On the morning of Saturday July 31st, we received a phone call that Josh’s grandmother, Evelyn MacPeek had passed away the night before.  We had just returned from Las Vegas that Monday and barely settled back in.  After realizing that we couldn’t afford to fly, we decided to make the 22+ hour drive to Arkansas to attend the funeral.  With only hours notice, we piled into the car with only music, books and toys to keep both boys occupied.  It was a very looooong and stressful drive there starting from California, through Arizona and stopping at New Mexico, then onto Texas, Oklahoma and finally Arkansas.

All of that was well worth it when we saw Josh’s grandfather Russell’s face as we walked into his nursing home.  He knew exactly who we were at 92 years old!  He very proudly introduced anyone and everyone to his two great grandsons as we walked the halls.  We spent a lot of quality time with him and the rest of the family and were very grateful to be able to be there in person to help and support Josh’s grandfather through this difficult time.  The funeral went well and there were a lot of people there.  We then had a small amount of people visit with the family at Josh’s parents house.  Grandpa Russell was a trooper and made it to the celebration-the true social butterfly that he has always been.

We then left for Branson Missouri, me and the boys had never been there.  We were blessed with Josh’s parents rearranging their plans and joining us.  Branson got such a kick out of seeing his name everywhere and started calling it Branson MacPeek Missouri!  We saw the Dixie Stampede show and saw the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.  We then drove to Oklahoma, stayed the night, then the next day drove 13 hours through Texas, New Mexico and onto Arizona.  After staying the night there, we drove to California.  Whew!

We were blessed to have several family members visit in the month of July.  We finally met my niece Gabriella, who is only one month younger than Damon.  She is beautiful!!!  We went to Knott’s Berry Farm with the family and had such a good time!  We also went to Las Vegas and met our newest niece Natalie and nephew Thomas.  They are so little and precious.  My grandparents were also visiting from Utah so we were able to see them while we were there.  We all met for a family dinner on my birthday which was such a treat!   The boys enjoyed staying at Sam’s Town and watching the light show from our hotel window.  We finished off our visit with bowling and a margarita match with Corey, Grammie, Sydney, Josh & myself then with a homecooked breakfast from Grandma!

We had such a blast this 4th of July in Newport Beach with the Clines family!  This is our second 4th of July we have celebrated together since Damon came into our family.  It is a very special holiday for us since it was his first “real” holiday being home from the hospital (he was still in the NICU his first Easter).  We stayed at a beach house just one block from the beach.  The boys had such a great time in the sand, water, and playing together.  Carter and Branson even got to share a room, which they thought was pretty neat.

We welcomed two more Galindo family members in the month of May.  My brother Michael and sister in law Janae had their twin babies today!  Janae made it all the way to 35 weeks!  They were born just before 11 pm, the boy Thomas Ethan weighed 5 lbs. 7 oz. and the girl, Natalie Rachel weighed 5 lbs. 13 oz.  The babies are doing so well. They are still in the NICU but it is the tier II which means they are healthy just they need to develop more because they were born too early.  They both just need to eat enough without falling asleep which is why they have the feeding tube.  We are very familiar with the NICU experience and how emotionally draining of a time this is for them so please keep them in your prayers!  We are very excited to have two more cousins for my boys in the family.  I can’t wait to hold them – the only time I have held twins was when I held Taryn & Tatum who are now five.

Today is Damon’s first birthday!  It is so hard to believe that a whole year has passed since our little “angel baby” arrived.  He truly has been a bundle of joy to our family.  We love having him and can’t imagine having one boy now.  He is still very chubby but losing a little bit of weight since he is crawling everywhere!  His eyes are still very BLUE!  Happy Birthday Damon!

The past couple of months have been very busy for us and it seems like time is speeding up instead of slowing down.  My baby brother Travis turned 21 years old!  We also celebrated Christmas twice at our house then flew to Arkansas to celebrate it a  third time.  This year we had a WHITE Christmas which was really neat.  Branson loved the snow!  We met a new niece, nephew, and uncle (brother-in-law) while visiting.  Unfortunately, we also caught the stomach flu but luckily it didn’t last very long.  We had a great visit with both sets of great grandparents and were able to see Jake & Beth’s new apartment as well as Molly & Eric’s new house.

We also had a really fun New Years party at our house.  Thank you to everyone who joined us.  The kids had a great time dancing and playing with their glow sticks.  The adults enjoyed taking a lot of pictures while sporting the 2010 glasses and hats!  It was great to ring in the new year with good friends!

Branson is almost 3-1/2 years old and I think he is almost completely potty trained.  It has been very frustrating at times.  He is still fascinated with numbers and always surprises us when he can read high numbers.  When we got to the airport he told us that we were at “four hundred and ten”.  We looked up and sure enough, that was our gate number.  He is really enjoying his big boy gym class without mommy …

Damon just had his nine month check-up today.  He is a whopping 23 pounds and is wearing size 18 month clothes already.  He is crawling EVERYWHERE.  His new favorite things are eating finger foods and standing while holding onto something.  He is such a happy baby and talks to everyone when we go places.  He has six teeth now and is getting more hair.  He is growing up way too fast!

Today Damon is eight months old already!  Time is going by so fast.  He has six teeth, can sit up, and is starting to army crawl.  He still has his beautiful blue eyes and is usually very happy.  He is eating fruits this week and loves them (no surprise!)

Branson is really enjoying Christmas this year.  He met Santa for the first time and sat on his lap for about five minutes talking up a storm.  He loves to point out different buildings when we drive around town - his favorites are Carl’s Jr, Fresh n Easy & the park.  We just finished decorating his play room and Daddy built a bulletin board for him.  He also loves to help in the kitchen.

Branson & Damon trunk-or-treated at the Grove this year with Mommy & Daddy.  We went to Ambers and then to our own neighborhood.  (I LOVE living in civilization!!!)  We had such a fun Halloween with Papa, Grandma, Sandra & Kalia.  We celebrated Thanksgiving at our own house this year.  It was sure nice not to have to drive about an hour each way.  Papa made a hickory flavored bbq’d turkey that was great!

We leave next week for our trip to Arkansas.  Hopefully both boys will do well with the flight.  It will be interesting traveling with two kids!  We are excited to see the family and have them meet Damon… and of course all of that good food!

That’s all for now, wishing you a very Merry Christmas!!!

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We went to the doctor today for Damon’s six month check-up.  He is 20.5 lbs (90th percentile), 27-1/4″ height & 44-1/2 head circumference (75th percentile).  He is the BIG little brother!!!  Damon is now wearing 12 month clothes and is rolling all over the place.  He is just starting to pull up on his knees.  We noticed his two bottom teeth starting to come in last Saturday.  Damon is already eating rice cereal & oatmeal and will be starting with vegetables next.  His favorite thing to do right now is blow raspberries. 

Today is Branson’s third birthday!  It seems like just yesterday he was born.  Over the weekend we celebrated with a water party at our house!  The kids loved the water guns, water slide, and pools.  Today we are going to Toys R Us to pick out a toy, lunch with Grandma & Uncle Travis, and then Daddy is meeting all of us at Castle Park to play some arcade games.  Branson is still our slim jim at about 38″ tall and only 33 lbs.  He LOVES numbers and can recognize any number up to 100.  He also loves singing the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  One of his favorite things is sending and receiving mail.  He is truly a blessing to our family.  HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY, BRANSON!!! 

On August 2nd we celebrated our SIXTH wedding anniversary!  Those years have really gone by fast.  We snuck away for a cup of coffee then lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen.  The traditional anniversary gift is candy so I bought Josh (and me!) M&Ms that say “6 years already!” on one side and “Marie & Josh” on the other.  We are still enjoying them.

Damon had his first rice cereal last Wednesday.  He just seemed HUNGRY even after eating so we started it a little before Branson did.  He wasn’t sure about it at first and of course it wasn’t coming fast enough for our good eater.  He gets rice cereal twice a day and is adjusting to it pretty well.

We had Damon’s four month check-up today.  Do you wanna guess his weight???  He is now a whopping 17 lbs. 12 oz (95th percentile), 25-1/2 inches tall (70th percentile), and 42″ head circumference (50th percentile).  Damon is wearing size 6-9 months in clothes – Branson wore these when he was about nine months old.  He is now sleeping about 10-12 hours at night and smiles all the time.  He loves to talk to everyone, especially the ladies.  He looks like a real life Cabbage Patch doll just like mommy did as a baby.