A Walk Down Memory Lane

This weekend, we went up to Shawano to celebrate my Godparents' 50th Anniversary. My Godparents have a daughter, Kristina, who is my age that I was very close to when I was growing up. She now has two children, Brooke who is 5 and Tristan who is 2. I was telling Natalie who we were going to see, and who she would be able to play with at this party. From the moment Brooke and Natalie met, it seemed that they had known each other for their entire lives. Brooke took Natalie by the hand and took her all around the room that the party was being held in. They walked around the rest of the evening with their arms around each other. It was very cute, and reminded many of us of Kristina and me when we were their age.

On Sunday, we were able to see Nate's Mom and Dad. At his Dad's home, Nate took Natalie through the woods on the Range Rover. Natalie thought they would be able to see the animals better if they had walked. I guess we'll have to take a hike next time we are up there.

Tonight, Nate had to wake Natalie up in order to head to swimming lessons. Natalie requested that Nate rub her back. Instead of doing that, he decided to tickle her. Natalie's told Nate, "I said rub. That's not rubbing."

At swimming lessons, Natalie had a great night. I was highly impressed while I watched her doing the breast stroke. She was very quick. It looked pretty good from my vantage point. She also floated on her back really well tonight. So well, that Nate owed her a Dilly Bar from DQ.

One cute story from this morning happened when Natalie woke up and made her way into our room. Nate took the day off today to get some much needed things accomplished around our house. He had told Natalie that he would be around in the morning when she woke up. She looked a little disappointed when she came in our room because Nate was not in bed at that time. She stood there and told me, "Daddy said he would be here this morning." What a little Daddy's girl. :)

Tonight, Natalie got to stay up a little later since the Packer game was on. We put her to bed about a half an hour ago. Nate and I were just jokingly discussing something, and Natalie pipes up, "Guys, quit arguing." What a goofball who never seems to go to sleep.

Pull ups and potties

I knew it would start to click one day for Natalie. She has been doing very well on the potty lately. I am sure that I need to attribute the success to my wonderful husband! About a week and half ago, I was gone all day for a new class that I am taking. When I came home that evening, Nate told me that Natalie had been dry all day! Yeah! We are not completely there yet, but we are getting close. Soon we will join the ranks of those people who wear underwear all day. :)

Pumpkin Farm

Natalie and I visited the Shady Lane Pumpkin Farm with our church play group today. We bundled up for the hay ride through the corn fields. Afterwards, we checked out a pretty neat train display in one of the buildings. Once we were done playing outside with our friends, Natalie got to choose a little pumpkin to take home.

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to going to an apple orchard with some friends.

The last couple of days, Natalie has enjoyed playing with one of her toy phones while riding in the car. Yesterday, she overheard me making a phone call as I was setting up an oil change. Since then, she has been imitating my phone conversation. It is cute to hear her sounding so much like me. Her conversations on the phone go somewhat like this: "Call oil change place. Service department, please." She then goes on to state our last name, spell it, and then says, first name...Natalie. Tonight, Nate got to hear her phone conversations. If he has time, hopefully he can add to this story.

One other neat thing that Natalie has been doing a lot more lately is putting letter sounds together in an attempt to read. She was so proud of herself last weekend when she read the title of one of her books, which happened to be - "My First Word Book."

"Boyfriends"

Last week, Natalie told Nate that she wanted her "boyfriends" to sleep overnight. Nate asked if she meant "the boys" (Ethan and Logan), and she said yes. Natalie went on to say that Logan could sleep in her bed, and Ethan could sleep on the floor. Nate told her that "the boys" could probably sleep over when they are all older.

Natalie has been talking about how she misses going over to the Espinosas home lately. Thankfully, they were all at a festival that was in town this past weekend. Natalie was able to spend some time having fun with them on Friday night.

On Saturday, Grandpa Wes and Grandma Julie came down for the afternoon. One of the conversations that we all had was Natalie's desire to stay over night at their home some time. The problem with this request is that they have two lovable labs, and Nate is allergic to dogs. Natalie kept trying to come up with solutions to this problem. One possible solution that I thought was very creative was her idea of going to their home when Nate has to go out of town for his job.

Today, we had a great day at our play group, with friends at our house, and watching cousin Zach's last flag football game.

We're looking forward to playing with Samantha and Isaac tomorrow morning, and seeing Uncle David tomorrow night!