Meagan's 7th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the best 7 year old ever!

Pictures to be posted soon, but needless to say, a good time was had by all. Papa Bob brought a cool gift; the dollhouse he has been working on for five years. Yes, five years. It is gorgeous. Once again, Meagan chose to donate her gifts to the children's hospital rather than keeping them. We are very proud.

Sweet little family

Matthew loves to show off his little grin. He smiles at us all of the time and esp. loves to grin at women at the grocery store. Flirting already, this little man is. Meagan and Natalie were hugging, so I took advantage and grabbed a photo. Andy and I frequently say that we are so lucky to have two girls so close together. They do argue, don't get me wrong, but they also play together and share lots of toys. Since our third baby is much further apart, I think it is good that he is a boy . Otherwise he (or if so, a "She") would get into all of their sisters toys...not that Matthew won't. I think that they will be the one dressing him up, though!

Gotta brag!!!

Every mommy gets to brag every once in a while, right? When Meagan began first grade she was struggling to read Kindergarten level books, and I have to admit that I was a bit worried. She came through it great now and on her report card yesterday she received a "4" under Reading Fluency. A "4" means that they are above grade level, and the texts that we are reading with her are second and third grade level. I am thrilled to see her excell.
In other news, Matthew is still not walking, but I am not worried. He gets around awfully fast, as anyone who has watched him in action can attest to seeing. He does cruise around furniture though; we have had to move all of our picture frames up to out of his way.

Saying goodbye

I know that I have posted a lot about Pokie, but she is on my mind right now. I am remembering her as a tiny puppy biting my fingers and chasing after ducks. She also would roll around in duck poop, but I try to forget that. We moved to Colorado when she was two and she loved it. We took her everywhere. We went hiking and went off to multiple famous Colorado places such as Red Rocks. After a year in Colorado we headed off to Austin and Pokie met her two sisters, Barni and Peanut. Pokie was always mellow and loving. As she got older she spent more and more time rolled up in a little ball. She would not just start randomly kiss people (which many people liked because she didn't bug people.) She reserved her kisses to people she truly loved. We miss her very much and know that she will always be in our hearts.

My heart is hurting

Meagan said this, but truly we all are hurting. Our 12 year old Beagle, Pokie, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She has been there with us since before we married. She has always been a sweetheart and it pains us to see her like this. We will make the decision as to what we do for her after we see if her medicine helps.