Little Bakers

The house is all a buzz today. Our first party of the summer. Some of you may know that my Mother in Law is living with us now. Today is her birthday, so we are having Grandma's Birthday party here tonight. So cousins are coming over to play. We are gonna get the firepit going and roast marshmallows and catch fireflies. All those fun summertime things. But first we have to make some cake! So the kids helped me make two. One was an ice cream cake which I am hoping will be delicious. Second was vanilla ice cream cone cupcakes. Of course after all that work, you have to sample the batter and lick the beaters... YUM!

Natalie's Baby Love

Miss Natalie is a baby lover. She will just hang around baby carriers and strollers and just stare at them. Always trying to be helpful by retrieving toys or bottles for baby. So I thought that she would have a blast when mommy brought home my friends little guy to hang out with us one day when Ethan and Elena were in Bible School. Oh did she ever love it! Here she is with her new buddy Chase. Chase just turned one not to long ago, so there really is just a year between them. She couldn't leave this poor little guy alone. He is the happiest little baby, always has a huge smile and these cute laughing eyes. A few hours with miss Natalie had him almost in tears. She was loving him a bit too much. Constantly smootching on him trying to hug him.
It was funny to see her being on the other end though. Being the baby, she usually just follows her brothers and sister's lead. But here she got to be the one to say "No, Baby" and give toys and take toys away.
When it was almost time to go, he started to get tired and was fussing a bit. Natalie kept getting in his face saying "mommy?" meaning did he want his mommy, then when we got to the church parking lot, she starts looking for his moms car. When she sees it she starts yelling" Baby Mommy!!" I think she was done with her little play date :) Funny how different things are in just a year. That little baby was her just a year ago..

First Haircuts

A trip over to the beauty salon yesterday to get all the kiddos some fresh new do's actually went well. Miss Natalie has never had a haircut so this was the official first one. She sat in her stroller and watched Elena and Ethan and when we asked her if she was getting her hair cut, she said Nooo. and wrinkled her little nose.

She did soo well. She sat nicely through the whole thing. Didn't get wiggly until Aunt Amie was checking it. I was so proud of her! Now Miss Elena was a hard one. I have been wanting to cut her hair shorter for some time, but I wasn't ready to do it. She has been asking for it lately and I am tired of always pulling it up in braids to keep it off her neck. Of course making this hair appt yesterday I realized I never had her 4 yr old pictures taken, so we had to rush by the Picture Me place in Walmart before we went to the salon. So here she is before.....And here she is after 8 inches cut off!! Isn't she lovely? She is so full of herself now. I kept telling her she looks like a brand new girl. so last night she says to me. "mom, from now on you can call me Olibia" I said" What?" Then she says or maybe Stacy. I started cracking up, she thought that she really is a new girl so she can pick a new name! Oh what a crazy child. I said Oh no, you can name one of your stuffed animals that. Your name will always be Elena Catherine
Oh she had to walk around and get everyone to ohh and ahh over her. Same when we went to Valley Beach and when we came home she had to show the neighbors. I can only imagine how she will be at VBS today. Her poor teachers :) Her daddy is still in denial. I don't think he thought I would really cut it short.

Here is Aunt Amie with the crew, all fresh with new haircuts.

She takes such good care of us:)

Funny Little Obsession

I had to laugh when I was reading my friend Cristie's blog the other day and she was talking about her daughter having an obsession with toothpaste and was always was bringing it with her. Miss Natalie has an obsession with deodorant! I am always ordering samples of them so I usually have a few small ones around. Natalie likes getting in the drawer and putting it on like mommy. She especially prefers the Ban with the green container. The other day when I was in the shower she got awfully quiet. When I peeked out she had pulled off her jumper, unsnapped her shirt and was putting deo all over her belly and arms. I was absolutely cracking up!
Another day in the life of our silly little monkey

Elena's Spring Concert

This was a big event. She had a program for Christmas, so she was thrilled about getting to sing on stage again. She practiced the entire day of the event. She knew her songs and all the hand motions to each of them. We had to go to the beauty shop so Aunt Amie could put her hair up so pretty AND she had to wear all of her sparkly bracelets too. This was a big deal :)Getting ready to go on stage. You can see her brother Ethan in the background trying to get her attention. She was a little nervous here. I cannot imagine being a kid in this day in age. They start to walk into the sanctuary and 300 cameras and video cameras go off, It's crazy!Natalie was so excited to see her sissy up on stage! She was screaming "sissy!" and waving. She really flipped out when Elena heard her and waved back. So cute!! After the long 20 minute program, they show a slide show of the kids with pics they took during the year, so Elena sat with mommy to enjoy it.
Elena was the best little performer up there if you ask me. Of course her favorite part of the night was going into the gym for punch and cookies. Poor little thing, we could only stay a quick second because we had to rush off to Ethan's first T-ball practice. But she had a moment to pose for some pictures for her Grandpa Witt. Here is one he got of the girls.

Curious and Curiouser

What happens when you let a two year old explore the little world around her? It makes for some pretty funny stories for a mommy and daddy to embarrass her with for years to come! I cannot tell you how many times a day miss Natalie makes me laugh. Now that we are in warm weather time and all the little creepy crawlies are coming out, she is fascinated! She will stop what she is doing, get down to its level and just stare in awe. Of course when one ant actually crawled on her, she wasn't so happy about it. From above they are sure fun to watch! Here she is the first time she really noticed that something had snuck on the back porch. She laid right down to get a closer look. Ants are amazing! Then another day we had left a stick of butter on the table from dinner the night before. She got up and thought she might try it out for her morning snack. (ick) She had put a pretty big dent in the stick by the time I came in the room. Silly little thing

Apparently eating butter runs in Bill's family though. I have heard stories of one of Natalie's aunts digging in to some butter straight out of the tub. (I won't mention any names. hee, hee)

Never a dull moment around here these days :)