Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, A few weeks we had our family portrait and Isla's first birthday portrait taken. It's a bit shameful but since Isla has been born, we have never had a professional family portrait taken. We figured it was about time now that our life is calming down a bit. We LOVE them, they turned out so well. I was going to wait until we received the CD with the edited photos on it but hey, I'm impatient and couldn't wait to share them with you all. Below is the link to all 201 of them. Isla has a big scratch on her nose but that will be edited out along with other things that we've requested - these are just the proofs. Enjoy - Precious Poses - enter the website - click on Proofing (top right corner) - Password is Isla and that will take you to our photos. We are getting a CD with 20 photos on it. I'll post some of them when we have it, hopefully next week if not earlier.

Dear Diary, My present from Uncle Alan and Auntie Clare arrived today, almost a month since it left Northern Ireland. I think the boat must have got lost. Anyway, the present was nice, but it doesn't taste very good.... 'Til next time, Isla

Dear Diary, As I mentioned in yesterdays post, my furry lovelies have not made it to the blog lately. This leads me to a day in the life of Pearl and Dixie... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7:15 - wake up 7:16 - Where's breakfast? 8:00 - run around and a have a "moment" then beat up my sister. 8:30 - wow, that was alot of running and we're tired, time for a nap. 9:00 - we love the sun, time to work on the tan. 11:30 - stomach is growling, maybe time for a treat, or two, or three, whatever we can get. 12:00 - time for some fresh air, living in an apt. is tough, no grass = no bugs, how boring. 1:00 - yawnnn, been up for hours, no wonder I'm exhausted.... 5:00 - stomach is growling again, where's dinner? finally... 5:25 - I'm thirsty, please turn the tap on... 6:00 - He's home, let's play! 6:10 - catnip, YAY! 7:00 - What a busy day, I can't keep my eyes open, better go to bed - see you in the morning!

Dear Diary, First, thank you for the birthday wishes in the blog comments and on FB. In case you were wondering, I'm officially mid-30's... Also, without sounding too cryptic, we are in the middle of a visa drama. I can't say too much right now but we would grateful if you could pray that we get the visa's we need to stay here and in the alternative if it's not meant to be, He shows the way. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more about this in the near future. We haven't posted too many pics of the little lady since her birthday so here you go, Isla, 12.5 months: Don't worry, she's still adorable and happy. These were taken tonight quickly before she went to bed so nothing too great, just a few updates for her Opa and Oma (and everyone else of course). She was up at 8:30 this morning, really, she was! I'm glad she woke up when she did because we would've been late for church this morning and we had to make a side and main course for t

Dear Diary, Today is Heather's birthday, she is ** today... Do you think I would get home if I told you? Anyway I just wanted to say 'Happy Birthday' dear... It has been a difficult year for us all, but I know through God's grace that we will be sustained through it all.. May ou LORD bless you today and forever in his sight and his covenant. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo 'Til next time, Colin.

Dear Diary, Yesterday our darling girl endured the needle not once, not twice but SEVEN times... She's had immunizations in Northern Ireland, Canada and now America and it seems each country has a slightly different vaccination schedule. For instance, MMR is given at 15 months in the UK but 12 months here in America so she got that one yesterday. It took them a while to figure out what she needed but she is now up-to-date to the American schedule and rather than carry three vaccination cards, we have just one. She also had her first flu shot and the chicken pox vaccination. She has to go back in a month for a second Hep A shot and the second flu shot (only the first innoculation requires two jabs) if they are still handing them out at that time. I hope so because flu season lasts into May in this part of the country. She's been REALLY good. No fevers or fussing during the day, just a bit of difficulty getting into a deep sleep at night. She cried frequently during

Dear Diary, This afternoon Isla and I finally broke in the red wagon by going for a walk in the sunny, 65 degree Colorado weather! To say the least, she LOVES her wagon. I'm so glad we bought it for her, I know we'll get some really good use out of it. Sorry, I couldn't decide which photos to post so I uploaded all three! I think she's finally adapting to the sun. Until recently, she HATED the sun - I called her the vampire baby!

Dear Diary, 1.YOUR REAL NAME: Heather Marie 2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names) Ann Ike (they don't have middle names!) 3.NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) John Gerardus 4.STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Blahe 5.DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Cat 6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born) Marie Burlington 7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Green Coffee 8.FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Heck 9.STREET NAME:(fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Chocolate Chocolate Chip 10.ROCK STAR NAME:(current pets name, current street name) Pearl Cherokee 11.YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Heaizzle 12.YOUR IRAQI NAME:(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your midd