Lights out

Every night Natalie goes to bed with a flashlight and a book. She usually "reads" quietly for a while before she falls asleep. Then I go in later and get the books and light out of her bed. This is how I found her last night. What you can't tell from the picture is that she was sound asleep with the light still on. It cracked me up.



Is she a future coal miner or cave explorer?

Christmas Pictures!

Gingerbread house

Uncle Eric and Aunt Katie sent us a gingerbread house to get us in the holiday spirit. I admit, it was a lot harder than I expected, but it turned out pretty good and Natalie had a fun time.

The Real Story

Ok, so several people have told me how scared Natalie looks in the picture with Santa. So I thought I would post the real pictures from her visit with Santa. Before we bribed her yet again with cookies and candy.

Success!!!!

Third time's the charm!

To the Mall

This morning my trusty assistant and I went to the mall to finish up the Christmas shopping. We made a deal that we would sit on Santa's lap together and each tell him what we wanted.

This is how close we got:



So she got a haircut instead:






We have one more opportunity this evening at Miss Cathy's party. Santa always swings by on a firetruck and then comes in and each child has a turn sitting on his lap. I'll report back tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath.

Sick Day

Don't you just love this time of year? The hustle and bustle of the holiday season. There's a chill in the air. And stomach bugs. As a parent, I should have known that when I was getting Natalie ready to go to the grocery store with me this morning and she said "My foot hurts", what she really meant to say was "I'm going to puke all over the grocery store and we won't be buying much of anything today".

We were only a few aisles into our trip when she started this little cough that she does before she pukes. I asked if she had to spit (our code word for throw up) and she said no, but that she had to use the bathroom. So, I started pushing us toward the back of the store and right in front of the bathrooms .... bleck ....

To my credit, I caught most of it in my reuseable shopping bag. But instead of throwing up right into the bag, she threw up on the side, shot over it (at me!), down the front of her coat, etc. It was a mess. A nice lady washing her hands in the restroom gave me a whole roll of paper towels and "the look" that I took to mean she's been there before. We cleaned up as much as we could, but I still had to get the manager and tell him about our little accident on the floor. And that we won't be needing these items in the cart today.

She just got up from a 3 hour nap and said she feels great. Which is probably true. She usually bounces back quickly. Greg and I on the other hand, if we get this little bug, we'll be out of commission for the next 10 to 12 days.

Here's our sick little girl



Stay well!

Hangin' in the 'Hood

Last night, Rich, Holly and Zachary came up for dinner. We had a great time! The kids really got along and we can't wait for your house to be finished and you to be PA residents Full Time. It's going to be so much fun to have you guys so close. We couldn't get a picture of just the kids in front of the tree, so Holly and I had to intervene.



Let's get together again soon!

Extreme Makeover

Buddy Before:



Buddy After:


Money well spent.

Battle of the Beltway!

Aunt Liz and Ray came up Sunday to watch football. We were all decked out in our Ravens gear and anxious to watch the Ravens play the Redskins on PrimeTime. This was pre-game.



As you can see, Natalie has been a Ravens fan her whole life.







We can't wait to play those dreaded Steelers this weekend and hope the outcome is similar to last week.

Go Ravens!!!

Picture with Santa

So we took Natalie to the mall this weekend to sit on Santa's lap. She wanted NO parts of it. We were with Brian, Ashleigh and Lilly, so we thought the two girls could go together, because, you know ... safety in numbers. Lilly was happy go lucky and just kept saying "Santa" over and over. She was in! Natalie still didn't want to do it. It was only when Ash and I agreed to go with the girls and we'd ALL sit with Santa that she said she'd do it. We waited about 30 minutes in line and when we were on deck, Natalie decided she did not want to do it. I begged, bribed with candy and money until she finally agreed. As soon as we sat down, Lilly screamed bloody murder. So Ash and Lil left. Natalie did not speak to Santa, did not smile for the picture. Nothing. So, instead of a traditional kid with Santa picture, we got this fine coloring book:




There's still time, so we may try again. I think it's payback for all those times I did the same thing to my parents.

Elf Yourself

This was such a big hit last year, I decided to do it again this year. Enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Natalie's world

Natalie has her own digital camera and we thought it would be fun to post a few of her pictures. This is how she captured Thanksgiving:





















Looks like we need to work on centering the subject...