beep beep

Ok, so apparently NO ONE wanted to guess at Brayan's sentence, so I will just tell you. The literally translation was:

"Mom, sorry night night car."

What he meant was "I'm sorry mom for falling asleep in the car."

He was apologizing to me and it was so stinkin' cute! :)

He says "beep beep" for car and the crazy thing about that is that Caedmon called them the exact same thing! But Caedmon stopped calling them that before Brayan was old enough to actually pick it up so where they got that, I have no idea!

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And about the deodorant....I still like it!! I purposely didn't shower for a couple days to try it out and even went to the gym and worked out during that time and NOTHING! So I'd say if it keeps this up, it's a keeper!!

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I've pretty much figured out my favorite thing to do while working out!....listen to Dave Ramsey! He's got an app on the iphone which has different calls from his show highlighted and you can listen to them. I just turn it on, plug in my headphones and away I go!

And it seemed like there was a few other things I wanted to say, but I can't think of them right now! So i'm going to put the computer away and snuggle up with my honey and watch a movie! G'night!

can you guess?

Do you think you can correctly tell me what Brayan was telling me when he said this..???

"Mom, saw-yee nah-nigh beep beep."

I understood him immediately because obviously I know his 'language' but just curious to see if anyone else could guess what he was saying!?

Answer to come shortly! :)

deodorant.

I made deodorant today!!! Yes, you read that right...deodorant! And I used it today and so far I like it! There was a heat index of 106 today and I was out in it several times and I don't even stink! :) Quite awhile ago I read this post about natural deodorant and thought I would give it a try after reading all the comments people wrote about how well it worked and how wonderful it was. And get this...it has only 3 ingredients in it!! And NO chemicals, NO harmful anything! Actually, you can eat this if you want! Here's how it works:

1/4 cup arrowroot powder (the heathly equivalent to cornstarch)
1/4 cup baking soda
6 Tablesoons coconut oil

That's it!

Mix the arrowroot and baking soda together and then add the coconut oil until it becomes a solid paste. You can add more arrowroot if you need it thicker or more oil if you need it thinner.


Then you can add it to a short wide-mouth jar and apply it with your fingers or put it into your old deodorant container and use it like that!


If you go with this option, as I did, you'll want to keep it in the fridge (esp in the summer) though since coconut oil has a melting temp of 76 degrees. But once it hits your skin, even right out of the fridge, it will slide on smooth.


Give it a try!
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Ariella took the ponies out of her while she was taking a nap. This is how she looked when I got her out of bed :)


And then she took them out again while she was eating supper and started getting antsy to get out and wanted her bib off. This is what she looked like then...


Then I got her to smile.



(sorry the pics are so grainy...for the last month or so I have only been able to use my iphone to take pics as our camera has gone ka-put!...and we haven't bought a new one yet.)

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During school today, I gave Caedmon copies of the math work I did with Tiernan yesterday. Since Tiernan knew the directions because we had done it yesterday, I told him he could be the teacher to Caedmon and explain to him what to do. It was so cute having Tiernan lead Caedmon like that! And they both did a great job!

curtains

A couple weeks ago our blinds by our table came unscrewed from the wall on one side and instead of screwing it back in, we decided to take them down. Why? Well because where they had it originally screwed in was right in the way of the seat being able to come up for the storage that's under the benches. Nathan at one point said "get someone to come out here and put in another blind" Yeah right! Do you know how much they'd charge to come out to us to do that?! There's got to be a better way. And I found it! I was just going to make one! While on my way to Wal-mart to check out all 6 pieces of fabric they have, I made a quick stop at the tiny thrift store in town (along with all of the kiddos who can hardly all fit into the store) and I happen to find JUST what I was looking for!! Instead of fabric, I found 2 twins sheets, not even from the same set but matching that I bought for $3/ea and decided they'd work perfect! I brought them home, called mom to ask her how in the world I measure to make curtains and I went to work! A few hours later I had them hanging up with a tension rod, and I think they turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself! And all for $6! And it even matches...double bonus!





Here is the pic I blogged about before about asking who else gets to make a cool bed out of their dining room table to watch movies on?!


And, by the way, the 2nd day of school went good as well! We did school in the afternoon today while 1/2 of the kids slept (kid #2 and #4) because we went to the gym in the morning. Love the flexibility! Tiernan is rockin' at it and he is finishing all his work with no problems, especially flyin' through math and numbers! Way to go Biggie!

AND it was actually BELOW 90 degrees today!! Making it to only the mid-80s, it felt like a down-right cold snap! I even heard Caedmon exclaim when he walked outside this morning "oh, it's willy code out here!" :) I wouldn't go THAT far Caedmon...

Not Me, Beach w/ a great idea, & First day of Kindergarten!!!

Here are my "Not Me"s for the week!

Living in a camper does not take some adjusting and you don't find out some different ways of doing things, especially when it shakes and moves a lot. For example, I did not find myself starring at the clothes in my closet in the morning to see if they were moving. And if they were moving, that does not mean that my kids are up and out of bed.

In the same manner, I did not look at the towel hanging up in my kitchen to check to make sure that the washer was still running.

I also did not actually say the words "I'm cold" after getting out of the water at the beach when it was 100 degrees out!

And I also was not super excited when I bought a pair of pants yesterday in a size that I haven't bought in years and years and years and years... And those same pair of pants were not on sale at Goodwill, making them only $2. Nope!

(Not Me, Monday is a blog carnival created by MckMama.)

THE BEACH

We went to the beach yesterday. No better way to spend a 100 degree day! It was about 45 minutes from us and well worth the little drive to get there! We arrived around 10:30am when we realized that the beach didn't open until noon. We hung out around a picnic table in the shade and were able to eat our picnic lunch before the beach even opened! That worked out great though so we didn't have to worry about taking time out of swimming to eat sandwiches that would have probably gotten all full of sand anyway!

The boys had a blast and Nathan and I swam too!! And I was SO glad I came up with this SUPER idea!!....I brought along this iddy biddy pool I found at Wal-mart for $1.88 that I had lying around. I originally bought two of them to fill up with sand for the boys but we had only used one so far. So I brought the other one, blew it up while we were waiting, and let Ariella play in it while we swam in the lake! It worked out SOOO awesome! We didn't have to worry about her falling over in the water and drowning or anything and no exclamations that sounded like "Where's Ariella?!" We knew exactly where she was and was content playing in her little pool! Right before we were ready to go she did want to venture out into the lake so I took her out for a little while but it worked out so well that I would recommend that to anyone looking to occupy a little one at the beach!




After sitting in the water for awhile, she soaked up most of it in her diaper. I guess this gives a picture to the saying "Junk in your trunk"! Before I took it off, she would try to walk and would literally waddle or fall over. She even tipped over backwards when the wind blew! hehe :)







Naomi with the kids walking into the grocery store. It was so cute!


FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!
Well, I'm offically a "homeschooling momma"! I started Tiernan this morning with his first lesson in Kindergarten! It went great and we got everything accomplished that I set out to do! I was busy last night making copies out of the books for him to work on (since I want to keep the books for the other kids) and last week I got the schedule with which pages I want to work on out of which books, etc.

Here is what my week at a glance looks like:


Our toy cupboard got converted into my school cupboard!



And here was our day:
We did bible lesson and verse memory right away after breakfast with all the boys. During this we talked about the lesson, repeated the memory verse and did a little project. This took about 20 mins.

Then we went to phonics, letters and reading where we learned (reviewed) the letter A and E. This included a worksheet and a page to color. (The little boys went to play outside :)

Next up was writing. Tiernan practiced writing lower case a's and upper case A's.

Then on to numbers, math and shapes. We reviewed numbers 1-10 and he completed 4 worksheets that had various counting and number excercises.

We then learned about God's world during Science. We learned that George Washington was the 1st president during History and learned and colored pictures about police officers and laws and rules during Social Studies.

This completed our day! All this done before 9am! What will tomorrow hold?!

mud

I thought maybe since she was a girl, she'd stay out of the mud.




Boy, was I wrong!

dog days of summer.

**First I just want to say that I am so excited about all the emails that I have been getting about budgets and questions! I LOVE it! Please keep them coming!**

Ah, yes....it's been HOT here! Last time I heard on the news, last year at the this time there were 12 days that were into the 90s, this year? 43!!! Yikes! A little hotter than 'normal'. But remember, we are used to 'record weather' following us where ever we move! In Iowa, it was record flooding; in Nebraska it was record snow; and now here in VA it's both record snow AND record heat, great!

Where is the only place to go (besides sitting inside with the a/c on) when it's so hot out?! To the pool of course!

We went with some new friends of ours. One of Nathan's co-workers families came to visit from Georgia and we got together almost every other day the whole 2-1/2 weeks that they were here! It was so much fun having another mom to hang out with and our kids got along so well! They had 2 girls, 6 and almost 3 and then Wendy is 8 months pregnant with their little boy!

It was almost weird how much Wendy and I were alike...we had the same taste in clothes, food, parenting, etc. We will for surely be life-long friends! I just can't wait til she visits again with that little baby of hers!

Here are some pictures of our time at the pool with them.





Ariella was getting tired and when Wendy lifted her up, she told Ariella that there was a baby in her tummy. Ariella layed her head right down on her tummy and fell asleep! How precious!

Not Me! Monday!

So here is the return of Not Me Monday! Actually, I usually just forget to post it so I realize it's been quite awhile since I've done one. But here's this week's.....


There is no way that I stopped by the gym 20 minutes before the daycare center closed for their lunch break and dropped the kids off just so I could run in and take a shower quick. Nope, that would be ridiculous! I mean, who in the world doesn't just shower at their home?! So I certainly didn't do that! Nope! Not Me!

And upon returning to our van after grocery shopping, I did not see that my 5 yr old forgot the close the door after getting out, realizing it was wide open the whole time that we were in the grocery store! Nope! Not Me!

When driving home from the said grocery store, I did not hear this banging sound on the side of my van, only to figure out that I hadn't forgot to put the gas cap back on and close the tank door! Then, before I could pull over at an exit, I did not get flagged down by the nice lady next to me who was frantically trying to point and yell at me that the gas cap was off. And then it did not take me 2 times going up and down the exit ramps to finally find a spot I could pull over without other traffic so I could close it. Nope! Not Me!

And there's no way that I locked my 2 little boys in the shower stall while they were taking their bath so I could get some relief from chaos while trying to get supper ready! I mean, I'm always calm and patient and never need to get my toddlers out of my hair while I'm trying to get something accomplished! (And that is not the exact same thing the boys did to me one time while I was taking a shower! Good thing Tiernan listens some of the time when I told him to unlock it so I could get out!)

What haven't you done this week?


Not Me Monday is a blog carnival created by McKMama.

Pie in a Cup

This morning I came up with a smoothie recipe that tasted exactly like coconut cream pie! Seriously, it was so yummy!

Coconut Cream Pie in a Cup
all the meat of 1 young coconut
a cup of raw milk
2 T pure maple syrup
tad bit of vanilla
a banana
a scoop of good tasting vanilla protein powder
(if you don't have protein powder, just add a tad more syrup)

Whiz in blender until smooth and enjoy drinking your 'pie'.

We enjoyed this smoothie along with my homemade zuchinni bread (made with honey, coconut oil, vanilla...mmmmm) and fresh cherries for breakfast. Oh, so good!!

And just in case you were wondering what fun it is to have very limited counter space along with lots of kids and no dishwasher while making homemade cinnamon and sugar chips....I'll give you an idea...


(That's Brayan, in his underwear, stealing some food off the counter and feeding it to his little sister...)



Messes like this one occur several times a day...doesn't take much to get my kitchen full of stuff!

my passion.

There are a few things in life that get me totally excited and that I am completely passionate for. I could talk for hours about these things if the subject comes up and they all are things that are incoorporated in our lives daily in one way or another.

One of those things is helping people create a budget and get out of debt.

Some of you may know our story, some of you not. Here it is in a nut-shell.

After going through lay-offs, job losses, trying to pay 2 mortgages, car loans, student loans, etc all while trying to provide for a growing family, we knew there had to be a better way to be doing things. We participated in Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" in 2004 and loved what we heard. (Which I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat! & his book "The Total Money Makeover") It took awhile to "sink-in" and since we didn't have any accountablity, we didn't follow what we were taught.

In 2007, Nathan was laid off for the winter and not called back in the spring. It was then he got the opportunity to take his first "on the road" job a few hours away from home. We decided to go for it and within 3 days he was working. We moved with him 4 days after that. It was at this first apartment that everything changed....

....Dave Ramsey's radio program was on the radio.

It was the first time we were able to listen to his show since it wasn't available on radio where we lived before. (We now know you can listen where ever you are right from his website....). After a few days of listening to him at work (Nathan was driving truck), Nathan came home and said "Take all of our money in savings (we had a few thousand in "special" accounts...vacation, etc) besides a $1000 emergency fund and put it all towards our debt." It took me a few minutes to comprehend what he wanted me to do since I liked the "security" of some money in the bank. But I listened to him and that's when it started. We became what Dave calls "gazelle intense".

We wrote down goals. We created a budget. We got rid of all of our credit cards. We started knocking down the debt. And let me tell you, once you start seeing those numbers go down, it's addicting! We wanted to keep at it! We were so tired of being "slave to the lender" (prov. 22:7) and wanted to live differently. (We really should probably get Dave's bumper sticker that says "Debt is normal, be weird!" :) Our house finally sold in Dec of 2007 (it had been on the market for over a year), and even though we lost about $30,000 on it, we got some money back that we had put down on it. In January 2008, we used that money to finishing paying off our debt and we fully-funded our emergency fund!! (step 3 of Dave's 7 step plan).

We were officially debt-free!!!

And we've never looked back!

Actually, we have. But only for it to be a lesson at what not to do and for it to be an example for others to see that we've "been there, done that" and like it this way better!

You don't have to let debt control your life or work day in and day out just to send all your money to someone else in the form of a payment. THERE IS HOPE!!!

I have had the privelige to sit down with 3 different people/families lately, look at their budget, payments and spending, and create a personalized budget for them so they can see how easy it is with just a few small changes to have money left over for getting rid of debt! One of them is even getting "gazelle intense" and I'm so excited! They are already starting to reap the benefits of being in control of their finances and telling their money where to go instead of the other way around!!

So here it is....this is my passion...one day I want to travel to Brentwood Tennessee and get trained by the "head honchos" of Dave's Team on how to counsel people with setting up a budget and getting out of debt!!!!! Some may ask (like my husband) "Why wait? Why not book your flight and do it now?" Well, you see...I have these 4 little people who live with me that have no one to watch them during the day while Nathan is working. That is why I think my dream of being trained by Dave's staff will have to wait until Grandma and Grandpa are a little bit closer :) Plus, I want to take Nathan with me, so finding someone who wants to watch 4 kids for a week isn't exactly an easy task :)

But let me tell you, it WILL happen. And I WILL get more training so I can help more people. And it WILL be so rewarding! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

So I leave you with this quote "Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else" --Dave Ramsey.


p.s. If you want help setting up a budget or even have questions on getting out of debt, please email me at dawnlegatt@msn.com and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to help! I want to help so much that I am thinking about making this a part-time business! eek!...I LOVE IT! (or dave's site has lots of info too!)

father's day.

It seems as though I have way more ideas and intentional posts for my blog than I do time!! Every now and again I get reminded by someone that I was going to do a certain post and never did! If ever I say I'm going to blog about something and you never see it up here, please let me know and I'll do my best to post it. :)

So remember me saying that I had a chance to get away for a day over Father's Day weekend? Well, I'm finally getting around to blogging about it!

The saturday before Father's day, Nathan's sister came over in the morning to hang out and then once Nathan got home from work, we left for her place in Arlington, VA! We both drove until about half way to her place and then I parked my car and got in hers. There is no extra parking by her place and if you remember, I don't exactly have a great track record for finding my way around DC! Anyway, once we left, we made a couple stops at Target and Old Navy before ending up at her apartment. Once we were there, we settled in and watched a movie (until late I might add!...This momma isn't used to staying up that late!...sheesh!)

Naomi (little miss "i'm going to sleep in") was up by 5:30am and already showered etc before I woke up. I was up by 6:30 though but glad since we wanted to get in as much in the day as possible! After showering, eating, etc, we went for a walk from the apartment thru the Arlington cemetary to a bridge where we could watch the airplanes coming in from the DC airport. Since it was already a gazillion degrees out and super super humid, we were both drenched in sweat only after about a mile of walking.

During our walk...



After our walk, it was time to go lay by the pool! I made it out there for about an hour before I said that I had had enough! It was SOOOO hot I couldn't stand it anymore!

After the pool....


Then we went up, had some lunch, watched another movie, and we were off running some errands! We stopped at Target, a couple goodwills, and then went to check out her new apartment. She moved this past saturday to a place in Alexandria, just another suburb of DC. She went from a studio apt to a nice 2 bedroom apt (with a roommate) and a gorgeous view for quite a bit cheaper!...I think it was a great move!

Her new apartment building



After that she treated me to supper at Applebees and we went back to the apt to hang out a bit before it was time for me to leave! I had such a great time and it was soooo weird to be able to move around so fast from place to place without having to do and undo carseats 36 times! Of course I missed my kids but I knew they were with dad and mommy needed a little vacation :)

So how did Nathan fair with all those kids by himself on Father's Day? Pretty good I guess! He took them to church by himself, to the park and said he had a great time! (minus when Tiernan fell off the monkey bars at the park and hurt himself and then Caedmon started sympathy crying all while Nathan was trying to get Brayan to stay close and telling a crying caedmon to go get Ariella who was running away...and then trying to get them all herded towards the van) But while he told me that, I just smiled and said "welcome to motherhood" :)

movie time.

We FINALLY got some rain here yesterday, after about 2-1/2 weeks without any and temps well into the 90s and 100s the whole time. Some relief, finally!! And with that rain, came a rain day for Nathan! I'm not even sure where the idea came from, but I ended up taking the 2 big boys to the movie theater!! It was their first time and they were so excited! We went to see Toy Story 3. It was a cute movie for the most part...although there were some 'suspenseful' scenes where Tiernan was fidgeting and Caedmon buried his head in my armpit :) But all in all we had fun! It's been a LONG time since we've been at a movie theater and I forgot how ridiculously expensive it is! The tickets were $7.50 per person and that was the matinee price! PLUS, popcorn was $7!! I think the kids can stick with rented movies from now on and we'll save the theater for a date night :)

But don't they look so excited?! (This was right before we went in)


On his day weekend off, Nathan decided to make a pull-up bar. We have a few days left in our family membership at the gym but I think for next month, it will just be me and the kids. Nathan has concluded that he doesn't like to work out with other people...and he likes his own equipment. I guess I can't blame him though, it's how he's used to lifting and how's he always lifted. So building a bar was super exciting for him.

I think he did a pretty good job!




Nice work, honey!

And this is completely random, but this is what I saw when I cracked open an egg the other day....

...a little chicken! I guess you'll have that every now and again when you get your eggs straight from the farm! And no, we didn't eat him :)

hot.

It was hot here today.

And this wasn't even taking into consideration the humidity and the heat index, which pushed it well into the triple digits. Plus, this was taken at 5pm. Yikes!!

quote

My favorite thing I heard Tiernan say, unprompted by me....


"Caedmon, you pick up while I vacuum."


Ah....music to my ears!

pics of last week