Registration and the First Day(s) of School...

At Collierville Elementary! And we are so thrilled with it, ALREADY! God has certainly blessed us with a wonderful house in a wonderful location, so that Brenly would be able to go to a wonderful school! Isn't God WONDERFUL!!!
On August 4th, we went up to the school after work so that we could get Brenly registered for Kindergarten! I can't believe that the time has come already to send my baby off into the big wide world...but its here, and we might as well embrace it!

( you can tell that we already got our CES spirit shirt, that she gets to wear on Fridays :)
We found out that she would be going to school on Wednesday, August the 12th (why not? that is also the day that we close on our new house and move..(could we not add any more important events to that one day?) and that she was going to be in the blue group(which happens to be her favorite color) and she was going to be with Ethan and Hayden (Hayden's mom and I grew up at the same church until I got married)

Is it completely normal to be going to school on the first day, standing in front of a moving van, that has all of your belongings in it??


Leaving our Bolivar house...for the last time!!

arriving at our new Collierville house for the first time

We meet Nonna at OUR new house, so that she can take care of Avery for the morning...because on staggered day, I got to stay with her for about an hour (which helped ease the separation anxiety, for both of us (probably more for me :(
We got to school and the first people we see were the (Scott)Willard's and so Brenly and Ethan were pumped about school...as long as they were together!





and then we spotted Hayden and so they wanted to get there picture taken in front of the dragon...


Then the Blue Group went on a tour of the school with Ms. Emerson (who is a patient of mine) and Mrs. Miles, and ended up in Mrs. Miles room, where they sat down for story time ( I MUST add that as they sat down to read the story, the teacher explained that it was about a cat and mouse... "Can anyone spell "CAT"? Brenly throws her hand up in the air and she called on..."C-A-T" The teacher was very impressed...I am sure of it!haha!)and then they sat down to do a craft


Then it was music time and their first Kindergarten potty break...


Afterwards, she had the kids line up outside the restroom and all the kids had to "throw us a hug", so we were never given the opportunity to get upset! We had to head straight to a meeting to learn all about our new "little dragons"!!
I got the opportunity to go pick her up in car line (since I was off work, and moving) and so I snapped these pictures as she was waiting...



On Friday afternoon we got a call from her teacher, Mrs. Fanning! And although I don't know much about her, the things that I have heard have been great and I look forward to Brenly having a great school year!
Her first "real" day of Kindergarten was Monday! She was very excited!


(Avery was not so excited about her big sister leaving her...they have rarely been apart for long periods of time, so poor Avery is going to have some adjusting to do!)


Pointing out her hook!

And here is my baby at her new table...the red table, and she was so excited, couldn't wait to call Uncle Chad (cuz well, he has corrupted my child into thinking that red is a good color, seeing as how it is closely related to "ALA-VAMA" colors, ugh!!!)
My pray for her this year is that she will learn to LOVE learning, that she will meet new and wonderful Christian friends, and that she will grow into the wonderful child that God would have her to be!

God is concerned with even the SMALLEST details...

of our life...and that makes me very happy!
A few weeks ago, I was at my brother's house for the 4th of July (okay, because I am so far behind on my blog...it was more like a month ago!) He and Brenly were going to run a few errand and I was going to stay at home with the babies (Aunt Ronni was at the Orpheum!) I asked if he would take my SD card from my camera and make a CD of all the pictures on there. (there were like 1000 pictures, literally) Most importantly this card contained pictures from the night before when me and lots of my friends went to see NKOTB (for some of us, it was the 3rd time...but whose counting!) and we had amazing seats...because ALL of my friends realize what a camera person I am...they chose NOT to take their cameras and just get the pictures from me! So my brother leaves the house, with my camera card IN HIS POCKET!! I was sure to CLEARLY state how important these pictures were to me (and to all my friends!) After hours of running errands, they finally arrive back at his house...Knowing that he completely forgot to get a CD made, I simply asked him to give me the card back...He laughed and said that he indeed completely forgot about getting my CD...So he reaches IN HIS POCKET to retrieve the TINY SD Card...and it wasn't there...so he reaches into his other pocket...and it WASN'T there!!
He looks at me with this blank stare, and says that he doesn't have it...Because he is my older brother, he is always messin with me, and I truly thought that he was kidding...BUT HE WASN'T...He really didnt have it...I was devastated...but tried to play it cool...and He felt awful! He immediately dropped everything and got in the car to retrace his steps (did you remember that they were gone for hours!) He arrives back home empty handed (except that he bought a HUGE sd card as sort of a peace offering...sweet, but it didnt retrieve any of my pictures :(
We try to push the horrible experience to the back of our minds and go to the fireworks display in Olive Branch...We had a great time together...but I was still sad over the missing card!
I'll have to admit that I quietly prayed that God would miraculously find the card and bring it back to me...I know...It was a long shot...But He is God and He can do whatever He wants...
Last week, the girls and I were heading to my bro/sis-in-law's house to pick up Ronni and Baylee to head to the Orpheum to see Dora Live! We were in a hurry and so we ran in to change clothes and I look up on their Gi-NORMOUS tv and I see a still shot of NKOTB...I looked up at it, thinking that it was strange that they would have a picture of them on their tv! I looked at Ronni and asked what in the world that was and she (with a very persnickety grin on her face) says, "Let's just scroll though and see" The more pictures that she flipped through the more they looked just like the ones I had taken...My mouth drops open and I let out a very loud squeal...I could NOT believe it! God had produce a miracle!
I immediately asked her where in the world they found it and she proceeded to tell the story:
Supposedly everyday that Chad comes home, he empties his pockets into this bowl in the kitchen...and then when Ronni's mom comes over to clean, she then empties that bowl into a large plastic bag...Ronni was going to get her car washed the other day and was looking through the bag, when it busted all over the place...She was heading out the door and asked my bro. if he could clean it up and he agreed! As he was scooping up the change he looks down and Lo and Behold...a tiny sd card was starring him in the face! and IT WAS MINE!!!
I was so excited! And again, I am reminded that God is very concerned about even the tiniest details of our lives (even if it is a SD Card)...

SO much to do...

so little time...
When I signed onto my blog today, I had to look back through it to find out exactly how behind I was on keeping this family journal up to date...So to look on here we haven't been doing a thing...The exact opposite is true! We have done SO much that I am not sure that I will remember it all to post on here! I don't think there has ever been a time when I have been so busy, with so much to get done...Ever! And trying to stay sane in the process..that is the tricky part! Lets see in the past month we have

*started packing our house up for the upcoming move
*looking for new houses
*walked away from the 1st house
*lost the 2nd house we loved by 20 minutes
*got financing situated for new house
*put a contract on 3rd house
*walked away from 3rd houe because seller wasn't willing to negotiate
*placed contract on 4th house
*been on a family vacation to Florida
*continued to pack up the house
*continued to work full time
*continued to drive approx. 4 hours every day (at least 5 days a week)
*continued to be real involved with church
*gotten Brenly's 5 year old Kindergarten shots (YIKES)
*registered Brenly for Kindergarten
*dealt with paperwork issues concerning the house


I mean, we have been BUSY! and all of these things are REALLY exciting, we are just on overload!

I am going to try to go through my pictures and post a few updates! Just please continue to pray for us as we make LOTS of (good) changes in the next week!

The 4th of July..

was 10 days ago...and I guess that is how far behind I am...
and this post is actually about the Sunday BEFORE 4th of July because I have yet to get my pictures loaded from the actual day!
We (the girls and I) decided that we were going to go to Bellvue for the 4th of July celebration that they have every year...we were leaving church and asked if we could call Aunty to see if they could go with us as well! They agreed, so we went to pick them up and headed to Bellvue for a evening a fun! The kids had a blast and the weather ended up to be PERFECT...cooler with a nice breeze (Thank you Jesus!!)
Here are some pictures of the evening! Happy Birthday USA!!

My baby isn't a baby anymore...

She is a POTTY-TRAINED little girl, and she even slept in big girl panties last night!! WhooHooo!! It seemed like Avery was going to be the child that went to Kindergarten in her diaper...she had the concept down pat...but didn't want to put it to use! And we have been so stinkin busy lately, that we just kinda forgot about it...We just continued to changed diapers/pull-ups and never really said anything to her...and all of a sudden, she was telling us when she needed to go potty and she was doing it! I can't believe that I don't have "babies" anymore...my girls are growing up, but I can honestly say that I probably won't miss changin all those diapers...and we should become rich, quick! Diapers are outrageous!!

It's OFFICIAL...

and God is good! No, God is GREAT!!! After several weeks and 4 houses later...We now know where God wants us live! What a stressful past couple of weeks it has been...but God has worked it all out (with the help of Richie, our wonderful realtor...he's paying me to say that!) We found out last night after long hours of deliberation that we will, for sure, be home owners in Collierville, hopefully by August 10th! What a relief to know where we will be very soon! I took these pictures off the website and thought I would give you a sneak peek to what our "new" house looks like! What are certainly blessed and looking forward to moving and starting a new chapter in our life!

It was HER idea...

I promise, I never once asked or encouraged her to do it...She came up with the idea and bugged me about it for at least 3 weeks...
We have been talking to her for the past 6 months about taking care of the stuff that she has...She really wants a Nintendo DS and a Puppy dog, and we keep telling her that those are very expensive things that take alot of attention and responsibilty and right now, we can't trust that she would be responsible...She kept asking if she could get her ears pierced and take care of them to prove that she IS in fact, responsible...so Friday June, 26th (the same day that we got our new car, 07' Silver Ford Fusion) she begged us to let her get them pierced and so...we went to Claire's in the Collierville Mall
She had just picked out BLUE Saph-a-phires (thats how she pronounced it!)

calling Uncle Chad to tell him that she was going to go ahead and get them done before he got there (I think she might have chickened out had we waited on him)

the before picture...

and the after picture...they did both of her ears at the same time (thank goodness!) and I took this picture right after she said, "OUCH, that hurt"! But there were NO tears!

PROUD AS A PEACOCK AT HER NEW EARRINGS!!

YEP...she got her ears pierced...
and she has been SO good about taking care of them...she cleans them at least 3x's a day WITHOUT being told! We have been very proud of her for being so responsible...Does that mean that she thinks she deserves a Nintenso DS and a puppy dog? Maybe we should have thought this through a little better :)

He's getting so big...

Rowan, that is!! (our baby nephew/cousin)Several weeks ago we all (even Ray, which is rare, because he works all the time)went to Dickson to visit with family...and as usual...had lots of fun! This was the first time that Ray or the girls have gotten to spend any time with baby Rowan...and my girls LOVE him! They both wanted to hug on him and squeeze him...Brenly wanted to feed him a bottle and try to get him to sleep...and that she did...She was holding him and he feel straight to sleep, and she was SO proud!
I am sure in the 3 weeks that we have been away from him, he has grown even more, but I wanted to be sure to put these pictures on here!

I am so far behind...

and don't even know where to start...but I have good reasons for being absent...
It seems that our life has been turned upside down..in a good way. God has lots of things in store for us and we are certainly very excited about what he is doing in our life...but it has caused us to run ragged!

I have written before that Ray felt that God was calling him to transfer to Shelby Co. (and with a little resistence, Ray accepted God's calling) however we thought that his transfer was going to start late Sept. or early October...Because Brenly starts Kindergarten in the fall, our plan was to live with Kristy until Ray got transferred and then start looking for a house. We later found out that Ray's transfer is going into effect August 9th (and Brenly starts school August 10th) which is a huge blessing...(I wasn't looking forward to living two seperate lives again, like we did during his Police Academy Days!) But that made us step it up into high gear...So for the past month I have...
*starting packing up our entire house
*continuing to drive back/forth from Bolivar to Memphis
*working full time
*keeping the girls involved with different things, so that they will have a fun summer
*searching for the PERFECT house
*Losing 3 of those "perfect" houses (we now have a contract on the 4th...please pray)
*we've been out of town alot more than usual this summer, and preparing for our family vacation

and I am exhausted...mentally, physically, emotionally...praying that God will give me enough strength for just today...knowing and trusting in the fact that with God all things are possible...

So I promise that my hiatus from my blog hasn't been because I am lazy...Its because our life is C-R-A-Z-Y!!!

I hope and pray that in the coming days we will have some real exciting news about where God is going to place us!

Until then, we would love your prayers for peace and patience!