Aquarium

A few weeks ago we took Chelsea to the aquarium. She loves fish and to her all fish are called Nemo.

Chelsea and her Uncle Sean.

Joe and Chelsea waiting patiently to pet the stingrays. She loved them so much she wanted to jump in the water with them.

Chelsea really loves Sponge Bob... and no, I do not let her watch the show. There is a Sponge Bob app she likes to play with on Joe's phone.

Did you know there are tigers at the aquarium? Well there are three of them. Who would have thought?

lately

It's about the end of January, so time for an update. New Years was fun. We went to Cheesecake factory with some friends, and then they came back over to our place to play games. We watched the countdown on some random Mexican channel (since we got rid of cable, all that comes in is Mexican and televangelist programming). At midnight we went out in the bitter cold to light off some fireworks left over from 4th of July. We haven't stayed up that late for a long time, and probably won't until next year rolls around. Chelsea's awesome grandparents took her for the night, so that was equally as awesome as the fireworks.

January has been quite the busy month; shoveling a lot of snow, my parents came for a visit (which is always a ton of fun and we hate to see them go!), work has been crazy, trying to finish up Chelsea's new room, making room for the baby, and finishing up my MBA applications.

Here are some recent pictures:

Doesn't Nat look great? 8.5 more weeks to go! Can't wait.

Happy Happy Birthday, Chelsea Dear

Chelsea turned two! We had a birthday celebration on Sunday with Nat's family at our house. It was complete with pizza, cupcakes, and lots of fun gifts for Chelsea. We streamed live (thanks, Ustream app!) to my parents who were in Philadelphia. Technology is great.

Monday (her real birthday), Nat made pumpkin muffins and we sang happy birthday again at breakfast. Chelsea really likes the candle and being sung to. Later that night we all went out again to Maggiano's, and boy was that delicious.

We're so happy to have Chelsea in our family. She is the cutest little girl ever. Recently her vocabulary has exploded, she gives the biggest hugs and kisses, and has become very silly. Her favorite game to play right now is to say, "where's the baby" and then point to her stomach. We then say "Noooo" which of course makes her laugh really hard. She does it over and over (and over again).

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The birthday cupcakes.

Eyes fixated on the flame.

The loot.

Breakfast muffin and candle.

All ready for her big night in Denver.

Merry Christmas!

This was our first Christmas just the three of us, and it was awesome! I haven't always been Christmas' biggest fan, but now that Chelsea is old enough to enjoy it, it is a lot more fun.

My parents got her a kitchen set. As soon as she came down the stairs she said, "kitchen.... KITCHEN!!!" and ran right over there. The only thing that could perk her interest after the kitchen high was chocolate!

After opening presents we went down to Nat's parents house, opened more presents, and ate way too many leftovers (so delicious). In all, this has been my favorite Christmas ever!

The awesomely awesome retro kitchen:


Mmm, candy!


More presents:


Getting bundled up to go to Grandma's in her new coat:

maybe next year

Santa showed up at our ward Christmas party tonight... She was crying even before she sat down.


Is this "torturing" your child or "creating memories"?

addendum

Natalie is a fantastic wife, but sometimes she misses the best pictures to blog about. But you see, marriage is all about balancing each other out. Here are some items she missed!

My Mom's face when she saw the rooster cake (priceless):

The tradition of rooster gifts to my Mom dates back to the late 90's. It all started with a giant ceramic rooster that she proudly displayed in the kitchen. She loves it, and my siblings hate it... life doesn't get much better than that.

Pre-Halloween hanging out in the sink (naturally):

Our very classy Thanksgiving, complete with paper towels as napkins:

The second cups were for our array of sparkling ciders... the favorite was pomegranate. When did that fruit become so popular? I feel like I hadn't even heard of one until two years ago. This Thanksgiving is of special notoriety as I carved my first Turkey. It was a tremendous success thanks to a quick internet tutorial. And yes, we are still eating leftovers and loving every minute of it.

Don't Touch

This week I have been putting the Christmas decorations up. On Monday night I put up the tree after Chelsea had gone to bed. On Tuesday morning I heard Chelsea exclaim "Tree!" as she was coming down the stairs. I think she likes the tree, maybe too much since she is always trying to touch it. Whenever I touch something on the tree to fix it she tells me "Don't touch!" I guess she has heard the command many times over the last couple of days.

I also got some stockings for Joe and myself this year. I think they are cute. I love the penguin so of course that one is mine.

I've also had fun making some decorations this year. I made some candle holders using a snowflake hole punch and mod podge.

I also made some wreaths for the front door and the windows in my dinning room. I got the idea from Pottery Barn. I'm not sure if I am completely satisfied with it yet. It may need a few more ornaments.

My favorite thing I made this year is my advent calendar. I love it and think it turned out great! I got the idea from Pottery Barn Kids and decided it was something I could make. It's a good thing I started it before Halloween because I just finished it on Saturday night, just in time. I have put little fruity tootsie rolls in the pockets for Chelsea to have each day. It has proven to be a little bit of a problem with trying to prevent her from touching it too much. Oh well.