Nayeli's first fall...

I can not believe how fast the past nine months have gone!!  Our baby is now a little girl, full of smiles and play.  She is growing so fast, and it takes all of my attention to make sure I don't miss any of her new tricks!  Her favorite activity this week is to read her "Dora the Explorer" books.  On each page she makes sure we know that "Dor" is there.  She crawls so fast, and learned how to play "hide and go seek" yesterday.  She was so excited each time she found Laz or I.  She claps and waves her hands so we know she found us.

We are trying to take advantage of each moment with her and are looking forward to the rest of her "firsts."  Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner! Hope you enjoy some new pictures of our princess!

Nayeli's fall photos

Love,
Laz, Kristen, Nayeli and Balloo

Laz is now a Doctor

June 6th 2011, we celebrated Laz's graduation from medical school. We rejoice as we remember all the painful, challenging and joyous times the LORD has blessed us with over the past four years.  We also continue to pray for our future and are excited about what the LORD will bring us in the next four years.  Praise the LORD for His grace and mercy to see us through this life he has given us!

Laz Kristen & Nayeli

Laz's Graduation, a set on Flickr.

Nayeli goes swimming

Nayeli goes swimming, a set on Flickr.

Nayeli at 3 months

The Lazarini's future

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope all of you are having a blessed 2011! 

So far this year has brought huge changes to the Lazarini family and more are to come in the upcoming months. I wanted to write to tell you about what is going on in our lives currently and what our plans are for the future.

By far the most exciting event this year was the birth of our first-born daughter – Nayeli Ruth Lazarini! She was born February 3^rd - the coldest day of the year by far. Ice covered the roads as we waited impatiently for her to make her appearance. Nayeli is such a sweet baby and continues to be healthy during the past 8 weeks. We knew we would be changed forever after Nayeli’s arrival, but I am not sure we were prepared for how richly she would bless our lives. Daily she teaches us more about ourselves, our relationship with each other and with our heavenly Father. She has already grown so much and now smiles every time she sees us.  We are enjoying watching her grow and change before our very eyes!

March brought Match Day for Laz – the day all fourth year medical students find out which residency they will be attending. We were so excited to learn that we will be going to Fort Worth.  Laz chose to apply for family practice. In Fort Worth he will be working there as a resident at John Peter Smith hospital, one of the best residency programs for family practice in the country!

The next few months will be very busy for our family. Laz will graduate on June 6^th and start residency 10 days later. During that time we will be looking for a home in Fort Worth and hopefully moving. Kristen has almost completed her degree to become Physician Assistant. She will be graduating December 11^th and will soon be looking for a job!  Time has flown by for both of us!

Our dog, Hullaballoo, is doing well and trying to adjust to life as a big sister.  Soon she will enjoy having a playmate, but for now she is content to watch as mommy and daddy care for their baby.

Since before we were married, Laz and I have both felt the Lord leading us to live overseas and work in the mission field, using health care to share the love of Christ. Although we do not know when or where we will be going, we are slowly seeing our calling come to life. During medical and PA school, Laz and I went on several mission trips to cities along the Mexico border to serve and share the love of Christ our Savior. One of the reasons we were attracted to the JPS residency program is the numerous mission opportunities the program provides every year for it’s residents and their families. Also the program provides an extra year of training in global health that is geared for those wanting to practice medicine overseas. Laz is planning on participating in this Global Health track and our family is looking forward to serving on as many trips as we can. We really need all of your prayers and support during the next few years as we will be facing the stresses of being a young, growing family in residency. We know that the things of this world with try to distract us and pull us away from our calling. Pray that we will remain strong and draw closer to the Lord with every struggle that we face. Also, that the Lord will reveal to us in His time each step of His plan for our lives. We cannot wait to begin our work overseas, but we know the Lord still has plans for us here in Dallas and in Fort Worth over the next 5+ years. We hope that you each will be apart of what the Lord is going to do through us, now and in the future. We invite you to follow our family’s journey on our online blog: lazarinifamily.blogspot.com.

We love each of you!  ~  Laz, Kristen, Nayeli & Hullaballoo

Jeremiah 29:11 ~ “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Nayeli's second month

Nayeli at 1 month

2-16-2011. Nayeli lost her umbilical cord. Literally lost it! When we laid down for a nap it was there and when she woke up it wasn't. It took us a couple hours, but we finally found her cord attached to her blanket! Got to watch for the umbilical cord.

Nayeli got her ears pierced!

Nayeli's first smile!

PSALM 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure

I thought I loved my sweet daughter.  On March 9th I fell in love with her all over again.  She smiled at her mommy for the first time.  I had just finished feeding her during my lunch break and was sitting with her just talking and smiling at her, when all of a sudden she made a noise that sounded like "hi" and the biggest grin appeared on her sweet little face.  My mom and sister were sitting with me.  We all paused, thinking it must be a mistake. At that time she was only 4 weeks old.  She looked at my mom and the back at me. And there it was again, a huge smile.  Every time she saw me that afternoon, she smiled and tried to "talk."  My heart just melts every time I see that smile!  My little baby is changing so fast and she amazes me.  What amazes me above all is what made her smile.  Me. Just being with me.  I didn't have any toys, or movies, or pictures.  Just seeing my face made her smile.  It makes me tear up to think about it.  If only I was this way in regards to my heavenly Father.  I should be grinning from ear to ear just to be in His presence!  How much more has he done for me than I have for my daughter in her short 4 weeks on this earth.  I am learning so much from my baby daughter!

PSALM 34:5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 

Pictures of Nayeli in the hospital.

Bath Time!

2 weeks!!

I can not believe that it has already been two weeks since my sweet Nayeli was born!  I never deceived myself by thinking having a newborn would be easy, but the challenges we have faced have definitely been unexpected.  We find ourselves experimenting to discover ways to calm our newborn daughter.  "No, swing her horizontally, hold her at a 50 degree angle..." Here are just a few of the valuable lessons I have learned about our baby these past two weeks.


1. Baby does not like the taste of polysporin
2. My husband's shirts are a spit-up magnet
3. Keep an eye on the umbilical cord, sometime it goes missing
4. My baby is a champion freestyle swimmer
5. My little girl is more proficient at peeing on us than any boy (she even got the delivery nurse and the pediatrician's scale...twice)
6. Babies occasionally experience projectile pooping
7. Baby morphs into a werewolf at night
8. My baby can sleep anywhere...but her crib
9. My baby is Houdini
10. At least 10% of the breast-milk ends up on the outside of baby


I am glad my husband and I have a sense of humor.  I have decided it must be a prerequisite to having a child.  As we laugh and try to get some much needed sleep, we also count our blessings.  We have a beautiful healthy baby girl and the Lord to provide we need to be loving parents.

She's here...

Waiting for Nayeli to arrive

Mommy meeting Nayeli

Daddy meeting his daughter

 After what seems like an eternity, our sweet baby daughter is finally here! Nayeli Ruth Lazarini was born on February 3rd, 2011 at 7lb 1.8 oz and 19.88 inches. We went in for an induction early Thursday morning. It was like she knew we were going to disturb her peace because the night before she woke Laz and I up at 2 in the morning kicking so hard she was shaking the bed! She kept us up until we left for the hospital at 5:30am.

Our little Popeye

 When we got to the hospital we got checked into our Labor and Delivery room and after answering numerous questions over and over again, the Pitocin (the medicine to bring on labor) was started. After 4 hours the contractions started becoming so intense that I decided to get an epidural. Finally at about 3:30 in the afternoon it was time to push.  6 pushes later our Nayeli was born at 3:52pm! A few minutes before she was born, her heart rate started to drop. The doctor started getting very concerned, but on the next push she was out and we found out why her hear rate slowed. She had her own umbilical cord in her tiny little hand squeezing with every contraction. The little stinker! I am pretty sure we will have our hands full.  I got to hold my baby right away and the first thing we noticed is she has dimples just like her daddy! Laz and I just spent the next few minutes in silence just staring at her in unbelief. We had waited for 9 months to see her but we still could not believe she was here. She cried at first and then almost immediately quieted down and started looking around, just taking in her surroundings.

Nayeli meets Abuela

Nayeli meets Abuelo

After getting cleaned up and examined we got to introduce our precious baby to her grandparents. Abuelo came immediately over and started talking to her in spanish. She just laid there listening intently. Nonna and Abuela started taking pictures. We passed Nayeli around so everyone could see. We all agreed she is the most beautiful baby we have ever seen! (Of course we are all a little biased.) As we take our precious first born home, we have only begun to understand how our life has been changed forever!

Nonna and Nayeli

Taking our bundle of joy home!

Psalm 127:3  Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.

Our precious little girl!