Monday Must Have: Kid Camera

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Heidi's 5th birthday! When I asked Heidi what she would like for her birthday she stated she would like a Barbie Dream House. After a quick search on Amazon John and I decided that would be a present for a later time. Between the price and the fact that we have NO room in the house we opted to search for something else. When roaming the aisles we happened upon this annoying kiosk that John thought he should keep pressing the buttons to make it sing. On it was this Kidizoom Action Cam. Think "Go-Pro" for kids!

Heidi opened it and of course was like, what in the world is this, but we told her it was her own camera for pictures and videos! The girl has filled my phone memory with pictures and videos. I LOVE them, but sometimes I would like to take a picture without the "storage full" message popping up.

An awesome feature about this camera is that it can go underwater! YES! There is this little case you put it in a you are ready to go! This past week my niece was in town and I saw her making a few videos - can't wait to upload those little gems! Oh yeah, you can upload all the pictures to your computer as well!

Other features include a couple of stands to attach it to a bike or skateboard - which is fun to see! I will upload a few of the pictures Heidi has taken. Note - pictures look the best quality with taken outdoors.

This is a link to one on Amazon :)

Beach Fun and Turtle Eggs

We headed to SSI for a couple of days and let the kids hang out with their cousins staying there for the week. The intention was to just go for the day, but we ended up going for two because Heidi was insistent upon swimming in the random little swimming pool at the house. Harrison is still not a fan of the sand on the beach and ended up sitting in my lab under the tent the entire time. Eventually Harrison fell asleep :) I am thankful we have a few options for going to the beach, but as much as I LOVE everything about the beach I prefer going to the pool where there is less sand. Everything else - the sounds, smells, food, calmness - I am beach all the way!

FYI - I have the most awesome beach bag. I go to the beach with the kids by myself often and this will hold all of our towels, toys, a little thermal - anything we need! It holds up to 150 pounds :)

On the way out Heidi and I stopped by one of our favorite places to eat - The Crab Trap. John was pretty mad {not really} but we couldn't resist! My girl loves her shrimp so I couldn't deny her!

This morning there was a turtle stuck in our fence and we took him out so he could continue on his adventure. There are turtles all of the time hanging out in our yard. Heidi says it is because we are so nice and they feel safe. WELL, tonight when we got home John spotted another turtle {this one was smaller} and she was laying eggs!! EEK!! We didn't take pictures because we did not want to disturb her, but I am totally excited! Tomorrow's project is to get chicken wire to protect the next from the other animals we have around here. This will be so exciting for the kids to watch!

One morning this week Heidi decided to give herself a ton of accessories. Obviously we had to take a picture! Harrison was not having it. Each time I tried to take the picture he would run in front of the camera because he wanted HIS picture taken. This little guy is such a ham! He even picks up the camera and smiles so that I will take his picture.

Awesome find of the week - a Barbie Dream House on an online yard sale site for $40! And it has barely been played with! Christmas for Heidi :) Side perk, it also included all of the furniture with it - yay!! We have plenty of Barbies, so now she will be able to play all day! She asked for one for her birthday, but I just couldn't justify the cost - that and we certainly do not have the room right now!

Monday Must-Haves: Gym

Today I am featuring health and fitness! The older we get the more important it is to take care of yourself. John and I are determined to set a healthy example for our children. By us working out they will be more likely to incorporate fitness into their daily routine. Back in November I decided enough was enough. Tired of feeling depressed about the "baby/toddler weight" I started going to a training center with my friend. {ahem - you need to join back with us!!!} John decided that since I was going that he would go as well. In December John ended up with rhabdomyolysis, which can basically KILL you, and was in the hospital for 4 days so we took a month break.

If you start back to working out and then suffer extreme soreness {like it hurts to touch your other arm} for days and your urine starts turning brown - go straight to the ER.

We started back in January and then mid-February I did some major damage to my sciatic nerve {think hot yoga for over an hour and me thinking I am still flexible enough to touch my foot to the
back of my head} and literally was couch bound for 2 weeks. I couldn't walk. It was the worst pain I had ever been in and I seriously thought I was going to never walk again. I begged for a catheter because the mere thought of getting up to go to the bathroom was enough to make me hold it for days - I didn't of course, but there were lots of tears.

I had to take about 2 months off because of my back {and had to take off this tennis season} while John stayed the course and lost about 30 pounds. In late April I started back and so far so good!

SO - my Monday Must-Have is some sort of gym or training center. Ours in small is has 1-3 people in a session. I love the feel of the smaller gym because I am less self-conscious of people watching my out of shape self. This is something John and I needed. We used to be in amazing shape, but now, well not so much. Neither of us have the discipline to push ourselves at a gym without a trainer. so instead of paying for a gym membership that will probably not get used we go to a center where we are held accountable. If we were to go to a gym we would probably get a trainer and that would probably cost $35-$65 a session. These sessions cost around $20 a session so it works out much better!

Our gym is Studio Fit and we HIGHLY recommend it. Sean and Brandon {the trainers} are awesome to work with and so much fun. To further explain the awesomeness I will let you see a picture of me with a little sweat - I never sweat - like ever. Let me know if you have an awesome gym or if you want to try ours!

Party Time!

We had Miss Heidi's birthday party over the weekend! SUCH a FUN time! As usual we had a pool party and had everyone over to my parents' house for the fun and festivities. The nice thing about summer birthdays and your family having a pool is it makes it super convenient for a party! Heidi enjoyed having her friends and family over to celebrate the BIG FIVE and couldn't wait for her guests to arrive.

I am not one to do all sorts of crafts and things to get ready for the party - pool, food, cake, and you are set for a party! At the last minute I ended up printing a couple of things off, but as much as I WANT to have the pinterest party birthday, I love the low key birthdays like we all grew up having. I love the pinterest looking parties and if I was not such a procrastinating perfectionist {look it up! basically a perfectionist gets paralyzed and procrastinates because the work will not live up to how you want it to be...its a tough world}I would definitely do many more "fancy" things. I printed off "Frozen" themed items and made a birthday banner, some food labels, and thank you notes. Frozen - so original, I know! You can check out the FREE printables here!

This is the night before her birthday and her last night being 4 :( You have no idea what Heidi means to me. She was my little rainbow after the storm and a sign of God's promise that HE would always be here. She is so full of life and fun. She calls me mama about 5 million times a day and even though sometimes I would like to use the bathroom by myself, have unbroken favorite items, and maybe have 3 minutes of silence - I would not trade any of that for the world. After Hudson I did not know if I would want to face the same heartbreak of having another baby again, but God had other plans when I found out we were expecting Heidi.

Decorating her birthday cake. I am, and will never be, a "pretty baker". You know, the cakes or cookies that look like they just came out of a magazine? Nope, my cake if lopsided and it was crumbling a bit into the icing. I thought about telling everyone it was chocolate chip icing, but I refrained - ha! It still tasted good though! Not pictured, but before finishing the cake Heidi invited a couple of friends over to swim!

We ended the day with celebrating a Fish Tales {Heidi's choice} and had a very nice dinner outside where the bugs were not around and it was not too hot. Its a great local seafood restaurant in town! All in all Heidi said she had a wonderful birthday!

Monday Must-Have

The other day I had some earrings come in {they were free, that is the way I shop} and I absolutely LOVE them! They remind me of a pair I purchased 5 years ago while I needed a bit of retail therapy while I was waiting on Heidi's arrival. I couldn't buy clothes at the time, so jewelry it was! I wear them at least 1-2 times a week and I am happy to have another pair that is similar, yet different to change it up a bit!

Back in the day I used to accessorize constantly, but that was before a little angel started breaking all of my necklaces. Slowly I can add more accessories to my wardrobe for the 5 times a year I am out of non-sweaty gym clothes. The other day I wore these earrings for the first time and I have worn them everyday for at least a little bit since! If you want a pair like these you will definitely have to act fast because they are on a tester for a direct sales company ;) Here is a link if you would like a pair!

Foodie Wanna Be

I really wish I was better at cooking. Now, I am not horrible, but there are definitely improvements that could be made. We planned to take a meal to a family that we had not met yet, but they will soon be our neighbors. One day, when we were going to see our house and how it was coming along our future neighbor popped out to say hello and we are super excited that it is a family and the couple is around our age! Of course, because I have to know everything about every situation, I found our neighbors on facebook {back in March} and then randomly a mutual friend posted a meal train site on FB because of something they are going through right now.

Check out the recipe here - it is one I have cooked before. I also made broccoli, brownies {with chef Heidi of course}, and rolls.

I am so happy that I was able to take this meal and meet the other half of our new neighbors. Going into someones home that I have never met is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I am so thankful I stepped out and met our neighbor this way. I was over there for an hour, but I am sure I could have stayed longer! There will be many nights of sweet tea and conversation in our near future!


During the day today the kids and I went swimming and then had lunch outside. Luckily we have been going early enough in the mornings to swim for a few hours before the rain. Today's fun pool trick involved me throwing Harrison in the air and him going underwater and popping back up. He loved it! Me, on the other hand, I worked out my triceps yesterday and biceps this morning so my arms are pretty much like mush right now. At first the day seemed to be starting a little rough with pool time. Harrison did not want to take off his Mickey shirt so he would not even get his bathing suit on. I was finally able to get him to get his bathing suit on and he kept his Mickey shirt. After pool time I wanted to change him and the only way he would change was if it was into another Mickey shirt. Looks like we're going to have to add a few more shirts to his wardrobe...

The night before Harrison grabbed my camera and handed it to me and started saying cheese! This boy loves to have his picture taken and he gets excited to see the pictures after they are taken.

Clothes

About a month ago I read an article someone posted about how to help with the clutter in your life. I read articles like this all of the time because I am constantly trying to find my way in cleaning out what we have accumulated during this lifetime. Not everything works for everyone, but finding a system that works for you and your life is the best thing to do. I am constantly pinning to find a way to declutter or organize. Most of you probably said, "you just throw it away", but that does not seem to work in my situation.

During this time of saving we have not bought many material items so that has been easy to not add to our stuff and things are getting better with getting rid of items. So, all in all I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I discovered this new way that works for me with my drawers. Currently we are still using a temporary chest of drawers, but this will definitely carry on to when we move and have our old dresser back.

Basically you fold all of your clothes upright so that you can see everything in there and you will not have to dig around for what you are looking for. This has been so helpful and I started this with Heidi's clothes too. Side-note, I showed John my new drawer system and he opened his drawer to see if I did it for him - oops! Maybe next laundry day ;)

Teacher Costume

Heidi had another dress up event the other night at VBS and she wanted to go dressed as a teacher. At the last moment she wanted to be a doctor, but then changed back to a teacher. She is so sticking adorable and has been talking about being a teacher for a couple of months now. Personally I think she would make a fantastic teacher because she is smart and loves to show people how to do things. You know, a 4 year old knows SO much more than we do, right? Well, a teacher costume was simple. We just grabbed some clothes because that is what teachers wear and we made sure to add a little blazer to make her look a little more "professional". I punched the lenses out of a pair of glasses and then pulled her hair back. Next we added an apple just for fun! And voila! You have the most adorable little teacher ever! No money spent and a happy little one to be able to dress up for her career!

Water Fun

Pool day for the kiddos today! We were outside this morning for hours and it was so nice because the clouds were out just enough to shade the sun. I bought a fun little ball sprinkler thing the other day and we finally used it. The kids loved chasing the balls around and playing in the water that sprayed out. You can get one on Amazon! Mine was on sale when I got it ;)

Harrison is like a little fish in the water. He will swim all around and then just stick his legs out {with pointed toes} out stiff as he can and just float. Heidi is our underwater queen. She loves to dive around and sit at the bottom. We are still working on her actually swimming and while we are in our own pool she can go without the puddle jumpers {if you don't have a set you need them with kids} but if we are in a large crowd then she will have to wear them because too many kids in one place {in the pool} will make my head spin in all directions.When we were at the pool at Disney there was a little boy, maybe in between Harrison and Heidi that at one point had swimmers on and then later he didn't. but he was swimming with an older brother or cousin. The family was way on the other side of the pool and the older one got tired of watching the boy. He told the adults he was tired of watching him but no one seemed to listen or care. Eventually I saw the little boy and kept a watchful eye on him, but it made me so sad. I was ready to jump in and save this boy even though his family way on the other side wasn't even paying a bit of attention. Anyway, so Heidi wears her puddle jumpers when in crowds.

The kids looked cute today and I took a ton of pictures, but we will never get to see them because I did not have the memory card in the camera and they do not save to the camera. I wish it had a little flashing light like my DSLR that would let me know there was not a memory card. So because of that you get stock pictures of random people playing :) 

Swirling Spiral

I posted yesterday about out little trip to the beach. What I didn't post about was a stop we made on our way home. We can get to the beach a couple of different ways. I took a route home that led us near to where Hudson is buried. Being that close I decided to stop by for a short visit. I have mentioned before that I am not a "cemetery person" and I rarely go visit a grave. To be honest, I think it has been 5 years since our last visit. The place is beautiful and overlooks the water - if you wanted to pick out a burial place this is definitely a nice one, but still, we rarely go. On this day I felt like I should at least stop by.

The past few months have been a little sad for me and I cannot quite put my finger on why. Maybe that is why I have turned back to blogging to get my feelings back to "pen and paper". There is so much involved when it comes to grief. Sometimes you wonder if its a case of the green eyed monster making its way into your world or if its social media that throws in your face what you have lost. Small unintentional jabs come from all directions. Things like "life is so hard when you have 3" or "they are only 15 months apart so that is tough", I still remember things said to me in the early times and those replay in my head constantly. My "favorite" is right after we announced we were expecting Heidi and someone said, "see, I knew it would happen, all it took was for you to get in your new house". Hmm...

Lately though I feel like I am looking at a stranger in the mirror. I see this person who looks like me, but has been aged by grief. Looking at so many other people who have grief from losing a child I see it in them too - grief ages a person. I see the extra emotional eating weight, the worry lines, the disappointing lines, so many things that do come with age, but I see them more at the sad times. Some days it is like I have been swallowed by the ocean and I am rolling in a swirling spiral just barely able to keep my head above water. Sometimes I feel like it would be so nice just to let it swallow me up and take a break. Grief is can be exhausting and keeping your head above the water is not easy on some days.

Our church gave a sermon on fear and worry and how in the Bible we are told many times not to fear or worry. Trust me, I already have all of the versus on speed dial. You cannot be an anxiety filled person like I am without having those versus memorized, I always feel much better after reciting the versus several times, but then you find the devil {aka social media} and read about a child that recently passed away in his sleep. At that current moment your youngest is taking his nap. Instantly you snap up, run into the bedroom, and check for breathing. He's breathing and you just start to sob praying to God that His will be done, but PLEASE let His will be to keep your family alive and together. Your sobbing starts even more as you pray, so much that you run into the bathroom so that your other child does not see you crying. That's the life of someone suffering from grief. I think I am mixed with grief and fear that I will have to grieve again. Losing a child in my womb and seeing his lifeless body is the absolute worst moment I have experienced in m life. Losing one of my children now? I don't even want to go there with you...

I'm 6 and a 1/2 years into this journey and I'm still battling everyday. I know I will never be the same person I once was and that too is something to grieve. Sometimes I just want a day where there is not a single sad moment in my day. Just one. The only light that gets me through the day is that I will be reunited with my son again and what a glorious day that will be - no more suffering, no more pain. Without having Jesus, the light in my life, I do not even want to imagine how dark my life would be and where I would be now in this journey. Still thanking God everyday for His blessings and always praying for His will to be done.

Beach!

The kids and I headed to the beach for the day just because :) Heidi has been asking to go and it finally seemed like we were able to head that way. No more hand, foot, mouth, chipped tooth incidents, or other various medical issues going on so it worked out. We chose Tybee {other choices being SSI or Jekyll} simply because it was just a teeny bit closer than the others and we are in VBS this week at night. The kids loved the beach, and by that I mean Heidi loved the beach. Harrison just liked to sit in my lap and let the waves knock us over. He did not want anything to do with touch the sand. Heidi, on the other hand, enjoyed the sand a little too much. My ear is proof because a day later I still have sand on the inside of my ear. I can hear it every time I swallow. Funny how years ago my priority at the beach was laying on my chair working on my tan and now its making sure the kids are enjoying their time and we are all coated in enough sunscreen.The pictures below are the only times Harrison touch the sand,

Earlier I mentioned VBS - what an ordeal that started off to be! We went to register and then found out that the earliest age accepted was if you had just finished kindergarten - oops! Well, little Miss Heidi pitched a fit and thankfully the sweet women at the church {this is not the church we attend, but a local church in our town where we have many friends} must have taken pity on me or something, but they allowed Heidi to join in the fun. She is having a blast! Tonight the kids could dress up like a character and she randomly asked to dress like Snow White. Even more random? We were able to find my Snow White costume from when I was in 1st grade....apparently I did not like wearing the black wig because it covered my blonde hair - notice the slight forced smile?