I love Relief Society!

Well, today being the day of the big broadcast, it was naturally a day full of RS stuff. This morning my stake had a morningside with a light breakfast (which turned out to be HUGE cinnamon rolls and grapes...I had to make a decision--is a cinnamon roll a treat or not? I settled for one without icing) and a presentation about body image and how society places pressure on women to have perfect bodies. It was interesting, they showed pictures of models before and after they have been airbrushed, and it was SUCH a difference. Never believe those pics you see in magazines, it's all fake fake fake. Then tonight I went to my moms' (my mom and Mark's mom) stake dinner and watched the broadcast with them. It was so great. I think the RS broadcast is my favorite part of conference. The feeling of sisterhood is so strong. And President Monson's talk was just amazing, was it not? I love that man. Now I'm all in the mood for General Conference next week!

Natalie has not been acting herself for some parts of the day. She has been randomly being very still and not happy (usually her arms are flapping wildly and she's smiling). She even was laying still for her diaper change, a definite sign that something is not right because usually I have to wrestle her into her diapers. So I figured it was teething and gave her some Tylenol before bed. I hope she feels better tomorrow! This is how she fell asleep in church the other day. She's so cute! I came out of Sunday School and walked all around till I found Mark, who had paced the halls until she was asleep (a rare occurance at church).

The dentist

So I just got back from the dentist. I had to get a filling. Every time I get a filling I have a new resolve to brush my teeth 10 times a day and floss 5 times because it is such an unpleasant experience, but it never sticks for the full six months (I do floss and brush regularly, of course!). I think the part that bugs me the most is the shot at the beginning, and then being numb for hours afterward. I was mega-numb this time, all the way up to my forehead including my eyeball. What a strange feeling.

Natalie's new favorite mischief is to climb the stairs as fast as she can. She often will get up 2 or 3 stairs before we can sprint across the room to pull her down. We got a gate to keep her down when I have lessons going on, which she thinks is cool. She can pull herself up really well on that. She makes a crinkly nose face. She makes it all the time, and while she does it she breathes really noisily from her nose. It makes us laugh so hard!

It seems like it's finally cooling down around here. We even opened our windows this morning and a cool breeze aired out the house. It smelled weird from being closed up for 5 days with nobody living in it (while we babysat). But now it's fresh and smelling good. I'm not going to get my hopes up though, I'm sure it will get hot again before it permanently cools down. Every year I get all excited that summer is over, but it gets hot again. So this time I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts and not be bummed when it gets hot.

Oh, good news. This morning I had an appt with my trainer at the gym (we get a free trainer appt once a month w/ our membership) and I lost another 2 lbs! This brings the total to 13lbs lost since I stopped eating treats on May first. I tried it as an experiment since a friend of mine did it and lost some weight. It has been amazing, and it's really not that hard to say no to a treat! (unless it's first-of-the-season pumpkin pie....tee hee) Yay for shrinking!

Babysitting

So we are babysitting Mark's cousins for most of this week while their parents are out of town. The kids are 13, 9, 6, and 4 and we really love and admire their family, so we were naturally really excited to babysit. It has been so fun! We are really getting to know those kids much better. Today was the third day and let me tell you, I forgot what it's like to be around kids all the time! Kids need reminding to do chores, tease each other occasionally, dawdle when it's almost time to leave for school, and let's not forget the comments that inevitably happen with a babysitter: "But my mom always lets me do that" and "That's not how my mom does it!" Mark and I just shrug and remember that we did the same thing when we were little. You know how you always tried to get away with stuff when Grandma was watching you? "Yes, my mom always lets me eat huge bowls of ice cream right before bed" when it was actually a one time experience a year ago when you were on vacation. It's so interesting being on the other side of things! Their mom has these cool job charts that they are supposed to follow and for the most part they do their jobs well and timely. It makes me excited to do that sort of thing someday in my family! These kids will be good examples for ours. We especially like hearing them practice the piano and sing songs. It's like a picture of what we want our family to be like in 10 years or so. What fun!

Natalie is having a blast playing with the kids. They are so loving and sweet to her and love to make her laugh. We played outside last night and Natalie got to try out some new toys. She really liked swinging and riding in the little car. Babysitting has been fun, and it has made us grateful for the fact that kids come one at a time (for the most part) and that you get to adjust to each new addition. If beginning a family meant suddenly having 4 or 5 kids to take care of, there would be a lot less families around! Taking care of kids is a huge job. There's so much to remember with homework, chores, medicine, baths, practicing, and meals and on top of all that you have to somehow figure out how to fit in scripture study, prayer, family home evening, church activities, etc. Whew! I have a new appreciation for my mom and all other moms out there! And I thought it was a lot of work with one baby....it will seem like a vacation after this!

This is fun!

Ok, I'm going to figure out how to have a cute heading/title thingy for my blog. It will happen folks! So tonight I discovered that my sister has been blogging for MONTHS now and I didn't even know it...ok, so she posted once in July and then just recently, but STILL. All this time I'm trying to figure out how it works, and I could have just called her. Ha.

I'm wondering why there is so much space between paragraphs. Maybe I don't have to hit enter twice? I'll try it on the next one. I thought I'd add some more pictures of our darling little gal for your enjoyment. We had a big day today. Natalie said "mama" for the FIRST TIME! Hooray! Her daddy came home and was saying "daddy" when all of a sudden she said "mamamamama." She has never made the "m" sound before but we gave her lots of praise and she continued all evening. It was so cute. She is also looking so much like a little girl instead of a baby. Today I put her in a little matching shorts/shirt outfit and her usual ponytail on top of her head and she looked so old. I almost expect her to start having conversations with me.

I was packing today and she climbed onto a box in the closet all by herself. What an amazing little monkey. Melanie's post about Brooklyn loving the doorstop more than the toys she has reminds me of Natalie's favorite toys. They are: a little eyedropper bottle, my contact lens case, a plastic spiral notebook thingy (just the spiral part, no pages), and the rubber corner cushion we bought for baby-proofing. She will carry one of those around the house, pausing occasionally to chew on it. So much for the cool light up musical phone (and other toys) we bought!

Natalie loves to dance whenever she hears music. It's so funny, and it makes us laugh whenever she does it. The funniest is in church when the organ starts playing the intro for the opening song and she starts rocking out to it. We were giggling all through the songs this past week. She'll bob her head and move her hips back and forth. What fun!

We had a neat lightening/rain storm last night which cooled our air nicely today. Tonight we went out and to our amazement, astonishment, and general shock, there was a cool breeze a-blowing. The storm was preceded by some nice puffy cumulonimbus clouds, just the kind I love and only get to admire once a year. I always have to take pictures of them....

I have arrived...

Yes, I am officially a blogger. I'm trying to figure it all out...if anyone wants to give me lessons, let me know! I promise the page will look prettier as I learn more. :-)

We had an interesting week. On Monday evening after Natalie had gone to bed, we noticed that our air inside our house was unusually warm. We knew something was not right when we saw that the thermostat read 85 degrees! We called the AC company's after hours line, and they sent someone out the next day. Meanwhile we put a fan in our bedroom and tried to get a good night's rest. The next morning the temp was 89. Ew. Anyway, the guy found out the problem and ordered us a new part, but it took until FRIDAY to arrive. So we packed up and slept at my parents' house Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We are so glad that they are so kind to let us stay there!

I had a recital for my piano and flute students yesterday. It was so fun! The kids had practiced so hard and everyone played so well. I was proud. We held it at a local piano store that has a recital "hall" in it so we had to deal with a few piano customers "trying out" pianos during the songs. It was slightly noisy but didn't last the whole time. kudos to the kids whose songs were interrupted by random chords. They did great!

So I'm going to figure out how to put pics on here and I'll put some of Natalie for your viewing pleasure. She is 8 1/2 months old now and loves to explore everything she can. She crawls all around the house and climbs on anything she comes across. We finally bought a gate for the bottom of the stairs since she can climb them surprisingly fast these days. If she's not napping during my lessons she's exploring the living room, so that gate will make things easier for me.

Mark was throwing out some old socks (old but clean!) and decided to throw them onto Natalie. She was enjoying an eyedrop container and didn't even notice that she was covered in laundry!

Natalie is helping her aunt Katie open her birthday presents. She is going to love all the wrapping paper on Christmas morning!