Overheard

The other day while playing domino's with the kids Micah jumps up and says "Wait, pause the game I have to go potty!" (I think he has been playing too many video games at other peoples houses!

That same week on our way to Queen Bees Tea Room for a special girly lunch Maddie yells "My God my God why have you forsaken me?" This was out of the blue mind you. Then she said "Mommy what does that mean?" So we talked about it and how Jesus died on the cross and why he said it. Then as we are driving I am racking my brains trying to figure out where she got that from....finally it dawns on me....the kids had been requesting the same Easter story book over and over and that quote was in the book.

What have your kids said lately? Don't they bring such joy!

Entertainment

First of all I want to say thank you so much for all the sweet comments you all left on my last post about Charlsie Grace. They were incredibly special to me and I appreciate knowing you care! I am thankful that her life has touched many even though few "knew" her.

Now onto less emotional things!!! The kids and I have really been enjoying using YouTube as an educational tool. It started with Micah wanting to see how cereal is made and so we discovered that if you type in How It's Made to the search engine you come up with a bunch of neat Discover Channel shows about how things are made. One that I encourage you to watch is hot dogs....I have always felt that these nasty little pieces of "meat", if we can even call it that, were not fit for human consumption but now I am even more convinced!

Now that I think about it perhaps the kids and I are the ones that are in the dark ages and all of you already know about the above mentioned Discovery Channel show since we don't have any TV channels. If that's the case I apologize but if not then by all means enjoy some quality learning time with your kids!!!!

Another Year Has Passed

Last Monday the 16th we remembered once again the life and death of our sweet Charlsie Grace. I had planned on posting about it that very day but since we went to her grave so late it did not work out. Then I got so busy this week that it got pushed aside. For now I will share with you how we remembered her and what we did to celebrate her life.

Since I had told the kids we were going to make cupcakes for Baby Charlsie they were eagerly anticipating the day. They kept talking about it and planing it excitedly.

My original plan had been to eat a quick breakfast, make the cupcakes, and then head out to the grave while it was still cool. Well good thing I have learned some flexibility because we did not actually end up heading out till much later. The kids helped me make the cupcakes, we decided on German Chocolate so that Charlsie Grace could see daddy's favorite cake! We let them cool and got ready for nap. Right before nap time we all talked about missing Baby Charlsie and quite a few tears were shed!

Around 4 or 5 we headed out to our HEB to buy balloons and special flowers. Maddie picked a balloon that said Happy Birthday and Micah picked one that said We Miss You. Very appropriate choices I thought!!! The kids and Michael then helped me pick out some sweet pink flowers for her.

At her grave we wrote special messages on the balloons and then released them, I would have preferred more of a ceremony with them but the kids just haphazardly let them go. As Michael said, "Lets not make this a somber occasion" and you know what we didn't, sure there were some tears but there were lots of smiles and giggles too. Next we ate our cupcakes and put one on Baby Charlsie's grave. We each "talked" to our sweet girl which was an incredibly special time to hear what everyone has been thinking and feeling. We said our goodbyes and headed down the hill to share some birthday cupcakes with our family. Then as a special treat we ate out as a family.

It has been so incredible for me to see how my children handle this situation and the emotions that have surfaced this year. There is much more sorrow and more of an understanding of what is going on, this is especially true for Micah. I look forward to many more years of helping our children know and understand their little sister, Baby Charlsie. As for me I just wish I could hold my sweet little two year old girl and see what she looks like. Perhaps God will grant a glimpse of this before heaven.....
I will try to post pictures of our time soon!

Mommy Brain and a Surprise!

Recently we went to a church meeting with some friends, they had invited us to check out their church and since they had night service we decided to go. The pastor walked up to us and asked our names and as I was shaking his hand I said "Hi my name is Michael..., oh whoops no it's not he's Michael and I'm Charlsie" I was so incredibly embarrassed!!! Now though I know that I had good reason for that mommy brain slip up.

Yes we had a Mother's Day surprise....we are expecting another little blessing. I am about 9weeks along and due in mid Jan. We are all very excited and while everyone in the family is hoping for a boy, I really don't care either way. We are planing on going with another homebirth and I am so incredibly excited about it.

I was recently very struck by this quote and thought I would share it with you!

The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing. But in our culture we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture. ~ Doug Phillips

These are a few of my favorite things....

Since moving to Texas I have finally been able to take advantage of some of the deals I had previously only been able to read about. Many of these deals are found on several of my favorite blogs. I thought I would share them with you and hope that you enjoy them as much as I do! With the cost of living going up I have found them to be very helpful with saving money for my family. I still have a lot to learn and if you all have any great ways you save money please share!!!

Okay Biblicalwomanhood and Moneysavingmom are two of my favorite blogs and they both happen to be written by the same woman. Crystal is a wealth of information and an amazing Godly woman. Her Moneysavingm0m blog has helped me save so much money through CVS. I highly encourage you to head over there and check it out!

Another way we have found to save money is to use the Red Box they are little "red boxes" that you can rent movies from, in our area they are by the McDonald's or the Walmart. We make their low $1 price even better by using this site to find codes to make the movies free!

These are just a few ways I have found to save money. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to save money and am always eager to learn more. Let me know if any of these ideas worked for you and if you have any to share!!!

Classic Maddie

Yes my daughter has done it again, she has given me something funny to post about!

Yesterday I took the kids to the library pre-school hour here in our town. I was really excited and I think they were too. They did not have anything like this in Mexico so I was really looking forward to the experience. It started out with a little song and then moved onto talking about spring and how little kittens are born, bunnies are born, and baby deer are born. Well Little Miss Maddie pipes in and says "My daddy shooted some deer and killed them." Yes thank you dear daughter for sharing that with EVERYONE! I got a little red in the face and one of the other moms who clearly understood looked over at me laughing, but in a nice way.
What have your kids said or done recently to embarrass you?

So What Are Our Options?

On of my blog readers, ha that sounds good doesn't it (smile) I think there might be 3 of you out there and 2 are my relatives!, whoops got off track there. Ok well one of my readers asked me the other day about some alternatives for the Nalgene delema! It seems that I did not give you all an alternative to the BPA leeching Nalgenes.
I guess one of the reasons is that I have been a little disappointed with the prices of the alternates I have found. I recently stumbled on one though that is a little better priced it is made by Camelback and can be found here. There are also the Sigg bottles, they have really cute kids designs as well as the Klean Kanteen bottles. If you purchase any of these let me know what you think!