Party On

We're possibly potentially moving forward in building our house! It's been a loooong time. We get a lot of questions about how things are moving along and honestly it's been waiting with some more waiting for almost 3 years now. We spent 20 months waiting for the purchase to go through. I'm happy about that in a lot of ways- I think we got a killer deal and it gave us time to pay for it in full. The guy we bought it from did a ton of work dealing with the city and we saved a lot living in Hendersonville. It's also been so hard. It's hard on Josh to drive 45 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes each day. It's hard on the kids to have no yard. It's hard on me to cook with half of my stuff in storage. I'm so ready to move forward! So what's been happening in the past 14 months? We bought a set of plans that ended up not working on our land. We bought another set that was custom drawn to the land and it ended up being 100k over our budget to buil...

Anias: 18 months  Hiding behind the curtain Yet another unsatisfactory meal mom, sigh I say new words like… dog, amen, big, all done, another I have  17 teeth My favorite food is keifer. It's hard for mom to get me to each much of anything else My favorite toy is Eli's car carrier, my elephant that sings and plays Peek a Boo S ome other things I did include… laughing every time I burp, humming the " Jesus " song, shushing people in Target, making siren noises when I play with trucks, and stuffing my mouth full of food to make mom fish it out. She gets grossed out and I laugh. I am a little ham and love love love to make people laugh.  Eli I made up a cute song called E is for 911. I call handcuffs cufters and I'm obsessed with tiptoeing. I tell mom that I "criss cross my apple feet" and I rename Peanut Butter all sorts of things like Firetruck and Nickadoodle. I told mom I'm a dog-ter (a vet; a doctor for...

Y'all, after 5 years and 2 months we finally did it! We're debt free! To celebrate I wanted to recap the journey for us.  Five years ago at Christmas we were gifted one of Dave Ramsey's debt free books. I don't even recall which one, but I do recall feeling compelled to get out of debt. At the time Josh and I had been married for 7 months. I brought in 60k in debt to our marriage: 40k in graduate school student loans, 20k in a new car. He brought in debt too- some student loans and car loans. It wasn't stressful to pay our bills, but seeing how much I paid in interest was frustrating.  We were off on a pretty good start. We had over 100k in debt, which isn't ideal for sure- but we did cash flow our wedding and trips- and we took some good trips! Now I should say we did a modified version of Dave Ramsey. There were things that we did that were off- like taking vacations for example, but honestly- I don't regret it. We didn't accrue debt for that a...

Anias is 17 months old! He's wild and crazy and fits right in. We just got home from Wyoming Monday night after a little 2 week jaunt of just us two. I'm still super unprepared for life. We haven't had groceries since I got home. I haven't done laundry, went shopping, or even unpacked. It's a little hectic right now, but it was worth it!  Anias: 17 Months Figuring out Zippers I say new words like… Uh oh, nuh uh, snack, grandma, papa, dad-dy, There he is!, yum, love you I have  17 teeth My favorite food is still eggs and blueberries My favorite toy is my toy Dyson or my trucks Some other things I did include… learning my body parts. I dance to Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes where I know every part (plus my belly). I've figured out doors and you know I'm running if my hands are in the air. I love dogs and like to feed not only Peanut Butter, but characters on tv and the iPad. I bring whatever clothes are nearby for mom to put on m...

I was going to wait to post this until after Eli's birthday party (we postponed it due to Anias' being ill and the weather being crap), but they're already changing so much! Eli: FOUR Years Old I tell mom "I brush my teeth all day long, so my teeth won't fall out and I won't have to go to the dentist!" I break out in sporadic prayer and some of them are so sweet. I prayed that our Heavenly Father would protect me from bad guy dreams and naughty guys (in life). I told mom "I love you will all my heart, all my soul, and all my paper." I love knowing what things say and am always interested in the 'no' signs. I asked for a Curious George, Fireman, Policeman, Car Wreck party. Mom did her best- and only realized later on I probably wanted a Rescue Bots/Curious George party. I call my ribs ribbons and asked for a hobo stick (pogo stick) for my birthday. Mom told me she loved me and I said, "yeah, well that's how life works....

It was a busy month! We spent 2 weeks in Wyoming with my family, celebrating Thanksgiving and enjoying the absence of snow. My dad got good news too- his labs indicated that the chemo is working! He still has cancer, but it is not growing and his PSA levels were .07 (a healthy man in his condition should have a 0)! It totally sucks seeing him in pain, but he's still walking, eating, and hasn't had too much nausea yet.  snuggling with Papa Then we came home on the 30th, had our new pup (Eli & Anias' Christmas present) delivered the 1st and celebrated Josh's birthday the 2nd.  After that it was Christmas prep time. So far we've Wrapped presents Picked out a tiny-toddler approved tree and put it up Bought our yearly Christmas ornament Put lights up outside Decorated indoors Made cookies, caramel popcorn, and hot chocolate with homemade bread Started our Shepherd on the Search Advent Calendar Watched Polar Express, White Christma...