Old post I forgot to go back to! Sorry!

Jack and Grant wait for lunch!

Michael just finished his first (and maybe last) teething biscuit!

Shelby reading Jack's new b'day book to him!

Friends, Birthday, Fair - A full Saturday!

Happy early Birthday to you, John!



Today was a fun day! We were invited to go visit a family that John works with the dad, Eddie. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and Eddie's sweet wife, Beth, got John a birthday cookie! What a treat!
We didn't realize, but we all needed to get out a little! The children needed to be away from the apartment and play! Needless to say, we had a great day! What a blessing!!!!!!!!!!

One of friends' favorite thing to do this time of year is go to the Wilson County Fair! So ... we headed that way after our lunch!

Donaly and Shelby on the carousel!



Shelby was screaming so loudly on the slide, Donaly had to hold her ears coming down. I missed the shot of John, Jack, & Grant coming down after that!



I still can't believe I let them do this, but yes ... Donaly, Shelby, and Grant rode the "Scrambler"! YIKES! They were HILARIOUS!



Mr. Eddie was finished with his frozen banana on a stick, so ... you can see who got to chew on it! That was a treat for Michael!



We appreciate Eddie and Beth having us to their home and treating our children as their own! What a special day!

Catching up!

We took some pictures in June that I thought were on my camera, but they were on my mom's! So, now that I have a copy of them, you have to back up again with me to June! On our way to south Louisiana to the wedding we stopped to see my grandmother! We had not seen her since September before I had Michael. Grannie or Grannie D, as the children call her, turned 95 August 2nd! We e-mail a couple of times a week! Can you imagine - a 95 year old grandmother you e-mail! I love it!

Michael with his great-grandmother! He smiled almost as big as she did! Grannie has 5 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren (13 in September), and 1 great-grandchild.

Grannie still crochets many things for us! The children love the hats, scarves, and even horse blankets for Shelby's horses!

Danielle and Shelby at the bride's maids' brunch!

Jack learning to do a thumbs up as he swims with Daddy! Notice the finger!

Michael Crawling

Michael will get on knees now to crawl! You can see him a little here! Sorry, it is a a dark picture, but you can get the idea! Will try to do better next time!

Grant's New Hair-Do

Grant loved his friend, Roy's, hair cut a while back. Grant has been asking ever since for a hair cut. Well, here it is!

Michael Moves

Michael is getting around, but he isn't crawling!

Comfort in the Depths ... today's Streams in the Desert

Title: Comfort in the Depths
Book: Streams in the Desert
Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Web Page: http://www.backtothebible.org/devotions/print.php/streams/221

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. . .who passing through the valley of weeping, make it a well" (Ps. 84:5, 6).

Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into "depths" if we would experience this most precious of God's gifts--comfort, and thus be prepared to be co-workers together with Him. When night--needful night--gathers over the garden of our souls, when the leaves close up, and the flowers no longer hold any sunlight within their folded petals, there shall never be wanting, even in the thickest darkness, drops of heavenly dew--dew which falls only when the sun has gone.

"I have been through the valley of weeping, The valley of sorrow and pain; But the 'God of all comfort' was with me, At hand to uphold and sustain. "As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine, Our souls need both sorrow and joy; So He places us oft in the furnace, The dross from the gold to destroy. "When he leads thro' some valley of trouble His omnipotent hand we trace; For the trials and sorrows He sends us, Are part of His lessons in grace. "Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning, Forgetting the Husbandman knows That the deeper the cutting and paring, The richer the cluster that grows. "Well He knows that affliction is needed; He has a wise purpose in view, And in the dark valley He whispers, 'Hereafter Thou'lt know what I do.' "As we travel thro' life's shadow'd valley, Fresh springs of His love ever rise; And we learn that our sorrows and losses, Are blessings just sent in disguise. "So we'll follow wherever He leadeth, Let the path be dreary or bright; For we've proved that our God can give comfort; Our God can give songs in the night."

Our week!

Our new home ...

This is the view from the pool looking toward the entrance ... we drive up that hill to our apartment home!

Grant, Harrison, Shelby, & Sarah Jane as we celebrated Jack's b'day a little early week before last when my sister came for a brief visit! What a treat!

On Sunday, July 16th my Dad turned 65! We celebrated at Outback! At that time we didn't know we would be celebrating Jack's birthday again before they left (Dad & Mom extended their stay), so the cake was for both of them! :)

Jack chose the same cake for his birthday! We started our week by going to a church across town. Nice, but we probably won't go back! Monday we celebrated Jack's 3rd b'day! WOW! We picked up a cookie cake at Kroger, went through the drive through at McDonald's for Happy Meals for the kids, and burger for John, and I got a great salad - I was really impressed! I am not a big McDonald's fan! We got a good bit done on Monday ... the rest of the week was full of miscellaneous things! Getting new cell phones, getting my DSL up so I can blog (HA), and trying to get everything in its place so we can start school on Monday! Added to all of that we had workers here on Tuesday and Wednesday tearing out the floor in our half-bath to replace the floor under the tile and relay tile on it. They still have to come back and replace some molding pieces they broke in the process. They were very friendly and did a good job - but we had extra people in the house! On Thursday, our maintenance man was here to work on the list of things I turned in that needed repair upon move in! I still have a couple of lingering things Mr. JJ or Mr. Bill need to take care of before I am completely satisfied! Friday, we picked up John from work and headed to the mall in Franklin - that was the closest JC Penny's that I had to order curtains from, and they were ready for pick-up! I will blog more about the apartment and send pics of the rooms and the outside soon! (Jack calls it the repartment!) Today I took care of some banking and we cleaned out the master closet! It had not been organized yet, but it is now!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow John will go to a new church and we have decided for the rest of the family to have church at home. We used this method some when looking for churches once we moved to Allen. I plan to have Sunday School in the morning with the children and then to watch FBC-Parker on the internet! We use to do this when we practiced for church, so this should work until we can find a church that we want the family to try! It is a scary thing to take my children into some churches not knowing the people or what is being taught etc. Please pray that this is a quick process!
Well, I must get to bed! The last pic is of the fountain by the pool and at the base of our hill. We love to watch the ducks and geese. Have a blessed Lord's day to all of you!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Happy Birthday, Jack! I am sitting here waiting for the one picture I took of my son on his 3rd birthday to load ... it is taking FOREVER, and I am still not sure if it is going to work! SO, the picture may have to wait until later in the week! Jack did have a special day! He was thrilled with picking up a store-bought birthday cookie, getting a McDonald's Happy Meal, and going to the park! WOW! We enjoyed it too! More to report later! I will try to start blogging more! Miss you all!

June Trip to Nashville - Post a little late - saved since July 3rd! :)

This is the "ride" I had in TN last time! The lady didn't have what I reserved, so she asked if a PT cruiser was ok! So, Michael and I sported around in this! :)

After we looked at several apartments we settled in our budget hotel ... strolled next door to O'Charley's for supper, and then took a brief walk! This boy (and Mommy) were tired! Isn't that a sweet yawn! Michael was so good on the trip! I thought he would be difficult without his siblings to entertain him, but he played so much by himself. I guess he was so thankful to not be on a plane or in the car that he loved playing in the middle of a bed by himself!

This is the road we will travel frequently in the Bellevue area of Nashville where we will live. Does this look like Texas? HA! When all was said and done at the end of this trip ... I have narrowed it down to two apartments. Thank you, Lord for a successful and safe trip!

PS - Happy Father's Day, John ... sorry I missed it! Love you!

Happy Birthday Granny Susan!

Happy Birthday, Granny Susan!
Thursday, July 13th!
Have a SUPER Day!

The kids made you cards earlier this week, but we haven't gotten them in the mail! Hopefully we can send them soon from Nashville!
Love you ... Dean, Christi, Shelby, Grant, Jack, & Michael

Laugh, Cry, Pray

Well ... today was a BIG day! We closed on our house today! We are now living in someone else's home! HA! (Mr. Mike, our realtor brought that to our attention!)








Today was a special day as well (I can't come out and say S-A-D)! As I fought back tears every time I spoke with my dear friend, Tamra, on the phone, I had to thank God for her friendship - even though good byes are hard to say! So, Tamra, this blog post is for you! :)















We also had some funny moments! After we said good bye to our "middle children" (Jack & Grant headed to Monroe with my Mom) ... we packed and took care of some business! Here Daddy was trying to put Michael in our laundry shelf for safe keeping!




Our sweet friends also brought us supper! My favorite!!! Thank you! This picture was taken to make sure I had a pic of Cait in Jack's clothes! You can only imagine why that happened! That is ok!

Well, I have almost finished packing the kitchen - just the cleaning supplies to take care of and a couple of things from the dish washer! We pick up the truck in the morning and will start the process of trying to fit the rest of our "worldly goods" onto this 26' (I think) truck! I make this one last request for prayer before we leave ... our safety, our sanity :), and that we will honor the Lord with all of our actions and attitudes as we move through the next few days!

PS - I made a promise to blog pics and updates regularly - give me a chance to get set up and I am going to try to fill in some of the holes from the last month or so! Love you gals!

Update

Well ... life is moving right along! If you need/want encouragement in relationships, visit my dear friend's blog - Helpmate First, but if you want to know how it is going selling half (not quite) of what we own and packing progress - you have come to the right place!

Today - We finished listing our big items to sell on craig's list. Did laundry! Prepared for the moving estimator guy to come give us a quote! Think we are going to stick with doing it ourselves. We started packing Shelby's room at the end of the day! We sold two cars seats, a lawn mower, and had people come look at other items! WOW! And to top it off - my cloth diapers that I used mostly with Shelby and a little with Grant are up to $50+ on ebay. COOL! All of those extra sells help! John also started working on the items he has to get done on the house that we agreed to repair before closing! A few small things - thankfully he is handy around the house! Today our house should be marked "contract pending" - so we shouldn't be showing it any more!

Yesterday - We finished cleaning up the garage from having our garage sale this weekend! We got all of the boxes to be moved up and out of the way. Gave the rest of our garage sale stuff away and took inventory of what we have left to get rid of and pack from the garage! We met with our realtor about the inspection! With that out of the way ... we are on our way to closing. Thank the Lord for a quick process with all of this!

Upcoming dates:
Every day - packing ... I now have 13 days to pack 12 areas/rooms. I will have to update you on the progress!
July 2 - John and his brother, David, leave on Sunday to drive to Nashville.
July 5 - John starts his new job!
July 11 - John flies home!
July 12 - We close on the house. My mom and big boys may head to Monroe.
July 13 - Start packing the moving truck.
July 14 - Finish packing - drive to Memphis (hopefully)!
July 15 - Move into apartment in Nashville, TN

I plan to have some play dates in there some where! My mom should be coming the weekend before closing. If anything changes, I will try to post! Please keep us (me) in your prayers as I work to accomplish this BIG goal! Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Moving Plans & Progress

As sad or happy as it may be some days ... I want to try to keep everyone updated with our timeline for moving! If interested, check out our to see what is going on! I am heading back to bed now ... even though I could blog so much about what is going on ... but I need to sleep! :) More later!

Our first box is ready to go!

Trip

Well, I am heading back to Nashville in the morning to find us a place to live! FUN! I won't answer my phone much because I will be roaming ... if you need me, please leave a message or send me a text message! If I can I will call you back with a calling card - the old fashion way! HA!
We had a great week at VBS! John helped us get breakfast and get out the door every morning! Then ... he would prepare the house to be shown if necessary! It was shown 3 times on Wednesday, twice on Thursday, and there has been an appointment made for Saturday! Yeah! We know the Lord knows exactly who needs our home, and He will provide!
Have a blessed weekend! I may get to keep in touch, but maybe not!
Blessings,
Christi

Back to Blogging & More

Since we have been back from the wedding ... life has been going 100 mph! :) I want to slow down a little and preserve some of these memories on my blog! So, bare with me as I try to back track a little in the next few blogs!

BUT ... I have to start with today! We were finally able to make it over to a friend's house to see a 3 day old colt! Shelby has been itching all week to get over there! Here are the pictures! Enjoy! Thanks to our sweet friends from church for inviting us!

The Big Day!

Here are just a few pics from the BIG day!

I hope to add more to flickr soon!

If you were at the wedding and have pics that I don't - please send them to me!

Danielle's cousins ... Katelyn & Patrick

Dancing!

The cookie boy, Jack!

Danielle and Rocky dancing!

Danielle & Paige!

Sunflowers

Before we left for our trip last week ... this is what we left in our back yard! How cool! We are just amazed at how God creates such a beautiful flower from such a small seed! HE is so awesome!

Michael

Michael was sitting on the bed playing while everyone else was resting today.

I started taking some snap shots of him sitting up and after a couple I got the look in the second picture! We think this is hilarious!

Anniversary / Trip

Well, I haven't flown in over a year ... and I have NEVER flown with an infant. What an experience! Everything but the baby had to go through the x-ray machine (stroller, car seat, etc.), and one time Michael was asleep - so I had to move him around a little so the man could see there was nothing between the two of us! Other than the bulkiness of getting through security - everything was fine! Our flight was on time, getting the rental car was uneventful, our suitcase was there, and we headed out!
We headed to downtown Nashville and picked up a burger at Wendy's to split - because we really wanted better food, but didn't have time. We found where John needed to be, we ate, John headed out, I nursed, and then Michael and I went to find the hotel. Too early to check-in, but there was a Lifeway Christian Store across the street (actually there huge main office was there too) so we went to browse! That is where I found the perfect anniversary gift for my husband! I also picked up a new cd that was on sale! We had nothing to listen to in the rental car, plus I thought it would be a good souvenir of our trip! After our shopping ... Michael fell asleep in the car, so I did some sight seeing! We later picked John up and headed to the hotel. We unpacked and stretched out a little and got a plan for the evening. We headed out to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to look around. On the way we decided we wanted fish for supper, so we went to ... Cock of the Walk - one of our childhood favorites! Fried fish and fried pickles - yummy!

After dinner we made it to the Opryland: hotel, mall (like Grapevine Mills - but larger - I think), and of course Opryland. We only went in the hotel, but it is MASSIVE! The other two Gaylord Opryland hotels in Grapevine, TX and in FL will fit inside this one in Nashville! There is a riverboat ride inside and over 2,000 rooms! I couldn't believe! This is where the picture below was taken! I saw these horses and had to take a picture for my daughter that loves horses sooooo much! This was outside a little shop inside the hotel! The inside shopping area of the hotel reminded me of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

We finally headed back to the hotel with a tired baby! The hotel was out of cribs, so Michael got to sleep on a chair! Thank the Lord he doesn't flip and flop much!!!!!!

Saturday morning we took our time. We had the wonderful cinnamon rolls that are on the breakfast bar at the Holiday Inn Express! We hadn't had those in a while! I looked up some info on the internet, so we could head out! We did some sight seeing and went to historic downtown Franklin, TN. What a beautiful place! We ate lunch at McAllister's deli and then headed to the airport. We stood in line - where someone had left a guitar case! So, they brought in the bomb sniffing dog before they would remove it! How eventful! We flew stand-by on an earlier flight so we could get home before bedtime! I wanted a picture of Michael on his first plane trip - this is what I got! We were landing in Dallas and he was finally conked out! Whew!

Everyone survived at home - all because of some sweet friends and a worn out aunt and uncle! Thanks to everyone that helped us out! We had a great time!