We took a meal over to Andrew and Melissa's house yesterday afternoon. What was nice is I got to see Claire as well. She is growing up and I can't believe she is 7 months already. Solona is doing really good. She went to the doctor on Monday and her weight was up a little 4#140z and the doctor was pleased. She is still struggling with her nursing but everyday is a better day. Mel looked so wonderful and happy being a mommy.
From there we went to see Molly. Boy was she heavy after holding Lani. She is doing so much better each day. Mommy has her on a schedule now that she knows her needs and she is adapting to it very well. Of course Papa and Nana messed it up a little yesterday.
We got to visit with Skip when he came in from work. It looks like he is up for a department transfer. For those of you that don't know it but Skip works for Greenville Newspaper in Marketing and Advertisising. He has been in retail for about 4 years and is ready for a break. This deptartment handles the automotive sales ads.
Jessica will begin working in about 2 weeks from home. She is a wise girl said, she will believe it when she signs the dotted line! The company that she left when she had Molly, New Home Finders has cut back through out the USA but the magazine Senior Living is doing well and that is the magazine she'll be working on. It is about 20 hours a week.
Audy is doing well with his job. We thank the Lord each day for the job. It's about 75%less stress than the other job he had for years. It looks like he might be working all weekend because they have a large amount of mail expected in. The overtime will be used wisely. We have several projects we are working on and it will be nice to get them done.
My job with Books Are Fun is spread out this spring. It is not as busy as it is in the fall. That is fine with me! For the next 3 days I will be in Spartenburg at the Regional hospital. It's busy there but more like steady.
Katie and her family is doing well. She is busy with her homeschooling and trying to keep Bryson on schedule to be finished with school June 1. She still amazes me how she juggles it all. She will be schooling Jessalyn for kindergarten in the fall.
We are really proud of her for the good job she is doing it shows!
Well that catches you up with the family....

I'd like you to meet Mia Solona Sims Kohler

Andrew and Melissa are now the parents of a beautiful little girl. Mia Solona (this means my sunshine) was 5#7oz. They came home from the hospital this afternoon.
Dave and Rhonda are half way caught up with us now! Claire is now 7mo. old.

Our Families Easter Saturday

I never take it for granted that our children have decided to raise their families in Greenville, South Carolina, we count our blessings! We have alot of family get togethers throughout the year but this was our first real event with Molly. Her first Easter. Along with the other 3 children she will growup knowing that Jesus loves her and died on the cross for her as HE has for all of us. We PRAISE God HE HAS RISEN and will return for us someday. We are proud of our children and the paths they have chosen to raise their children for the Lord. Neither of them are perfect by any means but their hearts are headed in the right direction. My heart sings with joy when I think about their soulmates they have chosen. When we met James they were teenagers and now in their mid thrities ;-) and Jessica came into our lives as a teenager as well and now her and Skip are in their late and mid twenties. It's been such a privledge to watch them all growup together and now parents themselves.

A "TRUE PADILLA PORTRAIT" I would put the one of Skip and Jess on here but Jessica would ring my neck....sorry maybe next time around!

The Padilla's were trying to get some decent shots of the kids and this was about the best they could do!

These 4 children are our sunshine! We could be living a very boring life without their imput in life! We praise God everyday for them.

Molly loves Jessalyn and Dawson because they will sit there and talk to her She gave them a few smiles.


I got this "real" USARMY issued hamick for James and as you can see he has put it to good use.

Molly's first time in a dress....she was so sweet and cute

Instead of filling the kids up with candy I bought them what they would enjoy having. Bryson and new bionical figure, Jessalyn a double feature of The Little Princess and The Secret Garden, Dawson a Thomas Train DVD and CARS shirt, Molly a Baby Einsten CD

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

Well "according" to the calander winter is behind us and spring is here. I said, I'd take some pictures but that won't happen until probably tomorrow or Saturday. We have had some stormy weather.
Audy has been getting off an hour earlier each day. The mail run has been slow. One of the workers said that they usually have a slow period and then boom the mail takes them into the weekend. So we have decided to just enjoy the extra time.
I have taken up spring cleaning. I started in one room and moving to the second one this morning. I figure better now than later because something always hinders my good intentions.
After much thought and prayer I have resigned from American Greetings. With the gas prices it wasn't really cost effective. I took the job before the prices went over 3.00 gal. I will keep my other job with Books Are Fun for now.
Well today the Sims will be grandparents again. Melissa is scheduled for C-section at 2p.m. this afternoon. We are going down to the hospital this afternoon so maybe I will have some pictures to post. Her name is Mia Solona (my sunshine) "LANI" is what they will call her.

Here it is Sunday night and I am so thankful to have the week behind me. The hightlight of the week was yesterday. I had already planned on watching Molly for most of the day and evening as Skip and Jessica prepared a couples baby shower for her sister last night. Katie called me that morning and said, Jessalyn wanted to come over to Nana's house and didn't want to run errands with them. So I had my two girls and we had such a fun time. When Papa came home from work (overtime!!) they played a couple of games while I fed Molly.
Molly is getting so big. She has started smiling and cute as a button. She is coming over tomorrow so I will post some pictures then. I also want to post some pictures showing you spring has come to Greenville. The pear and cherry trees are in full bloom. So there is pink and white everywhere. As always in March, it's WINDY. I am sure you heard about the tornado that touched down in Altanta!!
Let me tell you a testimony that was told in Sunday School this morning. There was this husband and wife that were downtown Atlanta taking in some sightseeing when they came upon these two little boys offering to shine your shoes for a small price. They felt lead to give these little boys some money and a tract when it started pouring hail. They ran for shelter in this 3x6 space (exit entrance and couldn't get into the building) and found the two little boys joined them. While in the shelter they heard "the truck noise" (tornado touching down). The man wrapped his coat around the four of them to shelter them from the storm. When it was all over he turned around and right behind him the area was covered with metal and debris. It gives me the chills writing this story. Isn't it awesome how God takes care of us and shelters us in time of a storm. What an awesome God we have!

IT'S MONDAY!

I am back from the beach after a wonderful weekend with some girl friends. We ALL had the same thought in mind, TO DO NOTHING and that is exactly what we did. On the drive Friday there it was horrible. Rained and flooded. We took the chance and went to see the house they are renting (right next door to ours) in Sept. It was one of those WOW houses! The hallway on the first floor (which is actually the second floor because the houses sit up on huge stakes due to the ocean) is wide and long enough to have a bowling game!! It has 3 stories and on the top floor is a huge game room with a pool table. They do need that much room with their 5 families. There will be alot of foot traffic between houses!!!
The hour ahead was an adjustment wasn't it! We didn't get home until after 7pm and of course Nana had to go see Molly! I am so amazed she is a total different baby. Mommy and daddy looked so rested and so excited about some new things she is doing for them. She did smile for me too. I will be going over to Katie's later on and see my other munchkins before I have to go to Spartenburg for an Event at the Deaf and Blind School.

NANA'S LITTLE LOVE BUG

Molly is feeling so much better since they got her on Zantac twice a day. I went over when I got done with work and we had some Molly and Nana time. Mom and Dad needed a good nap so we took a ride over to see Auntie Rhonda. It was nice to get together as we hardly ever see each other these days. With 5 grandchildren and one on her way between us we are very busy grandma's.

MARCH

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET TO DO ON A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN MARCH. SORRY MY SNOW FRIENDS!

BACK TO THE BOOKS!

Yesterday I began my first day back to Books Are Fun. It was TORTURE! Seeing all the new things and knowing the budget is tight! Oh well, in time I can buy again.
My boss Gaye gave me my schedule for March and we are going to alot of new places I hadn't been before so it shall be even more fun, new places and new people.
I had a text message from Skip after Molly's doctors appt. and doc gave her some zantac for acid reflex. Skip said, she was horribly fussy so I said, I would be over as soon as I finished work. When we had talked earlier in the day I told him to put her in their snugglie (front pack) and keep her close to you for a few days. When I got there they were moving furniture and Molly was in her snugglie up against mommy. She had already had a dose of her med's and she looked so peaceful. The whole time we were there she slept better than ever. Skip jokely said, please mom and dad stay the night and sleep on the couch! She is so good for her Nana. I texted him this a.m. and haven't heard back from him but I am sure they had a better night! So just maybe this med will give her some relief.
Today I am OFF and for the first time in weeks I have no place to go! I must admitt I am a little sore after packing up the books yesterday. Give me a few more times and it'll be better. I am doing American Greetings tomorrow and only have a few hours this week with them.
I am getting away this weekend (providing Molly is doing better). My friend Diane invited me to go to Mrytle Beach for the weekend with her mom and sister for a Girls Weekend. A friend of hers from work offered her a condo free of charge for the week but she didn't have the time to take off for a week so how about a weekend. Audy found out he has to work this weekend anyways. Skip was a little paniced when he found out I was going to be gone AND Katie and the kids are going to North Carolina for the weekend......he will have to keep Papa busy with Molly if he needs some extra arms.

MOLLY

You moms out there please pray for Skip and Jessica. Molly has had a case of severe colic and they have tried everything. They decided to take her to the doctor this a.m. and haven't heard back from them. I honestly think doc is going to tell them, to be patient and it will get better. I went and got her yesterday for the day so that Jess could get some things done and get a nap in. She was good for me and had her fussy periods but over all she was good. I did find that if I put her on her tummy after burping her real good she sleep much better. Jess has done alot of research on her formula and etc...I think it'll work but will take a few more days. They are such good parents and want to know what Molly is trying to tell them.

GREENVILLE NEWS

When Audy got his new job after being laid off for 2 1/2 months we knew we would have to look into another car for him. He works about 20 minutes away instead of 10 min. as before. Our faithful blue neon has way over 100,000 miles on it and Audy has been babying the clutch for several years, making it last. We knew we would have to come up with some dependable transportation. We also knew after being laid off and our savings crunched we weren't in a position to pay too much for a used car. We began to pray about it and one day Skip said, "dad they are auctioning off a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon at work. It has 80,000 miles and only been used around town and one person driver". They went and looked at it and it was in really good condition. The back seat looked brand new! So he put a bid in for 1250.00 and guess what......yep he got it. We are very thankful for God's blessing. He is getting ready to make some phone calls about hauling is faithful neon away and from what we understand he will get 500.00 for it. With that we will put it towards a new break job and etc...on the Ford. So now our neighbors think he works for GREENVILLE NEWS.

From Play Dough to a Jungle Baby

Isn't she getting big! We had so much fun with her. She gives the sweetest smiles for her Nana.

We got to spend time with Molly on Friday evening while mommy and daddy attended a birthday party. This is how we found Molly under a jungle gym.
She is getting so big. She was 3 weeks old that Friday.

PLAY DOUGH

After his nap while the kids and I were playing play dough he curled up with his Papa

When we began to play this is the "BEFORE" picture

Bryson is working hard on his project

Can you guess the character she is dressed up for?

Snow White! The apple is from the wicked Step Mom

Bryson created Larry and Bob from Veggie Tales.