Happy 6th Birthday Baby Girl!

This week was school, work, a little travel and birthday celebration!  Grammy and Papa spent Sunday with us before traveling home which meant Grammy cooked yummy dumplings and the girls helped make cobbler!   Peach AND blackberry to be exact.  They were so delicious.

The girls are learning to make cobbler.  

Big helper! 

Life on the porch.  

Gracie is learning to enjoy reading!  

A little coffee on the trip to Nashville!   God is so good in how he is pulling my team together.   

Maggie, 6 years already?  It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming you into our arms and relishing in the complete family we had.  You have taught me so much about myself and life.   I am beyond eager to see what passions and abilities God has given you to serve Him!  We love you.  You will always be my baby!

Birthday girl!  6 Years old.  

Pure spunk.  I love this face! 

The girls were out of school Friday so I worked from home and enjoyed the casual day.  The girls did great playing together, reading and working on homework too!

We spent almost all day on the porch.   It was great!  

G Bug snuggles 

A little downtime. 

working on a thank you note.  I love how she does her "g"

a rainy birthday walk to the mailbox. 

Bella loves!  We have had her a full year now! I will say I can't imagine live without her! 

Date night!  I will take this any day I can!  I love doing life with this man.  It's not perfect but its our life!

Maggie and Lana Kate for LK's birthday.  These two are best little buddies and are so sweet together.   

The Net in Cleveland

We have been preparing for this week for several months and Sunday finally was the day.  Our fist service with the Net in Cleveland.  Its the same church, just new campus.   We were involved in the day and then hosting a big celebration party at our house that night!  Wow!  What a fun day (and exhausting).   We are so blessed by these relationships, some old and some new, that we get to serve with.

Sunday pic.... love this face! 

of course a pic with B Dog!

Sunday pic 

Sisters!  

Gracie and Lilly!   Same grade, different schools, same church, great friends!  

The group sharing about the morning!   

Love these that we get to serve with! 

Monday was an early morning quick two day trip to Memphis then home for the week!   What a fun Friday and Saturday we have had!   Time with my brother and Katelyn and of course Ellie for ice cream.  Today Jimmy's parents came into town and we have just enjoyed visiting.

Gracie and B Dog before homework one evening!

Gracie's self portrait--- 3rd Grade (left) and 4th Grade (right) 

Love these girls!   

Ellie and Auntie Rach!  Love you baby! 

a Saturday stop at the mall!   Its always fun playing in the Apple store. 

Gracie was playing around making faces! 

Yep..she lost another tooth.  Now we have 4 holes where teeth were!   Almost to a liquid diet!  ha 

Friendships!

She looks so much older than almost 6!  

This sure is our Maggie! 

Sweet sisters! 

Our oldest!  Love you Bug

Bella early morning snuggles (yes Maggie is still wearing her Christmas PJs in September)

One of the family values we consistently work to display is the value of relationships.   Relationships add such a richness to life both in family and friendships.    This week was one of those weeks where we enjoyed some time with some great friends as a family, school, and caught up with some via phone.   How I wish I could move all our family and friends to Chattanooga!

A day at the Pool with the Smith Family.   We sure love you guys!   Looking forward to next time ! 

Someone had a surprise for Mommy.... 

She finally lost her 3rd top tooth!   

what does this mean?   yes, the newest American Girl catalog came in the mail.   

Clydes for dinner before the football game

A quick pic with Mommy before the lightening and clearing the bleachers! 

Gracie and Lucy.  Friends sine 1st grade.  Both have the nickname of "Bug". 

I have so many favorites about CCS, but one of them is how comfortable the girls are with all the upperclassmen.   So many know them by name and love them!   

This little one has been in Texas so we have not seen her in forever (okay, really it has not been more than 2 weeks, but we sure missed her).   I would say she missed her cousins too!

The countdown is on to the church campus launch in Cleveland making tomorrow a very busy day!   But we believe that God will do great things!

Life these days!

Maggie has proven to consistently provide some quick comedy with her quick comments regarding life.Sunday as we were leaving church we say a VW Bug with the winder on the back.  Maggie in awe said "so they have to wind that up when they want to drive"

Yep...she was amazed by this! 

Bella snuggles 

We are participating a fast the church is doing for 21 days, so we as a family gave up sweet treats.   The girls were involved in this decision too as we wanted their buy in to fully understand what we were doing and why.  The first week they did great.  This week (week 2) Maggie asked if we could have given up something else.   I explained we could have like TV or iPads or anything we felt would help us have more time to focus on Jesus.   She said "well we should have given up TV so we could have JUNK!".   Ahhh, yes that is my child!   Great lessons to learn!

This week I spent a few days in Memphis to hire my team.  While I have a ways to go, God has been so good in providing the right teammates along the way and I know this will be no different!   September and October are busy months for traveling with work and I say all the time I could not do it without a supportive husband and wonderful Daddy!   He makes it all work so well.  

Two staples while I travel.... a diet Coke and my Kindle.   I love reading on it and never would have gotten it.  It was a sweet surprise gift for no reason really from Jimmy!   

Back in the office Friday I was reminded how quickly time flies!  Yes, Maggie will turn 6 the end of this month.  We are 4 months to the end of the year!   really?  

This week Jimmy was in a publication!   This was is leadership class from last year at First Tenn.   First Tenn is often recognized as a top bank to work for.

ELP Class.   

We are thankful for the banks we both work for! 

Gracie had a sleep over after school Friday.  Maggie enjoyed some Mommy and Daddy snuggles at night and then I took her to the jump park Saturday before we picked up Sis.

Bella LOVES the car ride! 

Aunt Tammy.... Maggie now fits the skates you all got Gracie!  She loves to skate too!  

Helen Grace and Grace enjoying their sleepover! (of course they have their American Girls with them) 

Mommy's sleepy girl! Since Gracie was away she got the privilege to sleep in our room in the big chair.  

all smiles...someone enjoys an opportunity to be the only child just for a bit! 

Check out that toothless smile! 

Mommy and Maggie! 

We are blessed by so many special friends and the ability to do life.  Life is messy and hard!   Tonight we hugged and loved on sweet friends of ours who lost their baby at 20 weeks.    It brought back those memories of when we lost our first baby and the ability to look back and see not only the blessings God has given us but the lessons he taught us that strengthened our faith.   God is still Good in all things and yet I acknowledge that is sometimes a hard statement to make in the hurt and grief.  

The girls before the memorial service for Quinn.   

Emma and Gracie