Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, We pray that you may be granted another blessed and healthy year to come! Lots of love from Colin and your youngest girls

Dear Diary,

Dear Diary, Today my dad has been blessed with another year. Wiser too? We wish we could come over and wish you a "Happy 73rd Birthday" in person but we are thinking of you on your special day. May God grant you many more happy years. This is my Dad in 2006 when the crowd came over to N. Ireland for our wedding. It's actually taken in the lobby of the (haunted) hotel where we had our wedding reception. Good memories!

Dear Diary, It seems like Christmas was yesterday but it's April already. In my immediate family, April is birthday month: 1. My parents 2. My brother 3. My nephew and 4. My youngest neice are all celebrating birthdays in the next 2.5 weeks. It's this time of year that I wish I was home. It seems like forever since I was at a family birthday party. Maybe next year. I'm sure there are aunts and uncles and cousins also celebrating this month but there are too many for me to track so if you are celebrating this month, Happy Birthday! The fun starts tomorrow, stay tuned!

Dear Diary, Our happy girl is 13 months today AND she started standing on her own today. YAY Isla! She has stood in the past but today she started doing it on her own without assistance from Colin or I. If it's like when she started crawling, she'll be standing all the time this week and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) she'll be walking before too long. When she becomes more confident, I'll post a photo.

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, To recap the events of the past couple of days, we had two birthday "parties" for Isla. The first was on Sunday with our church family. We really wanted to share her birthday with everyone as they have been so supportive and encouraging to us since we arrived. They are not a replacement for our family, they are our "Colorado" family! Colin and I brought a cake, candles, balloons and other party gear along with us to church. After the morning service most people came downstairs to sing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" and enjoy good fellowship and cake. Colin made her cake She didn't like wearing her birthday hat and wasn't really sure what was going on but despite not napping at all that morning, she was a good girl. Yesterday was her "real" birthday and it was mainly just the three of us for the day. Although she looks excited to see her cake, I learned this weekend that my dear girl does not like cake! What's all that ab

Dear Diary, We were blessed with Isla one year ago today at 10:20 a.m. (N. Ireland time). When times were tough, she got extra hugs and her cheeky smile and hearty laugh calmed our tattered spirits. She is such a special beautiful little girl and praise God for entrusting her into our lives and care! Here is the link to the original blog birth announcement that Colin wrote. She came into this world weighing 5 lbs. 4 ozs. and today she weighs 20 lbs. She is still a munchkin and I know we take it for granted but she is very healthy. All she had this year was ONE cold. Nothing else, not even an ear ache (I had loads of those as a kid). We are so very thankful for her (and our) good health. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ February 17, 2008 February 17, 2009 A month by month walk down memory lane: 1 month 2 months 3 months (and meeting great-Oma for the first time) 4 months 5 months 6 months 7 months 8 months 9 months 10 months 11 months ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary, Here's a clue of what's coming up really fast!!!! Yes, Mommy is more excited than the little miss...

Dear Diary, Monkey is 11 months old today!!! I can't believe next month she'll be 1 already. WOW! The big discovery this past month has been GRAVITY . She throws her toys out of the pack'n'play and her crib and watches them fall to the ground. It's annoying for us because we have to pick them up but to her it's a game. After a while we stop giving her toys back and she knows the fun has stopped . Napping has also been a BIG challenge. Lately, she is so tired but won't sleep during the day. I've started putting her to bed earlier in the morning by 10 and sometimes she sleeps (on Tuesday she slept 1.5 hours!) other days, nothing. This past week has been a huge improvement and she's napping at least an hour each day. She'll even sleep a half hour in the afternoon which makes getting to 7 p.m. a wee bit less stressful for both of us. Very courageously she is walking around the furniture but there has been no signs of walking yet which suits m

Dear Diary, Happy Birthday Christina, Wishing you many more happy years with family and friends. God bless.

Dear Diary, Our sweet girl is 10 months old today! BUSTED, playing with cat food She was pretty excited this morning as I wished her a happy birthday ~ she hit me in the face and laughed!!! Yeah, that's the latest thing to do and at times it hurts because she has sharp nails but we are working on trying to teach her it is not OK to hit faces, not our faces and not the cats faces. She normally understands "NO" and listens well. She'll stop, look at us and then crawl toward us. What a good girl! According to the experts this is what she should be doing this month. I've taken this list off the internet and added my comment in bold beside the statement. Most babies should be able to . . . · Stand holding on to someone or something ~ done · Walk holding onto furniture · Pull up to standing position from sitting · Wave goodbye ~ done but only when she wants too · Crawl well ~ too well done · Use thumb and finger pincer grasp to pick things up ~ done Some ba

Dear Diary, Today is the 20th birthday of our niece, Kristen... Happy Birthday Kris, We pray you continue to have another blessed and healthy year!

Dear Diary, Firstly, Happy Birthday Loretta! Have a great day and we wish you many continued blessings! Secondly, Happy 3rd Engagement Anniversary to my Groom! Thirdly, Happy 2nd Wedding anniversary to our friends Jeffrey and Jenny Dempsey! Congratulations ! Jeffrey and Jenny are unique because they had the most unusual wedding in Larne. I won't go into details but if you were at the ceremony, you know what I'm talking about... I told you it was a busy day!

Dear Diary, Our beautiful girl is 9 months old! It's been exciting and so much fun watching her grow and learn new things. Just yesterday in the church nursery she started to pull herself up on furniture AND she went from the crawling position to the sitting position. The look on her face said it all. So cute, I just wish I had a photo to capture the moment! For now though, these will have to do. Her hair is really starting to fill out and it is a lovely shade of brown. I wonder if it is similar to my natural hair colour? A very typical pose these days, smiling! These two photos are taken in her bedroom. Her nightlight was the inspiration for her room colour scheme. We can't paint the walls but we tried to use the purple, yellow, pink and green as much as possible. It's also nice that her name is four-letters, one letter per colour! She is a joy in our lives and God has been good to us, she is our greatest blessing! 'Til next time, Heather, Colin & Isla

Dear Diary, Happy Birthday George! We wish you God's continued blessings throughout the next year and in years to come. Love from us, Heather, Colin & Isla George is my oldest, much older, bro. I'm not such a good little sister 'cause last night all of a sudden it came to me, it's his birthday tomorrow! Sorry, no time to put a card in the mail but maybe I'll give you a call tonight and hope you're not on the road (he's away from home alot and has a very patient and loving wife, Loretta, for putting up with it!!).

Dear Diary, I've missed posting on the blog but we've been busy... First of all, Isla turned 8 months on October 17, she had a baby wellness check up and she got another 3 teeth, all in one day (more about that later on in this post). Here she is on her 8th month birthday. Mom and I decided it would be nice to take her to the pumpkin farm and apple orchard down the road. She loves going for walks and "sings" while we walk... My little pumpkin in the pumpkin patch: With her mom: With her doting Oma: She loves animals whether it be cats or dogs, yes, even Tasha!! Before we left for Denver I took her to the dr. for a wellness check up. She is a peanut at 27 inches long and weighed 17.5 lbs ~ that is 1 stone 3.5 lbs. for those Brtis! She is right on track developmentally and is sitting quite comfortably but not crawling in the true form of crawling if you know what I mean. I wish I had a photo to post but the new thing is to go on all fours and "stand" on