Getting Ready for Spring!!!

Natalie is 18 months old now and she's getting so big!  She is learning to use the little potty and she's learning lots of new words.  She can basically repeat whatever we say.  She loves to read books, play with Lily, play outside, and has fun with her cousins and friends.  She really is developing her own little personality and has definite likes and dislikes.  She is very independent and maybe a little stubborn sometimes.  She is also becoming more and more loving all the time.  She loves to give hugs and kisses and hold hands.  Her hair is getting so long and seems to get curlier every day.  It drives me crazy when it hangs in her eyes, but I just can't bring myself to cut it.  It's almost long enough to go behind her ears now!  We're working on  keeping it pulled back most of the time but she always has a way of pulling out the ponytail!

 We are also sad to say that Darran's grandmother - Grandma Mickey - passed away this month.  Natalie did have a wonderful opportunity to meet and spend time with lots of relatives on the Scott side of the family.  It was good to see everyone.

Here are a few pictures of our recent adventures.  We are missing a few pictures from when my Uncle Jim and Aunt Anita and Amanda came and also of Sesame Street Live, but hopefully we can add those later!

Here is Natalie reading with Grandpa

Natalie playing the piano

Being silly???

Riding her little horse

Wearing Daddy's shoes - she put them on all by herself

Natalie and Molly - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Daddy and Natalie at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge

This is what happens when Mommy tries to take a picture with Natalie

Chewing on her paci - she prefers to chew on it rather than suck on it - and only at nap times and bedtime.

After a fun evening at Sesame Street Live - and no, it didn't rain.  She just likes carrying around her rain boots!!

Snuggling before bedtime

Natalie with Caden being silly

Trying to get a picture with everyone in it - easier said than done with a toddler involved!

Reading with Caden

Playing with Brianna



Snow Days!!!!!!

We have enjoyed the snow lately! Here are a few pictures of our "snow day" activities!

We enjoyed visiting Darran's sister and her family and had a blast playing with Natalie's cousins! Here we are at the basketball game!

Looking at snow piled up on the windows

Natalie "helped" us file papers.

 

Natalie enjoyed reading her books and sitting on the front windowsill

Just being silly

"Helping" clean out cabinets

Since Natalie was a little scared to play outside in the snow at first, we brought in a big bowl of snow and played with it in the kitchen floor (good idea, Mendy!).

Building a baby snowman

Being silly again!

Playing outside

Playing outside by the big drift in the driveway and front yard

Since my last post, Natalie has really started saying LOTS of words!  Her favorite new words are "donkey" (that she saw at grandma and grandpa's), "mine," (which is LOADS of fun to hear over and over), "light", "bubbles", "bumpy", and many many others!  So fun to listen to her learn new words!

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

Mommy and Natalie

Dancing with her sippy cup

Look at all my teeth!!! (except you can't really see them that well in this picture)

New toys are fun!

I'm an angel with a halo - most of the time.......

Lily is too!

Meeting Santa

She wasn't too excited about Santa....

"Dear Santa, I'm doing the best I can."

Our family

Getting up in the rocking chair all by herself

Playing in her sandbox without sand

Us on New Year's Eve - Look for skinnier pictures of us in the future as

 we are working on getting buff and slim....

Natalie and Mam-ma on her birthday

Helping Dad take down the Christmas lights

Getting on the couch all by herself

Playing around





Natalie's Fall Adventures

Once again, it's been over a month since my last post but we have had lots of "fall adventures!"  Natalie was the cutest little OSU cheerleader for Halloween.  She had lots of fun at our neighbors' party and our church fall festival.  We also had a great girl's weekend with Mommy, Natalie, Grammie, Mam-ma and Aunt Sue and Uncle Bob at their house in Dallas.  We had a great Thanksgiving, saw lots of family and ate lots of good food, and Natalie had a chance to stay with her grandparents while Mommy and Daddy did a little Christmas shopping. 

Natalie learns something new each day it seems.  She's understanding A LOT of what we say.  We can tell her to do something (put that on the table, close the door, get ready for a bath) and she can actually do it!  She is also saying lots of new words and phrases.  Her newest words are "oh yeah!" and "What's that?"  She is so inquisitive and curious and I can only imagine what our lives will be like when she's able to speak sentences!  She is apparently going through a growth spurt and is eating and sleeping like there's no tomorrow.  She sleeps around 12 hours at night and takes about a 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon - sometimes longer.  She drinks 4-5 sippy cups of whole milk each day and eats fairly large portions of food from all of the food groups.  Her favorite foods are still bananas and cheese but she's eating most everything we place in front of her these days.  She is walking around and running at times and just tonight she has started walking around on her tippy toes to see what kind of reaction she will get from us.  She can also dance and loved watching Dancing with the Stars.  She would mimic what the dancers on TV would do and it was hilarious - anything from waving her arms in the air to rolling on the floor and breakdancing.  She is loads of fun and we love her to pieces!  Oh, she also has started "giving kisses" and she would rather kiss Lily Dog than Darran or me.  Lily actually has grown to like this too, believe it or not!  Here are a few pics from our fall adventures!

Here is Natalie getting ready for Halloween

Our little OSU cheerleader

Chase and Erin's Halloween Party

Granny and Papa joined us for the party

Fall Festival picture from church

Natalie and her bunny (bunny and t-shirt were both gifts from Uncle Brian and Aunt Toyie)

Getting ready for Christmas and opening her first gift a little early

Tired of decorating for Christmas

New black boots from Sue and Bob

Natalie riding the cotton stripper with Grampa

Loving Mam-ma's doll

With Grampa in front of the cotton stripper

Playing with Grampa's cotton in the field

Playing in the tent that Grammie made

Natalie had a great time with her grandparents and Mommy and Daddy got to do lots of Christmas shopping!  Stay tuned for Christmas pictures!  We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!