Pictures

Ok here are some pictures from the baptism.

Her with us and her God Parents, Megan (Joe's sister) and my Uncle Buddy (my Mom's brother)



Natalie got her first haircut last night... She thougth it was the best thing ever!!

Before

Bye-Bye hair

OOOOOOO!!!

YEAH!!!! All done I can see!!!

All that hair came from me...

So that is what my Daddy looks like these days...


Hope you all have a great and safe weekend!!

Finally...

I know you have all been waiting for an update….

I was waiting to see if anyone would send me any pictures from Natalie's baptism. I have not gotten any yet. As soon as I do I will post them.

Natalie's baptism went well. She was a good little girl, did not cry at all. She was not so sure about the water but after it was all said and done I think she was ready to go back for more. The day itself was interesting to say the least. My Dad got into Indy at 10:30 that morning. The baptism was after the 12:30 mass so we were cutting it a little close. He was coming in from India so he was coming off of a 19 hour travel. Joe's parents picked up my Dad from the airport and then brought him to the house so that we could all go to the church together. When Joe's parents were getting my Dad, Joe and I had to go and get more food for the lunch afterwards. When we go back to the house everyone was there and my Dad informed us that my mother had broken her wrist. She thought she had just sprained it but and did not need to go to the Med check, she was FINE!! After getting back to Pleasanton and getting X-Rays the next day she had in fact broken her wrist. How you ask??? She fell down the stairs, or I should say stair. Natalie was sleeping so she was trying to be quiet and just missed the last step. I have been trying to get pictures of her new accessory but still do not have those either. Hopefully someone will get those to me soon…. Patrick???

What else is new you ask??? She turns one in less than a month. We are going to have an evening birthday party for her as our Nephew Quinn has a swim meet and we are going to be watching him during the day. He is a kid after my own heart. His best and favorite stroke is the breaststroke. He is great!! This weekend we are hoping that he makes his State cut, so if you have any extra prayers to give he could use some!!

Natalie has started her transition into the toddler room and seems to be doing great. She still is not a fan of meat or starches but that girl loves her fruit, veggies and cheese. She is drinking real whole milk now and seems to be loving it. She stands on her own but is still not walking. Soon I am sure. Her new favorite word is baby. She can point in the mirror and will say "baby" over and over. She is still her own best friend, no one makes her as happy has looking at herself in the mirror.

That is it for now but as promised here is the recipe for this post:

Soft Shrimp Tacos with Tropical Salsa

1/4 cup scallion's)
1 Tbsp cilantro
1 Tbsp canned green chili peppers
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
8 oz canned pineapple, water-packed
4 sprays cooking spray
1 cup yellow pepper's)
1 cup red onion's)
1 clove garlic clove(s)
1 1/2 pound shrimp
1 cup tomato(es)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 Tbsp cilantro
8 medium flour tortilla(s), 6-inch
5 oz Kraft 2% Milk Natural Cheese Monterey Jack Cheese

Instructions
Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill.

To prepare tacos, place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add bell pepper, onion, and garlic, sauté for 2 minutes. Add shrimp, tomato, cumin and chili powder, sauté for 3 minutes. Stir in cilantro.

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!!!

Santa's little helper!

So now that you all have seen the cute naked baby, here are some from our weekend adventures.

We had Joe's Christmas party and every year Santa makes a special trip to give all the kids their first present from Santa for the year.

Here is Natalie opening her gift.


The First Bank of Oink






"stashing" her "money"


Waiting in line to meet the big guy himself at the mall


Natalie and the big guy





Hope you all have a great week!

Such a cute kid!!!

Well Natalie is crawling!!! She is so funny…. She will start crawling to get something and Joe and I will do the whole "YEAH NATALIE" thing and clap our hands and she will try and clap and crawl. She ends up falling on her face and then rolling over and just giggles. She is just so stinking cute!!!

Grandpa Mike, Nana Karen and Uncle Patrick were all up for Thanksgiving and believe it or not Patrick actually played with her. He did however tell her that if she did not stop spitting up he was not going to play with her anymore. That did not last long. Nana Karen brought her a stuffed bear that is orange from her latest business trip to California and she loves it. That thing has more spit up and slobber on it than any other of her toys.

We are going to Texas for the holidays but unfortunately we will not be in Dallas for more than a couple of hours. Sorry. If anyone wants to come to the airport to see us on a Wednesday afternoon let me know I will get you our flight info.

Here are some pictures…. Have you ever seen a such cute kid???






Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!!!

Doctor visit

Well no pictures for this post but we do have a doctor update.

We took Natalie to a GI doctor last week for her reflux issues. We took her to our local children's hospital and they were wonderful. We saw a fellowship student and then the resident GI. The fellowship student thought wanted to change her medicine from Prilosec to Previcid and put her on an oral suppository. The resident concurred and also wanted to get an upper GI. My mom and Joe took her yesterday for that and there were 2 other doctors that confirmed that there is nothing going on except reflux. They were looking to see if her food was digested in the opposite direction as well as to see if she had a hernia. Since we have switch the medication she is doing a lot better! Her spit-up is minimal and she seems to be a lot happier.

Other than that there is nothing really to report. I will post after Thanksgiving with pictures!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Halloween and more!

I know you are all anxious to see pictures of Natalie from Halloween but then again I am anxious to see pictures of a friends house in Dallas that have been "on there way" for the last couple of months :). So here ya go:
If you look really hard you can see her teeth!






In addition to Halloween Natalie has started saying Dada and Hi Dada. I am pretty sure she does not know who she is referring to but Joe swears she does. She also had a very eventful morning to which I will receive the bad mother of the year award for… she was in her bouncy seat in the middle of our bed while we got ready. She was "watching" cartoons and got all excited when the music came on and was bouncing and laughing. Wouldn't you know she bounced right off the bed. She was strapped into her seat so her and the seat bounced off the bed. She landed face up and as soon as I took her out of her seat she started laughing so I am pretty sure she is not hurt. When I told the ladies at daycare they all welcomed me to the club. Those are all of the stories I have for today so I hope you all have a great weekend and I will post again next week.

Grab your coffee this is a long one...

WOW I am such a slacker!!!

OK it has been 15 days since I last posted anything. So here we go.

Natalie is doing so well since she had her tubes in. She seems to be happy all the time with of course the exception of bed time. Yep that is right she is still not sleeping through the night. Last night in fact we decided to let her "cry it out" wouldn't you know our strong willed daughter cried it out for a hour until we picked her up. She is one stubborn girl… I wonder where she gets that?!?

Natalie has also started eating table food. She now eats real peaches, real carrots and even graham crackers and loves her apple juice. Now that she is eating real food she seems to be bored with the baby food that we force down her and makes some lovely faces when forced to eat it. Better yet there are times when she will just blow raspberries with the baby food in her mouth and is able to shoot food across the room. She thinks it is super funny! Mom and Dad then need showers to get the food out of our hair. Here are some pictures of her eating her real food.






A couple of weeks ago we took little miss to a pumpkin patch where she decided to try and eat all of the pumpkins that she could get her little mouth on. Most of you have seen the pictures of the pumpkin patch but if not here are some. The reason that she does not have on any socks is because she keeps pulling them off so no one call the clipboard folks on us, she does have them and they were on!








With Halloween coming up her school has dress up day. Today was costume day and Natalie went as a Dalmatian. I wanted her to go as Piglet but Joe said that it was mean to refer to our daughter as a pig, but a dog is better?!?! She sure does look cute though.




I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday weekend and we will post more often promise!!!

OOPS!!

Sorry it has been so long! Natalie is doing better. She had her tubes in and then a couple of days later she got the flu. A baby having the flu is pretty gross. It is not like they can make it to the bathroom to vomit in the toilet so it is all over you. She is over all of that though and seems to be on the mend. Now if she could just get over her case of the hold-me's we would be in good shape! I think this will be the weekend to break her of that. I will post pictures hopefully next week. Shutterfly changed the way you up-load pics and I can not access them right now. Hope you all have a great weekend!

A long 2 weeks

Where to begin…. For starters, Natalie still does not have tubes in her ears. But she does get them this Thursday.

Two weeks ago Natalie was not acting like herself and was running a bit of a fever. With our ear thermometer it was reading 100.8. For an infant cutting teeth this does not seem high but she was whimpering and sleeping a lot!!! Again at first this was a good thing and then she started not only sleeping all night but a large part of the day as well. In addition to the rest of the symptoms she was also not breathing normally. She seemed to be breathing out more than in. So I got to talking to on of the neighbors who is a L&D nurse and she suggested that we go ahead and take Natalie into the ER for good measure. When we got to the ER the nurse took her temp and it was at 103. She had Tylenol 2 hours prior. The nurse then started telling us that she was VERY sick. All Joe and I could keep thinking was WOW and we were just bringing her in for good measure! The she started telling us that when we got to the back that the Dr. would probably start an IV for antibiotics and then do a urine cath and a spinal tap. It was at that point that I lost it. A SPINAL TAP!!! WHAT?!?! Needless to say we were a bit shocked. The nurse came in and took the blood and urine and then the doctor came in to do the spinal tap. We were able to go home that night since there was nothing in her spinal tap that indicated that we needed to stay. That night she also received two shots of antibiotics one in each leg.

Day 2: We went to the doctor and she got yet another shot of antibiotics and was given the once over. Fast forward to 1am technically on Day 3. We got a call from the hospital requesting that we bring Natalie back in that night to have blood work redone as the blood sample that they got showed positive blood cultures. After calling my Mom and the Ped. At 1 in the morning we did not end up taking her in. Took her back to the doctor for another round of shots in the morning and then it was off for blood work. On the way to have her blood drawn I got wonderful news that my Dad could come in and take care of Natalie for the rest of the week so that Joe and I could be at work. It was great!!! Dad came in on Tuesday night to take care of the princess and then my Mom came in on Thursday night to help out. They ended up leaving on Saturday and we thought we were in the clear. As my Dad would say… there we go thinking again. Another Sunday, another trip to the ER. Her fever was up again to 101 with Tylenol so the on call doctor had us take her in. This time we were given the once over and sent away. Since then she seems to be doing ok. She takes her Tylenol every 4 hours without missing a beat. We hope that this will be all over by Friday.

During all of this she also had her six month apt. She is now 18 lbs. and 26 1/5 inches long.

Here are some pictures of her last week when she was sick. She has this new thing with sticking out her tongue at everyone.

With Grandma Karen at the Irish Festival.




With Grandpa Mike on the swing

Teeth and Tubes

Well last Friday when we got home from daycare Natalie was chewing on anything she could get in her mouth including my fingers. I noticed that she had a tooth just starting to come in. Yesterday when we were at the ENT he said that she had 2, low and behold she does. She is too busy chewing her tongue for me to get a picture. I will try this weekend.

So yes, we took her to the ENT yesterday and he ran some tests. He showed 100% blockage in her left ear and 80% in her right from all the fluid. I asked if this was affecting her hearing... he said that long term this will not since she is so young. But right now if you were to take ear plugs and put them in your ears and then take the headphones that they wear in the pits of car races and put those on that is about the way she is hearing. I am very disappointed in her pediatrician that she did not refer me to an ENT. I will be in the process of finding a new one now. Joe and I were talking and we are glad that we trusted our instincts to go around the pediatrician and take her to an ENT ourselves, this could have been so much worse had we waited. So tubes next Thursday. Dr. said that we should see a huge difference by Friday. He also said that now when she cries in the middle of the night it will not be out of pain from her ears and we can let her cry it out for a while.

I hope to get pictures this weekend of the teeth and will post them soon. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.