Mimi's masterpiece

Look at this BEAUTIFUL quilt that my Mom made for Natalie! I LOVE it! It is the prettiest baby quilt I have ever seen..... it is such a special gift and will be treasured for many years to come. (You can click on the pic to make it larger and see all the wonderful details).

Natalie's First Christmas

Well, Christmas came & went so fast this year! We have felt so busy these past two weeks trying to get the house decorated, presents bought & wrapped, etc. that it is hard to find time to just stop and enjoy it all. We've had a fun filled week of spending time with our families; opening lots of gifts and eating way TOO much food! Natalie had a wonderful time and was very good considering that we had her out & about much more than we usually do & she was off of her normal daily routine with nap times and such.

We started off the holiday festivities by going to my Aunt's house to celebrate with my Mom's side of the family. We had a fun time and got some good laughs at the gifts people brought for our "gag gift" dirty Santa game. (I was lucky enough to get a "burnt" pecan pie from Amy that turned out to still taste really good!)


Mommy and Natalie about to open presents



Natalie and her Mimi (Mimi made Natalie's dress)



Brady and Ava (notice the gag dirty santa gift that Brady stole from Van after Ryan M. stole his grinch tie)


Amy with her gag dirty santa gift- a devil veil



A quick pic by our tree at home (you can see Natalie's dress better)


Christmas Eve we went to my Mom's house and had lots of YUMMY appetizers! We had a HUGE smorgasboard of finger foods that we snacked on all evening. Then we had a present opening frenzy and there were toys everywhere b/w all the thing that Mimi bought for Braden, Natalie, and Ava! Natalie gots lots of cute clothes, TONS of books, and some cute baby dolls.


Natalie with her Uncle Brady


Aunt Carla and baby Ava on Christmas Eve



Ryan capturing Natalie on video (with my NEW high-def camera that he got me for our anniversary)


She LOVES to eat paper; even wrapping paper!


Christmas morning was so different for us with a baby; you realize how much more full you life really is when you have a beautiful daughter to share new experiences with.....of course, I took TONS of pics.... here are some of the good ones (it was hard to get her to look at the camera!)


Checking out the loot that Santa brought her


Wow, look at all those toys!


Playing with her new toys


Taking a ride in her new wagon

Christmas afternoon we headed over to Ryan's parents house and Natalie had a fun time there too. Her Grandma got her some Puffs as one of her stocking gifts so she just sat on the floor eating them and watching us open gifts. Natalie got a pretty silver bell ornament that was personalized and more clothes and books.


Eating puffs & somehow lost one sock (typical)


Opening her gifts with Mommy


Natalie with her Daddy and Grandma

Sorry this post is so long, I should've broken it up but oh well....

Peek-a-boo

Sometime in the past week or so Natalie has starting playing peek-a-boo on her own..... it is SOOO cute..... she covers her eyes (as best she can) and then waits a little while and pops out from behind her hands and when you say "Peek-a-boo" she gets the biggest grin on her face and looks so proud of herself. I can only catch the tail end of her doing it on camera though.... my timing is off!

New posts

Well, instead of wrapping the forty five (at least, it seems) Christmas presents like I should be doing... I finally finished some posts I had started.... so check them out. I back dated them so they would be in sequential order of when the events actually took place.

Neglecting the Blog

When I started this blog back in September, I was so excited about it and was constantly thinking of things to post about. Well, I am still thinking of lots of good things to post about..... I'm just not finding the time to do it! I've started at least 4 or more posts since Thanksgiving but haven't finished any of them. The holidays just keep you so busy (everyone knows that!). I'm hoping to get "caught up" soon so that our family members who don't live nearby can see what all sweet Natalie has been doing.

Good friends, Good times......

..........at "the" Cracker Barrel. Why do some people say "the" Cracker Barrel? I find that funny. Anyways, we went to Montgomery this morning to meet up with my high school friends for breakfast. Tina was in town from Nevada and just had her new baby boy, Logan, in October. So, I was very excited to get to meet him. Meredith was also there with her fiance Jamie. They just got engaged last week and I am so happy for them. Natalie was quite happy to smile at all the people and say Hey! She also was more than thrilled to grab my syrup bottle and dump it all over herself.


Proud Mom Tina and her son Logan


Natalie checking out baby Logan


I can't believe we have babies.... it was just yesterday that we were in high school!

Auburn Christmas Parade

Natalie, Ryan, and I got to participate in the Auburn Christmas parade tonight. A friend of mine who has a family business (Beacon Insulation) invited us to ride on their "float" since the theme was "Beacon's Babies" (she also has a baby girl). Our friends, Meredith & Claire, were able to join us too. Natalie was so content in her Daddy's arms but she had the strangest look on her face for almost 10 mins. after he put a Santa hat on his head (I took a pic of it). We had a nice time riding along College Street and waving at all the people. Of course, Natalie seemed to enjoy it since she is so nosy! :)

Almost ready to leave for the parade!


Uh, who is that man and what happened to my Daddy?


Oh, ok.... it's still you Daddy.


Meredith & Claire


Carla, Natalie, Meredith and Claire

Lots of "firsts"

Natalie has been a busy little baby lately and has started doing so many new things! In the past few weeks she has started talking- she says "Hey" and "Dada", she waves all the time and even says "Hey" while waving to people out in a store, she started army crawling, and she just started clapping her hands and doing patty-cake yesterday. It is SO cute! I have a video of her army crawling (from about 2 weeks ago) and also one of her playing patty-cake (this morning). She is almost 9 months old.

Go Tar Heels

College basketball season has started and that means lots of excitement around our house. Ryan lives for UNC basketball and they are ranked preseason #1 this year so you can only imagine what kind of cheering & yelling during the games has been taking place. I think it was the first time Natalie heard her Daddy yell and she was a little surprised by it! Ryan's parents got her these UNC overalls so that she can be a true Tar heel fan. They say size 3-6 months but they were HUGE on her up until now.


Cheering on the Heels with Daddy.

Iron Bowl Family Fun

We went to Ramer to my sister Amy's house to visit with my Dad and Step-mom who came up from Jacksonville, FL. My grandmother also came over for the day. We had a fun time hanging out and watching the game. Of course, it was a complete disaster as Auburn didn't even show up. My Dad was happy though! I guess we have to let 'em win some time, huh?


Natalie and Daddy playing together


My nephew Braden was such a big boy- he climbed up on the step ladder to help his Mom make pecan pies.


Baby Ava is growing so fast! Her she is with her Mee-maw.

Turkey Time

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year for the first time ever. We alternate each year between eating with my family and Ryan's family and this year was with Ryan's family. Now that we've got Natalie we thought it might be nice to have everyone over to our house. Ryan decided to follow Alton Brown's advice and put the turkey in a brine bath to make it really moist & tender. Here is the before and after:





Alton Brown's advice for brining the turkey to make it super moist was dead-on; it was the most moist Thanksgiving turkey we've ever had.... but, some of the different spices & ingredients in the brine recipe weren't flavors that we really cared for... oh well, it was still good!

Here are some cute pics from Thanksgiving day:


Exploring the magazine basket with Daddy


Natalie and her Grandma Sharon


Our first Thanksgiving as a family


Look at that big cheesy smile; she is so proud of herself for reading that book


Waving at the camera with her second cousin Angie


Reading books with Great Aunt Linda Kay

Scooting Part 2

She is doing it MUCH more often now so I was able to catch it on tape! :)

Daddy's desk

Natalie thought she was such a "big girl" when I put her in Daddy's office chair and let her explore his desk drawer.


Look at that concentration on her face!


She thought the paper clips were her special "prize"! She was in heaven!

Brrrr...... It's cold out

The high temp for the day wasn't even 50 and the lows for tonight are in the 20s! That is C-O-L-D by Alabama standards. I've been seraching in every store for a winter hat for my sweet little baby's bald head.
I haven't had much luck because either I didn't like the style or I couldn't find her size. (She has a large noggin- over 95th percentile at her 6 month appt.) I finally got this hat at the consignment store (it is size 12-24 months).

So, don't you think the pompom on top is just a little too big??? We're gonna get Natalie's Mimi to fix it.

Scooting along

Natalie has been putting her hands out and pulling/pushing herself along the floor some. She isn't good enough yet for it to be really effective in getting anywhere but she can scoot a few feet if there is something she really wants (like anything that is an "adult" object). Sometimes she manages to go forward; other times it is backward. It sure is cute. Here she is practicing her scooting moves.