Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I decided to make most of the gifts.  I absolutely love crafting so I thought it would be easy.  As I started, more things kept getting added to the list.  Some of them I can't list until after  Christmas but the ones I can, I will start adding to my 'Creativity' page.  You or your child may be on the receiving end of this gifts so please act surprised if you do all of a sudden get one!

Now this has nothing to do with Christmas gifts but it is totally awesome!  We found this soother in the Bass Pro Shop and couldn't resist.  It is good for a laugh!

Football!!!

Dylan and I have always been Stampeders fans.  When Natalie was born she got a jersey from my parents.  I have to admit that I didn't watch as much this year a I normally would because a little someone had other plans for me!  Anyways I thought this was pretty cool, or nerdy I guess, depends on how you look at it, so I had to post it.

Natalie absolutely loves to go 'Rock, rock' with grandpa.  She is totally relaxed here!  This was on the same day as the picture above.

With A Moo Here

Nope this is not an advertisement just a little girl who absolutely loves cows.  She sits there and stares, usually at the back cover and very faintly you can hear a little 'mmmm'.  No that is not a 'mmmm' like it will taste good because we already all know that beef tastes delicious but it is a 'mmmm' sound that a cow makes.  It is absolutely adorable.  This photo and free advertisement (not saying it is) should earn a discount off of the next purchase!

Moose

This year my dad drew a moose tag.  This was exciting for all of us because he has been waiting for so long but most exciting for Dad.  I mean, he was the one that actually got to shoot the thing!!  We were not expecting him to get something the first day out or even that fast (morning still) so when I heard from mom that dad was home already, of course Natalie and I had to go check it out.  Dylan was working (ha ha)!  I bundled Natalie up and headed over.  Ya she doesn't understand but she definitely watched closely.  I didn't want to post any other of the pictures I had just because, well dad was skinning it while we were there!  :)  Your welcome!!

December 1st = Go Time

Dylan has a strict 'no decorating and no christmas lights until December 1st' policy.  I can put up the lights outside but I can't turn them on until December 1st.  So come the beginning of the month I was excited to decorate that day!  This event is almost countdown worthy.  But instead, Dylan came home early from work because he has been sick all week.  So I figured, he could watch Natalie for the 30 minutes before nap time and I took off into town for groceries.  By the time I got back it was too late to start and we all needed to eat yet.  So we postponed it for a day.  Here are a few pictures from decorating.  While we set up the tree Natalie watched Backyardigans and then joined us for the decorating part.  I am not sure she quite understood why there was this tree where she usually plays.  We gave her one 'Christmas ball' to play with and she held onto it the entire night.  Now it has been lost into the dark corners of somewhere.  She decided to share with the cat, now who knows where it may be!  You may be wondering if she plays with the tree.  Not yet!  But the cat has many various items thrown at her to get her away from the tree.  We can grab something and throw it faster than we can get up and chase it.  Eight out of ten times we miss the cat but it lands close enough to give her a good scare!  Don't worry, if Natalie starts playing with things, we are not going to throw things at her!! 

Up and Away

Yep it's finally here.  Natalie has started walking.  She had started the day before her party but we had to pry our fingers out of her tiny hand.  Then the day before her birthday she let go and took off.  Since then, there has been no stopping her.  Now if you reach for her hand she will refuse and bring her hand closer to her.  She absolutely loves this new found freedom and right now it is kind of nice for us.  She hasn't got into too much more.  Most things were already out of her way.  The other day I watched her grab my cell phone off the table.  She sat down, played with it a little bit and then put it back  on the table right where it was before.  It was absolutely adorable.  

Turn The Page

If you may not have noticed, I added a new page onto the blog.  It is about the recent crafts I have been working on.  To go the page you can click HERE or for future reference if you are interested to see updates you can just click on the page above where it says 'Creativity'!

One Year Already

It is so hard to believe that Natalie is a year already.  The time seems to have flown by.  At this time last year, we still didn't know if it was a boy or a girl.  Hearing the doctor say, 'Congratulations, It's a girl', was such an amazing feeling.  She has been such an amazing blessing to us.  I am not sure what else to say.  Sometimes fewer words are better.  

Here are a few pictures from her birthday party on November 12.  We rented a room at the Brooks Leisure Centre and then went swimming after.  The party theme was 'Cute as a Button' which lets admit, is true!  Thanks go out to Jen for helping me with the cake!  She was a pretty clean eater which kind of surprised me.  She ate the entire piece minus the fondant!  Thank-you to everyone for your gifts!  She has already played with all of them!

The cake

Party decorations

Before The Snow Falls

I was outside one day walking around and looking at all the things that needed to be done before it started getting cold when I noticed that there were quite a few wasps fly around.  I look up and I was staring directly at this wasp nest.  I was only maybe a foot away.  I got out of there pretty fast!  I neglected to mow around there until it was cold enough for them to be dormant or dead!  But now the nest is gone (thankfully) and my lawn is mowed!  They always say never to poke at a bee hive or wasp nest but I have to admit, there kinda was a little bit of 'I wonder if...' going through my head.

Before it snowed and it was just cold,  I figured I would take Natalie out for one last walk.  It was actually really cold that day! But we are ready for winter now!!

 And maybe hibernation?!!

Quack Quack

Natalie absolutely loves bath time.  We have (or had) an inflatable duck tab that she bathe in.  If squeezed the beak it would 'quack'.  This has become the alarm to tell her when it is bath time and she usually comes as fast as she can!  It has worked excellent!  However just recently, the cat was standing on the edge of the tub and I may or may not have gave her a little nudge and she ended up putting holes in the duck!  We patched the one hole but the other one is to close to the seam to be able to take a patch.  It still works but we have to blow it up each time!  She loves to splash but then again what kid doesn't right?!! 

My New Adventure

I figured that I had posted a lot about Natalie lately so I wanted to add something a little different and give you an update on myself if it's not to vain!  Ever since Natalie was born I knew that I wanted her to learn sign language to help us communicate.  I started searching for information and learning a few signs.  She wasn't at the age where she could sign back yet but I wanted to start early to get myself in the habit.  In my search I found a program called Baby Signs Inc.  Long story short, I took my certification and am now an Independent Certified Instructor for the program.  This means that I can go and teach classes to help other people get started with their own signing experience.  Natalie is now signing and learning so much more now that we can 'communicate'.  It has definitely helped me to get to see the world through her eyes.  Just seeing how it has benefited us, makes me so much more excited to be able to teach others!  I will post pictures another time of her signs.  It is a little scary to think that I am actually a small business owner but I know that I can do it.  The hardest thing right now is finding the time to work on getting things set up and going.  I enjoy it so much though!  So for my business pitch, If you have any questions at all or if you or someone you know is wanting to learn about Baby Signs Inc, just let me know!  I will be happy to answer any questions you might have! 

Unravelling Mischief

This summer I decided to rearrange the living room to give Natalie a little bit more of a playing area.  We took down a shelf that had been holding Dylan's stereo so with that came the question of what to do with the stuff that had collected on the bottom shelves.  I had put everything into a box until I could go through it and decide what to do.  Well, Natalie happened to find an old cassette tape.  I had taken it away a few times already but she happened to find it again.  The tape was no match for her little fingers!  The next few pictures shows you how it 'played' out! (Get it?)

The look on her face just screams 'BUSTED!'

Breakfast in a Basket

When Natalie gets up in the morning the first thing she does is get milk and then we wait a little bit before she wants her cereal.  One morning I had just finished folding the laundry and then got up to get her cereal.  When I came back she was sitting beside the basket hitting the side.  So I put her in there and she was so thrilled!  Needless to say this is where she had her breakfast, all proud as can be and watched about 15 min of 'Backyardigans'!  Oh and of course, the cat had to be close by, you know just in case.  

Yummy!

Natalie absolutely loves to walk so I put her in her walker and let her cruise around.  One day she was going around and all of a sudden it got very quiet.  I knew that she was concentrating on something so I  peek around the corner and her she was playing with the 'Coffee Mate' container and it's contents!  She was so interested to see how it moved on her tray when she tried to grab it.  Then of course came the tasting phase!  I ended up getting out the vacuum to clean it all up and then washed the floor. 

 It was EVERYWHERE!

 

A Few Extras

Here is a collection of some pictures from the summer.  I have more with stories but I figured I would post these ones all together.

Natalie has learned a lot this summer.  One thing was how to sit up by herself.  This however proved to make nap times more difficult.  This one particular nap time, she was crying for a while after we put her down and then all of a sudden it stopped.  I went in to check on her and she had fallen asleep like this!  It was pretty cute but she didn't nap for long.  

Another summer time activity that Natalie absolutely loved was going for walks.  I would put her in her jogging stroller and off we would go.  Ok maybe it wasn't that simple.  Of course Spencer would come with us so I started attaching his leash to a belt around my waist so I could keep him close at least.  Then trotting behind us a ways would be the cat.  At first Spencer would pull hard but after a few bumps of the front tire and a few kicks in the rear he got the point!  Now when we go, he walks right beside the stroller.  It is something that we all can enjoy.  Sometimes in the evenings we could convince Dylan to come with us!  

Natalie loves to feed herself.  I guess that comes with age right!  As you may notice, Tess has assumed position and is ready to pounce on any little scraps that fall!

 From her highchair Natalie can watch Spencer and the cat on the deck.  

A quick cuddle time with Dad!

Friend or Foe?

This is Natalie....

 and this is Tess....

 And this is how they play!

 (The tail is not actually going into her mouth, it just looks like it!)

The poor cat.  I am not sure how she puts up with it or how Natalie handles it but somehow they manage to co exist and get along!  They get jealous of each other when one is one my lap but other than that they actually do manage to get along for the most part.  Tess is learning to play gentle and Natalie, well we kinda let her play rough with the cat.  It deserves it most of the time.  Being a kitten she is very playful.  Along with that, we are not sure if she is entirely with it!!  She is a kitten off of one of the cats we rescued from our dog last year.  That cat got ran over this year and left three kittens.  Dad caught them all and managed to tame two of them down but this one was wild.  You could never catch it.  The night we brought her home, she was completely different....tame as could be.  Since being in the house, she has yet to hide and run away from us.  It would probably actually benefit her if she was a little more fearful of us!  Oh ya, the mess on the floor in the last picture, they got into the mail!  But what ya gonna do?!