August 31, 2007: Natalie eating her Sonic lunch...

This is Natalie drinking her Sprite. Poppa cut her her straw so that it would be short enough to drink while sitting in her high chair. You just don't realize how far we hold a cup away from our face when we are drinking with a straw until you see the child struggling to do it in her high chair.

This will be last post for a few days and my last one for August 2007 since tomorrow is September. Wow this year is going by fast. They all have since Natalie has been born. The last two years have really flown by and of course she has really grown and changed so much the last 25 months. This week also marked her 25 month birthday. I will never forget what was happening 2 years ago on one month birthday...Hurricane Katrina. I still remember for weeks on end watching it on CBN and all the regular news while playing with our little one-month old....while trying to get her to laugh and smile at us...many people had lost their homes and lives. It is still so hard to believe that happened so close to home. I couldn't help, but think about people with little babies like Natalie and how hard it must be for them. My heart and prayers will really went out for them. It is so hard to believe that so many of them are still recovering and that babies like Natalie still turned into toddlers the last two years.

I thank God for our sweet little Natalie. She has brought so much joy into so many lives (yes, lot of work), but she certainly keeps things lively! We all love you so much, Natalie!

---Natalie's Mimi

AUGUST 2005: OUR BRAND NEW NATALIE

The first year of a child's life is full of FIRSTS. The above image and the one below is from Natalie's first baths. It was taken at her other home. I remember being a little sad that I missed it. I don't think she was too fond of her first bath. She did soon begin to love her bathtime. I enjoyed giving them as well. It was such a special time for MiMi and Natalie.
August 2nd was the date on the digital files. I assume that was the exacat date that they were captured.

August 3, 2005: THE VERY FIRST IMAGE SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE. I ACCIDENTLY DELETED IT AND THEN AS I TRIED TO ADD IT BACK TO THIS SPOT. IT WENT TO THE TOP. AS STATED BEFORE...I HAVE A LOT TO LEARN ABOUT THINGS LIKE THIS.
(SEE THE VERY FIRST IMAGE) The above and below image was the first time Natalie came to her other home (aka as MiMi's house or Daddy's). She was 5 days old. She also had her first portrait session in MiMi's studio. Aunt Cari helped MiMi while Mommy and Daddy rested. It is very tiring being new parents.

The next three images are of Natalie's very first newborn session. She was so little and I couldn't wait to get her in my studio. She was 5 days old when these were captured.

August 6, 2005, Natalie and Brittany's Aunt Martie and her family meeting Natalie for the first time. I know she hated not being here for her birth and couldn't wait to finally meet her great-niece. Natalie's cousins, Mia and Justin, have really grown a lot too! We saw them recently at Natalie's 2 year old birthday party.

August 8, 2005...one of the first times Natalie played with this toy.

August 10, 2005, I wanted to make sure she wore this before she outgrew it. I am so glad that I kept some of my babies special clothes and that Natalie wore them too.

These were done at the house in Vidalia after school one day, August 12, 2005. The bottom one is Natalie and Emma (her 3.5 year old aunt). They have both grown so much. I told Emma then that she would be one of Natalie's favorite people and she definitely is now!

This is one of Natalie wearing one of the Premie outfits that belong to Maddy Kiser. Her grandmother, Pam, gave us bags of clothes and shoes. Yes, it is a winter outfit and it was summer, but with the air on it was cool enough for a tiny baby to wear such a winter outfit. She is hugging her first little baby doll I bought her before she was born. Notice the baby doll is a brunette. Brittany made the statement one time how most baby dolls have blonde hair. So I made sure that I got this one with dark hair. I had fun playing dress up with her just as I always did with my two when they were young enough that I chose what they wore. (It has been a while!)

This is a candid image with natural light in Natalie's room (AKA the sunroom). It was taken on August 17, 2005.

This image is from her newborn session. The other one with her parents is also from the newborn portrait session...atually they were different days. As a photographer, it was neat having a baby around. I am so glad that I was able to capture beautiful images like these of our sweet baby girl.

---Natalie's MiMi

AUGUST 2005: OUR BRAND NEW NATALIE

REMEMBER WHEN: Natalie One Year Ago, August 2006

The above image of our litttle walker. Walking was still very new to her as you can tell here. She is wallking toward her little room, the sunroom, where all her toys are kept. Wasn't she just an adorable almost 13 month old!

I really wished I had done this since she was born. I would love to have one like Jonah's, but I was busy working and taking care of a baby and was totally out of the loop. I had never even seen a blog until I saw Jonah's back this past spring. So I will go back and post images from Natalie's recently birthday and then some the year before and her birth. For now I am posting images from August one year ago. Tonight or later today I am going to post images from August 2005, when Natalie was a newborn (some candid images and her first portrait sessions).

The next few images are of Natalie crawling. She could walk, but she couldn't walk through the drop down of the doorway into her room/sunroom. She would go to a crawl. Of course, she eventually learned to walk through the doorway w/o falling, but she did fall a few times before she mastered it. Isn't it how funny we forget about those feats soon after they are accomplished!

Not only is she still crawling in certain situations here, but learning to climb too! The date of all of these were August 26, 2006.

The last two images were taken of Natalie before leaveing for the visitation for Brittany's grandfather's wake. The date of these two were August 11, 2006.

NATALIE LOVES CHOCOLATE

This was supposed to be the first image to appear. It showed up in my "preview". So I don't really know what I did wrong.

Natalie Loves Chocolate

Yes, Natalie loves chocolate just like her Mimi. When she woke up from the long high chair nap, she wasn't in a very good mood. So I offered her the last 4 m&m's in her package from yesterday. I kept working a few more minutes on the computer. Before I knew, this was the scene that I saw in the kitchen doorway. My first impulse was to grab the whole chocolate bar from her. Then I laughed and got the camera out instead. I hope to have that response more and more. And I think I will since since I can share our funny moments on the blog. How cool is that!

Cari brought home the "World's Finest Chocolate" to sell for school. Randy had bought all the almond/chocolate bars from her. They were laying on the counter. My guess is that Natalie thought this was an open invitation for her to have one on him! After I finished taking a few photos, I tried to get her to give me half of it so that she wouldn't eat a whole candy bar. Of course, that really ticked her off! So to avoid the fit, I made her share it with me. So I guess you can say we both won that battle. LOL!

This is Natalie not sharing her chocolate with Mimi or Precious...notice Precious in the corner. I kept trying to get her out of the way so that I take the photo; then I realized that it added to it.

So that's really it for the day.

Natalie helps Daddy move to Baton Rouge

Daddy & Daniel...Roomies

The little Family :)
Daddy

A pretty awesome bathroom!

Daddy's Kitchen...not very spacious..but its not like they will spend much time there!

This is Natalie hanging out in Daddy's apartment. When we were getting ready to leave she told us "I stay, I stay!"

Natalie likes to "chew" gum which always ends up being swallowed. So instead of gum we will give her skittles. Somehow she dropped it and it ended up being under her neck and got stuck to her chin. Me and Cari were pretty amused at the sight of it.

When we were driving to Baton Rouge Natalie complained about the sun being in her eyes. I didn't bring her shades so she insisted that she wear mine. I think this is an adorable picture of her. It's funny that she understands what glasses are for!

This was my first post to make. It was fun..but i will do things different next time..you kinda have to go backwards i guess. I'll be posting again soon!

Natalie's Mommy*

Natalie Fell Asleep While Eating Breakfast, 8-30-07

I wanted to drop a few lines. I don't plan to post any more today. This could get quite addictive, but quite frustrating right now since I don't completely undertand the system. I kept trying to put the image of Natalie in mid-air in another location and I kept deleting it, but I can't seem to delete or move an image when I want to...though I can seem to edit text. As I stated frustrating, espeically for someone who is used to manipulating images.

I am enjoying doing this, but I must do more other work. So I have to limit myself, but I do think I have a found a new hobby. It should be fun, uh and too expensive (My last hobby turned into a business and I haven't had any time for hobbies since!) I have session that I need to do their slideshow so that I will have their presentation ready.

But as I was writing this, I checked on Natalie eating breakfast in her high chair and I see she is alseep. So I must post one more image and if I am getting this concept of this blog thing, it will appear before the text anyway and you have already seen it. Thus I am changing my title to reflect that...

NATALIE SWIMMING

This image is suppose to appear before or after the text talking about the jump looking dangerous! She is fearless!

Okay, I think I have this right now. I put the first image in last. I think I am doing it right now.

SWIMMING: Natalie and Poppa right after they got in. She loves Poppa throwing her up. She calls it "JUMPING". "I WANNA JUMP". I had some problems getting my exposures right. Some of the images were on the blown out side ("they are just snap shots). So I converted some to black & white. I have a problem doing candid images sometimes. I want them all to look like portraits, but I am trying to learn to be more forgiving of myself for capturing special memories like this. As you can see Natalie had a fun time in the pool this evening!

[I DIDN'T PROOF READ TOO CLOSE BECAUSE I HAVE TO GET TO WORK. I HOPE IT IS READABLE AND THE YOU ENJOY VIEWING THE NEW BLOG AS MUCH AS I AM ENJOYING IT.]

This is something Natalie does in the pool. I had noticed her doing this when we went to Blue Bayou while we were swimming in the wave pool. We taught her at the beginning of summer to close her mouth when she is going under, etc. We never really told her to hold her breath, but I think she does. Randy had not seen her do this and it really scared him or rather worried him. He kept saying "what is she doing?". But I think she was called herself swimming under under water like she see others do. How cute is that.

The next three images are of Natalie floating or "swimming on her back". This seemed to me a her new favorite thing to do in the pool. She seems so grown up swimming like this is the pool. We think she is very advanced in her "swimming" for a child who has just turned 2.

This another fun thing Natalie enjoys in the pool...jumping off the ladder to Poppa or whoever is swimming with her at the time. As you can see Natalie had a ball swimming last night around 6:00. I didn't swim this time...that way I could photograph her! I did have intentions. The real reason was because it was getting late. We thought Poppa was coming in sooner. I still had to cook supper and I didn't wouldn't have time to do both and in fact, I think, if it had been up to us we would have skipped the swimming. Neither of us had the heart to let her down. She had been looking forward to swimming all day!

This is Natalie "jumping". She loves it and can't get enough! Though it does look dangerous! This is the one she wants to see on the back of the camera.

This Natalie asking can I see. She has learned about looking on the back of the camera.

I am stilling trying to figure this out. So uploaded what I done thus far. It is confusing me :(.

Swimming with Poppa, August 29, 2007

I think I am doing this right now. I inserting the images that I want viewed first last and vice versa. So this is what happened after the fun in the pool. Notice Precious on her back legs. I just read Max's post (Jonah's blog) recently. Nikki, does this look familiar? Precious and Max could have their on support group. Precious was the baby of the family until Natalie was born. Then she seem to think that this "thing" was the new pet, but she has since then realized that she is pretty cool. Precious definitely gets to eat more "table" food since Natalie started eating table food. I think Precious als has grown very fond of Natalie and of course, Natalie loves her!

The next one depicts Natalie's overall expression of joy and fun while "swimming". You know she thinks she is actually swimming. She loves it sooo much. She has had so much fun swimming this summer. The first part of summer we didnt' get to swim as much because of all the rain. Then the last part there seems to be one thing after another that seems to keep us from the pool.

That's it for my very first day of blogging! I hope to learn more and improve the blog by creating links and eventually getting other blogs and a website. I hope you enjoyed!

Natalie's Mimi

The next two are of Natalie watching TV while sitting in her Dora chair that her daddy bought her for her birthday. She loves Dora and watching TV (a little too much sometimes!).