So much news

Can you believe it is almost the middle of July? Where has my time gone? Summer is flying by at record pace and doesn't seem to be ready to slow down any time soon.

So far this summer we have......

Accepted a new job at Pottsboro (no more football coaching)
Found out Claire had pneumonia (one day before leaving on vacation)
Gone to Branson for our yearly stay with Russell's family--lots of fun!
Got a great rent house in Denison just 8 miles from the high school for a steal of a deal. And as my mother in law said--- I will be like a fat lady let out of a girdle. We are going from 1160 square feet to 2300 square feet---crazy!
Begun (and finished) furiously painting 2300 square feet to update the 1960's paneling to a more soothing white.
Had Hope's 6th birthday party. Her first friend party with tie dye t-shirts included---lots of fun!
Begun saying goodbye to a whole church full of friends. It is amazing how tied to a community you can become in such a short time of being here. Of course being in a smaller town and smaller church has allowed us to become tied to a great majority of the church than would normally have been. Although we are extremely excited about the new opportunity, we are sad to leave those great relationships behind. This community and church has fully embraced our family and especially our girls.
Packed, packed and more packed---yikes! I don't know if I am coming or going yet! ha!
Had our first sleep-over---Hope got to have a sleep over at Charlie and Madeline's house on Sunday night! They had lots of fun! and got a little sleep I think.
Enjoyed the last basketball camp in Nocona this week.

The move is scheduled for this weekend. I will be ready for it to be over. House in upheaval, cats all freaked out, kids a little nervous --- we are ready.

When the Peace of God....

As usual, our life has been kind of crazy these last few weeks. From birthday parties for the girls, to finishing up kindergarten, to the planning of summer activities.

But it seems like a couple of things have been weighing heavily upon us for a while.....

Russell was feeling the need to look for a new job. He was feeling led to give up coaching football and focus on basketball more, so he had more time to be at home with his 3 girls. After 5 job interviews from varying places, Russell has accepted a new position. We are totally thrilled about it. It is kind of funny to reflect back upon it. As with all of his other job hunts over the years, we have had a peace about the new job (possibly before we even make it to visit the new city for an interview) but somewhere along the way we begin to fret and worry and stress ourselves out about the job hunt, or possibly having to stay put for another year. And of course this time around was no different.

However, the day he came home and told me he had applied here for a job, I had this "strange" peace about it. And then we got the interview scheduled and the whole family loaded up and went with him, and again, I had that peace that God was in control. And for the week after the interview the same thing, peace. And then the call came to offer the job and of course our only answer was YES.

God's Peace....It is as sure as a morning dew that covers the ground... as secure as your loving husbands arms, as comforting as a warm fuzzy blanket...and it leaves you wondering why you worried all along.

The next chance I had to experience God's peace also came this week. As many of you know, Claire takes a medicine that is not yet available in the US, so we have to get it from Canada. Well it was time for our refill (we call with a 10 day supply left) so I called our Canadian pharmacy to refill. Only to find out that due to some government regulations in their province, they could no longer fill our prescription. So they transferred us to another Canadian pharmacy. And this is all fine with me. So I call that pharmacy to set up our account and find out that it will take 21 days for the medicine to reach us. yikes! I may be 11 days short of medicine. So I immediately call our doctor to see if there is anything we can do. And yet during this time I had a strange peace that some how this was going to work out.... Claire would not have to go without. After 4 days I finally speak to the doctor and what do you know but he has an unopened bottle of this medication that another patient could no longer use, but that he was willing to send to us! Amazing! Again, God's peace covered over us.

Maybe next time, before I begin to fret and worry when the future might seem dim, I will remember these 2 times...... I would hope so.....but I'm not holding my breathe!

3 and 23

Wow! Turning 3 can be so busy! First Claire had to say goodbye to Julie, our therapist for 3 years! What a sad day that was.

Then it was on to party time. Like all people, Hope thinks we should actually celebrate our birthday on our birthday. So we had cupcakes for Claire on Thursday and saved the cake for her Friday night party. We had our close friends over again and Grandmommy and Grandaddy got to make it for the big day! What fun. This was the first party Claire had that she made it through the entire celebration from presents to cake without a seizure! yeah!

Yummy yummy cake! We couldn't feed it Claire fast enough!

Then all the girls got to enjoy the new ball pit! Good times! Balls everywhere!

Now aren't those girls pretty! Claire is sporting one of her new birthday outfits!

And to top everything off.... we went to the doctor Monday for her 3 year check up and she now weighs 23 lbs! She has never weighed 23 lbs before! yippee! After narrowing down all the causes to her fussiness and fixing what we could, we have decided that feeding her does make her quiet and so we think she is just hungry a lot now. So we are getting to feed her on average every 2-3 hours (hmmm...just like a newborn....including in the middle of the night.) The doctor just thinks that she has finally decided to grow and is HUNGRY!

Stay tuned to hear of Hope's exciting adventure to Kentucky!

The Big One!

Happy Birthday to Molly! She is now one! And what a cutie pie. We had a small party for her on Friday night, with some close friends and Grandma and Pappaw.

Since Hope's first birthday it has bee my joy and pleasure to make the girls' birthday treats: cupcakes, ice cream cakes, and now just cake. So I got to practice my skills one more time for Molly's birthday. What fun!

Thank you Lord for blessing our life with little Molly Gable. She has brought unspeakable joy and laughter to our lives. In some ways she has been bittersweet, a reminder of those things we missed out on earlier. Thank you for completing our family circle with another beautiful girl. I hope that we may bring her up in your ways and she may grow into a woman of grace and beauty.

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

Sweet Clairebear

All those pretty girls

Miss Priss

My big girls

All those girls!

What a great Easter morning we all had! A great resurrection Sunday and spent with my family. You can't ask for more than that. Hope was precious, Molly fun, and Claire felt good. Yeah!

Hope is wrapping up her first year of homeschool. I can't believe we are almost done. What a fun and memorable year it has been for both of us and she has done so well.

Molly is walking every where.... when her blanket doesn't trip her up. She is quite persistent in everything she does. And she has just the funniest personality. She loves to play by herself... but then she loves to play "peep pie" with her blanket, dance when you sing and clap her hands. She has learned to way bye bye. Her birthday is Friday.... can't wait for the party....

And Claire... oh if we can just get her feeling good. We have discovered her milk allergy, a medicine that will work for her sinus and congestion and above all she has developed reflux again... and it is not fun... Hopefully in another week she will be back to new and we can start working hard again. At the end of this month she will be transitioning to the school for therapy-- a little nervous about all of that.

And it seems like we are also in the process of transition. So I will keep you posted...

Easter egg time. Ever since Hope was not quite 3 we have been having a great time coloring easter eggs. And yes our Easter bunny hides the eggs that we have colored. So we take extra special care to make sure they are perfect. This has become a treasured time between Hope and her daddy. Hope made sure this year that each person in the house had an egg.... she wrote their names on their own eggs. And of course she was awfully excited to hunt those eggs come Sunday morning.

Too Funny

So last night we are doing our weekly shopping at Walmart...can't seem to get out of that store for under $100 these days... anyway....

We are at the checkout--yes all 5 of us---and Hope pipes up and says, "it sure is fun shopping with my real family."

Ha! Does she have a fake family? hmmm.....

Where shall I begin?

Shall we say it has been a while? Yes I got a new camera at Christmas and I am just now figuring out how to put my pictures on the computer. I guess I have some catching up to do.

After a month of antibiotics and medicines... I think we are all feeling good now. Lets see... it started with Hope, Russell and Molly having the stomach bug... followed by Claire having an ear infection, then Molly and ear infection, then an x-ray of Claire's tummy to see why she was still fussy only to determine she was literally "full of poop". So we have flushed her out.... then Hope had a urinary tract infection and Claire had a sinus infection---whew! I have finally been over a week with out calling or seeing the doctor.

But inspite of all that "fun" we have had some really good times. Hope has gotten to take 2 vacations... One with Grandmommy and Grandaddy to San Antonio to visit uncle Chad and aunt Marci and one with Grandma and Pappaw to Oklahoma to camp out in the "K" their travel trailer.

School is still going well... Hope continues to do so well with reading and math.

And Claire continues to be seizure free!

And Molly---almost walking... Crawling is still faster though even with our blanket in tow.

Love my Blanket

Sweet Kisses

Snuggle time!

Tickle time with daddy