Big girl car seat...

Sad day for this Mommy as we got Natalie's "big girl" car seat out yesterday.

It took Mom & Dad some time getting the seat put in both the car & truck 

so it was nice and tight -  but we got it done.

Here's Natalie riding in style on the way to daycare this morning...

I looked back in my mirror once and noticed her hat was off and she was trying

to push herself up in the seat so she could see out the window,

but she's so tight in that car seat that she's not going anywhere!

Happy Monday Everybody!



Weston Michael

Friday, April 27th at 8:38 a.m. Weston Michael Brouwer arrived!

And I must say he is so stinkin' cute!

I ran over my lunch hour on Friday to meet him for the 1st time,

here's Frannie watching Wanda - the nurse taking Weston's temperature!



 Aunt Di-Di holding Weston Michael...

On Saturday I took Natalie up to the hospital to meet her new little cousin,

I think she likes him!  Carson the big brother does good with him as well!

 

Then on Sunday after church we stopped by the hospital

so Uncle Nathan could meet the little guy...

Natalie got to hold baby Weston all by herself...

 

We think you are a keeper lil' Weston Michael, welcome to the family!

We love you little guy!

Soon we'll have another little baby in the family, we can't wait to welcome another little girl to the family in just a couple of weeks - then we'll have 2 girls and 2 boys!

Bite my Baby?

Now who would "bite my baby"? 

I guess a little boy at daycare yesterday thought Natalie looked yummy as he gave her her 1st bite mark on her arm.  When I picked her up after work she was still upset about it....poor baby!

I think she is over it now though, here she is in her pj's ready for bed!

Petal to the Park

....okay well maybe Natalie didn't petal to the park (Mommy did) but Natalie did get to ride in her new bike cart, doesn't she look so little in there?

First stop when we got to the park, the swings...

In this next picture you can really see her two cute little teeth....

Off to the merry-go-around...

And the slide...

Last stop - driving the fire truck! 

Back in her bike cart, ready to head home...have to have Mr. Blankey though!

What a beautiful night to take our 1st bike ride to the park!

Waterpark Weekend!

Third time is the charm....we've had the "waterpark weekend" planned two other times but we had to keep postponing it due to weather and a death in the family but this past weekend we finally met Nathan's family in Barneveld, Wisconsin at Deer Valley Lodge Hotel and Waterpark.  It was a nice little drive for all of us, our trip was around 2 1/2 hours, which isn't bad at all!  We loaded up right after work on Friday and once everybody arrived the boys couldn't wait to try out the slides and had so much fun, us gals waited till Saturday to join in on the fun!

Here are a few pictures of the waterpark fun...

And here are a few snapshots of the "cousins" hanging out together...

What a fun weekend we had as a family!

8 months old

Natalie is 8 months old today...

....she currently weighs around 20 lbs.

(according to our bathroom scale)

....is around 31 inches long (according to our tape measure)

.....loves her cereal w/fruit at lunch time and then her veggies and maybe fruit at supper time.  She doesn't always want both.  She also is loving all the little snacks/finger foods we've been giving her lately!  She is still taking her 4 bottles a day as well and we've offered her a sippy cup of water the past couple of months and just lately she has figured out how to get it high enough up to her mouth in order to get some water out....then of course throws it on the floor, she thinks it's so funny!

...is drooling off and on - depends on the day I guess.  Had 1 little tooth pop through this past month, it's on the bottom and it's so darn cute! And just last night I spotted another one coming through right next to the one she has already! 

....is still a great sleeper, heads to bed around 8:00 p.m. every night and sleeps all night, getting up between 6:00 am/6:30 am - I sometimes even have to wake her up so we can get ready & head out the door on time!  What a sleepy head!

....still loves her baths and has graduated to the "BIG" girl tub this past month.  Loves to try to eat the bubbles and grab the water as the tub is filling up!

....is still wearing size 3 diapers

....is wearing mostly 12 month clothes now.  She is getting low on the warm pj's that fit her so we hope the warm weather comes around again so we can stick her in the summer 2 piece sets we got her for Easter!

....loves to talk, talk, talk

...still has the best little smile

....is still enjoying her new daycare, I call her the "Social Butterfly" as there are days that she only sleeps 2 hours total while she is there and at home on the weekends she'll sleep 1-2 hours in the morning and another 3-4 hours in the afternoon.....we must be boring!  I think she just sleeps better when it's quiet.

....is crawling and pulling herself up to everything

....is still our cute little thumb sucker

....plays so well by herself, but loves it when anybody is on the floor playing with her....she is also really getting into her noisy toys lately - loves music/songs!

....still doesn't like to be by herself in a room but now that she can follow up she seems to be happier

....celebrated her 1st Easter as a family of 3, our celebrations started on Palm Sunday when we had my family over then the following week we celebrated again, a scavenger hunt/Easter egg hunt at Mom & Gary's.  Then on Easter Sunday we went to church and then hung out together in the afternoon!

Happy 8 month birthday baby girl!

We love you!

Happy Birthday Aunt Angie....

It's 4-12 and you know what that means - it's Aunt Angie's Birthday today!

Here are just a few pictures of Aunt Angie and Natalie over the last 7 months!

She was one of the 1st visitors at the hospital...

She went with us to Natalie's 1st UNI Volleyball game...

They hung out together at cousin Carson's 2nd birthday...

 

Played on the floor together at Thanksgiving...

And then came Christmas time....

 Happy Birthday Aunt Angie!

We love you!

Hope you have a great day!

(Took this picture this morning with my phone, pretty good huh! 

Note the cute shoes - they were in her Easter basket from Aunt Angie!)

Another 1st...

Last night Natalie took her 1st bath in the big girl bath tub, here are a few snapshots of her having fun and thinking she is "BIG" stuff....

Good Night Everybody!

Natalie's 1st Easter

What a beautiful Easter we had together yesterday - the sun was shining right away in the morning, which always helps with your mood for the day! 

When we got up we noticed that the Easter bunny had left a basket full of goodies for our little girl!  Of course she liked the red ball that she got from the "Great Hunt" the night before the best!   

She finally did put the ball down and dig into the rest of her stuff!

Here is Mommy & Natalie all dressed up and ready for church...

which by the way was another great service!

And Daddy and his little princess...

The 3 of us after church, getting ready to have lunch at Mom & Gary's house!

And the Brouwer family of 3 - hopefully the last picture of their family of 3,

we can't wait to meet their new little baby boy!

Onto Easter baskets....aka bags from Frannie & Grandpa Gary. 

The kids got spoiled again!

Carson having fun with his new blocks!

After we left Frannie & Grandpa's house we headed home for naps

and then just hung out as a family of 3 in the afternoon,

celebrating another one of Natalie's 1st holidays - Happy 1st Easter baby girl!

"The Great Hunt"

Saturday night we headed to Mom & Gary's for "the great hunt" with our family and the neighbors, it wasn't the normal hunt - they put a fun little twist on it!

Here's the garage all set-up for a night of fun, including these two cute bunnies that were in the garage to greet us, aren't they cute?

Onto the great hunt, here's team "GREEN" all ready to go!

Good luck Ron, Adian & Colton...

And team "BLUE" which was made up of Grant, Gavin, Jace...

Team "YELLOW" - Chris, Carl & Carson....and where's Carson you may ask?

Oh there he is - stocking up on the candy, he might get hungry on his hunt!

Better stock up...

And last but not least, team "RED" ... Gary, Nathan & Natalie!

Each team started off with a clue which took them to their team's colored prize and the next clue, which team is going to win "the great hunt"?

Here's team yellow having a great time,

they were always losing your youngest player....

And the red team was always losing it's oldest player....

Besides each team having to find the clues/prizes they also had 12 colored eggs to find in Mom and Gary's back yard, here's Carl and Carson busy looking for all those yellow eggs...

And the blue team....

Natalie and Carson got tired pretty early so they sat on the deck with Frannie while their team mates finished the hunt....in the end each team found their teams' prizes/clues plus lots of colored eggs. 

After the "great hunt" it was time for supper, we had some yummy turkey, cheesy potatoes, corn, salads and these fun deviled eggs that Nathan made...

After supper it was time for some bunny birthday cake, we sang "Happy Birthday" to both Chris & Ang...

Here are the boys sitting at the kid's table enjoying their cake and ice cream!

And the soon to be parents, Chris & Kasey...

What a fun night we had together and the weather worked out perfectly, the sun came out just in time for the "great hunt".  I think everybody had a great time and each team went home with lots of fun prizes plus tons of candy!