Joy and Sorrow

Ross' 1st cousin once removed, Dick Mitchell, passed away this week. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and was told around Thanksgiving that it likely wouldn't be much longer. Dick has meant so much to our entire family, and he will be greatly missed! Here are a couple of pics from our last good visit with Dick.

The joy in all of this is our new nephew and Dick's namesake, Mitchell Rodriguez, who was born just before Thanksgiving. We are so thankful they had the opportunity to meet each other. Baby Mitchell was born a few weeks early, which we definitely believe was God's timing since it allowed them to spend some time together.

The funeral was Thursday, so Ross, Jackson, and I made our way to Leakey for the service. Jackson wasn't exactly cooperative, so I missed everything, but I was told the service was very nice. Dick was an amazing man that lived an incredible life that touched so many lives, which was evident by all of the people that were there.

We enjoyed the opportunity to visit with family and spend more time with our nephew. Jackson loves to say baby and even got to hold baby Mitchell while we were there.

Both Jackson and Mitchell enjoyed spending some time with their grandparents too!

As always, there are more pics in the album

Thanksgiving

It took a little longer than expected to get these pictures posted, but they are finally here. We had a very busy but wonderful Thanksgiving. We made our way to Shreveport on Wednesday. I spent the afternoon doing a little shopping at some of my favorite local places while Ross took Jackson to the park.

Thursday we headed to Ruston. We were able to spend a few minutes with Heath, Barbara, and Carter before going to my Grandmother and Granddaddy's house for a delicious Thanksgiving lunch where almost my entire family joined us this year. It was so wonderful to see everyone! I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures of the adults, but I got quite a few of the kiddos. Jackson LOVES my grandparents' wagon, so he spent a lot of time having the bigger kids and some adults pull him around. He also made an attempt to pull the wagon himself but didn't get very far.

Friday we made our way to Austin to meet our precious little nephew, Mitchell. I posted a few pics in the last post, but there are many more in the album. Jackson loved meeting his new cousin and playing at a nearby park.

There weren't any baby swings at this park, so he really looked like a big boy on these swings!

He also had a great time hanging out with his Uncle Philip.

We even managed to get pics of each of us with Jackson for once!

After a full day in Austin on Saturday, we made our way home on Sunday and picked up our Christmas tree. Let the decorating begin!

Welcome Mitchell Dean!

I'll post more about our Thanksgiving weekend soon, but here is an introduction to our new nephew Mitchell Dean! Mitchell was born Tuesday evening. He was about 2.5 weeks early, but is healthy and doing well! Leslie and Philip are adopting this precious baby boy, and we are so excited to welcome him into our family along with his "first" family. This is an open adoption, so Mitchell's first mom, Andrea, will become part of our extended family. It has been a hard journey for all involved with a mixture of joy and sorrow, but this adorable little boy has filled everyone's hearts with love and thanksgiving.

Mitchell is being named after a dear family member, Dick Mitchell, who is currently battling cancer. Dick has played a very special role in all of our lives, and he has been there for Leslie and Philip through some very tough times. He is an amazing man who loves with all he has, which is exactly the type of man we want both Jackson and Mitchell to be.

Here are a few pictures of baby Mitchell. Jackson already loves his cousin!