2010 New Years Resolutions

As we say goodbye to 2009 today, I have been thinking of somethings I would like to change about myself and our home in the coming year. I hate calling them "resolutions" because somehow we never stick to them so I will say the following are my:

"hopes or wishes" for our family in 2010

*organize and set things up around our home so things run more efficiently

-go thru our home room by room, closet by closet and drawer by drawer and rid our selves of the clutter and things we really don't need

-set up communication areas so we can have all of our schedules in one place (I have already set this up-now its time to use it)

*use the toddler activity books and websites I have found in the last year

-I am so guilty of just letting Austin do his own thing all the time when playing which is fine to do but I think we could do more structured activities from time to time and both of us have fun and learn something doing it

*try to be active in our moms group again

-I joined one group thru meetups.com over a year ago and did good attending at 1st but have been really slacking off on attending meetings

our neighborhood has even started a little moms group that I need to get active in

-Both Austin & I would benefit so much from getting out and meeting new people and seeing new places

*try to come up with a way to make my life as a mom, wife & domestic goddess easier

-after Austin was born I discovered flylady.com which had some great ideas for making life easier for the stay at home mom. basically you came up with a cleaning schedule for each week and you worked on cleaning your home in zones a little each day. I followed it for a while and it worked great. Now that we have a larger home I really need to set it up again so I can get a handle on things and not kill myself trying to get the house clean

-work on trying to have meals ready in the freezer that we all like and that are easy to pop in the oven so we don't eat out as much

*Save Money

-this is something we have tried to do for years and we do save some but nothing like we should.

-we would like to pay off my car early this year & if we can do that I would like to continue making monthly payments but to our savings account rather than a car dealer.

-try to set up a realistic budget and really keep track of our spending. I would like to set up a spreadsheet this year and keep track of our spending weekly so we see where everything is actually going.

-stop wasting money on un-needed items & EATING OUT so much

*rediscover the fun of cooking

-this is something that Austin & I can do together and have fun with and help our budget

-try to introduce some new recipes to our home that are healthy, quick and easy

*make more time for "me"

-try and set aside time to do something for just me at least once a week

*scrapbooking

-this could follow along with the item above of me time

-I would like to get into digital scrapbooking this year and try and keep up with it. I did great with Austin's at 1st but now he is 2 years old & I haven't finished his 1st year much less started the next year

*Blogging

-I have to pat myself on the back that I have gotten a little better at this. But I could get better

-I need to start making post once a week of things that are going on with our family-especially once Hudson arrives

*keeping a journal

-not like a diary I had in middle school but something more just keeping track of our kids and there developments and milestones and funny stories

*reading

-I enjoy reading but just don't find much time for it. I would like to start reading a little each night before bed rather than watching TV.

Ok now that I look at the list it seems pretty long, but I think that most of it is attainable and things that I need to do for myself and my family. It might be hard at first but if I try to tackle it a little at a time I know I can do it. I would like to try and get some of the items (esp. the ones that will make life easier day by day) before Hudson arrives in Feb.

Three years of Santa

Growing up one of our Christmas traditions was always taking my photo with Santa and my Mom always tried to make it the same Santa each year. Well I can now say that I have started the same tradition with Austin. For the last three years (each of Austin's Christmas's) we have had his photo taken with the same Santa. The Santa at Chick-fil-a had been amazing each year and has been the same one. Its usually not very crowded when we go so its basically like we have our own private Santa.

Here is Austin his 1st Christmas when he was only 2 months old~look how small he was!

This is Christmas 2008 when Austin was 14 months old
Here we are this year at 26 months old

Visiting with Santa @ Chick-fil-a

Our local Chick-fil-a has a Santa come each year for photos with the kids and I must say that he is the best Santa around. Its not every day that you pretty much get your own Santa. Today Austin & I meet up with Grandpa and went to see Santa again. Austin did very well visiting with Santa and after our pictures were done Austin even played a little ball with Santa.

Austin loving Santa

Santa & his firetruck come to visit the neighborhood

This year we had Santa come to visit our neighborhood in a big firetruck. Austin loved the truck and was able to climb in and on the truck. His favorite thing was driving the truck (or acting like he was driving). He wasn't too sure about Santa at first but he warmed up and by the time we were ready to leave he was running back over to Santa for one last hug. He didn't understand there was a line for Santa or that Santa was there to see other kids besides him.

Here is Austin & Grandpa playing on the back of the firetruck

Austin to the rescue-driving the truck

Austin waiting in line for Santa
Austin entertaining himself waiting on Santa by collecting leaves.
Trying to decide if Santa was really worth all the excitement.

Our family photo with Santa

Last day of school for 2009

Austin had his last day of school for 2009 on Thur (Dec. 17). They had a "Happy Birthday Jesus Party" and had a bunch of different activities to do that day followed by lunch from Dairy Queen & cake. Austin & I decided to make little goody bags for each of the kids in his class. The bags each had a Sesame Street coloring book & pack of crayons along with a little card from Austin.

These are the bags for each of the kids along with the teacher's gift. I wanted to make each bag look like a reindeer but decided to save myself the stress and just taped a cute little Santa tag on the front & tied it with a ribbon & it still looked cute.

These are some of the things Austin made at school for our tree. I love the little frame (which he colored) with his photo.
This is a bell that the class made out of a cup and the little red & green dots are actually his little finger prints.
Hopefully we will be able to keep Austin entertained during his holiday brake from school. Grandma-ma & Papa will be visiting for a few days and Grandpa & Daddy will both be off some. I can see many trips to the mall playground & to the discovery center over the next few weeks.

Baby #2 update

Today was my long awaited doctors appt for my 28 week check up (or so I thought). My MIL usually watches Austin during my appointments so I don't have to drag him to the doctors office just to wait an hour to see the doctor for 5 mins. However, she is out of town this week visiting her parents and me being the super smart mom I am~ I scheduled my appointment during Austin's nap time. Do you see where I am going with this post...... I hate being late to anything so I usually try to arrive at least 10 mins. early, but that did not happen today. Austin & I arrived about 10 mins late. But he was such a good boy while we were there. He sat like a good boy eating his animal crackers and coloring which made me soooooooo happy. I have been having some issues since my last appt. so I was really ready to sit down and talk with the doctor and thankfully she said everything looked normal. She did do an exam to make sure our little peanut was not planning and early appearance and thankfully it looks like he will be hanging out a little longer like he is suppose to. However, I was informed today that I will actually be 30 weeks along this Friday where I thought I was only going to be 29 weeks, so that was a nice little surprise for me. I know its only a week but it can be a really long week at the end of your pregnancy.

Brad and I were fully expecting the doctor to put me on bed rest for a while due to all of the contractions (both braxton hicks & real contractions) that I have been having along with some cramping. But once again the doctor said everything looks good for now. So I now am on my schedule of going to the doctor every two weeks so my next appointment is on Christmas Eve morning.

At this point I have only gained 10 pounds (even though I feel like I have gained 100) and I am measuring 29 1/2 weeks in my tummy so right on track. The babies heart rate was a strong 150 this morning so everything looked and sounded great.

We still have not decided on a name yet. Brad & I both like Trevor and Hudson and I love Carter while Brad really likes Johnathan. I am really hoping that we will have a name for our peanut by the holidays. Brad is going to have some time off from work between now and the end of the year so I am hoping to get the nursery completely finished and ready for the baby. I have also put together my "honey do wish list" of items around the house I would love to get his help with while he is off. He will be traveling a lot for work during January so I have to get all my work out of him before that if I want things done before the baby arrives.

Holiday Craft Play Date

The boys each made a tree like this that they could put in the rooms at home. Its just a soda bottle filled with green paint and then they used stickers & pom-poms to decorate them.

I really like this reindeer craft. Austin made one at school this week, so we decided to borrow the idea and let the kids each make one. I think they look too cute on the tree.

Austin was working so hard here. Good thing he didn't notice the glue was closed.

Me and Austin hard at work
Austin had to take time to play with Zoe he was too cute talking to her. Hopefully he will like his little brother in a few months.
Jackson working hard
Zoe hanging out
The little guys kept forgetting what we were doing so they would stop & play for a while.
This is the only picture that we have that had Gavin in it.
Austin sat down and acted just like he knew what to do.
We had some friends over this morning for a play date to make some holiday crafts. Austin & Gavin are both 2 and had a hard time keeping there minds on the task of crafting but that's OK. Jackson who is 4 on the other hand took his job very seriously and did an amazing job on his tree. Over all we had a good time and nothing got messed up so it was a good day.

A homemade Christmas

Austin has recently really started enjoying coloring, using stickers & painting so I decided to put him to work. I am not going to lie when it came time to think about decorating this year for the holidays I wanted to just stress out. I am 7 months pregnant & have a 2 year old so all I could think is that between Austin & the 2 dogs I would be chasing them around for the month saying "no don't touch that" or "bring that back". So I decided to scale things back a bit the year and only put up some of the decorations (which of course Brad didn't mind since he is the one who has to pull it all down from the attic then put it all back up). I also decided that we would have a more homemade Christmas this year and let Austin make most of the decorations. So this past Sunday we put the tree up and Monday Austin and I got busy making some ornaments for the tree. We both had a lot of fun working on them~we spent most of the day decorating the ornaments. And this way I don't have to stress out if he wants to take something off the tree and play with it since they are all made of foam and hung with yarn rather than those metal things.

Fireman Austin

This is Austin in the backseat on our way to school one day this week. He just had to wear his Fireman hat to school. Notice the hat is also on backwards. He is so funny!

We received this fireman hat a few months ago at a birthday party & Austin really had not paid any attention to it until Tue. night when he decided to put on a little show for Brad & I. We were all in the playroom & Austin comes around the sofa wearing this hat & dancing. It was so funny Brad & I could not stop laughing. Well needless to say its been all he has wanted to wear this week. So when it came time for school on Thur. morning of course he wanted to wear it. Only problem is that the hat is a little big for him so half the time he wears it backwards so he can see.