Side

It's a dreary day today, and it looks like it's cold out, but it's in the upper 50's/low 60's. Brad took Natalie (out)side this morning for a bit. Needless to say, whe was very upset to come in. She was sobbing, "siiiiiide . . . siiiidddde . . . " at the back door. She played for quite a while though!

Japanese Mum's Chicken

I just made another great recipe from the The Busy Mom's Cookbook blog, and it was so good and really simple! It's Japanese Mum's Chicken, and here's the recipe. I didn't want to go to the store and had everything but the chili peppers, so I used a pinch of chili powder instead. Also, I cut up boneless skinless chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and only simmered for about 12 minutes instead of her 20. It was great!

Easter

We had a great Easter yesterday. It was a long day, but lots of fun. We headed out pretty early Sunday morning and met most of the family at Gram & Opa's church. Natalie did so great in the service - she's used to going to LifeKids while we attend church, so sitting through a regular church service is totally foreign to her. Aunt Kimme was a big help in keeping Natalie occupied, and she seemed to take her cue from us and whenever she talked, she whispered. :) We spent the rest of the day at Nonny & Poppy's.

Mommy & Nat in the middle of getting ready. Isn't her dress soooo pretty? Mammy & Pappy sent it to her!

Opening her Easter basket from Mommy & Daddy.

This chick straw bottle was her favorite thing. She carried it around and drank water out of it alllll day long.

The ears she didn't care for so much. Aunt Kimme wore them most of the day.Eating cool whip leftovers from the yummy strawberry trifle that Mommy, Kimme, and Nonny put together.

Having fun with Gram.

Playing with Josh, Carolyn, & Gavin (who was trying on his birthday present from Kimme - a batman mask!).

Finally, naptime. She slept HARD.

Hanging Out with Papa & Oma

My dad and Sylvia came to visit us this morning, and Natalie had lots of fun with them showing off her puzzle skills, tickling, playing catch, and chasing Casey. Here are some cute pics from today. Oh, and I just LOVE this dress on her (yay again for awesome deals at JBF!).

Tickling Papa. :)Not too sure what this motion is that she's been doing today, but it's totally hilarious in person. I think she's "calling" Casey.

Potato Soup

Well some kind of Susie Homemaker bug must have bitten me today because I made not one, but two meals from scratch! We had a really good potato soup recipe for dinner - you can check it out here if you're interested: http://busymomscookbook.blogspot.com/2009/04/quick-and-easy-potato-soup.html It was tempting to try because you don't have to cook, peel, or slice any potatoes - you use frozen hashbrowns! It was very yummy! Natalie agreed - she ate two whole bowls!

Makin' Pizza

Today I decided to make homemade pizza for lunch. Natalie "helped" me make one a few weeks ago and seemed to really enjoy it. Well, today something went wrong with my dough. Not just a little wrong, horribly wrong. It's just a package, all you do is add water, and I've used it dozens of times, so I have no clue what went wrong, but Mommy proceeded to make a mess. Natalie was very intrigued by this messy, wet dough and my attempt to add flour to dry it out and make it more like dough than like soup. Natalie was into the flour, the dough, the napkins, everything. She kept putting flour in her mouth, and I'm not sure why because I can't imagine that it tasted good at all.

We (I) finally got the dough situated on the pizza stone, and it was Natalie's FAVORITE part - putting the good stuff on the pizza. She loves tasting the sauce, the cheese (I had to give her her own little pile to keep her hands off the pizza), and surprisingly, the pepperoni! She could not get enough of it! I took some really fast pictures while we were cooking. :) Luckily, she had a bath right before we started, and I didn't plan on serving the pizza to anyone but the three of us!

Swimming Classes

We enrolled Natalie in swimming classes at Oklahoma City Community College, and we had our first class today. Natalie did really well! She had lots of fun in the water! She's learning to kick her feet and blow bubbles. She only clammed up when the instructor came over and wanted her to do specific things. She can be shy and she might have been a little on the tired side. Hopefully she'll warm up to her after meeting her more times. We'll be going every Saturday for 6 weeks, minus the week we'll be in Florida. She'll have 4 classes under her belt before we go, so hopefully she'll be more comfortable in the water during our vacation. Katie and Brooke are in the same class (it's for 18 mos - 3 yrs), and they had lots of fun too. Here are some pictures that Brad took of our first class.