Daddy Date Night

Natalie and daddy had so much fun. Our parks department puts on such a great program. They had ham and potatoes for dinner. Ryan won 3rd place in the limbo and also was the Cowboy in the YMCA dance!! He won an adult and kids book of coupons for the pool this summer. He also painted her nails, danced, made a door hanger, decorated cups and much more. What a nice evening for them!

6 Month Old

It's hard to believe it, but my little boy is half a year old today! It's amazing how much he (and our lives) have changed in that amount of time. He weigh between 15 lb 4oz and 15 lb 14 oz. He's 24 1/2 inches tall! Some of the things he is now able to do are:

Sit up on his own
Play peek-a-boo pulling a blanket off his face and grinning
Rolling and scooting around on the floor
Purposefully grabbing objects
Eating pureed food as well as sweet potato sticks,cheerios, and bananas!




Jacob, you are such a blessing to my life. You are my calm baby, my easy sleeper. I love the way you smile when you see me. All the change we've had the last 6 months, I know you are always my son. Time is really passing quickly but I love seeing you grow up!

Update On Jacob

Well, he's got RSV, but it should pass pretty quickly! He was 15 pounds 14 oz, and 24 1/2 inches long, so he's growing like a weed! He usually falls asleep using the nebulizer, and alternating Tylenol/Mortrin is really keeping his fever down. He had 103.1 at the worst of it. I like to call him J Wheezy now, but Ryan doesn't like it :-)




He also is a mover and a shaker when he's not sick. He is trying his darndest to either chase Natalie or run away from her! He keeps pulling up a leg and trying to scoot!

Natalie and Jacob!

I don't get to post as many pics with them in the same clothes, so enjoy!

On The Lake

Every since we bought the house, I've been dying to get the kayaks out on the water! We almost sold them when we moved from VA to cut weight, because we figured where are we going to use boats in the middle of the country? Luckily we kept them both! Natalie fits perfectly right between my legs on the bottom. She wore her life vest and helped me paddle too! Everytime I tried to go ashore she said she wasn't ready!


Jacob is enjoying being outside in the nice weather too! He's a happy outdoor kind of guy!



The kids also got to opentheir easter baskets from Grandma and Popaw. They got some cute clothes, personalized painted eggs, and of course CANDY! Everything Jacob got went right in his mouth, of course!

5 Months Old

How time flies. As evidenced by the pictures, Jacob is a drooling little man. I hope some teeth are going to pop out from all this drool and crabbiness. For the most part he is still really happy and pretty much always sleeps through the night. He was sitting up in his little bathtub, and loves sitting in the Bumbo too. I love my little man!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Silly Leprechaun! Turned Natalie's milk green hee hee. She also had pears and pancakes with sprinkles for her yummy St. Patty's breakfast!

"New" House

Well the workers left today and we are LOVING the new look to the house!

Old Front


New Front


Old Back


New Back


You can check out the total project HERE

Doctor Visit

I took both kids into the doctor today - Jacob for a 4 month check up and Natalie for a 3 year old one. No shots for her, and she was MAD. She said she likes getting shots. Jacob did not take his so well. He's been crying most of the morning/early afternoon. I even gave him Tylenol before we went.

Jacob is 25% for height at 24 inches. He is 30% for weight at 14 lb 2 oz. His head is 16.



Natalie is 75% for height at 38 inches. She is 60% for weight at 31.2 pounds. Her head is too big to measure. Just kidding, they just don't do that for her age anymore.

I am blessed to have happy and healthy kids!

Happy 3rd Birthday

3 years ago today my life changed forever. I had my baby girl Natalie. I became a Mom. The best day of my life. I love you so much Natalie! Thanks to my friends and family who came to celebrate her life with us today and those who left us well wishes! I love this girl!

4 Months!

Happy four months of life Jacob! You are a smiley, easy, happy boy! Just looking at you makes you so happy! Natalie made you a kicking toy that you love to play with today. You are also MUCH bigger than your elephant that she made for you before you were born. Today you weighed 14.5 pounds (with mommy holding you and subtracting my weight) or 13 pounds when I tried to make you sit on the scale yourself. You are between 24 and 25 inches, depending where I tried to hold you still! We also tried bananas mixed in your oatmeal today and you really loved it! I can't believe how much you have grown and changed so quickly in just 4 short months! Here you are with your elephant at the hospital! You have grown at least 5 inches and 6 pounds! You can eat, roll, 'talk', hold objects, suck your thumb and so much more!

Jacob Eats and Natalie Spells

Well it's a little early, but Jacob LOVES cereal! He was screaming the whole time I was eating today and mimicing my movements. So we gave it ago and he was nothing but smiles and grins. I'm not sure how much or often we will be giving it to him, but it was a big day for him! Natalie has been spelling a few words on paper for awhile - mom, dad. We've been getting Natalie on paper the last few weeks. But Ryan was reading a book to her and she started spelling "me" and "too". It's a little harder outloud I think, but she knows her upper, lowercase letters and their sounds!

On Being Thrify/Small Town Living

Well after 5 months I think we are adjusted to our new life in a smaller town. As much as I miss the 'city' and all that it has to offer we really are happy here.

Now that we don't shop as much, it's exciting to make a trip to go do stuff at Target or the mall. It's more fun, and not just a chore to get done. Same with eating out. Between less choices around here, and sticking to my menu it is a treat when we go out to eat. We enjoy the food more and I don't feel as guilty about getting an appetizer/drink/dessert since it's not a weekly (or more) occurence. All the stuff we took for granted and (probably overdid)seems new and fun!

I am settling into a routine with friends and activites. The parks department really does a lot here - this month we have a princess party and then in March we have a Dr. Suess birthday celebration and a daddy/daughter date which includes a picture, dinner, and a limo ride! We are enjoying it!

6th Anniversary

Ryan and I went out tonight to celebrate 6 years of marriage, 7 years of engagement, and 8 years of being together! What a ride it has been so far!

We've had
1 dog
2 kids
2 houses
3 rentals (townhouses/apartments)
3 states
8 vehicles(!!!!)

and many more adventures than those stats suggest!

We celebrated by going up to Columbia (kidless I might add). We drove around to some of our old haunts to see what has changed since we haven't been there in 7 years now. Not sure how that happened either!! 7 years since I left college?? We had a great dinner at Outback thanks to a $25 gift card from referring someone to our realtor in VA. Then we hit up Target for some wandering and deal-hunting. After paying $7 for one recesses lightbulb, I was thrilled to find some on clearance AND had coupons so I bought 6 for $4.50...MUCH better!

Ryan and I do traditional gifts, and year 6 is iron so I had my friend make us a wall hanging. Her website is here. We have other small gifts we are exchanging on Sunday when we let the kids do their gifts!

Updates

Not too much new is going on here. Just trying to survive day to day mostly. Here's a little updates on us all!

Natalie -
*Is working on writing her name. She can do it if I tell her the letters, but today she was coloring by herself and wrote "Nat". Never wanted to call her that, but she might be starting it already!
*Will be in preschool this fall, I'm just trying to decide between a 2 day a week or a 3 day a week program.
*Can be sassy/bossy, but is getting better and is great at apologizing for things.
*Dresses herself every morning and 'cleans' her room and 'makes' her bed.
*Eats NON stop. She told me "every night I tell you I'm hunnnnnnnngry". She ate an entire adult grand slam and came home and helped herself to an apple.
*Doesn't ALWAYS make good choices - she drew 4 x's on the tablecloth with marker while I was putting Jacob down for a nap.

Jacob -
*is still happy and smiley most of the time
*had a giant bald spot on the back of his head
*still sports a mohawk
*is in an annoying phase in which he wakes up whining or screaming everytime he loses the paci. sometimes he will suck his thumb othertimes I spend most of nap time trying to keep him asleep
*had forgotten that he can roll over

Kimberlie-
*has 164 friends on k mae designs on facebook
*has been getting lots of work lately, as well as an embroidery machine
*is just trying to make it one day at a time dealing with the kids and being tired from j's aforementioned sleeping problem
*is trying to work out at home, but doesn't like it very much. still i have lost 30 pounds since Jacob's arrival and I only have 7 to go...but fit in *most* of my pants again
*is finding my place with a group of friends here in Sedalia

Ryan-
*is still trying to lose his baby weight, but works out more regularly than me
*gets up almost everytime I do with Jacob, even though he has to work the next day
*is nicer to me than he should be
*still likes his job

Drake-
*loves living outside in the snow
*sleeps on any available couch when we are not looking
*got out of the house the other day and was gone 10 hours in the cold blowing snow. everytime we caught up to him he ran. we finallly put food and water in the garage and then when we came in used the opener to close it behind him. I no longer feel sorry for him being outside, he obviously likes it
*picks up the slack around the house since I've been tired/sick/busy sewing

SNOW much fun!

Ha ha, bad pun, I know. That's what I get for watching too many episodes of CSI. They are full of puns...

We had a blast sledding, riding in the sled, making Paula Dean's Snow Ice Cream, and making snow angels. This was the first year we sent Natalie down a hill and she loved it! Check out this action sequence!






It was a fun day and although it was a little too bright for Jacob's liking, he tolerated it for a little while!

Wordless Wednesday

Coloring Cutie

Natalie LOVES to color and draw. Out of all her toys, she probably likes coloring and drawing at her desk the best. She's gotten pretty good at drawing stick people - she even gives Jacob a little mohawk! Now she's been spending time back in the coloring books and I was surprised at how well she stays in the lines!

Here's a cute picture of her modeling the new dress and bow I made her yesterday! If you aren't a fan of k. mae designs on Facebook, become one please!

Funny Things Natalie Says

It's been awhile since I posted some of these...

I caught her with her Princess Snow Globe in her bed last night. She said "You should put this away, it's dangerous". Like she wasn't the one that put it in her bed...

She is singing "Pants on the ground, looking a foo with your pants on the ground".

I am getting corrected ALL the time. Like if I say to put on shoes, but mean boots. "Silly mommy, you didn't know what those were called".

3 Months Old

My how time flies! My baby is laughing, smiling, rolling and a happy boy! He weighs 12.5 (with me holding him and subtracting at home) and is between 23 and 24 inches long. We love Jacob!