My brother and his wife Nikki had their beautiful baby girl yesterday. We are so excited for them and cannot wait to get to meet her! They are hoping to move to Texas right after school gets out in California in June. Our family is anxiously awaiting! Our kids cannot wait to have cousins nearby.

A few weeks ago, my kids were exicted because we had found the blog of Sam's cousin and his family. They were eager to see how much their oldest had grown since we saw her last, about 3+ years ago. When we went to their blog, Sam's cousin Spencer had just planted several trees at their new home and had found many insects in the process. Well, he got the crazy idea to see if they were edible. He couldn't bring himself to eat anything, but in talking to his kids about surviving on insects, his 2 older kids said that they would try to eat a worm. So, they did, and actually said they liked it. Nate, upon seeing the videos of a 3 & 5 year old being courageous enough to try a worm, must have had it on his mind since. This morning he was out digging in the dirt and came inside and said, "Mom, is this a grub? Do you think I can eat it? I'm going to try." I was very hesitant because I know I myself would never eat an insect, yet alone a worm! Nate was so determined, and I think competitive (we are seeing a lot of this side in him lately) he decided to do it. And he did. Not once, but twice. His good friends came over later in the afternoon and he had to prove to them in person that he really did and could eat a worm. Now I can say, "Thanks Spencer for the survival tips. Now I know that if we run out of food, at least one of my family members will survive."

Just a little side note: Sam and I were watching a video tonight that said insects have more protien per unit than beef does. While beef is only about 17% protein, a grasshopper is 61%. (I do not know where a worm is on the charts though.) This finding still has not changed my mind yet.

Natalie has been very spoiled this year. She has been asking about her birthday for months, and the way things have played out, she has had many in the past few weeks. Birthday #1: Every family birthday, Barbara has a traditional birthday dinner that we celebrate with just our family on a designated Sunday close to that person's birthday. Natalie really enjoyed this evening. Birthday #2: Next we celebrated Natalie's birthday while camping with several of our friends. We had our traditional pancake breakfast, just this time it was camping style. Then we ate cupcakes when Dad arrived and opened presents. Natalie's favorite was her new Barbie 2-wheel scooter. She tell us that now that she is 5, she is not a baby anymore. 3-wheeled scooters are for babies and William can have hers. Birthday #3: On Wednesday night, only a couple of hours after arriving home from camping, we had a night planned to take 2 of Natalie's closest friends, Tyson and Lillian, to McDonald's for dinner (Natalie's favorite place to eat), have cake and play at then play place, then go to Disney's Magical Journey on Ice at the American Airlines Center. It was great fun. Very crazy to accomplish it all in such a short amount of time, but Natalie was thrilled. All the kids really seemed to enjoy the show. Natalie's favorite part was of course The Little Mermaid, equipped with bubbles and an enormous inflatable Ursula whom Prince Eric kills with King Triton's trident, producing fireworks and lots of foggy smoke. Pretty cool.

Birthday #4: My mom has a tradition of taking each of the kids out for a special day around their birthday, just she and them. Natalie was able to pick where they would go and she picked the American Girl Place. She was able to take her well loved Lilly doll and have her cleaned up, while Natalie and Nana checked out all the cool sights. They had a wonderful time. Natalie was exhausted by the time she came home, but after all the weeks of excitement, she woke up on Saturday morning and said, "Are we going to Disney World now?!"

It was Spring Break this week and we thought we did not have any plans for it. Well...things sure change from quiet to chaotic really fast! We got a call from our favorite camping buddies to go up to East Texas at Lake Bob Sandlin for 3 days. We could not resist! It would be us, the Williams, the Altices, and the Probsts.

After spending what seemed like eons packing enough food and gear we thought we were on our way, only to hear that William's little friend Dakota broke his collar bone during the packing time and would not be able to join us until Tuesday night. We were really sad. William kept telling us, until Dakota came, "I'm done camping now. I want to go home." No buddy & crazy bugs. I think camping did him in! He is just so funny! We went camping last August at Lake Lavon and he was scared to death of the bathrooms because they were covered in grasshoppers and spiders. The first time he had to go at Bob Sandlin he walked into the bathroom, looks around, and says, "Good, there are no grasshoppers here mom."

Brie, Nate, and Natalie really had a blast as always though. They rode scooters, played team tag, cooked way too many marshmallows (and sticks), and even went fishing and wading. Nate managed to catch 2 fish, a trout and a sunfish, thanks to a neighbor camper who lent him some secret bait. (Bright Neon Yellow Power Bait)

Sam won the award for knowing backwards and forwards how to get camp from home. He had to work on Monday and Wednesday but managed to take off Tuesday because of MAJOR overtime. So, he drove to the campgrounds Monday night to stay with us, woke up early early Tuesday morning to take Brianna to work at the zoo, drove back that afternoon, then left to go back to work early Wednesday morning. We were all really glad he was able to be there with us for most of the time though.

We celebrated Natalie's 5th birthday, and Saint Patrick's Day, on Tuesday with cupcakes and the traditional "Not Wearing Green Pinching." Of course, as always, Sam and I got pinched.

Funniest moment of our trip was when we were getting ready to leave, Nate really wanted to try fishing one more time. (He was wanting to catch The Big One!) So, I took the kids to the brim pond, tucked back in the woods. While we were there, William out of the blue tells me that he needs to go potty. At some point during this trip, Sam had so graciously taught William how to go standing up. (I, for sanities sake, have always taught my boys to sit at first. Much cleaner!) Knowing that he now knew how to stand, I told him to go to a tree behind us and just go. Well, he did. Right through his clothes and all. When I saw him dripping out his shoes of course I freaked out. "William! What are you doing?! You don't pee through your clothes! Your suppose to pull them down." Then he comes back at me, "You didn't tell me to mom." I felt so dumb, but had to laugh. No I didn't tell him that. He is still learning. Better luck next time. By the time we got home, we were exhausted, but there was no rest for the weary. Natalie's birthday was never-ending this year!

Well, we were concerned that this might happen, and last Thursday it was confirmed. Our baby that looked like it was doing well, heartbeat and all (minus a large blood clot next to it) passed away. It has taken me a week to even want to talk about it to anyone. Last week was a total emotional roller coaster. So, as a family we decided it would be best for us to heal our broken hearts together before we tried to talk with anyone else. As much as we wanted this baby, we are hoping that the doctors will be able to give us some answers as to why this keeps happening. Our OBGYN seems to think that I have an underlying condition that might be causing the subchorionic hematomas when I am pregnant. If there is, there are things that they can give me before and during pregnancy to help prevent it in the future. The thought of having an uncomplicated pregnancy is unfathomable to me. It is all I've known for all 8 times I have been pregnant. The scary thing for me is that the #8 means that I have a true 50-50 chance of a successful/unsuccessful pregnancy. I don't like those odds at all. For now, we are taking a break from trying again for a few months. Following my D&C last Friday, my doctor wants my levels to return to normal then run some blood tests to look for those underlying causes of my miscarriages and complications. Hopefully he will find some answers. For now, I am just enjoying feeling the best I have in months (physically that is) and enjoying my wonderful children that I have been blessed with. They, and Sam, are everything to me and have been such wonderful helpers and supporters of me through this time. I am so grateful for them, and for all of you who have showed love and support to our family. We appreciate everything!