4.07.2010
Happy Easter!
We hope you all had an awesome Easter Weekend! We sure did! Lots of family time, good food, great General Conference, and an Easter Egg Hunt. All in all a great weekend. Here's a few pictures of the egg hunt. Brockston did very well and caught on fast to how it worked. He had a blast looking for all the eggs.
3.07.2010
A day at the Park
Last week we took advantage of some warmer weather to spend some time at the park. Brockston loved climbing on the playground and watching the ducks. He even made friends with a duck. The duck followed us every where we went. I finally realized that he liked Brockston so much because he was wearing his squeaky shoes. He has some cute little shoes that squeak every time he walks and the duck liked them. It was a fun day - especially because we got to hang out with Dad too!
This is his sad little face when we told him it was time to go home. But we promised to go back soon!
This is his sad little face when we told him it was time to go home. But we promised to go back soon!
2.28.2010
A Mouse in My House???
Could it be a mouse in my house that nibbled holes in all of the boxes in my pantry???
Nope! Just a little man caught red handed!
2.16.2010
2.01.2010
Did you know?
Okay so I usually don't use my blog as a soap box, but I found out something pretty cool that I thought I would share with you. As you probably know I attended BYU and got my bachelor's degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Finance. I never loved the corporate/political side of business. My interest is more in the personal finance side of things. Which is probably why I'm a loan officer at a credit union and never pursued anything "bigger". My favorite, most useful class was Business Management 418 - Personal Finance from Bryan Sudweeks. I still refer to the information I got from that class.
One Sunday when I was wandering the halls during Relief Society, or was it Sacrament? It was one of those meetings that Brockston didn't want to sit through quietly... I was reading the bulletin board and saw a flier about BYU Online Courses and noticed that they offer FREE classes. Did you know that? I sure didn't. So I thought I would check it out. There are lots of different classes like religion classes, music, family life, math, family history and gardening. I want to make sure it's clear the free classes are not for credit.
I found a Personal Finance course, PFIN 70, that was done by Professor Sudweeks and found much of the same material that he used in class. Lots of awesome information, if you have the time to check it out I recommend it. If nothing else might I suggest checking out the section on budgeting. He has created an excel spreadsheet for a budget that you can download (Learning Tool 4: Budget,Balance Sheet and Financial Statement). This is the budget Nate and I have been using since our first year of marriage. All the work is done for you you just have to fill in the information and keep track. You can modify some things to fit your personal expenses as well.
A few months into our marriage we sat down and decided to do the budget. It was eye opening to see what our money was going towards. We quickly realized I was not allowed to go grocery shopping by myself or without a list because I spent way too much. We also realized that we wanted to pay Nate's car off as quickly as we could and start saving so that we could have a good down payment on a house. We were able to pay off Nate's car within several months and with no other debt we started saving away. With the help of our budget we were more conscientious of where our money was going and we often thought twice about purchases because we wanted to save as much as we could. When we were ready to purchase our house after three years we had saved quite a big chunk of money and we are so grateful that we were able to do so.
The Visiting Teaching Message for the month of February focuses on managing resources wisely and staying out of debt. Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President said this:
“What skills do we need to help us become self-reliant? … In the early days of the Church, Brigham Young pled with the sisters to learn to prevent illness in families, establish home industries, and learn accounting and bookkeeping and other practical skills. Those principles still apply today. Education continues to be vitally important. …
“I asked several bishops what self-reliance skills the sisters in their wards needed most, and they said budgeting. Women need to understand the implications of buying on credit and not living within a budget. The second skill bishops listed was cooking. Meals prepared and eaten at home generally cost less, are healthier, and contribute to stronger family relationships.”
I think keeping track of spending in some sort of budget is very important. I hope maybe someone out there finds this information useful. It has been to me and my family.
One Sunday when I was wandering the halls during Relief Society, or was it Sacrament? It was one of those meetings that Brockston didn't want to sit through quietly... I was reading the bulletin board and saw a flier about BYU Online Courses and noticed that they offer FREE classes. Did you know that? I sure didn't. So I thought I would check it out. There are lots of different classes like religion classes, music, family life, math, family history and gardening. I want to make sure it's clear the free classes are not for credit.
I found a Personal Finance course, PFIN 70, that was done by Professor Sudweeks and found much of the same material that he used in class. Lots of awesome information, if you have the time to check it out I recommend it. If nothing else might I suggest checking out the section on budgeting. He has created an excel spreadsheet for a budget that you can download (Learning Tool 4: Budget,Balance Sheet and Financial Statement). This is the budget Nate and I have been using since our first year of marriage. All the work is done for you you just have to fill in the information and keep track. You can modify some things to fit your personal expenses as well.
A few months into our marriage we sat down and decided to do the budget. It was eye opening to see what our money was going towards. We quickly realized I was not allowed to go grocery shopping by myself or without a list because I spent way too much. We also realized that we wanted to pay Nate's car off as quickly as we could and start saving so that we could have a good down payment on a house. We were able to pay off Nate's car within several months and with no other debt we started saving away. With the help of our budget we were more conscientious of where our money was going and we often thought twice about purchases because we wanted to save as much as we could. When we were ready to purchase our house after three years we had saved quite a big chunk of money and we are so grateful that we were able to do so.
The Visiting Teaching Message for the month of February focuses on managing resources wisely and staying out of debt. Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President said this:
“What skills do we need to help us become self-reliant? … In the early days of the Church, Brigham Young pled with the sisters to learn to prevent illness in families, establish home industries, and learn accounting and bookkeeping and other practical skills. Those principles still apply today. Education continues to be vitally important. …
“I asked several bishops what self-reliance skills the sisters in their wards needed most, and they said budgeting. Women need to understand the implications of buying on credit and not living within a budget. The second skill bishops listed was cooking. Meals prepared and eaten at home generally cost less, are healthier, and contribute to stronger family relationships.”
I think keeping track of spending in some sort of budget is very important. I hope maybe someone out there finds this information useful. It has been to me and my family.
1.25.2010
1.20.2010
One Year
My baby is a year old! I cannot believe it! It's amazing how much he has grown and developed in just one short year. It's also amazing how our lives have changed in one year - all for the better except maybe the lack of sleep thing. Brockston is pretty much the worst sleeper. We were making strides in the sleep department and then he got sick just a couple of days before his birthday. He had a pretty high fever so I ended up taking him to the doctor's on his birthday! I felt so awful. Luckily he's so little it was just another day for him. When I got to the doctor's office he was bouncing off the walls and didn't have a fever. I told the nurse "I have a sick kid I promise!" She just looked at me like I was a paranoid mother. But when the doctor came in he discovered that Brockston had an ear infection. So I wasn't just paranoid. He's taking his medication very well and when we went in today for his wellness visit the infection is gone and things are starting to get back to normal.
At one year Brockston weighs in at 19 lbs 13 oz (9%) and is 29" (23%). He is still a fairly small guy but is holding steady in his growth no major fluctuations up or down. I realized that I took him to the doctors in the same outfit at his 9 month visit.
For his birthday we did just a small gathering with my family and Nate's family. I'm not really one to go all out, especially with Brockston not feeling well. We just did cake and ice cream - well I guess it was technically cupcakes and Zeppe's Italian water ice. If you haven't had Zeppe's before and you're in the Layton or North Ogden area you should check it out - we like it a lot. I made 4 different kinds of cupcakes, Peanut Butter Cup, Oreo, Root beer and Pink Lemonade. Since Brockston likes the night life so much we didn't start his party until 9:00 pm. The perfect time for a one year old birthday party, don't you think? Actually, my family went to my grandfather's viewing so we got a late start - we decided not to reschedule and go ahead with the party anyways.
Brockston got lots of fun things and had fun with his cousins Tori and Hannah. They were both good at helping him with presents and the cake. I attempted to make his cake - a baseball (apparently those are my specialty - I made a baseball for Nate's birthday cake one year as well). Brockston wasn't super interested in eating the cake but he dug into it a little. I think he just wasn't feeling 100% plus he's really not one to dive into his food anyway. Except for a couple of little setbacks it was a great day. Brockston loves all of his toys and clothes and he's starting to feel much better. Happy Birthday B-Rock!
At one year Brockston weighs in at 19 lbs 13 oz (9%) and is 29" (23%). He is still a fairly small guy but is holding steady in his growth no major fluctuations up or down. I realized that I took him to the doctors in the same outfit at his 9 month visit.
For his birthday we did just a small gathering with my family and Nate's family. I'm not really one to go all out, especially with Brockston not feeling well. We just did cake and ice cream - well I guess it was technically cupcakes and Zeppe's Italian water ice. If you haven't had Zeppe's before and you're in the Layton or North Ogden area you should check it out - we like it a lot. I made 4 different kinds of cupcakes, Peanut Butter Cup, Oreo, Root beer and Pink Lemonade. Since Brockston likes the night life so much we didn't start his party until 9:00 pm. The perfect time for a one year old birthday party, don't you think? Actually, my family went to my grandfather's viewing so we got a late start - we decided not to reschedule and go ahead with the party anyways.
Brockston got lots of fun things and had fun with his cousins Tori and Hannah. They were both good at helping him with presents and the cake. I attempted to make his cake - a baseball (apparently those are my specialty - I made a baseball for Nate's birthday cake one year as well). Brockston wasn't super interested in eating the cake but he dug into it a little. I think he just wasn't feeling 100% plus he's really not one to dive into his food anyway. Except for a couple of little setbacks it was a great day. Brockston loves all of his toys and clothes and he's starting to feel much better. Happy Birthday B-Rock!
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