The Zook Family: 2008

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Bouncer o' Fun ??

Natalie LOVES her new bouncer, one of the gifts from Santa this year. It took her all of 24 hours to get the concept that mom and dad sit you in this seat and you can make yourself move and dance and spin. She loves it so much that she wore herself out one morning and actually fell asleep!!

Because of Natalie not feeling good on Christmas and Matt having to work at 2pm, we had an abbreviated day of Christmas activities. We opened presents on Christmas Day around 11:30am and had Christmas Dinner on Saturday evening (Matt's first day off). Although Natalie was not feeling 100%, she did have a lot of fun trying to rip the paper off but she especially loved the tissue paper (red of course!).

She was completely spoiled with gifts from everyone and we had so much fun opening up all of her presents and taking pictures of her with them.

Towards the end she started hiding herself with the wrappings.... I think she was trying to tell us she was done with being cute and was ready for her nap.

Of course we didn't stop messing with her and in the end it was too much fun for her....she drifted off into dreams of sugar plum fairies and more presents to come.

Merry Christmas!

The Zooks

My First Cold

Natalie had her first cold over the holidays and there was lots of sleepless nights, sneezing-followed by the nose sucker thing-ie, coughing, low grade fever, baby tylenol and nasal drops and let's not forget worried first time parents. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind it too much and is quite the little patient. She's starting to get better now but I'm (erica) sure we're in for another round of colds once she starts daycare in a little over a week.
On another medical note, she is going to the doctor tomorrow for her 4th month checkup! I can't believe she's that old already. It seems like yesterday we were taking her home from the hospital.

p.s. Matt and I have been drinking tons of vitamin C hoping not to get sick but Natalie gave it to me right away and Matt started feeling bad yesterday. To date, Grandma Fran is still feeling pretty good.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Pretty Girl - Christmas Dress

I bought Natalie a couple of Christmas dresses for her to wear to church. She really seemed to like this green one. We're planning on going to the Gaylord Texan today to take pictures with Santa Claus - I think this will be the one she wears. Merry Christmas!

Snow Hat!

Natalie got an early Christmas present this Sunday from Matt's Aunt Cathy. It was very cold here and she didn't have anything warm for her little head so Grandma Fran decided she needed to open this early and wear it to church yesterday. We had alot of laughs putting this on her - it is simply funny and too cute for words. Natalie was in a really good mood and was actually smiling for the camera - this is the first smile i have been able to capture. By now, most of you are familiar with the wide eyed look when she takes pictures but when you see her in person she will flash you a big smile often.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I love my family!

We've had alot of family come to visit us since Natalie was born and we just love it!! Here's the list in order of their visits: Fran, Carla, Aaron, Ginger, David, Carla, Dee, Carla, Peggy and Valerie, Fran, Kathy - in January: plus all the Wall's at Chris's wedding.

This past week my Aunt Peggy and cousin Valerie came for a visit to see the newest addition of our family. These are some of my Cadden relatives that live in Mississippi and they were dying to see Natalie before she starting walking. Thankfully their schedules opened up enough so that they were able to drive over for a couple of days to visit. We had a great time and enjoyed the short but good visit. Hopefully next time Uncle Roger and Austin will be able to join them. Since it was Christmas, Valerie and I had to get some cute photos of us girls. We also couldn't resist the reindeer antlers on Natalie.

Grandmas are Great!

Both of our moms were able to visit with us for a couple of weeks when Natalie was born and they've been able to be here since then. My mom was here over a week in October and got to join us at Halloween. She was also able to come visit during Thanksgiving week which was also the start of Matt's new job. Thankfully for us, our moms are helping out with Natalie's daycare this month so that she would be 4 months old when she starts daycare. Here are a couple of pictures from the latest visits.

My mom got to visit with us for about 2.5 weeks during Thanksgiving. She would watch Natalie while Matt and I went to work and had alot of fun with Natalie. Quite often, we would come home to Natalie and Mom passed out on the glider together.

Fran got here last week and we already have some good pictures of her reading Natalie her "Going to Bed Book". I know with Christmas coming up there will be many more pictures to come.

p.s. We hope the Grandpa's are enjoying this from Heaven!! we like to think they watch over her and seeing their wives with their granddaughter brings them happiness too