Turbo and the Minivan

All winter long our 2004 Hundai Elantra (We call her Tinka) that we love has been living on it's last legs. The water pump is broken and every time you drive you have to fill the car with coolant. However, it has been getting us through and we had hoped it would make it until April when I got through busy season and we had some time to look for a new car.

Then one day our 2007 Hundai Accent starting to make a loud banging noise in the engine. We bought the car in December 2010 when we moved down to Lehi to start jobs after school (see our welcoming post on January 23, 2011). We paid $6,800 for it with about 60,000 miles. It has been a fantastic car and I loved driving it to work every day. It did not have anything fancy. It has manual windows and locks (seriously, I've been rolling up my window by hand and reaching across the car to unlock the doors whenever anyone rides with me) and is pretty basic, but I have loved it. It has a CD player and gets great gas mileage. We took the car in to have it looked at and found out that it needed to have the engine replaced. It was not the news we were hoping to hear. A new engine would run at least $3,000 and probably a bit more. In addition, there were a few other things we new needed repaired or replaced (tires). We were bummed out with the situation considering we now had only about 1/2 of a working car between both of the Hundai's. However, we have been saving for the last five years for our next car purchase and just felt fortunate that we knew we would be fine.

We decided the best thing financially would be to sell our little Hundai Accent without repairing it and hope to get as much as possible. We posted it online and found someone who paid us $700. We had driven the car about 70,000 miles over the five plus years and feel like we got pretty good value. It was hard to say goodbye because I did love the car, but maybe it was fate. In our introduction blog post for the car, we were looking for name suggestions. In five year's we never found one that fit. It was not until we actually were selling the car that it hit us, his name is Turbo. Thanks Turbo, we wish you had run a little longer, but good luck and goodbye.

This has left us for the past month or so with just one car. While it is not always super convenient, we have been looking on the bright side: there is way more room for Tinka (the Elantra) in the garage.

Once we got out of busy season we began shopping for a new commuter car for me to go to work. I think we all would agree, that car shopping is not that fun, which is kind of weird. Any other time you are making a big purchase for something new you feel really excited. Think about buying a new home, a new tv, or even a new couch...those things make you excited to go shopping and picking something out. Then think about buying a new car...not as nice, is it? It must be because with those other things, the price is set, or you have a real estate agent helping you out. Maybe they need a car estate agent. I know they have the website now and we used those to give us a good idea of price, but it still is not fun. Mostly, it just takes a long time to find the vehicle you want and the price you want.

We had done some shopping and actually found a last year's model Nissan Sentra that we loved. We told them we would take it home for $14,000 no questions asked (our budget was $15,000). They thought we were crazy and told us it was $16,700. We kept looking and I found a couple things that looked decent and set up a time to go on Saturday and do a couple of test drives. We left the kids with Amy (who was so awesome to babysit for us) and went to Larry H. Miller Used Cars in Sandy. We drove a couple of cars and found a Kia Rio that we liked. We also mentioned that we were interested in driving some minivans. We know that the Elantra will need to be replaced soon and we are planning to get a minivan also. We drove a couple of different things and really like this 2014 Chrysler Town and Country.

It had 29,000 miles, leather seats, a back up camera and a tv. Honestly, it was nicer than we were even hoping to get, but less expensive than the Toyota models that were not as nice. After driving we sat down and got the offer from Larry H. Miller (LHM) for the Minivan and the Kia Rio that we had liked. Once we saw it, the Kia was outside our budget, but the minivan was in the range of what we had been thinking we'd need to pay for a van and we really liked it.

As you can see their offer was about $20,900 for the car which came to $22,932 out the door with taxes and everything. We talked it through with each other and decided we could not do that much and told the salesperson it was too high. He came back and told us the "best" they could do would be $22,800 out the door. We talked again and made some scribbles you can see on the paper. In order to buy it we would need to be able to get the car for between $20,500 and $21,000 out the door, and not trade in our Elantra. We told him to come back and let him know it would not work and put on our coats to head home. That was enough to get him more serious and he told us he would go back to get a better offer. He came back and told us $21,600 out the door (just more than $19,000 for the vehicle). We decided to go for another test drive to make the decision. With the price right in our range and with a van we really loved...

We decided to buy a minivan!

We feel like we got a great deal. With only 29,000 miles it should last a long time. It has leather seats which will be really nice for keeping clean. In addition, the back up camera was a must for us as a safety feature. We also love it because all of the rear seats fold down completely flat which means we can use it for hauling stuff around. There was also one more must have feature. Lydia has been talking for months about when we get a new minivan, it has to have a TV. When we went to Phoenix with my parents we actually rented this exact model of the Town and Country and she loved everything about it, especially the TV. If we had come home with a minivan without a TV, I'm certain she would have sent us back to get another minivan.

I like to tease and tell people that we went to buy me a car, but ended up buying Shantel a Minivan! Really, we thought about just buying two cars because our family isn't big enough to need a mini-van right now, but when we calculated in all of the taxes, fees, and all of the hassle of buying and selling a car - we decided that it was the best financial decision to just buy the minivan now instead of buying a car and selling it again in two years. We are hoping to still find a car for me to drive to work, and will keep looking. Hopefully in the fall we will be able to find something for a lower price that we really like and that will balance the fact that we bought the minivan before we were planning to.

 

Since it was Saturday we decided to just leave the van there so they could detail it and we could get the Cashiers check on Monday morning to pay for the van. We had just enough saved up in our fund to pay cash for it.

At the bank the kids did some drawings and ate suckers.  

Then they got popcorn at the dealership while we waited for our van. 

Finally, they got to try out the new van! They love it even more than us. Lydia was so excited when she found out about the TV. They also really loved the buttons to open the sliding doors and the trunk. 

We are mostly just excited to have a van that will fit our whole family as we grow and to make room for us to go on family vacations and trips and build memories together. 

Austin Scott: 18-19 Months

Sweet baby. The sweetest baby. I usually try to get out and take some more "formal" pictures for the monthly pictures. However, I didn't get them taken. I was planning to still go out and do them (I'm writing this post a few days after the 23rd) - but when I saw this picture pop into the draft box of blogger - I thought, "I'm not going to find a picture that so perfectly fits this boy this month." I love it and him so much. 

Official Stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 10 oz
Length: 31.25 in
Head Circ: 47 cm

Stats: Size 12 month shirts might be getting a little tight. Size 12 month pants are starting to fit. Size 4 diapers (and size 3 are definitely too small). Size 4 shoes (he loves shoes!). He's had four teeth on top,and two teeth on bottom for a couple of months but just in the last week he broke through a third tooth on the bottom left, right next to the two front teeth. I think that he might need another haircut because his hair is getting a little shaggy in the back, even though it's still pretty thin on top.

Some other things to remember this month: 

--The picture from up above was taken one afternoon when Austin had been sleeping for quite a while and I went to check on him. He had a book over his face and my heart melted. It was obvious that he'd fallen asleep reading the book. I made sure he was still able to breathe okay then ran to grab the camera to take a picture. I came in and snapped a picture and immediately afterwards he pulled the book from his face and smiled at me. I almost thought that he'd been awake the whole time, because he pulled the book away like he was playing peek-a-boo, but he had to have been asleep because he was in the exact same position as he was when I ran to grab my camera. It's just the perfect example of how sweet and funny and happy this boy is. He has the best sense of humor and I hope he never looses it. (Also, he loves books and won't take a nap or go to bed without one set up for him to look at.) 

--He wants to do everything that Lydia does. Every. Single. Thing. He follows her around and tries to climb on all the things she does, read the same books, wear the same dress-ups. Lydia was painting at the table, and Austin insisted that he be allowed to join in the party. He'd kind of painted before (usually I just give him water and let him paint with water on construction paper so it changes color), but he loved it and he's done it several times since. 

 -He loved hunting eggs. Even after his basket was full and he'd gathered all the eggs - he would say "more, more, mooooooore". 

--Another example of wanting to do everything the older kids are doing.

--He's so funny and I find him all the time squeezed into funny little spaces. Crawling under his crib, hiding in closets, and even squeezing under the trampoline. Funny boy. Oh, and he doesn't just climb under things - he climbs on top of things as well. He's an adventurer, that's for sure.

 

-He has this thing with the dishwasher. He likes to play with the buttons, pull it open if it's shut, and close it if it's open. One morning he just wouldn't leave it alone as I was trying to put the dishes in so I set him on the counter behind me so I could finish the breakfast dishes. I turned around and saw him drinking the jam left on the counter. Literally. It was flowing into his mouth and he was drinking it like juice. This sugar-loving-baby of mine. *sigh* 

 

--Lydia sings Austin a lullaby every night. She usually insists that he sit in the chair all by himself so she can sing. (Some nights I'm less patient with this demand than others.) He's so lucky to have such a loving big sister. Bedtime is one of the very most exhausting parts of the day, but the moments of book-reading and good-night loving and sweetness are moments that I want to hold on to forever.  

--He has the funniest grumpy face that I can't help but laugh at! In all honesty, his face looks like this at least 50% of the time. He just likes the way his lips feel, I think. Because he does it even when he's happy - but oh, if he's grumpy - you better bet he's going to give you that grumpy "I'm not impressed with what you're saying" face. 

--These are a list of things that he loves:

(And when I say loves, I don't mean that he likes. I mean that he loves.)

Trains, putting things down vents, candy, going outside, his pacifier, teasing Lydia.

Every time the train passes, he hears it coming and runs to the window. (If possible, he runs to the couch and climbs up so he can look out the window.) If you pick him up and run him to the window, he rewards you with the biggest happiest smile as he stares out the window. #worthit

--Sometimes your mom cleans and mops the kitchen then makes you eat dinner in the bathtub. 

--Did I mention that he loves outside. He cries every single time I make him come back inside.  

--We had a sleepover with Camille and it was awesome. 

There are some things I have written down in my planner but I don't really have pictures to correspond. I love jotting down notes in my planner, because even reading them back right now I'm like "Yes! I remember that. He's so cute." Because, little things are easy to forget and I don't want to forget how great this little boy is. My list:

-"Tickles Lydia" He loves to tickle Lydia. It's the cutest funniest thing! At first I wasn't sure what he was doing, but he'll wiggle his fingers on her feet or tummy and laugh and laugh at himself. Lydia will play along and laugh and that makes him laugh even harder. He will tickle David and I, too - but he really loves tickling Lydia. One morning, she was laying in our closet with her head under my shirts and he feet poking out and Austin kept coming over to tickle her feet. She made sure we were watching and they did it over and over again. So darling. 

-"Hides" He loves to hide in our closet. Under our clothes or behind my white bin. I love it. 

-"Always grump face." Umm.. yes. 

-"Plays with trains/loves trains" He loves to play with the trains in Lydia's room. He's gotten pretty good at connecting the train tracks together and loves to push the trains back and forth on the tracks saying "choo-choo". He's started doing a lot of independent play. Lydia and I will be downstairs doing a myriad of things, and Austin will just go upstairs to his room and play with the trains. And I already wrote before about how much he loves to watch the train go by. 

-"Puts things in vents." Oh my land. We had a contractor over to give us a quote for building our window seat and maybe some lockers in our mudroom and Austin came right over, lifted up the vent, and dropped a ball inside. The contractor laughed, and so did I - but later when I was pulling it out I found not only the ball, but also a fork, a block, and a handful of small toys. Since then, I've been pulling blocks and toys out of vents all over the place. The vent that is sitting right by the "kids table" in our family room keeps getting filled to overflowing with wooden blocks and I don't know what to do to stop it! I'm hoping he just grows out of it. (But, it's kind of funny.)

-"Loves candy". This boy has a sixth sense for candy. He knows. He loves cake and ice cream and candy, candy, candy! 

-"Follows directions." He's so good at following directions! If he has a pacifier in his mouth you can say "Austin - go put your pacifier in your bed!" And he'll take it out of his mouth and go put it in his bed just like you asked. (He'll also probably grab a new one on his way out of his room - but he does leave the one that you asked him to leave in his bed.) Even directions with several steps, or requests to go get something, he does really well with. He understands so much! 

-"Draw/color", He really likes to use crayons/markers/colored pencils to draw and color. Lydia didn't really like that until recently, so I'm always amazed at how well he does and how much he likes it. 

-"Nursery". It's not going so hot. We'll let you know next month if things start getting better.

And here are some pictures that I don't have much to say about, other than... Isn't he so cute??? 

 

Austin, I love you. We love you. So much. 

It's a good day.

I love this time of year when everything starts warming up and the neighborhood starts coming alive again. It brings me so much excitement because I know that summer is right around the corner. I realize it's only April, and real summer is still a ways away. But - it's warm enough for the kids to go outside and run around, to stop at the park on the way home from running errands, and for eating popsicles on the porch. It's also the time of year when storm clouds move in and burst open with rain, when the nights are still cold enough to want to curl up with a big cozy blanket, and when David's busy schedule is finally starting to wind down. I love everything about it.

(Our trip to the park yesterday. Lydia figured out how to spin herself around on that blue spinning bar and Austin climbed to the very top of the big-kid play structure. A beautiful day.) 

I've been bitten by a spring-fever-house-project bug and I have a whole list of things that I want to organize and work on. I'm so excited about them! We've gotten a few quotes for building a window seat into our stair pop-out and for building lockers into our mudroom. The stair pop-out is going to happen and I'm SO excited about it! (The jury is still out on whether we are going to be able to make the lockers happen, or if we'll need push it off until next year.) When I picture our completed window seat and bookshelves I get so excited I can hardly stand it. Some other projects we have in the works are: adding a wood plank wall in the half bath, cabinet hardware in both upstairs bathrooms, and a peel-and-stick tile backsplash in my laundry room. Pinterest and I have been great friends lately. I am just so excited about everything.

So, David was in Minneapolis last week. It was the first training on a new software called Knowledge Coach to be a knowledge coach trainer (an incredible opportunity to learn a new software and then travel and teach the rest of the company). I've said it before, but I'm so proud of him. When he was first contacted about the opportunity, his first concern was that it would require more travel time for him over the course of the year. It won't be a forever thing, but he will be traveling a bit more, especially in the next couple of months. Of course, I told him that we would be fine and that he should definitely take the chance! It's a great thing for his career, and even just shows how good he is at what he does. We missed him a lot, but my happiness for him outweighs how much I don't like to have him gone. However, when he isn't here - I have a hard time turning my brain off and making myself go to sleep so I always stay up way too late. One of the days we went to visit Jenna and ended up sleeping over at their apartment, which was so fun. When we first put the kids down and Austin, Camille, and Jason were crying and Lydia was nowhere near falling asleep - we wondered if we'd made a bad life choice, but luckily they all fell asleep and the night was as good as I could have hoped it to be!

(I asked David to send me a cool picture from Minneapolis.)

In addition to staying up way too late while David is gone, I have the tendency to spend, spend, spend. I may or may not have done some online shopping while he was gone, but most of that tendency was curbed by the fact that before he left we ordered new cell phones! I'm SO excited! I've been wanting a new cell phone for a long time. Specifically, a new cell phone that has a really awesome camera. David has helped me look around at a bunch of options, but I've been dragging my feet. One night, he pulled up some options on the computer for me to look at, when finally I was like "I know I'm dragging my feet, but can I just explain to you why? It's because I want THIS phone (pulling up a Google Nexus phone on the computer), but I know it's too expensive. So I know I can't have what I want - but it makes it hard to get excited about something that isn't really going to be what I want." David nodded and took the computer to get a better look. Lydia woke up and I went into her room to help her, laying down and falling asleep by her for a minute. When I came back into our bedroom he was like, "I know this might sound crazy, but I think we should buy these phones... right now." Google just happened to be doing a promotion with their Nexus 5X phones which dropped them down into the price range that we were looking for. You get the promotion when you sign up with their Project Fi cell service, which ended up being even cheaper than the super cheap phone service we have with Virgin Mobile (who we would definitely recommend). So we did it and I think its' going to be a really great deal for us monetarily, and I still get my dream phone! I know it's silly, and it really doesn't matter. But I really am just very excited about it.  We realized after the fact that we needed to order a sim card kit in addition to the phones, so even though the phones got here while David was on his trip, we still haven't set them up. I might be going a little crazy. But the kits got here tonight and we have plans to set them up and play with them.

Some days I feel incredibly anxious. I feel stressed without knowing why and without having a good reason for feeling that way. Then I feel even worse because I'm obviously so, so blessed, and have not a single reason in the world to complain. We have so many blessings, we don't even know what to do with them all. Today I'm counting those blessings: the sunshine, my kids laughter, my hardworking and loving husband, our beautiful home, my old fuzzy-camera phone, my new fancy-camera phone, the internet, a dishwasher, eating pasta for dinner while David is working late and not cooking a real meal, my new weed-puller that does an incredible job and is going to make the dozens and dozens of weeds in my backyard shiver in their roots, this blog where I can write my thoughts and feelings and record the happenings of our lives. It's a good day.

Happy Tuesday!