All Dressed Up

No one in our family, including me, get dressed up very often.  So when I put the kids in their cute Christmas outfits before heading to my parents' house, I had to do a quick photo shoot before we left the house.  They were surprisingly cooperative about this--no tears from either of them!

Nathan's "cheese" face

Awwww

Not sure what caught their attention, but I love their sweet little profiles.  This is a reminder that I'd love to get a silhouette done of them.  My mom had some of us in the house when I was growing up and I always liked them.

Well, no smiles, but natural expressions on both of their faces.

Sweet baby girl

Sweet baby boy

Nathan's way of telling me that it was time to end the photo shoot and go to Grandma's house! :)

Christmas with the Fowles

After presents and breakfast at our house, we headed over to Dan and Nancy's house for our Christmas celebration with the Fowle clan.  Nathan brought his new limousine so he could show everyone his favorite gift from Santa.  

One of the great things about Florence and Basil moving back to Michigan is that we are able to celebrate holidays with them.  They moved to Florida the summer before the first Christmas Todd and I spent together, so although he grew up having them at Christmas, it was my first time having them there.  We hung out with Flo, Basil, Nancy and Dan while waiting for Stuart and Erin to make their trek across the state to join us (they are such troopers for traversing the state to make sure they're there for important family gatherings on both sides of the family).

Once they arrived, Jordan joined in the fun, and we all dug in to the present opening.  Jord, Nancy and Dan all cooked us a delicious Christmas dinner of roast chicken root vegetables and fruit salad.  It was a super relaxing and fun day.

Nathan and Florence--they always have so much fun playing together.

Awwww

Present opening time!

Handsome husband

Handsome brother-in-law

Aunt Erin and Natalie--such cuties!

The loves of my life.

In my usual obnoxious fashion, I coerced everyone into posing for a family picture.

Nathan posing with Foxy.

Brothers

Grandma Nancy and Natalie

Time to eat!  A very sleepy and nap-deprived Nathan refused to sit in his own chair and would only eat if he could sit on Papa's lap.

Christmas morning

We had a fabulous series of Christmas celebrations this year.  But before I get into documenting them, I must share a picture of my sweet girl in an adorable outfit from Annalee and Dan:

 

Ok, on to Christmas! :)

Santa came this year!  Whew, turns out that we were all on the nice list.  Nathan put out cookies and milk for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer.  He was really excited that Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their snack and left nothing but crumbs.

Treats in his stocking!

Gotta fuel up with some chocolate from his stocking before digging in to the presents under the tree.

One of the activities on the Advent calendar was to write a letter to Santa.  Here is the text of that letter, that he dictated to me:

Yikes!  I was simultaneously thrilled a the originality of Nathan's request to Santa, and worried about how on earth his elves were going to make that happen.  Luckily one elf is a resourceful shopper and the other elf is really good at painting and decal application.

Here is Nathan opening his orange limousine police car from Santa:

He had to play with it right away. :)

Natalie napped during most of Nathan's present-opening, but when she woke up, I helped her open her presents.

Meeting Santa

On Wednesday after work and school, the four of us met downtown for a visit with Santa.  Downtown Kalamazoo is awesome for many reasons, and a big one is that Santa sets up camp there this time of year, there is rarely a line, and you can take as many of your own pictures as you want.  I have no idea why anyone would go through the madness at the mall when there is an option like this available.  I wasn't sure how either kid would react, as Nathan can be shy and also a little exhausted at the end of a school day, and Natalie is always a little touchy in the evening.  However, they were both awesome!  Nathan was super excited to see Santa, and went right up to him.  He asked for a police car and a train, and was thrilled that Santa knew that he liked cars and trucks.   Natalie sat nicely on Santa's lap, and communicated her Christmas wishes through mental telepathy. :)

Nathan may have been most excited about the fact that Santa gave him a candy cane.  On the way home in the car, Nay and I were replaying the conversation that he and Santa had, talking about what Nathan asked him for.  All of the sudden Nathan paused and said, "Hey, why Santa didn't give me any cars and trucks?"  We then had to talk about Santa's delivery schedule. Hee hee

Santa's been spotted

Three Months Old

Three is the number of the week around the Fowle household; yesterday was Natalie's three month birthday, meaning that Nathan is 3 years old, Natalie is 3 months old, and Todd and I are 33 years old!  Whew!  Next month I will ruin it by turning 34, but still... that's pretty nice symmetry if I do say so myself. :)

This month has been MUCH easier than last month!  Natalie turned a corner for sure, and is much less grumpy about life and much more interested in the world around her.  She's settled into a really good eat, activity, sleep routine, and she is giving out huge, gummy grins on a regular basis.  It's like night and day from the last monthly update!  She is really strong, and really interested in being upright and looking at all the activity going on around her.  She's noticed her big brother, and watching him play is one of her favorite activities.

One of Natalie's favorite spots to hang out is on her changing table.  She loves all of the focused attention she gets from Mommy and Daddy, and kicks her legs and wiggles her arms and coos like crazy.  She also loves the bird mobile that I made for her.  The bouncy seat and activity mat are also favorite hangout spots.  She still is not a fan of tummy time, although in the last week she'll tolerate it a little longer before crying.  

Natalie spends a lot of her free time with her fists in her mouth, working on excavating her thumb.  Just yesterday she got only her thumb in her mouth for the first time, so I think very shortly we will have a thumb sucker on our hands.  In the interim, if she's in the right mood, she'll take a pacifier.

Nursing is still going great--Natalie is a big fan, as am I.  I love the sweet snuggle time I get with her, especially now that I know just how fleeting that time really is.  The gift of the second child.

Natalie's a pretty good sleeper.  Nights go really well, for the most part we can count on sleeping from 11ish to 6:30ish--definitely nice!  Every few nights she'll wake up for a feeding around 2ish, which is never welcome when it happens, but really I can't complain.  She'll usually take a nice long nap in the morning, and then a few afternoon cat naps.  She's recently started taking her afternoon nap in the swing, which keeps her lulled to sleep a little longer, which is good for everyone. This will also help with her transition to daycare in two weeks, as the babies each have their own cribs, but often nap in the swings.

Her first dress, courtesy of her Great Grandma Joan. :)

Staring intently at Nathan, since he is always doing something fascinating!

When she sees something interesting, she opens her eyes WIDE!

Big, gummy grins melt my heart.

Hi Mommy!

She's becoming more vocal--finding her voice with squeals and coos.  She's recently started this kind of talking cry.  She's not really crying, more like complaining about her current situation--it's really kind of funny!