Quick notes

-Natalie cut her first two teeth at right around 7 months. Then she didn't cut any for over FOUR months. Yesterday (or maybe the night before) she started catching up in a frenzy. Yesterday I felt two top teeth. One on either side of where the middle two will be. Today I felt at least one of those middle two. (She really doesn't like it when I stick my fingers in her mouth and feel around.) Fortunately she actually hasn't been extra crabby lately. She has been chewing on her fingers, but the drool isn't really happening, nor is she waking up at night (knock on wood). There has been a little wailing and gnashing of teeth today, though. Love that girl.
-I managed to finally finish Christmas Eve prep with regards to work today. My wonderful sister and her boyfriend drove down yesterday and then spent ALL DAY today watching my girls. LOVE THEM! In total I printed 3,000 bulletins and 1500 poinsettia sheets. There were 3 different bulletins and 4 Media Shout programs. They got loaded today. All I have left for the week is to make sure the Sunday bulletins get printed. My extremely wonderful coworker Margaret is going to print them for me tomorrow while she's there, so I don't have to spend a few more hours at the church twiddling my thumbs! LOVE HER TOO! Normally when I print I have Media Shout stuff I can do on the computer so the timing really works out well, but with the bazillion Christmas Eve bulletins, I had plenty of time today to complete all the Media Shouts. Thanks to all my wonderful people at work who helped get all this stuff done!

So, these actually weren't quick notes; tbese were long, rambling notes. Glad you kept reading, though.
LOVE YOU, TOO!

Way better than sitting on Santa's lap

We stopped by the Live Nativity at Good Shepherd last night. Joanna was soooo excited to go. "We'll see Mary, and Joseph, and the wise men, and the shepherds, and the sheep...." She couldn't wait!

I hadn't been since I was a kid so I didn't remember much about it. We got to pet a camel! This one's name was Sahara, or something like that. She was very sweet. Joanna decided she was brave enough to pet her a little.

Couldn't forget to take Natalie's picture, too. Natalie is just not fazed by animals, even giant camels.

Here's the whole crew up after the story was finished. I liked how they put it together. My only issue (and I'm not complaining or argueing or anything) is that Mary and Joseph were played by little kids. It just didn't do it for me... or for Joanna either. She was expecting to see "drome-ups" (grown-ups).

St. Nicholas was there, too. I liked how they told the story of how that legend got started.

We petted the animals some more before leaving.

Like I said -- not fazed by animals at all. She even reached out and touched this little goat.

We had fun! If anyone close-by is reading this, they're doing it again tonight (at 6:30, 7:00, and 7:30) but that's it. I would recommend it!

KUMC is also doing a live Nativity Sunday morning that I'm very excited about.

Cute Ones

Mamma's glasses

Last Sunday was Advent Worshop at the church. The girls are still pretty young to really get alot out of it, but we had fun!

I'm pretty sure Joanna's favorite part was decorating and eating the cookie!

Before she left, Aunt Dee made Joanna this cute halter top -- Joanna loves it!

A few nights ago I went in to check on Joanna and found this:

Look closely and you'll see she's got a stuffed dog shoved up her shirt. Bet it was cozy!

Saturday we stopped at Mamma and Pop's house to peek at all their decorations. I tried to get some good ones in front of the tree. It didn't work out so well, but you'll see that Natalie is standing on her own here!

Here's evidence of my climber:

She thinks it's fabulous to stand and rock on. Yikes!

Natalie is 11 months old

It's really hit me recently that she will be one soon. Really really soon. I'm kinda sad. It's gone by much too quickly. I borrowed my step-mother's camera for these pictures.

I really love her camera.

Good subject, too.

Natalie...

-is standing independently a lot.

-is at the stage where you want to sit them down on the floor but they don't want to bend at the waist.

-ADORES her sister.

-tolerates Matt and me.

-still only has two teeth.

-doesn't let that stop her from eating just about anything.

-has a great appetite.

-sometimes only wants to feed herself and sometimes only wants to be fed.

-is wearing size 9-12 month clothes.

-wears size 3 diapers.

-doesn't wear shoes much, but I think her Robeez are actually just size 0-6 months.

-loves to climb. I find her frequently standing on the girls' little chairs or rocking chair! I'm thinking it may be time to put them away.

-loves to sing and dance.

-is very good at entertaining herself.

-is just so stinkin' cute!

I just didn't feel like scheduling all the posts below to pop up at different times; so there's a bazillion to scroll though. Have fun!

SNOW! part 5

Joanna and I got out this morning, while there was still a little snow on the ground. I think this is my mom's hat; Joanna grabbed it on the way out of the house.

This is right after I said, "Do you want to touch it?"

I built a tiny snowman.

Joanna is holding it.

Even though it's the second year in a row, I'm still amazed to see snow on our roof!

SNOW! part 4

I guess all the snow made us think about ice cream, so we all went out to Kroger last night. We looked at some lights on the way. I think Matt (maybe me too) will get back out with the girls in the wagon, so they can really see the lights and decorations. We have a few spots pretty close-by to see.
I just love this picture!