Grown a foot or two

Last night as Matt was getting ready to go to his Church meetings Jarom disappeared for a few minutes and then reappeared wearing his church clothes. He claimed he was going with Papa to church meetings too.

He was so darn cute and insistent Matt couldn't refuse. So off they went to walk over to the church. (I would have loved to see President's face when he saw the "guest" in their meeting.)

After the meetings were over Matt and Jarom went to leave when someone stopped Matt for a quick question. Apparently the little guy was sick of meetings at this point and when Matt turned his back (he claimed it was only a minute) took off for home.

I'm sitting at home when I hear someone on the stairs. In walks Jarom and says "I'm home." Then we wait, and wait. Finally I open the door and look out into the darkness thinking Matt stopped to talk to a neighbor, but I see nothing. I started feeling a little nervous so I was getting ready to call when Matt bursts in the door shouting "Is the boy here?"

Matt had turned around after answering the question at church and couldn't find the boy anywhere. He had searched the church then ran all the way home, in the dark, hoping Jarom had made it home.

So, thank you to any neighbors who were paying attention and didn't run over the little boy in his church clothes last night. And, thank you to Heavenly Father for the extra blessings we receive while Papa's serving.

Valentine's Day

A few photos from today...including one showing Anna's new smile.

Sonorous

With two older sisters, I suppose it should not be surprising to me that Jarom enjoys singing and dancing. I hope that changes as he gets older (at least away from the "interpretive" style of dance he does now). We have yet to get video of any of his sweet dance moves, but he sat still this morning long enough to sing for us. We thought that at least Grandmas would enjoy this...

Jarom's Phones

At any given time, you 'll probably find Jarom wandering around the house with some random object at his ear, pretending it's a phone. Doesn't matter what it is: shoes, calculators, toys, food from his plate, or maybe even an actual phone. Remote controls, though, seem to be his faux phone du jour, as seen here. He's currently mastering the "hi" part of answering the phone (or the remote)...

The Random Late Halloween Post

Yeah...This post is only two weeks late. But as Livi says: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

Walking

As promised in the last post (or at least alluded to), the time has come to post about Jarom walking. But instead of boring everyone with prose, I'll just post the video. Enjoy!

Baby Steps

And no, we're not talking about Jarom, although we could be. Videos to be posted shortly, because it's so fun to watch him move...

Anyway, the baby steps we're talking about are perhaps better known as "Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps", and they are his method for working on financial freedom and (eventually) building wealth. In keeping with Tricia's other blogging efforts, I'm posting them here, or you can go right to Dave's website and find them there, with a wealth of other information, which we do not necessarily endorse. However, these seven steps we agree with mostly, and they are most likely very applicable to those of you who might be reading our blog. Anyway, here they are, with my own thoughts added.

$1000 Emergency Fund. Tricia likes to call this the "Baby Emergency Fund" which makes it sound like it's for those surprise pregnancies, but it's not. It's a small emergency fund that needs to be kept away from your other money, usable only for emergencies. Only you can know what constitutes and emergency, but for our family it would most likely be something of a medical or vehicular nature... This is step #1 because if we have this money stashed away, we don't have to go into debt to solve those problems that will surely come.

Pay Off Debt. Except your house. Use what Dave Ramsey calls the "debt snowball." You're probably familiar with this concept, which entails using all your disposable income to pay off your highest interest debt first. Once that debt is paid off, you roll all the money you were using on it to the next highest interest rate debt. And you continue on until all your debt is paid off, except your mortgage. For most people these debts are likely to be credit cards, automobile loans, student loans, home equity loans, etc...

Real Emergency Fund. As opposed to the "baby" one in step #1. You build off your $1000 fund and make it bigger. This would be cash reserves equal to 3-6 months of living expenses. The goal here is to use it for the same types of emergencies for which you'd use your "baby emergency fund", but it will cover you in the case of a longer-term financial strain (extended medical care, loss of employment, etc...).

Retirement. Dave Ramsey suggests 15% of your household income. I suggest that you do some research to determine what your retirement needs will be, and that you customize the amount to match what you expect you'll need. Either way, saving for retirement comes after you've saved up your 3-6 month emergency fund.

College Funds. For the kids. I don't suppose this needs much explanation, so we'll just point out that there are more pressing financial needs to be met first.

Pay Off Mortgage. Early, hopefully. The idea here, as usual, is that you use your disposable income on paying off your mortgage early. Your mortgage is most likely your single largest drain on your personal family finances, and imaging living without it. Wow. A lofty goal to be sure, but one worthy of working on.

Build Wealth and Give. Invest for growth, give to charities, etc... I don't know much about this, since we're a long way off at our house, but we'll get there eventually.

Nicknames

I had some fun yesterday trying to think of all the nicknames that we use for our kids. This doesn't count names that we call them occasionally (like "munchkin," "monkey," and a few that aren't fit to print). These were just the regular names that we use a lot at our house.

Olivia's Nicknames
Livi
Liv
Lou
Louis
Lucious
And no, no one calls her "Liver" anymore except Uncle Jeremy...

Anna's Nicknames
Ann
Nan
Animal
My Anna

Jarom's Nicknames
Jare
Jare-boy
Jare-bear (ugh)
And just "boy", which I suppose is the benefit of being the only boy in the the family...

Happy Birthday Jarom

Jarom is one year old today (25 Sep 2008). He's our little trouble-maker; whether it's tearing apart a once-clean kitchen, chewing on his sisters' toys, or teaching himself to navigate the stairs, we've usually got to keep a pretty keen eye on him. But he's also the most likely culprit when we find Livi having fits of the giggles. His birthday finds him making solid attempts at walking (four or five steps is his current record), but only when he's not paying attention. If he really wants to get somewhere, you'll certainly hear the "slap-slap-slap" of his hands and knees as he cruises around. A sure-fire way of getting him on the move is to open the front door. Wherever he is in the house, he knows when he has a chance to get outside, and he's not about to pass up a chance to scrape his knees on the front steps, eat bark chips out of the flower beds, or escape down the sidewalk.

We're so happy to have him with us, and can't imagine life without him. Happy birthday Little Man!

Yuba Lake

We had our annual family summer trip last week. We went to Yuba Lake (again) down in Central Utah for a few days of swimming, boating, playing games, and getting rained on. We had a really, really good storm Friday afternoon, flooding the beach. Half of the family was out on the boat, and most everyone else hid out in Grandma's trailer. Tricia and I just stayed in the tent with Jarom. We got a little water seeping through the bottom of the tent, but once again, the tent was perfect for the bad weather.

Anyway, other than a few sunburns, we had a great weekend, and can't wait for next year's trip (wherever we end up going). On to the pictures!

Summer Reprised

With school looming on the horizon (for Livi, anyway) we're starting to wrap up our summer activities. The family trip to Yuba this weekend will be our last big hurrah, and then it's back to the grind. Looking back over the summer, there are two things that are really memorable: fireworks and water fun.

We live just south of Thanksgiving Pointe, which seems to be Utah Valley's destination for fireworks displays. Whether it's the 4th or 24th of July, company parties, various festivals, or even the county fair, it seems like we get two or three good fireworks shows every month during the summer. Most of the time, we get a great view while just sitting on our front porch. The girls have stayed up later than normal on more than one occasion this summer, "oooohing" and "aaaahing" at the light show overhead.

As for the water fun, we spent plenty of time getting wet this summer. From weekly "swimming night" at the Lehi Legacy Center, to pool parties at Grandmas' houses, ward parties, and just running through sprinklers, there were lots and lots of hot days that just begged for some nice cool water. So, without further rambling, we'll pass you off to the pictures!

Swimming Jarom

He's mobile.  And while it's not what we were expecting, it's effective enough.  He doesn't really like to perform on command, meaning we can't put something out in front of him and get him to go get it.  But he's very good at waiting until our backs are turned and ending up under the bed, or the couch, or someone's chair.  The house is not baby-proofed in any way.  I suppose it's time to get busy working on that.