Daddy's Helpers

Ice Cream Cake:)

The Men: Andrew, Rusty, and Tab
The Girls: Erika, Me, and Shay
Dinner at our house the next night so the White's (with brand new baby Kate) could come and enjoy some cake

Happy 29th Rusty!!!

This year Rusty had a couple of Birthday celebrations: Maggiano's, Our house, and then SueSue and PatPats's. It was a great excuse to hang out with friends and family and eat cake. We are so lucky to have great friendships. Paxton and Mackey, and I gave Rusty quitar lessons...so look for a C.D. from him in the up coming months:)

Baby Kate White

Our sweet friends had their precious baby girl...Katherine Grace White "Kate". Paxton was really confused and kept saying that we needed to go get our baby. We very quickly explained to him that it was not our baby. We are so excited about our children having friends with Godly parents. We look forward to many vacations, school events, and laughter with sweet baby Kate.

Mackey' New Accessory

Obviously she can see out of the weak eye...every girl needs to feed her baby

Mackey added a new accessory to her 2008 wardrobe...glasses. I noticed several months ago that Mackey's right eye seemed to not always be in the same conversation that I was in. I let it go thinking that Rusty would think that I was just trying to find something to be wrong. We finally went to the eye doctor and found that Mackey is legally blind in the right eye. Of course it was not so great news but we are now just praising the fact that we have a healthy little girl who loves life. We have had the glasses for almost a week now and it has been little frustrating. We also have to patch the good eye for half of the day which is sad and again frustrating. I spend most of the day trying to help her forget about them and then reapplying again and again. She did really well the first two days but now realizes it is not just for "fun". We caught the "lazy eye" really early so the doctor is optimistic...and were encouraged after talking to Dr. Diekert. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Mackey's eye and healing. We are very fortunate.

Monkey See... Monkey Do

Mackey loves her big brother...she would do almost anything for him. She thought that Paxton was the best one to show her how to brush her teeth.

HAPPY 2008!!!

We celebrated the New Year with cherished friendships. We continued the eating tradition started with the White's and added the Slaugthers to the tradition. We ate great Italian food and then headed to the Klappenbach's to enjoy some great food, drinks, and conversation. After the Klappenbach's the White's and Slaughters came over (I guess they felt sorry for us because we had to come home so that the babysitter could ring in the New Year with friends) and played some Mexican Train. We will never let the guys be in charge of snacks. They were supposed to get us some domino playing food and drinks and came home with chips, dip, and Fig Newtons...No drinks. Happy 2008. I hope that everyone had a great 2007 and has fabulous goals set for 2008.

Goals for 2008:

1.) Spend more quality time in the word and develop a closer relationship with God

2.)We joined a gym...which means we need to GO!!! Hopefully we can lose weight, tone it up, and be more heart healthy.

3.) Rusty's is to be more organized and mine should be to not lose my debit card....which I do often (scary I know...I always find it somewhere right after I cancel it)

Starting to Walk...

Jan 1, 2008 and Mackey has taken her first 6 steps....She is still not sure about it but we are making upright forward progress. We love you MacadoodleBop!!!!

Christmas 2007

This year was so much fun because Paxton understood a lot. Paxton and PatPat had been tracking Santa on the computer and talking about where he was. When we got home it was so sad, he was convinced that Santa had forgot him. We tried to explain that he was coming later but it just broke our hearts. That morning we got up and I think that Paxton was overwhelmed and Mackey was just tired. We opened presents and Paxton soon got into it and loved it. We decided that if you ever want to feel really great about the present you gave give it to Paxton. He wanted to enjoy and play and touch and feel every gift. The bike was a big hit! We headed to SueSue and PatPat's and then to Decatur for a Searight Christmas. On Wednesday we headed to Liberty City for more Christmas. We had a great time just relaxing, I was super excited because I got a bike too!!! We really enjoyed RockBand...for those of you who have seen it know what I am talking about. I was terrible but enjoyed it. We had a great Christmas full of presents, family, and food.

Remembering "BIG WILLY"

December 9th my grandpa, Big Willy stepped into the pain free and healthy world. He is remembered as a caring man that usually spoke when he had something great to say. He was a man who loved his family despite several set backs in his health. He was the man that was loyal to the Texas Rangers and the Texas Aggies, my love for A&M was encouraged by him. He served his country well as he flew bombers over Italy protecting the freedom of America. He was the grandpa that drove all the way back to Braums to rescue the pound puppy left behind by a 10 year old little girl. The weeks spent in Amarillo always a included a trip to the Children's Museum where he amused me and walked through dinosaur world more than once. I still have and cherish my first pearl necklace that he and Whitey bought me. He was probably one of the only people that loved Scooter as much as SueSue and PatPat. Though we will miss Big Willy (the named he hated, but wore the shirt) we are comforted by the time spent as he came down for Mackey's 1st birthday. It was sudden but I know that God had his timing in the matter by everyone being so close to McKinney and being able to comfort each other. Thank you to everyone who sent flowers and cards...we thank you!!!