Has anyone used emergency fund or skipped steps to finish the mortgage ?

Hey gang! Big no-no according to Dave but I wanted to get some worst case scenarios. The house started in July 2014 (10.5 years ago) at 89K and now we only have 9k left on it! I am itching to get rid of it. Houshold income 120k, stay at home mother and four kids ages ten and under. Emergency fund has 12k in it. No other debt than the mortgage. I have followed the baby steps for past twelve years (plus the Money Guys) and am tempted to use the EF or skip steps four and five and instead just focus on the mortgage. I could get it done by April.

Has anyone else temporarily skipped steps to finish the mortage or used the EF? What happened? I know that I would lose growth on my investment in the future if I were to do this but being TOTALLY debt free and on BS seven would be amazing!