Still a girl

I had my 18-20 week anatomical scan today, and the baby looks great. She' s still a girl! She was really cute and we got some fun printed out pics. In this picture her leg is all stretched out. When the tech was trying to get a profile shot, I noticed that the placenta was right in the baby's face (it's the gray blob thing above the baby's head in the above photo) and we commented on the fact that she had her face squished in it. All of a sudden she stuck out her tongue and licked the placenta! It was so hilarious and cute! It was also really amazing that we can see her actual tongue moving in and out. :-)

Happy Anniversary--3 years

Our anniversary was on June 18th, 2005 and it has been such a wonderful 3 years! Rather than write about what a wonderful husband I have (since I just did that in the father's day post) I want to write a little about how we met for those of you who don't know the story.

We grew up in the same ward together since I was 10 and he was 12. His mom was our primary chorister and later, our choir director. He was our choir accompanist later on (I was in the choir). I remember him passing and blessing the sacrament, as well as in mutual activities through my teenage years. He was 2 years older than me in school, so we didn't really share the same friends or even see each other very much. We had the same seminary class when he was a senior and I a sophomore.

In fact, if I could digress a little and tell a sad story here: our teacher that year had us write a letter to our future spouses. The teacher then kept the letters and said that when we get married, to send him a wedding announcement and he would send us the letters back. Well, that teacher ended up moving away, leaving all his files in the seminary building and they got thrown away! Isn't that so sad? We could have had cute little high school letters to each other. Bummer.

Anyway, my dad was his home teaching companion and then his bishop, and he sent Mark on a mission. He was still the bishop when he came home, and Mark dropped by the house for some reason and talked to my mom for a minute. I was at BYU at this point. My mom called me and said, "I know who you're going to marry. Mark Simonson." I was like, haha, he's just one of the ward guys, he's like my brother, blah blah blah. Well, my mom must have been inspired because she was right!

I graduated in Aug '04 from BYU and moved back home. I worked and was living life and having fun as a single gal. Mark and I ended up hanging out in the same group of people a lot, and started talking and emailing each other from work. Our first date was in December, and by March of '05 we were engaged, and married in June. It was so easy to decide to marry him. It was as if I had always been in love with him and had "forgotten" through all those years, and then I was "remembering" that I loved him. Like it was a familiar feeling.

We have had our ups and downs and have been through a lot, but I'm looking forward to spending eternity with him. He does so much for me and we have such a great relationship. He is definitely the one for me and I'm so glad I found him!!

Family pics

Here are a few of the pictures we got taken a week or so ago. My ultra-talented cousin Kendyl took the pictures at the Mesa Arts Center. It was so fun, and they turned out great!

She's doing "wheels on the bus."






I love my little family!

Looking for teachers

So I will be quitting my piano and flute lessons at the end of July. I'm sad about this, but I know it is the right decision for our family right now. I'll resume someday--probably when all my children are grown up!

Anyway, I'm looking for teachers to recommend to my students so they can continue on. Does anybody know of flute or piano teachers in the area? I have a few names, but most people don't have openings right now. I would really appreciate any input!!

Thanks!

Yummy!

I made this last night:

It's butternut squash lasagna from Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis (you know, the lady with the perpetual cleavage). It was SO DELICIOUS! Everyone in our family liked it and they are big meat fans (there's no meat in this). If you try it though, do what you can ahead of time because it's a long prep time. Totally worth it though. Two thumbs up!

My Daddy

Hi, my name is Natalie.

I have the best daddy in the whole world. He is so special. I wanted to write today about him since it's Father's Day and last year I was too little to type out a blog post.
He was so happy when he found out Mommy was having a girl, even though he pictured Barbies, teenage hormones, and a wedding to pay for. But he looked forward to meeting me.
My dad is really good at getting me to fall asleep when I really need it. Mommy appreciates this especially when I need to go to bed and she needs to rest from making my little sister.
See, here I fell asleep in his arms while pondering about what a cool daddy he is.

I love it when he's silly and makes me laugh. It cracks me up when he tickles me--I get all hyper and run around in circles. He even lets me wash his knees while he sits by my bath.

Best of all, he loves my Mommy. He gives her so much help with taking care of me, she just can't believe how blessed she is! He takes good care of us and always makes sure we are happy. We just love him to pieces.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Chocolate belly buttons

Here's Natalie when I told her to close her eyes. It's so hilarious, we do it all the time.
Here is the chocolate belly button. I gave her a few chocolate chips for her dessert after lunch and Mark discovered a while later that her belly button was full of chocolate! She looks so guilty. And here is my 15w belly. It's pokin' out way more than it did last time at this point! People are starting to ask, not just wonder if I had a big lunch.
Ta ta for now!

All things pumpkin

I'm craving pumpkin foods. I had this craving when I was pregnant with Natalie too--I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, you name it. This past week I made and gobbled up some pumpkin muffins and right now I have pumpkin bread in the oven. I know it's not really the season for it but oh man is it YUMMY!!!!

Other stuff

These are some pictures of other things we've been up to lately. There are more posts below this, including the big announcement, so keep reading!

Here we are walking in the rain to Devin's high school graduation. Pardon my wind blown look. We live right by the high school so it didn't make any sense to drive and deal with parking, so we walked in the rain. It was chilly! Apparently it was the first time in Highland's history to have rain on graduation night. They had everyone go to different places in the school--the gym, the main hallway, empty classrooms, etc--and broadcast the graduation from the auditorium. Everyone except Mom and Dad made it to the same classroom, which was so much better than had we been sitting in the bleachers. The girls were free to wander around and play (there was even a nerf ball in there), we had desks to sit in, and we found some old crossword puzzles that we could do while we watched! What a night.
Natalie was copying the way a lady was sitting at her desk with her chin in her hand.
Katie and her fiance Ryan Lorsch. They are in love and getting married on Aug 15th. I can't wait to have my own bathroom!
Natalie sporting her patriotic colors on memorial day. What a cutie patootie.
Natalie's friend Ava came over to play while her parents went to the temple. The girls had a blast playing together and it was so fun to see Ava and her parents, Josh and Katie!

Anyway, that's all for now. I think I'm all caught up. Enjoy reading!

Fun at Tempe Town Lake

Melanie and I took the girls here last week, and it was SO FUN! I was even having a blast, and I'm not a kid getting wet! Natalie and Brooklyn loved it and got soaked. There were lots of kids there, but it was ok because the place was huge. There was even a little kid slide that the girls tried a few times. So cute!
The girls with Uncle Mike/dad before getting wet. They're deciding what to do. Brooklyn looks a little less timid....true to form!
This one speaks for itself.
The adorable shivery smile.
Brooklyn enjoying the water. She probably just said "oooooh!!" which she says a lot. It's so funny!
This place is so awesome. It was free, and we'll definitely be going back a couple of times this summer. It was even refreshing for me walking around barefoot. I recommend it!

Sugar and Spice...

It's a girl! The ultrasound technician was "pretty sure" there were no boy parts hiding anywhere. She must have been asleep because she didn't really move around a whole lot. Once in a while she'd stretch out or move her arms but other than that, she was just laying there. :-) She put up her hand at one point in front of her face as if to say "enough, please! Trying to get some sleep here!" Anyway, here is a pic of the little cutie. We're going back in 4 weeks for the big 20w u/s so she'll double check the gender at that time. Fun stuff!

Ipod

So almost TWO YEARS ago, Mark and I found an ipod nano in a Walgreen's parking lot. We told the cashier that we found "something" and left our phone number in case anyone came looking for it. We kept it for a week or so, and when nobody called, we just turned it into the police department. They told us that if nobody claimed it after being advertised in the paper for a long time, and going through a court process wherein a judge decides if it should be advertised again or given back to the finder, then we could keep it. Well, I got a letter the other day saying I could claim my "property" so I picked it up today! It has a couple of cracks on the front but other than that it looks fine and works great. Yay for a new toy!

My new cell phone

This is my new phone--I bought it last night on ebay. I'm so excited to finally have upgraded! I got a new razr phone last July and three days later Natalie drooled on the side button and it got permanently stuck raising the volume. So I've been using this old, sad, three year old phone all this time. Yay for new technology!

Please vote

We have an ultrasound scheduled for this Thursday. It's to date the pregnancy (would have done it earlier but they were booked), but this far along they should be able to tell the gender. We're hoping to find out! I want another girl, but think it might be a boy, and Mark wants a boy. So take your vote and tell me what you think!