busy days around here...

well, we were gone all day yesterday & again all day today... i came home tonight & had 599 emails to go through (& i cleared everything last night before bed, so that was just from today!!)... we took the girls this AM for pictures & as you can see, they had a ball!!... we then ran over to papaw & nanas house to visit (alright, brit & i went to visit, but kiara, ruby & karleigh had other plans ~ EATING!!)... we were there for about 1 hour & in that length of time they consumed several circus peanuts, several wafer cookies & a bag of chocolate candy each!... nana was at the heart of this madness & takes all the blame (as she snickers under that smile she's got plastered to her face)... after leaving their house, we drove around looking at houses most of the afternoon... we're right now out on space for the 6 of us & would love to have a bit 'more room'... we're very open when it comes to what we're able to do (ie: add on to this home, buy something existing, build again, etc.) & we're in nooooooo hurry... we'll continue to keep searching for the right thing for us, but our goal's to 'know what we're going to do' by the end of 2006... this evening we took kiara to church again for the VBS program & like yesterday, she had a blast!... she's got 1 more night (tomorrow) & she's looking very forward to it...

for those of you who've been emailing/calling asking about ruby, i'll apologize now for not updating better... she's doing fabulous!... we're starting to see soooooooo much improvement with her hearing, it's incredible... we go in every couple months for a 'mapping' (where they turn up the volume & tweak things a bit)... they also give us 4 new programs each time (1's low, 2's a bit louder & so on)... each time we go back in for a mapping, the new programs they give us are louder & stronger than the last set was... she goes back again for another mapping in july, but can already hear us say, "shhhhh" if we're standing behind her!!! (praise the lord)... she's trying so hard to repeat everything that's being said too... she curls that little mouth around in all sorts of weird contortions (it's hilarious!!), trying to look like we do... she's doing very well as she continues to pick up ASL & we just keep 'learning with her'... thanks for all the prayers & concerns (keep them up!) & i promise to update better as time goes on...