Home Depot

Natalie is talking so much now and I love hearing about all the things she has to say. I want to make sure and record some of our little conversations before I forget them.

Natalie: "keys" (while standing on her toes at the front door and trying to turn the door knob)
Me: "Why do you need the keys?"
Natalie: "car"
Me: "Where are you going to go in the car?"
Natalie: "Pa's house"
Me: "Oh, what are you going to do with Grandpa?"
Natalie: "Home Depot"

I had no idea she even knew what Home Depot was, and I certainly wouldn't have guessed that is what she wanted to do! After a few moments I realized that she has, in fact, been to Home Depot a number of times with her Dad and her Grandpa. I guess we love home projects around here!

As we walked into church on Sunday:
Natalie: "Jesus"
Me: "That's right! We learn about Jesus at church."
Natalie: "play-dough"
Me: "What about play-dough?"
Natalie: "Nursery"
Me: "Oh, do you like the play-dough in Nursery?"
Natalie: "Yes, yes, yes!"

Almost every morning as Russ leaves to go to work:
Natalie: "Bye, bye. See ya!" and then kisses the air in Russ' direction

And just for fun (and because I can't post something on here without ten picture) a few pictures of what we've been up to recently...

 wearing a lot of accessories at once

 learning to drive

 relaxing at the park with friends

 helping Dad in the garden

 impatiently waiting for Dad to come home

and loving being with Dad the minute he gets out of the car. :-)

Mother's Day

I can't say enough about how much I love Natalie. After all, it is she who made me a mother! She teaches me new things about motherhood every day and I am so very lucky to have her.

With only two weeks left until my due date, I can hardly wait to meet our new, sweet baby. 

I feel so blessed that I get to be a mama to two beautiful little girls!

And it wouldn't be a complete Mother's Day post without saying how thankful I am for my own wonderful mother and mother-in-law. What amazing examples of selfless love and service.

Natalie's Mother's Day message to me:

"Mommy, Happy Mother's Day! I love you! See ya." 

18 Months

I can't believe my baby is 18 months old! Natalie is a full-blown toddler with all the zest and excitement for life (and a few meltdowns) to prove it. She is a very happy girl with a content temperament, but moving into the toddler realm has brought along some new behaviors, namely the tantrum. Luckily those usually don't last for long and then she is back to her happy, smiley self.

A few things about Natalie at 18 month:
Natalie loves music, singing and dancing. She likes to act out the nursery rhyme songs and we do that a lot. Her current favorites are the Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Teapot, The Wheels on the Bus and If You're Happy and You Know It. She also requests a few children's church songs including Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, I love to See the Temple, I Am a Child of God and Give, Said the Little Stream.

Natalie loves to read. Her most oft repeated phrase is "read it". It's actually more of a command than anything else and she says it constantly. She likes to read almost anything that isn't too long (no Dr. Seuss yet, for example), but her favorites are Maisey, If You Give a Moose a Muffin and anything Curious George. Natalie still loves Curious George and has now seen his TV show a few times. Sometimes when we are down in the basement and she sees the TV she requests him.

Natalie loves cars. She out different cars constantly when we are out and about and loves a little toy car that she can ride around our house. She spotted it while we were at a thrift store not long ago and promptly sat it on the moment she saw it in the store. She didn't get off for the entire 40 minutes we were there and so we ended up taking it home with us. She absolutely loves it and rides it around all the time.

Natalie does not like to be sticky. As soon as she realizes her hands are remotely messy during a meal, she tells us "sticky" and then requests "soap". She loves washing her hands and often requests to put soap on her hands twice during the course of one washing. Natalie also loves splashing in the bath, so I am hoping she will love playing at the pool all summer.

Natalie is talking like crazy. I don't even think I can count how many words she says because it seems she is adding a couple new words to her vocabulary every day. She repeats everything I say. It usually ends up just being whatever the last one or two words of my sentence were, but I've definitely got a little parrot on my hands. It is amazing how much we can communicate now and I love it. For example, I can ask her what she wants for lunch and she has a whole list of things she can tell me in response - applesauce, ham, cheese, peanut butter, grapes, cracker, hot dog, water, milk, etc. I love it! Words we hear the most: Read it, Hi, I see you, I love you, No, Dada, Car, Butterfly.

I had to snap a few pictures to document Natalie turning 18 months old. We were out back behind our house and she was pretty uninterested in looking at me or smiling - she was just doing her own thing. All of a sudden she broke out into these huge smiles and got so excited. It wasn't until Russ walked up next to me that I realized Natalie had seen him coming down the hill. No wonder she had started smiling - Daddy was home! She was really happy when Daddy passed over his keys for her to hold and then going to look for sticks was the icing on the cake. She's a Daddy's girl through and through.

We went to her 18-month appointment at the doctor today. She is 23 pounds (25th percentile) and 33 inches tall (90th percentile). I love you Natalie!!

Easter 2012

Easter this year was relaxing and low-key. We attended church and took special time to celebrate our Savior. How grateful we are to know that He lives!
After church we had a little egg hunt in our backyard just for Natalie. It was so cute to see her "get it" and go around putting all the eggs in her basket. She was particularly delighted to find treats in some of her eggs and the chocolate teddy grahams were her favorite by a long shot.
It was also so fun to have Natalie wear her special Easter dress from Peru, given to her by her Grandma and Grandpa Waddell when we visited last November. She looked so sweet in it.
A little video of the egg hunt.

Utah Trip

We just returned from a great week in Utah. We enjoyed the spiritual lift ever-present at General Conference and had a wonderful time visiting with family. My parents and Jonathon were up from Lima, Peru and Rebecca, Gerrit and Marc are all currently attending BYU. It was the first time we have all been together since last July and will be the last time we are all together until Marc returns home from his two-year mission to Concepcion, Chile in the summer of 2014. It is hard to believe that the next time we see him Natalie will be 3 1/2 and our baby girl will be 2!

Friday was the first day of our trip where the whole family was together. It was fun just to relax and hang out and of course Natalie was in on all the action.

Video gaming with the boys

Ping pong with Dad

Foosball with Rebecca and Marc

Russ and I were able to attend the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. Thanks to Rebecca and my aunt Jean for watching Natalie for us. It was fun to be in the Conference Center for the first time in 7 years for me and the first time ever for Russ! We had great seats (thanks Mom and Dad!) and it was so neat to be able to see the Prophet and members of the Twelve so close up. Russ also attended Priesthood Session with all the men that evening.

Sunday night we had a nice family dinner and took an official family picture to hold us over for the next two years. The last official family photo was taken in Hawaii a year and a half ago. Why do I always have to be 7 months pregnant in these pictures?! Hopefully I can time it right so as to be a normal size for our next family photo.

Natalie and "Pa" enjoying a book together.

With the birthday boy
We opted not to take Natalie out of her high chair for the group shot of Marc with his cake because she was covered in tomato sauce. The girl loves her spaghetti!

Monday evening we went out to dinner to celebrate Marc's 19th birthday. We celebrated two nights in a row, but that seems fair since we wont be there for his 20th or 21st.

The original Waddell siblings, plus Natalie. She does have Waddell blood after all.
Natalie and Daddy
She loves her Uncle Jonathon
And her Aunt Rebecca
Natalie helped Marc open all his presents.
Our last day in Utah and our last picture with Marc! He is going to be such a great missionary.

In addition to all the family time, I got to see three of my best friends - Suzanne, Hillary and Michon - who I haven't seen in years. It was so fun to catch up in person and I love that even though it had been years since we had been together, as soon as we saw each other it was as if it had only been days. Love friends like that. Oh, and we also hit up BYU campus. Boy does that bring back memories. My first time back in the four years since I graduated and there I was, buying matching pink BYU shirts for my two girls. How times have changed!

Cherry Blossoms Take II

The Cherry Blossoms are so beautiful that I was compelled to go a second time with some friends. Spring here is glorious.

Cherry Blossoms

I love going to see the Cherry Blossoms every year. They are so beautiful and this year the weather was perfect for being outside - in the mid-70's and sunny with a breeze. Bliss. As always, Natalie was just happy to be running around outside.

Natalie loved picking the dandelions. She had quite a little bouquet by the time she was done.

Another highlight was the butterflies. Oh, how Natalie loves butterflies.
I was so glad I caught her happy face when she saw them fluttering by.
Daddy is the best.