My 100th Post and Bubby's 9 Month Photo Shoot

I have seen people do elaborate things for their 100th blogging post. One of the ones I see most often is people post 100 things about themselves, or 100 pictures, or something having to do with 100. As I noticed that I was getting closer and closer to 100, I kept trying to think of something great and elaborate to do. The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I got, and the conclusion that I eventually came to was...100 of anything...is a LOT of something! Besides that...who honestly wants to read 100 things about you, or look at 100 pictures of you!?

So the only thing you get on this, my 100th post, is the acknowledgment that it is #100, which really in and of itself for me, is pretty big and elaborate. That has to be at least 90 more entries then any journal I've ever owned!

A few days ago, I took Bubby to get his 9 month pictures done. I've had him get professional pictures done on his 3 month, 6 month, and now 9 month "birthdays", and I'm hoping to do a big one for his 1st year birthday, which is coming up WAY too soon.

I found the cutest little "preppy" outfit at Wal-Mart of all places. (I have such a love/hate relationship with that place!) He looked so adorable in it and I was so excited to have him wear it for his pictures.

When we got there, the girl helping us suggested we go with a black background because she said that the black background would really bring out the colors in his sweater. I'm not so sure I agree now that I see them done. They turned out cute, but I'm half way wishing we had done a more neutral background. Oh well...I paid a whopping $5 for the whole session AND pictures, so who am I to complain?!?!

The photographer we had this time was SO MUCH better than the ones I have had in the past. She was really good with Keric, and really patient with him. She spent more then about 10 minutes with us, and got lots of different kinds of shots. He gets a little stubborn sometimes, and he didn't like some of the poses she was having him in, but she was good with him.

Anyway..here are some of my favorite poses. It's so hard to choose my favorite! My little man is growing up way too fast!

9 Months Old!

I didn't even carry Bubby for the full 9 months, and I thought it was the longest 35 1/2 weeks I've ever had! This 35 1/2+ weeks however has FLOWN by!

I still can't believe my little tiny man is 9 months old today! It seems so surreal, especially when I look back at pictures from the past 9 months.

At 9 months old Bubby is doing more and more new things every day. He is not the typical 9 month old according to all my books...but he's getting there!

He has FINALLY started to roll over some. He still doesn't like it, but he will do it if he is forced into it. Sometimes Daddy makes him do it too much, and he gets really really upset, but at least he does it! I don't see rolling as a means of transportation for him, but I feel better knowing that he is physically capable of doing it.

He is getting better at sitting up. He still doesn't quite have it down, but once in awhile, if he is preoccupied with something else, he will "sit" for a few seconds.

He loves people food and has given up pretty much entirely on baby food. He never really was a big fan to begin with. He was getting to the point where he was gagging so much from it, he was actually throwing up! So we have been feeding him from the table. It's still hard for him to eat a lot of it, because he still only has his two little bottom teeth, but he seems to like it much better than the baby food. It is quite the mess once he has finished, and I'm slowly learning the "tricks" of giving him people food. I don't know exactly how much of the actual food he gets in his tummy, but he seems to have a fun time trying to get it there! I've been looking for a baby food grinder, so he can eat more things, and eat them easier, but haven't had much luck lately. We'll find one though. :)

He is still such a happy little boy! He laughs, and smiles all day long unless he is hungry. He still loves his Ba-Ba, and still drinks 4-5 of them a day, although he refuses to HOLD his own Ba-Ba. One day...one day!

He has become a good little napper lately. He takes a morning and an afternoon nap, still in his Daddy bed, but a nap still the same, and that makes Mommy very happy!

He loves his jumper! He wasn't too sure about it in the beginning, but he has really been figuring it out, and he gets going in it so fast that I can hardly hear myself think! He really can make that thing go, and wow is it loud!!

He claps his hands, and mimics waving. He doesn't quite understand waving bye bye yet, but if I wave and he watches long enough, he will do it too. He still only says Da-Da, but I'm slowly getting over that. He also gives "kisses", which are slobbery, and oh so cute!

I love this little boy more and more everyday!! I can't wait to see what the next 9 months will bring!


May 2008


June 2008 1 month old


July 2008 2 months old


August 2008 3 months old


September 2008 4 months old


October 2008 5 months old


November 2008 6 months old


December 2008 7 months old


January 2009 8 months old



February 2009 9 months old

"A-Tines Day"

We had the funnest Valentine's Day this year! Chris always does such an amazing job of making Valentines day, and pretty much any other holiday, a fun and special day for not just me, but for everyone! Here is a little taste of what our day was like.


Chris and Cameron made Valentines Breakfast this morning. Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Chocolate Syrup, Whip Cream and Heart Shaped Strawberries! Sooo Yummy!


Chris and the kids surprised me with 2 dozen long stem roses! Aren't they BEAUTIFUL!?


....and Chocolates. Do these Chocolates not just SCREAM Natalee?? I mean seriously!?



Reagan REALLY wants to eat those shoes...but I wouldn't let her. I'm mean I know! They are just too cute to eat, aren't they? The purse has chocolates inside too.


Bubby loved having Whip Cream sprayed into his little mouth!



He loved Strawberries too!



Daddy even made him his own pancake!


As you can see, he is thrilled!


He wasn't entirely sure what to do with his pancake, but he quickly figured it out!


All good things must come to an end!


Or must they????


What a MESS!!! Mama Lynn would be so dissappointed! It sure was yummy though!



Finally...ALL CLEAN!

Now we are off to another Whammer's Basketball Game.

Dad gave Cameron a "pep talk" about being more agressive, and not feeling like he had to be so nice out on the court! It must have helped, because Cam made his first two points of the season! YEA!!!

After the game, we came home and Chris told us he had a big surprise for everyone. I thought we had finished with all the surprises. He called Mama Anne and told her we would be at her house at 3:00 p.m. and she needed to be ready to go for a surprise. I always think I have the surprises figured out, but I never do.



We drove to Salt Lake and ended up at the "Bombay House"! I was so excited! I LOVE Indian food, and I haven't had real Indian food since my misson! Chris spent a month in India for work several years ago, and he loves it too. This was all new to Mama Anne and Cameron and Reagan. Mama Anne loved it, but Cameron and Reagan were less then impressed. Bubby however....LOVED IT! It was so funny to watch him eat all these weird dishes. What a silly boy!


YUM!!!





Bubby eating Chicken Briyanni, and Kulfi (Indian Ice Cream) He LOVED it!

After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we went over to Mama Anne's for awhile. We came home, happy, and tired!

Before the kids went to bed I realized I hadn't taken a picture of their little presents they had gotten from the Valentines Fairy. The chocolates of course had been long eaten, but I did take a picture of them with their stuffed animals. We didn't get Bubby a big animal, because as you can see, it's bigger then he is! Bubby was more then ready for bed, so he's not too happy in some of these pictures.





I hope all of you had a wonderful "A-Tines Day" too!

Silly Silly Reagie Mae Mae

The past couple of days Chris has had to do his QBR (Quarterly Business Review). This means really late nights getting his presentation all put together and taking clients out to eat, and Nati and kids home alone wondering when Daddy will get home.

Last night I decided to call Mama Anne and see if she wanted to meet us at McDonald's for dinner. I figured the kids could play, and I could talk to an adult for an hour or so. Chris is pretty beat by the time he gets home, and I figure the last thing he wants to listen to are my long and boring stories of the day. So I made Mama Anne do it.

While we were at McDonald's eating, Reagan put her arm around me and pointed over to a table a few feet away from us. Then she said..."Nati, what kind of people are those people over there?" One thing you need to know about Reagan is that she only knows one volume...LOUD.

I was mortified about two things! One, that she was pointing, and two that she was asking her question loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear! I tried to quiet her down, but it was already kind of too late.

Mama Anne was laughing too hard to help me out and Cameron, who also knows only one volume, was saying "Reagan, you shouldn't point at people!"

I quietly tried to explain that the girls eating a few feet away from us were Asian. Thankfully that seemed to satisfy her curiosity, and she didn't have anymore questions.

Maybe we need to invest in some culturally diverse sock puppets for Reagie too!?

Mothers Intuition..I don't have it!

Well, I guess I get the mother of the year award for today! For the last two weeks, Keric has had this horrible cold! It just has not seemed to get any better. He has fevers off and on, and he's all congested and yucky!

After yesterday's events I decided that there was something very wrong with my normally happy baby.

I called the Dr. and made an appointment. The whole way there I kept thinking, this is going to be another one of those visits where the Dr. asks if this is my first baby, and then goes on to say that everything is fine, and to just give him some Tylenol and wait it out. I feel like I'm getting a real reputation at that office, which is kind of why I hadn't called a few days earlier!

So we went in and they checked his O2 stats, and then took his temperature, all of which were totally normal,( Great, here comes the first baby question and the new mommy talk!)

Then they checked his ears. He has been tugging on his ears for the past few days, but I took him in for that one time a few months ago, and his ears were fine. The Dr. said he may just be one of those babies that likes to play with his ears.

Well this time, that was not the case. He wasn't just playing with his ears this time, he has a double ear infection! I felt so bad! I should have taken him in 4 days ago when I felt like something was wrong. The Dr. said that he probably hasn't been sleeping through the night because his ears hurt! I felt so bad! Poor little guy!

We got some medicine and some drops for his ears. After we got home, I gave him his medicine, drops, and a bottle. Then we laid down to take a nap. 3 hours later, we both woke up! Guess we were BOTH really tired!

Corrections from Chris

OK...so I asked Chris last night to refresh my memory of the sock puppet day. He has a better memory then I do when it comes to SOME things. Unfortunately that does not include where he laid down, placed or put anything!

He remembered the other sock puppets names. (Now you all are really going to think we are crazy, if you didn't already!)

Bubby has some brown socks, tan socks, and black socks also. Chris thought his friends needed to be "Culturally diverse", so he came up with some real culturally diverse names for his other socks. I wasn't creative enough I guess with George, and Bill.

His brown socks name is "Santiago". Chris tries to get bubby to say "Donde esta mi amigo Santiago?" Good luck, I can't PAY him to say Ma Ma!!

His black sock is named "Antwan", Chris calls him "Twan" for short, and his tan sock is named "Qin-jao" pronounced Ching Jow. It's a name from a character in some book Chris read.

Bubby seems to prefer "Wesley" over all of them however...I'm not sure what all of this says about us other then we have a really sick sense of humor?!?!

oooops..Chris just IM'd me about one more sock I forgot! Wesley's Jewish Friend from New York, Milton. He comes by to visit sometimes when Wesley is in the wash. You're right Trish...we are certifiably NUTS, or at least Chris is and I just fuel it!

Bubby's new friend "Wesley"

I hope that one day our kids will think we are "funny", but chances are, they wont. Chris and I think we are pretty funny, and usually that funny comes at the expense of one of our poor kids, hopefully we haven't scarred them with our humor!

If you also look at my 365 day project blog, you noticed that the picture of Bubby yesterday showed a sock on his hand. I said that was a story for another day. I guess today is as good a day as any to tell that story.

One day last week, Chris was playing with Bubby and decided to give him a "new friend". He stuck a sock on his hand and called it his sock puppet friend. It was a white sock, so we named it Wesley. Much to our surprise, Bubby actually liked having the sock on his hand. He moves his hand inside of it, and laughs and giggles at the sock as it moves. It's actually pretty funny. Of course being the "funny" parents that we are, we named ALL of his socks and tried them on his hand. He has a green sock named "George", a Blue sock named "Billy" of course you have met Wesley, I think we named some more, but I can't remember the names. I'll have to ask Chris.

So with all that as a background, yesterday was my laundry day, and I was folding socks. Bubby was getting fussy, so I stuck "Wesley" on his hand, and he was entertained for another 20 minutes or so. He still had Wesley on his hand when I took the picture of him playing with his jungle gym.

Silly baby. He has all these millions and millions of toys in his closet, and he prefers to play with a sock!