Today we took Natalie to the beach.  It isn’t something we do often (not nearly often enough) so it was fun to see what  caught Natalie’s attention.  Last time we went, she was only interested in the birds.  This time she was able to look a little further it was all about the “ships”, as there were a lot of sailboats out on the water today.  She enjoyed watching them and talked a lot about “steering the ship”.

Natalie tripped and fell into the water pretty early on, and lost interest in the ocean.

After the beach, I had to take Andy to my favorite hole-in-the-wall burrito place (from back before we got married!), Pepe’s Mexican Food… it’s by Silver Strand Beach .   He was upset at me for never telling him about it before… it was even yummier than I remembered!  (In my defense Ive tried to take him there before but it was closed.)  I think we have a new family favorite.

As most of you know, Sunday, March 1 was Natalie’s 2nd birthday!  I know that the two’s bring a whole new set of challenges but we are looking forward to helping Natalie grow up into a wonderful person.  We feel blessed already by her naturally sweet and easygoing personality and pray that we can be faithful parents to her.

She’s gone from this (one day old):

To this (one year old):

To this!

The last picture was taken at her birthday party on Saturday.  She had a GREAT time with family and friends.  The look on her face is in response to everyone singing “Happy Birthday”.  It’s her favorite part of a party, whether it’s hers or not!  We let her blow out her candles in the sandbox because she was having such a fun time there.

I have to post a couple more pictures of the cake because I made it mostly from scratch and I’m really proud of how it turned out!  It was a “Southern Style Strawberry Cake” with cream cheese frosting.  Usually I am a strictly chocolate kind of girl, but this one was too fun to pass up!

She’s a very enthusiastic present-opener!  The dress she’s wearing was a present from her Auntie Melanie, and you can’t tell, but she’s got her bathing suit from Aunt Jamie on underneath.  She’s all about putting those gifts to use immediately.

Many thanks to everyone who came, and all those who are a part of Natalie’s life!

I don’t have anything exciting to say today, so I thought I’d share some extra cute/fun things that I enjoyed about a regular old Thursday with Nata.

1. Natalie’s imaginative play…

This afternoon she was playing outside in the dirt (she heads straight for the dirt and rocks!) and I was snapping some pictures of her.  She laid down in the dirt and I asked her what she was doing?  She told me she was a sleepy puppy!  I don’t know why but that cracks me up and I love to see her pretending things.

2. Colorful clothesline…

It was warm and sunny today after a couple weeks of cold and rainy weather.  I love the rain, but the sunshine means I can hang Nata’s cloth diapers on the clothesline instead of using the dryer! It saves us money, and don’t they look so bright and cheerful hanging there?  I had to get a picture.

3.  Fresh flowers…

Tulips to be exact!  I got them for free at church this morning.  I think tulips might be on the verge of passing roses and hydrangeas as my favorite flowers.  I love these white ones on our dresser which I recently painted black.

Today Natalie got to spend time with her cousins (and other extended family) while Andy and I went out for Valentine’s Day lunch.  Can you tell she loves them??