My Illinois Family!

Ben, Natalie and I have been in Illinois the last few days visiting my extended family. My mom was cool enough to fly to Ohio just so she could make the 7.5 hour drive with me so I didn't have to do it alone (Thanks, Mom!). I hadn't seen this side of my family since August when we traveled to Michigan, so it was fun to catch up and have them meet Natalie! I took a TON of pictures, as always, so prepare for photo overload!

These are just a few from before we left. My mom was in Florida before she arrived to our house, so she brought Ben and Natalie mouse ears from Disney. I'm wearing Natalie's ears...I didn't realize my head was infant size??

My cousins meet Natalie...and this isn't even all of them (I know I'm missing some people...but I tried!).

Just some more of the cute people I love.

We celebrated sweet Emma's birthday too. I can't believe she is one already! She is a doll! I affectionately referred to her as "the bulldozer" all weekend. She is such a little busy body and into everything. She never sits still...but I love it.

Just a few more! I had such a fun time and miss you all lots already.

An interview with Ben...

I "interviewed" Ben last night. I was reading my blogger friend Kristin's blog (Zeeb family on right) recently and saw that she had done this with her three and a half year old daughter, Alexa. The answers really made me laugh, so I wanted to see how Ben would respond (some responses are almost exactly the same as Alexa's...it must be a three year old thing?!). I wrote down his responses, verbatim, below.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "You are a boo boo bear"
2. What makes mom happy? "When I hug you and kiss you"
3. What makes mom sad? "When I don’t help you putting the dishes away"
4. How does your mom make you laugh? "Tickling me"
5. What was your mom like as a child? "You liked playing with me" (Really? Not sure how that's possible Ben!)
6. How old is your mom? "3 years old"
7. How tall is your mom? "This tall" (holding his hand about an inch above his own head)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "You play with me and snuggle with me in my bed"
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "You cry"
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "For loving me"
11. What is your mom really good at? "Putting puzzles together with me"
12. What is your mom not very good at? "You’re not very good at knowing which letter goes together" (I have no idea what this means?!)
13. What does your mom do for her job? "Clean up the house"
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Granola bars"
15. What makes you proud of your mom? "At cleaning up stuff in the house"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "You could be Pooh"
17. What do you and your mom do together? "We hug each other"
18. How are you and your mom the same? "That we have noses and we do Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses"
19. How are you and your mom different? "We’re different because you have a ring on you and I don’t"
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Because you hug me and love me"
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? "Kaleidoscope" (a park near our house that we haven’t been to in at least a year...hmm..maybe this is a hint?!)

In other news, Natalie had her eight week check up today and it's official...she's still chubby. :) She was 23 inches long (90th percentile) and 12 lbs 9 oz (75th percentile). I checked Ben's baby book and he was about the same length, but over 2 lbs lighter than her at this same age. :) Oh, and the poor thing had to have five vaccinations today too. She was a trooper!

Look alikes!

Everyone has their own opinion about who a baby looks like... and like I said before, we knew Natalie looked more like her Daddy than Ben did, but after looking through an old photo album at Mike's parent's house this weekend, I realized just how much they do look alike! Below is a collage of a few of the photos. He is obviously a little older in these pictures than she is now, but not much. I think the top left picture looks the most like her. I actually feel like I've seen that exact face looking at me before. Genetics are so amazing! Also, look how young Nana looks in the bottom right picture...just18 years old! :)

Mike was a chubby baby...but I think Natalie might be chubbier. :) I just LOVE her cheeks. Anyway, here are some smiley shots I captured yesterday and today. We were outside for a bit and I put her hat on her for the first time. I'm glad it fit her big, round head! We have her eight week check up tomorrow morning and I'm very anxious to find out how big she is. I know it's hard to believe, but she is wearing some 6-9 month clothes now (green shirt below)! It's crazy!

Lazy week...

My cutie pie has developed a love for the bouncy seat and her pacifier. The combo of the two usually results in some shut eye. I just think she looks cute when she's all snuggled up, so here are a few bouncy seat shots from this week! :)

It's been pretty uneventful around here, but I still managed to take a few pictures. I love the one of Ben with Brad and Christina's pups...Willow and Forest. Do you think Ben has a big mouth? No clue where he gets that?! :) Also thought I'd throw in a smiley shot of Natalie. She is so happy in the morning when she wakes up. I love to see her smile to start my day!

Lastly, my father-in-law is typically a very nice looking man, however, he's looking a little old these days...don't you think? :) I captured this lovely shot of him and Christina tonight. It just made me laugh. That ugly mask always seems to make an appearance somewhere. It looks even weirder on Ben. :)

Fun weekend!

I felt like life was back to normal this weekend! We got out of the house and had some fun together. We took Ben to the Museum of Natural History in Cleveland on Saturday. He had a blast looking at all of the different exhibits, but especially the dinosaur bones. He also had fun in the "discovery zone" where he got to do some hands on activities, rather than just looking! He uncovered fossils, played with sea creatures, and worked on brain teasers with Daddy. It was a fun afternoon! Oh, and I threw in a shot of Natalie in the stroller while we were there...she slept the entire time. :)

This afternoon, after church, we headed to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to go hiking. It was 60 degrees out, so we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. It was Natalies first hike and she slept through it (shocker, I know). It was a short hike to Blue Hen Falls, but really pretty. I love that we have such cool scenery so close to home (only about 30 minutes away). I'm thankful Spring is on it's way...but I'm really hoping these next six weeks go by slowly so I can enjoy the rest of my time off with Natalie and Ben!

Six weeks old!

My baby turned six weeks old on Wednesday...and I am half way through my maternity leave (sniff, sniff). She is precious and growing like a weed. I thought I'd wash the 3-6 month clothes I had for her, since I knew she'd probably fit in them soon (being the little chunker that she is). So, I tried an outfit on her earlier this week and it fit just fine...not big at all. Glad I decided to get this stuff washed or she might never have worn any of it?! Here are a few pictures of her from the last few days. I just love little girl clothes! :)

The cute DeKorne girls...

My pal Heids and her two precious kiddos came for a visit the last two days. I LOVED having them and was so happy to spend time with Ava and Kaiya...and, of course, Heidi. We did a whole lot of nothing other than...sitting, nursing, refereeing (why can my almost four-year-old still not share his toys very well with visitors!!? annoying!) and laughing at the chaos. It was fun chaos though..and I loved every minute of it. Between Ben and Ava there was non-stop talking the entire two days. We found ourselves just looking at each other and laughing at some of the funny things that were said and done. It felt so good to be with my friend. :)

Here is the best shot we could get of us with our babes. I don't think Natalie and Kaiya knew what to think of their crazy older siblings! We laughed so hard at some of the other pictures that were taken trying to get a "good one."

Just a few shots of the cutie pie Ava! She is seriously a hoot. She is such a great talker and has the cutest little voice. She was so sweet to Natalie and very interested in her ("Natalie cryin?" "Natalie poopin?" "Natalie sleepin?"...everything ended in an "i-n"...it was very cute!). I was also very impressed with her manners. She rarely forgot a please or thank you...pretty impressive for a not quite two-year-old! :)

And here are few shots of sweet Kaiya. She is such a good little thing. All you have to do is say her name and she smiles at you. I just kept looking at her and thinking how amazing and awesome it is that she is alive and perfect. The night before Heidi arrived, Ben and I were saying our prayers before bed and he stopped to tell me that he didn't need to pray for Kaiya because she "didn't have tubes in her anymore." Thank goodness for that! :) We are just so thankful that God healed her precious body!

Finally...just in case you haven't seen enough yet. Here are some of us with our littlest ones. Thanks for coming, Heids! I loved having you and miss you and your girls already!

I know, I know...

...this post is just more of the same! I don't have anything, other than the two cute faces below, to take pictures of. Plus, who am I kidding, I'd rather take pictures of them than anything else anyway.

So, I'm a little anxious for my baby girl to grow hair because I'm tired of people asking if she's a boy or a girl, or just assuming she's a boy. Excuse me, but what boy wears pink? :) My friend, Abby, sent me some adorable bows she made for Natalie (top left picture). She is so talented and makes some really neat stuff for little ones. Check out her craft site here. I'm glad to have a few bows...so there is no doubt she is a girl! Oh, and Ben LOVES entertaining Natalie in the activity seat. If he could still fit in the darn thing, I think he'd climb right in. And, yes, that is peanut butter on Ben's face in the bottom left picture...different day, different sandwich. :)

Fresh air...finally!

I'm back! :) Most of these pictures were taken today. It was finally warm enough to go outside, so Ben, Natalie and I went on a walk (her first outside!) and it felt so good to just get out of the house (especially since my house is a disaster).

Isn't she cute? :)

I can definitely get her to smile now. It's so fun. I just haven't figured out how to get her to smile and take her picture at the same time. I did catch a few. The top middle shot makes me laugh because she makes this face a lot and it's usually when I'm doing something goofy to her (talking baby talk, singing, making dumb faces..you know...).

Here are a few of my favorite little man. He had just eaten a PB&J...can you tell? I have no idea how he manages to get peanut butter ALL over his face. :) I like the shot of him pushing Natalie in the stroller. He couldn't even see the sidewalk and kept crashing into my heels.

Just another day...

I think I might have an obsession with taking pictures. I'm on the every other day posting schedule now...a little nuts...but hopefully someone out there enjoys looking at her face. :) I sure do. She was such a good girl today...she spent about 35 minutes in the swing, just looking around, while I took a shower and got ready. You can really see how much hair she has lost in these pictures. She is almost totally bald on top!

She really likes when her dad holds her because he is warm! I thought the top left picture was cute of the two of them last night in bed. Oh...and the picture of Ben was taken last night at about 10:30 pm. I put him to bed in his room and noticed the light on under his door quite some time later. I went in there to find him sitting quietly in his bed, with his lamp on, doing a little "reading." It's so hard to get mad at him when he's doing something cute. Guess he was a little worn out from his late night...he took over a three hour nap today. :)