A Summer of Changes

What would a summer be without changes? New phones for Steve and I and a soon to be new place to live. Yes, you read that right the Smith's are packin' it up again to another house. Any one that knows us just a little bit knows that we tend to move around. Don't worry we are not packing up and calling it quits on Alabama. I still have a good 4 years of school left to do before I have that nursing degree I can't wait to get my hands on! Why you ask are we putting our kids and us through move number #14?!?!?! Well..........we can rent this new house for a little over half of what we are paying right now. That is the reason why. Now I love the house we are in right now very much. Heck I love the owners too, but when you can save almost $500 a month just by moving who wouldn't. Steve really is wondering what has happened to his wife that has to have a huge house and a nice one at that. I assure you that nothing has happened to me, but lately I really have been thinking about living within our means and getting out of debt. It is something that we have struggled with since we were living in Philly. Steve is finally having more of a steady income and that is something that we haven't had much of since we were done with BYU and things are getting paid off. In the last year and a half, we have paid off 4 of our 6 credit cards!! I think by moving to a smaller, but HUGE potential house Steve and I will have the ability to pay off the rest of our credit cards and will have the opportunity to live well with in our means and save some money!!

Yes the house is for sale too and that's our goal. Even though our credit is trash we have a very nice Dad in Texas that will let us use his credit to buy the house in the very near future. From us cutting out things like eating out and buying things that we really don't need there is lots of money to be saved. We have a target goal and it will be 20% of the house total. From there we would be able to keep paying what we were saving and have a house paid off in less than 5 years! 5 YEARS people to own a house is an amazing thing for us! No mortgage means that no one can kick us out of our home ever! And it also means that we can continue to really save.

It has been exciting over the last few weeks for the girls to get into the swing of things with us. Sure Sonic is a nice treat, but if we do happen to splurge it is during happy hour, where we can all get drinks for half price! 50 cents sure is better than a whole dollar! If the kids ask for something, one of them is sure to reply. No we can't do (fill in the blank). We are saving for a house!

I guess that the short term sacrifice will be well worth it in the end. This new home will be as big as the one we are in right now. After some blood, sweat, and tears of finishing off the upstairs attic that will end up a loft suite for all the girls. I really look forward to getting the loft done for the girls and letting them have a real place of their own! Hannah likes it (on most days) that her sisters think she is the coolest thing ever. Ruby won't sleep alone in her room because she has never known anything else. Katy just loves talking to her sisters, even though she ends up in bed with me during the early morning hours most days. Of course there will be many other projects around the house like new windows, doors, and getting a new kitchen and bathrooms put in eventually, but why not?!?! We always need something else to do right?? My girls are going to know how to swing a hammer and paint some walls before it's all said and done. The biggest lesson that we are teaching them as parents is to live within your means and be out of debt. The small sacrifices of today are better in the long run and offer way more blessings too.

I guess after reading all of this some of you will say too what the heck happened to Alicia?!?!? Well I guess you can say that this is what happened to me when I turned 30. I get a few more things in life and things that I want to do. I have a five year plan and this is what happens when you really take to heart what church leaders are telling us. Stay out of debt, live within your means, and have food storage. I am really excited to have a goal in sight and to be a true, title in hand HOME OWNER in 5 years!!!

I am suprized..

I am really amazed that this hasn't happened in awhile, but who ever said that girls were super easy with bows and dress up was way WRONG!! My girls live to rough house and love to practice gymnastics all day long. Well last night that was a bad choice. Hannah was practicing her head stands and Ruby decided to try a forward roll into the same space. Well even I know that 2 things can't be in the same place at the same time, so after a really long night, a trip to the insta-care, an even longer night with Hannah waking up screaming because of pain, lots of morning phone calls to doctors, more x-rays, and seeing a doctor that brought Hannah to tears. We ended up with...........
Yep there you go for 3 weeks of summer vacation. Poor baby! Guess instead of hitting the pool we will be hitting up the library! No reason not to get summer reading done now. I am sure her coach is going to not be too happy since she just earned herself a break until the start of August. There will be some major catching up to do at the start of August. I'll let you know how it goes.....

Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad in the world! Steve has changed diapers, been thrown up on, and lasted through every meltdown and hormonal trist that has been thrown at him in stride. I am so thankful for a loving husband that takes the job of being a father very seriously. My daughters have learned so much from a great example and I am so thankful for the father that they have. People say that father's love their little girls and will do anything for them. I have seen that many times three times over!I knew I married Mr. Incredible!!!

Katy's Adventures of Her 3rd Birthday

So here is some fun from yesterday while we celebrated Katy's 3rd Birthday. It really was a fun day yesterday. We spent the morning cleaning up around the house. During the whole thing, Katy kept telling her sisters. "Leave me alone it's my SPECIAL DAY!" and then she would say "Who is supposed to have the most fun?" I guess after having her sister's have their birthday it's time for her turn. I am glad that the Birthday questions are carrying on to the kids too! Dad in Utah would be proud!

We did make it too the pool after the kids decided that they were ready to go to the pool. We tried to lather everyone up with some sun screen, but we still all got red! The pool was a great day. Katy even jumped off into the deep end without thinking. I was glad that I was there. The first thing that she says when she pops up is "Mom! I went under water!!"



We didn't get any pictures of Katy opening up her Three presents, but she got a few dolls from the Princess Frog and a really cool kid friendly camera! She loves it and has been carrying it around everywhere. Before we went to the pool, Katy got one last present. The antique mall of course for her little baby carriage that she loves to push around in there. It's way old probably from the 30's or so, but it looks great and is in awesome condition so I am sure that it will bring lots of fun and memories.

Katy took a late nap so we didn't even do the birthday cake until later in the evening, but she wanted her song and to blow out the candles. She had a great time!
Over all I think it was a great day and Katy had some fun! Happy Birthday to Katy. You are very loved by all of us in your family!

Happy Birthday Katy

My how we have changed since we have brought you home 3 years ago. You made us hurry to the hospital because you could not wait. Heck, we weren't even there for a whole hour (only 41 minutes to be exact) and you were here. Our little Katy Anne. All 7 pounds of you. My how you have grown. You make me laugh and are my little buddy. I love singing our songs together most nights before you go to bed. I think that it's so funny that you still love my belly, but I guess that's what I get for letting you sleep with us for 18 months. That's what the baby gets! Happy Birthday to my baby, Katy. I love those blue eyes and can't stay mad for long.

Here you are at 2! Silly as ever!

Here you are at 1 with those blue eyes!

And here you are when you were born. You were just a few seconds old in this picture!

All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

The camera phone isn't that great and makes her head look funny, but skip the head and look at those teeth that aren't there any more!!! Congrats Hannah to missing your front teeth! This really is going to be a fun summer! Man I am glad that we got pictures done before you started loosing all of your teeth!

What a Week it's Been!

The first week out of school for Summer Break sure has been busy! It started this week with a trip to the caverns just north of Guntersville. All of the girls did great and hiked the whole almost 3 miles in and out of the cavern together. Ruby loved that she got to turn all the lights out on us! We even found out that they have a super cool extra tour that you get to go hiking way back into the cave where the normal tour does not go all for only $30! Yep Steve and I will be going on that soon.

The warm week brought about lots of trips to the pool. Heck we have already been there 4 times just this week. Hannah learned the hard way that it is not a good idea to swim in the morning and then go to gymnastics in the afternoon. She has gotten moved up to Level 2, but has had a hard time this week. Part of that was being tired from swimming and the other part was getting used to the new harder workout. Hopefully this next week we will have a little bit better of a time at the gym.

Steve has also had quite the week! The softball team made it into the playoffs this week and on Thursday night Steve got to pitch. Well during the 1st inning he tried to catch a ball and his pointer finger didn't fare too well. Yep, he broke it in 2 places and didn't complain about it until yesterday at the pool. It looked really nasty, but he is on the mend, but has gotten himself out of the pool for the next 6 weeks. We will get some pictures up soon! This is the kids waiting for Steve to get out from the doctor's office! Yep picking noses, angry eyes, putting what ever we can in our mouth!

This week we are looking forward to more trips to the gym, the pool, the library, and another birthday party for Katy turning 3! I think we might be doing a pool party here in Jacksonville. We will see how it goes!

Can't wait for December!

This December brings Steve and I to TEN years of being married and what better way to do that than to take a cruise! We never did get to go on a honeymoon when we were first married, so we are making up for that fact in around 6 months from now. We even splurged and got a super nice balcony room. I have since learned that it is a handicapped room, so hopefully we don't get bumped from it. The room is big and the balcony is about double of the other rooms.

We will be sailing away for a week starting December 12th and returning on our anniversary December 19th. That means we will be on the ship for Steve's birthday too! It should be a blast and we have a lot to look forward to for that week. We are going to be visiting the Grand Cayman, Belize, Honduras, and Mexico! We have excursions planned with hitting the beach, trying our hand at snorkeling, para-sailing, swimming with dolphins, cave tubing and even zip lining!

My dad from Texas is being super nice and is driving in to watch the girls for us while we are having some fun well deserved alone time! Bless him because we are leaving the week that is super busy in any one's book. The week of Christmas parties and Christmas programs! And don't forget all the normal things that go on during the week! I am sure that he will do a great job and I am sure that if the kids don't find themselves to school one day that week it isn't going to hurt anything.

So the countdown is on! And that new label just to the side is for our cruise! I can't wait for our new adventure of somewhere new and exciting!