Merry Christmas from Dallas, TX

MERRY CHRISTMAS! We are up in Dallas visiting Heather's brother Bryon. We had a good Christmas time. We visited the Dallas Nature and Science Aquarium and Zoo yesterday, read Luke 2 and saw Christmas lights last night, and opened gifts, played and ate all day today. Here is a Christmas update and a review of our year with some key pictures.

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Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! We had another fine year—we hope you did too. Here's the year's updates on each of us.

Lily –

I turned one year a couple months ago, but I was walking even before that! I love to grab lips and noses, investigate teeth and trash cans, and be free to explore new places. I am a free spirit—both strong and stubborn—but scratch my back and I'm as cuddly as a kitten. I have the cutest smile around and can already say "dadda", "momma", and "yyyyeessss" (when I'm not growling).

Kiya –

I turned two back in the spring. My favorite things include going to nursery at church, reading books, playing "my game" on the computer, being with friends, and tackling my little sister. No one can resist my bright blue eyes and curly hair, so I usually get what I want. I never let my parents put me to bed without saying my prayers, and I love to play with my brother and sister and go to the park and to parties. Best of all, I'm taller than a lot of 4-year olds.

Jared –

I am six years-old and in the first grade. Reading and spelling are my best two academic strengths. I love to play with friends and ride my bike or my scooter. I've passed off all the Articles of Faith but the last one (it's really long). I am an expert at making friends, just like my mom, and seem to always be going to birthday parties. My first two teeth decided to fall out this year (actually my dad's pliers helped). Oh, and I just keep getting taller.

Heather –

I became very involved with the PTO (Parent Teacher Org) at Jared's school this year, volunteering a good portion of my time to serve the teachers and the students. I also started leading the Girls Activity Days at the church, not to mention taking care of my two boys and two girls. We welcomed home two of my brothers safe and sound from Iraq this year, which was a great blessing.

Randy –

I continued another year with IBM as a performance analyst, as a father to three awesome kids, and as a husband to an amazing woman. We took a trip down to Galveston this summer for a family reunion on Heather's side. We had a good, hot time. We were saddened to learn that much of the area was destroyed in Hurricane Ike a few months later. I am very grateful that I continue to be able to provide for my family during tough times and pray that our blessing may continue as we strive to do what is right and serve where possible.

May we all remember the great blessing of Christ in our lives and seek to do His will by serving and loving those around us.

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Halloween

Lily was a pink poodle. She was in the stroller during the trick-or-treat outing. She found a dum-dum and slobbered so much over it that the whole front of her was soaking wet. Kiya was a lady bug. Kiya was really funny going trick-or-treating. While the person was trying to put the candy in her bag, she would try to grab it out of their hands. After a few houses, she decided it'd be more effective to just grab what she wanted out of their candy bowl while they were trying to put something in her bag. She would also say "Happy Halloween!" or "Trick-or-Treat" in her sweetest voice, thus disarming them with her charm.Even though Jared hasn't ever seen the Indiana Jones movies, he's played the Lego Indiana Jones game on the Wii, and loves it. Even though his costume wasn't the most complete (or accurate), we couldn't convince him to go as anything else. His friend, Nick, happened to also go as the same thing.Heather got us some great costumes from Walmart the morning after Halloween for less than half-off. We had a party that night. She was an innocent white angel and I was a red devil, I guess like Hellboy, but a few hundred pounds lighter and without the horns.
Heather pulled a costume change in the middle of the party, claiming that I had "seduced" her and caused her to fall...

Stained

Today we celebrated Lily's one year birthday. The clean-up took a lot longer than the festivities themselves. Of course.
She was all about the icing--not so much into the cake and ice cream.

Lily walks

Lily is 11 months old. Today she actually walked (as opposed to just taking some steps). She actually walked a lot farther than in this video...

what's today? Lilian Fé day !

Lilian Fé (rhymes with hooray!) was born today at 12:39 pm Central Time. She was 6 lbs 14.2 oz, and 18 inches long. She is our smallest yet, but no less adorable. See some of the action...

Both Mommy and Lily (aka really silly Lily) are doing great! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Theobald for helping us out.

And for those that placed wagers on Lily's hair color, those of us that chose brown are the winners--and she actually isn't bald like Kiya was (but we'll allow her on this site anyway).