Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Mostly Done and a Gymnast

Thanks to Ryan who did a LOT of work - but the house is (mostly) DONE! Also, thanks to Shyan and Sondra for keeping Natalie each for a day so we could get stuff accomplished. We now have NO annoying transition strips and the floor looks great. I think it really makes the back half of the house look bigger not to have that strip splitting it up. All the baseboards are painted and caulked (by me) and we just have to tack the quarter round trim up. The ONLY thing left on our massive list is to paint the rest of the door handles and the cabinet pulls with the paint...but those are smaller jobs that can get done with Natalie in tow. Here is a sneak peak!







Natalie took a play gymnastics at the YMCA a few months ago and now is going to start a second session on Tuesday. Ryan always is horsing around with her, but she did these all by herself! I'm pretty surprised! At the end she is signing I love you - it's hard to see that up close!!

Gymnast


Sunday, December 28, 2008

If You Give Ryan Leave...

If you give Ryan leave,
Kim will want to do some work around the house.

Work around the house means a trip to Lowes.
If Lowes has a sale, then work can begin!

First it will start small with touching up paint.
When you touch up the paint, you will notice things need to be caulked.

Once you finish the caulk, then the baseboards will look dirty.
After you paint the baseboards white, the doors look dingy.

Now that you have clean white doors, the front and back doors look faded.
After you paint the front and back door the handles look grimy.

You decide to paint the cheap brass with a hammered nickel to match all the lights.
If you paint the door handles you will want to paint ALL the handles and hinges.

When you go in the kitchen to count the pulls, handles, and hinges you see the counter is slanted.
Bracing the counter is nice, but now you see that the counters could use some caulk.
When you go to the garage for caulk you will decide to straighten up the garage.

Once you straighten the garage you notice the pile of new flooring that needs to be laid.
To lay the floor you will have to pull up all the floor you already did two year ago. SIGH...the next few days will be busy!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

We're sad that we are not home to celebrate with our families, but we had a great time celebrating here. We spent Christmas Eve with Heather and her family. Her husband Chris is in Iraq so her mom came to celebrate too. We had lasagna and then went to see lights and exchanged gifts.

Christmas morning was fun! Natalie opened her stocking full of Hello Kitty stuff from Santa, then we had a full breakfast - eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice. YUM!




First we got on webcam with the Windle's. Natalie was so excited with everything she opened. Socks, clothes, books, toys, all got a happy reaction! It didn't take her long to figure out she opened one and ran to the pile to get another. Ryan was super excited to get a picture of the electric guitar he got (which we will pick up in January) and I loved my Joann's gift card, Mizzou shirts and more!


Then we did webcam with the Zeissets, including my grandma too! We opened the presesnts from Great Granmda early because the dogs got into them, but we all have been loving our 'pretties'. Natalie loves her big present from Oma - the tent and 'pack-a-pack'. For some reason she only backs into the tent but loves to get inside with books and her flashlight! Ryan has been running around in his cowboy hat, he's silly!

Finally, Natalie opened our presents, and Ryan and I exchaged gifts. Natalie loves her tea set. Ryan did a good job picking out thigs I like and I think he's happy with his little pile of loot too.


After nap, we are going to eat at Heather's and watch a movie and have dessert. I hope I'm tired, I have to go to bed early to meet up for shopping at Target!!!!!

Apparently it was too much for the dogs (we are petsitting)



We wish you a Merry Christmas and can't wait to see everyone in less than a month!!!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh My Gosh

Heather's mom (The Perry's, Ice Queen Forever) is in visiting from California. At the airport, she ran into this store called...NATALIE'S CANDY BAR!!! So, being related to Heather, she just HAD to bring a candy bar for Natalie. How funny! It was thoughtful and cute. I will have to put the wrapper in my scrapbook.

Also, Ryan got me a birthstone bracelet and earrings, plus a matching braclet for Natalie. He's red, I'm blue and she's the purple. I love it!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Busy Weekend

I'm sure that has been the title of many of my Sunday night posts. But, then, we are usually busy. We didn't have plans with any friends, but we got a lot done. I sewed 2 dresses, a top/skirt, and a pair of shorts that I had an order for (see Halter Dress on http://www.kmaedesigns.blogspot.com)Then after church on Sunday, we went to Lowe's for some great bargain hunting deals (see my post on www.windlesdeals.blogspot.com). Ryan is going to be off from Christmas Day until January 5th so we are planning on getting some work done. He already put up the new lights we got for the doorway and the top of the stairs. They now match the rest of our lighting downstairs and look much better than those cheap-o white domes.

Natalie and I broke out our matching pj's for a Christmas picture by the tree. I think we look cute. Everytime she puts them on she says "Look mommy's jammies".

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Had to Post for Heather

Ryan and I were sitting on the couch and Natalie announced she wanted to go bye-bye. I asked her where she wanted to go and she said Go Heather (The Perry's) house. I asked why and she said "CAAAAAAAAAAAAANDY".

The video is a recreation- but she did it all on her own first. It was so funny!
Candy

Natalie and Drake

Natalie has taken to riding on Drake's back!!! She thinks it's so funny.

Ridin Drake

Friday, December 19, 2008

A Piggie In There

So yesterday in the car I was talking to myself, sort of, I forget how much Natalie listens back there. We passed a police car that had a stuffed animal pig on the dashboard. I said out loud 'That's really funny that there is a pig in that police car". Well, every police car we pass she says "Look, police car. A piggie in there. Really really funny". Let's hope this passes before she actually says it TO a cop!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

4 Parties in 24 Hours

Wow. The hoilday season sure is full speed ahead. I am finally sitting down after going to 4 parties in 24 hours. Let's go through the details.

6pm Friday. Grown up party for Ryan's squadron. We had not gone to one in 4 years, so we were excited! They had a buffet with TONS of food - ham, potatoes, rolls, green beans, corn, pie, etc! I had a nice time chatting with people from his work. We also won $50 in door prizes!



11am Saturday (after the Y for working out and shopping MAJOR deals at Walreens). Birthday party for Nicholas (my friend Maureen's son from work). We met at Port Warwick to ride the train and visit Santa. Natalie got a goodie bag of toys, reindeer antlers and candy.



12pm Saturday - Squadron Children's Party. We took Natalie for hot dogs, chips and MORE desserts. Then she made a few ornaments and pictures at the craft tables. She did not want to stop 'color paper'. But finally an alarm went off and you could hear a lot of jet noise. The doors to the hangar opened and SANTA came down a ladder out of the cockpit. I got tears in my eyes watching Natalie's eyes light up. Then they had all the kids sit down while they called out the names for them to come up and get a present (prewrapped and dropped off by the parents). She got bath crayons!




4pm Saturday - Chuck E Cheese for Tyler's birthday. I mainly went to help Heather (The Perry's) wrangle all the kids and help serving the food. Natalie had a ball and got enough tickets to get a magic wand. She talked NON STOP about Chuck E Cheese all the way home. We are tired of taking pictures at this point! I might get one of Heather and I to put up later. But here is Natalie enjoying her crayons in the tub.




Finally, she is in bed and I am on the couch achy and worn out. But it was fun, and nice to spend all day having fun with my family.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Bible Book Broken

Natalie loves her bible book. She reads it in bed. If you ask her what it says, she says one of three things.

1. God loves YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
2. Hallelujah praise Ye the LAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD
3. Jesus loves children, All children world. Red, White, Precious Site.

She sure loves her class at church on Sunday. I swear it's just regular church. Not a cult or anything. But I digress.

We had another non-nap today. I was babysitting Kelly's kids, one was napping and one was up. So it was hard to go up and down and lay her down everytime she sat up (which is what Ryan does at bedtime). So apparently she decided to stay up. And, tear all the pages out of the beloved bible book. For the rest of the night she would say "Bible book broke. Bad bad bad".

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Camera Hog

I was taking pictures of all the sewing I did today (see k. mae for updates). I recieved a surprise from my dad a few days ago in the mail! It is a serger, which is the type of sewing maching that does the seams inside store bought clothes (like t-shirt seams). I was busy busy catching up on some projects that had piled up that I need to sell. Anyway, Natalie grabbed the camera and said "Cheeeeseburgers please". So here's her pic with Daddy.



By now you have probably recieved a Christmas card, or will be very soon! You probably figured out that the randomly placed stickers and crayon were from Natatlie, but I'll add this video of her helping us get them ready to mail.

Christmas Cards

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Overheard During A Non-Nap

Well Natalie took a 2 hour non-nap today. She spent that time in her crib, yes, I said crib. We put the sides back on. I think she is just too young for the freedom. She was in and hour for 2+ hours the last two nights. We tried the whole Supernanny don't-look-just-put-in-bed-over-and-over and it did not seem to work for us quite yet. She is only 21 months. Anyway, back to the main story. I kept checking on the monitor to see if she was awake and heard some funny 'conversations'.

Help me mommy, I stuck in here. Stuck in baby bed mommy.
Here go bunny, thank you, welcome (she gave him a book).
Where my bible book go? I tired, I need bible book.
Happy birthday mommy and daddy, I play toys.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Hopefully everyone has as much to be thankful as our family does this year. Our family is healthy and has everything we need and much more! We enjoyed the day with Sondra and her family, as well as a friend of Ryan's from work. The food was great and the friendship was even better. I did not get any good pictures because Natalie was against CHEEEEESE today. I will steal some from Sondra soon.




I got a few cute ones from this morning. She sat down and watched almost the entire Macy's Parade. She sat on the couch with her table coloring while Ryan worked on the laptop on school work. She was fine with the camera in the morning...hmmm. She liked all the 'balloons flying sky' and 'look bunny has drum'. She also loved watching the Little Mermaid cast perform.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Video Update

Natalie wanted to color tonight so I thought I would share some of the shapes she knows with my 'audience'. Then she started singing God Loves You (I guess she learned it at church because I don't know the melody or any other words to it). It's funny because when she sings it she points with both hands at the person who is 'YOU'.

For those of you that don't check my other 2 blogs (like you have time to even check this one) stop by www.kmaedesigns.com and check out my items for sale (I'm for hire). Also I have updated www.windlesdeals.blogspot.com and you can see all my shopping this weekend!

Sing to God


Shapes

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Busy Week/End

It's been a long week. Ryan worked 7-7 this week and then 8-3 on Saturday. I kept myself busy sewing (check out 2 new posts on www.kmaedesigns.blogspot.com)

We spent last night having pizza and watching Wall-E at Heather's (The Perry's) with her and her children. We had fun sitting by the fire.

Tonight we went to Sondra's and hung out for lasagna and brownies! We were going to play games but we just got busy talking and had fun just relaxing.

Tomorrow will be busy! We have church, then volunteering at the second service (Ryan ushers and I work with the 3 year olds). Then at some point I have some coupons stops to make as well as a trip to the commissary for groceries before it gets crazy with Thanksgiving meal preparing.

Hope everyone had a great week too!
ETA: Natalie is back in the crib...less stress for me and her I think. She cried too much in the other bed.
PPS: Now she is back in the big girl bed. Ryan said we couldn't give up.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

A Big Bed, Teamwork, And Thank Goodness For Video Monitors

Well not to be left out by all of her peers, I decided it was time to move Natalie into her big girl bed. Last night was great. We took the side off, she laid down, and went to bed. At 9, she got out, came to the stairs, and we layed her back down and she slept until 7:30.

Tonight is a little harder so far. She has come out three times. I am downstairs with the video monitor and Ryan is upstairs. I tell her to lay down when I see her get up. Then I count to 3. If she's not back in bed, Ryan goes in and lays her back down. Right now she is laying there in bed screaming, but not getting out.

Here are pics of her before the aforementioned screaming fit.



Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Stolen Pics!

Carter & Natalie playing in bed
Natalie and Carter playing in bed!

Natalie going in for a kiss...
Natalie going in for the kiss!

SCORE!
Score!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

CHEEEEEEEESE

A day in the life of Natalie...

8:35am Finally woke up after recovering from a fun weekend with Oma. Man I was tired.
8:40 Screaming and crying because my mommy wouldn't let me take my blanky out of bed. Then she pulled down my pants and made me sit on a cold toilet.
8:43 Mommy picked out a nice warm sweatsuit with a cupcake on it. I sang Happy Birthday several times to celebrate the wonderful 'Happy To You' on my shirt.
9:00 After saying I'm Hungry about 20 times mommy got my oatmeal and grapes on the table. She spent all of breakfast making me say CHEEEEEEEESE and show off my big girl hair.


9:30 Typical day. Mommy made me get in the car and go to the Y. But we sang songs all the way there. My favorite is Twinkle Star. I sing it over and over because I don't know how to stop after How I Wonder What You Are....Up Above...
11:00 We leave the Y. I tell mommy I'm hungry 30 more times. She doesn't feed me because she says I have to wait until we go to Miss Kelly's for lunch. I cry because mommy can't understand what I want when I say "That One" and point to my toybox in the car.
11:45 I eat lunch with Carter. Yummy Peanut Butterer.
12:00 Mommy says it's time for a nap. I am quiet until 1:00 when I say I have blankies mommy. Mommy comes in to find out I am not napping, but dumping the contents of the baby's dresser into the pack and play. Yay, nap time is over.
2:00 Run errands in the car. Yay, mommy lets me watch Backyardigigans.
4:00 Play with Carter. I like his big boy bed. It's fun to jump on. I don't like Carter touching my special blanket so I cry and run away.
5:00 We go get my favorite babysitter Alli. YAY. More Twinkle Star and more hungry...now I have to wait to eat at Mae Mae. Mommy should have more food and milk in the car.
9:00 Mommy wakes me up to take me home from bible study. I am so tired but I stay awake to listen to Alli and Mommy talk. Finally mommy turns on My Somgs and I fall asleep.

Babysitting

This weekend, I watched Peyton and Carter for my friend Kelly. It was fun having a little baby (well a 4 month old) in the house. Natalie was so sweet to her. Carter and Natalie took a bath together (to Ryan's dismay) and were so well-behaved I gave them a kiddie sized ice cream cone. Carter looked like he was very unsure, but caught on pretty quick. They have changed so much when I go back and look at pictures of them over the past year.

Monday, November 17, 2008

A Weekend Visit

Oma came to visit for the weekend. Her cousin was driving up to see her son who is in the Navy, so they made a road trip out of it. We had a great time getting most all of our Christmas shopping done and wrapped. Natalie really had a good time playing and shopping with her Oma.



Ryan is working long shifts this week so I'm trying to stay busy, which isn't too hard. I have Bunco, bible study, and a meeting for Tidewater Mommies. I also have to clean up the house and do all the laundry and chores that didn't get done during our visit.

In other news, Ryan had two of his credit cards stolen. We are responsible for the charges until we get all the police reports and stuff turned in then we will get reimbursed. It's very frustrating! Hopefully they catch the guy - they are searching for the person using the card.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Happy Birthday Mom!

Ryan has been very busy doing his homework. He took Natalie to lunch at Applebee's on Veteran's Day for his free meal. I was working, so they had a fun day by themselves. Of course, she slept an hour later and napped an hour longer than she does with me. Coincidence????

I am sure I would have been thrilled if I had given birth to a boy, but I just love having my little girl. It's so fun to dress her up in cute clothes, make hairbows, and all that girly stuff. That's the main reason behind taking this picture today. I just love her boots, leggings, skirt, and half pony-tail (I never know if that style has a name or not). She was actually cooperative for a picture today. I told her to stand by Drake, put her hand down, and say CHEESE.

ETA: Earlier in the day we were at a playdate. Natalie comes SCREAMING out of the little girl's room where the kids were playing. Of course, I think she is hurt or something. Turns out, her sweater had come unzipped about halfway. *GASP* The HORROR. I zipped it up and she 'skipped' off to play with no more tears. Drama...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Shameless Beg

If you are looking to come visit, I was on Southwest's site today. If you go to the Shortcut to Cheap Fares (or something like that...I just make a fake trip and then click on the short cut button on the selection screen) there are TONS of days where it's 74 dollars one way! That's 148 per person! COME SEE US!!!!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

MNO

It was about time for another Mom's Night Out. Ryan was nice enough to watch Natalie and Maddie so we could go out with our friend (Maddie's Daddy was out of town). We went to a bar/grill called Sandbar and hung out. I also ran into some of my Barron Elementary friends who were out celebrating a birthday. It was nice to bounce between the 2 tables and enjoy my friends!



Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Dollhouse

I saw this Barbie/Doll house by the trash today on the way to a playdate so I thought I would snag it. I didn't know if Natalie would play with her Little People in it or not, but so far she seems to like it. She did decide, however, it would be fun to get IN the dollhouse...here are a few pics. She cried when I drug her out...

In other news, she was petting the neighbors cat yesterday and got bit. We took her to the ER and said since we know the cat and it's up to date on shots she should be fine, but put her on antibiotics just in case.

On another bad note, she's had 1-2 accidents a day for the last 3 days. It's extremely frustrating to me. I feel like a failure after having worked so hard on her training.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Fall Foilage, Singing, and a Gown

Last year we started a tradition of driving down the Colonial Parkway that connects Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg (the Historic Triangle for you non-Virginians). It's a bumpy little road through beautiful trees. We took some fun pictures of Natalie and our family.




This afternoon we got home from church and Natalie started singing "Hallelujah Praise Ye The Lord". You have to listen to this video to hear her funny intonations.
Natalie Sings

Lastly, I spent the afternoon/early evening completing Peyton (The Marderosian's)Christening gown. She will be wearing it this January. If you don't remember, I made it from her mom Kelly's wedding gown. I am so pleased with the end result. I had to add and change some things in the pattern (we didn't want the collar so I added trim) and I put hook and eyes and 'fake' button details on the back that were not included. I also added the beaded lace overlay that was a part of her dress. I'm so happy with the results.