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.