Day to Day

If Everly is ever upset...he knows how to speak her love language.  This girl is all about hugs, being held, and kisses.  Dinner time...he is the only way it happens many days.  TV and cuddle time.

Logan had been begging for a while to have Annie over.  He sure loves hanging out with this girl.  Screaming contests, water fights, who knows what thing they are dropping from the top bunk, chasing cats, tickle fights...fun seeing kids be kids and not having their nose in homework, tv, or other tasks.

Easter Morning

This little girl sure gives me a run for my money in the middle of the night some nights, but she's so dang cute other moments she makes up for it!  The night before last I was up with her a couple hours...pretty sure it was nightmare related.  This girl though and chocolate...she is obsessed.  She ate hers so fast.  Logan was getting begged from pretty fast.  She is hard to resist her pressing. 

Moment not pictured...we were at a friends house for dinner.  Logan was out back with 2 2 year olds.  We didn't ask him to or otherwise.  He was just told he couldn't go on their swing set because he was too big.  Sure enough he helped both Everly and their little one get on the swings and push them.  If I could have videoed the struggle he had getting their little girl in.  It was ADORABLE!  He is such an awesome big brother!  This girl is dang lucky!!

Also, Logan was so mad Easter morning.  He really is pressing hard about the Easter bunny.  He starts with "you lied!"  "You hid the eggs, I saw them in your closet!  I saw the pajamas beforehand"  What do you say as a parent?  I can' t remember what I said, but I'm not sure if this kid still believes.  He's funny though.  The effort parents have to take to hide things well from their kids to keep this fantasy going...I'm getting lazy.

A Few Projects

I've been gearing up to get pregnant here soon and want to get as many projects out of the way possible.  I almost think of it as early nesting, haha.  The play structure was one of the fun projects.  Aside from the obvious paint color change.  Stained and sealed the roof and beams.  So much nicer to look at!

Logan calls this her "giraffe hair".

This was crazy easy (love simple awesome fixes)...went to Goodwill and got 3 rackets $2 each (it was 1/2 off everything on that Saturday).  Got some new tape at Walmart...good as new!  Now we can use our HOA's tennis courts (as has also been seen on instagram).

There's been several other projects I forget to post before and afters.  Currently I'm closing in on finishing a dresser.  So fun putting my stamp on things and making them our own!

Check out Jimmy's Phone

 I've been updating on Instagram more than the blog.  However, I came across Jimmy's phone full of pictures...

This girl...she is stuffed animal/baby obsessed!  Seriously at the store she was in toddler heaven thinking she was getting all those stuffed animals (she didn't get one).  She is sure funny about carrying them everywhere and is quite possessive.

Ahhh...yes.  The way we have continued to do Valentine's Day...made it into a donut day.  

Logan experimenting with haircuts.  This one lasted a week because he got tired of getting his hair combed and it not staying where he wanted the whole day.

Some more photos (others are on Instagram) from our spring break fun!

Everly was so funny at this 4D movie.  There was wind which was fine, but the splashing water at us.  Well, it kept her in line to stick near me instead of wandering.  Great fun at our mini Legoland.

Haha...Jimmy was so excited.  During church he found in the middle of Logan's head a couple dark hairs.  Had to cherish Logan has hairs just like him.  I teased that he probably super glued those suckers in there.

Halloween

We had so much fun!  Logan loved his costume and so did everyone else we were trick or treating around.  One girl wanted him to pretend he was eating her (she was a unicorn).  It all ended when it ran out of batteries and deflated.  Built in system for worn out parents...genius.  Everly was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent teacher conferences today.  On my walk there I told Logan, "so I'm going to talk to the teacher about how you are doing in school.  Is there anything you want to share with me before I talk to her?"  Logan, "I've not been so good.  It's a long story."  After much coaxing...Logan, "well I talk in line."  Me, "Oooooooo."  Logan hurriedly responds, "I promise I won't do it anymore!"  Hahaha.

Then he admits, "well, that and I talk to Juliette."  Can I tell you how much I love that her name is Juliette?  I especially love that he gets in trouble with talking to her too much.  She's one of his best friends in school, playing at recess together with a few other boys from other classes.  Juliette had to move to a new group of desks because of their friendship causing problems getting their work done.  Probably needs more lectures from me maybe about focusing on his work, but I kind of love it.  Maybe I should name my next girl (if we have one) Juliette so some other parent can get a kick out of it.  Shakespeare...if only Logan new my inner Mom half joy...except the ending of course.  He'd be a bit embarrassed I'm sure.

As any story telling is only so good but blogging is about pictures...here you go.

This was us having as Logan calls it "family fun night" we made hopscotch in the backyard.  Logan felt bad having Everly left out, so he helped her.

What cat wouldn't love lounging in a bath tub?  Leela has taken to following me at my heels everywhere to the point I'm stepping on her.  She is all about the attention.  Fry could take it, but mostly leave it.  He seems to be becoming Logan's cat as they have their love fest every evening as Logan goes to sleep they cuddle together.  Logan rolls of the cat like a burrito in his blanket and that cat purrs like crazy in his little nest.

Finances

A few nights ago it hit me.  I attest it to the prophet requesting woman to go on the social media 10 day fast.  I dug out our pocket books and really started analyzing things and then I listened to an entire book in 2 days of Dave Ramsey and then 2 other personal finance bloggers.  All these things swirling around and lots of talking with my husband I decided I'm embarrassed about my finances.  People definitely have things much worse than us and others are much more responsible.  However, in the end, we can do better.  There's always more to learn.  So any personal finance people want to send me advise or pointers they've learned...I may have heard it, but send it anyways.  

Let me share a couple new things I learned.  The first are obvious it would seem...the normal your incoming better be better than your outgoing.  OR every purchase matters, especially the small ones.  The more interesting of which was a blogger sharing...do your dishes every night so that the sink is empty of dishes.  This leads to better finances (weird, right?).  Well, a simple explanation made me feel like I totally missed the mark.  If the dishes are done, you are less likely to have an excuse to not make a home cooked meal.  How many times have I turned exhausted to the husband saying..."I don't even want to make dinner, I have to spend an hour doing dishes before I can even get to making dinner."  Yeah...I should have realized that one.  I love just enjoying the evening doddling with my spouse or on the internet.  There's a better place to put my time (or at least more productive).

Dave Ramsey is full of great pointers.  The big one is we recently financed our used van.  We were actually proud of ourselves.  
1) Yay!  We bought used...good for us.  
2) We didn't get it from a dealership.  
3) We didn't get sucked into some stupid warranty.  
We felt like we learned from our past mistakes.  Then I listened to Dave Ramsey and man, we should have never financed the van.  We could have bought an older, higher mileage van or better yet a beater car and paid cash.  So...yes, more learning for us yet to do.

There's more that was learned...I hope we can stay on the path of watching my budget better and not letting it get away from us.  I'm sure blessed to have a husband that supports that plan with very little disagreements with any of the budget along the way.  Cheers to hopefully not being embarrassed about finances every again (hah! well hopefully not this embarrassed although there's definitely been worse lows in the past).  Growth...right, growth.

I started an app called "Gratitude".  You should too.  Every day I have made it a goal to write in 1 thing I'm grateful for.  It's amazing when I think frequently through the day what my thing will be.  I end up with coming up with more than 1 often times.  Realistically this has only been going on a few days and I'm sure it will get harder some days.  But, it's nice to think more on things I'm grateful for than what is pressing or hard in my day that my mind may otherwise go to.  Refreshing.