Lando's 5 Month

As I sit here and write this I'm almost overcome with emotion in the fact that my baby is 5 months old. People aren't kidding when they say it goes so much faster the second time around. I already look at Lincoln and can't believe he's two, but when I look at Landon my heart sort of breaks, I just love the baby stage so much and want to freeze time!

Being a parent can be a little bitter sweet at times. I love my kids but I want them to be little forever so they will always love me and be happy little beings. 

But of course this isn't possible so I'm trying my best to enjoy every minute. Landon has really blossomed into a beautiful little being this last month. He brings so much joy to all those around him and I feel so thankful to be his mommy. 

Here are some of our highlights

• Landon is always tracking me, he notices me above everyone else and is always flashing me his big toothless grin and I of course melt
• He is always so happy first thing in the morning, and is usually just laughing and kicking up a storm when I go to get him. 
• He laughs a lot. And thinks his brother is the funniest thing ever. My favorite moments are when Lincoln tries to get Landon to laugh. So precious!!! 
• He still loves his jumperoo. He stayed in it for almost 2 hrs! I got a lot of things done!!
• He still has only rolled over once or twice though he's really getting close going from his back to stomach. He rolls all the way to his side and will stay there but just not all the way over yet. 
• Tummy time is still an issue. He has now resorted to just laying there. He turns his head to the side and just lays there. Stubborn butt!
• He's still swaddled at night, though I'm now in the process of trying to wein him since mom gave me an article to read about the increased incident of SIDS with  swaddled babies...thanks mom...he gets up every hour now...something has to give!
• He loves sitting on my hip and has made it infinitely easier to carry him places. 
• He loves to grab rattles and toys. And will of course ALWAYS bring them to his mouth. I bought another bumbo play tray bc I lost he one we had with Lincoln and that has provided lots of entertainment for him YAY!
• He is indifferent towards bath time. 
• Before the weining for swaddling, he would go to bed around 8:30 and sleep until 6:30-7:30 and eat then sleep again until 10ish which was usually bc Lincoln woke him up
• He takes a 45-60 min nap in the morning about 1 hr after he wakes up and then takes a 2-4 hr nap in the afternoon...love my Chafin boys and their sleep!
• He's had some goopy eyes and running nose this month but I haven't taken him to the doctor  for it because it's not consistent. 
• He is eating every 3.5-4 hrs during the day 6/7, 9, 12, 4, 6/7, and 8:30. Is his typical schedule. Give or take. Sometimes it's tweeked bc of my work schedule. 
• He usually only eats once while I'm at work too which is awesome, so I've backed down to only pumping once a
• Shift yay!!!
• I'm selfishly holding him in his 6 month clothes. But he is definitely almost too small for them...I guess the 9 month stuff will have to come out this week (maybe after the {hopefully} last snow). 
• We've gone to the children's museum several times and he loves just watching the little kids!! Such a super baby!

Landon is so precious and I thank God for allowing me to be his mommy. I can't imagine my life without this little love bug. 

Here are some of my favorites from his photo shoot. And I had to go but a charger from best buy bc my camera died. But no worries I returned it the next day. 

I love our little more than words could ever express and yes he really is that happy all the time!!

Financial Peace

One of the hardest decisions of Adam and my's marriage was the decision for me to go back to school. I say this because it meant that we would be joining the thousands of individuals with student loans.

I was extremely lucky in that my dad paid for my first degree. But after graduating and realizing that the degree I had, in the field of construction wasn't what I wanted to do long term considering I wanted to be able to stay home with our future kids as much as possible, I had to choose another career path. It also didn't help that the construction industry was starting to fail and Adam and I made the decision for both of us to not be in the same field. 

Unfortunately I made the decision to go to Marian University, which is private school. I came out of my second degree in less that 3 years (2.5) but with more debt than I really care to comprehend. My student loan payments were more than our mortgage. And we have a fairly decent sized house! It was sickening to think about how much money we were paying each and every month on loans. 

In July we decided to refinance our house. We've lived here for 5 years, and we make an extra payment a year so we had a decent amount of money in our equity. So we paid down a significant amount (but hardly a dent) and saved ourselves $400 a month...but that didn't even cut my payments in half (I told you it was outrageous!)

Having two kids Adam and I are tired of living for Sallie Mae. We want to take vacations, fix up our house and be able to enjoy life instead of living paycheck to paycheck. I know we aren't the only ones who feel this way and I have heard over and over about Dave Ramsey, so we decided to start his class.  We started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in January.