Barney show

Back in March, I took Olivia to a live Barney show. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she loved it! She watched the entire program, and told daddy stories about it when we got home. Poor Isabelle was pouting when we got home. She'll get to go when she's bigger. :)

We had a fun day staying in the air-conditioned house today. (Mommy thought it was too hot outside.) Olivia was a kitty most of the day. This is really the first time she's engaged in pretending to be something! It was a lot of fun! An added bonus is that she would meow sweetly to me when she wanted something, instead of whining or screaming. :)

I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of the girls last summer. I can't believe how fast they are growing!

Here are some fun ones. Mike's dad has been residing our garage for us in this heat, and Mike's sister Stefanie came to help him the other day. :)

This other picture is Olivia and Grandma, having some fun with the yellow paint this time. :) (You can also see the back of Isabelle's head. She wasn't quite as yellow as Olivia.)

Last week, the girls had a blast doing crafts with Olivia's PCA (and my good friend), Lisa. Although it seems that we need to teach Isabelle to cut the paper, and not the markers. :)

sisters

This is the best picture I've been able to get of the two girls together "posing." I had no idea one of the hardest parts of being a mom would be trying to get good pictures! :) Even so, we think they're adorable!

A Couple of weeks ago my friend Cindy and her new son Caden came over for a visit. Olivia & Isabelle were very taken with him!

Sidewalk painting

The girls had a great time painting the sidewalk and themselves today! Thankfully, it washed off quite easily. Unfortunately, I still can't figure out why this program keeps uploading two of each picture. Sorry, I'll have to have Mike figure it out for me. :) (EDIT BY MIKE: Yay! Figured it out.)

I'm hoping I will be able to update our blog at least once a week, hopefully more.

We have recieved a genetic diagnosis for Olivia at long last! Whe has a complicated rearrangement of part of her first chromosome. That's about all they know. There is no research on long term, as she is the first case, to our understanding, that they have found whith this particular rearrangement. But the diagnosis does open more doors for continuation of therapies and such!

Other news in our family: Heather will be going on a 2-week mission trip to Kenya, beginning September 4. I'm very excited, and am so thankful for a loving and understanding husband, as well as family and friends who are pitching in to help make this trip happen!

As you can probably see from this picture, Isabelle is doing very well. We have not used her feeding to (except for medicine) since January! She's walking and talking up a storm, and seems to be in the terrific 2 phase early!

As I said earlier, I will do my best to post more than once a week. God's blessings to you all!