Mother's Day

I had a post in my head that I wanted to write today about Mother's Day.  I wanted to talk about how difficult the day was when we were trying with every ounce of our being to become parents.  I wanted to talk about how blessed I am to have two wonderful little miracles who call me mom every day and how my heart aches for those who are struggling to become parents.  I also wanted to talk about the two amazingly strong and loving women who made what I can only imagine to be the most difficult choice to relinquish their child in hopes that they could have more than they could give them.  I wanted to talk about how these two beautiful women are the reason why I can celebrate Mother's Day with a smile on my face.  I also wanted to mention how my heart aches for these two special women, actually all birthmoms, on a day like today.

I wanted to say all of this and more, but then I read this post and I decided that I couldn't have said it better myself...

With that, I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in our lives.  To the women who are future moms, for the expectant moms, the moms who already get to hug each of their little blessings, and to all of the birthmothers because you were our childrens' first mothers.  May God continue to bless each of your lives today, tomorrow, and always!

She's two alright!

Once Charu is comfortable with who's around her, she becomes very verbal and I'm sure she's going to be giving Allie a run for her money in a few short months.  She can count, say her ABC's as well as most of the typical children's songs, and is now saying most words.  She's even starting to string words together into phrases.  Charu's main phrases she uses throughout the day (and in the correct context I might add) remind us that she's surely two!  (FYI- all of the exclamation marks are due to the fact that everything Charu says, she says with a lot of let's call it passion!)

"Allie, EAT!"

"Sit down now!"

"I do it!"

"Scuse me!" (when she wants around you)

"Where'd she go?"

"Come 'ere!"

"All done!"

"Let's go!"

"Shoes on!"

"I come?"

"Come right back!"  (although this one is tough to understand...I know what she's saying)

"Ah man!"

"Ahhhhhhh, CUTE!"

"By you, by you!"  What she means is that she wants you to sit or lay by her.

"No, no, no mommy!"

With each new phrase or sweet new word, we are constantly reminded at how far Charu has come since entering our family just 5 1/2 months ago.  It's amazing to watch her little heart heal and I can't wait to watch her continue to develop her personality!

Fun with the water table and shaving cream!

Changes

After many tear filled conversations and a great deal of soul searching, Cory and I made the difficult decision that I was going to resign from my teaching position that I've had for the past eight years.  Although I LOVE teaching, we've come to see that our children are only young once and we don't want to miss any more of their lives than we have to.   Even though I'm excited that I'm going to be able to be with my girls every day, I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to actually resign.  Not knowing is what's the hardest for me.  I wanted one more year with my girls, but I have no idea if there will actually be openings at local schools when I'm ready to return to teaching in a year.  Will I find a new teaching job in 2013 or will I sub?  Will we have to relocate for me to find another teaching job and if so where?  Will we have to delay adding more children to our family due to financial constraints?  So many questions that I'm turning over to God and putting in his hands.

So with all that said, my kids may have to wear garage sale and hand me down clothes for the next few years.  We may not get a season pass to the pool, instead we might be running through the sprinkler in our backyard on hot summer days.  We may not go on family vacations, instead we might have our own little staycation or little day outings to the zoo.  We may not have much, but we are truly going to have each other every day and I couldn't ask for more!

p.s.  To save money, I also stopped drinking pop a few weeks ago!  No more Diet Coke with Lime!  For those of you who know me....you know this is a BIG deal for me!!!

I think they are sick of mommy always having her camera!

My two little cheeseballs!

Garage sale find

I found a water table on a garage sale last weekend for $12 and I've never watched the girls enjoy something more!  They spend hours playing with it...I hope the newness never wears off!!!
P.S.  The leaves on our deck are from a hail storm that blew through Tracy the night before I took these pictures.

 Here are Charu's adorable shoes we bought for her when we were in India for $3 brand new!  She LOVES these shoes!  I only wish we had bought more clothes/shoes while we were there for both girls!  Aren't they adorable?!?!

Homemade puffy paint

We made homemade puffy paint on Tuesday and the girls had a BLAST with it!  I think I need to find more activities like this because they could have painted forever I think!  They weren't too excited about taking pictures this time...but I took a few (too busy to edit them today) anyway!

Homemade Puffy Paint
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon salt
Food coloring
enough water to make a paste (I added too much)


***Paint on cardboard with Qtips and then microwave when you are done for 10-30 seconds on high

Bird feeders

Allie LOVES animals and she loves watching the birds and squirrels, so we decided last week that we should make some homemade bird feeders out of pine cones.  The girls had a BLAST and had even more fun watching the birds and squirrels eating off of them for the rest of the weekend!

Our newest little friend that the girls sat and watched FOREVER!  He was bound and determined to get full on our left over bird seed that we spilled on the deck!

Our failed attempt to get a picture of Allie "holding" the squirrel.