I feel like Reminiscing today. Colt been in the insurance business for 4 years. 4 years and 4 office moves later, here's a brief summary:
Colt and I were married in '04 and graduated BYU together in 2005. We actually rented our office 3 months before we graduated to be sure to have a spot. This was our first office:
Practically our home for the 1st year we were open. I loved that flag, we flew it when we were open. The church was right across the street, and would play bells on the hour. We graduated in August of '05, opened our insurance office the end of August. We practically lived here. We were here early and stayed most nights until at least 9:00. We were pretty dedicated to making it work even though our income was $1000, rent at this office was $300 and our home rent was $500. $200 left for both running a business and a home was tricky! Add in cell phone for Colt, Office phone, and Utilities.....Finances were pretty slim. We only had our Trooper as transportation, so we literally went everywhere together. Colt and I were together 24/7 and most weeks we were only apart when I led Singing Time in Primary and Colt went to Sunday School and Elders Quorum.
Here's an interior shot of our office. It was barely wide enough for Colt's desk. I actually have a desk just behind Colt's. I was his secretary, and this first year was pretty stressful trying to make it all work and start a book of business from scratch. I got pregnant September 2005, which was a step of faith for us, because we didn't know if I'd get morning sick or not. Thankfully we were very blessed, and pregnancies for me are great!! In fact, I feel better than at any other time when I'm pregnant. I would knock doors pregnant trying to get business. My goal was to not come back every day to the office until I found someone. River was born in June of 06 and came to work with me after about 3 weeks. While it was small, it was very comfortable, and we made it homey, people said there was a really nice feeling there. It was a high stress year, but not anything I'd ever change because we work together well.
August '06 we moved right next door to our 2nd office. This one was quite a bit bigger. We still had the problems of heating and cooling - it was so cold in there in winters, and SO hot in the summers. But, it was a nice location, we were central to the bank, newspaper office, hospital, school, library and post office. There was a lot of traffic back and forth.
River practically grew up here. I brought River to work with me every day until she was around 2. At that point we were going for a once in a lifetime bonus opportunity with the company, and after much prayer, we decided it was worth it for me to keep working to try to hit this bonus. After MUCH hard work and effort, we finally hit our bonus. The deadline was the last day of August 2008. We worked like crazy up until that last day, and sat back to see what we had done. We needed 1000 units in force (homes and autos). We had 1025. Absolute Miracle. We decided to go for it the previous February. That meant that for the next 6 months we had to break the agency record, every month for 6 months. It was a very busy time, especially considering our callings (Colt: Stake YM Presidency and in the Ward Elders Presidency and me as YW President). We were blessed! This bonus allowed me to move home and be a stay at home mom. (Note: We didn't see any of the money of the bonus: Most of the bonus went to pay off debt incurred during our 1st 3 years, and the rest was used to remodel office #4, but it got us out of debt and allowed us to make the move to office #4)
On to move #3: September '08
I finished up what work I had and helped moved the office:
Colt had by this time made a name for himself in the community and a accountant wanted to office with him. After much deliberation, we moved to this building on the 2nd floor: A very professional atmosphere. Colt during this 3rd year started focusing on helping people with Retirement. Saving and growing their money and knowing how to preserve wealth for the future generations. Colt is very good at what he does, and has a personal approach that I think has made him so successful. He builds relationships with people easily and he does what is in their best interest.
DID I MENTION I LOVE BEING A STAY AT HOME MOM!!!
Office #4: Move September 2009
Colt took an office location that was not very functional at all, and turned it into a very nice professional place:
The crew completely gutted the building and remodeled it with a very nice central reception area and 3 nice offices. Colt has one, and now shares the office with 2 accountants. This is our best office yet! Professional atmosphere, and great location, next to the grocery store and gas company.
A photo we had Kin snap one day of us. Little did we know this was to be the picture used for multiple ads and all sorts of things with Colt's picture on it.
I loved being Colt's secretary!
We couldn't have done what we did without help. We have an Amazing secretary that handles most everything. We also had a lot of help from John and his secretary while going for the bonus. Here's a golf game after we hit our bonus.
River in the office. Can I tell you what a relief it is just to stay home and take care of kids instead of take care of a kid at the office while nursing and typing with one hand? Or handling the phones and a crying kid? I look back at it, and it just makes me tired to think about what we did. But that's the funny thing about things like this: They help you see that you have the energy required for the task at hand. The fun thing about it was that we were all together all day every day. River got to crawl down the hall and see Dad, and we got to have lunches and dinner together every day.
Office baby - We love having a fish tank at the office
MAIL TIME!!
Colt's office was the one you see in the back right. I think it actually helped us sell more insurance to be a family business. I thought it would hurt business to have a wife and kid there all the time, but I think it really helped us. People would stop by the office to see River.
River would sit at the door and would love to wave to the kids when they walked home from the elementary school across the street.
When there was something I had to get done without a crying baby, Colt would walk River up the street so I could have a few minutes. This is a picture of him coming back with her outside the front window.
Notice the pile of papers in the background. Half of my time must have been putting everything back the way it was. We tried not to have anything in her reach. They weren't important papers, just blank forums. No wonder she loves paper and coloring now.
My front desk: River would sit at this chair and put her feet up on the desk for me to tickle them. I can't imagine working with kids at home. It broke my heart to leave River for those 6 months. I left her with Colt's sister, so I new she was in good hands. It was SO hard to leave her and not be around her while she growing so fast.
A video of River's wave to the kids.
River grew up watching people on computers with pens and calculators all day long. She LOVES art and pens. She started really young with pens. She especially loved the kind she could click, but pens with lids were cool too. People were amazed with how small she was, and how she could do things with fine detail. Being around adults was another good thing for River. She is SO social, and I think a big part of it was she said hello to dozens of people a day when she was little. I'd ask Colt if I was ruining my baby by not being home with her, and he said no, that she had so many experiences. She did, I still was able to spend all day with her and she learned like a sponge and soaked everything up. I think if anything, it helped me to be out and her to be involved in everything too. For me, 2 kids at home is much easier than one at work and working a lot, so it gave me a good perspective that I can totally do this!
Thank you Colt for working so hard so I can stay at home with our girls. I know it is not an easy Profession, but one that takes care of us.
Including decorating each other!
Priceless!
Silver wraps things around her neck -so naturally a string of Christmas lights goes around her neck, this is what started it all!
Our nativity is one of my favorite things we own. It's a great tradition to bring it out every year just after Thanksgiving and set it up with River. River actually took this picture because she likes it so much. Baby Jesus gets moved daily from Mary's arms to the manger. River Loves holding Baby Jesus. She sings him lullabys and rocks him gently. This year she decided Jesus needed a friend (circled at left). Sometimes he gets to share the manger with Jesus, but mostly is another one coming to worship.
We have a beautiful CD with Christmas lullabys on it that plays pretty much non-stop all through the day. I love music in the background. Our girls are much more mellow with good calming music.
Colt's family has a tradition to give the kids an ornament every Christmas. When we got married, we had a whole box of ornaments to decorate our tree with! We use his ornaments every year. It is a fun tree! We have continued the tradition giving each child an ornament for Christmas, and also getting a family ornament each year. It's fun to pull them out and savor the memories. This is Colt telling River about his favorite ornament and when he was a little boy, he'd put this ornament in front of a Christmas light so the light would show through the glass.
All the ornaments go on one branch of course! We've had a lot of fun making snowflakes and paper chains too.
Ah, the magic of Christmas in a child's eyes! 
