Things I don't want to forget...

Elijah: Jane and John like to play with their knuckle-tops, Mom.

Me: I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Elijah points to what he's referring to.

Me: Those are your armpits.

Elijah: Oh yeah, Jane and John like to play with their armpits.

(names changed)

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As I'm changing Mariah's diaper, Elijah asks, "When is Mariah going to get a part like me to go to the bathroom with?"
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Elijah: Mom, do you know where my skeletope is?

(telescope)
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Me: Elijah, what did you do with your clothes?
Elijah: I put them in my camper.

(hamper)

Me: Elijah, do you still want me to sign you up for soccer?

Elijah: Yes

Me: Nolan, do you want me to sign you up for cub scouts?

Nolan: Do they go outside and stuff like that?

Me: Yes

***Silence***

Nolan: No, I don't want to.

4th of July tractor parade

Nolan and Mariah

Nolan went shopping one night at Kohl's with my mom and Bill and insisted on picking out an outfit for Mariah. He picked out this very cute 4th of July outfit. Aren't they sweet together?

My wonderful and sweet husband bought us a Roomba a couple of weeks ago. If you don't know what it is, it's a robot vacuum cleaner. He (we refer to him as a person) is the most wonderful thing invented!! He is scheduled to vacuum our floors (hardwood and carpet) everyday at 10 am. When he is finished, he goes back to his charging station and begins to charge for the next day. It is AWESOME!! We get to have nice clean floors that we can walk on and I don't have to sweep or vacuum. I can't believe how affordable they are. We got the one that is designed for pet hair so he can pick up all of Bryce's hair that he has shedded. (That reminds me, I haven't posted anything about our new dog!) Maybe tonight...

Mini-van Mom

I never thought I'd be driving a mini-van. However, I never thought about how I'd transport 3 children, either. Last week we bought a 2004 Honda Odyssey from one of my mom's co-workers. As far as van goes, it's awesome. It still has a blind-spot which is the thing I hate the most about vans, but it has tons of great features, and it was a fantastic deal. My friends who have no children can't believe I got a van (neither can I actually) while my friends with children who haven't gotten a van yet think it's wonderful.

Financial Freedom!!

We are getting closer day by day to financial freedom. I am so excited to say that. We've been working on paying off debt since we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class while I was pregnant with Elijah (2005). There have been times when I didn't think we were doing very while and other times when we were doing really well. There have been plenty of times when we had to go back to baby step 1 ($1000 in savings account) and start over. We had made a huge dent in our debt -and then we built our house.

Since we moved into the house in December, we've had some trying financial months, primarily due to an unexpected delay in our tax refund and me being out of work on maternity leave for 14 weeks. God has taken care of us and has provided for us and has blessed us in SO many ways and we made it through. I can't tell you how many times I wasn't sure how a bill was going to get paid and God provided it for us. Our wonderful friends and family helped us through and I'm so very thankful and we will never forget it. We can't wait to repay you by helping others in the future (and by paying you all back). But, I've digressed....

I've been working for six months on getting our house refinanced into a fixed rate mortgage before the interest rates begin to go up again. On July 20th we finally signed the paper work and got a great interest rate. Additionally, with that loan, we paid off 3 very large debts. You wouldn't believe that we added those things into the mortgage loan and our house payment hardly went up at all!! An additional bonus - since we don't have a house payment until September 1 now, I'm paying off several other bills this month also. Can you tell how excited I am?? (If not, I'm very excited) We are so close to financial freedom and I'm chomping at the bit to get there. I think that before 2011 is over (and maybe much sooner) we will be down to only our mortgage and my student loans.

We couldn't have done this without lots of help - Dave Ramsey, friends and family, but mostly God

If you aren't on your way to financial freedom, I highly recommend it. The sense of freedom and the burden off your back is so worth the effort.

Cleaning/Organizing

Since I've gone back to work now, I'm on a mission to figure out a way to stay organized and keep the house clean. I've enlisted the help of fly lady. If you've never heard of her and would like to get help becoming with these things, you may want to give her a try. (Consider this your warning - she sends lots of emails per day so you have to stay on top of your inbox to keep it clean!) I've started her baby steps which begins with keeping your sink clean. I've ordered her calendar which should arrive soon and I plan to a better job of thinking about what's coming up in the near future and planning for how our whole family will work together to keep the house clean. (the boys are going to get tired of hearing about her just like some members of my extended family have gotten tired of hearing about Dave Ramsey).

If anyone has any tips about keeping the house straightened and clean while working full-time and raising young children, I'd love to hear them.

I'll try to remember to keep you posted on my efforts.

4 months old

Mariah was 4 months old last week. I can't believe how fast she's growing up! Here's an update on her: She's doing really well with daycare. She's really a very laid back child. She has a great smile and laugh and loves to give them out to anyone who gives her some attention. She does a lot of talking. The boys still love her to death and I'm so happy that they've handled this transition for our family so well. She loves to sit in her bumbo seat and in the swing. She's beginning to be tired of the bouncy seat but I think it's because it has her laying back so much. She can hold her head up really well and she can almost roll over but not quite - I think it will be this week.

She went to the doctor last week and weighed 13 lbs, 15 oz. I'm not good at remembering how old my children were at various ages except I do remember that Nolan was only 17 lbs at 1 year old. Both Mariah and Elijah are about 75%ile for height and weight but Nolan was always below the chart...which is not a bad thing, but he was definitely my most petite child.

I'm still behind on posting pictures...I think I'm up to the 4th of July so I'm not TOO far behind considering I'm working full-time and raising 3 kids under 7. Hopefully I'll get caught up this week - that shouldn't be too hard considering I have taken a lot less pictures since I've gone back to work.

On another note, we have a new dog in our family (2 actually but only one is inside). Snowy is an australian shephard that is beautiful. She's about 4 months old and stays outside. Bryce is our new Jack Russell terrier. We adopted him from a lady in Greensboro who rescues Jack Russells. He was turned into a shelter in Fayetteville after someone found him. He already had a microchip so they figured that he came from a pet store. The lady at the rescue said that they have a problem in Fayetteville due to service men and women having to leave suddenly and not having anyone to take care of their animals. Bryce is a beautiful dog and is doing well with our family. He stays in the crate during the day and stays in the house with us when we are home. He goes outside when one of us is out there with him. So far, he is doing pretty good about staying in the yard but I think it's because he hasn't learned how much there is to explore.

You know that your life is all about breastfeeding when -

Mom, Nolan, Elijah, Mariah, and I went on a short shopping outing on Saturday morning. We finished up the trip by going to eat lunch. We were just about to leave when Elijah announced, "Well, I have to go - I have to go pump."



The great thing is - he know that he was doing something funny. He has such a great sense of humor sometimes.