2010 Christmas Dance Show

Pictures and videos from Natalie's dance show!

Preparations For the Big Show

One of the three songs they will be doing for their Christmas Show. This class started out with about 9 boys and girls. It's now down to five girls - and two of them have red hair.

What are the odds of that?!

This is what I'm supposed to be doing, right?

Thanksgiving

The Gradual Progression of Revealing the Tummy -

Silliness was a theme of the day.

Flexible Monkey

Natalie had so much fun this Halloween. We went door-to-door this year for the first time. By then end of the hour and a half, she was telling me which houses we could go to (the ones with the lights on), ringing the doorbells, saying "trick-or-treat" and saying "thank you" after getting candy.

By the end of the night she was saying that her Elmo bucket was getting "so heavy" and she didn't want to stop! She can't wait for next year when Daddy will be able to go with us. Maybe we'll even make him dress up too!

The Finished Product

Natalie and I made her apron today. It only took us 2 1/2 hours - I thought it would take days since she was helping me. She is so excited to wear it that she wanted to wear it to bed!

Monkeys in aprons

As of yesterday Natalie and I have started a new project - making aprons. This weekend when we were up in Grand Rapids, we saw some cute kid-sized aprons and she kept saying "want one peeze?" Though it was hard to say no to such good manners, I did not want to spend over $20 on something that I could easily potentially do on my own at home. And Natalie and I could have a good time making it together.

So, last night we went to JoAnn's and bought fabric for not only one, but TWO aprons (I decided I wanted to make one for myself as well since I've been trying to do more cooking and I don't have one). I had an easy time finding fabric for my apron, but Natalie's was another story.

When I asked her what she wanted on her apron she said monkeys (she is going to be a monkey for Halloween and has been obsessed with them lately). Do you how hard it was to find monkey fabric?! I thought that would be something that would be easy, but we could only find two - and one of those said "slumber party" all over it. Luckily the other one that we found was cute and she liked it.

We will post pictures showing the progress we've made (or not made) as well as pictures of the finished product.

Shrine Circus 2010

The BEST part of the whole circus! These elephants were amazing. They were offering rides on them during the intermission, but Natalie said, "not ride elephants!".

A new attitude

This week we tried a new technique to get Natalie dancing. Though it was embarrassing for one of us, it really helped the other one. Natalie would only stay on the dance floor during the ballet portion of class if I was there, dancing, along side her. Adam was kind enough to take a picture of the moment.

Jesus Loves Me

Try #2

So, as excited as Natalie was to go back to dance class this week, she was a little more hesitant to get on the dance floor. Here's pretty much as far as she got. She wouldn't even go on the floor until it was tap time. She just wanted to "watch".

Natalie's First Dance Class

Dance Class

I know, it's been a while since our last post and this title isn't very creative. The only excuses I have are that I haven't been taking very many pictures (therefore don't have any to post) and I'm getting over a cold and running low on sleep and any creativity I may have had.

Here are some pictures from dance class tonight. I am hoping to get some editing done on the videos tomorrow, so that you don't have to watch 45 minutes of video.

Ballet slippers (as Natalie calls them)

Tap shoes

Checking out all the other boys and girls in her class

Another redhead!

Doesn't she just look so happy?!

Two and a half years old and this is her first time being taught in a group with other kids. I guess she did pretty well (no tears), but hopefully next time she'll be more interested in what the teachers are doing instead of finding her 'X' on the ground and yelling "Mommy! Found it!"

Better luck next time

We didn't succeed with the potty training. Natalie didn't want to sit on the chair, so we're not going to force it right now.

Potty Training

Here we go! Tomorrow starts our first day of potty training! We'll keep you posted on our progress.

We are still alive

Between not having a working memory card for the camera and being busy with the summer, we haven't been taking as many pictures. Here are a few random ones.

Watching Elmo

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Our New Adventure

In order to save money in the future and to get Natalie started on learning some basic skills (and because I think it will be fun) we are starting a home pre-school with her.

It is a Bible-based curriculum that will help her learn more about the Bible, colors, letters, numbers, animals, science, shapes, etc. It includes lots of worksheets that we can do together as well as activities, book/song suggestions and lots more.

Hopefully this will also give us something to do on the days when it's raining or when we're just looking for something to do!

Now, we'll just have to see if she's interested or not!

Children's Museum

Natalie and I went to the Children's Museum on Sunday with Nana Kim, Aunt Stacy and Cousin Marissa.

Painting water on the rocks

The girls got to color on their face and both wanted matching Elmos on their foreheads.

Playing with water pressure

Boat racing

Fountain!

Such a dork - I know. But Natalie LOVED it!

Please ignore the crazy dancing woman with the black shirt on. She was just enjoying dancing with her daughter and not paying attention to the grandmother videotaping the whole experience.

Minnehaha Falls

We had a picnic in the park - Natalie and Adam shared a PB & J sandwich

Twins Game

I know, the Twins game we went to was weeks ago. So, you might ask why I haven't posted pictures yet. Well, I just haven't had (or made) the time to do it.

Although it was a great time and we got to see the crazy squirrel...

... the game got rained out and we didn't get to see any runs. We're planning on going back again to hopefully see a whole game!

Pool Time!

Birthday Party

This is for all of you that thought I wouldn't get Natalie's birthday pictures up until her third birthday - ha! It only took me a month!

Fishing Opener

Though we didn't catch any fish, we had a great time on Saturday at some lake in Lino Lakes - Sorry, can't remember the name of it!

Natalie had more fun watching for the fish than actually trying to catch them.