Camping

Here are some pictures from our camping trip. It was chilly and we loved it. It was 38* on Friday night and cold all day Saturday. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Now we're back to hot weather, yuck, when will it be over!!

Here's a slideshow with some pictures of Camping and some other shots of Natalie. Enjoy!

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Summer Fun/News

Wow! It sure has been a while since I put some pictures on here. It's been a busy summer and we are so excited fall is here. I have a new slideshow at the very bottom of this entry with some pictures from July & August.

I'm sure most of you already know that James & I are going to have our second baby around March 8th. We are so excited and looking forward to having two precious babies. I am about 16 weeks along right now and doing okay. I'm supposed to be feeling great at this point because I'm past 13 weeks but I'm still struggling a big with feeling pretty sick and most food (except Ramon Noodles and Raisen Bran) makes me gag. I know, Ramon Noodles are terrible for me but I figure it's better than eating nothing. I'm sure some time soon I'll be feeling great and I'm really looking forward to that. I wasn't this sick for this long with Natalie so I have no idea what's going on.

Natalie is doing great! She is so much fun and makes us laugh all the time. Right now she loves playing with her purses and her balls. She fills her purse up with odds and ends, puts it on her arm, and walks around with it. She wants her ball with her everywhere she goes and is starting to run. She's saying a couple of words but not too many. She says "cheese", "drink", "Amen", "da da", "na na" for ma ma, "night night", and I'm not sure but she may be saying "purse." We're so excited for her to start talking because every time she says any of those words it melts our hearts so I'm sure when she's talking more and more it will be a constant source of melting. :) As for sign language, she signs "please", "all done", "book", and "diaper change". Sign language has been great. She's able to sign "diaper change" way before she can actually say "diaper change" so she's able to communicate with us. She does the sign for book but I have no idea why, she still doesn't let us read to her. We can read one page and then she's wiggling out of our lap. She'll bring us a book, sit on our lap, flip the pages as quickly as she can and throw the book on the floor. She's just a mover and a shaker and has no interest in reading. Oh well, hopefully it will come.

Another cute thing she does is clap for herself all the time. If she obeys us, she'll clap for herself. If we tell her to throw something in the trash she'll throw it away, turn around, and clap. If she puts a puzzle together she'll clap. It's sweet.

Her personality is still pretty introverted. She likes to play on her own and I can only play with her for so long before she goes off on her own. If there's other kids around she's not really that interested but prefers to do her own thing. It's amazing how they are born with their own little personality and preferences.

James' work is still going really well, he's enjoying it and keeping very busy. I'm subbing again about one day a week. I did one job Tuesday-Friday and Monday and I won't do that again. I love it when I'm there, seeing my old students and their families and the teachers I worked with but my heart is at home with Natalie. I can't imagine having to leave her every day, I feel like I missed SO much those days. She did great but definitely was more attached to me by the end of that week. It was a great realization for me because I was offered a part time job back at Liberty this summer and seriously thought about it because I didn't think it would be that hard. I was wrong and it would not be easy for our family. I found out I was pregnant and decided against it. I'm so thankful for the days with Natalie and all the fun things we get to do every day. Well, that's about it. We went on a great camping trip this weekend so I'll post some picture of that soon. Take Care everyone!!

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My Favorite Day of the Year!!!

Yipeee!! I experienced my favorite day of the year today. I look forward to this day all summer long, waking up to 50* weather, puting on my sweatshirt, warm socks, and Birckenstocks!! I can't explain how rejuvinated I feel. Natalie and I were all comfy and warm as we went out this morning. Fall is here and summer is over!!! YIPEEE!!!!! I love the cool, fresh, crisp breeze coming in the windows. My ideal place to live would be a place where Fall could last for 5 months, Winter for 2 1/2, Spring for 3, and Summer for 1 1/2. Now that sounds Glorious!

We have a walker!!

My favorite picture from Alaska!

Hi Everyone!
Things are going well here in Omaha. It's HOT but hopefully we'll be experiencing a cool down after the "forecasted" thunderstorms tonight. Natalie is officially walking. She had a big walking day last Friday and has been doing it ever since. She sometimes forgets about her new skill and she'll crawl so we say "Natalie, stand up and walk" and she stops, stands up, and walks. It is so cute. We are excited about this stage because of her extra-sensitive skin she inherited from her Daddy. If she crawls on the grass she breaks out into a rash and her knees are rubbed raw, so, now we don't have to put pants on her in 100* weather. We had a great time in Alaska, it is so beautiful up there. The word of the week for me was "wow."
In the picture below my brother Chaed is dancing for Natalie. She thought he was pretty funny!

This was a beautiful scene on one of our hikes in Alaska. Sorry, I can't figure out how to flip it around (Kerri, do you know???)

Here is Natalie sleeping on her Uncle Chaed during one of our hikes.

There is such a variety of scenery in Alaska, here is a hike where it seemed like we were in a jungle. (don't worry, my brother has a gun he carries that's used for bears)

Here is Natalie with Chaed's fiance, Kari. This is on a tour through Denali National Park. We saw bears, moose, and caribou. It was pretty amazing.

We camped one night in Denali National Park, it was unbelievable. I went to bed around 1:30am and it was still light enough for me to read!! Yeah, that was a big change, 20 hours of daylight. I loved it. Natalie is helping put the tent up, we slept with bear pepper spray. :)

So, there's some pictures and a quick glimpse into our trip to Alaska. We have been keeping busy since we got back home. James is in his second week of his Driven Hockey Camps (www.drivenhockey.com) and it is going great. This is the 4th year. His dad always comes down to help him run the camps and his mom came this year too. We decided to put in a fence in our yard so that's kept us busy. It looks great and his dads' precise measuring has given us a ridiculously straight fence, seriously, I don't know how it's so straight with all the slopes and slants and bumps in our yard. James wasn't able to help after the first night because he ended up turning into bubble boy from an alergic reaction to something in our neighbors trees. Man, that skin of his, it's pretty bad. He went to the doctor when his arm started to swell up, we'll see if the prescription helps. Well, that's about it for now. Take Care!!

1st Birthday!!!

WOW!! This has been an incredible month. There has been so many great times and experiences. Most importantly, Natalie is now one year old, we can hardly believe it. We had a party with all the babies from our Bradley Birthing Class and a party here at the house with friends and family. They were both great.

Look what a difference a year can make, here's Natalie the day she was born!!


Here's Natalie at one year old!


You can check out the slideshow below for more pictures of Natalie's birthday parties. She did not dig into either birthday cake, she did pick the strawberries off the one I made. That's good, maybe it means she doesn't have my sweet tooth. She is such a blast. She loves being outside, drinking from the garden hose, and playing with her Dad (she definitely thinks he's more fun than I am). She spends time outside with me while I work on my garden. I've never had a garden and I've loved it so far, I'm excited for the "harvest" :) She does the signs now for please, eat, all done, and milk. It's so amazing how she learns so quickly. She also started playing with her toys and using them for what they are supposed to be used for as opposed to just eating them. :) James and I watched in silence and amazement last night as she sorted her plastic shapes into one bucket and her wooden blocks into another bucket. The teacher in me got excited, "that's an early math skill, sorting and classification," James just laughed. She loves walking around everywhere as long as someone is holding her hands. She's taken a couple of steps but hasn't gotten the courage to tackle any more on her own. She still takes her 2 naps a day, she's a busy body so she needs her rest. She's still pretty tiny for her age as far as weight goes, she's smaller than 82% of babies her age but she is taller than 78%. She has James' body type, tall and thin. She is such a fun baby and we enjoy her so much every day.

James & I left Natalie for the first time over Memorial Day weekend. We went to Washington DC and Natalie stayed with James' Mom, Nana. We decided to take a trip to celebrate our anniversary. I loved it and it was so fun to spend all that time together. We saw all the monuments and some of the museums. We spent 4 hours in the Holocaust Museum and I have a new desire to learn and read more about WWII.


We also were able to go to the Tim McGraw & Faith Hill concert. It was UNBELIEVABLE!! We went with James' work and had appetizers at a country club here in Omaha, we were taken to the Qwest Center in a limo and then watched the concert from one of the Suites. Words cannot explain how much fun I had. I love both of them and was able to sing along with almost every song. It was great, the Qwest Center was packed from the floor to the ceiling, as you can see in the picture below.


We had a great Father's Day yesterday. We went to church, lunch, and then out to Louisville lake. It was so fun to watch Natalie experience the fun of a lake. She hung out in her floaty and then played in the sand. She only ate one handful of sand before she decided she'd rather just play with it. She was filthy, we had a great time.


Well, that's about it from the Chalmer's Household. I'm getting ready to go visit my brother, Chaed, in Alaska on Thursday. I'll be there until the 28th. I'm so excited!! He had a free ticket that I was able to use so Natalie and I are heading up there to spend some time with him. James is busy getting ready for his Driven Hockey Camps, www.drivenhockey.com, in July. Have a great June and I'll post some more pictures after our trip to Alaska. Take Care Everyone!!

Here's the slideshow, don't forget to click on play and for some reason you have to keep moving your mouse in order to read the captions on the pictures. Enjoy!

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Growing so fast!

Here is another slideshow of Natalie from April. Remember to press play on the slideshow and you have to move the mouse every once in a while for the captions to stay on. Enjoy!! (Please feel free to leave a commment if you want, I'm beginning to think the only people that read this blog are Kerri, Christi, & Missy :) Thanks Girls!

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Well, April flew by and we are already in May and one month away from Natalie's first birthday. We cannot believe it. We are having such a hard time believing that it will ever get better than it is now. My friend Donna that I taught with assures me that it just keeps getting better and better with every age. James and I have so many conversations where we think this is the best it's ever going to get, we just love her so much in this stage. We think she's the cutest and most fun now. I have to believe Donna that it just keeps getting better and if that's the case (which I'm sure it is) then we are in for so much joy and excitement. One new bit of news is that we are pretty sure that Natalie did her first sign language back to us. I've been doing it with her since January and was beginning to wonder if she would EVER respond and I think she did. We are teaching her the sign for please. We ask her if she wants more food or water or milk and do the sign along with it. If she reaches for it then we say "say please" and do the sign for please and then take her hand and make her do it. Well, on Monday night she did it ALL BY HERSELF!! We erupted in "YEAHHH" and laughed and clapped. She looked at us and laughed back. I immediately said, "I don't think she did that on purpose" and much to our surprise she did it AGAIN. I still wasn't convinced but then she did it 2 times during lunch on Tuesday, once at dinner last night and twice during breakfast this morning. I can't tell you how excited I am. 4 months of doing the signs and she finally did one back. I still get very excited when she does it and she always laughs back, it's so cute. Well, that's about it from the Chalmers' household. Enjoy your spring days!

Spring is here!

At the very end of this post is a new slideshow of Natalie with her pictures from the month of March. She is ten months old now which means she is almost a year!! We can't believe how fast time has gone and how much she is changing every single day. I feel so fortunate that I'm able to see watch her every minute of the day because she explores and experiences something new every day. The latest heart stopping event occurred a couple of weeks ago. She has never touched the steps, climbed anything, or showed any interest in either. Well, I was washing dishes and Natalie was playing in the living room. I peeked in to see what she was doing and she was exploring her stroller. I went back in the kitchen, washed a couple more dishes, remembered Natalie's bottle was in the living room so I went back in to grab it (the ONLY reason I went back in) and Natalie was at the top step!!! I COULD NOT believe it. She turned around, smiled, and laughed. I rushed to grab her and then thought all the normal things, "what would have happened if I would have come in 30 seconds later," "what in the world inspired her to climb the steps," "how did she not fall backward down the wooden steps," "seriously, how did she know what to do to get up the steps?" So, I now block the steps going up, as well as down.


We've been spending as much time as possible outside with Natalie in the beautiful weather, she loves the swing, HATES the grass, and watches the birds! She loves sitting in the swing at the park, well, at least we think she loves it. She will sit in it for 20-30 minutes without making a sound. She doesn't really smile or show any emotion, we are beginning to think that her little personality is going to be pretty chill. Any new situation she experiences is the same, she just takes it all in and doesn't show that she loves it or hates it, just kind of "does" it. We just let her keep doing something if she's not fussing about it. The one thing she did show an obvious dislike for is when her skin touches the grass. As you'll see in the slideshow below, she doesn't like any part of her body to touch it. It's hilarious. Here she is trying as hard as she can to climb up on James her feet don't have to be in it! :)



We are all doing great here and hope you are all doing well. Take Care

Signing off from Omaha - dreary, windy, and 37*

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