Saturday, July 31, 2010

our first movie

We have waited a long time to take our girls to their first movie ever, and although I was still a little nervous about chasing them around the theater and shhhhing them for two hours, to my delight they (mostly) stayed in their seats, quietly paid attention, and absolutely LOVED it!!! Every part of the experience was new and so much fun for them! We had a ball.

Seeing the entrance of the theater was like arriving at a carnival! They both literally ran up to the counter excited about all of the candy and food!

Sammi was adamant that she wanted popcorn, pizza, nachos with cheese, a pretzel, and about 5 different candy boxes. :) We settled for popcorn and nachos (which was our lunch - although super unhealthy, it was quite fun!)

Sammi got to put the butter on our popcorn...

They both loved the movie and loved the popcorn and nachos too! I couldn't believe how much popcorn they ate....as much as the adults!


At the very end of the movie Natalie got restless and we let her walk up and down the stairs next to us. She was great about staying quiet, and it really wasn't a problem since it was a weekday matinee and there weren't many people there. After we came out, I wanted a photo of them by the poster, but it was so bright after sitting in the dark theater that it was hard for them to open their eyes!
Thanks, Sammi and Natalie, for giving us such a memorable and fun first movie experience together!!!! XOXO

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

our dave ramsey canvas

We got a new piece of artwork for our home, and I could not be more excited!!!! With the business and our studio keeping us busy, our home has been neglected for quite some time. Dan and I set some goals when we started Dave Ramsey, and when we hit a recent milestone, we bought this canvas for our home (we had cash for it, of course.) :) We still have a long way to go, a lot of goals to achieve, and still aren't making all of the payments we want to be right now, but once we sat down and crunched the numbers of how far we've come on the Dave Ramsey plan over the last 10 months, we couldn't help but to celebrate a little.

We ordered this 30X40 canvas gallery wrap to hang over our fireplace, and that's exactly what we did when it came in. After much contemplating, I decided it just didn't look perfect where it was so I made Dan move it down 3 inches, which meant visible holes in the wall to fix (sorry honey). With the canvas moved and two more holes in the wall, I still didn't think it looked just right, and we set it above the couch to see how it would look there. That was it! It looked perfect! Especially with our brainstorming and plans to add to it later! (See below)

Finally the huge wall of our living room had something interesting to look at! I rummaged through our closet and dug up the framed prints that Dan bought me during his photography internship in Italy in 2002, which fit perfectly over the fireplace.

We have two 11X14 canvases upstairs, so I brought them down just to see what it might look like to hang two of this size on either side of the big canvas, and we loved the look! We did a quick photo shoot of the girls a few nights ago because there is a perfect field of overgrown weeds near our house. I have a feeling those will be perfect 11X14 additions to our wall, but those will be coming in the future... hopefully sooner than later!

This is a rough idea of what we'll be doing, with two on the right too!
If you've been following our journey and been contemplating doing Dave Ramsey, DO IT. It has changed our life more than any other thing we've ever done and we are so grateful. Since October we've paid off about $30,000 of our debt (not including mortgage payments). I'm proud to say we are down one credit card, three store credit cards, we finally own our carpet, and we finally paid off the last of our $15,000 of hospital bills. I guess that means we can keep Natalie. :)

The only thing we changed was putting numbers on paper and sticking to a budget that we created based on what was important to us. (We didn't cut our cable and Dan didn't give up coffee...) It's not always easy. It's hard to stay motivated. It's awkward to say "no" sometimes. But in the end, it is so worth it. And I would venture to say you don't need to be in major debt to get a lot out of his teachings about insurance, investments, college, retirement, teaching children about money, etc, etc, etc. And if you are in debt? Well, if we can do it, you can do it. I promise. And then you can buy a big 30X40 canvas of your family from BRAND PHOTODESIGN to celebrate. ;)

Sunday, July 25, 2010

the zoo with hailey (up close & personal)


We had to squeeze in one last zoo trip before our membership expired last week! :) Shannon and Hailey joined us and we had a super day getting very close to many of the animals!!!

We felt the sharks...

Watched the penguins swim up close...

Fed the giraffes....

And got to feel the elephants! (Sam is in the purple flower shirt, and she is squeezing the trainer's hand for dear life with her left hand while petting the elephant with her right! :) Hilarious!

The goats in the petting zoo are a favorite stop!

Shannon and Hailey, thank you SO MUCH for meeting us at the zoo! We always love hanging out with you and had so much fun sharing special time together at the zoo!!!!

please vote for us :)

Okay friends. This is the personal blog.... but I have to post this because if your friends and family won't vote for you... well.... then we're in serious trouble! :)

It takes just a minute. Last year we won SECOND. We need your votes more than ever this year - the competition is fierce!!!

The people reading this are the people that have always loved us and supported us unconditionally..... so for that we thank you, and we thank you for your votes that show us the love today as well!!!!! :)

To vote, click HERE!

(It should look like this...)

Monday, July 19, 2010

my childhood friend, diane

This is Diane. I grew up with her as a little girl - camping, apple-picking, all sorts of family gatherings as kids. I haven't seen her in over 10 years and if it were not for Facebook, I may not have ever had the chance to connect with her again. Turns out that sometimes technology makes us more personal, not less. :)

Thanks to connecting on Facebook, Diane & her family invited us over to have dinner with them (10 minutes away!). It was awesome to see her & meet her husband and 1-year old daughter, Lainey! We had a GREAT time catching up & hope to do it much more often!

Our girls: Natalie, Samantha, Lainey


...And our girls not wanting to get another photo taken! :)
Thank you SO MUCH, Diane! Next time: cookout at our house! :)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

the zoo with bree and kate

Last week we met my friend Becky and her girls at the Indy Zoo! There was just enough chance of rain to keep the zoo from being busy but the weather was perfect! We loved it!!!!

Waiting to meet our friends at the gate...

We started the tour with the dolphin show - always a favorite!

Sammi could hardly wait to pet the sharks!!!


We always have to get measured "in hands" when we visit the zoo...

The petting zoo was my favorite part... the girls both had so much fun petting the animals!


Sammi got to take a ride on Sugar the Pony! She was so proud!

The giraffe is Sam's favorite animal!

They were all hot and tired by this time but we made it through the last few exhibits before lunch!

I had never seen an elephant take a swim, and he went all the way under water while we were there! It was really HOT that day - I don't blame him!
Our last stop was awesome! Even though the kids were all so hot, and so tired, and so hungry, they agreed to sit still to have their caricatures drawn before we went out to have our picnic lunch.

She drew Natalie first...

Then drew Sammi...

It turned out so cute!!! Someday I will frame it and find the perfect place for it! :)
We had so much fun walking around the zoo! Samantha and Natalie we so well behaved and I was so proud of them! We loved seeing all the animals and especially loved hanging out with our good friends!!! Thanks, Becky, Bree, and Kate for meeting us at the zoo!!!!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

july 4 traditions

Hello, July 4 Fruit Pizza! How I love you so! Growing up it was a tradition for my BFF Jessie and I to make fruit pizza for July 4, and it's stuck with both of us through all the years! Our girls had a blast decorating the cookie! Now, if Jessie would just move home from Texas we could make it together again! (Hint, hint!)

Here is Cooper (Jessie's son) making his fruit pizza a thousand miles from us!

We started off July 4 weekend by attending the Primrose 4th of July parade! Natalie and I were guests of Sammi, as Natalie was still recovering from being sick so she did not participate. :( Sammi's class walked out dressed in their flag bags and sand a patriotic song. So cute!!!!


The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of outdoor play and family fun together!

Daddy and Sammi played baseball with Daddy's 2010 Father's Day gift (baseball, bat, and glove - in pink of course, just like daddy likes... hee hee...)

We did lots and lots (and lots!!) of bubbles! And Steve and Krystal came over for a cookout!!!

We all shared the fruit pizza...YUM!

And more bubbles...

We took a walk together to the neighborhood park!



Daddy picked up just a few silly fireworks for the girls... parachute men and snakes!

Sammi pretty much walked around the entire afternoon plugging her ears! It was pretty funny. We were tracking down the parachute man in this photo...

The girls were interested in the snakes but we were having trouble lighting them so we didn't do too many.

...But we did cool off with some watermelon!

...And more bubbles!!!

And of course, we watched the fireworks. Awesome.
Natalie didn't stay up for the big fireworks but Sam did. We all sat on the patio along with many other spectators in our neighborhood and enjoyed the show right in our own back yard. We have about 3-4 neighbors that do dueling fireworks and one of them owns a fireworks shop, so needless to say, they're pretty amazing.

We did have several idiots (probably the same people who burned half of our clubhouse to the ground last year - okay I'm exaggerating, but only a little) who lit fireworks toward homes or had MAJOR goof-ups. Within 10 minutes of each other we had TWO neighbors have HUGE fireworks (the REALLY BIG kind) explode on their patios where they were standing. After that, we went inside. Aside from the absolute terror of people running around on fire screaming and missing arms (okay - exaggerating again, but only a little bit), it was an amazing show!!! :)

And truly, no exaggerating.... it was a perfect weekend of spending time with my family!!!

Happy Independence Day!!!