One year of Brinners!

Our little baby Brinlee is one year old (yesterday the 20th).
Please enjoy one year of Brinlee in pictures.

Isn't it funny what entertains children? Chandler and Brinlee would be content just to dump out all of the toys and just play in the baskets. Brinlee especially loves doing this. Anytime she finds a basket, box, or anything she can sit in she plops herself down and plays.

Over Labor day we headed up to Kaye and Matt's. While we were there we went to the Willow Park Zoo, had some yummy pizza, did a little shopping and went fishing. Chandler was the mighty fisherman catching the biggest fish. It was his very first fish and he was excited and a little frightened.

Mirror Lake

This weekend we were invited to stay in a cabin near Mirror Lake. We had a great time hanging out with Mike, Emily and the kids, Matt and Kaye, Jill and Jodi. No fish were caught but we had a great time eating delicious food and catching up. Thanks for the invite Mike and Em!

Learning to eat with(out) a spoon.

Love is in the air.

Love is really in the air lately. Kaye and Matt were married July 30th, and had the BEST WEDDING EVER. Can't go wrong with soft serve ice cream and some serious dancing.
Way to go love birds!

Plus, my sister Hailey and her true love Justin were engaged yesterday!. They will be getting married October 2nd. We are so happy for you guys.

Binny is already TEN MONTHS! Can you believe it? This little girl is such a joy. She is a little ball of happiness and delight in our family.
Brinlee at ten months:
Loves to bath and splash her big brother.
Loves to crawl around all day (and eat things off of the floor).
Loves to pull herself up and squawk so we can make a big deal about it.
Loves to take short naps.
Plays patty cake with the best of them.
Claps for everyone (especially the men giving the lessons in elders quorum).
Loves being sang and read to.
Loves when we have company over. She is already quite the little preformer.
Is the happiest baby in the entire world!
Sleeps all night.
Weighs 17 pounds
28 Inches long
Has a below average head size(I am okay with that).

We love this little gal and so does her big brother!

Hill Air Force Base

Chandler loves the to watch the jets that fly over our house. So the other day we took him up to the Aerospace Museum. He loved seeing all of the big planes, helicopters and war birds. The museum is pretty cool and we have been up there multiple times. They have recently put together a children's center where the kids can learn all about how planes fly, how a pilot is trained and lots of other fun things. They have a station where you can put on a flight suit and sit in the cockpit of a jet. Chandler loved it so much he wanted to take the suit home with us! It was a great day and we had a fantastic time.

What is up with th Black Family?

So what is up with us? At the request of a few sister-in laws I have decided to finally update a little(I am sorry you didn't like the dinosaur museum post). :) We have been having a great summer just playing, relaxing, a little hiking and biking, getting ready for Kaye's wedding , and figuring out a new schedule with David's new hours.

This is a picture Marcia took of me and Brin. I forgot to post it so now I will. Isn't Brin such a little cutie? She is getting big so fast, she is almost ten months! My little sister McKenzie competed in the Miss Utah pageant and did an excellent job. David and I were able to go the night she preformed her talent. We were both so impressed with her total awesomeness! I have been so proud of that little sis of mine. Love you Kenzer!

Brinee is finding out quickly that "Pain is Beauty". I trimmed her hair into a little bob and now we roll it up on Sunday mornings for the perfect hair do.

She really doesn't mind too much.

Since it is summer the kids are always super dirty. Bath time is a must and the kiddos just love it. Look at that handsome boy and he is squeaky clean to.

Brinlee really loves it. Her face says it all.

Did you know that we didn't have any grass in our backyard last year? Well we didn't and it really wasn't fun. We got a little more ambitious this year and planted seed.

Look at it now. Isn't it beautiful? We also have a garden. I really enjoy the yard work and the gardening. Now if we can just get everything to grow!

Chandler loves playing outside. He loves the sandbox, coloring with sidewalk chalk, riding his spider scooter, playing with all of the neighbor kids, eating ice Popsicles, swimming in the pool, and just playing so much that he sleeps all night long.

Brinlee is a sweetie. She is contented to just crawl around and play with whatever toy is on the floor. She is now standing up on everything and thinks she is such a big girl.

I have tons of pictures I need to develop so keep your eye out for more updates!

Happy 28 Daver!

Happy Birthday Daver! We love you and all you do for our little family. *Birthday last year, please forgive the Tiger Woods cake it was pre-affairs. :)

Dinosaur................ahhh scary.

They are not scary, their happy. -- Chandler (referring to the dinosaur that dad said was scary)

Eight Months

True Love

Today we have been married 5 years! I still don't know how I got so lucky. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I am almost positive I have the greatest husband in the entire world. Happy Anniversary Daver!

A little story about debt.

David and I have been married now for almost five years. In that time we have had 2 children, 3 cars, 5 couches, moved out of 5 homes, painted and cleaned enough apartments to last a life time and now we can say we are debt free.

After moving from Ogden to Centerville in May of 2008 we were able for a short 6 months to be part of a fantastic ward. There were so many great people and they taught us so much. Around September the elders quorum had a lesson on finances. The guy teaching the lesson introduced David to Dave Ramsey and the total money makeover. He bore testimony of how much better his family life and relationship with his wife had become by getting and staying out of debt. David told me all about it and within the week we purchased this book:

Now don't get me wrong I am not trying to tell anyone that they need to do the same thing we have done I just wanted to share our experience.

After getting the book David read it and then tried to get me to follow the financial plan set up in the book. At that time we had about 20,000 of debt (our mini-van , a student loan, a credit card and some medical bills). We decided that we would start budgeting and get the ball rolling.

In November we moved in with Mike and Emily Black (David's brother) and payed down our student loan, medical bills and credit card. Life was going great and after only two months of living with the Black's we found and purchased our home (finding out the same day we were expecting Brinlee). We knew our home needed some work and we budgeted for it and only spent what we had. A few weeks after living here a window salesman talked us right into some new windows for the house. We still had the van and added an additional 5000 to our debt making it once again nearly 20000. We were stupid.

We continued following the program and budgeted our money. David got a second job working for the DATC as a janitor and started working graveyards at Walgreen's. We were going to use the extra $500 dollars a month to put toward our windows that we had to start paying for in October. It was a great plan on paper but then life hit and the whirlwind began. Summer came and went and then our little Brinlee was born. Our first bill came for the windows and the spit hit the fan. We didn't have near enough saved and were paying 26% interest on $5800. We knew we shouldn't have put the windows on credit but did anyway.

In January the stress of having this debt hanging over our heads was really getting to me. I wasn't really a fan of the Dave Ramsey program and had thought that it really wasn't that big of a deal having so much debt. One night after reading my patriarchal blessing I had the impression that we needed to sell our mini-van. The Van I never wanted but fell in love with(I know it sounds ridiculous). That night I put it on KSL and we had it sold within 24 hours.

The following month we paid off the windows with our tax return and have felt light as a feather ever since.

So in the last 18 months we have paid down (including selling the van) $28,000 of debt making around 2,000 more than that a year.

Let me tell you something. Life has been soooooooooo much better. We always have money and we are now saving like crazy. We don't have to have that weight of living pay check to pay check on our backs. We still budget everything to the penny and have started the profit sharing program with Walgreen's.

I am so Thankful we were part of the Centerville ward for those short six months. I am so grateful I have a husband who looks out for what is best for our family. I am so thankful that I was able to realize that it was important for our family to become debt free. We have been so blessed and hopefully now we can bless the lives of other by sharing what we have been able to accomplish.

David recently was promoted into the management program and starting out with a salary being debt free is the best feeling I have ever had.

If you are interested in becoming debt free check out Dave Ramsey online or purchase his book the Total Money Makeover.

Old roll of film.

I haven't really been updating the blog lately because our digital camera died. We have been using our Canon Rebel 35 mm. It is a great camera it just uses film and isn't as convenient. When we realized the digital camera had died we pulled out and wiped the dust off the old Canon. There was a roll of film in it and this is what we found........
This is a trip to the Ogden temple David and I made one day for FHE. We took pictures of the flowers and of course the temple. I love this little gem. It is so David!

This is our first Halloween. I only put this up to show you how messy our house was. I can't believe I let David take this picture with all of the crap in the back!

Look how young and skinny (mostly me) we are. I love the modeling Daver. You still got it.

Now please behold the gem of all gems on our roll of film. Halloween 2005, I have no idea what I am suppose to be. I bet you can guess who David is though. Trust me he has on the snow boots and the rustler jeans. This was the Black family Halloween party at Curtis and Kristin's. I believe Kirstin was an old grandma? Who knows I completely forgot about this. I hope you all enjoy as much as we did.