Sorry it's been so long!!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything in such a long time. Shame on me! Needless to say, we have had a lot to happen in the last 3 months.

So here goes:

April- Easter was great! We spent the day at Nana and Pop's and got some wonderful pictures of the kiddos Easter Egg hunting. We also went to Nana and Pop's church and enjoyed a really good time visiting with all the members there. We had a delicious lunch and hunted over a couple of hundred eggs. Grace is still young enough to believe the "Easter Bunny" came to visit, so when we got home from Nana and Pop's, the "Easter Bunny" had left some Easter basket full of goodies on our front porch. It was so much fun watching her reaction! Ryan could have cared less, of course!

May-Well, we missed the Baby Reunion at Baylor Center for Reproductive Health this year. We had planned to go, but Rick had a coaching clinic that interfered, so we had to skip this year. Hopefully we will be able to attend next May. Mother's Day was uneventful. I got to sleep in and then we headed off to church. Grace made an adorable flower vase for my kitchen window. I absolutely love it. Perfect for little flowers she picks now and then. We attempted to eat out at the Jalopeno Tree, but Ryan was so tired we had to get everything to go and eat it at home. Still, a very nice day spent lovin' my kiddos. We also had Grace's Graduation from Nana's Playhouse and Learning Center at the end of May. When asked who her hero was, she proudly replied, "Jesus". We are so proud of her.

June-Wow! What an unexpected month June was! Rick got a call from Mt. Vernon ISD for an interview as Head Basketball Coach. He went to the interview and was offered the job that night. He accepted the offer and that pretty much threw us into panic mode! I also turned in my letter of resignation to Beckville, reluctantly, and began praying that God would provide me with a job. We also put our whole faith in God by making an offer on a beautiful house in Mt.Vernon. We haven't purchased a home in a while, so this is very exciting for us. We also went on a very short family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Tx.

It was just wonderful and we plan on going back very soon.

Here are a few pictures:

July-so that brings us to now.... I had an interview for a 5th grade Science teacher position in Mt. Pleasant last week and got the call on Tuesday that they wanted to hire me. Yay!! Thank you Jesus!! We were really getting nervous since Tuesday was also our last day to back out of the house contract. But everything is moving forward now! We should close on our house on July 24th and moving around the 27th. Sooo exciting! We also just signed Grace and Ryan up for the First Baptist Church's preschool for the fall. We had a grand tour of the school on Wednesday and Grace is ready to go!

Grace's 4th Birthday!

A Day at the Park

Ryan's 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

What a great day we had last Saturday! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and everyone who was invited came to join in on the special day. The party started at 2:00 with horse rides. Our friends, the McRights, brought over a few horses and the kiddos had a blast! Ryan wasn't afraid at all and seemed to know exactly what those huge animals were! After the horse rides, Ryan opened gifts while "Taco the Clown" entertained the other little ones. Ryan didn't seem impressed with "Taco", but loved opening all his presents.

Next, we had a yummy cake! Ryan LOVED his cake, as you can tell from the pictures! Everyone stayed and visited for a while and enjoyed chili dogs and corn dip.

It was a very exciting day that went exactly as planned! What more could you ask for?

My daughter amazes me..

My daughter, Grace. What a special jewel she is. I thought I would share with you a few of her latest words of wisdom.

Here are the top 10 (and these are direct quotes):

10. "But mom, you're the one that wanted the slider phone.."

09. "But my tears won't leave my eyes alone!"

08. "Look mom, she has a brown baby!" (very loud in the pediatricians office).

07. "Mommy, I'm going to go sit on my bed and think about how bad daddy has been."

06. "You really shouldn't eat that mom. It's not good for you."

05. "If someone's mean to you, just walk away and find someone else to play with." (Amen!)

04. "Well, mom, a dollars not a lot of money, only 2 dollars is."

03. "Pop can be nice when he wants to." (yes, that IS a direct quote!)

02. "But those round green things on my plate are gross." :)

And the top words of wisdom from Grace Gates is:

01: "Daddy, I'm sorry you lost your game. Maybe you can win next time."

What a sweety.

Ryan, the trooper

Ryan was such a trooper today. We woke him at around 4:30 and put him immediately in the car to drive to the hospital. Checkin was at 5:30. I was sure he was going to scream the whole way since he's used to having his milk first thing, but he talked himself right back to sleep. When we arrived at the hospital we were immediately taken back to the "holding" room. Ryan was all smiles. He looked adorable in his hospital gown, and I think he knew it! He loved his new bed and explored every inch of it, including the little screws which he was amazed by for some reason. The nurse came around and attached his arm bracelet (but to his leg so he wouldn't notice it-yeah, right!) and then an orderly took us back to the surgery holding area. There' s probably a term for that, but I can't think of it right now! Ryan was beginning to get a bit fussy, well.. a lot fussy, and thankfully fussed himself back to sleep again for a while.

Just as I layed him in the crib to give my arms a break, the nurse came in with his "silly juice". They give this to all the little ones to help with the transition from mommy. We woke Ryan up and he gulped it down like it was chocolate! Within about 15 minutes the fun really began! Ryan was such a hoot! He was giving the wall "kisses" and laughing like there was no tomorrow! He'd smile real slow and fall to the side.. he was like a drunk little one year old! Too cute! Soon after that the nurse came and took him back to surgery.

Rick and I went to the waiting room and sat patiently for what seemed like an eternity. After about an hour, we finally got a call from the operating room telling us they had not started the surgery yet because they couldn't find a vein to start the IV in. I noticed after the surgery that he had over 20 different needle pricks all over him. Poor thing. They finally found a place right on the inside of his upper thigh. Thankfully he wasn't awake during any of this, so he doesn't remember a thing. Hopefully he's not too sore from it. The dr. came out into the waiting room around 9:15 and said that Ryan had done wonderfully, but that he did have to take out his adnoids as well. He was also already getting another ear infection, so he had to drain some extra fluid out of his right ear as well. Poor baby.

We then went back to the post-op to see him. He was just coming out of anestesia and boy was that heartbreaking. I just held and rocked him until he fell back asleep. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then went back to the recovery room for about an hour. He slept through that and all the way, and pretty much all the rest of the day until around 3:00. He started coming out of it by then and began to play. By 4:30 he was scooting around on his John Deer tractor and by supper he downed a whole hotdog! I guess you could say he was about 95% back to normal.

I'm so thankful that this is all over and everything went smoothly. Thank you for all the prayers and words of wisdom. It's all greatly appreciated and well used!