A few more Christmas pics!

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas day of Natalie in her beautiful new dress that Great Grand Aunt Joo sent her...

Our Christmas Story

Natalie had a great 2nd Christmas...

Christmas Eve, Grandma and Grandpa Yost came to visit and we opened lots of presents. 

Christmas Day, Grandpa and Daddy put Natalie's new play

kitchen set together! Natalie really likes playing with her "My First Kenmore" stove, sink and fridge that she got from Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Grandpa Yost and Grandma and Grandpa Walters. What a lucky girl! She even received a 90-piece food set to use with it. 

Cousin Jackie and her boyfriend Marcus came over and we enjoyed a delicious dinner! Yum. 

Friday, we drove to Sunriver and went on an old-fashioned horse-drawn sleigh ride through the snow. It was a beautiful sunny (but cold!) winter day and we saw such pristine terrain on our adventure.

After warming up at lunch, we took a few runs with the sled in the Sunriver Village...

Overall, we had a very merry Christmas and enjoyed staying home this year. Hope everyone's holiday was just as bright and we hope to see you soon! xoxo

A meeting with the Big Guy himself

Today Natalie got to meet the one and only Santa Clause for the very first time. And although the meeting was brief and a tad one-sided (I'm sure he'll get an earful next year), they seemed to hit it off. You know what they say about making a good first impression...

SNOW!

After much anticipation, we finally got our first notable snowfall of the season. We bundled and braved the c-c-cold for a quick adventure in the white stuff this afternoon. Natalie really enjoyed sledding. Here are a few snaps of our frosty day:

Bundled up and ready to go...

Some of us were too tired to climb the hill...

Daddy & Nat

Ridin' with Mom

Hey, it's cold out here!

A girl could get used to this.

Here are two more just for fun. This is Natalie's own Christmas tree:

If you couldn't tell, she really likes opening her mouth for photos now!

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Yost's house this week. Natalie especially likes playing with her bigger cousins. We discovered that we're going to have to get her a Barbie doll because she loved playing with Chloe's. Here are a few pics from T-Day 08...

Playing Barbies with Chloe (note the fabulous new haircut Chloe gave herself!)

Chloe and Jerad teaching Natalie how to slide down the stairs!

Daddy and Natalie playing Atari video games (Nat wasn't too impressed with Daddy's skills)

Peeking outside

What we're most thankful for...

New Nat-Sized Chair

Now that Natalie is such a big girl, she's been 

getting up onto our two rocking chairs. But just like Goldilocks, they are both too big for her. However, we recently found a chair that fits her just right. She loves her new rocking chair. But she also thinks it's a fun new toy to climb and stand on and we're trying to teach her that is not what chairs are for. Try explaining that to a 1 year old! They just don't buy it. (Speaking of her age, tomorrow marks her 16-month birthday.)

The new daycare situation seems to be going well. She is a little overwhelmed by all of the action and noise with the other kids when we first arrive, but she happily joins them for breakfast and kisses me goodbye. 

In other exciting news, I think she said "pease" (aka: please) this evening two different times when I prodded her. I've been trying to teach her manners for the longest time and this was the first time she actually repeated them. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family. We're thankful for each and every one of you!

Pajama Time!

Here are a few new snaps of Natalie in her brand new big girl pj's her daddy picked out for her. She loves 'em! 

Showing off all her pretty teeth!

Deep in thought...

In other news, today was the Ashley's last day watching Natalie. She starts at her new daycare (a small, in-home daycare) on Thursday and will go there three days a week. She's already met and played with her new playmates, Landon and Sage. She will be the youngest so far but just by about 6 months. We hope it will be a fun change for her. Unfortunately, we'll miss Ashley (Natalie just said her name "Ash" for the first time this week.)

She's growing leaps and bounds (and yes, she leaps and bounds too!). Tonight we were practicing kicks and she'd say "kih" when she did it. She may be a soccer player some day! Her little personality cracks us up on a daily basis and we feel truly blessed she's in our lives! 

New Coat

Grandma Pat came to stay with Natalie for a few days this past week so that Jeramy and I could sneak away to celebrate our 4th Anniversary! The had a very good time together. Grandma even bought her a new winter coat which she was really in need of. This cute coat is plenty big for her to grow into during an inevitably long Bend winter! Thanks, Grandma!

Natalie with Ashley, her sitter. Notice the cute bow on the back of the coat! 

Have a great week...

Happy Halloween!

Cheerleading is very serious business. At least that's what Natalie thought when I took her to get her annual Halloween picture taken. She wouldn't crack a smile in front of the camera, but I rather like this shot anyway...

She was so cute in her OSU Cheerleader costume! This evening we went to the Fred's house and trick-or-treated in their neighborhood with a bunch of friends. We were amazed at how Natalie acted like she knew exactly what was going on and what she was supposed to do. She carried her little bucket the entire time and watched the candy being dropped in. As soon as that happened, she'd turn around and start for the next house, dragging me behind her. It was comical.

Afterward, we enjoyed a yummy potluck dinner. Here are all of the girls that Natalie went trick-or-treating and played with all evening...

Hope you had a spooky Halloween! Can't believe it's November now!

Newest Natalie-isms

Since it's been a while, I thought I'd give you a few updated Natalie-isms. Every day she amazes us with the new big girl stuff she picks up. Here are a few examples...

• She no longer crawls up the stairs like a baby. She now walks up the stairs (with the assistance of the railing of course). She'll still occasionally get distracted and either sit down or change directions all together but she loves the journey (too bad that darn gate is usually in the way!)
• Her absolute favorite word right now is "hot" although when she says it the 't' is very soft so it's more like "hoh". She knows what it means and will correctly say it when she sees a stove, the microwave, fireplace or other. But she loves saying "hoh" so much that she'll say it when she takes a bite of a room temperature banana, or when she touches a book. We have no idea why. I think she likes the arguments it provokes from her parents. (i.e. "No, that banana is not hot!")
• Now that she can run, she loves playing games with daddy where he runs and hides and she runs to find him. He'll jump out to scare her and she'll shriek with delight and run in the opposite direction only to find her daddy jumping around the corner in the dining room. Her 15-month old energy waaaay outlasts that of her 31-year-old father. But they have a blast running around the house surprising each other.
• She's learning to maneuver the spoon and fork much better. The outcome is usually a disastrous mess, but she loves feeding herself like a big girl.
• She is getting more and more into books! I'll ask her to bring me a book to read. She'll run to her toy chest and pull out a big stack of books and sit in my lap. Tonight we read through 5 entire picture books in one sitting. She'll turn the pages, point out things and kiss the characters. Just a month ago, she barely had the attention span to get through one book so I'm thrilled at her newfound literary interests. Every night she picks the same book for bedtime. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is her favorite. We read it backwards and forward and she loves to put her tiny fingers through the holes and kiss the butterfly at the end of the story. It's very sweet...
• She's using more words like mik (milk), dow (as in down, it has nothing to do with the struggling stock market) and mo (more). 

I'm sure there are other Natalie-isms that I'm forgetting. It's hard to keep track! Here are some fall pics we took last weekend...

Enjoy the glorious fall weather we're having! Winter will be here soon...

Weekend Fun

This weekend Jeramy and I met  our Boise friends, James & Rhiannon at the OSU Football game against the Cougars. It was so much fun. It was a perfect fall day in Corvallis and winning 66-13 didn't hurt either! Go Beavs!

While we were getting rowdy at the game, Natalie spent time with her Grandma & Grandpa Yost, Aunts Shawna and Janey and her cousin Chloe. The girls had such a fun time playing together! How cute are they?

This week in pictures...

Pre-bath stroll with dog...

New fashion trend: pjs and cowgirl boots...

Dancin' Queen

Most of you know that Natalie LOVES music. We've been saying for weeks that we have to capture Natalie's unique dancing style on video. Well, we finally accomplished that! Her skill is undeniable. You'll even catch a glimpse of her moonwalking! That's talent, especially for a 14 month old! 

Natalie's all-time favorite song is the theme song from the show Gilmore Girls by Carole King. It started early when I spent every day of my maternity leave watching reruns while I nursed her. And she loves to watch it with her Grandma Pat (she has the DVDs)!  

Enjoy the show!

Gracie's Birthday Party

Today we visited the Pumpkin Patch to help celebrate Natalie's friend Gracie's 2nd birthday. It was also a costume party so Natalie showed off her OSU Cheerleader costume! She had a blast visiting the petting zoo, riding on the zoo train, petting the horses and looking at great big pumpkins. Here are a few pics of our day... 

She had so much fun that she skipped her nap. This was the moment we knew we had to go... (pretty scenery, though, huh?)