Butterfly Kisses

A few months ago I was asked to speak at a Purity Dinner at a church my friend worked at. She was planning an event for the teen girls there to pledge to keep themselves pure and abstain from sex until they get married.
 If you know me well you know my desire to share my story and help girls realize how valuable they are to God and why they should wait to have sex until they are married. If you don't know me well let me just say that God showed up in my life in a big way and used a series of very unwise choices to shower me with love and grace. I can not begin to express how grateful I am to Him for the life He has set before me. And because of His Love I feel called to share my story with others to help girls realize how God intended us to live.
 So, back to the dinner. It was set up beautifully with lots of girly decor and candles.
My friend Amber from http://eclecticexposures.wordpress.com/ was there to take pictures of all the girls who came dressed up in their fancy dresses. She also took the 2 beautiful pics that are below on my blog. The one with the verse is just beautifully done and the second is the verse underlined in my bible from when I was a girl.  That verse being underlined has special meaning to me. I did not just underline while I was preparing for the event. This verse was underlined by me when I was young. While studying I felt lead to look through my old bible and that is when God brought me to that verse. It was then I knew I had my main verse for the evening!!!
 This was my first time talking in front of a group that was not very small or informal so I was very nervous and I will not say it went perfect by any means. But it is over and now hopefully my nerves will be calmer each time. If not that will not keep my from trying again and again!
 To highlight the special night a sweet girl that was there had drawn me a picture that I still have and plan on putting in a frame for my office (aka: desk in my closet.) LOL
 Though I do not know what the future holds in regards to sharing my story I am am excited. Now comes the patience and looking to God for guidance part. If you have some extra time please pray for me in this journey. Thanks! Paige 

One of my goals in blogging is to keep up with the great deals that I get. I would love to have a great blog like some I subscribe to that seem to be up to the minute on great deals but I plan to just post the deals I do and track my savings. I don't know why but I want to. LOL
This week I got about 55 free Sobe drinks FREE. Last week I thought I was getting a great deal when Publix had a 10 for 10 deal and each bottle had a buy 5 get 2 free coupon so I bought a bunch. They came out to around 50cents each because the coupons rang up 2.50 off my order. I knew that eventually somewhere would have them on sale so I bought a bunch. Little did I know the NEXT week I would be getting free drink! I gave some coupons away but used the rest and now we have lots of drinks for car trips etc.
 I was also very excited to get cheese for free and I think actually some overages applied to my bill for them.
 Basically my trip to Kroger went like this. Before any kroger shopper discounts or coupons my total was $146.25 I paid $41.24 so I saved $102.04
I can't complain about that!!!!  This even included buying my 4 sunday papers for this week which was $8 bc I knew with sick kids I wouldn't make it out for the best value of the double paper today.
Anyway that is my saving blog for the day! 

I am not sure why but this blogging thing is hard for me.
So here is a quick update on each of us.
2009 was a great year full of God's blessings.
MIKE:
On top of running our company Mike started working for his friend's roofing company and is doing great selling jobs. Mike and I got to finally attend a Redskins game together here in Atlanta. It was a lot of fun tailgating with his family and watching them enjoy the game together. I am not sure what else Mike would add here but I will add that he spent a lot of time playing with our kids and teaching them cool stuff. Everyone gets excited when Daddy comes home!
Me:
This year was my second year as a homeschool mom and it has become a little easier, even if the math is getting harder :)
Also I have been working on writing and preparing for what God will have me to do in sharing my testimony. I had the pleasure of speaking at a Purity Dinner in January and though I was extremely nervous it was a wonderful evening and learning experience for me.
Brandon:
This was Brandon's second year at Cornerstone Prep a University Modeled school that we use in hand with homeschooling. He played for their flagfootball team and even got to play quarterback!
Brandon is currently playing basketball and is doing very well making several ( or more) each game.

Gavin:
My baby is growing up. He started 3 day preschool and loves it. He seems to be behaving himself and that makes me happy. He is full of energy and is always wanting to do what Brandon does. He loves legos and video games!

Lindsey:
Lindsey is growing up to fast. She is keeping up with the boys and talks all day. She loves dress up and asked to go shopping all the time. I am not sure how time can fly  by so fast but it does.

Family:
This year we had lots of fun as a family. We went on a cabin/camping trip over the summer with my grandparents. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast and it was nice to get away and spend time with my grandparents.

Church:
This year God took us on a new journey to be part of a church plant. It was an amazing experience and even though it has come to an end it is an experience we will never forget. We are currently back at our old church and enjoying being with our friends and family there.

I am not big a big Valentines day gal but maybe that is because I have a husband that makes me feel so loved every day! On that note I think it is so important to teach our kids to be loving.
So today hearing my kids say Happy Valentines day was very sweet! I have two little boys who I am hoping to raise to be as loving and sweet as my husband. So, today they made valentines cards and took them with candy down to our two favorite little girls down the street! It was very sweet! I am hoping to get a picture uploading to go along with this post!
Anyway, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

So, I am going to just highlight a few things from our last year.
The obvious is we had lots of birthdays and lots of fun. B
Brandon had an a spy themed party, Gavin had a knight and castle party and Lindsey celebrated her first birthday!
We just finished an awesome Christmas/New Year season and we are currently working our way through February.
Brandon is playing Basketball and Gavin will starting his first team sport, Soccer!!!
Lindsey is running around having a blast chasing after the boys.

This year daddy built us a great playground that is a lot of fun! It was also a lot more work than he bargained for and it is all mommy's fault. Gotta love craigslist!!!!

We went on two beach trips and it was really neat to see the kids react to all the new things there! Even Lindsey loved the sand and since she was not walking crawled around like a crap in it!
When we went to Hilton Head we got to ride bikes on the beach and Brandon loved that part!

Brandon started a new school called Cornerstone. It is a mix of homeschooling and private school. God has blessed us that we can send him to a Christ centered school where he can learn and also have the values we have reinforced! Brandon also got to play flag football for this school!

well the kids are crying so that means that is all the updating for now!

This is our first family blog. Since we will be adding baby number 3 soon, I figured we needed to get a blog spot to help everyone keep up with what is going on with us! Look for the gender announcement of baby number 3 later today.