Adventurous three!!

Miss Laila Elizabeth is no longer a terrible two, but she is now an adventurous three!  Happy Birthday Laila!  On December 23rd Laila turned the big three!  It was a low key day being the day in San Antonio after Lainie's seizure, both girls still having their colds and now mom and dad had developed their lovely colds also!  But we wanted to make the best of this great day! 

The weekend before Christmas, Laila celebrated her birthday with a few of our good friends and their kiddos at home.  It was fun to see how much Laila had changed since her last birthday!  The only issue Laila had during her gift opening was a certain little girl name "Lainie" that wanted to open and play with the gifts right along with her sister!  Laila was not having it!  But we made it through it!

Laila had a Little Mermaid cake this year along with over 10 candles!  She didn't want to stop with just three!  What she didn't know at the time was that the candles were trick candles and re lit!!  Lainie even got in a few licks when Laila was busy!! :)

Laila enjoying her sugar!! :)

Along with all the great gifts she received, Laila was over excited about the beauty table Andy and I got her!! 

It was a fun day, lots of sugar and a couple more months before we have another little one that turns two (Lainie) :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Nestoss'!  We hope everyone had a great holiday spent with family and friends!  We decided to pack up the kiddos and head to San Antonio, TX for Christmas this year!  The girls and I were super excited to get out of our apartment "hole" for a few days and have some fun!  What is Christmas without a Christmas cold right!?!?!  Both Laila and Lainie had been battling colds and pink eye the previous week, so we were hoping for a quick recovery for our trip!  Wishful thinking! :) 

Thank goodness for dvd players in cars!  Laila was wrapped up in her Dora movie, along with Lainie!  Our road ahead looked quiet and great, weren't we in for a surprise!!  60 miles out of San Antonio, I glanced back at the girls to make sure all was well.  I was horrified to find Lainie in the middle of a seizure!  This isn't the first seizure miss Lainie Lou has dealt with.  When she was 9 months old, she developed a very bad cold which lead to her first seizure.  Anyways, Andy pulled over and both of us with cat like reflexes got Lainie our of the car and held her onto her until she finished.  Talk about the scariest moment of my life.  As hard as it was to remain calm myself, poor Laila was crying and upset with what she was seeing.  Thankfully there was an ER about 10 miles down the road that got Lainie in ASAP!  After finding out she had a temp. of 103, they told us it was another febrile seizure.  This is the bodies way of dealing with the increase of temperature so quickly.  Thankfully she got medicine and returned back to her normal self.  That night, we had a lot to be thankful for!  In the future, whenever she gets a cold we will have to watch her temperature like a hawk!

Finally in San Antonio, we enjoyed the rest of our Christmas vacation walking around the city, eating at great restaurants, visiting with Andy's co-workers (Zachry has an office in San Antonio), touring the Alamo, walking along the Riverwalk and playing at the children's museum!  It was a rough at the beginning of our vacation, but we made up for it the rest of our time there! 

Laila & Lainie taking a break along the Riverwalk

Laila outside the Alamo (Lainie wasn't feeling to great to pose for a picture!)

Big sisters!!

Laila and Lainie are excited to announce they are going to be big sisters on June 30th!  Laila understands that mommy has a baby in her tummy and can't wait to help out.  Lainie just nods her head and smiles, who knows what she is thinking! :)  The day I found out I was pregnant, I had Lainie wear a shirt that said "sister to bee" and Laila wear her big sister shirt.  After Andy got home from work, I asked if he liked the girls' shirts?  His eyes grew bigger and said really!!??  After showing him the pregnancy test and clarifying that there was a second line and that I wasn't seeing things, we were both excited!  It was hard to keep this a secret from our family and friends, but thrilled to be able to share the good news!! 

I've been experiencing bad nauseousness for about two months now and hope it ends soon!  This pregnancy is totally different from Laila and Lainie's.  I'm craving all kinds of crazy foods and so thankful I have an understanding husband who doesn't mind picking up items at the store for me!  Plus at the end of the day, Andy listens to all my complaints about my aches and pains!!  But Andy can't complain much himself since he will have a DD for another 9 months!

Andy asks Laila every now and then if she wants another sister or a brother?  Everyday it seems to change, it will be fun once we find out!  I give a lot of credit to the ladies that can hold back and not find out what they are having!  I don't think Andy or I could do that!!  Especially being our last baby with already having two girls!  It would be torture!!  So yes, we will find out what we are having!  As of right now, this will probably be a MN baby, which will be a nice treat for our family and friends who live close to us!  We have a lot to be thankful for this time of year!  Merry Christmas!!

It's about that time again!

Yet again I am loss for words to write, as I am reminded by my lovely husband to write in our blog!  It's interesting how fast he disappears when asked if he would like to add a couple lines of his thoughts! :)  But he's right, I've been behind on the blog!  Slowly but surely we are getting close to being done in Nacogdoches.  We still have a two months left, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It does make us excited to be able to see, visit and catchup with all our friends and family back home!  It doesn't however make me excited that we will be moving back to a COLD winter wonderland!  I will miss this weather, can't believe I'm finally saying that!!  We will for sure miss everyone we've met in TX!

To catch you up, our latest visitors to Nacogdoches, TX were Andy's parents.  They arrived the night before Thanksgiving.  The girls woke up Thursday morning to sounds in the living room.  Their faces looked confused since they knew where Andy and I were, but who was in the living room?  After a few seconds, Laila ventured into the living room to take a sneak peak.  As soon as she discovered who it was, she ran back with a smile!  We spent our Thanksgiving with good friends we made in TX.  We enjoyed a wonderful cooked meal, visiting, kids playing and eating some more!  After everyone went home, I decided to go to Walmart at 9:15pm!  I asked Andy if he would like to join me, but i'll let you guess what he decided to do.  It involves a blue shiny can and Andy sitting on a couch!  So I went by myself and waited 25 minutes in line for a couple items.  I was very pleased with how organized Walmart was!  I was in and out in no time!  The rest of the week/weekend was spent showing his parents around TX!  We revisited the Drive-Thur Safari and said hello to all our animal friends again!  Andy made a new friend/girl friend.  A certain camel at the drive thru was very fond of him and proceeded to stick her head inside to give him a kiss.  It was a fun day with great weather!  Later in our visit, Laila and Lainie were excited to see Santa!  Santa asked Laila if she was good?  Of course her response was yes!  He asked what she wanted for Christmas and she gladly told him a pink bike!  Lainie just nodded the entire time he talked to her!  Both girls stood in front of him like status and did not move!  They were super excited to have talked to Santa! We enjoyed having Andy's parents here to celebrate Thanksgiving and to show them a little piece of TX we've been enjoying for the past 10 months. 

December is here already and the girls are still growing like weeds!!  Lainie has graduated into Laila's toddler bed!  After a week of putting Lainie to bed in her crib and finding her on the floor the next morning with her blanket covering her, we decided to try the toddler bed since she clearly was telling us she did not want to sleep in her crib.  Andy and I are thrilled she has taken it upon herself to get into a toddler bed!!  So far three nights and naps during the day in the toddler bed!!  Laila still tells Lainie it's her bed, but we are pretty sure Lainie has claimed it!  Laila is still choosing to sleep on her dora layout couch!  Whatever works I guess!!  Anyways, we hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  Till the next (soon)! EN

P.s.  I've reposted this post from December 2nd just in case this has missed anyone!  Enjoy!

Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari!

Today the Nestoss' went on another adventure in Reklaw, TX!  Andy, Laila, Lainie and I ventured out to the Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari!  We couldn't believe we didn't do this sooner!!  We received a pamphlet that described the 18 types of animals we would encounter, along with two full bags of pellets for us to feed/spoil the animals with!  Laila felt so proud of the fact she got her very own bag, it made her feel like a real big girl!!  She couldn't wait for us to start seeing animals for her to feed! 

After entering the 300 acre nature preserve, we were greeted by a couple curious noises of Zebras, Blackbuck, Barasingha also called swamp deer.  Lainie our animal lover was less than excited at first.  She was not impressed with the animals trying to get to know her through the window.  It took some time, but she finally came around to throw a couple of pellets out the window to the Red Kangaroo!  This was my favorite animal we saw!  As we watched him jump the path to follow us, I couldn't help but enjoy seeing this animal run so free!  We actually had a trail of "new" friends that followed us for a good amount of the way!  I kept kidding Andy he made one very good friend, the Sika which is the Japanese word for small deer.  This guy would not leave his car door side! 

After driving by the Miniature Donkey's, Highland Cattle, Ducks, Emu, Rocky Mountain Elk, Llama and much more, we finally saw Laila's favorite, the Canadian Woodland Bison!  Laila and I pointed out that there was a mom, dad and two little ones, just like our family.  It was so much fun seeing all the animals and getting an upclose look!  There were a couple times Andy had to close the windows to prevent our "new" friends from getting to know us even better!! :)  Laila was more than willing to let them in our vehicle!  Lainie on the other hand was glad there was the window between us and the animals!!  I have a feeling Lainie loves being able to go up and pet animals her size, not ones she has to look up to!  She did have a great time as she said bye bye and waved at the end!!  I was very impressed with Laila today!  Usually she is shy, not wanting to explore new animals, but Lainie instead.  Today it was the other way around!  In the end we saw all 17 animals except the turkeys!  They must of known that Thanksgiving was near!! :)  Til the next!  EN

Norman-dilly!

As many of you know, we have another member of our family that doesn't get much recognition on this blog.  It is no one other than our guinea pig Norman.  Andy and I have owned three other guinea pigs in the past and loved each one of them!  Ok maybe just me, but Andy did enjoy them too!  We adopted Norman from Lufkin, TX in March and has been a wonderful addition to our family!!  I asked Laila the other day what she thought Norman was thinking or saying when he squeaked.  She said Norman was happy because we gave him lettuce.  I'm sure if Norman could speak he would have a lot more to say, so it's probably good he doesn't! :) 

His best friend is Lainie who provides him with all kinds of things that a guinea pig could only imagine!  Such things as spoons, toys, Lainie's food, crayons, keys and more!  Half the time we have to check Normans cage if we lost something!  I don't know how many spoons I have thrown away cleaning his cage because they were hidden in his litter!  Andy heard me the other day saying hello to Norman and just laughed and shook his head.  Deep down inside, I'm sure when the girls and I are gone, Andy is right there carrying on a conversation with Norman!  Andy and Norman have to stick together since the girls out number the boys in this household!! :)

When my parents came to visit a month ago, they brought their two dogs.  Norman fell in love with my parents dog Buttercup!  He would squeak, purr and get all excited when she would visit his cage!  So even little guys like Norman can fall in love!!  Opposites do attract! :)  He not only is our little burglar alarm, but he has made Laila and Lainie so happy!!!    Til the next!!  EN

Happy Halloween!!

The girls have hit their candy quota for the Halloween season!  Besides trick or treating, we have been thrilled to have gone to a Halloween party and a few events in town this year!  In September, Laila decided she wanted to be Aerial from The Little Mermaid.  So we figured Aerial would need one of her side kicks, no one other than Sebastian!!  Lainie so proudly represented the crab by wearing the costume the entire time! 

A bit before Halloween, Andy, the girls and I dressed up for a friends party to kick off the Halloween season!!  With the girls costumes done, Andy and I decided to be pumpkin pie!  I am pretty sure Andy got the easy out this year for costumes!!  Don't worry though, I'll make sure he makes up for it next year!  After our Halloween party warm up, downtown Nacogdoches had its annual Scare on the Square event.  More than 40 vendors were there passing out candy in a great kid friendly environment.  Not only was there candy, but a petting zoo and the Humane Society.  Lainie would of loved to put a puppy in her Halloween bucket if she could of!  I could just imagine trying to explain that one to Andy when we got home! :) 

With Halloween finally here, Laila could not be more thrilled with the concept of ringing a doorbell, saying trick or treat and receiving a piece of candy!  So if you find your doorbell ringing in the future, you better have some candy on hand! :)  j/k!  Laila had a huge improvement from last years trick or treating.  This year she understood she couldn't eat every piece of candy that went in her bucket right away!  When told she could have one piece of candy on the way home, her response was, I'll wait til we get home to look through it!  Who is this little girl? :)  Lainie on the other hand took the place of her sister from last year!  She held up the trick or treating crew by having to examine every piece of candy received and on top of that eat M&M's during this process!  But she totally enjoyed seeing all the costumes, kids and of course the household pets that would come to the door to hand out the candy!  Andy and I had a great time going around the neighborhoods with the girls and enjoyed the weather!!  This was a first to not have to wrap the girls up in winter clothes under their costumes!! 

As we got home after trick or treating, Laila expressed to us that she needed a break!  Almost three and she needed a break!  It was a lot of work getting that candy, but now we have a huge bowl of goodies for going to the potty, eating all their food and a little treat here and there!  This year was a fun filled Halloween!!  So like the mummy said to the detective, let’s wrap this up!  Happy Halloween!!  Til the next!! EN