Natalie's 1st haircut

FINALLY!! at the ripe old ago of 3 - Natalie had her 1st haircut. While I have not figured out a way to download the pictures from my phone to the blog yet, I can tell you that she did GREAT! we went to a kid's salon and they know what they're doing! disney tv going and some lollipops at the end. and for the siblings waiting, there was even a toy room. we were in heaven. Here are the final results modeled by my very silly 3 year old.

Not to be outdone by big Sis - Rachel took some cute shots too.

August family vacation

This year, we went to Omaha for our annual vacation and got to visit matt's cousin Renee, Mike and their twins - Mallory and William. we had a GREAT time and took too many pictures! there are so many more good ones but I'm just having alot of issues with the blog site right now to post them all. please feel free to view renee's posting at their webiste: http://mrloftusfamily.blogspot.com

Rachel's 1 year photo session

Annual checkups and stats

Last week, I took both girls (by myself) to the doctor for their annual checkup. Matt had to work and I had the afternoon off and thought it would be great to do two appointments in one. I was armed with books, snacks, drinks, etc... a very active 1 year old and a very caring and creative 3 year old. While we waited, Rachel ran all over the room - never stopping. I'm not sure how that girl eats enough calories but she is really starting to thin out. And Natalie insisted that we play doctor/patient the entire time - even when the doctor was there. She has horrible (but funny) bed side manners I must say and that really cracked up the pediatrician and nurses. So I know that you are all dying to know both stats for the girls.

So here they are:
Rachel - 1 year old
weight: 21.2lbs (50% percentile)
length: 29.75" (55% percentile)
head: 17.5" (25% percentile)
visit: poor little rubuggins got 5 SHOTS! i felt soooo bad for her. The doctor told us that it is time to switch her to whole milk so she officially used up all formula and has been only drinking milk since Sept. 1st. So far, she does not like the taste BUT she will drink water so that's good. Dr. Hayes to give her lots of cheese and yogurt until she tolerates it so every meal we eat at least 1-2 dairy products. Thankfully, Rachel really likes them.
note: Natalie's 1 year stats were weight: 21 (50%), length: 30.25 (80), head: 18.24 (80%)
things she's doing: rachel says mommy, daddy, nana (natalie), hi and out. She likes to sing songs - especially in the car with daddy, loves clapping, waving bye and giving hi-fives. She is very silly and likes to smile and have fun - she can have a temper especially if she wants something and you take it away. To show frustration, she lays down on her back and cries and also stomps. She LOVES to walk and run around the house and is just starting to try and climb. she loves baths with sister and loves the water. she likes when we all go swimming and until recently has been content to stay in her swim raft. she also knows that when it's time to swim, we go out the back door and she will wait there for me. She enjoys most food except milk and veggies. I am trying to work on both. She is a good sleeper and loves her paci. If the paci falls out at night and she can't find it, she cries but will go back to sleep after we poop it back in. She loves her sister and enjoys laughing and playing with her. Rarely is there any sort of frustration between them. Also, she loves to move and hide things - not on purpose but she relocates EVERYTHING. There are specific places she likes to hide things such as the telephone book shelf. She also loves pulling down all of her books and reading them. She is such a joy to us and we are SOOOOOOOO happy she is part of our family.

Natalie - 3 year old
weight: 32.3lbs (50% percentile)
length: 38.25" (50% percentile)
head: they don't check head size anymore but i am happy to say that it's work sufficiently :-)
BMI: is 6 (50% percentile)
visit: thankfully Natalie only had to get a flu mist (nose spray) but she did have to strip down to her undies and wear a white paper robe. I called it her paper dress and she thought that was super cool and kept it on. She looked very little and cute in it.
things she's doing: Natalie is such a good and sweet kid - she continues to make us proud as she gets older and we rarely have any issues with her obeying us. She is a sweet but inquisitive person and she LOVES her little sister and has been very good with her. She has also done a great job with potty training and for the last couple of months has worn panties during the day and we've switched to panties at night for about 2 weeks now. We have had some accidents last week so we are back to pullups until she can keep those dry again. She enjoys going to school and her teacher Ms. Zeena but she has asked for more kids to play with. She loves going to church on Sundays and I think part of it is all the friends her age that she plays with. She loves swimming and has become so fearless this summer. She has a floatie swimsuit and arm floats and will swim the entire pool and loves doing cannon balls, even in the deep end. She can count to 20, sings tons of songs and can read about 10-15 words. she knows all of our names and her address. We are so happy with our big girl and love the person she is becoming.

Baby Rachel - 1 year old

Rachel - a year and two days ago, you decided to come into this world and daddy, mommy and natalie are SOOOOOOOOOO happy that you are apart of our family! You have made our little family more complete and have added more happiness and love into this house. I couldn't imagine life without your sweet smile and happy dispisition, the love that you and your sister have for each other and they way you just light up my life when i think of you. You are my sweet and happy baby (except when taking celfidir - yike!) and we are so blessed that we get to share our lives with you.
love, mom

Trip Report to Louisiana

Two weekends ago, Natalie and I (erica) flew down to New Orleans to see my cutie pie nephew (baby Moses), Aunt Ginger, Uncle Aaron and Mimi. Mimi (my mom) just moved to Mississippi this week and her chuch in Houma, LA was giving her a going away party. My mom has lived in South Louisiana for almost 50 years and has been knowing most of these people forever. They are truely her family and it was so sweet to hear and see all of the wonderful people there. These are the people who have loved on and taken care of my parents and especially my mom over the last couple of years. I did not expect to get so choked up listening to the church members talk about her and my dad but there i was sobbing in the front row. It felt like a part of me was losing my dad and even now that makes me sad. I am so thankful for good friends and I know they will be in my mom's life forever. They told stories about her and kept giving her silly gifts so that at the end she was a "swamp princess". They gave her lots of cajun gifts so she will remember her time there.

ok, enough sadness - let's talk about my cute nephew. I love being able to say that!! since matt is an only child and i only have one sibling, i wasn't sure if/when i would be a real aunt but I am now and i love it!! Moses is such a sweet little boy and i enjoyed cuddling him and holding him. He is a good blend of aaron and ginger but i think he looks more like ginger right now. It will be neat to see how he changes as he grows up. and Natalie loved holding her baby cousin. I just love the expression in her face after Moses spits up. Too funny! Just makes me want another one!

I love this picture of Moses and me - it's too cute! looks like aunt erica's boring him already....he he

Sick little girl

Today was suppose to be the start of our 2011 family vacation but alittle someone got sick yesterday and was running high fevers (like 103 temps!). We were sooooo bummed about this but we just couldn't let Rachel travel with such high temperatures and the doctor said we just needed to wait it out (since it's viral) so Matt and I made the decision last night for Rachel and me to stay at home and he and Natalie flew out today to Omaha.

Ok, i'm going to step off the pity wagon and tell you about my wonderful little girl. I just fall more in love with Rachel every day. I love this part of being a parent - when you start to see your child's personality coming thru and you get to know them. Rachel is my little trooper. She is such a happy girl - even when she's sick. She's doing better as the day goes on but she has slept alot and is still running 101-102 temps. We've done several tepid baths when it's spiked and she hates them but she tolerates the baths because that's just who she is. She's made me laugh today and I just love her so much. i'm enjoying my one on one time with her but I do hope she gets better so that we can fly out tomorrow and meet up with the rest of our family for a few days of fun. rachel is such a sweetheart - she was chillin with me on the floor today, snacking on puffs and water out of sippy cup. I was enjoying some coffee and a travel book. She's the best!!

Birthdays

Just a quick posting (since i don't have any pictures) about the girl's birthday parites. Rachel's birthday is next Wednesday but since daycare is closed next week we had her 1st birthday party at school on Thursday. The theme was "Bubble Guppies" and I made the birthday invitations myself. I also made cupcakes with blue icing and goldfish (natalie helped me add yellow and red sprinkles - and took a couple of bites of icing to "test" it). she was a good little helper. Rachel got some nice presents and had a good birthday. When Zeena gets back, I'll try and get some picture and add to this post.

Yesterday (Friday) morning we had the girl's joint birthday party. Matt and I both took off work and had a small turnout. It was really nice and we had alot of our friends from church come over. We booked the party table at the Lewsiville Water park (our favorite!) and had another Bubble Guppies party but this time we got a custom cake (much better than my cupcakes). Since we didn't bring a camera to the pool, I took a picture of the cake when we got home. It may or may not have a few more guppies missing at this point.....what can i say - this is GOOD cake!!

When we get back from vacation, we'll have one more party (for natalie) at daycare and then we're done with our month of birthday parties (july 27-august 26 usually equals 4 minimum parties since everyone but me had birthdays during this time). I am officially going on a diet after natalie's birthday!!