top 12 summary

The dishes are piled in the sink, the dirty laundry is overflowing out of the laundry room and the clean laundry is piling on the couch, the bills stacked on the counter are probably all late by now, and the vacuum itself is collecting dust......yet, here I am updating the blog! :) SO, enough talking.... a few photos of what we've been up to and then a quick update before bed...

Dan celebrated his 29th birthday on February 7! He got a new watch and a new Wii game. 

Sammi showing daddy the card she and Natalie made. It had both of their hand prints and said "May life HAND you many blessings this year!" We had fun making it.

Tiger Woods...

Sam has had an awful time sleeping since Natalie was born. One night I walked out of our bedroom door at 3am to go feed Natalie and I almost tripped over Samantha, who was sound asleep on her hippo outside of our bedroom door. I'm hoping she will grow out of this getting-up-three-times-a-night thing soon! The doctor said it is as much to do with her age as it is the new baby.

Dan always gets up with Natalie and Samantha each morning to give me a few hours of sleep, usually around 6:30am. The other morning I walked out to Sammi watching cartoons and, well...

Sammi and I made a trip to the grocery together for some Sammi-Mommy time last week. Dan and I are officially dieting/eating healthy to lose weight, but we're not on a specific diet. We've been inspired by the book "Flat Belly Diet" and are being smart about what we eat and portion control. We're both detemined to lose our (yes, our) baby weight. :)

Sammi has slowly started warming up to Natalie---a little. When Natalie cries she often goes up to her and says, "What's wrong, Baby Natalie? Why are you crying? It's okay. It's okay. Mommy, I think she needs some food."

Samantha has become a genius of puzzles. When she got this Dora puzzle for her birthday we thought it was way too old for her. She mastered it after just a few times. We bought her 4 more puzzles and she did each of them the first time she tried. She immediately put each piece in the right place the right way the first time she tried. We dumped all 4 puzzles out together and mixed up the pieces and she still got them.

Always very proud of her accomplishments...

Natalie had her first experience in the Bumbo last week! She really liked it at first but got tired quickly.

My office has quickly become a place of many toys and baby supplies!!!! (And, on this day (Valentine's Day), notice my favorite flowers on my desk from my favorite girls! I can't believe they already know how to use the internet to have flowers delivered! I think daddy might have helped...just a guess.)

Happy Valentine's Day! Sammi got two bags full of new bath toys, hair stuff, books, stickers, and chocolate (her favorite) for Valentine's Day!

Bath time was sure fun with new toys and new bubble bath!

Showing off her new Valentine's Day headbands...

Natalie is growing like a weed!!!!

Krystal celebrated her birthday at Binkley's last weekend and Sammi LOVED seeing her Aunt Krystal and Uncle Steve! She reeeaaaallly loves them! Leena, the little girl Krystal brought to the Children's Museum with us for Halloween, was also there and she and Sammi had a great time together!

iPhone entertainment! 

Krystal gave the baby lots of love too, of course!

TOP 12 THINGS THE BRANDS HAVE BEEN UP TO OVER THE LAST TWO WEEKS:

1. Samantha's report cards have been better at school. (She gets one everyday that states what they learned, what they did, how long she slept, what she ate, and how her demeanor was.) When Natalie was born she had a lot of snuggle(aka "clingy") time with her teachers at school. Lately she's been having more fun!

2. Samantha got another ear infection, boo.

3. Natalie has been put on acid reflux medicine for her spitting up. She's been very fussy over the last two weeks, especially when she is spitting up. The medicine won't prevent her from spitting up or vomiting but it will prevent the acid in the spit ups from eating away at her esophagus which is what causes her pain and makes her fussy.  Today I had to wear Dan's spare painting clothes at work after I was projectile vomited on...all over my shirt, pants, my hair, her, my chair, the floor..... From now on I'm bringing extra clothes to work! But even with all of that...

4. She has been sleeping great at night! She goes 4-6 hours at a time at night before waking up to eat, and last week she even went 8 HOURS one night!!! Too bad I didn't get myself in bed in time to take advantage!!!! :) :) :)

5. Natalie SMILED!!! Dan was hollering to me to come quick on Saturday and when I got there he said, "Natalie smiled at me!!!" I said no way because she is only 4 weeks old, but he swore she smiled three genuine smiles at him when he was playing with her. Twice I tried to make faces and giggle to her to make her smile and both times she just spit up on me! However, after much patience, she gave me one big smile too! It was SO CUTE! She is also growing, growing, growing. She is a whopping 9 1/2 pounds now!!! 65 percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height!!!! Check out her double chin in the photos! :)

6. Dan celebrated his last birthday as a twenty-something. We went to Stir Crazy after three other restaurants were either too busy or closed. Good choice. It was fabulous. And it was before the diet started. By the time we found a restaurant and ate, we had sadly missed all of the movies we wanted to see so we rented a BluRay movie and watched it at the studio on our big screen with just the two of us. It was a great night. Thanks to my parents for watching the girls!!!

7. Our church started offering a 10:30 service and we attended for the first time since Natalie was born last Sunday. We put Sam in the children's room/daycare there and had Natalie with us. She did great! Hooray!

8. We finally finished Natalie's announcements and they are at the printer as we speak!!! I kept waiting to get better photos of both girls together, but Samantha is just not quite ready for that. Actually, she ALWAYS hates getting her photo taken, so we may never really have great photos of them together. Too much coordinating, parenting, and being the photographer at once to make them work. Maybe we'll hire someone to do them. :)

9. We finally took the plunge and ordered all of our new marketing materials/photo boxes/tissue paper/etc. I'm excited to get them!!! 

10. Dan actually caught up on all of the wedding photo editing he had weighing him down and I have gotten lots of (interrupted) time in at work working on albums. They're coming, I promise!!!!!

11. The flooring in our studio is officially totally done and it rocks. As of today all of our appliances have been ordered and the kitchen has started going in. The countertops have been ordered too. Hallelujah.

12. Dan and I registered to attend a 3-day workshop in Virginia in March to learn how to use new software for financial and client management. Kind of a lame way to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary, :) but we are so excited to get away and hit our "reset" button for the business! Too much time has been spent on the building and not enough on the business lately. It will be the first time we leave Natalie overnight.  

That sums up my post, mostly because I'm so tired I can't really see straight anymore!  LOVE AND HUGS TO YOU ALL!!! GOODNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!