More pictures with the Cottrells

All the boy cousins -JJ is showing his muscles.

cousin group plus Jay

Girl cousins

My curtains that I have had for 2 years waiting for someone to come hang a curtain rod for me. I'm so glad my brother drove all the way from California to hang them for me :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my two important dads...mine and my kids.


Dad-thanks for being my dad and I know that we will be together again one day.


Tomas- thank you for being such a great dad to our children.

Summer...

can you believe this mouth was born with a cleft?





first day of dance class





It's been the summer of visitors, first Jill, then Jay's family, with a sprinkle of Cheryl's family and the rumor is Grandma C is coming with the boys next month. Also on the schedule for this summer, is dance and swimming for Olivia and Malaki's 2nd surgery (palate fix) and his 1st birthday this August. I can't believe it's been almost a year since Malaki joined our family. It's been a hard year, but we made it! I almost feel like I'm graduating from from lip and palate surgeries. I know that we are not done (by a long shot) but these first two are an important step and foundation, they really set the tone for the rest of his life. I'm so grateful to our surgeon, Dr Obaid- check out his website (listed on the top left).


King Tut with Jill, Lisa and Cheryl

2nd year Anniversary

It's race weekend (Texas Speedway) and it reminded me that 2 years ago, we moved into our house during race weekend. The speedway is in between us and our closest Walmart, so when we needed typical "just moved in" stuff, we went hunting for a Walmart in Denton. Hence how we first learned to find the Walmart before our church building. It was a long drive from California and kind of a stressful move, but we don't regret one moment of it. We have enjoyed living in Texas very much and feel very blessed to be here and to have the friends we have. Too many to list but most of you read our blog, so you know who you are, love you guys! It's so great to have such great friends, that share our beliefs, morals, values, hobbies and love our kids like their own. If you ever want to visit our little piece of heaven, just ask, our home is always open (for a short visit)!

10 months old

How does 10 months fly past me so fast? Malaki is starting to look so grown up to me. He has 2 teeth on the bottom and 2 teeth on top, the top ones are his left front and the one next to it on the left (his left). The other side has the cleft so it's still up in the air what his teeth are doing on that side of his mouth. Teething has been very rough on him and me! He no longer sleeps all night, he's been waking up and not really wanting food, so I've been just giving him something to eat and more Tylenol. He has started eating oatmeal and lots of very small finger foods, like carrots, peas and corn. Today he had his first twice baked potato and he loved it! Speaking of love, he loves, loves the water! We really have to watch him around water because he likes to dive in!

Shout out!

I have to send out a shout out to Tomas and his updated website for his photography. An exciting part is he has been teaching a digital photography class at a local Parks and Recreation and is on his 3rd rotation. The link to the website, which also has a great slide show of Malaki's progression with surgery of his cleft lip/palate is listed on the left.

Enjoy!