Yikes! Time Flies!

Has it really been over 6 months since my last post...I'm such a bad blogger!  This year has just flown by.  I've been all over the place since March...seriously...I've been to Portland, OR, St. Louis, MO, Mesa, AZ, Manchester, NH and Buffalo, NY.  That doesn't even count all the trips back and forth to my folks and my in-laws to drop Natalee off before a trip or pick her up after I get back.  It's been a CRAZY year so far.  Only a few more trips to go and I get to be a home body for the rest of the year!

Funny story - I unpacked my briefcase (an old messenger bag) and washed it today.  It was filthy from all of my travels and needed a little TLC.  I had a pack of airplane peanuts in one of the pockets so I just tossed them on the kitchen table and didn't give them a second thought.  Natalee found them later and asked if she could have them.  She was getting ready to go and run some errands with her Daddy, so he told her that she could have them in the car.  He called me later to tell me that she asked him for her Airplane Seeds after their first stop.  I said, "Her What?"  He laughed and said that it took him a few minutes to figure it out too...she wanted her airplane peanuts...or in her mind...her Airplane Seeds.
I'll leave you with a few pictures.  My good friend Kelly Noel was driving back from a family vacation and stopped by Studio Calico for a quick visit.  She was nice enough to agree to take some pictures of Natalee and Claire while the boys went out on a farm tour with Greg.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these pictures and I wanted to share them with you.  Keep in mind that is was about 95 degrees and HUMID while she was snapping away.  Natalee's hair is usually straight as a stick, but she was having some hair challenges in the heat and humidity.  I'm just happy that Kelly finally coaxed some genuine smiles out of her.  I'll let you be the judge....

 This one is my new desktop background on my brand new laptop....I absolutely love that you can see her dimple!

 We had a hard time getting pictures of them together....Clarie kept wanting to dive off of the stool. 

 One word.....SASSY!

 One word.....SWEET!  This is my girl....big blue eyes, big dopey grin, big warm heart.  I love her to bits. 

 Just a couple of more and then I'll be done.  I took these of Claire and Natalee at Natee's big friend birthday party.  That is another post for another day...I just wanted to share these cute photos of them two of them together. 

I have some other stuff to share....I promise that it won't be 6 months before my next post!

Where does the time go?

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I just don't know where the time goes!  I have a couple of posts planned for the next week, including some really cute Christmas morning pictures. 

I'll leave you with a brief story from Natalee this morning.  She hasn't been feeling 100% these last few days, she has a little head cold and cough, but it hasn't slowed her down.  This morning she came running into the living room shouting, "It's snowing, that means we don't have to take the Christmas tree down!"  You see, she is slightly obsessed with leaving the Christmas tree up and has asked everyday if we can leave it up for a while.  We've been telling her that Christmas is over and that we have to take it down this weekend.  I guess in the 3 yr old mind, Snow = Christmas and Christmas = Pre-Lit Tree in Living Room. 

Here's hoping for an early Spring.....

Snow Day!

Here in Bowling Green, we had a whopping 4 inches of snow.  Everything was shut down for the day so we took a few minutes and went outside to play.  Natalee couldn't wait to get outside.  She was so patient as I layered on her clothes.  As I was adding her 3rd pair of socks she said, "Mommy, you are silly, I don't need 3 pairs of socks!"  When she came back in 30 min later, she told me that she was glad that she had on extra socks because her feet were still warm.
Here are some pictures of the things that Natalee learned today:

Daddy knows how to do fun things with snow!

It's fun to throw snow in the air and watch Mommy scramble back out of the way!

When you make Snow Angels, your hiney gets cold!

Lean forward at the end of the slope so that you don't fall over backwards when you stop!

All in all, we had a blast and had to drag her back in the house after 30 minutes.  It was only about 16 degrees today, so we couldn't stay out for very long.  By the time we came back in I had shot over 100 pictures and I could no longer feel my fingers. 

Note to self...look for gloves that allow fingers to be free for taking pictures, but help keep hands somewhat warm at next visit to the store because I think that it's going to be a fun winter. 

God Bless....

Blogging - Day 1

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 was to set up a blog and start journaling the things that happen around here every day.  Well, with only 20 days left in 2010, I decided that I'd better get serious about it and get it done!  I started the process today and I'm sure that there will be a lot of changes and updates before I get it just right, but I'm happy that my blog is now a work in progress instead of just something that I am going to do someday.

The handful of people that will come and read this blog will likely know me from Studio Calico.  I've worked on the Studio Calico blog lots of times, but I've never had a blog of my own.  I'm excited to be able to have an outlet for some of my Natalee stories and some creative writings of my own. 

Speaking of Natalee...here is a funny story from this evening.  We got home from a marathon day of running errands and grocery shopping and we were unloading our bags in the kitchen.  My hubby, Rich, had unwrapped some of those big light bulbs that go in the recessed can lights.  After he finally got them out of the plastic, he decided to try and carry all of them at once and put them away.  Well, of course, he dropped one on the hardwood floor and it exploded into a million pieces.  Without missing a beat, Natalee said, "Well, that was a good one Daddy."  I very nearly wet my pants laughing.  The look on his face combined with the giggles from Natalee nearly sent me over the edge.  I laughed so hard that I didn't even have to help with the cleanup!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Natalee decorating our Christmas tree on Thursday night.  I guess that I thought that she would remember more about Christmas from last year since she was 2 & 1/2, but she really doesn't.  In a way, it's awesome because everything is so new and wonderful to her.  We had a blast and here are some of the pictures from the night.

All of her ornaments were in a 2x2 section of the tree.  We had to go back and make some adjustments later.

I loved the look of concentration on her face.  She was intent on getting each ornament in just the right spot.

This one was her favorite...can you guess why?

I'll do my very best to post here at least once a week.  Believe me, Natalee gives me plenty of material, it's just going to be a matter of finding the time to sit down and type it out.

Until then, God bless...