1. A record for ourselves. Something for us to look back on and remember, we learned a lot in the last two years and would just like a record for ourselves.
2. Encouragement/inspiration for others trying to work on their financial goals. We’ve read a lot of financial success stories over the years and they have always kept us going. It is a nice reminder to know you can do it!

We use our blog to primarily keep friends and family updated on the boys, but it is also a record of our life as a family and this step was important to us. If you do not want to read about our personal finances please stop reading now.

In 2009 business slowed down, but we didn’t really notice between getting ready to travel to Ethiopia and then bringing home the boys. We were busy and exhausted. The business quickly racked up a lot of debt, plus the credit card company we used went out of business. By the beginning of 2010 we had no borrowing room left for the business. We didn’t feel despair at this point, we knew we had made mistakes and with hard work and by giving up the extras in life we could get back on track.

We already kept a personal budget and we trimmed it a bit, but the business budgets needed some slashing. We learned how to better track and forecast our cash flow, and slowly but surely started paying down the debt. Pay cuts and a tight ship were in order.

In 2011 business slowly picked back up, we also were blessed that the adoption tax credit was made refundable for this year. So, In just under two years we were able to pay back $66,887 in debt (personal and business). Praise God, we gave up trying to control our debt ourselves and He moved mountains. We really owe it all to God, because without Him we couldn’t have done this. So other than our mortgage, we have no remaining debt.

Other than the tax credit we have not had any giant windfalls, income has normalized for us, and we sold some stuff collecting dust for extra money. We did this by sticking to a tight budget and paying weekly on our debts. We are also blessed with tons of hand-me-downs for the boys from another set of twins we know and generous grandparents that do our babysitting for us (plus spoil our kids ).

This post is not to brag, we don’t have everything all figured out (really we don’t). It is our hope to inspire and encourage. We have learned a lot the last two years, hopefully enough not to make the same mistakes again.

Our next set of financial goals includes building up our savings, and really working toward a retirement fund.

Running around in circles while dancing and screaming

We had the boys’ birthday party yesterday and it was a beautiful day. We had a lot of fun and the boys were WILD. I think they were super excited to have so many of their favorite people all together.

My wild but happy Noah

Ez was super wild the whole party

Abby all tangled with the balloons

Ez reading a card, he really loves cards.

The boys received trikes from Nama and Papa (my parents) and it is one of those moments I wished we had the video camera rolling. They were beyond excited when they saw them.

Ez on Noah's trike

Noah on Ez's trike

Ez driving Noah around

Abby driving Noah around, yea I am noticing a theme here.

Ez blew out all the candles this year, Noah just stared and occasionally tried to touch them.

Mr. Potato Head Cakes

Ez blowing out his candles

Noah checking out the candles

Ez came over and blew them out for Noah

Silly String Time

Noah shooting Ez

Abby apparently thought we gave her spray deodorant

Abby and Jason

We were all exhausted by time nap-time! You can see more photos here.

Yes he grabbed two lighters and shared with his brother, and yes we took a picture before taking them away. That's what the child safety part is for right?

Noah doing his hair.

Sitting and playing. Okay Ez is almost sitting, but it's hard when your brother is hogging the toy!

Get ready.

Ahhhhh!

That just doesn't look comfortable.

Arm, arm, arm? Okay he says arm instead of hand.

Puzzles!

Abby's just chillin'

Just hanging out.

Cousins having fun.

Someone has been needing his blanket more.

Lastly a short video of Noah reading to mommy. He loves reading to me.

Noah Reading from Stephanie Adams on Vimeo.

Ezra ran so much!

What do you think is so much fun?

Water of course!

Peek-a-boo!

I need to hold this?

Almost got a shot of him looking at the camera and smiling.

Happy girl.

She reminds me so much of her daddy in this one.

Why do I have to sit here?

Three toddlers in one photo?  No one is ever looking.

We tried our first bounce houses, Noah was more into than Ezra, but they both just crawled around.

We also went over to the fire safety trailer and learned to be fire smart.

First you play with the fireplace. Funny thing they decided to not turn it on because it was just a few toddlers in the trailer and our boys were still drawn to it, good thing we con’t have one.

Then you run from the exit.

And then if your Ezra you break out your dance moves.

We also tried out a photo booth for the first time with the boys, shockingly two toddlers weren’t very cooperative. They just wanted to push the button!

We also petted some of the local 4h club animals and played in the Montessori pre-school booth for a while (which the boys loved). Sorry no pics as we were also too busy playing. Matt also was able to do a little networking, life in a small city does have its benefits.

But what I really want is a pro and con list of a potty trained child. I think a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about how to potty train, but I want to think of the after the potty training consequences and benefits.

If potty training next weekend doesn’t work out, we will think about it again sometime after the craziness of the holidays.

Please share your input.

Funny Noah wouldn't eat the sweet potatoes off his plate, but when Ezra fed him he ate plenty.

The boys have really been into helping lately, and while it is often more of a hinderance than a help, I don’t mind one bit because they are trying their hardest. Here’s a few of the things they’ve done lately:

Ezra cleaned up all the clothes, toys, hangers on their bedroom floor and put them in the hamper. (never mind that some of those things don’t go in the hamper, or that most of those clothes were clean clothes they removed from their closet, and part of it was the basket of clean diapers)

Noah set the table yesterday for their breakfast. He place both bowls of oatmeal on the table all by himself with no prompting from me. He also cleared the dishes and put them in the sink. (at lunch he decided to dump the remaining food in the middle of the kitchen floor for the dog)

The above picture shows Ez feeding Noah. They have both really been into offering each other bites. (doesn’t matter that the food often ends up on the floor, table, and themselves)

Ezra recently spit out some ibuprofen I gave him. I handed him a rag and told him to clean it up, both boys then proceeded to scrub the kitchen floor. All the while Noah was warning everyone the floor was slippery.

They both frequently bring each other their sippy cups, often figuring out that is what was needed before mommy.

I am sure they would do so much more if their mommy would let them!