Natalie is 1 !

oh my goodness. it's hard to even type this. i'm so SO happy. but so emotional. it is just hard to believe my little baby girl is one whole entire year old! will i feel like this EVERY year?

as many of you know, natalie couldn't wait to get here. i went in for my 32 week appointment feeling a little tired but good. the doc said i looked good and natalie looked great. she suggested i do some blood work just for fun. two hours later she called me to say my blood work was bad. my liver enzymes were skyrocketed and my blood platelets were crashed. BUT I FEEL FINE i told her. she said to come check in to the hospital. i couldn't process it. i think i sat there and worked another half hour or so before packing up my things, calling mike, and driving to the hospital. i was so scared for my little chick. i remember texting my smart, wonderful friend kerri who works in a NICU to ask if at 32weeks natalie would be okay. she will be great, she assured me. she said she saw 32 week babies all the time. i don't think she can ever know how much peace she gave me with a few button pushes on a phone.

and she WAS great! tiny, just under four pounds, but healthy.

oh we hated those tubes! natalie and her mom and dad. and then one day, about 5 weeks later...they came out!


and we got to hold her tube free. well, still with oxygen meter and lots of check ins from nurses. but we felt more and more like "real parents." another week or two later...we got to take her home!


this has been an amazing year. i have been more tired than i have ever been. more happy than i have ever been. more scared. more proud. i didn't know you could love someone as much as i love her. there have never been bluer eyes. a sweeter smile. a cuter laugh. there has never been a fuzzy head of hair that smells as sweet.

we got to celebrate her day early with some family. nothing like a homemade grandma cake, right?

i wasn't sure how she'd react to the cake.....she's more of a veggie / fruit girl.

she liked the cake...

the icing..... not so much.

happy birthday sweet baby!

here is a video her uncle jacob made of her first year. i get a lump in my throat every time i watch it---- you've been warned!

11 months!

Mike and I were talking last night and couldn't decide if it feels like two months or two years since we brought Natalie home. Some days it feels like she is getting so big so fast and changing so much even daily. Just look at her! Isn't she the sassiest, stylin'est kid you've ever seen? She is the best dressed Harper in Jenks, America. She got several fun toys for Christmas that were perfect for her age and stage. Things she can open and close, stack and knock over, things that play music....who am I kidding. EVERYTHING plays music! Here was a pretty perfect Sunday morning: coffee and cookbook for mom, toys for Nat. She has four (4!) teeth, two snaggles on bottom and two big ole toofs on top---and she isn't afraid to use them. My shoulder and Mike's arms have the fang marks to prove it! She has also developed a goofy crooked sideways grin which means, "I don't want to be doing this right now but I'll grin at you if you'll just back away slowly and put that camera down."

Just days before the BIGGEST SNOWSTORM EVER was a perfect 70 degree day. We took Natalie to the park for the first time. She didn't love it. The swing was "meh."

So we took in some rays instead. Maybe the park will sound more fun when we can run around proper. She is crawling backwards at full speed but still no effort to go forward. She can hold on to things and is trying to scoot along things like coffee tables and foot stools but no real interest in in walking. Hey, more exercise for mom and dad!

Her first birthday is at the end of February. Crazy! And for those wondering just what to get her--- think CHEAP! Her current favorite activities include shaking a pop bottle full of confetti and dried beans and pushing around ice cubes.

I've already gotten all blubbery going through photos for a special one year old post later this month so I'll leave you with this sweet photo of the day we got to take her home in April 2010. We had to stuff her car seat with blankets she was so tiny!

And here she is today, such a big girl with her buddy, dad.