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.

Happy Mother's Day

There is no doubt that I have the best mom on the planet!  She is the most beautiful, kind-hearted, strong, fun, and loving woman I know!  Thanks for always being so good to me, Mom.  I love you.

P.S.  We just got back from a couple of weeks in Hawaii visiting my brother and sister-in-law.  I'll post pictures this week!

Easter

Here are some pictures from Easter Sunday...

Checking out her Easter basket.

This is after church in her pretty Easter dress.

Nana and Poppy got her this cute little purse.  Of course it went right into the mouth.

The 3 of us.

My mom has this stuffed monkey that Natalie thinks is hilarious.  She throws it around and squeals at it.  

We spent the evening with Justin's family and took these pictures of Natalie and Riley together in their jammies.  Riley is 5 months older but they're getting closer in size now.

This one makes me laugh.  Looks like Riley is trying to feed her something yucky.

Riley giving Natalie a hug.

This is how it ended.  :)

Sunny

We had 3 glorious sunny days last weekend!  It was so nice to get outside.  I just hope we get more sun this Spring and not the usual rain until July. 

Here she is hanging out in her Elmo walker on the back patio.

We celebrated Justin's birthday with his family on Sunday and Natalie was sure happy to see everyone.

I put short sleeves and shorts on her and Jenni took this picture of her chubby white legs.

She loved the card that Kennedy drew for Justin.  Kennedy is quite an artist.  I love that she wrote "Kennedy Party" above her drawing of the birthday party.

9 Months Old...already

Natalie turned 9 months old last Saturday.  I was looking at her all stretched out in her crib the other day and dang, she's big.  Not only is she just growing fast, she's tall for her age.  I'm a little worried that she's growing out of all her long sleeves and pants.  We still have to wait several more months before it'll be warm enough to wear all her new summer clothes.  Our wardrobe choices from now until June should be interesting.

Still no crawling or walking.  She just sits and shuffles her legs real fast like she's running.  She gets frustrated when she doesn't go anywhere.  I guess if nothing else, its good exercise.

It cracks me up that she'll just burst into laughter for no apparent reason.  She does it a lot lately, especially in the stroller or in the car.  What is so funny? 

I think its so interesting how she inspects things.  Justin let her hold the remote control the other night.  She must have sat there for 15 or 20 minutes just passing it from hand to hand, rotating it in every direction, turning it over, squeezing it, holding it over her head.  Completely mesmerized.  She's figuring out how things work.

All her little expressions and smiles make me laugh.  I think she has such a sweet little personality.

Here she is wearing a sweater that my Grandma Bennett knit for me when I was a baby.  Unfortunately, I cut off her head, but the smile was priceless.   

Here's an action shot of her rolling all over the place.

I decided we better start getting used to wearing sunglasses since we're going to Hawaii soon.  How funny are these?  I was dying when I put them on her.