Nothing Much....

EXCEPT... how cute is this girl!!!







Have a great weekend!

A Toddler can you believe it???

Well Natalie has received her moving papers from the daycare and she will be in the toddler room as of March 6th. She will start going over there in about a month for a couple of hours a day. She does not seem like she should be leaving the comforts of the infant room yet!!! In her class there are 8 infants total and over the next month all but 3 will be moving out. Natalie will still be in a class with 2 of the other girls that she is with now. Her current teacher and I were talking this morning and she said that if she was the next teacher of the those three strong willed ones that she would be putting in her 2 week notice now to be moved to a different room.

Developmentally what does all this mean… it means that she can now stand by herself for a little while (we have yet to see this but daycare swears she does it) she can drink from a sippy cup on her own and in the next month she will be walking. Yep, walking!!!

Lately little miss has been hearing the word "NO" a lot. Specifically when she crawls over to the stairs and starts climbing. She is not really fond of that word, in fact, there are times when she thinks it is funny. She will be on her way from the living room to the stairs and we will say "NO" she will sit up, look us dead in the eye, laugh and keep on keeping on. She has also found the mirror and is now her own best friend. She just thinks that looking at herself is the greatest thing ever. She will look at herself, point and say "BABY" Joe says that she said "Natalie" the other night but I have not heard it yet. When she tries to repeat it she gets that there are three syllables but that is about it.

I think that I am going to start ending each entry with a recipe that we have recently tried. So enjoy. If you have one you would like to share with everyone who visits this site email me.

Crock-pot Roast
1 Roast
1 Package Brown Gravy
1 Package Ranch dressing mix
1 Package Italian dressing mix

Put all in crock-pot cover with water and leave on low while you are at work, about 7-9 hours.

As promised my moms pictures from Christmas.

Us on the Riverwalk


Natalie and her new table Nana and Grandpa Mike got her for Christmas


Natalie and Nana

Natalie Christmas morning with her new Hanah doll

Wondering where we went???

I know it has been FOREVER!!! I have been waiting on some pictures that my mom took to show up so that I could post those as well.

We were in Texas for the Christmas and it was a BLAST!!! This was the first time that I had seen the new house and the new town. Pleasanton is a great place. They have some really great neighbors and the neighborhood itself is great. We got to town on a Wednesday and went to THE restaurant in town, Fat Cowboys. I had not realized how much I missed Texas beef until I went there. In the 6 days we were in Texas we went there twice. On Thursday we went out to the mine and took at tour. It was absolutely massive. Here are some pictures of our tour of the mine.





Mr. Friley, aren't you glad to know your hardhat has not gone to waste?


The Suburban in the picture is still a couple hundred yards away from the dragline, to give you an idea of just how big the dragline really is



This is Grandpa Mike holding Natalie in a spare bucket of one of the draglines



These are some of the "pets" they have out at the mine. Yep, it is a gator!


HERE IS A VERY RARE PICTURE…. PATRICK WORKING…. AT THE MINE… WHERE MY DAD IS HIS BOSS, in a round about way!!!



Thursday night was a party to introduce the McGuire's to all of their new friends in Pleasanton. We had a blast. So many nice people! Since we had so much fun on Thursday night not everyone had a good time on Friday so we rested and took a tour of Pleasanton. Saturday we were off to the big city, San Antonio. We decided that we were going to go to the Alamo and since our docent (my mom) insured us that they were only closed one day a year, Christmas, we were good to go. Well apparently our docent was wrong. This was all we got to see of the Alamo.



The trip to San Antonio was not a complete bust… Natalie got her first cowgirl hat. What girl is complete with out one of those???



Sunday we got up and went to church and then home to open gifts. I got a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and Natalie got a very cute table that I will post pictures of as soon as I get them. Monday we went to San Marcos outlet mall to shop. Lots of great stores but not a lot of great deals. It was nice just to be out walking around in the 85 degree weather though. Unfortunately Tuesday we were headed back to Indy. Natalie is a great flyer, she slept the whole way!!!


We had Christmas with Joe's family right before our annual New Year's Eve feast. Natalie got a lot of toys that make noise and she loves them!!!






All and all we had a wonderful holiday and we hope you did as well.

Since the holidays Natalie has been trying to whistle. It is pretty funny!



I am back in school for another couple of months and then I will be done for good, I think. I have also registered for a mini marathon in May and have been training for that. Joe is still riding and actually was lucky enough to be able to meet the only cyclist that has been riding with Lance Armstrong on all 7 of his wins of the Tour de France, George Hincapie.




We hope that life is treating each of you very well and I will post more often in the new year!!!