catching up

wow, time has really gotten away from me--it's been too long since I posted an update (although I wonder if anyone reads this anyway??) I'll try to summarize what's new in the past few months. The holidays came and went...it was a bittersweet celebration without my brother Jeff and sister in law Beth, who are living in Vienna--but we did see Darin's parents over Thanksgiving, and my other brother Jeremy, sister in law Joy, and our sweet nephews Ian and Luke at Christmas. Darin had some time off as his counseling job ended and he prepared to make a career change back to IT support. We were blessed with a fantastic job for him that is closer to home, has a much better work environment, more satisfying work, and pays more--praise God! Around that same time, Bailey started walking and has pretty well mastered the art of biped mobility. She's now starting to run, usually when she has an unidentified object in her mouth and she sees me coming toward her with a determined look in my eye. She's talking more, too--some words she says are "dada, mama, kitty, Jesus, cheese, no, more, woof-woof (for dog), all done, bye-bye, trees, and stinky!" In January, Bailey turned one and we celebrated with a ladybug party. Darin's brother Nate, our sister in law Kati, and nephew Cooper came to help us celebrate, along with Grandma and Grandpa McIlroy, G&G Halsey, and our friends the Nelsons and the VanderVeens. Bailey loved her first taste of cake! Whew! That's it in a nutshell!