Messy Boy

Yesterday Natalie wanted to feed Michael "all by myself". So, I walked out of the room and let her do her thing. It was so cute watching when she wasn't looking. She would try to wipe the food off his mouth after every bite and he was loving it. She dropped the spoon on the floor so I went in and wiped it up and left the cloth on the table. When I came back a couple of minutes later she had wiped his face and bib off. Oh, I wouldn't trade the squash all over the floor, highchair, Michael's outfit and in his hair for anything. That was such a sweet moment.

Wow!! Major update needed.....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It has been way to long since my last post. It seems like it always happens that way. I figure that pictures can tell way more than I can write so I made a pretty lengthy slide show for you at the bottom of this post. You can scroll through the pictures at your own pace so you can look quickly. A couple of highlights:

• Michael is crawling all over the place, standing up on everything and actually taking some steps behind one of his toys. He also climbs steps and moves from one piece of furniture to another if they are close enough.


• Natalie is talking so much now, a million miles a minute. She says the funniest things. Like tonight...."Natalie, I love you. Do you love mommy?" "No" "No, you don't love mommy?" "no" "Well, who do you love?" and with so much excitement she screamed "I love JESUS!" It was so cute and I cracked up. She later told me she loved me too, phew.


• Natalie is such a mimic of us. For example, if we tell her to do something we say "Natalie, you need to put your toys away. You say 'okay mommy' and obey" She knows that she has to say okay and obey us right away. So now she says to Michael if he's doing something he shouldn't be doing "no, no, Myny. You obey mommy, you obey!!" Poor little guy has 2 moms!


• James was traveling for work for a week so I went back home to Randolph for 5 days. It was a wonderful time of visiting with family and friends. There are pictures of our time there in the slideshow.


• We have a friend living with us. His name is Dieudonne and he moved in about 2 months ago. He has been attending our church (http://www.cdomaha.org/) for about a year and half. He is a refugee from Burundi, Africa and is going to Central High School. It has been so much fun and such a blessing to our family having him live with us. We've had some great conversations and Natalie loves playing with him and talking to him. We celebrated his 19th birthday with him in October.


• Our church, Coram Deo, is celebrating it's 3rd Birthday next week. We have grown so much spiritually through the teaching and community of people we are around. All of the sermons are on the website if you are ever interested in listening to one.


• I am absolutely LOVING my job of a stay-at-home mom. I look at our kids every day and am so thankful I get to spend all of my time with them and friends. I get to use all of my energy on my family and watching it grow is so wonderful. We spend our days doing whatever comes our way. Natalie will wake up and say some of the following statements "are we going to the woo... are we going to MOPS... can we go on a walk... are we going bye-bye in the car.. can we play with coco "or names other kids"


• I'm starting to work on sign language with Michael so he stops grunting when he wants another bite. We did it with Natalie so that she could communicate with us before she was able to talk. We started with the sign for please and she would have to do it before we would give her food or anything else. So, I would say to Michael "do you want more" and then take Michael's hand before every bite and sign "please." Natalie would laugh and then a couple minutes later said to me "mommy, may I have some more milk please." Amazing what a difference 21 months makes.


• I've been making baby food for Michael. It's been great. It cost 1/2 the price to make my own organic food than to buy non-organic!! And, not to mention the difference in the food. Gross. Here is a picture of green beans that I bought and food that I made. Yuck. I think I'll stick to making my own. I'm not sure what they have in their "green beans" but why isn't it green???

Some Videos of the kiddos

Here is a video of what some of my conversations look like throughout the day. Michael and I are engaged in a very deep conversation here. He is so much fun. Having problems downloading the video, i'll try later.

Here is a video of Natalie and James while we were camping over Labor Day. She loves when James plays keep away with her. Also, she learned how to do a somersault so she defers to that when she can't get the ball.

Updates...

Here are some of the major updates going on in the Chalmers' Family

1. Natalie is potty trained!! Here's her new favorite face!




2. Michael is crawling and potty trained! Just kidding, he's just crawling. He can go from crawling to sitting up.




3. Michael started eating rice cereal. Natalie loves feeding him so he often has food on his forehead. Oh Well, what are you going to do.




4. Natalie & Michael are sharing a room now.




5. Natalie can count "1,2,3,8,9,10!" We're still working on the middle numbers.




6. Natalie's favorite songs: "Jesus Loves Me", "Zaccheas"


7. I gave Natalie her first haircut since she was born. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it but she did great. James just fed her chips the whole time. I kind of miss her wild, crazy, and out of control hair but I suppose it was time.




8. I'm playing in a fall co-ed softball league. Go "The Masterbatters"

Michael's Dedication

We had Michael dedicated on August 3rd. It was a very sweet day. Here are the verses that we choose to have our pastor, Bob, pray over him.

Romans 12: 9-13
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Ultimately, our prayer for Michael would be that he sincerely loves others, clings to Christ, honors others, serves the Lord with zeal, is joyful, patient, and a prayer warrior, serves those in need, and shows hospitality to all he comes in contact with.

Michael's Personality: He is so sweet, cuddly, and laid back. He has this huge smile that lights up his entire face. His eyes just light up. He loves his big sister. Anytime she talks to him he will laugh and smile at her. Anytime she does "big sister" things (i.e. trying to help him crawl by pulling his arms forward and he hits the floor with his face) he doesn't even mind. He just goes with the flow in everything we do. He doesn't cry when I lay him down for a nap, he just starts to suck his thumb and goes to sleep. It's crazy how they come with their own little personality and how it manifests itself in everything he does. He's going to be the silent, sneaky one. He's starting to crawl already but he does it so quietly. One minute he's where I laid him down and the next he's moved across the floor to something that caught his interest. I'm going to have to watch him closely because of how quiet he is. He'll probably be in great mischief before I even realize it. Natalie will probably keep my on my toes because she watches him pretty closely.

Alaska

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to Alaska. We had a great time and the kids did great here with Nana and Papa. It is so beautiful up there. Also, a couple of pics of the kiddos during their stay with Nana & Papa.

We went on a rafting trip down the Kenai River while we were in Alaska. We saw 2 black bears and a grizzly bear in the water eating a fish. It was so amazing and beautiful. Here is the best picture of the grizzly bear, we were probably only 40 yards away from it.


Look at the background in this picture. I love it up there.

My brother, Chaed and his new wife Kari, had a beautiful wedding. It was at the Alaska Heavenly Lodge and we enjoyed our time so much. Thanks so much Chaed & Kari, we had a great time. Here's a couple of pictures of the family, for those of you who don't know, it's me, Chawndell, Chaed, Dawn and my mom in the front. I have some great pictures of Chaed & Kari during their wedding on our other camera but it's new and I have no idea how to get them on our computer, James will have to do that and then I'll post them.

Unfortunately, James and I got the stomach flu when we got to Alaska, YUCK. I was in bed with the curtains shut for 36 hours and couldn't even turn the TV on because my head hurt so bad. My hips actually started to hurt because I couldn't lay any other way than on my side because it hurt my stomach so bad. That's no good. James got over his much quicker and when we called home, Natalie, Nana, & Papa got it too. The only one to avoid it was Michael. Here's James and I, after we recovered, at the wedding.

Summer Events!

We went swimming at a friend's pool.
Michael playing on his tummy.

Well, look at this, I'm posting again and it has been less than three months. Crazy, I know. I was just going to post a few pictures and give a quick update on the last couple of weeks. We went back to Randolph to see my family on the weekend of the 4th of July. It was so nice. We relaxed at my mom's house, lit some fireworks that they got for Natalie, (which she loved), went to Rick's farm and rode the 4-wheeler and shot a .357 magnum handgun, went to my aunt & uncle's house for a BBQ, jumped on the trampoline, and then headed down to the fireworks show in Norfolk from their house. It was a great weekend.

Natalie's doll enjoyed riding on the 4-wheeler too.

Natalie loved jumping on the trampoline.


This handgun was so loud! I actually was pretty close to hitting the bulls eye a couple of times, James, of course, was a pro.
Anyone else remember these snakes at the 4th of July, they were so fascinating, Natalie thought so too.
We found out when we were back home that James' Grandma passed away so we headed up to Canada for the funeral on Monday night. We left here at 5:00pm and arrived at 7:00am. I surprised myself and was able to drive about 4 hours!!! Amazing, I know. It was a very special funeral in the sense of how personal it was. There were many special moments and stories shared about her life. It was nice to be able to spend some time with all of James' family. We went to the beach one day with James' sister Michelle and her husband Tim and their kids Daniel, Leigh, & Emma. It sure would be nice to be so close to the beach! It is beautiful.



James and Michael took a little nap on the beach.

We returned to Omaha on Friday and then James' Dad, sister Christine, and her two kids Matthew and Madison arrived on Sunday. They were here for the week for James' hockey camp. His dad helped him with that and Matthew was in the camp. It went well and Natalie loved having her cousins to play with for the week. They were great with her. When Matthew was at the camp, Madison and I would cook the meals together and she would set the table every night. She became quite the food chopper when she was here, it was a fun time. They headed home yesterday and James' dad will remain here, his mom arrives tomorrow night and we head out to Alaska on Wednesday. Natalie and Michael are staying here with Nana and Papa. We will be gone from Wednesday-Tuesday for my brother's wedding. I'm excited to go on a trip with James. We'll miss the kids like crazy but they will be in good hands.

Here's Matthew, Madison, James & Natalie downtown on our walk.

Michael is still doing great. He rolls over both ways all the time with quite a bit of force. He has the most precious smile that lights up his whole face. His eyes completely change when he smiles, it's so sweet. Natalie is still so funny. We were driving today and I was cracking up at her. I thought if anyone was watching me they'd think I was a bit crazy. Some of you know that she won't/doesn't say "baby" with the "b" sound. She says "ngng". We have no idea why. So today I was telling her to say "b b b b b baby" she would say "b b b b b ngng" Then I sang a song with the word "baby" in it and she would say all the words and when it got to "baby" she would say "ngng". Very interesting.

I'm amazed at how much Natalie understands and does. I was changing Michael's diaper today and I told her to go into my room and get one of her cloth diapers from the clothes basket. She came back with the diaper and then I told her to go get the insert for it. She came back with the insert. I told her to put her diaper on her changing table and her water on her bed so we could get her ready for a nap. I walked in her room expecting it to all be thrown on the floor but both things were where I told her to put them. It's so fun to watch how much she grows and learns, she'll be mowing the lawn before we know it.

This is what happens when I try to do too many things at one time. I started filling the sink, left the kitchen for some reason and came back to find it overflowing and Natalie playing in the bubbles. That is very typical behavior of me. To repeat a phrase I've taught Natalie "Oh Well."

Here's a little video of Natalie and James on the trampoline.




Here's a video of Michael. He would only roll over for a while when we weren't looking and in his crib. I was trying to get some video of him rolling over but he wouldn't do it. Instead, he did what he does so well, spit up. He spits up so much, we both need about 3 outfits a day.