Lesson Learned

Me: "Natalie, you always have to obey. No matter what, you have to do what I say. End of story."

Natalie: "Mommy, that wasn't a very good story."

Project 365, Week 4

1/22/12: Natalie used paper plates to play Little Gym -- in class, they use colorful rubber dots to keep all the kids neatly in line, waiting their turn to jump across the air mat (a big inflatable mattress-type thing).

1/23/12: Oh, to be able to curl up on the couch and take a nap whenever I please!

1/24/12: Natalie's dance teacher sent her a postcard in the mail. This made Natalie's day, and she kept asking me to read it to her over and over!

1/25/12: This about sums up Natalie's reaction when we told her that we are going to move back to Houston in August. I took lots of pictures consecutively, but this is the only relatively non-blurry one. There was lots of bouncing and kicking :)

1/26/12: After a good nap (and still a little groggy, with sheet marks!).

1/27/12: She has been practicing with water in a sippy cup. She actually does like it, but every once in a while gets surprised by the new sensation...love this face!

1/28/12: Getting ready to leave for a Daddy-daughter...going to see Beauty and the Beast! Notice that she is holding her Belle figurine. That went on the date too :) (And your first look at Brad's new glasses, too!)

Our new meal for the week was slow cooker jambalaya. Nothing fancy, but yummy enough to go into the rotation every once in a while on a busy day.

Little Gym Show

This week was the mid-way point of the season (September-June) at The Little Gym. That means it was time for the kids to show off the skills they have learned so far this year! Of course, it was only earlier this month that we switched Natalie into a dance/tumbling combo class rather than the tumbling-only class she'd been doing. But she has really fallen right in to place in ballet and tap. She loves it! Here are a few videos (although it is a little hard to see her in some parts since she was in the back row).

Ballet routine:


Tap routine:


Balance beam (notice how she worked in a little twirl after jumping off, haha!):

Christmas in Houston

Santa brought some cool stuff at Mousie and Pop's house...

...and Mamaw and Papa's house too!

Betsy played the piano to sing some Christmas songs and Natalie went to the play room to get a drum to play. She was very proud of herself for thinking of that!

Natalie and Jillian played dress up (a lot!) and got Julia in on the action too. Bet you've never seen a 6 month old bride-to-be before! ;)

It took a few days, but Julia warmed up to everyone pretty easily.

Madeline and Natalie (and Prince Charming) on Christmas Eve.

Natalie and Emma had so much fun playing together!

Seven Months Old

Squeaky clean after a bath!

One Month Old

Two Months Old
Three Months Old
Four Months Old
Five Months Old
Six Months Old

Rub A Dub Dub, Natalie-style

After playing in the snow yesterday, Natalie was complaining that her fingers and feet were "frizzy." I figured a bath would help her warm up, and then I realized that she had never had a bubble bath before! We didn't have any bubble bath in the house, but I poured some of her shampoo in the running water and it did the trick. She had so much fun making gloves, a beard, and a hat out of the bubbles. She ended up playing in the bath for over 2 hours (!!). I refreshed the warm water and bubbles a couple times and she was in heaven. Now I know what to do on days when we are snowed in and need something fun to do!

Project 365, Week 3

1/15/12: I made these Nutter Butter-esque sandwich cookies. They are way richer and more decadent than Nutter Butter cookies you buy at the store. Delicious...but hard to even eat a whole one at once!

1/16/12: Ice skating, anyone? Well, considering the size of our rink, maybe just the squirrels ;)

1/17/12: Playing Go Fish with my big girl. She loves this game...we easily spend a couple hours a day doing this! And she loves to say, "I'm cleanin' you out!" whenever she takes a bunch of cards from me.

1/18/12: One of Natalie's favorite things is when she wakes up in the morning and Julia and I come in to her room. One time she asked for me to put Julia in her bed, and now it is a little ritual! Julia actually lunges down to Natalie's bed each morning now. This cute, cuddly scenario really only lasts a minute or so before one of them gets antsy to get out of bed, but it is still so sweet.

1/19/12: Julia loves Lily. Clearly Lily is less impressed.

1/20/12: Sister snuggles.

1/21/12: Today was the first snow since October! It wasn't a huge dump of snow, but it was enough for Brad and Natalie to go out for sledding and playing.

New meal of the week was this corn chowder. I think I enjoyed it more than Brad did. I agree with him that it was definitely better once all the extras (avocado, cheddar, and lime juice) were added. I may try to tweak the recipe, or just try a different chowder recipe sometime.

Rub A Dub Dub, Julia-style

Last night was Julia's first time out of the baby bathtub and in the big tub. She loved it! There was a LOT of splashing (both hands and feet) involved.

Project 365, Week 2

1/8/12: We use the Boppy pillow to help Julia sit up without us having to hover over her. Sometimes she gets tired of sitting up and leans back to take a load off.

1/9/12: Warm fire on a cold night!

1/10/12: (Took this one with my cell phone) It starts early...you give them oodles of toys and all they want to do is play with the box!

1/11/12: Hope I don't get in trouble for using Brad's cup!

1/12/12: Let the countdown to Natalie's birthday begin! I got these adorable flash cards and we switch it out each morning when she wakes up.

1/13/12: Told you our Friday nights are full of excitement! At least I have a clean stove to show for it. Whoever said these flat top glass stoves are easy to keep clean is a big fat liar! (By the way, if you have one, this is a great way to get all that burned-on stuff off.)

1/14/12: Natalie loves to play computer, and is really good at it too. I set her up at the PBS Kids website or Disney Channel website and she gets a little time to play some games. Reminds me of playing Lemonade Stand on a hand-me-down Apple IIC when I was a kid :)

Our new meal for the week was this Honey Parmesan Pork Roast and Crispy Smashed Potatoes. I skipped the thyme on the potatoes since we were a little overwhelmed with thyme from last week's new meal. I just used salt, pepper, and garlic powder and they were delicious! The sauce from the pork was awesome, but the meat was pretty dry (which is strange because I followed the recipe to a T and it says it should just fall apart). Luckily the sauce saved it!

Time Out

This evening, Julia was sitting in her booster seat at the table with some toys and Natalie was playing with her. I was up to my elbows in baking soda and dish soap deep-cleaning the stove (it's a wild and crazy life we live here on Friday nights!) and Natalie started asking me to take pictures of them together. I held her off a couple times with the standard "Mommy is busy" line, but she was desperate and wasn't going to take no for an answer. So finally I gave in...cleaned myself up and started snapping a few shots.

So in all that, Natalie taught me a little lesson. Sometimes you just have to hit the pause button in life. Put down what you're doing, because you just may end up with a sweet picture like this:

Peas, Please

Julia's first veggie didn't go over as well as cereal did. (By the way, she ate 3 bowls of oatmeal cereal for dinner last night and was a little peeved that I wouldn't give her more. I was afraid she'd explode!). I love the look of sheer panic and horror on her face in the third picture!

Project 365, Week 1

My mantra for this photo challenge for the year is going to be "take the camera everywhere!" I will not be ashamed to take pictures in the grocery store or other public places (as evidenced by photo #1). I will not be embarrassed if strangers giggle at me while I take a picture of something weird. I would really like to get more creative than I was this week. Obviously, I love taking pictures of my kids...best thing to capture. But I want to broaden my horizons and find photo-worthy moments in other places too. So hopefully I can learn to do that over the course of 2012!

1/1/12: Sitting up in a grocery cart for the first time!

1/2/12: Lily loves laying in laundry.

1/3/12: Excited to go back to school after the holidays!

1/4/12: Julia's M.O.

1/5/12: All bundled up for a cold day. Natalie loves her scarf!

1/6/12: I wasn't shoveling the food in fast enough, so she started munching on her bib.

1/7/12: 51 degrees? In January? In New Jersey?! Believe it or not, it actually got up to the 60s today! (And obviously, our thermometer has a mind of it's own...51 was not the high AND the low for the day.)

My new meal of the week was wild rice patties (this website calls them burgers, but we just ate them naked). They were pretty good, although the thyme was a little overpowering. Ate them with black eyed peas...a few days after New Years Day, but better late than never, right?. The rice patties were made yummier by the fact that I cooked them in the grease from the bacon I made for the black eyed peas. Nice and crispy on the outside. Nothing like taking something healthy like wild rice and fryin' it up in some pork fat! :)

Toes...It's What's For Dinner

Julia at 6 months (so blurry, but this was the actual first time she ever did it, so I'm just glad I captured it at all!)

Natalie at 6 months

Also, notice how by this age, Natalie's eyes were most definitely already brown. I know eye color can change over the first year or so, but Julia's eyes are still VERY blue. Can we hold out hope for a blue-eyed kid?! According to this we don't have a very good shot...

Bed Head

No, she does not normally (or ever, really) sleep in our bed. I was just playing with her there this afternoon and she fell asleep. After two not-so-good naps, I guess her third nap just snuck up on her :)

Baby Food

Julia got her first taste of solid food this afternoon in the form of rice cereal. I have never heard of a baby that really loved rice cereal (I mean, look at it), but Julia slurped it up! She kind of got her hands all involved in the process, but she didn't hesitate to open her mouth for a spoonful. We'll give her a few days of this, then move on to oatmeal and then fruits and veggies!

All smiles getting ready for the feast!

"What is this stuff?"

"Hey, this isn't bad!"

Getting the hands involved...

...so Brad tried the blocking technique.

Stopped for a quick suck on the fingers.

Again, hands are not necessary.

Lip smacking good!

Finished with the meal. All three of us were cheering for her and she was obviously very proud of herself.

Since I wasn't blogging several years ago when Natalie first tried cereal, I figured I would post pictures of that. It didn't go nearly as well as today did :)

"Mom and Dad tell me this solid food stuff will be yummy!"

"Here we go!"

"Oh, ick!"

"Why Mom, why?!"

"I think I can escape..."

"Guys, it's not getting any better."

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Thank goodness that's over!"