School Days

It is still hard for me to believe, but we have a preschooler in the house! Natalie started attending preschool at the beginning of September. So far, so good! She goes three times a week for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Thankfully, it is just a minute down the road- literally, I timed it the other day. :) I am so glad that my sister-in-law, Shally, suggested that we pick a place close by since preschool isn't very long. I don't think I would have stopped to take that in to consideration.

Here are some pics from her first day...

 So happy that we were about to head out the door. We did make a pit stop at Culver's for lunch with Nana. :)

 Heading in to school. She is in the "Orange" class so all the kids have orange bags instead of bringing backpacks.

Holding up her name tag before sticking it in the mailbox- that is how they take attendance. 

She enjoyed her first field trip to the Super Bee Apple Orchard last week. The class picked apples, tasted cider and saw how all the apples were cleaned and sorted. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get to ride in a school bus- the parents caravan the kids to the location. I suppose that gives her something to look forward to in kindergarten.

Monday is "Messy Art Day", Wednesday is Bible story day and Friday's they have a cooking class. She has made apple turnovers and apple muffins. So far she has preferred cooking the treats to the actual eating of treats. The apple turnover was not her thing, but she did eat the muffin.

I said it at the beginning of the post and I'll say it again, I can't believe we have a preschooler. That's probably because I still think of Natalie like this...

We're Baa-aack

Well, it's been awhile, to say the least, since I've blogged. However, I am going to try to give it another go. Hopefully, I can stick with it this time!

A couple of weekends ago, Dan, Natalie and I headed out to Breckenridge, CO for my cousin, Elizabeth's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful in every way...the ceremony, the setting, the toasts, the bride...I could go on, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I was so honored to be a part of her big day.

We stayed the night in the booming metropolis of North Platte, NE. We had breakfast at Penny's Diner before hitting the road the next morning.

The morning of the wedding was pretty special for Natty. She got to go to the salon and have her hair done and a little make-up put on. The make-up was not my idea and I was pretty hesitant about it, actually. The stylist kept it simple...a little blush and lip gloss. However, I stopped her when she suggested mascara. NO WAY!! Anyhow, Natalie was so interested in watching Elizabeth get her hair and make up done. She had quite a fun morning with the big girls. :)

Natalie's completed look. How cute is she?!

Mommy and Natalie all ready to go!

Me and the beautiful bride!

Cocktail hour at the reception. The reception was held at a place called 10 Mile Station...so pretty! 

Dinner time.

Dancing...Natalie LOVED the dancing! I wish I would have gotten some shots of our tiny dancer in action. Oh well.

My HOT date for the evening...well, he's my date every evening. :)

Besides not getting any pictures of Natalie dancing, there are also no full length pictures of me...which really is a tragedy because my shoes were ridiculously awesome. Hmm...hopefully in the professional shots. 

 

Gymnastics

This past summer and fall, Natalie took a gymnastics class. It met for one hour every Wednesday morning. She seemed to really enjoy it. I also enjoyed watching her walk the balance beam, learn to do forward rolls, jump on the trampoline and swing on the bars. She was a little timid when she started, but by the end she had really improved and I could see that she was more confident. I love my little gymnast! We are taking a break from it now, but I wanted to share some pictures.

On her first day of class

In action on the rings. Sorry, it is hard to get a good picture through the glass. :)

Having a well deserved treat after class at the "Blue Restaurant" aka- Culvers.

Christmas...FINALLY!

Well, it was Christmas...almost a month ago! I am SO bad at updating this blog, but people are demanding that I do. We had a VERY white Christmas and were able to spend lots of time with family, eat lots of food and have lots of fun.




We spent Christmas Eve with my parents for "Soup Supper." I actually got up the courage to try the Oyster Stew this year--not too bad. After soup, we had the Exstrom gift exchange: Dan and I walked away with two bottles of Whiskey, one bottle of Grey Goose and some mini martini glasses. Needless to say, we are re-naming it the booze exchange. The girls received some books and light-up ladybugs that project stars on the walls and ceiling for bedtime. They are REALLY neat.



On Christmas morning, we woke up to LOTS of snow. We got up and opened presents with the girls, and then we decided to head over to Dan's parents' house for Christmas brunch. We weren't sure if we were going to make it or not, but the Rav didn't disappoint. It would have been a big bummer to miss out on those cinnamon rolls. Natalie got her ballerina music box/jewelry box and was thrilled.



Then we made the trek back over to my parents place for...MORE food. It was like Thanksgiving all over again: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli cheese, and cranberry sauce. You get the picture. Dan received Super Mario Bros. Wii and we have been keeping busy playing that together.

We are looking forward to wagon rides to the park this spring and summer!

Christmas is fun!

We received our very own Pollyanna board!

Swing, Swing, Swing!

The girls love the park! I just couldn't resist posting some pictures of the girls swinging away.

Happy Halloween!

This was a Halloween full of firsts. It was the first Halloween that we are living in a house which meant we could go trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood. I don't know why, but something just felt good about that. It was also the first year that we had trick-or-treaters come to our place- I've never had to buy candy for Halloween before. We only had about fifteen kids drop by, but it was still fun, and I was very happy about all the leftover Almond Joys! Mmm...Mmm. This was the first year that Natalie decided what she wanted to dress up as- I've always picked out her costume for her. She chose to be a fairy princess. Finally, it was Ellie's first Halloween. She didn't get any candy, but I enjoyed taking her out in her costume and showing off my little pumpkin!

A very purple fairy princess

"A dee a dee a dumpkin, you're a little pumpkin!"

Zzz...Zzz

It's a Thursday night, do you know where your children are? Yes, I do...or atleast I thought I did. The girls were in bed, fast asleep after a busy day of hanging with Cruz, errands and a really big grocery shopping trip. Dan and I were in the basement catching up on our DVR'd shows. We were fast forwarding through some commercials, and I could hear a high pitched squeal coming from upstairs. Naturally, I thought it was Ellie screaming. I felt bad that I wasn't able to hear her crying over the TV. So I start to make my way up to her room and this is what I found...

Apparently, Natalie decided that the couch was more comfortable than her bed. She was snoring and making a high pitched whistling noise through her nose. It was pretty funny. This is the second night I've found her like this.

Bonus picture of the day:

Ellie and Cruz hanging out. This was taken shortly after Cruz crawled over to Ellie and planted a kiss right on her cheek. It was cute, but I hope he has good intentions.