January 2021 Budget | No Spend Month

Happy January! 

 I can't believe it is January again. I feel like we were just here. 

Dustin is still off work and working on the utility room. However, it iced this morning and has switched over to pouring rain for most of the day. He needs to haul the shiplap home from the hardware store and can't until the rain lets up. He is basically stuck cleaning and working on a few small things while we wait for the rain to head out. 

  I am working on our January budget, and decided last week to make it a no spend month. Despite the obvious purchases for the remodel, it will be a month of only purchasing what we absolutely need. Although I might do a grocery stock up toward the end of the month, like I mentioned in other posts. 

  I am so thankful for how our debt free journey has changed our lives. We never imagined our lives would be how they are now. However, sometimes I worry that the lack of struggling will affect us in some negative ways eventually. I don't Dustin and I or the kids to never forget what it is like to struggle or to grow complacent over time or even become spoiled or expectant of things that they 'deserve'. I'm not saying we have become that way completely, but I will admit that I occasionally struggle with the thought popping into my head that I 'deserve' something. That kind of self talk can be unhealthy. I want to make sure we strive to make responsible financial choices, and that we are modeling it for our children.

  In the last year, our budget got a little out of balance. It was mainly because grocery prices fluctuated uncontrollable and it was just a matter of paying what you had to pay. Some of it was unexpected purchases, and some of it was me just not being as conscious of what I was spending at times. It was a crazy year, and that's not a good enough excuse...but it is the truth. I let it happen. 

 

  Did it get completely our of hand? No

  Did we go into debt? No

  Did we spend more than we made? No

But...

  We did eat out more than we should have.

  We spent more on impulse than we should have.

  I did not keep track of things as closely as I should have.

  We did buy way more Starbucks than we needed to for our budget and our health.

  I did shop at some stores out of convenience and not at some stores to save money when I could have.

We/I could have done so much better on the financial department last year. My plan is to bring it back into line this year, starting with this month. 

This 'No Spend Month' is not a challenge to see how little we can live on. It is a practice to get back in the habit of watching what we spend more closely, and curbing the small impulse buys that sneak in. 

I will also admit that I am trying to cut back on the amount of food we are keeping on hand. I am all for being prepared and always have been. Although in the past few months I have kept more in the house than needed out of fear of not having enough. That is not a healthy way to live. We still live in the land of plenty, and have never gone without. At least never in the true sense of the word. I am praying about this and working to decide how much is truly enough to keep on hand. This is something to find a balance of between me and the Lord. I will always be someone who likes to be prepared and who will combine and condense trips to the store for groceries, but I never want to become someone who hoards excess food out of fear. Given the past year, I can see how I started to fall into this way of feeling and thinking. I have spoken to a few friends who have dealt with the same thing. It was a strange year. It shocked the balance of life for most people in our country and all across the world. I plan to write more about this later, but for now, I'm working to make sure that we have enough, but not too much. 

 I use a paper and a budgeting app each month. I am old school with my budget and can comprehend it better with a paper budget. I do like the Every Dollar app for on the go, and to keep long term track of our budget. Plus I usually lose the paper budget halfway through the month. Yep. I just admitted that. Ha!

 Depending on how I feel about this post later, I might continue to share my budget each month. I also might come back and update how the 'No Spend Month' goes. Although I already had to stop myself from buying something this morning. Can we say impulse buy? Ouch. Wish me luck! 

Have you made your budget for January?

~Lyndsay

Debt Free Chicken Wings

 Let's talk about debt for a minute.

 We have made our fair share of mistakes with money in the past; from owning too much house for our income, credit cards, not budgeting, multiple vehicle payments, the list goes on. We even did the really dumb things like financing meat and fitness equipment. We have joked that the only debt mistakes we didn't make were student loans and time shares.

  When we started on our debt free journey and worked to change our habits, and dig ourselves out of the debt we had created for ourselves, we all had to make some sacrafices. 

  One thing that hit my husband hard was chicken wings. 

  Yes, really.

  He loves chicken wings, always has and probably always will. During baby step 2, he decided to give up chicken wings. This was not an easy thing for him to do. However, when he saw how expensive they were, and how fast it adds up, he was usually happy to skip them. He still had his moments though, one Friday evening a little over half way through our journey, he proclaimed 'When we are debt free, I'm ordering wings whenever I want.'

And I said. "So basically you want 'debt free chicken wings?'"

To which he replied. 'Yes, when we are done, I will have my debt free chicken wings whenever I want and I won't feel bad. Because it's a luxury, and we will have earned it. 

  Guys, he takes his chicken wings very seriously. The very day we paid off our last date we ordered pizza to celebrate and he brought home three kinds of wings! 

  

  It's been almost three years since we finished baby step 2, and he almost always orders chicken wings. He proudly brings them home and chows them down. I have not once ever said a word about him ordering wings since finishing step 2. Because everyone needs that one thing that they can just have after finishing that big step. Now, I just secretly smile remembering that conversation every single time I see him add wings to our pizza order. It's a good memory, of days and debt that have 'gone bye'. 

*See what I did there?*

  Friends, temporarily giving something up to reach a goal that will forever change your life will always be 100% worth it in the end. 

  So tell me, what is you one thing you are giving up to make your life better in the long run? 

What's your 'debt free chicken wing'?

Happy Saturday!

-Lyndsay

The Year Without a Purchase ~ Book Review

The Year without a Purchase: One Family's Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting

  In January I mentioned giving myself a book challenge to read one book each month. I did great with this challenge in the first few weeks of January, finished my first book on less than a week and started the next one. Then I came down with the flu, along with the rest of the family. Reading was the last thing on my mind. I'm finally starting to feel better, and remembered that I gave myself some goals for the year. It was time to stick to them!

I decided that making a book review on each book I finish would be a good way to keep myself accountable. (Let's see how well I stick to this.)

 

  Book #1 was a super quick read, mainly because it was so real. I love down to earth and real life, and this book hits you in all the feels for that. I audibly laughed out loud on more than one occasion while reading 'The Year Without a Purchase'.(Affiliate link)

  It is about a typical American family ( A husband and wife with two young kids) who decided to go one entire year without making a single purchase, food not included.

  The author breaks the book up with many moments of real life hilarity. Let's be honest, saving money with a no spend challenge can get a little messy from time to time. Especially when we do not do our best to be prepared.

  One of the things that really hit home for me with this book was the fact that this family did not do this challenge out of financial necessity, they did it for their spiritual health. The financial benefit was just a bonus and an exercise in frugality. They felt they had fallen into the habit of spending money without a purpose and wanted to come back to their real purpose in life, their focus on God. 

  They wanted to learn how to be 'In the world but not of it'. (A topic I often ponder and tend to struggle with.)

  They decided to figure out what exactly was a need for them, only on the most extreme level. As a whole, our society is very confused on the topic of need vs want. Too many wants have become needs, while the majority of the world struggles to fulfill their basic daily needs.

  Don't get me wrong, this book was clearly not written to induce guilt. It did however help to shed a light on how to make an impact on your world from where you are right now. It gives hands and feet to the budgeting aspect of giving. It shows you how one family made some small and yet drastic changes to their daily lives to be able to give more to others in need.

  I think the best part of this book was the fact that they were very real and raw about their feelings through the whole process. Dustin and I have done 'no spend' challenges before and it can be very difficult and brings out many unexpected emotions. It is very revealing of who you are as a person.

  If you are looking for a quick and entertaining, yet heart searching book to read, I highly recommend reading 'The Year Without a Purchase'.

~Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes! A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! Tears Over Ice Cream, The Couch Ate It, And The Surprise Gift Reveal!

 Hi! How was your week?

Ours was good, interesting and different. How's that for an answer?
 

1. Happy January!

 Most of us rang in the New Year sick.(Dustin and I have avoided it thus far.)

 Alex was healthy and took an invitation to stay with friends and ran for his life to get away from us. Can't say I blame him. No one wants this bug that is going around. Jokes on him though,  he came down with is a few days later.

I don't have a lot of pictures from this week. Except for this...

 
Poor Addison. She got my hair. Addison, Anna and myself included are doomed to have their hair look like this from now until March. 


2. Girls Night

I have one cousin by marriage and an ex co-worker that I am close with. LOL It sounds funny when I describe them that way.

 They are a couple of my longest friends and we have been through a lot together. Kara, Julie and I have spent a lot of years, laughter and tears together. Prayed each other through trials, help with a couple of each others weddings, held and gushed over our babies together.

 We try to get together a few times a year. It has gotten so hard to get together with life, family and literal miles. So we started doing sleep overs a few years ago. It gives us more time to truly share and chat after the kids all fall asleep.

 It is extra special when we get together this year. We have a new member to our group. Remember that little baby I asked everyone to pray for a while back. Well here he is... Kara and I fought over him, because he is the last addition to our group. We have ten kiddos between us (4 boys and 6 girls) and baby Owen seems like the perfect one to round things out. 

 



P.S. Kara, he obviously, still loves me more. ;)


 

It also snowed while we were there. It was beautiful..the drive home was not.


3. Forget the dog, the COUCH ate it!

 As much as I have loved our furniture. It was our first matching set and we paid cash for it, brand new. Plus it was made in the U.S.A. It has been through a lot in the last few years, and is slowly starting to show the affects of 4 kids.

We have a Roku and got rid of our cable a while ago. The only issue with the Roku is the remote. It is small and sleek. Something I am sure the designers found appealing. Not so much to a large family with a toddler that likes to hide things. It gets lost ALL THE TIME!

 It went missing Christmas night. I did a major organize and purge on the house the two days following Christmas. It was gone. I searched everywhere short of the trash, because it had already been picked up. We even looked into buying a replacement remote. They aren't cheap people!

 Finally, I did something I had been threatening to do for a year. I flipped the couches over and slit the bottom! I have to say, they weren't as scary inside there as I had feared. Just some napkins and random trash and toys....and this stuff!



 The cable remote that we had to order a replacement for, the TV remote that had been missing for I don't know how long, part of one of our spelling curriculums, a rather expensive flashlight that Dustin had replaced months ago, scissors, and the Roku remote.
 I now wish I had cut the bottoms out of the couches sooner. The plan is to hopefully replace the furniture in there this year. We have one small couch from Home Reserve. We love it for all it is and also what the company stands for. Seriously, go over there and check it out.


4.  Let's move!
  
  Some friends of ours moved back to the area over the weekend. This was their third move in four years and they always seem to move over Christmas week, when it is freezing and usually right after a snow storm. It was cold people...freeze the balls off a brass monkey, kind of cold. (It's a historical term, look it up!) Also known as perfect major construction weather! It is nice to have our friends within a 20 minutes drive now. Compared to an hour before.

 The cool part is the fact that they are renovating a really old house like we did here with our little old house. Her husband has been kind enough to post pictures of the progress. Dustin and I have loved watching the work progress, from the comfort of our almost finished house. I wouldn't take back all the work we put into this place, but I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon. So we shall live vicariously through them. 

I took a peek around while I was there. They have a lot of work to do on it, but it is one amazing old house! There are fireplaces, and original built ins in all of the downstairs. I can't wait to see what they do with this house! There is something about an old house that's about to be brought back to life that makes me so excited and happy.
 
*I have to say that my friend looked around while I was there the other day and I saw the same look on her face that I had a few times. It was the "What have we gotten ourselves into?!" look. Ah, yes. I know that look well!* It will all be ok though. These old houses are always worth it!
 
5. The broken cat.
 Have you ever seen the videos of the cat that freak our over the cucumbers? They are quite entertaining! While as the girls night mentioned above we were discussing these videos. Kara has a cat now. It took thirty seconds of video and two seconds of us looking around between the three of us and we sprang into action to find the cat and a cucumber. 
After about forty-five minutes(off and on) of us trying to surprise the cat with the cucumber we decided she must be a defective kitty cat, or the fact that she lives in a house with a lot of kids has desensitized her to basically everything. 
Since our cat cucumber video didn't pan out, here is a generic one from youtube..from people with cats that are not broken.

  


6. Ice cream and tears

I think we all can collectively agree that toddlers are confusing. Especially when they are sick. 
On the third day of Anna being sick, her fever spiked up(after being down for most of the day), she was lethargic, her breathing was super heavy, she hadn't been eating or drinking and I was afraid she was getting dehydrated. The doctor squeezed her in for a check.
She was not dehydrated, at least not enough to be too concerned. She tested negative for flu and strep. It was just a really nasty virus. They ended up giving her an oral dose of prednisone in the office. Then sent her home with breathing treatments and instructions to get any and all foods and fluid in here that she would take. 

She went out to play in the snow

 for five minutes.

Later that evening she asked for ice cream. We get her a scoop, present it to her and she fell into a puddle in tears. Because apparently it was all wrong. This is how all of Anna's meals went for the next few days. She would beg for a food item. I would give it to her. She would cry or throw it on the floor and stomp on it..and ask for it again. 

Where I spent most of my week.

This was all likely due to the side effects of the pred and the fact that she had a sore throat. But it still made life rather different...as I have been typing this she keeps coming to the computer, grabbing my face in her hands and asking for a pickle.

 The younger two both ended up with ear infections before the week was out. Thankfully they are both on the mend. The older two caught it a little after the younger two. Emma is holding her own and heading out the other side of it now. Alex is 12 and part fully grown man now..so I am working on his funeral arrangements as we speak. The man flu is strong with that one. 
 
7. The gift reveal!

Remember last week when I told you about the surprise gift that Dustin said was coming? Well, it got stuck in transit due to a snow storm. It finally arrived almost a week late. 
He kept giving me hints and even told me the price and weight of it. I really had no clue what it was. He even told the kids.
Then the package arrived. He told me not to get the mail that day. Well, they delivered it to the house, instead of the box and I saw the box. it was from one of my favorite stores. Christian Book Distributors.
He made me wait all day to open it. He came home, took a shower, ate dinner and then opened it. He hid in our room with it forever. 
When he finally came downstairs, he presented me with a Henry Morris study bible! He got us both matching bibles with our names printed on the fronts. He even wrote a message to me in the front. 
I cried a tiny bit. It is amazing! He might just be a keeper. <3
We have been reading through our bibles together for the last year...we like to sip coffee, read and then share what we learned together. It is one of my favorite parts of the week.
 

 Well, that pretty much sums up our week in a nutshell. I told you it was good, interesting and different. :) That tends to be how we do life around here.
Well, I need to go and make a menu, and grocery list. I found a way to order most of our household and grocery items online. (If it goes well, I will share it in a video or post for you.) I am picking up one of the orders and making a run into Aldi tonight. If I plan it right, I will be going all by myself! Yay!

Happy Friday!

  ~Lyndsay

Top Ten Posts of 2017, and Some Thoughts About 2018!

Is it really already the end of the year? 

Clearly, I blinked. 

Most of us are feeling under the weather here at our house. Plus it is so cold outside! (It is mid afternoon and the outdoor thermometer says 17) Most of us will be staying home, wrapped in blankets, eating healthy foods, sipping juice, and watch movies. (I have to a monthly menu, budget and shopping list to work on.) We will probably be in bed by 10 PM. 
The oldest got invited to a NYE party/sleepover at a friends house. Yes, our twelve year old has a more active social life than we do. 

  I thought it would be fun to wrap up the year with a compilation of our top ten posts of the year.
 I was on a writing hiatus for a long time on this blog. I didn't really pick it up again until the middle of the year. This coming year I have some plans for the blog, as well as the vlog. Yes, the vlog is still there. We acquire new subscribers every month. If you haven't been there yet, head on over and check it out! 

We are also on Facebook. I post on there, even more often than here.

Now that you know where else you can plug into the Tiny House Crew, Let's get this started!
(Click the title links!)

1. Hippie Preacher, Big Thanks, and Don't Eat The Soap!

 

 

2. Praises, Grilled Apple Pie and Real Life Large Family Mess!

 

 3. Our First Debt Free Christmas, Santa's Elves Argue Sometimes, and Deep Fry ALL THE MEATS!

 

 

 4. Tiny House Before and Afters, Minimalism Meltdown and A Little Math Humor!

 

 

5.  Kitchen Renovation Update 

 

 

 

6. Picking My Least Favorite Kid, Kitchen Update and How Weird It Was Having Only Two Kids!

 

 

7.  Bubble Tea, Free Chicken and My Husband's Genetic Flaws

 

8. Two Birthdays, Roasted Zombie Flesh, Old Lady Shoes and Crazy Toddlers!

9. Sausage Stuffed Peppers Recipe *Gluten Free*

 10. Tooth Fairy Fail, Shockingly Accurate Emoji's and Meet Precious

 It was fun for me to go back through and see some of our memories from this year. I actually forgot about a few of them. It makes me glad when I do go ahead and at least put something up to remember the week. Especially during the super busy or stressful times. It helps to remember it all. :) 

 

  It also serves as a reminder that the Lord has totally got this! He has the end result figured out before He even sets the trial before us.  He knows the end result, the lessons we have to learn and all the other people who will be effected by it. I have stood in awe and amazement at the things He has taught us this year. I cling to Him more everyday and am humbled at the opportunity to spend time at his feet each day. I have been doing my best to follow His leading in our lives...and in how I am supposed to share His love with the world we live in. One of the things He has revealed to me is this....

  I'm really hoping to get this blog to spread its wings and fly in 2018. That will only happen with a  bit more effort from me, blessings from the Lord and from our readers as well! Shares, prayers, comments and conversation keep a blogger platform moving. 

 Some of the plans for the year include taking a swing back in the direction of why I started this blog. There will be more posts about how and why we homeschool, budgeting, debt free living, minimalism and how we make our small spaces work with a large family. 

 I have a few other personal goals in mind that I plan to bring you along with as well. The topics include... finding more all natural products for our family, learning about essential oils and using them on a budget, fitting in more fitness that works for real Moms and much more.

Now that I have shared with you about my plans for the blog in the coming year, I have a request for you...the readers. 

 If you stop in every week to see what we are up to, or if you find yourself smiling or chuckling when you read a post, or if it speaks to you where you are, uplifts you, or makes you feel better about your own parenting flaws...then please feel free to drop me a line in the comments and hit that share button. Don't worry, I wont be offended. ;) It actually makes my day when I hear from you guys! 

As always, THANK YOU ALL for stopping by and following along with our lives. It means a lot to us! This place wouldn't be the same without you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

Blessings!

~Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes! A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! Our First Debt Free Christmas, Santa's Elves Argue Sometimes, and Deep Fry ALL THE MEATS!

This is the last 7 quick takes of 2017! 

This year went fast. It has been one heck of a good year for us all here in our tiny corner of the world. 
As we round out the year I will be making a post to recap our year. 

For today, let's talk about Christmas and a few things going on around here.

 

1. Our first debt free Christmas!!

 No, that does not mean this is the first year we didn't pay for Christmas with credit cards.

It is our first Christmas being 100% debt free! Yes, the house too. 

Let me tell you, for those of you in the thick of your baby steps...keep going! It gets better!

I have had more joy and excitement this Christmas than I can remember in a decade of years past. I know it is in part because I am better, but the major factor was the debt. The Christmas ham tastes a little different on this side of the baby steps. Seriously.
2018 is about to begin. If you haven't made a budget and climbed on the Dave Ramsey wagon yet, this is the perfect time. Start your year right!



2. Santa Came! (I heard the elves arguing)



  I have been wanting to kill the Santa thing for a few years now. We have been cutting back on what Santa brings and we only currently have one 'believer', but it is so hard to do that to this kid. She is very passionate about her love of Santa. So, Santa can stay, a little longer. Especially since he seriously delivered this year. We had told the girls that there was no way we could fit a barbie doll house, in this house. Especially the last few years because, it was under construction. I didn't think it would ever fit either. However, I scoured the internet and found two that would fit! Success! 


  I had totally prepared the kids for it not to happen. Let the air out of their balloon multiple times about it. All while sitting in the hallway for ten minutes at a time measuring and remeasuring to make sure it would fit! I did some serious praying for this darn doll house. (When you live small, every item you own is a commitment!) I also had to convince the husband. I showed him pictures, discussed the dimensions and talked at length to him about it. He agreed.


  Fast forward to Christmas Eve, after he had already put the house together. We bring it into the living room and set everything up. This is when Dustin decides to start questioning the decision to have a doll house. We might have had a mini argument about the house. He swore up and down that it wasn't going to fit in the spot I had chosen. I explained to him that I had spent over an hour in the hallway making sure it would fit. He still told me there was no way. I was starting to doubt it as well at this point. 

 This all resulted in both of us crouched outside the girls room, with a tape measure, at midnight, on Christmas Eve, hissing under our breath at each other, measuring the wall...for the fifty thousandth time!

Until he finally agreed that it would 'Just barely' fit.

It definitely fit, with 1.5 inches to spare. Our tiny house has a barbie house in it! 
**Addison said Mrs Claus must have built the house, because it was so pretty!**


3. Deep fry all the meats!!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned Dustin's new hobby, his outdoor cooker. This guy takes deep frying meats very seriously. 
On Christmas Eve he deep fried a rib-eye roast. I really wasn't so sure about that, but it turned out amazing!
On Christmas he deep fried a spiral honey ham. People, this is probably heaven sent. It tasted like ham wrapped in bacon and melted into one. Perfection. 

 

 
4. Christmas randoms
 Now you get a bunch of random pics of us on Christmas. Because you know you want to see it. :)






 

Christmas with our friend MA.

5. Spend all the money! Wait, maybe not...


 A certain Grandma went BIG this year and gave each of the kids $50 cash, instead of their usual $25. The kids were blown away. So, SO excited! We went to town to blow their cash this week. Apparently some of the 'Spend, Save, Gift' that we have been pouring into them has been sticking. Each of them ended up putting some away, spending some and then they pulled together and purchased some clothes for a little girl in need.

So proud of these kiddos!

6. Ok, Christmas is over. Time to purge all the stuff!

 I am a minimalist at heart. 

 Our small house may not always look minimal. There are a lot of people in here! However, we tend to own much less than the average american family. Especially a larger than 'normal' american family. Our house is very small. Every item has to have a home, a purpose and it needs to be chosen to get to stay.

As much as I love Christmas, I am more than ready for the clutter and decorations to be gone by the eve of the 25th! I was nice and left it up until the 26th this year. Then as usual, I started my entire house clean/purge. I do it every year after the holidays. 

The major items that needed sorted this year were the book shelves. I tend to struggle with this.  I am a book lover, and a homeschool Mom. We need books to function. It is very hard for me to minimize these items. However, I was good and went through every shelf, in the house. We got rid of a lot. 5 boxes of books, two large trash bags of toys and one large bag of trash.

That is all books to donate.

The school shelf can finally breathe, and so can I. Now I can prepare for the next half of the school year. My house has to be clean for me to think.

I went full geek this time and sorted the books by subject, and grade. Then I labeled each shelf. I am also going to be getting some color coded stickers to label all of the books to their corresponding shelf. Yes, I know how over board that sounds. I can't help it. Order makes me happy.  

 

 We also went through the Barbies, baby dolls and Anna's toys. Almost all of her toys fit in these drawers. I got rid of a few more items after taking this picture. We even got super organized and labeled the drawers.

 

7. He won't tell me what it is...

  Dustin was being all sneaky on Christmas Eve. He had his face in his phone for a little while and was very distracted. Which is weird for him. He is usually very present with us.

  A little while later he informs me that he ordered something for us. I will supposedly be super surprised and excited. It is a custom order item and is would be here by Friday(today). Well, turns out it shipped late, and won't be here until Wednesday!

He is giving me the weirdest hints and it is driving me crazy.

It does not have a screen, or need wifi. It does not have to be plugged in, but it would help. I can use it in any room but probably won't want to keep it in the kitchen. The shipping weight is exactly 10.8 lbs. It is small. He also claims it is going to make our lives easier, I'm going to love it and we both will get daily use out of it.

I'm really starting to wonder what this could possibly be.

Anyone care to take a guess? 

I'll reveal what it is next week. :)

Blessings!
~Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes ~A Recap of This Weeks Life in The Tiny House~

It's Friday! 
Even though it doesn't feel quite that way because of the holiday.

 I thought it might be fun to try something new here on the blog.

7 Quick Takes

Where I give you a small glimpse into the fun and crazy things that happen here in our little piece of the world. The humorous, interesting or down right entertaining things that happened at our house this week.

1. Aris
Emma is VERY into all things Paris. It is much reflected in her room. She has the comforter, the sheets, necklace hanger, bulletin board, clothing, you name it! To help her round out her room, I ordered her a wall decal for her room. It was so pretty. It arrived in January, and we promptly set it on a shelf to be forgotten about. Until this week.
We decided to put it up. I really didn't think it would require any great skill. Much to my dismay, I was terribly mistaken. The Tower 'A' and 'ris' went up without a hitch. The 'P' however...that was a different story all together. It was a beautiful P with swoops and swirls of lettering around it. Quite elegant and girlie.
Yeah...It totally turned into a big ball of snarling sticker the second I started to peel it from its paper.

So, at this moment in time. Emma has a beautiful 'Aris' in place of the supposed 'Paris' decal on her wall. A cousin of ours has the machine to make the wall decals..and has offered to make her a 'P', I specifically asked that she make it a very basic letter...for fear of repeating this weeks events.

2. Addison's Version of How 'Mommy Does The Beach'
We live ever so far from a real beach. I, personally, have never seen an ocean...the kids have not either.  However, we have a lot of fun driving to some of the more local Lakes and State Parks to swim at their version of a 'Beach'. 

 We loaded up the entire family and headed to 'the beach' this week. It was a lot of fun and we took zero pictures. Because, we left our phones in the van. We had a ton of fun. We swam, had a picnic lunch and used our new HUGE umbrella that we recently purchased. This umbrella is amazing. People were stopping to admire it.

 Once we came home, showered and napped(the beach, is exhausting!)...Addison decided to get crafty. She brought me this and proclaimed that this was, in fact, 'Mommy, lounging under an umbrella, at the beach, eating an ice cream cone'
If only that was the way we really did the beach! She must have herself confused with her own self....because this is how Addison does swimming at Grandma's house..


















3. The Lip
 We spent Sunday afternoon at the grandparents house. The kids had a great time swimming and Grandma fed us a delicious meal of pulled pork sandwiches, hotdogs and oriental salad. So good!
  Miss Anna has been quite the precocious little thing, since closing in on the later half of her second year. She has fully embraced her toddlerhood, with great gusto! She has also been making great strides in the pouting department. I have become immune to it. You build up resistance fast with four kids.
  Grandpa and Daddy are not so immune though. Daddy has to shield his face and Grandpa caved in about 3 seconds.. He said he just couldn't tell her no.
I do have to agree that there is great skill in this one. She takes her role as the youngest very seriously.
But, I'll leave it to the readers...could you tell her no?

4. This is How We Dr Office...
Emma had to visit one of her specialists this week. I dread the Dr office. The people are nice and the Dr's are amazing..but modern day medicine is not meant for large families. The waiting rooms rarely have children's areas, the exam rooms are so small, and they put no more than 2 chairs in the room. 2!
  Between the sheer amount of people and Anna being, well, Anna..it is a little stressful. I do come prepared...Snacks, coloring, books, suckers (the holy grail of good, toddler behavior). I smile, I sing songs, I TRY.

 She is just at that age that she would rather open, climb on or lick anything that she shouldn't be. If you object, she throws herself in the floor..because this is in fact the hill she will die on.
She dies on all the hills, people!

 This visit however, there was a nurse. She sees us coming and she prepares. She pulled the paper from the chair onto the floor and across the room, and dumps a pile of crayons next to it. Anna could not believe her eyes and dove right in. The nurse (A.K.A My new BFF) also brought in a matching card game for the older two to do, because the Dr was running behind.

 Thankfully, Emma is doing so well that we do not have to return for a year! Praise the Lord!  This kid is night and day compared to a year or so ago. I'm almost a little sad this was a specialist office and not our regular Dr. That place has it figured out!

5. Sunday Drive
We took a day trip in the mix of the weekend. I have been trying to take more pictures. They are growing up so fast.
I will be the first to tell you that once you have this many it is IMPOSSIBLE to get all of them to look like normal human beings at the same time.
This one is probably going to be one of my favorites though.

6. We don't plan it that way...really
We have been married for over 15 years and together for 18(?) years...the math is a bit fuzzy at this point. Well, you know how they make jokes about couple ending up looking like each other..and dressing alike....yeah, well...apparently we have become those people. These are pictures from two different dates we went on in the last 5 or so months...and we dressed alike. Without consulting each other before hand.  Yes, we are getting old and we have been together forever. We will probably be sharing the same pair of glasses and dentures eventually. *Sigh*

We are both wearing red.

and blue...

7. Fear The Sparklers!
We are not big on fireworks. It just isn't something that we really get into. As a couple, we have been to three fireworks displays. In 17 years of being together. We do get those Snap Poppers and some Sparklers. We must not have gotten the sparklers the last couple of years though, because the kids were kind of afraid of them. Not for long though. By the time we finished the few boxes that we had, the kids were running laps with them...not an activity I recommend for others to try.

Hope you all had a wonderful, and safe, 4th of July week!

Happy Friday!

~Lyndsay

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