the Maltburgs

Bowling First

2012-01-27T14:39:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, we took the girls bowling with our friend Randy & Liza. This was the first bowling experience for both girls. (and although not my first, I sure bowled like it was) We went to our local bowling alley and thankfully the place was almost completely empty.

Natalie thought it was the best thing ever. She loved carrying around the bowling balls (with me close behind saying "be careful...don't drop it on your toes") She also bowled a lot and was pretty good. Her favorite part was sliding around on the slippery floors. Abby on the other hand just wandered around the entire bowling alley staring at everyone & taking it all in. I think her favorite part was the pizza.

We had a lot of fun & will surely be going again soon.

Abby Turns 1...just a little late

2011-12-28T09:12:00.001-05:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like I was just getting ready for Thanksgiving and now it’s almost New Years’! I don’t think I am going to win Mother of the Year this year (since it took me over a month to post about my 2^nd born’s first birthday, and we wonder why the middle child gets a complex?) so I’ll guess I’ll shoot for 2012.

We had many celebrations with lots and lots of family for Abby’s birthday, which fell on Thanksgiving this year. We had chocolate cupcakes that looked like turkeys, “I’m 1!” onesies, crowns & only a few fights over presents. Overall it was a success.

It was only one short year ago I was walking up and down our street, eating spicy food & bouncing on the exercise ball trying to get her out. Now she’s doing so much:

Walking

Clapping

Waving

Saying “Boo” & “Mama”

Eating so much we usually have to cut her off

Teething

Not sleeping

Starting to sign (food, more & music)

Terrorizing the cat & sometimes Tula

Pooping in the bathtub – almost every night

And doing EVERYTHING her sister does

She definitely has a “strong personality” and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We love you Abigail Louise!

Welcome Baby Maddax

2011-12-06T12:05:00.001-05:00

On November 9th @ 3:57pm, baby Maddax James was born to our good friends the Camburn family. He was a few days early, although I didn't hear his mama complaining about that.

Since Jon & Erin decided not to find out the sex of their baby before he was born, they got a lot of green & yellow clothes. So, after his arrival we threw a "Help start baby Maddax's wardrobe" shower.

He got a lot of good "little man" clothes for his whole first year. I think he was pretty excited about it, although he slept through most of the shower! Everyone had a turn to meet Maddax, even Mr. Camburn (Jon's dad) held him for the first time since he was born.

Welcome Maddax! We are so happy to finally have you here.

Grandma Meyers (Erin's mom), Great Grandma Marilyn (Erin's Grandma), Maddax, Erin & Kate (Erin's younger sister)

My mom & Mrs. Camburn (Jon's mom) playing the diaper game

Erin with some of her spoils

Like father, Like son

The happy family

Halloween with the cousins

2011-11-23T08:33:00.001-05:00

I'm only a month late, but here are pictures of the Halloween costumes. Natalie was Dorothy, complete with the sparkly red shoes & Toto in her basket. Abby was supposed to be a munchkin, however I've heard comments about her being Mork from the TV show Mork & Mindy. I probably should have included a giant lollipop, however the mom in me was forseeing many fights, sticky everything & basically only a stick remaining anyways so I opted not to do that. Then of course you have my adorable nephew dressed as Yoda. It's so fitting.

Next year we'll have to coordinate the three of them with the same theme, before they start fighting back & picking their own costumes!

Baby Gap Ad

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

Over the summer, we had our friend Liza take pictures of the three grandkids for my parents. We spent an afternoon in the park and after much bribing with food, crying and a few smiles, we got a few pictures we could work with.

**side note: I had this picture on my desktop at work & my co-worked asked me why I had a Baby Gap ad on my computer.

Thirty Flirty & Thriving...

2011-10-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

One of my best friends turned thirty this past weekend. For months, her sister and my other friend Traci and I have been planning a "spy day" as Jess would eventually name it. Basically a scavenger hunt. We gathered a lot of her friends & family to participate and after many emails, some flow charts & and iPhone app, we made it happen.

We surprised her at 9:30am with her favorite custard rolls, then we kidnapped her for the day. The day went something like this... rollerskating with Ginny (college friend) & family, lunch @ Ginny's. Shopping for a new outfit (present from Mom), then pedicure & manicure (present from me). New shoes (from other college friend), pie with candles, then off to Greektown, Detroit for the evening. Dinner at Fishbones, drinks at the Casino, along with some gambling and lounge singers, then up to our corner room on the 29th floor (courtesy of Aunt Laurie & Uncle Jeff) with an amazing view, to eat cheese pizza & drink champagne at 3:30am. Phew... it was a jam packed day full of fun.

We of course made her wear flashing gear that advertise her age & make her look fabulous!

Here are some pictures from the day. Not sure why they are a little blurry, I stole them from Traci's camera so you can check them out on her blog here as well.

It's fall...

2011-10-25T12:04:00.001-04:00

It's definitely that time of year. We had our traditional Halloween festival with Nona (Phil's mom) again this year. She was such a good sport hosting us, cooking and playing broken wrist and all. We had a great time as always eating, picking out pumpkins, carving (although Phil and I ended up doing all of the carving this year... who was this party for again?) and spending time with Nona.

Here are just a few pictures, I'll post more later.

Binder Park Zoo

2011-07-06T11:00:00.001-04:00

A few weekends ago, we took a big group of people to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. I hadn't been there (aside from the Zoo Boo in October, but that doesn't count since there are really no animals out then) in probably close to 10 years.

It was an extremely hot day, but we managed to make our way around and get the whole "Zoo Experience." We rode the tram, fed the giraffes, saw the giant tortoise, ate some ice cream and even saw a peacock with it's feathers spread. It was a pretty exciting trip.

Abby while we were waiting for the tram to Africa.

Natalie & Champe checking out the giraffes & other animals in Africa. Don't worry, the animals weren't scared off by the tiger on his bum!

this was truly one of nature's amazing beauties

Natalie after she fed the giraffes. She thought it was so funny that they stuck their (really long, may I say) tongues through the nets to get the lettuce from us. She laughed so hard at this.

Ok, the tongue doesn't look that long here, but I swear they are like at least a foot long.

Rhiannon & Alistair looking very coy

Abby & Henry all pooped out from their big zoo adventure

Happy Birthday to my favorite nephew

2011-07-05T15:38:00.005-04:00

My nephew Thomas Champe turns 1 year old today. We celebrated over the weekend with the whole family and reminisced about last year and how we spent the whole fourth of July weekend trying to convince my sister to go to the hospital. We thought you'd never get here, but after a whole day of labor and several hours of pushing... we finally got our first look at you. Now a year later here we are spending as much time as possible with you.

It's been a year filled with fun and great memories. We've enjoyed your company, your smiles, babbles, first steps and watching you grow so fast. We are blessed to have you in our family.

Happy birthday Mr. Champe!

My Favorite Cousin's Wedding

2011-06-25T22:27:00.005-04:00

A few weekends ago my favorite cousin Staci married the love of her life Ross (not to be confused with her brother Ross). We traveled up to East Lansing for the beautiful ceremony and spent the night eating amazing food, drinking and having a blast with family.

We brought Phil's mom along to watch the girls at the hotel while we went to the wedding. Everything went off without a hitch and a good time was had by all.

The bride relaxing before the big event:

The happy couple

The perfect photo bomb

First Annual Indiana Camping Trip

2011-06-14T12:35:00.006-04:00

You may recall the last several years posts about a fun filled soccer weekend in Indiana. Well, last year Phil decided he’d had too much soccer fun and opted out of the annual tournament. Well, the wives decided that we couldn’t let another year go by without getting together, so we organized the first annual Pokagon State Park camping trip. By all accounts it was a great success.

We were joined by the Camburn’s, the Hunt’s & the Harbert’s. We actually did the whole camping experience, tents, bugs, campfires, raccoons & all. It just so happened that there was a triathlon being held in the part on the Saturday that we were there (can we ever get away from those things? I mean seriously!).

The weather was beautiful so we got to enjoy the amazing beach at the park. We did get rained on Saturday night for a little bit, but the Camburn’s were prepared with a great awning for us to sit under. We had some raccoon friends that really wanted to join our party, so badly that they kept creeping up towards the campfire and even ate some of our food out of the cooler when we weren’t looking! Don’t worry, the boys were armed with flashlights & rocks to protect us…. Side note – no raccoons were harmed in the making of this blog since the boys aim wasn’t always spot on.

The park held a turtle seminar at their nature center and had a few good playgrounds for us to try out. We had so much fun we are already planning our trip for next year!

the Hunt's have a lot more (and better) pictures to look at here

To Elmo or not to Elmo

2011-04-28T11:00:00.000-04:00

After much internal debate, I decided to embrace Elmo. That’s right, we threw a little Elmo themed birthday party this weekend for Natalie, complete with an Elmo cupcake cake (made by my mother and myself) and an Elmo piñata, which we did not fill since we thought bashing Elmo to pieces might be traumatizing for a 2 year old. We hosted the party at our house with some close friends and the Amsterburg family. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. I think her favorite part was the Easter grass that Nona gave her as part of her gift. J

We continued our celebrations at my parents house on Sunday. We had Easter lunch with the whole Maltby crew (aside from my sister who was up North with her in-laws). Then we had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard for Natalie and my cousins. Natalie wasn’t really into it. She was more into chasing the cat around and getting sticks for the dogs. But she did find a few eggs in the end. We topped the day off with an awesome Owl cake made of cupcakes that my mother, Aunt Sharon and I made for Natalie. I didn’t get a good picture of it, but here is what we used as our inspiration. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/dessert-recipes/cakes-cupcakes/theme-cupcakes/night-owls-cupcakes-984215/

the Elmo pinata

This was her big present from my parents. It even has a cute little bell on it. My dad went all out for this one.

Happy Birthday to My First Born

2011-04-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

Every year on our birthdays growing up, my mother would tell the story of our birth. It would always start, on this day (insert age here) years ago… As a kid we would always retort… “Oh Mom!” I never understood why she got so sentimental about the whole thing and how she could remember every detail.

Now that I am a mother myself, I get it. It is such an amazing event that it deserves to be relived AT LEAST once a year every year on that special day. The memory is ingrained in my head as if I had lived it every day of my life for the last 2 years (like Groundhog’s day). I totally plan to follow in my mother’s footsteps and tell the girls their birth stories every year. Someday they will understand too. Until then, they will just think I’m a little looney… but what’s new I guess?

I will spare you all the details, but rest assured, Natalie heard her story this morning J

Happy 2nd Birthday to my adorable little girl. We love you.

New Rain Boots call for...

2011-04-26T09:00:00.001-04:00

We got Natalie some new rain boots. So of course we had to try them out.

Scotland... the rest

2011-04-25T18:30:00.000-04:00

Well I had good intentions of documenting our entire trip here for you to read about. As you can probably tell, that didn’t happen. So here is the short version of the remainder of our Scotland trip. We visited another small town. The guys played golf again. Took a boat trip on Loch Ness. Discovered there is no Loch Ness monster (this devastated Phil). Saw some cool battlegrounds & graveyards that were 4,000 years old. Flew back home pretty uneventfully, other than not making our flight from Detroit to Kzoo and having our friends Jon & Randy come pick us up in Detroit.

It was an amazing, once in a lifetime trip and I can’t do it justice with a little blog posting… these pictures do a pretty good job though. Check them out here.

https://picasaweb.google.com/kimberly.maltby/Scotland2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-DqKqrperdXA#

The Maltburg's take Scotland...part 1

2011-04-06T17:07:00.006-04:00

Well we survived and are basically recovered from our trip around the globe. We had an amazing time that I’m not sure I can do justice in words, but I’ll try! We left Michigan on an airplane around 5pm (Michigan time) on Wednesday and made it to Scotland about 10 am (that’s 5am Michigan time). The girls did great on the plane. Abby slept the entire flight! Natalie was too excited to sleep so she stayed up playing and bouncing around between my parents, sisters and Phil and I the entire flight. She (along with the rest of us minus Abby & Champe) stayed awake for an entire day. We decided to push through our exhaustion and enjoy our first day in Scotland so that we could fight off jet lag.

We were able to get to our flat (that’s what they call apartments in Europe) and get settled, eat some lunch, explore downtown Edinburgh, put the kids to bed early, eat some dinner in and then head to bed ourselves. The flat was so beautiful. It was right downtown overtop of a jewelry store. It had two stories and a terrace on top that opened up to a restaurant and a beautiful view of the city & Edinburgh castle. We had all the amenities (washer, dryer, kitchen, etc) including a dining room carved out of rock made a few of us very claustrophobic.

The next morning we were basically recovered from our travels and working on Scotland time. We explored Edinburgh some more, attempted to take a double decker bus tour of Scotland, but got side tracked by a gorgeous Cragg (which is a Scotland term for mountain) that we wanted to climb. So we spent the morning climbing, had some lunch & visited St. Andrew’s square. We decided to finish up the bus tour the next day.

We had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant near our place where they apparently don’t serve quesadillas but do serve strawberry margaritas so I guess they were redeemed.

The next day we got up early to finish our bus tour from the previous day. We rode the bus around the city and learned about all the amazing history in Edinburgh. The tour ended at the Edinburgh Castle so we decided to go in and explore. They have turned the castle into memorials for fallen soldiers and museums that included the underground caves that POW’s were kept in (creepy). They also shot the canons at 1pm which was pretty cool (and loud!).

This trip was too good to be covered by one post so stay tuned for more Scotland fun tomorrow.

The view from right out our apartment door (downtown Edinburgh)

the girls & Champe (mom, me, Natalie, Annie, Jennifer) starting to climb Salisbury's Cragg

Phil and Gual testing their rock climbing skills

Edinburgh Castle (view from our street)

Hot water anyone?

2011-04-04T12:12:00.004-04:00

Ahh the joys of being a home owner. A few weeks ago now, the lights in our master bathroom, bedroom and front hall way stopped working. It was very strange because the outlets still had power and so did the rest of the house. Phil checked the breaker and it was tripped so he fixed it and that seemed to do the trick (at least for a short time).

The next day the lights were back off. He checked the electrical box again and determined that we had a bad breaker and it needed to be replaced. Upon replacing this so called “bad breaker” he noticed it had a small burn spot on the side of it. But with the new breaker in place the lights were back in order.

While Phil was fixing the lights, I was giving the girls a bath before bed. I happened to notice that our once “scald your skin off” hot water was now luke warm. I mentioned this little tidbit to Phil (and by mentioned I mean screamed it from the bathroom while getting water splashed all over me by Natalie). He was literally in the process of closing the electrical box door to complete the first fiasco when this lovely fact came to our attention. He did some investigating and realized that our trusty water heater was no longer working. (We will later discover that the water heater somehow short circuited in the electrical box, causing the breaker for the lights in our bedroom to overheat).

Since the water heater was from circa 1983, we decided it was probably time for a new one anyways and we were actually very lucky since the heating element just stopped working and it did not burst water all over our basement. Since we were doing the job, we decided to do it right and purchased an instant/tankless water heater. That was just the beginning of our troubles.

1 Propane Tankless Water Heater
6 Trips to the store
1 Conversion (from electric to propane)
1 Adapter kit (from LP to propane) shipped from California
5 nights of work by Phil, our friend Jon & Jon’s dad
4 baths with water heated on the stove
3 showers at my parents house
and a week without hot water

Priceless – or memorable anyway

We did survive with a little bit of creativity and a LOT of help from our friends. We now have a functioning instant water heater and will never take hot water for granted again!

My Graceful Husband

2011-02-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

No that is not a second knee cap, that is Phil's shin after he ever so gracefully fell UP the (count them) two stairs between our living room and our kitchen. This picture was several hours after. He looks as if his leg was going to fall off about a week later because it was bruised from the knee to the ankle, it was very impressive (however I failed to get a picture of that, sorry!).

My little princesses...

2011-02-23T12:08:00.003-05:00

I know I'm missing one princess, but it was past her bedtime... so I had Tula stand in for her :)

Making cookies

2011-02-17T08:08:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday Phil and I decided to have a cookie making contest. We found two jars of cookie mix we had received as gifts and decided it was finally time to make them. Phil took one and I took the other. Phil embelished his a little with peanut butter and of course paid no attention to the recipe. I added frosting and sprinkles in between my cookies once they were done. Then we took the results to our friends house for dinner to see who won. They were all too nice to choose sides (but I maintain that I won...even though his were pretty good too).

Natalie decided she wanted to help make the cookies. So of course we had to capture that magic on film...

And we're back . . .

2011-02-15T11:41:00.004-05:00

Well, I left the mom world for a few hours today and ventured back into the adult world. Today was my first day back from leave and away from my kidlets. Thus the first chance I've had to update the blog.

I must admit we've done a lot of things over the last few months, and they are all a blur. I feel overwhelmed by the number of pictures I have on my camera and have not printed or posted so ... to catch up I will leave you with a few pictures and start fresh going forward.

Enjoy!

The long awaited arrival of 2.0

2010-11-28T17:21:00.006-05:00

After nine months of waiting and wondering what little bundle of joy would join our family next, we go our answers early Wednesday (November 24th) morning.

I woke up Tuesday morning with mild contractions starting 10 min apart and quickly moving to 5-7 minutes apart. After a few hours of those, we followed the doctor's orders and went to the hospitals. About 30 minutes after getting to the hospital, the triage nurses decided I had not made any progress and my contractions weren't strong enough to warrant me staying in the hospital. So home we went...a little discouraged.

We spent the rest of Tuesday going for walks, sitting on the exercise ball, taking baths and basically just waiting for something to happen. About 9:30pm that night (after having mild contractions every 5 minutes all day) things started to get more intense and contractions moved to about 3 min apart. After a few hours of that (because at this point I wasn't about to get turned away twice), we called the doctor and he strongly encouraged us to come to the hospital ASAP. We made it to triage about 11:20pm, and I was only dialated to 3cm, but my contractions were consistent and very strong so they admitted me.

At about 11:45 the doctor broke my water (with what looked like a knitting needle) and from there things really got moving. I got back in the bath tub for a half hour or so, then back to the bed. Before I knew it, I was ready to push. I did not (much to the dismay of my nurse) wait for the doctor to join us before I started pushing, in fact I think this conversation happened (unless I was a little dilusional)

Nurse: Honey don't push so hard, the doctor isn't here yet and I don't want to have to deliver this baby.

Me: You better tell him to run.

The doctor made it just in time to put on some gloves and deliver our new little bundle of joy.

Abigail Louise Amsterburg

November 24th, 2010 @ 1:45am

8lb 12oz

21.5 inches

More pictures here...

http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?birthid=3a64f77e-7e1b-427b-a18b-6b437e0d9ff9&babyid=1dea3655-d1c6-499e-8d1d-6f3d71e867a2

Fall is Finally Here

2010-11-01T17:33:00.005-04:00

So now that the temperatures are starting to feel more fall like (believe me I am so grateful for this, my little furnace in my tummy keeps me plenty warm!), we have been able to do some fun fall things like rake the leaves and then play in them...

A Day at the Zoo... Zoo Boo that is

2010-10-26T12:13:00.003-04:00

This past weekend we took a family trip to the Binder Park Boo Zoo (or Zoo Boo... I can't remember which one it is). Anyways, it was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun collecting candy, playing with all the decorations and even took a hay ride through the park.

It was way too hot for the kids to keep their costumes on, but we did get a few pictures of them. Both cousin Champe & Natalie were bumble bees.

Aunt Jenni, Thomas, Aunt Annie & Natalie

Checking out the scarecrows (they are her favorite)

Aunt Jenni & Natalie riding the camel

Grandpa & Champe

Oh no watch out for the hippo!

Annual Halloween Festivities

2010-10-18T17:33:00.003-04:00

Each year we celebrate Halloween with Phil's mom. We make scary foods, pick out pumpkins, eat too much & then carve our pumpkins. This year we even had a scary dessert making contest. We didn't actually declare a winner, since we were all in a sugar coma by the end.

We went to Gene the Pumpkin man to pick out pumpkins again this year, I mean he even has an orange car, I think he deserves our pumpkin business.

Testing out the pumpkins

Natalie & Nona

Just relaxin.

Even Tula got dressed up to join the party.

Scary baby!!! This was her "Thriller" look, accentuated by a green frosting mustache.

I have to be honest, these pictures make her look a lot more interested in the carving than she actually was. She tried, but didn't want a whole lot to do with the slimy insides.

Thankfully Dad came to the rescue and carved it for her.

Some things you missed...

2010-10-18T12:16:00.003-04:00

Here are some of the things we've been up to in the last few weeks since I've posted last...

Watched Phil participate (and come in 2nd) in his annual Corporate Olympics volleyball games.

Went to the apple orchard with Nona.

Tailgated for MSU football season.

Played with cousin Champe.
Attended a "Sprinkle" shower hosted by my favorite cousin Staci. It was very well done and basically consisted of a small group of family only (sorry everyone else) eating a lot of food and visiting. No gifts were allowed aside from books for baby 2.0.

My mother is taking a cake making class and this is just one of her many masterpieces.

Cousin Staci (our marvelous hostess) and Arianna.
Aunt Sharon & Natalie at the Sprinkle.

Lightning Strikes Twice

2010-08-26T12:15:00.002-04:00

This summer we had a pretty mild storm actually that resulted in lightning striking two of our trees right by our house. Thankfully neither of them fell down (at least from the storm) and we didn't even lose power! That is an amazing feat for us, because we lose power all the time!

So of course this was a great opportunity for Phil and his dad to cut down some more trees (although they are the ones he really wanted to cut down, that is still up for debate, but they'll do). So one Saturday this summer after the storm, our friend Randy & his brother came over and the four boys cut down two trees in our front yard. Natalie, Tula and I cheered them on and brought them Gatorade. :)

Tree #1

Tree #2
Randy helping cleanup once the tree was down.

Rob working his magic with the chain saw.

The aftermath.

In case you didn't notice

2010-08-24T11:33:00.002-04:00

Baby Maltburg 2.0 will be joining us in just 90 short days (13 weeks) or less!

Yes that's right sportsfans I am currently almost 7 months pregnant with baby # 2. Everything is going well so far, we've had two ultrasounds and everything is normal and healthy. This pregnancy has been a little rougher than the first since I am getting far less sleep/rest this time around with a little monster running all over the place. I'm finally past the "sick" phase which lasted about 5 months. I'm currently in the honeymoon phase (as my friend referred to it) which lasts about 1 month and soon I'll be moving into the uncomfortable/is this over yet phase for the last 3 months.

Let's see if I can cover all the questions for you:

Due date is November 22nd.
We did not find out the sex of the baby.
Natalie & 2.0 will be 18 months apart.
Thomas (my nephew) & 2.0 will be 4 months apart.
I'm feeling good...for now.

Pictures Galore

2010-08-10T13:00:00.000-04:00

Here are a ton of random pictures to explain the last few months. Enjoy!

My little jazzersize baby.

Annie & Natalie

Pool time at Grandma & Grandpa's
Wearing Annie's goggles.

Grandpa & Natalie all dressed up.

Why buy toys when she can always play with Grandpa's chest hair?

My new cousin!

So pretty!

Favorite summer food: Corn on the Cob courtesy of Grandpa Amsterburg

Summer weddings!

Lugnuts game with the Amsterburg family.

Bird sanctuary with Nona.

Visit in the D with my friend Jess (feeding the deer).

Jayda & Natalie on Belle Isle

Learning from the best!

Jess & Natalie

Shermanator 2010

2010-08-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

As many of you may know, this weekend was the infamous Shermanator Sprint Triathalon. This is now the 3rd year in a row that the boys (and others along the way) have done this event. This year it was just Phil, Jon & Randy competing. Our collective families have spent the last several months "preparing" for this event. I say we prepared as a family because I'd like to give credit to the wives who have spent many nights alone or listening to recaps of training times and plans for the day of.

They all finished without injury and did excellent. Of course we were there to cheer them on and take great pictures (thank you Erin). And I'd also like to give us credit for listening to the recap of the actual event, including times and what they could have improved on/will improve for next year.

Here are some action shots of the event. I decided against posting the out of the water swimming pictures to spare everyone some serious spandex shots.

Phil transitioning to the bike. Of course he wore the Grateful Dead shirt which made him easy to pick out of a crowd!

Randy on the run, he is SUPER fast!

Jon heading from the bike to the run. We did let the navy blue & black slide this time, but the fashion police have him on their radar.

The aftermath (Randy, Jon & Phil).
Natalie cheering for her dad.

Baby Champe

2010-08-09T13:24:00.002-04:00

Ok, I know I've been MIA for a long time. It's overwhelming to try to catch up so I'm going to start with a very important event, then jump to the present day and at some point do a collage post with pictures of everything over the last few months. Then I will keep up going forward (I promise).

The major event I'm referring to is the birth of my nephew Mr. Thomas Champe Harris. He was born July 5th and was 6lb 9oz and gave us a heck of a time getting here, but we love him just the same.

My mother and I were able to be there to help support Jenni & Nate through the whole ordeal. He is now a whole month old and growing like a weed. Here are a few pictures from the birth. I'll post more updated ones of him later.

Happy Birthday Little One

2010-04-27T12:34:00.006-04:00

Today my baby girl turns 1 year old. It feels like I was just waking Phil up to take me to the hospital in the middle of the night and waiting for hours for her to arrive. Now she's a big girl who has a personality all her own.

Here are some of my favorite things about her:

She loves all animals (even spiders)
She gives wonderful "kisses" (mainly slober and licking, but I count it)
She could walk if she wanted to, but she's holding out for something better
She sleeps on her tummy with her butt in the air. Almost every morning we have to change her pj's since the pee slides down her tummy & out of her diaper in this position, but it's worth it.
She is the most relaxed and laid back baby I have ever met
And, she knows exactly what to do with a chocolate cake (see below)

Happy Birthday Natalie Claire. You will always be my baby.

Bath Time

2010-04-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

Bath time is a sacred time in our house hold. It means baby gets clean, dad & baby have some bonding time, and most importantly, mom gets some quite time!

Here are some sneak peaks I took during bath time. It's probably best if I don't know what goes on at bath time.

Skeletor or the future pianist?

2010-04-05T11:57:00.002-04:00

When Natalie was born, it was commented by my favorite friend Maggie, that she had unusually long fingers & toes. Of course I thought she was perfect! But nevertheless, she ended up with the nick name Skeletor. Well, now that she's a little older I'm hoping those fingers will pay off. That's right, Grandpa has started piano lessons (mainly banging the keys for now, but it's a start). My little future pianist!!!

Frost Bite 5k

2010-02-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

This year was the second annual Vicksburg Chili Cookoff Frost Bite 5k Run (whew that is a mouth full). My sister is the official organizer so it goes without saying that there were a ton of family and friends who helped make the event a success. We had over 180 runners and raised over $1,000 for the local food bank.

Thank you to everyone who participated/volunteered/donated. You are all awesome!

The organizer & her assistant.

Volunteers

More helpers

Participants. Good job guys!

Baby's First Soccer Ball

2010-02-24T12:51:00.002-05:00

Natalie got her first soccer ball as a Christmas (yes I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I lost my camera. Don't worry it has since been found) present from my good freind Jess. She thought it was the greatest thing for about 10 minutes until she realized she couldn't fit it in her mouth very well. But I give her an A for her persistent attempts at eating the soccer ball.

Tula was very jealous I might add, since soccer ball chasing & chewing is a favorite past time of hers. She was sitting by intently giving pointers to Natalie on how to best enjoy her ball.

Yum, this is really good..

Well, maybe another angle might be easier.

Ok, how about this way?

Forget it, I'll just eat that camera... gimme

Good Morning Sunshine

2010-02-23T08:19:00.003-05:00

She's on the Move!

2010-01-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago now (my time has gotten away from me) our little girl finally made the big move. That's right folks, she's crawling! I've suspected she could crawl for a while now, she just needed the proper motivation. Come to find out, all it took was a TV remote control to motivate her to mosey her way across the room. Since then she has been a girl on the run, I mean crawl.

Her favorite past time (which scared the begeezuz out of me the first time it happened) is to crawl under the coffee table and hang out. Then once that is complete, she moves on to Tula, where she plays with her feet and gets some nice kisses. After a rest, it's on to "help" dad read the newspaper and then back to her mat to play with some toys.

Man this girl is busy! Why did I want her to crawl again?

Occasionally she will take a "rest" after she's made it to her destination. It's hard work being a moving machine!

Christmas Recap

2010-01-06T17:47:00.004-05:00

Christmas was a bit of a blur this year, like most people it was filled with family, fun & lots of food. We celebrated with Nona (Phil's Mom), Phil's dad and the Maltby family. Natalie made a haul, getting a ton of presents (thank you everyone!). She really enjoyed all the chaos and the wrapping paper was a blast! I think her favorite presents included the touch & feel Christmas book and all the awesome hand me down's from her favorite second cousins.

I won't bore you with the details, but I will say it was a wonderful Christmas and I can't wait until next year! Here are some photos of the fun:

Tree decorating with Dad. (don't mind the drool covered shirt)

Christmas with Nona.

After a quick nap, she was back in action. She spent the rest of the time reading her new touch & feel Christmas book (thank you Uncle Jeff & Aunt Laurie) with Grandpa.

Everyone got into the holiday spirit!

Not gonna lie, this beard is a little creepy, sorry honey!

No more Christmas whale

2009-12-11T13:00:00.000-05:00

When we moved into our house, my mom gifted a lot of Christmas decorations to me to get us started. One of those was the treasured advent calendar that my mother had made when we were little.

The calendar has been an essential part of our Christmas decor for the last three years. This year, we stored it in our closet under the stairs on the floor leaning up against the wall. When I pulled it out to hang it up, I noticed some of the ornaments looked funny. Our little mice friends had decided to eat the "low hanging" ornaments and take what they couldn't eat as makings for their nests. So they stole all the fur from the stockings & Santa hat, ate the Christmas bulbs and I'm so sorry to say, completely destroyed the Christmas Whale. (why a whale ornament on a Christmas calendar you ask. well my mother states that there are only so many things you can make out of grey felt. so of course why not a whale!)

If you are observant, you may notice that our friends did not touch the mouse ornament.

Don't worry I was able to make more ornaments and even made stockings for Phil, Tula & Natalie to hang on it as well. The advent calendar lives on!

Hockey Fun!

2009-12-10T16:49:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago Phil randomly called into the local radio station on his way home from work and won 4 tickets to the K-Wings hockey game. So we invited our friends Randy & Liza to go with us to the game.

We took Natalie with us to the game and she had a great time. She cheered, played, puked all over Randy and then slept. She even slept through the multiple goals scored, after which they play every single noise they have in their computer to celebrate.

Afterwards we went to dinner with Phil's dad. Although the K-Wings lost, it was still a lot of fun!

My favorite part about this picture is the look on Randy's face and the puke on his hand, Priceless!

Finally a good family picture!

Play Dates

2009-11-25T16:48:00.007-05:00

So I know A LOT of people who had babies right around when Natalie was born. Recently we've been trying to be better about making time to get the kiddies together for play dates (now that they are big enough to interact and start making friends).

We had lunch with my long lost friend from high school, Dawn, who actually lives just down the road from us and has a little girl (Lydia) who is about 3 months old. It was super fun to catch up and nice to meet Miss Lydia. Although they are 3 months apart in age, the girls were about the same size.

By the time we got around to taking pictures, Natalie was pretty tuckered out.

Next, we had dinner with my college roommate/friend, Amy and her daughter Juliana. Ju is 3 (almost 4, I can't believe it!) and was in love with Natalie, well everything except for the puking part. Ju was a lot of help changing diapers & clothes, but when we were getting ready to leave, this was our conversation:

Me: Ju, can I have a hug before we go?
Ju: But you have throw up on your shirt
Me: .... (*pause*) Oh.... well maybe a side hug?

Then to top off our string of fun, we had my other college roommate/friend, Kelly and her daughters Tessa (2) and Taylor (6 mo) over for a visit. Taylor was the queen of rolling over (which Natalie had not done yet) and Natalie was little miss sitter upper (which Taylor was still working on).

We spent most of the time trying to get the girls to learn from each other... and that they did! Only a few days after their meeting, Natalie was rolling over like it was her job and I've heard rumors Miss Taylor is now quite the sitter. Although now that she is rolling, I'm wondering why I wanted her to do that in the first place... life was much simpler when she stayed put.

Here are all the girls together (trust me, this was the best picture we got!)

Now comes the string of our attempt at a picture of the two little ones... which sort of looks like some baby UFC. (don't worry mom, no babies were harmed) They were, to say the least, not very cooperative.

What? No Monster Mash?!?

2009-11-02T15:11:00.007-05:00

Halloween festivities started early this year. We celebrated with our annual pumpkin carving party at Nona’s (Phil’s mom). She went all out and had a scary hand punch, Frankenstein cake, pumpkin pizza and even hotdog mummies. We picked out our pumpkins at Gene the Pumpkin Man (who only owns things that are bright orange, including his car). Then we spent the afternoon eating and carving to our hearts content. They all turned out great. Phil even carved Natalie her own pumpkin, which she was really into.

At work, my team dressed as hillbillies (although I think my costume looked more like a cross between a trucker and a train conductor!). No matter what we were, we looked great and were about the only ones with any Halloween spirit.

Halloween day, we convinced Jon and Erin to go to the Zoo Boo at Binder Park Zoo with us. All the workers dress up in their costumes and the entire place is decorated in scary décor (not too scary as it is geared towards children). We had a great time. We trick or treated at different booths throughout the park, saw some cool animals and even went on a hay ride.

After the zoo fun, we went back to our house where we were joined by our friends Randy and Liza and some other stragglers throughout the night. We ate a lot, played some games, watched a movie and of course football. Before the night was over, we all had too much sugar and too much food.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Sisters/Cousin Weekend to "the island"

2009-10-12T17:51:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, my sisters, our favorite cousin, Natalie and I all made a road trip up north to visit Mackinac Island (pronounces Mackinaw for those of you not from around here). It is about a 5 hour drive, but it's beautiful and has many fun things like: fudge, no cars, lots of horses, fudge, the Grand Hotel (which someone told me is in a movie with Keanu Reeves), tandum bikes, oh yeah and FUDGE!

Of course the road trip is part of the fun, so we got up early Saturday morning and made our way up the state. It's always amazing to me that you can drive for 5 hours and still be in Michigan. The colors were very pretty and the traffic was light so we made good time. We took the ferry (which was basically a giant speed boat run by a rather cute young man that we attempted to hook up with my single cousin) over to the island where we headed straight for the bikes. We rented 2 tandum bikes and a Burley (which is a little cart that pulls behind the bikes) for Natalie. The men at the bike rental place were just a little worried about our sanity because as we were getting onto our bikes, the heavens opened up and a hurricane (or at least it felt like a hurricane) struck us. The winds were whipping the rain in our face and making it very difficult to bike. Somehow we survived the 8.3 mile trip around the island without crashing. Natalie had a nice nap in her Burley where she was snug & warm and completely oblivious to the weather outside.

After assuring the bike men that we were still alive and their bikes were in tact, we headed to our hotel to get some dry clothes and warm up a little. We ventured out later that night to have dinner downtown at a little restaurant. Annie & Staci were in awe of the "islanders" so it was just our luck that our waitress was a native to the island and still lived there year round. They had many questions for her about the island. So much so in fact that she even gave us a little book that a group of the "islanders" had written answering these types of questions. We of course purchased several copies and got many autographs to go with them!

Sunday morning the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. So we decided to take a little adventure around the island to see the Grand Hotel and the village where our new friend Melissa (the waitress) lives. We stopped at St. Ann's cemetary for a photo op and just enjoyed the beautiful views. Next was breakfast at the Chuckwagon (a very narrow restaurant) and then wandering around the town to do some shopping and stock up on fudge.

We caught the afternoon ferry back to the mainland (that is what us islanders call Mackinac City), where we attempted once again to make a love connection for my cousin with the same ferry coordinator. Then we made our way back down the state, stopping in Lansing for some Linner and making it home rather late Sunday night. Although it was a quick trip, it was full of great memories and I can't wait until the next sisters/cousin weekend!

Annie, Natalie & Staci waiting for the ferry

Our tandum biking... this was just before the rain & gale force winds.

Baby in her Burley, doesn't she look comfy?

St. Ann's Cemetary

The Grand Hotel

LaKnoll

2009-09-30T11:00:00.001-04:00

This weekend, my long lost friend Jess came into town to visit. We sent Phil packing to Angola to help work on Jon's house (it had some recent fire damage). So Friday night was just the girls hanging out in Richland. Saturday we got up and around and headed out to Battle Creek to pick up some Papa Murphy's pizza for lunch at LaKnoll (this is the name of Traci's parents farm that was our old stomping ground). We found Papa Murphy's too easy so we knew it would be much harder to find LaKnoll from there. After 10 phone calls, 3 U turns, lots of laughing & also some confusion and half a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups later we made it! What should have taken us 20 minutes took us over an hour, but what fun would it be if everything went smoothly all the time!

We spent the day hangning out at LaKnoll with Mare & Traci. Played cards, ate pizza (and the remaining peanut butter cups), went for a Gator Ride back to see the beaver dam, watched the boys paint a barn and played with the barn kittens.

Here's Mare & Traci on the Gator.

Jess, Natalie & I in the yard.

Mare & Natalie (notice the majorly drooled on shirt? maybe some more teeth?)

Natalie meeting the kittens.

It does sort of look like she's trying to strangle this one.

**No kittens were harmed in the making of this blog.

Notre Dame Weekend

2009-09-29T09:33:00.002-04:00

Two weekends ago, we hauled ourselves and all of our stuff (which seems like it is exponentially increasing now that there are three of us) down to South Bend to our friend's Jon & Erin's house. We had a sleep over Friday night and then we "tailgated" (that is only in quotes because we never left their house, we enjoyed our tailgate in the comfort of their home with their indoor plumbing). We still had a fabulous time, with lots to eat and good company.

The boys watched the game on the big screen while the girls entertained ourselves on the new deck. It truly was a beautiful day for football.

Randy and Natalie (they have a special bond since she puked all over him the other day).

The ladies.

The boys (plus Kala & Natalie)... oh and Liza peeking from the background.

I spy baby's first teeth! Yup, it's plural!

2009-09-22T13:00:00.000-04:00

Friday night we discovered two little white specs showing through Natalies gums on the bottom. After some careful investigation, we discovered two (count 'em TWO) teeth had decided to grace us with their presence. She is such a good baby that we didn't even no she was teething! She was drooling a lot (but that is par for the course with her) and chewing on everything, but no crankiness or extra sleep. Let's hope that is the pattern for the rest of her teeth.

Labor Day in Ludington

2009-09-21T17:30:00.003-04:00

Labor Day weekend (after our first tailgate of the season), we decided to end our summer with a trip up to Ludington to see Grandma Amsterburg and Lake Michigan. Phil's dad made the trip up also and met us there.

We did some fishing (although no fish were actually caught), some sight seeing, a lot of eating and some visiting. The weekend was full of beautiful weather so we decided to stop at the beach along Lake Michigan on our way home. We had a beautiful, peaceful walk along the shore while Natalie napped in her sling. What a nice way to end the summer!

Grandpa, Phil and Natalie doing some fishing.

The happy family along Lake Michigan

Natalie enjoying her first trip to the beach.

Testing the waters...she actually liked it. Too bad it was WAY too cold to swim!

I just love this picture, look at those cute little toes.

We also tried out the swing at a nearby playground. This was about as excited as she got. Maybe next summer!

Baby's First Tailgate

2009-09-15T13:53:00.003-04:00

Last weekend marked the start of everyone’s favorite… College Football season! As many of you know Phil and I purchase season tickets to the Michigan State football games each year. We have a tradition of tailgating before the games with our favorite Aunt Laurie & Uncle Jeff, along with a host of others that come and go sporadically. This year we obviously had a new addition to our tailgating crew, our little princess.

Saturday morning, we woke up to a red faced little baby. She developed some sort of rash overnight (which we still haven't been able to peg to anything specifically). It started off sort of splotchy and got worse throughout the day. She ended up with little blister like spots all over her face & her bald spot, but no where else. It was very weird, but the nurse was not concerned, and Natalie did not seem phased by her new look so we went about our day as normal.

She had a fabulous time at the tailgate and spent the game with her Aunt Jenni, while Phil and I went into the cheer the Spartans to victory. It was a beautiful day (albeit a little hot, but we’re not complaining) to kick off the season with and we were even graced with the presence of my cousin Ross (a former MSU student who now lives in Minneapolis). And to top all that excitement off, our Spartans were victorious which always makes the day better! GO GREEN!

Dad & baby

Chillin with dad's shades on.

Poor little baby, she looked so sad. But as you can probably tell, she didn't mind at all!

Aunt Laurie & Mom

Tracy (cousin Staci's friend), cousin Staci & cousin Ross.

This was her favorite part about meeting cousin Ross (yes, she's licking his arm hair).

Rice Cereal Anyone?

2009-09-09T17:43:00.003-04:00

Sunday night we attempted to start our little princess eating rice cereal. So we mixed some up with a little breast milk for good measure and off we went. She doesn't quite get the spoon yet, she keeps trying to suck on it like a nipple, but eventually we got quite a bit in her mouth (although it doesn't look like it from the pictures) and she even enjoyed it. Phil couldn't spoon it in fast enough for her. We got a good video of it, she screams between each bite because she can't stand to wait that long! Poor thing :)

Last night, we learned from our previous mistakes and used a bib. However, we might need to alter that plan as well, since the bib (along with the bowl, the shirt & the hand) all went into her mouth with the cereal. Maybe next time we will try a body bib (yes I've actually seen these at the craft shows).

So a few more weeks of cereal and then we'll be moving onto veggies!

She's very serious about her eating.

Oh and for those of you who were concerned, her spots seem to be clearing up (as you can probably tell from the pictures) and we still don't even know what they were from.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2009-09-08T15:06:00.003-04:00

Today is my wonderful Grandma's 85th birthday. I'm sure she is busy celebrating her birthday by beating all of her friends (and some people who are not her friends) in bridge (this is a game that Grandma loves and no one under the age of 60 understands how to play).

Grandma (even though I know you will not be reading this). Thank you for being a wonderful woman and the heart that beats through our family. We enjoy every moment we get to spend with you and look forward to each one to come.

Happy Birthday Gram!

Love, your favorite granddaughter.

(note to all my cousins: unless you can some how magically change your birthday to today, you have no chance to catch me! ha ha... unless maybe you became a doctor & had twins... oh and don't forget to cut your hair)

Finally a smile!

2009-09-02T15:18:00.003-04:00

Well, Natalie has been smiling and giggling like crazy for the last month or so. However, everytime I get the camera out to capture this adorable moment, the smile fades and I get this perplexed stare (not the most adorable thing you've ever seen, but still cute).

Finally I got a picture of her smiling. I did have to crop out Mom Amsterburg though (sorry but you had a really funny face, you'll thank me later!).

So here you go... Ta Da!!!

No more nemesis

2009-08-26T14:43:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was Natalie’s 4 month check up. We recently switched doctor’s offices, for reasons I will not go into here because it makes me too angry (basically I hate the other office). This visit was an amazing improvement from her 2 month appointment at the office of my nemesis’ (or whatever the plural for nemesis is because I basically hated everyone there, except the woman who was supposed to be our actual doctor and we never got to see). She received an oral vaccination for the rotavirus and two shots. She basically behaved herself and we made it through the appointment with only one of us crying this time. Basically she is perfectly healthy, she’s just tall and skinny (nothing wrong with that). We discussed introducing solids in the next few months (well, not really solids more mush) and maybe even teeth! Oh my little baby is growing so fast!

Stats:
Weight: 12 lbs 9 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 24 ¾ inches (75th percentile)
Head: 16 inches (50th percentile)

Dress Up

2009-08-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

Phil's co-worker gave us two big tubs of clothes, so this weekend we had to play dress up and try out some of the clothes. We also recently got a bumbo chair that my mom & sister got for Natalie at a garage sale. She really likes it, although she did better sitting next to it, than in it!

Even Tula got to dress up.

JT, not just for NSync anymore

2009-08-19T17:24:00.001-04:00

As if we all needed another reason to love JT. Well in case you did, here you go!

Amsterburg Family Reunion 09

2009-08-11T13:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was the annual Amsterburg family reunion at Phil's dad's house. There was a lot of BBQ chicken, brats and the highlight (what we've all been waiting for) Rob's sweet corn! It was all delicious.

Unfortunately there were some serious thunderstorms that afternoon, which eventually cleared up and brought some hot, muggy weather. The rain didn't hold us back, we still partied like it was the summer of 2009!

Little Robbie (can you believe he's almost 3?)

Natalie with her GREAT Aunt Carol (who is like a baby magnet)

Baby Ryker

2009-08-10T17:30:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago (before I was back at work), my friend Shell brought her new baby down to visit for the morning. He is just over 5 months old now and he just dwarfs Natalie. He has the cutest chunky thighs, some serious blonde hair and a smile that has all the ladies swooning.

Natalie was playing hard to get, but she really liked him! Here they are together.

Nothing like a quick game of footsie before nap time!

My little sitter

2009-08-05T12:54:00.001-04:00

Total Shermanation!

2009-08-04T11:38:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was the annual Shermanator Sprint Triathalon event at the Sherman Lake YMCA near our house. Last year a few of the family and some friends participated in this super fun event. Well this year we had a whole brood! Here were the 2009 participants: Phil, Jon (well in spirit anyways), Randy (Phil's friend), Jennifer, Nate, Annie, Gual, Dad, Rob (Phil's Dad), Curtis, Laurie (Curtis' Mom/Annie's friend) and another friend of Annie's from work. I ran in the 5k event as my form of participation. Unfortunately Erin, Liza and her sisters were unable to run with me since the registration was FULL!!! They apparently had a spectacular turnout this year.

Anyways, everyone did great (meaning they finished!) and we all had a good time. Afterwards, we all showered, napped and then went to Rob's house for a Shermanator after party. There was lots of food, good friends and family, a keg, paddle ball and corn hole. What more could you ask for? We all had a great time celebrating in style.

I think there is already talk of another triathalon in the works... or at the very least already planning for next year's!

Good job everyone.

Some of the gang

The boys (the rest of the gang)

Erin & Natalie at the afterparty

Back to the Grind

2009-08-03T16:59:00.002-04:00

Well, today was my first day back at work after 13 weeks at home with my favorite littlest girl. I am grateful that it was a busy day so the only time I had to stop and think was during my milk making sessions. Natalie spent the day at home with Grandma (my mom) so it was a little easier to leave her this morning and a lot less hectic than trying to pack things up and get out the door with both of us. I'm sure they are home having a stupendous day full of laughing, smiling, napping and eating. That is at least what I've been telling myself all day since my wonderful, lovely mother forgot her cell phone at home and we do not have a home phone, so I have not been able to check up on the girls at all today. But... low and behold, I made it! It's 5:02 and the day is over... time to head home to see my long lost daughter (by the way, yes it is still weird to say that I have a daughter).

I put lots of Natalie pics up here for you to check out.

More summer updates to come this week, now that I have internet at my finger tips again!

Hot Air Balloons or Bust

2009-07-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Thursday I took Liza and Erin to the Battle Creek hot air balloon festival so they could have their first experience with the balloons. The weather was super windy that night, so we knew going into it that they were not launching the balloons, but we decided to go anyways to see them light the balloons up at night.

We made our rounds at the festival while we were waiting for the sun to go down. Liza and I decided to ride the pirate ship ride (that was the scariest ride we could handle). The carnie running the ride thought we were cute so he didn't make us use our tickets as an excuse to flirt with us and the little girls in the row in front of us were making fun of us the entire time because we were scared and they weren't... does that mean we are getting old?

After the ride, we had to determine which fair food was better, a funnel cake or an elephant ear. So we got one of each and took our seats to await the balloon show. After determining that the funnel cake was far better, listening to a local band and counting the mullets, the announcer let us all know that it was too windy to even light the balloons up. Something about lighting things on fire...whatever!!! Anyways after all that, we didn't even get to see the balloons. Sorry guys, guess we'll have to try again next year.

Liza and I waiting for the pirate ride

Erin holding our things

Here we are on the ride.

Wedding Pics

2009-07-11T13:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics from the Fourth of July wedding. It was a small backyard wedding followed by a delicious BBQ. They cooked a turkey inside a pig... it sort of sounds gross put that way, but trust me it was yummy. After dinner we played some corn hole, boys vs girls. My friend Traci and I were on a team against Phil and Traci's husband Bill. It looked as if the girls might pull off a win in the second game, but the boys came from behind and beat us.

The fireworks were set up out in the middle of a corn field for safety, due to some previous issues they've had. Thankfully the wedding was at Traci's brother's house which is in the middle of corn fields that belong to her dad. So they were all set. Here we are checking out the stash before the show.

Happy Fourth of July

2009-07-10T12:37:00.003-04:00

This Fourth of July, we took a quick day trip up to Ludington with Phil’s dad, to visit Phil’s Grandma Amsterburg. His Uncle Jan and Aunt Carol were there also so it ended up being a small family gathering. We had a beautiful day for a visit. We did not partake in all the usual festivities this year, we simply had lunch and visited and then headed back home.

Saturday we got up bright and early so the fam (not including me) could participate in the annual Schoolcraft 5 mile run. My sisters, their husbands and Phil all ran extremely fast in the event and we even won some door prizes. After the race was the parade…which I have to admit was a little disappointing this year. We made the mistake of setting up shop at the end of the parade, for those of you non parade goers, by the end of the parade, there is no candy left and most everyone in the parade has lost their enthusiasm. We spent the majority of our time planning our parade entry for next year… yes that’s right we are going to be a part of the parade next year to liven things up a little. The brainstorming included freeze pops, bubbles and some sort of choreographed Michael Jackson dance routine.

The runners (Gual, Annie, Phil, Nate & Jenni)

The sisters at the parade.

This was the creepiest parade float we saw!... Don't be fooled those are not small children... they are dolls.... I have no idea!

After the parade was a cook out at my parents’ house with most of the family, some swimming, a quick nap and then off to a wedding. It was a very busy day. The wedding was a lot of fun, there was a nice cookout and delicious cupcakes and then $3000 worth of fireworks to end the night. We unfortunately couldn’t stay to witness this show, but I’m told it was amazing. After the wedding we made it back to my parents (who were babysitting for us) and the family went to watch the Schoolcraft fireworks while Phil, Natalie and I crashed. Happy Fourth of July!

Summer Update

2009-07-08T10:03:00.000-04:00

This summer has been full of quality family time, barbeques with friends and a lot of swimming! It’s been fabulous. Here are some random pictures from the summer so far.

Our first attempt at swimming... it was more like dipping feet.

Nona (phil's mom) and Natalie

Baby Violet, my friend Cindy's baby who was born a few weeks after Natalie and is the same size as Natalie.

Annie, Natalie and Sophie (baby Violet's sister)

Grandma Maltby & Natalie

Grandma (my mom) and Natalie at a BBQ

Me making silly faces at the kids

Dad & Phil at a BBQ

Ana (my friend Amy's daughter) and Natalie

Jaundice Update

2009-07-07T14:30:00.000-04:00

Last week we took Natalie for her two month check up. She had to get her first series of vaccinations at this appointment, three shots in total. I made it through the first one ok, the second one was harder and enough for me and the third put me over the edge, but don't worry I held it together until the nurse left the room at least!

She is now officially over 10 pounds and right on schedule. She grew 2 inches and is now 23 inches long, that puts her in the 50th percentile for weight & 75th for height. She is going to be nice and tall, just like her daddy.

Her jaundice levels are still going down steadily so that is a good thing. We are now only having her checked every two weeks instead of every day or every week like we were... YEAH for all of us!!

Overall, she is a healthy & happy baby.

Basketballs and broken wrists

2009-07-06T20:43:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Phil, Jon and Randy played in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament in Comstock. This is the second year they played in this tournament that Randy’s brother organizes. Erin, Liza, Natalie and I showed our support for a few games and then decided that we better make an appearance at Greater Galesburg days (as neither Liza nor I had ever been there). The boys were exhausted (I think they started to realize they aren’t as young as they think) and the girls had a great time at our summer festival.

After we left the basketball tournament, my husband (being the competitive person that he is) dove for a basketball during one of their games and landed on his right wrist. After much convincing that evening, he finally made a trip to the emergency room. Here is my medical expert explanation of what happened. His thumb bone smashed into one of his wrist bones and broke a piece of his thumb bone off. So they put him in a partial cast and recommended we see an orthopedic hand surgeon the following week. He spent about a week and a half in the cast before we saw the other doctor.

The hand doctor took more x-rays and determined that none of the bones were broken, aside from the chip so as long as he was not having pain, then it was not necessary to put on a permanent cast. So they removed his cast and told him to take it easy (sorry guys, no soccer tournament this year). We were both very excited… Phil so he can still participate in the Shermanator (the sprint triathalon he has been training for in August) and me so he could start changing diapers again!

Erin and Natalie cheering on the boys

Dad with his broken wrist

Family Picture

2009-06-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

Here is our attempt at a family picture...

BBQ with Aunt Maggie

2009-06-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to a BBQ at my friend Maggie’s house to celebrate her boyfriend Dave’s birthday. After some morning rain it turned out to be a beautiful day. I got to visit with some friends and see my adopotive mother Patty (Maggie’s mom). It was nice to get out of the house and do some summer activities, although it hasn’t really felt like summer yet, it’s been too cold.

Patty & Natalie

Maggie & the birthday boy Dave.

Dave, Maggie, Natalie & I

Could she be any cuter?

Chicken Little Update

2009-06-19T14:00:00.000-04:00

Last week Phil's brother Robbie, sister-in-law Rachel and nephew Little Robbie (aka Chicken Little) came to meet the new family member. Robbie was more interested in the cat than his new cousin, but we managed to get a cute picture of the brothers and their offspring.

Angry Strawberry

2009-06-18T16:17:00.002-04:00

Our little angry strawberry...

Ahh... that's better.

Baby Update

2009-06-11T13:53:00.002-04:00

We went last week for Natalie's one month check up (a little late, but that is another story). Her Jaundice is back so we've been having to go back and forth to the hospital to have her hell poked (which she quite loudly protests to each time). Apparently this is very common in breastfed babies and can stick around for up to 3 months. The good news is that her level is going down and that we only have to go once a week to be tested (not every day like before). Also... no bili-blanket yet so that is the best news!!

Other than that, she is doing perfectly. She has gained over two pounds and grown 2 inches! My she's getting big fast. Here are her stats:

weight: 8lbs 8 oz

length: 22 1/4 inches

That is all for now (life is pretty boring at the moment). I'll post some more pictures soon.

Sunbathing Beauty

2009-06-04T09:00:00.001-04:00

Well, our life currently consists of eating, pooping & then sleeping...repeat. So to switch it up a little, we did the sleeping part outside on Jon & Erin's new deck. (don't worry it was under an umbrella and she was wearing sun screen mom).

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I got of our trip, but you can check out pics of their fabulous new deck on their blog (thecamburns.blogspot.com).

Daddy Time

2009-06-02T15:26:00.002-04:00

So I guess not all daddy time is spent doing things mom doesn't approve of. Aren't they so sweet?

Happy Birthday Little One

2009-05-20T12:45:00.000-04:00

Well today is the day that miss Natalie was supposed to join our family... but she couldn't wait that long, so we've been enjoying her for 3 full weeks now. Here are some cute pictures to celebrate her official due date!

Dad time

2009-05-20T08:30:00.001-04:00

This is what happens when you leave dad alone with the baby....

Bath Time

2009-05-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

Our little glow worm

2009-05-18T17:35:00.003-04:00

Now that I’ve had a chance to catch my breath, here are some updates on our life for the last 3 weeks.

After coming home from the hospital, the doctors were worried about Natalie’s levels of Bili Ruben (Jaundice) so they gave us a Biliblanket (essentially a heating pad that emits light instead of heat and has to be kept directly on her skin for 20-22 hrs a day in order to help break down the Bili Ruben so she can poop it out). What this meant was that she was attached to this blanket which had to be plugged into the wall for basically the entire day (aside from the time spent going to the hospital to have her levels tested – EVERYDAY). During this time we lovingly referred to her as our little glow worm, since that is what she looked like at night when her blanket was glowing in the dark. She did not seem to mind, however it drove us crazy to be couped up in the living room for an entire week.

She is all better now and cord free. Here are some pictures of her with her cord, glowing and sunbathing with dad.

Grandma Amsterburg & Natalie

Dad & Natalie (notice her glow).

Ahhhh sunbathing

Natalie's First Photo's

2009-04-27T20:08:00.006-04:00

Welcome to the World Natalie Claire

2009-04-27T19:34:00.004-04:00

Welcome Natalie Claire Amsterburg

6.13.9 lbs

20 1/4"

Here's the story... (Traci is narrating sorry it makes no sense)

Kim woke up at 2:00 a.m. and decided that she was either peeing her pants or her water broke.. then it was time to take a shower (Phil says it was the worlds longest shower)... then they decided to come to the hospital... on the way we called Kim's mom who screamed and woke up the entire house .... arrived at the hospital and sat in triage for about 3 hours... "not fun"! Went to a room at about 7:00a.m. after waiting for what seemed like forever.... Kim's mom and sister Ann showed up about then with Bagels and stayed for a bit before leaving and going to rescue Tula.... at about 1:00 everyone was watching Day's of Our Lives and trying to get through medium contractions... at 3:00 - 4:56 baby was on the way with major contractions... baby arrived at 4:57 - Kim had no pain medication and did AWESOME.

Kim and Phil had a few names picked out but weren't sure which one they would choose and they decided on Natalie Claire because Natalie was the nurses name which was obviously a sign and Claire is Grandma's middle name...

Other than Phil, Jenny, Ann, Mom and Grandma were all there for the delivery. Here's a pic of mom and dad and baby, we have to move rooms now, more later!

A good reason to smile on a sunny Friday

2009-04-17T09:42:00.002-04:00

This is so cute & short, check it out!

Weekend Update

2009-04-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

Easter weekend was filled to the brim. Friday we had the day off from work (well Phil only had a half day… not that I’m rubbing it in). I lounged around and did a few small chores at home in the morning and then in the afternoon we had another doctor’s appointment. We are now at the point that we are going every two weeks. After our next appointment we will begin going each week. This is only exciting because it means it’s almost the end!!!

The appointment was routine, pee in this cup, check your blood pressure… get weighed so you can be depressed the rest of the day. This appointment they decided to hook me up to a machine that measures the baby’s movements & corresponding heart rate. Since I haven’t been feeling the baby move as much lately, they wanted to just make sure everything was still ok. I was hooked up to the machine for about a half hour. They also were measuring my uterine tone (to see if I was having any contractions). I had a few small contractions (that I didn’t even feel) towards the beginning but they eventually disappeared. The doctor’s were satisfied that the baby is moving enough & the heart rate is good and strong so they let us go with a gold star. They did feel around on my belly and determine that the baby is head down, so I probably won’t feel too many more big movements since there is really no more room in there.

Friday night we had our friends Randy & Liza over for a little dog walking, ice cream eating & movie watching. By 10:30 everyone was worn out and decided to call it a night. Saturday I attended a bridal shower for one of my co-workers. It was in a beautiful house on a nearby lake. We ate lots of good food & played some pretty fun games. We all had mannequin heads and as a team had to do the make-up & hair (including veil & tiara) of the head, blindfolded…. It was very interesting.

Here is my co-worker Deb doing the veil for their mannequin.

Here are all the completed heads. My team's is the second head from the left. We did a good job. My role was the hair... I know I rock!

Baby, baby, baby...

2009-04-13T15:16:00.004-04:00

Last Sunday, Phil’s family (his mother’s side) hosted a fabulous baby shower for us both (yes I made Phil come and open presents with me).

There was a large turnout and I spent most of the time trying to remember everyone’s name & figure out how they are related to Phil or his mom, or his grandma. It’s a large family, considering his grandma was 1 of 13 children. It seems like an endless see of Aunts and cousins. I got a lot of them figured out, but I’m sure it will take years to get the rest!! No matter what, they were all very generous and it was a blast getting everyone together.

Phil’s mom, her friend Kerry and his grandma were our gracious hosts. They decorated the hall so beautifully, made delicious food (that we are still eating leftovers of) and didn’t make us play any embarrassing games (which I think everyone was grateful for).

All in all, it was a wonderful day and we took home a huge haul of baby items. We will be organizing/trying to figure out what everything is for quite a while.

Thank you to everyone!

Our hostess' (me, Kerry, Patricia, Arline & Phil)

Phil & his Mom

For those of you dying for another belly picture... this is what you get :)

This was an awesome present (from my Mom). She made me a diaper bag with all sorts of cool accessories... thanks MOM!

Erin & I

Ju & Amy

2009-04-09T20:29:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, I was finally able to coordinate schedules with my friend Amy so that we could get together and catch up. We had lunch and then she came over with her daughter Juliana to see our new addition & the baby’s room.

I can’t believe how big Juliana has gotten. She just turned 3!

Bragging Rights

2009-04-06T08:20:00.002-04:00

The opportunity for me to brag regarding myself & sports does not come along very often... so when it does (and this is a very small window) I have to take advantage of it.

I am currently in first place in my NCAA brackets!!!!! Go me!

Now you are all wondering how I have such uncanny knowledge of college basketball that I am able to do this... well I will let you in on a little secret. Each year I pick Michigan State to win the entire tournament. Now as I stated above and as most of you may gather, this does not always work out well for me. In fact, this is the first year since I've started filling out the brackets that it has actually worked at all. Every year people make fun of me and tell me I'm crazy that I pick them. But my strategy finally paid off. I knew one of these years they wouldn't let me down.

All I have to say (at least for today because my luck could easily change overnight) is GO STATE!!!

Ryker Visit

2009-04-02T12:34:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Phil and I went up to my friend Shell's house to see her new little boy Ryker Donald. He is super cute, I just love his hair. Of course like a dufus, I was too caught up in visiting with Shell, playing with her other son Talan & commenting on how good a baby Ryker was to remember to take pictures... so I stole some from Shell's blog. Thanks Shell!

Baby Ryker

Big brother Talan & Ryker

Car Seat Assembly

2009-03-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

Saturday after our baby class, we decided to put our new present together. After a little instruciton reading we were able to figure it out relatively simply.

The car seat.

The stroller.

The whole package.

Thank you again Stryker people!!!

Empanadas & Wrestling

2009-03-25T11:00:00.001-04:00

Friday night our friends Randy, Lisa, Jon & Erin came over to make some Chilean Empanada's. Lisa is from Chile so she did most of the work while Erin & I were her lovely assistants. They turned out fantastic, although Lisa did not think they were up to par. (it definitely didn't stop us from eating them).

Erin & Lisa making the dough. (of course Kala, Randy & Lisa's dog helped).

Erin stuffing the empanadas.

Here is Lisa frying them. I think that's why they were so good!

Our finished product.

While we were busy in the kitchen making dinner. The boys kept themselves occupied with March Madness, ping pong & to complete the night a little old fashioned wrestling. This (as most of you can guess) did not end well. Randy was outnumbered by Phil and Jon, and somehow Jon was the one who ended up getting hurt. There was some minor bleeding that needed first aid care and of course some heckling by those not injured in the events.

Here is Jon with ice on his eye, after the bleeding had stopped. Don't Phil and Randy just look really sorry in this picture?

The aftermath. The cut was actually on the inside of his eyelid so you can't really see it from here, but it was gross!

Showered with presents

2009-03-24T12:00:00.000-04:00

Friday, my work group (and my friend Traci who I work with but is not part of my work group) threw a baby shower for baby Maltburg. Deb, Erin & Traci did an awesome job (and everyone else who helped...sorry if I missed anyone). They had the room all decorated, the cake was delicious & there was even a Price is Right name that price game filled with baby stuff.

The people that I work with were so generous, they pooled together & purchased our car seat/stroller combo system for us! I am still in shock that they were so nice. Phil and I are very grateful to them all!!! Thank you everyone! (I will post pictures of it shortly)

The cake was delicious (even though the teddy bear frosting was colored very similar to poo).

Two of my shower organizers (Traci & Deb).

Me opening our WONDERFUL gift!

Then when we got home from work Friday night, Jon & Erin, along with the other Mr. & Mrs. Camburn stopped by to bring us another present!!

Jon & Erin made us this wonderful crib. It is so beautiful and will be perfect on Phil's side of the bed (just kidding). It is an awesome present that we will cherish & have for a very long time. Kudos to Erin for picking out the stain color!

Phil wanted to try it out by using Pooh in place of baby Maltburg.

Team Building

2009-03-23T12:32:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I had to organize a team buildling activity for my work group. Their goal was to make a structure our of newspaper, duct tape & straws that would support the weight of milk jug filled partially with water & still be able to pass a hat full of candy under it.

Both teams were successful (guess I should've made it a little harder). In fact one team even made theirs strong enough to support the weight of a team member! Impressive. Go Stryker!

Team 1

Team 2

Here is Joe testing out the strength of their bridge.

Nap Time

2009-03-05T13:30:00.001-05:00

Nothing says nap time like some Sunday afternoon sunshine.

Crib Set Up

2009-03-04T13:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday my family came over to have lunch & help us get the crib (that my wonderful Grandma purchased for us) set up. When we opened the crib one of the railings was crushed, so we had to call the store & have them order a new one. Luckily the broken piece was the very last piece to attach, so we were able to put it mostly together anyways.

Mom & Dad got us a top of the line organic mattress & some very cute bedding (which are supposed to be for the shower, but they let us use them early!). So we had a complete crib set by the end of the day.

Mom & Annie putting the crib together.

Dad with the specially designed organic mattress.

The final product. The crib is wonderful, I couldn't be happier with it. The quilt is super cute, but I think will end up as a wall hanging at some point.

Detroit Travels

2009-03-03T12:25:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Phil & Jon were going to Robbie's house to help him with some home improvement projects. So I hitched a ride and got to spend some time with my favorite Detroit family. My friend Jess & her sister live about 20 minutes from Robbie's house, so it worked out perfectly. The boys worked hard, while I spent the weekend lounging at Jess' and being entertained by my almost 2 year old "niece" Jayda.

Jayda was very interested in wearing my slippers (that are actually boots)... I know they are a little raggedy, but I love them... they are so warm!!

And finally, for those of you who have been dying for it... a belly picture. Enjoy because it is probably the last!

The beginning of the showers

2009-02-24T12:37:00.001-05:00

Sunday after lunch & baby shopping, we went to Battle Creek for our very first baby shower. The girls soccer team that Phil coached a few years ago (they are now all in high school) and their moms decided they wanted to throw us a shower.

So we spent the afternoon playing fun games including smelling “poopy” diapers, eating baby food & some game the girls made up called mannequin. Which ended up with a broken light bulb. Anyways, it was really fun to have the girls together again and to spend some time hanging out.

They were so generous with their presents so we ended up with a car full going home.

Here are some pictures from the fun. I think they tell the story better than I can.

Phil with all the girls (not the whole team was there, but a good showing). Notice he has his hood up so they wouldn't write on his neck (so he claims).

Phil & the poopy diaper... they were all chocolate candy bars of some sort.

Baby food testing & diaper smelling....

Here is Phil after he tried one of the baby food flavors. Take a look at the lovely face he is making... this one must have been bad!

Baby Filled Weekend

2009-02-23T12:37:00.003-05:00

This weekend was filled to the brim... which was also very exhausting. Friday night we went to dinner and a movie (He's Just Not That into You) with our friends Jon & Erin. Yes the boys even went too... we were the only people in the movie theater so they were able to make whatever remarks they felt necessary to get them through the movie.

Saturday morning we woke up early & headed downtown to the hospital for our first baby class. This one was all about labor & delivery and included a tour of the hospital rooms. It was very informative, sometimes a little too much information. We learned all about the stages of labor, positions, breathing, and watched a few videos that were mildly disturbing. We had fun with it and learned a lot! But by the end, I think everyone was ready to go home. It was a very long day and especially hard to sit still with a giant belly, a hard chair and a very small bladder. But somehow we all made it. While on the tour we were pleased to learn that all of the labor, delivery, recovery & mother & baby rooms have Stryker beds & Stryker tables. Nice work Bronson!

Sunday we met mom & dad and Grandma for lunch at Red Lobster. After lunch we trekked over to Baby’s R Us where we investigated the baby furniture & where Grandma was so gracious as to buy our crib for us. THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!

Here is a picture of us in front of the crib (you can’t really see it, but once we get it set up I will post more pictures of it). Grandma does not smile for pictures, so this is the best we could do.

Power Outage

2009-02-12T13:17:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night I come home to discover that we have no power. Now, that is not an unusual thing to happen at our house. We are used to losing power, however not very often do we lose power in the winter.

Tula and I trekked out to check out what was going on & saw the Consumer's guys working on a pole near our neighbors house. Assuming they were taking care of it, we went on our merry way thinking we would have power again soon.

About 7:30 as we are eating our take out dinner by candle light (not even close to as romantic as it sounds... but it's better than the Wal-Mart dinner we had last time!), there is a knock on our door. After a few minutes of Phil talking to the Consumer's man & Tula hiding behind me in the hallway, we found out that we were the only house that did not have power. Apparently a transformer blew on the post that is in our yard next to the driveway. They replaced the transformer & there was now power to the pole, but we still didn't have power.

They checked the box on the side of our house & decided that some where between the pole by our driveway and the box on our house, there must be a problem with the line. So they spent about 3 more hours trying to determine where the issue was. Eventually they gave up and just ran a temporary line from the pole over the top of our house and down the side to hook into our box.

Anyways, long story short, we have a very long electric line running over top of our house & into our side yard and there is potential that they will have to dig up our driveway (as the original wire is buried underground) to find the real problem. Ah the joys of home ownership!

Here is where the wire hooks into our box on the side of the house. You can see the wire running right above the roof and connecting to the tree.

They police taped the area so that we would stay away... of course that makes Tula just more interested in that spot.

Frost Bite 5k

2009-02-09T17:16:00.003-05:00

This weekend was the first annual Frost Bite 5k run in Vicksburg. Vicksburg has been trying to start a winter festival for the past few years and this year decided it needed another event. So my wonderful sister got roped into organizing a 5k run as part of the festival.

Since this was the first year, she was hoping for about 100 people but when the night before there were only 50 registered, we got a little worried. Most of my family showed up to help out and/or run in the event. I was one of those helping out. Aunt Laurie, my mom, even my friend Jess came over from Detroit to help out (along with a long list of others). By the end of EARLY morning registration, we have 127 runners registered! We were all very excited.

Overall the day was beautiful, the race went smoothly and we all had a great time. We even got to enjoy some of grandma's cupcakes.

Thank you to all of the participants & volunteers for helping out & supporting our cause! We appreciate it!

Since I was busy registering & recording the race results, I didn't get a chance to take many pictures. But here are the ones that I did get.

Jess recording race results. Nice work!

Annie & Sue Dornbos (one of the many volunteers).

Maggie (yes she got up early to come help out!), me & Jess... don't we all look lovely.

Sister's Weekend

2009-02-02T13:03:00.003-05:00

This weekend was our first (of hopefully many to come) sister's weekend. We all congregated at my house, after of course we kicked Phil out, to do some painting & craft projects and of course have some serious sister bonding time.

My wonderful sisters spent the weekend helping me paint the baby's room and my mom even made a guest appearance to help with a wall art project.

Friday night we saw Slum Dog Millionaire at my sister's request & I actually really liked it (even though I had not even heard of it before we went). We had dinner & celebrated Annie's birthday with an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Saturday we started early priming, painting, eating, jamming to our cousins CD and of course just being ourselves.

The room was painted a soft yellow (which was not so soft at first and almost gave me a panic attack). My sisters got creative by the end of the night & decided that the ceiling needed something extra. So we ended up with polka dots on the ceiling in all different colors (which I LOVE).

My mom and I spent most of the time working on our wall hangings (see below) that actually turned out pretty well, thanks to my lovely mother's artistic ability & my ability to paint in the lines.

Overall it was a very successful weekend! Although next sister's weekend I think should be less productive!

Annie priming the walls.

Mom with the beginnings of the wall art.

Everyone look at the polka dots on the ceiling.

The dogs were very little help (but you can see the bassinet & bouncy seat we got a good deal on at the second hand store).

Mom with the finished project... I think we need one more... maybe later!

Did you know?

2009-01-15T14:36:00.003-05:00

A disposable diaper can stay in a landfill for up to 500 years!

One baby that wears disposable diapers creates on average 1 TON of landfill waste.

When I read these, I was completely shocked… I mean I always knew disposable diapers were really bad, but come on… 500 years! That is crazy. Anyways, to try to do our part and not contribute as much to the landfills, Phil and I have decided to give cloth diapers a try. Now I know most of you are thinking…eww gross that is disgusting (as that is the main reaction I get), but they really aren’t all that bad. I’ve been doing a lot of research on them and they are almost exactly like disposable diapers. They don’t require pins or folding anymore, most of them have Velcro or snaps & elastic around the legs. The downside is that you do have to launder most of them yourself and it takes a little more work on our part, but we are up to the challenge.

Here are the two kinds I have decided to try out at first. Any comments are welcome… any experience or advice is definitely welcome!

BumGenius (click here to learn more)

and

Kissaluvs (click here to learn more)

Click here are some FAQ’s if anyone is interested in more info on the whole cloth diaper thing.

A typical night at the Maltburg's

2009-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

New Year's Festivities

2009-01-08T08:31:00.002-05:00

This year for New Year's Eve, we were invited to a party at the newly married Camburn's house in South Bend. The party was a success. There was a ton of food, friends, games and laughs. We had a wonderful time (by the way, thank you for hosting!).

Erin slaved away in the kitchen cooking for us (Heather and I helped occasionally). The boys played video games, watched sports & ate and Lily entertained us all.

Here are some pics of the night.

Erin (our lovely hostess) and only part of the food spread... doesn't it look great!

Phil feeding the little one... this is about 30 seconds before he stopped paying attention & she bit his finger :)

Heather & Lily doing the Wii Hula, they were pretty good.

Of course Lily wanted to try it on her own too, how could we resist.