Now for some updates... We have a ton this time!
Savannah:
Savannah was on the announcements at school this past week leading the Texas pledge. She was so excited about this!
We got her first progress report sent home this last week also. She was considered "at grade level" for everything, except reading, which she was way ABOVE grade level! I was surprised at her level and SO immensely proud of her! She really is so smart and has such a love of books. I'm so grateful.
Soccer is going great! She is adjusting to participating in a team sport, having done gymnastics for 4 years. They won their first game 6-1 and their second game 11-0! The team is really good and I'm glad she's getting the experience!
Mason:
Mason had his bikeathon at school this week and did 3 laps around the track! They said he did absolutely amazing! He is still loving preschool!
Savannah & Mason:
The kids had a Pinewood Derby race at Awana's! Zach made them both some really sleek cars and they were on cloud nine! Can you say, best daddy ever??
Gavin:
Gavin had his 15 month doctor check up last week and is doing great! He weighs 21 lbs exactly and is 32 inches long! He's in the 20% for weight, 75% for height, and 75% also for his head (thanks Daddy!!) :)
Gavin has had a bump on the size of his eyebrow that I've been concerned about for a while. I finally asked his pediatrician here in TX (who was Savannah's when we lived here before and also was my little brothers' and who literally saved my life at the age of 10 when I had appendicitis (already ruptured) and had been misdiagnosed by 2 major and reputable hospitals.) at this appointment. It turns out it is a dermoid cyst, which is dead skin cells entrapped under his skin (something that likely happened in pregnancy) and he will have to have surgery most likely the end of this year (possibly very beginning of next year). A great and reputable plastic surgeon in Dallas will be doing the surgery and thankfully, it will just be day surgery, although he will have to be put under. Although I absolutely hate the idea of my sweet baby having any surgery, I'm incredibly thankful for the overwhelming evidence yet again of God's hand on Gavin. This bump could have been a lot worse things, yet it is this, something very fixable with no lasting repercussions or effects. Hallelujah to The Great Physcian, my King, my Jesus!
Gavin is loving outside and tries to ride Mason's bike. He's just so cute and sweet.
Bella:
Bella had her puppies 2 weeks ago. The first one was the biggest one and was her color. He unfortunately was stillborn. He was stuck in her birth canal for roughly 36 hours. He was literally nearly twice the size of all the others and was a beautiful puppy.
The second one was a black and white girl who looks identical to her border collie dad! She was the runt of the litter, although you would never know that now! She came out squeaking and squeaking loud (although she doesn't anymore surprisingly) and so we call her Squeaky Wheel! Her eyes just opened yesterday and she's now walking!
The third was a blonde boy who we called Butterball. He was my favorite! He sadly died when he was 6 days old. We were told that when mutts breed, it's not uncommon for several of the puppies to be born with genetic defects (weak hearts, weak livers, etc.) and therefore die at just a few days old. We were still sad though.
The fourth puppy was a beautiful gray girl who we called Little Lady. She died 36 hours after birth. She was very very weak from the start. Again, we were so sad. She would have been a beautiful delicate little pup!
So now we have Bella and her lone survivor, Squeaky! They enjoy each other and Squeaky has more than doubled in size since birth. Bella gets jealous when we give Squeaky more attention than her too. It's quite humorous!
Bella's third pup. He was way lighter after he got cleaned up.
Family updates:
Our new favorite thing is the Allen Public Library! It is seriously so awesome! It's 2 story with everything you could imagine... Books galore... DVD's and BlueRays for both adults and kids galore... Audio books galore... They even have an app for members that you can download books and audiobooks for free to your iPhone or iPad! We have been almost every day since we got our cards (a little over a week ago) and the kids just love turning their old books in and getting a new book. I checked them out The Flinstones DVD so they could watch a cartoon Mommy and Daddy used to watch! (I plan to find the Jetson's next ;) )
Zach found some great business books; I haven't gotten anything yet, but plan to check out Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers just as quick as I can!
All in all, GREAT free entertainment! And that is always a good thing!
We also went to Gateway Church's Saturday night service last Saturday and took my Papa. We were still going to our church Sunday morning/night and Wednesday night, but had really been wanting to visit this church on a Saturday night. We all (including Papa) loved it! The worship had me literally in tears and we were all so overwhelmed by the presence of The Holy Spirit during worship! My Papa just had a huge smile on his face the whole time and you could tell, just thoroughly enjoyed it! We plan to start going there Saturday nights, primarily for the worship, in addition to our regular church services. It is a satellite church, so the campus we went to had a live band, but the pastor wasn't physically on that campus. It was very good though! We would like to one Saturday night also visit Matt Chandler's church, The Village, as it is very close to us!
After we went to that service, we went by the mall to see the Easter bunny! Papa really enjoyed watching the kids and told them after, "you know I met the Easter bunny a long long time ago, before your Mommy was even born, when my kids were little!" The kids thought that was SO COOL! :) It was a really special time for all of us!
I think I mentioned in the last post, but Zach is going to start playing drums for our church! He's very excited!!
We got to see my cousins from Tennessee last night and were so happy about that. They are going back Saturday and it's always so good to see them. They have a big church in Tennessee and are actually the ones who recommended Gateway to us because they attend there whenever they are here. Very thankful for the recommendation! Fun fact they shared with us last night: Kari Jobe actually came from Gateway church and was leading the band live at the main campus the night we went! How neat, huh?
Stay tuned for more next time... It seems to be never ending here :)
