I love Natalie

I love that Natalie calls Bert and Ernie “Bernie.”

I love that she says “hugs and quisses.”

I love that Natalie is pretty sneaky, but not in an devious way, more just a two year old way.  And I guess it’s kind of passive aggressive.  Example: I just looked over and saw the panties I laid out for her and told her to put on.  This means she’s going commando at nap time.

I love that she calls the playroom “Joanna’s playroom” but really only when she’s talking about taking her nap in there.

I love that she’ll lay down in the playroom, surrounded by toys, and sleep.

I love that she will snuggle with me in my bed (or the couch or the floor or standing up or on a chair…).

I love how her nose crinkles with her fake smile.

I love that she thinks swimming is called swim lessons.

I love that she potty-trained so early.

I love that her favorite thing to sleep with is a little stuffed snowman (wearing pink) named “Snowman.”  Used to, she called him “No-man.”

I love that she will sit on the floor with a book and read and read all by herself.

I love that she’s a little afraid of bugs but will still crouch on the floor, inches from one, to observe it.

I love that when I need to run out back for a minute, she’ll say “I stay on the dock (deck).” because she knows she can’t go into the yard without shoes.

What can I say, I love EVERYTHING about Natalie!!

What do YOU love about Natalie?

Eventually similar posts about her brother and sister will appear, lest anyone suspect favoritism on my part.  Although…she is the only one taking a nap this afternoon.  :)

VBS Friday: Blue–“Celebrate Forever!”

It seems fitting that for the last day of VBS, we’d end up with a good shot of all the children!

But there were a couple of funny ones too.  I love James’ face here.  :)

And in this one it looks like James and Natalie are doing the same thing – I love it!  And Joanna has such a sweet face!

Friday morning Lisa grabbed my camera and took pictures of the kiddos.  I’m posting just the ones with Joanna right now, but I’ll put them all up in another post (maybe below this one, in fact) so anyone who wants ‘em can grab ‘em.

I’m ignoring the fact that Joanna is not doing the motions in any of this pictures.  I’m thinking motions might not be her thing.  :)

Isn’t she so pretty?!

She sat with me for the last music session and the slide show.

She did a little dancing but was kind of done by the time I whipped out the camera.  :)  She loved watching the videos and singing along.

The goofy face is because she knew I was taking pictures of her.

I love that kid… all of ‘em actually.  :)  We all had such a fun week at VBS, and I’m so glad we did it!

More VBS Pics

Here are more of the pics that Lisa took Friday morning that just don’t have my kids in them.  :)  They do have our buds in them though.  Enjoy!

VBS Thursday: Purple–“Remember Jesus Often”

I got a little behind on my VBS posting this week.  Boy was I tired!  It seems so silly that spending a few hours each day away from home (and having fun!) would be so exhausting for me.  But it was and it also resulted in a very messy house and lots of un-finished laundry.  Oh, well!

Thursday was purple day.  The girls each had a little (ha!) purple, but poor James did not.  And aside from me climbing into the attic to look for a frilly purple romper, he wasn’t going to have anything.  I did find some old purple socks of Natalie’s to put on him though!

This was the best morning shot of Natalie:

And of the J’s:

For our morning music in the gym, the preschoolers came in to join us!

Another fun day at Vacation Bible School!

VBS Day 3: Red–“Believe with all your heart”

It was raining this morning – wahoo!!!!  But that meant not such a great red day picture.  Oh, well!  I’m sure the pic would have been better with the light in front of them, but I didn’t want to include the contents of my garage, you know?

The preschoolers (Joanna’s age group) got to come into the gym at music time this morning.  It was so fun to see Joanna in there!  Then we took a group picture in the gym (instead of outside).  Even though we have to walk outside to get places at the church, there’s a covered way to get everywhere, so it was perfect.  Cool, breezy, and pleasant.  Another fun day at VBS!

We stopped at my mom’s house on the way home for lunch.  She fed us grilled chicken wings, cheese, crackers, cooked spinach (my girls are loving this lately!), and cornbread.  What an incredible feast!!  And it didn’t wreck my kitchen.  :)  Thanks Mommy!!

And again we all had great naps this afternoon.  I’m so so thankful for that!  I’m having such a fun week, but I know we’ll enjoy the downtime next week.  :)

VBS Day Two: Green–“Give Happily!”

Today James was up before six but then went back down – wahoo!  I had to wake him up at 8:30 so we could leave!  I made the kiddos sit quickly on the driveway for a picture in their green though.  I didn’t get a cute one of all of them, but I’m posting what I got because they’re funny.  :)

I don’t know what’s up with James’ face here, but I kinda like it.  Joanna’s rockin’ the fake smile.

Fake smile has move toward a grimace; Natalie is at least making an attempt here; James is perplexed by something on the ground.

James is happy; Joanna is pensive; Natalie’s investigating.  I think this one’s the best of the three.  :)

Joanna’s shirt is a youth small so it’s huge on her.  I tied the side with a ponytail (Hey 80’s!!) – look closely and you’ll see it on her right.

Because I grabbed him out of his bed this morning, James hadn’t had his second breakfast so I opted to keep him with me for a bit this morning to sneak in some milk when we had the chance.  I figured he’d enjoy the music anyway!

Joanna and I were matching today!  Isn’t she just so gorgeous?!!

Another very fun day at VBS!  I planned on doing some easy things for lunches this week because walking into the house at 12:30 with 3 or 4 grumpy/hungry/needy children is rough!  For Monday I made the lunches the night before.  Today I had Matt pick up a box of mac & cheese when he went to the store last night.  I try not to keep it in the house anymore, but we all love it, and it can be prepared easily one-handed.  :)  Tomorrow we’re going to Café Gran for lunch and I’ll probably do fast food on Thursday (something to look forward to!), then we’ll be back to sandwich-y stuff on Friday.  It was good for me to plan on diversity and easy stuff this week.

Anyway, so today I was “cooking” the mac & cheese and Joanna comes in and says she’s changed her mind and doesn’t want it.  What?!  (It’s like her favorite food!)  She says she wants vegetables instead!  Ha!  For the preschoolers this week at VBS I know one thing they’re focusing on is eating good food to keep their bodies healthy for God.  LOVE HER!  So she got some veggies with her mac & cheese.  :)

The little ones and I took goooood naps this afternoon while Joanna played quietly in the playroom.  We were tuckered!!  I slept so deeply with vivid dreams.  I drifted in and out of sleep in the beginning I think, but then I slipped into a very deep sleep – oh I needed it.  Joanna told me later that she came out to tell me James was awake but she saw I was crashed so she went back into the playroom.  I’m pretty sure that helped me to wake up though – I’m not sure James was going to be able to do it himself.  :)  Normally I cannot sleep like that during the day!

Natalie’s lingo

I have to write some of these down before I forget!  Pardon if they’ve already made it to the blog-o-world and I just don’t remember.  :)  I have some on video, but I doubt I’ll get around to posting.

Helicopter = hepicopter

Umbrella = underrella; it used to be Cinderella

Yee-haw! = bee haw