Baby brother!

Gymnastics meet

I took Mantha to the Utah gymnastics meet last weekend with my Sister and her kids. Mantha LOVED riding trax to and from the meet! We may try and venture out again this week to the BYU/Utah meet here in Provo with Daddy.

First Kite

We took Samantha out to fly her first kite this weekend and she LOVED it! She picked the kite out herself and was so exicited all day. We packed a picnic with subs and it was a beautiful day. Benj would let Mantha hold it, she would let go, kite would go flying over the nearby fence, Dad would chase it down and untangle it, cycle would repeat. :)

Affected

I have noticed a change in people over the last year or so with the suffering economy. I have even started making different choices than I would have otherwise. I find myself being more satisfied with what I have instead of wanting the new or upgraded version (IE our home, fix it up a bit instead of upgrading, and Benj driving his '85 Spirit around instead of taking loans out for a nicer car).

It has been so difficult to see loved ones loose jobs, houses, take pay cuts, or stay with a job they don't enjoy or a lower paying one because they fear they can't get another one. This has made me so much more grateful of Benj's job and the things we have. Our generation has grown up spoiled and we're used to getting what we want, when we want it-even if it is on credit. We have this idea that we deserve some things and that's where we get into trouble financially. Like, we buy big houses in our 20's when our parents generation would scrimp and save to get a modest home in their 40's, and we think we should retire when we're 30.

I can start to see how living through a depression would really affect the rest of your life, like it did our grandparents. I used to look at their habits like reusing ziploc bags as silly, now I have respect for how very hard it must have been for them.

I hope we don't have to go through what they did, but also hope we learn from this time. I am still pretty wasteful and make lots of bad purchasing choices, but I'm trying to be more aware of wants vs. needs. Benj and I have had way more talks on saving money and budgeting and food storage is becoming a reality instead of somehting we 'should do'. I don't by any means think I am an expert on this stuff, it's just been on my mind a lot lately.

What do you think about all this?

Sorry for the long, serious post.....I know, not like me. :)

New Carpet

We just got new carpet in our house!! It felt like we moved and now are putting everything back. It feels like a new home though and I love it! It'll be nice to bring baby brother home to.

Old carpet

New carpet

Mantha loved watching 'the guys' and would ask 'where guys go?' every time they went outside it was pretty cute.
Thanks Sjon (our neighbor) for doing all the installing.