Must Read

Go here to my Aunt Lynne's blog. She writes about the battle that Dom/Luke and the rest of the family are facing right now as Gus continues to struggle. More importantly you will find hope in the one who knows the future. Please pray today for Gus. Pray for healing, pray that God would give him strong lungs. Pray for Dom to be encouraged and held up on all sides. For Luke as he works while his family sits at the hospital. God is the healer, He is the one who sustains and gives life.

Back in Business

Well, life is getting back to normal after more than a week of holiday festivities. I will post pictures soon when I get a chance. Cliff and I enjoyed the holidays with lots of family. Our travels took us to Dallas, New Braunfels, Jacksonville, Kennedale and then back home this past Saturday. Then Sunday our friends Jon and Lindsay arrived for a visit! THey are staying through Wednesday and we are really enjoying hanging out and talking babies (their baby Eli will be here in about 8 weeks). I did have to go back to work Monday and will work through Thursday but we have lunches and evenings to hang out.

Here is a break down of our Christmas week:
Friday, Dec. 18- I flew to Dallas, was picked up by Debbie and Kimberly
Saturday - shopping and Rockettes with the ladies on Cliff's side
Sunday - I got to see Gus, Dom and Luke for a bit at the hospital, more shopping, and then picked up Cliff in Waco, drove to New Braunfels
Monday - Wednesday - hanging out with family in NB, trip to Landa Park, decorating sugar cookies, resting
Wednesday - drive to Jacksonville
Thursday - prepare for Parson's Christmas, hang out with family
Friday - Christmas extravaganza, passing around cousin's tiny baby, eating
Saturday - begin trip home, stop in Arlington for lunch with my family in Kennedale, drive the rest of the way to Amarillo

Whew! It was a busy week with lots of driving!

It is absolutely dead around the office today. Ugh! I've already just about finished a book I started yesterday. Cliff woke up this morning with a low grade fever. I am praying he doesn't get really sick. He showed up to work a while ago so he must not be too ill. Of course he would die if he missed having to hunt this weekend so sick or not he'll just keep on trucking I'm sure.

Please, please please continue to pray for Gus, Dom and Luke. God is sustaining them and continues to work in Gus' body but they continue to wait it out at the hospital.

More to come, just wanted everyone to know we are still around!

Please be Praying

Please be praying for my cousin and best friend Dominee and her family right now. I know they are coveting everyone's prayers today. Gus is her four month old son and will be having heart surgery in the next week or so. We are confident that God will provide for all their needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. It is still a very very scary time for Dom and Luke and the rest of the family. Thankfully, Gus is a happy boy right now getting every need met by Dom and Luke. I know Jesus will be with him speaking sweet things in his ears as he undergoes surgery very soon. You can see updates at their blog .

Baby Cary Pics

The sonogram went great today. We had the same tech as last time and she was AMAZING. She definitely knows how to make you feel comfortable and normal. The baby is a little over 2 pounds now and looks beautiful!

Check out the pictures! The first is my favorite. Our baby has some lips! I can't wait to kiss them. If you want to see the pictures bigger you can click on them to enlarge. The tech tried to do 3D but the baby didn't cooperate very well. The last one here is the best we got.

Baby Update

I am now 26 weeks along in the pregnancy. I went to the doctor today, had to get blood drawn and all that jazz. I get to have a second sonogram tomorrow afternoon. We are excited about that. It will be fun to see what the baby looks like now! I am getting closer now, marked by the joy of going to the doctor every two weeks. I really hate going to the doctor!

I'll post more tomorrow after the sonogram. Baby Cary will be here very soon. My doctor was pretty much telling me that time was running short. We have to register for baby classes and get all the paperwork done at the hospital already. I guess we need to pick up the pace here a little bit. Let me get through Christmas first and then I will be in full blown baby mode. Only two more weeks of the holidays to go!

Updated Format

I updated our background. I'm still not very happy with it, but it is definitely an improvement from the last one. Robbie, I still want you to show me how to make it look cool!!

I have added a poll on the sidebar for you to vote on whether or not you think Baby Cary is going to be a boy or a girl. Cast you vote, you have until March 1st. I am guessing that we are having a girl, but Cliff insists that it is a boy! He better be coming up with a good boy name since we have had trouble nailing one down! Of course in the end we will be thrilled no matter what.

Dad, you can find other family member's blogs to the left. I think they should all be correct now!

MSSW Graduation Extravaganza

What a wonderful week last week was! After the excitement of Thanksgiving was over Mom and I flew back to Amarillo very early Monday morning. She came to spend the week with me and help me prepare for company that planned to come in Thursday and Friday. I graduated with my Master's in Social Work from UTArlington last Saturday. Dad brought Leigh and the girls with him Thursday evening and then on Friday Cliff's parents, sister Kimberly and Grandparents arrived. They all made me feel very special and helped me celebrate the occasion!

Below are a few pictures of the weekend. I felt so blessed to have everyone in town!!

Check out this link for more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016159&id=100400212&l=e2927a31c2

Thanksgiving II

Thanksgiving continued for the Donaldson family in Midlothian on Saturday. Cliff was so nice and let me stay in Arlington for the weekend so that I could see my Dad's side of the family too. It has been a couple of years since I have gotten to spend a day with them and we had a good time together. The food was delicious, but it was also good to sit and play games together. I remember as a kid at holidays we would all sit around the glass table at Grandmama's house and play all sorts of games. I know Dad and all of his sisters must have had fun growing up because they all enjoyed playing games together. This year we sat around the table at Aunt Kathy's house and played Apples to Apples. Grandmama made her yummy chocolate pie and Uncle Shea grilled delicious ribs for all of us! I also had the wonderful privelege of meeting my cousin Brittanie's baby Peyton!

Below from left to right: Drew, Bubba, Trish, Meagan standing, and Brittanie on the floor.

Talking and playing games.

This is Aunt Carol and her first grandbaby Peyton! Isn't she cute!


Uncle Josh and Peyton.

Grandmama and some of us sitting around in the living room. It was a relaxing Saturday afternoon.

Dakota bonded with Aunt Beth. This is a pic of Dakota, Drew and Aunt Beth. Fun people!

Thanksgiving in Glen Rose 09

Below are a smattering of pictures from our Thanksgiving in Glen Rose. For some reason I was too busy living life, enjoying my family instead of taking pictures. I didn't get shots of many of the family members that were there!! I'm sad about that but I'm hoping that my family can make up for that. (send me links to your pictures if you have them: Aunt Laura, Mimi, whoever else may have taken some!)

Praise God for Dad's new hip! He hiked to the river with us and did all sorts of crazy stuff that he was not able to do for many years! Robbyn took her first hike to the river with us too. She did great walking most of the way. Greg and Kathy hiked too...we had fun!

My beautiful girl Lerin!

We had family pictures done. Hopefully I'll be able to share those soon when Trish gets them all done. This is one taken beforehand of Cliff and I. You can see the baby in this one! The baby is growing and kicking all the time. We can't wait to meet him or her!

My beautiful Aunt Lynne! It was so good to get to visit some!

Check out these happy faces!!! We were on our way to the playground and these kiddos could not be having more fun! From left to right: Robbyn, Calvin, Cybil, Lerin, Clinton, and Carsen.

Dakota and Cliff playing outside. Dakota had a ball playing with her cousins!

This is baby Elizabeth. She is my cousin Chase and his wife Melissa's baby. She looks just like a Rampy baby to me!

And here's Ruby! She is Chuck and Ginger's baby. She'll be having a baby brother very soon!

And here is baby Aleigh, my neice. She is precious! Check out her happy smile while she sleeps. She was also happy to be surrounded by family!

Before Cliff and I got to Glen Rose we stopped to have lunch with our good friends Chris and Laura and their baby Faith. We are so thankful that we got to visit!

Here is a link that should get you to the rest of the album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016093&id=100400212&l=9ed15eb013