Heidi's First Haircut

We took Heidi to get her first haircut today. She had a rough morning, didn't nap well and I was kinda nervous that she might freak out. But she did really well! Yay!! They had all these toys to play with while we were waiting. She loved riding the little horse/zebra. And she loved that she got to sit in an airplane! The hairdresser?? Not so much. She did good though. We brought teddy grahams and she watched Sprout while the lady cut her hair. The hairdresser worked really fast and was really nice. She even put a pink bow in her hair.

We got Natalie's first haircut at the same place...actually in the same chair! She was just under a year old. Her hair grows a little faster I guess. :) Makes me so sad...feels like just yesterday that she was getting her first haircut! She loved it when she went. I can't believe how small she was. They get big sooo fast!

Before...

After

First Day of Spring!

It was such a beautiful day today! Blue skies, nice breeze...perfect day for the girls to play outside. We had Mom, Dad and Nan over for dinner. Shane made his amazing grilled salmon! We also had zucchini on the grill and a salad. I seem to talk about food a lot now that I am on a diet. Just letting you know!
We let the girls play on the playset and play with bubbles. Heidi loves the bubbles. She chases them and tries to stomp them when they land on the ground. Natalie likes the bubble blower that I got her but can't really figure out how to actually blow bubbles through a wand. We had so much fun hanging out in the backyard with the girls. No humidity, no bugs. The kind of day you wish there were a million of.

Pushing the girls on the swing.

The girls were so happy today. They were playing and laughing. Heidi was so funny. She just loved playing with my parents and running around the backyard. There is something about being a parent and seeing your kids happy. It's a wonderful feeling.



Heidi kept putting the bubble blower in her mouth.

Mom bought the girls new sandals today. These are actually Heidi's first pair of sandals. They are absolutely adorable! Heidi is having a little trouble walking in them...she doesn't really understand why the shoes are going between her toes.

Shane and I are doing the South Beach Diet. For those of you who don't know, I am the WORST at dieting! I don't do it...ever. I like food. I like cake and candy and bread and ice cream and cookies. It's totally killing me! But we are trying to be healthy and as much as I hate being deprived of food that I love, I am happy to be teaching my body to love healthier foods. We are doing pretty well with our eating and hitting up the gym so hopefully this won't last too long! I am ready for some bread!

Shane bought me some flowers the other day. They are so beautiful! He took the girls grocery shopping and when they got back Natalie ran to me and said, "I picked out some flowers for you, Mommy!" Pretty funny...so much for the surprise. :)

I absolutely love my new camera! I still haven't had the time to really find out just what it does but it takes really great pictures. Natalie was just being a silly girl and she turned to me with this look and the camera actually got the picture! Yay!! I love this face!


We took the girls for a walk this afternoon. We have this area in our subdivision that isn't fully developed yet and it's perfect for letting the girls "walk like big girls." They run and Shane and I can walk together and talk. It's really nice. This is the first time that Heidi got to walk too...usually she would go in a stroller. She was very happy to be walking today! She did not want to hold hands or be told where to go. Natalie kept trying at both but Heidi would have none of it! I just love the expression on Natalie's face in the last shot. It's so much easier to get a close up of Natalie. She will sit still, even smile at me sometimes. Heidi just runs away! In fact...most of the pictures that I take of Heidi are of her moving away from the camera.

Natalie is the cutest girl ever! She is so smart I can hardly stand it. She throws out words like she's been talking for years. I don't know where she comes up with these things. She definitely keeps us on our toes. Her two favorite words at the moment are No and Why. Drives me crazy! An example of a No conversation:

Natalie: Mommy I'm hungry.
Me: Okay Natalie, I'll make you some lunch.
Natalie: No! I want dinner.
Me: But it's not dinner time, it's lunch time.
Natalie: No! I want dinner.
Me: Well, what would you like to eat...Mac and Cheese?
Natalie: No
Me: Peanut Butter and Jelly?
Natalie: No
Me: Hard boiled egg?
Natalie: No...I want noodles.
Me: So you want Mac and Cheese?
Natalie: Yes, Mac and Cheese!

Totally exhausting. I won't even go into the why questions. Those last forever...but why Mommy? AAGGHH!! Other than those crazy words, I really love the stage Natalie is in right now. She has such a great imagination. She loves taking care of her sister. Heidi doesn't always appreciate that though. :) I can have complete conversations with her and she understands what I'm saying. It's so great. I love it too when I'm trying to talk to Heidi and Natalie acts like the interpreter. I'm hoping that Heidi will be catching up soon with all the words. It'd make life a whole lot easier!

Colie, Joe and the kids left yesterday after being here for a week. It was so much fun having them around again! We played cards every single night. During the day we played games with the whole family. Apples to Apples was the best I think. Everyone could play and it made us all laugh. All the guys drove down to Daytona to go to a Motorcross thing. Colie took amazing shots of my girls. (I'll post them as soon as she sends them to me.) We went shopping and played with makeup. The only bad part was that it went by too fast! I hate it that they live in Alaska! It's too far to drive to, it cost too much to fly to and even when you do fly it is a FULL day of flying. So the entire time they were here I was doing my best to persuade them to move back!

I think one of my favorite nights was the last night they were here. Everyone came over to our house and we played Wii, the kids played outside on the swings, we had an amazing dinner thanks to Colie and Joe. Carnigasada...have no idea if that is how you spell it but it's my favorite thing ever!


Luke, Shane and Matthew

Mom and Luke...when they left he was shorter than all us girls...so sad!

Me and Gracie

Gracie was the best babysitter ever! The girls loved her and she played with them the whole time! This is her and Heidi on the swings in the backyard.

Daddy and Gracie

Nine years ago today, at this exact moment I was eating breakfast at a Shoney's with my family. From there we went to Nan's house for all the girls to get ready and from there we went to Oxnard where we got married in a barn. Now really, how many people can say they got married in a barn? Well, how many people can say they had a beautiful wedding in a barn? :) So for today only I'll play At Last. (I walked down the aisle to that for those of you who don't know) It was a surprise to Shane and when they opened the doors for me to start walking, it felt like I was walking on a cloud. It was just like the movies...I saw Shane at the end of the aisle, grinning from ear to ear and that is all I saw. I didn't see all the people looking at us or hear the babies crying. It was just the two of us pledging our lives together. And then they announced us Mr. and Mrs. and I was so completely happy. It was a special day and an awesome wedding!



To celebrate our anniversary this year, we were going to go to a fancy french restaurant downtown. It ended up being really cold and rainy and Shane didn't think I'd like being freezing in my heels and fancy dress. We ended up going with UGGS and jeans and eating at the Chop House. It was actually really nice. We sat by the fireplace, had a really great dinner and then walked around Barnes and Noble.

Shane and I got a new camera for our anniversary this year. Yay!! I am so excited. We found a good deal on a new SLR so now I can get really good shots of the girls. I was just messing around this morning and took these cute ones.

We're still practicing the "natural" smile

Chillin' and watching tv


Such a cute face!

I haven't had too much time to play with the new camera...it's been really busy around here. Colie, Joe and the kids will be here tomorrow! Woo Hoo!! I can't wait! I'm trying to get the house ready cause they left before we actually moved in. So they just saw it bare bones and we have made tons of changes. I'm doing tons of baking and cleaning. We also had Shane's family over for dinner last night so that we could all see Colby. (He's back from Afghanistan on R&R) Plus our anniversary is tomorrow. But since Colie is coming we are celebrating tonight. So now I'm trying to get myself all pretty too. So lots of craziness but at least all the crazy is good crazy. :)