I am back!!!

Oh how I have missed blogging!!! But I AM BACK!!!! YAY!


This last year has been interesting. I now have Internet again and blogging is like therapy for me so I decided to pick it back up. I may not post a lot but I will be posting.

My kids are all so big now! I have posted new pictures of them on the side. Jacob is now 10 and has the long hair(help me Lord!). We are begging him to cut it but he LOVES it long. He is almost finished with 5th grade and it has been a challenge!!! But he has managed to keep all A's.

Amber is now 6 and has almost finished Kindergarten and she is so smart! I am sure that having an older brother that home schools has helped! We are so excited about 1st grade!! She is now riding her bike without training wheels, I am sure we will have a summer full of walks around the block.

And last but not least is Nathan, he is now 3 almost 4. And he is a wild child! LOL He is counting to 10 very easily and tries to do Amber's school with her. He totally LOVES Bible Man movies.

George and I have been doing well. He is still working and I am still handling homeschooling pretty well. I would love to follow a schedule better. Maybe after our summer break I will be more focused. The last 2 years have been tough for us. My aunt passed away in February of 2009 and my oldest brother passed away August 1st of 2009. We are healing though, one day at a time.

I am now singing on the praise team at our church and LOVE it! Music is like a healing balm for my heart. God is so amazing to us and we are so blessed!

I will soon post again and share my heart on a few things. It is so great to be blogging again and I can't wait to catch up with all of my bloggy friends!

Just a friendly reminder........

If you ever lose your toddler....

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Just go and take a look....

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On top of the washer!!!!

He really is so cute, but he is getting to be such a handful!!! Can you tell! LOL

Oh how time flies....

Hello all! Sorry it has been so long. We have been busy around here.

I am feeling some better. I still have some pain in the mornings but it is getting better.

We have had some snow since I last posted. I have pictures to share.

My aunt has gotten worse and has been in the hospital. My aunt Sherry came from California to visit her one last time since she doesn't have much time. The doctors have given her about 6 months if she continues to not take the meds that she is supposed to take.

I have a prayer request too, my step-sister, Amanda, who lost her baby last night and today she is in the hospital having to deliver it. She was 17 weeks along. Please pray for peace and healing for her. She has 3 little ones at home.

We have been getting some school done and stayed on track with that. YAY! And the babysitting is going very well.

I went shopping the other day and got clothes for George and all 3 kids. The total was around $140 and our savings were around $350!!!! We got around 20 pieces of clothes for all 4 of them. So we got some AMAZING deals! And we got all of this at Belk in the mall. They had a great sale going on so I decided to go and get me some stuff Saturday. I got 10 shirts, a pair of jeans, a pair of pajama pants, a purse, a new wallet, and some under clothes all for around $220!!! I was in a much worse need for clothes than the others. We never get to shop like this and it truly was God's favor! He is so awesome!

Well, now I will share some pictures. Have a great week!

Amber getting ready to play in the snow.

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Jacob going out in the snow.

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Amber in the snow.

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Jacob and one of his friends playing.

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What fun!

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Me and my Aunt Sherry.

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Jacob

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Nathan

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Amber

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Amber being silly. This was such a great picture I had to share it!

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Potty Training Success!!

First of all I would like to say Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you all have amazing times with your families and enjoy the true meaning of the season, God sending His son Jesus to die for our sins.

OK now to the potty training!

We have been playing with teaching Nathan to pee in the potty. The first few days he would wet his underwear several times, but now he has gotten to where he is staying dry most of the time. Well, today he did #2 in the potty!!!! YAY!!!!
That is really good because it isn't fun when he does that in his underwear. It was so funny though. I think it scared him, he screamed and cried the whole time! Then once he was done he was excited. So I guess we are way on our road to being finished with diapers in this family. So exciting!!! That is gonna save us a lot in cash.
But it is a little sad too. My last baby is not a baby anymore. :0(

I guess they have to grow up sometime.

Well, I am gonna go for now. I just wanted to update all of you on what is going on in the Bingham home.......

POTTY TRAINING SUCCESS!!!!!!

Yesterday was one of "those" days....

Hello all my bloggy friends.

I am so glad that today is a new day! Because yesterday was a TERRIBLE day!

What started this was I went to my Facebook and opened a message that I thought a friend had sent me and it was a virus. So from that point on I began to have trouble with my computer. Well, by 3:00 we couldn't get it do log onto anything hardly. So I called emachines. They give me the news that I have to restore my computer to it's original state. Which means that I lost everything I had on my computer. Pictures, documents, folders, recipes, EVERYTHING!!!! She made me erase all of my personal things on my computer. Well, I guess it was for my own good. I have never saved anything to a backup disk. Well, let's just say that I will be learning how to do that real soon!

So while I am talking to the nice lady that is helping me erase all my personal things from my computer, She tells me to turn it off and unplug my printer and internet. While I am doing this my little Nathan decides to turn it back on. It is at that point that she asks me how old my children are and how well behaved they are....wonder if she was hinting to something?

After I get off the phone with her, I am finishing up the wiping away of all my personal things on my computer(I am dealing with this, really I am!) Amber comes in the living room screaming at the top of her lungs that Nathan had thrown a toy and hit her in the head.

Now let me just tell you that we have had so much trouble with this little 2 year old throwing things, we don't know what to do! If he doesn't become a famous pitcher for some baseball team I will be surprised!

But back to my story... I lean down and hug my little Amber and rub her head and I feel something wet. I begin to panic. I pull my hand up and there is blood. I take her to my bathroom about 12-15 steps away and blood is dripping into the floor and she is screaming louder. I guess God stepped in because I don't handle those situations well. I cleaned her up and found the wound. It is pretty deep but I decided not to take her to the ER. It stopped bleeding pretty quick. But when I got home from choir practice last night(George stayed home with the kids) it was still bleeding a little. So I am not sure if I should have taken her or not. Any tips on busted heads would be appreciated so I will know what to do next time.

So today I am reinstalling my printer, trying to find all of my home school sites that I used, finding all of the kids favorites and I may close my Facebook account, haven't decided on that yet.

If I am not on here for a while it is because I am getting tired of spending time with the computer. I am beginning to feel like it is a 4th child that doesn't know how to behave and the other 3 children are being punished for it.

So there is another day in the real life of a home school mom.........

You gotta see this!

I had to share this video clip that I got with my camera the other night. We were putting up the tree and Nathan got so excited! I hope you get as big a kick out of it as we did.

We went to the doctor...

FINALLY! LOL

Amber and Nate both have bronchitis. They now have antibiotics and a very strong cough medicine. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. Maybe tomorrow will be an easier day.

On Friday we are taking Jacob to be retested for his peanut/nut allergy. Please be praying. When he was 1 he had 2 severe reactions to peanuts and we had him tested. They said he had a lifelong life threatening allergy to all nuts. Mainly peanut though. Well, a few weeks ago we bought the new Cocoa Puffs Splits(I think that is the name). They were chocolate and vanilla. The regular Cocoa Puffs are safe so I didn't check the new ones. Well, after he ate them I saw that they are made with peanut flour. And he had NO REACTION!!!!! So we are very hopeful that God has healed him and that will change his life! I will keep you updated.

Nathan'`s birthday party

Good Monday morning all! Make sure to go over to my other blog and read about my weight loss update. Just click here.



We had a great time at Nathan's party on Sunday.


I wanted to share some pictures from the day. I took a few pictures on his actual birthday Saturday of all the kids swimming in their little pool and I will post those as soon as I get them developed. April took the pictures at the party and downloaded them onto my computer before she left. THANKS April!

Hope you all enjoy!

The Birthday Boy!

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Dad, birthday boy & mom

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Eating some cake!

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Dad & Nathan opening presents.

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Happy Birthday to Nathan!

WARNING!!!

LONG POST!!!!!

Well, two years ago today my life changed forever. Nathan Grant Bingham was born and stole a piece of my heart! (I am posting this on the night of the 11th, Nathan's birthday is the 12th.)

I wanted to share a little about Nathan's story with you all. When George and I decided to have children we found out that I did not ovulate regularly. We tried for a long time for Jacob and after taking fertility drugs for about 2 months we finally got pregnant. Well, a few years later we decided it was time to try again. I took the fertility drugs for about 6 months and no pregnancy. They had also put me on a hormone to make my body ovulate which wasn't working. I was at church one night and the preacher had an alter call for anyone who was taking medication that wasn't working to come and be prayed for. So that was my chance. I went, got prayer and that next time I went to the doctor, I had ovulated and was pregnant!!! That was Amber. God had totally healed my body, I just didn't know it yet. I only thought He had made the medicine finally work.
Well, right after Amber's 1st birthday I suddenly had to have surgery. I had a cyst on my right ovary that had to be removed. Once they got in there, they saw that my ovary was totally covered by the cyst so they removed my ovary too. At my 6 week check up the doctor told me that I had to quit taking my birth control because it was causing my blood pressure to be too high. I was really only on it to keep my cycle regular because of not ovulating. George and I had decided we weren't going to be able to have any more children without fertility drugs and with me only having 1 ovary we really thought that even the fertility drugs would be a long shot. So we were settled into our little 2 children family.
Well, I continued to get my monthly cycle on the dot every month, every 4 weeks. That was something I had NEVER experienced. I had never been regular. We would joke about having another baby, but didn't think it would ever happen. We would have never planned to have another ourselves. But God had other plans! The week of Thanksgiving 2005 I was a week late and just had that feeling. George thought I was crazy. While he was at work one day I took a test and it was positive. We had been making Christmas lists for each other. When he got home I had my revised list for him-Van, maternity clothes, diapers, wipes.....
It took him a minute and then he just smiled when he realized what was going on. His reaction was WAY different than mine. I cried and asked God WHY?! I was in shock for a while. But remember, my little girl that I had always dreamed of spending tons of time with while she grew up was only 1 year old. I couldn't see myself spreading my time any thinner without someone being left out. My 2 pregnancies had been pretty rough, SOOOO sick, high blood pressure, bed rest, borderline gestational diabetes. I just had no idea how I would do it all again and with a 1 year old.
It was a tough pregnancy. I was very sick and had TONS of doctors appointments, was considered high risk and had a car accident when I was 6 months along which caused early contractions and false labor hospital visits, and at the very end when I was about 8 months along, kidney stones! But we both made it!
I have said all that to say this---Nathan is my angel sent from above and I know that God has an AMAZING plan for his life! He had to work hard to make it to this earth!
So today I want to share a little piece of my angel with you in a few pictures. If you have met him you know how precious he is. And if you haven't met him, take my word for it--he is a blessing to everyone who meets him! No matter how my day is going, I can pick up that little boy and he ALWAYS gives me the biggest hug and a huge smile. He is so loveable and loves to be cuddled.
I love all my children the same but each of them have a place of their own in my heart that I didn't even know was there until they were born. And I truly believe that Nathan is in my life to teach me to take life slower and to stop and smell the flowers. Enjoy my little angel!

Me and Nathan the day he was born. Wednesday, July 12th 2006-1:18pm

7 pounds, 14 ounces--20 inches long

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Nathan about 3 weeks old(notice the straight dark hair!)

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My little ham! Mr. Personality!

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Me and Nathan on his 1st birthday.

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Nathan(notice the mostly straight, blondish hair!)

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Me and Nathan on Mother's day this year.

Look at those curls! Way different hair than when he was little.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!

I LOVE YOU!!!

A little bit of everything.......

Today I will be posting about a few different things.

First I want to talk about the FREE Chicken biscuit from McDonald's that I just had. Today only you can order a medium or large drink and get a free chicken biscuit until 10:30 and then from 10:30-7 tonight you can order a medium or large drink and get a free chicken sandwich. Well, I ordered a medium iced vanilla coffee and I must say that it was good but it was no Java Chiller from Sonic. Now the chicken biscuit-they are trying to make it like the one from Chick-Fil-A and it is NOT anything like it!! It was good, but Chick-Fil-A has them beat hands down!!!!!

Next we will talk about the fact that we are officially done with school for this year!!!! YAY! It has been a pretty good year, Jacob has done very well in 3rd grade. He got all A's. He has mastered multiplying and cursive writing. (I was really scared of these two things so I am glad he did so well with them.) He read 2 chapter books in Literature this year and wrote little reports on them as he went along. He doesn't feel very creative usually so this was a big deal. He has touched on division and understands it very well. He has learned about punctuation and nouns and verbs. He is so smart and picks up on all of this so quickly! We ordered next years books when we got our stimulus payment and we have already gotten them in. He was so excited! I know that he will do really well in 4th grade also.
Now to Amber and her school stuff. We began the year learning letters and numbers but in September when their paw-paw Kenny died things in this house went a little down hill. We couldn't get back into a good schedule. This has been one of those school years that we couldn't wait for it to end. In the mix of all of this Amber has still done really well. She learned to recognize a few letters, she can count better, her coloring pages look really good instead of looking like scribble, and we have worked a lot on her speech. She is talking a lot clearer now. And her imagination is out of this world!!! We have even dealt with the imaginary friend thing! Jacob never had one of those. She has learned to play on the computer this year too. She LOVES that! She is my book worm. She really loves to look at books. Amber will still only be 4 at the start of our school in the fall so we will be doing a whole year of pre-school.
Now my little Nathan. He will be 2 in July and he is really wanting to color a lot and do craft stuff. He is very hands on. He likes to pretend a lot. He has graduated from eating paper thankfully. So now we can work more on letting him look at books and not worry about him eating a snack while he reads!! LOL
I am glad the summer is here for us. I have hopes for next school year to be full of fun and lots of hands on stuff. I will spend part of the summer planning for next year and I am DETERMINED to stay on a better schedule next year!

Now to sleep. And by that I mean that the last few weeks Nathan has been trying to take my pillow at night. We put him to bed in Amber's bed and usually in the middle of the night he comes to my bed and stays until morning. Well, last night I decided to give him a pillow when I put him in Amber's bed and he slept in her bed ALL NIGHT!!!! I was trilled and a little confused this morning when I woke up! I kept thinking that George was Nathan all night! LOL
So I hope that this is the beginning of something beautiful for me. All of my children sleeping all night in their own spaces that do not include my bed!!!!!

So now that I have taken up so much of your time I will bring this to an end. As your school year comes to an end(or maybe not to those who school year round) and summer approaches, evaluate your year and make a plan of what you may want to do different next year. Make this summer a great one for your children. Plan lots of fun stuff for the summer.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Have a plan for next year and have lots of fun this summer!!!

Letting go......

I just wanted to let you all know that Nathan went without his pacifer all day yesterday and all night again last night! Yesterday he did at one time come into the living room with one in his mouth that he found in his room and I laughed at him and then he laughed. I then took it from him and gave him a sippy cup. He has searched the drawer that we used to keep them in. We just tell him that they are gone and he goes about his happy little way and plays. At one time yesterday though he got a medicine dropper and sucked on it. That was pretty funny. He hid under the table to do it. I think he knew it was time to give it up.

So I guess the pacifer is now really gone. This has been much easier that I thought it would be. THANK GOD!!!!!

So I now officially have a big boy instead of a baby. :0(

Bitter sweet, yes, bitter sweet.

Milestones..........

Good Thursday morning all!

Well, last night my little Nathan went to sleep without his pacifier. I have to give his dad the credit. There wasn't one clean and we decided to try getting him to sleep without one. I tried and he wouldn't get still. So I went to clean the kitchen while dad tried and BAM! Asleep he was. And he slept all night without it. He did wake up a few times and whine a little but it went very well. I washed the 3 that we have left, just in case I lose my mind today and need one. (Not in case I need one, in case he needs one! LOL) I think we may be finished with the pacifiers for the last time. No more babies in my future.

It is tough when they grow up. I spend a lot of time thinking that it will be easier when Nate gets older. But then times like this I get a little sad that he is probably never gonna take a pacifier again. It reminds me to savor all of those tough times of toddler hood and enjoy him while I can.

Now I get to focus on potty-training. yay do you hear the enthusiasm in my voice? I do NOT like that part of mothering. But I will embrace it and enjoy it because in a few months he will no longer need diapers and I will once again be sad. Happy too because of the money I will be saving, but really sad that I will no longer have a baby around. It truly is bitter sweet for me.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Soak in every moment with your children. You can never get this day back!