Simply the Smith's

Lets start with our debt  we paid off $2,479.00 this month!!! That number also paid off our second to last credit card! We have a giant chart in our bedroom that lists our debt and goals and such and we are crossing our debts off as we complete them and this month we go to put a giant red line through one of those line items. This means we have 3 left. We started with 6 and while the first 3 were small it still means we are halfway through our line items and that is huge! The one we are working on now we are shooting to have it paid off by the end of January  and then it is the last 2 big loans which is over half our debt that we have total.  I know it sounds odd but we are so excited to get to that point and start hammering the big loans! I also want to mention that we cash flowed quite a bit this month.  Halloween costumes for all 3 was $60.00 Pumpkins and candy was $40.00 Baby Gift  $50.00 Michael B-day $50.00 Car repairs $40...

This post is only a month late! But better late than never! Which lets be real most times if enough time goes by they end up as never but I just couldn't let this go because...... We officially have a Pre-K student in our house On Wednesday September 6th Grayson had his first officall day of school.  Our school runs a "soft opening" for Pre-K which means the first week each Pre-K student only goes one day so that they can acclimate to the new classroom without the full class.  So Wednesday was his day and Michael and I each took the day off so we could take him because they did not have bus runs yet. He was so excited! He had a great first day!  Then on Monday Septmeber 11th he had his first day of riding the bus! I took a half a day so I could be there for it. I don't have pictures because I was taking a video but he was so excited/nervous.  He was a little nervous His "babies...

It's time for a Debt and Goal's check Here were September Goals Close Pool and get ready for winter Complete our Will Start Financial Peace University Work on Baby Step#2 Halloween Costumes for kiddos Keep working on organizing house Fail on the closing the pool. It on the list for Sunday when we both have a day off together without kids so I'm moving that one over to the October list Complete our will man is this hard. There is so much to discuss and figure out and so we are working on it. Start Financial Peace University is a win! We are on week 3 in the home study program and loving it.  Work on Baby Step #2. We sure did! this month we paid $2,944.00 towards debt and we are over the moon happy with that number. Michael started 6 day work weeks and I have been scrimping and saving on our grocery budget and really working with what we have and not going over the top.  Halloween Costumes for kiddos well Grayson says he wants to by Ky...

To all Parents in Houston and Florida First just let me say your doing a great job. I can't even imagine being in your shoes. Having children watching your whole world be turned upside down and losing so much and having to stay brave for your kids. The unknown is scary but you can't be scared at least not on the outside. I guess that is something we get when we become parents the ability to keep it together in front of them. To make them feel safe and secure even when we don't feel that way. To keep putting one foot in front of the other even when we feel like our shoes our made of lead and we are climbing the biggest mountain. Also how brave are you? Having to make such difficult decisions at a moments notice. I mean the weight of that on someone is crazy but let me tell you this whatever you decided it was right. If you stayed, if you evacuated it was the right choice for you. Because you know your family best and you know to follow your gut no matter what. I li...

I'm going to do at least one post every month about last months progress and the next set of monthly goals.  So August Here were our goals Complete Baby Step #1- Save $1,000.00 Hit Baby Step#2-Debt Snowball Cut out a ton of extra fat from our budget (I'm looking at you storage unit full of junk and XM radio) Get Term Life Insurance Enjoy our last vacations until we are debt free (these were pre-planned and already paid for with CASH!) Get Grayson ready for school Organize our house So the ones in Green are complete and blue are a work in progess Lets break it down We hustled and got that $1,000.00 emergency fun fast we pulled it out of the bank and have it on hand for real emergencies although I'm hoping we never have to touch it Baby Step #2 is a work in progress and will be for a while but we successfully paid off $4,572.93!!! YUP!!! We are so excited for that number. Now this is an exceptional month because we sold some things and really ...

Eight Years  I was getting up and ready to head to the salon to get my hair done and it was pouring down rain.  I was not phased by it at all I was just so happy to be marrying my best friend Back then (and still today) I was just in awe that he chose me. He was (and still is) more than I could have ever dreamed of. I always think of what our pastor said during our pre-marital counseling, she told us that she was praying about our marriage and she just kept coming back to that we were written in heaven to be together. That sticks with us so much and has been the foundation for our marriage. It hasn't always been perfect and it I know that rough roads lie ahead because that's life but we have a good foundation one that can withstand all the storms 8 years ago we were two young kids getting married and now today we have three kids of our own. We have endured countless sleepless nights together, blowouts that need a hazmat team, teething of ...

So I read The Total Money Makeover about 3 years ago but I could not get my husband to read it. I kind of tried to do it myself and guess what that is a huge burden for one person to take on. He was on board with paying off debt but he wasn't so on board with the whole rice and beans approach. So it didn't work very long and we both got back to our spending ways. Then in the midst of a heated disagreement spurred by money talks I asking him to please get Audible and listen to Dave Ramsey. He did and that changed everything not just financially but with out relationship. We have always been communicators. Michael and I both talk to each other about everything. We always discussed purchases but it was a "hey there is this great deal so I bought xyz" kind of thing. He hardly ever looked at our account and I paid all the bills. I would print out a budget I did once a month and then he would look it over tell me it looked good and then it would go in the drawer ne...

Last week we went on a family vacation and went camping. Well glamping I guess. We went to JellyStone in Java NY and rented a cabin. It was a blast. It was my brother and sister in law with my niece and nephew and my parents along with us and the kiddos. So that is 6 adults and 5 kids in a two bedroom cabin. It was tight quarters but man was it a blast. There is so much for the kids to do all right at the campground and our cabin was in the best location a short walk to the lake and pool and right next to the activity center. The kids made shirts played candy bar bingo, played put put, went fishing, canoeing, built sandcastles, and swam every single day. We went Sunday through Wednesday and it was the perfect amount of time. Michael and I actually left with the twins on Tuesday night because we had pretty important doctors appointment for Charlotte on Wednesday and we just wanted her to have a good nights sleep in her own bed the night before. Speaking of the doctors Charlotte h...

So this year is my first year with a kiddo going to school My sweet Grayson is starting Pre-K in our school district! This is a huge change for us since he has always gone to a daycare right down the road from my work and for the last year 3 days a week he has been in a nursery school setting at that same daycare. Now he will be in our school district and he will be riding the bus and going half days 5 days a week.  Our school has a trickle in approach to school so that kids can ease into the process So school starts Wednesday September 6th and each child is given one day that they will go that week. Grayson was picked for Wednesday so he will only go one day that week on Wednesday and we have to bring him and drop him off.  Then on Monday September 11th he will start his first full week and riding the bus.  I took half a day for both days because well I have to be there. This is our first going to school and since he goes half days in t...

I come here today to hang my head in shame a little bit 3 years ago I declared that we were getting out of debt. I had just read Total Money Makeover and was so ready to get out of debt. We did awesome, we saved $1,000 and fast and then we got to work on our smallest debt. We paid it off in about 5 months and then we stopped. Like hardcore just stopped. Why? I could give you a million reasons I self medicated by shopping a little bit after my miscarriage and we justified a weekend trip to Toronto even though we didn't have a budget because it was our anniversary. Then September came and we were pregnant with twins. We were faced with a ton of financial decisions and we made some moves out of fear (I'm looking at you mini van) and our own pressure. We had a real come to Jesus moment when Michael went to his new schedule and our daycare bill was about twice our mortgage.  My husband hates to read. But I needed him to read this book! So I found Audible...

Oh babies 15 months does not seem possible  I feel like 12 to 15 months has been such a huge change Ladies first as always Charlotte, Sissy girl you are just so amazing. But frustrating. When I came to write this update all I thought was when will you start sleeping through the night? We have started some horrible sleep habits with you and soon ( I dread) we will have to break those. You still have to be swaddled to fall asleep and you still have to be rocked ugh putting you to bed takes a good half an hour. And then your up multiple times a night and usually (read: always) end up in our bed. You are the most fitful sleeper ever. But gosh do we love you. We will figure this sleep thing out soon. Until then coffee and under eye concealer work wonders for your sleep issue side affects You are walking all over the place and the new baby walk is my favorite belly out and wobbly. You live up to the hype of red hair because your personality is feisty and opinionated. ...

This has been floating around and I kind of love the idea of a quick little catch up on everyone. So here are three things right now about us. Grayson 1- He has been taking skating lessons for about 4 months and he finished his third session. He started with a basic learning to skate and now he has moved to the learn to skate for hockey. He loves it so much! He goes Monday nights with just Michael and so they get some sweet one on one time. He starts his fourth session on Monday. 2-He starts Pre-K in September in our school district (as opposed to continuing on at the daycare). He is excited to ride the bus and only have to be at school half a day ha! We went to orientaion and he loved the bus plus when we went for his screening test the teacher told me that he could probably skip pre-k because he already knows so much but that she will start working with him on sight words early on and she is so excited to have him in her classroom this fall! We are so proud of him...

If we were going to share a cup of coffee here are a few things I would tell you This is my favorite mug it is 24oz and was $5 all the heart eyes for this mug! I love coffee but I love it with a little too much creamer so I limit myself to one cup a day. Also I'm probably drinking cold coffee while trying to fold laundry because I always have all the laundry.  Our weather has been crazy. We went from 50's to bam 80's & 90's. This weekend was unbearably hot and both of the babies screamed when I put them in the baby pool so there's that. However fat baby legs in shorts and dresses are enough to do me in I love them. I started my new schedule at work today. I'm going to a four day work week and so yeah I'm excited. I get Friday's off so I have nice lovely 3 day weekends all the time. Plus saving that day of not having the kids in daycare (come September) will be huge. Grayson had a weird 24 hour bug and then of co...

Linking up with Andrea today to talk about some struggles I'm about to let you know how crazy my brain really is and how I struggle through this thing called parenthood and marriage and oh ya know just day to day life Being a working mom And all the working Mom's said Amen. I mean really. I love my job I love working outside the home we need me to work outside the home but man some days it is hard. I love my babies. I love being home with them and not having to put on make up everyday. I get overwhelmed with the laundry that piles up (that's a whole struggle on it's own because man we live out of baskets a ton) my house that's not perfect and the small sand castle that is on the floor of my bathroom because I keep getting distracted on my way to get the dust buster. I feel bad that sometimes my kid listens to his teacher at daycare better than me or that my sweet baby girl willingly goes to her teacher when I drop her off in the morning. That pulls ...

Well it happened. On Friday I turned the big three-oh.   THIRTY I remember being a kid and thinking how old my mother seemed at 32. Well folks now I'm there only thing is my kid things I'm 9746. Should probably get to working on the whole age thing with him.  I had the best birthday weekend. Normally I don't take a whole weekend but it just kind of worked out that way this year.  Friday (my actual birthday) Michael and I both took the day off. We dropped the nuggets off at daycare and headed to breakfast. We went to Tim Horton's got a breakfast sandwich and some coffee and just enjoyed our breakfast.  Then we headed to do some birthday shopping for me. We hit up Target first and got some good deals. I of course could not resist some cute clothes for the kiddos and we needed diapers so we grabbed those too. But it was so nice to not have to worry about rushing back to the kids or having to go before a meltdown started. We just walked the isle's an...

I hate our highchairs. I just bought two of the ones that strap to the  chairs and they will be eating off of those from now on because cleaning up the ones we have now are awful they have too many places food can get into and our sweet Charlotte makes sure that she rubs her dinner over every single inch of her highchair. I spent 45 mins cleaning the chairs last night and it drove me insane. Still have no idea when I mopped all the floors at the same time. However my dining room floor and kitchen floor are spotless I have to mop them daily because of all the food my kids think is fun to throw on the floor. My bathroom floor is clean too because every night they think it's Sea world and splash half the water out of the tub. I come out of there soaked too. Now as I'm typing this I need to get some more bath towels because I'm still trying to dry off my one year old's with baby towels. Ha! We lived out of baskets for like 2 weeks. So I already failed on that new...

Now that I'm a year (plus) past my twin pregnancy it's strange to look back on I mean I carried around two babies in my belly for 35 weeks. And those two babies equaled 13.5 pounds. Yeah let that sink in. Plus they were 19 inches each. I mean that's a lot of baby in one stomach.  Talk about stretching  I was huge.  I have found out (after the fact) that they called me torpedo at work because that's what looked like was coming out of my stomach Looking back man how did I do that? I can remember now feeling like my stomach was going to rip right open or that I was going to stand up once and my water would break. Getting off the couch was something I had to mentally prepare for. At the end I was getting up to use the bathroom every hour. Sleep happened in increments of a few hours. I watched more Nick at Nite than anyone should plus all 8 season of Sister Wives because they were on TLC GO Eating was a chore because I would be star...

Comparison is the thief of joy. How true is that? Just this last week someone tried to steal my joy as a mother. The questions I was asked was "How worried are you that Charlotte isn't walking yet like her brother?" I kindly smiled and said "not at all" But then later that night when my house was quiet and I had time to let things creep into my mind I started over think the situation. Marshall has been walking for about 3 weeks now. Straight up walking everywhere and trying (and sometimes successfully) to climb (ing) everything. Charlotte is cruising along furniture using her little push toys to get everywhere but not independently walking. Once that comment was made I started to wonder. Is she behind? Wait should I be worried? Is something wrong with her legs?  And a million other ridiculous things that should have never come into my mind. I closed my eyes and prayed for peace at that moment and asked for my joy back because gues...

Linking up with Shay today for What's Up Wednesday. What we're eating this week..... Monday -We had cereal because it's hockey night and I was knee deep in party prep and lost track of time so we had cereal and the kids had broccoli and cheese tots with a hard boiled egg and mac and cheese #momoftheyear Tuesday- Fish tacos Wednesday- Pasta with a beef and mushroom sauce Thursday- left overs Friday- Pizza night also know as the best night ever Saturday- It's the babies birthday party so we will be having party food What I'm reminiscing about..... With my littlest loves turning one I have been all over memory lane. You can see the letters I wrote to them here and here .  What I'm loving..... This weather. We have finally been having some nice days and so family walks have been on repeat around here. Makes me love my stroller even more because all three kids have a seat! Plus it's not wide. What...