MONDAY MEMORY (06.01.09): [weekend memory highlights]

These photos represent some of my weekend highlights that included Natalie. All day Saturday was yard sale day. I specifically asked that Natalie NOT be here for event...she would never let me sell anything. She would think everything that she liked that she had not seen before must be a "prize" for her.

Okay for these particular images...

FIRST IMAGE [FOUR BEAUTIFUL GIRLS]: Today was our ribbon cutting ceremony for newly remodeled church. Natalie doesn't have a clue as to what a ribbon cutting ceremony is...so I include the highlight of Natalie with her Aunt Cari, Alexa and Lauren that I snapped before the ribbon cutting. I did get some photos inside our church. I intended to do so last Sunday (our first Sunday in the building), but I didn't get my camera out of the car. Randy was grouchy by the time we got to church. (Dealing with three girls (me, Cari and Natalie) seems to stress him out for "some reason"!) So I wanted to make sure to get some today. But I will do that in another post. I only did a few with us. I didn't document this occasion as well as Nicki did. Click HERE to see the before and after images as recorded by Nicki (Jonah's mom).

SECOND IMAGE [JONAH'S POTTY TRAINING GIFT]: I bought this pack of gymboree "big boy" underpants a while back that I was going to include with Jonah's Christmas gift that has been riding around in my car since January. Nicki and I had made plans to meet for lunch, but something came up and the opportunity has not risen again. So I thought since big event in Jonah life this past week was potty training...HE NEEDED "I AM BIG BOY GIFT". As you can see in this photo, Jonah love his new "big boy" underwear and Natalie seemed to love them just as much.

THIRD IMAGE [NATALIE "newest" prize--her new Swimsuit]: Natalie showing off her new zebra print swimsuit that I bought before Christmas from gymboree. Yes, along with all the winter zebra print line called Wild One they had a swimsuit. So I bought and saved it. In fact, I lost it--I mean misplaced it, but found it last week.

FOURTH IMAGE [NATALIE'S HANNAH MONTANA POSE?": I wanted some kind of pose with her zebra boots and her swimsuit. And Brittany suggested something along this line from Hannah Montana and this was Natalie's interpretation of it! At this point Natalie was getting really impatient with us. She was ready TO JUMP IN! I do plan to do some kind of mini session like I did in January with the zebra tutu, the boots and this swimsuit. Often my intentions are not followed through thus I wanted to make sure to get this one now. (Just in case I dont' get around to it...imagine that! LOL)

I am putting this up tonight. I can't seem to catch up, but at least I can do this little highlight/sneakpeak for now. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me: getting up early, following the bus taking the cheerleaders to camp, helping Cari unpack and get settled for the next few days ahead of them, and then coming back to see a performance that night at 6:15 and then driving back home alone (which I dread).

Time to get back to straightening up and getting some things ready for tomorrow.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

A LITTLE GIFT FROM MIMI FOR LABOR DAY WEEKEND

POSING FOR MIMI WITH THE UN-OPENED GIFT

AND AGAIN ONCE IT WAS OPENED...

Here she is trying to open the factory packaging that is often so difficult (even for adults with scissors in their hands).

I have been "snail" mailing little gifts for Natalie since she has moved to B.R.

Most of the items are just thoughtful sweet little things--HAPPIES as one friend called it. While shopping for "happies" I found these Lego blocks. I saved them for her first visit here since the move.

Randy and I picked Natalie up from her other grandparents Saturday evening after we dropped Cari off for the football jamboree in Vidalia. We took her to McDonald's to the playland. Since her nonna said that she had already ate good supper with them, she got a chocolate sundae while we ate our supper. I really wished we had more activities for little ones around here. I get tired of taking her to the same places (the park and McDonald's playland), but that's all we really have around here. I didn't take any photos. I forgot to get the camera out of the car with all the craziness (all the extra traffic and fears of Gustav) that was in the air that evening. Oh well, I have photographed her there more than once and I am sure I will again in the future.

I have more to post. What a week this has been!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

AUGUST 10, 2007...NATALIE'S FIRST TEA SET

When Natalie's cousins came last year, it was after Natalie's birthday party. They didn't get to come because my cousin, their mommy, had to work that day. So they brought Natalie her birthday gift on this visit. The same visit that we went to the water park the next day. Remember I only had few images and I recently posted those.

Such a serious expression of concentration to open her gift.

At this point, she appears a little confused...like she's not so sure what it is.

Still confused?

I am sure by the title you know that the gift was a tea set. We had many tea parties with Natalie's First Tea Set. I think the first one was with Carlie, her mommy (Aunt Charlotte), and Mimi.


I actually had Charlotte take a few photos of me and Natalie after she opened this gift, but sorry they didn't make the blog....remember I wasn't feeling too well then and as you could guess I really don't want to remember the way I looked in those images. I didn't delete them, but I won't be showing them off. LOL

I have a few other folders of images that I would like to post that didn't make the blog last summer because they were taken just before I started the blog. My blog anniversary is coming up soon (08.29.07). When I started her blog, my intention was to post as often as possible to keep up with daily adventures of Natalie and her world from that day forward and all post images from the same time of year from her previous years...at that time only two since I started it exactly one month after she turned two. I wanted to go back and add birthday party images then, but since I was doing good to keep it with it like that I decided I would add last year's with this years. I did post a few and I intend to still post more.

I did good with her blog until the fall came and got really busy with work and then the holidays. I had intended after the holidays to go back and catch up. Well...I never really got a chance to do that. So maybe as I go back this year and pick up previous years since I won't see her quite as much this...though I will probably take more photos each time to make up for it...so who knows. These are my intentions...to maintain Natalie's World with images of the times we have and by re-capturing her first two-three years through images that haven't been blogged. So bare with me.

I hope you enjoyed these images. My friend, Nicki, commented on what a toddler Natalie was just a year ago when she saw the images that recently posted "major cutie"...I think photographed the same day as these. It really is amazing during that 3rd year (from 24 mos. to 36 mos.) that they lose that baby face at some point. I guess it is so gradual that we only really notice it when looking back.

~~Natalie's Mim~~

SOMEONE WHO LOVES NATALIE WENT TO CONZUMEL

"Someone who loves me very much went to Cozumel Island and got me this t-shirt"...that's how this tee read that Poppa picked for Natalie while in Cozumel on the recent Carnival cruise to Mexico. He was torn between the "I'm the boss" tee and the "princess" tee, but decided on this one. Natalie was quite pleased with it and wore it home that night.

This is Natalie showing her new tee to Mimi and Poppa admiring her in the background. Cute, uh?

Natalie giving Poppa a hug for bringing her home a cute tee shirt!

After Poppa picked out this shirt, Mimi found one that she couldn't resist...

I love this expression...it is her "soooo excited" expresssion...

Poppa loved this one of Mimi. I'm not too fond of it, but again I love Natalie's enthusiasm...so here it is...

"Okay, smile for the camera with your new Dora/Diego shirt!"


The funny story behind this tee was that Natalie asked if I got a her a Dora or a Diego shirt. I don't know if when I was mentioning to her that I had a gift for her that it would be some kind of shirt or if she just assumed it from past gifts. It was soooo funny to me because it was a Dora and Diego tee. She loved it!

We each bought Natalie a gift from Mexico. Cari loves clothes shopping, of course. So she found this darling Mexican halter dress in Progresso when she, Randy, and my neice went back shopping after we came in from our beach excursion. I had developed a really sick headache/sinus attack/nausea and I knew that being rushed to shop in an hour and a half was only going to make it worst. So I stayed in the cabin and took a nap. I am so glad I did because I felt much better the rest of the evening.

This image was the best I got of Natalie modeling are new halter dress from Mexcio. It was a perfect color for her skin tone and eye color.

Precious stayed with a friend who is also her groomer while we were away. So she was so glad for us to be home too. She had to get in on all of this action.

She jumped right into Cari's lap.
Okay, if you had not heard or didn't know. We took another cruise to Mexico last week. It was a much different cruise....not the honeymoon type cruise that Randy and I took early this year, but a family vacation cruise. Since Cameron and Brittany went for their honeymoon, we ejoyed so much we paid for half of their trip and wanted to take Cari too. I really wanted to take Natalie too, but I was afraid it would interfere with some of the activities that Randy and Cari wanted to do (like snorkeling). The last cruize that we went on was mostly older people and thus we were also afraid that a little one at dinner every night would bother other people. But I guess since it was a week before school started back, it was "family-vacation" cruise week. There were more families than I could believe...lots of children. So I was really wishing I had brought her.

Oh well...too late now. Maybe next year!

I did take lots of images...between my camera, Cari and mine (the point and shoot camera) and my niece's camera. I had over 600 images. So, of course, I haven't gone through them all and I don't think I would post them on Natalie's blog anyway. I have been considering starting a family blog since Natalie will soon be moving to Baton Rouge I won't be as big a part of "Natalie's World" on a day-to-day basis (and yes, that breaks my heart as I type that information).

I plan to start the new blog tomorrow. I could have it begin with the vacation images, but I think I want to begin with a new milesone...Cari's first day back-to-school. It's not as significant as last year...last year was her first day of high school, but each first day of a new grade is a pretty big deal. I still remember thinking on Cameron's first day of high school that he only had three more first days of school. Now here I am in the same position with her...three more first days of school and tomorrow is one of them!

I will probably add a link to this post once I start it so that you can find it easily. Brittany also plans to start a bog for Natalie in Baton Rouge. I am so excited about that. I want her to take lots of pics so that I won't miss a thing. Again, my heart breaks and tears swell up in my eyes as I think about not seeing her daily. But I am looking forward to seeing "natalie's world" as viewed through her parents eyes. I will also add the links to that when I know it. Brittany told me yesterday when we picked Natalie up that she had started it, but didn't have anything on it yet. She is probably wants to begin with their move down there...which I think is about a week away (more tears).

For now that's it. I have another quick post I will try to add later, but I must get back to the laundry. It amazing how much laundry that I still have to do and I have been at it all day!

~~Natalie's Mimi and Cari's Mom~~