Happy Belated birthday, Sarah Kate!

Well, I am getting to be quite a slacker with blogging, but packing and purging are consuming my time lately (plus Sarah Kate time too:)). Last week we celebrated our baby's 2nd birthday! I can not believe she is 2 already. We had a birthday party at our friends (The Clayton's) pool the weekend before her birthday. She had a blast at the party. She loves swimming in the pool, and add to the some pizza, icecream, and cupcakes, and we had one happy baby girl! Here are some pics of the party day! Enjoy!

Sarah Kate got many special gifts from friends and family. We have had a blast playing with her new babies, dress up things, make-up, bubbles, and all sorts of fun things. One special gift was made by her Pop and Daddy (with design and paint credit going to Momma and Nana). We decided it would be so awesome for the guys to build Sarah Kate a play kitchen (Pottery Barn like--without the Pottery Barn price tag). We had so much fun designing and putting together this kitchen for Sarah Kate. Here are just a few pics for now, more with come :)

We haven't been to our check up at the doc, so I don't know her stats for what she is weighing these days. Here are some things she is up to though:

*Loves Milk! Will drink a whole sipy cup in the morning and then ask for more.

*Most days it is a challenge to get her to eat good. She eats, just not as much as Mommy thinks she should sometimes (varies each day)

*Talks like crazy now and makes sentances. Remembers her friends names and talks about them when they aren't around.

*Loves the swimming pool and being outside all the time!

*Plays with: babies, bubbles, cooks in her kitchen, piano (loves to play Mimi's piano and Nana's keyboard), LOVES reading books, and coloring--likes to color more with pens than crayons though.

That's about all we got time to report on now! We are having a Moving Sale this Fri and Sat., so our week has been filled with preparing for that! Come check it out if you are in town! Lots of goodies you should take to your home :)

Crazy week!

So this week has turned out to be quite busy! We went Mon. to the zoo with friends. Sarah Kate had a blast seeing the animals and then playing in the water. She had so much fun that she took a 3 hour nap when we got home :) We are gearing up too for her 2nd birthday party on sat! I can't believe my baby is turning two. She is such a sweet baby girl, a bit of a diva at times, but she has been such a blessing to michael and i. I hope to have a post soon with updates about what she is up to! I am beginning the process of purging at our house as we get ready to move soon! we are trying to divide our things into stuff we can get rid of, stuff we will keep with us wherever we move to now, and stuff we will have to store. With all of the purging going on around here, i think we have decided to have a little garage sale (maybe it can help pay for the moving costs). That is all i have time for this morning, but I will leave you with some recent pics!

Rehearsal Dinner for Aunt Lala and Uncle Jeremiah

Playing in the water at the zoo with our friend!

Publix 6/1 trip

We had a great trip to publix this week! I spent a whopping $10.47 and saved $83.04!!! So here's the run down:

2 Muir Glen tomato Sauce--free with $1 printable!

2 Bic Razors--Free with b1g1 and $3 newspaper coupons!

Deli Boar's Head sliced cheese--this was a splurge-no coupon $3.60

4 Planters Nuts--$1.50-$1 blinkies and a b3g1 Target coupon=.50 for all 4

4 Nabisco Fudge Cremes/cakesters--$.150-$1 coupons and b3g1 Target Coupon

2 Kelloggs cereals--$2.10-$1 off 2 coupon

Clorox--free with Foodworld home mailer-try free coupon

2 Hillshire Farm Sausage--$2.50-$1 coupons= $1.50 each

4 Yoplait go-gurts- $1.39-$1 coupons and $1 off 2 Target coupon-Free plus overage!

4 Dove Deodorants--raincheck for b1g1-$2 coupons and $1 Target coupons-free plus overage!

Country Crock spread-$1-.40 cent coupon=.20 cents each

2 HP Hood Milk--2 free home mailers!

Butterfinger--Free with coupon!

I also made a trip to Target to stock up on their ground chuck on sale for $1.49/lb.! I got 6 lbs. for $10! that is 6 meals (or more if i stretch it out in soups and such!)==so total for my week I have spent $20--so we hopefully will make it to the farmer's market again this sat for our fresh produce and I have money left in our budget to get a good amount of fresh stuff!! I do need to start using up what we have in our freezer if we are moving in 6 weeks! How can i resist such great deals though.

We went to the zoo yesterday with Mimi and Haven! Sk and Haven had a blast playing in the water! We are loving the great outdoor time we are getting this summer! Off to play dress up with my princess! yall have a great day! I hope to get some pics up tom. from Lala's wedding festivities that happened last weekend! Sarah Kate was a beautful flowergirl and Lauren was a GORGEOUS bride! We will update all about that tomorrow though! Enough for today!

Big News!

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been crazy around here lately. We had a house showing last wed., then got a phone call on Sat. the person who saw it wanted to return to look again on Sun. So after a lovely date Sat. night with my hubs, we went home and cleaned. It worked out great, because Sk was spending the night away at nana and pops (her first time), so now she has officially spent the night with both sets of grandparents, and we all did wonderfully! She had a great time and didn't want the fun to end, and mommy and daddy had some nice down time too. Back to the showing---So Sun. we left for church with the house clean and headed to get Sk and go to church. She has been occasionally been complaining of an upset tummy but still was playing fine and acting like she is fine for the most part, so with that we headed to church, but then decided not to keep her around anyone later in the day, as she started to complain again of an upset tummy *We were supposed to go to friends to swim and grill out after church. We were supposed to leave our house for this person to look from 4-5. So, we returned to our house at about 5:05 and she was still there with the realtor. We drove around till they finally leave at about 5:25. The next morning, we get the phone call! We had an offer. After one counter, she accepted! last night, our realtor came over and we signed the papers, now she will sign them and we will be officially under contract. We are in complete shock and amazement of God and how he is working things out. She does not have a house to sell herself, just some other details to work out, so hopefully (and PRAYERFULLY) things will go smooth and we will close on July 14th.
So there is that story! in short...We are so excited, anxious, scared (at least i am a bit). We are excited to see where God will lead us, and we are praying for Him to continue leading us, shutting doors where they neeed to be shut, and openning where He wants them openned.
It is hart to think about leaving the only house Michael and I have lived in and started our family in together. We have so many memories here. Sarah Kate's nursery is here....maybe i am silly, i know i probably am, and i know we will make a home wherever God leads us. It isnt the walls, its that my baby girl and husband will be there. We are excited and can't wait to see how the next year unfolds. If you are still reading this long post, please pray for guidance for us. Pray God would slam doors shut if we aren't supposed to go anywhere, if we are supposed to stay here, we pray God would clearly show us! We are so thankful for our friends and their prayers, and know we are being lifted up by many friends and family during this time. I cherish this and truly am thankful.
On another note, I will have updates soon on Sk, she is turning 2 in a couple of weeks! CRAZY! I also hope to have pics of Sk soon from her aunt lala's wedding that was May 28th (last fri). She was the flowergirl and did a wonderful job and danced the night away with everyone! Her dress was AMAZING!
I think that is all i will say for now. Off to go purge a closet :)

Rice Bowls--new recipe

So we have a new recipe in our house that I love! I stole to idea from a restaurant we have in town called chipotle. I went recently and just loved their rice bowls. So i decided the next week to try to mimic it and make it for us at home (and we can make it a whole lot cheaper at home than eating it out!). So here is what I came up with:
Cilantro Lime Rice (that is how they do it at the restaurant)
--I took just plain old white rice (but i am sure it would be good with brown rice too) cooked it like normal, but added some lime juice in place of some of the water. after it cooked all the liquid out, i added in fresh cilantro (or you could use dried).
--We then added things we wanted on top. Choices could be endless, but we did:
Black beans, homemade salsa (another easy recipe), cheese, and cooked shredded chicken seasoned in taco seasoning.
michael loved this new recipe, so it will be a keeper around our house. And the cost is so low for this meal:
--Rice--I got it free last week with coupons!
--Chicken=I used 3 chicken breast to feed 4, so it was about 1.5 lbs.--so $3.50ish
--Salsa--all ingredients i had on hand already, but cost was probably about .75 cents
--Black beans--stocked up on those a while back for .17 cents a can
--taco seasoning--was free some time back when i stocked up on it
--cheese--probably about .50 for 1/2 a bag used
total cost:
under $5.00 for feeding 4 adults! Not too bad!

Newest Sewing Project

So the most recent issue of Sew Beautiful has the cutest swimsuit pattern that I saw and decided it was a must, even though I have many other projects that I need to be working on. I must say it was pretty easy though! and turned out pretty stinkin adorable! now i must decide whether to monogram it with her initials or not....i am thinkin it would be cute monogrammed in pink :)
We also went strawberry pickin' yesterday with friends and it was so much fun! Sarah Kate loved finding ones that she could pick and filling up the baskets! plus, it was fun to get to sit down and have a snack too :)

While I am blogging, I thought I thought I would share a great coupon for dove deodorant, that you can get free (or make some mula on it!) at publix this week! Here is the link--look for the $1.50 off dove deodorant on the right side of the screen and print 2 per computer! they have it b1g1 at $2.29--so free with coupon!!!

Next sewing project--Maja is creating a Flowergirl Dress for Sarah Kate to wear in her aunt's wedding (Michael's sis, Lauren) in a few weeks. Here's the fun part--We are creating the dress using Michael's moms (Sk's Nana) wedding dress!! Her dress has some beautiful lace and we are hoping to create a beautiful dress for sk from it! Pics will come soon!

Learning to Trust

This is a hard week for me. I try to pretend i am ok, but those who really know me know that i am not a good pretender. I know God is sovereign and His timing IS perfect, but it doesnt make any of this easy. I know that there is a reason for all of this, but still not easy. I sit and think about this time last year...I was so excited to find out I was pregnant (a little nervous too). Sarah Kate was gonnna be a big sis....We announced it, and then the miscarriage happened. man, it hurts...i dont think i have ever cried so hard. Now, looking at it, it still hurts and my heart aches to see my baby that I never got to meet, but I know some day i will see that baby in heaven and he will be perfect and beautiful (We didnt know the sex, but i tend to think it was a boy..) it is comforting to know that this baby never had to see the brokenness of this world, he (or she) is living in a place where there is no brokenness, or sin, or pain, or hurt. I long to be there, that is the home that i long for. I have seen so much lately the fallen world that we live in and how jacked up we really are and how we need Christ so much in our lives. Christ is my strength, even when i feel like falling down and not getting up, He is still there. Sometimes I just want a glimse of what He sees to understand, but I know that i cant, He is God and I am definitely not. I dont understand why we had to suffer a miscarriage, and dont know if i ever will here on this side of heaven, but that isnt what is important. That Christ is glorified through all of it, is what is important. God is good, even in the pain, He really is. He has already given me so much more than i deserve. I look at sk now and am so thankful (most of the time, at least, there are times i should be more) for her. she is such a gift that i or michael did not deserve. She is such a precious gift...So maybe i just needed to ramble for a bit, not sure if i really want anyone to read this, except, maybe i do, maybe i need your prayers. please pray for michael and i this week. Mother's day was a very hard day last year for us...i miss my baby...
Yesterday i found myself looking at other stories of ladies who had had multiple miscarriages and such a hard time getting pregnant and have yet to be able to have children, and my heart breaks. I long for Christ and his return....I long for no more pain and sorrow, and having to say goodbye to a child that we have yet to hold...
i know through this whole thing i have learned to be honest with God about my hurt. for so long i think i tried to say it was ok and act like i could handle it, but i cant, I NEED Christ to handle it for me. David said in Psalm 139,
O Lord, You have searched me and know me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thoughts from afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.