Birthday Month!

I can't believe Natalie is going to be 1 in just a few weeks. It is unbelievable how time flies! I thought I'd post a video of Natalie playing on the little slide that Grandpa Rick got her. She loves it!!! She is on it just about everyday and is good at doing it all on her own.:O) David and I are figuring out birthday plans. We are going to be traveling to Wenatchee on Memorial Day weekend to have Natalie's birthday with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Scott, and we really hope that Uncle Nick can make it to celebrate with us. We will be doing to whole cake, party hat, streamers bit and I'm pretty excited for it! I know Mary and Scott are excited to have us come. They might change their minds once they have a toddler in the house again! LOL! Just kidding, we have been reminding them that EVERYTHING needs to be out of reach! Then we will be traveling to Michigan over the 4th of July to spend some time with my family and head Up North for a little R & R. (much needed, it's been a while since we've had a "vacation") I'll close with a fun picture of Natalie on our zoo trip- (too funny, she just pointed at everything) and a video of her dancing... I finally got a little bit on tape!

Tiny and Bold

Hello everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last posting. We've been busy and enjoying the nicer weather- although now it's HOT! Hope you enjoy the photos of Natalie helping with laundry:O) It's unbelievable how much time it takes to do something like laundry when she's awake. I fold it, she unfolds it and gives it to the dog. I put away her books, she rips them ALL out. I put away her toys and she throws them across the room. I do dishes, she pulls them all out of the cupboard. Seriously, it's never ending! LOL She is getting better and better at walking now. She can walk across the room without falling and can stop in the middle of her walking and not fall. She still doesn't have much direction while she's walking though. If she starts to turn while she's walking she generally goes in a complete circle and ends up where she started! We're hearing much more babbling now, just listening for that first word. LOTS of dadadadas. I won't be surprised if her first word is dada though. It must be because I end up spending the most time with her and we talk about when Daddy will be home and look there's Daddy. She is starting to give kisses, especially when she sees me give David a kiss; if I'm holding her then she'll lean in and plant a wet (open) one on me! She also "gives love" and essentially hugs you by putting her head on your shoulder. The funniest part though is that she also pats your shoulder while she's doing it. LOL. I think it's because I usually pat her back when I give her a hug and tell her I love her. So funny. She's still doing well at night. She goes to bed at 7:00 and gets up anywhere from 6:45 to 7:15ish in the morning depending on whether she hears me in the morning. She is still napping twice a day for about two hours total, USUALLY.:O) Well, I need to sign off for tonight, but I will leave you with a little video. Goodnight!

Happy Easter!

Just a few fun photos and a funny video of bath-time. Nothing much new to report. David had a busy week at work, with some big meetings with Union Pacific. I am a little slow at work, so I had a four day weekend this week. :O) We booked tickets to travel to see "Grandma Mary" and "Grandpa Scott" for Natalie's birthday, and booked our tickets to come to Michigan over the 4th of July. It's so unbelievable to me that she will be 1 year old in May. I cannot believe how fast time has flown. Everybody will tell you "they grow up so fast" but Holy Cow! It's like warp speed! At any rate, we are very excited to be spending her birthday with family and I'm sure Mary and Scott can't wait to show her off, as we haven't been to Wenatchee with Natalie yet. This weekend we are looking forward to laying low, going to church for Easter and seeing what the Easter Bunny will bring Natalie!

Walking and Pool-Time

Well, she is officially taking more than just one or two steps. More like five or six. She is much steadier than she was, but still makes me dive from wherever I'm standing/sitting because she starts out slow and then goes faster and faster until she crashes. AHHHHHH! I feel like I need to put pillows on everything! We purchased foam pipe insulation from Home Depot to go around our glass coffee table and we are going to try to put it on the edge of the tile step. We will see. So far all Hercules has done is rip it off and wave it above her head. David bought double stick tape thinking that would do the trick... Yeah right! He seems to have forgotten that our child is greater than the 97th percentile in everything including ripping things apart. We may have to try gluing.... We'll keep you posted! Enjoy the videos. Pay careful attention to Maizie in the pool video. You can tell that it was her pool last summer!

Some fun videos for your Friday

Enjoy! Happy Friday!

Moving along

Just a quick post to let you know that Natalie now has 5 teeth! two lower, and three upper. For this last tooth, we didn't even know she was teething. Totally different signs, she really threw us for a loop! She also took her first steps on Wednesday evening. She was standing holding on to the coffee table, turned and took two steps over to me! So fun! Grandma and Grandpa Sowle were on Skype (which is awesome by the way) with us at the time and were able to see it via web cam. Very exciting! I still think she's a ways off from really attempting walking on her own... she's really not a dare-devil, very cautious.:O) Not like me (so I'm told) when I was a baby. I am continuing to upload photos to the picasa site, so please check them out at your leisure. Here is the newest album link: http://picasaweb.google.com/sowletrain/Natalie3?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGJv6-XkK65pAE&feat=email# I think you can just click on it, or just copy and paste. Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. We were in Chicago and then things have been very busy since we've been back! Chicago was great! It was so much fun spending time with our family. Natalie did great on the plane, both ways, especially considering she was teething on the way back:O(. We enjoyed our low key extended weekend and LOVED seeing Jess and Doug's new place. Natalie had fun with her Aunts and Uncles and even Grandpa and Kristi. Unfortunately while we were there we did find out that David's potential job in Seattle fell through, so we will not be moving from the armpit of America, at least not yet. Looks like we will be here for another year, but hopefully not much longer than that. Anyways- Natalie is doing well, she is a proficient little crawler now, VERY fast and so funny to watch! As you can see from the shot above, she is getting good at climbing on things and Maizie is still good at sharing! Natalie has started "dancing" to music now and it is hilarious to watch. I keep trying to get it on camera, but she crawls to me every time I turn on the camera- so no such luck yet. I will get it though, it's so funny! Well, I am feeling a bit under the weather so I'm going to head to bed a little early tonight. I promise I won't be as delinquent with my next post!