Shop 'Til You Drop

I am trying to be better about taking pictures. Just of Natalie doing funny everyday stuff. Today is a rainy day so I've been pulling out all the stops to find creative forms of entertainment to keep us both from going crazy. This afternoon Natalie got a Target bag and went "shopping" around the house.

Goodnight Moon

Daddy and Natalie read "Goodnight Moon" every night before bedtime. Yesterday afternoon I caught Natalie reading it to baby before she put her in her crib for a nap. So cute!

The Little Gym

Brad got a chance to go with us to our Little Gym class yesterday morning. He usually has a class on Monday mornings, but Princeton is on fall break this week, so he was able to experience one of our weekday activities. And since there was an extra set of hands to help with Natalie, I was able to snap some pictures! I am really amazed at all she has learned since we started Little Gym in September. She loves it!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time yesterday spending time with friends and trick or treating! Natalie was way more into Halloween this year than she was last year (of course).

Here she is doing the hula:

Here's a shot of all the kids (all girls!). Ellie the fairy, Natalie the hula girl, Supergirl Caitlin, Teagan the dragonfly, Jenna the turtle, Paige the duck, Lyla the duck, and on the floor, Molly the piece of sushi (this was my fave!), and Elizabeth the flower. Granted, only one of them is actually looking at the camera, but at least they're all in the picture and sitting!
Running to the door! Trick or treat!
Here's a good shot of the sushi. Love the piece of salmon strapped to her back!
At the end of the evening...a happy hula girl.
And here's a peek back at Halloweens past.

Tis the Season

I feel like our backyard has been a wildlife sanctuary lately. So many critters out and about!

For the first time since moving here, we spotted a deer with antlers! I had seen him a couple times down the street, but it was just as I was driving by, so I had kind of convinced myself that it was just a decoy someone put up in their yard to scare away actual deer. Haha! After I saw it (or thought I saw it) the second time, I told Brad about it, and lo and behold, he showed up in our backyard the next day! Really beautiful...but mean. Charged at a few other deer that were in our yard and scared them away.

We also woke up one morning to 3 deer just hanging out on the hill.

And this little guy has been wandering around a bit. A woodchuck, maybe? We're not really sure. We call him a woodchuck. He's cute!


In human news, here are a few shots of Natalie.

Taking baby for a ride on her shoulders like she rides on Daddy's shoulders. Fortunately, Natalie has better spine control than baby does!

Opening a box of Halloween goodies from Mousie, Pop and Madeline! This was such a fun treat for her...she spent a LOT of time going through it and playing with everything. Of course, the package of stickers was the first thing to get opened, and she had stuck them all on a piece of paper within about 2 minutes. She is truly sticker obsessed. Also, I just bought her her winter shoes for this year, which explains the super-warm shoes, tag still on, with a short sleeved t-shirt. She had to put them on immediately!

We went on a hayride with our playgroup last week (actually we went on 2 separate days, which explains the different outfits in the 2 following pictures). She LOVED this and keeps asking to go back! Here she is, very proud of the pumpkin she chose. Of course, she chose the dirtiest one!


Happy Fall! Foliage pics coming soon :)

This and That

I have been bad about updating the blog recently, so here are a few recent pics I just took off the camera...

As you'll remember, we had no shortage of pears from our pear tree last year. This year has been a different story. We got a whopping one pear. One.


We are so excited that fall is here and it's time to bundle up, at least a little bit! Natalie loving all these new clothes.


Brad sat down on the couch to read one book with Natalie, and he told her he needed to get some work done after that one book. Well, one book turned into a two hour nap! For Natalie, at least. Brad did manage to do a little reading while she was zonked out on his lap.

The leaves are starting to turn! We had a really dry summer and I think that is affecting the fall. Lots of leaves are just turning brown and falling off, skipping the pretty red/orange/yellow phase. But I will try to post some pictures soon anyway!

Boy Crazy

Natalie is loving school and making new friends. Boy friends. Her preschool class has 8 boys and 2 girls! So it's no surprise that she tells me all about the boys at school. What I wasn't expecting was for her to name a previously-unnamed stuffed animal after one of the boys in her class! So I introduce to you...Quinn the Pig. I personally wouldn't think that having a pig named after you is an honor, but considering that Natalie now drags this pig all over the house with her, snuggles with it, and has complete conversations with it, I guess it's a compliment!

So I was chatting with some of the other moms outside of the classroom this afternoon. I told Quinn's mom about Quinn the Pig and she told me that when she asks Quinn what he did at school that day, he says "played with Matalie." Do I smell a preschool love connection?!