Dear Family,

True I find the occasional thing to complain about, but as long as I have this I will be happy.  Love, Seth

Elk Ridge

In case you've missed the news, we're moving.  We're building a house in Elk Ridge, Utah, and it will be complete at the beginning of February.  Here's what it looks like:

And in case you don't care about any news other than these babies, here's what they look like:

Will update photos on both as they become available.

Unckie Trace,

could you please come home and teach my mom how to paint a REAL butterfly?  this one's crap.

thanks a million,
penny

he's just happy to be here

Go, Diego, Go!

Penny's most prized possesion (a.k.a. what we would grab if our house was going up in flames)

This girl was introduced to "loveys" when she was 3 months old as a substitute for pacifiers. Two+ years later she's still deeply attached, but her original collection of 24 has been depleted to a measly (and disgustingly dirty) handful of 5. Time for some new ones.

I took her to the baby section at Target and let her choose her favorite pack of flannel receiving blankets (this pack had an extra blanket so, hooray!, 28 new loveys). Then we brought them home, cut them to the correct size, and immediately threw them in the washing machine to produce raggedy edges; because a lovey without strings is not a lovey at all.

Then she requested we do this:

That is one pleased Penny.

Pen's Polaroid

a cook and a bribe

the cook: penny

the recipe: oats, yogurt, peas, milk, and i think a little grass (and maybe some other mysterious ingredients i didn't see added)

the bribe: eat one bite of your "soup" and get two chocolate covered almonds

the bite: now pay up

the final ingredient: two chocolate covered almonds

kitty dragon

the costume is ugly (ebay lot), but the boy sure is cute.

penny chose to be "Mittens" her stuffed kitten this year, and she's already decided on a flower for next Halloween.

the goods. 

it was crazy watching her trick-or-treating and realizing we've got a little girl on our hands.  our baby girl is all grown up.  kind of.

you know you're fat when...

...your first word is "ba-ba."

crawler

old man winter's a comin'

we don't have snow-kissed mountains yet

or even a blanket of frost to welcome in the morning

but what we do have is this....

static head.

7/27

Penny (27 months old):
-favorite food: nothing--she doesn't eat.  or candy
-favorite toy: stuffed animals
-favorite thing to watch: wonder pets and go diego go!
-favorite activity: playing outside
-hates: being left alone when throwing tantrums
-wants: a puzzle she saw in her book (in her words, "penny willy, willy wants that")
-loves: her aunties
-needs: pants that stay on her bum and cover her ankles at the same time


Teddy (7 months old):
-favorite food: everything
-favorite toy: cords and sticks (magic wands, drum sticks, fishing poles)
-favorite thing to watch: penny and go diego go!
-favorite activity: bath time
-hates:  the blender
-wants: mobility
-loves: vacuuming
-needs: to learn to crawl

See Ya Later Heidi Booth! (and Kate)

some of you may remember that heidi booth was the love-of-my-life hairstylist.  was.  kate is all done with school and girl's got skills.  (warning: horrible iphone pictures. sorry for the blur.)

before:

after:

penny needed a new 'do too, so...

before:

after:

that girl will not let me take a decent picture of her, but trust me, she looks adorable.

now the sad part of this story is that right when kate finished school and had become the new love-of-my-life hairstylist, she moved all the way across the country to virginia.  so goodbye, kate.  and maybe hello again heidi booth?

Annual Nerd Post

Take a look at the stock market for the last 100 or so years.  Notice how consistently we have 15ish years with no growth, then 15ish years with tons of growth:

And when the stock market grows, it doesn't mess around.  Last two times (1949-1965 and 1982-2000) it went up about 10 times.  Yes, 10 times.  So had you put in $10,000 it would have grown to $100,000.  $100,000 would have grown to $1,000,000 etc.  

We're just now coming out of 15 years of no growth and will likely be heading into really good growth for the next 15 years.  Wanna retire wealthy?  Wanna spend more time with your family and less time worrying about money?  Wanna buy a palace filled with cheap original eBay art and handicapped lamas?  Whatever your financial goals, it's an amazing time to start investing.

List of complaints I could imagine hearing from you right now:

"I don't have enough money to invest!" - Read Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" as you likely have more than you think you do.  Reading this book is also the answer for "I don't have any motivation."

"How do you even start?  It seems complicated." - First make sure you're taking advantage of any employer match 401k programs (be sure it's invested in good growth stock mutual funds).  Already done or aren't offered one?  Go to Fidelity.com and click "open an account."  Wire in money from your bank account (or set up automatic withdrawals), and invest away.  Super easy.  Starting is the hardest, most important step.

"What should I invest in." - Whatever you feel comfortable with (I think diversified index funds are best).  My suggestions?  Chose "SPY" (largest 500 companies in the US - it's what the graph is of above) "IJT" (600 of the smaller US growth companies) or "EEM" (index funds from emerging markets around the world) or any combination of the three.  I use "IJT" and "EEM" as they tend to follow "SPY" fairly close, but just do a bunch better (instead of 10 times higher, they often do 20 times higher).  Doing a third in each is great for most people.

"I have way too much money, and I don't want any more" - please call me.

Also, in case you're a Debbie-downer and doubt the consistency of mutual funds, this goes back to 1789:

As my Grandma used to say, "You want money to work for you, not against you."  This is an amazing way to do that.  And, for the record, Grandma started incredibly poor and died a multimillionaire.

(just because this is a family blog)