The Tale of the Tubby

2005

 Sam 8 months old, Keaton 2 years old

2007

 Emmi 7 months old, Sam 2 years old, and Keaton 4 years old

 2010

Jack 7 months old, Emmi 3 years old

Christmas Recital

This week was Emmi's first Christmas recital and it was held right in the dance studio.  Only Chad and I were able to attend, but we were able to watch Emmi and her class at the bar, go across the floor and perform 3 numbers in 3 different outfits.  Emmi was beyond excited, especially because her Papa was there to watch her.  I lost track of how many times Emmi stopped to wave and blow kisses at us. 

 About to go across the floor. Emmi is next to Grandma Hunsaker.

They took pictures after every dance number.  Emmi is the middle of the front row.

 Emmi is on the far right of both.

I had to post just a snippet of one of the numbers.  This one is Emmi's favorite, "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." I love distracted she is. She makes me smile.

What do you think?

Emmi drew this cute picture the other day all by herself.  I had to giggle when she told me what it was.  What do you think, does it look like a piggy bank (with hair)?  I love it!

Jack-Jack

If you didn't notice, I had completely spaced getting individual pictures of Jack taken at our family photo shoot.  That is why there wasn't any of him posted.  Luckily I have a friend in the ward who was willing to quickly take some for me.  I just got them back today and just love them!! Thanks Candi for doing such a great job! This is my little man Jack at 6 months old.

Picky, picky, picky!

  

Maybe I am just not remembering, but I would have to say that Jack has been our pickiest baby when it comes to food.  He is only 6 months old and already wanting to move beyond the baby food.  At first he did well, but eventually began to only like apples, pears, squash and sweet potatoes.  (He never did take any rice cereal for me.)  Now he won't even eat those!  I don't know how he learned how to shake his head, or if he really knows what it means, but nonetheless it is very effective in deterring us from feeding him.

"Dust"

Over the Thanksgiving weekend when the kids were out of school, we had a little mishap.  I was upstairs when Sam came up to tell me that there was "dust" everywhere.  At the time I was catching up on one of my favorite shows so I was only half listening at the time and WAY underrated what was happening.  A few minutes later Sam came upstairs again to tell me that there was "dust" everywhere and so I thought I probably should go check.  It turns out that the "dust" was actually feathers from a down comforter that was on Sam's bed.  Somehow they (meaning Sam and Emmi) found a hole and shook the feathers all over the boy's room, down the hall and covered every inch of the family room.  At first glance I didn't know if I wanted to laugh, cry or scream.  These pictures really don't do the damage justice!! Well, I decided to have the boys start vacuuming, and believe me, they vacuumed for at least a good hour without making a dent in the feathers!  As I knew would happen, I ended up having to help them vacuum, which I was not happy about.  Looking back, I am sure this will be something we will laugh about for years to come, but at the time I was not amused! :)

Family Pictures

This year my friend Becki took our family pictures, and we took them here in our little town.  They turned out really well, especially considering we had 4 kids that we had to get looking at the camera.  Every time I look at these pictures, I am amazed that we are now a family of 6.  It just doesn't seem possible!  Becki did a great job, as always, thanks Beck!  I am posting just a few of my favorites.  Enjoy!

Adoption

I want to share a touching video that was posted by some of our friends.  Because of health issues, Dan and Helen were not able to have any children.  Not too long after we had met them, Dan and Helen were able to adopt a little girl from China.  That was about 4 years ago.  They have been waiting and waiting for another.  Right now they are in China adopting their second daughter.  They posted a short video clip of them finally seeing and holding little Becca Mei.  Their joy and smiles in that moment brings tears to my eyes.

Click HERE to be directed to their blog.

Full time mommy x part time MT

I am happy to report that I have been working now as a Medical Transcriptionist for about 4 months and doing well.  I am very grateful that I was able to find a job so quick out of school, even though it ended up being not the best match for me.  While I was working for my first company, I got a reply back from another company that I had sent my resume to almost a month earlier.  They asked me to test with them if I was still interested in a job.  Thinking that it couldn't hurt, I did test, and a few days later I received notice that I passed.  They said that they wanted me to go ahead and sign the paperwork, but that I would be waiting for an available position to open up.  Well, things really couldn't have worked out perfectly.  I had had just about enough of my company when my new employer (On Time Transcription), notified me that a position was available.  I had been praying for help, and the Lord did answer.  Happily I was able to give my old employer 2 weeks notice and have been super pleased with my new one.  I love the work I do, but being able to work right now is the problem.  I really had hoped that Jack would've been content and a good napper by now.  If anything, he seems to be getting more needy.  The little guy is now cutting teeth and has decided that only 1 little nap is sufficient during the day, which is the only real time I can get on and type, but it is okay.  My kids are more important, and hopefully work will sort itself out.  There will be plenty of time for work in the future.  

As for pay, I am not making much right now.  But Chad and I have decided that when I have saved up enough money, we are taking the kids to Disneyland.  I have wanted to take the kids there for a long time.  We are thinking that I will have enough in my account to go sometime in February, which is very exciting.  Surprisingly, I have not spent 1 cent of my earnings and it has been good motivation for me to work.  I don't know if Chad is aware, but after Disneyland, I will saving up my money to go on a badly needed shopping spree...

Halloween!

Chad reminded me today that I still hadn't posted pictures from Halloween...oops!  Every time I look at these pictures, I cannot believe that I have 4 kids... Wow!  But all 4 kids ended up looking pretty cute this year.  Keaton was a skeleton, Sam was Wolverine, Emmi was an angel and Jack was the "frog," which the other 2 boys were at his age. 

The day before Halloween, we got invited to go to the Trunk or Treat at my mother-in-law's ward.  It was fun for the kids to start Halloween a day early and the Mower cousins went as well, which made it even more fun! 

Isn't he the cutest little frog!

Before the kids went Trick or Treating we ate our traditional "pumpkin pizza" from Papa Murphy's.  Being the food source, I was the one who got to stay home with Jack and pass out the candy, and Chad took the rest of the kids around.  When they got home we watched Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin and started feasting on the candy.  It was cold, but it was a great holiday!

Kids, Work and Money

Dave has some great ideas to teach your kids about money and we have found great success with them as well.  He recommends having chores for your kids that they can do to earn money.  I agree with Dave that there are some chores that they do because they are simply members of the family and live in the house and will not be paid for them.  However, they need to learn that in order to be paid, you have to do work.  So, I have created a chore chart for the kids and they each have 5 daily chores, Monday through Friday.  If they do all 5 chores, they get 1 dollar for that day, but no dollar unless all are done. (Since Emmi is only 3, she has just one chore which is to clean her room, but that will grow as she gets older).  We mark their dollars on the chore chart and on Saturday Chad pulls out 15 dollar bills.  (We already pull out cash for our envelopes, so he makes sure he gets 15 dollars in 1's).  We go through the chart and pay them each for their work.  The first week I pulled out these canning jars and let them each decorate one.  Right now all their money is put in there.  We are planning to get the kids each a new wallet for Christmas to put their spending money in and they will use the jars for their savings.  Yesterday they each had 15 dollars in their jars, from the last couple of weeks so they each were able to fill out their first tithing envelope and pay $1.50 for tithing.  It was very cute to see all three of them truck up to the stand to hand the Bishop their tithing and they all had big smiles.     

Let me tell you why this has been such a great thing...

1.  I have been wanting to start teaching the boys how to do some minor chores for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it.  This gives me a great opportunity to teach them a few chores at a time.  After a few weeks they are now able to unload the dishwasher, clean my counters, take out the garbage and vacuum with very little supervision from me, and I have a lot more I want to show them.  I no longer have the nagging feeling that I should be teaching my kids how to work.

2.  I have chosen to have the chores be done before school.  This means by the time they leave for the bus I have a clean home and when they get home from school they are free to play.

3.  I love that they are learning about money so young.  They will be learning the value of a dollar, (and I'm sure buyer's remorse) so young that hopefully when they get real jobs they will be smart with their money. 
4. Chad and I have always wanted to teach our kids the importance of paying tithing, but they never had any money to be able to do so.  For years Chad has let the kids each take turns handing our tithing envelope to the Bishop, to start to teach them good habits, but it will be much more meaningful now with their own money.
5.  We have also worried about not having enough money set aside for their missions, college, weddings, etc.  This is a good way for us to make sure they start saving young and so they will have plenty when the need arises.
6.  Most importantly, they are loving it too! It is crazy that my kids really do want to help.  In the past 3 weeks I haven't heard the slightest mumble about the chores, and don't need any reminders.  I know as they get older this will change, so I will enjoy it for now! :) They love feeling important and helping around the house and then seeing their money grow in the jar.  Soon I will be taking the kids out to spend some of their "spending" money and I am sure they will love that too.

Dave

Meet Dave.  Dave is Chad's new hero.. ha ha ha.  Okay, I kinda like him too.  This is Dave Ramsey, a financial guru.  Let me start by saying that Chad and I have always had debt.  We got married with debt and as much as we were able to pay down something, we would find some other way to get back into debt.  Well, a few months back one of Chad's coworkers mentioned Dave Ramsey, and Chad decided to do some more research on him.  I admit that when Chad started to tell me he wanted to attend one of Dave's seminars or buy some books of his I really didn't think that he would do it.  But I guess I was wrong.  The next thing I know a big box arrived at the house with 2 of his books, a couple of his DVD's and an envelope system.   Click here to see what we got.  After reading the books, and watching the DVD's, Chad and I were sold.  We have been doing Dave's system for about 6 weeks now and can not even tell you all the difference it has made in our finances and in our marriage.

In a nutshell, this is what we are doing:  Chad gets paid every week.  So, on the way home from work on payday Chad stops by the ATM and pulls out our allotted cash, which is what we both have agreed we can get by on every week.  Included in Dave's kit was this handy envelope system.  It has all of these pockets that we have named Grocery, Gas, Restaurants, Entertainment, Clothing, Babysitting, etc.  We simply fund the envelopes with the cash.  I can not tell you the last time I used my debit card.  I am on cash only.  Research shows that when you buy with a card, you spend more.  It hurts to pay cash, and see that money go and so you are tighter with it.  I can attest to that in these last 6 weeks. :)  I take these envelopes when I buy anything, and leave all cards, even my debit, at home.  I pay in cash and when it is gone, it is gone... period.  You could easy look at this system and think that it is binding and really mean of Chad to make me live like this, but it has been very freeing.  For example, no more do I have to be afraid of getting in trouble for shopping.  This last week I had 60 dollars in my clothing envelope and my sisters invited me to go shopping, so I went, guilt free!  I don't know if anyone else does, but every time I would go shopping for groceries or whatever, I would get to the register and have a moment of panic that it was going to be a big bill and I would be in trouble with Chad when I got home.  I hated that feeling!! Never again.     

The best part is that no more do Chad and I argue about money.  Whenever we talk about money it is usually how excited we are that we have paid off yet another debt or credit card.  Six weeks ago Chad and I put our credit cards away, so we would not be tempted to use them.  This morning Chad got them down and went to town on a little "plastic surgery."  By sticking to using our cash and using all the money we can every paycheck towards our debt, we have already paid off quite a few and we now have more money in our savings account then we have ever had.   I have been very proud of Chad, and his determination to make this happen.  His goal is to be debt free except our house in 18 months, and I would wager that we will make that.  Trust me, I will make a big post about it when we do make that!  I would never have imagined it, but this envelope system has been a huge blessing.  It feels like we have truly turned a leaf in our marriage for the better.  We have also started teaching our kids about work and money, by using Dave's books that I am really excited about.  But that will have to be for another post... 

My boy has lungs

At the dinosaur park my sister Abby got Jack laughing pretty hard, and then he started to scream.  He found his voice a few weeks back and likes to do this high pitched scream that is pretty cute except when he likes to do it at church.:)  I am thinking we might be in trouble.  Jack might end up being loud like his brother. 

Seeing the dinosaurs!

Yesterday we took the kids up to my mom and dad's to celebrate my dad's birthday.  Before the party my mom wanted to take all the kids to the Dinosaur Museum.  So we all went, minus the birthday boy and Chad who opted to stay back at the house of course. 

 Baby "B" and Grandma. 

 Digging for bones.

The kids all played so well together. 

 Uncle J taking a turn holding Jack.

The kids even got to feed the ducks!

The kids loved the playground with all the fun slides and swings.  

I think they had a ball.

Emmi's Big Owie!

 Last week we had a catastrophe at our house.  Me and Chad are still not quite sure how it happened, but one minute the kids were downstairs playing and the next we heard a big crash and a scream.  I knew there was blood when I heard Sam saying, "Oh no, oh no!"  I took off running downstairs and there was Emmi with blood pouring out of her mouth.  After a minute of cleaning it was clear that she had a huge cut in her lip and needed to see a Dr. right away.  Since it was almost feeding time for the baby and bed time for the boys, we decided that Chad would be the best one to take her in.  Lucky for us our Dr.'s office is open until 9 p.m.  As her mother I felt sick though.  I was mad at myself for not preventing this from happening, sick that she was in pain and would have to undergo stitches, sick that she might have a huge scar on her lip and sick that I wouldn't be there to hold her.   

About an hour later I received a call from the Dr. office, where the doctor told me that the procedure went well.  He said that he was worried that because she was so young she would not hold still enough that he could stitch the lip up right so it would not be crooked.  Somehow she was very brave and held exceptionally still, and he did not have to sedate her.  She received about 7 stitches in all.

The funniest part of this story would have to be due to Chad.  One of the first things the doctor said to me on the phone was, "Well, your husband is a bit woozy from the procedure.  I gave him some juice and he is lying down, so it might be a few minutes before he makes it home."  Ha ha ha.. I was not surprised by this at all!  I have no clue how the man managed to be in the delivery room with me and see his 4 children be born because he has the weakest stomach when it comes to blood.  I had to tease him about this though.  What a good daddy for being a good sport and taking Emmi.

These first 2 were taken the very next morning.  I was on a constant vigil, to make sure that she didn't bump them or pick at her lip, as the doctor said that if she did, they lip might not heal straight.

This picture was 2 days later.  The swelling had gone down considerably, but still really owie.

And these last 3 were taken this afternoon, which is a week later.  I think that the doctor did a really good job with the stitches and it is healing nicely.  I am praying that it doesn't scar too bad, or at least lessen with time, but only time will tell.