Happy 6 Month Birthday, Sweet Angel

Today our sweet Julsie Mae would be 6 months old. We've now reached the point where she's been gone longer than she was with us and I hate that. I know how blessed we were to have such a precious little girl in our lives for 80 days, but I wish we could have had more time. I wish I could go back in time and take advantage of moments that I let slip away... I wish I had held her more. I wish I hadn't slept as much... I wish I hadn't run to the grocery store, played outside with Molly and been on the computer at times when she was in someone else's arms or sleeping. I wish I could go back and hold her for the entire time she was here. I know it's silly and that Paul and I gave Julia so much love that we can't ever have any regrets, but I still wish I could just go back and hold her for 5 more minutes. I wish I could feel her fuzzy little head against my cheek again, smell her sweet smell and hear her cute sounds. Paul and I really thought that it would get easier as time went on, but we both agree that it's just gotten harder. I wonder when it's supposed to stop hurting so much.

*As I sat at the computer writing this post, I was feeling so alone and overwhelmed with sadness when my doorbell rang... I was so relieved to see Ms. Molly, Julia's hospice volunteer and now a very close friend, at my door. God does give you exactly what you need at the exact moment that you need it. I am in awe of his goodness and love. After crying on Molly's shoulder I am now feeling much better and can go back to thinking about my sweet Julia with a smile on my face.

Molly still talks about her sister often, recently she picked a flower and said that when she went to heaven she wanted to take flowers with her to make all the angels, especially her sister angel, smile. Another time we were driving in the car and out of the blue she told me that when she goes to heaven she wants to be sure to take all our baby spoons with her, because she said she's not sure who is taking care of her baby sister right now, but when she gets to heaven she wants to be the one to feed her.

We love and miss you more and more every day sweet girl. I hope when we see you again we can pick up where we left off, I can't wait to see your precious face and hold you in my arms again.

Happy 4th Birthday Caden!

On Saturday Caden celebrated his fourth birthday at the Woodlands Children's Museum. All the kids had a blast and EVERYONE enjoyed Danielle's delicious cupcakes, as usual!!Gunnar's Icing Tooth!

What's on her mind these days

Molly and I go to Bible Study on Wednesdays and in the children's class they have quiet time where they take a little rest on the floor for about 10 minutes and the teachers instruct the kids to spend the quiet time thinking about God and Jesus. After class I asked Molly what she thought about during quiet time and she told me, "I thought about Princess Leia meeting God and Jesus." I wonder if George Lucas ever considered that story line.



Today we were listening to the Little Mermaid song "Part of that World" and Molly sang along to the part that says,

"Up where they walk,
Up where they run,
Up where they stay all day in the sun...."

She stopped singing and said "You know Mommy - humans don't stay all day in the sun. We run errands all the time, so we're in and out and in and out of the sun all day." I reminded her that people play outside in the sun a lot and she told me, "Nope, we just run errands all the time, that's it." Guess it's a good thing that she goes to school 3 days a week to get a break from my incessant errand-running.

A Week of Spiders

This week at school Molly and her friends have been learning all about spiders. They read spider books and sang spider songs. (My favorite song so far is one Molly came home singing about little Miss Muffett sitting in front of her TV eating popcorn when a spider came in the back door...) They've made spider hats, clay and pipe-cleaner spiders, played spider math games and parents were asked to catch a spider and bring it to school in a plastic container. Paul got really excited about the live spider assignment and even personalized Molly's spider's box after Molly named him. I don't so much mind driving a spider to school, but if they ever study snakes, Molly will have to find another ride.

Costume Madness

Today some of our friends met us at the Halloween store for some costume fun! We got to the store by 8am and by 11, we were all worn out and ready for lunch and a nap!!

Skeletons, Bugs, Superheroes, Police, Faries and Dinosaurs, OH MY!

Those Coker boys are nothing but trouble!!

Costumes just weren't enough to entertain the boys

A Special Message...

Happy Birthday Aunt Yara!!!

Since a card won't get to you in time, we thought we'd post a birthday message here! Hope you're having a wonderful day. (Molly wanted to pose with our front door decoration, she said you would like it) xoxo

29 Days Until Halloween!!!

If you know anything about the Quin family, you know that one of our favorite days of the year is Halloween - but not for the normal reasons that most people look forward to Halloween. We like the decorations, costumes, trick or treating and of course the candy, but we LOVE having Daddy back when the stores close. Things don't really calm down for Paul until the middle of November when the stores are all broken down and cleaned out and excess inventory is stored away for next year, but Halloween means that all the madness is coming to an end.

This year has been especially crazy with 6 stores and a hurricane. We'll be very glad to put this season behind us.

This weekend we're having our annual "Costume Extravaganza" with our friends where we spend an early Sunday morning in one of the stores trying on costumes and taking lots of pictures. We've had a blast the last two years and I can't wait to see how much fun the kids have this year.

Molly has already picked out her costume and thanks to Taylor we'll be getting it this weekend. Isn't it pitiful that we aren't getting her costume from our own stores??

Molly's class had "pet day" on Tuesday and all the kids got to decide whether they wanted to be a kitty or a puppy