a year in photos

Okay, this is the last post about Natalie being one, I promise. I can't help it, its just so exciting. Anyway, the other day Matthew and I were looking at all of her pictures from this year, and this is what came of it. I know it is probably really cliche, but honestly, I can't believe how she has changed. It just seems unreal.

How has this happened??????

biiirrrtththhddayyayayayayay

Will you indulge me a few minutes to talk about my baby's birthday? Okay? Okay.

Matthew and I were pretty dang excited about it all. It is so crazy that we have a one year old now. It makes us feel really old. Anyway, we had a little party for her, just the three of us, although Jonathan was there for part of it, too.

Birthday dinner: Assorted stuff dipped in chocolate for us, assorted stuff not dipped in chocolate for Natalie. Also, I love what Natalie's doing here. Totally cracks me up.

We played Pin the Diaper on the Baby...

Since Jonathan won, we gave him the diaper, which he promptly 

turned into a hat and put on his head. 

Yup, that's my brother.

Then we blew noise maker things 

(I know you all wish you could have been there. ha)

Natalie opened her present

 A new car seat! Yay!

 Time for cupcakes

More mommy more! (In her defense, they were really good, if I do say so myself. 

I made these homemade funfetti cupcakes).

And that was her birthday. We had a good time, she had a good time, and we took some fun pictures (and that's the most important part, right dad? :) )

its in the eyes

No, she's not blinking. This is what happens Natalie gets really happy, or thinks that she is being funny or something. She gets a big grin on her face, and then squints her eyes. Adorable.

half leap birthday

So, today was Leap Day. It was also my half-birthday!!! And I decided that I get to make a big deal about it. If my half-birthday fell on any other day of the year, I probably wouldn't even notice it, but I'm not gonna lie, I feel pretty special that I have a half-birthday on leap year day.

So we had a little half-birthday party. It was legendary.

Matthew sang half (every other word) of Happy Birthday to me. We played leap frog with Natalie; she loved it. We sang half a song, and read half a book. Matthew smashed half of a fingernail in the car door. We drove half the speed limit to Walmart, where Matthew got me half a present. Okay, not really. He got me sidewalk chalk and a big bouncy ball. Although he did let me get a half-container of Pringles (love those!) and so I guess he did get me half a present.

 And the most exciting part of it all, I made a decadent dessert. I suppose I should've made half a cake or something, but let's be real, I just wanted to make this. I give you Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake.

 

I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. Yes, it was amazingly rich and delicious. We both loved it. You can get the recipe for it here.

Oh, and Matthew also had a floral design lab yesterday, so we'll pretend that the flowers he made there were special for my half-birthday.

loving my little girl

 

 

 

 

 

The hair around the back of Natalie's head is getting long-ish, and often curls out a little bit, giving the appearance that she has "wings" or something. You can see it in a lot of these pictures. So cute. We love our smiley baby girl so much.

flowers

The product of Matthew's first lab in Floral Design. I love it when my husband takes awesome classes.

 

christmas baby

It seems like I haven't posted many pictures of Natalie lately. So, here are some of her from Christmas :)

 

 

 

 

Natalie has been quite the goof lately. She'll grab our arm, hand or leg, and blow on it, like she's giving us a little raspberry or something. Then she gets this big grin on her face and laughs. Haha. So funny.

the dumbest cheer ever

At the end of a basketball game when a school with a worse record is beating a highly ranked, or generally considered good school sometimes the student section will start cheering "Overrated". Seriously, this is in fact the dumbest thing you could cheer in this situation. Suggesting that the team you are beating is overrated cheapens your win, making it seem like they aren't that good, and that is why you are beating them. Or in other words, "We're not that good, so you must be pretty bad for us to beat you!"  That's what I hear when I hear "overrated".  Oh, and finally, if you just got done chanting 'overrated', why would you then storm the court?  You just said they weren't that good, anyway.

It happened one (or possibly several) Sunday

Okay so I'm the pianist in Relief Society. Sometimes it is kind of an embarrassing job.

I usually know ahead of time what the songs are going to be. If I'm not super familiar with it, I try to go to the church and practice it during the week, so I don't make a complete fool of myself while playing. That doesn't always happen, and I don't know every song in the hymnbook, so every so often I look at a song and think "Whelp, it's right-hand only accompaniment today." I'm classy like that.

And then sometimes, I do know the song, and I've played it before, and it is NOT HARD. Think for example "Sisters in Zion". Or a song I know really well like "I Know that My Redeemer Lives". And I totally goof up a section. Why did I just bomb two random measures in the middle?

I think I psych myself out, and then my mind has a spasm, and then suddenly I can't play.

Yup. This is awkward, and a long walk from the piano bench to my seat at the end of the song. I kind of just want to go sit in a closet and pretend nothing happened and no one saw. But of course everyone saw because I'M SO STINKIN' TALL!