A Name and a Blessing

Natalie was blessed in the Carmel Valley ward (the ward I grew up in) on the last Sunday we were out in San Diego. Russel gave a beautiful blessing and we were extremely fortunate to have so many wonderful men participate in the blessing circle. Both my Dad and Russel's Dad took part (Russel's parents flew out from Virginia in order to attend), as well as my Grandpa (Natalie's only living Great-Grandfather) and three of my uncles (Scott Waddell, Glenn Waddell and David Stansel).

With both sets of Natalie's grandparents, Great-Grandpa Waddell and Great-Grandma Stansel

After the blessing we had lunch at my parent's house with a few family members. (Pictured with us are: Kirk and Shawnee Marsh, Chris and Carol Waddell, Scott and Michelle Waddell with Grayson, Riley and Peyton, Rebecca and Gerrit Winkel, Marc Waddell)

Natalie was blessed in the same sweet little dress that I was blessed in (as was my sister Rebecca), which was sewn by my grandmother. Thank you to her for making it and to my mom for hanging on to it so Natalie could wear it almost 25 years later! Here are Natalie and I in a four-generation picture with my mom and Grandma.

Wrapped in Swaddling Clothes

At the time of our church Christmas party, Natalie was only 4 weeks old, making her the youngest member of our congregation. Consequently, our family was asked to help out by posing as Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. The Relief Society room was transformed into a beautiful stable scene and we just stepped in and looked out our sweet baby while the rest of the ward walked through to observe us and then move on to other rooms depicting various other scenes from Jerusalem at the time of Christ's birth.
Natalie was a little fussy at the very beginning, but quickly settled down and slept for the remainder of evening.

It was a very sweet experience to play the role of Mary and hold my own new gift from heaven in my arms as she played the role of baby Jesus. Once again I had the spirit testify to me that Jesus was born of Mary, that he came to Earth to atone for the sins of all mankind and that he truly is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. What a beautiful reminder it was for me at the beginning of my Christmas season.

A New Favorite

I know I just posted a bunch of pictures of Natalie smiling, but I think this one is my new favorite! I only wish she had a beautiful quilt or something under her instead of her green changing mat. :-)

Smiles

Natalie has been giving us tons of smiles lately and I recently caught a few on camera. I love that she can finally reciprocate all the smiles we've been giving her the last 7 weeks!



A few nights ago she was smiling a lot as we got her ready for bed and I thought I would try and get some video footage. As it turns out, Natalie does not like being recorded.

Adventures at Disneyland

This past week we spent three days at Disneyland for a Stansel family reunion (my Mom's family). I was a little nervous about how things would go, considering Natalie is only 7 weeks old and it was scheduled to rain two out of the three days we were there. We decided to go and I just set myself up with essentially no expectations, which I think helped because I was happy about every small thing we were able to do while there.
It did end up raining for two of the three days, so for the short periods of time we went out, we covered Natalie's stroller with a poncho. I think she looked very comfortable in there.
Natalie's first ride at Disneyland was the Ferris wheel. We also took her on It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and the Jungle Cruise. She did very well on the rides and loved them so much that she slept through all of them in her baby bjorn.


This was also Natalie's first hotel stay and she enjoyed lounging on the extra queen bed in our room.

Natalie's Newborn Photo Shoot

I wasn't planning on having newborn photos taken of Natalie, but my incredibly talented cousin Brittany told me she was coming out to D.C and offered to do a little photo shoot and I am so glad she did! The photos were taken when Natalie was 8 days old and I absolutely love how they turned out!!
We were lucky that Natalie decided to be so cooperative throughout the hour-long event. She was wide awake for almost the whole thing and was pretty happy to pose for the camera. The main exception was when she got too hot in her little Christmas dress, but who can blame her for that?
Here are a few of my favorites...

(I thought this one of Natalie and my Mom was really sweet too)

I'm truly grateful I have these precious pictures so I will always remember how sweet and tiny she was and still is right now. I am so very blessed to have her as my daughter.

A little Shutterfly love

I have been looking at baby announcements and Christmas cards for a while now, trying to decide what would work best for us this year. Then I found out about this incredible deal from Shutterfly where bloggers can receive 50 free cards just for blogging about the promotion! Obviously, this helped solidify my decision on where to get the cards from and I think I've decided to do a combo birth announcement/Christmas card. Of course this means I'll probably need to do a folded card so I can get in more cute pictures of Natalie, but you do what you've gotta do. :-) Now I just have to pick which card I want, which is turning out to be harder than I thought given how many cute ones they have.

Here are a few I love:


If you want to check out some more cards for yourself, go here or here. And if you're having a baby anytime soon, or you just like looking at cute birth announcements, check these out.

Here's hoping I can make my decision soon so I can get everything out by Christmas!