Christmas Tree Farm

So we went to cut down our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I am just now getting pictures up. My grandparents who live in Florida were down and were able to come with us - we had lots of fun! It was a little windy and chilly but not as cold as it has been some other years.

In order to get to the trees, we had to take a hay ride pulled by a big tractor.

Uncle Mike and the bundled up Natali.

Great Grammie and Natali walking in the tree farm.

Yea - we found our tree!!


P.S. Our tree is up in the house but no decorations on it yet but hopefully that will happen today.

Ponytail

I finally got a ponytail in Natali's hair last week! She doesn't really like me to mess with her. Infact, she didn't really want to be still for me to take a picture either.. hence the off centered picture. :) Oh and pardon the mess. Natali's hair is getting so long we are probably going to cut her bangs soon. I can't believe it. Her hair will go nicely into pigtails if she would just let me........

These boots are made for walkin.....

Josh's mom got Natali these rain boots a few weeks back and the first time GramE tried them on her, Natali didn't much care for it. Well, a couple nights ago Natali brought me one of them and said "boots". So I put both of them on and she started walking around the house. :) The boots are too big but Natali didn't seem to mind this time. Here is the cuteness in her cool rain boots!!!!

New toy

My brother Michael came in to town this weekend as a surprise. We all met at Sam's for dinner (gotta love the cheap big pieces of pizza and a drink). Sam's had these big stuffed animals that have something really sturdy inside of them so a kid can sit on it. Michael was sneaky and bought one and we found out in the parking lot when he gave it to Natali. Natali likes it a lot and when she sits on it she roars like a lion. :)

Natali giving the lion/bear (not really sure what it is) a hug.

Here she is roaring and she puts her hands up like claws when she does it. It is really cute!!

Natali still have a little bit of a fever - I am not sure why it won't go away. It she still have a fever Monday, I'll have to take her back to the doctor. We will stay home from church tomorrow and then see what happens.

well she was feeling better

Yes yes, Natali is sick again. An ear infection in the right ear still and the congestion/coughing/breathing fast stuff all over again. We are on some special ear drops and oral antibiotic that have to be mixed up for us at the Medical Plaza pharmacy. It seems like the ear drops are going fast already and we have just used them 2 days. The doctor says Natali keeps getting "viral induced asthma" meaning she gets a virus from day care or church nursery which causes the snotty nose, which gets in her ear and chest, which causes ear infection and congestion/wheezing. We are considering finding another means of child care since Natali seems to always be sick. And the doctor bills and medicine costs add up quickly. :) I had to stay home a couple days this week since she had fever this time. We are very thankful that Josh's mom could help watch Natali so I could at least work some.
I will try to take some pics this weekend to put on here. I really haven't talen hardly any in the last couple months. I guess that's a wrap for now.

Poo Poo

Natali has started saying "poo poo". We started checking her diaper when she said it, and there wasn't anything but then like a few minutes or so later, she would have poopoo in her diaper! I am NOT ready for potty training. I haven't read up on it or anything. She actually hasn't done this today but she was doing it over the weekend. I hope we didn't miss our chance with her to start working on the potty training stuff. The other thing she does is if you put her in the car seat and she has a poopy diaper, she will say "poopoo". :) I'll have to keep everyone update on this.

I think Natali is finallly feeling better - not as much congestion, no more runny nose and no more stuff coming out of her ears. However, she has a horrible diaper rash right now - maybe a yeast infection. It is pretty painful for her when we clean her at diaper changes.

More words Natali can say:
puppy
cat
yes
"goo goo" - thank you
"peas" - please
"anki" - blanky
"ain" - train -she says this when she hears the train that goes near our house
cookie
daddy
she says "hi" and "bye bye" to everyone
light
"eaf" - leaves
stick

Photos at last and stuff

I cannot believe it is November the 8th already.........time is seriously going too fast for me.

Natali is sick again - an infection in her right ear (yes even with the tubes) and some chest congestion/coughing. She is on an antibiotic again and ear drops. Aaarrgh. This is really frustrating me for me in many different ways but I will spare you all my thoughts. :) I would appreciate people praying for us and Natali - it is very hard to give so many medications 2-3 times a day. She is on 2 inhalers while she is congested, nose spray, ear drops, and antibiotic. We all get tired of it.

Mugshot is doing okay - we need some more business but overall we are doing well. We got a new security light today which makes a huge difference and the parking lot will finally be striped tomorrow. Yeah!!!!

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Christian sent balloons and puzzles for after Natali's ear tube surgery. She loved both of them! We are using the puzzles to teach her some words and colors. She like the balloon with Dora on it and when Natali looked at the silver side, she would say "babies" because she could see her reflection in the balloon.

Well, we have been a busy family lately.

I went to Ohio to see my sister Rebecca with Natali and my dad. It was a good trip overall.
More on that at a later date.
The coffee shop is going pretty well - Fridays and Saturdays are busier than weekdays which is nice.
Natali had her 2 week checkup from the ear tube surgery and her ears look good! We have to continue a nose spray until it freezes and probably again in the spring. The doctor said it's so she hopefully doesn't get a runny nose which could lead to infection in her ears.

I will post pictures hopefully soon. SO sorry!

Life is pretty crazy right now.

Surgery went well!!

Natali's surgery went well. The doctor said her ears were very bad (infected and stuff). The surgery took less than 20 minutes. She was pretty fussy the first hour or two but after that she has pretty much been herself. She is on a few different medications - nose spray, ear drops, antibiotic, and the inhaler that she has been on for a while. We are going to see Dr.Roberts tomorrow to have her check Natali's lungs - the anesthesiologist that helped with Natali's surgery was concerned about the congestion in her lungs. He says she has reactive upper airway something or other (basically asthma). So he really wanted us to see our pediatrician. We will see if Dr.Roberts wants us to use anything else to get her over this nasty stuff. We will keep you updated! Thanks to everyone who prayed for our little girl. It was really hard to let the nurse take Natali back for her surgery but God took good care of her. :)

Quick update

So, I haven't posted in a while because life has changed around here and I haven't had the time or energy to get on the computer much.

Here are a few highlights:

Mugshot Coffee House opened on September 29th (this is the business we started in Longview)
So we were up there all the time the whole week before and week after that day

Natali is having tubes placed in here ears tomorrow morning bright and early
So we have been to the pediatrician and ear,nose,throat doctor

I had a seminar in Dallas from last Thursday until Sunday so Natali stayed with Grammie and Grampie

The house is a total wreck! Josh works pretty much 5:30am until 10:00pm on weekdays and until about midnight on weekend. Fortunately we are closed on Sundays. So I get up in the mornings and get myself and Natali ready for daycare and pick her up every day.

Then on this Thursday I am scheduled to take Natali to Ohio to see my twin sister Rebecca. (My dad is coming too)

So that's that in a nutshell. I will hopefully post some pictures sometime........Natali's hair is getting a lot longer and she is talking more.

Natali and "Mimmie"

Natali loves her "mimmies". Lately she will bring these 2 big Minnie and Mickey to you and put her arms up for you to pick her up - she wants to sit in your lap between the 2 stuffed Mimmies.

Then she lays her head back and will stay there for just a little bit.

Well, Natali's daycare called Wednesday to say she had a 100.5 fever and she wasn't acting herself. Josh picked her up early and we called the doctor's office. They said to watch her for a night and see what her fever did. Thursday she woke up with 101.2 so she went AGAIN in to see Dr.Roberts. She thinks Natali now has a virus that has gone to her chest- her lungs sounded yucky. We now have a chamber inhaler to use on her 3-4 times a day. It is a mask with a chamber tube that you put the inhaler at the end of that. We have to put the mask over her nose and mouth and puff the inhaler to her. She absolutely hates it -she screams the whole time. I think it is helping though. Good news is that Natali's ears are looking better but not all the way better. We will go back AGAIN next Thursday for a recheck.

Hurricane Ike

So Hurricane Ike came through Longview yesterday afternoon. Our electricity flickered all day long and finally went out at 3:30pm and didn't come on again until 10:30 this morning. Natali was a little concerned last night when the lights were out and she was very interested in all of the candles. :) The wind was just plain crazy! We had some big gusts that I was quite concerned about. Not damage to our house - but lots and lots of branches, pine cones, and leaves all over the front and back yard.
We drove over to my parents house for lunch and we saw a lot of down trees - 1 in particular had hit part of a house and caused some good damage. It was a very large tree and the whole thing was uprooted. I am amazed at all the damage just in Longview was caused by Mr.Ike.
So we are all okay here... thank you Lord for no more big branches falling into the house!!!!!!

Natali and her books

She loves her books! We have them on a shelf that she can reach so lots of times she goes over there, grabs a book, and sits down and looks at it. :) Sometimes she will dump all the books on the floor before she decides which one she wants and sometimes she will bring a book to one of us to read to her. She is cute when she sits by herself and turns the pages, she jibber jabs the whole time like she is reading the book.
(please excuse the slobber spot on her shirt - this sickness and stuff makes her drool a lot) :)

Update on the sickie

Well, Natali got a lot better by the end of last week and most of the weekend, but started getting worse in the middle of the week. She has been coughing a lot more and waking up at night coughing. The runny nose came back also. So we called the doctor's office and they advised for us to come in today which we had wanted to do anyways. Josh's mom and Josh took Natali in for a 3:40 appointment and Josh had to leave to go do something so it was just Grammie and Natali. They were there until 5:30!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Apparently one of the other doctors has quit so I guess the others are taking up the patients. The point of the story is that Natali's ear infections are still there so Dr.Roberts is adding another antibiotic. Nothing for the cough because she said that is associated with the ears. We will go for a recheck in 2 more weeks and see how things are coming along - hopefully there will be nothing to see in those ears!!!

Here is just a cute pic. She likes to have blankets put around her sometimes and she walks around the house like this. :)

Sickie

Natali has had a runny nose and cough stuff for about 2-3 weeks so we decided to take her to the doctor since it seemed like she just couldn't shake this one. She has started wheezing a little bit when she breathed too. We went yesterday to see Dr. Roberts and Natali has 2 ear infections, a sinus infection and bronchitis or something like that. This time she was sick she never messed with her ears!!! Aaargh. We had no idea. That is the frustrating part. Plus a few weeks ago, Natali was waking up in the night crying a lot and we thought maybe it was some sort of phase she was going through because she seems to go through stages. Aaargh again. Of course we will never know for sure. Natali is on an antibiotic and a liquid to help dry up the snot. She seems better already today - the runny nose has run away. :) She has been is a good mood for all this which she usually is but hopefully it will be all better soon.

Also, Natali said "juice" tonight!!!! It was so clear... Josh and I looked at each other and was like "did she just say that?". She said it a few more times though not quite as clear. We are so excited to add another word to her vocabulary. Hopefully she will not forget this word. Another word she can say that I forgot to add to the list is "pop". She says this when she is outside with bubbles and touching them. :) So cute. Well, I should get to bed.

New skill

Natali is finally stacking blocks herself! She has always just knocked down the blocks and refused to stack them. Yesterday we got the blocks out and she started putting them on top of each other!!! Josh and I couldn't believe it! As you can see she did 4 blocks on her own and later she did 5 I think. We are excited for this new milestone. :)

Oh, and Natali is 16 months old today!

Talking

Natali's words

Words she is currently saying:
1. Dadda
2. Momma
3. Fish
4. More
5. Mimmi (Minnie)
6. Cacker (Cracker)
7. Nana
8. BUBBLE!
9. Uh oh
10. She still makes a cat, cow and dog noise when you ask her.

Words she has said in the past but seems to have forgotten them:
1. Yucky
2. Duck

Words she will say but only if you say them and then she repeats them:
1. Whoa Whoa Whoa
2. Book
3. Ball

That's all I can think of right now. She is doing really well. She tried really hard to say "Ranger" our dog's name last night so we will have to work on that one. It is so adorable when she says something I just love it!

I have a few things to update but I will probably do them seperately - we'll see.

Natali has started sucking out of a straw. :) Josh and I have been making smoothies the last few nights and we use straws to drink them. Well, Natali comes over to us with her mouth open like a little birdie, so I thought I'd try the straw. I made the sucking noise and showed her what to do with her mouth. It took her just a few minutes of trying and she got it... and when she did, she liked it!! It was really funny. Then she kept wanting more and more and more and more! She knows now when the blender comes out what is coming and she gets excited.

"BUBBLE" !!!!

This is a great video because it shows Natali saying "bubble" and it shows she can dance on command! :) She really does. One of things I always thought was cute about little babies before I was ever pregnant was when they would do a little dance. Now I have my own cute dancer!

Photo shoot

I realized I needed more pictures to put on the blog, so I took Natali in her room and took a few pics of her.

She is doing really well , she has a little snotty nose right now, but otherwise good. She is learning more words - the main one right now is "bubbles". We have some bubbles from grandpa and Natalis loves to go outside and have us blow bubbles for her. Now she goes to the door and says "bubble". :) It's cute. I took a video of her outside with the bubbles on our video camera and I am still working on getting it downloaded to our computer. I will post that video later sometime. Natali is also into saying "uh-oh" when she drops something.

Natali's hair seems to be growing really fast lately. Josh took this picture one night when I was gone and he had given Natali a bath. Her hair doesn't look this long when it is dry, so this is a cool picture to me. And kudos to daddy for getting a great picture! (He said it wasn't easy to get her still long enough to capture the photo)

Camera smile

Natali somehow has figured out that she is supposed to smile for the camera! It is really funny. If you have the camera and say her name, she looks up at you and does this cheesy smile. She likes to look at the picture on the camera after you take it. Here are some examples:

Pig tails

So, my first successful pigtails was the other night. Usually Natali does not like me to mess with her hair. She looks pretty cute with them so hopefully she will let me do it some more. I tried last night and she would have none of it!

I can't believe I haven't blogged something in a week and a half. I haven't really taken hardly any pictures of Natali since she turned 1. It's really sad. I will try harder. Anyways.

So Natali is over the thrush, hand/foot/mouth disease, and I think over the yeast infection. She has a little bit of a cold right now.

She is all about showing her opinion about things these days. She likes to bat her hands at my face and yell when she doesn't like something I do. I didn't expect this to happen already. :) It's interesting.

I took a few pictures of Natlai in the bath and I like them because you can see her teeth so good - she has 6 teeth on top and bottom I think.

This last picture is of Natali waving bye-bye to the water. She does this now while the water is draining..... and most of the time she won't let you take her out of the tub until all the water is gone. :)

No pics, just words!

So Natali has been busy learning and practicing new moves! Her latest funny thing is that when we make a certain sound that means basically "I'm gonna get you!" she looks at you with a certain look and starts to walk backwards slowly, then, she runs to you giggling until you grab her and give her a big hug, its a fun game, we recommend it! Also, when you change her T-shirt she knows just where to put her arms to get them in the holes, she is so very helpful.

She has had a few medical/health related issues lately. She has some fluid in her ears which the Dr. says should clear up on its own and it looks like it already has, she isn't pulling at her ears anymore. Next she had a mild case of hand, foot and mouth disease, probably contracted from daycare, but that seems to be clearing up as well. Lastly, she has a yeast infection that we first thought was just a nasty diaper rash, we were wondering why it wouldn't go away! And lastly lastly, she also had thrush which is somewhat uncommon for older babies to get, they say it is somehow associated with the yeast infection. All in all, Nat is still happy go lucky Nat, for the most part, she woke up at 11:30 last night and never really went back to sleep besides maybe some 30 minute spells here and there, so we all had a long night. We are hoping for a better night tonight. We are very blessed to have a child with such a bright attitude no matter what is going on with her, she just keeps a smile on, and we are glad for that.

P.S. this was written by daddy! :)

Silly girl

Natali was full of laughs tonight during her bath. And she actually continued to laugh even after I got the camera to record her. :)

Just Nat being Nat

Good stuff

It seems like I have so much to talk about just in the last week. First and foremost - Natali's 2 ear infections have finally cleared up!!! Josh took her on Thursday to see Dr.Roberts and she said Natali looked great!

Natali is changing and learning new things so fast! Her biggest thing right now is that she gets a book and brings it to you, sits down so you will read her the book. Over and over and over again. :) Sometimes she puts her arms up for you to pick her up and read to her. She can point to her belly button now - she pulls up her shirt and points at it. If she has a onesie on, she tries to pull it up but can't and she gets kind of upset/worried. :) Natali knows when we say "Natali, do you want to get a bath?", she starts walking towards the bathroom! Also, you can ask "Do you want some socks on?" and she will put her foot up for you to put some on. When she finds her shoes she brings them to you and puts her foot up to get her shoes put on by someone.

We are having so much fun with Natali and how smart she is, the new things she learns, and how much she is growing in all sorts of ways. It is so amazing that her brain allows her to figure things out.

Happy 14 months to Natali!

Can't believe she can be that old already - time sure is flying fast. Natali is actually spending the night at my parents' house because both of us have to work early tomorrow and it saves on us having to go over there and drop her off. :) It is very weird sitting at home without a little toddler running around. She has been really jibber jabbin lately - making all kinds of new sounds. And she has started a new laugh that is quite cute I must say. Well, that's all for now.....

Hooray!!!

This morning when I took Natali to day care she didn't cry when I dropped her off!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday Josh took her and he said she wimpered a little but didn't go in to a full cry or screaming as she has every time previous to now. We are so happy that she (I guess) is getting used to the day care. She actually let me set her down and she started playing on the floor! She pointed at me and waved bye bye as I walked out the door. :) It just made my day. Natali is still usually fussy when we pick her up - the workers say that when other parents come to pick up kiddos, she gets fussy and points to the door. But overally they say she is doing good.

Natali knows where her belly is now. I asked her last night "Natali, where is your belly?" and she pointed to it! We haven't even been working on that unless maybe one of the grandparents have been and we don't know it. :) She also knows where a nose is on other people, but she hasn't quite figured out when we ask her where her nose is.

The other day, I stopped Natali from doing something or took a toy from her. Anyways, I picked her up and she bit me!!! Yes, she bit me. I scolded her but not a few seconds after, she did it again!! So I got on her more. She kind of gave me the "I want to do it again but I see that look on your face so maybe I won't" look. This child has a mind of her own let me tell you. But at the same time, she is so sweet and getting better at coming back to us when we ask her to. We just love her so much!!!

Goings on......

I know there haven't been many pictures lately so here are a couple in the PJ outfit my sister got Natali when she visited a while back.

Well, Natali has added a couple more things to her "can do" list. She just started walking backwards. She goes very slow and carefully, but she does it for a little while. Also if you ask her what the cow says, she will make this cute noise kind of like Mooo but more like a buzzing sound I guess.

I don't know if I already wrote about this, but Natali is cutting her molars and they seem to be coming up really fast. It seemed like the front teeth took a long time from when they first showed through to when they came through a lot and looked like teeth. (Does that make sense?) Anyways, she is drooling a lot more and putting more things in her mouth.

Update on the ear infection/sickness... I am feeling good but still have a little sore throat and cough. Natali however still has the 2 ear infections. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she was still pulling at her ears some so I wanted to make sure they were healed or not. NOT. Doctor Roberts looked in there and said "yup, there is still pus in there". Needless to say, we are on our 3rd antibiotic and we will have a recheck in 2 weeks. She said we are a ways yet from Natali needing tubes in her ears or anything like that, so that made me happy.

Update

Well, Natali and momma are feeling better neither is all the way well yet though. I just have this cought that is hanging on. Natali finally doesn't have a fever but she is still holding her ears sometimes and shakes her head. I am going to call the doctor tomorrow and see if Natali needs to be checked out again.

I will try to put some pictures up on here soon, I know everyone likes to see the cute stuff!! :)

Natali is walking so well now - she can keep her hands down. Also, now she can bend down while standing and stand back up without falling or holding on to something. AND she can stand up from sitting down without any help. Josh and I constantly look at each other and say "She's so big!!". She is working on 14 months. Well, that's all for now..... hopefully the sickie crud will go away totally soon. Thanks for those of you who were praying for us!!!

Sickies

So Natali is sick... we took her to the doctor on Friday because she had a fever Thursday night. Actually we saw the nurse practitioner and she was just fine. Natali has 2 ear infections along with the virus that is causing the runny nose and coughing. So to fight the secondary bacterial infection, she is now taking Amoxicillin which we have to mix with applesauce in order for her to take it. :) Needless to say, Natali didn't go to daycare Thursday or Friday - we are hoping to start her back Monday.
However... we are at home right now instead of at church because Natali's fever is back this morning and I don't feel good with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Good times. Daddy went to church because we are responsible to help with the sound board since there really isn't anyone else who knows how to run it.
What a week/weekend. I am worn out and we still have one more day left and then the next week starts. But all in all God is good. I am thankful we haven 't had to take Natali to the hospital yet because when my sister and I were little, we had lots of ear infections and some of them required a hospital trip! Natali is in her crib and it seems as though she might have fallen asleep so I am off to nap myself! I just hope Josh isn't the next one on the sickie list.

Day care - this is kind of long - Beware!

Yes, we started Natali in day care this week. We figured it was time because I work full time and Josh will be going back to work soon so day care was inevitable (sp?).

Day 1: The first day we walked in the room and Natali was the only kid since we got there early. She pointed at everything and was very happy to get down and explore all the new things and toys. She didn't cry when we left either so we thought we had it made in the shade! Well, I called to check on her at lunch time and they said she had been crying on and off, didn't eat much at lunch time (NOT a Natali thing), but they only had to sit with her a few minutes to get her down for her nap. I was worried about that - that she would cry and keep all the other kids from sleeping. Anyways, Josh picked her up around 4:30 and Natali wasn't really herself for a few hours. She was just really quiet and you could tell she had been crying. She got more happy and talkative later in the night and went to bed at normal time. End Day 1 of day care.

Day 2 : Josh took her and they got there during morning snack time. The kids sit in those cool tables that have 6 little seats in them so all the kids sit at once. :) Well, I guess Josh gave Natali to the lady but Natali had a death grip on Josh's shirt and starting crying really bad. Josh said it was really hard to leave her because she was screaming so bad. But he did and he picked her up again at 4:30. She did better this day and ate better so that was good.

Day3: I took Natali this morning and the same thing - screaming when she saw me leaving. So I stayed for just a minute and stood by her seat in the table while she started a snack and she was fine. She seemed okay so I started to leave and the screaming started again. I just left though ( SO hard to do when she has her arms out to you crying). She did okay today too, although she didn't eat all the much for lunch, but ate her afternoon snack plus some. :)

Overall, the day care workers say she is doing well for her first days/week. Natali does have a snotty nose already but who knows if it really came from there. However, when Natali went in her seat this morning the boy next to her had snot running from his nose. Sigh. But we like this day care - they give you a "report card" every day she is there and it tells you what kind of diapers she had and for each snack/meal they have the option Some Most Everything Seconds
and they circle what she did for each one. Cool I thought. And they put on there how long she slept for each nap (they get 2).
So, after all that boring nonesense, this is a big change in our lives and I have been very emotional this week. Our girl is growing up! Someone laughed at me at work because this is just day care - not even her first day of real school but she's my little girl! :) I just hope it gets better and she will like to go to day care.

First day in the pool

Natali got a baby pool from my parents for her birthday and the first time we used it was Monday. The water was pretty cold I thought but Natali didn't seem to care. She really liked pointing at the animals on the pool and splashing in the water. It was cute to see our big girl in her little kiddy pool.

First steps in the pool..... not too sure what to think....

Ok, I think I will sit down and see about this pool....

Fish!!!!!

Momma time... she wanted to walk and I didn't want her to fall in the water face first...

Our little pool girl. And actually it was me and my mom - Josh was out fishing with both grandpas for Memorial Day. We had fun and hopefully there will be more pool days!

Natali's bath mohawk

Cool huh? :)