Natalie is 2

Sweet Natalie is 2 today. Hard to believe. After waking this morning, Zach went up to her room and sang Happy Birthday to her - it was pretty cute. She and I went shopping this morning, got oil changed in the car, went to Costco so she could pick out a birthday cake. She is a happy girl - except when it comes time to have her teeth brushed, hair brushed, or hair in a pony tail. Then we see her "Leo"ness.

It's a HEAT wave here! On Tuesday the kids played with Jobe & Mia - in buckets of really cold well water put into their sand pit. They had a great time and it was a good way to beat the heat. We've been holding steady - i make my rounds in the morning opening ALL the windows and then once it warms a little outside, I close everything off. Then once it starts to cool down at night again, i open the downstairs back up to air out a little. We've been lucky that it's been staying in the low 80s in the house when it's been upper 90's low 100's outside. But the best thing ever happened yesterday and a neighbor passed along an unused window AC unit and so now the office is quite pleasurable!

Seeing the pictures of the sand pit reminded me of where we were 2 years ago . . .


8/3/07 Zach, Natalie, Mia & Jobe

At the time the girls were born, the boys seemed so old (Jobe was 2 years 4 months, Zach was 2 years, 7 months). But when I look back now, Zach looked really little.




7/28/09 Mia, Natalie, Zach & Jobe

So Happy Birthday Natty! We're so glad you've completed our family!

Booty Shake

Natalie has some rhythm. It's so darn cute and I finally got video downloaded last night - so i'll try and post more video. Enjoy


The birthday banner went up today, 5 more days till i have a 2 year old.

Credit Cards & Shoes & Golden Retriever Puppy Pictures

So Zach received his first credit card offer the other day. I was SHOCKED to say the least. Thanks Alaska Airlines for releasing his frequent flier information so that he can start racking up debt at age 4! Unbelievable. We did just tear it up and throw it out.

Both kids are growing like crazy and my sweet little Natalie is getting opinionated about her clothes. Whoa. So we'll see what she thinks about these - first time I've ordered shoes for her online. It's a darn good things we get so many hand-me-downs - because there are just so darn many choices for girls when you are buying . . . but she is missing size 8 dressier shoes/sandals. And we love "flipper-floppers" as she calls them.



And then I also saw these sweet little ballerina slippers that are so cute, I had to order a pair for her little friend Arden who is quite fashionable and always thanks me for the dress up shoes I got her for her birthday. And the fact that these were only $2.99 made a pretty good deal. I love Pumpkin Patch clothes - my absolute fave for the kids.

On an unrelated note . . . Mitch has been with our family for 1 year now. We got him July 8 last year. He is already calming a bit. And if anyone is wondering what I was thinking last year - just look at this cuteness.

These pups were just so darn sweet. Mitchell had a problem with his ear which is why Ryan wanted him so badly. For the life of me I can't tell which one is Mitch (he had a brown string).

He's a good boy. Loves to play ball with Ryan and Zach. He doesn't knock Natalie over very often. He is still healthily scared of Steve the cat which is truly hilarious given their size differences. I'm so glad we got him, he really is a nice addition to the family. He loves Maggie, who is not doing great - her blood sugar is all over the place again, and she's really skinny. We don't want to put her through much so we are tweaking her insulin to see if that helps her at all. She's really blind, getting so deaf that the fireworks didn't bother her as much this year, but she still loves playing on the back deck with Ryan.