Natalieisms, Take 2 (and 3 and 4)

OK I have another few minutes, so here's another (well, three more actually).

TWO
A little over a week ago, Natalie and I went to her dance studio to get her leotard, tights, and shoes. When we left, it was lunchtime, so I asked her if she wanted to go to lunch with just the two of us or if she wanted to get lunch and take it home and eat with Daddy & Mollie. She thought and thought and thought, finally deciding that we she wanted to stop and eat "there" so, she wanted just Natalie & Mommy. So we went to Chick Fil-a, and she has a bad habit of getting out of her seat once she decides she's done and kind of dancing around the table. So I had a brillant idea to sit at the TALL tables. I thought she'd think it was fun PLUS she wouldn't be able to slip out of her seat easily. So, for once, my plan worked. She giggled when I sat her up on the big chair, and instantly said, "Mollie could not reach me up here!" Success!

On the way out of the parking lot to go home, she said, "Mommy it's two. One, two." and held up two fingers and counted them. I said, "Two what?" She replied, "Two girls! Me and you! One, two!" I told her that she was exactly right.

THREE
After visiting the doctor for the second time in one week, I told the girls we'd go meet Brad for lunch. Natalie kept telling me, "I want the two girls." I said ok, not really knowing what she meant. I figured she was talking about a song or something. She kept repeating it though, so finally I told her I wasn't sure what she meant, and she'd have to explain. Finally, she hemmmd and hawwwed and said, "I want the two girls. One, two (holding up two fingers). Just Mommy and Natalie. To eat." Ooops! It took a few minutes, but I finally convinced her that we'd go again sometime, but it would also be fun that day to go with Daddy & Mollie too. :)

FOUR
After Natalie's ballet class last night, we got in the car, and she said, "Mommy, I want the two girls. One, two (holding up two fingers). I wanna eat a chick-a-way, have chichen nuggets and lemonade and a TOY. And sit at the biiiiiig table." What can I say? She got her wish. :)

Natalieisms, Take 1

Me(watching Natalie dancing around the living room): Natalie, come here a minute. I want to tell you something.
Nat (comes over): What?
Me (whispering): You are beautiful!
Nat (eyes light up, HUUUGE smile): Like Ariel?
Me (laughing): Sure. Like Ariel.
Nat (completely satisfied): Prince Eric tells Ariel that she is beauuuuuutiful!

What's Going On

So I've been a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad blogger lately. I know this. I'm sorry. I find that on top of the "usual" life stuff - being wifey, mommy, and working outside the home - I can only handle a few other things thrown in there. So when you add in more than occasional sickness (Mollie's ears) and buying and selling a house, I can barely fit in time for anything else! I miss taking more photos and blogging about the girlies, but if I have to choose between enjoying them or recording them, I'm going to have to go with enjoying them. :)

I don't know that this will be a super thorough update, but today marks a pretty big change for us, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to record it. The girls won't be going to in-home daycare with our friend Katie anymore - they started at a daycare center today. They visited the center about 6 weeks ago and did great there for two days, so we all feel like it's going to go really well. Mollie's such a big girl now - walking and allllmost running, not taking morning naps, no bottles at all, no bedtime milk, and even getting pretty darn good at using utensils by herself - that I think she'll do super great! I think Natalie's going to really enjoy the preschool aspect of her new class. So as much as I know they'll miss spending so much time with Katie and her girls - I think we're all still in a good place. We will always hold their time with Katie in a special place, and we're of course we're all still great friends and we're excited for their new adventure as well!

Natalie also started ballet class at Victory Church last week, and she had more fun than I could have even imagined! Her teacher is my friend Jesi, and I think knowing the teacher got Natalie off on a really great foot. I have a few photos (they have to wear a bun - EEK! How adorable is that?), and I'll try to post those soon. She goes once a week, and her class basically follows a school year, so she'll have a Christmas program before a winter break, then at the end of the year they are doing a "dansical" of Mary Poppins, which Natalie LOVES, so I think she'll be thrilled about that!

We're still hard at work selling our house and praying that everything works out so that we can actually purchase "the new house" that we have under contract. Brad has been holding an Open House every single Sunday, and this past Sunday was our most promising one yet. Having Open Houses every week is pretty tough, especially when the "usual" time for them is about the exact same time as Mollie's nap. It makes things interesting, for sure! I have to say, it'll be nice when we have our Sundays back, but we'll keep on having them pretty steadily until we have a contract.

I've got about a million Natalie stories that I need to add, but I better go for now. I'm going to try to do better about blogging, but if you're not seeing me here, you can assume that I'm cleaning house and enjoying life! ;) :)

More Excitement!

Well, after countering back and forth all weekend, they accepted our (counter)offer! YAY! It's a contingent offer though, so we're still hard at work selling our house - and it really is a lot of work!

Just thought I'd post a quick update and ask for prayers and good thoughts for someone to LOVE our house enough to buy it - SOON! :) :)

Exciting Stuff!

Our house is officially on the market, and we are in the market for something with a better location and a little more room. Well, what we found was something with a LOT more room, but it's just an amazing deal, and we cannot pass it up! We're putting an offer on it tomorrow, but it's all kind of up in the air because we don't have an offer on ours yet. So we can use any prayers or good thoughts that you have to spare! :)

View when you walk in the front door. There is one room upstairs. I don't have a photo of that, but it's a really good-sized game room or theater room - or whatever room! :)


View from the stairs of the formal dining/front living room.


Same area, but this view is from the kitchen:


Front Room/Study:


Kitchen - not fond of the wall color, but it's just paint (we thought it might be wallpaper) and paint's easy to change! :)








Back Living Room. See that built-in bookcase? It's actually a storage area . . . or what I affectionately refer to as a HARRY POTTER ROOM! How awesome is that, you guys? What little girl wouldn't LOVE a little room like that? Sorry didn't get a pic!


View of the stairs from the back living room:


OK back to the front of the house . . . here's the laundry room - nice and big! :)


The Hallway


Front bedroom:


Middle Bedroom:


Master Bedroom:


Master Bath:


Apparently they had a thing for red. I don't care for it here either. At least alllllll the other rooms are neutral! :)


Master Closet:


Hall Bathroom:




So there you have it. Certainly not officially ours, but we're really excited about it, and it's looking good so far! EEEK! :)