Natalie is 8!

We had a big milestone around here.  Natalie FINALLY turned 8.  She has been counting down to this basically since Elizabeth turned 8.  She has not liked the fact that Elizabeth has gotten to do things that she can't.  Now it's her turn!

We started the day with the traditional streamers in the doorway and decorating the house:

Natalie was so excited that it had snowed a little bit the night before:

We have a tradition of getting our Christmas tree on her birthday so we did that after dinner.  Nate snapped this blurry picture of the finished product:

After that it was present time.

Elizabeth made this really sweet, well-written card for her on the computer.  I was blown away.

I just love the excitement:

She was excited to get this bow and arrow set she wanted from Grandma and Grandpa Allen:

She loved this cool journal with a lock/stationary set from Grandma Marsha:

She was SO happy to get this book, too, from Uncle Brad and Aunt Kelli:

She is way into that series right now.  I love how Eli had to be in the picture, too, and didn't mind having the book on his head.

Sadly, the night of her birthday she came down with the stomach flu and ended up staying home from school for two days.

Nate took this one, too:

She was up and at 'em again soon and I took her out of school for her birthday lunch:

I love having that time together.

Then, Saturday rolled around and it was her baptism day!

My dad took these pictures for us before the baptism:

It was a really beautiful baptism.  It was combined with another boy in our ward.  Elizabeth gave the talk on baptism and did a great job, despite our forgetting to help her write it until the night before.  Oops.  She said some really heartfelt things to Natalie that I loved.  Joe did a wonderful job with the baptism and confirmation.  I felt the Spirit so strongly during both.  I love these moments as a parent.  My dad told me to just wait until my kids are going through the temple.  I think that will be pretty awesome, too.  The other boy's grandma gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and did a great job.  Then Natalie and Elizabeth sang "Gethsemane" with a bunch of their cousins who were there (helped out greatly by Christine and Hallie).  I was playing the piano so I didn't get to watch but I thought they sounded great.

We had a gathering at our house after the baptism. 

Natalie Mary with one of her namesakes--Grandma Mary:

We were so glad she could be there.

We also had a birthday party for Natalie with her cousins who were there.

It was so nice having my dad in town to help with everything.  I definitely put him to work!  

Here he is risking his life with the piñata:

 

We really need tree or something in our yard.

Natalie wanted a Narnia party.  So, I hung some coats on a rod so the kids would have to enter the wardrobe into the land of Narnia (our loft).  They shot arrows with her new bow at the white witch and freed the frozen Narnians with hot water:

Regina took this one of the birthday girl and I love it:

Christine got her that cute little tiara clip for her hair.

Here's her cake:

She asked for a white rose.

We sure love our Natalie.  Joe and I got to take her out for dinner about a week after her birthday for her special 8 year-old date.  It was so fun.  She was just talking and talking and we were loving it.  She told us tons of things we weren't expecting and it made me so happy that she trusts us enough to tell us those things.  

Natalie is still very social and has an easy time making friends.  She is so kind and really does look out for other people.  She is still doing very well in school.  At her parent teacher conference, her teacher could not think of one thing that she might need to work on--she just told us what a joy she is and how well she is doing.  

She still loves music and is getting better and better everyday.  She loves to play the piano and to sing.  She has a beautiful voice and a lot of guts.  She amazes me.  Back when we were in CA, I needed a musical number for a Primary temple activity for 11 year-old girls in the stake.  She ended up singing "I Love to See the Temple" all by herself and did a great job.  I introduced my kids to "Phantom of the Opera" recently and they all love the music.  Natalie loves trying to sing along and hit the high notes and she actually does a pretty good job.  I think she will be wonderful singer if she keeps working at it.

She still loves animals.  She loves animal toys of all varieties--stuffed animals, those little plastic animal figures, etc.  She also loves to draw and takes pride in things that she figures out how to draw well.  She is making an effort to have neater handwriting and it looks so much better now.  She loves learning cursive in school and comes home excited to tell me what new letters she's learned.  

She still loves food of all kinds.  I think she checks the meal plan schedule on our white board more often than I do.  She can be particular and doesn't like sandwiches.  She prefers to just have Corn Chex in her lunch but she has been known to ask for a salad.  She loves treats of all kinds and has started calling herself the treat-lover of the family (I'm not sure that she's passed up Joe or I, though).  

She and I had some special time reading the Book of Mormon together at night before her baptism.  We didn't get very far but I loved it.  We'll have to keep it up.  She loved it too and would often remind me about it.  We had a lot of great talks about what we were reading.  She thinks very deeply about the gospel and does a good job coming up with a analogies to understand difficult concepts.

I feel so blessed by the opportunity I have to be Natalie's mom.  I can't imagine my life and our family without her.

Here's a great video I found on my phone to finish up this post: