Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Dance show!

Natalie and I love to watch dance shows on TV together. We've watched "Dancing with the Stars", and we're currently hooked on "So You Think You Can Dance". After my last surgeries, I had to take it easy for a while. Natalie kept me entertained by doing the most beautiful, fantastic dance shows for me. Here are a few pictures:
Such dynamic moves...

Such great balance... So graceful...
Fortunately, I got some videos of it. Here's one of them:
She found the song on a very old CD somewhere in our collection. It is Johnny Logan's "Hold me now". She has good taste - I liked that one too when I was a kid / teenager...

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Happy Independence Day

We had a great Fourth of July!

Most of the day, it was to warm to be outside, so we found fun artwork and other things to do inside:
Decorating the flag cake. Blueberries for the blue part, then bananas and strawberries for the stripes.
Our friends came over to celebrate later in the day. When it finally cooled down enough to be outside, we sat around the fire for a while:
The kids, just hanging out.

Natalie and Aubriella - best friends.
Later, we moved up to the road to have a better surface for the fireworks. Most of our fireworks was the stuff that goes on the ground so the kids could see it. And of course, we could see a lot of fireworks on the horizon.
Hanging out on a blanket.
The guys lit all the fireworks for us. After struggling with the lighters for a while, Karsten came up with a better solution:
The blowtorch!

Monday, September 17, 2012

A new toy

Back to some of the pictures I uploaded but didn't get around to posting until now...

Natalie got a new toy - her own ATV!
She couldn't wait to get going!
She put her helmet on, and Daddy showed her how to use it.
At first, Daddy followed her around, holding on to a safety rope. If he pulled the rope, the motor would stop. He never had any use for the rope, but he sure got his exercise in that day running after her! Pretty soon, he took the rope of - Natalie didn't need it.
Of course, it didn't take long before Natalie was out riding in a princess dress.
Full speed ahead!
She loves going up and down the small slopes we have around the house, and up and down the mount. And she'll do slalom around the trees. She's really good at using it, and she seems to really enjoy driving around the house, waving to us, and once in a while stopping by to say hi.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

First day of Kindergarten!

Tuesday this week was Natalie's first day of Kindergarten! Of course, we had to take the obligatory first day of school pictures:
Such a pretty girl.
Natalie had chosen her outfit a few weeks ago at Walmart. It is so pretty. You can't really see it in the photos, but it has lots of little shiny sparkle-thingies on it. Natalie thought it looked like a princess dress.

A picture with the new backpack.
And it wouldn't be Natalie if there wasn't a silly one!
Karsten and I waited outside daycare to see her go on the bus for the first day of school:
Waiting for the bus. She was so happy.
Time to get on the bus.
Natalie seems to be very happy to be a Kindergartner. She is so ready for this next step, to take on this new challenge. We're so proud of her!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Tooth Fairy

On Monday last week, Natalie lost her first tooth! She was so excited. It happened just as she was walking into daycare. It was so awesome to see her - one minute she was wiggling her tooth in her mouth, the next she had it in her hand. What a surprised and happy expression she had! She gladly let me take a few pictures when we got home that night:

So happy, she just had to dance.
Say Cheese...
Another good shot.
And the really giggly one.
Of course, the Tooth Fairy came that night. Natalie got a few coins, a toothbrush holder, and some pretties to match her new, pretty smile!