Month: September 2013

Teague is growing like crazy and now wearing 3T jeans. (He’s about a year ahead of when Alex wore them.) That means he fits into Alex’s first pair of Monster jeans – made by Granny.

Teague’s favorite song has been “AB’s” for a couple of months. Then he started pointing to individual letters in books and wanting to know “name.” I finally got the bright idea to teach him his letters. We’ve been working from an alphabet puzzle and he’s got about 5 letters right now. (This is compared to Alex’s two – A and X.)

Alex’s plan today included an airplane. He and Wade had this built by the time I got up.

Tristan came to play this afternoon and it didn’t take long for the pirate gear to appear. (Notice what I did there?)

It’s been exactly a year since Wade and I met Teague for the first time (see here). In so many ways it feels longer than that and yet I am still amazed it’s only been a year. We sent both boys to school wearing their Korean shirts. We tried to explain why the day was special to Alex, but finally he just called it “Teague’s Day.” Teague knew if you asked about his shirt to say “Korea.”

We have a fun book called Bee-Bim Bop (a fun book most kids would enjoy). The story is about a girl helping her mother make Bee-Bim Bop (a Korean dish). At the end of the book is the recipe. We decided to give it a try tonight. It requires a lot of prepping, but we all loved it. The kids especially loved acting out the line “Mix it. Mix like crazy.”

First round of boys at the zoo (year 2010):

Second round of boys at the zoo (year 2013):

Iris came out to play with the boys today. Love this sweet baby girl.

Wade and I have never lived on a strict budget. We tried to be reasonable in our spending but with both of us working paying our bills was never an issue. This past summer our church (TCC) offered Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. I have read his book, Financial Peace, and thought it was great. I didn’t really see how it would help to spend the money to take a class on that same book. Wade pushed some more and I finally agreed. Wow! Great class! I thought I understood insurance. I thought I knew about investments. I thought I knew how to be smart with money. This class really breaks things down.
This class also heavily stresses a budget. We decided to give it a go. Amazingly I learned a ton about budgeting. The biggest thing I learned (feel free to laugh) was that a budget changes month to month. I thought you figured out how much to spend on what and then never deviated. Then I would always have things come up that weren’t anticipated or didn’t fit in the budget. Finally I realized how a real monthly budget should work. Our June budget had items our August budget didn’t and vice versa. Because of a vacation our gas would be much higher but our groceries less; one month we had three birthdays; etc. Wade and I discuss at the beginning of the month our expected expenses and then reevaluate and adjust halfway through. It’s made it very easy to stay on track. (The budget spreadsheet we use can be downloaded here.)
This class also promotes the cash envelope system. I see the merits of that. However, I just can’t live that way. Then Wade discovered an iphone app called EEBA. It’s electronic envelopes. The best part is Wade and I both have it on our phones and can share envelopes. When he picks up groceries h immediately adds the cost and I see it on my phone. For us this was the perfect solution! It also gave Wade a convenient way to track purchases. (The one time we tried this in the past he wasn’t quite as meticulous as needed.) For things like children’s clothes we have a set amount per season and that total amount is listed on the EEBA envelope. However we have a monthly amount that is allocated for the category in our budget. (Obviously this wouldn’t work for someone literally living paycheck to paycheck.)
Anyway can I just say I get budgeting now? It’s actually fun and has definitely changed our spending habits. If anyone wants the CDs for the class we have them and would be happy to share!

I had continued with my two blogs and created folders for the weekly layouts of Project Life, but I hadn’t printed a single picture for 2013 until last week. I used some free time (thanks to Granny and Pop) to catch up on this year’s book (turquoise edition). The boys were interested in what I was doing so I got out my 2011 book for the to look through.

Grandparents are pretty great at playing. Teague and Alex convinced Granny and Pop to put together their race track today.

I have never before heard of “Talk Like A Pirate Day”, but when I learned Krispy Kreme gives a free donut to anyone who talks like a pirate and a free dozen to anyone that dresses like a pirate we embraced the idea! Krispy Kreme was ready for all the pirates and boxes of donuts were basically handed out at the door. Alex even got a free “special” (caramel, maybe?) donut.

Granny doesn’t just bring herself when she visits. She brought a cookie craft. The boys loved making these little cars – especially Teague. He would make one and then proceed to try and play with it.

At the end of last swim class, Alex was told he was ready for the next level – Eels. I have no idea why this caused him so much excitement, but he has been begging for swim lessons. I finally signed him up the day before classes began. There was a single Eel class (out of 5) that had an opening. It wasn’t my preferred time/day, but I signed him up. It turns out to have been perfect. The class only has two boys (the normal is 4-6). It’s basically a private swim class. Alex loves the class and his teacher. Instead of having to beg/bribe/etc to get him there he asks me daily if it is the day for swim lessons. Crazy the change in a summer…

He has only had two lessons and is already in the big pool learning backstroke and practicing breath stroke without assistance (meaning no adult or no kickboard).

Amber and Nick’s sweet little girl arrived on Sunday and tonight I got to see her. What a doll! Welcome Iris Noelle.

Wade flew out of town this morning so the boys and I had a really lazy Sunday.

Today was Maddie’s 3rd birthday and the boys loved her choice of location for a birthday party – Monkey Joes. I think it’s been at least 6 months since we visited and there is a new layout and new slides/bounce houses. Everyone had a blast and the chocolate birthday cake was especially yummy!

Phoenix was visiting Bo and Damian today so it felt like times of old. The boys loved playing around in Damian’s basketball wheelchairs.