Big Girl

Natalie started her frist day of the new school year at St. Paul a couple of weeks ago. She is really doing well and coming into her own. She has recently started singing songs. Right now her two favorites are Twinkle Twinkle and Row Row Row Your Boat. Here are a couple of shots I snapped her first day of school. What a cutie! She is sporting her new shoes and outfit. She is already wearing a size 7 shoe and 2T clothing. I think her growth is finally stablizing a little bit now. Veggie Tales is thankfully not an every day request now, although it's still a favorite. She has become more interested in coloring which has been fun. Right now, she is enjoying a Saturday afternoon treat - eating grapes and watching The Little Mermaid.
We are counting down the days until our beach vacation with the college friends. Anna Maria Island, and a day at Universal Studios. That weekend also happens to be the weekend of my 10 year high school reunion. I will miss it this time around. I just can't believe I graduated a decade ago! Seems really hard to believe. The older I get, the faster time passes. My parents got moved to their new home in Harlington, TX. My dad took a call to be the pastor of the Lutheran Church in San Benito, TX (about 10 miles from Harlington). His first Sunday to preach is tomorrow. I am so happy for them and excited to see how the Lord will use each of them in this new ministry. Other than that, it's been same old same old for us. We are looking forward to and waiting patiently for some cooler weather.

Summer Vacation, North Carolina

I hope everyone is having a good summer. Ours seems to have been long and hot so far. Long for many reasons, and hot, because, well, it's just that time of the year. My personnelle issues are (fingers crossed) hopefully going to be dying down now a little now that some of my biggest problems are no longer with the company. I'm excited for a fresh start for my whole group, and for myself as well, I suppose. Nick has been wildly busy. Even after the youth gathering, there is no letting up. He's had a student leadership conference, and has been taking a large role in helping organize and support the annual middle school back to school retreat. It's pretty awesome. Nick helped get it off the ground last year. Basically all the staff and students go to a camp for the first two days of school to connect and start the school year off right. He also has freshman welcome coming up with the HS youth group and resuming middle school youth nights. I think I might get to high five him coming or going every once in a while the next few weeks! :) The week after Nick got back from the youth gathering, we got a chance to escape FL, our "real lives", and the heat for a few days and spend some great quality time with his side of the family in the mountains of North Carolina. In honor of Gary's 60th birthday, we decided in lieu of a party, we'd all get together for some much treasure family time all together. Gary, Nadine, Michael & Abby, Murray and Danielle, and me, Nick and Natalie were able to spend several days together. It was a great time, and the mountains were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We explored some waterfalls, spent an afternoon on the lake, and shopped and roamed around a local town. We even rigged the camera so we could get a group shot one day. We all had a great time. One of the highlights of the trip for me was completely vegging out on the back deck reading Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living while I listend to Natalie have fun with her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I'm simple. It doesn't take much to make me happy! Here are some pictures from our trip: Our little girl is creeping ever closer to two years old. I can just hardly believe it. It seems like she is learning a new word, or doing something different every day. We took the side of her crib down this weekend and made it into a toddler bed. She has been doing great. She stays in when we put her in for a nap or for night, and has had a ball playing in "big bed!". So much fun. :) She has been role playing more. Baby and baby bear have naps and "eat", and go to the potty. Speaking of potty, that still presents a challenge for us. It is frustrating because there is not a concerted effort at school. It is of no fault of theirs. I mean, I just can't imagine trying to keep up with and keep on task 12 toddlers! She did great, and now ever day this past week about 45 minutes after Nick drops her off, she pees her pants. Grrrr. I guess all I can do is keep trying with her. I know that she knows what she's doing, it's just a matter of getting her to do it EVERY time. Keep that in your prayers if you will. Mommy gets frustrated. It's like two steps forward, one step back. Otherwise, she is just doing fantastic at St. Paul. She has been around some older kids that are moving up this fall, so her vocabulary is expanding and she is really talking to us. :) For fun, here are a couple of videos of sweet little Miss Natalie Shea.

Visitors

The last few weeks have brought us several visitors! We love to have friends and family stop in for a visit.
The first week in July, Je Je came to visit. Apparently, I didn't take any pictures! I could have sworn I did, but maybe they were on Je Je's camera. Mom, you'll have to send me some so I'll have them!
Anyway, mom was a huge help kicking off Natalie's potty training. We dubbed it "The Prudence Project" - Prudence is the little girl in the Once Upon a Potty book. :) As expected, the first couple of days were pretty messy, but by day 3, we were about 1 for 2. The week after, she returned to school and did amazingly well! She only had one accident, and it was outside. She is in "big girl panties" all day and only wears a diaper at night. Currently - about 3 weeks in - she has about one accident every 2-3 days - usually when she is out side or playing or doing something else equally as fun she doesn't really want to leave. Not bad, I'd say! I am SO proud of my BIG GIRL! She can tell you when she needs to go, and will even use a big potty when we are out and about. In fact, she pretty much likes to visit every potty in every place we go. Most of the time she just wants to check things out, flush the toilet and then "hands" (wash her hands). That's ok by me. I am just so excited we are down to one diaper a day!
Thanks again Je Je for helping us get off to a great start. I'd say the Prudence project has been a fabulous success.
This past week we had several visitors. Aylin came from Panama to join the St. Paul youth group to travel to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans. She stayed at our house one night, and brought Natalie a beautiful little dress. Here they are at church this morning.


As you can see, Nick and all the 46 youth and adult leaders he took with him made it back safely and had an amazing time at the National Youth Gathering. What a wonderful event. I may be biased, but it is perhaps one of the single best events that our Synod sponsors. What could be more important than investing in our youth - the future of our church? Nick will have to make his own blog entry to share his experience with you.
While Nick was gone to New Orleans, Nana and Grandpa Moss came to visit. A good time was had by all as they spent time spoiling one another. :) I was thankful to have them here. It sure helped the week go by fast! Once again I get an "F" for picture taking. I thought Nick had taken the camera with him to New Orleans, but come to find out, he didn't. Oh well, I'll have to bum off Nadine. Here is one with Nick, and the other is Grandpa and Nana helping Natalie "feed" her piggy bank. :)


Here are some other great pictures from recent. Great shot of Natalie in one of her many pairs of big girl panties. How cute!

Looking at some pictures with Daddy.

Having a "moment".

Helping Daddy put in the new cat door. Now the trick is going to be how to get them to use it! :)

Cheezy Cheeeesssseeee:

The only other note-worthy thing is that Natalie newest craze is her Veggie Tales "Tawels" sing along DVD. Boy does she love it, and boy do those songs get stuck in your head faster than you can say "oh, where is my hairbrush"! She gets to watch it one time a day even though she would watch it as many times as you would let her. It is cute, but we are going to have to find another one so we (me and Nick) can have some variety! :)
We are looking forward to getting away to the mountains in North Carolina this coming Friday. I NEED a break from work! I am really looking forward to it.
Hope your summer is going well, and you are staying cool.

Visiting Friends and Pool Time

Summer is definitely here. It is H-O-T. Praise God for air conditioning. Despite the heat, everything else is going well. My flowers (most of them anyway) are still alive and actually growing and looking lovely. Natalie is flourishing at St. Paul. She quickly adjusted and has really started coming into her own in the past couple of weeks. She has started "talking" a lot. Her vocabulary is expanding by the day it seems. Still no progress on the potty, but Je Je is coming in tomorrow and I'm hoping to get some good tips from her seeing as how she successfully potty trained 3 babies. She is bring the "Once Upon a Potty" book. Maybe that will help some. :)
Mommy's life is getting somewhat better. Work isn't AS heinous as it has been and I think I can see a small gleam of light at the end of this seemingly never ending tunnel. My boss brought me some good news of a raise, so that will be nice. I am getting more comfortable with the many many aspects of my job and am so thankful to have some great people working for me and with me. I am in desperate need of some time off, though, and I am SO excited for my mom to come tomorrow and 5 whole days off work in a row!
Nick is winding down from another successful VBS. They had another great turnout of around 300 kids. I'm amazed at what it takes to put something like that on and coordinate so many volunteers. He is now focused on cleaning out his office. For anyone who has ever met Nick or seen his office recently you'll understand. He's been working on it for a week and we can now see the floor and part of his desk. I don't understand how he can work like that, but to each his own I suppose.
After lots of prayer and deliberation, we have decided to take our house off the market. There are so many things we love about our house. The biggest thing we don't like is that we feel we don't have any space to entertain and have people over. So, we are going to make our screened in porch a sun room. It is in need of repair as it is and that horrid fountain has got to go. We are both really excited about it and hope to get that project started soon.
Here's a few photos of the past few weeks:
We broke out the pool for the first time. She had a great time for about 15 minutes, and then she was done. :) The attention span is very small right now.




Hurry! Get the picture while you can!

Eating(Stuffing her face) her favorite food in the world. She'd eat them all day long if we let her. As a special once a week treat at school, she gets a chocolate covered "manana". She inhales it so we've been told. :)


This was NOT staged. I went into check on her one night and she had "gaff" laid across her chest. Too adorable.

This past weekend we headed out of town and went to the east coast to visit Dave, Sonya and Johanna. We had a wonderful time as always just hanging out and being together with people who love you and "get" you.
Friday night we went to a minor league baseball game. It was Natalie's first baseball game outside the womb. She had a great time and so did we. There was someone handing out FREE ice cream sandwiches when we walked in. How awesome is that? It was perfect weather - low 80s with a slight breeze. We made it all the way to the 7th inning before calling it a night.



Saturday we ventured out to the zoo. It was hotter than hot and we only stayed a couple of hours, but we still had a fun time.








Mommy forgot a dress for church for Natalie, but thankfully Johanna let her borrow one for her that was a little to big right now. Isn't the dress as cute as can be?


Natalie wasn't too sure what to think of Johanna, but I know a year from now they will both be running around and laughing together. :)

This was a fun and funny. She was crackin' me up sticking her legs in this empty cereal box and just laughing. Silly girl!



Finally, this is a bit over due, but I wanted to share anyway. These were pictures taken on her first day of "big girl school" at St. Paul. She did not want her picture taken, so this was the best we got. Better than nothin'!




Come visit us sometime! We'd love to have you.