How to Take 10 Years Off Your Mortgage

Okay.  So I was looking at this finance/budget website www.powerpay.org and was plugging in numbers for our mortgage and seeing what would happen if we made an extra payment or two every year and had so much fun seeing our savings that I decided to post about it.  Anyway, this website is free, but does require a username and password.  Then I went to the "calculator'' tab and clicked on "additional payment calculator."  So, just to keep numbers easy, lets say:



Loan Amount:  $200,000
Loan Term:  30 years
Interest Rate:  3.5
Additional Monthly Payment:  $250 (or $3,000/yr)

Guess how much that saves you?!  Just guess!  Almost 10 years off your mortgage and $43,641.29!  Even if you paid an extra $2,000/yr it would be a savings of $35,200.72.  Not too bad, eh?

I know this is really dorky of me, but I just get so fascinated by numbers and how little things can make a big difference.  And since we recently got our tax returns, we chose to pay a little extra on our mortgage.  Not the funnest thing to do, but it has been our experience that when extra money is sitting around, other not fun things happen.  Like cars breaking down.  Seriously kept happening to us for a couple years in a row.  It was like our cars knew when we got our tax returns.

Maybe  most people already knew about this, but I just got really excited to learn that we could take 10 years off our mortgage just by making a few extra payments.

Happy Birthday Paige!

Paige turns 3, three days after Christmas!  We tried really hard to make her birthday special and not at all a leftover Christmas.  Maybe she's still too young to recognize our efforts, but this year she was really excited for her birthday.  And even in January, she was really excited for her birthday and would get upset if anyone tried to tell her it wasn't "almost her birthday."  One of her presents was a scooter, so we took her to the BYU indoor track to let her ride it.  Later we went to the jumpy place for a family activity, and then finished off with dinner and presents at McDonald's.  It was a very fun day to spend as a family.  

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Well, it may be the third day of spring, but today looks a lot more like Christmas, so it got me thinking today would be a good day to put up our Christmas pictures.  Ha!

  So three years ago, I was almost 9 months pregnant with Paige, and REallY wanted to go on one last date with the hubs before we had our baby and wouldn't get the opportunity for a while.  I set up the whole thing and thought the advertisement for a Christmas Cruise on the Provo River sounded so romantic.  Let me tell you..maybe not romantic, but it was so fun that we've made it an annual thing.  So fun, because the cruise is really a canoe-type boat that's navigating by a guy who guides us 200 ft to the right, then flips around and goes up the river 400 ft., and then goes back to the beginning.  Christmas lights are all over the bank and on the trees, and SANTA CLAUS!!! even shows up on a little canoe, because he lost his reindeer.  It's the kind of thing you take your kids on--not so much a husband-wife romantic excursion.  Yet, even still we get a babysitter and go on our Christmas Cruise that the kids would totally love.

  This year I wanted to have a candy sleigh race just like we did when we spent Christmas with the Evans.  It turned out being a blast and everyone loved it!  I think I want to make it a tradition!  There was even some awesome trash talking.  All the sleigh photos are kind of out of order though.

   Everyone had a great Christmas!  Ogden and Kaelyn are already getting to that age where their Christmas lists are getting pretty dreamy and technical with things like iPads, iPods, Nintendo 3DS's, etc.  And then some of my favorites were a mute button for the girls (Ogden doesn't much care for all the baby screaming) and a dog and a cat.  Although many of these wishes didn't quite make it in Santa's sleigh, the kids seemed very happy and genuinely pleased.  Phew!  

1st Day of Nursery!!!

I can't believe it!  Abby is now in nursery.  Weighing in at a whopping 18lbs.!  With all my other kids, I was excited for the day, but this time was different.  I don't know if it's because she's so baby-looking, or if it's because it's the last time we'll be doing this, or if it's because I haven't had to be the one to wrestle her through 2 hours of church, but this time was a little bittersweet.  However, she loved it.  No tears for this girl!  Dad, on the other hand, sure missed his buddy.  

Rebar

I feel like our family is pretty lucky because our casualties have been pretty minor with 4 kids. Aside from Ogden and Kaelyn both breaking their legs when they were 2, we really haven't had too many accidents.  Until the other day.  I also feel pretty lucky, because when we have had accidents, Julian has been around.  Until the other day.  Ogden came home from the bus stop looking like this.  No tears or anything but a pretty good gash.  It really wasn't bad, but I knew that it would probably require stitches.         Apparently, Ogden had found a piece of rebar (like the huge ones used to set foundation on a house) near the bus stop and gave it a throw and it boomeranged him back in the face.  He was pretty worried about the fact that he had to get his skin sewn together, but he was very tough.  The worst part was definitely the cleaning of the wound, which I so thoughtfully saved for the nurse.  I am so, so, so, so glad he didn't get hit in the eye.  It really could have been much worse!  And I'm also glad Ogden is a tough kid. And I'm also glad I actually thought somewhat clearly through the situation and handled it by myself.  

The Holidays!

Time to catch up on the holidays!

 Hay ride

Corn box

 

Told Kaelyn to take a bath and then we'd work on her costume.  She came down for breakfast all princessified by herself... hair and all.  She's pretty amazing! 

Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast

Whoopie cushion at the bus stop

Abby takes to Grandpa

 Enthusiastic participants for the Thanksgiving Trivia

 The Spread

 Paige and cousin Corbijn

Yum times 10!