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.

Nightly News Girl

The Bright Spot

It's been a long rough few weeks for me and the near future isn't looking a whole heck of a lot better. Work is trying its darndest to consume me, and I'm fighting hard not to let it. Ever feel like you are juggling 15 balls all at once and know that at any given moment they could all come crashing down? Yep. That's me right now. In addition, we still haven't sold the Camero, and not one person has come to look at our house. We finally found the house we've been looking for for the past 7 months, but can't do a thing about it until we sell ours.
Double darn.
So, with all that being said, I am trying to focus on the bright spots in my life.
Exhibit A:



My gift to each of my associates is making the dessert of their choice. I've had 3 birthdays this month, so I have been keeping busy. Natalie has been a great helper, and has her reward, I let her lick the spatula. :) It's been a great ego boost for me, because everyone at work thinks I Martha Stewart and raves over my creations. I have a much tougher audience at home since my mother-in-law is much closer to Martha Stewart than I am, so I am taking the compliments when I can get them. :)
One of our friends from college who is now living in Chicago came down to visit us for a couple of days. She brought Natalie a little Chicago momento. Isn't she cute?


She still isn't good about leaving things in her hair, but she is getting a little better.
Here is one morning before church.


Most of the time, however, we are fighting this look:

So, despite all the poopie things that are spinning around me, I've got to focus on the blessings in my life, and know that all the crud is temporary. Christ is my true hope and Rock, and will carry me through all the storms of life.
Natalie has been "talking" up a storm, and her vocabulary is rapidly expanding. Some of her new words include:
towel, poop, toes, chin ("chim"), knee, flip flop, foot, hand, home, and the cutest of all, Amen
We also got her a potty and have been "learning" about the potty. We had some beginners luck, as she actually went poop on it the FIRST time she sat on it. Unfortunately, she's only gone one other time. We talked to the peditrician at her 18 month check up - 24lbs 33 1/2 inches, and perfectly healthy - and he reccomended a few months of learning, and then a concentrated period of training. For the training, I need to have a whole week to devote all day all week to it. We'll see when that happens.
Other than that, she has just been doing cute 18 month things like playing with her baby and Raggedy Ann doll and growing out of her shoes and socks. She is now in size 6 shoes and 18-24 month clothing.
This is also the last week at Ms. Edie's house. Next week she starts "big girl school" at St. Paul's Early Childhood Enrichment Center. We are excited for this new opportunity for her. The staff is wonderful, and she will be on the same campus as daddy.
I try to cherish all the moments I have with her and Nick.
I love them both so much!
When is vacation? :)

Life is moving....

It's been a while since our last post. Here are a couple of things we've been up to since.
Toward the end of April, we went over to the west coast to bum around. We went to a little sea bird sanctuary, which Natalie loved, and then headed to John's Pier at Medira beach. We also attempted to stroll on the beach (it was still way too cold to swim), but we didn't last too long. Currently, Natalie hates her feet getting dirty, so the minute we put her down, she started getting really upset because her feet had sand on them. Then she got upset because our feet had sand on them. We were quite the site!

Here are a few pictures of our great day out.













This past weekend we traveled over to Tampa to celebrate my cousin Loren's college graduation from USF. Cograts! We also got to spend some time with the Zarate's and the Hlozeks from Texas. :)


The same day we made a b-line for the east coast to celebrate the baptism of our new god-daughter, Johanna Kathryn Timmerman. Her parents Dave and Sonya are Natalie's god-parents. :) Welcome to the family of Christ, Johanna!


Here are a few of our favorite snapshots from the past few weeks. She is becoming quite the young lady. She got her first pair of flip flops, too! At first she wasn't too sure about the whole in-between the toe thing, but quickly got used to them.




Finally, Nick and I spent our first FULL day all to ourselves since Natalie has been born. He was fortunate enough to get free passes to Disney for the day. In addition, we got to see a private concert of Sidewalk Prophets, Fracisca Battistelli, and Mercy Me. It was awesome! We finished the day by treating ourselves to dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse at Epcot.

Easter Time

We had a very blessed Easter with a beautiful church service and wonderful dinner at our friend's (and Nick's co-worker) house. We have spent the past several with her and her family and it has always been a great time. They have a very fun family tradition of an adult Easter egg hunt. It gets pretty competitive and heated. Nick took home BOTH of the coveted titles this year - the most eggs and the most money. (Adult hunt is all cash. Nick won with a whopping $6.34. :)) Needless to say, his name is mud, and I think we may have jepordized our chance of being invited back next year! :)
They also had a "light-weight" division for Natalie and Gloria's grand-nephew, Elias. They were fun and as cute as can be. Here are our pictures from the day:






Natalie (and Mommy and Daddy,too) enjoyed the basket of goodies the "Easter Bunny" left! Thanks Easter Bunny!!!




Here are some other fun pictures from the past couple of weeks. She looked super cute in her little yellow dress with smocking this Sunday at church. :)





We also had about a 5 minute dip in a very cold pool this weekend. I can tell she is going to be a lot of fun at the beach this year. She was fascinated with the pool ring. Get a load of that cute little gut!



At 17 months, she's quite the character. She says "uh oh" and "bye bye" all the time. She has half way learned how to blow a kiss which is adorable as well. I took her changing pad down and got her a new rug and owl wall art for her room. She loves owls. She will point and say "ow! hooo hooooo!" I love it! She has started to climb more which gives Nick and I a scare on occasion. She knows many body parts - eyes, ears, tongue, lips, teeth, hair, nose, fingers, belly button, tummy, toes, and we are working on others like cheeks and chin. There are many other things that I am sure I am forgetting, but hopefully I got some of the high points. :)
Lots of love to you all!