Natalie's World

October

2011-10-31T08:46:00.002-06:00

We have had a fun month of October. We have gone to a couple of trunk or treats. Tonight, we are looking forward to trick or treating in our own neighborhood.

Natalie has been busy with Tae Kwon Do, guitar lessons, and volleyball. She and I have had a chance to go rollerblading and ice skating in the past 2 weeks. What fun!

Jocelyn has been talking a lot. She has so many fun and interesting things to say. Playing games has also been high on her list of things to do recently. So much so that I've had to rearrange closets, so that we have some games and the pieces left to play them in a few more years. Last night, I moved the "older games" to a higher shelf. This morning, she asked to play games, and I said, "Sure." She then went on to tell me that they are up too high. Jocelyn was not quite pleased with where I put the games. Maybe she'll thank me in a few years when we are able to play the games with everything still in tact.

Biking, Apples, and Names

2011-09-12T11:59:00.002-06:00

Natalie and I had a beautiful day to take part in a bike ride on Saturday morning. We used the tag-a-long, and had a great time.

On Sunday, I took the girls apple picking. Both girls had fun picking and eating the apples. After we had our fill of apples, we took a short trolley ride. While we waited for our ride to begin, Jocelyn was cute saying, "All aboard!"

After our train ride, we were driving in the van, and Natalie wanted to give me a nickname. Instead of the name she chose, I told her that she could call me any of the following: Mom, Mommy, Mother, Mommy Dearest, etc. At this point, Jocelyn pipes up and says, "I will call you Stupid." Both Natalie and I couldn't believe what we had heard from her. Definitely, a teachable moment.

Summer 2011

2011-08-22T05:47:00.003-06:00

We have had a really wonderful summer! Natalie enjoyed so many fun activities: art class, basketball, tennis, kickball, and VBS.

All of our birthdays were special days for us. We enjoyed family and friends on all of these occasions.

Many of things on the list of what we wanted to do this summer were crossed off. Many fun memories remain. Family fun, zoo nights, swimming, water parks, baseball games, drive-in movies, sleepovers, crafty things, and a really nice and relaxing vacation were some of the things we enjoyed.

Jocelyn turned 2 in July, and seems to be running with that in mind. We moved her out of her crib shortly after her birthday. She definitely knows what she wants, and doesn't hesitate to tell us or anyone around us. Her laughter is contagious.

We are gearing up for school this week. Natalie is looking forward to her monthly book reports and seeing her friends. The excitement and love for school is fun to see and experience.

Happy Birthday

2011-06-30T16:24:00.002-06:00

We have been having fun celebrating in our home over the course of the last couple of weeks. Nate took off of work to make Natalie's birthday celebration even more fun. She had the opportunity to decide where we went that day and where we ate lunch and dinner. We found ourselves at the mall to have lunch and get haircuts. Then we went to the zoo for a little while. For dinner, we had yummy burgers at Fuddruckers. We ended the evening with a campfire in the backyard. It was a very fun family day!

Summer

2011-06-04T15:12:00.002-06:00

Natalie is officially on Summer vacation! We started out by celebrating with rainbow sprinkle pancakes with Grandma and Grandpa W yesterday. She was able to use her new birthday present from them. Rollerblading is fun to do when it is hot and humid outside. I even dusted mine off, and took a few laps around their driveway.

The girls had a chance to see their cousins last evening. That is always a fun time! Baseball, ice cream, cookies, and juice was a great treat.

Jocelyn is talking a lot! She even told me what happened at home the other evening when I was away at a Bible study. After seeing Natalie's blanket in the living room, she told me that Natalie had built her a fort, and Daddy sat in his chair. How cute!

We are looking forward to lots of summertime fun by celebrating birthdays, graduations, and playing in the sun!

April

2011-04-30T07:02:00.002-06:00

We have been having a lot of fun this week. Sunday started us out as we celebrated Easter. As we went to church, we were reminded of God's great love for us! He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross and rise from the grave. After church, we celebrated with family at our home. What a beautiful day! Jocelyn insisted on going outside to play in the sandbox after dinner. She got all dressed to go out with her boots and hat on. Such a funny girl! Natalie drew us beautiful pictures on the sidewalk with her paint and chalk.

On Monday, we drove up to Minnesota so we could all see the girls' newest cousin and his big brother. Natalie did a great job being the oldest by playing with everyone and keeping everybody happy. Ben shared his toys with Jocelyn, and they both had a great time playing on the slide. While we were there, we had a chance to celebrate Uncle Dave's birthday and also see some other wonderful friends and relatives.

Wednesday, we drove over to Central Wisconsin and had fun with Nate's family! It was wonderful to see everyone. Jocelyn enjoyed all the great books, and Natalie enjoyed all the special time with her grandparents and aunt and uncle.

Favorites

2011-03-01T20:42:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I took both girls to the library because Natalie needed more books. We love the fact that she enjoys reading. She has a wide variety of interests when it comes to books. The subject matter could be science, history, animals, or mysteries. It really does not matter. What a fun hobby!

Today, I took Jocelyn to the zoo, and we had such a good time! I opted not to bring along the stroller. I don't recall the last time I did not use a stroller when I had my children with me. She loves being outside and walking around so I took a chance today, and it worked out well. We saw as many animals as we could in two hours. Jocelyn really seemed to enjoy her time watching all of the animals. Most of them were pretty active. Her favorite animal right now seems to be the alligators. When I asked her if she wanted to go into the reptile and fish building to see the alligators, she very excitedly replied with "yes!" and "yeah!"

As for a few more favorites of Jocelyn's, here is the list of them.
TV show - Sesame Street
Letter - O
Number - 2
Food - Pizza
Fruit - Banana

Our Month of February

2011-02-26T08:03:00.004-06:00

Natalie is writing this post today. This past Wednesday, I had my allergy test. We found out that I am allergic to trees, mold, and cats. There are specific times of year when the trees and mold affect me the most. Trees affect me the most in Spring, and mold causes the most trouble for me in Fall.

Jocelyn calls me "Ta Toe." She use to call me "Ta Ta." Her word for Mommy is Mama, and she says Dada for Daddy. For herself, she says "Baby." Jocelyn just started saying okay this week by saying, "Otay!" She has learned to say what is hers by saying "Mine!" That is a fun word to hear a lot. When Jocelyn and I play in our tents and forts, we often pretend that it is bedtime so Jocelyn says, "Nigh, Nigh." She asks Mommy for Daddy and me a lot when we are gone during the day. Jocelyn loves playing with me!

One day, I saw Jocelyn on the wrong side of the play yard that surrounds our tv and hutch. She has learned that if you pull it down, she can walk over the gate to get where she is not suppose to be. She also likes to climb up onto the filing cabinet in the living room to get to the phone so she can page it wherever it might be. Jocelyn has also injured me by whacking me on the chin with the remote for the tv.

At the beginning of this past month, we cheered on the Packers to a Super Bowl victory with Grandma and Grandpa Weerts, Uncle David, and Cousins Paul and Jennifer. When the Packers got back to Green Bay, we went up to Lambeau Field to celebrate winning the Super Bowl. We dressed very warm so we could sit outside for an hour in negative degree weather to cheer on our favorite players. I waved my flag, and Jocelyn fell asleep. Go Pack Go!

Last week, I had the opportunity to cheer on my school's basketball teams at our school's tournament. I was one of many junior cheerleaders. Some of the cheers that I did were: Rowdie, Dynamite, Everybody Makes Mistakes, Shake Your Body, and Raiders Do As They Please. I had a lot of fun practicing my jumps and cheers! Jocelyn loves to join me when I practice at home.

We had a lot of fun this February!

January

2011-01-31T20:48:00.002-06:00

The girls and I had a special week of bonding while Nate was traveling for work last week. Jocelyn was a bit confused that Nate did not come home every evening. Whenever Natalie walked in the back door, Jocelyn would get excited and think it was Nate coming in the door. When he finally got home on Friday, she was very happy to see him!

Natalie had a fun time with her cousins last week cheering the Packers on to victory in the NFC championship game. Running around their house in the snow seemed to be pretty fun after the Pack scored the first touchdown of the game.

I took Jocelyn to a place with all sorts of inflatables to jump in and slide down last week for our play group time. I wasn't quite sure if she would enjoy it or not. She tried out the inflatables for a little while. What finally caught her attention was the other end of the building where the arcade games were located. She probably could have stayed in that section for the rest of the time had it not been for me. I was able to get her to check out the playground area as well as jump around a little bit more before we left to take a nap.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T22:58:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas! December has been filled with a lot of fun activities. Natalie had her school Christmas program during one of our church's Advent services. It was a wonderful way to put this holiday season into perspective. The kids all did an excellent job sharing the special message with everyone.

The Sunday School Christmas program was also very well done! Natalie enjoyed singing the special Christmas songs during this afternoon service.

Natalie enjoyed her week being the Star of the Week in the middle of December. She filled in a special poster telling all sorts of fun things about herself. Natalie took in a jar filled with Hershey's kisses for the estimation station. Her favorite Bible story that she picked out was that of Zacchaeus. On Thursday night, Nate made brownies (at Natalie's request) and chocolate chip cookies for Natalie to take in for a class treat. Nate also took off of work on Friday so that he could read a chapter of Natalie's favorite book, Charlotte's Web, to her class.

Jocelyn has enjoyed reading all sorts of Christmas books this past month. She has loved all of the decorations in our home and wherever we happen to be. Away in a Manger has been one of her favorite songs to sing this month. She also really enjoyed looking at all the lights that we have driven around to see.

Both girls enjoyed a special channel on television this past month. It was called the Santa tracker. It had a number of fun things to do -- like singing karaoke, listening to Christmas stories, seeing who was being naughty or nice, and other fun things. Every time this channel was turned on, Jocelyn would get ready to dance. It was very cute!

This past week, we've enjoyed celebrating Christ's birth with our families. What a special time to remember the great things that our Savior has done for us!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T21:46:00.004-06:00

We had another wonderful week celebrating Thanksgiving. Natalie had off of school the entire week. The first couple of days, we had to stay home because the work on the basement was getting completed.

Wednesday, Nate took off of work which was a very nice treat for all of us. We had a fun afternoon at Discovery World. Natalie enjoyed pretty much everything we looked at, and Jocelyn liked pressing any button that was close to her.

All of us had a good time at Nate's aunt and uncle's home on Thursday. Natalie had such a good time that we said she could go shopping on Friday with Nate's other aunt. She had a fun sleep over with her cousin, and got up bright and early to shop the sales at the mall.

Today, we had a yummy breakfast with Santa. Natalie was a big helper for her sister, and told Santa what Jocelyn wants for Christmas too. We spent the afternoon napping and playing, and then had fun watching a Christmas musical.

November

2010-11-15T13:15:00.002-06:00

We have two beautiful girls. One morning, I dressed Jocelyn in overalls and a green onesie. Natalie decided that she wanted to wear the same kind of outfit so they would look alike. I loved it so I snapped this picture.

Leaf Pile

2010-10-21T20:52:00.005-06:00

Fall

2010-10-18T13:11:00.002-06:00

We have enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. One weekend, we went up north and played with Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie. Another weekend, we enjoyed a fun afternoon with friends and family in Wind Lake. Natalie enjoyed climbing the rock wall again and again. We have been having fun geocaching, exploring, and playing in the parks. Last Sunday, Natalie and I attempted to go apple picking. We didn't realize that there wouldn't be any apples on the trees because of the cooler weather earlier this fall. Despite this fact, we still had a fun afternoon together.

Last Friday, Natalie and I went on her school field trip to the pumpkin farm. It was another beautiful day to play outside. On Saturday, Natalie and I cheered on her cousin at his football game. It was a perfect day for watching football. Yesterday, we decided to enjoy the outdoors at Holy Hill.

Jocelyn and I have been enjoying our walks with some new friends. It oftentimes includes a stop at the park to play for a little while. She continues to enjoy life playing outside, playing with her toys, and reading books. Her favorite time of the day seems to be when Natalie comes home and reads her books and gives her the attention she loves from her older sister. Jocelyn also loves her Daddy time. When he comes home from work, she gives him the smile that says "I love you, Daddy! I am so glad you are home."

Ducks

2010-09-17T12:38:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, Nate and Natalie were watching one of their favorite cartoons. At the end of the show, there was a catchy tune that included a duck. I believe this duck was a part of the story line, but Nate will have to fill in the gaps on this part. Jocelyn happened to watch this part of the cartoon, and ever since then, it has been a popular requested item to view over and over again. She also loves to dance along while this is on the television.

Today, I happened to start singing this favorite tune of hers because I gave her a rubber duck to play with on the changing table. As soon as I did that, she wanted to go watch it. So when we were all done, Jocelyn went right past the open kitchen gate to watch this on tv. She started dancing even before I turned it on. It was very cute.

Purple Card

2010-09-10T20:33:00.003-06:00

We are so proud of Natalie! In her classroom, they have a card system that is for behavior. Everyone starts on the color green for the day. If the teacher needs to modify a child's behavior, she will change the card to yellow for a lesser infraction, and red for a more serious behavior issue. To reward positive behavior, a purple card may be given to a student. It is a very special card to receive. Today, Natalie helped a number of her classmates in the reading room, and she received a purple card from her teacher.

Jocelyn has been very entertaining lately. Tonight, when Nate was driving home, she saw his car in front of our house. Jocelyn smiled and said, "Daddy!" and began waving to him. It seems like her vocabulary is growing each day.

Playing in the Backyard

2010-08-25T22:22:00.002-06:00

It was a gorgeous evening to play outside tonight. The girls were having fun playing together in the sandbox. It was a fun family night of playing dodge ball with Natalie, eating ice cream, and watching Jocelyn play basketball for the first time.

August

2010-08-24T06:40:00.003-06:00

This month has flown by for me. We started off the month celebrating my parents' anniversary by getting together with family in Madison. It was a fun weekend except for my sick nephews.

The weekend after Madison, I took the girls down to spend the day with Auntie Theresa and Uncle Gary. Natalie enjoyed boating, swimming, and playing dress up. Jocelyn had fun going up the stairs and getting into everything that was not for her. With lots of great help, Nate did demolition work on the basement. It looks a lot different now. One step closer to dealing with the water issues that we have with it.

This past weekend, Natalie and I celebrated Ella's 6th birthday at a cute tea party at her house. Nate and Jocelyn went to pick up Natalie's "new" desk, and have a birthday lunch with Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie. Thanks to Nate, we now have a more child-proofed home for a little one who enjoys climbing.

Tomorrow, I will take Natalie to school for her first day of first grade. She is looking forward to having her great teacher for another year and seeing her friends. I am sure that she is also going to enjoy not participating in rest time in the afternoon. Natalie has been a great big sister and a big helper for me this summer. I know that I will miss her during the day. I might even miss being asked to play pretend all day long too.

Weebles and Books

2010-08-02T20:26:00.002-06:00

When Natalie was about 1, she had 12 weeble wobbles. She knew them each by name. Nate and I would ask her to go get them by their name, and she would go get them for us.

A couple of weeks ago, Jocelyn did a very similar thing with one of her books that was in her room. I wasn't sure if it was by accident or not. Tonight, I asked her to go get the same book. A few minutes later, she came out of her room with the book I requested. Nate saw this for the first time tonight. I had to test it out again so I asked her to bring another book to me. She brought me the book I asked for, and also one of her favorite Bible story books.

It is so fun to watch your children understand what you are saying! Jocelyn has also started identifying her nose, ears, head, eyes, and mouth. Such a fun age!

Pioneer Days

2010-07-24T20:08:00.003-06:00

The girls both got to take pioneer baths today. After our basement flooded Thursday night, we have been without hot water since yesterday. Nate is so on top of things. He got both girls bathed, and he did the dishes by boiling water on the stove. I do things much differently and call friends when I need to do the dishes or get cleaned up.

We are so thankful for our great family and friends who have helped us tremendously. Now, we are looking forward to hearing from our insurance adjuster so we can move forward from here.

Happy 1st Birthday, Jocelyn!

2010-07-10T07:07:00.002-06:00

We love you, Jocelyn! One year has gone by so quickly. It seems not that long ago that your big sister went down to stay with her cousins, and Daddy and I went to the hospital and met you for the first time. I remember having less sleep, and a baby that would scream a lot because of your acid reflux and milk allergy. We are so thankful that those issues are behind us, and we can enjoy your beautiful smiles and contagious laughs. I hope you enjoy your special day with lots of family and friends.

Happy 6th Birthday, Natalie!

2010-06-18T06:04:00.002-06:00

We had another fun day celebrating Natalie's birthday yesterday! After breakfast, I took the girls strawberry picking. It was something I had been wanting to do, and I thought it could be a lot of fun for the girls. They did seem to enjoy picking and eating the strawberries. After we dropped the goodies off at home, we joined our friends from church at the park. The girls had fun there for a while.

Nate took off of work early so we could eat lunch together and have a fun afternoon. We picked up Natalie's cake afterward, and enjoyed that before we had to take her cousin home for her t-ball game.

In the evening, we had an enjoyable time with family. We laid around playing in the park while Ella had her t-ball activities. Then, we wrapped up the evening with dinner and a special birthday dessert for Natalie.

Birthday Fun

2010-06-16T20:50:00.002-06:00

We started celebrating Natalie's birthday today. Cousin Ella came over to play and spend the night. Tomorrow, we hope to enjoy the day by doing whatever the girls decide they would like to do. I love summer and summer birthdays. The endless days of celebrating is so much fun.

Teeth

2010-06-10T20:18:00.002-06:00

The girls are looking just the opposite of one another in the teeth department. Natalie was brushing her teeth tonight, and she came out to tell me that the Tooth Fairy would be making us another visit. I think I may need to either invest in some dentures for her or start using some of Jocelyn's baby food because she now has 3 of her teeth on the top missing. On the other hand, Jocelyn had 3 more teeth come through last week.

The girls and I are adjusting to having Natalie home all day, now that summer vacation is officially here. Natalie graduated from kindergarten last week. The kindergarten teachers put together a cute program for all of us to enjoy.

Natalie has logged numerous hours of biking and scootering in the past week. She and I have also rediscovered a lot of fun toys and things to do in the basement while Jocelyn is napping. We are looking forward to an enjoyable summer filled with fun with both friends and family!

Summer Birthdays

2010-05-22T20:58:00.003-06:00

Grandma treated us to a great birthday present by taking us to see Cinderella at the Fireside. We had a girls' day out. Auntie Chris, Ella, Grandma, Natalie, and I saw an awesome show this afternoon. Natalie really enjoyed the day. She thought lunch was yummy, had a fun time with her cousin, and liked the performance a lot.

Books

2010-05-17T10:01:00.002-06:00

We are so proud of Natalie! She has earned 50 points for AR this year. I took her in to school this morning, and she took 5 tests after reading a lot this past weekend!

At school, there is a reading program called Accelerated Reader. They are able to check out books, read them, and then take comprehension tests about what they have read. Based on the level of the book, they acquire a certain number of points throughout the school year. Natalie recently received an award stating that she had earned 25 points. When we talked about the certificate, Natalie told me that she actually had 42 points because the award had been written out quite awhile ago.

She also said that her teacher thought she could get 50 points by the end of the year. I was not quite so sure because there are only a few weeks of school left, and we encourage her to read, but do not have a set reading time each night. Since the weather has been nicer, we have been playing outside quite a bit.

I believe there are some contributing factors for acquiring this accomplishment. We did get to the public library a couple of weeks ago, and Natalie chose a Little House book. The last Little House book took her a little while to get through. She cruised through this one. And this past weekend, we were traveling around in the van quite a bit. To pass the time, she brings along books.

Natalie was really excited this morning, and so was I! We love the fact that she loves books! Way to go, Natalie!

Dinner and Dessert

2010-05-11T19:42:00.002-06:00

This afternoon, when Natalie got home from school, I asked her if she wanted to help me make dessert. She agreed, so the two of us got to work while Jocelyn took her afternoon nap. Natalie tore apart slices of bread, and I sliced the apples. We both put the layers of this yummy apple dessert together. It turned out pretty tasty, and we surprised Nate with both dinner and dessert.

Jocelyn continues to enjoy playing. She willingly plays indoors with her toys and outdoors with the grass, leaves, dirt, sticks, dandelions, and whatever else she can get her hands on. She is continually getting braver by taking more steps each day. Now, she knows she can walk and is willing to keep trying this neat new accomplishment.

Both girls made me sweet Mother's Day cards. Natalie made me an awesome bracelet at school. It was made out of a picture of her that she rolled into what looked liked beads. Nate's card included both girls' trace handprints. How precious!

Spring Days

2010-04-29T14:48:00.002-06:00

We have had an enjoyable April. Natalie is continually amazing me with her creativity and knowledge. Right now, she is working on a pretty "flower cup." She is loving her kindergarten unit on the solar system. The other day Natalie told me a lot of information about the planets after only a day of learning about them in class. I was very impressed. Through our parks and recreation department, she has been taking swimming lessons and is really enjoying a science class. They look at lots of neat things underneath microscopes. For school, she has quickly read through a number of American Girl books this week. Outside, Natalie enjoys doing cartwheels and riding scooters.

Jocelyn is entertaining us with all of her new "tricks." She started clapping about a week ago. At night, she loves doing this to keep herself awake. She has recently started to take a few steps without holding on to anything. When Natalie plays and encourages her, she really likes to practice her walking skills. Jocelyn is a very smiley child. She does get a bit sad when I do not allow her to play with outlets, electrical cords, and the shades in the house. I am sure we will have a lot of fun when Natalie is home all day once summer vacation is here.

Baby Fish and the Dolphin

2010-04-12T15:03:00.004-06:00

This past weekend, we went up to the Green Bay area. We enjoyed a fun weekend with family and friends. The girls also had a good time in the pool on Saturday. This was Jocelyn's first experience in the water. We believe she thoroughly enjoyed her time in it because she stayed in the water for about 2 hours. Natalie had a good time going down the waterslide and playing with her friend Brooke.

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-05T05:47:00.010-06:00

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! We had a wonderful Easter going to church and then a day up North. Natalie had fun doing an egg scavenger hunt. We all enjoyed a great Easter dinner. And then Natalie had a good time playing marbles with Grandma. I believe Jocelyn enjoyed her first Easter as well.

Bike Ride

2010-03-30T20:37:00.002-06:00

We took the girls biking tonight. It was officially Jocelyn's first bike ride. Nate pulled her in the trailer. He said that she talked a good portion of the ride. Natalie rode her tag-a-long bike behind me. It was a new experience for me since I did not ride most of last year. I thought it would be easier with a child that could help me pedal. It felt like I was biking for the first time because it seemed like we were off-balance. Thankfully, Natalie and I didn't crash. It was fun to get back out on the bike again. I am looking forward to getting out again soon.

Weekend of Fun

2010-03-29T05:52:00.002-06:00

We had a wonderful family weekend! It started off with a fun birthday party on Friday evening for our good friend Amber. Saturday, we took a friend to the zoo and enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon. On Sunday, it was too beautiful to stay indoors so we called some friends, and after church we went geocaching for the first time. What a great way to have fun outdoors.

School assignment

2010-03-11T19:16:00.005-06:00

I am amazed, humbled and yet proud of Natalie. She had an optional writing assignment for Lutheran Schools week based on 1 Corinthians 12:5. The topic was "In His Service". This is what she came up with. I love her very much and she's reading this post as I type. :)

She started with this outline that she developed herself. This was a huge surprise to us, and she layed it out better than I used to for even my college papers. :)

This was the initial sentences she created based off of her outline.

Here is the final product after a re-write. She corrected some of her own spelling mistakes. I did not proofread at all, instead focusing on the importance of this coming from her heart rather than the technical perfections.

Gates

2010-02-18T06:48:00.002-06:00

As of yesterday, it is official. Jocelyn started to crawl around the living room. She especially likes all of the adult things in the room...like the remote control, the telephone, and the television and all of the cords and things that go along with it. She has not figured out that she can crawl after me yet. When I walk away, she still cries as if I will be gone a long time. It is time to break out more gates and continue to baby proof the house.

A couple of days ago, Jocelyn did something very cute. I have been playing the game where you touch your nose, and then stick out your tongue. I touched Jocelyn's nose multiple times the other day, and every time, she stuck out her tongue. It was so funny!

Natalie continues to get Jocelyn to giggle. The two of them have so much fun together.

Made-up Super Hero Day

2010-02-15T08:49:00.003-06:00

Nate came up with a great made-up super hero for Natalie today. She went to school dressed as Super Sister with a "nuklace" around her neck, a receiving blanket as a cape, a diaper tucked into her belt, and I'm a Big Sister t-shirt. Her job is to keep her sister safe, happy and giggling, and to teach her about Jesus. I've got such creative people in my home! One of the kindergarten teachers said she loved Natalie's costume.

Great Grandpa and Basketball

2010-02-13T22:01:00.002-06:00

Today, we had the opportunity to visit with Great Grandpa. We haven't been able to do this recently with all of the illness that has gone around our home for the last few months. Natalie made him a cute Valentine's. Great Grandpa got to see Jocelyn for the first time, and seemed to really enjoy seeing both girls.

We also watched a lot of basketball this weekend. Nate's cousins were playing in 2 different tournaments. Hannah's team took 3rd place today, and Nick's team lost a close one tonight so he'll be playing for 3rd place tomorrow. At both tournaments, Natalie took part in the "Half-Court" shots during halftime. This was the first year that Nate did not put her on his shoulders to make the shot. In past years, it was very cute. Natalie won a number of neat prizes this way. We decided that this was her year to try it on her own. She did a great job, but still needs a little more practice and a little more muscle to get the ball in the hoop.

Jocelyn enjoyed seeing and petting Auntie Pam and Uncle Kirk's dog. She thought it was pretty funny when Connie was giving her some puppy love. We'll have to see how she enjoys Chloe and Jazz next time we see them.

Haircut and Gymnastics written by Natalie

2010-02-06T15:00:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I went to get 2 1/2 inches cut off my hair. I really like it a lot. It is easier to brush now.

Today, I went to gymnastics. I went on the high balance beam. At first, it was a little scary. But after I got use to it, I liked it. After I walked across it, I got to jump into a big, cushy mat. That was fun!

Gymnastics

2010-01-23T22:22:00.002-06:00

Natalie has been enjoying another neat Parks and Rec program. She has attended 2 gymnastics classes so far, and really seems to be enjoying her time there. Tonight, she was even showing us some of the things she has learned. So far, she has done tumbling and some balance beam exercises. Last week, when she came home from the class, she went into her bedroom to draw me a picture of what she did in class. It was very well done, and it explained what she did extremely well.

Since Nate was out of town this past week, I was able to go with Natalie to her cooking class. It was Italian week, and we had to make our own noodles. What a week for Nate to be gone! It was a good learning experience for me. I am sure that Natalie will be happy to have her Daddy back this coming week.

Jocelyn has been very content to sit on our laps and sit back and enjoy life up until this past week. Since Thursday, she has been very eager to move. When we put her on the floor, she likes to roll around and explore her surroundings. She is getting up onto her knees. I know I should be ready for her to crawl, but I have enjoyed the stage where I know that she is not getting in to things when I am out of the room for a minute or two. Ready or not, here comes Jocelyn! She has also started to babble a lot more this week as well. It has been very cute listening to her as she tries out new sounds and volumes.

6 months and still having fun

2010-01-14T06:47:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, both girls got to get shots at the doctor's office. Natalie needed a follow up one from her 5 year old appointment. She really did not enjoy hers. Jocelyn did much better with her shots than a couple months ago. Hopefully, that continues since she needs to go back in a month to get more. Jocelyn is continuing to follow all of her statistical curves. What continues to amaze me is how close she is to Natalie's stats as a baby. When Natalie was this age, she was only a pound and a half different than Jocelyn and 3/4 of an inch taller. Natalie still adores Jocelyn. I hope that continues as Jocelyn gets into Natalie's toys.

Natalie had a friend call her to talk the other evening. It was very cute. I told Natalie that she had to eat her dinner, and then could call her friend back when she was finished. Usually, it takes Natalie a long time to eat her dinner but not on Tuesday night. She was done in record time so she could talk with her friend again. I guess I know an incentive to get her moving at the table.

Dinner

2010-01-08T07:06:00.003-06:00

Last evening, Natalie and Nate tested out one of the new recipes that they tried out on Tuesday night in their cooking class. It was delicious! I am looking forward to the German breakfast they are going to make for me.

Jocelyn continues to be a happy girl now that her ear infection is cleared up and her teeth have broken through. She tried sweet potato puffs and Cheerios yesterday. I think they were a hit with her.

Teeth are Good for Eating Natalie's Cooking

2010-01-04T22:05:00.002-06:00

Jocelyn is doing much better than a week ago. Her double ear infection is under control, and her first tooth has broken through. She has another one that will be showing soon as well. We have moved things around in the living room, and I believe that she thought that she ought to explore her new surroundings. Today, she was rolling around from one side of the room to the other. Jocelyn seems to be enjoying her new mobility.

The teeth that Jocelyn has in her mouth will be helpful in tasting Natalie's newly acquired cooking skills. Thanks to our Parks and Recreation department, Nate and Natalie will be cooking their own dinners on Tuesday nights during the month of January. Natalie is also excited to start taking some gymnastics lessons which are also through our local Parks and Rec. She had a good Christmas break, despite her sinus infection. Her cold did not keep her from enjoying her friends and family over vacation.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T08:12:00.002-06:00

We enjoyed a nice Christmas with family and friends. Now we are trying to get healthy with the medicine we have for a sinus infection and a double ear infection. Hopefully, we will be able to enjoy the remainder of Natalie's vacation with our friends and family.

Golfing in December

2009-12-13T21:53:00.002-06:00

Natalie golfed 9 holes this evening on the family's new gift from Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie. We have all enjoyed playing the games on the Wii the last couple days. Natalie was especially cute as she was playing her round of golf tonight. We had a talk about enjoying the games and not getting too frustrated with it. There were a few holes that looked pretty tough with numerous water hazards, sand traps, and cliffs. When the system told her to "give up" because she had so many strokes, she had a good attitude and kept right on playing. Natalie stated that she would not give up. I am sure she will enjoy the games even more when she has more control using the Wii-mote. As for her form when playing golf, maybe Grandpa can give her some pointers when the weather is warmer. When Jocelyn gets old enough to play the games, she already has a Mii set up for her -- thanks to Nate and Natalie.

Snow Day

2009-12-09T21:43:00.004-06:00

Today, Natalie had her first snow day this year. She was suppose to have had her first Christmas program tonight, but we will have to wait until tomorrow evening for that. Natalie was excited to play in the snow, and she got that chance twice today -- once in the morning, and again when Nate went out to blow snow for the second time. In between Jocelyn's short naps, we were able to get in a couple of games. I am looking forward to going sledding sometime soon with Natalie this year. Maybe, I can even get her out cross country skiing with me.

Jocelyn will be five months old tomorrow. It is amazing how quickly the time goes. I am seeing that she is probably done with her bouncy seat since she works hard at trying to get out of it. On Thanksgiving, she rolled over for the first time. Jocelyn is very curious about most things in our home. Some of her favorite items seem to be the remote control, the computer, and the telephones.

What fun ages our girls are at - 5 years and 5 months old!

Thanksgiving Week 2009

2009-12-02T20:56:00.004-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving week. Natalie had off of school the entire week, so the "girls" had a lot of quality time together. Nate and I had a good conference with Natalie's teacher on Monday evening. Tuesday, the girls and I enjoyed time with Grandma and Grandpa down in Elkhorn. Wednesday evening, we all enjoyed time spent with our good friends. For Thanksgiving, we changed up our plans and spent it with my side of the family since we didn't want to spread our cold germs with Nate's family. Friday, we had fun meeting Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie for lunch. Later that same day, we played some more with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle David, and Uncle Gary and Auntie Theresa. Saturday, we went to the annual Breakfast with Santa. We were pleasantly surprised to see Jocelyn sit on Santa's lap. We enjoyed the awesome weather outside that same day.

Beautiful Weather in November

2009-11-22T20:51:00.002-06:00

Today, Natalie and I had a great day playing outside. We started out with a picnic, and then Natalie wrote a long list of words with her chalk while Jocelyn hung outside with us for a little while. When Jocelyn went down for a much needed nap, Natalie and I played everything from catch to soccer. We just couldn't go inside on this gorgeous day, so the two of us went to the park and played hide-and-seek, tag, and had fun swinging and running around on the playground equipment.

As we were walking home, and after using our hand sanitizer, I think I mentioned to her that we needed to try and stay healthy so we could have fun later this week. I believe this is what prompted her nighttime prayer to include praying for health so that we could see her cousins, grandparents, and Santa Claus later this week. Nate and I both smiled at this part of her prayer.

Bug-a-boos

2009-11-06T20:49:00.003-06:00

Natalie has recovered from a bug that she had earlier this week. She was very happy to go back to school today, and we are happy to have her back to her normal self again. Yesterday, I brought some games up from the basement. I was hoping one of them was Checkers because I thought Natalie might enjoy this game. Unfortunately, it was Chess. I was not ready to teach it to her last night. Today, when she got home from school, Natalie wanted to play a game of "Chest". I guess we'll have to work on teaching her the game and the correct name of it as well.

Jocelyn has taken an interest in playing with her feet. It makes for an interesting diaper change. She has also started to blow raspberries, which causes much drool to accumulate on whatever she happens to be wearing. Another fun accomplishment of Jocelyn's has been to play with her toys. She can now hold them, and get them consistently into her mouth. Jocelyn has also been enjoying her rice cereal this week. Since she was sad after most of her bottles because there was no more, I decided to call the nurse and ask if it was okay to start feeding her the cereal a couple of weeks early.

Happy Reformation

2009-10-31T20:47:00.002-06:00

Here is a picture of the girls all ready to go to a great Halloween party last weekend. Today was cold out so Jocelyn didn't even get dressed up tonight.

bigger bigger bigger - by Natalie

2009-10-17T19:16:00.002-06:00

Natalie will be dictating the posting of the blog tonight, so without further ado, here is her commentary:

did you know how big Jocelyn is getting?
she is almost 13 feet long and five inches!
Jocelyn is 3 months old now. She likes kicking and punching at the toys on her play mat. She also likes crying a lot. I like to hold her a lot. She LOVES her big sister Natalie.

Party and Picnic

2009-09-28T07:21:00.002-06:00

We enjoyed a fun-filled weekend. On Saturday, the girls and I went to celebrate our friend Samantha's birthday. Natalie had an awesome time at the Fancy Nancy party.

After church on Sunday, we headed to Wind Lake, where they were having their town picnic. Uncle Gary and Auntie Theresa invited us and Natalie's cousins to enjoy the afternoon of bounce houses and other fun activities. Natalie's proud accomplishment was climbing to the top of the 25 foot rock that they had at the grounds. What a great weekend!

Smile

2009-09-22T21:26:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is picture day at school for Natalie. She is wondering how to smile for the picture because her second tooth fell out at school today. That is what she was practicing at the dinner table tonight. We will have to see which smile she chose when we get the pictures back from school.

On the topic of smiling, Jocelyn has been doing this a lot more lately. She is also having fun "talking" to us with her "oohs and ahhs". Tonight, she was listening very intently to all the stories Uncle Gary was telling her about Grandma.

2 new chapters

2009-09-08T18:50:00.003-06:00

Tonight Natalie started piano lessons. She received birthday money from Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie this summer to put towards lessons. She goes weekly for 30 minutes. She really liked tonight's lesson and is excited to practice for next week.

My daughter is getting far too old far too quickly.....I definitely don't want her back in the screaming days like her sister, but I'm not sure I'm ready for this next step either. :)
She lost her first tooth tonight. It's been loose for about a week now, and it finally came out tonight. She was pretty excited and is ready for the tooth fairy to come tonight. I think the tooth fairy pays more money for the first and last tooth, but we'll see...:)

Update the Calendar, School, and Smiles

2009-09-04T06:28:00.002-06:00

The other night, Nate and I were having a light hearted conversation about nagging. Natalie overheard us, and wanted to know what nagging meant. So Nate told her that it was something you repeat over and over. She then stated that she too wanted to nag. Natalie started in on Nate then by saying, "Update the calendar, Daddy. Update the calendar, Daddy. Update the calendar, Daddy." This went on for some time with laughter from Natalie as she continued to nag her Daddy. What have we started? :)

Natalie has successfully put in 2 weeks of Kindergarten - sort of. She was home 2 days this week with the aches and pains of some bug that all of her classmates seem to be sharing. Natalie seems to be enjoying her new teacher, Mrs. Schneider.

We have all been enjoying Jocelyn's smiley face for the past couple of weeks. I wasn't quite sure she was fully awake when she first started giving me her huge smiles, but I have come to enjoy giving her the first bottle of the morning because she usually rewards me with these beautiful smiles when she is finished with her "breakfast". It is wonderful to have 2 beautiful, smiley girls!

3 funny comments from a witty 5 year old

2009-08-24T20:53:00.002-06:00

so I got the blog or else ultimatum tonight...:)

We do have 3 pretty funny stories:

Lynn and I were sitting in the living room when Natalie came in and ask if we had any old gold we're not using...when asked why she replied in a loud whisper "cash for gold!" Apparently she wants a Hannah Montana room...:)

The other 2 came at dinner tonight: we were discussing DQ desserts. Lynn told me she wanted a thin mint blizzard...Natalie replied back with "what? you want a turtle head blizzard?" I was rolling...then she said she wanted to make a dirty version of the Phineas and Ferb theme..when asked what she meant by that she said "you know, with pee and poo and stuff".

She makes me laugh....a lot. I love that

Road Trip

2009-08-20T06:04:00.002-06:00

This past Saturday, we took a quick trip up to see Nate's family. We had the opportunity to celebrate Grandpa Wes' and Grandma Julie's birthday by spending a little time at their home and then going out for yummy food at Two Lakes. On our drive back home, it was a little past Natalie's typical bedtime so when we were getting close to home, she asked Nate how much further we had to go. Nate replied about 30 more minutes. To this response, Natalie stated, "30 more minutes! We are going to be out here for the rest of our lives!" Nate and I both had a good chuckle over this one. Natalie has been coming up with some funny things to say recently. I am sure she will eagerly share some of these good lines with her classmates and teacher starting on Monday. It is hard to believe that her school year begins this coming Monday.

Baptism Day

2009-08-10T09:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, Jocelyn was baptized into God's family at our church by Grandpa and Pastor. Many of our family members and some friends were able to celebrate with us. Jocelyn slept through the whole church service and baptism. She woke up when we started to play in the fellowship hall. And many people had the chance to hold her. She loved all the attention!

It was a fun day for Natalie with so many of her family and friends to play with. Natalie loved taking her shoes off and running around. The kids played a version of Simon Says called God says. She learned this game at VBS a couple of weeks ago.

Natalie helped Mommy write this blog entry today. She wants to add her name.
from Natalie

Sisters

2009-07-29T15:42:00.002-06:00

A quick blog to tell you how fun it is to watch 2 sisters lounging on the couch while the older one is watching cartoons. Natalie is getting her satisfaction of holding her little sister while enjoying one of her other favorite things to do - watching t.v.

Also wanted to let people know that baby monitors work great at not only letting you hear the baby in her room, but also the older sister who is singing while playing outside in the backyard.

Big sister

2009-07-16T12:39:00.004-06:00

We have a new addition in our household. Natalie welcomed home her baby sister on Monday of this week. Natalie has been extremely helpful with her...wanting to help make bottles, take out dirty diapers, change diapers, reading to her, praying with her...cute stuff.

One thing she doesn't really like is the crying at bedtime. On Tuesday night Jocelyn was crying quite a bit around Natalie's bedtime. Natalie tried to go to sleep but we knew she wouldn't be in there for long. After a few complaints voiced from her bedroom she marched into the living room....Lynn was sitting there, I was in the kitchen. Lynn asked her what the problem was....Natalie promptly replied with "I'm going to go ask Daddy for some earplugs"

Too funny. I did setup a fan in her room so she could have some white noise which seemed to help.

I may be making changes to this blog to set it up for both daughters...I'll be pondering my creative changes. In the meantime, here's a picture of my two girlys.....I am in such deep trouble when they grow up...:D

Summer Days

2009-07-05T07:15:00.002-06:00

Natalie has had a fun summer so far. She's had a lot of days spent playing with friends and family. At night, she looks forward to what Daddy has planned for the two of them to do. They enjoy riding the bike with the tag-a-long down to the local custard shop. Yesterday, we opted to stay close to home (and the hospital), so Nate and Natalie packed a picnic lunch and then played at the park.

It was wonderful that our friends took Natalie to the parade and fireworks in town. She was really looking forward to doing these things. The multitude of stories she came home with were great!

Birthday Celebrations

2009-06-28T18:01:00.002-06:00

Natalie and Ella had a great couple of days together. They did so many fun things -- the two of them watched a magician at a local library, went to a play land at McDonald's, rode bikes, went to the playground, picked out books at the library, watched a neat Barbie video, and bounced and played at a place called Family Funland.

After Ella went home on Friday night, Daddy got ready for another birthday party for Natalie which took place last Saturday. Natalie had a chance to invite a few friends over to play in the sprinkler, eat some yummy food, and have cake. It was another fun day.

The day after this party was Daddy's day since it was Father's Day. Nate got to choose whatever he wanted to do. He decided to go out for lunch and then do some necessary shopping. Afterward, we had some fun with our friends the Brauns.

We continued our birthday celebrations this past week with Nate's birthday, and will continue to celebrate this week with my birthday. Whew! That's a lot of birthdays...and we still have one more that we are waiting to find out what day it will be.

Happy 5th Birthday, Natalie!

2009-06-18T06:35:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, was Natalie's 5th birthday. Wow! It's hard to believe it's been five years since we were in the hospital seeing Natalie for the first time. The memories seem like it was not that long ago...me being quite sick all day, Auntie Chris coming to hang out with Nate, hanging out in the hospital for a week and a half.

I believe Natalie had a fun day celebrating yesterday. She came in to my room, and I sang her Happy Birthday. She liked the card Nate and I got her. Natalie had to wait for her present from us until later when we got home from our fun day with grandparents and cousins.

We got ready to go have a breakfast brunch with family. Natalie polished off her rainbow pancakes and birthday pie in record time. Afterward, she had a fun time playing with her cousins...especially the special tea party Auntie Chris set up for Ella and her.

We had a chance to cheer on cousin Zach playing baseball, and then we headed for home with cousin Ella for a sleepover. It was surprising that Natalie was the one who was crying last night...she was tired, and we had given Ella Natalie's bed so things were a little different. It must have affected her early wake up time this morning too...or she must have heard Nate's early phone call. Hopefully, with Ella's ability to sleep in this morning, we won't have 2 grouchy little girls...maybe just one. :)

Thanks to everyone who phoned to wish Natalie a Happy Birthday!

The 4K Picnic

2009-06-11T16:20:00.002-06:00

Here's a blog written by Natalie -
First of all, Daddy and I went to my end of the year 4K picnic at a park near our home. And then, my friends and I went on the playground to play. Second of all, we ate lunch. It was "delish"! After we ate lunch, we went to play some more. Then, our teacher called us for our music program. Afterward, we played a little bit more. Finally, when everyone else was going home, we left too. It was a fun day, and I like it!

Extreme Room Makeover

2009-05-09T19:02:00.002-06:00

Today, Natalie got the room makeover we have been telling her about for a while now. Auntie Chris wanted to help with this project, so she and cousin Ella came up ready to paint and play. Natalie changed her mind for paint color over the last couple of years. Originally, she thought she wanted a purple room, but instead she chose a sky blue color. Auntie Chris painted a "happy" looking rainbow, and Nate painted the clouds and the sun. Natalie will get to add some other decorations tomorrow, after the furniture gets put back into her room. Natalie's little sister will have to wait until she is at least 5 in order to get her room decorated "to order" since prepping the room takes a lot of work. Nate says that pictures will come at a later date.

Sunset

2009-04-09T15:10:00.002-06:00

Last night, Natalie was having a good time playing outside. After a while, she decided to get her crayons and some paper. She told me that she was going to draw the sunset. (I'm not sure if this idea was spurred on by a cartoon we had watched earlier in the week or not.) As I was watching her draw all of the things she saw in our neighbors yard, like their vehicles and trees, I was intrigued when she tried to get the right color for the actual sunset portion of her picture. She took out about 4 or 5 crayons, held them up towards the sky, and then chose the color that she thought best matched the color of the sunset. I was highly impressed as I am not very artistic at all, and she already can draw things better than I could ever possibly try to do. After her sunset picture, she turned around, and proceeded to draw our other neighbors home. Again, I found this neat to watch as I am always impressed with those that have artistic abilities.

Money and CD's

2009-03-08T14:34:00.002-06:00

Last week, Natalie grabbed a store flyer. She was hoping to get a toy or two, so she got out the change jug and sat down at the kitchen table. Nate and I were sitting in the living room, when we heard a shout of excitement from Natalie. She said, "Yes! I have enough money!" I asked her how much money she had, and Natalie responded by saying, "I counted out a pile with 22 and another with 37." Nate had her bring him the flyer, and he quickly saw that she had been looking at the table of contents. Her 22 and 37 came from the page numbers the Barbie happened to be on. We both thought this was pretty cute. How can you say no to a child with enthusiasm like that?

After reading the weekly newsletter that Natalie's teacher sends home, I found out that she and her class will be putting on a musical that I was in when I was about her age. I was pretty excited about this, so when Natalie and I went down to celebrate my mom's birthday last weekend, I put the RECORD on to listen to all of the songs. A couple days later when I dropped Natalie off at school, the teacher was playing some of the songs to this musical. We started talking about it, and her teacher told me something really cute that Natalie told her about listening to it with me at my parents house. She told her teacher that we had listened to the musical on the "biggest CD" she had ever seen.

Trip to the mall

2009-02-24T19:41:00.002-06:00

One night a few weeks ago we went to the mall as a family for dinner and to get the girls haircuts.

We walked around after dinner and past the Victoria's Secret store, where Natalie stopped and stared up at one of the displays.

I was not enthuised by this turn of events...:)

Lynn asked Natalie what she was looking at....not quite sure what to expect.

Natalie replied, "those look like benda hangers"

I love my little infomercial addict

Up your nose with a rubber hose...errr...plastic dot

2009-01-08T21:26:00.003-06:00

So "Little Miss Social" (as my boss refers to my daughter) and I decided to play some games tonight. Midway through our Disney Princess Monopoly game I had to take a phone call so she went down to her room.

I called her back into the living room to finish the game, which took her a bit to get there for reasons that will be made known shortly.

She came in, and sat down and then immediately told me she needed to go blow her nose and went running to the bathroom.

She then came back in and sat back down and announced to me "Daddy, I have a sharp boogie in my nose, so if I'm sniffing for the next couple of days or so, that's why"

I didn't quite believe her "sharp boogie" story so I quizzed a little further.

Apparently while down in her room she found a "green piece of paper" on the floor that she thought would be a great addition to her septum.

After several attempts of trying to blow it out I looked up there with a flashlight and finally thought I saw it. It was way up there so I didn't attempt to remove it.

We called the nurse and ended up at the ER tonight where they used a long set of tweezers and removed this:

It's a green plastic color coding sticker we use at work to code computers.

In retrospect it's kind of funny....until I get the bill for the ER. :/

My New Stuffed Animal

2009-01-05T16:03:00.002-06:00

On Friday, I (Natalie) finally got a new stuffed animal that I have wanted for a long time. I named my new stuffed animal Molly. She is a cute little black lab. I can play with her on the computer too! Daddy and I have fun dressing her and training her. I love buying new things for her room - bathroom and bedroom stuff. She can even use a real potty. I think that is really funny that she can sit on it like a person. And I love her because I always have wanted a black lab stuffed animal.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-04T21:00:00.003-06:00

Natalie really wanted to update her blog with a post by her, but tomorrow is the first day back to school after a nice Christmas vacation so I thought I would share what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. We enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. The cousins had a lot of fun playing on Christmas Eve. We all really enjoyed Auntie Theresa and Uncle Gary's gift to Natalie on Christmas Day - a karaoke machine. Natalie would love to hear Brian singing again because she believes that he is an excellent singer.

Last weekend, we were able to celebrate with Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie. Natalie had fun digging through her new craft shelves. And we all enjoyed the karaoke machine again. Nate and Natalie had fun celebrating with Nate's side of the family on Sunday. They had a good time and Natalie came home with a lot more fun stuff to do!

Natalie spent a good majority of her Christmas vacation with her good friends, Joshua and Hannah. They had a lot of fun at open gym at the gymnastics place down the road, going to Chuck E. Cheese, and playing, playing, and more playing.

Yesterday, Natalie had fun with Samantha and Isaac at the Y. Samantha, Natalie, and Sara swam and swam until Sara was content to call it a day.

Last night, Uncle David came over and gave Natalie another fun present from him and Auntie Rhoda. We enjoyed dinner, playing, and a movie with Uncle David yesterday. Thankfully, he got home safely today traveling on the icy Wisconsin and Minnesota roads.

Breakfast with Santa

2008-12-10T17:26:00.003-06:00

Here is another post from Natalie. She wants to tell about her breakfast with Santa that happened the weekend after Thanksgiving.

1. I went out to breakfast with some of my family.
2. It was really fun!
3. I got to sit next to my cousin Ella.
4. Santa gave me some treats.
5. I asked for a Barbie Diamond Castle.

Christmas Programs

2008-12-07T16:20:00.002-06:00

Last evening, Natalie had her annual Sunday School Christmas Program. This year, she had a speaking part - "Look at the baby in the manger. He is so tiny, but He is the Savior of the World!" Natalie did a great job! It was great to have many family members in attendance too!

If you were not able to join us for this Christmas program, Natalie's school Christmas program is coming up in a week and a half. Listening to her practice her parts for this upcoming one clues me in to the fact that we will be able to see another great service to remind us about the birth of Jesus.

The Reading Room

2008-11-19T20:40:00.003-06:00

Natalie took her first accelerated reader test today in the Reading Room at school. She was so excited to be one of a few students from her class that get to go into this room to check out books. Last night, she read the book that she chose a couple of times to me. This morning, she did a fantastic job on the follow-up test for this book. Nate and I are very proud of our little girl!

Trick or treat and bathtub gin

2008-10-28T20:03:00.002-06:00

So our town does trick or treat the right way....in the evening on Halloween night...this year Natalie is dressing up like a fairy with a pretty pink dress and wings...I'll try to post a picture this weekend. She did mention that she didn't really want to go out for candy though...she just wanted to stay home and hand out our candy....we'll see if that changes over the next few days.

The girls did attend a Halloween party at a friend's house. I didn't go due to them having pets and my allergies, but I guess they had a great time. Except for Pete dressing up like a skeleton and scaring the crap out of all of the little kids...his and my daughter included. :)

One day a week or so ago we were all sitting watching TV when the Toyota ad came on. The saved by zero campaign. Natalie started singing along with the song and then stopped and said..."we're not saved by zero, we're saved by God" Out of the mouths of babes.

Tonight when I came home from work, Lynn was in her office and Natalie was in the tub. I poked my head in the bathroom and said "hi goofball". She replied "you're a goofball" to which I agreed and said the reason I'm a goofball is because I do things like this: and then I tossed a dixie cup of cool water on her. :) She wasn't real happy with that. At that point Lynn intervened and told me to ask Natalie what she's making in the tub.

Me: "so what ARE you making?"
Natalie: "alcohol"
Me: "excuse me?"
Natalie: "alcohol"
Me: "what are you making alcohol for?"
Natalie: "a party"

Apparently it was chocolate alcohol for a party. This is funny because we very rarely drink alcohol or talk about it in the house....an occasional beer for me or glass of wine for Lynn, but very occasional...my daughter is setting up a moonshining operation out of our bathroom. I guess that's how a lot of folks did it during the Prohibition era though. :)

The Elegant Natalie

2008-10-11T18:09:00.003-06:00

Today, we went to the apple orchard in Mukwonago. While we were there, we went on a "horsey ride," and also a tractor ride to go pick the apples. Natalie and Mommy ate apples in the orchard. They were delicious! Daddy picked up a couple yummy pies from the Elegant Farmer store. According to Natalie, the crust was delicious! And after further review, Natalie also liked the apple filling. It was a gorgeous day outside to go apple picking.

When we got home, Natalie ate up a whole yellow apple. There was also a surprise waiting for us. Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie sent us a special package with lots of neat looking gourds. We are looking forward to hearing them rattle after they dry out.

Natalie is looking forward to playing with her friends again since she was under the weather with the flu this past week. She says that she did not even get to go to school for 4 days. When she finally returned back to school on Friday, her friends were so happy to see her that she could not even get into her classroom.

Natalie enjoyed typing and dictating this post tonight. She wants to thank all of her loyal readers for reading this blog so faithfully.

Go, Brewers, Go!

2008-09-29T20:37:00.002-06:00

This afternoon, I took Natalie to the Brewers Pep Rally down at the Summerfest grounds. I enjoyed it a lot. Natalie enjoyed the dinner I packed her and the balloon that the clown made for her.

Lately, I have had a tough time sticking to a school schedule for bedtime with Natalie. We have just had too many fun events to go to. For example, last week after we enjoyed our visit with Aunt Joy and Cousin Joni, Natalie and I drove up to Concordia to watch a Women's Soccer Game. Again, I enjoyed the game and Natalie enjoyed pushing her stroller around and her snacks. Afterward, we did enjoy hiking down the bluff to see Lake Michigan and play on the beach.

Tonight, after our fun evening, Natalie was wide awake and singing herself to sleep with the song, "Life is a Highway." Not your typical lullaby.

This past weekend, we enjoyed cousin Zach's birthday party on Friday night with all of the boys from his class in attendance. Saturday, we had a great time at our friend Samantha's awesome Ariel birthday party. On Sunday, we cheered on the Packers and the Brewers at the same time out in Delafield with Nate's family and cousin Paul.

The weekend before, The Big Pig Gig was in full swing. We had fun with our friends as we listened to music, played games, and ate yummy food. On Saturday, Natalie had a wonderful time playing with Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie. They made some cool cardboard creations that we are still enjoying.

We will try a little harder to get back to our school schedule, but we are certainly enjoying our fun fall.

Friday Night Review

2008-09-12T20:17:00.004-06:00

This afternoon, Natalie was suppose to be "resting" in her room. She was having a tough time going to sleep. I was going to be helpful, and was about to go lay in her bed with her. Natalie decided to come out of her room at this time. I walked in her room and saw that she had been "messing" with one of the broken window shades in her room. She has been "messing" around with this shade quite a few times this past week, and I have told her repeatedly not to do this because I did not want it damaged even more. Well, today Natalie decided to make the rip even larger and hang one of her little blankets from the ripped portion of the shade. At this point, I was not happy at all. I had a little "melt down." After my unhappy episode, she finally fell asleep. When Natalie woke up an hour later, she came out of her room, walked in the living room where Nate and I were, and she politely asked me, "Are you over it yet?" Nate thought this was pretty funny, and I do have to agree that it was cute to hear this from my 4-year-old daughter...even after being so ticked off earlier. Natalie knows how to keep us smiling!

Tonight, we had friends join us for dinner. Afterward, we came home and Nate gave the girls pudding pops for dessert. As Natalie and her friend were eating, they began a deep conversation. Her friend was talking about how she misses her great-grandma who died and is in heaven. Natalie then talked about how her Grandma Christy is in heaven too. She told her friend the story of the day that Grandma Christy went to heaven. From this point, the conversation went on to a discussion about how Jesus is God. Listening to the girls talk was pretty interesting. It is neat to hear young children speak so confidently about Jesus and His love for us.

Short dresses and poop sandwiches

2008-08-27T18:18:00.004-06:00

At the urging of my lovely wife, it's time for me to make an appearance on the blog.

Our stories tonight are not in chronological order, or any other order for that matter. But they all have one thing in common....they show the extremely funny person my daughter is turning into. (Taking after her father of course :) )

The first story involves a trip to the park tonight.
Lynn and I were sitting on a bench watching girly play. She was over by the play structure in the little "drive through" area under it. She asked me if I wanted dessert. "No" was my response. The same to dinner and lunch. She was getting irritated and proclaimed "no, for pretend!" So I acquiesced and said "bring me whatever you want."

She strolled over carrying a pretend plate and handed it to me.

As she was walking over, I thought to myself "Self, lets tease girly and ask her what she brought me and complain that it's not a poop sandwich I was hoping for"

So as she hands me the pretend plate, I ask her "what did you bring me?"

She replies "a poop sandwich!"

That's my girl!

Story 2 was from last week or so.
Lynn was trying on some dresses to see what still fit in an attempt to clean her closet for the first time in like 20 years. :)

She would walk out and model each one and ask if she should keep it.

She walked out in a little black dress that...well...let's just say that it fit a bit better BN (before Natalie).

Lynn opined "this dress used to fit me"

To which Natalie responded very sweetly "Mommy, where did it used to go down to?"

I don't think she was trying to be funny which made it even funnnier.

Story 3 was from yesterday.
As you can see from earlier blog posts by my wonderful wife, Natalie started school on Monday.

I got home yesterday and asked Lynn how it went and she told me that Natalie was becoming a "typical kid" in her responses.

The dialogue went a little something like this:

L: "How was school today?"
N: "Fine"

L: "What did you do today?"
N: "I don't remember"

L: "What was your favorite part?"
N: "Recess"

My favorite part of work is still recess. :)

First Day of School

2008-08-25T20:04:00.002-06:00

Natalie and I both started school today. It was very convenient how both of our schools coordinated our schedules so nicely for us. For the past few weeks, Natalie has stated that she was nervous about going to school. So last Thursday, I took her in to her classroom to look around. Since then, she calmed down and seemed pretty excited for school.

This morning, I was going to wake her around 7:30 a.m. This is normally a pretty early time for my late night and late morning little girl. As I was getting ready and eating breakfast, I heard her up at 7:20. I finished up in the kitchen and then went to look for her. I found her all set, dressed, and ready to go to school.

When we got to school, we hung up her backpack and put her supplies away. She looked as if she'd gone to school before by the way she walked in the room, found where her seat was, and went off to play.

If you ask Natalie how her first day of school was, she will tell you about recess and eating pretzels for a snack. It sounds as if her favorite parts of the morning were going to Extended Care and going to school with her friend Claire.

Tonight, we went out to dinner with some friends to celebrate the first day of school. A good ending to a good day.

Family Weekend

2008-08-05T19:42:00.002-06:00

We took Natalie to her first Family Day at Lambeau Field on Sunday night. After waiting for the stormy weather to pass, we finally were allowed to sit in the bleachers and watch the Packers scrimmage. It was a fun night. We also had fun at Peter, Missy, and Levi's home in the afternoon. Natalie and Levi had fun playing in Levi's awesome play room.

Saturday, we enjoyed seeing some friends from college that we have not seen in a long time. We had the privilege of celebrating a 4th birthday and an adoption with them. What sweet kids!

Today, we had fun playing with Natalie's cousins down in Delavan. I believe everyone was worn out after all of the fun.

Swimming

2008-07-24T22:03:00.002-06:00

Today was a great day to go swimming. Natalie and I started out at Wirth Pool with our play group. She really enjoyed the fountains there. From there, we went to see some other good friends. Natalie played in their pool for another 2 hours. On the way home, she fell asleep. I woke her a little after 6pm so she could eat dinner.

Nate, Natalie, and I then headed to Falls Fest which is our town's summer festival. The first thing Natalie wanted to do was go down the big inflatable slide by herself. Then, she did the inflatable obstacle course. From there, she wanted to play mini golf, but Nate convinced her to wait until another day to do that. So, Natalie decided to play a few of the kid's games after that. We walked down the street, and Natalie saw the softball game going on so she decided that would be fun to watch. As we walked back toward home, Natalie said that she wanted to listen and dance to the music for awhile. We had a lot of fun tonight!

VBS

2008-07-14T19:54:00.002-06:00

Today, started our week of Vacation Bible School at church. Natalie has been eagerly awaiting this week. She has been asking me when is it going to start for the last few weeks now. Natalie really enjoyed going last year, and knowing that she gets to spend the morning with her friends makes it really exciting to go this year.

We have been in another transition in our house. Nap time is now referred to as rest time. Depending on our evening plans, we as parents decide whether to enforce this time during the afternoon. If we would like an early bedtime without too much hassle, Natalie is allowed to go without this quiet time. Today, I was planning on no rest time in order to put Natalie down early because of getting up earlier for VBS tomorrow. I was overruled by a tired little girl. After a morning of VBS, playtime at McDonald's after lunch with friends, "swimming" in her little kiddie pool, and running through her sprinkler, I believe she was worn out. After we came in from being outdoors around 4 this afternoon, Natalie decided on her own to take almost a 2 hour nap. I had Nate wake our sleeping child...which we do very rarely. I thought we were in for a very late bedtime, but hopefully I am mistaken. We'll see how many times she decides to get up and tell us something important.

Last week, I found out that Natalie really enjoys getting her exercise. She found a show on television that comes on right after her morning PBS cartoon line-up. There is a lady whose name I have been told by Natalie is Mary Ann Wilson. She is the personal trainer for the program called Sit and Be Fit. This exercise program caters to people above the age of 65. On Monday morning, I was in the kitchen with my breakfast as I heard Natalie state that she needed some of her balls in her room. I figured she was going to play with them in the living room. To my surprise and humor, I saw her in the middle of the living room floor next to her chair following along with the program. She did the full 30 minutes of exercises with Mary Ann. We missed the show on Tuesday, but last Wednesday, she was right back at it. Now, I believe Natalie needs to find a show that motivates both Nate and me that well.

Boating

2008-07-06T20:00:00.002-06:00

Our family had a good time on the lake today. Uncle Steve and Auntie Barb took us out in their boat. Natalie had a good time swimming and boating. On the first stop for "deep water swimming," Natalie jumped right in without any hesitation. After the cool dip, she took a little more time getting into the water.

Friday, we had a good time at Uncle Gary and Auntie Theresa's for their annual 4th of July party. Natalie was able to catch a few fish on the fishing pole that Grandpa Wes gave her.

We had a good time at the parade and fireworks in the Falls on Thursday night. Thanks to our friends, the Raymonds, we had great seats to watch everything. Natalie had fun oohing and ahhing at the fireworks display.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

2008-07-02T21:34:00.002-06:00

Tonight, we went and played at Stonefire Pizza with our friends Dave, Julie, Hannah, and Joshua. Originally, I wanted to go listen to music at the zoo. But with all the storms and threatening skies, I changed my mind and opted to do something inside. We had a fun night.

Natalie wrote out a nice birthday card for me. Not only did I get a cute card from her, she also filled a bag of fun toys for me and wrote out more cute birthday wishes for me. What a sweet little girl!

This past weekend, Natalie and I left Nate to fend for himself for a few days while we went to Madison for a get together with my Dad's side of the family. We had a great time with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles at a fun mini waterpark. Natalie enjoyed everyone, the slides, the "girl's club," jumping in the pool, and "swimming" under water. We can't wait to do it again next year!

I Love Mommy and Daddy

2008-06-28T18:33:00.002-06:00

This post is dictated by Natalie today. "Let's do this a little bit later," says Natalie. "See you later, Mom," announces Natalie.

Natalie was originally all excited to write her blog tonight. Her attention span lasted about one minute, and then she was off to put on a dress at 7:30 at night.

Now, she's back and ready to dictate.

These are the reasons I love my Mommy and Daddy. 1) Daddy always does my hair, for real and for pretend. 2) Mommy sometimes sings me a song before I go to bed. 3) They give me hugs and kisses before they leave the house. 4) Another reason I love Daddy is because he always says, "I love you" before I go to bed. That's the end. "Actually, erase the end," says Natalie.

Natalie is typing now. I love Mommy and Daddy.

Happy 4th Birthday, Natalie!

2008-06-17T21:03:00.003-06:00

4 years old today! The time seems to have gone by so quickly. We spent the day a little differently than we had originally planned. We were planning on playing at Stonefire Pizza tonight, but since Natalie has just gotten over being sick recently, we thought we would postpone those plans for a later date.

After waking up Natalie shortly before 10 a.m. yesterday, today she made up for lost time by waking up at 6:30 a.m. When I finally got going, we went to her tennis lessons for the second day. Natalie looked like she was enjoying herself a lot today. Yesterday, she was a little frustrated that she wasn't able to do everything as easily as the teachers made it look. I am glad she had fun today.

We had to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some special Disney World pictures for Natalie's album. She chose some special chocolate donuts for her lunch time dessert. Because of our crazy week and the original birthday plans, we had opted out of the traditional DQ cake. So I whipped her up her requested banana roll-up for lunch. And for dinner, she chose Applebee's so we had another special birthday treat there. Thank goodness Natalie is rather easy going when it comes to certain things. For example, she wanted lemonade for dinner, but the machine was not working so she opted for OJ. Then, she wanted a corndog for dinner, but wouldn't you know it, they were out of those too. Option number 2 was just fine with her again. I liked her comment to me when I was disappointed for her. She said, "Birthdays are just another day, Mommy."

We ended our evening with a fun time with our friends the Grubers at one of our parks in town. We will be celebrating more birthday with other family and friends as we get together and see them soon.

---------Added by Nate----------
Where have the last 4 years gone? I still remember the feeling of being overwhelmed and unsure of what I had gotten myself into. Natalie, you are a blessing to our lives and I love you very much! I love watching you grow and learn and am looking forward to seeing more. I'm glad you felt better over the last 2 days and were able to have a great birthday. I'm also looking forward to my belated Father's day "Daddy/Natalie" day we're going to do on Saturday!

Dentist, Doctor, and Daddy

2008-06-14T21:08:00.002-06:00

This week has been a tough one. Nate has not only gone back to work after vacation, but he spends his evenings working on our basement. We've continued to get rain, and the basement has gotten wetter. Nate forgot to flip a switch back on, and the freezer defrosted. He spent the evening cooking a lot of food.

Natalie had a good first dentist appointment, and was a great patient. The only difficulty came because the dentist told her she had to give up her thumb. We've been preparing her for this, and were going to work on this when she turned 4 this coming week. But the dentist sped our time table up by a week. Probably not the best week to start it, but I was not going to argue with the dentist. The day was awful. She was sobbing and telling us that it was "impossible". Nate was excellent with her, and held her hand that evening. When he walked out of her room, she told us that it was "hopeless". Ever since that evening, going to bed has gone really well. The problem has been when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She cannot get back to sleep. So that means we've all had very little sleep this week.

Besides the storms and her thumb, Natalie also got sick this week. That means that we have had a lot of time together without seeing any other friends since Wednesday. It has been an interesting week between us. Thankfully, the weather was nice enough today that we were able to get out and play. We enjoyed riding bikes and playing hockey and bocce ball.

We look forward to celebrating Father's Day tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be an uneventful day, and Nate can relax and enjoy some fun, family time.

Disney World

2008-06-08T19:56:00.002-06:00

We got back on Wednesday night from a wonderful trip to Disney World. We saw a lot of neat shows, ate a lot of good food, rode a lot of exciting rides, and have a lot of great memories.

Why stop the vacation in the middle of the week? We had planned a trip to Wisconsin Dells with some friends before we scheduled our Florida trip. So we did laundry on Thursday and packed our bags again so we could leave on Friday to enjoy the weekend at the Wilderness. What a crazy weather weekend as many of you already know. Natalie learned about what to do when a tornado is sighted nearby when you are at a public facility. I was impressed with the Wilderness' abilities when it comes to their emergency procedures. We did have a great time with our friends. And we even got a little swimming in too.

Today, we were hoping to celebrate Uncle Gary's birthday with him. Unfortunately, our plans changed because when we got home, we found a good amount of standing water in our basement. Nate worked hard to get the majority of the water cleaned up. Thanks to our good friends, the Grubers, I was able to help Nate when they so kindly took her for the evening. We'll have to see if we can keep things under control with all the rain that continues to fall.

Camping

2008-05-25T20:04:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, Nate set up the tent in the backyard. Natalie and Nate spent the whole night sleeping in the tent. I started out with them, but came in after the neighborhood noises kept me awake. Natalie loved hanging out in the tent all day yesterday. This morning they came in looking for breakfast. We decided to call up some friends to meet for brunch. Afterwards, we went hiking at Lapham Peak Park. What a wonderful day we've had!

We have been enjoying biking around the neighborhood with Natalie. Yesterday, we took her out on the bike trail. She did great! I am so happy that she enjoys biking as much as Nate and I both do.

Mother's Day Crafts

2008-05-11T20:33:00.002-06:00

For Mother's Day, Natalie enjoyed making a neat craft for all of the "Mothers" in her life. It was a lot of fun working with her as she poured out her creativeness into these items. It has been awesome watching how her artistic development has changed over the course of the past couple of months. She really takes pride in her work as she carefully works on whatever the craft project may be. In play group, she painted a cute little butterfly magnet. I think she did a great job...but then again, I am a little biased. :)

We had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, we played with some friends at the park. Saturday, my Mom and I went to a show together so Nate, Natalie, and my Dad had fun at Uncle Mark and Auntie Chris' house. Today, we celebrated both Mother's Day and Caden's 2nd birthday. We had an awesome day playing, laughing, and eating yummy food which included the cake that Natalie baked for Caden's special day.

Searching for "lost toys"

2008-04-26T19:15:00.002-06:00

Today, Natalie was looking for one of her musical toys. She came into the living room and asked if I could "trace her feet." I didn't understand, so I asked her again. She expanded on what she was trying to say, and I finally understood that she wanted to "trace her steps" in order to find what was missing. Nate and I thought that was pretty funny.

A couple weeks ago, Natalie told me that I was a "professional mommy." I didn't know what this meant, so she explained it to me. Basically, it means that I am a stay at home mom who teaches my daughter. I thought that was a pretty good definition. :)

2 more weeks of cute and funny stories - also known as "post or else" ultimatum

2008-04-19T19:20:00.002-06:00

I've been keeping track of funny and cute stories that happen with Natalie and me. After not posting for a while, I got an ultimatum tonight. I figured it was about time.

Opinions
One night a couple of weeks ago, Lynn and I were deciding what we were going to do for dinner, when Natalie chimed in with "my preference would be McDonalds". Lynn and I looked at each other and laughed at the ever expanding vocabulary of our little girl.

Four pennies
We were all riding in the car together, Natalie piped up from the back, "Daddy, when I turn 4 will I be 4 pennies?" Neither Lynn nor I could figure out what she was talking about. She kept saying things about 4 pennies. Finally I asked her to expand on it and she said something about a conversation we had earlier in the week.
At that point it hit me. I had talked to her about her age. She would tell people she was 3 and a half. I tried explaining that she was actually 3 and 3/4 (three quarters). Quarters - pennies...close enough to a three year old. I laughed so hard I almost cried. Lynn got a good chuckle out of it as well.

My little girl
I took Natalie with me on a trip to Home Depot for a battery for our backup sump pump. It was raining quite hard. I carried her into the store from the truck. She tried pulling her hood up as I took her in, complaining about her hair getting wet. I told her it wasn't a big deal if her hair got wet to which she replied "but I care about MY hair Daddy, your hair is short so you don't care about yours". 3 going on 13 :)

Singing in Sunday School
Last weekend Natalie sang in Sunday School. She did a great job and was one of the most animated children doing her actions. We told her to sing nice and loud, which she did. :) She loves singing and was extremely excited to sing in front of church.

Emotions
Last Sunday we sat down as a family to watch Disney's Tarzan movie. Natalie is getting to the age where she is starting to enjoy these movies while hiding her face at the scary parts. We were watching the beginning where Tarzan is adopted by the gorillas. He fights with the gorilla pack leader and runs away. At that point the phone rings so we paused the movie. Lynn notices Natalie dabbing her eyes with her blanket and asked if she was crying. At that point Natalie starts sobbing. We asked her what was wrong to which she wailed "he's not going to see his family again". It brought tears to my eyes. My little sensitive daughter. Yet one more area where she's just like me....wearing her emotions on her sleeve. We snuggled with her and told her everything was going to turn out okay, which of course with all Disney movies, it did. :)

Biking

2008-04-02T20:24:00.002-06:00

Tonight, we pumped up Natalie's tires and went biking around the neighborhood. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better she has gotten since last fall. After today, I think we will be out on the bike a lot more often.

This weather is great! I've been looking forward to temperatures above freezing and being able to be outside. Natalie and I took advantage of the nice weather today, and walked around the zoo for a couple of hours this morning. The animals were fun to watch and very active today.

April Fool's

2008-04-01T19:51:00.002-06:00

Today, I was driving in the car and decided to tell Natalie about April's Fools Day. I should have known she would love it. For the remainder of the car ride, she kept coming up with jokes. :) Tonight, we made "the rounds" with our April Fool's jokes. Natalie had fun calling various people in our family with her jokes.

Tonight, Natalie came out of her room to give Nate a kiss good night. As she was walking back to her room, she had to cross a pile of Nate's clothes in our room. She then asked this question of him -- "Why don't you just put your clothes where they belong, Daddy?" Nate replied by saying that "Mommy asks me the same thing, honey."

Map

2008-03-30T12:07:00.002-06:00

The other day Natalie was watching Dora. For those of you who have watched any of these episodes, you know that to find out where you must go and how to get there, you need the assistance of Map. As Natalie was watching and listening to this part, the repetition was getting old for her. After Dora repeated how to get to where she was going about three times, Natalie said, "Enough already. We know how to get there." It was pretty funny.

Today, Natalie learned a new song in Sunday School - "God's not dead...He's alive!" She sang it for about twenty minutes...actions and all. It was an awesome song!

Baking

2008-03-05T22:34:00.002-06:00

Natalie and I had a fun day with my parents today. We celebrated my Mom's birthday a week late because she was under the weather last week. Yesterday, Natalie helped me bake a cake for Grandma. She had a great idea to add sprinkles to it after we frosted it. The cake tasted great! I think we'll have to bake some more cakes for birthdays this year.

After lunch today, we checked out a possible indoor waterpark to enjoy later this spring. As we were checking out the rooms, Natalie asked me whether the beds were hotel beds. I knew exactly what she was asking. One of our rules at home is that we don't jump on beds unless they are hotel beds...so I answered "yes" to her question. She had a blast jumping on it!

A couple of nights ago, Natalie was on her cell phone pretending to call Ethan and Logan. She stated that she wanted to see them. Natalie went on to say that we could either come over to their house or that they could come over and play at our house. The next subject that she brought up made me laugh. Some background information.... is that the last time we had plans to see them, they had recently had a bout with pink eye. Natalie obviously was thinking about that as she said that we might not be able to see them because of the fact that they had "red ear"... or she went on to say "pink ear". I thought her interpretation of what they had was pretty funny.

Girls Night

2008-03-02T20:48:00.002-06:00

Natalie had a great Friday night with her cousins and Uncle and Aunt while Nate and I had a fun night out at a concert. Auntie Chris and Ella stayed over night. It sounds like they had a great night of doing girl stuff like painting toe nails and playing dress up.

We enjoyed the concert so much that we decided to buy the CD. One of the songs is titled Cinderella, and it is about a dad and his daughter. Nate had Natalie listen to the words yesterday. And ever since, the two of them have been dancing around the living room playing the song over and over.

A couple nights ago, Natalie and Nate worked on putting a wagon together that Natalie had received from Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie for Christmas. Natalie was a big helper. I had to laugh when she was asking to use the "plugger"... otherwise known to most people as the pliers. :)

This morning when Natalie was in the shower, she had her feet up. When I asked her why she was sitting like that, she responded that she did not want her toe nail polish to come off. I thought that was pretty cute!

Today, Natalie and I had a fun afternoon at the high school. The student council put on a "Winter Carnival" for kids. There were all sorts of fun games that Natalie enjoyed. It is fun to watch her trying her best at all the games. We attempted the cake walk a couple of times. Natalie had her attention on the little stuffed Dora on the tables rather than any of the goodies. Dora now has a new home with Natalie. :)

2 weeks of stories or "are you going to post yet"

2008-02-18T22:34:00.002-06:00

Okay..I have a couple of weeks worth of stories that I've jotted notes down on. Hopefully I'm able to do justice to the sheer entertainment Natalie provides on a daily basis..:)

2 weeks ago we went out to a grade school basketball tournament at the school Lynn last taught...we had a great time watching the games. At each halftime they did a "half court shot" attempt for a dollar. The first game we watched, Natalie grabbed my hand and took me out there. I was able to take her up and lift her up so that she was within a few inches of the hoop when she extended the ball. She missed the first shot and then had a meltdown when we said she couldn't shoot again that night. The next day she grabbed my hand at halftime again and dragged me out on the court....I lifted her up again and she through it up and in....the whole crowd (most of the parents and students knew Lynn) erupted in cheers....I set Natalie down and she starting jumping up and down screaming "yes!!! I made it in!!" Sooo cute. This scene was repeated later that day. She ended up picking two little rag dolls as her prizes.

Story 2 brings us to commercial modifications. As most people know, Kay Jewelers has their trademarked catch phrase which they so cleverly put to song in each of their commercials. "Every kiss begins with Kay". Well one night we were sitting here watching TV and that commercial came on. My little comedian looks up at us sitting on the couch and sings "Every poop begins with P". I laughed so hard I thought I was going to bust my guts. Liking the reaction that she got, Natalie expanded her repertoire with "Every toot begins with T." Too funny.

2 weeks ago, I was lying in bed Saturday morning drifting in and out of sleep. Natalie came in and climbed into bed with me. She started talking incessantly like she is prone to do, and when she only got monosyllabic answers from me as I was still waking up she proclaimed "Fine! If you don't want to talk to me, I don't want to talk to you!"

We were all hanging out down in our basement one day. Lynn was biking and I think I was folding clothes. Natalie was playing with some of her basement toys. A Ravensburger 6 block puzzle. She was having some difficulties in putting it together which led her to sigh and ask, "Why is this children's puzzle so difficult?" Lynn replied back that it was probably made for older kids which prompted a follow up question from our little thinker: "Why did you buy it then?" Lynn and I both laughed heartily at that exchange. I then helped my daughter with her puzzle.

A great thing in a parents life is when the child gets to the age where they can figure out how to use the remote and turn the TV on themselves on Saturday mornings. Last weekend, Natalie came into the living room to watch her Saturday morning lineup: Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Cake and Horseland. During one of her shows, there was a commercial that came on shilling some TV offer order only here, marker thing. Lynn was in the kitchen and heard her get excited about the markers until the end of the commercial when Natalie lamented "awww...I have to be 18 to order" We'll have to watch our credit cards closely. :)

Tonight Lynn went out with her friends while Natalie and I had a daddy/daughter night. Right before she went to bed, we were watching My Dad is Better Than Your Dad, a game show on NBC where fathers and their kids compete at different physical and intellectual tasks. throughout the show, Natalie kept exclaiming to me "you're the best daddy ever!" and "you're smarter/stronger/braver than all of those dads" pretty cute. I tried to use it as a teaching moment and told her that the important part is not that I'm better than any other dad, but that I'm her dad and that I love her and she loves me. I love that girl sooooooo much.

Valentine's Dance

2008-02-08T22:50:00.000-06:00

Natalie's cousin, Ella, invited her to a Valentine's Party where she attends dance. The two girls had a great time! Not only did they get to dance the afternoon away, they got to eat sugary, party food, and take home some special party gifts.

Nate, Natalie, and I have had the chance to watch some fun basketball games at the Divine Redeemer tournament over the last couple days. Yesterday, Nate took Natalie on the court to try the "half court shot." Natalie had her eye on a special prize - a big, pink colored ball. When she missed the shot, Natalie was a very sad girl. Maybe, tomorrow will be the day she gets the ball in the hoop.

Funny girl this weekend

2008-02-02T20:59:00.000-06:00

It is I, the man of the house posting tonight. Mostly because the funny stories from the last few days have happened in direct confrontation with me. I also was challenged by my lovely wife that I wouldn't actually post, so I had to prove her wrong :D

yesterday, we got home after touring schools for Natalie for next year. We normally keep our shoes on a mat in the kitchen. I also had my computer and lunchbox on the mat yesterday. Lynn walked in and around my stuff...Natalie walked in and wasn't watching where she was going, and promptly tripped over my lunchbox and fell. I said to my darling daughter "please be careful and watch where you're walking" (she seems to have the same problem with this that I do)
her reply to me as she was kicking my lunchbox "move your lunchbox, stinkbutt"

even though it was sassy and disrespectful, I had to laugh....it was too funny

story 2 brings us to Saturday morning. Lynn was trying to tell Natalie to do something and she wasn't listening, so I busted into the conversation and in a firm voice told Natalie to do it....she fired back with "You're the boss, you didn't do what's right...you interrupted Mommy!!"

this is funny because she's throwing lines back at us that we're trying to teach her...she was right..I did interrupt Mommy....so I apologized...:D

Tonight we were all goofing around in the living room, and yet again Lynn told Natalie to do something which was completely ignored....I asked her "are you listening!"

"No" she said very matter of factly.

Lynn and I were both rolling at this....if anything she's a relatively honest little girl. :)

As a follow up, I requested again that she do what Lynn had asked her to do.....

"No dear", was the response I got.

I laughed so hard tonight that I almost wet myself.....I can't wait to share these stories with her when she's older.

Bedtime Songs

2008-01-28T21:11:00.000-06:00

Today, Natalie started showing symptoms of the cold that Nate has been battling the last couple of days. I believe it was one reason that falling asleep at nap time took a little longer. The later nap time has also led to a more difficult night of falling asleep.

Nate tucked Natalie in bed about an hour ago. Since then, she has asked us a number of random questions. We have always encouraged her to sing herself to sleep if she is having a tough time going to sleep. Tonight, as Nate and I are sitting in the living room listening to Natalie attempting to go to sleep, we have heard a number of songs coming from her room. The one that really intrigued me was the following song, "Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust." After I heard this refrain numerous times, I asked Nate to go down and ask Natalie where she heard this song. Natalie said that she heard it from one of her religious children's CD's that Nate had her listening to the other day. I think I will be listening more carefully to what is playing on her stereo.