Christmas, Snow, Moving, and a Blessing!

I'm back! I know it's been quite a long break but I've had my reasons!

We spent a wonderful Christmas in Oklahoma visiting all our friends and family. I don't know how but I didn't get any pictures of my dad and Cindy :(





When we returned to New York we found not only 2 feet of snow waiting for us but we found that Santa Clause did not forget Dalton, Lyric, or Samara while we were away!

As soon as Christmas was over we started packing for the big move to our new house. We also played in the snow!


Well Dalton and Lyric did! Samara informed us she did not like the snow and was just as happy to stay inside and play on her slide. Unfortunately for her, the snow kept coming until we were all sick of it.
On January 14th we closed on our house and despite all the snow we moved on the 15th. Thanks to all our friends who helped us. It was a very busy and exhausting weekend. Needless to say our family spent the next 2 to 3 weeks recuperating as we all got sick right after we moved into our new house. No fun!! It takes a while for a family of five to get rid of the sick germ. We did get better and we spent the month of February slowly unpacking and settling in our new house. There is lots to do but we will eventually get there.

As if the move was not enough change for our family, we shared even bigger news with our kids in February. We are going to have a baby! I was a little nervous about how Dalton and Lyric would take it, but I shouldn't have been. I haven't seen two happier kids in my life! They could hardly keep the secret for 1 week and when we told them they could tell, well they told everyone who would listen. Samara was not so excited at first. She kept telling me that she was the baby but she has slowly warmed up and when you ask her where the baby is now she will say "mommy's tummy" or "in my tummy".
We feel so blessed to be expecting again! There is nothing like the anticipation of holding a gift from heaven. Our little bundle of joy will join us around September 7th. I'm finding being pregnant with 3 kids is quite a job. I had just started feeling better and was getting my energy back when I had a few complications and I'm now having a few days of bed rest. (No worries - baby is ok!) I think God was just trying to get my attention to slow down a little bit. If you know me, you know I have a really hard time with that.

So now you also know why I'm finally blogging. I'm bored! I have a post I want to do updating on each of the kids so....stay tuned! I will be back soon.

Update

It has been a long time since I blogged last and a lot has happened in that time. Just a quick update. My transfer to NYC has not been finalized and instead of getting upset over this I decided that God wanted me in OK for a while longer. So for the past few weeks I have been living with my dad and his wife in Elk City and traveling to OKC and staying with friends 2 nights a week. About two weeks ago I received a call from DHS that I needed to pick up Dalton and Lyric. It is a long story but I will not elaborate on here. I was in OKC at the time so my dad picked them up as well as Kuper ,my sisters 1 1/2 year old. My mom currently has Kuper and Dalton, Lyric, Samara, and myself have been staying at my dads. Dustin and I have filed for an emergency hearing to request that Dalton and Lyric move with us to NYC. This is a major step but one that we feel God is leading us in. We have already spoke with our landlord and we have received approval for Dalton and Lyric to attend the private Christian school that Dustin will be teaching at. Living in NYC with 3 children will be no small task but I know that God will be with us all the way.
I am currently in NYC helping Dustin get moved into our new apartment. I will return to OK tomorrow. I have enjoyed getting to see him over the past few days and Samara was so happy when she saw him....well actually she cried but sometimes that's what us girls do when we are happy! Speaking of Samara...she is walking like nobodies business! Yesterday she wanted to walk down the street instead of us carrying her. So we each held a hand and she walked down the streets of NYC like she was big stuff! Samara also absolutely loves having Dalton and Lyric around again. When they are wrestling on the floor she just gets in there with them.
Dalton and Lyric are doing well. Dalton is in 2nd grade and Lyric is in Pre-K in Elk City right now. They enjoy going to feed the cows with PaPa! Dalton has even helped bale hay!
I would like to ask for prayer for the following:
Please pray for us, Dalton and Lyric, the judge, and my sister on September 14th. We want what is best for Dalton and Lyric.
Please pray for timing regarding my job. I need to stay in Oklahoma until everything is cleared up with Dalton and Lyric but I also need to get to NYC as soon everything is finished. I'm not looking forward to spending another month without my husband.

MIA - Missing In Action!

So what have we been doing? Packing, going to NYC, packing, going to MiMi and PaPa Tad's, packing, getting ready for a garage sale, ....have I mentioned packing?!



Yep...we have been busy, busy! Everything has happened so fast. If you haven't heard...we are moving back to NYC! Dustin accepted a position at a private christian school in Queens, NY. I always told him he reminded me of Doug Heffernen! Now he will be my King of Queens! Only we won't be living in Queens...we will be living in The Bronx! More about that later!

We had already scheduled a trip to NY in July and it worked out that Dustin was able to meet with his new principal and for us to take care of some things while we were there. We also took time to eat and enjoy our friends.

This is Samara and Marcus. They are six weeks apart. They both love to eat and this night was no exception!

Samara on our way to Pennsylvania. Eating again!

Samara and Marcus trying to figure out the hotel tv.

Our main reason for going to Pennsylvania was to see Dustin's sister, Amy, and her little girl, Rachel. Isn't she a doll? We hadn't seen Amy in over 5 years and were so glad to get to spend the day with them.

This is our new home! We will be living on the top floor. The first time we moved to NY it took us 3 months to find an apartment. We found this apartment in 3 days and I was way more picky this time around. I specifically asked God for 2 things - an apartment with a washer and dryer hook up (so I wouldn't have to spend time hauling our clothes to a laundry mat) and a parking spot (so we wouldn't have to look for parking on the street every day or walk a long way to our house at night). These may seem like things you would expect but in NYC they are a rare commodity. I need to take a minute and just say...God totally cares about those little things. Our apartment has a built in washer and dryer so we don't even have to bring ours. We also have our own parking spot beside the house! We are so blessed! Not only that but the landlord wanted to paint the entire apartment before we move in and he let me choose the colors! That is so amazing to me because one of the things I was sad about was Samara's room and it not looking the way it does now. There are many other awesome things God has done for us over the past four weeks but I will have to share that later.

This past weekend we picked Dalton and Lyric up and went to MiMi's (Dustin's mom) house for the weekend. We had a great time and even got to spend time with Dustin's grandparents as they came for the weekend as well. The kids swam, played with the animals, drove the chuckwagon, and did all sorts of fun things. We even got to stay in the travel trailer which the kids thought was fun! We were so glad to get away for the weekend and take a break from the move.

Samara loved her Papa Tad. She wanted to be with him the entire weekend.

Monday night I took Dalton and Lyric back to their mom's. They are really doing good and seem to be adjusting well. Of course things will never be what I wish for them but I feel like my sister is doing better than she has in the past and I know that Dalton and Lyric need to adjust to one household. I really wish I could just pack them up and take them with us but I know that is not to be. We will still go to court one last time in October but this was the last time we have them before we move. They are both getting so big and are full of life. It's hard to believe that Lyric will be in Kindergarten and Dalton will be in 2nd grade. They grow up too fast.

That's what I have been doing while MIA! I'm sure I will continue to be MIA for 2 more weeks. Dustin leaves August 14th. Please pray for him and Richard as they will be driving to NY with all of our stuff. Samara and I will continue to be in Oklahoma until my job transfer takes place. We will be staying with NaNa and PaPa! Oh what fun that will be!