loves the remote control because of the little red light that flashes when you change the volume or the channel.  She accidently scratched the wall when I was changing her diaper one day and now she does it almost every time.  She either likes the sound or the feeling or both.  I often hold her in one arm while I do things with the other.  She likes to use her outer hand to help me with whatever I'm doing.  Yesterday, she decided to "help" me carry my blueberry smoothie and nearly knocked it out of my hand onto the carpet.  Still cute.  :)

Her fancy chair arrived last week.

She looks pretty comfy, right?

Real comfy...

Love this kitty hat (please excuse the drool).

Go Ducks!

Natalie says Go Ducks!!

Video Post

I finally downloaded all the videos from our camera.  I had so much fun looking back at all the little videos we've taken since Natalie was born.  

We took this one last week of her trying out the Jumperoo that Shari and Mike brought over.  She hasn't quite figured out how to bounce yet, but she loves pressing the button to make the lights and music go!

I love at the end of the video when I ask her if she likes it and it sounds like she answers me with an affirmative "uh-huh".  :)

Happy Halloween

If you can't tell, she's a penguin.  :)

4 Months Old

Natalie turns 4 months old today!  I can hardly believe it!  It feels like she's doubled in size over the past couple weeks, so I'm anxious to find out her stats at her doctor's appt on Thursday.

She's managed to rub off about half of her hair now.  Its nice and thick at the neckline though, so that's a good look.

Last week, Justin put her down for a nap and I listened to her lay there squealing and making motor boat noises for about 15 minutes.  The cutest thing I've ever heard.  She must have just figured out how to make the sound with her mouth and she was trying it out.

She is drooling and chewing/biting like nobody's business.  If she wasn't just 4 months old, I'd think she was cutting her front 4 teeth.

Now, if I rock her to sleep, she snuggles her head in my chest, curls her legs up, and pulls whatever stuffed animals or blankets she can up to or over her face.  Pretty sweet.  She especially loves to do this with the golf green taggie blanket that Mimi made for her.

Here's our little love.....

Big Pumpkin Head

Nana brought a Halloween hat over for the baby last week.  Unfortunately, it was too small, but we put it on anyway and had a good laugh.  Natalie didn't think it was as funny as we did.  :)

Our Little Pumpkin

We planted 12 pumpkin seeds, probably 8 or 9 plants grew, and we only got 1 little pumpkin.  Here it is....

Check out our little pumpkin's eyelashes.  She must have gotten these from her dad too....

Funny Face

Our kid makes hilarious faces...

Kennedy is 4!

We celebrated Kennedy's 4th Birthday a couple weekends ago!  She is such a funny kid....full of personality and smart as a whip.  We love her!  How sweet does she look here?

Here's the gift we got her.  Who doesn't love Hungry Hungry Hippos?!?  

Here are Natalie and Riley checking each other out.  We think they'll be pals!

Natalie was loving Auntie Jenni!

6 Years

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years ago and has been cancer-free since her treatment! We are so thankful for her and her continuing good health!

Support the Komen foundation whenever you get the opportunity. All of us know someone (or several) who have been affected by breast cancer.

3 Months Old

Natalie turned 3 months old yesterday! We love her so much. Every day with her is truly a blessing!

Just this past week she's really started using her hands to touch and grasp things. Every day she gets a little more control over them. When I put a toy in front of her now, she grabs it and hugs it to her face (trying to get it in her mouth).

When she wakes up in the morning, she gives us the sweetest smile. What a perfect way to start the day!

Her voice is getting louder and more squealy. I think she must be testing out the volume and pitch. I like to try to translate the sounds. I'm almost certain she said "iced tea" the other day.

She discovered the TV. Even though I still try to keep it out of her line of sight, if she gets a peek, she stares at it like a zombie. She is especially interested in Oprah.

She has the longest, prettiest eye lashes that have a perfect natural curl.

We are thankful for the car seat, the binkie, and the exercise ball....our weapons of soothing.

Here's our girl at 3 months...