Shady Maple

We went to breakfast at Shady Maple with my family and my sister-in-laws family yesterday morning. Amazing breakfast if you have never been there. Unfortunately Gary was at work so we had to take a picture showing him what he was missing. Natalie certainly loved seeing her cousins and enjoyed her breakfast as well.

Goose for dinner

Uncle Chad had a successful morning and Poppop let Nat explore. Only at Mommom & Poppop's.

First Christmas in Hershey

This year Gary and I really wanted to do Christmas morning with just "our family."  It was our first time staying in Hershey (he was on-call the Christmas Eve) so it worked out perfectly.  It is so nice to be establishing our own family traditions as our family just keeps growing.  My parents came out late morning after we had opened up all our gifts from one another and Santa which made the day even more special.  All in all it was a wonderful, relaxing Christmas and Natalie had a blast.  She loved all of her toys and can't decided which one she wants to play with still.  She just keeps running from one to the other.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends and hope that despite all the hype and presents we can still remember the true meaning of Christmas!!!

Here are just a few pictures from Christmas morning

Natalie's art table

Getting ready to "unwrap" 

At first she thought it was a jungle gym (and yes my belly is getting huge- as only your little brother can get away with telling you on Christmas!!)

Stopping to read with Daddy

Daddy was a little tired

Reading on her new potty chair

Amazing!! (It's a potty training chair for those without little ones)

Kisses and bubbles with Mommom

Typical late Christmas morning scene- toys everywhere and Daddy putting things together

New kitchen for Nat- my lifesaver!!  Now I can make dinner and not be running around the house checking on her or trying to find her

We hope you and your family had as blessed of a holiday as ours.  Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

This Mrs. Claus is headed to bed!! I am like a little kid, just so excited for our first Christmas here in Hershey tomorrow. Natalie is going to be such a joy and so excited- I can't wait.
Say a few extra prayers that Gary gets off call (a nice 26+ hour shift) at a decent time tomorrow morning cause I am not sure how I am going to keep Natalie from opening all the gifts. I am so grateful to have such an amazing husband who after working a ridiculous amount of hours will come home excited and ready to go tomorrow on no sleep all for his little girl. He truly is the best.

Hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas!!

Confession

I said (I might have even swore- forgive me God) that I would never buy my daughter a doll. Gary agreed - he once saw her pushing a doll around when we were out of town and wanted to take it from her and give her a Tonka truck (no worries he didn't). We were/are in no way prepared to handle a "girly girl." Thankfully God knew what he was doing in giving us Natalie. She is the opposite of a girly girl- loves to be messy, runs and climbs everything and is more interested in being outside than anything else. But, she does have a love for babies!! Particularly real ones, but also baby dolls. So this mom has caved and Santa will be bringing Nat Calin. I never thought I would see this day. Hopefully she arrives in time, I finally convinced myself just this morning it was ok and I can handle it.

Messy Girl

Natalie likes to pull out anything I put in her hair, even if it's right after she got messy eating dinner. Nat's motto- the messier the better. Good thing she's cute and can get away with it.

Trying this again

I am feeling guilty that baby #2 did not get the blog attention that Miss Natalie got. Everyone told me that would happen (I was in denial)!! I am going to try to get in the habit of blogging again before their arrival though it may only be a picture and a word or two. It is hard to believe we only have seven weeks (give or take) till our little one is "scheduled" to arrive. We truly are extremely excited. For now, I will leave you with Natalie's picture with Santa.