Michael's Surprise 30th Party/ Our New Family Member

Michael's 30th Birthday cake... Look at all those candles
The Birthday Boy

Michael blowing out his candles

The Merriss Clan

Braxton and Rory (I think she's done)

Abby chillin' with Gigi

Michael liked his XBOX 360

Rory helping pick up the trash. She's so helpful.

Toby and Rory snuggling in the morning

Fun puppy play time

Meet Toby Hanna

Rory's a little zoned out... LOL

Toby has claimed my blanket.

Abby and Toby playing together

Rory and Daddy snuggling

Everything is going well at the Hanna house. We have had an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Tomorrow, November 10, Michael will celebrate his 30th birthday!! This last Saturday, we threw him a surprise 30th birthday party. It was sooo hard to keep it a secret from him and I thought many different times that he must suspect something, but he promises that he didn't even begin to think anything was amiss until the day of the party. Whew!! It was especially hard to keep a secret with two little girls repeating things they would hear Mommy say on the phone like "party, cake, surprise." I had to be very careful around the girls. I could have never pulled it off without the extremely generous help of our friends and family. We had about 20 people at the party. I think that Michael was genuinely happy about the party and he thinks that it will make turning 30 a little easier!!

Also on Saturday, we welcomed the newest member of our family into our home. We have a precious little dachshund puppy. He is wonderful!! I went Saturday morning before the girls woke up to pick him up. When I got home, the girls were eating breakfast and drinking their morning milk. It took them a minute or two to register what was going on, but then the squealing began. They were soooo excited!!! We spent the morning figuring out a name for him. We settled on Toby. It's easy for the girls to say and it fits him. Rory calls him "Tubby," though. It's too cute!! He has been such a wonderful addition to our family so far. In the mornings, the girls will run in to see Toby and will lay on the floor to cuddle with him. He loves to cuddle with the girls. Abby and Rory have also been very gentle with him. It's amazing how fast the three of them have become attached to each other. It's so much fun to watch. The girls will go to another room and Toby is right behind them. They were all instant friends. We decided to start looking for a puppy when Abby's allergy specialist told us it would be good for her to be exposed to a short-haired dog on a regular basis to help her body build an immunity to pet hair. God provided the perfect puppy for our family from a loving and wonderful home. We are once again blessed!!

The girls are doing well. They have both been cutting teeth again. Luckily, they've just about got all of their baby teeth (except for all their molars) in. They are both changing and doing more and more every single day. I took them both to the doctor last Friday for a well-check. The doctor told me, once again, that both girls are amazingly above the developmental curve for their age group. She was shocked when Rory carried on a complete conversation with her about leaving and watching the fish in the waiting room before we left. She told us that she has 3 and 4 year old kids that she sees that don't carry on conversations like that. She is still a little concerned that Abby is still not gaining very much weight. She had gained about 1/2 pound since her 18 month check-up. The doctor wants us to take her to a GI specialist to make sure that her little tummy is absorbing the nutrients from her food. This is just a precaution, but she believes that it's a good idea. Since she hasn't steered us wrong yet, we agreed to see the specialist. We will be going sometime in the next month or so. We are praying that everything turns out alright.