Big Family

Last year we bought an RV and Nate quit his day job, prompting a bunch of people to ask if we were ditching the traditional American dream altogether. Nope! We love the comfort of home AND we love to travel. But the big question is paying for it all. Today we're sharing what we’ve learned, and how we manage our family business while keeping an eye on finances and retirement.

Free time, family connection and deeper learning opportunities are things we get to enjoy with our kids at home. Here's a detailed list of our reasons to homeschool.

Do you read the Artemis Fowl series with your kids? Our oldest son is totally obsessed, so we're working with Disney Book Group today to create an Artemis Fowl printable fairy book that gets the whole family in on the action!

Another year, another word of the year. In our case, we always base our word of the year on a chosen verse that guides our lives for the next 365 days. This year we're taking it back to basics. Going all the way back to Genesis with God's first words: let there be light.

This is gonna be straightforward and to the point. I've gotten a few messages on Instagram recently asking for advice on car seat installation. Lots of baffled, busy parents really just want the ONE car seat solution. The easiest car seat to install, one that can take them from infanthood up to elementary school and get switched from car-to-car in the interim. So here ya go.

Chelsea and I have worked hard over the last decade to build our family. After getting married, we set out having kids straight away. Chelsea was building a career in marketing and I was struggling to find my own footing in the job market. Family finances weren't always easy.

Our kids are constantly asking irritating questions like, "When you and Dada met, did roads exist or was there still mud everywhere?" I mean, WHAT? Are they asking if we predated pavement!? Perhaps this is a new version of saying someone's older than dirt. In any case, I've been meaning to create a family album series for AGES, and I decided that the best way to start would be to make a photo book. I can now fend off my children's barrage of questions by handing over tangible proof that Nate and I had a life before they were even a twinkle in our (tired, glazed-over) eyes.

We get a ton of emails asking about gift ideas for families this time of year, so we're whipping up a helpful guide! This will be pinned on the homepage for the duration of the season and updated when we see good deals or cool gadgets that fill a need for active families.

There’s no getting around it anymore. My oldest son is getting old. As much as I try to baby him, he’s seven now and he has OPINIONS! I used to teach third grade, and I loved the banter, the growth, and the personalities that emerged at that age. Even though it’s so exciting to see my dude approaching a familiar threshold, but it also makes me realize that I need to refresh my knowledge on things like keeping kids safe online.

I was dreading the holidays this year. It's always a hard time for me, in general. Instead of sugarplums dancing around, my yuletime memories from childhood mostly include liquor-addled altercations. There was the time my stepdad yanked the Christmas tree down on top of me, and a particularly warm recollection of him holding a snowflake ornament up against my neck like a shuriken.