HAPPY EASTER from NATALIE...

BACKTRACKING #1: Easter at Mimi's on Good Friday (04.10.09)

THIS IS NATALIE'S EASTER WITH US THIS YEAR...

It was on Good Friday. Natalie spend the actual holiday in Baton Rouge with her parents. So this was "our" Eastertime with her.

And as you can tell by the expression, Natalie was very excited about her chocolate bunny that the Easter Bunny left her at Mimi's house. She (like her Mimi) loves chocolate!

And what is Easter without Peeps. You did notice the pink peeps, huh. And yes, they come in pink too! If PINK is an option, I go for it...it's my favorite color, but best of all, PINK IS NATALIE'S FAVORITE COLOR.

He (The Easter Bunny, aka MIMI) also brought Natalie some new items for her doll house that she had gotten for Christmas.

I wanted her to have this little girl to go with the new little girl's bedroom furniture, but it came with this dad. Her doll house that Santa brought her to Mimi's house included a mommy, daddy and a set of boy/girl twins. So I told her this guy was their Uncle Danny (like my brother--aka her Uncle Danny). Since then, he has been Uncle Danny, a big brother and I also think another dad...not sure where that came from (nothing from real life...just a child's imagination).

Since she her 2nd Easter, we have made it a tradition to dye eggs together before Easter Sunday and I knew this would probably be our only opportunity since she was going back to BR.

HER PINK N-A-T-A-L-I-E EGG!

As you can see, she was very proud of it.

Emma came with Natalie and her mommy thus she dyed eggs with us too, the more, the better, huh?

And by the way, Natalie and Emma are wearing old tees over their good clothes to avoid having permanently dyed clothes. Natalie's tee was one her daddy's that she wears to paint, play with markers, etc. She loves knowing that it was her daddy's so much that everytime she wears it that she asks again if it was her daddy's T-shirt. Like the answer will change!

Natalie's Cross Egg (I think Aunt Cari drew it on the egg.)

I always love her serious face when she is concentrating on a task like this.

By Cari's expression, I am guessing that she had just as much fun dying eggs as Emma and Natalie.

She was proud of this one.

Poppa helping Natalie.

I think Natalie is admiring Aunt Cari's egg.

Their unique creation...

Not wanting to pose for Mimi...

Thankfully, she changed her mind! I love this one!

...and this one.

Silly girl or is it Drama Queen!

Another one of my faves from this activity...

Natalie and Emma...

After we colored our eggs, Cari and Brittany hid eggs for Emma and Natalie.

Let the fun begin...

Finally, I get her to look at me and the camera!

More eggs over here too...

and here too...

SHOWING OFF THE EGGS THEY FOUND BEFORE WE EAT THEM!

Next Natalie and Aunt Cari hid plastic eggs from Emma and Brittany. Aunt Cari took these photos for me while I fixed stuffed eggs with the real ones.

Natalie's Mommy (Brittany) posing with an egg she found. Aren't us mommies such good sports!

The egg finders: Emma and Brittany

Natalie's green fingers with her "daddy" egg...

Time to eat some boiled eggs...

Natalie, Brittany and Emma ate a boiled. They only ate the white which gave me more yolk for my stuffing for my "stuffed" eggs. Yes, some people call them deviled eggs, but a long time ago, a christian friend/cousin of Randy suggested calling them stuffed eggs instead. Why give the devil any credit! Great advice and it has certainly stuck with me all these years!

I have no actual photos from Easter day. I did buy me and Cari a new dress and a new shirt and pants for Randy. We went out to eat at Ruby Tuesdays after church, but since I found myself really sad that Natalie was here with us on Easter Day, I didn't take any photographs. I regret it now, but sometimes you just can't help the mood that slips upon you.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

FLASHBACK FRIDAY...

Since I am in the midst of still posting Easter pics, I thought this would be appropriate for FLASHBACK FRIDAY since I am in the midst of finish Natalie's Easter photos for this year (her 4th Easter).

Natalie's First Easter...

Don't you just love that expression?

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY (okay...just a few words)

Natalie discovering what the Easter Bunny left at Mimi's house on Good Friday (04.10.09).

I know I am behind on posting. I have had one delimia after another lately and not many images to go with the events of our lives lately. Though I do have about 74 from this day. If all goes well, I will try to share soon...though I do have several new sessions lined up for me the rest of this week (and several events for Cari...stay tuned to Worth Remembering to see those events, hopefully soon after the event)...so time may be an issue. But I will try...I really don't want to get any more behind.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

Short update...{playing with Dalton and helping Gigi}

I haven't felt very good the end of last week and so far the beginning of this week. I am just now adding the images from dying eggs Friday, then finding Easter eggs.

Earlier in the week (April 7th & 8th), Natalie and I spend at her Gigi's house. She had knee replacement surgery on the 2nd. I went to help mom in whatever way I could. I cooked my homemade Chicken Pot Pie. My recipes makes several so we put the other three in the freezer for later. The next day I made my Shrimp Alredo Pasta. I doubled the recipes so they could eat on it for several days. Natalie and I also baked a cake for Gigi too. Natalie picked the cake mix and icing out while we were buying our groceries for my cooking at the market. She picked out a strawberry cake. I suggested some white icing (like cream cheese), but she insisted that we needed strawberry icing too! She really likes for things to match!

The 2nd day while there my nephew, Dalton, came to play with Natalie. She had so much following him around. Imagine this: Natalie was Dalton's little shadow...he played with her and her dollhouse for about 5 minutes, after that they played what he wanted to play outside...from the trampoline to the my dad's dirty shop. Natalie got so dirty. My mom said that she had never seen Natalie that dirty. I told her that I don't think I ever had either. I did not bring my camera...I don't even think a photograph with depict just how nasty and sticky our little sweetheart/princess was. She had to had a good bath when she came in. She had so much fun playing and my family enjoyed spending some time with Natalie too. She is so loving. She has
to make sure that she hugs and kisses everyone when she greets them and when she leaves. You would think that she sees them as much as me! That is definitely my favorite thing about Natalie...she's so loving!

I have no photographs for the memory of these two days, but now that I have posted it, we will remember! I do have photographs of the dying eggs and finding them on Good Friday. I just now put the images on my hard drive...I just haven't felt like myself so I've been behind on getting them off the card and onto the hard drive. I have a session tomorrow so it was time to get my camera ready....so I just now even looked at them. Maybe I will feel better by the end of the week and I can get them edited, cropped and ready to blog. So stay tuned for Natalie's Easter pics.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

EASTER WEEKEND AT GIGI (NATALIE'S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER'S)

THE STORY BEHIND THESE IMAGES COMING SOON...

EDITED: TO INCLUDE THE INFORMATION THAT GOES ALONG WITH THESE IMAGES (3.29.08) ONE WEEK AFTER THIS DAY (agian better late than never, uh?) Okay, here I am few days later making time for this. No, I am still not caught up, but I have already had a portrait session this morning and before I get started working on a birth annoucement and birthday invitation, I want to complete this post and maybe the other two that I started.

The above images is Dalton (or Daltin as Natalie says it...she loves her cousin, Dalton. It's so sweet.) and Natalie getting ready to outside to find the Easter Eggs that Aunt Cari and her cousin, Brooke, hit for them. We did the Saturday afternoon after we arrived at my mom's. This wasn't Dalton's weekend with his daddy (my brother), but his mommy let him spend some time over at my mom's so that he could find eggs with his cousin, Natalie.

BELOW IMAGE: one of Natalie's first eggs to find...it was very frustrating trying to photograph Natalie and Dalton find eggs with the harsh backlighting and those LEGS (LOL). Almost every image had someone's or several someones legs in the background. Dalton's little fake smile and pose with the egg he just found (and of course, more legs). "Dirty, dirty", that's what Natalie was saying here. She really doesn't like getting dirty and wants to clean up as soon as she does especially if it is something like leaves in your shoes that feels funny...I love it!
Aunt Cari helping with Papaw (my dad looking on)

Posing with their recently found eggs

Another image of Natalie complaining about being dirty, dirty...She had bubbles "juice" on her from playing bubbles earlier with her Aunt Maria. This is her using a paper towel to clean up.
Dalton posing with his Easter gift from Aunt Jami (and the rest of my family). I love that little boy. He is my only nephew (on my side of the family).
Natalie posing with our "goofy" looking Easter Bunny cake. I had plans of wanting to make this for Natalie for Easter, but I forgot about it until that day when we were on our way to my mom's (the day after prom). I was a little sleep deprived from the events of the day before so I am not too organized any more about planning things like this in advance. So while we were buying some last minute items at Wal-mart in Winnsboro to take to Mom's, I remembered the cake idea. I made this when I was in high school for my baby brother (aka Dalton's dad), then I made it again when my kids were little and then I remembered the idea last Easter, but I wanted to wait until this year when Natalie was a little older too. I think I was also think life wouldn't be quite as hectic and that I would have more time (I was very wrong about that). I am glad I did it. Natalie wanted to help when I showed her what I was doing, but I think she mostly just wanted to eat the icing. She had little white spots of icing all over her new top...oh, well. We had fun. I forgot the bow of the bunny was suppose to be a different color...I think I used to do it a green color...when I remembered it I added the pink on top to give it another color. I couldn't remember what I used for each item to decorate the bunny's face...I knew I needed some licorice for his whiskers that I could not find. So I just go the malted eggs for everything. Natalie saw the speckling of the malted eggs (that are made to look like bird eggs) and she said the bunny had booger in his nose. She made everyone watching laugh outloud very loudly. It was quite funny!

Finally it was time for coloring Easter Eggs as we had discussed with Natalie for a few days. Don't you love that look of concentration? Poppa helping Natalie.
She was so proud of her colored eggs!
Mimi helping with Eden and Chloe looking on. Eden and Chloe are Natalie's "almost" cousins. Their mommy is marrying Uncle Quincy (aka Dalton's daddy...Mimi's baby brother).
Natalie and her Gigi (great-great grandmother...my mom) and their GiGi egg and nice big cheezy smile from Natalie

Chloe and her mom, Darlene Natalie and Mimi with the "Mimi" egg

Eden and her mommy, Darlene
All three girls after we finished coloring the eggs. As you can see, Natalie isn't too modest. She got some dye-water on her tee shirt (that she was wearing over her good clothes) wet so she too it off. This is a little habit she has developed especially at breakfast. If she spills ceral milk on her top (usually p.j. top), she takes it off. OftenI look over there (toward her hight chair) after I have been working here on the computer as usual and notice she has taken her shirt off. And now I know, she had a wet shirt and she took it off. I guess she thinks it is much better to wear no shirt than a wet shirt.
Okay, that's if for last Saturday. Please forgive any typos. I don't really have time to proof read this right now. I need to get a quick shower. Cari want to go to the boys baseball game. Randy and I are picking up Natalie to take her to the little Circus that has come to Vidalia this weekend. Before we go to the circus we are going to wal-mart to pick up some flowers for Randy and Natalie to plan one day next week.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~