I wish I woke up every morning with this much energy...

Natalie wakes up happy pretty much every morning. One of our favorite things to do is just lay in bed listening to her wake up. Most of the time we hear the ABCs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, counting, or just song after song of made up lyrics! It is hilarious and so entertaining! This morning, she was in full swing and I captured this funny video...ENJOY!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Thank goodness we were all feeling somewhat back to normal today! In order to make the most of our Christmas season, we headed out to get our tree. I love the fact that I will get to have my tree for over a month! We contemplated the idea of going to a tree farm and cutting our own, but due to the cold weather and a toddler in tow, we thought it might be a better experience going local: Tacoma Boys. We've purchased trees here in the past and the way they put the trees out, it still feels like you are at a farm (just minus the dirt, sawing, mud, etc.). Our plan was wise because within minutes of being out, Natty said "I cold!" Don't worry, we did have her bundled up, but man, oh man, that wind was nasty! We quickly picked our tree and a beautiful one it is. Thanks to mom and dad for giving me good tree taste, NOBLES! They are so pretty! Here's a few pics from our adventure!

 

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU

Happy Birthday to YOU

Happy birthday dear Dad/Grandpa

Happy birthday to YOU!

We love you so much Dad and hope you have a great birthday. Thanks for being such a great dad!

Natty made you a special version of Happy Birthday! Enjoy...

If this doesn't put a smile on your face...

...I'm not sure what will!

I'm obviously two years behind on putting pictures up here, so you're going to get a mix of recent and past photos as I come across them. I just recently downloaded about 700 pictures from my camera and out of all of them, I think this was my FAVORITE! I mean, this smile just puts a huge smile on my face!

Smiling is good for the soul!

Natty Counts to 11!

Our little smarty pants counts to 11! Proud Mommy and Daddy!

Halloween Buzzzz

Halloween was a lot of fun this year! These holidays sure have a whole new meaning when you have a kid. When we tossed around Halloween costume ideas, we quickly narrowed it to two options: a monkey or a bee. We chose these two because they had meaning for Natalie. For the monkey, it was our favorite animal sound she could make, I mean, that little oo oo ee ee sound from a kid, just too cute! For the bee, Natalie has a counting book that is her favorite and when it gets to five it says "five bees, oh no!" Natalie caught on to this fast and all summer whenever she saw any sort of flying bug she'd put her hands on her face and say "bees, ohhhhh noooo!" So either costume would have been fitting. Turns out she was a bee, and the cutest bee we've ever seen!

She got to wear her costume to daycare and their craft for the day was to make trick or treating bags. Most of the kids dressed up in her class and they were all so cute! Bless those teachers hearts for removing the costumes at lunch and nap time to keep them as clean as possible. When I picked Natalie up from daycare, she already had some treats in her bag and couldn't wait to partake in them. Sure enough, she talked me in to a treat on the way home! Smart bee...

We headed down to Sumner for some trick or treating. Thank goodness the rain stopped a bit earlier in the day and it was actually really nice by the late afternoon. We met up with Angela, Bennett and Allison and also got to see Ashley, Andrew, Mac and Tucker. It was so fun to see all the kids in their costumes. Natalie sure caught on to the trick or treating...she marched around those storefronts with her bag on her arm and opened it up for the store owners to drop in their prizes! It's funny the whole concept of trick or treating. Basically like getting candy for mom and dad...haha! And we definitely don't need all that! After trick or treating we had fun having dinner with Banna and Papa K. Natalie got her own little treat bag with things actually appropriate for her to eat. We also got too see Ty Ty and Emi, which is always a highlight for Natalie! She sure does LOVE her cousins.

We ended our evening with tradition of Grandma Lavon's pumpkin pie! YUM! Banna and Papa S. also came and everyone had fun singing along with Natalie. We had several rounds of the ABC's and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Such a fun evening and one tired out little bee! Here's some photos, enjoy!