Keep Our Blog Alive Raffle

The future of our blog is uncertain. Here's the deal... Since we moved into our new house, we had been enjoying some "community" internet shared freely by generous neighbors. Recently, all of these free signals have disappeared. We are now without internet at home, with the exception of email and facebook on our phones (not smartphones, but they kind of work).

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were working our Dave Ramsey approach to finances. This has meant cutting all unnecessary expenses or finding alternate ways to pay for the things you want. Dave Ramsey told us that we really shouldn't spend $40 per month to have the luxury of internet at our house. Our budget simply doesn't allow it.

But I want it. I really want it, however, I understand that blogging and uploading photos and stories doesn't count as a necessity. SO I CAME UP WITH AN IDEA!

We are going to be hosting a Keep the Blog Alive Raffle. We are going to get crafty and creative for some lucky winners. We will be selling 50 raffle tickets to win some awesome prizes. You will have a 1 in 7 chance of winning a prize. Pretty good huh! The money we make from our raffle will help pay for internet for one year.

What do you get for your $10 raffle ticket?
1. The chance to win an AWESOME PRIZE!
2. Future (frequent) posts on our blog. We can't blog from our phones. :(
3. Love and gratitude from our family.


Here is a list of the AWESOME PRIZES!
1. Homemade Tag Blanket (made by Karine) for a boy
2. Homemade Tag Blanket (made by Karine) for a girl
3. Baby Legwarmers (made by Karine)
4. Personalized mix CD (made by Tom, tailored to your tastes with some exciting new music for you!)
5. 20 Monster Cookies made and mailed to your home! (made by Zeke and Karine)
6. Reusable Cloth Baby Wipes (made by Karine) awesome for cloth diapering families.
7. One Blog Post dedicated entirely to YOU (or someone you love and want to surprise) complete with a personalized original song/video.

This raffle is open until either August 31 or when we sell all 50 tickets (whichever comes first).

To buy a raffle ticket, and keep our blog alive, please click the paypal link below. For each $10, your name will be entered one time for a prize. Thank You and Good Luck!

Super Quick Family Update

Ezra is crawling like CRAZY, chasing Zeke all around the house all day long. He's kind of a spaz sometimes, but we totally love him.


Zadie is the happiest little girl on the planet. She just sits around and smiles at us all day long.


Zeke amazes us daily with his witty remarks and funny creative play.


Karine tried to give Zeke a haircut to save a few bucks. He'll be going to a salon next time.

Also made some cute onesie cookies for Karen's baby shower...

Tom has been practicing some old classics on the piano. (Like from his childhood piano lessons book)

(Picture to come soon!)

July Playtime

Summer really is more about playing than blogging, right? :) We've been keeping cool in the a/c on these hot July days.
Each morning we pick out some toys and dump them on the living room floor and play with them. One of our favorite activities is cars and trucks. We fill them up, drive them around- to the farm, to the library to see "Mister Baca" (the children's librarian, Miss Rebecca), to the "conskwucktion site", to the grocery store, and to the lake to see Uncle Doug.

Ezra started crawling over the 4th of July weekend, so we are now on to the next level of babyproofing! For the past two weeks, Zadie has watched her brothers chase each other around the house, hiding around corners, and giggling upon discovery. For the first two weeks, I would say she showed absolutely no interest in crawling, being content to sit in one place and watch. Over the past few days, she has started reaching forward, propping herself up on her arms, and doing some rocking while seated. I'm guessing she'll be on the move within the next two weeks!

More July fun to come on a different day. Happy Weekend!

Fourth of July Weekend

For several years, we have been going up north in MN to celebrate the Fourth of July with Tom's family. Since this past year has been such a big year of changes, we were not able to make the trip this year. Instead, we thought of our family at the lake, missed them, but tried to have a good old time here at home. Lots of lawn watering, car washing, and baby cuddling.

Tom bought as many fireworks as one can buy for $25. Snakes, tanks, sparklers, a few little rockets, and we were happy campers in the front yard. Tom had fun introducing Zeke to the manly world of "watching things blow up". Surprisingly, Zadie and Ezra were not at all bothered by the noises and liked the little light show.

June... Where did the time go???

So, June is over. How the heck did that happen? Hmmm. It turns out that three kiddos keeps a family pretty busy. Plus, the weather's been warm and our weekends are filled with family fun instead of internet blogging. Enough excuses already. Here are some highlights from June.

Lots of outside kid time. Backyard pool parties, sandbox play. The babies are in the background of this picture doing pretty much what they did all of June. Ezra hangs out on his belly, hands, and knees, rocking without moving anywhere. Zadie lies on her back with her head up, ab-cruncher style. She doesn't care for her stomach, though she did finally start to roll mid-June.


We've been taking a weekly class called Financial Peace University. It's a program by Dave Ramsey that helps people become debt free and work their way to wealth. It's no overnight solution, and requires quite a bit of sacrifice and tough budgeting. Dave teaches us that right now, we need to "Live like no one else, so that later we can Live like no one else! " Currently, we're in the first part of living like no one else. Selling things on Craigslist, spending only cash, cut up all credit cards, very careful budgeting and planning... No huge secrets, but it requires a way of saving and spending that our generation isn't necessarily programmed for. We try to keep it fun though!


We like the small group that we meet with each week. The class involves watching the dynamic money guru, Dave Ramsey do a one hour video and then discussion with our little group and facilitator afterwards. It's been a nice way to get to know some sweet southern folks. Nana and Papa have graciously volunteered to babysit while we go to class, so we've also enjoyed having a grown-up activity to do.

For Father's Day, I took our special guys (Tom and my dad) to the annual Wing Fest in Fayetteville. I won a 4-pack of tickets on a radio giveaway, so it worked out perfectly to celebrate with BBQ sauce all over our faces. Yummy! Of course, I forgot the camera at home. (This was a very lucky weekend in which I got 4 free wingfest tickets, 3 free large smoothies, 2 free cloth diapers, and 1 free art print. Cool!)


In late June, we were so happy to have visitors! My brother, Chris flew in for some quality time, and the Zabell family (3 generations worth!) drove down from MN for the fun. My cousin's little daughter, Hannah, is also 2. She and Zeke had a blast together, however I have hardly any pictures to show for it! We went golfing, swimming, day-tripping to Eureka Springs, and loads of fun visiting.


Here is a cute picture of Hannah dancing with Zadie. Unfortunately, my finger created a little shadow when the flash went off, but I still think it's a cute pic.

On June 23, while the whole crew was still here, we celebrated Tom's 33rd birthday. Tom wanted to celebrate his day in style, so of course we took him to Chuck E. Cheese. There was digger riding and mole whacking. There were tickets, and of course pizza. Super fun.



Other than big family events, our days are filled with the "routine" things. Changing diapers, washing and drying diapers, feeding kids, chasing kids, picking up toys, applying sunscreen, feeding kids again, working, sleeping. Repeat. The days seem to fly by!

Chastits

Z: Would you help me pick up my chastit please?
K: Your chastit?
Z: I need to put my chastit in the papack.
K: What's a chastit?
Z: A chastit is for walking a dog and then it gets a owie so it gets a chastit.
K: Oh. I see.

Making Music with Ezra