Pay Back?!?

As I said before, getting Grace's teeth fixed was absolutely aweful on her!! Adam and I both felt so bad for her because she just HATED the experience. We felt we owed her big time!! As pay back we took her after the Dentist and ate lunch and let her have some milk shake and then after her nap we took her to a FUN new place. Our neighbor told us about this place not far from our house called "Puzzles Fun Dome". We had never been and so we decided to do something really fun and special that afternoon. It is a big gym area that is full of inflatable bouncers, slides, a toddler play area, indoor Putt Putt, a little bowling alley for the kids, craft room, arcade, etc. We went on a Wednesday evening and it wasn't that crowded so it was GREAT! Grace still found some little friends to play with and had a BLAST! She really LOVED the bouncy now and the toddler play area. At the end, we even went to the craft room and colored a picture. She sat on a 'car' in the arcade and felt really 'big' driving the car.

The greatest part is it was air conditioned/ indoors so it would be great year round! It is only 7 dollars for the child and adults are free for HOURS of fun. The Putt Putt and bowling is extra but she had so much fun just doing the other stuff! We all just loved it!! I am so glad we found this place.












Last Friday when we took her back for the Dentist fix her teeth we left there and Grace's 'treat' was to go to Walmart and pick out a toy. She picked out a My Little Pony. It is very cute and it is her first little My Little Pony!

We are all glad we are through with the Dentist for now!

Pool Time and Party Time

Catching up on some more Summer fun. Grace is really LOVING her pool. It has been SOO hot here too so the pool is pretty nice! Grace is trying to 'swim' now and we are very proud that she enjoys the pool now!







Adam and Grace also went to a birthday party for a little girl that is in our church last Monday evening. I had to work but Grace and Adam went. Grace had a lot of fun playing with all the kids!

Ready to go....

Grace's Teeth Are Fixed!!

We finally found a pediatric Dentist that we liked and that charged less than half of what the first Ped. Dentist was going to charge to fix Grace's chipped teeth. We went in on Wednesday and she did the bonding and then we went back yesterday for her to smooth, even, and fill in more to finish. The whole thing was aweful on Grace. The worst part was the drill thing they used to smooth out her teeth. She HATED the sound and was terrified of it. This Dentist did no sedation so needless to say it was hard on Grace! We are all glad it is over and I will talk more later on what we have done to treat her since then because we felt we owed her BIG TIME after putting her through all that she has been through!

You can click on the pictures to see her teeth more up close:)

Chipped teeth (sorry, she has food in her mouth)

These next two are after step one of getting them fixed. You can see on these pictures they had to fill her her gap a little and even out the bottom of her front two teeth

The result!! We are happy!

Beautiful Music!!

Grace can really sing songs well now! She amazes us more every day. On the first video at the beginning, and in the second video you can hear her singing the chorus of a praise song by Casting Crowns called "Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)". In the rest of the first video you can hear her sing the words of the first TWO verses of Amazing Grace. Pretty great huh?!?

I am going to give you the lyric to the first song she sings (and again in the 2nd video) so you can listen for them. She only heard this song a couple of times in the car and it just stuck with her! She LOVES it and I just LOVE hearing these words coming from her mouth because they are SO TRUE! I can't wait till the day that Grace will be able to comprehend and believe these words with all her heart and be saved. I was listening to this in the car the other day thinking about her and her salvation and I was reminded that there is NOTHING more I want for Grace than for her to KNOW Jesus! How awesome that will be!!

Glorious Day

Chorus:

Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, he justified freely forever. One day He's coming... Oh glorious day, oh glorious day.

Latest News...

As far as Grace's teeth. We have found a Dentist that we think is going to be about half of what the other Ped. Dentist was going to charge. We will take her on Wednesday to get them fixed. Praying that goes well!

As far as Adam's job with the census-- he got word the day before yesterday that it is over. We are really torn right now on what to do next. He has his resume out at A LOT of different churches. We know that churches can be VERY slow in the hiring process. He also put in for a few secular jobs for the time being but some places are not crazy about us planning on being gone for about 2 weeks in July for our mission trip so it is hard for them to hire and then give him 2 weeks off so quickly. We also know that any job like that would be temporary until a ministry job came open.

As you all may know we are selling our house. We list it on MONDAY!!! We will be very happy to finally get it on the market. We have been working on it for a month doing little things and bigger things to get it ready to sell. Adam and I said that this is a FIRST in our almost 9 years of marriage---- to put our house up for sale and to have NO IDEA where we are going next! TALK ABOUT STRESSFUL! The uncertainties of all of this has left us uneasy at times. Adam and I are both the type that like to plan ahead, and are detail oriented. The Lord has really been working on us in the last 5 years and again esp. lately, to teach us to TRUST HIM in all of these things!

We also leave 1 month from today to go on our Mission trip to Zimbabwe, Africa! We are getting more and more excited about it! I believe I have some nervous excitement too.

Thanks to you all that care and we could use your prayers in all of these things!

More Summer Fun

We finally went out and bought Grace a new 'baby' pool for this Summer last weekend. It is very cute. You can hook the water hose up to it and the flowers on the side will be sprinklers. So it is a little pool and sprinkler in one which I thought was very neat. Grace doesn't care for the constant sprinkler on her (because it is cold) but likes to play in them for a brief time or just turn them down and play in the water with her hands or drink the water. I got a video and some pics. She also had her FIRST Capri Sun that day and she LOVED it! It is a TREAT for her and she calls them her 'juice box'. :) She even talked me into getting in the pool with my clothes on because I wasn't prepared to get in. :) It felt pretty good though, in this heat! We got in there again yesterday too!

Last Sunday night we did have our Mission group at a friend's parents house who has a pool. We all got to swim in the pool, cook out, and discuss the Bible Study. It was so much fun and I hate it I forgot my camera! Grace really enjoyed the pool this time instead of being scared of it.

We had a fun family day yesterday. First Grace and I went on a walk through the neighborhood. We later went to the mall and ate at the Food Court and she rode the little cars that you put 50 cents in and then we left there and treated ourselves to ICE CREAM. When we told Grace she couldn't get in the ice cream shoppe fast enough:)! She said she wanted cookie dough flavor and that is what we got her. She LOVED it! We later played outside last night and she pushed her baby up the road in the stroller.

Playing at our house outside...

GOOD TIMES!

Our past week has not been all bad! As I said in the previous post I have been working A LOT more the past two weeks or so, due to our census going up! This is really an answer to prayer for more work. Adam was also getting a lot of hours with the census but it has now slowed down for him but he has also been busy around the house. Between all of this, we have both been busy and tired! :) In our free time though, we have done some fun things over the past week or so.

Last Wednesday, we had 2 of our favorite people from church over for dinner. They are so much fun to be around and we just LOVE hanging out with them. They are expected their first child too and they found out today that it is a GIRL!!! We are VERY excited for them! They are SOO good with kids and Grace just LOVES them and they love Grace!

On Saturday, while I was sleeping they watched Grace for Adam while he went to see about a job. Grace was happy to see them again!

On Sunday, Grace made a craft at church and I am attaching a picture. In her class, they are learning that God Made Everything. That night we started our new home/mission group which was fun! This coming Sunday we are going to do our Mission Group at someone's house with a pool and we will do the Bible Study first and then all swim and cook out! FUN! FUN!

Grace has also spent some time playing with our neighbors. We have been over a couple of times this week and today Grace got in Andrew and Mattie's pool and they drove his Jeep outside. (Grace was very cute driving his Jeep too.. doesn't quiet get the steering yet).. and then Staci and the boys came over to our house to play in the air conditioning. They are really so cute together and have so much fun together! Grace always gets upset when she has to leave them...

Playing with Andrew.. (our neighbor)

Uh oh, Oh No.. and Grace's Teeth!

This past week has been a bit discouraging to us at times! We have had 2 pretty big things that came as a surprise. First, on Sunday, Grace was just playing in the house and slid down over her shoe in the kitchen and fell flat on her face and CHIPPED her two front teeth. It is a pretty good size chip and this left me VERY upset. It was just one of those things that just happened and we couldn't take it away but I instantly knew we would have to see about getting her teeth fixed. I knew if we didn't she would have those 2 front chipped teeth till she was possible 7 years old, 5 more years!!

That next day we found out our Mission trip price was going up $800 more dollars due to air travel being so expensive right now. The plane tickets are more than they expected. This was just another thing to add to the list.

We took Grace to a Pediatric Dentist this past Tuesday and they looked at her and said it would be a pretty simple procedure and they would give Grace just a little medicine to make her sleepy, go to sleep and it wouldn't take long at all... THEN, we found out that they were going to charge... $905.00 to bond her teeth. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?! Needless to say, we are getting a second opinion! We got a name of another Dentist that is reasonable and talked to them over the phone and they seem to be a lot cheaper but she will go to that Dentist on Monday.
We feel better now, we know that it is all in the Lord's hands and thankfully my job has really picked up and I have been getting A LOT of extra hours the last couple of weeks. We know it will all work out!

Here are some pics of her teeth... Sorry, in the pics she is eating goldfish:)