Natalie's first Oatmeal

 Natalie has seemed really eager to eat food.  She has been eating puff's for the past week as snacks so today I tried oatmeal.  She spit most of it out but she loved the whole process and would open wide as soon as the spoon got close to her mouth.  I think I will get some vegetables next time I am at the store so we can start trying other things out!

Sister Pictures!

St. Mathews Festival

We packed up the girls and took them to the St. Matthew's Festival this year.  When I was much younger I enjoyed going to the festival too!  We told Samantha we were going to go and ride a bunch of rides and she was so excited! The first thing she wanted to ride was the swings.  Since she is small they put an extra seatbelt on her to keep her safe.

 She is on the far left here.  She couldn't stop smiling.  And she ended up riding the swings many more times this evening!  Since Jeff gets motion sickness really easy, he got queasy just watching her go around and around!

This little fish ride was perfect for her.  She was able to go by herself and she loved that independence.

We rode this ride together since it went so high and fast!  It is so nice finally having someone share my love for rides!

Samantha got her hair spray painted. She even picked out the color.  The next morning when showered together it looked like Barney threw up in our shower!

One ride that Jeff's stomach can handle is the big slide.  So Samantha and Jeff went down the slide together a couple of times. 

 It was so cute seeing them come down the slide holding hands.

Miss Natalie came too but she was too little for any of the rides.  We did carry her around in the Bijorn and she seems to like looking at all the bright lights and new sounds!

Samantha's First Dentist Visit

 Now that Samantha is 3 years old it was time for her to start visiting the Dentist.  So we ended up taking her to Dr. Heiny's son, Dr. Hanin. We talked about going to the Dentist for weeks prior to the trip to prepare her and I think it worked.  Once she got comfortable she did a really good job and was so brave!

 She got a little nervous in the beginning but she warmed up quickly and actually liked get her teeth cleaned.  Jeff and I were really happy that she didn't have any cavities!

Showing off her sparkly princess smile!

Pictures from this morning!

 Sisterly love!

Daddy figured out how to do pig tails and he did a great job!

Cousins go to church together!

 Gram has been taking all the kids to church on Wednesday nights. Since all three of them together can be a challenge a parent always goes to help. Tonight was Jeff's turn to help and from the looks of this picture they had fun!

Hand pile!

Natalie's 4 month check up!

 Today I took Miss Natalie to her 4 month check up with Dr. Heiny. She was such a happy girl and smiled so much!

She loved looking at herself in the mirror and would literally crack herself up laughing!

Weight = 13 lbs 5.5 oz (50th percentile)

Height = 25 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circ. = 17 inches (90th percentile)

Natalie is 4 months old today!

Miss Natalie turned 4 months old today.  So we took our monthly photo shoot and all the pictures turned out so good I had to post all three.

 I just love her gummy smile!

Good Morning Mommy Pictures!

 Jeff still sends me a "Good Morning Mommy" picture every day. 

Here are a few from the past few weeks that are super cute!

 Look how tan Miss Samantha is this summer!

 There is nothing better than a gummy smile first thing in the morning.

 Wide awake!

 Samantha loves helping Daddy get Natalie ready in the morning.  What a great big sister!

 Such a happy girl all the time!  We are so blessed to have had Natalie join our family.

 Samantha is such a goofy girl, but she likes calling herself "silly".

 Half way awake, only one eye open!

Excited to go spend her day with Miss Lynne!

Brave

To escape the heat today we took the girls to their very first movie in the theater.  Samantha was really excited for the new experience but I think she would have been happy to just sit thru the previews and leave!  She talked and squirmed thru the whole movie but I am glad we took them so they could have the experience.  And actually Natalie was quite the whole time and just watched the movie then took a nap!

The end of T-ball - Go Cubs!

Jumparoo - Natalie

Now that Miss Natalie is rolling over and trying to sit up we went ahead and got the jumparoo out and all cleaned up.  She still cannot reach the floor to actually jump but she likes just hanging out and checking out all the toys.  I cannot believe that my little 3 month old girl is growing up so fast!

The sweetest sound on earth.

Happy 4th of July!

 Happy 4th of July!

 We got up and went to the Gahanna parade.  It was really good this year and Samantha loved collecting all the candy! She has such a sweet tooth!

 Natalie slept thru the whole parade! And since it was so hot I stood over her and fanned her so she wouldn't get too hot!

After the parade we went home for naps (well Jeff and the girls took naps) and then we went to my mom's for our annual 4th of July celebration.  However this was the first year in a long time that the weather was nice enough to actually spend the day out at the pool.  Samantha has really turned into a swimmer fish in the past couple weeks! She is even jumping off the diving board all by herself.  And she really prefers to swim without any floatation device!  Miss Natalie on the other hand really prefers to stay inside. Unless there is shade in the pool where mommy can hold her and dip her feet into the water!

Red, White and Boom

This year my dad invited us down to his house for Red, White and Boom.  So we asked Jeff's parents to watch Natalie overnight (my first night away from her) so we could take Samantha to see the fireworks. We cooked out and enjoyed the night in the nice cool air conditioner with clean bathrooms!

 We took a walk down by all the action and I got a "fair food" favorite; funnel cake!

 Over by COSI there were these little fountains that the kids loved playing in for a little bit.  It was so hot outside so I am sure they enjoyed cooling down a little bit.

 Here is the view of Broad St. from my Dad's balcony.

Come 10:00 we walked down Broad St so we could get a better view of the fireworks.  Samantha just had to have a glow necklace! She was not super excited for the fireworks b/c she was so tired but she wasn't afraid of them either so that was good.

Here is a short video of the fireworks finale.