Dad and Oatmeal...

The joys of oatmeal in stunning Hi-Def.

Liam and his friend...

And behind door number 3...

Do you ever get the feeling that there is more on your plate than you can eat? I am getting that feeling right now. I am set to leave the Army on January 1, 2008. While that may seem like a long time from now, to me it is an all too close deadline. Between now and then I need to find a job, a house, a retirement plan and health insurance. Hopefully finding a job will take care of everything but the house, but finding that job may prove to be very tough.

Don’t get me wrong. I have plenty of options, but that is all they are right now…options. I am applying to the FBI, studying for the LSAT, looking into working in the intelligence field in San Antonio or San Angelo or San Wherever, thinking about starting my own business building furniture, or even using my degree and getting back into the architecture field.

The big problem is that they all sound like decent ideas. My current plan is to keep pursuing all these options (and any others I can think of) see which ones work out and choose the best one. I know that in the end none of this is really in my hands and we will end up wherever the Lord wants us.

Wish me luck.

-David

Still working on the whole spoon concept, but oatmeal sure is good.

A sharp looking little boy.

Worth coming back for...

It appears that I have once again fallen into the abyss of not blogging. I have lots of really good reasons why and I could easily list them here, but what it comes down to is, “life happens.” I have just not made the time to keep up with posting regularly. I am not really sure how many people actually come here, especially with the long drought.

That being said, however, I have been moved to come back and make a very important post. Our very good friends, Paul and Anne Cortez, have a 6 month old baby girl named Eva Elizabeth. At Eva’s last check-up the doctors discovered that she has a heart defect that is causing her blood pressure to be extremely high. The only way to remedy this defect is heart surgery. A specialist is being flown in from San Diego and will perform the surgery on the 9th of April.

Eva is totally unaware that there is anything wrong with her and she is not in any pain. She should recover very quickly once the operation is complete.

Paul and Anne are our very best friends and are our surrogate family here on the island. While Eva is not our child she is as close to our hearts as anyone we share genes with. As such we ask that you all lift up a prayer for Eva and her parents. We pray that God will calm their nerves and keep Eva safe while on the operating table and that God will steady the hand of the surgeon and grant him wisdom in his decisions.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

-David

First Haircut, First Birthday, and Second Christmas...

The past week was quite busy for us. Not only did we have all the usual holiday business to take care of, but we had family, haircuts, and parties to handle. It all sort of blurred together by the end, but we had a blast.

Liam got his first haircut on his birthday. We set his booster seat up on the lanai (Hawaiian for patio) and distracted him with a biscuit while Katie went to work. She did a great job considering that in a way, this was her first haircut too. This was yet another one of those bittersweet moments for us. We were excited to check another “first” off of the list, but he looked so grown up afterwards.

We decided to have Liam’s party on the day after his actual birthday so that it would fit better into everyone’s schedule. Saturdays are almost always better than weekdays for parties. We arrived a couple of hours before the official start time I order to get set up. We needed every minute of that extra time. We got all the decorations put up just in time for the first party goers to arrive. Around 30 people (adults and kids) showed up. We ate burgers and hotdogs and cake and played in the ocean and much fun was had by all. Liam received an obscene amount of presents and was not too fond of the cake. It turns out that our not giving him sweets this past year has made his sweet tooth a little slow in developing…stay tuned for that update.

Christmas came with much less fanfare and hassle. We grilled steaks and opened presents on Christmas Eve. By this time Liam was starting to get the hang of opening presents, but he was still much more interested the paper than the presents that it contained. The next morning Liam woke up and got to see what Santa Claus had left for him (a wagon and one of those popcorn popper push toy things).

Katie’s folks left Christmas night (the tickets were much cheaper that way) and we have been doing our best to sit around and do nothing ever since….except for taking down all the Christmas decorations…and cleaning the house…and being tempted by the “After Christmas Clearance Sales.”

We hope that the holidays found you all in good health and good spirits. Best wishes for the New Year. Thanks for staying tuned in for all the happenings of this past year. We have really enjoyed sharing our lives with you and hope to continue to do so in the coming year.

Before.

During.

After.

Twins? You be the judge.

The banner says it all.

Men doing manly things.

"I'm ready to open my presents now Mom."

"Yay, balloons!"

Mmmm, cake.

Eva is one pooped partier.

A little mid-party nap with Tutu.

The view from the party.

A fine place from which to watch the festivities.