32 weeks, Olympics and Couponing!!

 Yep I am 32 weeks now.  I have my check up today so we shall see how little dude is growing.  He is all over the place.  He moves so much more then the other 3 ever did.  Crazy child he is.  I am feeling large and clumsy.  We are all ready for him though.  I got his car seat this weekend and other odds and ends and I think we are all good!  My mom got her ticket to come out and stay with the kids.  I just have to pack in the next couple weeks and we are all good to go!

 Taylor had Summer Jam last week at our church.  They went from 9-3 everyday and she loved it!  They had water slides and bouncy castles.  She is just getting too big:)  She has 2 more weeks before she starts 1st grade:)

 The Summer Olympics have started!  YAYAYAY!!  I am excited SOMETHING is going on.  We have cable but we never watch it but we keep it for the sports.  Mainly football.  The girls stayed up to watch the Opening Ceremonies.  The kids run in every morning and want it on.  Taylor likes all of it but Brecken really likes the fencing.  Lol.  Anyways it has been fun to watch with the kids this year!!

I also got back into couponing since we are trying to save money.  Here I went to Rite Aid to get back into the swing of things there and I got all this stuff for $3.72.  I was pretty excited.  The toothpaste and mouthwash were free altogether.  I am really excited about all the changes we have made around the house.  Cloth diapering is going very well.  Coupons are awesome!  Making our own laundry soap and softener is great!!  They smell so good!!  Baking and making most of our stuff like bread and such is actually a lot of fun because I am teaching the kids at the same time.  It has all been so worth it lately!!  Well off to get my day started!! 

Tithing:)

First of all I know this is an iffy subject for people altogether.  Even us Christians!!  Should we tithe 10%?  Before or after taxes?  A big question for military is do we tithe off base pay only or everything they pay us?  We receive housing and food allowances.  I am constantly praying over this and wondering what we should do and how much and worrying if we can pay our bills if we do tithe.  So here are the facts from our lives so far.  When we lived in NC we tithed 10%.  FYI tithe means a tenth so that is where we get this number.  We were doing really well in NC so we did not even miss giving that 10% back to God.  I enjoyed it actually in knowing we were obeying what He wanted my family to do.  What I mean by obey is I have no clue what He is telling you to do.  Biblically He was telling my family to tithe our full 10% so I don't want to get in any arguments about what is right and wrong about what the Bible says.  For my family is it 10% of our gross income.  No we do not do after taxes.  We do not pay the government first and then God.  God is first. While in NC we were doing really well so we definitely felt the fruits of our tithing.  Here is another thing:)  God PROMISES to take care of us if we obey the tithe.  Man is so obsessed with money that we give everything to God yet hold back the moola.  In the Bible God even says to test Him on this!  Give Him the 10% and He will bless you even more!  We are a living testimony for that.  He really did bless over and above when we were tithing.  Okay moving on.  So we move to California.  WAY more expensive to live here and they are NOT paying us enough.  So where do we start pulling money from....our tithe:(  Guess what....things are not going well.  Our renter decides not to pay her rent which means we pay the mortgage.  We have had things go wrong with our cars.  Our dryer starts to go out.  Our TVs are acting wonky.  So we pray over all this....a lot.  Then we realize that all this starting happening once we quit tithing.  Ugh!  Duh!  Now again this is a conviction for our family so I do not want people thinking I am telling you what to do with yours.  I feel like God is showing us that yes we can obey when we are making it and making it well but what about when things are tight?  Why are we not trusting Him to take care of us?  He promises in the Bible He will not let us go hungry if we tithe!  He will take care of us!  We had this proven over and over again when I thought we could not tithe and we did anyways and then BAM! a check would show up in the mail from someone who had overcharged us or something like that.  IT NEVER FAILED!!!  So our big lesson for today in our family is we are going back to tithing first over everything else.  I am tired of not having the "insurance" that we need.  He will never fall back on His promises...He has not yet.  Anyways the point of this blog is not to share our finances but to give testimony on His promises for our family.  This is our issue we have struggled with in our trust in Him.  What is funny is I am more relieved now that we are back to tithing then anything.  He always provided and I know He always will!!!

31 Weeks Pregnant and Physical Evalutions:)

So I am 31 weeks.  The top picture is my 30 week and then the one over to the left is my 31 week picture.  I am really starting to feel it.  My legs are killing me.  I waddle a lot and I do not feel like it is so much on how big I am but how much I hurt.....there.  Anyways Jayce is around 3 pounds although he does not feel as heavy as he is long.  He moves like crazy!  He is all over the place.  Other then the pain from walking I feel okay.  I feel very out of shape and huge.  I cannot wait to get back to running and into my little clothes.  I have about 5 outfits I wear and that is all I fit in.  Breckens therapists are probably wondering if I have any other clothes...lol.  We scheduled my c-section for September 18th.  My mom will be out to help with the kids.  I am so ready to sit in a hospital on drugs with a cute boy for a couple days:)

 We got Breckens Physical Therapy Evaluation back.  We are still waiting on his Speech and Occupational Evaluations to get to us.  First I feel as if I need to explain again Breckens condition.  I have had many people say he seems to understand like a 3 year old so they think the tests are wrong.  Okay....Brecken has Cerebral Palsy.  This has NOTHING to do with his mental health whatsoever.  He has absolutely no metal handicap at all.  He is cognatively a 3 and a half year old boy.  His brain damage is in the frontal lobe and Corpus Callosum.  The frontal lobe is where the motor movement is controlled and the Corpus Callosum is the part that connects the left to the right side of the brain.  Okay so we have that cleared up.  No mental handicap.  With the frontal lobe being damaged it confuses his body into doing weird things.  Moving oddly and not having a whole lot of muscle tone (he is very weak and this cause his drooling and limbs to go limp...hence the therapy to make him stronger) and the when he tells his body to do something like speak or to walk without falling over, his Corpus Callusum is so thin that it is like trying to shove a baseball into a straw...the info does not fit and his body again slows down and this is why he will fall or have trouble stopping when walking or why he is having trouble speaking.  So YES my son is a normal 3 and a half year old.  He thinks like one and cognitively knows what is going on like a 3 year old.....he is only physically handicap.  Just clearing that all up!!  So anyways we got his evaluation back and 6 months ago he was at a 19 month old level physically.  He is now testing at a 22 month level (he moves like a 22 month old).  His doctors are happy with him progressing however he added 3 months onto the gap.  This is not an ideal thing.  We have to see what  our plan of action is on this.  It sounds like more therapy.  Which is hard because he already does 5 therapies a week and goes to a special needs school 4 days a week.  I just do not want him to get to overwhelmed although I know his therapists are awesome and know what they are doing so I am confident they know what we should be doing.  We will just keep doing what we are doing to get our dude where he needs to go:) 

This is Brecken and his Occupational Therapist Kristen!  She is great!!  The girls get to join in which is encouraged so that they can understand more about what Brecken has to go through to do normal things.  Here they are all doing yoga.  The girls really love getting involved!  This is so great that they encourage this at his therapies!!

Well I hope everybody has a great week!  Taylor has Summer Jam at church so she will be gone most of the week and Brecken will be at summer school so it is back to just me and Bailey for a week:)

29 Weeks and Summer School!!

 So here is the big 29!  I am 29 weeks and feeling it!!  I do not feel too bad I am just getting sore and having a hard time breathing!  He does not feel super heavy but he seems very long.  I went in for my appointment yesterday and all looks good!  He has a strong heart beat and is measuring right on.  They now have to see me every 2 weeks.  I also got to schedule my c-section for September 18th so we have a light at the end of the tunnel!!  Well for Jayce it is more like a cold surprise wth lots of masked people around.

 Here are his 4D ultrasound pics!  He looks like Brecken and Bailey mixed I think.  Poor Doug...the only kid that looks like him is Taylor.  I even had someone the other day tell me they all look like me and none of them look like Doug.  I still think Taylor is closer to looking like Doug then me though.  This kid like all our kids have the Riney nose:)  I am really excited to hold him!!

Brecken has started summer school.  With his CP he is eligible to do summer school and he loves it so of course who am I to say no to 2 hours of him off playing:)  He has the same teacher that he had in school so he is comfortable going.  Very cool for this kid!!

Daughters:)

So I am sure you have all heard that song by John Mayer called "Daughters".  I hear it on my Pandora a lot and I LOVE this song.  I just really feel he explains a girl becoming a woman so well.  Here is a verse that gets me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will live like you do
Girls become lovers
Who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

When I sit and think of the words and where I was in life as a daughter.  Then becoming a wife and lover.  Then having a life inside of me and becoming a mother.  Wow do we really go through changes or what.  My heart changed so much during each stage too!  The most amazing thing is knowing I get to be there to watch my daughters grow.  To see them play around and be kids now and then watch them fall in love and become that woman that stands beside her husband.  Then to get the news that they are carrying a life inside them and knowing their whole world is going to change for the better.  I pray my girls have a daughter.  Not for the same reason that most moms say "I hope you have a girl just like you" but for the fact that knowing how much I changed at each stage of life and being able to be apart of my daughters lives and knowing how unique a mother daughter relationship is.  I am so happy to have my girls and love that I will have this relationship to hold on to with each one!!