Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 3 year anniversary tonight. We went to Olive Garden and then to buy Natalie a baby bathtub as hers was too big to bring on the move. Poor girl. She REALLY needs a bath. But she fell asleep on the way home and still didn't get one tonight. I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink but my hand slipped and she hit her head. Not hard and she is totally fine, but it makes me too nervous!!!!

We brought Natalie on our date with us and the host who seated us said that he had a four month old boy as well. When we set Natalie down and he actually looked at her he kind of looked unsure or weirded out or something. Then he asked how much she weighed when she was born. I explained that she was early and just a little baby, but he just kind of nodded and walked away. It was weird. Oh well. Natalie, we love you just the way you are!

Total Money Makeover!
Have you ever read Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover? If the answer is no, then you should go get/borrow a copy and read it! It is so good. It is so clear that anyone (really ANYONE) can live debt free. Including the house. And then have money saved up for kids, retirement, etc. Like enough to live comfortably on. Or even enough to live in luxury. I can't say enough good things about this book. GO READ IT!

We are currently in the middle of our total money makeover. Sama just started his new (well-paying) job today and I am doing really well with Melaleuca and making good money. So what are we doing with that? We are paying off our student loans. Like REALLY fast. And then we are saving for a house. A nice house that we can be in forever with little or no mortgage. We don't have very much right now especially in terms of furniture. We budgeted for furniture but not very much.  Like $100 a month. We are borrowing a table from my parents and we are buying the rest used. Except a bed. We did indulge in a nice bed. But now we are living quite frugally. To the point that my family thinks I am crazy. I told my mom this morning that we weren't really doing much for our anniversary so she pulled out all the money she had in her wallet and a gift card and told us to go out. That was awesome. We did have a really good time. My sister is pretty shocked that we might not have a couch right away. But oh well. There are worse things. We will soon have the furniture we need and NO debt and lots of money saved.

Maybe you all think I am crazy too. But I know it won't be so bad to live like this for a little while knowing that in a few years we will be debt free including our house, have a lot of extra money, have plenty for retirement, college, etc. That will be wonderful so I am willing to sacrifice a little to get there sooner. There is a footer throughout the entire book that says "if you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else." Basically if you give up some things now then later you will have enough to buy all those things and have all the things you need and want. This book is really inspiring and helpful and just plain awesome.

Moving
So I don't know when I last wrote on here and thought I would explain that we just moved to a new state. From Utah to Oregon. We brought two pieces of furniture with us and that's all. So if what I was saying above didn't make sense, we really have no furniture because we just moved.

Time to go as little Natalie has just woken up. Goodnight!

Blessings: A Car Story

So, Sama took our car to get checked out to make sure all was well for driving to Oregon on Saturday. Well, apparently the back left tire was in bad shape because the brake was slowly getting welded onto the tire. What?! Yeah so all those times we put the emergency break on when we park--totally unnecessary apparently. So that caused problems with the car overheating a lot because it was working extra hard to pull that tire around.  Anyway, we knew our car was old and not the best, but we were still hoping to take it. They gave us an estimate and got to work fixing the problems. I guess it was still okay to drive because Sama brought it back and had plans to go back today to let them finish the repairs. Well....

Yesterday Sama took the car out because he had left his backpack with his computer and brand new camera across town. He didn't make it because the car started banging. He turned around and headed home going as slowly as possible and then....the tire fell off. Yep. It just fell off and rolled away. Crazy.

So where are the blessings in this you may ask? Well I promise they are there. Thankfully no one was hurt yesterday when all this happened. The tire rolled into a really old fence but no other cars or anything. There was no accident. Also, we were very lucky that Natalie wasn't in the car. Again, nothing bad happened, but it would have been a lot more worrisome if she had been there. And finally, this happened BEFORE we started driving a few hundred miles to Oregon. So, blessings! We are so grateful.

Yes, it is too bad about the car, but we were planning on purchasing a new one once in Oregon anyway. So we are going to sell this for whatever price we can get and put it towards the new car.

And now back to packing!

Bedtime Smiles

So Natalie has started doing something interesting. When we are getting her ready for a nap or for bed, she will sometimes fall asleep and then wake up as we put her down in her bed. At this point instead of crying or getting upset, she will usually just start smiling these big adorable smiles at us. It is too cute and I have to remember that it is nap/bedtime and not pick her up and start playing with her. Anyway, I think she knows that if she smiles at us then we will play with her and that smiling at bedtime is so much more effective for getting picked up than crying. And smiling is definitely more fun for us too :)

This Week

We had a great week! Well, not including Natalie having an ear infection. Poor baby. I've been getting plenty of exercise and we have spent a lot of time with good friends. Wednesday we went to eat with some friends and we had more friends over last night. It was just great.

Well I realize this is very short, but I just wanted to give an update. Hope you are all doing well!

Feeling Good

So it is currently 3:10 AM and I am awake. Surprisingly not because of Natalie but because I just can't sleep. And it has been too long since I have posted on here. I will try to be better about it.

So this week I have worked really hard to be healthy. I have done a great job at eating well and getting exercise. I have mostly been going on walks with Natalie in order to get my exercise. I love it! So today Sama and I had planned to go out to eat and I had planned to eat pretty much whatever I wanted. I started with a large salad so I wouldn't go too crazy. And I didn't. Except then I got chocolate cake. Still feeling okay about this. The problem was later when I wasn't quite hungry enough for a full meal and just wanted something little and quick. So then I started snacking on granola bars. Anyway, the end of the day wasn't that great and since it was snowing today I never went for that walk. So I guess today was a learning experience. The good thing is that I am not beating myself up over it. I have felt so good in just a few days of being healthy that I just want to get back to that! And I know I can do it too. I think eating lots of fruits and vegetables has been great and one of the main things that has helped me so much.

In other news. Natalie has an ear infection. Poor girl. We didn't know for a few days. She was fussy and had an elevated temperature so we called the nurse and she said to come in. Good thing. She is starting to do a little better now! She has to take antibiotics for a few days. You know that pink stuff? I remember taking it as a kid and loving it. I thought it tasted so good. My mom had a daycare and when other kids had to take it and I would see it I would always be a little jealous. Anyway, I am just remembering this since Natalie is now taking the same stuff.

Sama is working hard finishing his senior project. I can't believe the semester is almost over! I am excited to move to Oregon, but now that it is close I am realizing that there are so many people I will miss. We aren't that social so it kind of surprised me when I started thinking of all the people we won't see anymore that we will miss. I guess we are a little more social than I thought. I will miss getting together with everyone! I wish I could just have everyone move with us, but of course that is just not going to happen.

Sama finishes work next week. The place he works is moving to another city and since we are moving it is not  realistic for him to start another job. So we will have more time with him! Less money for about a month, but we have enough and will be just fine.

Overall life is really good. I am so happy with how things are going and I feel so blessed with all I have.

Blessing Day

Natalie had her baby blessing last Sunday, March 6th. It was WONDERFUL! We had family and friends there who participated and it was such a special day. Natalie looked so sweet in her dress. Unfortunately she wasn't very happy when we took these pictures.

Fluffy Bum Reviews

Okay, so I now have pictures of sweet little Natalie in some of her cloth! The pictures aren't great quality because the camera we bought for Christmas decided it wanted to die. So until I figure that out, we still have the camera phones :) All of the pictures are of Natalie at 8 pounds except for the Thirsties where she was 7 lbs.

Charlie Banana

I really like the Charlie Banana because they fit really great even on my little tiny baby. I try to use them at night because they have the fleece that keeps moisture away from baby's bottom. They are super cute and really easy to use! They did look HUGE on her though when we started using them at just 6 lbs. But they worked so oh well :) 

GroVia

I really like the Velcro on the GroVia. It is super strong and durable. It is really the only Velcro I have that I like because the other ones, even with using the laundry tabs, get so worn out in the laundry. Obviously they are still in good condition since we haven't had them that long, but I can see them not lasting. These are GREAT though. The whole top part is a fabric that catches the Velcro so you can make it fit perfectly! You can change the insert and reuse the cover, but poop almost always goes off the  insert and so when that happens, we can't reuse it. But that is true for any cover, this one just seems to happen more often.

 Flips

I think I will like these better when Natalie gets a little bigger. They have some great inserts that you just lay in the diaper and tuck under a couple of tabs. But we are using them as a cover over fitted diapers instead of with the Flips inserts because the inserts are big for her. They can be folded down to different sizes, but they just didn't work. I think I will try again soon because she has gained a couple pounds since I last tried. But for a little tiny baby, they didn't work great. Now we really like them as covers though and hope to be able to use the inserts soon!

Thirsties

I LOVE the Thirsties covers. They fit great especially because of the inner gusset. This is the Thirsties Duo Wrap. There is a size one and a size two of these and each can be adjusted to two sizes. So we bought the size one and can adjust it to a small size with the snaps or we can unsnap it for the medium size. With these we use prefolds or fitteds. I had never planned on using fitteds only because I didn't want to pay the same amount for a fitted as for a regular all in one or all in two diaper. But I made some and LOVE them. My husband prefers the fitteds and the covers to any diaper. I guess he likes the all in one Bumgenius size small we have, but he would rather use the covers knowing they are cheaper. 

So that is my review of our cloth diapers. Hope this helps those who were curious about them!