More Mylie Birthday...

Here are more pictures from Mylie's birthday celebrations. She had a little party with some of her friends around town and friends from her class at school. It was a great time...and we realized that we can fit 12 kids and 9 adults into our little house.



Mylie and Trey

The birthday girl



Libby and Grace

And here are a few other pictures from her big day with the families in Albuquerque.
Uncle RyRy and Dan's daughters Chelsea and Courtney




This is Mylie opening her Elmo Live

Grandpa Dobbs and Mylie sticking their fingers into her cake

What is a birthday without a little Dion's pizza???

Mylie's 2nd Birthday

Our little Mylie turned 2 on November 28th. I think that every year we will say, "I can't believe she is another year older." Or, "It seems just like yesterday we found out we were pregnant with her." But it is the truth. Children make time pass so quickly.

We call our girls "joy-bringers" because how wonderful it is to have a little girl make a grown adult belly-laugh, sigh with delight, tear up with unmeasurable love. We have officially entered the "stinker" phase with Mylie, but even as a little stinker, she is so darn cute that we can't help going just a little easy on her with our reprimanding. She is a great helper. She loves throwing the laundry into the washing machine, loading the bottom drawer of the fridge with cokes and making a "ssshhh, ssshhh" noise when she pretends she is spraying the cleaning spray on the floor. She loves to hug her sister "Toley" (as she calls her) and climbs up on her crib when Coley wakes up from her nap. Mylie will smile big at her and say "Hi Baby." Mylie loves to take baths, go for walks, watch videos of herself dancing, color, play with play-dough, go to Wee School, her grandparents (Grum-pa, Mani and D-D, Nonna and Papa...that's how she pronounces their names), watch Elmo and Abby Cadabby, Barney and Yo Gabba Gabba (even though she'll still only watch any of these shows for maybe 10 minutes). Her favorite foods are hot dogs, cheese, any and every fruit, fruit snacks, sandwich meat, pizza, raisins, and anything sweet, really. She can count to 10, sing her ABC's and knows most of her colors (we think...or she's just a really great guesser.) She is just a little joy in our life and we are blessed to have been given Mylie as our daughter.


Our sweet little Mylie around 8:31am on the day of her birth, Tuesday, November 28, 2006


Mylie turning 1 at 8:31am on 11/28/07


And our big girl at 8:31am on November 28, 2008 when she turned 2

We're having a little party with Mylie's Texas friends later this week, so I'll post pictures of that celebration as well as pictures of her celebrations with our families in ABQ over Thanksgiving week.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with our families. Here are some pictures from our week. (Excuse my formatting...I can't figure out this blogging-formatting-thing out!)

Weekend in Wimberley

We went to Wimberley down in the Hill Country last weekend and had a great, relaxing time. This little cabin was so cute and comfortable. We felt so at home and wished we could have stayed longer.

The girls and I hit the outlet malls in San Marcos. However, shopping isn't high on Mylie's list of fun things to do. Have you all ever been to those outlet malls? You better go in your walking shoes because there are SO many stores! We also went to Gruene and ate dinner at The Gristmill. We have never been to Gruene and were so impressed. The restaurant was so tasty and we tried to sneak the girls into Gruene Hall for a little dancing, but after dark, it's only 21 and older. Guess we'll have to go a little earlier next time. We also enjoyed visiting the town of Wimberley, cooking out at the cabin, watching movies, watching the girls play and just spending precious time together as a little familia. We will go back for another weekend!

Update on Catherine

We received the most exciting call from Catherine yesterday. She met with a specialist at the UNMH MS Clinic and after reviewing her final test results, MRI, etc., the doctor said she is 95% certain that Catherine was given the wrong diagnosis and she does not have MS. Despite what the neurologist told her when she was in the hospital last week, she does not have plaque in her spinal fluid or lumbar. And what they thought was a lesion wrapped around her brain stem is actually a blood clot that occurred while Catherine was coughing when she had a sinus infection/bronchitis a few weeks back. They ran further tests at the clinic and determined that the blood clot is already absorbing and all Catherine will need to do is take baby aspirin daily. We are elated and so excited for the joy that Catherine is feeling right now.

We thank you for your prayers and your friendship. It is so comforting to know that we have such a wonderful support system that prays for and loves our family.

October in a Nutshell

This is going to be a quick, but long one...if that makes sense.

Houston at the beginning/middle of the month...







We drove down to Houston with Libby and Grace for Fran's baby shower. We had lots of fun packing 5 kids and 4 adults into Tyler and Alissa's house...chaos!!!...but totally worth it. The weekend was full of kids foods, play time (or Mylie and Ryan wanting the exact same toy at the exact time), naps, catching up and more play time. The last 2 pictures are at a park in downtown Houston. Mylie loved it. And as you can see, we weren't prepared for playing in the fountains, so I just stripped her down and let her run wild.


Coley hates cereal...middle of month...







Coley started cereal around her 6 month birthday. She kind of hates it along with any type of veggie. She actually gags...tongue out and everything...so we're not pushing it right now. Maybe we'll break all the rules and introduce fruits early!


David's Cross Country Travels for Work = Whitney & Girls Head to Albuquerque















We brought some kind of horrible Texas-cold-flu with us to ABQ and managed to get everyone else sick...I mean everyone except my brother and David's dad, Ralph. I faked it enough to make it to Alicia's BEAUTIFUL wedding! But it was all downhill from there for the next 4-5 days. I have to confess that one of the reasons I look so forward to going to ABQ is because I have lots of extra hands to help me with the girls, but when we get everyone sick, no one feels up to taking care of their sick-selves and their sick grandkids. We did manage to have a good visit, though, and a good girls weekend with Mom, Neta, Melissa, Michelle, Ellice and Emmery. Oh, and Coley started sitting up by herself while we were there too. She's doing great!

And Halloween 2008





We had a spooky Halloween with the cutest ladybug and little chicken around. David's mom, brother Michael and Michael's girlfriend Shaylee helped us be scary by going Trick or Treating around the neighborhood.

And that was our October! Up next, our wonderful weekend in Wimberley!

Catherine

We're back! Thanks to our fantastic friend Guy Mays, we have our computer back with a new hard drive, almost ALL of our pictures and we're ready to rejoin the world of blogging. I have lots of pictures to post from the month of October and will get to uploading those soon.

Just wanted to ask for prayers for David's sweet sister Catherine. After having been in the hospital since Tuesday, and a few weeks of a major headache, we found out yesterday that she has Multiple Sclerosis. We've talked to Catherine and David's parents a lot this past week and this diagnosis is shocking and not what we wanted to hear, but Catherine is a very determined young woman and her faith is incredibly strong. She is presently at home and starting to feel better. As we understand it, Catherine will be meeting with a neurologist in the next few weeks and they will determine a treatment plan for her. Since she is so young, they will be aggressive with her treatment. We are praying specifically that her treatment will be effective and that she will go into remission and not experience again what she has been going through these few days.