January photo catch up

Natalie getting ready for dance class....
Trying out her new balance bike that Papa Gary gave her for Christmas. She needs to grow about one more inch before she can sit on it with confidence - give her a week.
Jackie Boy napping on Mama Kathy.
Natalie looks for Bruiser now every time we go to Pearl Street.
She also wants to go to the Peppercorn and get a rock candy every time too!
purple mouth.
First real snow, (her dad let her go out like this - it wasn't me!!)
And check out this cool guy! He really knows how to rock a fleece vest!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day was pretty hectic until dinner was over - so that's my excuse for not having pictures until then!! Here's a shot of Natalie debating her next dessert choice. She ended up choosing yet another chocolate cookie.

Natalie with her two favorite people: Mackenzie and Lara.
Cousin Rozella is going to have a little brother too soon! Right around Natalie's birthday!
Jackson hanging out with Nannie, sporting his holiday duds.
Natalie getting her hair done - she wouldn't let me do it before we left the house - it's so much more fun when someone other than Mommy does it!

Dad and Jackson resting after a long day of family, food and games.

toddlers are fun at Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we worked hard after bedtime to help Santa set up the kitchen for the best effect.

This picture is pretty much taken from Natalie's bedroom doorway.
And sure enough, on Christmas morning, promptly at 6:30, our little elf woke up and we let her out of her cage... I mean, crib.

She groggily checked out the tree, and then stumbled right over to the little kitchen. Doesn't our kid have the best bed-head you've ever seen?!
And then she gave me this look.

Sometimes I wish she could be this age forever! So the kitchen was a hit.

And then we moved on to stockings, (I realize it still says "Baby's 1st", but I promise, this year I'll get around to making her a forever stocking.)
And had a little breakfast. After some sustanance, (and coffee), we moved on to opening presents. Natalie got the hang of this pretty darn quick. By the time her presents were all done she was ready to move on to everyone elses.
But she was patient and waited until my parents arrived to open any more.
After second breakfast, and a little nap, Natalie was ready to get over to my Aunt's house. If we could only find her...
We made it over there, and had a nice hearty Italian dinner. Halfway through, Natalie wanted to eat with Kenz, (she might have just been after the spaghetti - I'd served her lasagna).


And then we enjoyed more presents. Natalie was again very patient and helped Lara pass them out. She was a little stumped by my four, nearly adult male cousins. All with similar hair colors and style, three of whom just flew in from Wisconsin the day before, (and she hasn't seen since she was seven months old!) But she did her best.
And then, since Natalie was the youngest, she got to open the first present. Don't be too impressed, that lasted about two minutes.
Natalie spent the rest of the night playing with Kenz's new Barbie Dream House with Kenz and Steph. The rest of us spent the next few hours eating dessert, drinking coffee, and playing game after game of "Catch Phrase". It got pretty wild, I must say.

By the end of the night Natalie was positively pooped, and almost ready to admit she was ready to leave.

I wish you could have all been there. But if you weren't, hopefully your Christmas was as nice.

first snowman!

When we got home from the gym the other day we did some playing in the snow. My dad was over with his dogs, and they make snow play look very inviting. Natalie got some lessons in snowball making.


And I showed her how to make a snow man, (another new phrase she's learned this week".
A very small snow man.

puppy love

Natalie just loves dogs! She loves walking with my dad and throwing sticks for the dogs, and she tolerates getting knocked over relatively well. She was getting a bit wet from them this day, so my dad picked her up. But she was having a blast!

Not a bad backdrop!

The dogs sat still for a few seconds, but Natalie was very serious for the pictures. Still... pretty cute!
Happy Labor day all, I hope you're enjoying your day off!

Walkin' the Dogs

Looks like I have some catching up to do! We'll start with some pictures from last Tuesday.

As you well know, every Monday my dad takes Natalie for a walk with the dogs while I teach yoga. Well, last Tuesday I joined them both for a walk at one of their usual hang outs, the Teller Farm Trail on Boulder Open Space Property.

Natalie is very used to having the dogs in the car with her. I think she gets a kick out of them. I was worried about them licking her to death in the beginning, but after they get settled, they just lie down next to her, or stick their heads out the windows.

The dogs get to go off leash on these trails as long as they're withing voice and site control. We have been stopped by rangers before, but these dogs are so good. They sit when we tell them to, no matter how far away, or how quietly we say it. It's great when bicycles pass. They'll park it right in the field and wait for an "okay".

Simon is pretty stick crazy. Natalie gets a kick out of watching him chase the stick, and Rudy makes things more interesting by chasing Simon whenever he goes after one

She gets a bit sick of being in the stroller after a while, so Grandpa spoiled her by giving her a ride on his shoulders.

But since it was pretty sunny and she wasn't under cover anymore, he had to give up his hat too!

On the way back we passed some horses that had come close to the fence. And since the grass is always greener on the other side, we offered them some from our side. They were pretty excited about it , and we drew a crowd.

Natalie thought these guys were pretty interesting. This one was a pretty young colt and I'm not sure if he'd ever seen such a small person!

She even pulled some weeds and tried to give them to him, but he couldn't reach her.

So Grandpa gave her a lift and let her feed him.

What a fun walk! After looking at the trail map when we got home, I figure we went about 4 miles that day!

When we got back to Grandpa's house, Natalie made herself at home playing in the cupboards.

And the stereo cabinet.

And the piano, (she even climbed up onto the bench herself! Gotta keep an eye on that one!)

It's a good thing she's so comfortable here, because starting tomorrow, we're staying at Grandpa's house for a week to keep an eye on the dogs while he's out of town! We'll have a few more walks like this this week for sure!

And before we leave, I'll try and get some posts in order to fill you in on the rest of our week!