Christmas 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.