doctor visits and catching up

I had a few things to blog about that I didn't get to before going into labor, so here is a little catch-up! :) Sammi had her 2-year well-visit appointment last Tuesday, which was great! We talked about terrible two behavior. She is allowed to switch to 2% milk, but the doctor suggested keeping her on whole since she is still pretty little on the charts. She also got the go-ahead on peanuts, just in time for the peanut butter recall! :) I think we'll wait a little while on that still. :) Otherwise, her double ear infection from the previous week had cleared and she is a healthy little girl!

She is old enough to wear a gown when she's there now, which I think is hilarious and oh so cute! It's so little and her diaper hangs out of the back! :)

She liked to find animals in this drawing while waiting for Dr. Rupp.

Awesome parent tip from my good friend, Becky! She told me to take crayons to the doctor so that Sam can color on the table paper, and it worked great!!! It kept her occupied for a long time!

Miss Natalie had her first well-visit today with Dr. Rupp! It went SOOOOO well!!! I hope I don't jinx things by writing this! :) She is so healthy and doing so well that Dr. Rupp doesn't even want to see her again for a month!!!! 

Waiting with daddy to get weighed...

She is already back to her birth weight! 6lbs, 14oz :)
My little cutie pie... :) Natalie has been eating well, which is easy for us to judge since we are bottle feeding her. I have been waking her up for almost every feeding because she is also sleeping so well! Dr. Rupp said to keep waking her up during the day every 3 hours to feed her, but that we don't have to wake her at all at night! Of course, she will wake up on her own when she needs to eat...but hopefully she will give us some good long runs of sleep! I had been letting her sleep 4-4.5 hours at night and was still waking her up, so I'm curious as to how long she might sleep tonight. Since I've posted this, I'm sure she will be up every hour!!!!! Ha ha ha!!!
We really have to bundle her up to go out in this weather and she doesn't like getting into her car seat! Once she's in, she's fine though! :)
And now some other catching up...  Last week we went to Joe, Lisa, and Reece's house for dinner and had so much fun hanging out! Reece and Sam are really playing well together these days. It's so weird how "grown up" they're getting!!! (Of course, we do have the "mine, mine, mine" thing going on, but that's all in the age!)
A little squeeze...
A fabulous home-cooked meal, THANK YOU DAVIS FAMILY! :)
Lots of giggles and playing hide and seek...
And, playing with race cars... so fun!

I am feeling great and we are all doing well at the Brand house. We have lots of food coming from our families and from our church, which we appreciate so very much!!!! I drove to the doctor today for Natalie's visit and it felt good to get out. My body is tired but doing really well. Dan is at the studio, Sammi is at school, Natalie is sleeping, and I am about to get a few things cleaned up around here and maybe even work a little on the laptop! I know that there will be tough nights and some tough days, that not everything will always be easy with two little girls, but I feel very blessed and am just hoping that the upcoming days bring us as much rest and happiness as we've been feeling so far!!!!  

Thank you soooo much to everyone who has checked in and given us such special notes of encouragement and love!