Thankful Thursday - 144

I was going to do a separate post for a few of these things, but I'll do less work and combine it all here. 

This week I'm thankful for...

1. A new (to us) minivan! David and I bought our brand new Santa Fe XL in 2016 when I was pregnant with Dom with the intentions of it being our "forever" vehicle. Well we must have underestimated how much space kids, dogs and all their gear take up! We outgrew that vehicle much quicker than we anticipated. We are going to the cabin this weekend and definitely would not fit everything into our current car. 
David started looking at minivans (which we should have done a couple years ago, but hey... he REALLY did not want a minivan despite my nudging). We both agree now that a Honda Odyssey seems the best fit for our family and hopefully for our future. 
While it's a shame we're taking a hit with the value of the Santa Fe (really people, buy used... new isn't worth it!), our payments will not be going up and we will not be in any more debt than we are now (is that win?). 
The van isn't quite ready yet as it's getting a full detail and they're fixing up a couple little things for us (re-finishing the rims, fixing a small rip in the driver's seat, etc.), so the plan is that we'll pick it up tomorrow. We leave for the cabin on Sunday; typical Renee & David fashion, getting a new vehicle and immediately going up to the cabin for (almost) the first drive!

Ohh fancy! 2011 Honda Odyssey EX w/RES - It has 8 seats, cloth interior, window shades, automatic sliding doors, bluetooth, back-up cam, DVD player, tri-zone climate control, automatic climate control, and a hitch built in! This should last us a while I hope!!

2. Money smarts. We've made more than a few very expensive decisions the last three years. Bought a house, bought an SUV, went on trips, bought another car, bought a van, bought new computers, had two babies, and the list goes on. I am NOT a spender, so this stresses me out big time. We are savers, so we save up until we can afford something. The plan for the new (used) vehicles is to take out a line of credit to pay them off. The L.O.C. should have a much lower interest rate, and then we can pay that back with the payments that would have been going to the cars anyway. Another advantage with the L.O.C. is that if David has a super slow month or we have an unexpected expense, we can just pay the minimum without any penalty - which is just paying the interest on the L.O.C. 
Not official yet as we haven't requested or been approved, but hopefully!

Sigh... adulting. 

Good thing our parents are adultier adults.

3. Taking out the camera. When Dom was little I took out the camera and took real  (not phone) pictures all the time. Now David is out a lot more and I just don't think to pull out the fancy camera very often. 

This one is now my desktop background and it makes my heart happy.

Apparently Dom has forgotten how to smile.

So in love with my little girl

4. Kids are resilient. Dominic got in a fight (faceplant) with the floor this week and the floor won. He came out with a bloody fat lip, but was back playing like normal within 15 minutes. I bet I would whine all day if that happened to me!

His lip is back to normal now :)

5. Our couch. It's pretty obvious we love our couch. I'm so glad we spent the money back when we moved in to get such a great couch for our space, and in the style/color we want. It is so often the background of our photos (I know you've noticed).