First Birthday Party Fun!

Michael and Mary Ellen had their birthday party on Saturday and what fun! They loved having all the kids over and seeing the plane and butterfly decorations all over the house. Check out the slide show below to see all the fun decorations.

The whole family had "1" shirts on to celebrate M&M's special day. M&M had "1" baseball caps too but as you can tell, they didn't like them on their head for too long.

They had several friends that came to the party. Most from the neighborhood and play group. What fun! Boston even came dressed like a chicken because he knew M&M would think it was funny :-)

Daddy provided face painting for the kids. He did a great job! Who knew he was an artist?!

M&M loved the party hats and didn't seem to mind wearing them at all. Mary Ellen of course, sported her butterfly ears.
Ready for cake! Dee, my Mother, came in the night before for the party. What a relief to have some extra help and M&M have loved having her here.

They were tentative at first with the cake but warmed up quickly. Michael especially loved the yummy chocolate cake!

Such a fun day and I had a ball planning it! They were quite overwhelmed with it all but they always love new experiences and handle them pretty well. I can't believe my babies are one! I guess that means I can't call them "babies" anymore.

We are so blessed to have such perfect children. They are so much more than we ever prayed for. We would have felt overjoyed to have been able to have just one baby. God's grace is truly humbling! What a happy day!

Gifts, Gifts, and More Gifts

Michael and Mary Ellen had lots of practice for their party opening gifts. We love to get packages in the mail and it seems all of them recently are for M&M.

The first slideshow is of the gifts from Papa and Mama Jo. That is Andrew's parents in South Carolina. They loved the toys! Papa and Mama Jo always put a little something in their packages for Mama and Daddy too. Thanks!

The next slideshow is from our best friends CAS & Christy and their kids, David, Carly and Daniel. They always give M&M the most perfect gifts. We miss them terribly and are praying regularly for CAS who is in the desert for 120 days. Christy is a strong lady who always does a tremendous job holding down the fort while CAS is away. We love y'all...Thanks!

The last slideshow is of the gifts from our friends MAC & Jen who just left for Aviano Italy. They came over on their last night here to give a birthday surprise to M&M. Thanks and we miss y'all already!

Mama's Monkey

We have always joked how Michael is a little monkey. From the time he was very little he would literally use his legs to crawl up my arms when I was changing him. He uses his legs and feet for everything! So guess what he's going to be for Halloween? Yep, a monkey! We already have the costume and it's SO cute! This little video is a great clip of what Michael loves to do in his crib and how he and Mary Ellen interact.

"10 little monkeys" is my favorite song to sing to him now! OK, Mary Ellen just started waving, so I'm not sure if this is a fluke or not, but adorable anyway. It really looks like she's waving at Michael. By the way, she is jumping in her crib now too. Anything to be like her big brother!

Butterfly Ears

I ordered a cute little butterfly dress up outfit for Mary Ellen. It has this adorable headband, butterfly wings and a wand. I guess it's one of her birthday presents, but I really got it so she could wear the headband or wings for her party. Since the theme is planes and butterflies I thought it'd be perfect. This was the night we got it in the mail. And she just loved the headband!

As you can see, she was jumping in her johnny-jump-up and loved that the butterflies were bouncing back and forth too! She was looking up to try and look at them. She really didn't seem to mind that it was on her head, even though it had little points on the underside...for girls who have hair :-) Can't wait until their party!

I Got Those Too

Michael finally got some teeth, bless his heart! His first popped through a couple weeks ago and now his second is just starting to show. They're his bottom incisors. He has looked so funny with just that one tooth on the bottom...just like an old man. Here's proof:

I'm just happy that I won't have bald AND toothless one year olds :-) Truthfully, even with all my worrying they are developing almost completely on target. Sometimes at the later end of the range but pretty much right on target. Amazing! They're little fighters. And just the happiest dang babies you'd ever want to meet.

And now Michael displaying his new trick...Mary Ellen can do it too, but just never when I want (like to take a picture or video)...what can I say she's a girl! So this is what Michael thinks about the whole thing:


"Give yourselves a hand..."
Quote by Eddie Murphy "Coming To America"

I Can Do That Too

Mary Ellen is pulling herself up to standing now too! Just about 1 month after Michael did. The above picture was the first time we went in after nap and found her standing up. As you can see, she is super proud of herself! I just love her smile now...you can clearly see those bottom teeth. Makes her look so different.


The above video is after the same nap. She was so happy and pleased with herself, we just had to catch it on video.

The next video is after nap a few days later. Now she realized quickly, as Michael did, that getting up is one thing but then how do you get down? She had been crying and I went in and saw that she was standing up and quite distressed that she was stuck. Mary Ellen has always been more patient than Michael. She will literally stand in one spot for 30 minutes just looking around and smiling. So no telling how long she was standing in her crib before the realization set in she couldn't get down. It's a short clip, because she's crying very loudly for most of it...no one wants to hear that. Especially the Mamas out there who hear it all the time anyway :-) Again, ignore the high shrill voice coming from the other side of the camera...do I always sound that silly? Eeekkk!

This is her cute camo dress that Aunt Amy gave her. She is pulling up on everything Michael is now. Seems like Michael took some time to pull up on the coffee table, couch and console; the things that don't have a great hand pull for him. Mary Ellen was pulling up on everything in a matter of days. The model they provide for each other is a good thing, I guess. By the way, Michael is cruising along the couch and coffee table at a pretty good rate now.

Ya know, because of them being 2 months premature I'm constantly monitoring each developmental milestone and if they are reaching them in a reasonable time frame. But, oh how sad it is to see it all happening so fast. I guess I can't have it both ways. I'm still amazed to see those pictures of them in the NICU at 2 and 4 lbs. and then seeing them so big and healthy now. God is indeed so good!

Goodbye My Friend

Prissy, my 15 year old Cocker Spaniel died this afternoon. She was such a sweet little friend to me. I thanked God today for letting me have her for so long. She was the best dog! And all those that knew her would say the same. Because I don't have all of our pictures here with me, I scrounged up all I could to be representative. I'd like to honor her memory here and all that she meant to me. So, indulge me while I take you through almost 16 years of memories.

This is one of the first pictures I have of her. She was 2 months old when I got her and so little she fit in one hand. This picture was taken at Mother's house and she was probably 6 months old or so. The dog in the foreground was Gator, my brothers dog, and the first Prissy's puppy! Those of you that have known me for long enough will remember the first Prissy. I guess I was never too inventive when it came to naming pets :-)

This was Prissy at Mother's again, before she was ever groomed for the first time. She must have been 2 years old or so. But her hair was starting to get long and unkempt looking. Only my sister would appreciate the story when I had Prissy groomed for the first time. She had gotten much furrier than this picture...I mean like down to the ground. The groomer did a standard "Cocker-groom", but I was so shocked when we picked her up I sat down and cried. Pam and I laugh at the memory now, but at the time it was so traumatic! She looked so different I thought they were giving me a different dog.

Andrew and I have always had a running joke about Prissy being the "step-dog". She was given to me by an ex-boyfriend for my birthday in 1993. Andrew grew up with lots of pets out in the country. But they were outside pets and/or ones that you used to hunt with. So this dainty Cocker Spaniel named "Prissy" wasn't exactly his cup of tea! I'll never forget on one of our first dates, him asking me "So, how long do Cocker Spaniels live?" I got the message.

I always told him he secretly loved her. This picture is my proof. It was taken in my townhouse in Florida while we were still dating.

This is Prissy by the fence we had just put up at our first house (as a married couple) in Columbus, MS. It was a base house and we were responsible for putting up our own fence. We were situated on a perfect lot on base. The house backed up to an open grassy area and bordered by woods. We regularly saw lots of rabbits and armadillo that Prissy loved to bark at. She was the protector of the yard.

This was a great memory. The above picture was taken at Mitch and Mark's house in Phoenix. The guys had just started F16 training and we were waiting for our base house to open up, so Mark and Mitch graciously let us live with them for a few weeks. The house was in a beautiful neighborhood around a few man-made lakes that were stocked. The guys, needless-to-say were fishing every afternoon. Prissy's favorite spot was right there at the edge of the grass, just waiting for one of them to catch a fish. She would bark and raise-all-kinds-of-sand when she saw the fish. The guys would always let her smell and sometimes lick the fish before they threw it back.

I always loved this shot of Prissy! She looks so sweet...picture of the perfect Cocker Spaniel. This was in the kitchen of our house at Luke AFB.

Prissy in our back yard at Luke AFB. This was the only house we've lived in that we didn't have a fence. We were only there for 10 months and didn't feel the expense was worth it. So Andrew rigged up a cable...I mean 75 foot of cable on a cork-screw stake in the middle of the yard. She got around pretty well with it. The back yard was huge and backed up to the perimeter fence of the base with only a mountain view beyond. It was Andrew's entertainment to watch her tear after a bird in the yard only to reach the end of the cable and go flying, landing usually on her back, rung around the neck. Never stopped her from chasing those birds. That's when you'd hear Andrew's famous saying "Yeah, little Einstein". What she lacked in brains, she made-up in cuteness and lovability!

Our family Christmas picture at our house in South Carolina. We all loved this house. The first house we bought and really got to make our own. We had a huge back yard for Prissy. Andrew's Dad and sister Amy came to help us put the fence up. Andrew even crafted wooden gates for it, that he designed.

Andrew was deployed to Northern Watch flying over Iraq in 2002, right before the war started. Prissy was my company and bed partner! Before Andrew and I were married, she slept just like this every night with me. I always said, she had no idea she was a dog...laying there on her side of the bed with her head on the pillow! She took her spot back from Andrew in a flash for those 3 months.

Ahhh, more proof...he really did love her. This was Christmas in Florida 2003.

Prissy in our back yard in South Carolina.

This was her usual spot on her bed in our kitchen in South Carolina. She had more personalized beds than any dog I ever knew. That was my way of appeasing her when she got kicked out of the real bed!

I love this shot of her in the foyer of our house in Phoenix. It was so hot there, she loved this spot because she could lay on the cool tile and watch every move I made...or sleep!

I love Christmas and usually put up at least 2 trees. This was our patriotic tree in the office in Phoenix. As you can see it is right by Prissy's bed. In later years she would crawl under the tree and lay on the tree skirt so much, I just made the tree skirt into another bed for her. She loved it!

Prissy with the toy drill that Andrew's mother gave her. She was past the point of chewing on things like that...not like when she was a puppy and chewed the heels off 3 pairs of my roommate Julie's high-heel-shoes...she still loved to lay with the drill.

Prissy is laying on yet another bed that I made for her. This was last year in Florida when Andrew was over seas and I was very early pregnant and had lots of time on my hands :-)

Prissy's first little clothes at age 14. OK, I'm not one who thinks that dogs should wear clothes and Andrew still makes fun of me for this. What can I say...I was pregnant and obviously nesting and wanted to dress someone up...Prissy was agreeable! One is a FSU jersey and the pink one had "angel" in rhinestones on it! Funny but cute :-)

This was right after M&M came home from the hospital, as you can see Michael is in his namesakes arms. Andrew is trying to get Ryals and Pryce, Amy's boys, to touch Prissy. And they did! This was no small miracle since every other time they'd seen Prissy they both would burst into frightful tears. I was very proud of them...big boys!

Prissy with M&M this past 4th of July. They are going to miss her so much. Especially Mary Ellen, who would squeal with delight every time she saw her. She would try everything she could to get Prissy to notice her, including screaming at the top of her lungs. Poor baby...Prissy has been deaf as a doornail for the past 4 years!

These last shots were taken yesterday. M&M's Aunt Amy sent them these cute camo outfits so I wanted to get some pictures. These are precious pictures to me. I'm just sorry that M&M won't be able to grow up with Prissy. She would have been so much fun for them.

I love you my sweet little friend and won't ever have a pet that will equal what you've meant to me over the years. What a selfless gift pets give us. No matter what you look like, what kind of day you had, what sadness you're bearing, they are there to just love you unconditionally. I'll miss you baby girl!