Family Fun

Even though we missed out on my family reunion in the mountains last week (because of the altitude), we got to spend some time with my brother and his family who were visiting from Wisconsin. We met at my parents' house for some swimming and other fun.

Here we all are except my sister-in-law who is taking the picture

Our family

(I love Elizabeth's huge-grins-with-goggles look in these pictures)

Natalie decided recently that she wanted to practice swimming like Elizabeth and has become quite the little swimmer.

Neither of the girls knows how to stop and take breaths yet but they have made a lot of progress so far this summer. They will both go anywhere with their little ring floaties.

Here they both are jumping off the diving board:



Here's a few other random pictures.

I thought this one was funny.
Natalie was mad about something and Lizzie is trying to undo the damage done.

My family will get a kick out of these next ones. When I was kid, I used to make something which was eventually coined "ice soup". It just consisted of "eating" ice water from a bowl with a spoon. What can I say--I was a weird kid who really liked ice (and I still do). Anyway, I've told that to my kids and one day they decided they wanted to try it out.

They seemed to enjoy it...

It's a Miracle...

Yesterday I actually made bread that turned out. And 100% whole wheat bread no less. And, it was a pretty easy recipe that didn't take too long to make (maybe that was the key). It was pretty tasty, too. I think I might try it with a little bit more honey next time, though, and maybe brush the tops with butter to add a little more flavor (hey-I'm allowed since it's whole wheat bread, right?). Anyway, if you're like me and you've had problems with bread and would like to try a good user-friendly recipe, here's where I found it.

Also, I am getting big lately. I'll be 30 weeks on Monday but I feel like I'm almost as big as I've ever been. By the time I make it to 34 weeks (when Natalie was born) I know I will be bigger this time around. I just feel huge. Plus it feels like he keeps trying to stretch out as much as possible. I know that I have no right to complain since I've never been 40 weeks- or multiples-huge. I'm just already getting comments from people that think I am due sooner than I am.

Anyway, things are going well, though. At my last appointment, things looked so good that it was "boring," to quote my doctor. We still don't have any strong possibilities on names. I think it will just have to wait until we can see him.

Poor Natalie jumped off a pretty high ledge at the park the other day and hurt her foot. She's been hobbling around ever since. Whenever we try to examine it and have her do things on it, she does fine, but that hasn't stopped her from hobbling. I don't know what her deal is. This same kind of thing happened about 6 months ago when she injured her left wrist. She wouldn't use it and kept whining about it so we took her in. The x-rays were negative, of course, and we ended up with an ace bandage for our troubles. As soon as the bandage was on, she was fine and used it all the time. So, we've been wrapping her foot but she still hobbles and can't seem to stop favoring it. Hopefully, if it is in her head, she will get over this soon.

Welp, that's it for now... :)

Catch-Up

I have a lot of things I want to catch up on so this will be a long one...

First off, we had a great Fourth of July hanging out with my brother and his family. The girls especially enjoyed getting their faces painted (a first) at a BBQ we went to. These are the only pictures I have from the day.

Elizabeth's patriotic rainbow

I was impressed Natalie could hold still long enough to get hers painted.

After a very late night of fireworks, they even went to bed with painted faces. I was just glad that it washed off Sunday morning.

This past week we've enjoyed having Grandma Marsha with us. She just left this morning and the girls were sad to see her go. We packed in a lot of stuff and had a fun week together. This was kind of our family reunion for the summer since we aren't able to go to either one of our family reunions because of my pregnancy issues.

We had a great day on Friday. First we went to one of my favorite beaches in Aptos. It was a perfect day and not too crowded either.

Grandma and Natalie

Lizzie and I had fun swimming out in the ocean

After I came in from swimming, we saw a bunch of dolphins really close to the shore where I had been. I've always wanted to be close to a dolphin. Someday...

Here's us digging in the sand

Elizabeth loved being buried, as you can tell :)

Natalie had to join in the fun

The cool sea cliffs

Some more random pictures

After the beach, we did the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach. It was fun to stop and see all of the seals and sea lions (maybe if you click on this picture you can see all of them). Natalie loved listening to them bark.

We tried to get the girls to pose for pictures but they wouldn't stop making silly faces.
I must say that the pictures turned out pretty cute, though.
Here's Daddy and Lizzie in front of the "Lone Cypress", the symbol of Pebble Beach. Joe's even wearing his Pebble Beach golf hat with the tree on it.

Here's some more highlights from our time with Grandma.

Enjoying some ice cream cones together

Grandma spent most of her time patiently reading story after story and playing game after game with the girls. Here they are enjoying one of Grandma's favorites Make Way for Ducklings.

We love you, Grandma Marsha!

Thank you for visiting us.

Remembering the Time

I must admit that I got wrapped up in all of the Michael Jackson coverage last week. Joe and I both, actually. I'm out of that stage now, luckily, but I did want to blog about some of my thoughts. I have always been a fan of his music, although probably never a fan of the man himself. In watching interviews with him and coverage of his life, though, I have come to feel that maybe I was wrong in believing all of the negative press about him. I certainly hope that I was wrong. In any case, he definitely had a difficult life.

You can't deny that he was talented. I have been a fan for as long as I can remember. My mom was a big Michael Jackson fan. Mainly just a fan of Thriller (the album). I remember her putting the tape on in our old Volvo when I was really young. One of the first tapes I ever owned was the single "You Are Not Alone". I don't really understand it now but I loved that song as a kid. Then there was my "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" karaoke experience at our high school fair my senior year. Ah the memories.

Here are some of my favorite MJ songs (I added some of them to our playlist):
-"Will You Be There": This is such a great song. Plus it reminds me of my best friend Kari who loved it, mainly because of the part where he yells, "Carr-y!" She liked to think he was saying that to her. :)
-"Butterflies": Not many people liked his last album but I love this song.
-"I Want You Back": My girls have loved "ABC" for awhile now just from hearing it on the radio but this one is my favorite Jackson Five song. I just can't believe he sang like that at such a young age. Amazing.
-"Man in the Mirror": Good song. Good message.
-"Human Nature": I just love this song.
-"Billie Jean": Classic.

What are your favorites?