6

  My middlest is six...SIX...ugh, it chokes me up!

days

weeks

months {3}

almost year

year

more days

more weeks

more months

years {2}

years {3}

major moments

years {4}

years {5}

        

a whole new year {6}

This child has brought me so much joy.  He has made me very, very frustrated.  I love him.  I am proud of him.  He wears me out, but I love him anyway!  I pray for the strength and patience it will take to raise him.  I am blessed to be his Mom...

Happy Birthday Ty-ty!

adjusting

So we've been back for 5 days, and may I just say that reality sucks?

Not really, but I would much rather live in a world where I was on permanent vacation.  Fun things planned everyday.  I could leave the house with my bed unmade and towels on the floor and come home to a tidy room.  I wouldn't have to meal plan or even cook and yet I could go months without having to eat the same thing twice.

Wake up!

So reality is that we've been back to work and school.  We've had to cook and clean and do laundry.  And, probably the worst part, there is snow on the ground and the temps have been bitterly cold.  Our noses have been bleeding, our skin itchy and dry, our lips chapped and sore.

Let's look at some vacation pictures, shall we?  I'm starting to get depressed.

"the only way out is down!"...5 stories!  SO MUCH FUN!

best brothers

my "sugar- hound"

Epcot Illuminations...beautiful!

my loves {in front of Rockin' Rollercoaster}

Ty's very favorite moment!  We had to pry him away from Lightning!

Elvis!

Colin...my boy...this picture makes my heart hurt {in a good way!}

Eden's 2nd Birthday...the whole place sang to her

joy

8 scoops of ice cream+every topping in the place+1 whole can of whipped cream =the "kitchen sink"
A whole lot of YUM and a little bit of tummy ache...

look at the crowd!  And this is the "off season"...

magic!

I am already planning a return visit.  Seriously.  It cannot come soon enough!  We had such a great time with just a few minor mishaps involving poo and stitches.  Not at the same time, mind you.  Colin has a permanent reminder of our trip to Disney on his face.  I'll never forget his excitement this trip...Ty's either.  They couldn't wait to get anywhere...constant motion!  And, I'll always feel a bit embarrassed to show my face in Canada after what Eden did there.  And may I just offer a bit of advice?  Never leave home without PLENTY of wipes {if you have a diaper wearing child}.  You never know when and where you're going to really, really need some.  And also, be very careful when putting a diaper on...don't leave any cheeks hagin' out!  Just sayin...

We'll continue to adjust to our real lives and hopefully I can get around to blogging more regularly and maybe even change my header to one that doesn't look so generic!  Till next time...

We're back!  We had a great time.  We're exhausted.  We really, really miss the BEAUTIFUL weather we had.  We really, really wish we didn't come home to snow.  

sigh.....

                                                                               

I promise to share some pictures and stories, but right now this beautiful picture will have to do...

first haircut

Miss Eden had her first haircut the other day...

She needed one, yes?

She did surprisingly well...better than I had anticipated! {no tears} It was such a  tiny trim that we barely had a keepsake bunch!  We hope that little trim will "encourage" her hair to GROW.   Thank you Aunt Nadalie!

"He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds."

                                                              - Psalm 147:3

Clementine Grace

January 21, 2009

<3

Back again.

Perhaps I should have listed "posting more on my blog" as one of my New Year goals as well!

Well, we've been busy with lots of stuff as usual.  Some of it worth all my time and effort and others not so much...

I'm going to tell you about one thing that occupied way too much of my free time this month.  Especially considering that I don't have much free time at all...

Box Tops. {grrrr}

Somehow, in trying to get more involved in our PTA at school, I got thrust into a Box Top committee.  Oh, it was just supposed to be an informational meeting...a see-if-I-want-to be-in-this-particular-committee meeting.  Not.  Turns out there were only three Moms and the PTA president who showed up.  

"Our PTA is now assuming responsibility for the box top/soup label collecting.  Here are a poop-ton of box tops.  Sort through, toss the expireds, trim them, bundle them into groups of 25 and then bundle those together to create a bundle of 50.  Here's your pile."

Ok.  I lived through it.  Sorted, trimmed, bundled...took me a whole freakin' Friday at home with Eden, but I did it.  Then the PTA decided to have a contest.  The class with the most box tops wins a pizza party for lunch.  Ok.  Then came time to count.  One Mom hit the road running.  The other Mom, who has become the Mom-in-charge-of-box-top-committee, e-mailed me to ask for help.  I said, "Sure.  I can count 1-2 classrooms."

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I counted {I should say we, because my darling husband helped me--thank goodness}  7 classrooms.  SEVEN!  And, may I add, that that added up to be 8,207 box tops and a whopping 523 {sticky} soup labels.  Each class took at least 3 hours of sorting, clipping, bundling,  and counting.  I never want to see box tops again.

HUGE gallon bags stuffed with individual baggies of box top/labels

another class...ugh

this class had a BUCKET!  on the left are the ones we'd counted
and bundled already.  The large pile still needed to be trimmed and bundled.

this was a large plastic grocery sack FULL of freakin'
box tops!

trimmed and ready to bundle

the finished product!

 Needless to say I am very glad to be finished with that project.  And, now you understand why my blog {among other things} was neglected for so long!  I did, just this morning, send two e-mails excusing myself from this particular committee!

I have much bigger fish to fry...

                                                                                                    ...as you can plainly see.

* altogether we had 24,325 box tops and 2,272 labels for education, so the contest was a success.  Still...it makes me exhausted just thinking about it!

Hope you didn't lose too much sleep!

Here it is...my list of goals for 2012!

• re-establish date night {at least once a month} with Chris
• spend more time with my Mom
• continue to work at cussing less
• incorporate more one-on-one time with my kids
• make myself a priority {in the form of exercise, me-time, not sacrificing my hair appts./clothing                                                  purchases for other expenses, sleep, not over-scheduling myself, et cetera} 
• let go of the little things
• laugh more
• worry less
• establish a weekly/monthly cleaning list to stay "on top" of things
• be more positive

There it is.  I do have other goals, as I did last year,  that are more personal and not necessarily things which I need to share here.  I read on Clover Lane that she also has her private resolutions, and she had a good idea...she writes them down somewhere where only she will read them.  It reminds her and helps to keep her focused on those particular goals.  I list mine here because seeing them every time I log on helps to remind me to stay on course.  Now I will also write my more personal ones down where I will see them regularly, because I really think that it helps.  I did much better last year with the goals I had listed here than on my other, more personal ones.

There they are!  So, here's to my New Year's goals...may I be successful!

It's January 12th.  Holy cow.  And my famous last words were what? 


 Oh...that's right..."cheers to the New Year!   Be back soon..."


Ugh.


Well...I'm here now so let's just get over that, shall we?  Ok.




I've been thinking a lot these past few weeks about my goals from 2011.  Did I succeed in reaching them?  Well...I think I did pretty well.  Let's review...


2011 Goals

spend more time with husband

spend more time with my Mom

clean up my mouth

clean my bathrooms more often...namely toilets

laugh more

keep it real

{oh...and, worry less!}


I didn't spend as much time with Chris as I would have liked.  Alone time, that is.  When Colin was a baby we had designated date nights.  I'm not sure where we fell off that wagon, but it needs to be established again.  That goal needs to remain for 2012.

I failed miserably on my second goal.  My Mom would agree.  I need to schedule some alone time with her every now and again.  That goal needs to remain for 2012.  {My Dad was, I believe, a little put off last year for not making the list.  I will tell you, as I told him, that every Tuesday afternoon I have time to visit with him before going to get the boys...not true with Mama.  I love my Dad and I'm thankful for that time!}

Hmmm...this next one lasted a little while.  I will give myself that...however...this too must remain on my list for 2012.  While I did do a bit better than normal, I often times found myself cursing aloud and then in my head going..."URG!  YOU IDIOT!  QUIT CURSING!"  So, I still need to work on it.

My bathrooms are my biggest achievement of 2011!  Big gold star for me!

Need to laugh more.  Always need to laugh more.

I think, maybe, keeping it real was actually my biggest achievement.  I'm proud of keeping it real!  I'm proud that I don't feel like I need to fabricate a better life for my blog.  It's very easy to want to compare yourself to all those happy, shiny blogs out there.  They all boast of the most wonderful marriages, beautiful decorations, craftiest crafts...you get me, right?  Well, my life...my blog...is real.  It's me.  It's how I roll.  The end.

Worrying less...   Well...I always need to worry less.

So, I didn't perfectly reach all my goals for 2011, but I did make progress with most of my goals.  And, I'm ok with that.  Progress is progress, no matter how small!

Tomorrow I shall reveal my goals for 2012!  I know it's very exciting...I hope you can sleep tonight! :)

new year...new post

Happy 2012!

Yes, I survived the holidays!  The tree is down.  I'm ready to move on.  Don't get me wrong, I do love Christmas, but by the time January 1 rolls around put a fork in me...I'm done!

Christmas was fun.  Santa brought the boys their coveted Nintendo DS Lites.  Eden got a new baby and a stroller.  And, we surprised the kids with a paper chain count down for a surprise family vacation to Disney!  So, you know, it was a typical Christmas...{just kidding!}

the moment Colin realized what was in the box...Ty hasn't caught on yet!

We have never been on a family vacation and we are so,so,so excited and ready!  I've been busy making dining reservations, mentally packing and re-packing, and thinking and re-thinking everything!  So, you know, typical me!  My brother-in-law has been an absolute dream in helping this all come together, and I cannot thank him enough for all of his help and advise with the planning {he is Mr. Disney...he should work for them!}  It's a little scary...there is a lot to see and do and I just want it to be a really great family experience!  I also found a lot of helpful tips here.  What a wonderful coincidence that this family just happened to write this series while we were planning our trip.

So...I'm still alive and kicking!  I have several posts that I want to write...here's hoping that I can get that done!

"Cheers" to the New Year!  I'll be back soon...