Catching up...

I have neglected the blog for a few months, but hopefully that's about to change. There's no way to blog about everything that's been going on, so here are a few highlights to get you caught up. I promise not to get this far behind again.

Natalie on the potty. Notice that she is looking at the "Geek-o Money" that she is so obesssed with.

She told me during her bath the other night that she wanted to wear this "hat." Silly girl!

She loves her hair to be fixed in "piggies." I'll fix it for her and she'll say "Mama, I gorgeous!"

* I have a job! I'm so excited about getting back to teaching after 2 years off. I'll be teaching 9/10 grade Language Arts and Yearbook at SCHS. It's going to be strange going back to teach at the high school I graduated from, but I'm excited about it.

* Natalie is talking in complete sentences, knows about 10 colors and 2 letters (B and Z... she thinks the Q is an egg), she loves singing "I See the Moon" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and makes me sing them both every night before bed. On most nights, she wants to go outside and say goodnight to the moon before bedtime. She loves books, especially books about animals. She can name almost any animal you show her... even the weird ones like skunk, possum, hippo, etc. Her favorite animals right now are goats and cows. She picked out her own pjs from the store for the first time the other day... Dora the Explorer ones... and she's insisted on sleeping in the every night since. She LOVES coloring. We usually color 2 or 3 times a day. And, she is obsessed with the Geico money with eyes logo. She wants me to draw it for her all the time, she goes through my magazines looking for Geico ads so she can see the money, and the other day we got some junk mail from Geico so I let her open it and she got so excited about the paper with the "geek-o" money that she had to sleep with the paper that night. And, finally, we're in the first stages of potty training. My baby is getting so big!!!

Happy Birthday MomMom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM-MOM!

This is Natalie having an ice cream cone to celebrate your special day. Hope it was great.
We love you!

It was a "big sunglasses" kind of day.

Art

New PJs

While getting Natalie dressed for bed a few nights ago, I realized that all (because I tried several pair) her pjs were suddenly too small. I guess she hit a growth spurt, because all of a sudden nothing is long enough. Her poor little legs and feet were all crunched up, so we rummaged around and found something for her to sleep in, and the next morning, Nat and I went on a hunt for some new, bigger pjs. We found some cute ones at Children's Place. It's THE only place where I could find her size (24months) in long sleeved, footie pajamas - which is a must since she refuses to sleep under any covers. I snapped this picture right before I put her to bed.

A Day With Nana & Toot

Natalie spent today with Nana and Toot (her great-grandparents). She always has a great time anytime she visits, but today was full of outdoor adventures. Here are a few of them.

Swinging with Toot

Riding with Toot on the lawn mower

Swinging with Nana

Playing on Toot's tractor

She also went on a Nature Walk with Nana where they picked flowers and looked at a stream.

Natalie Loves the Nursery!

Natalie loves playing in the nursery at church almost as much as she loves Ashley, her favorite nursery worker. Natalie got to play with Ashley this week and Ashley took these cute pictures of her while they played.

My little model. She does this pose all the time - camera or not.



I LOVE this pic. As you can see, here's the "natalie pose" again.



Just another one of my silly girl.



She loves sitting in the "Big Chair" and she can get in and out all by herself.




Thanks Ashley for the adorable pictures. Natalie sure does love you!

Classic Natalie

Jumpin' Jax

On Tuesday, we met some friends at Jumpin' Jax for a little play time. Natalie had a blast bouncing around with Eli. We've been taking her to Jumpin' Jax or Pump It Up since late summer, but she's just now getting big enough to get in and out of all the inflatables by herself. She was so cute trying to get in and out of them. It took a lot of hard work, but she didn't want any help - which was ok with me. Thanks to Mrs. Jill for snapping a few pics while we played. It wasn't an easy job, since Natalie isn't still for a second. But, she managed to get a few good shots anyway.

Stopping for a quick snack

SNOW!

Even though it didn't last long, we had fun getting out in the little snow storm we had today. I wanted Natalie to get to experience it actually snowing, so during the hardest part of it, I bundled her up and we went outside. We walked out into the yard and as soon as the snow hit her, she just stopped and stood there. It was really coming down hard, and she was so cute standing there blinking the snowflakes from her lashes. Eventually she started walking around, but she still seemed very confused by the whole thing. I tried to teach her how to catch snowflakes on her tongue and how to throw a snowball, but she wasn't very good at either. I'm not sure she enjoyed the snow, but I enjoyed seeing her in it.