Growing up I hated taking family pictures, but continued maturity (and progressive sanctification), have mostly beat that out of me. But it seems that I passed that bad attitude on to Rachael, who was a pain the entire shoot. But alas, we did manage to get some good shots of her, and we all ended up having a good time. 

View the gallery.

View the gallery: San Antonio Zoo

On top of the busyness of the website development, I also had a bit of a health scare.  I was in the hospital twice because of the issue and still have more tests to do before I can put it all behind me.  I have a plan to write a lengthier post about what happened and my thoughts on the issue, but for now I think it’s good enough to say that I am doing well.

The one relaxing and fun thing that I got in over the past few weeks was a visit from my brother Tim (Rachael’s Uncle).  Although beat up from my time in the hospital, I had a great time with him.  I wish I could hang out with him more often, however I think the 1400 miles in between here and CA will continue to prevent that though.  Rachael had a great time with her uncle Tim.  They spent a good amount of time just playing and hanging out.  Rachael loves  him a lot, and as always was really sad to see him go, as was I.  But it was a great time nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from some time we spent at the park when Tim was here…

@ The Park (with uncle Tim)

We had some family over for food, cake, and fun to help Rachael celebrate her 4th birthday  on Saturday.  And not to be confusing, her birthday is actually on the 11th of January, but somehow her party got pushed to this weekend.  It was fun just the same.  Rachael had a great time and behaved very well the whole day.  We ate and laughed and generally had a great time.

I added some photos recently, so take a look…

Rachael’s 4th Birthday
Rachael’s 4th Birthday (from my mom)
Jan 18th, 2009

Christmas 2008
Stop taking pictures and feed me

Rachael is being very helpful, and having to learn to be patient with a crying baby around, but she is doing good.

Alina is still in pain, but getting better. She has been able to actually climb the stairs to sleep in our bed the past couple of nights, which has been good. Oh, and she is now eating whatever she wants to, so that’s progress too. I would give it another couple of weeks before she is able to do back flips. OK, well that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but she is getting better.

We went to Arbor Hills park in Plano to walk around (or in Alina’s case: hobble), and take pictures and just have some fun. It was a great time and I had great success with my new camera (the barter system is great). Anyway, check out the pictures we took, I think they are some of the best that we have of Rachael so far.

Arbor Hills

There were a number of names that I liked but were already taken up by friends or family members. For instance I really like the names Stephen and Timothy but I didn’t want to use those names because they are the names of two of my brothers (and oh, that timothy is one shady character, jk). There were other names that I liked but have lately had some negative connotations to me with people I have known, like David.

I’m sure that I had more rules that also drove Alina crazy through out this process, but hey, it’s all over now. So what’s in the name “Isaiah Daniel”? Well, Isaiah means “YAHWEH (or, God) is salvation”. And Daniel means “God is my judge”. I like the the idea that the names together show that God is our judge and because of His Son we have salvation. I love how they together tell a great story.

Oh, and just as a reference…
Alina means “noble or kind”
Rachael means “innocent lamb”
Dustin means “valiant fighter” (don’t believe me, check it)

So, I am a valiant fighter that defends my noble wife and innocent daughter through the strength of Yahweh my salvation.

Hmmm, sounds dramatic.

And we did not tell Rachael that Oscar is her brother (I mean, what kind of weird (or weirder) parents would we be?). Nope she came up with that all on her own. On the way to church the other day, Rachael told her her auntie Jennifer that her brother was still at home. When asked who her brother was, she replied simply: “Oscar” (or “Oxser” or something similar). Hehe. Anyway, Rachael loves him, more than me now I think (poor me). She used to run to me as soon as she walked into the house from school and give me a big hug, now she ignores me and runs to torture the cat instead. Not that she is entirely wrong for doing it, as he deserves it sometimes (just kidding, no animals were harmed in the making of this post. Calm down peta).

I think I was suckered into getting Rachael a pet though. And I think it was more that just being suckered into it. I’m sure it was a conspiracy aimed at slowly breaking down my opposition to it. My mom, for one, got a dog and kept taking advantage of my daughters formative mind by telling her things like “daddy needs to get you a pet, or he doesn’t love you.” And Alina went to the animal store to buy some mice and strategically place them in our house to eat my candy and chew on my cables (I think I even recall a threat being made toward my Xbox 360), and after I could no longer stand the threat of mice chewing up my Halo, she batted her eyes and said that we needed to get a cat to catch the mice so that my gaming future would be safe, and of course I agreed, I mean who wouldn’t. See. Rock solid evidence of a conspiracy. Not that any of it ever happened, or did it?

So now I have one more thing around the house that I’ve got to use a spray bottle on to teach a lesson. Not that I’d ever squirt Rachael to get her to do something. Oh, who am I kidding, of course I would. Too bad the thought didn’t occur to me until now, it might have been very worthwhile (and I’m positive it would have been more entertaining).

Also, I do think it’s kinda funny that I had posted about a cat named Oscar who looks just like the one we’ve got now who predicted someones death. Hmm, I hope it’s not the same one.