Going Home & Looking for a Home

It is official at 3:50 pm today Nicole Grace Duran FINALLY went home! Kyle, Leanna and Austin are very excited to have her home 1 week and 3 days before her due date. Please continue to remember everyone in prayer as they all adjust.

On another note - we are closing ONE WEEK EARLY here in Sugar Land (next Friday, August 1st). While we are extremely excited to have our house here in Sugar Land sold we still do not have a house to go to in Frisco! We are on our 3rd house which happens to be a foreclosure and are still waiting to hear. So, we wait - seems to be a theme of this transition period! I will update the blog when we know something.

For now we rejoice in the homecoming of Nicole!
**Update - we found out about 5:30 pm today that we did not get the foreclosure. The journey continues... We are going to go back and pursue possibly building a house we both like again. Just need some favor!!!

Houston we have a Contract!

6 months, 3 days, 91 showings and 3 offers later we have a CONTRACT!

We received a call this evening from our Realtor with a FULL PRICE offer the only thing the couple wants is a home warranty and to close August 8th!! Thank you Jesus! We are so very excited to finally continue this transition and covet your prayers through the 10 day option period and as we travel to Frisco this coming week to look for us a house (we are going to go up on Sunday because Craig is working Friday & Saturday). I will say it again THANK YOU JESUS!

**Side note - the boys have been requesting to each have a "special day". Which means a day where they can go anywhere and do whatever they want to ALONE! Caleb went with Craig today and all he wanted was to eat at Joe's Crab Shack and go swimming. They ate lunch but unfortunately when Craig dropped him off at the pool with me and the other kids it was raining so he didn't get to swim but here is a picture of his favorite part - the DESSERT!!

***One other side note - since I sent out the prayer request for Nicole and her problems with Apnea (where she stops breathing) she has not had ANOTHER EPISODE! Thank you Jesus. In the last 2 days they have moved her out of the "warming bed" into a normal bed, upped her to 4 bottle/breast feedings and are saying she possibly could go home in the next 2 weeks. Here is a picture Kyle sent me of her this past week.

Summer Days!

We are now fully into summer at the Wilson household. When school let out in June we went that very day to Austin to the Lake and then a week later got on the boat for the cruise so we have just now really gotten into summer days off! Which translates into boredom and fighting! Now not hitting although that does happen sometimes but mostly where the kids determine lets pick on and aggravate some one. Joel against Christian; Caleb against Joel; Christian against the other two - seems like it is always someone!! Also this is the very first summer in all of their lives that I am not working at least part-time so that has some adjustments as well (more probably for me than for them). All of this translates into a lot of time at the pool!! It is FREE, we have 4 to choose from and we have had very little rain to hinder our plans. So, if you are looking for any of the Wilsons sometime between 1 and 5 during the day we are probably at the POOL!

Since the early arrival of Nicole Grace I did not get an opportunity to share some of the pictures from our Lake trip in June so I wanted to share them with you in this post. Also my digital camera was damaged on our cruise and looks like I will have to replace it because that would be cheaper than repairing it - so until that happens the pictures may be fewer but for now enjoy the ones from Lake Travis in Austin and I have some other new ones that I will use later.

In June we went to Kyle and Leanna on a Thursday and spent the day and night hanging out with them and then on Friday went to the Lake. So some of the pictures are of the kids with Austin and some are at the Lake. It is also amazing to me that Nicole was born the very next week!!! (Pics - I took several of the boys with Austin; Christian actually took the picture of Austin in the jungle gym that I thought was awesome; Leanna and I had the idea to try to get all 4 of them holding hands - it was a trial with a 1 year old but we finally got this shot; Caleb and I were with Austin in his room early on Friday morning and I don't remember how Caleb got him to laugh so hard but it was so cute!; Craig riding the jet ski, he also wake-boarded that day, got up on his first try - I don't know why I don't have any pictures of him wake-boarding but he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to jet ski; me wake-boarding - did better this trip and finally felt more comfortable; Austin with Kyle swimming in the Lake and then yes he is asleep - he had stayed up the whole day all 6 hours on the lake and finally as we were swimming before going to dinner he passed out. *We realized at the end of the day that we never got the tube for the kids to ride on so that is why there aren't any pictures of them but they had a great time swimming in the lake and riding in the boat!)

Cruise!

As many of you know Papaw & MeMaw (aka Randy & Sherri Skipper) took the WHOLE family on a 4 day cruise out of Galveston. We left on Thursday and came home on Monday. We had a fabulous time but with all Wilson family events it was not without some mishaps!!

Immediately when we arrived on the ship on Thursday the kids wanted to swim. They loved the slide that fed directly into the pool. Everyone except Joel who was not tall enough to slide - boy was that a HUGE disappointment for him. He FINALLY got over it (about the 3rd day of the trip) and just swam. The pool is not very large because of course it is on top of the boat. But kids never mind if the pool is packed so they had a great time!








We also had a life saving drill. You can see from the pictures the joy the kids had to be participating in the drill. And as always it opened up many interesting questions about if the boat sank what would happen and if sharks could eat through the life boats, etc....














We went back to our room that evening to get ready for dinner. Joel LOVED that our room had 2 bunk beds that folded out from the wall (as he is showing in the picture)! The window was also a big hit as they all loved to look out of it.




We ate dinner in the dinning room that night. My kids were so funny with all of the silverware and glassware that was on the table. They had NEVER seen so much stuff! (Of course when you always drink out of plastic cups and eat most of your meals on paper plates I am sure the abundance of glass ware was a shock!) We ended up eating all 4 nights in the dinning room because it was easier to be served then to have to go back and forth to the buffet with the kids!












Friday was a day at sea and low and behold their was a miniature golf course on the top deck of the boat. We played A LOT of miniature golf over those 4 days but had a great time!! After miniature golf it was back to the pool to swim and then eat lunch.























After lunch we went through a BIG rain storm that lasted about 2 hours (when Craig and I cruised with my mom and dad we never had any rain but where not so lucky this trip!) This is a picture of the rain against the windows and of us hanging out with MeMaw waiting on the rain to pass!!


























That night we took a family picture together. We got one great shot and I know MeMaw and Papaw were pleased with it.




Saturday morning we ported in Cozumel, Mexico. That morning when I got up it felt like the boat was rocking from side to side. Despite the fact that I had a seasickness patch on I became very nauseated. Later on before we got off the boat Caleb complained about being nauseated as well so we both took a Dramamine. We decided to just do a beach excursion and it ended up that everyone did it together. We arrived at the beach where they had tons of lounge chairs, beach umbrellas, paddle boats, canoes, a water trampoline, and a inflatable mountain out in the ocean. We all ran to get "good" lounge chairs where we could see the kids swimming and then Craig and Papaw went to get the beach umbrellas and put their wallets, etc in a locker. While Memaw and I got in the water with the kids. I had only proceeded about ankle deep when Caleb who was about 5 feet from me began to SCREAM. I mean SCREAM loud and crying saying something was stinging him. I ran over and dragged him out of the water where he just laid down on the ground and continued to scream and cry. I did not know what to do - Craig was still finding a locker - and we were drawing a HUGE crowd but I didn't see anything on Caleb. A lifeguard ran up and asked me what was wrong. So I told him and we pulled Caleb's swim suit down and he had 6 large whelps on his lower stomach/groin area. The life guard got on the radio and began calling for a paramedic. He kept saying a paramedic is on the way. In the meantime I was really getting nervous because Caleb was screaming, I had a life guard who spoke very little English and I did not know what I would be facing with the paramedic. I was desperately looking for Craig. The paramedic arrived and asked us to come with him. So he took Caleb and examined him. He had been stung by a jelly fish 6 times. He began cleaning the whelps with antispectic the other thing that happened was he began to break out in hives. So he received a dose of Benadryl. Because of the Benadryl and the earlier Dramamine he slept most of the day at the beach. Luckily the beach place had a swimming pool as well so the rest of the kids spent the day at the pool. He finally felt better late that evening! (Because of the craziness with Caleb I did not get any pictures of the excursion and then I realized that night my camera screen had cracked and didn't take any more pictures the rest of the trip).

Sunday we were back at sea. Did the same thing as we did on Friday - putt, putt, swimming and the arcade! We also went through another rain storm that afternoon which caused everyone to come inside. Everyone was tired at dinner but had a great day.

Monday it was the process of getting off the boat, going through customs, getting loaded up and heading home. Then it was lawn mowing and laundry - vacation is over!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

Nicole Grace Duran

As some of you may or may not know Leanna had an emergency c-section yesterday (Thursday, June 12th) and gave birth to Nicole Grace Duran at 3:19pm. Nicole is 4lbs 4 oz and 8 weeks early. She is perfect for being 8 weeks early. She is almost independently breathing on her own, is stabilizing her temperature and is going to be getting a little bit of food today. She is very, very pretty and since Kyle and I peeked underneath her hat she has dark hair!!

Leanna began experiencing sever contractions around 1:00 yesterday. She had a friend drive her home from work but by the time she got home she was in severe pain. Kyle rushed her to the hospital where they discovered her placenta had pulled away and did an emergency c-section. Leanna is superwoman! She looks fabulous and is doing very, very, well.

They expect that Nicole will be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for at least 4 weeks. Please keep everyone in prayer. That Nicole would continue to improve and develop despite her early arrival and that Leanna would heal very quickly. My brother was a champion through all of the stress and is holding up very well!!

Below are the best pictures I could get through the incubator. Enjoy!

Caleb

We left for Austin on Thursday as soon as the kids got out of school (I will post those pictures later on this week). Thus, I didn't go through their end of school year stuff until today. In Caleb's report card was a CD that his teacher made. Just click on the link to play it and turn up your volume because it does have audio with it. It is a timeless keepsake that I so appreciate his teacher taking the time to do for us! Enjoy!

School Awards

Since this is the last week of school we have attended 2 school award ceremony's! I wanted to share some pictures. On Monday we had Caleb's award ceremony. Caleb was so cute as he walked across the stage and got his folder that contained his certificates. Of course the one we are most proud of is his reading certificate for having completed the reading recovery program.

Then on Wednesday it was Christian's turn. Christian's was a Promotion/Award's ceremony. Because his Elementary school is K-5th grade it is a big deal for this school to lose kids that have been there for six years! Christian received the President's Education Award for outstanding academic excellence. It is based on their TAKS test scores plus their GPA from 4th and 5th grade. There were several students who received the award! After they handed out the awards the teacher's presented the kids with a DVD collection of pictures set to music from the whole year. The greatest part about that was each student gets their very own copy of the DVD!! They ended the ceremony with cake and punch and a very happy group of soon to be 6th graders. Enjoy the pictures!