Great Grandma (GiGi) visits!

My grandma came in to town Thursday from Florida for a visit and goes home tomorrow morning. Of course, when Grandmas come they bring gifts, so Natali got a cute kitty from GiGi. We have had a great time with her! We went to Tyler on Friday and went to the Rose Garden and then to the Caldwell Zoo. Other than being a little warm, we had a wonderful time.

The roses were beautiful! This was one of the biggest blooms we saw!

I will have to post the zoo pictures another time..... if anyone hasn't been to the Tyler Rose Garden when it is in bloom, you are missing out!!!!

So....

I forgot I was going to post some pictures from 1 year ago of Natali...... I always like to go back to these. Plus I am working on finishing her first year scrapbook so I get to go over all her old photos.

It is pretty hard to remember her being that small. I do remember wrapping her up so tight in her burrito to keep her warm. I look at her now and wonder how in the world she got to be so big! I mean, she is walking some now, feeds herself (somewhat), drinks out of a sippy cup, has grown into a new carseat, jibber jabbers a lot, communicates when she wants something, and can communicate with the cat. : ) It amazes me how much a child learns in 1 year and how much a momma can learn in 1 year. What a time this has been!!! Lot of ups and downs. We love our little girl so much!!!

TTFN

Taking a few more steps....

We took this video tonight. Natali is really wanting to do this walking business. She is better at standing there, getting her own balance, and then starting to take steps. It is so cute. :) She gets really excited when she is about to take a step. The first time in this video isn't as good as the second time. Enjoy!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALI!!! 1 YEAR OLD!!!!!!!

All the goodies

Balloons from Aunt Rebecca

This is her cake that I made - chocolate cake with vanilla icing in the middle and strawberry icing on top. I made 2 round cakes and layered them and then cut out the flower shape.

Natali kept wanting me to wipe her fingers off after she got icing on them. : ) So funny. Needless to say, she didn't just dive into her "Smash cake". But I cut her a piece and then she got a little more interested.

She even tried some and liked it!

It was a lot of fun. The smash cake was bought by Aunt Becky.

Aunt Barbara (my dad's sister) got Natali some fairy wings and so we tried them on Natali. Unfortunately she started crying so we had to take them off pretty quick.

First things first...... Natali took her first step today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After some of the people left, I had her walking with me but towards Rebecca and she got really excited and on the way let go of my hands and kept going to Rebecca! It happened so fast we were like.. "Did she just take a step?" So we tried it again and sure enough, she did the same thing. We all cheered and clapped for her. Then she got happy and started laughing too. I have a video of her another time so I will try to get that on here tomorrow. So much to write about and so many pictures and things to share.

I might have more pictures later because some were taken on other people's cameras. We had 17 people here including our family!! It was maybe a little much for Natali at first, but she had fun and we did too. We started with cake and ice cream, then presents, and having some fun. Natali got lots of cool gifts! Some clothes, sandals, toys, and a really cool car thing from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Christian (I will have to put a picture up on here - it is so cool!) Natali got pretty sleepy but did okay and was a trooper through it all.

It has been a crazy first year of parenthood and we have learned and experienced many things since Natali was born (including the birth). : 0 ) Won't ever forget that. But anyways. We had a wonderful day today and look forward to what the next year will bring to our family.

Just some photos.... write more later

Natali and her blocks

Jenny and Christian gave Natali some really neat blocks and we got them out last week for her to play with. She likes to take them out of the bag and look at them. If we stack them, she loves to knock them down. We haven't gotten her to stack any herself yet but I suppose that takes time.

Go Natali!!!

So Natali has started to walk with help!! She really likes to do it and goes pretty fast sometimes. It is pretty cute and exciting. Here is a video.

Give momma a kiss!!

Natali has started giving kisses to people and things. :) She started by "kissing" her stuffed animals by leaning forward and pressing her lips on them. She doesn't do it all the time but if you say "Natali give momma a kiss" she'll lean forward to your face. It is so cute!! She does it to other people - not just momma but I especially like it when she kisses me. Here is a pic of Natali giving a kiss.

Just me and Natali

So I have noticed we do not have very many pictures of either one of us and Natali. Most of the pictures are of just Natali. :) So here is a random picture of me and Natali last Sunday.

Here is Natali feeding herself!! She just started doing this about a week ago. This video is from the beginning when she just started to feed herself so we were very happy when she actually got something in her mouth! :) She is much faster now and she loves Cherrios!

Cute stuff

Here are a few photos of Natali in this little overall set and some cute shoes. It is fun now that she fits better into shoes and she just seems cuter in clothes when she can stand. :) (I know it sounds weird) She looks so much more like a little person!

Little Mermaid car thing

So here are the pictures of the car I was talking about in a previous blog. It sings and plays differents sounds and stuff. We put Natali on it and push her around the house which she seems to really like!

She loves to press the horn!!

I know this is blurry, but this is Natali crawling over her new toy. Yes, over! I thought she would get stuck, but she got right over. :) Silly silly girl. She has done this a few more times since then.

The picture of Natali's hand on the Mermaid is her trying to stop it from moving. (at least I guess that is what she's doing) When the music starts, the Mermaid starts moving and Natali always puts her hand on there. It is really funny.

Sippy cup

Here is a pic of Natali and drinking from the sippy cup. She does really good with the new cup but she does like to shake it for some reason. Good thing the sippy cups we have don't leak.

Other news:

Natali now "meows" to the cat Buster. It is really funny - she sounds just like him! "Meow!"

Natali is trying to say "mama".

Natali claps. It is too cute. When I say "yeah" in a fun type voice, she starts clapping and making a noise herself that sort of sounds like "yeah".

New car seat

Finally we got Natali a new car seat - she was too big for the other one. Josh picked out the pink one. :) Once again, the box was a big hit. Here are the pics!

By the way, Natali loves to point at things. You can see that in the last photo. I guess it's more like putting her hand out because she hasn't figured out how to put just one finger out yet.

Another new toy.....

So we decided to get out the little scooter thing (what do you call them?). My parents got it for Natali for Christmas. She can't ride it herself or anything but we wondered if it might help her to walk. However, it rolls a little too fast for her to keep up - she falls. But it is fun because it plays music! It's pretty amazing things these days compared to what they used to be like. I remember we had one like this that was red, blue and yellow I think - no bells and whistles though - maybe the horn honked. Anyways, I loved that thing. Hopefully Natali will like hers as well as I like mine. When it plays music, Natali does a little dance - it is really cute. She actually bounces back and forth for lots of different music.