Bubble Bath

Last night's activity was a nice warm bubble bath on a cold evening!

While in the bath we laugh...

Play...

Try and eat the washcloth...

And even suck our thumb...

Then it's towel time...

Lotion time.....

Pajama & reading time - our favorite time of the night...

It's a very serious activity, as you can tell in the last two photos!

We certainly had a great evening, hope you did as well!

Sleeping Beauty

Sunday afternoon activity consisted of.........

...a nice long 3 hour nap, sleeping beauty was tired I guess!

5 month old

WOW!  It's January 20th already and Natalie is 5 months old today...

....she currently weighs just over 16 lbs

(according to her doctor's appt last Monday)

....is over 27 inches long (according to her doctor's appt last Monday)

.....still eating cereal at night

...is a drooling fool, I think she has a tooth that is very close to coming through

....is still a great sleeper

....still loves her baths and speaking of water she got to go enjoy a swimming pool this past month while sporting a very cute swimming suit I might add!

....has moved up to size 3 diapers

....is wearing some 6 month clothes plus some 9 month stuff

....loves to giggle and talking more and more,

I think I've even heard her Ma-Ma a couple of times

...is a very smiley girl, even to strangers...not sure that is a good thing!

....seems to be doing great at daycare still,

I even got a text video from the sitter yesterday of Natalie

just giggling at another girl that was playing peek-a-boo with her!

....is rolling over, left to right and right to left - she is even starting to go from back to tummy and tummy to back.....she is becoming a pro at that rolling stuff!

....still a thumb sucker, which I think is so darn cute

....is loving all her new toys that she got from Christmas

....has just started to realize when we leave the room where she is playing

and gets a little scared, I hope it's just a phase!

Happy 5 month birthday baby girl!

We love you!

Weekend in Peoria...

Friday night we packed up and headed to Peoria, IL for the weekend. 

The Iowa car loads got there late Friday night and the Indiana crew joined us on Saturday mid-morning!  We had a great time together hang out and catching up with one another.  We "trashed" the gathering room all day but it worked out great, we could play, hung out and come & go all day long in this nice big room. 

Here is sweet Zion giving kisses to Natalie...

Natalie hanging out with Tasha, I really think she is just admiring her long hair...

Then Saturday night we celebrated Zoey's 4th birthday with a "Tangled" theme...

Dessert.....what is better than a "Scratch" cupcake? 

Yes we hauled them to Peoria with us...

Grandma & Natalie hanging out...

Now let's add the birthday girl...

Check out those fun glasses...

Onto the presents...

Jamie, Peggy & Carson hanging out...

More hanging out - Justin, Zion, Abby and Blake...

Zoey blowing out her candle....

Yummy!  Do you think Zoey enjoyed her cupcake a.k.a frosting?



Happy 4th Birthday Zoey!

Then on Sunday morning before we packed up and headed home

Nathan took Natalie for her 1st "swim" in a pool and liked it!

I have a feeling she is going to be our little fish some day!

Here's the cutie showing off her cute swim suit!

There's my little fish all smiles...



Kick, kick, kick...

What a great weekend we had, it's always so fun getting together with family espcially the ones we don't get too see very often, what fun memories!



Monday-Monday-Monday!

This week is going to be a little different for Natalie as daycare is closed, our sitter is on a Cruise this week so today I stayed home with Natalie.  What a great way to start off my week, I dislike Mondays at work anyway. 

Our day consists of a 9:00 a.m. doctor appointment, it is her 4 month check-up....a little late.  It was the first time I could get her into the doctor as their schedules are very busy, but it worked out great as I had the day off anyway. 

She weighs 16 lbs 4 ounces and is 27 inches long.  She is becoming a BIG girl!  She also got shots, which is a lot harder on Mommy of course. 

After her appointment we stopped by my office to say "HI" to everybody, they couldn't believe how big she had gotten....they hadn't seen her since I stopped in during maternity leave.  After that we headed home for a nice long nap.  After her nap she played a little bit but you could tell she wasn't her playful self, I'm sure her legs are a little sore as well!  She can be out of it today but hopefully tomorrow she is back to her regular self as she is spending the day with Frannie & Carson tomorrow, I'm sure they will have a great day!

Here she is snuggling with Daddy...

Can't tell this little cutie isn't feeling the best tonight, can you? 

Fun Times....

This week we have spent our evenings playing with all of Natalie's new toys,

not sure who is having more fun Natalie or us!  Natalie has also learned a few new things lately......here she is doing "SO BIG!"  Sorry she is too quick for me,

 I never got a picture of her hands on top of her head!

She continues to love her jumper...

Playing peek-a-boo...

Last night we grabbed a bite to eat at Applebee's, last time we were there Natalie was a just a couple weeks old and she slept the whole time.....not this time,

this time she had to help Nathan pick out what he was going to have for supper!

What a big helper she is!



And I'll leave you with this fun picture, this is what she wore to daycare today....sporting her wild green socks, headband and new shirt that says

"My Dad Rocks!" which I picked up on clearance for $2 this week!

I love bargains!

Hope you are all having a great week, we sure are!



Christmas @ the Rauschs'

Friday night we loaded up the car and headed north to Nathan's parents' house for the weekend.  It was a chance for us to see more family and celebrate one last Christmas for the year!

The girls didn't make the late Iowa Football game but here they are cheer on the Hawks during the pre-game party we had...

On Saturday we just hung out, visited Great Grandma Rausch and then opened gifts in the afternoon.  Here are the two girls (Emmalee & Natalie) hanging out with Grandpa while we're getting breakfast!

Onto opening gifts, the boys (Braeden & Nolen)

got matching Iowa Hawkeye's bedding sets...

Nathan got tools...

Dennis & Carolyn got a weekend away from us kids...

Braeden got a sleeping bag...

Darren FINALLY got his box of 64 crayons (he's waited years for these) I guess...



The boys got a box of Kenox, which are kind of like Legos - looks like the BIG boys are enjoying them more then the little boys...

The little girls slept right through opening gifts, but they both made out pretty good by getting new socks, bibs, books, sleepers and a couple new toys!

After naps they both hung out with Uncle Eric for a little while, he really didn't know what to do with two of them!

It was always boys-boys-boys until these Lil' Princesses entered the world...

Grandkids take a break from playing with all their new toys for a quick snapshot...

Now a snapshot with Grandpa & Grandma!

And the adults...

Girl talk & play...

We gave Braeden this game for Christmas.  

I couldn't believe this was a "real" game as we played this game all the time when I was a kid, but thought it was a game we made-up, nope I spotted it at Blain's before Thanksgiving I just had to get it.

I think the adults really got into it as well, let's just say it got pretty wild toward the end of the night!

This is what Natalie did while we played "Giant Spoons", she was one busy girl!

We ended the year by headed to bed early as we had a full day of fun!

Hopefully you had a great ending to 2011 as well!

Onto 2012, we can't wait to see what's in store for our family!