Spring Training in AZ

Some of our good friends from Utah invited us to meet them in Arizona for Baseball Spring Training. We were originally going to go most of the week, but Ryan ended up having a business trip so we had to cut it short, but it was still great. We drove down Thursday morning then spent the night with Ryan's old boss John Whitlow, in Scottsdale. Miss Hannah did so great on the drive down. She was sleeping or just content hanging out and playing with her toys. She loved all the extra attention and being able to stay up late. Friday morning we met up with Paul and Peggy at IKEA then drove together to Tempe Diablo Field Angels vs. Royals. It was so stinkin hot and poor Hannah was just sweating. We brought her stroller which was a bad idea because it was packed and there was no room for it even if I just wanted to walk around with her. Our seats were on the front row right in the sun. I ended up taking her to the top under a canopy for the majority of the game. We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner then headed over to Peggy's mom's house to play some games. Hannah finally fell asleep in my arms, but woke up when we got back to our hotel. After I fed her she fell asleep around midnight. Saturday morning we picked up some Whataburger before the game so we didn't have to pay Ballpark prices for lunch, but we couldn't bring it into the stadium so we scarfed it down and I had to throw half my drink away anyway. We were much more prepared this time and I carried Hannah in the Baby Bjorn. We got to enjoy the whole game (Angels vs Brewers). It was much cooler and there was a nice breeze that helped. We drove Paul and Peggy to the airport then drove down to Gilbert to see the Temple that will be finished the end of this year. Ryan has a cousin that lives near it so we called her up and popped in to say hello to Tom and Jen. We had a great visit and ate lots of yummy pizza. That night Hannah slept almost 11 hours and then we headed back home. It was a short trip but so nice to get away. Ryan's been gone a lot this month and still has 2 trips before our cruise in April, so it was great to spend some time with him. We are so grateful that Hannah is such a good baby. She is just so sweet and just goes with the flow. We are blessed.

Ryan got to drive John's dirt bike. He did a wheely and his hat flew off. Baby did not participate.

 Us at the game Saturday scarfing down our lunch.

Triple-tasking

My view from the shade

John's fluffy cat. So cute and snugly.

Ryan wore his Boston with Pride although they were not there.

Hannah @ 3 months

- will laugh for us. especially for Dad

-cries when she gets startled while nursing

-sleeps between 10-11 hours each night

-takes 4 naps a day @ 1 1/2-2 hrs each

-sucks on her left fist. sometimes she likes it sometimes she doesn't

-coos like crazy

-got sick around Valentine's for about a week. that was not fun

-drools a lot

-still spits up a lot

-getting better at tummy time

-pretty much has full head control

-wears 0-3 size

-had a goopy left eye for a few days. I put breast milk in it and it's gone away.

-loves to just relax during baths. she doesn't squirm or kick

-still falls asleep in her car seat every time

-everyone comments on her beautiful blue eyes

-and says she looks just like daddy

10 weeks

superbowl sunday

11 weeks

valentine's day

12 weeks

 watching TinTin with Mom and Dad

Hannah @ 2 months

- still wears newborn size

- sleeps in our room at night

- loves her binky

- can roll from tummy to back

- smiles like crazy

-loves to be swaddled when she sleeps

-takes 5 naps a day

-eats every 3 hours

- makes lots of noise

- spits up after each feeding. we keep a bib on her most the time

-loves walks

- sleeps between 5-7.5 hrs each night. slept 9 hours last night

- falls asleep in her car seat every time

- loves her kick'n crawl playhouse

-only cries when she's hungry

-such a good, sweet baby

-loves her Vitamin D drops

10.12 lbs 45%

23 1/4 inches 80%

She took the shots like a champ and slept all day. I never gave her any Tylenol.

We're Debt Free!

I want to start out by saying that since we've been married we've never been debt free. Ryan brought a student loan into our marriage, then shortly after we were married we got our first credit card which eventually led to 3 more. Then we took out a huge loan to pay for Ryan's flight school which he never finished before we ran out of money. When we remodeled our condo we got a Home Depot loan and a Home Depot credit card. After our car got stolen for the 2nd time we bought a car by taking out a car loan. By this time it was 2010 and we had about $40,000 of debt. That Spring I saw a post for a free Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. I dragged Ryan along and once the lesson was over we forked over the money to register for the rest of the classes. Looking back it's one of the best investments we've ever made. We went to class each week for 13 weeks. On the credit card lesson we brought all our credit cards and cut them up. During class we completed Baby Step 1 which is a $1000 emergency fund and started on Baby Step 2, debt snowball. Our first payment towards our debt snowball was on July 1, 2010. We had 7 debts to pay off. We started with the smallest one and with each small victory we really thought "we can do this!" In 6 months we paid off 3 debts about $4000. In 2011 we only paid off one debt $2182 , because we stopped our debt snowball in February. Ryan started school so we saved every penny for that and cash flowed it. Last year we paid the last $33,000 off. One in February, one in March, and the last payment to finish it off on Oct 18, 2012.

It took us 27 months. At times it seemed like it would never end and we'd be scrimping and saving forever and never be free. During that time we sold as much as we could to help it go faster. The motorcycle, a game system, a laptop. Our goal was to be debt free before the baby came and if we played our cards right, before Halloween. In August we realized we were not going to hit our goal so Ryan suggested selling our car. This was an idea I had thought of, but Ryan loved that car so much I knew he wouldn't want to part with it. It surprised me when he said it, but I was so proud of him. At this point I knew he just wanted to be done with the debt. If we sold the car it would give us a huge jump start and with his bonus we'd be debt free in a matter of weeks. We were so fortunate that our friend Mario loved our car and had actually been looking to buy one. He called Ryan the day after we decided to sell and asked him if he would sell it to him. We'd never even mentioned it to him. We told him yes and as soon as we found a car it was his. I was super nervous to buy a car in NM so we had my dad on the hunt for us. He test drove a few before pulling the trigger. We drove to UT Labor Day weekend and payed cash for the car. 6 weeks later we were debt free.

I love Dave Ramsey and highly recommend Financial Peace University. It goes over every aspect of finances from credit to insurance to mortgages. We learned so much and are definitely at peace. There's a new version now and it's only 9 weeks instead of 13. Our instructor, Brenda, was great and if you live in the Salt Lake area I'll tell you to go to her. Click here for more info. We will be done with Baby Step 3 next month and are excited for what the future holds. It feels good to be prepared and have a plan for our future.

Hannah's blessing

We blessed Hannah on Saturday, Dec 22nd while we were in Utah at my parent's house. We decided to do it then since his family would already be in salt lake for family pictures.We missed my sister and brother but were glad all of Ryan's family could attend. Ryan gave such a beautiful blessing. We are so grateful for the priesthood and all those that came to support us. We sure love this little girl.

Funny story: we bought pizza for everyone and while we were waiting for everyone to arrive my mom put them in the oven to keep warm. A few minutes later, Ryan smelled something burning and opened the oven to find flames. The pizza box had started on fire! We all just stood around not knowing what to do. Finally, Ryan grabbed a hot pad reached in and grabbed the box and threw it in the sink. One pizza box and one package of bread sticks got ruined. We opened the windows but the house smelled like smoke. My mom felt so bad, but it was kind of funny.

all the men in the circle