Easter 2010

On Thursday, my office had a really fun Easter party. It started off with a easter bonnet decorating contest, followed by an Easter Egg hunt (I won the prize! - a $10 gift certificate) and snacks and goodies and last, pictures with the Easter Bunny. It was one of the first really fun work parties we've ever had.

On Sunday morning, the Easter Bunny had left Natalie some presents. She enjoyed opening up the eggs (with gold fish crackers), her new sunglasses and beads and the bunny that Grammy sent. she also enjoyed reading the Easter book that Grandma got her. Lucky Natalie!
Don't you know? The sunglasses go on the bunny!

I wish we had gotten some better pictures before church - especially with the 3 of us. We may get lucky once Grandma develops her film and actually have a family picture.

Climbing Trees with Dada

Last weekend, we were hanging out in the yard "helping" Matt with yardwork and I decided to put Natalie in the tree. She thought this was the BEST!!! Thankfully, Matt needed to take a break and he posed for a few pictures with Natalie. He even got up into the tree at one point.

Bithday Party Photos

Yesterday we went to our 3rd birthday party for our church friends. It was such a beautiful day and a very relaxing party for the Zooks. John took some pictures of the kids and here are a few of Natalie. Also, Zane (the birthday boy) had an easter egg hunt for the kids and this was alot of fun - and Natalie's first egg hunt. She LOVED it!
Zane's parent's said "this present is from Natalie" but Zane thought they wanted him to give it to Natalie. So....... Natalie ended up opening up her present to Zane. It was really cute.

Cute Pictures...misc.

Cute Videos

Here are some collections of recent videos of Natalie.

Little Hands Day School

In February, we switched Natalie from the daycare at my office to an in-home school near our home. We did this in order to save money, have both children be closer to our home and so that Natalie would be adjusted before the new baby's arrival. So far, we are loving it. Ms. Zeena is very sweet and loves her children she watches. Natalie is the second to youngest and in the short time that she's been there, she's picked up on many new words and actions. It's been very neat watching her grow in only a few short weeks. I will get better pictures soon, but here are some off of Zeena's website of Natalie.
Monday - Thursday is "school" and Friday is fun day (they have popcorn and a movie and get pizza at lunch).

Every holiday is celebrated with a party (next Thursday is their Easter egg hunt/party) and each birthday is a big deal. They also do neat activities like read "Green Eggs and Ham" and then they help Ms. Zeena make green eggs and eat them.

Snowy Sunday...in MARCH....in TEXAS!!!

We woke up on Sunday morning to SNOW!!! can you believe it? We still can't. Anyway, here are some pictures of our house this morning.

We had a very relaxing day at home and did lots of housework. At dinner, we turned on tv, watched some cartoons and just had fun hanging out with each other. Here are some pictures of our family.

Cuddles & TV

We had a long Saturday, full of birthday parties, shopping and playing at the park. All I wanted to do was lay down and chill. Thankfully, Natalie had the same idea!!! When we watched her video that night, she got on my lap and hung out with me. I made sure that Matt took some pictures of this "once in a lifetime" event.

Visiting Mimi (Grammy)

My mom's birthday was March 5th and for a special treat, Natalie and I flew down over the weekend to see her. Matt stayed home and worked on really fun things like tax preparation. Also, we had to fly back on Monday morning & he was not able to take off. I was a bit nervous being pregnant (not able to hold her as much) and having to carry the carseat, the suitcase, Natalie and her diaper bag by myself. I managed pretty well - I learned that in a pinch, I can put her on the suitcase and use it like a stroller. Once I was able to check in the bag and car seat, everything went smoothly.

We had a great time visiting my mom. We got to visit alot with her and Uncle Aaron and Aunt Ginger. Unfortunately, I didn't pull out the camera until the very end as we were heading into the airport, so this is the only picture we took. Pitiful... next time I will have to make sure and get more. Regardless, it was lots and fun and I had delicious boiled shrimp and wedding cake snowcones both days.

p.s. We are trying to get Natalie to call my mom Grammy so that we could distinguish between her and Fran. For whatever reason, Natalie started calling her Mimi so that's what has stuck so far. The unfortunate part is that Ginger's (my SIL) mother is "Mimi" so when her and Aaron have kids it could get tricky. We're still working on "Grammy".

Birthday Party Season is Here!

We've been blessed with a great church group and there are about 15 little kids under the age of 4 and several more on the way. Because of this, we have a slew of birthday parties to attend (beginning in February and ending with Natalie's birthday in August). The first party was for Alyson. It was a fun party - they had it at Going Bonkers and after attending, we've pretty much decided we'll have Natalie's 2nd birthday here. It'll be easier with a second baby in the picture. She wasn't too sure about how to climb around so we put her on our backs and had alot of fun ourselves. Since this party, we've been to 2 others and have just got another birthday invitation today. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our cameras for the other parties but we had alot of fun.

Snow!! Airplanes!! (cool February stuff)

Sorry we haven't posted sooner family, but February has been a very busy month for me at work and Erica is very busy growing a new little person in her belly (that's what she tells me and Nat).

Although February was short, there was A LOT going on. The Superbowl was phenomenal, easily the best I can remember. We had a great party with our friends and Nat got a chance to bond with her Mama's side of the family - she learned all about Saints football and Mardi Gras! (see the updated pictures on our Superbowl post).

Then, on the 12th, we broke the all time 24-hour snowfall record for the Dallas area with an accumulation of 12.5 inches. Not all that much to an Ohio boy, but it was crazy to the folks down here. Nat really enjoyed it.

















Also this month, we got a chance to visit the Frontiers of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field (near Southwest Airlines headquarters). The museum itself is not overly impressive, but it has a GREAT children's play area. Natalie is always exclaiming "AIRPLANE! AIRPLANE!" every time one flies over our house, so we thought she'd enjoy them close-up. She had a great time, so did Mom and Dad!

EXPECTING!!!!

Most of you already know this but for those of you who don't, we are expecting our second child in August. We'll have two August babies! We won't know the sex of the baby until late March/April but we will post that once we find out.

WHO DAT?? NOBODY!!!!

ok, it is official.

The Saints won the Superbowl.

(I'm still pinching myself - is this real?)

Geaux SAINTS - Who DAT? Who DAT? Who DAT say they gonna beat them Saints??