Happenings

There has been a lot of changes in our lives these last few months, I was released from Young Women I have have grown so much from these wonderful young ladies and my testimony in the gospel has grown. I have missed the girls but also know that it was time for me to be a mom. I lost my sweet grandpa Benson so glad to know that he is happy and well and that I will see him again We became a aunt and uncle again through adopotion a sweet little girl from China could not be happier for Jer and Jen on their new addition our whole family are so twittered patted by this sweet little girl all you want to do is kiss and love her. She has amazing eyes that you just melt when you see her. K'Lee and Addison are so cute with her they just want to hold her and play with her and keep finding things for me to give to Leah which right now just go into a box for when she is older. Tucker just tells me that we have to be soft with her and pets her when we are with them. What a blessing it has been to be a part of this wonderful experiance, we have been so excited for them and excited to be a part of this little girls life.

Time does fly.

I am back! It is amazing how time does fly and then you can't get into your account because you can't remember your password. We have been a busy family this year. Wow is all I can say. A lot of amazing things have happened and are to come I am sure. Our kids have grown and learned new and exciting things.

In a nutshell this is what we have done.

TJ and Amy are still animals at crossfit love it! TJ is biking and became a trainer for crossfit and does a great job! Amy is still in Young Women learning so much, I have ran two relays this past year and ran three half marathons

K'Lee is in 2nd grade a mad reader and loves math was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Great big helper and thinks now she is eight she can cook YIKES!!

Addison is into preschool, clogging and teasing everyone around her.

Tucker is just all boy, loves to fly off couches and play with his trucks.

Tips

Since I posted about TJ and I becoming debt free. I have had a lot of friends and family tell me to post tips and ideas on how we did this. So I am going to do that along with our family doing. But I would also like ideas on what you want to know. And if you have any questions please leave them for me here.And I will research and tell you what has worked for our family. This is a learning process but it is also lots of fun. Right now my tip for you all out there. Is a Budget! Every month sit down with your spouse and go through your bills and family expenses and make sure all your money has a category. Here is a example.
House Payment: $$$
Groceries: $$$
Electrical: $$$
Water:$$$
Car Payments: $$$
These are the first things that need to be paid: Make sure your Family is taken care of, Roof over head, Food to fill the bellies, I hope you get the drift.
Then start with the others'
Credit Cards ( if you have them )
Student Loans or any other loans out there you have.
The First budget is hard but you also need to be flexible if you need to change numbers so be it but always remember be flexible and the money needs to be spent in it's own spot and category. I hope this helps a little I am already working on some more tips and things I have learned through this process. I will post more along with my family and their adventures. If you have any suggestions or questions please leave them I would love to hear them.

Addison!!!

This sweet name has been said a lot in our house hold this past week. I don't know if she is going stir crazy because she wants to be outside or she wants her named yelled a lot. This week was Spring Break and she was so excited to have K'Lee home to play with every day of the WHOLE WEEK! How could you not be excited. On Tuesday we had pictures of the kids taken for Mother's day, It was a rough morning no one was willing to let me fix hair or help them get dressed. I had finally come to begging and bribing them, I know not the way to go but hey I got one to let me get their hair fix K'Lee was sitting there reading to me while I was curling her hair and she stopped and said "Mom who's hair is that?" I looked and saw a huge amount of hair on the bathroom floor. I went over bent down and scooped up the hair and looked right at Addison who had immedialy took off running up the stairs. I walked over to the stairs and glowered at her from the bottom of the stairs and proceeded to have this conversation with her.
me: "Addison who's hair is this?"
Addison: "mine" (huge develish grin on the face"
me: "Why did you cut your hair?" to this point trying not to scream from pure frustration.
Addison: " Cause I didn't want you to curl my hair for picture's I just want a ponytail mom."
me: " Addison I wasn't going to curl your hair in curls today I was just going to comb it out and flat iron it and put a bow in it."
Addison: " Ohh" This point she is pouting and has tears in her eyes
me: " Addison I need you to come down here and let me see where you cut your hair so I know if I can fix it for pictures."
Addison" Mom I promise it's not bad just a little bit the rest is from the barbie dolls hair. I want to be like Stacy and cut hair." She is saying this while coming down the stairs and in a very hurried voice.
When she came down the stairs my eyes are getting bigger and bigger and I keep looking down at my hands with all the hair thinking this is not barbie hair this is all Addison's hair. She had cut a huge chunk right in the front right by her face. Now I am panicked how am I going to fix this. I have tried cutting the girls hair and it just doesn't work I can not make a strait line there for it just keeps getting shorter and shorter. So I have just decided to keep the hair cutting to the professionals. I then proceed to inform her that I have to make curls with the curling Iron for the pictures. During this whole ordeal I am looking at the clock going I hope we make pictures. We did and they turned out awesome!! This week I have found crayon on the back of the caption seats in our van she didn't have paper, I have found craving in our kitchen table she was bored and last but not least she created a protrait on Tucker's body in markers and pen. My Addison going to be everyone of my gray hairs on my head. She can be the most lovable, helpful, sweetest little girl in the whole world and then she can flip and be so frustrating I love her, I am also glad she can keep me on my toes but this week has taken the cake for me.

Big post to come

I have a huge post coming up. I just need the pictures uploaded to the server so I can get to them and then watch there will be Heather's wedding which was amazing my little sisters are growing up (sniff, sniff) And then our awesome cruise that we went on. LOVED IT!!! Love the time with my cute hubby and time to talk and reconnect. And some wonderful warm sun.

Emotions

I don't know the reason or even why but I have so many emotions about all the changes in my life and the things that I have been blessed with in the last year and half. I think part of this is I am truly happy and I love the place that I am in at this time. I love that I can say this. I love that i am content and that I am enjoying everything that I can. I feel really blessed to have three awesome and healthy kiddo, and a very kind and understanding husband who is my best friend and I love that I like spending time with my husband and children. Yes there are times when I am ready to pull my hair out with them but I love going to the kids rooms and stare at them while they are asleep and think I have AMAZING LITTLE PEOPLE that I love unconditionally and learn from all the time. I love that I have heartfelt talks about our future and what is important to us with my husband and that I always have a shoulder to cry when I need it. Maybe I just felt I needed to release these emotions and that I can say Thank you to my family for choosing me to be a Wife and Mother and letting me to be a part of their lives.

DEBT FREE

TJ and I about two years ago, felt the desire to become debt free. I espeacially felt it with being pregant and thinking of how to pay for this baby and owning our own business so off we went in search of how to do this. TJ found Dave Ramsey bless this man he has made it his misson to help other become debt free and off we started.I want you guys to know I am not selling anything I just want you to know the process on how we did this. With lots of prayers, crying and sacrifice I am proud to say that we are completly and totally debt free we own everything from our house to our cars. I am grateful for my husband and his nerdyness for the budget and for the hard work he did to help make this happened. Many things that happened during this time has taught me many things and I am in awe at the way the lord has blessed our family with this accomplishment. I am in awe at how my children have picked up on this and have been just as excited to payoff a debt as we are and how they have been the best cheerleader parents could have. They have learned to work, save and pay tithing. It is also a great way to help in math I am just saying. I have debated to post this but I felt I needed to share and shout That WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!