We're big fans

Have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey? We are huge fans of his in our house. He is a popular financial guru and author of The Total Money Makeover along with other financial planning books. Phillip literally listens to his podcasts everyday on his way to and from work, and I catch up on a couple here and there when we travel a long distance. His motto that Phillip and I quote to each other often is "live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else" which basically means live frugally and save now so when you are older you can enjoy all of your hard work. This doesn't mean going without all the time, it just means being smart with your money.

Every time you turn on the TV you hear about the financial crisis so many families are in. I believe so many people have put themselves in this situation by not planning for the future. No one expects to get laid off from their job, but if you plan ahead and set aside money for an emergency you are able to stay afloat and keep your family fed. My generation is caught up in material possessions. We think we should start off our adult lives with everything our parents were providing us while at home, new furniture, new cars, designer clothes, and a large home with a white picket fence. And we achieve this by buying things on credit and living pay check to pay check. Sure you are just barely keeping it in the black at the end of the month but what are you going to do when your baby comes down with a serious illness and accumulates large medical bills or your husband is in an accident on his way home from work? Will you still be able to pay your bills?

Dave Ramsey can start you on the right track from the ground up, or in many cases help you climb out of a giant hole. He will teach you how to set a budget you can stick to, pay off your debt, and put money away for emergencies and investments. He isn't just for those struggling financially, he has great advise on getting you on track to pay cash for your vehicles, set aside money for your kids college, invest for the future (honestly, do you actually expect there will be enough money to get a social security check when we turn 65), pay off your mortgage (gasp, that's possible?) and so much more.

Floors, floors, floors...

This weekend we had new floors installed in our living room and hallway. I love them! I loved them even more when a little milk from Ashlyn's cup dribbled out of her cup this morning and I could just wipe it right up!
The flooring absolutely consumed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! We hired a self employed "handy man" to put the flooring in for us since we knew that was the best choice for our marriage, ha! It was a simple job that was supposed to start Friday at 8am and be finished by 3pm that same day. This would mean Ashlyn and I would be confined to two bedrooms and the yard since all the living room furniture was in the kitchen and Aubrey's room. Well, lets just say we were confined to our bedrooms since the yard was too hot to play in after 10am. I knew it would be a long day but well worth the sacrifice. The flooring we chose was a laminate that is in individual planks instead of large pieces, which looks much more like real wood, but apparently takes much longer to install. So, at 5pm that afternoon only 75% of the living room was done and there was still carpet in the hallway, ugh. So the guy came back Saturday morning to finish the job. The day creeeeppptttt by and at 8:30pm he finally finished! We have never been so happy to see someone pull out of our drive way in our life. The floors turned out wonderful but the finishing work is another story. To make a very long story short, he started to get frustrated with how long it was taking him to install the floors and started to get very sloppy. So, needless to say I have a call into the flooring store to see how much it is going to cost to re-cut a large portion of the quarter round (the piece that goes on the bottom of your baseboards) and replace two boards in front of the hall closet. They are minor cosmetic things but when you make an investment like this in your home you want it to look perfect.
After church Sunday we spent hours cleaning up the house. It was absolutely filthy from him cutting in the house. We had to wipe down everything (doors, wall decor, light switches, ceiling fans, bed linens, etc) in all the rooms. Phillip was so wonderful to help me out. He would rather gouge his eyes out than clean but he realized how huge of a job it was and knew it would get overwhelming for one person really fast. I still need to wipe down the kitchen cabinets (the food prep areas are clean but the doors are dusty), and our bedroom furniture and then I will be completely done.
So here is the end results! I am so happy with the way they turned out. Now I am on a hunt for an area rug to place in front of the couch. Any of you NWA girls know of any great places where I can find a great deal?


Here is a picture of Ashlyn watching cartoons on Saturday morning before the "handy man" got here. She told Phillip, "ook Daddy, I holding my girls". Apparently she has heard us talking about her and Aubrey being our girls. She always says the cutest things that make us smile!


This Friday Ashlyn is going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Her and two other cousins are going to be there for the week. Ashlyn is going to have so much fun! I have wonderful in-laws that love me like their own daughter and think the world of Ashlyn. I am so blessed! Honestly, I'm not really sure what I am going to do with myself. I have always worked outside the home or had Ashlyn to take care of, I have never had an abundance of free time to do as I please. I have started making a list of things to do in Aubrey's room to finish up, sewing projects, and some organizing goals for Ashlyn's room. Oh, and a list of stores I have been wanting to go to that are just too much trouble to push a stroller through!

Mini Me

Ashlyn loves to copy me! She will say something or make a facial expression and I will think "where in the world did she get that... oh from me". It can be quite funny but scary at the same time. Ashlyn loves to exercise with me. I have a pregnancy pilates video that she thought was quite funny when I first started doing it, there is nothing like your two year old laughing and squealing "mommy funny" while you have your behind in the air! But recently she has been doing a couple minutes of it with me. I had to take some pictures to share because they are so cute, and as you can see she is pretty serious about it too.

More Baby Stuff!

I have busying myself the past week with some small projects for Aubrey. I decorated a lamp shade for the lamp that will be on the little table that will sit next to the rocking chair. I found just a plain white lamp shade and hot glued a little fringe and beading to it to girlie it up a bit.


I also made three large pom poms that hang from the ceiling. My sister-in-law made some for her little girl's room and I thought they were the cutest thing. I found the instructions here. They sell kits for these at craft stores but they are SO cheap to make on your own. They literally cost $1 each if you make them on your own.


My last project of the week was a nursing cover. They are an absolute must have! I saw them on-line a couple years ago and came up with a pattern and started making my own for friends as baby gifts. It is basically a square blanket with a strap that hangs on your neck to keep your little one from pulling the blanket off of themselves with their swinging arm. It also has a flexible boning at the very top that holds the blanket away from your neck so you can easily peek in and see what's going on. I have also recently started sewing a little pocket on the back to hold nursing pads and pacifiers. Such a simple but ingenious idea!


Today I ordered a dresser for Ashlyn's room so that we can move the dresser/changing table to Aubrey's room. It will be in in a couple weeks and that means one step closer to having the room ready. We got a large enough dresser so the girls will be able to share it when we move them into the same bed room. It will be a bit down the road though, once Aubrey is on the same sleeping schedule as Ashlyn.

One of my great friends, Carmen, had her baby boy this past Friday. I am so excited for her and her husband. They are such a sweet couple and they are going to be awesome parents! I'm kinda going to miss her being pregnant with me, but I'm sure she isn't going to miss being pregnant now that she has her sweet baby boy to love on. Here is a picture of us at her baby shower about a month ago. Doesn't she look so cute pregnant? You should have seen her the day after she delivered, she looked amazing!

Belly Picture and Pirate the Dog

Here is a recent picture of me and my belly. I am 29 weeks now! Gosh, where has all the time gone? I'm still feeling great as long as we aren't out walking in the hot and humid weather. Whew! Aubrey is quite the kicker! Ashlyn was a stretcher so Aubrey's quick punches and kicks often come as quite a surprise to me. Ashlyn still loves on my belly and tells us on a regular basis that "baby Aub-ey be here in couple months". We were at Walmart the other day and they had little onesies on clearance so I picked up two preemie tops, even though newborn clothes look so tiny they always swallow babies up the first couple of weeks, now Aubrey will have at least two shirts that will fit. Ashlyn was so precious, I let her walk this trip into the store since we only had a couple of things to pick up, so she proudly carried her sister's shirts through the store and put them on the belt to pay for them. I think she understands more than we give her credit for.


My mother-in-law will appreciate this story more than anyone else. Ashlyn is really starting to get into pretend play. She loves to act like she is a dog, and I'm sure you can guess what her doggy name is, yep, "Pirate". This morning as we were getting ready for church she was in full doggy mode. She absolutely loves it when we play along and treat her like a dog and call her Pirate. She was very quick to correct me of her name when I was brushing her teeth and told "Ashlyn" to open her mouth. Normally once we get out of the house the pretend play stops and she forgets all about acting like a dog. Well not this morning. The dolled up, pink bowed sweet little girl panted and barked all the way to church and continued as we got out of the car to walk into church. This wouldn't have been quite so bad had we not been visiting a new church where no one knew us! Ugh! Thank goodness the barking ceased as we walked in the building but as I was getting Ashlyn checked into the nursery Phillip whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "She's still panting like a dog". Oh, I love my sweet silly girl!! About twenty some odd years ago Phillip's older brother did the same thing except he LICKED the deacons hand as they were walking into the sanctuary!
For a couple of months we have been praying about whether the current church we were attending was where God wanted us to worship and serve. A couple weeks ago we made the hard decision that we would leave our church and find where God would have us. We know this is God's plan and we are excited to see where He leads us. We visited a really great church this morning. The church is only about 8 years old and quite a bit smaller than our old church of over a thousand. The atmosphere was very different, it was very casual and contemporary, a change from choir robes and suits that we were accustomed to seeing. The pastor seems to have a heart for the community and a desire to stop "playing church". Ashlyn also said that she had fun at church and when asked if she wanted to go back next week. She said "yes".