Bloggy, blog...

It is sweltering outside, the girls just wrapped up swimming lessons for the day and Natalie just laid her sweet head down for a nap...so I thought why not pop in a movie and crank out a quick blog post. I intended to share Natalie's 9 month stats (I took the pictures over a week ago) but when I uploaded my photos to the laptop I found that I have a whole lotta pictures that I have never shared...pictures dating back to mid-June. So here we go with yet another photo heavy, random blog post... 

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Iowa travels:
Matt planned a Saturday day trip for us several weeks back. We poked around Elkader with it's gorgeous views, cute shops and delicious bakery (although nothing compares to a twist from the LPC Bakery.) The river was really high at the time and I was nervous to take this photo but we managed to get it done without anyone falling in the river. (Not that there was any real risk of it happening but little kids anywhere near strong currents make me anxious.)



We next stopped at a wildlife preserve where we saw wild turkeys, coyote, owls, antelope, foxes and many other furry, friendly faces. A moth landed on CJ and hung out on her tummy while we walked around. She thought it was awesome, but she also thought the moth was a butterfly. I didn't correct her.


After braving the animals we stopped in Strawberry Point to eat lunch. The girls were ravenous.


Natalie enjoyed her first taste of pickle.


Matt ordered some crazy bleu cheese, sauerkraut burger that he still talks about.


And Natalie shared some high fives after thoroughly enjoying her first french fry.


We, of course, had to snap a photo of the world's largest strawberry. The girls were amazed and as expected asked if it was real.


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We wrapped up the t-ball season at the end of June. Matt coached both CJ's team and Kate's team. Kate did really well this year. She made two outs at first base, hit the ball really well and never got out. CJ on the other hand could have cared less. She took a slight interest in the game near the end of the season but I did use the word "slight" for a reason.

Shortly after I took this photo CJ was playing on the bleachers, fell off, cut her head open and got two staples in her curly, blonde hair. Poor little thing.


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We have been busy visiting family too. My parents dug out their slip and slide for the girls. Grandpa and I threw ourselves down the slip and slide several times. It was really pretty fun!




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Oh, yah...the 9 month photos. Finally here they are...

This is the face Natalie makes when she is excited, feeling goofy, sees the cat, is having fun or...well it is her facial expression most days. It makes us all laugh and that is probably why she continues to do it.


Hopefully you neglected to notice I forgot to do an 8 month post. You did? Phew. So in the last month Natalie has started growing her I-teeth...yes, she is getting vampire fangs and has no other teeth on top. She crawls as fast as a dog chasing a ball which is funny because she too loves to chase balls. She claps on command. She gives lots of open mouth, slobbery kisses and like I said, loves to play with a ball. You can ask her, "Natalie where is the ball" and she crawls over to grab it. Needless to say we play a lot of "roll" in our house. Oh, and Natalie has also started pulling herself to standing which makes bath time unbelievably dangerous but yet super fun. She is a riot and makes us all laugh. 



Here she is in a homemade tent. She chased the big girls out.


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Somehow we dine on pizza, popcorn and ice cream at least once a week. And both Kate and CJ end up tipping over or attempting to lay down while eating almost every meal. Funny because we have a really hard time getting them to lay down at bedtime but somehow dinner makes them so tired they can't sit up.


...insert random photo of Natalie showing off...

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Finally we spend LOTS of time outdoors. Sometimes they don't even change out of pajamas and I find them literally tap dancing in the driveway.



Speaking of girls outside they are running out there now. Happy summer days!

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