Thank You Note

Dear High Fructose Corn Syrup,
Thank you for making food taste good.
Love,
Natalie

Welcome Home, Uncle Spencer!

Welcome home from Italy, Spencer!
Wish we could be there to see you get off the plane!
Instead, we send our love via this video.
Hope to see you soon!

Near Death Experience

The fruit/veggies diet I attempted to go on this week to cleanse myself after the holidays was the closest thing I've had to a near death experience in my life. I originally set out to eat nothing but fresh fruits and vegetables from Mondays morning through Fridays night. I was starving the entire time, had sugar withdrawls (headaches included), cheated once on Tuesday and finally ran screaming to the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday night. I think I was cleansed enough.

New Year's Resolutions

My new year's resolutions never really make it past February, but I try to make them every year, nonetheless. Besides my spiritual goals, my goals this year are to:

• Eat more veggies/Feed family more veggies
• Read more
• Keep up on the laundry

That's it. I can't have to many or I get overwhelmed and do nothing at all. We'll see how I do. I feel better now that I've blogged about this...like its official. Now excuse me, I must rest, I don't want to risk overwhelming myself with too much moving of the fingers.

Wait...wasn't she just BORN?

Libby is one. I am flabbergasted that the time went so quick. It seems like just yesterday that Eric and I were speeding to UNC in the middle of the night because baby girl was coming.
Libby is such a sweet and mellow baby...and my goodness, she is cute! She doesn't have any words yet, but she walks, dances, motions "all gone" and shakes here head no and yes. In her case, there is definitely "more to love" seeing how she is in the 97 percentile for height and weight. Chubby babies are the way to go.
We love you, angelface!

The Holidays with the Deardens

We were so dang lucky to have my family here in North Carolina for the holidays. It was a blast to have so much company in our little apartment. Everyone was accounted for except Stephen, but of course we talked to him on the phone from Mexico on Christmas Day. While they were here, there were numerous activities going on...my mom, my sister Melodie and I went to the mall to have our eyebrows done by the "magic eyebrow lady" (as I call her)and we also found an adorable new dress for my mom's birthday. Meanwhile, the boys were watching football and playing Madden on the Wii (which Bryant and Jay brought from Utah). My Dad, a saint, helped Eric with our vehicles issues...which were grave at that time, considering neither of our cars would start at the time they arrived! Thank you a million, dad. All parties were found eating delicious Christmas viddles, including a night of fondue and raclette prepared by my dear husband. Yum yum! We also played a lot of games, which was one of my favorite parts of having the family together. On Christmas Day, no one was found wanting for gifts...it was a total haul! Especially for Ethan and Libby, bless their spoiled little hearts! They looked super cute in their Christmas jammies from Gramma Pelfrey. I, personally, was extremely pleased with presents I unwrapped. Thank you so much, all!
On Christmas Day, after gifts, we drove out to the Outer Banks of NC and checked out the Wright Bros. Museum, the beach, and the local scene. After that we spent time in Virginia at Bucsh Gardens, which was hecka fun, especially since we got to ride the Griffon (refer to my previous post)! The other days we spent eating, playing games, chatting, eating, sleeping, playing with kiddies, etc.
It was just soooo great to have my family here. We loved it so much and we hope you did too!
Thanks for coming!
(Refer to my facebook page for more pix)