Natalie's first Christmas

What we did for Christmas this year was we opened gifts from my mom and dad on Christmas Eve and went to Matt's parents and opened everything else there on Christmas day. Later we went over to Tyra's to open more gifts and finally ended up at Matt's grandparents for dinner and yet more gifts. Here are the pictures we took. Enjoy!

Natalie got Leapfrog's My Pal Violet from Grandma and Grandpa Empey

Picking out presents to open

Riding

Natalie's first reaction to seeing her new toy.

Ready or not....

Wow! A lot has happened since my last blog and yet it doesn't seem like that much. The biggest thing I think that has happened is Natalie has found her feet! Yup that's right she is walking. See?

She Likes to carry stuff around with her too. She has gotten into her teddy bears a lot lately. He has a ton of them too. I'm no help in that regard, I collect teddy bears. So she has hers and mine to play with. My mom even sends me a new bear for Christmas each year. this year she sent me a "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" bear. He sits on the edge of the couch and will read the entire story. Natalie loves it. she will sit there and actually listen to it and want to hear it again and again. Natalie also loves the Jingle bear my mom sent I believe last year. It plays Jingle bells.

This year for Christmas I decorated with snowflakes. And it is our first year with stockings!





I am so excited to see Natalie open presents. She will be an expert for her birthday next month.

Anyway Happy holidays to all and Do please have a Very Merry Christmas!

Halloween and 9 months old

So Halloween weekend was so much fun. Friday we had the ward Trunk-r-Treat. It was fun to see my ward family and talk to them. As I was following Natalie around I got stopped by the missionaries. One of the said "Your husband is what I'm going as next year." I'm Like "Oh Really?" He said "Yeah, Only as the Beast, not the human form." I nodded my head thinking that's great He knew who he was! He said that he knew who Matt was when he walked in and seeing me next to him just confirmed who he was supposed to be. That made me so happy. So I told him about how I made the costumes and where I got the pattern etc. Little did I know that he was one of the judges for the costume contest.... which we won! Not that we won much just some Halloween stickers that Natalie had so much fun with inside the package. And bragging rights!

Saturday we went to Tyra's and "carved" pumpkins. well her kids were suppose to do it but Tyra and I ended up doing it. But Natalie had fun.

Sunday after church we went to MiMi and Peepaw's house. There Christie redid my hair and we got ready for the Family Fall Festival at Matt's church. This just happened to be outside. We went and got judged for the costume contest, which we didn't place. and went Trunk-r-Treating there to show off our costumes. There in the middle of the line up of cars we meet up with Mickey Mouse and Cinderella at one car. The next car was Sleeping Beauty. And the third car in a row had Snow White. I mentioned to them all that we should have done a trunk and been right there with them. It was great. But the best part of that afternoon was when I went to the bathroom. As I was finishing up washing my hands a little girl dressed as Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) came in and said Hi and gave me hug like she knew me. Being the sweet person I am I said hi back and gave her a squeeze. I walk out of the bathroom thinking that was weird. Matt came out about the same time and escorted me back to where we had left his parents with Natalie. On the way back Matt saw one girl's eyes light up (I didn't I was busy trying not to trip on my dress). then maybe five seconds after we got back a family came up to us and said that their three little girls just had to come over and see Belle. So I bent over and gave them hugs and said hi and all that fun stuff. Christie told the mom that we were both "Disney trained" and told me later that the oldest of the three turned around and did excited claps for her mom to see. That was the experience that made my night.

Monday morning I woke up to the sweetest thing. My husband comes home at 3 am so I don't get to see him much and He left me this card with a bunch of Lollipops.

Natalie is now 9 months old. WOW! she has 3 teeth now. She climbs on Everything! she is a chatter box, especialy at the dinner table while we are eating. Loves to sing, and dance ( right now it is just rocking back and forth but still so cute). And wants whatever we have, no matter what it is she wants it. Monday I was eating a Dum-dum sucker from trunk-r-treating, Natalie saw this and took the sucker right from my mouth and stuck it in her's! so we shared for a little bit until she decided not to give it back! Oh well, As long as she sits still I guess it won't really hurt.

Time Flys....

Wow! where has the time gone? Natalie is 8 months old. She is climbing on everything including her car seat.... she is fitting into some 9 month clothes. Natalie loves to explore. She is very curious. loves to sit on my lap while I'm on the computer. She loves looking at herself in the mirror and in pictures. In fact that is how we tell how upset she is or if she is just pulling our strings, if she laughs at the mirror she is just teasing. Natalie gave us a surprise the other day as well, we had the gate to the stairs down and Matt was "watching" her down in the living room while I was upstairs taking a shower and getting ready. When I got out of the shower I was greeted by her big huge smile. She had climbed the stairs all on her own and Daddy didn't know where she was. I just laughed. Natalie is starting to stand on her own. Sometimes she will stand there and bounce a little then go into a crawl. We think she might be walking by Halloween. I hope not though.

Vacation

Natalie started climbing up on things.

Sitting with Grandma. Eating bread.

Sitting up and playing with a new toy.

Starting to try and stand up while watching grandpa cook.
taking a nap.

Playing with Lizzy.

with Grandma at her work.

Natalie and I spent a week with my parents this summer. It was so much fun. It was Natalie's first flight. She did very well both ways. I got to meet my niece Kaitlin, and Natalie got to meet Lizzy! It was so much fun seeing Natalie and Lizzy interact. Lizzy was a little shy at first but warmed up quickly. Natalie loved her at first sight. It was great seeing my family again the only person that was unable to come and meet Natalie was my sister, Amanda, but she graduated later that week so i understand. I was able to talk with adults! I think that is my biggest drawback of being a stay at home mom.