Family

Some Boy is five weeks old now, so we’ve had plenty of time to figure out what works and what really, really doesn’t. There are a few products that have been absolute lifesavers and we’d recommend them to any new mom. These are our new mom must-haves that make parenthood a little less stressful. They calm Some Boy down when he’s wound up and they help ease mom and dad’s stress when our hands are full, the phone’s ringing off the hook, baby’s crying and it feels like life is going a million miles an hour.

It’s summer, which for us means family picnic time! There’s nothing I like to do more in this season than get a big group together and take lunch to go. Babies can add some interesting challenges to the mix, but we’ve become pros at outdoor dining with kids in tow. These are my top tips for keeping everyone happy and well-fed.

It’s no secret that our family is active. We like to get out and MOVE! One of the issues we’ve encountered with family fitness, though, is that kids of different ages have varying skill and experience levels. It can be challenging to engage everyone in a single activity. The little ones have trouble keeping up and without encouragement to stay involved, they can easily get frustrated.

Nate and I are road adventurers at heart. We travel a lot in numerous vehicles and often discuss trips with kids, so it’s inevitable that we field questions about vehicle safety.

When we moved to our new place, we decided to leave the cats up at the country home so they’d have plenty of room to roam. Not gonna lie: it broke my heart to know I wouldn’t have them with me every day, but they have the dogs to play with and Oma and Opa take great care of them.

We spent the last week in Jackson, Wyoming, totally snowed-in and enjoying each other’s company. Trying to keep three boys busy in an ice-cold town with access only to a hotel suite and whatever Amazon Prime will deliver is…interesting. The experience made me realize that there are actually a TON of healthy family activities that can be enacted at the drop of a hat, if you have a few ideas and are open to going with the flow.

I had a blast meeting Nicole Diaz from Funthusiast and Jeff Rose from Wise Bread and Good Financial Cents (check out his book, Soldier of Finance, if you need a good starting place to learn about managing your credit and investments). You all asked some really great questions about family life and finances, so I wanted to offer a quick recap of some of the highlights from our chat.