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. :)

Hug me...I donated blood today! That is what my sticker says. Today was the first time I have ever given blood. I've always wanted to be someone who does but being scared of needles has prevented me in the past. After having two kids, I'm not as scared of needles but still-it's a needle! So they had a blood mobile at Walmart and I decided that I would finally do it. The thing was really cool! I was very impressed. Not so much with the lady who drew my blood. She stuck the needle in my left arm and the wiggled it around trying to find a vein. That didn't work so she tried my right arm. She didn't even find the vein first, she just stuck the needle in my arm and then tried to find the vein. It hurt so bad!! I have a huge bruise and my arm has actually been hurting all evening. I'm still pretty proud of myself though. I saved three lives today. :)

What a weekend! After dealing with the girls and all the gross aspects of their sicknesses, Shane and I got sick too...at the same time...messing up the whole weekend! Thankfully, even though it was a nasty, ugly sickness, it was a quick one. We are all feeling waaaay better! Woo Hoo!! Now on to spring, and warmth, and no more cold or flu bugs!!

Since we are all feeling better I decided to make lasagna. I found this really quick and easy recipe....soo good. I've been messing with it a bit to make it taste more like Nan's. It still needs a couple adjustments but it's pretty awesome for a middle of the week meal. I'll post the recipe when I get it mastered. :)

I also got to get my hair done tonight. Well...fixed. I don't know why I do it. I try and save money getting my hair done, mess it up, and then spend way more trying to fix it. It's so bad! This time I just wanted something different and I let Dane color it. Dane is just learning all this by the way but I figured that her teachers would tell her what color to use and that she just had to stick it on there. Well...they told her the wrong color the first time...turned my hair red. Then the next day the other teacher said they had to make it darker to hide the red. So then my hair was super dark and being the pale person that I am, it was pretty shocking. It has faded a bunch so it's wasn't so bad. But then tonight I got blond put back in and it's still not quite right. Much better, but still not what I was hoping for. But one thing that I have learned through all the times of messing with my hair...it grows back! And lucky for me, my hair grows really fast. So next time I want to mess with my hair...please, please, please, remind me that my hair is just fine AS IS. :)

I can't even count how many times I have been puked on the past three days. Shane too...between the both of us I would say we're in the double digits. If you don't want to hear anymore baby grossness than just scroll down.
So it started two days ago, out of the blue, Heidi just throws up all over me. She was acting totally normal before hand and even fine after, so I just thought maybe she drank her milk too fast, she gagged on her cracker...whatever. Then yesterday she was a little clingy and didn't really eat much but she was still pretty much normal. We all sit down to dinner and I'm getting ready to put a bite of food in my mouth when Natalie, who is sitting right across from me, starts projectile vomiting. All over the place. Totally disgusting. By the way...I so am not a great mom at all when it comes to that! I can't handle throw up! Thankfully Shane was home!! So we get Natalie into the bath and I scrub her down and then rub good smelling lotion all over her to get rid of the smell. Shane cleans up downstairs. Yay! Natalie acts like nothing happened and even wants to eat more dinner. So I leave to go to a party and Shane is home with the girls. Not even 10 min after I leave the house, Shane calls me asking me to come home cause Natalie threw up again. She got up a few times during the night but just wanted to sleep with us. Heidi had problems with the other end. Not pretty! After breakfast this morning Natalie was totally fine again. Still recovering a little thank goodness. She wasn't too crazy today. Heidi on the other hand, threw up everything. All morning. Poor thing. I pretty much held her all day. I did love having her sleep in my arms. That doesn't happen very often anymore! She seemed to be getting better and able to hold down some juice and crackers but right before bed she downed some milk and it ended up all over me. So now both girls are in bed and I'm hoping that tomorrow is a better day.


Why are sick babies so adorable??