Belated Pictures from Easter

I didn't get these pictures up after Easter, but here are just a few- better late than never. Aunt Cassandra spoiled us with baskets of goodies, then we had an egg hunt after church and then it was home to grill out. A very fun day to celebrate our risen Savior! I might be biased, but this is one good looking bunch!

A Shared Birthday

As we go along in our birthday season, we added a cousin to the mix. Emma's birthday was on the 16th and Brooke's on the 17th, so they decided they wanted a joint birthday. It was fun. They shared a cake and played some games. I think it was special for them.

And this little girl helped herself to the birthday candy. Sugar rush, anyone?

The technically free purse

Before we left South Carolina, I was in the market for a new purse. Well, not necessarily a "new" one, but a bigger one. My smallish $3 Goodwill purse wasn't working for me anymore. (If you see that Goodwill is a trend on this blog, you would be right.)





I decided that I would keep my eye out for a purse, but Goodwill can sometimes be expensive and sometimes the nicer purses are priced a bit high. So, I decided to just browse through the purse section at Wal-Mart, since I was there. Just in case they might possibly have something interesting.





And they did!





They had several good sized purses on clearance for $9. Some had patterns, but I decided on this cream one. So it wouldn't clash with my clothing, of course.





Now, I had $8 in my wallet that I had acquired earlier that day. Who knew that the happiest place on earth, which I like to call Kroger, gives you the cash value back for the coupons that you totally forgot to bring with you shopping because you have pregnancy brain, if you take them and your receipt to the customer service desk? Well, I didn't know that little snippet of information until I was standing at the register saying, "Arrg! I forgot my coupons!" And the lady said, "Don't worry, they'll give you a refund for them at the customer service desk if you bring in your receipt."





And I said, "Really? Well, I'll be dog!" (I am from the south, you know.)





So I, on my return trip to Kroger, went to the customer service desk, with receipt and coupons in hand, and made myself $8.60. And, another reason I like Kroger is because they send me "ten percent off your order" coupons, among others, very regularly. Maybe they just feel the need to give back a little since my family along could keep them in business for a week.





When I took my new, discounted, cream purse to the register at Wal-Mart, it was not $9. Gasp! It was discounted down to $7. (If you see the trend that I don't pay full price for anything, you would be right.)





So, technically, the purse was free, because technically I wouldn't have had the $8 in my wallet had Kroger not sent me the coupons in the first place. Or, technically if I had never taken them back in to the customer service for the refund. But, because technically they did, and I did, and the purse was discounted down to $7, then I think it was technically free. Whoopee!

And still another birthday

Before we left Columbia, we celebrated Tristan's 5th birthday. We surprised him by taking everyone bowling. He couldn't have been happier- or more surprised.



Although someone wasn't quite as interested......

The next day was his actual birthday and it was also the day before we left. My wonderful friend Genny had offered to watch all of the kids that day, so Tristan got to spend his birthday playing with his friends....



And eating blue ice cream in the CIU cafeteria.....

Then, de ja vu, we had a Deigo cake with the McDoles for the second year in a row. And to top it all off, he got to have a sleepover at their house as well.

I think it was a good birthday for him.

Birthdays, and more Birthdays

After Bailey got out of the hospital (on Bethany's birthday) we decided to do a joint party for the two girls.

Bailey enjoyed her cake and presents, but she was still not up to 100% yet. I think Bethany was excited to share her party with her sister and that her cousins got to be there.

Poor little sicky

We hadn't even been in Oklahoma for a week when everyone started to get sick. Some crazy fever, sinus, coughing thing. Poor Bailey started feeling sick on that Wednesday and by Friday she was miserable. No birthday party that weekend for her. :(

Sunday morning we went ahead and went to urgent care they sent us over to St. Francis Children's Hospital. The poor girl couldn't keep up her Oxygen Sats. She would barely even open her eyes. She was so miserable. She had RSV and Pneumonia.

This picture is from the second day, Monday, after she actually started sitting up a little. She got to the point where she would start freaking out if anyone came in the room in scrubs. She was tired of them messing with her!

She was on an IV and oxygen. She also had an oxygen sats monitor taped onto her foot. She had so many wires, it was hard to move her. The phone was on the other side of the room, and her cords wouldn't reach that far. So when the phone would ring, I'd have to put her down, pick up the phone, walk back over and pick her up and then reverse when it was time to hang up. Ha! Not so user friendly!

The respiratory therapists came in every four hours the entire time she was there to do breathing treatments and beat her senseless with a rubber thing. Well, not really senseless, and she really didn't seem to mind, but my goodness, were they beating on that poor girls back and chest!


By the third day, she was feeling a lot better. I almost had my girl back! She was fussing to get out of the crib and wanted to get down on the floor and crawl around.

They let us go on Tuesday night, which was actually Bethany's birthday.

No. Never a dull moment.

On the road

On our journey to a fresh start, we passed through several states on the way..........

And saw some interesting things...........

We didn't have a bit of trouble on the road.

Hello, Oklahoma!

Visiting my family

After we left South Carolina, we drove to see my family in Alabama. I don't get to see them often, and the one night we spent there was just not enough time! Alison brought us over some yummy pizza for dinner and Amy made some deliciuos ribs. This was the first time most of my kids had ever seen their cousins.

My Brother in Law James (Amy's husband), Luka and Timothy


"Say cheese, Luka!"


Luka, Kayla and Bethany



My Mom, who is also known as "Granny". Grandad, were you hiding from the camera?





Luka, Thomas and Noah


Alison, me, and Amy holding Jacob. Aren't my sisters beautiful? We were only missing our other sister Erica.

Saying Goodbye........

As many of you know, in February we left the state of South Carolina which had been our home for the last 12 years. Unfortunately, the economy hadn't been kind to us, with a year long unemployment for David, ultimately resulting in our losing our house, and filing for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy wasn't an easy decision for us, but we felt we didn't have much of a choice. The last ten years were filled with a full time ministry position, two years of trying to establish a career in the financial industry in a failing economy and then a one year unemployment. So, we had used up, cashed in, and sold everything we had, but it just wasn't enough.

So, we decided to move to Oklahoma for a fresh start.

Why Oklahoma?

David's sister and family, brother, uncle, and cousins are near the Tulsa area. We thought it would be nice to finally, after 15 years, to live near family.

But, we left many in South Carolina that we considered to be family.

The goodbyes were hard.