What's Goin' On w/ the Family of John?

Aiy, my poor rhyming skills. It has been a while since I updated on non-Elias related items, so this post will be a mixture of everything! But, of course, I will start with the blue-eyed wonder. I'm so happy to have blogged thus far because there's no way I would have written &/or remembered all these fun moments & milestones.

Baby Boy:
** Had his official 6mth appt last Monday. He weighed 17lb13oz & 26.25inches long. Got some shots, but thankfully no more for a long time. I think they have him "scheduled" to get more @ 12mths, but since we are not planning daycare exposure & most of the other vaccines have a range to 15mth or 18mths, we will be delaying those.
** Has loved getting to taste different foods. So far he's had organic bananas, pears, & sweet taters. Oh, Mexican refried beans. I think he enjoys eating more as a social event, but none-the-less he enjoys it! We plan to start yogurt next week.
** Has re-discovered his hands. I thought it was over when he became obsessed with his feet, but he now stares @ his hands & twists it around. I guess he's developing those fine motor skills now. I assume he will be eating on his own pretty soon. We plan to move him from pureed baby food to real food as soon as he can grab & self-feed. I've read that once they develop pincer skills, it's a good idea as the baby gets very frustrated not being able get the food into the mouth.
** He has been playing w/ a high-pitched screech. You'd think he was upset, but not really. It's a testing of the voice or a "Need some attention, Momma-Daddy-whoeverelseisnotlooking@me!!" In fact, he JUST did it from the playpen as I typed it!
** He laughs & giggles when he sees Rainee. She pretty much avoids him, but he likes to pet her & grab her hair. We are already trying to teach him gentle.
** He loves to grab noses, stares & touches facial hair, & will still reach back to "kiss" me. Oh, I love those kisses!
** He loves his laptop, ringstacks, & small hand-sized toys.
** When @ the Mexican restaurant last night, he danced w/ me! I moved him around to the music, which he loved, then when he was in his highchair... he bounced everytime I asked him if he'd dance! It was pretty funny.

Employment
** Nick received a promotion @ his job in Janaury. He also has access to a company vehicle, which is a huge blessing. He's been working late hours still, but smoothing out processing & quality issues as he goes along.
** He very much enjoys his job & thrives on the challenges he's presented w/.

Education
** Nick is still pending his Master's degree for 2 more credit hours + his thesis research. I would imagine if he gets motivated & was gone every other weekend, he'd be done w/ his thesis by the end of summer or fall.
** I am still pending my testing number for the NCLEX-RN. Although I do not plan to hop into a job, I have rec'd MUCH advice to take the NCLEX soon as it gets harder & harder the longer you are out of school to pass it! So, as soon as I get the testing number in my hot little hands, I will schedule the test. I should be able to test by the end of March @ the latest.

Finances
** We are still plugging along cheaply. Oops, frugally. Having a baby, quitting my job didn't change any of that. We met with our financial advisor last week, so I'm reflecting on how proud of us I feel.
** Even though it seems we don't have much money, we are contributing to Nick's retirement through a Roth IRA. He's got a good bit in it so far. Seems like hidden money, since we won't see it for over 30yrs... but it's still there & growing!
** Through my job, I received retirement contributions into an Investment Plan. The investments did poorly in 2007 & 2008, but did surprisingly well in 2009. Since we ARE 30+ yrs from retirement, I have them placed in aggressive funds. Right now, the account sits at even more than Nick's has.
** We still have our 4mth emergency fund in place.
** We purchased a newer vehicle last December. Since Nick has a company vehicle, we have reduced our car insurance cost by having only one vehicle AND switching to Progressive. We will save $250 in the first year from switching from State Farm.
** We opened & made a deposit into a 529 (AKA educational IRA) for Elias.
** We increased our missions offerings.
** We decreased our food & gas budget. Although, since we are determined to go organic on more items... we have increased it back up to $100/2wks. Having a baby hasn't increased our food budget at all. Since any disposable diapers we buy comes out of the food budget, plus baby food... I'm still not sure how everyone complains about how expensive babies are. I guess if you don't shop sales, visit yard sales, & have to buy everything full-price-name-brand... they'd be crazy expensive. And maybe he'll get more expensive later on, but we already have his clothes set up through 2T. And the older he gets, the less cost we'll incur from diapers... since we're using cloth dipers, too, that helps keep the cost down for years! But, we've never been spenders like that anyhow. We also purchased pretty much all of the Christmas gifts for Elias plus his cousins @ the beginning of the year on 50-75% off clearance out of our food budget. We plan to go organic on any dairy, meats, & baby food. And purchase organic produce based on the "Dirty Dozen, Clean Fifteen" list.
** We have been submitting add'l monies on our mortgage. Not as much as we'd like, but a bit. Hoping for it to be more soon. If I do start working at all outside the house, it'd be nights nursing & all that money will go towards the mortgage. We're working through our Dave Ramsey baby steps!
** There are a couple of things we've been talking about for me to make some extra money for the family; all still in the brainstorming stage, but it would be fun if one or two of them turned into extra money for the family.
** I hope posting all of this doesn't seem obnoxious. I hope posting it encourages anyone else out there that you CAN live off one income if you want to or you can live even better off two incomes, if you want to. We have done amazingly well w/ our finances once we trusted God to meet all our needs. He did an amazing miracle w/ giving us the money to do IVF & He will do even more amazing things in the future. He's blessed us w/ coupons, sales, the frugal-mindset, parents & g'parents who taught us how to manage money.

Speaking of blessings, I must cut this short as our most AMAZING blessing is needing his Momma. Here's a quick picture to leave you with...