Our Green Bay family thinks that Natalie is the Packers’ good luck charm! She wears her cute little outfit every game – and they’ve won the last three! On the day she was born, they nearly beat the Patriots too. Go Pack Go! We’re ready for the NFC Championship, which we can watch with Grandma Julie!
Dad, all this excitement makes me tired.
Yes Daddy... Clay Matthews IS my favorite player.
My mom, Aunt Lisa, and cousin Rachel drove 3.5 hours both ways to spend 7 hours with Natalie on Monday! Over the summer, when Aunt Lisa found out that “Lentil” was a girl, she was super excited – not that we don’t love boys, but because then we’d get to spend more time with her. As you can see below, Natalie’s first day with the girls was awesome!
Thanks for being a super driver and coming to visit me, Aunt Lisa!
I love you too, "Aunt" Rachel!
However, must you make fun of my big cheeks? My mom tells me that you had an awfully big belly that stuck out of your swimsuit when you were a little girl!
Come on - can't a girl get a little privacy?
Please visit again soon - and next time, stay for longer so that we can actually play while I'm awake!
Our friends, Megan, Mrs. Horvath and Molly, came over to play on Friday. Although Natalie slept the entire time, she greatly enjoyed being held by Megan and Mrs. Horvath. As we think Natalie is growing so fast, it was fun to compare Natalie at 3 weeks to Molly at 4 months! Natalie finds her thumb on accident, whereas Molly can purposefully use her thumb to soothe herself. Natalie sleeps whenever she wants, whereas Molly has more of a schedule.
These two seem to be in a competition for chubbiest cheeks - aren't they adorable?
We are excited to have playmates in Chicago and are looking forward to many more playdates with Molly! Perhaps Molly and Natalie will follow in their parents’ footsteps and go to Notre Dame… so that the parents can tailgate together and attend JPW since 3 of the 4 of us missed it the first time around. (Jeff, Megan and I studied in London together!) Kate Dembs’ little baby-to-be (nicknamed Freddy) will join us too, as he/she will be coming this spring! (Kate visited last week too, but I didn’t get a pic – rookie mistake!)
Thanks for coming over to play, Molly! I promise to stay awake next time!
Thanks for being my godfather, Uncle Mike!
Aunt Becky will be a GREAT godmother too…. she’s very high energy and always up for something fun. When I was younger, I apparently frequently told Becky that “I’m the boss of her” (after all, I am 362 days older). Hopefully, Becky won’t follow suit and tell the same to Natalie. 🙂
See you in February for my baptism, Aunt Becky!
Thanks, Becky and Mike, for taking on this very important role in our daughter’s life!
At less than two weeks old, Natalie was lucky to meet her Pop, Nana (the grandmother formerly known as Gigi, when Natalie was in the womb), Uncle Alex and Aunt Jira on New Year’s Eve, although we didn’t make it to midnight! Happy New Year to everyone!
Happy New Year's! Go Irish!
A special shout out to Tim Dowling, Jordan’s best friend from growing up who he has spent the last 3 New Year’s with…. at least this year, Jordan didn’t get into any scuffles and didn’t playfully wrestle anyone to the ground – that I know of, at least).
We also celebrated a late Christmas. Gotta love this little outfit that Nana gave her!
Aw, who knew a reindeer on your rearend could be so cute
We feel very lucky that they were all able to visit! Pop helped Jordan fix a leak in our tub and put up curtains in Natalie’s room. Uncle Alex whispered Thai to Natalie, which led to her sleeping through a lot of the night. Aunt Jira picked out super cute Thai clothes and toys that she cannot wait to use.
Aunt Jira has about 3 weeks more experience living in the US than does Natalie - welcome, Jira!
And, best of all, Nana stayed an extra 3 days!!! She has been amazing – taking Natalie shifts at 3:30 a.m., cleaning our condo, and cooking! (For those of you who have tasted Kathy’s cooking, you know this is a BIG treat – our freezer is stocked with everything from Indian curry to eggplant lasagna to beef stew!) We will really miss her when she leaves tomorrow. 🙁 Yet, we are glad that both grandmothers want to visit every 4-6 weeks!!! 🙂
Thanks, Nana, for the Christmas Dumbo! Its one of Natalie's favs!
Natalie is on the edge of her Lil’ Lion Activity Gym playset, cheering for a win against the Bears!
Cheering for a play-off spot!
(Okay, to be honest, she has slept for almost all of it, and I’m encouraging her Dad to cheer loudly so that she spends a little time awake – in hopes of us having a more restful night tonight. Between 11 and 3:30 last night, she only slept 45 minutes – thankfully, we were able to call Nana for relief, and she came down to help out!)
Amazingly, it was in the high 40’s yesterday, so we were able to take our first family stroll (a whole two blocks to the ATM machine).
Natalie made her first deposit for her college fund!
It was a super smooth ride… thanks Grandma Julie for the stroller, Aunt Becky for the car seat converter, Aunt Lisa/Aunt Jonna/Kelsey for the car seat, and Tricia/Luke for the bundle me (we went to grad school with Tricia’s husband, and they live in Evanston – Natalie is excited to meet Luke, who was born in Sept)! (We’re spoiled – thanks everyone!!!) We were strolling in style!
I know I'm biased, but could she be more adorable?!?!
This picture was taken last week – Jordan has since wised up and started using burp rags. 🙂 He has been the supreme diaper changer – burp machine…. he went from having never changed a diaper before Natalie was born to probably having changed 80+ diapers 1.5 weeks in. We are really going to miss him when he goes to work next week! Thank goodness he is only 2 blocks away, just in case we really need him (and thank goodness that Kathy will be here for most of next week too)!
My family came to visit over Christmas. My mom had bought Natalie a cute Christmas outfit, which said “Santa’s Favorite”. Turns out that Natalie was Everyone’s Favorite this Christmas!
Aunt Leah and Aunt Becky even made t-shirts. Look at Natalie’s funny facial expression!
Grandma Julie and Grandpa Dave were pretty smitten too – my Dad is holding Natalie’s foot like a trophy!
We had a wonderful visit – and everyone was so helpful…. Dad, Becky and Rob packed up our completely dead Christmas tree; Mom, Becky and Leah each woke up early one morning to hold Natalie so that we could sleep longer; they stocked our fridge; Mom did laundry, etc! God bless family. They came just in time. Without their help, we would have eatend canned soup for Christmas dinner, had many more t-shirts with burp stains and would have been a lot more exhausted. Who knew that taking care of a little one would be a 2+ person task?!?!
