Natalie's Crawling Videos

A couple weeks ago, Natalie finally started crawling. She had been up on all-fours for a week or so, rocking back and forth, before she actually started moving her hands and knees. Now that she is mobile, she won't stop! She quickly gets around the house, especially if it means following big brother! She really loves checking out all the toys that she was unable to get before. We took a few videos of Natalie so you can see how much she loves getting around on her own! For some reason, Natalie loves the lions on the legs of our kitchen table. She is always drawn to them when she is crawling. (At least she isn't scared of them!) :)



This week, while Elijah was playing outside on our patio, Natalie crawled down the hallway (inside the house) to the patio door and was watching him. They started playing together through the glass door, talking and giggling together. After they were playing for a while, I finally got the camera to take a video - a little too late though because once Elijah saw me with the camera, he ran away. Regardless, enjoy the short video!



(We have one more video of Natalie just crawling but for some reason it won't upload. Does anyone else have issues when uploading videos with Blogger? If our videos are over one minute, they won't even upload! What gives?!)

If I Only Knew...

...pregnancy can be hard on your teeth, I would have flossed more.
...cavities can occur on sides of teeth (not just in deep parts of molars), I would have flossed more.
...an hour and a half dental appointment for fillings would really turn into 2 hours and 45 minutes, I would have flossed more.
...going in for 2 small "trouble spot" fillings would really be for three fillings, which would really really turn out to be 4 fillings, I would have flossed more.
...getting the 2 (now 4) fillings done would not be the end of it but only the beginning since I now go back in 2 weeks for 2 more fillings!!!!!!!!!, I would have flossed more.

Dave and I just decided in January to be regular flossers, not just "the night before the dental appt" flossers. I guess we decided too late in my case. (Like 4 years too late!) Whatever! To try to make my teeth sound a little better, my "trouble spots" are not full-blown cavities but just tiny, tiny starts of ones - mostly between my teeth. The dentist just wanted to go ahead and treat them, preventing problems later. Now you all know the truth about my not-so-great check-up. I love being vulnerable. :)


Floss more!!!

Malibu Pres Easter Service

As a follow-up to our last post, you can go to the KTLA website and watch the news coverage of the Easter Service. It's a 2 minutes clip worth watching!

Go to KTLA.com and click on "more videos" on the left side.
Then click on "seen on prime news" button toward the top. Scroll down the list on the right and click on "Malibu church celebrates Easter."

Our Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend! On Saturday, it was 87 degrees so we thought we'd spend a little time outside working in our backyard. With Elijah's help, we finally planted the Avocado Tree we've been growing from a pit since we moved here to California. We also planted a Tangelo tree and a blueberry bush. Elijah had a lot of fun loading dirt into his dump truck.












Today was Easter Sunday. We went to a service at Malibu Presbyterian Church at Malibu Bluffs Park. Malibu Pres was the church that burned down last year in the Malibu wildfires the day after a group from their church came and helped us put sod in our backyard. Also, that same day before their church burned down they made a pledge to donate $500,000 to help World Impact build a new Teen Center. Today, during the service, they presented us with a check! Our President, Keith Phillips received the check along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.












After the service, they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Laura, Elijah, and our friend Tracy hunted down some eggs, while I held Natalie.










We also saw a few celebrities at church. Craig T. Nelson (from the TV Show, "Coach"), Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman) and her husband, James Keach (actor and producer). We were only able to get a picture of Jane....Laura was pretending to take a picture of me and Natalie (it just so happened that she was in the background :)) There was also some press coverage from Channel 5 and 7 news. A man from Channel 5 taped some footage of Natalie during the service playing with an Easter Egg. We tried to see if it would be shown at night, but we didn't see anything. Oh well.












After church, we celebrated Tammy's birthday at Malibu Seafood. There's nothing like fresh seafood! Happy Birthday Tammy!

Happy Birthday to You

Yesterday we celebrated Michael and Leslie's birthday...and St. Patrick's Day all at the same time. Leslie's birthday isn't actually until March 28, but since we were all here, we thought we'd celebrate them together.

In the morning, we went swimming at the hotel Laura's parents and Tricia were staying at. We were inside playing in the warm water while it was snowing outside.









After swimming, we went to Culver's for lunch and ate the "famous" Butter Burgers and Custard. We got a Shamrock Shake in honor of St. Patrick...we heard that it was his favorite drink.

At night, we opened presents and ate the traditional birthday cake - chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. It was super yummy...great job Laura!

Blake's Wedding

Yesterday, we made the journey to Blake's wedding. It was only a 40-minute drive from Michael and Leslie's house

It was cold outside, probably somewhere in the 30's, although it felt colder since we came from 75 degree weather in California. Is it supposed to be this cold here in March?

The service was very nice. Blake and Melody wrote their own vows, Blake wrote and sang a song for Melody, and it was great to see old friends and catch up on what's been happening in their lives.

Here are some pictures from the wedding:


Blake waiting for his Bride









Blake singing Melody a song








Melody reading her vows








Time for a Picture.








Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Walburg...

A dessert reception followed the wedding. We had a great time talking with friends, eating cake, dipping fresh fruit in chocolate fondue, and taking lots of pictures.


Cutting the cake.








Natalie hanging out with her best friend Tim.










Laura and Abraham.








Elijah and Natalie hanging out.








Family Pictures.

4 Things

1. We got our 2 cars fixed last week...finally! We've been dealing with their issues for a while now but decided it was high time to bring them in. (It also helps that we had an extra car to use - thanks, Dad and Mom G!) Our van now has a driver's side window that rolls up and down properly plus keyless entry remote! Our Camry had just a little leakage with the coolant, so we thought, but really it was BIG leak plus they replaced the water pump, thermostat, a bunch of seals that were leaking oil, timing belt...maybe that's it. So a little more than we thought but we're so thankful God kept us (and our car) safe. Two cars fixed.









2. Natalie is now in her own room, as of last night. She loves her big crib, rolling all around and even sitting herself up to play when she should be sleeping. :) We'll share some pictures soon. Did I mention she loves it?! (And so do her parents!)


3. After almost 5 years we finally visited a California dentist! The whole family went for the visit...and the report- Elijah's teeth look good (only were looked at), Dave's teeth - great! but Laura (*sigh*) let's just say there were some "trouble" spots. Let's not talk about it. (I guess that's what can happen after 5 years of not seeing a dentist and loving sweets a little too much!)












4. We spent the weekend at our ministry's beach house with our small/family group. We had a great time and took lots of pictures. We'll write more on that and upload pictures soon. Stay tuned.