Who does she look like?

This is what I thought to myself as I looked closely at my daughter. She looks like my sister, no....she looks like me. It was so funny, I was looking at her face closely(which is another post for some other time) and I came upon this discovery. It just made think back to when my children were first born and you just stare in awe of what the Lord has gifted you with. What has been growing inside your womb for 9 months. What a wonderful creation and once again I'm struck with the fact that we are entrusted to raise and love and nurture this person. Such an awesome responsibility.
btw if you look closely you can see that she has a sprinkling of freckles:)

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I lost my thought so lets go on to the next photo.

Don't you love the expression. He's helping water the plants but keeps getting frustrated with the hose. His hands are a little to small to easily spray the water. He had figured it out and I ran for the camera(and shut the front door as he was a bit wild with water) but when I came back his hand had slipped again and instead of helping I snapped a picture.
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Sheela found a new place to nap.


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#3 said something about this plant today. I can't remember what the exact comment was but he called it a weed. I took offense. What do you think?

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Here's is the perfect cure

for a headache, Go to the beach!! No really it worked wonders for me! I'm so sorry that the camera decided to stay on my dresser at home. The water was blue and the day was lovely. We went to the 'rough' beach because James thought our favorite spot would be too crowded today. Surf was up as we bounced/floated/were thrown around among the waves. #4 fell asleep on the way there(it was just down the street but he thinks he doesn't need naps this week, so as soon as the car started he was gone) and we were able to transfer him to the blanket on the beach for awhile. When he woke up he pointed to the water and said something to the effect of let's go! He amazed daddy with his floating ability(dad hasn't got to go swimming with us since he found this new talent). We saw turtles in the water, little crabs on the beach and came home with a lot of sand on our bodies!

I just finished installing quicken on my computer. After the big oops I made this month, I figured it was a good idea. Just a FYI for you, if you have a bill set up as an automatic payment you really don't need to pay it online too! *slaps forehead* Yes so I paid one bill twice which made 3 others bounce *ouch*

another fun day of shopping

I had a doctors appointment this morning and James was able to stay home with the little ones so was able to go to my appointment and grocery shopping all by myself. It was fun!! I managed to wow the cashier and baggers with my savings(I honestly didn't feel I did that well but was excited with what I did come away with) on the way to the car I told my bagger to check out the grocery game and gave her a quick talk about it. My favorite savings today was a package of cheese(16 slices) and 3 cans of nuts(11.5oz each) I only spent 30 cents on each of those items!! The cheese coupon was from the paper, you can still find the nuts online(planters) The nuts were $3 off if you bought 3 items(from certain brands-excluding single serve) someone clued me in to the fact that you could buy packets of kool aid. The nuts cost$3(so free with coupon) the koolaid was 10 cents a packet!! Now we don't drink kool aid but someone else suggested making play dough with it-so we'll be making a lot of good smelling play dough this year:)
Honestly, I am having so much fun with this coupon savings thing;)

We lost the trade winds over the weekend so it's been super hot and humid, thus not much posted lately. Too hot to do too much. The jelly fish were here over the weekend too, I think they said over 2,000 on Saturday-lots of people stung. Makes me hurt to think of it.
We had a fun day for the children at church on Saturday. Last year our theme was Fun in the Son So this was like a little mini VBS kinda thing to get the word out about this years program. They got to sing songs, hear about the word, make some projects and play some water games(and it turned out to be a great morning to do that!)
Monday the older kids went down the road to play with another church group. It's at a park so me and the younger ones were able to get some time to play together while the others did there thing. I thought for sure that #4 would be nice and ready for a nap when we got home but it still took him awhile to fall asleep.
Well, there is a quick update for those that want to be in the know:D

We've had another fun filled day, with normal cleaning and caring of home and children aside.We went swimming before lunch, which was quite interesting. There were 3 other children in the pool, I never quite understood how to pronounce their names. Very ethnic sounding. Then I overheard all the children talking and the "others" were telling mine they had a brother that lived "somewhere" mine said 'is that another country?' This had me laughing to myself as I realized it was a town next to us but they hadn't recognized the name. Really they love geography, always studying maps--maybe we should work a little more diligently on local geography!
As some were still napping I realized that in order to use a coupon I had for a free train we needed to go to toysrus today or else it would expire. This is close to the mall, where they are having a lego exhibit so I figure we can combine the two even though this time of the day that is not a direction I'd usually desire to go.
So we made it to the store and there is a notice that coupons gotten on June 19th are no longer valid. I got mine today but inquire inside to double check that mine is good. All is well so we go to the train section. The have a train table set up with tracks and trains so everyone starts playing while I try to find a train this coupon is for. There are 4 choices on the coupon but seems the store only carries one of them and they are sold out. We are all disappointed but I let the kids play a bit more before we go. Another associate comes by and asks me if I'm finding everything ok. I say well I have this coupon but it seems you don't' have what I need. He is very apologetic about the situation. We talk a bit. Seems that first coupon I had noticed on the sign had a lot of problems with it-including someone scanning it on the computer and making fake ones that were used. I said that it's too bad that people would chose to do that because not only does that affect the store/manufacturer but then they may choose not to offer online coupons anymore which would be a disappointment to the general public-who love to get these great finds. Anyway the COOL thing was: He offered to let us pick out any train that was $12.99 or less!! So we still came home with a new FREE train. My children love trains:) #3 especially loves Thomas.
So off to the mall we went to look for legos. The munchkins took all the pictures. #1 is inspired to build great lego designs. We picked up Free apple slices from McD's that the children had earned from the summer library program on the way out and we rode the tram from one side of the mall to the next(did I mention they love trains!!)
So great fun day for us. Now every one is off to bed and I'm looking for a good foot massage:)

N

Happy Birthday

To blessing #4!!!






He turned 2 today!!

Special Day

#1 was baptised Sunday. He was so excited yesterday, the first thing he said to me was you know what today is?? In his excited little voice. There were actually four people who got baptised yesterday and one of the ladies was telling me when they were standing in the back waiting their turn he was just beaming.
Today I heard him talking to #2 about how he started his new life.....just so cute and exciting to her him talking about.

Here are my takes from yesterday. There were a few people taking pictures so I'm hoping to get a shot of his face. #1 was last, there were 3 ladies/girls before him.

Pastor talking about #1



As you will see the children were excited to see up close what was going on.
pastor explain to #1 what he should do when dunked.


Ta Da:) I am so excited for #1 to take this big step and look forward to him growing more and more in the Lord.

update on #2

So the day didn't go exactly as planned. Long story short is they still found *something*. It's about 2mm x 3mm in size. The current plan of action is to go back in 3 months for another scan and if it's hasn't changed in size to go back in 6 months for another and just keep an eye on it.
We have many questions: what is it? why couldn't the doctor see it during the last surgery? is it really a problem? what is God's plan in all of this?
#2 is doing wonderfully, she really is the picture of health and if it weren't for modern technology no one would know there was anything different about her.