Time with Grandma and Grandpa

One of the great things about maternity leave is that I haven't had the work commitments that fill so many of my fall weekends.  This has allowed for a lot more time with my family!  Of course it doesn't hurt to have two adorable kids as incentive for my parents to hang out with us. :)  Over the last two weeks we've seen my mom and dad three times, twice at their house and once at ours.  You know that with me and my dad there, many pictures were taken!

Natalie was not amused that I was changing her diaper instead of feeding her.

She gets calmer when the new diaper goes on; we're getting closer to meal time!

Ahhhh...so relaxed and peaceful with a full tummy.

Cars, cars, cars, trucks, cars

Grandpa is comfy!

Grandma and her favorite baby girl

Showing off his Halloween sweatshirt from Aunt Erin and Uncle Stu

I captured this cutie and had to give him smooches!

RUN!

Helping Daddy mow the lawn

Precious

"This is a beautiful tree!"

Grandma Gail introducing Nathan to "The Cat In The Hat."

Isn't my hubby handsome??

These two have such a great relationship.  I love watching them play together.

Awake!

Halloween 2011

Yesterday was Halloween.  This year was a lot of fun because Nathan is old enough to understand the fun of dressing up and going trick or treating.  For him it was an all-day party, starting with a parade and party at school, and wrapping up with his first ever trick or treating excursion.  He loved it!  And he was exhausted from the partying (this means a nice long nap this afternoon, which is allowing me to get caught up on blogging).

Natalie is obviously way too young to partake in the joy of Halloween candy, and she was having a pretty fussy day yesterday.  Suspecting that she wouldn't be amused by the costume, I took advantage of one of the brief windows of time during the day that she wasn't nursing to get her dressed up and photographed in her cute little chili pepper costume.  As soon as I saw this costume, I knew it was the one I wanted since we called her Pepper during my pregnancy.  Once again my obsession with perusing Craigslist paid off, since I found the exact costume that I had been looking at online for $19 plus shipping for a bargain $5 plus a 10 minute drive.  Score!  As I suspected, Pepper was not impressed by the experience of being dressed as a pepper.  She was still cute though! :)

Taking a moment to think about the green headpiece.

A clear opinion has been formed!

Thinking about whether or not she likes it more while sitting up...

NO!

I finally had mercy on her and took off the costume, but had to get a few more photos of her in her Halloween outfit from Aunt Erin.  Natalie was not amused.

Luckily I got a photo earlier in the day when she was a little happier.

Monday evening we headed over to the Winchell neighborhood for a trick or treating extravaganza with the Lepleys.  Nathan and Gavin were super excited to have a friend to go trick or treating with, and I was thrilled to get to spend some non-work time with Suz and her sweet hubby.  Bryan's sister Kathleen lives on the street that is one of the most popular stretches of trick or treating land in all of Kalamazoo.  She was kind enough to invite us over to join in on the festivities.

Here's my little Jeep, all ready to go trick or treating!  When Todd found this costume online and asked Nathan if he wanted to be a Jeep for Halloween, N's face absolutely lit up!  It was the perfect find, and I imagine will be in the regular dress-up rotation for quite some time to come.

Nathan, Suz and Gavin the WMU Broncos football player

And they're off!  No hesitation whatsoever.  These boys were all about the idea of running around and getting lots of candy (strange, I know).

There was a little patch of woods between two houses, and Nathan immediately abandoned his candy quest, exclaiming, "Ooh! Let's play in the woods!"  I guess our little Jeep wanted to do some off-roading. :)

Shortly before we left the house, Natalie fell asleep for the first time all day.  Based on her earlier reaction to the chili pepper costume, I was not about to wake her up and anger her!  That would have made the trick or treating adventure a sad one for everyone.  So instead we let her sleep peacefully in her stroller with the offensive costume nearby but not on.  At one point Natalie woke up briefly to see what all the excitement was about--I snapped a picture of her cuteness, and then she went back to sleep.  What a good baby! :)

Halloween moon.  It was a beautiful evening.

Nathan's haul!

Halloween Cookies

Last Tuesday Nathan and I decided to make some Halloween cookies for him to bring in and share with his friends at school.  I am notorious for making a mess in the kitchen when I cook, so Nay and I make a perfect pair!

Natalie supervised the process from the Ergo.

Stirring together the ingredients was Nathan's favorite part.

I let him go to town with a variety of different canisters of fall-colored sprinkles.

TA-DA!!

Of course we had to do a little quality control before bringing them to school. :)

First Bottle

Last Sunday Todd gave Natalie her first bottle.  I've been trying to pump once a day to start building a freezer stash.  Natalie was a fan of this magical pacifier that had milk in it!  She struggled a little bit with how much faster the milk comes out of a bottle, but certainly wasn't complaining.  She gave Todd a look that seemed to ask "Why didn't you tell me earlier that you have the ability to give me milk too??"  Don't worry, folks, she still loves nursing too!

Homecoming 2011

October 22nd was Kalamazoo College's Homecoming.  It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day--perfect for a football game!  The Appledorns came to town, and we spent a really fun day together.  They got to our house around 11:00 in the morning and then hit the road after the football game at around 4:30 in the afternoon.  The boys did not stop running for that entire time!  Luckily Dan and Todd were willing to chase them around at the football game so that Annalee and I could chat and cheer on the Hornets.  Natalie slept for most of the game, only waking up long enough to nurse.  It was a pretty small gathering of folks from our class, but we got to see some friends from the class of 2001 who were having their reunion year, and we sat with the Teagues (got to snuggle sweet baby Graham for a minute!) and some of my other co-workers.  A day full of running and no nap made for two VERY tired toddlers; Miles and Nathan were really fried by the end of the day.  I love what good friends they are! I am so glad they'll get to grow up together.  It's crazy and awesome to think that the next time we see the Appledorns, it will be to meet Lulu!!!!  I can't wait to meet that sweet little girl, and for Natalie to meet her new partner in crime. :)

Kalamazoo College's athletic fields are undergoing a complete renovation this year, so the Hornets have been playing at WMU's football stadium.  The facilities are beautiful, and there is MORE than enough room in the stands for our fans. :)  Nathan cheered "GO HORNETS!" for the whole game, and was excited to see his friend Buzz Hornet again.

Such wonderful friends!  I love them.

Miles and Nathan joined forces with our friends Mitch and Diana's son Bryce to check out some scaffolding.  They were super entertained by this big metal contraption--hilarious!

Each one took a corner and got to work banging on the metal poles!

Oh, poor Hornets!  We don't have the winningest team ever, and got stuck playing the only nationally ranked team in our conference.  Even with a rally in the second half, we still lost by 31 points. Sigh.

Snuggle Bunny Funny Face

Yet again, I have fallen behind on my blog!  These days I'm usually typing with one hand while breastfeeding or holding the baby, so I'm much less inclined to do much emailing or blogging since it takes me so long to type each word.  However, I need to keep up with my quickly growing kiddos and my shutterbug tendencies!  

I think that Natalie will be a belly sleeper once she's able to roll over.  Her favorite place to nap is snuggled up on my chest or Todd's, and is not the biggest fan of lying on her back in the pack n' play.  During the day when I can keep an eye on her, Natalie will nap for quite a long time on her tummy propped up on the Boppy.  This allows me to eat breakfast, pump, do a little blogging, and sometimes even take a shower.  I took some pictures of her last week to try and capture how cute her chubby little cheeks are, and how sweet she looks all snuggled up.

When Natalie's waking up, she goes through the funniest series of expressions.  On her one month birthday, she was on my lap and I actually had the camera handy, so I was able to capture some of them.  Looking at these pictures makes me realize just how much she has grown in the last two weeks.  

Streeeeeeetch!

Hmmm, I'm awake.  How do I feel about that?

Well, I do NOT feel happy!

Would something make me feel better?

Who want's milk?  ME!!!!