A Spot for the Scotts: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!.......a little late

We had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year! Natalie is now 16 months old and is growing like a little weed! This year, she really enjoyed Christmas and was really able to enjoy opening the presents and playing with the boxes and with all the paper. Santa came to our house this year and we were able to see both the Scott and the Kellogg families. We also had a great time teaching Natalie about the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of our Savior. And Darran and I have enjoyed several "date nights" recently thanks to Granny and Papa and Gram and Grampa!

As we look back on the last year, it is hard to believe that Natalie has grown and changed so much. At her 15 month appointment she weighed 24 lbs, 13 ozs and was 32 inches tall! These stats put her between the 75th-90th percentile! The pediatrician says she is strong and healthy!

She is beginning to become a slightly pickier eater now and is showing some definite food preferences - basically she loves bananas and cheese and tolerates most other things. She occasionally has also enjoyed sweets - something new that we have begun to let her have in small amounts. She really likes popsicles and apple pie and cheesecake. We may regret letting her try them but she sure did enjoy it! She is also cutting new teeth all the time. I actually need to count how many she has now. She has several molars on each side and can really chew well now. She says "hot" and "cold" but she thinks most of her food is "hot" and blows on everything before she eats it. She also likes to brush her teeth, but as with most activities now, she prefers to do it herself without any help. She can get up on the couch and most of our chairs all by herself and likes to help dress and undress herself. She gives lots of hugs and kisses (still mostly to Lily Dog, but occasionally to us or her baby doll). She still loves to play outside when the weather permits and loves to play on her new slide.

She keeps us laughing and smiling a lot and has done several really cute things lately. On Darran's birthday she helped him blow out his candles repeatedly because they were the trick candles that kept relighting. Although we have no pictures of this we have a great video! She also gave every animal in her animal book kisses tonight as we read about them. She loves to rock and cuddle and imitates a lot of what we say in her own little language, but also with new real words each day.
Here are some of our favorite picks from the last month or 2!

Daddy and Natalie and our Christmas tree