Michael Lee Newsome

I'm sorry I've been away from the computer most days.  I did want to share, Eric's dad, Mike, lost his 9 month battle with stage 4 lung cancer (that had spread to his adrenal gland, lymph nodes, brain and now spinal fluid) this past Wednesday 4/21.  It has been a sweet time of remembrance we've been sharing with Eric's mom, sister, brother and extended family the past few days.  His services will be at our church, Kingsland Baptist, Monday at 11 am, 4/26 with graveside following at Forest Park Westheimer.  We praise God for his life and for his eternal healing.   He was an amazing husband, father, father-in-law, family man, worker, business owner, friend, brother, son and grandfather!  I had the joy of having him in my life for over 10 years, and I couldn't have been more blessed.  He and I were so much alike in many ways.  He and Clara took me in as one of their own, just as his family took Clara in almost 33 years ago.  I love that man.  He was the one who got me into NASCAR, who taught my husband how to tinker with cars, who helped anytime we called him, who let us keep his tools for years without ever asking for them back (well maybe once or twice when he NEEDED THEM!) :), who raised my husband into the man he has become, who was in the Navy, who was commited entirely to his family, and the list could go on.  Eric and I are putting together a slide show, and though we don't have all the pictures compiled yet, I thought I'd share a few oldies but goodies here.  Eric and his famliy are doing well.  Processing things, grieving, and being surrounded by family, friends and food.  If you would continue to pray peace and comfort over them, especially as next week settles in, the family goes home, and the quiet surrounds them, I would appreciate it!

Mike and his cars

Mike and Clara at their 25th anniversary party (almost 8 years ago)

4 generations of Newsomes.  Meemee, Grandad, Daddy and Cara

Baby Eric and mom and dad

Our family in 2002:

A picture of them all I took on one of our visits home from Baylor:

Baby Mike:

An amazing Grandad

Randomness

I figure if I post a few of these random pictures I've taken each day, I might get caught up.  When Eric is away (UIL week, sectionals, 5th grade instrument selection, etc) this is what we eat for dinner:

Seriously.

Haha, I did cut up an apple and orange to go with it.  At first I thought I'd title my post, "Constipation, it's what's for dinner," but then I thought my mom would tell me it was gross, so I decided against it :). 

Remember about 5 months ago (maybe more) when I planted some random carrot seeds to see if they'd grow at the end of fall, then I forgot about them?  Wait, you don't remember because who posts weird things like that on their blog? Anyways, we were cleaning out our back yard this weekend, and look what we found:

Yeah, not touching (aka eating) those with a 10 foot pole, but it was pretty cool to actually pull something out of our 'garden' that completely didn't yield anything last year :).  And Cara thought it was really cool!

Who puts a crock pot meal in the crock pot at 5 pm, especially when you've already decided you're not 'cooking' dinner and are feeding your kids cheese and crackers.....that's right, ME! 

Eric doesn't get to come home all week for dinner (or lunch), so he needs meals to take to school for lunch and dinner besides PB & J.  So, I made this pulled BBQ chicken last night.  It smelled really good.  So good in fact that after the kids were in bed, before he got home, I wanted some, decided I didn't want to pull the bones off the chicken (that's his job, I have a weird chicken/beef issue), and ate a 50% off cadbury creme egg instead :). 

Cara started swim lessons on Monday.  She goes once a week for 8 weeks.  Don't get me started (and if you were one of the few friends/my husband that I unleashed my anger on that day, SORRY).  But you can't see this picture and stay mad:

For once, it wasn't her being bad, she just didn't get to practice many skills because each time the instructor would take her out, little miss Mia decided she needed to go under water and half drown so they'd have to hurry back.  I had a discussion with the owner lady (I guess that's who she is).  It won't be the same next week, or we're signing up elsewhere.  She apologized.  I'm fine.  Not bitter still.  Still not talking about a 3 year old's swim lesson.  Ok, maybe I am, I just don't spend that kind of money very often and I am going to get what I pay for dangit :).  Done with RANT! 

Another cute picture:

And yes, that's my 3 year old in a 6/6x swimsuit.  She's a giant :).

What do you do when you want to sweep up the carpet of pollen, but you don't want to actually sneeze for the next two days, why you put your kids to work, of course!

Just kidding, they were just playing in the driveway while Eric swept, and wanted to 'help.'  But they're cute!

We are a family that always eats organic and healthy.  Especially when Mommy is pregnant and feels like laying on the couch all day.  I don't ever serve my kids leftover chocolate chip muffins for breakfast.  Nope, NOT ME :)

Ok, if you know me well, you know I, as well as my kids, eat awful (awfully?) when I'm pregnant.  Sorry, I try to make up for it when I actually care and want to cook, but these days, whatever is easiest to grab is what goes in the mouth! 

Ok, I think that's enough randomness for today :)

Go visit Tot2Tot if you haven't lately.  We have thousands of items for sale on Saturday, we are SO excited for our first sale!!!

Easter

I'm going to try to do some catch up posts since I've been lacking in the post department lately.  Here's our Easter post.  We spent last Saturday at Eric's parent's house as lots of Mike (Eric's dad)'s family came up from Corpus to visit.  It was fun hanging out!  Everyone couldn't get over how big Micah had got, and just couldn't stop touching his soft cheeks!!  Sadly, I forgot my camera at home :(. 

That night my mom came and spent the night to go to Easter services with us at our church.  It worked out perfectly because Eric played trombone in all 3 services on Sunday, so it would have been a long morning without her!  We went to the 8:15 service, and sadly we only got pictures of me and the kids, because Eric had to rush back in and play 2nd service (we got out a little late!).  We were all 'matching' in greens, and the kids just looked adorable.  This is the dress Cara picked out; she picked it because of the twirl factor. I  loved it because of the 6 we let her try on, it was on clearance! :) 

Here's Micah playing in the garden at our church.

And here are the three of us:

Before church we opened our baskets.  We don't 'do' the Easter bunny.  Nothing wrong with it, we just say, "do you want to go see what we got you for Easter?"  She doesn't really even pay attention to bunnies, unless they're real and she can touch them!! 

They each got some books and a little candy (and you all know Micah's candy really was for Mommy & Daddy)!  Here's Micah with his stuff.  Excuse my large self on the side:

And this is just cute.  They both were running to me with their puppies they sleep with :)

After church, we came home and to fill the morning, we made Resurrection Rolls (marshmallows rolled in butter/sugar/cinnamon wrapped in crescent rolls).  We got the recipe in a little book from our church the week before.  They gave us some good ideas to do each day for our preschoolers to talk about Easter.  We didn't do every day, but Cara really enjoyed it.  It was like Advent all over again for her :).  She really liked that the marshmallows disappeared when we cooked them!  She really 'got' (as much as a 3.5 year old can) Easter this year.  Just this morning she and Aynslee were 'playing Jesus.'  I said, how do you do that?  Cara said, well, I was Jesus, and I died, but now I'm alive again!! :) 

After that we 'dyed' some eggs.  And by dyed, I mean we bought a pack, squirted some color in a baggie and let her roll it around!  She loved it and I loved the non-mess it created!

After Daddy got home and naps were had, we had an egg hunt.  We hid the 11 (well 12, but I rolled too hard and broke one egg) eggs we dyed over and over.   Cara loves looking for them!  And loved hiding them for Micah (and basically showing them to him and picking them up for him).  It was gorgeous outside, just wish it wasn't so full of pollen!

Micah actually got to get one alone!

Our little man loves two things, his belly button:
 

and following his sister around!

More posts to come!