CHRISTMAS EVE 2009

CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Natalyn and I started the day with making a birthday cake for Jesus. Natalyn really likes to cook and make special treats! Later in the evening, we put icing on the cake. Natalyn lasted on the job for about 10 seconds because once she noticed all the yummy icing on the spatula she decided to treat herself to it. Bottom line: I finished icing the cake!
DELICIOUS!!

Here is Natalyn before we left to go to the Candle Light Service at our church. Don't you just love her red boots!! I DO!!!!

Natalyn dancing on the stage at church after the service. (the icing has kicked in!hahah)

Natalyn is getting ready to head to bed, she has left a cookie and some milk for Santa and carrots for the the reindeer.

A few days before Christmas, Natalyn watched a show on TV called "Prep & Landing", it is about two elf's whose job is to prep houses for Santa's entry. Natalyn asked me how Santa gets into our house, I told her that Santa comes through our fireplace, she looked at the fireplace, her eyes doubled in size and the color drained from her face. I immediately figured out that this freaked her out completely, so I tried to back track and tell her that Santa will probably just magically make the presents appear in our living room and never come in our house. She looked at me for awhile, I don't think she bought it!!

Throughout the month of December I have been trying to explain to Natalyn the true meaning of Christmas and that Jesus was born on Christmas day. On Christmas Eve when I went to put Natalyn in her bed we were talking about this again. Natalyn asked where Jesus is? I told her He is in Heaven. She then asked when Jesus was going to come to our house? I tried to explain that he is always here in spirit. Natalyn's eyes bug out again and she says, like a ghost?! GEEZ!! Should I have to have these deep theological discussions with a 2 yr old?!

MAIL FOR SANTA/EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT

We headed to the post office for Natalyn to mail her Christmas wish list to Santa. Yes, Natalyn has a balloon on her wrist, we had just came from Arvest at Wal-mart and she always has to get a purple balloon! On Natalyn's list she asked for 2 green swings(we had already let her know that a purple swing doesn't exist) and a new Mator.

Our good friend Susan called in the afternoon and asked if she could drop off Natalyn's Christmas present. When she came by, Natalyn was asleep, so I woke her up. That is why she looks so happy!

Aren't these just so cute!! Natalyn and I will get a lot of use out of these!!

MAKING TREATS/BOWLING WITH COUSINS

Natalyn and I spent one morning making special treats. Natalyn is a really good quality control inspector. She kept licking the spoons and I would have to go get a clean one. We went through ALOT of spoons. We covered everything we could find in the house with chocolate!

YUMO!

In the afternoon, we met up with cousins Kenzie Kay and Keeley. I took the girls bowling while we waited for Scott to get off work.

Natalyn actually won (with the help of the ball guide and bumpers!)

After we went bowling we met up with Scott and ate at Abuelo's (which I LOVE!). Then we went back to our house for the girls to exchange Christmas gifts. They had alot of fun!

CHRISTMAS PARTY WITH MIA

Natalyn had a play date/Christmas Party with her good friend Mia. Here are the cupcakes that Natalyn made just for the event!Natalyn and Mia being silly!
Natalyn was most impressed with the ring pops I gave her and Mia!

Mia gave this extra special gift to Natalyn!

Before Natalyn took her nap, we put the gingerbread house together. We had a lot of fun and I will definitely make this a tradition to do with Natalyn for years to come!

Natalyn carefully licked every piece of candy before applying them to the house!

SWING SET FUN!!!

SWING SET FUN!!!

And when I say "FUN" I mean fun for Scott!! As you can see Natalyn got a swing set (Natalyn refers to it as a park) for Christmas. Scott put it together a few weekends before Christmas, and the weather cooperated for the most part. It only took Scott a couple of days to put it together! Natalyn testing out the deck!
I think she likes it, don't you?!

The finished product!!

JUST PICTURES OF NAT-NAT

Here are just some various pictures of Natalyn over the month of December.

I got Natalyn to stand still for a second to snap this cute picture! She looks just like a little angel!! Here is Natalyn painting with her buddies at church on Tuesday mornings. We put peppermint extract in the red paint, the kiddos really liked it!!

I made this outfit for Natalyn to wear to church the Sunday before Christmas, Scott thought Natalyn looked like an elf!! HOW RUDE!!! (I thought this dress looked a little like the apple dresses Mammoo made for me and my cousin Kelli to wear when we were little girls!)

NEW YORK CITY

SCOTT AND GRETCHEN ONLY VACATION!!!

Scott had a conference Dec 7-9th in NYC, so we headed on the 4th for a long weekend. The grandparents were gracious enough to keep Natalyn so it was an actual vacation. Even though I am not fond of the cold, it was alot of fun. NYC was beautifully decorated for the holidays, I know I just BEAMED tourist, but OH-WELL!!! At first I did not like the city, it's just too big and entirely too many people, but it does grow on you. I would definitely go back, but in the summer! OH-and there is NO WAY that I would ever want to live there!

We stayed at Club Quarters at Rockefeller Center. And here is the gorgeous tree at Rockefeller Center. Trust me, it is way more impressive at night, during the day you can see all the cables and such, so it isn't very pretty. Also, I know it is a huge tree, but it looks kinda tiny next to all the sky scrapers!!! I can't believe there was a carousal inside Toys R Us. The Fayetteville store needs to look into adding this attraction!!

On Sunday night, we went to see The Lion King. It was so awesome!! Scott seemed to enjoy it about as much as a person who hates musicals can!!

This sculpture was originally outside the Twin Towers and survived the collapse of them. It is currently at Battery Park and will be moved back to Ground Zero after the Freedom Tower is built. The Freedom Tower will be 1,776 ft high-A: to prove a point to the world that America overcame the tragedy of 9/11 and B: The US signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. (I know I sound like a tour guide, we actually spent the large part of Saturday with tour guides on a bus tour-we learned a lot of interesting tid-bits!)

Scott and me going on a carriage ride through Central Park. This seems to be the only place where there is grass in the entire city!

I totally love this picture! We are at Times Square heading to see Lion King.