Exploring and Enjoying Wisconsin

After Christmas break and returning to the frozen land of Wisconsin we got adjusted to the cold again and then had fun exploring Wisconsin. On the extra cold days we keep ourselves entertained inside: Making Natalie sit while I practice new hairstyles, she does a very good job staying still for me.I also do projects at night when Patrick has to study. I made this to hold Natalie's bows:

At the end of January Patrick had tests and usually during the middle of test week Patrick will bring home Chipolte's for us to enjoy and to celebrate finishing some of his tests. Natalie loves the dressing that comes with the salad. Below is her drinking it out of the container and then her messy face. Natalie has some funny eating habits lately. She loves spicy taco soup, curry rice, black bean salsa and spanish rice. She definitely loves spicy food!

Then the weekend after test week it was actually warm sunny and 45! We took that Saturday and drove up to Greenbay, WI to see Lambeau Field where the Packers play. It was very fun to explore the field and take the tour. Here is Natalie playing peek-a-boo in the gift shop waiting for the tour, she is so funny.
Trying on the cheesehead, appartently back in the day the Chicago Bears fans used to call us cheeseheads to make fun of the Wisconsin fans, but instead the joke stuck and now the Packers are proud cheeseheads.

Natalie played pic-a-boo the entire tour and entertained everyone.

Here is a perfect example of why Lambeau Field is known as the frozen tundra.

Natalie performing the famous Lambeau leap!

There is a place called Mitchell Domes here in Milwaukee, they have biodomes that you can go explore with all kinds of interesting plants to see. This is a picture of Natalie looking at the trains and lego land in the show dome. This dome they decorate and re-do depending on the holiday. There is also a tropical dome and a desert dome, the tropical one is my favorite because it feels like it is 80, so nice!

Another day we went with some friends to a place called Monkey Joe's a place with huge blow-up toys. I was a little worried Natalie wouldn't like it, but she loved it! She had so much fun and was fearless even on the big slides, needless to say after playing 3 hours she took a good nap!

Natalie climbed up this huge slide all by herself, once, then the second time up she got too tired halfway up and started to yell "help, stuck."
After all that work she needed a break, so she found herself a chair and asked for water.

A couple of weeks ago for Family Home Evening we decided to try to mke sugar cookies with Natalie, she loved it. She thought it was so cool, she even liked to watch them cook.

This is what happens when you leave a 2 year old alone within reach of a bottle of lotion:
Lotion was everywhere, as you can see all over the table, the chair and herself, she thought she was pretty funny.

This past weekend Patrick and I had the chance to go on an impromptu date, our neighbors kindly watched Natalie while we went curling. It is actually really fun and there is a lot of strategy involved. The medical college had a club and so it was all free, even better, and they took time to give us private lessons since we hadn't been before. Then we jumped in and played a game. Our team actually won, despite my horrible ability to aim.

It doesn't look like it, but I am actually sliding across the ice. After this picture you let go of the rock and try to get it as close to the center of the target at the opposite side of the ice as possible. Very fun, we will try to go again soon! Well that is the update of what we have been up to in the last month. I will try to post more frequently instead of huge posts once a month. We have had so much fun exploring Wisconsin and doing all of the fun things to offer here. Now we just need it to warm up so we can explore the beautiful scenery around here!

RIP

So.. Amy neglected to post our most exciting news. Natalie is officially off the binky/pacifier. We had been talking about it and then one night last week I was studying late at school and I got a text from Amy saying she took away the binky. Natalie only cried for 5 minutes and then went to bed. The following times she went to bed she only asked for it, but didn't cry. We were expecting a lot harsher transition, but Natalie proved she is even more perfect. Personally, if she would have cried I would have given her binky back in a heartbeat Luckily Amy is the enforcer. Natalie keeps growing up it sucks!

Catching Up

We were very excited to get to St. George for the break expecting nice warm weather, but instead we were greeted by cold snowy, that's right it snowed on Christmas Even in St. George, weather. Natalie was already for it though with her cute hat.

Natalie got pink cowboy boots from my grandma, as you can tell she loved them and wouldn't take them off, she even wanted to wear them with her pajamas!

On Christmas Eve my family has a program where we sing songs, act out the Nativity and have fun. Natalie enjoyed the piano the most as you can tell. She is playing it with Grandpa above and with her cousin Josh below.

With a little prompting Natalie agreed to do her part of the program, act out the Primary Song, Once There was a Snowman, this is her melting.

Right before the night's festivities we had dinner and Natalie insisted on having all of the cups she could find, crazy girl. After we spent a week with my family in St. George and did lots of fun things, like riding horses (apparently our camera did not make it to that event) and we also got to go to the park, on the one nice weather day while we were there to play tennis and Natalie loved the slides we went up to visit Patrick's family in American Fork. The highlight of the trip for Patrick was skiing almost every day we were there. I went with him one day, we had a great trip.

Lynsey, Patrick's sister, and his Dad eating lunch during our ski break.

Patrick and I at the top of the mountain waiting to go down. While we were skiing the weather got progressively worse throughout the day, this picture is right before lunch as the sky grew darker. It got windy, but overall it was a fun, adventerous day, Natalie got to stay with Grandma and eat her favorite Cafe Rio quesadilla for lunch.

Sorry a little out of order, but this is us before we started skiing for the day.

The sweater Natalie is wearing in this picture has a funny story behind it. Patrick's sister Lynsey gave it to her over the break, the funny thing is that it was hers, she bought it at Banana Republic and accidentally dried it, the sweater shrunk enough to fit Natalie, crazy huh? Well the moral of the story is, if the sweater says don't dry it, DON'T, but we love the sweater, thanks Aunt Lynsey.

The apron Natalie is wearing came from my sister Nicole, doesn't Natalie look cute? She is so helpful in the kitchen these days and loves to cook.

Sorry this post is kind of all over the place, and more pictures to come, I can't figure out what happened to the ones of Natalie opening her kitchen and I also have some from Christmas morning, sorry it has been so long since we posted, we will try to be better.

Miller Brewery Lights

So we decided we wanted to see some holiday lights, and we found out the Miller Brewery has weekend tours of the factory that include a light show. It was pretty cool, plus we got free lemonade. I got a sweet polo that has a miller light logo on it in a raffle, I will be wearing it often let me tell you. Patrick got an insulated sleeve to keep his cans cold. It was actually pretty cool, recommended for all of you that live in Milwaukee. I would say the show is about ten minutes long, and I think they said it has over 200,000 lights. Anyway, way cool, pictures of us freezing will be uploaded later, this video is taking way too long to upload. I am going to bed.

Fall: Not the Season

Natalie has developed a huge obsession with the word FALL. She won't go down the stairs because of "fall." If we are holding her wrong she yells "fall." Anything that she pushes off the table she yells "fall" as she is pushing it off. Fall, fall, fall she won't stop, seriously stop on by you will here it at least once a minute. I have been trying to teach her the word truck, for obvious reasons jk. Well here are some pictures of 10% of our recent adventures; more to follow of Diana and Lynsey's visit and thanksgiving.

This is Natalie unfolding all of our laundry because she lost a toy and was stressed about finding it.
This is Natalie and I on the Milwaukee River Walk, more pictures later on.

Natalie loves her hot chocolate, so much that she dumped the whole thing on amy seconds later. I laughed my head off, but Amy was mortified. She claims it was her first time being embarrassed in public by Natalie. Personally, making it 19 months without an public embarrassment is nothing to complain about.
Natalie and Amy in a phone booth on the river walk, apparently it smelled of urine. Notice they shut the door, must have liked the smell?
Amester and Natalie on a bridge.
Natalie
For all you older people who read our blog, I bet you can't guess who that is? It is a Bronze Fonze, I personally don't know who he is, but if it were up to me a statue of Homer would have been in place of Fonze.
Natalie is petrified by him, she does not like the fonze.

Natalie and I with a cool little tug boat in the back ground on the river walk.
Natalie has this obsession with cleaning out her toes whenever we take off her socks. At least she will always have clean feet.
Here is the leaf plow for all those who thought I was lying, it does exist.
We took Natalie to the Children's museum here, and Natalie loved all the golf balls that they have there. Basically everything they have there runs off golf balls, so those of you who know Natalie well she had the time of her life.
Natalie at the Chicago temple, we were able to go down after tests. Amy and I switched off going in it was great fun. Except I forgot that the state of Illinois makes you pay tolls the second you enter Illinois. Amy and I NEVER carry cash, but we were able to scramble up enough for the first toll, but I had to run the second because no cash. They let you pay online within 7 days of missed toll so that was good.

Natalie still loves her rootbeer for those of you who were wondering. It is snowing like crazy today, wish I could go skiing.