People I love...

Natalie and I spent the weekend in Michigan with two of my very best friends, Heidi and Abby, and their precious kiddos. It was the first time I was able to meet sweet Calvin (Abby's little man). I loved spending some time with adorable Kaiya and Ava too. I love all babies...but I especially love these babies because I love their mamas so much. I know this is a lot of pictures....but I want to remember these sweet faces because, we all know, they will change too quickly.

Here are some pictures of Cal and Nattie. He is such a good little boy and absolutely ADORABLE. A picture perfect little guy in my book. Oh and Heidi was watching Isla Borowitz (bottom left picture) for part of the weekend too. What's one more baby in this mix, right? :) She was a sweet little thing! Maybe someday all these kiddos will go to TU together?

Abby and Calvin headed home Saturday afternoon and I stayed another night at Heidi and Mark's house. I just love Ava and Kaiya. I could listen to Ava talk all day. Doesn't she look just like her mama?

Finally, here are some pictures of Kaiya and Natalie. I can't wait to see how their friendship develops over the years. I LOVE these pictures of our smiley girls.

Good buddies already!

Heids and Abs...thanks for such a fun weekend...love you both! (Oh..and Mark..thanks for two awesome meals! Yum!)

A tooth and some biscuits...

Today Ben and I both had dentist appointments. While I was in the chair having my teeth cleaned, he was having a lovely conversation with the dental hygenist. He was babbling on and on about random things, when he somehow landed on the topic of using the potty (never a good topic during casual discussion...this is bound to go south, you know). He proceeded to tell her that he poops in a toliet now, but that he used to, and I quote, "drop biscuits in my undies." OH MY GOSH! Who is responsible for this child?

Well, all I can say is that I think I sat straight up in my chair and yelled something like "Ben....NO...don't say that!" He then started crying because I embarrassed him. I felt bad....but I'm sure I was bright red myself!! I know there are much worse things he could have said...but for some reason I found that to be embarrassing enough! Luckily, the dental hygenist just laughed and made him feel better. Of course, when I got home I yelled at Daddy for teaching him such ridiculous terminology. Oh...if you only knew some of the WEIRD, descriptive words that are used around this house. :)

In other news, my sweetie pie has her first tooth poking through. I am very relieved, as she has been waking up a WHOLE lot during the night these last few nights...so, I'm glad to know there is a reason for it. I had grown used to her sleeping from 8 pm to about 6 or 7 am every morning...but this last week she was crying every hour during the night. She could only be soothed if I picked her up and held her. I gave her some Tylenol tonight before bed in the hopes that maybe she'll sleep a little better...which means maybe I will too. :)

Does the title of this post kind of gross you out now that it's in context? :)

LOVE!

I just love this little girl. I loved her from day one and with each day that passes I can almost FEEL my love for her growing. I am so blessed to be the mama to my two little ones. I know I'm extremely biased, but don't you just want to kiss those cheeks? I sure do.

Milestones...

Both Ben and Natalie had well-child check-ups recently, so I thought I'd share the latest stats. I always have myself a little chuckle when I think about how different they are. They are both continuing along their respective curves nicely...at opposite ends of the spectrum...but at least they are both growing! :)

At 6 months, Natalie is...
17 lbs 13 oz (90th percentile)
27 1/2 inches (95th percentile)

At 4 years, Ben is...
32 1/2 lbs (10th percentile)
38 1/2 inches (10th percentile)

Here are the two muchkins playing in the tub together. Ben loves to dump water over her head. She doesn't mind...works out well. :)

In other news, Mike and I celebrated 7 years of marriage on August 10th. We rarely make a big deal out of anniversaries or birthdays (we're boring...I know) and this year was no exception. We spent the day in the car driving home from vacation....so romantic! :) I love him and love the adventures we have together as a family. I can't imagine my life with anyone else!

Finally, just thought I'd share some pictures from our trip to Sandusky yesterday. We spent the afternoon and evening playing at the beach (Lake Erie) with friends. Benny had a blast with his friend Natalie (blonde below). He referred to her by the same nicknames he calls his sister. Oh..and at one point he even told her "I love you." :) This was our Nattie's first experience with sand. I turned my back for one second only to find her face down in it. She had it in her mouth, eyes, ears...everywhere. Lovely. :) Oh well...she didn't seem to mind.

Benny had a ball playing catch with. Kelly, the cute Golden Retriever pictured below. It made me sad that we don't have our Lucy dog anymore. Luckily, she'll be coming for weekly visits with Granny in just one more week.

One quick Benny story....We were driving to his doctor appointment this last week and we were talking about different nicknames people had for one another. Our conversation ended like this....

Me: "What does Mommy call you?"

Ben: "I don't want to talk about it."

Me: "Why?"

Ben: "It's classified, Mom."

The kid keeps me laughing...that's for sure! :)

Trip to Smoky Mtns (5) - Bud Ogle Trail and Everything Else!

This is it...no more vacation pictures after this post!! :) My favorite hike is just a short, easy 1/2 miler through what, to me, looks like an enchanted forest. There are several old houses on the property and Benny LOVES to explore them. We went on this same hike back in April when it snowed on us, so Ben was excited to come back and explore it again. I took another cool picture, if I do say so myself, of the spider web below. You probably can't tell, but the BIG spider is right in the middle. I love the way the sun in shining through.

I set the camera on a timer so I could have at least one photo from the trip of all of us together.

The rest of these photos are from our evenings out or time spent lounging at the cabin. We ate ice cream or Krispy Kremes every single night...so while we did do some hiking, I'm sure we took in more calories than we burned off...it was well worth it though! Papa and Nana...thanks for such a fun week...we love you!

Trip to Smoky Mtns (4) - Clingmans Dome

We drove up to Clingmans Dome one day to check out the view and eat a picnic lunch. It's the highest mountain in the Smokies and I was able to take a few cool pictures...at least for me! I LOVE the picture below. Mike spotted this monarch butterfly and I love the contrast with the yellow flowers. I almost want to frame it somewhere in my house. :)

I never get enough of this scenery. When I am somewhere like this I just can't fathom how anyone could believe that all of this just randomly came to be. It is all so amazing and reminds me of how awesome and creative God is!

Trip to Smoky Mtns (3) - Midnight Hole, Splash Country, and Alum Cave Bluffs

Papa, Mike and Ben all braved the freezing cold water at Midnight Hole. Mike's watch said the water temp was 49 degrees...brrrr! Papa and Mike jumped off a huge rock into the water, but could only stand staying in for a short time. I can't blame them!

We headed to Splash Country one day, a huge and very kid friendly waterpark, to soak up a little sun. Ben met the height requirement on some of the larger waterslides and LOVED every minute of zooming down them. He was so brave and wanted to go again and again. Nattie even got to go on the lazy river with us (in her lovely life jacket).

Papa, Nana and Ben went on a hike to Alum Cave Bluffs one day. Ben hiked most of it himself and apparently several people on the trail commented on what a good hiker he was. At one point he turned to Papa and Nana and said something like... "It's awesome how many people think I'm a good hiker." :)

Trip to Smoky Mtns (2) - Trains!

We decided to take Benny to Bryson City, NC to visit the Smoky Mountain Train Museum one day. I think calling it a museum might be a stretch, but it did have a couple of really large, intricate model train setups. Ben loves trains and cars and all things with wheels...so he was in heaven. We've spent lots of time on YouTube watching random train videos, so Mike decided to video tape the trains moving along the track and Ben has already watched the video multiple times since we've been home. :)

We walked over to a coffee shop afterwards and were just in time to see the REAL train coming into the depot.

Before we left Bryson City we stopped by a couple of small waterfalls and Benny and Papa played in the water. I snapped the elk photo as we were leaving. He was right off the side of the road. :)

Trip to Smoky Mtns (1) - Charlie's Bunion and Baskins Creek Falls

I'm baaack! I wanted to give you a good long break from looking at pictures of my family, so that I could gear you up for the next five posts that are, yet again, filled with our faces. :) We spent all last week on vacation with Papa and Nana in the Smoky Mountains. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we're a hiking family and most of our vacations revolve around outdoor activities. The picture below the national park sign was the view from the deck of our cabin (nice shot, Nana!).

Nattie had been on quite a few hikes prior to our vacation, so we thought she'd be a good little hiker on this trip....just like Ben. On our first day we decided to go on a decent hike to Charlie's Bunion (8-9 miles long) and just a few miles in the crying began and it barely stopped the rest of the time! She was tired and could not get comfortable in the carrier...poor girl and poor Papa! He had her yelling in his ear for the better part of the hike! The last two miles or so we all took turns carrying her outside the carrier just to keep her happy! Needless to say we stuck to MUCH shorter hikes the rest of the week. Maybe hiking will grow on her over time...??? :)

I did catch some happy hiker moments from Natalie below...but I assure you she was not digging this hike. :) The views from the top are really cool and luckily the clouds moved out of the way for a short amount of time so we could take it all in!

On day two we went on a shorter hike to Baskins Creek Falls. We've been to the Smoky Mountains many times, but had never tried this hike. It was all down hill on the way there and ALL up hill on the way back. My calves hurt...but the falls were really pretty. Benny decided it would be cool to run through them and completely soak himself from head to toe. He had a blast, but was FREEZING afterwards. He hiked this one himself, so the uphill trek back warmed him up quick! He impressed us so much with what a good hiker he was...no carrier for many of our hikes.

My big boy...

...finally learned how to write his name! I know lots of kids master this before the age of four, but he just really has never been into anything related to art, coloring, or drawing. I've never been able to really get him to sit down and practice...until this summer. Now that he's figured it out, he's writing it everywhere! :) He's having fun trying to write other letters too!

Here's a few pics from the last week or so. I like the top left picture of Ben holding Nattie in our bed this morning. He really does love her and it makes me happy. :)