Massive photo update, very late in coming! We took an awesome trip to Indian Rocks Beach, FL  with Grandma and Paw Paw. It was the first time Natalie saw the ocean, and it was an amazing week! Here are the photos!

Natalie crashing with "Tiana" the turtle, shortly after arriving.

The view from our terrace.

Looking for seashells!

Found one!

This is messy business!

Grandma and Natalie meet a local.

Nat loved burying her feet in the sand.

The whole group in front of Keegan's restaurant.

Our attempts at making sand castles.

SHARK!!!!!!!!!

Random photo update

Just Natalie being her cute self!

First family portrait!

Natalie brought home a cute little "autograph book" (photocopies of her classmate's drawings with their names on it) today. We noticed one of them was a cute family portrait and we were impressed at the drawing. When we got to Natalie's, we quickly realized she too had drawn her family! She corroborated this when asked (in case we were reading too much into it). Here it is. So cute. Brought Nickie to tears.

Last day of school!!!

It's so hard to believe that Natalie's first year of "Big Girl School" is over! It has been an amazing experience. We can't express how much we love Mrs. Powers and the rest of the staff at St. Al's. It was a joy to watch Natalie come out of her shell with their help, and to watch her vocabulary grow exponentially. Her mind really is a sponge, and I'm constantly amazed at how much knowledge she retains, and how quickly she "gets" it.

Mom's Breakfast at Natalie's School

I was invited to Natalie's school for a mom breakfast to celebrate Mother's Day.  Natalie and I got to eat doughnuts together before all of the kids were asked to go to the front of the room to sing some songs.  Natalie was adorable standing with all of her preschool friends.  But when the class started singing, Natalie continued to just stand!  A few times she moved slightly including showing her belly a few times, but other than that, she just stood there. I will include the video, but really you can stop watching it after about 30 seconds because that is all that she does the entire time! (again having issues with uploading the video)The little boy to her left was funny.  After I stopped recording he suddenly put his nose right next to Natalie's ear and smelled her.  She slowly turned and looked at him like he was quite strange. haha, it was too funny.  After the performance all of the kids got to give their mom a rose and their little gift.  The gift was Natalie's picture (of her holding a Happy Mother's Day sign) and a quote from her saying that she loves her mommy because she cleans her clothes and makes her muffins.  As you can see, her picture did not turn out so well.  She has been sick all week with a cold/sinus pressure and this was the best picture that Mrs. Powers could get.  We laugh and say that it is more like a mug shot!  I love this little girl so much and am so blessed to get to be her mommy!

Random Photos

Here are just a ton of random photos that needed to be put on her blog!