just some cute pics of my silly girl

Natalie loves her Papa

Natalie gets so excited every afternoon when Papa gets home from work. She loves playing with him.

Ants in your....

... bed. Yep, that's right. In your BED!... well, in OUR bed. Last night. 2am. I woke up with my left hand stinging like crazy. I was sleeping with it under my pillow and in my 2am-just woken-up state of mind, couldn't figure out why my hand was hurting. I thought for a second that it was just asleep or tingly because I'd been lying on it... but it kept hurting, so I got up to go in the other room and look at it. Once I saw it in the light, I could tell that something had bitten/stung me 3 times. I went back to the bedroom to wake up Joe and tell him something was in the bed (I'm thinking spider), but when I got back in there, he was already awake because his arm was stinging too.

I turned on the lamp and didn't see anything, so I picked up the pillows, and the bed was covered in ants. I was confused/mad/sleepy/hurting/dazed... did I say confused... and I couldn't figure out why there would be ants in our bed. And why they wanted to be there at 2am. I pulled the sheets off the bed while Joe was in the bathroom counting his ant bites. (12 on the arm, 2 on the shoulder).

We moved the bed away from the wall and saw where a whole little ant invasion was taking place. They were coming through the bedroom wall... don't ask me how... right behind our bed. We just stood there in our confused/mad/sleepy/hurting/dazed (2am remember) state watching the ants do their little ant march right through our wall... I'm telling you half the colony was in our bed already, and the other half was quickly joining them. Finally we woke up and formulated a plan... Joe attacked them with the ant spray while I got clean sheets for the bed.

After a thorough inspection of our bed and pillows, we re-made the bed. We were just a little paranoid though since the ants had been right by our heads, so we left the bed in the middle of the room and slept the rest of the night with our heads on the foot end of the bed.

Oh, I forgot to mention... sometime during the chaos of battling the ants, I panicked and thought they might be in Natalie's bed too... I grabbed a flashlight and ran to her bed. She was sleeping very soundly... having no clue of the ant mayhem at hand. I very carefully (every mom knows you don't want to wake a sleeping baby) inspected her bed, blankets, skin, wall, etc. and all was clear.

After all that, we got back in bed... about 2:20... I finally fell asleep again around 3:00. The 40 minutes in between were torturous, as I was sure every creepy-crawly thing out there was in my bed about to get me.

Needless to say, no pics to go with this one.

New Nikes

Yesterday after church, we went to the mall where Natalie got her first real pair of shoes. Until now, she's only had those tiny, soft, newborn shoes and then some sandals and flip flops for the summertime so I was pretty excited to pick out her first real pair. She's starting to walk by herself some (without holding on to me or the furniture) and she always walks with her toes curled under, so I thought some shoes might help her. When I first put them on her, she wasn't quite sure what to do with something on her feet, but she's slowly getting the hang of it. And she just looks so cute in them.

I know that this probably isn't as exciting for anyone else as it is for me, but after telling the saleswoman yesterday that I'd take pictures and blog about the shoes, I felt obligated. The reason I told her I'd blog? Well, this was my alternative to her suggestion that in order to preserve this "first pair of shoes" memory, I get the shoes bronzed for "only" $150.

It's About Time

Natalie got her first tooth today! WOO HOO! I was starting to think she'd never get any teeth at all. At 9 1/2 months old, it's about time! It's barely through at all... you can feel a sharp point on her gums, but it's still hard to see... but, I'm still excited. I've been waiting forever for her to get teeth. I have a feeling that she'll cut several more pretty soon.

And... she is starting to walk on her own. I think the unaided step count is at 6 right now. But, 6 steps without holding on to anything is pretty good for a 9 month old.

Wowed by the Window

Last weekend my parents bought new livingroom furniture and it was delivered yesterday. Tuesday afternoon, I decided that the room needed to be painted before the new furniture got here so I had Mom bring some paint home from work and Tuesday about 7pm, we cleared the room and started painting. (The room looks great and the new furniture is beautiful! I'll post those pictures in a few days once everything - curtains, pictures, etc. - get put back up so you can see the complete look.) ... Anyway, on to the point of this post.... Natalie had a ball yesterday playing in the empty livingroom. I'm usually having to follow her around to keep her from getting into something, but because everything was cleared out for the new furniture, I just blocked the exits and let her play where she wanted. The window was one of her favorite places. She hasn't ever been able to stand at the windows because there's usually a chair, table, or something in front of them. Here are a couple of pictures of her at the window. If you look closely you can get a peek at the new paint.

mommy confessions

I was reading Mommy Confessions, one of my favorite blogs to visit, this morning and her latest blog was something I could really relate to. I won't retell her whole blog, but here's the best piece of it:

We can spend all of our free time toiling away at making our house nice and tidy, but why? Who are we trying to impress? Our kids don't care. They'd much rather spend the time making memories and traditions, which is sometimes messy business, than spend the time picking up toys and putting everything back in it's place.

If you want to read the entire post, or any of her other posts.... they're very entertaining... you can find the link in "blogs i read" on the right side of the page.

go. read. you'll like it.

Today's Photo Shoot

It is so incredibly hard to take a picture of a 9 month old! I wanted to take some pics of Nat today while she was playing, but she never stops moving!! Or... when she noticed I had the camera she wanted to come play with it. I was either chasing her or being attacked by her. Speaking of attacked... she whacked me in the head with a matchbox car today. And as if that wasn't painful enough, the wheels got stuck in my hair and then she yanked the car... talk about pain! She thought it was hilarious!

Tent Time with Gregory

Natalie absolutely adores her big cousin, Gregory. He is always so sweet to her and lets her join in with whatever he's playing. Tonight, he built a tent, and of course had only been in it a few seconds before Natalie went crawling over to play with him. She had so much fun in there playing with Gregory and his tools. (She loves hammering).

Nat's Best Buddy

Wyatt came over to play on Saturday. He and Natalie have so much fun playing (fighting over toys) together. It's hilarious to watch them "talk" to each other and chase each other around the living room.

Mammie's Little Helper

Here's Natalie helping Mammie clean out some old magazines. She had lots of fun rattling (and eating) the paper and magazines.

9 mo check up

Natalie went for her 9 month check up on Monday. She weighed 20 lbs 4 ozs and was 29 inches tall (I can say tall instead of long now, because she stands up most of the time). The doctor said she was very tall for her age. She was such a good girl at the doctor so afterwards we went to Babies R Us and bought a new outfit.

Our 4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th! We spent Friday at the Wiggins' lake house. I didn't count, but someone else who was there said there were about 50 people all together. Saturday, we had a pool party with the family. Here are the pics.

Natalie swinging with Carrie and Danielle

Playing with Danielle right before the huge downpour

Out on the boat enjoying the lake and sunshine

The yummiest dessert ever... and probably the prettiest

This is how Natalie spent a lot of her day at the lake... playing in her pack n play

Right before we left to go home... Natalie was sleepy and not that happy.

Natalie with two of her favorite people... Boo and Carrie (She really likes Boo because he feeds her popcicles)

This is one pooped little girl. She had a fun and exhausting day at the lake. She was asleep before we even got out of the driveway.

Next day at the pool party

Natalie and Daddy taking a little break from strolling to Boo and Carrie's house after the pool party.

9 months old!

My baby is 9 months old today! She's finally been out as long as she was in. We're (ok, I'm) starting to plan her one year old birthday party. I can't wait for her to turn 1. If you have any great birthday party ideas or know of any good websites/resources, let me know.

We've Gone Forward Facing

Natalie is in a forward-facing carseat!! Actually, she's been forward facing for a couple of weeks now and has really enjoyed being able to see where she's going, but we were using the carseat Mom bought for her car when Gregory was little until we could find one we liked. Yesterday we got Babies R Us coupons in the mail so we went today to pick out a seat. We found this one and ended up getting it on sale in addition to the coupon. It was regularly $150 and we got the seat plus an extended warrenty for $77. I was pretty excited. Natalie loves her new seat! And she looks so cute in it! She also got cool little bongos today, but everytime I tried to take a picture of her playing with them, she crawled away... I'll try for those again later.

What happened to June?

July 1st already?? I can't believe how the summer is flying by. We've got an action packed 4th of July weekend coming up. Fireworks at Chelsea Park on Thursday night, Cookout at the Wiggins' lake house on Friday, the 4th, Pool party with the family on Saturday. Pictures coming soon.