Our little Pianist

Thought I'd post that Natalie is saying "mama" now. Usually it's when she is frustrated, mad, or crying over something. Whereas "dada" is more frequent when she's happy. Whenever she's unhappy, I just sit her by the piano for a while and she calms down. She loves to play Beethoven and Chopin. She's not that great yet but she's getting there! She's definately getting her own personality, too. Lately she has been a dancing fool. Natalie's so close to crawling. She's also starting to throw little fits, which isn't fun at all.

Our Cruise Vacation

We just returned from a 7 night Royal Caribbean cruise to the mexican riviera. We went with Nick, Matt, and Katie. We departed from Long Beach, CA where we spent a night at the Renaissance, a very ritzy hotel that I'm sure we'll never stay in again. Once on the boat, we stayed busy with 3 stops at ports. The first port we visited was Cabo San Lucas. Our highlights of that port was the shopping and the visit to the famous restaurant Cabo Wabo.

Next, we stopped at Mazatlan. There, we took a "taxi ride" in the back of a pick-up truck which was quite a thrill ride. We managed to find an all-inclusive resort where we took advantage of the pool and paid a waiter (under the table) for free drinks and free food...it was his idea! We made sure to get our moneys worth!

The final port of call was at Puerta Vallarta. We took a 7 hour excursion on a Pirate Ship. When we signed up we were thinking it was going to be cheesey but it actually turned out to be a blast. There were about 20 mexican pirates who entertained us with a pirate show, music, and dancing and they waited on us hand-and-foot with free bar service and 2 delicious meals. They took us to an island where we enjoyed a banana boat ride and snorkling. We also got to see some whales close up as well as dolphins in the distance. It was by far the best excursion ever! Jordan was impressed with the shark urinals.

Back on the ship, we soaked up the sun, ate as much food as possible, and just enjoyed each other's company. We also managed to see whales off of the ship as well because they were migrating. Whereas Jordan and I, and Matt and Katie went to bed pretty much no later than midnight, Nick stayed out into the early morning! We also tried our luck out at the casino. Jordan won $50, which we eventually spent, and Nick won over $150 and he managed to save it! We had a great time but as much fun as we had, we were also very anxious to get back to the kids!

Gary's Balls

Snowballs, that is! He ran off during the day, today, and came back full of snowballs. Some of the snowballs hanging off of his backside were about fist-size. He's a brittany spaniel so he has the extra long hair on the backs of his legs where snow clings to him. There were so many snowballs that he couldn't even sit down. I just couldn't stop laughing.

Daddy's Little Girl

I really love this picture. Many people don't get to see this side of Jordan. Myself included...just kidding! Natalie's eyes get so big and a big smile crosses her face everyday Jordan comes home from work. Sometimes, she'll hear his truck pull up the driveway and I think I can even see her ears perk up (Gary's too!). She sure is daddy's little princess.

Natalie - 7 months

Natalie is just older than 7 months. It's been a pretty good month. She just recently pulled herself up to standing in her crib. And she's all of a sudden showing interest in crawling. She can get on all fours for about a second before falling onto her stomach. I'm just praying that she doesn't crawl while we're on our trip. Jordan and I are trying to teach her the meaning of "no" as well. So far, she's pretending not to understand. For example, my 10 month old niece, Briella, takes such a beating from Natalie. She's bigger and she can crawl away and yet Natalie always manages to grab ahold of Briella's hair. But everytime I scold her for it she just goes for it again. It is pretty cute some of the responses I get from Natalie when I tell her "no" but I really do believe she understands. We just feel so blessed being parents. I never knew how rewarding it could be....and at every age. She has changed so much since we brought her home from the hospital. Sometimes I wish time could just stand still. And yet, I love to see her learn new things and grow.