Opening this gift was essentially the culmination of what amounted to days and days of trying (and sometimes not trying) to be good and not open the presents.  She had a fun time and required little assistance.

She was very excited to find her pajamas.  We’re looking forward to spending Christmas Day together, and hoping we won’t be quite as sick as today.

Recently, we had some photos taken by a photographer who attends our Adult Bible Fellowship at our church.  The results speak for themselves.

I’ll include a link to a full-size version in this post once I get it uploaded.

January ‘08:

July ‘08



Maybe next time we will remember to take the group picture when everyone is rested and happy? :)  The kids had a great time together for the 4th of July weekend!

If you don’t know how to do that, follow the directions here.

Life is pretty good for our 13-month-old girl. She is really enjoying life and learning so much! Her favorite thing to do is play outside. I say, “Natalie, do you want to go outside?” and she gets a huge grin, throws her arms up and says, “buh-bye?”

Other words she is saying are Mama, Dada, Nata, hi, hello, all done, and dog. A few times she has said something that sounds like “outside”. I think she is working on that one.

There she is hanging out in the our backyard. We spend a lot of time back there these days. Note: The hat she is wearing is like a newsboy cap that is too big for her, NOT a bonnet (someone thought it was… Laura I think) . Notice she isn’t looking at the camera in any of these pictures? She’s way too busy to stop for the camera… most of the time. Occasionally she’s really into posing…

An acquaintance who works for Disney sent Natalie a huge bag of Disney merchandise, including these sparkly shoes and pink princess purse. You can tell Natalie feels SO special in them!

Shopping and texting? Just like mama. She also pretends to talk on the phone.

I call Natalie my “little mommy” because she is so sweet and loving to her stuffed animals. She loves to hug and kiss and pat their backs.

Again, she’s SO THRILLED to be OUTSIDE! The arms over the head is another new thing

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In that last picture she is waiting impatiently for Andy to get home for work. She gets so excited when I tell her that he’s on his way home. Like my makeshift baby gate? Our screen door finally broke for good. If you have opened or closed our screen door in the last 6 months you know what I am talking about, haha.
We took a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo for Natalie’s 1st birthday, a McLaughlin family tradition. She loved it! Her favorite was the anteater. She kept exclaiming “Dah, dah!” (dog). She loves animals.

Another big “first” was her first trip to the beach! It was kind of cold and windy, but she enjoyed it.

Hopefully that has caught you up with what Natalie has been doing since her first birthday! She is a very busy little girl who keeps her parents constantly entertained.

Nata is doing her part in the preparations by growing into new toys, like her uncle Mike’s Nintendo DS.

She’s having great adventures in mobility, as well as experimenting with the various uses of beverage straws!

Natalie really enjoys time with her family, and always has a blast in Grandma and Grandpa McLaughlin’s living room.

Sometimes, excitement gets the best of her, but we always enjoy it!

She also loves music, especially Alvin and the Chipmunks! She tries hard to play her own renditions.

Back at home, Nata is a good little “mommy” to her “babies,” and climbs in to her wagon with them all by herself!

We haven’t got any good pictures of it yet, but Natalie is walking here and there, though she still prefers crawling when she wants to get someplace. She’s learning signs for things like “milk” and “please,” and knows just when to use them, in addition to babbling up a storm! One of our favorite things is the way she gives us hugs when we get her out of bed. She is a sweet and thoughful girl, with a genuine sense of humor.

We are both so proud of our little one year-old, and are so looking forward to seeing her grow up!

Just as a side note, I’d like to remind you all that to see our private content, you need to register an account and be logged in. The only loophole is to subscribe to our feed (highly recommended!), either through your browser’s feed options, or the “RSS” link on the side bar. Also, if you’re having any trouble getting your password, be sure to check your junk folders.

Registering an account is just as easy as it sounds. Scroll down a bit; you’ll notice a new “Register” link in the Meta category. That will take you to a shiny blue and white page which will ask you for a username and an e-mail address. Once you’ve input those two pieces of information, a random password will be e-mailed the address you gave. When you come back and log in (via the “Login” link just below the register link), the Register link will be replaced by a “Site Admin” link. Contrary to its scary name, you won’t be able to make any real changes, but you will be able to change your own password, your display name, and some other handy things.

If you encounter any problems with the registration process, please let me know as soon as possible, by whatever means available to you.

Enjoy!

For more laughing, check out the other video!