Zoo

Today Natalie and I met Poppy and Grandma at the zoo. We saw almost every animal there was to see in the park. Natalie even got nectar to feed the lories. She and Poppy were able to find some hungry lories (they get fed all day long so they usually aren't hungry).

We got there early enough to get great parking and didn't have to fight the masses either. By the time we had seen everything we wanted to see, the crowds started showing up and it was getting pretty warm outside. We got there and left at the perfect time!

Easy Bake Brownie

Natalie enjoys "cooking by lightbulb" in her Easy Bake oven. A couple of days ago she made a brownie recipe. I think most of it ended up on her face rather than in her tummy!

The Salt Lick & Outlet Mall

Today we decided to try out the GPS and take a road trip to Driftwood to eat at The Salt Lick, one of the best BBQ restaurants in Texas (if not THE best!) If you've never eaten there put it on your list of places to experience. It's worth the drive no matter where you live! If this isn't convincing enough for you, the show Man Versus Food filmed there several months back and raved about it. It's always important to get a great picture of the BBQ pit to remember the trip (and drool!)

Here are a couple of pictures of Mark and Natalie enjoying their meals. Natalie raved about the turkey and loved the beans too. We all shared a peach and blackberry cobbler for dessert. Ooh lah lah! Scrumptious!


We followed lunch up with a trip to the outlet mall in San Marcos. We weren't the only ones who had the same idea! It was swarming with people! Mark found some great deals at a men's clothing store for some work attire and Natalie snagged some bargains too! Gymboree had some 79 cent shorts and tanks - perfect for next summer! They had a lot of dresses marked down to $6.99 too - a steal for that store! She has about five new outfits and a pair of new pajamas. What a deal!

Week in Review

We're not even in school right now and we've had a busy week! I didn't realize how long it'd been since the blog was updated! We've spent our week shopping and getting ready for Christmas. On Friday afternoon we went to a Christmas Eve service at church. Natalie got what she wished for from Santa, a cash register, along with other toys, books, and games. She had a great Christmas!

Dance Recital

Natalie really enjoyed dancing in her Christmas dance recital on Saturday. Her class did a tap routine to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's actually the same song they danced to last year, but a different version and choreography. This year they wore brown leggings, a brown shirt with their reindeer's name on it (Natalie was Prancer), and reindeer headbands. Their teacher gave them a brown reindeer nose and they had to get decked out in blue eye shadow (hello 1980s!) and bright red lipstick. I didn't own either one of those items, so we had to make a trip to Ulta before the recital. The shade of lipstick we found was called "Red Alert." The name said it all - it was bright red!

We thought Natalie did a great job up on stage. She had a smile on her face the whole time she was dancing. Much to Mark's chagrin, we stayed for the entire recital which turned out to last around thirty minutes. It was relatively short! Either there aren't as many students this year or it was so short because everyone just danced one number. Either way we weren't complaining!

Party & Gifts

At Natalie's school today she enjoyed a party during snack time. She was excited to tell me about the puzzle she got at school and the numerous goody bags she received.

When we got home she opened all of the presents that I got at school. I tried to get her to slow down long enough so I could write down the student's name and gift, but she was on a roll! After dinner she spent her time perusing her goody bag items and hanging up the ornaments she made at school on the tree.

She also spent time going over her dance routine for tomorrow's recital. She's reallly looking forward to it and we are excited to see her dance.

Pre-K Open House

Natalie was so excited to attend her school's open house tonight. She didn't want to leave when I picked her up this afternoon, which is nothing unusual. She thought it'd be a good idea to stay at school until the open house began. I had to convince her that she should eat dinner before attending the event. She eventually agreed, but wasn't happy about it. I think she asked me every five minutes if her open house had already started. She did not want to miss it! She visited with her teacher, Ms. Jennifer, ate a cookie, made a star art project, played with playdough, read books, and sat on Santa's lap. She asked Santa for a Barbie (even though she has a million at home!)

Brown Legging Dilemna = Solved!

Thanks to Gap Kids Natalie now owns her own pair of brown leggings for her dance recital on Saturday! They actually had two options there if you can believe it. One was a lighter brown shade with a thin row of lace at the bottom. The other was labeled as a legging, but with a light sweat pants material feel to it and a chocolate brown color. The bottom was finished off differently than a normal pair of elastic sweat pants. These are leggings that will keep her slightly warmer that just the average legging and they're fun and stylish at the same time. She can wear them on a daily basis after the recital too. Who could ask for more?

Of course we went with the warmer ones. Here's the thing too - everyone in the class has purchased a brown shirt of some kind, whether it's a tank, a t-shirt, or a long sleeved shirt. None of the dancers will be uniformed. The leggings will probably look different too. There are so many different shades of brown that none of them will match anyway. Maybe from a distance it will look good? We can only hope!

Brown leggings...Anyone?....Anyone...?

Natalie's weekend started off the same - dance class on Saturday. She's getting ready for her recital next weekend where she'll be dancing to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She's excited about being up on stage again, but first I must find her some brown leggings....somewhere...anywhere! We shopped in every store I could possibly think of on our side of town and no luck! The stores that did carry them were out of her size and any size close to it. Looks like we'll have to venture out this week to find a pair. I'll even take an entire outfit that has the darn leggings in them. Really at this point she just needs anything brown to wear!

Christmas Concert

Today at Pre-K, Natalie's class sang Christmas songs for a senior church group. She was really excited because she got to dress up in her Sunday best and brand new headband. She had a great time singing with all of her friends. Unfortunately we couldn't leave work to hear her sing, but I got a picture of her dressed up in the morning before she left for school.

Book Fair Queen

Now that Mark works across town, Natalie must join me for any after school activities I must attend. Today she got to go to a book fair at an elementary school down the road from my school. She had a great time making and decorating cards with the librarian's daughter. They compared shoes and socks and discovered they matched. What a thrill! Natalie really wanted a book, but we got swamped and it was too difficult to take her to look. Good thing she's going to another book fair at my school next Tuesday! What a lucky girl!

Model Homes

Our neighborhood is expanding yet again! This time they're adding approximately 600 new homes! I cannot imagine where they're going to put all of them, but they're going to squeeze them in somewhere. It's hard enough getting in and out of our neighborhood now, and when I picture hundreds more vehicles trying to exit and enter our area daily it makes me shudder. Be that as it may, we now have more model homes to view.

It's always fun to see how model homes are laid out and decorated, from the painting down to the interior design. We've got two beautiful models to tour and we checked both of them out. One is a large 3,500 square foot two story model. Natalie loved it. It features its own movie room, has a spacious kitchen, and one of the bedrooms upstairs contains a balcony. She loved that house so much we had to tour it twice! As we were touring it for the first time, Natalie ran over and dragged me to the laundry room. As she was showing me the room she said, "Feast your eyes on this!" The homebuilder's salespeople loved it and asked if she'd consider working for them! When I discussed a possible future career in realty with her she wasn't too happy about the prospect, but she certainly did a great job trying to "sell" the house to us. The second house isn't really worth mentioning really. It was nicely decorated, but way too small. It sure was fun looking!

Bathroom Renovation

Natalie's bathroom renovation was completed today! Mark did 95% of the work himself and it turned out quite nice. We're calling him "Handy Manny" now since he's been using so many power tools. I've always given him a hard time about viewing DIY shows all the time, but I guess all that watching has paid off. He's got more on his honey do list, but at least he can scratch off bathroom renovation. :)

Dickens on Main

On Saturday night we met Jason, Misty, and Mallory in Boerne for a nice dinner and went to Dickens on Main. The old stores in downtown Boerne are decorated in white lights, and after dark the Christmas parade begins. After dinner we took our places to watch the festivities. There were a variety of company and non-profit organization floats, marching bands, dance teams, etc... coming by to keep both girls entertained. One of the floats was from the Fiesta Flambeau Parade. They had a large Alamo on the side of the float. I pointed it out to Natalie and here's how the conversation went:
Me: Look, Natalie! It's the Alamo!
Natalie: The Alamo? I remember it!

The parade was a lot of fun and both girls really enjoyed it. Natalie had been to one other parade before, but was too young to really remember it. She really enjoyed the "snow machines" they had set up at various points along the road. The "snow" was really just small snowflake like bubbles, but it was exciting for her to pretend it was real.

Girls Night

Since Mark was out playing poker tonight, Natalie and I enjoyed a girls night out. After school we enjoyed a nice dinner out and then browsed the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble. We can never leave that place empty handed. Natalie scored a new Berenstain Bears book and her first Junie B. Jones chapter book. She was so excited to hear the first two chapters of her Junie B. Jones book because it's the same book as the most recent play she saw a week and a half ago. I wasn't sure how she'd fare without as many pictures in the chapter book compared to a picture book, but she loved it. Here she is reading a book at Barnes and Noble tonight.

Classroom Playdate

Today I picked Natalie up early from Pre-K and took her back to my school. I had an extremely long meeting to attend and was afraid I may not make it back to her school on time to pick her up. She was thrilled because it meant that she got to have a playdate with my co-worker's daughter, Riley. Riley is six and in kindergarten. She must want to be a teacher when she grows up because she had the classroom completely set up and ready to go for their playdate. Riley had made little centers for Natalie and herself. There was a make your own snowflake center, a foam sticker center, computer center, and watercolor center. There were probably even more that I didn't see!

Natalie had packed her own bag of snacks, games, coloring, and Barbies too, so they had plenty to do! When I got back to the room they were on the computers wearing headphones and creating pictures on a Christmas web site. Natalie had the best time playing with Riley and is ready to go back soon to play with her again!

Thanksgiving & the Weekend

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Natalie went on a road trip to visit her great grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins in another city. She had a blast playing with cousins, and as usual, didn't want to go home! Here are some highlights of her vacation from Thanksgiving and through the weekend:

Natalie visited the Candy Lounge on Saturday for Lauren's 4th birthday party and got to see her former teacher, Ms. Debbie. She had a lot of fun in this candy wonderland. She feasted on an array of candy, made a candy picture frame, played Bingo, licorice limbo, and musical chairs.


Mark is still plugging away at getting Natalie's bathroom done. He's made more progress since this picture was taken, but there's still work left to do. When he realized the vanity wasn't going to fit against the wall like it should, Daniel came over to help.


On Saturday Natalie and I went baking crazy and made snickerdoodles, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cookie cutouts. Natalie decorated all of the sugar cookies herself. She was using the sprinkles in moderation at first, and then by the end just started piling them on!


Natalie helped set the Christmas tree up and did most of the decorating herself. Yes, we have many ornaments at the bottom of the tree, but Oliver is happy about it!


On Sunday Mark and Nathaniel hung up Natalie's Christmas lights. I don't think rooftop light decorating makes his top 10 favorite Christmas activities list, but he's a good sport about it. It helps to have Nathaniel over lending him a hand. The beer doesn't hurt either.

Birthday Party

Natalie went to a Pump It Up birthday party tonight for one of her Pre-K classmates, Ayden, who just turned five. The inflatables at this place are gigantic, and she was timid at first. One of the employees helped her go down the slide and through the obstacle course half the party. She ended up having a great time!

Natalie and her friend Sebastian nurse their plastic burn injuries together.

Natalie's first game of air hockey against the birthday boy, Ayden.

Natalie with one of the employees on the huge inflatable slide.

Junie B. & Hemisfair

Today Natalie and her friend, Bella, enjoyed an outing to see Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells. She had a great time at the play. Her favorite part was when Junie B. Jones and May got in trouble (go figure!) Afterwards we ventured to Hemisfair Park and played for a while.

Whistle While You Work

Natalie is thrilled that she can finally whistle! She's been trying to whistle for a couple of years now, and it's always come out more like a screech. She is proud of her accomplishment!

Dance Recital

Today Natalie's class invited the parents in to watch their Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dance. She's got the Christmas recital coming up soon. Email or call us for details.

Cougar on the Loose!

Today Natalie's daycare was on lockdown as well as the other nearby public schools due to a cougar escapee! There is a wild animal orphanage just down the street from her daycare that is home to many an exotic creature. A cougar evidently found a hole in the fence, escaped, and was roaming around the area of her daycare. There are lots of wooded places around it, so I'm sure he was just hanging out.

Coincidentally, today at my elementary school we were having career day. A police helicopter was one of the presenters, so the entire school gathered on the blacktop to watch it land. He landed next to the playground, but ended up not being able to stay to discuss his profession because he had to go hunt down a cougar!

The cougar was located by her daycare and shot with a dart gun so it could be taken back to the orphanage.

How often does a police helicopter land at your school? How often does a cougar escape and roam around your community? Two interesting happenings all in one day!

At the Playground

We got home a little bit early today due to her doctor appointment (see earlier post from today) so we decided to cruise to the playground. You can check out the poses below.

Congratulations, Mark!

Congrats, Mark on your new job! Maybe the grass won't grow around your feet now! :)

When in Doubt, Get a 2nd Opinion!

What a difference a second opinion makes! When a nagging gut feeling tells you something smells fishy, trust your instincts!

Natalie had a followup appointment for colonoscopy results today with her wonderful new GI doctor, Dr. Elizondo. Her colon looks beautiful and normal and the biopsies didn't show anything unusual. Usually he sees a gradual increase in chronic cells in patients with IBD and that wasn't the case. He didn't see enough chronicty to label her as having inflammatory bowel disease or ulcerative colitis! That is great news!

The plan now is to gradually wean her off the harsh medicine she's had to take. When I say wean gradually that's what it means too! It's a two month process to reduce her medicine intake. Month one will see her taking Sulfasalazine twice a day, and month two it will drop down to once a day. After the second month, January 16th to be precise, (yes, it's already marked on the calendar) she'll be off of the putrid yellowish-orangish stuff. Dr. Elizondo would like to see her completely off the medicine to see if the bleeding returns or stays dormant. Maybe this was a one time event, or it's possibly something that will eventually return. It's really hard to say what will happen, but for the moment we can be content with the news that she can start reducing her medicine intake and maybe get back to normal. She's sick of doctors appointments and procedures that's for sure.

She has another appointment scheduled mid-January to see how she's progressing. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

Natalie's Weekend

The weekend started out to be a lot of fun for Natalie. She attended Bella's fourth birthday party at Artworks, one of her favorite places on the planet. As soon as she put her art apron on she was off and we didn't see much of her for a good hour. She was busy designing and creating mini masterpieces.
Natalie and Kamryn made painted balloon art.

Natalie spun a salad spinner that contained a paper plate and three different colors of paint.

The rest of Saturday wasn't all that spectacular for Natalie. As I've previously mentioned, there was a leak in her bathroom coming from the AC unit. It ruined her vanity. After tearing up the linoleum, Mark discovered that the floor underneath it was wet and moldy. After an hour and a half at Floor and Decor and more time at Home Depot we bought tile, paint, a vanity with mirror, backerboard, spacers, and grout. Natalie was a good sport the entire time, but you could tell it wasn't the best time she'd had all weekend. Here she is relaxing with her Sonic Drink at Home Depot.

I guess shopping can't be that rough when you have a Sonic grape slush and a sweet ride?!

Sunday was a day spent working on the preliminary work in Natalie's bathroom. Mark sprayed the floor with a bleach mixture and let it dry. He was able to get the backerboard cut and the mirror taken down (miraculously in one piece thanks to help from my dad.) There are some places on the wall that need to be texturized and we'll paint it before we tile.

Natalie had fun playing with the cat today. He was surprisingly agreeable and enthusiastic to be carried around in the laundry basket. He seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting.

Natalie has tons of new birthday toys, but the best toy is this laundry basket!

Staying Five

Natalie has informed us that she is planning on staying five. She is enjoying five and I'm sure it must be hard enough for her! :)

If only it were that easy!

Pin the Nose on the Clown

Natalie's class is doing a themed unit on the circus. Today they played "pin the nose on the clown." While Natalie was retelling the story she was laughing hysterically. Evidently when it was her turn she completely missed the clown and pinned the nose on the computer screen. She thought it was hilarious!

Natalie's Bathroom and the Water Heater

Well, it looks as if the water heater is fixed, thank goodness. It was a simple fix too - it just needed a new thermostat. We could have changed it ourselves if we knew anything about water heaters!

An AC guy came out to look at the leak in the AC. We ended up having to rip the vanity out of Natalie's bathroom. It's completely ruined on the inside. She's not too happy about that! I doubt she'll even want to set foot in that room until it's all back to normal!

The extent of the damage remains to be seen. We'll let the floor dry out and check out the situation in a couple of days.

Water Leak

Unclogging the drain in Natalie's bathroom didn't help the water leak. We came home today to find more water standing in the bottom of her cabinet. The drain was leaking as we viewed it, so we got to see its origin firsthand. It appears to be the AC leaking when it drains. It was warm enough for the AC to kick in today, so we'll see if our hypothesis is correct tomorrow when the plumber arrives.

Natalie doesn't like walking into her own bathroom because the cabinet door is open to let it dry out. She really won't like it once it's all torn up.

The plumber coming out to our house is going to have his hands full. He's not only got to figure out what's going on in Natalie's bathroom, but he's also got to assess the water heater situation. Thank goodness for plumbers!

Natalie's 5th Birthday Party Weekend

Natalie turned five on Saturday and had a blast at her princess themed gymnastics party! She and her friends wore themselves out jumping, running, bouncing, swinging, and climbing. She was excited to have her birthday, yet when asked how it was being five she reported, "It's hard work."

It sure wasn't hard work for her today when she got to play with her brand new toys! Five was "easy peasy lemon squeezy" as she often says. Mark is living in Barbie hell and says that Target threw up in our living room! Natalie, of course, is in Barbie wonderland and loving every minute of it.

Getting new toys inspired me to clean out and reorganize her playroom. We cleaned up her room and bit too, and then went to work on her bathroom. As we were cleaning out underneath her bathroom cabinet I noticed that a lot of the items were really wet. I took everything out and discovered the bottom of the cabinet had buckled in some places. Upon further inspection it looked like at some point it had created water spots on the living room ceiling close to the precious flat screen tv! Luckily the spots had dried, but it was still cause for alarm. After a call to the family fix it man, Daniel, Mark was advised to unclog the bathroom drain. We've got the cabinet door open to dry (and a curious cat trying to make it his bed.) Needless to say, it seems like this is the perfect time to redo this bathroom. We had discussed remodeling it at a future date, but it looks like the time has arrived to begin. So, if you're thinking about what would make the perfect Christmas gift for us, a Home Depot or Lowes gift card would help it be a joyous holiday season. We'll take that and world peace!

When it rains it pours! We think the water heater may be on its last legs too. Some days the water is so scalding hot you could get 3rd degree burns from it and some days it takes a while to heat. It's just not normal! We've got someone coming out to look at that tomorrow so we'll see if it's just a part that needs to be replaced or the entire thing. The excitement never stops!

Birthday Tickers

Birthday Countdown

Natalie is counting down until her birthday. Only three more days she has informed me! I wish I was still that enthusiastic about birthdays!

Halloween!

All dressed up and ready to trick or treat!

Kamryn and Natalie

Trick or treating is fun for "kids" of all ages. Ever trick or treated with a flying monkey before?

Vampire Pumpkin