Saving my pennies

For THIS:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-T1i-Digital-18-55mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B001XURPQS

I already have a Canon Rebel XT. I love it! However, there are ways it could be better...the new Canon Tli is everything I want!
AND the big selling point...it has a high quality (HD) video feature. My current Canon does NOT do any video. We rarely use our super out-dated camcorder, so we have very little family videos. This Canon Tli could take videos for me, which I'd download on the computer, and burn to DVD's. The old camcorder uses those camcorder tapes that fit into a VHS adapter.

Selling my old Canon Rebel for around $250 on Ebay will knock down my total price for the new Tli to around $500. Not bad!

So now I'm on a mission to save up for this. Wohoo!!

Terrible Two's Strike Again

Yep, this is what happens when you turn your back for just a moment. In this case, I was swiffer sweeping the living room after having just swept everything. I come into the kitchen and look who is playing in the baby cereal. Guess who? Thankfully I had a good sense of humor, and grabbed my camera first! haha

Happy 1st Birthday to Gabriel!

I cant believe it has been a year, a whole year! This time last year I was sitting in my hospital room with a brand new little baby and Billy was getting called from the Principal about Brayden's behavior- which started the path to where we are now... Now I have a busy 1 yr old constantly trying to escape into the laundry room and splash in the dog water or eat a little dog food (don't worry, I always get him before he eats some lol)...and Brayden is home schooled now. Oh how much can change in a year!

I don't want to make this an excessively long post (although I know it will end up being long anyway hah!), but I would just like to post a little memory from Gabriel's birth day and then post pictures of him from every month the last twelve months. :)

Two days old - home from the hospital:

One month old - Blessing day

Two months old:

My smiley guy - Three months old:

Four months old:

Five months old:

Six months old:

Seven months old:

Tigger Gabriel - 8 months old (that is actually his bath robe!)

Uggh couldn't find another photo, 9 months old - when he got stung/bit by an insect at the boys' soccer game!

Sitting in his jungle room - 10 months old

Found a stray brownie and made a mess - 11 months old

Here is the birthday boy! 12 months old...

So Gabriel's birth was probably the most different out of all of my boys. He sure likes to be different! lol A quick summary, I was having nightly contractions at 38 weeks pregnant (two weeks before my due date) and asked my Dr. to induce me because I worried about having someone there with the boys. The Dr. said she couldn't, unless I was having those nightly contractions again - then to just come in and she'd "help" me along. I had my mom come over and we waited and waited for those constractions so that we could go to the hospital, but nada. We all went to bed and I woke up with a surprise at 2am. My water was breaking on its own! Talk about good timing! I wanted to wait a bit to go to the hospital, like I did with all my boys. Usually I have 5-6 hr labors so I thought I could hang out at home for at least a couple hours. Billy and my mom said NO, they wanted me to go to the hospital right away. My contractions hadn't even started yet.
We were in the car within 15 min and at the hospital in 30 min. The contractions were starting now and quickly. The rest I'm not going to go into detail by detail, although I love sharing my baby delivery stories. :) I will say though, that Gabriel was born at 4:...something AM (bad I can't remember the minutes? LOL). It was only 2 hours from when I woke up until he was born. I am very lucky that I had someone already at the house with the boys and that I listened to Billy and went right away to the hospital.
He was 9 lbs 2 oz and I forget the length (horrible!).

Now onto tonight's birthday party- we celebrated with Gabriel's favorite dinner which is mac n cheese. He had three helpings I think! Then we cleaned up and let him open his present. He had already opened the other present last night. oops. haha He got a little toddler driving wheel electronic toy thing and a playscool busy ball popper. I don't know how much he got to enjoy his new toy because all the big brothers were fighting over playing with the ball popper thing. haha!
Then we had carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. yummm He tried to grab the candle, naturally, and dove right into the cake. He loved his cake and had two helpings of cake also. Yikes! Billy jr didn't quite get what was going on because he kept asking for his birthday too. I thought he wanted cake so I got him a slice and he said "NO! Birthday. Birthday. Birthday" and pointing at the candle. He wanted to blow out the candle too. Instead I sung happy birthday to him and then gave him his cake. He was happy with that. Only one more month until his birthday anyway!

Now we're off to sleep and the house is picked up and quiet...shhhhh

Birthday photos:

Opening his present:

This is fun!

Dad showing him his new toy, as he eats the wrapping paper...

Dad set up the new toy, finally getting to play with it:

Big brothers are faster then he is! Trying to get the candle with no luck:

First bite.."Is this really for ME?"

YUMMY!!!

The aftermath!

 

Taking a deep breath.....

...and we're jumping in headfirst to a big life-changing decision for our family.

Billy and I have decided to homeschool the boys. This has been something that we have considered and discussed since Alex started kindergarten over five years ago. It is not something we're jumping into blind or on an act of frustration. No this is not a sudden decision by any means. This is a decision that has been building and building and building until finally the literal straw broke the camel's back and we realized that it's time. We can no longer just discuss it, we have to act on it.

I spent two weeks of the boys' winter break doing hours of research and soul-searching on what we should do. The more I learned, the more I started to feel that homeschooling is really the best route we can take.  Our concerns of social and academic issues were addressed as I did my research and found that it will actually be BETTER socially and academically to homeschool.

I know it will be hard and no walk in the park. I know it will require a lot of me and there will be a lot of trial and error, especially during the first year. However, I know that failing is not an option and we HAVE to succeed.

I am excited, the boys are excited, and Billy is excited. I have plans in place to keep the boys and myself on track.

For more info and to follow along on our journey, I started a blog especially for our progress and adventures in homeschooling!
http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/

We can't wait!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I marvel at how time flies so fast and how last new years seems just like yesterday, when I was wondering and worrying about what the next year would hold for us.
Thankfully 2009 was a good year! I just hope that 2010 is just as good, maybe even better!

We spent our night tonight eating junkfood, uggh, and watching movies. Alex and Owen are my little night owls - just like me. Brayden can't stay up past 8pm usually but he lasted until 9pm when he finally conked out on the couch. Baby Billy usually stays up late with us too, but he was asleep by 11pm.

At the stroke of midnight we, Billy and I with Alex and Owen - Brayden joined us later, ran outside to yell happy new year. Lady was freaking out because of all the fireworks and providing us with entertainment. Her fur was all fluffed up and she kept barking at every firecracker. She's in the house now, but is still running from window to window growling. She doesn't like all this noise!

Tomorrow will be a nice lazy day. Yay! Billy will be taking the older three boys to go see a movie. I think I'll take a nap..... :)

I hope your New Year's Eve was wonderful and I wish many blessings to everyone in 2010!