Wow, where to start!?!? Well we moved March 27, 2013 to Jenks. It has been amazing to see how God has led us and provided for us in spite of our humanness. Christmas weekend Josh said "It's time to move. Let's start looking into it." The biggest hurdle for us was a down payment and God provided it. The second was selling our house and we found out that we could not sell it and come out in the black so we prayed about renting and God slowly changed our hearts about it - crazy because being a land lord is something Josh said he would NEVER do. Doesn't God love to bring about situations where we do exactly what we said we never would?! Once we announced it was for rent we had two families interested and had to choose between them. They were even looking at it while we were painting and dealing with a pesky skunk stinking it up! The third big obstacle we faced was where to move. I didn't want to live anywhere except midtown and there was no way we could afford the features we were hoping for in midtown. Josh wanted Broken Arrow because his office is out there. We started looking everywhere from Claremore to Glenpool. We went in 17 houses all in Broken Arrow or Tulsa then one Friday night we saw one online in Jenks that looked pretty good so we saw it with our realtor Saturday. God spoke to us in the 15 minutes we were at the house. We were standing in the kitchen and in a moment we knew He was calling us to that house, to Jenks. We made an offer Sunday, had a contract Monday and closed 6 weeks later. Our tenants moved into our old house April 1st and it was all incredible how God paved the way. I am not accustomed to God's way ever being easy or feeling particularly "blessed" so it was an amazing experience. Then moving weekend also blew my socks off because all of both of our families came to help us move and celebrate Easter with us in our new house. I have to admit I was freaked out about having so many people around while we moved but man was I crazy wrong. They blessed our socks off with their selflessness and love and hard work. They had us completely unpacked by the time they left on Sunday. Our mothers had our kitchen in perfect shelf papered and unpacked condition in no time at all. I can't ever express my appreciation to all of our family for loving on us so extravagantly!
The previous homeowners did an amazing job keeping everything perfect and they were excellent landscapers. We have 3 water features and every week is bringing a new color and variety of bloom! We are praying we can keep up with the yard??
Our church is launching a new campus in Jenks the first weekend of June and our dear friends the Henslee's will be moving to that campus - Derrick will be the worship pastor there. We had purposed not to follow them to the new campus and to see where God moved us then decide where we would attend church. Once we saw that we were moving to Jenks we heard God clearly that He wanted us involved with this new campus. We are planning to lead a life group and are excited to see how he uses us and our home in our new community.
The week before we moved we went camping with the Henslee's. It was cold and rainy the whole time. In fact the kids wanted to hike and there wasn't a break in the rain so we just hiked in the rain. We made some great memories as usual. In an effort to set up a "rain fly" Derrick tied a rope to his cast iron skillet and attempted to throw it over a tree limb. He ended up breaking the handle off of his skillet. I was hysterical to watch though!
Below James and Tristan are waiting for the starting whistle for the easter egg hunt. They are getting so big and fast that we have to give all the little kids a head start. James is doing so well in school. His teachers say he has the best reading comprehension they've ever seen. He has 150 or so points (his teacher awards and takes away points for good behavior) the next highest person has 60ish points. We have found that success that is measurable is what turns his crank! He is having his two favorite school friends over for his first slumber party next week on the last day of school. In February he had his first overnight with one of the friends which is the first time he has ever spent the night with someone that wasn't our (Josh and I's) friend or family. Big deal! He and the other two boys are pretty torn up about the fact that he won't be going back to Hoover next year. James is dealing with it pretty well though. He and I are both anxious to get the first week or so out of the way.
Since Christmas Mallory potty trained herself! I told everyone that she was going to have to do it because I sure wasn't going to. I showed her where the potty was and put her on it once or twice then left her alone. One day she decided she wanted to wear Kinley's big girl panties. I found myself wrestling her to the ground in tears trying to get a diaper on her and I thought "what am I doing?! Maybe she's ready??" So I let her wear panties, she never had an accident. After two days in panties she refused to wear diapers at night also so I put her in panties and in 5 months she still has never had a night time accident (knock on wood)! She has occasional daytime accidents but its because she chooses to put whatever she's doing over going to the potty. It was a far cry from my potty training experience with James and I am so thankful! We promised her a puppy when she was potty trained so we have spent the last month looking for the perfect puppy. We think we have found the perfect breed but are having trouble finding it for a price we are willing to pay! We (I) want a miniature golden doodle. Which is a golden retriever toy poodle mix. We'll see how that turns out??
This is our beautiful cousin Kate in front of the waterfall in our new backyard. We loved getting to see Kate and her sweet baby brother Ezra at Easter.
James got to go to the TV station with his Tiger Cub den. He thought it was pretty cool pretending to tell viewers about an impending tornado.
Josh and James are big time sushi lovers. One night at In the Raw Mallory decided to try the Hello Kitty Roll and she loved it. I guess Kinley I will stick together with the peppered filet.
We have a Robin's nest in one of our new Bradford Pear trees. We saw the mom build the nest, we saw four beautiful blue eggs in the nest then we saw then the day they hatched and have documented their progress everyday. Someday soon they will leave the nest and I think there will be tears. A couple of weeks ago Josh found a turtle in the flower bed and we kept him for a week. The kids named him Ted and they were so attached you would have thought I was cutting off their arms when we freed him. Epecially Mallory, she was beside herself wanting Ted for about 30 minutes.
Kinley is as smart and beautiful as ever. She is reading small words and really enjoying teaching Mallory her letters. She idolizes James and cannot wait for the summer when he doesn't have to go to school everyday. Her favorite thing to play right now is My Little Pony in her massive new closet. Their closet is a second play room. I love how they disappear in there together and play for hours.
Our kids have discovered that the middle finger has a bad connotation. One day Kinley was singing "Where is Thumbkin" and she was at the part about Tall Man and had her two middle fingers up dancing. James informed her that sticking your middle finger up was like saying a really bad word but nobody knows what the bad word is. (funny!) Of course Mallory was sitting right by them taking it all in. Josh quickly intervened and tried to manage the situation but the damage was done. Now Kinley and Mallory are obsessed with sticking their middle finger up and saying "I'm saying a bad word to you!" Today the girls and I were riding in the car and Mallory said "Mommy, look in the mirror at me." So I did and she was holding her middle finger up and said "bad word to you mommy". Seriously, my heart broke and all the pressure of parenting caved in on me. All I can do is keep training, praying, and rest in the truth that God loves them more than I do and has a plan for them. I also have to laugh just to keep from crying and screaming. Well, on that note....until next time!
