Natalie's birthday month...almost!

Natalie is turning one in October and I just can't believe it! I decided to start celebrating with this super cute background!

This Weekend

This weekend was great! Natalie and I participated in Walk for the Cure on Saturday. We walked with friend Jenny and her daughter Quinn. We were walking in memory of her mother. It was a beautiful day and it was great to get out and enjoy it with great friends!

Below are some photos from the event and then one of just Natalie and I. I think she was the cutest participant for Kids for the Cure...she even got a little shirt! Too cute!

Saturday we went to my company picnic at the zoo. It was hot, but it was fun.

This weekend was just really nice. Jeff and I can't believe how fast Natalie is growing up and changing. She is walking like crazy and we are also transitioning her to a sippy cup. She moves up in her classes at daycare when she turns one and needs to be ready. She is also eating all kinds of food. I don't think there is anything she won't eat. She is just amazing.

I also have some videos below of some of her new and old tricks.

Natalie and I on the deck after the walk.

Natalie hanging out with Jenny.

Quinn just in front of the finish line.

The gang after the walk.

Quinn and Natalie hanging out.

Natalie after I changed her diaper - just hanging out in her stroller.

You've seen the cheese pictures, this is us taking a couple live. She cracks me up.

Natalie has learned to wave bye-bye and even funnier is she knows when to do it. The minute I get to daycare she starts waving. She is hilarious.

So here are a couple clips of her walking. I think it is now her preferred method of getting around. She gets so mad when she falls. The reason she is in her diaper is because we just got back from the zoo and she was really hot. Her little cheeks were red and everything!

Natalie has learned to point and she points at everything. Even funnier is she points and "talks". In this video she is "talking" to the dog.

I love watching Natalie learn things. In this video she is trying to pick-up the stream of water. I know it won't happen too many times, as they seem to learn so quickly!

Natalie's 11 Month Photos

REDRUM

On Thursday Jeff and I left to attend a wedding in Estes Park, CO. The hotel we were staying at was where Stephen King got his inspiration for his book, The Shining. The story goes like this. It was a cold night and King and his wife stopped at the Stanley hotel. The hotel was closing for the winter, but Stephen talks them into letting them stay there. He drinks until he is drunk at the bar and then tries to find his room. He can't find his room and instead runs into two twin girls bouncing a ball on carpet, but it sounded like it was being bounced on a hard wood floor - not on carpet. The girls where ghosts. King was scared and ran back to his room. From the time he saw the ghost twins and ran back to the room, the plot for The Shining was born.

The hotel is supposedly haunted by a number of people. The builder, his wife, a dedicated maid and numerous children and nannies on the fourth floor. The movie wasn't filmed at the Stanley hotel, but King came back later to film the mini-series. They had a channel at the hotel that only played The Shining, movie and mini-series, it was pretty neat.

The Stanley Hotel

The Manor House where Jeff and I stayed. It is right next to the main hotel.

The front door of The Manor House.

The view from our room....it was beautiful!

This is how you keep the windows open in a 100 year old hotel! All the windows
had sticks of wood to hold them open.

This is what Jeff had to drink the first night, Redrum punch!

On Saturday Jeff and I took a ghost tour of the Stanley. They kept talking about orbs. I had never really heard of these, but I guess they are the balls of light that can show up on your photos and supposedly they are ghosts or spirits. So, below are two photos that I took at the hotel that have these orbs in them. One is in a room that is known to be haunted. Guests have said they have heard children laughing and playing in the closet. The next one is a tunnel that is under the hotel. Not sure I believe all this orb talk, they are in a ton of photos that I took at the hotel, not just these two, but who knows!

OK, so the reason we were there, a wedding! My friend Shaina, married her love, Ben, on Friday night. The wedding was at this stunning church on the side of a mountain and the reception was at the Stanley Hotel. Below are some photos. Oh, Ben works with Freddy's Frozen Custard. I thought the grooms cake was too cute!






Of course Jeff and I did some shopping! I found this great Christmas store and got all kinds of neat ornaments for this year! They are mailing them to me and I can't wait to get them!!

So, it was the first time we left Natalie. She stayed with Mom and did great. We missed her terribly, but it was nice to have some alone time. She is getting braver by the day with her walking. In fact tonight she just took off from a kitchen chair. It was too funny. Below are some of my new favorite photos of her. She loves to pretend that she is drinking from a soda can and of course there are more "cheese" photos.

Catching Up

I thought I would spend some time this long Labor Day weekend and update the blog with some photos and videos from the past couple of weeks. Natalie has just been growing like a weed. It seems like she learns something new everyday. It is so amazing. Below are some photos and videos of what she has been up to!

So, I never thought our house would incur structural damage from Natalie teething, but I guess, chewing on the wood window frames feels pretty darn good.



So, Natalie has decided that she doesn't like Jeff and I to feed her out of a jar. She is big enough to feed herself. Well, this is what she looks like when she feeds herself avocados and bananas. Yummy.

I just can't resist the naked tub shots. Those legs are so chunky and cute and soap in the hair is always a winner.

As you can tell we take a lot of photos of Natalie. One of the camera's we use has an orange light that shines right before the photo is taken. Well, we say cheese and then take the photo. Because Natalie is highly intelligent, she has figured out that when the light goes on, she is supposed to "cheese". While the cheese is pretty funny, it does make it hard to take a serious photo with our camera!

They like to mess with Natalie's hair at daycare and when I went and picked her up the other day, this is the hair she was sporting....piggie tails!

One of Natalie's favorite things to do it play on the computer with Daddy. This weekend she managed to pull off the arrow down button. She already broke my work laptop keyboard!

This is a video that proves how stubborn a baby can be. This was the first night of sleep training - Natalie refused to lay down. So, she fell asleep standing up and by the time we got there, had dropped to her knees. Poor baby! I do have to say that she is sleeping so much better now! The training really worked!



The most exciting thing that happened this weekend was Natalie took a few steps all by herself! It was amazing. She was standing next to me and then she wasn't! I told Jeff that I thought she took some steps and sure enough she took some to him and then back to me! Jeff ran to get the video camera and of course we were out of tapes! Mom came by so I told her not to set the baby on the ground until I got from Target with more tapes!

This is Natalie with her little walker. She has one at daycare too and is getting really good maneuvering it!



I just thought this video was too cute.

We were trying to get Natalie to take a few steps on camera, but instead she wanted to drink out of her sippy cup (thanks for the suggestion on the cup Kelly and Jennifer), tilt her head and dance.