Achieving Financial Freedom

One of our biggest goals as a family is to live debt free.  We have some big dreams that we are excited about and want to pursue, but it’s hard to accomplish much when you’re living in debt.  It feels like this weight hanging over us and we’re ready to just get rid of it!

We are currently trying to be a bit more aggressive with our budget in order to make this happen.  After living in the less-than-$25,000-per-year income for the first four-and-a-half years of our marriage, it was so nice to have a little flexibility after Billy got the job at Dynamic.  We have had a higher and more reasonable income for almost two years now, and we have been so blessed by that.  We have been able to relax a little more, enjoy some things we weren’t able to do before, and not worry or stress so much over finances.  However, we are also realizing that we will never be able to achieve our big dreams until we are financially free, so it's time to get aggressive about paying off our debt.  Thankfully, our debts only include our mortgage on the house in Lynchburg (which we currently rent out to cover the cost of the monthly mortgage payment), what's left of our student loans, and a couple thousand dollars on our van.  That still sounds like a lot, but we try to keep it in perspective that at least we don't have credit card debt and we have paid off my student loans, so we only owe on Billy's now (which is still a significant amount).  With our higher income, we have crept into some not-so-great habits, like eating out pretty regularly, not being as diligent with the grocery budget, buying little things here and there just out of convenience, etc.  Billy has been working on a more detailed plan of how we want to do this, including a more streamlined and organized monthly budget, a debt pay-off plan, and how we can hold each other accountable with our spending habits.  Our ultimate goal would be to pay off our van and student loan debt in 5 years (so by the time we're 30).  This is based on our current sole income from Billy's job.  If I were to start working again during that time, it would (hopefully) go a lot faster.  

There are a bunch of tools we plan to use to accomplish this goal.  First, we are actually increasing our weekly grocery budget (which seems counterintuitive, but let me explain).  Three years ago, when Billy was laid off from his job and we had our precious newborn Ellie, we got very strict about our grocery budget and set it at $50 per week.  This was supplemented by the WIC program, since Ellie was on special formula due to her severe reflux issues.  We were only feeding the two adults and the dog at this point, since Ellie's needs were covered by WIC.  We haven't adjusted this amount in the past three years.  Now, we are feeding two adults, two children who eat like adults sometimes, and a dog (with no government assistance in case you were curious).  Fifty dollars isn't realistic anymore, but I kept trying to force myself to stick to that for some reason.  I was really skimping on buying things that I saw as unnecessary (things for breakfast and lunch) because I kept trying to stay in that $50 budget.  I know that doesn't make sense, and looking back I don't know why I let it be that way for so long, but it was like a personal failure to not stick to the archaic budget.  I didn't even communicate this to Billy, so he wasn't really aware that I had this internal struggle over the grocery budget.  So, because I had set our budget too low, we were running out of food in the middle of the week and then having to run to the store last minute, which means I ended up spending more money anyway.  We were also resorting to eating out when I didn't feel like making something or when what we already had at home wasn't very appealing.  So, in an effort to reduce our overall monthly food expenses, I am giving myself some grace and just raising the budget to be more realistic for our family (we haven’t decided yet what our weekly amount would be as I need to spend some time researching and thinking through what would be more realistic for us).  This is in an effort to reduce our eating out and impulse purchases, as well as increase the quality of our meals at home.  I really think that by buying more of the foods we enjoy that might be more expensive (like meat and fresh produce) and less of the cheaper but not so great foods we can make eating at home easier and more enjoyable. 

Another way we are trying to rein in our spending is by using mint.com.  Mint is a free budgeting tool that basically logs and categorizes your spending for you, so you can keep track of your monthly budget without a lot of work involved.  You connect your bank account(s) to mint.com and they keep track of every purchase you make on your debit or credit card by logging it into a budget category.  You also have the ability to log cash purchases if applicable.  There is some initial work involved, since you need to set up your basic budget and occasionally tell the program where certain purchases need to go.  For example, any purchase made at Costco is automatically logged in as a grocery purchase, but you might have to manually categorize it if you were buying car maintenance items or something like that.  They also have a free app for the iPhone, which makes keeping up with your budget very easy.  I can literally check my phone while I’m at Kroger to see where we are with our monthly grocery budget before buying something at the store.  I actually made a purchase at Kroger after Billy set up our account and the purchase was already logged and categorized by the time I got home, so it’s quick to update your information.  There are also a lot of fun geeky perks to Mint, such as different charts to provide a visual for understanding your spending, as well as the option to create financial goals that help you see your progress along the way.

Finally, we are planning on just cutting back a bit.  This means being way more intentional about our spending and having to plan ahead a lot more.  There are going to be those nights that I don’t feel like cooking dinner, and we are going to allow ourselves the occasional night out, but we won’t be able to be as free with that as we have been.  Also, we’re making it a personal goal to not spend as much money on date nights (which are very important to us!).  We don’t have those too often (maybe once a month or every other month at this point), so we have plenty of time in between dates to try to earn money in creative ways that can fund our nights out. 

We have a few different methods we’re implementing (some old, some new), which I’ll share about in the next post (because it’s a lot of information to take in!).  We also just want to be more simplistic with our date nights.  Typically, a date night for us is dinner at a super nice restaurant and a movie at the theater.  Definitely not a cheap night.  Instead, we want to do more free things, such as window shopping (which is one of my favorite things to do), walking around downtown, driving on the parkway or through the national forest, etc.  Or, if we still want to see a movie, we can pay for that with gift cards that we earn online for free (which I’ll share later).  Some other options we’ve talked about include eating dinner at home and just going out for dessert and coffee, renting a movie at Redbox to watch at home after the kids go to bed (and if we get a free rental code, all the better!), or just having dinner at some cheaper, new-to-us restaurants instead of our typical fancy places.  The goal isn’t to make our lives miserable, but to learn to have fun in ways that are outside our norm and to save money in the process.  Every bit we save makes us that much closer to being free!

We’re really excited to see where God takes us through this journey.  I plan on sharing some more ideas and posts in the future that are hopefully helpful to you, but also just to help me keep my momentum going.  It’s so easy to get burned out financially, so I want to stay excited and motivated to pursue our goals and blogging is one way I can do that.  Thanks for reading!

An October Update on Our Family

I'm finally feeling inspired to blog about something!  I go through these seasons of "un-inspiration," which may be God's way of telling me to just get through the day-to-day stuff and not look too far ahead (as I used to be very focused on what was in the future, and often sacrificed the present).  But, it seems I stay in one extreme or the other, so here's to a little balance!

First, an update on our family.  We are loving our house in Bridgewater and it is still a wonderful fit for us.  We are STILL unpacking after living here for four months, but I think we will always have a few boxes hidden away that we forget about.  We did a lot of unpacking in September to get ready for the fall yard sale, which was a major success.  We made $450 and didn't even sell everything!  I was totally amazed, since this was my first time doing my own yard sale.  I'm excited that Bridgewater does this twice per year, as I think this will help me to be more regular about purging unnecessary things from our home.  I was so proud of Billy, because he got rid of a ton of his stuff and I think his items were a big draw to our yard.  We used that money to purchase some much-needed living room furniture for this house.  We have living room furniture, but it went into the basement since that's our TV/den area.  I wanted the living room on the main floor to be more of a "media-free zone" where we could just relax on the couch, read a book, or whatever.  It was hard waiting four months before purchasing the furniture, but we wanted to see how much money we could make from the yard sale before going out to buy a bunch of stuff.  Amazingly enough, we were able to buy everything on our list (plus a couple extras) for just $50 out of pocket after using our yard sale money.  It is so nice to have a furnished living room now...it's my peaceful place in the morning where I can drink my coffee and just watch the girls play.

My pregnancy with Grace is going well right now.  We had a few red flags come up during the 20 week ultrasound, but after going to UVA and meeting with a high-risk obstetrician, we were assured that everything is okay at this point.  I am just now starting to feel more like my normal self...I was so caught up in the anxiety over what was going on with Grace and all of the questions (will she be a preemie? will she be as small as Ellie was? long term complications? will I get really sick with preeclampsia or HELLP syndrome again?) that I was missing out on just enjoying pregnancy and being a good mother to Ellie and Piper.  I am thankful that nothing is wrong at this point and we're just trusting the outcome to God.  Other than feeling very large and very tired these days, I'm feeling well =).  I will be 27 weeks on Friday, which will put me in the third trimester (hard to believe!).  I had a wonderful baby shower on Sunday, which made me feel so excited to get everything ready for our little Grace.  By the way, I am SO happy that it's fall and finally getting cooler outside.  I am not a hot-weather person and really prefer my days to be at 65 degrees or below.  I am excited to start baking a little more and making all those fun things like crockpot apple butter, lots and lots of homemade bread, and some sweet things, too!

Ellie and Piper are, as usual, adorable little psychos.  Ellie's communication skills continue to improve on a daily basis, although she still has her moments of incorrect grammar or pronunciation that we're working on.  It's amazing that this little girl, who was just a teeny infant 3 years ago, is now speaking in complete sentences with complex thoughts.  She is currently fascinated by weather, which seems so random to me.  She asks at least once a day if it has snowed outside yet (she is really chomping at the bit to build a snowman).  Anytime it rains, she tells me all about how the rain comes out of the clouds and goes into the ground to make the plants grow.  She is obsessive about the location of the sun and moon and we go through that explanation on a very regular basis (the sun is up during the day, then the moon comes out at night).  God forbid there are clouds in the sky and she can't see the sun, because then she wants to know where it is, why it's behind the clouds, etc.  This girl makes me laugh so much.

Piper is getting to be a big girl now (I have to remind Ellie that Piper isn't really a baby anymore!).  She has a large vocabulary and we're working a lot on pronouncing all of the sounds in a word.  She is now equally matched against Ellie physically and is actually instigating some of the little tussles they have.  She still loves books, animals, and food (all are equal in her world, I think).  She is a seriously messy eater and loves to rub her greasy/peanut butter smeared fingers in her hair which drives me nuts.  She also loves practicing sitting on the little potty and wants to imitate big sister all the time.  We're still working on not being quite so clingy, but that's hard for all of us because we love to baby Piper.  I still see her as my little baby, so we may have a big adjustment coming in January when Grace arrives. =)

Billy's work is going well and he is so thankful for the promotion he received that made him the components shop supervisor.  He has great managerial skills and this is just another way he is able to invest in other people.  He is also gearing up for hunting season and we're hoping for some success in this area.  We live closer to the national forest now, so going early in the morning won't be as painful as it was when we lived in town.  Also, Billy was doing work and school full time last year, so he didn't have much free time and that made it hard for him to get out regularly.  I would love to try some venison recipes, so if you have any great ones please share!

I have some other blog posts in the works, but figured this was enough to read in one sitting =).  We have some exciting (well, exciting to us!) things to share and I want to be a little more organized and thoughtful before just writing a whole novel in one post.  Thank you for reading about our little family's craziness!

Ministry Amidst the Doldrums

Today is just one of those days (that I think everyone has now and then) where you feel inadequate and get absolutely nothing done. These days certainly aren't pretty and usually I just feel like a wreck when I have them. However, miraculously I came into some wisdom and peace today that I wanted to share (it was a little bit of divine intervention, I think).

A little background to all of this...my morning sickness with this pregnancy has been...not fun. I won't say it's been bad, because I know so many people who experience much worse than what I have, but to give you some perspective, I had NO sickness or nausea with Ellie and just a little nausea with Piper. This time my nausea comes pretty much every day, throughout the day and I'm throwing up about once or twice a week. Still, not bad in comparison with other people, but for me it's bad since I'm certainly not used to that with pregnancy.

Some days are good and I feel great, and others I feel pretty horrible all day. Today happened to be one of those days (and it's only half over!). Things started off on the wrong foot this morning when I went to get the girls up and found vomit ALL OVER Piper's bed (so fun, I know). Now that I've been a parent for a few years, vomit isn't nearly as offensive as it used to be, although I don't think you can ever really just let vomit be a normal thing in your life (maybe my nurse friends feel differently haha). So anyway I had to get both the girls changed and Piper needed to be cleaned up a bit, and then I had to clean up the vomit and change the bedding (all before making breakfast). It immediately got me feeling pretty yucky, but I didn't really have any other options other than just dealing with it. So we conquered that mess and moved on to breakfast. For me, I usually just drink a cup of coffee and that's it (I know, not a healthy breakfast...believe me, Billy reminds me of this multiple times a week that I need to eat better). Well, that sounded very unappetizing this morning so I drank a Coke (again, so healthy) in the hopes of settling my stomach, which worked for about 30 minutes until the next wave of nausea hit. And the whole day has been like that. I finally was able to eat something around lunchtime while Billy was home...but I haven't showered or even made it out of sweatpants today. I let the girls run around all morning just doing what they wanted to do (thankfully they chose to read books and play with real toys instead of messing with chemicals or jumping off the stairs...) and Ellie and I watched a Tinkerbell movie during Piper's nap time (such high quality entertainment).

But you know what? I'm happy today. I don't feel guilty about my Coke and Ramen noodles (gasp!) or that I let my toddler watch a ridiculous movie about fairies (that she begged to watch) or that my kids played by themselves today. I am overjoyed that I was able to eat SOMETHING and not throw up afterward, that my kids spent time reading library books of their own volition, that they played together and fought a little and worked things out without my interference. I am thankful for the quiet TV time I had with Ellie, that she was engaged and asking questions throughout the movie about animals and weather and emotions, which are all things she needs to learn about anyway and Tinkerbell just happened to bring on those conversations today. I have finished reading two books today that encouraged me in my Christian walk and my duties as a mother. No, I don't want to be in pajamas every day and neglect to shower on a regular basis, but it's okay for today. What's more important is that my kids are taken care of and that I get some food in me for this little baby that is growing rapidly and putting huge demands on my body. There will be many more days to have fun in the yard or get the grocery shopping done or take my kids on new adventures. Today I just need to rest, and that's okay if it doesn't look pretty.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to stay home with my kids and for the challenges it brings to my life. So many of the lessons I've learned over the past few years wouldn't have come without this time of being home and figuring out who I am when you strip away the academics and achievements. God is not only calling me to be a mother, but He's also giving me this amazing chance to be better. Not in the world's standards but in His. So I might look horrendous in my pajamas and messy bun and no makeup today, but I'm growing into this woman who is learning to live a little more in the moment
and not worry so much about deadlines or lesson plans or standards or achievements. I'm learning that my priority is my family, not school or teaching or appearances or even church. I can't do everything, nor do I want to. I want my children, when they're grown up, to know that they are loved by God, their daddy, and me. That's my ministry right now. That's my kingdom work and God is doing that through me even in the throes of morning sickness and dirty hair and baby barf. It's not pretty on the outside, but this life is just beautiful when I see it from God's perspective. Praise Him for the things He accomplishes through the silly, crazy, mundane, sometimes gross and sometimes awesome life we have here.

Exciting Changes for the Ephraims!

So it's been a long time...but I got the inspiration to write a little today to give everyone who's interested an update on where we are these days.  A lot has happened in the past few months!

First, we moved to Bridgewater almost 3 weeks ago, which is a little rural town just south of Harrisonburg.  It's actually where Dynamic Aviation is located, so we've been wanting to live here pretty much since Billy took the job.  When we initially looked in this area for a place to rent we had a hard time finding anything...the few places that were for rent didn't allow pets or we could never get in touch with an owner.  So we went with the townhouse in Harrisonburg, which was by far the nicest place we looked at that was in our price range.  And I liked living there, it certainly wasn't bad.  We had great neighbors on one side of us and we were very close to all the places we like to frequent...such as Target and Chick-fil-A haha.  I would say the only downside to living there was the commute for Billy every day...he was basically driving 30 minutes each way and using a lot of gas.  And some of our neighbors weren't the most considerate...such as the guy who liked to play his very vulgar music really loud with the bass up while washing his car...every other day.  We also had some college students behind us who partied frequently and were pretty loud.  Our poor dog barked constantly, and I think it's just because we had people on either side of us and she could hear things that we couldn't.

So anyway, we heard through a friend that this house in Bridgewater would be for rent sometime soon and he gave us the owner's number.  Billy called her and asked if we could look at the house, and I was in love with it immediately.  It's an older house and from the outside looks like our house in Lynchburg, but inside it's been completely redone and looks great.  It has a large underground (finished) basement with a wood stove, tile floors, and a propane fireplace (we are using this area as our den, so our big couches, TV, and the girls toys will be down there).  The basement also has a separate laundry room and a primitive looking storage room that Billy is in love with and has claimed as his man room (totally fine by me!).  The main level has the kitchen (which is smaller than our former eat-in kitchen but has WAY more cabinet space), a dining room (the first dining room we've ever had!), a living room, bathroom, and two bedrooms.  The girls share one bedroom and the second is for guests/future nursery.  Upstairs is the master bedroom and bathroom with a large landing at the top of the stairs that will be used for my craft/sewing area.  We have a huge (level) backyard and a detached garage.  We have fantastic neighbors (the people behind us are in our life group class at church) and the neighborhood is quiet and friendly.  We live just a few miles from Dynamic, so Billy's commute is like 5 minutes now.  The ONLY downside to this house is not having a dishwasher, but I am totally okay with that in light of all the positives about this house.  The very best thing...we are saving so much money by living here.  We're spending less money on gas because Billy's commute is so much shorter and the rent is cheaper. This whole move was totally ordained by God because housing is not cheap in Bridgewater at all, but somehow we found an adorable huge house with lower rent and all these other perks.  It's a more rural town, which just feeds my soul for some reason and gives me a lot of peace, and near a ton of farms so we see lots of cows (our favorite!).  Can you tell that I love where we live? =)

Our other exciting event...we are pregnant with our third baby!  We are so excited and it's another reason that this house is such a huge blessing.  We now have three bedrooms so that we can spread out a little more.  The baby is due in January, which is perfect timing for us since I dislike being big and pregnant in the summer, we'll be able to get through Thanksgiving and Christmas before the baby comes, it will be cold...not that any of those things really matter, they're just perks I guess.  I'm already feeling pregnant and wearing maternity pants, which is slightly embarrassing but I guess that's normal with the third pregnancy haha.  Another different thing this time around is that I'll be seeing a midwife instead of an OBGYN.  The practice that I go to has both midwives and doctors and most of the time you're free to choose which route you want.  With Piper, they recommended that I see the doctors because I was considered slightly high risk (due to my complications with Ellie).  However, I'm not considered high risk this time because I had such a successful and healthy pregnancy with Piper, so I chose to go with the midwives (one in particular).  I will still have a C-section at the end, but I can at least have midwife care up until then.

We also bought a van!  We never wanted to be a van family until probably the last 6 months or so.  When we realized that eventually we would have more children, we knew there was no other option.  Yes, they make those humongous SUVs that seat 7 people but a van has better gas mileage so it was the best fit for us.  Even traveling with two kids in the Jeep was feeling pretty cramped, and there's no way we could fit three carseats in there so it just made sense.  When we found out we were pregnant again, we knew it was time to start looking.  Billy jumped on it pretty quick and decided that the Honda Odyssey was what he wanted (I didn't really care what kind and trusted his judgment).  We probably saw 8 different ones and the one we picked was in the best condition and also the cheapest (another God thing!).  We've had it about a month now and it really was a great purchase for us...we've driven all over the place in it already and traveling has been fantastic.  So much more space, rides great, and those automatic sliding doors are the best.  I know we're totally domesticated...but Billy says there's nothing manlier than having a van filled with your offspring, so we just look at it that way. =)

Life has been busy and a little crazy lately, but we are so thankful.  God has just heaped the blessings on us in this season and we are really humbled by it.  Life at home can get very predictable, and that's not a bad thing, but we also like change.  This has been a great change for us and we believe it will help us reach our financial goals so that's always a plus.

A funny thing that happened this morning...I got an email from Liberty saying that my Honors thesis (which is on the Digital Commons--basically Liberty's library online) has become one of the most popular downloads in the Educational Methods section this month.  I even checked the link that they sent me, and under "Popular Authors" is my name along with 9 others (one of whom is a former professor of mine!).  I certainly don't want to "toot my own horn," but it really boosted my confidence at a time when I needed it.  I love being a stay-at-home mom.  I know that I'm where God wants me to be right now.  I also love that I'm not nearly as stressed out as I was in college.  My life is (in some ways) calmer, more predictable, and healthier for me physically and mentally.  I am investing in my children and growing our family, both of which are important to me and I'm thankful I can do this without working at the same time.  However, there are days when I just don't feel intelligent anymore.  I know that I am, but when you talk to a two year old and a one year old all day...it can make you feel a little on the dumb side.  Not to mention, I'm convinced that something has happened to my brain since being pregnant with Ellie...I just think differently and I'm sometimes a little slow on the uptake if you know what I mean haha.  Anyway, it really just made me feel...useful.  And that was nice.  I'm glad to know that the work I put into my Honors thesis is actually helpful to other people.  And I hope that someday, when I rejoin the work force, that my thesis might actually help me get a job.  That would be nice.  Anyway, that was just a nice surprise and it made me feel good.

Now it's time for me to make myself useful for the day. =)

More thankfulness

6. A beautiful drive into West Virginia with my family

7. Ellie's first fishing experience (no success but cute to watch)

8. At-home date night with my husband

9. Ellie's wild and curly hair

10. Open mouth kisses from Piper, slobber and all

11. Witnessing a family working on their farm (that just does something to my soul)

12. A nice dinner out with a friend

13. Started packing boxes yesterday!

14. The peace and quiet of nap time 

15. When things get too crazy, it usually just becomes funny and we can laugh it off

Give Thanks

I have been in a weird place emotionally for the past 6 months or so.  I have started so many posts for this blog and ended up deleting them, because I didn't like the rawness of them.  I wondered, "What would someone think if they read that?  Would they question my belief in God?  Would someone think I was depressed?" And it goes on.  So here I am.  I'm not really ready to talk about all these things publicly.  But it's doing no good sitting inside me, staying bottled up.  God is telling me to share, at least a little, if for no other reason than to get it out of me.

I can't really pinpoint what's going on in my heart.  There are a myriad of circumstances that are contributing, none of which are that huge in and of themselves, but it's more like a stacking, one on top of the other on my back that is getting to me.  My relationship with God is dry right now.  I believe, but at the same time I have some hurts that I just don't understand.  Sometimes I can't reconcile the God I know with the world I live in.  I know that it's just life.  How can I have hope when some days I just feel so much anger and despair over the world I'm a part of?

A friend recommended the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  I started reading it this week, thinking, "How can I have thankfulness in my heart when I'm not thankful for the bad stuff going on?" I don't know that I have the answer to that yet, but I'm working on it.  I wanted to share a passage from this book that is getting to me right now:

"I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks...Why would the world need more anger, more outrage?  How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us?  Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering.  The converse does.  The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world.  When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows.  How can this not be the best thing for the world?  For us?  The clouds open when we mouth thanks."  (Voskamp 58)

Give thanks.  Is that where my heart needs to be in order to heal?  I'm willing to try.  Lately I've neglected my efforts at thankfulness.  Sure, I'm generally thankful.  I have breath in my lungs, a husband who loves me, healthy children, a house and food and any other worldly thing I think I should have.  But I don't name them.  I don't tell God specifically what I'm thankful for.  We pray with Ellie at night and she's picked up from us the phrase, "Dear God, thank you for today."  What does that even mean?  Thank you for today.  There are a million events, moments, memories in one day and all I can come up with is "thank you for today?"

So...in an effort to work through some of these things, I'm going to list some specific things I'm thankful for right now.  I'm not poetic like Ann Voskamp, so my list will likely sound kind of dull (at least to me), but just know that my heart is in these things.  And as a side note, I love that as I start writing this list my dog starts barking and wakes up the girls.  Such is life.

1. Walking outside in the warmth with the girls
2. My sweet Piper covered in peanut butter after eating a big lunch
3. Ellie saying, "Pretty snow!" when the petals blow off the trees during our walk
4. Time to read while the girls nap
5. The softness of our bed, and that Billy's side smells like him

Five things.  Better than nothing.  God, please use this to heal my heart a little.  Help me see joy and thankfulness all the time, not just when things are good.  

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."  Philippians 2:12-13

Piper Turns One!

My sweet little Piper is turning one on Saturday.  It seems that every time a birthday for one of my girls rolls around I get sentimental and start lamenting their growing up.  In reality, I don't want them to stay little forever...it gives me a lot of joy to see my girls grow up and change into the little people God created them to be.  But it does hurt just a little to think that this crawling, almost-walking little girl in front of me was in my belly a year ago, totally dependent on me to care for her.

I have to say that the last year has been a whirlwind.  Definitely full of surprises and joy, but also a fair amount of frustration and tears.  My pregnancy with Piper was as close to perfect as it gets.  I felt more healthy at 40 weeks pregnant with her than I think I've ever felt in my life.  Her birth was also uncomplicated and went so well.  My recovery was very quick and relatively pain free, which was a huge difference compared to my experience with Ellie.  I wrongly assumed that being a mom would be easier the second time around...

I never thought of Ellie as an "easy baby" until Piper came along.  From the beginning, Piper didn't sleep well.  She would toss and turn through her naps and cry out frequently.  There was one point when she was about a week and a half old that she literally didn't sleep for 8 hours (which is extremely abnormal for a newborn).  She just screamed and cried...her little belly felt so tight and nursing on demand didn't help at all.  Over time she got better about sleeping, but it was still about 8 months before she finally started sleeping through the night consistently.  Her reflux was so much worse than Ellie's to manage, and it ended up taking two different reflux medications given simultaneously for her to eat and act normally.

Becoming a mom to two little girls under two was so hard at first.  I remember many days just crying a lot and sleeping on the floor of Ellie's room while she played with toys and Piper cried in her bed.  It was harder than I could have imagined...but now that it's one year later, it is seriously the greatest joy to have these two little girls as my daughters.

I am so blessed to have seen these two become sisters.  Of course, they are already sisters by birth and blood, but they have really grown into their sisterhood and relationship with each other.  They love each other so much and spend much of their time making each other laugh.  Ellie has mastered the art of getting a good giggle out of Piper (who is sometimes a tough audience and doesn't laugh nearly as easily as Ellie).  Piper LOVES Ellie's affections and watches her sister's every move (which also means that Piper wants to play with whatever Ellie is playing with, which leads to my next thought).  They also fight fiercely...complete with hair pulling, pushing, shoving, kicking, screaming, scratching, etc.  We don't have full out brawls on a regular basis, but they do fuss at each other quite a bit at this age.  It is a constant battle for me with intervening between them.  I'm really trying to learn to just let them fight it out sometimes.  I let myself think that I have to protect Piper from Ellie because she's the baby, but she's really not so much anymore and can usually hold her own pretty well.

Anyway, here are some facts about Piper at one year old:

• Stats: She hasn't had her one year check up yet, but she was at the doctor's office a couple weeks ago and was about 21 pounds I think.  
• Favorite foods: EVERYTHING.  This child eats more than Ellie at every meal.  Right now, she loves bananas, strawberries, peanut butter sandwiches, broccoli, spaghetti, milk, and pretty much anything else I put in front of her.  Her only dislikes that I've noticed right now would be plain cheese and eggs.
• Favorite games: She loves Pat-a-Cake, chasing Ellie, and playing peekaboo.
• Vocabulary: Piper's verbal vocabulary includes dog, dada, mama, sissy, uh-oh, hi, and we think she's said Ellie a few times.  She also waves and uses sign language for more, all done, and thank you.
• Favorite things: food, touch and feel books, small books with real pictures, music and songs, dancing to music, bathtime, and dogs.
• Things she's good at: cruising (holding furniture or my hand while walking), finding the tiniest hidden objects in the carpet and eating them (such as small pebbles, grass, mulch, dirt, trash, old food, etc. haha), dancing (which Ellie never did as a baby), crawling up the stairs, eating, blowing kisses and charming everyone she meets =)
• Things she's not so good at: She doesn't have the confidence to walk by herself yet, she is very emotional about not getting her way, and can be a bit clingy when grouchy
• Physical accomplishments: Cruising all the time, has 8 teeth, and crawling up the stairs by herself (I turned my back and she disappeared...we found her in the upstairs bathroom going through the trash!)
• Sleep: She sleeps about 12 hours at night (sharing a room with Ellie) and takes two naps (in a separate room) per day (morning and evening, each about 2 hours).

She has turned into such a little girl.  When she's happy, she is so happy.  When she's sad, it's like the world has ended.  She has the most beautiful smile, and her hair is starting to curl a little.  It makes me wonder if it's just because of it being warm outside lately and the sweat is curling her hair, or if she's going to end up like Ellie with a head full of curls.  Her eyes are still in transition mode.  They're definitely not blue, but right now more like a hazel/blue/green/brown mix, so I'm not sure yet if they're just going to end up brown or if they'll be hazel (Billy's eyes are a light brown/hazel color so maybe she'll have the same eyes).  She is quite olive-skinned....we call her our beautiful Jew baby haha =) (before someone takes offense to that, just know that Billy has Jewish ancestry!).  She is a little chub right now, with a fat little belly and sweet chubby legs.  She loves giving and receiving kisses and being held.  She is my sweet girl...it is my joy to be her mom!

Piper at one week old

Piper at 4 months, Ellie right before she turned 2

My big girl a month before her birthday