18 months old!

Our baby is no longer a baby! She's a little girl now! At her well visit check-up she was in the 50%tile for her weight and height. The doctor did say she had beautiful teeth but there is barely any room for all of them-and to start saving for her lovely braces :( Good thing we have awhile :) She doesn't go back to the doctor until she turns 2! (and to think we will have another baby at that appointment too-scary :) She's growing up WAY too fast!
The past 1 1/2 years have been such a joyous time for us as we learn about parenting. I wouldn't say lovely all of the time because it's def. had its tearful, dreadful, ugly moments too. But our joy does still remain because of Christ. We wouldn't trade it for anything and we are so thrilled that we get to experience having a family of 4 really soon! Someone told us that having a sibling for Nataleigh is one of the best gifts we could give her! I know she's going to be so excited! She loves babies so much and is going to be a great big sis!
She's talking a lot more (saying 2 words sometimes 3) Her newest thing is telling all men "bye, bye, daddy" I recently took Nataleigh on a mommy/daughter date and when our server left the table she said "bye, bye, daddy." So cute :) She seems to really be understanding a lot more now overall. She loves her Baby Signing Time videos and asks to watch them WAY too much so we are having to limit the time being spent watching these! She is learning so much from them!
We recently did our Christmas with Chris's family and Nataleigh got a kitchen set for Christmas. I have posted a video on here of her seeing the box. I can't wait to put it together for her!
There are so many new things I would be sitting here all day trying to recall and type but I'll spare you and get some videos and pics posted!

Merry Christmas 2010!

These are this year's Christmas cards! Enjoy! :)

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Create modern Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Cards 2010

It's that time of year when we begin thinking about that perfect gift for our loved one, our children, parents, etc. It's also that time of year when we think about how we will share our joy for the season and communicate what has been going on in our lives over the past year. Last year we did not send out Christmas cards because of the expense but hopefully this year we will be able to! Shutterfly is offering a promotion to get 50 free Christmas photo cards...so you know I will do whatever it takes for something free or very cheap!!
So, you might be seeing one of these very soon! :)

I like this one...

I thought this one was good because we could share about our year...


This one is also great because you could also do highlights of the year...

This one is great...

This one is also great...

And this one would be another way to share the year's highlights...


If you are interested in getting 50 photo cards and you have a blog here are a few ways to go about getting them...
- holiday photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
· Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
· photo Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… learn more: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

17 months!

At the beginning of this week Nataleigh turned 17 months old! She has really changed a lot recently.
Some Highlights:
-She's feeding herself with her spoon/fork
-She's more aware of things going on around her and getting involved with those things (recently was a Birthday party where they had a little dance party for the kiddos and she joined right in)
-She's very compassionate towards other kids
-She's saying many more words now and clearly understanding direction we give her
-She's signing pretty much all of the signs she has learned in 2 "Baby Signing Time" videos
-She's down to 1 nursing time a day (Highlight for mommy since a new one is on the way) :) We are trying to nurse as long as possible for health benefits.
-She is def. a social butterfly
-She has 4 molars now
-She loves to dance
-She loves clothes and putting things on her head. She will run to the stove so she can check herself out after she's put something new on :) hahaha
-She loves to Skype with "G G" and "PaPaw" and points to the computer all the time wanting to talk to them :)
-She is enjoying that there is a baby in mommy's tummy. She will say "baby" and point to my belly and give the baby kisses/zerberts :) Very sweet :)
-She continues to be very busy!

Some Lows:
-Sometimes she is just so busy that it wears this mommy out! Being pregnant and all it's def been a challenge!
-She has started throwing "mini fits" at home
-Her molars are in and she seemed to not tolerate the pain so well (but this is usual...she's never done well in the teething area)

She is a joy and we are extremely blessed to have her in our lives! Life would def. be dull without her!

our newest addition in the Rupp household

9/6/10

9/6/10-7 weeks

First Ultrasound-7 weeks 5 days


Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12


On September 9, 2010 I took a pregnancy test because I thought it was possible I could be pregnant. I had all intentions of just leaving it on the bathroom sink so Chris could see the test result first but it instantly came back positive and I saw it before him. So, like last time I was the one to know for sure first. I did leave it on the sink and that's how I told him. We are SO excited!! We wanted our children close together and we are so glad that Nataleigh is going to have a sibling close to her age! I was 7 weeks when we took the pregnancy test. This time we are going with a midwife and we couldn't be any happier with our choice! She's wonderful! We had an ultrasound the first appointment to determine the actual due date which is April 30, 2011. So, they will be 23 months apart. :) Everything on the ultrasound looked healthy! Praise the Lord!
At our second appointment we had a little scare. She could not find the heartbeat with the doppler. With the way my uterus is right now it is hard to hear the heartbeat with the doppler. She immediately did an ultrasound and the baby was waving at us :) The heart was fluttering and looked great! :)
So, here we are. I think I've caught you up on the quiet 1st trimester. I'm excited to be entering the 2nd for many reasons. One being the nauseousness I've had. I was never this sick with Nataleigh!
Praising God for His new blessing. Please pray with us during these 9 months. :)

16 months!

Nataleigh is 16 months old!
She's growing up so fast!
Some highlights-
-She's been down to 1 nap since 15 months.
-To add to her signs "more, all done, eat, thank you" she's signing "baby, ball, train, hat, doll, bug, sun, stars"...all thanks to our "Baby Signing Time" videos
-She is associating names with faces a lot now
-We started the potty this week and the 2nd time she was on the potty she peed!!!! We are reading "Diaper Free Before 3"
-Her vocabulary is growing...she's saying "hello"...it's adorable how she says it (we will have to get it on video)
-About 3 weeks ago she cut another tooth (top right molar)
Some lows-
- She used to only suck her thumb in bed but ever since I began weaning her she has started to suck her thumb on occasion outside of bed time :(...we work on this
-She's been in a phase for about a month now when I leave her with anyone she will cry and not want me to leave but soon after I'm gone she's just fine! argh :(

We are so thankful for our blessing!

15 months

Well, folks she's 15 months old 9-8-10 (a few days late in posting). Some new things that she's been up to:
-finding a comfy place to sit and read her books (usually in the purple Barney chair our neighbor gave us or the bottom step)
-talking more and knows names of certain people (mom, dad, Nataleigh, Nonna-probably missing some)
-she has an obesession with "Doggies"--she will look out the window for them and look everywhere outside for them :-) I found a stuffed doggie that I had and she is so cute as she walks around the house with it saying "doggie" "doggie" "doggie"
-she really seems to understand more and more what we are saying
-she mastered the word "no" but it was only bad for about and week and I think she learned she's not allowed to say that!...It's been nice not hearing it lately! :)
-she loves to play peek-a-boo (will hide and want to be found)
-she loves babies
-she's still a very good eater...that girl could eat all day
-her personality seems to be a mixture of extrovert and introvert
-she's a very sweet, kind, loving girl
-At 14 1/2 months she went to 1 nap and will nap anywhere from 11/2-31/2 hrs.
-She's still going to bed at 7ish and waking up at 7.
-We are still waiting for her molars to cut through...she acts like she might be getting more!

My sister's family came for a visit!

My sister's family came for a visit this week! We had a blast!! This was Chris, Bryan, Ben and their dog Miley's first time to our house in Cleveland. We went to the dog park, to the park and played tag, played at home in our little blow up pool, ate popscicles, ate in Little Italy and played in a park there, had a fashion show with the kid's first day of school outfits, went to the Science Center, Bry and Ben went with Jennifer to the U.S.S. Codd submarine, went to the beach in Mentor, had Uncle Chris's yummy spaghetti and had SO Much FUN!
Nataleigh had a blast! She really got to bond with her Aunt Jennifer. She learned a new word, "doggie"..she LOVES dogs and they brought their golden retreiver, Miley. It was so sad after they left because she would walk around saying "doggie" and looking for her :(
Here are some pics :)

Missions Week 2010

Where has the summer gone? I'm trying to enjoy every last bit of it. Leah, Nataleigh and I went to Missions Week last week while Daddy went to Nashville for his Aunt's wedding and then he went on to camp Illiana. I did the music for the little kids in the morning and enjoyed the rest of the time getting to know some missionaries and being surrounded by people that are so in love with God. I'm trying to get Chris to go next year to Missions Week. It's such a great week for spiritual encouragement!!
Here are some pics of our time there. Nataleigh is growing so fast. She LOVES the water and the dirt. Leah watched Nataleigh in the mornings for me and they had some great bonding time! ;)