A BUSY SPRING

I can't believe I haven't blogged in over 2 months! Never a dull moment in the Rojas house...obviously!!! We have been busy! Now that summer is here, we will be even busier! I can't say that i love losing my husband to karate camp all summer long, but it's part of his job so...we deal!

I really don't want to write a novel...and believe me I could! Instead here are some photos to show what we have been up to!

EASTER IN EL PASO!

We drove to El Paso, TX for the kids' Spring Break and Easter! Joe was so excited, he drove the whole way and we made it there in 26 hrs w/out stopping! I KNOW I KNOW...he's crazy! He might be 36 yrs old, but when he is excited, he has the energy of a little boy! Of course we took a few short breaks, but getting to our destination in 26 hrs when it's supposed to take 24 hrs is pretty good timing! Now coming home...that was a different story! We stopped in Grapevine, TX and had a great 24 hr break!
We had a BLAST in El Paso visiting family and friends! Easter was so incredibly fun! The kids came home w/ about 9 baskets EACH full of gifts and candy! The Easter Egg hunt and confetti eggs were super fun...and messy! I don't know that we will ever be able to live up to Easter in El Paso! We just might have to go back every year @ Easter!

Filling Confetti Eggs at Grandma's house!

AJ and his cousin Julian - such cool little dudes! :)

Pizza night with cousins and friends!

Two 2 year olds trying to hide under the table = TROUBLE!

Ansley loves Uncle Chuck! She often says "Wanna see Chuck! Chuck funny mommy! hahahaha!"

The girl cousins in their Easter dresses

Aleigh and Abby! Can you tell their related?! They had no idea they were standing the same way!

I love this photo! Joe isn't too good for nothin! Such a good daddy!

Most of the cousins before hunting for Easter/Confetti Eggs!

CONFETTI TIME! I love this tradition! They save egg shells throughout the year, clean them out, color them, fill them w/ confetti, glue tissue paper at the opening, and hide them! Once the eggs are all found, the cracking begins! SO FUN!





Kids opening all of their baskets! It's like Christmas!!!

Uncle Adam with his little guy, Aden and Austin

Emma (our goddaughter), Aden, Ansley and Austin

Grandma had ansley in stitches! She was just giggling and lovin on her grandma!

Ale and Ansley - Two Peas in A Pod!

Emma and Aleigh playing dress up!

Grandma and Austin

Ansley and her sweet cousin Isaac!

These 2 little cuties are already trying to be sneaky! Always hiding under the table!



On our way back from El Paso we stopped in Grapevine, TX (right outside of Dallas Ft. Worth)and stayed at the Gaylord Texan Resort! What an amazing place!!! All of the photos were taken INSIDE the resort! It was amazing! The food, the pool, the shops, and the service was incredible! We hope to make that stop when we go back next year! Across the street they had another resort with an indoor water park...maybe we'll try that one! The key is to go in the middle of the week when it's half the price!












AJ'S 9th BIRTHDAY

AJ got Roller Blades from Nana and Papa for his birthday! He is slowly getting used to them! At his request, I made him a triple chocolate chunk Brownie cake w/ homemade chocolate frosting! Talk about death by chocolate! I can't believe our first born is 9 already! He is such a blessing! We love him so so much and are so proud of him!

Quick Update On Our Crazy Life

Oh boy...TIME...there's just not enough in a day!!! I hate that it has been so long since I last blogged! Here is a brief update in photos!

March 6th, Joe's 36th Birthday (He's going to love that I put his age out there)!

Don't you love his "Princess" birthday hat! It was on the floor because Ansley had been playing w/ it earlier. He agreed to wear it for the picture - my goofy husband!

AJ directed how everyone should pose for this picture! He's so funny!

Without us even knowing that Ansley was capable of climbing into a crib, she couldn't resist climbing in to hang w/ her little brother! Poor little Austin doesn't get any space when Ansley is around! She just smothers him w/ love! Although it is very sweet to see her love her baby brother so much, she gets a little carried away at times! The other day she thought it was cute to just lay across his face! When I told her that she couldn't do that she said "K momma!"

Home...for the next 2-3 years! 4 bdrms, 3 baths, basement, sidewalk community with community pool 7 doors down, playground, and tennis courts...not that we play or anything! It's been nice being here! We moved in Valentines weekend and the kids love it! There are several kids on our street for them to play with and with the sidewalks I feel a lot safer letting them ride their bikes/scooters out front! We are also a lot closer to everything...other than my parents unfortunately! :(

Foyer

Kitchen and Living Room

Kids Bathroom w/ double sinks - HUGE problem solver in the mornings w/ AJ and Aleigh!

Master Bedroom - Love all the windows!

My Little Valentine!

Ansley's playdate with Tessa!


ANSLEY IS 2!!! I can't believe it!!! Our little Valentine baby is growing up way too fast! She is so sweet, funny, confident, never meets a stranger and just so full of life! She is so incredibly adored by all of us! We LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH "Ansley Pansley!"

We originally planned to have Ansley's birthday at home w/ our close friends and their kids. Then, when we realized we were going to be in the middle of packing/moving, we decided to move the party to Joe's studio for the party! It was so nice to not have to worry about cleaning the house! We just brought a few decorations for her "Abby Caddaby" party and ordered pizza! It turned out perfect!

While I was out doing my christmas shopping one night (@ Toys R Us) I saw someone scan the rose petal cottage at the price check and it said $14.99!!! I wanted to get it for Aleigh when it first came out a few years back but it was $90. It's still around $80 normally, but that day Toys R Us was having a HUGE sale and I was able to get the rose petal cottage, the nursery set, the market, and some accessories for under $40! The photo below shows Aleigh and Ansley in the the market.



Madrina (the kids godmother) came and we got to meet her new man, Mike! He's an awesome guy and liked by all! He is very good to our Madrina and makes her very happy!

Feeding daddy her cake!

Ansley and two of her sweet little friends, Casey and Tessa! Their so cute together! We were missing Hayley...she must have been eating cake or something! :)

Ansley adores her papa!

"CHEESE!"

She was so excited to get her gift from Aleigh - Buzz and Woody Colorwonders book! She LOVES Buzz and Woody...a little tomboy! At least she still lets me dress her the way I want to! All too soon she will have an opinion just like her sister and won't like anything I pick out!

Bryson and his sweet girlfriend Elizabeth!

Tammy and sweet little Hayley! Tammy gave birth to another baby girl just a week prior! Baby Camden stayed home w/ her grams!

More presents!


We have a couple of Daddy's Girls!

AJ and Aleigh showing their donations for Haiti! Their school gave out these bags titled "Pennies for the Poor"

Sweet Austin @ 2 1/2 months, ready for bed!

Ansley hitchin a ride on AJ's plasma car!

I can't help but kiss on those cheeks all the time!


Aleigh is such a great big sister! She tries to be so helpful by holding Austin, but it only lasts about 30 seconds because he gets too heavy for her! Ansley got this adorable tricycle from Uncle James and Aunt Amy for Christmas, but since Ansley can't quite reach the pedals, Aleigh helped find a way for Ansley to be able to enjoy her gift! Yes....Aleigh is wearing boots with her pajamas! She's so funny!

Austin! I can't believe this was just 2 months ago! He has grown a TON since then...but not vertically! ;)

The girls trying to stay up to ring in the new year w/ us! We let the kids camp out in the living room. Ansley was the only one that made it until midnight and then had to go to bed in her crib!

GIVE and SAVE!

So before I mention what I really want to share, I have to explain that I have tried SEVERAL times to upload christmas pictures to go w/ the blog entry I started a couple days after christmas. For some reason my photos won't upload to my blog! It just shows a bunch of crazy codes/letters instead of the photos! I will keep trying!

In the mean time I want to share a special moment that Joe and I had w/ our kids last night. A moment that made us both a little proud!

Joe and I have both made some poor financial decisions in the past, and its unfortunate that we both love to shop and spend money! However, 2009 put a big stop to all of that for us and we are now facing the consequences of our poor spending choices. In Feb. we were introduced, by our church, to Dave Ramsey's plan for financial freedom(www.daveramsey.com). He does offer a course that we have not yet had the opportunity to take together because it's usually during weeknights when Joe works. We also have to consider child care when we do find it on a Sunday. Anyway, Joe downloads his daily radio show off of his website and we try to listen to it together. I will be honest though, I was not into listening at first because it was ALL Joe talked about and all he listened to!!! He literally walked around the house w/ his MP3 player and two speakers listening to it (loud enough so that I could hear) ALL THE TIME! We drove to El Paso, TX last February and thats ALL we heard all the way down there and a good bit of the way back home! We couldn't have a conversation w/out Joe talking about getting out of debt and doing everything according to Dave Ramsey! I was over it before I could even get into it! LOL!

Finally, once Joe allowed me to come around on my own time (about 6 months later), I was on board and listening. I actually went online and purchased us tickets in September to go and see Dave Ramsey live! It was awesome and we both TRULEY believe in this guy! He is an awesome christian man and explains how important it is to give, save and buy w/ cash...NO CREDIT! Never become slave to lenders!

Although we are still dealing w/ our financial struggles....these days who isn't?! We can't wait until we are in a position to give even more and save!!! We quit using credit cards last February and, believe me, it has been a real eye opener for us to pay for everything in cash...somehow it just seems to evaporate on its own!!! ;) LOL! We are now learning to budget, but more importantly trying to teach our kids the importance of handling their money correctly!

Back in September, when we saw Dave Ramsey live here in Atlanta, we purchased Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace Jr." for the kids as a christmas gift! It comes w/ a collection of books, envelopes, and charts. It's really awesome and the kids are really into it!



Well, last night AJ was really choppin at the bits to get us to sit down and discuss the Financial Peace Jr. together! Keep in mind, AJ and Aleigh both have quite a bit of money that they have been holding on to for some time. They have earned some of it by doing extra chores around the house, and the rest is gift money from their Grandma Rojas and Tia Mayo!

Both AJ and Aleigh ask for things all the time and we either tell them to wait for christmas, their birthdays, or buy with their own money! They, almost never, opt to use their own money!

One of the tasks they were asked to do was to write down a list of things that they want and then both Joe and I would help them figure out the ONE thing on that list that they wanted to save up for. At first they both had a few items on their list. As we began to discuss what they wanted to spend their money on the most, suddenly neither one of them wanted anything! We went on to explain that its ok to reward yourselves w/ your hard earned money but whatever they decide to do w/ their money is THEIR CHOICE nobody else's, not even mom and dads! We have talked to them about the fact that we feel it's important to give and how rewarding that feels. However, I personally feel that it's even more important to INSPIRE them to WANT to give. I don't want to make them feel guilty or force them to do anything w/ their own money! We have taught them, and they have learned from church, that the bible asks you to give 10%. I still refuse to decide for my children what they do with their money! I explained that if they don't want to let of go 10% and want to give a little less, that was entirely up to them.

The next thing we knew the kids had brought their money downstairs. They layed out their labled envelopes (GIVE, SAVE, SPEND) and AJ pulled out a $20 bill (10% of his money), w/out hesitation, and stuffed it in his GIVE envelope! Then Aleigh shows me a $50 bill and a $20 bill that she had pulled from her wallet(she had a little under $200 total in her wallet). She holds out the $20 bill and says "I want to give this to our church." She then holds out the $50 bill and says "This is what I want to give to St. Judes Childrens Hospital!" My heart filled w/ pride because we have never even discussed with the kids about giving to anyone other than simply giving to our church or anyone we personally know that is in need. Aleigh says that she feels sad for the kids on the commercials who are sick and need medicine so she wants to help! We tried to encourage her to just start out w/ giving 10% and save the rest. She was very strong in her decision, but we are still giving her a little time, just to be sure. We want to make sure that she isn't just trying to please us.

The next thing both AJ and Aleigh did was to take the rest of their money and put it in their SAVE envelope! Joe and I both were like "Isn't there anything you would like to have or buy w/ your money?" and they both responded "No, we don't need anything!" AJ went on to ask how much money he needed to save to purchase himself a car when he turns 16! He said he wants to save $14,000 so he can pay cash for his car! I then explained to the kids that if there is something they are wanting that maybe they could wait and ask for it for their birthday or christmas. Aleigh's response was "No gifts! I don't want anything! Can they just give the money they would spend on a gift to someone else who needs it?" YES!!!