1st Birthday!

Natalie turned ONE on Sunday!  She is such a sweet little soul, full of big smiles and goofy expressions.  We are so blessed to have her.  She makes us so happy. 

She finally decided to crawl the day before her 1st birthday.  Its an army crawl but effective nonetheless.  She'd still rather be on her feet though, walking fast...with a couple of fingers to hold on to.    

She's got 2 teeth coming in on top, but they're not the middle two.  They're the ones next to the middle.  As the doctor said today, "she'll be going vampire" for a while.  Fantastic.  Luckily, she did confirm that the middle ones are in there, so hopefully they'll come soon.  

Here are some pictures of her big day...

Our Happy Birthday Girl

Real Happy!

With Mama

One of those goofy expressions

With her 2 favorite people, Mimi and Nana

Getting ready for cake.  I love that you can see her 2 bottom teeth and those big blue eyes.

Mini Hello Kitty cake that Nana made.

Yummy...I like cake

Justin and I with our birthday baby

Nana made a full size Kitty cake for the rest of us.  How amazing is this?

Mimi and Papa got her a little piano and she loves to "play" it...loud.  Makes me laugh every time she bangs on it.

The Big Day!

The big day is finally here!  Hooray!  Suzy and Sam are getting married tomorrow!  Congratulations, you two.  We love you.  :)

Let's all pray for some sun and warm weather for the wedding day.  :)

Teething Sucks

This is what teething looks like....darn it...

But on a happier note, Natalie loves the little pot gnome.  He cracks her up...

And puffy snacks are her favorite...

She likes to look out the window and see what the birds and squirrels are doing...

11 Months Old

Natalie turned 11 months old yesterday!  Hard to believe she'll be a year old soon.  Here are few recent developments...

 - She got her 2 bottom teeth last month and I think there are more coming soon.

 - She loves standing on her feet.  She's hanging on to the furniture and she loves to grab your hands and walk around the room.

 - She said "Da Da" when Justin left for work the other day.  Her noises are turning into real sounds and she's constantly practicing them.

 - She started waving and she's almost got clapping figured out too.

 - Her little laughs and squeals still crack me up.  We went to Papa's softball game last night and every time the crowd cheered, she'd squeal.

Our big girl standing up against the coffee table...

She still makes the funniest faces with her mouth.  I guess she's still getting used to the new teeth...

Trying to eat the fake apples...

Another goofy expression.  She was cracking up, for some reason, the whole time I was taking these pictures.

Aloha

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Big Island with my family to see my brother and sister-in-law!  (no idea why this is underlined and I can't figure out how to fix it...grrr)

Here's Natalie on her first plane ride.  She did really well which was a relief!

This was her first time at the beach.  She sat staring at the ocean in awe (I guess) for several minutes before she snapped out of it and started playing with her sand toys.

Here's Dad taking her to the water...

She did not love it at first.

But she had a great time playing in the sand with Dad.

Look who showed up in Hawaii....Mr. Monkey, her favorite!  Apparently a stow-away in Nana's bag.

Mom and Dad at one of our dinners out.

Brad and Michelle...notice the yummy blended drink in the foreground.

She had fun in the pool with Nana.

We took a ride on the boat at the Hilton.

Natie found a friend.

Walking under a waterfall.  I love how her eyes are closed because of the mist and wind coming off the water.

We watched the dolphins swim.  She let out a couple of her dolphin noises but they didn't hear her.

Natie and Dad watching the dolphins.

We hiked over some lava beds so we could see where it was flowing into the ocean, making new land and the island bigger.

Those 2 steam plumes are where it was happening.

Not sure what Justin did to this picture, but it looks cool.

This one is pretty cool too.  Looks like fireworks.

I love the expression on her face as Auntie squeezes her cheeks.  

We celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary with an awesome sunset dinner at Brown's.  Unfortunately, my head is blocking the sunset.

She warmed up to the ocean...

I love this picture...

Eating the sand.

Playing in the pool with Dad and Uncle Brad.

This picture makes me laugh.  Love the expressions on their faces.

We had dinner at the Blue Dragon and they have live music there.  Natie loved it.  She was singing along and waving her hands in the air.

Michelle and Mom

Justin and Brad

What a great trip!  I have a couple more videos to share.  I'll post them soon.  Aloha!

Kick!

Natalie wasn't sure about the water at first, but it didn't take her long to start loving it.  Check this out...  :)  

You can also view it here.