Ana Plays the Conga

Ana enjoys a turn at daddy's Conga drum. This is in early January 2005.

Another shot with the drum.

Ana fell asleep in a Huggies box. She's been dragging the box around for two months.

Is she only three? She looks like such a big girl here in her long nightgown.

Christmas 2004

Ana experiences the joy of cookie dough for the first time with her cousin Chloe (left). Amy baked cookies with the girls after a long day of presents, playing and good food.


Too cute.


This is where Emily spent most of Christmas day - in a makeshift "baby station" where she played with her new toys. She got bored in this spot at one point and tried to roll off of the pillow so she ended up on the rug next to the couch.

Michelle Turns Seven

Michelle eyeballs her mom.


Ana was very serious about painting her ballerina green.


Still serious...


The kids are eating pizza. Michelle gets to sit in the Princess seat at the head of the table.

The Rejected Photo for 2004

Here's a picture of the girls together that I was going to use for our 2004 holiday cards (which I still haven't filled out or mailed now that Christmas is 3 days away). Ana looked so sad in this shot that I picked another picture. This one was too cute not to post though.

Thanksgiving at Lisa's

We finally did it - we got all the kids together on the couch and snapped a few shots. It was nearly impossible to get them all to look at the camera AND banish red eye AND keep them smiling, but what the heck? Who needs perfection when you have sucha cute bunch of kids?

Nicole (looking so grown up) and Emily smile at me.


Ana loves to play with Joseph's train table.

It's all about Ana this time

Here she is - the source of my guilt over not giving her her own blog. Sure she's too young to be jealous, but Emily already has about 60 posts dedicated to her. Ana is kooky enough to inspire anyone to write a blog about her (okay, maybe I'm biased) but this picture captures the kooky very well, I think. So even though I'm dedicating this blog to BOTH girls, Ana gets a spotlight in this first post. She's three, it's mid-October 2004 and she's doing a pumpkin dance (don't ask).

Dooley Family Blog

I've been wanting to create a blog to keep friends and family updated on the trials and tribulations of both Ana and Emily. Since I have already created a blog that talks extensively about the the care and treatment of Emily's cleft lip and palate, I thought it was time to include Ana in on the fun. So mostly this blog will contain pictures and anecdotes of both the girls, and will not focus on Emily's issue with the cleft. If you want more information about Emily's progress related to her cleft lip and palate, just visit Emily's Story, the blog I created for that purpose.