2007 Christmas Letter...Online!

Dear Friends and Family--
First of all, thank you for taking the time to visit our blog. This is our very own online "digital scrapbook" of memories that we love to share with you. Please check back often; we try to update several times a week. Feel free to leave comments as well-- we love hearing from you.
2007 has been a wild twelve months for the Dominguez family, with several life changing events happening to our little foursome.
We ended 2006 with heavy hearts of an impending surgery for Kristi's dad, Al. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and surgery quickly followed in February. The surgery was a bit more than we all bargained for. Al's hospital stay was much lengthier than originally planned and surgery was also a little more complicated. We were sad that we were unable to join the family in Austin for this. Kristi was very pregnant and unable to travel at the time. Al is now cancer free and about to celebrate his 72nd birthday on the 29th. This indeed is a blessing to us all.
On February 21st we were so excited to welcome the newest member of our family, Jonathan Miles Dominguez. He weighed in at nine pounds, three ounces and was 22 3/4 inches long. He has brought so much joy to us. It has been so much fun to watch him grow and gain such a charming little personality. Benjamin is very much enjoying being a big brother, too!
Shortly after Jonathan was born, we made a big decision to leave our sweet little town of Muleshoe and relocate down to central Texas. David was offered a wonderful principalship at Rancier Middle School in Killeen. We bought a house on the edge of Killeen and are still getting settled into our "new life." The actual process of moving became a little rough when David had to have emergency gall bladder surgery in June. We ended up having lots of friends and family on both ends of the move to help us out! A big thank you again to all of you.
We do miss Muleshoe and all of the wonderful friendships we made there. Our Muleshoe church was so good to us and helped us pack up and gave us such a wonderful going away party. We have been blessed to already have several friends from "the greater Muleplex" come and visit us at our new home. We have already made one visit back and plan to visit again in the new year.
We have already settled into and feel very blessed by our new church home at the church of Christ in Belton, a short drive down the road from us. We have made some wonderful new friends there and even reconnected with a lot of ACU buddies as well. We are getting very involved in our "young marrieds" class and the boys both enjoy their classes and new friends as well.
Benjamin turned the big three in September and is well on his way to four! He really keeps us on our toes and is quite the talker. He is very fun to have a conversation with and knows some pretty big words for a little guy. He is very contemplative and sometimes a little shy in new situations. His major interests include helping mommy cook, playing with his Cars (the little characters from the Disney movie), playing in his sandbox and listening to his favorite songs. He loves singing at church and is starting to participate in the worship service as well.
In November, we traveled to Pecos to see David's family for Thanksgiving. It was nice that the whole family was able to be together. We really enjoyed catching up with everyone.
The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated our fifth anniversary! We were able to spend most of the day back in Buffalo Gap, where we were married. This has been an absolutely wonderful five years.
Living down in central Texas has also given us the opportunity to reconnect with Kristi's family on a regular basis. We plan to host all of the Pawliks to our home in a couple of weeks for Al's birthday.
David is settling into his new job very well. He loves Rancier, but still holds a fondness for WJHS in his heart. He has already started his involvement at church by teaching our class in the rotation and giving a talk at our class retreat in October. He has even led singing a couple of Sunday nights.
Kristi still enjoys being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM). She enjoys meeting up with other SAHMs from the church during the week for playgroups, coffee and other activities. She has also enjoyed getting the new house put together and enjoying time with the family.
We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the holiday season.
Merry Christmas and Happy 2008!
With Love,
David, Kristi, Benjamin & Jonathan