vintage holly

this dress was worn by me, then melissa, then katelyn. it is made of the thinnest, gauze-like cotton. yesterday, holly was sick and feverish, plus it was hot and humid outside - it was the perfect day for a light dress like this. she actually loved wearing it. fortunately i have about 4 more just like it so she can keep wearing them on the hot days! you can't even tell she was sick! double ear infection plus her fever was over 101! she's a trooper (but poor me having two kids who just don't let you know when they are sick!)

she was smiling at kendal in this picture. he was calling her "guh guh" (we think it means good girl). kiss my foot! she likes to play with her dress! those cute little bloomers came from the silly goose! i suppose back in the old days we wore cloth diapers with a cover on them, thus no need for bloomers. isn't she pretty?

holly roller

little miss holly wolly bo bolly has learned how to roll over (from front to back only). she's actually been doing this for a little bit, just i haven't had both the battery and the SD card in the camera at the same time... something else funny, when she watches the video of herself, she laughs at it.

financial peace university

with the addition of baby #2 and the subsequent hospital bills and ER visits, etc., we just can't seem to get ahead. seems like everytime we turn around, we have another bill. (not to mention outgrowing one car which happened the same time the other one practically died...) anyway, nathaniel heard about dave ramsey's financial peace university which (i'm not sure if he realized this), but it is a biblical based way to do finances (plus some advice from mr. ramsey). nathaniel missed the first class, so just i went to it. it is a 12 week class (once a week) and is held at one of the local churches (the one that i like to go to, faith baptist). anyway, i thought i'd share a bit of what we learned last week for any of you who were interested in the program. the first step is to save $1000 for emergencies. this has to be a priority. fortunately we already had this in place so that wasn't a big deal. he called this the "GOK" fund (god only knows) and should never be touched unless there really was an emergency. (incidentally, if you make under $20k/year, you should only save $500. this is for my semi-unemployeed newly-graduated sister.) some of the points and quotes he used for this lesson were: 1. building wealth is not evil or wrong. money is amoral (i.e. the LOVE of money is immoral) "for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" 1 timothy 6:10 2. saving must become a priority. and, the difference between saving and hoarding is attitude. he used a visual with this one that i particularly liked... money clinched tight in a fist: hoarding. the tight fist represents anger. money lying in an open hand can come and go freely. even a dog can understand the open hand (treat in the open hand). "in the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has." proverbs 21:20 3. if you get a raise, don't raise your standard of living - save more. "if riches increase, do not set your heart on them" psalm 62:10 the next two steps were not covered in this lesson, but he hinted as to what they were: step 2: pay off all debt except the house. (the more you pay off, the more you HAVE to pay off - get it??? he calls it the debt snowball.) step 3: save for 3 to 6 months of expenses (which you may think will be hard, but without any debt to pay each month (i.e.car payments, hospital bills, college loans), you have a lot more money left over at the end of the month to put towards savings!) so our homework was to make a quicky budget. really it wasn't much of a budget but more a list of where our money goes PER MONTH. i recommend each of you doing one today. include: mortgage (plus the payoff) any extra you pay on mortgage 401k gifts/donations/all those 5k fees! church tithing electricity (i did a 6 month average since our rates just went up) water gas internet cell phones home phone trash security system cable/satellite *food car payment(s) plus the(ir) payoff(s) *gas and oil (which is hard since you don't change your oil each month plus you travel more some months than others) *car repairs and tires (our cars are new and under warranty so i didn't put anything here) car/home insurance *clothing college loan(s) dental insurance health insurance life insurance medical expenses (doctor visits, medicines, etc.) child care entertainment pool dues/fitness club fees/etc. hospital bills credit card bills other loans

long time no blog

last week was rough. i'm still catching up on sleep. that is my #1 excuse for not blogging recently. (and by the way, dad is fine and pretty much back up to par - excuse the pun, because he isn't really playing any golf. but he is dusting potatoes and tomatoes and cutting grass (but not changing the blades) and napping holly just like normal.) anyway, i also haven't taken any pictures in over a week now of my kids, so that leaves me with not much to talk about. usually i like to accompany a blog with a picture of one of the cute little buggers. but, can't do that either. (well, not a new picture anyway.) but i do need to do some updating. so, here goes: 1. kendal is officially a walker. i mean, like the whole -if-you-turn-your-back-he-is-gone kind of walker. so now even the bathroom doors have holly's bloomers on them (because he likes to go in a room and shut the door, yet he cannot open the door unless it does not shut..) {insert useful tip: little baby bloomers really are great for wrapping around door knobs - you know how when your windows are open and the pressure changes and the door slam shut? well that helps the doors from SLAMMING or latching... plus if the bloomers are thick enough, they may actually keep little fingers from getting squished!} 2. holly can almost hold her own bottle. 3. holly can almost roll over. 4. holly almost always sleeps on her side now. 5. until last night, holly hadn't pooped for 10 days - which now she has pooped about 10 times today, and they have hurt her, she's a total grump today! (which is her first time being a grump so it is ok.) 6. kendal can walk backwards, and sometimes prefers this direction to the forwards one. 7. kendal can run (sort of, he tries to). 8. kendal is learning (with some success) to climb on the stairs. (talk about hitting tons of developmental milestones...) 9. kendal likes corn, but it has to be yellow corn. 10. tomorrow we start with a new physical therapist - in a clinical setting rather than at home. hopefully this will help him have a surge of learning much like he did when we started with our last therapist (who i loved, but it ended up was just at a bad time of day for him i think). 11. holly scoots so much on her back that #1 she's gotten carpet burn on the back of her head, and #2 she's ALMOST scooted off the bed. can't leave her alone anywhere either! so next time i take pictures, i'll post them. but for now, this is all i can think of!

see it

maybe you'll recognize it if i post it again.

holly milestone

what it took kendal 12 - 15 months to do... holly accomplished in 4. today, holly picked up her paci by the nipple, juggled it around, tried to put it in her mouth backwards, and eventually turned it around got it in there the right way. repeat. (so it wasn't a fluke the one time.) hum. so now that it's taken him 20 months to walk, maybe that means she'll do it in... (15-4 = 11, 20 - 11 = 9) by 9 months??? we'll see about that. if she follows cousin sam, she'll be close! sidenote: want to hear a great song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5HpeA_WSo

kendal and straws

its official, he can drink out of a straw!