Correction

I stand corrected, Tony just told me that gas is $1.61 at Sam's. Even bigger thanks.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I want to start out saying THANK YOU to you who have left comments. I LOVE reading them. It helps me to know if anybody is actually reading my blog also. So if you happen to read my blog, and haven't left a comment, please sign up as a follower and/or leave a comment so I can know about you. I will try to write more often so there is something more interesting to read.

I am getting ready for Thanksgiving here. This is the first year that I am hosting and cooking the majority of the food! Yipes! I am looking forward to it though. My sister and her fiance` are coming from Houston, and my grandparents from Oklahoma are coming. Of course my sister that lives here will be here, but that is all. My parents are of course working out of town and can't get enough time off to come, so that is how it fell on me. We won't have many people here, but there will be enough to fill a table and eat some turkey so it will be fun.
I have almost all of the grocery shopping done, just lacking those last minute things that won't stay fresh long enough to buy them ahead of time.

The girls and I put up the Christmas tree last night. I know it's early, I don't usually put it up this early, but I kinda wanted it up when everybody is here for Thanksgiving, and I decided I didn't want to try to do it while they were all here so....I had a good evening to do it, so that is what I did.
Natalie LOVES it. She just looks at it and says "Wow, pretty colors! Pretty lights." She probably hung 90% of the ornaments on it, she thought it was so fun! She keeps saying "Mommy, nother one!" (wanting to hang another ornament on) She doesn't really mess with it at all now, aside from admiring it. I think her helping to put it up helps with that. Surprisingly, Gabbie hasn't messed with it yet today, so maybe I won't have any trouble with her either.
We have also brought out the Christmas music and Veggie Tales. Natalie loves the Christmas Veggie Tales! She watches them over and over and over and....You get the point. She and Gabbie both really loved a Trans Siberian Orchestra song that I had playing the other day.
I am really excited for Christmas this year. Natalie is old enough to really get into it, and Gabbie will almost be 1, so she will have lots of fun as well, even though she doesn't understand as well. I am starting it early, but I figure it makes up for last year. Between moving a few days before Thanksgiving, and being 9 months pregnant at Christmas I didn't really get to enjoy the holidays as much as I like to. So this year I am going all in! One of my very favorite things is having all the lights off except for the glow of the Christmas tree. It is so pretty and peaceful.

I am pretty much done with all of my Christmas shopping too. I have been buying things a little at a time for over a month now, so it didn't all hit us in one month. Pretty much all I have left is the little stocking stuffer stuff. I won't be able to put anything under the tree until right before though. I know I won't be able to keep the girls out of that!
Tony and I have already done our gift for each other as well. We got a Wii several weeks ago, so we have already been enjoying our Christmas!

Natalie's medicine seems to be working, she is eating a lot more, and I even had to let the waist of her adjustable jeans out a little bit! Yay! She goes to the Dr on Tuesday so we will see what she says.
She can count to 15 now! She has known all her shapes, colors and the alphabet for several months now. She is getting so big!

Gabbie has 3 teeth now, and the 4th is coming through any day now. She can stand alone for a long time, and the other night she took 2 steps all by herself! We were excited. I think she still has a little while before she does much walking on her own, but she sure is trying hard. I think she may have it down by Christmas. She loves music as much as Natalie does. She waves her arms around to the beat of the music anytime she hears it. She was up in the middle of the night the other night and Tony started singing to her. She stopped crying and started waving her arms all around dancing to his song!

Gabbie is up from her nap now so it is time for me to run. I probably won't get around to posting again before Thanksgiving so, Happy Thanksgiving! Remember what the day is all about what you have to be thankful for. I am thankful that gas is $1.73!!!!(aside from the obvious things, my family and health and all those kind of things,of course ) That is making a BIG difference for us.

Backtracking

Not much new is happening, so I thought I would post some pictures that have been taken over the past month or so today. I have been meaning to post them for quite awhile now, but just haven't made myself do it.
I am now on my 5th straight day of not leaving the house. I am cleaning the floors today and well...doing this! I am starting to feel a little shut in, and I'm sure Tony is tired of me calling him and saying, "Oh, can you stop by Target and get some diapers?" "Oops, we are TOTALLY out of toilet paper." "Ummm, Natalie needs more milk". Three different items, three different days! I am having trouble collecting myself. :) Natalie has a birthday party to go to tomorrow, so I will finally have the car and I can get out for a little while. Sometimes having only one car can be a little tough. I need a few things at the grocery store, but they will have to wait until Monday, when Tony gets paid. Tomorrow is SUPPOSED to be payday. but since the owner's wife is the one that writes the checks, and she doesn't like to work on Saturday...Payday is pushed back 2 more days! That really gets to me. If your bills are due on the first, you don't get to wait 2 more days just because it is Saturday! The bad thing is his other payday for Nov is on Saturday also, so we will be waiting AGAIN! Anyway...I had to get that off my chest.
Natalie seems to be eating a bit better now that she is on the appetite stimulant. We still have days here and there where she doesn't eat too much, but they are not as often as before so I am happy. Maybe between the medicine and bribing her with stickers we can get a little bit of weight on her.
That's mostly it for now, so here are the pictures that I told you about... The Beautiful flowers my wonderful husband brought me for no reason!
Natalie playing in the shop with Pawpaw and his saw dust.


Natalie trying so hard to get the wagon out the gate.

I'm not really sure what that face is all about!

Natalie being such a good big sister and pulling Gabbie in the wagon.
I think Gabbie may be a little worried! Molly chewing on a stick that is bigger than she is.
Going for a pretend ride in Mimi's car
Mimi is so funny!
Story time with Mimi.

Story time with Auntie Neena.


Natalie wearing great-Papaw's boots that she put on all by herself.
Gabbie pushing the car/walker toy. It is her favorite thing to do now. She is getting so big!

Fun sister time in the tub!

Big smile!


There's a Natalie in the ducks!

Sleepy Morning

Today is another cold, sleepy morning. The girls woke up EARLY! (8:00am!) Anybody who knows much about my girls knows that anytime before 9:30 is early for them! I guess they decided that it was pretty early too, because Gabbie fell asleep around 9:00 or so while she was having her bottle and I was in the shower. Natalie fell asleep around 10:30 during Veggie Tales! She never falls asleep during those! They are both awake now, and since Natalie only slept about 30 min, it shouldn't mess up her nap.
It is only in the 50's today, and pretty windy for the second day in a row. Yesterday the wind was about 30mph, so it felt really cold! I don't think it is quite as windy today, but still not really a day for being outside.
Last night was our church's fall festival. It is called Lord of the Harvest. This is the first year we have gone, since the girls weren't really big enough to enjoy it. Gabbie is still a little small, but Natalie had a blast. There were a bunch of those big inflatable things to jump and slide on, along with some little games and of course lots of candy! Natalie didn't want to leave, but she was so tired at bed time!
The girls have had runny noses and coughs for a week or more now. Tony and I have been a little sick too for a few days. I guess the weather changing has gotten to all of us. Gabbie had her 9 month check up on Tuesday. I can't believe it has been that long already! She has been here for as long as I was pregnant with her. Boy is goes by a lot faster after they are here!! Her checkup went well, she weighs just over 18 lbs. She got a flu shot, and has to go back in a month for another one. She thinks she is big stuff, playing with all of Natalie's toys, and crawling everywhere. She pulls up and can walk while holding on to something. She still thinks Natalie is the funniest person ever. She finally cut her first tooth on the 12th! It is taking it awhile to come all the way in though, it is still just barely poking through the gum. Her nose is really running bad since she is teething on top of being sick. Poor baby!
Natalie went to the Dr on Tuesday as well, but only to have her weight checked. She has been small for awhile now, so the Dr is keeping an eye on her. She has gained a few ounces since the last visit 3 months ago, but since she is still growing in length she is still dropping on the growth chart. She is now in the bottom 3% for her weight. She weighs 23 lbs. The Dr has put her on an appetite stimulant to try to get her to eat more. She hasn't eaten very much at all in the last 3 days or so. She is not really picky, she just doesn't want anything to eat at all, even of her favorite foods. She usually always wants chicken nuggets and french fries (I know, I'm a GREAT mother), but she won't even eat that lately. We will start the appetite med tonight probably, so we will let you know how that goes. We go back to the Dr in a month for another flu shot for her as well, and to check her weight again. I am constantly trying to get her to eat a bite of something, and the more calories the better. I never thought I would be trying to get my child to eat high calorie foods, or not care if what she eats is healthy or not, as long as she is eating. It is very hard for me! I am also trying hard to not let it become a habit, so that when we are back where she need to be, we won't have unhealthy habits. She still loves being a big sister, and the older Gabbie gets the more fun they have. She calles her "Sister Gabbie" sometimes. They have their own little language too. They jabber all the time and I have no clue what they are talking about, but they seem to understand each other fine. The other day Gabbie was fussing and when I asked her what was wrong Natalie said "Her teeth hurt". I hadn't thought of that at the time, and Natalie was exactly right! Just a little bit ago Gabbie was in her highchair having a snack and Natalie leaned over to talk to her. She said "You want toys Gabbie? Ok!" and then she ran and got her some toys to play with.
Natalie loves to help with the laundry, vaccuming, cooking, and pretty much any housework I am doing. It slowes me down a bit, but I let her help so she can learn. She is crazy about Play-Dough. She playes with it every day.
Now that I have had some caffiene, I think I can get to that never ending housework. Natalie ran down to their room saying "Come on Gabbie, Come on." Gabbie followed her and now they are playing in their room. This is my opportunity since they are occupied.

A Taste of Fall

Like last time I wrote, much has happened since my last post. I am only able to get on here when Natalie is napping, otherwise she is on my lap the whole time pushing buttons. She knows all her ABC's so she gets really excited when she sees them. Usually during her nap time I do housework, but I am fairly caught up today. It is dark and rainy outside and about 62 degrees. Yay! I am so excited for the cooler weather. It has still been in the mid to high 80's most days so I am ready for the change. The high on Monday is only supposed to be in the low 50's!! Burrr! I need to get the girls some warm Pj's. Since neither one of them sleeps under the covers too much, they will need then with the nights getting down in the 30's and 40's this week. It seems that fall is here for now! It may or may not be here to stay though, you never know about the weather around here. The nice thing about Amarillo is we get to experience all 4 seasons. Sometimes we get them all in one week though!

The family came to visit for a few days at the beginning of the month, so that kept me busy. We had a lot of fun as always. My parents were on their way to a different city for work and stopped by to get my mom's car as it looks like they will be at this post for quite awhile probably. My sister has been laid off from her job in Houston due to a combination of the hurricane and the economy, so she came to visit as well. The girls as always had a blast. Natalie is still saying that Neena went home to be with Clint, and she is still thanking Pawpaw for the smarties that he brought. The visits usually leave quite an impression.

Natalie is getting so big. She loves to help me cook. She was helping me the other night when Tony came home from work and when she saw him walk in she said "Dada, I'm cookin!" She was so excited to be big. She often says to me "Nat Nat big girl!" when she is doing something that makes her feel big. Just so I don't forget I guess.

Gabbie is changing so fast. She is doing great at feeding herself finger snacks, and going and getting into whatever she wants, (or whatever Natalie is getting into of course.) She pulls up on everything, which of course results in lost of bumps and cries for "ma ma ma". She will eat anything she finds on the floor, no matter how tiny or edible. The other day I fished a teeny tiny rock out of there. Her coordination is best when she is putting something in that doesn't belong. I doubt that she could have gotten a piece of food that small in there! I sometimes catch her in the process of putting something from the floor into her mouth, so I say "Gabbie stop!". That just makes her jump, and then she rushes to cram the thing in as fast as she can before I can take it from her! How do they learn that kind of thing so young?! Last night she was up twice, the first time for close to two hours, and the second time she was screaming for 45 minutes! She has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old, so I am not used to this. I think the scream session was because of teeth, or lack there of. She is almost 9 months old and doesn't have a single tooth! I really don't mind that she doesn't have any yet, but I am very afraid that we have 4 trying to come in all at once! That will not be fun. Natalie had 6 come in all in one week right after her first birthday. It really wasn't too bad though, and we got it over with all at once. We will see how this goes.

As an update to my last post, we have been trying to get the van fixed. So far we have spent in the neighborhood of $500 dollars just to find out that it is going to take another $1900 to actually get it running. Stupid computer stuff! Since we don't have that kind of money laying around, and it is hardly worth spending that on it, we are probably just going to sell it at the auto auction. We just have to get it towed for the fourth time! We need to sell it before it totally sucks all the life out of us! :) It is hard to know what the best thing to do is, but right now it is just costing us a lot of money that we don't have to spend on it. So it looks like we will be going down to just the Expedition. Thank God gas is going down! We can make it work, I don't need to go anywhere all that often, and if I CAN'T go anywhere, I can't spend any money! There is the plus in that! I will just have to plan all my errands ahead of time and take Tony to work that day. Then I pray really hard that no emergencies or anything important comes up at the last minute. I will be quitting my Wed evening child care job. It doesn't work very well with me having to pick Tony up and be at work at the same time. Plus now I am barely breaking even or even loosing money on gas by keeping it. That doesn't make very much sense does it? They knew from the beginning that it may not work out for me to do it, so it shouldn't be a problem. I will probably have to stay until they find another teacher though, we usually have 20-25 kids,(only about 5 or so speak English) and only 3 teachers. Fun times!

I better run, our couples life group from church is meeting tonight and I still have a bit to do before I am ready to go, so I better hurry!

New Additon

These last couple of weeks has been a crazy stressful time, and I wonder if my life will ever be what we hope and dream for it. These weeks have shown me that it doesn't do much good to plan around here.
Long complicated story short, we had to get a new (to us) car. The Van broke down, and while my car was still in great dependable shape, it was a bit small for all of us. ( I bump my head and usually at least one of the girls' every time put them in their car seats.) You can forget about room for groceries, or anything else by the time you have all the stuff that goes along with two little girls in there. The original diagnosis on the repairs for the van cost more than it is worth, so we decided that the best thing to do was sell try to sell the car, and get something else that is dependable and gives us enough room. We decided that we could survive on one car for awhile, since my mom's car is here for use in emergencies. We listed the car for sale on Craigslist, and started keeping our eye out for something else. We decided that whatever happened would be what was supposed to happen, and we didn't really try hard to sell the car, or find a new one. In less than a week we had an offer on the car, and found another one that we could buy without having to finance. SO... after a miserable weekend of car shopping with a baby and a toddler we are finally done with all of it! I'm so relieved to have it done. I have had my fill of used car salesmen-that's for sure!


2001 Ford Expedition


We may never know what the right thing to do was, but this is what we chose to do-no looking back. I miss my car, I have had it since I was a Senior in high school, but I do really like my new one. From what I know anyway! Tony has been taking it to work, so I have had little time to get to know it.

The second we walked in the door from buying the Expedition, the phone rings and it is my mom. Turns out she is needing her car, so it will no longer be here for emergencies. So much for our one car plan! I don't mind only one car, but if one of the girls gets hurt, or Tony is in a wreck or something, I have no way of getting to where I need to be. That makes me a little nervous! The good thing is, the price on fixing the van will be a lot lower than we were originally told. The bad thing is, we still don't have the money to get it fixed yet...hopefully in a few weeks. Then Tony can drive that to work, and save the miles and gas on the new car. That's kinda the plan anyway...but like I said, plans don't really work out very well for us lately!

The girls are growing so fast. Gabbie can crawl anywhere she wants, and she pulls up on everything! She wants to be big so badly! Anything Natalie does, she wants to do too. It is sad for me, because she is still my baby! I am not ready for her to be a toddler too!
I gave Natalie a haircut last night. It was only supposed to be a trim, but it was pretty uneven (It's only been trimmed once before) and with her wiggling, it came out shorter than I planned. It looks cute, but that was a sad moment for me too. It has taken her almost 2 1/2 years to get that much hair! It looks thicker now though.
That's most of the new stuff for now. Gabbie is awake from her nap and wants a snack, so I better go.

Lots Happening...

So it has been a LONG time since I have posted last. First it was because nothing much worth posting about was going on, then because TOO much was going on for me to get a chance to get it done! Go figure. So anyway, here is a few highlights of the last few weeks.
Here is a Horney Toad that we found in the yard. We actually saw two different ones over a couple of days! I was excited, I haven't seen any of these since I was a kid. This was actually Tony's first time ever to see one in real life! I guess they don't live up north.





Here is a one antlered deer that came up to graze in our yard. I figured the more it ate, the less we would have to mow. It wasn't afraid of anything, it just looked at us and went on with what it was doing.


This Is Molly. While Pawpaw was in town he found a puppy that he thought the girls needed. Molly is a nine week old, 3 1/2 lb Beagle. She is great with the girls, and Natalie loves her to death. She carries her around with her all the time. Once she catches on to the housebreaking than it will be even better. She loves being outside, so while the weather is still nice she is spending a quite a bit of time outside as well. I think she will be a great pet.




We had family in town for the holiday weekend. My parents, sister, and future brother-in-law were all here. I always love it when everyone is in town, but it always seems to take me a few days to get the house and schedules put back together! :0) It's totally worth it though. It took me a little longer this time, with two kids- both of them mobile- and a puppy. Plus I had several errands and appointments that I had to do, so that is why I am just now getting around to posting. A week later. I am finally pretty much caught up on the extra stuff, so now I am just doing the daily never ending stuff. The girls are on totally opposite naps right now, as soon as Gabbie wakes up from her morning nap, Natalie goes down for her nap. I miss having the break from them, but I guess at least I get time with just one instead of two.
I have gone back to working at Paramount Baptist in their childcare dept. This time I am working for a few hours on Wednesday nights. It is barely worth it with the gas and all, since we live a ways from town. I told them that I would do it through Christmas and see if it was worth me working longer. I don't think it will be, but I figure any little bit extra will help with Christmas and Birthdays coming up. Plus the season is changing, and both girls need new clothes.

All of us together.



Natalie with Auntie Neena, Uncle Clint and of course Molly.





Natalie in the tree.


Natalie, Pawpaw and Molly on the swing.


I guess that's it for now, I have to get back to the laundry and floor mopping.