"Go Park"

There is nothing that Natalie loves more then the park. If you ask her what she wants to do she will almost always say "Go Park". We spent so much time at the Draper park (which I love because of all the big shady trees) last summer. And now here we are with the best weather in weeks and I have spent everyday since Saturday at the parks. We try to frequent several so I don't seem like a stalker.

We recently had gone with Natalie's friend London to the park and kids there had a bunch of sand digging toys. All Nat wanted to do was steal them and cried when we made her give them back. So I was at Target and found this bucket and shovel for a buck. Its been the greatest...she shovels piles of woodchips and pours them on slides, while I get to read my much anticipated 9 novel series of the Tudors (by Jean Plaidy). And did I mention I have Zack almost all the way sold on taking me to London for our 5-year anniversary this summer. Oh how I dream of walking around pretending that Court life still exists. Not really but I am super excited to see the sights of what I have been reading so much of for the past 5 years.

Dino Museum

Natalie loves to wear my sunglasses so I finally bought her some of her own. Crazy but she will actually keep them on. We met up with Mary yesterday and her daughter Ellie to go to the Dino Museum at Thanksgiving Point.



They have a play area with all these plastic dino's and puzzles the kids can play with. Natalie would bring them over to me and line them up on a bench. Then she would have them kiss and tell me which was the mommy, daddy, and baby.







And below is Natalie's favorite thing of all...the sandboxes where they can take brushes and brush the sand off dino bones. We have spent more then 20 minutes in there on previous trips...its so hard to get her to leave without a fuss. Luckily we promised them ice cream to leave.

A trip to Wonderland & Easter fun!

Zack and I decided to visit Denver over the Easter weekend and attend Lydia's birthday party (our niece). Megan (my sister-in-law) has a habit of throwing big themed birthday parties and this year Lydia wanted to be Alice and do Alice in Wonderland. (Last year it was all about Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz.)

Below is Carly, Lydia's sister.

And here is our little one giving us the worst evil smile ever!

Easter hunting....

The best part about visiting Denver is the time Natalie gets to spend with her cousins. She has so much fun playing with their toys and running all over with them. She has been so tired from all the fun that she has been taking a nap sometimes as early as 9:30am. Ridiculous I know but the same thing seems to happen whenever she travels. When we took her to NYC she was reverting back to 2 naps a day and in Vegas she had an almost constant drugged look in her eyes. I must admit this little girl has been on more airplane rides than anyone I know. Pretty soon we will have to sign her up for airline rewards.

Precious Moments

I haven't been blogging lately, mostly because nothing exciting has been going on. If you can believe this I haven't even finished a book in probably two months. (For anyone that knows me I usually read one every week or two.) This is because between marathon training (having to squeeze in runs almost everyday), mudding and sanding the room from hell (which the mudding is done, sanding was finished last night), and my work emails I have to get done daily, there just doesn't seem to be enough time. My soap operas have been backlogged on the DVR for sometime now. I have to get with it! Sheesh

Well anyway, I have some really cute photos of Natalie over the past few weeks I thought I would post.

Yes she is obssessed with that pink hat I got for a $1 at Target. She wears it around the house all day. And wearing pretty pink dresses which is what she refers to the poodle skirt outfit as.

The sunglasses are the other obssession. The minute we get in the car she knows the pocket on the ceiling they are in and starts pointing and asking for them.

The last of Vegas

I didn't get many pics of our time in Vegas...but my mom and I did catch a few good ones at the garden inside the Bellagio. The minute we entered the Bellagio she made a beeline for the flowers. It smelled so yummy in that room.




She loved the huge butterflies hanging from the ceiling and the giant flowers and bugs all around.

She loved running around the casino's and trying to climb into the slotmachine chairs. I definitely would not want to go again with a kid but, it was fun to have her spend so much time with Denise and my mom. She kept saying "Denise buh-bye" over and over when Denise dropped us off at the airport this morning.

A visit to Vegas...

Denise is in Vegas doing a show called "Peep Show" (need I say anything more). Its a nursery rhyme show for adults. The original "Scary Spice" is one of the leads as well as Kelly Monaco from General Hospital and Dancing with the Stars. Well, Denise wanted to show us some of the rehearsal videos and Natalie was sitting on my lap. As the girls were dancing around a pole we told her they were pole dancing. Then all she kept saying was "po dancing, po dancing" b/c she wanted to keep watching. Hey, we are in sin city right, might as well get her aquainted with the scenery.

We drove to Vegas to bring Denise her car....luckily we fly home. Natalie got so sick of the car the last hour and refused to sleep. So between not eating lunch, just snacks, no sleep and a little deliriousness, she had a meltdown the minute we got to the hotel room and puked all over my mom. Were staying at a Residence Inn where Denise's show is paying for her to stay for 2 months. We set Natalie's pack n play in the bathroom between the toilet and tub as that is the only place to put her with a door. You have to shut the door to set it up and then can barely squeeze out when you leave. As I read her a story on the toilet to go to sleep she kept trying to play with the toilet paper. Ahhhh, the joys of traveling with a baby.

So far we have only been to Ceasar's palace but Nat loved the Forum shops and the huge Fish tank by the Cheesecake factory. The pics posted are of her playing on some car arcade with Denise

Our room from hell...

When we bought our townhome it was finished with two bedrooms and an option to have a 3rd done as an upgrade. We left it undone and have used it as a storage room. That was until Zack started working from home and then it suddenly became a necessity. The study room does not have a door and so Natalie and I have become prisoners to the upstairs so as to not bother Zack especially when he is on conference calls.



Well I thought it was a one-day project. I mean the ceiling and one wall were already framed. We started this project of finishing over two weeks ago. We spent a day framing, stuffing insulation, and wiring electrical. Then another half-day for to frame the closet and insulate the ceiling. So after all that hard work I thought no biggie, one more day to drywall and we will be good to go. Man that wasn't so bad. Boy was I wrong. Nailing sheet rock to the ceiling nearly gave Zack a neck attack, and my wimpy muscles fell short many times on driving the nail in before it would bend. (Those bastards- Ron said swearing was aloud for projects of this nature.) So after a full day of that horrendous project came the mud. Oh that mud. It is not fun. Swipe, swipe, swipe. I can spend two hours and not have all the nail holes and seams covered once. Which I might add they generally need three coats, and did I mention you have to sand each time it dries. I have dust suddenly moving in. Everything is now covered in a white layer of powder. Well today- I decided to bust out to Elvis as I needed some good booty shaking to make me tackle this room again. I thought if anyone could see me now, rocking out to Oldies in my grubs. As soon as "You're the Devil in Disguise" came on I knew I made the right choice.