Dear Santa....

Please bring cardboard boxes for our kids.

Reading in the sun

We had a lazy Thursday at home with mommy and while I was doing the dishes, it got very quiet in the computer room.  I came around the corner and this is what I found...

And yes, those are coffee stains on her shirt.  Turns out she likes Pumpkin Spice coffee.

Flashback to a year ago...

I just finished wrestling Natalie into taking a nap.  Whew.  When she needs a nap....she needs it an hour ago.  After I got her into bed I sat down at the computer and was doing a little file organization of old pictures and videos from my cell phone.  I found this video which was taken exactly one year ago...

http://youtu.be/7lP9us8o2vk

Halloween 2012

Halloween was a bit chaotic this year, but it was successful.  The purple witch, the bumble bee and the hot dog all had their age-appropriate fun and Scott and I were able to relax a little after Natalie was in bed and get rid of all of our candy while Katie was out trick-or-treating with the 2 girls across the street.

Playing Legos on the floor while mommy makes her annual "Mummy-dogs" for Halloween dinner.

All dressed up and ready to go!

"Hey ---- what about me guys?  What am I supposed to do tonight?!?"

Natalie really wanted to go trick or treating with the big girls.  Maybe next time...

Natalie just scored her first piece of candy from the neighbors!

Our fantastic neighbors, Carter and Bonnie

Paul Ryan cardboard cutout and our neighbor Carter.
He gave out jello shots and margaritas to the adults and candy to the kids.

4 houses was enough for Natalie.  She was in bed sound asleep a few minutes after this photo was taken.

Manic Monday? Nat says Monday Funday!!

I picked Natalie up from school this afternoon and as she typically does, she sees me come in the door and immediately says "water" and "blanket".  She collects her things and then walks over to me at the door.  It's bizarre and awesome.  Today after she did this, I picked her up and was talking to her teacher, Miss Armie.  As I'm talking to the teacher, Natalie begins to say "bye bye" to her friends, which is not unusual.  But then this little monkey takes it one step further and begins to say "bye bye emmie" while looking at Emily.  Whaaaat?  Then "bye bye Cott (Scott)."  Seriously?!?  Then "bye bye aya (should be Ava)".  Holy cow --- you know your friends by name?  You're only here 2 days a week!!!  Well played kiddo.

Then tonight Natalie was in an amazingly playful and photogenic mood after dinner...

"Cheeeeeeeese"

"Hi!"

Doing some baby pushups with momma

"Gusssss"
On a side note: puppies and babies DO mix.  He is the most calm and tolerant dog I've ever seen in my life.  Hence the toddler finger in his eye.

She can now get up into these chairs with no assistance.  She sits at the table and plays the piano and kicks her legs back and forth.  It's amazingly cute.  Guess we should save some money for a piano.
"Pano (piano).  Ong (song)"

"Mommy.  Cheeeeeeeeeeese!  Cheese.  CHEESE!"

You can't tell because I missed it, but she is flexing her muscles.

Saturday morning hike for Sally

It was this past week a year ago that Sally-Wally moved to Doggie Heaven.  It was a very sad time for our family and really impacted Katie.  Having never had a family pet, I was surprised at the emotions and the loss you feel -- after all, she was just a dog, right?  I've learned now that dogs are not just dogs and the loss you feel for a good pet is equal to the loss of a human family member.

Sally was cremated and we scattered her ashes off the beaten path atop a hill overlooking her favorite trail.  Her final resting spot is located between two Palo Verde trees somewhere in the mountains near our house where she used to love hiking off the leash.  When she used to go hiking with us she would run ahead on the trail and lay down and wait in the shade for us to catch up.  Katie painted a tombstone and wrote Sally a letter.  She put the letter and a picture in a ziplock bag and left it under the rock for Sally to read.

One year later and the paint still looks great!  The area has not been disturbed.

Gus with his "bacon" tongue and Katie having a little quiet time with Sally.

After we each let out our best Sally howl, Katie was all smiles again and ready to hike.

I love that Gus blinked.  Come on lil dude, pay attention!

Gus has blossomed into quite the awesome trail dog. 
He either follows right behind you or returns as soon as you say his name.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.  She rocks.

Once we get down to the main trail and close to the car, we let Natalie do a little hiking on her own.

All smiles!

Situps with daddy

Natalie currently loves to do whatever you are doing.  She saw daddy doing situps on the floor and decided that she wanted to do them also.  So here's Natalie trying to work off her belly...

http://youtu.be/hfuV62_cVz4

Fun with paint!!

Natalie was very careful not to get paint on herself ... until I painted her hands to make handprints.  Then she continued to say "mess" every time she realized her hands had paint on them.

Fall is here!!!

Ahhhhh, Fall is finally here...so we went for a morning hike at SanTan Regional Park.

Nat with her hat in her "pack pack"

"Manimal" crackers once we got to the top

Gus was a good boy and got some off-leash time.  He is a trail dog for sure....but he needs to get in shape.

 

Hiking with daddy.  This lasted for about 10 minutes...until she tripped.

Hiking is hard.

Desert Botanical Gardens

Last Friday, our friends the Carranos (Anita, Elizabeth, Julia and Jonathan) and Natalie and I tried to go to the Zoo to see the "manimals" on our day off.  Natalie was so excited - she kept saying "manimals" in the car while we were on our way.  It was perfectly overcast with a forecast high of 75.  PERFECT.

But when we arrived at 10, the parking lot was completely full and there was a line about a half mile long.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Apparently everyone else had the same idea as Anita and I did.  Bummer. 

So rather than fight the crowds, we decided to go next door to the Desert Botanical Gardens instead.  We got ourselves an annual membership and intend to go back a few times while the weather is nice.

We saw lots of "tactus" (cactus), "flowwwwers," "treeees" and "ushes" (bushes) while we were there. We had a nice little picnic lunch on a bench under a large tree.



It is Monarch Butterfly season so we were able to go into the exhibit and look all all the butterflies.  As soon as we went in, Natalie let out a very loud "oooooooooooooooooooh" and started pointing at all the butterflies.  She sat very still and was very quietly observing all the butterflies around us.

"Oooooooooooooooh.  Ooooooooooooooh.  Bubba fly."

Miss Elizabeth was so patient looking at the butterflies and holding her finger out hoping the butterfly would crawl onto her finger.  It never did, but she sat there and concentrated on holding still for 4-5 minutes, which is nearly an eternity for a 4 year old.

 

Elizabeth wanted so badly for one to land on her finger,
but she settled for one landing on her shirt.

Fall is here!

Fall is finally here!!!  This week it has been in the mid-80's, finally.  Perfect!!  Since the weather is so amazing, Natalie and Gus and I went to the park to run around outside with the soccer ball for a bit... 

Silly girls

This rocking stuffed elephant was Katie's when she was little.  Since then we loaned it to good friends of ours and their two girls used it.  Now it is back and Natalie is getting a chance with it too. She loves it!!

Quite the popular elephant!

How to Speak Wookie

This book was a gift from my sister, and the girls had lots of fun listening to daddy read it to them and then listening to the correct Wookie pronunciation of the phrase.

America the Beautiful

This is an old video, but now that we have a working computer ... I'm playing catch-up.

http://youtu.be/6m4KBLtro7A

Week with Grandparents

Grandpa ("Bop-pa") Husker and Grandma Becky came to stay with us at the Casa de Hayes for a while.  Daddy had already left for a backpacking trip with his buddies when they arrived and then mommy got up very early one morning a day or so after they arrived to meet daddy in Colorado for their annual kid-free summer vacation in Colorado.

Katie was at her mommy's house most of the days they were here but Bop-pa and Grandma got to see her after school everyday.  They took her to her swimming practice and let me splash around in the wading pool. Bop-pa and I read tons of books, many of them several times in the same day.  I can easily identify items on the page like shoes, mice, clock, moon, comb, books, dog. One day they took me for a ride in their really cool mini-van (I heard my mom say she wants to sell the Bronco and get one) and I got my first taste of Chic Fil A.  Grandma was very surprised that I ate the entire 4-piece nugget kids meal with fruit.  She even shared her waffle fries with me -- they were delicious!  We took a few trips in the car to Target and Home Depot and I got to walk around and look at things with Bop-pa while Grandma was doing the shopping.

Reading Goodnight Moon with Bop-pa

Every day after breakfast had a chance to settle, Bop-pa took me swimming for an hour or so in the backyard.  If he wasn't moving fast enough to get ready to get into the pool, I would go into my room and bring out my swimsuit or a swimmie diaper (if I could reach it) for Grandma to help me put on.

 

 

I'm not sure who looks more excited in this picture.

Swimming to Bop-pa looks a lot more like flying in this picture.

Sporting the new swim hoodie from Grandma

Grandma brought a set of matching pajamas for the Katie and me.  After a really fun bath with Grandma one night, I put on my new froggie nightgown.  A little while later, Katie came out of her room wearing hers and I thought it looked familiar.  So I looked down at my PJs and then up at Katie's and said "wow" before I started laughing.

After daddy and mommy returned home, I showed them how much I like to read books.  Since then, we've probably read Cinderella ("ella"), Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Moon ("moooooon") and various other books together at least 4-5 times each.  Every time I point to things in the book and tell you the word for that item.

 

The house is now very quiet and dinners have been boring now that mom is cooking again.  We were all a little sad to see Bop-pa and Grandma leave but we hope they have fun on their road trip home through Colorado and during their visit to see Auntie Adrienne in Denver.  We are glad we were finally able to convince them that summertime in Arizona, while yes, it is hot, is not so bad after all.  It just gives you an excuse to spend as much time as possible indoors or in the pool.

We love you --- come back soon!!!

Love, Natalie