Funny Boys

Bodey tends to be/act a little redneck-ish. It cracks me up. He loves to wear sleeveless shirts and wear cowboy boots with shorts. The other night he said, "Dad, after we get all jammied up, can we watch some cartoons?" Jammied up. :)

Rachel gave us a good idea to help your children not lie... or know they are caught. Whenever she could tell Reese was lying, she would say that she could see a light on her forehead. Well, we decided to try that too, but got it confused and we use light on the nose. We have told Booker that only mommies and daddies can see the light, and it comes on when he is lying. It works like a charm. Fastforward to tonight while we are doing Booker's homework. One of the questions was What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? I said, "Booker, what do you want to be, what do you want to do when you grow up?" He said, "I want to stay at home all day with mommy and daddy." I said, "Well what do you want to do when you are a daddy?" And his answer? "I want to be able to see the light on Bodey's nose."

Yesterday at dinner Papa Morgen asked Booker to spell Monster. He shouts out, "B-O-O-K-E-R!"

I Didn't Think I Was This Crazy

I just found this saved on my computer. It must have been for the first time we ever left Booker overnight. I wonder what Dusty thought of this? Or Sharon and Morgen? :)

First off – Rules:
∙ He only eats formula.

∙ He cannot ride the 4-wheeler.

∙ He cannot sleep through the night in your bed.

∙ He can only sleep on his back with no blankets or toys around him.

The Tricks of B-Man:
∙ He eats 5 oz. roughly every 3 hours. He will let you know if he needs to eat sooner than that. To make the bottle mix 5 oz. of room temperature baby water, 2 ½ scoops of formula and a squirt of gas drops.

∙ Let him eat the whole bottle before trying to burp him. Try to get at least one good burp out of him after his bottle. If he takes too many breaks during the bottle, he’ll quit eating and just play with the nipple.

∙ He naps around 10:00 am for 1-3 hours and then again around 2:00 pm for 1-3 hours.

∙ He will take little cat naps as needed, but not after 7:00 pm.

∙ Bedtime starts with a bath around 8:30. After his bath he needs a bottle. After the bottle he will be very tired. If you just put him on your chest to burp him he will fall asleep on your shoulder. This is when I lay him down. Keep your hand on his chest for a few seconds after laying him down so he still thinks you are there.

∙ Sometimes after you lay him down he will fuss a couple of times. Just quietly go hold his pacifier in his mouth until he relaxes, then he will usually give in.

∙ He will usually sleep until between 5-6:30 and he will wake up starving. You won’t be able to make this first bottle fast enough! After this bottle he will go back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. To go to sleep after this first morning bottle, he may need to sleep in his swing.

∙ If you have any left over formula in the bottle, it can be refrigerated until the next feeding.

Happy 3rd Birthday Bodey!

Oh my little Bodester, how time has flown by. I have a hard time saying that you are three. Three is no doubt, absolutely, positively NOT a baby anymore. I know some day I'll look back and say, yes, he was such a cute little baby at three, but right now you are all about being a big boy. In the last year you have changed classrooms at school, you were potty-trained, you got glasses, you broke your collar bone, you learned to ride a bike, you learned to ride a scooter, you caught several fish, you became cool enough to play trucks and bad guys with your older brother, you have developed quite the personality, you have developed quite the attitude, you have become such a daddy's boy, you are obsessed with hunting and anything that has to do with hunting (like Avery the hunting dog), you have become a sports nut, and the list goes on. But one thing that hasn't changed is the way your smile melts my heart. I just want to squeeze you all the time because I can't get enough of how stinkin' cute you are. Happy Birthday, sweetness, keep bringing smiles to peoples faces. We love you!

Thank You Dave, Dusty & Myself

August marks 1 year since we did our first budget following Dave Ramsey. At first, a budget was so new to us. We didn't think we would be able to follow one, especially the one we had drawn up. However, it is so much more peaceful using a budget. I no longer have to worry about the timing of our bills. There is always money there. I no longer have to worry about dipping into our overdraft protection or our savings. I actually feel like we have more money. Like we both got a raise. But we didn't. We just spend so much more wisely and our finances are in control. I love that feeling. And the best part? We have paid off quite a bit of debt in a year.

Our HELOC balance of $6400 is paid off.
Our Nebraska Furniture Mart balance of $1600 is paid off.
My car balance has gone from $29K to $13K.
And our house (although nothing extra has been put towards it) has dropped $7K.
Overall, Dusty and I have $31,000 LESS in DEBT than we did one year ago.

All we have left is my car (and the house, but it doesn't count right now in the plan). I cannot tell you how ready I am to have it paid off. The goal payoff date was March 2011, however, our Feezell intense plan was tweeked a wee bit this summer. But, we did enjoy our summer and wanted to make sure the boys enjoyed it too. We also refinanced our house this month down to 15 years. Our payment only went up $140 a month, and we will save around $60K in interest by cutting off 10 years of our loan. The last piece of Dave's plan that we need to master is the giving. It is actually one of the most important things Dave pushes. Now that we have a handle on the budget, I'm ready to see what else comes our way with a little giving.

Teachers Know Best

Today when I picked Bodey up from school to go to his collar bone follow-up appointment, his teacher, Ms. Saundra, told me that she thought the little sore under his nose looked like impetigo. I told her I'd have the dr. look at it while we were there, but secretly thought, "he must have somehow scratched himself." Dr. says... yep. It's impetigo. Nothing serious though, just a little antibiotic cream two times a day and in a few days it should be gone. I guess in her MANY years of teaching she's been around the block!

And, Bodey's collar bone? Well, we got our follow-up x-rays done. I just had this feeling that it was going to be all back together and in place again because of how crazy active he's been, pain-free. Well, reason #2 I take my kids to the dr. for diagnosis (most of the time)... I thought the x-rays looked worse than the 1st ones! It appeared to me that the bones were even further apart and uneven. However, this time there was a little white blurry ball in the x-ray surrounding the break. It is a hard, boney, callusy substance that helps it heal. Dr. Yu felt it and it felt hard as a rock. Last time he felt it he said he could feel the bones move. YUCK! Anyways, he knew what a hard time we were having keeping Bodey in any type of restraint and figured at this point he was almost safer to not be restrained. So, he told me to turn him loose... with caution of course. He just wants to make sure Bodey won't be doing anything that will re-break it. Right... that's a piece of cake with the little boy who 4 days after the break did a superman flying leap onto the floor on his stomach and popped up and said, "I'm tough!" No problem at all.

Symmetry

Booker is our artsy-fartsy kid. He could spend all day drawing and coloring. Maybe this means he'll be some type of architect or something? Parents can always dream.

Take a look at his "robot" he built. I was shocked when I noticed how symmetrical it was.

And when he colors, he does the same thing. Orange on this side, orange on that side. Black on this side, black on that side.

And the extent of symmetry for our little man, Bodey, is that if he has his arm wrapped, so does his stuffed Avery dog.

Bodey's Crummy Week

Last Sunday Bodey fell off the toilet and broke his collar bone.

He has been such a trooper with his sling and wrap. He barely skipped a beat.

Until yesterday, when he got a stomach bug and had a 102 fever along with crazy vomitting. He barely made it until 10am before crashing on the couch. Today, he seems back to normal!

Perry Lake Camping Trip

A few weeks ago my parents let us use their brand new camper to take the kids and the Jeffries' to Perry Lake for the weekend. We all had a great time, despite the high water. The kids enjoyed swimming and riding the wave runner. And best of all, while they were all napping, Dusty stayed behind while Kim and I had a few brewskies and rode the wave runner over to party cove. Then we just relaxed in the water and got fried. But it was an awesome 2 hours.