New Year Resolutions

I am going to make 3 this year. All about me and how I want to see my life change.

1. I want to get back down to the weight I was last March. I know I can do it because I did it once and stayed there for a long time. But since July I have gained and then started with excuses. SO I'm going to get back to the gym a little more, sign up for some 5k's, and get back what I had.

2. I am going to involve God in my life more. I want not only my kids and family to know my commitment and love of Christ, but the people around me to know it too.

3. I am going to love my family and friends to the best of my ability. I don't want to take time for granted. I want to cherish the moments I have with my kids, husband and all the other important people in my lives.

I think all of these are things that can be accomplished, the hard part like with all resolutions is to stick to them.

2012 Review

I could start this off with the cliche line "2012 has had its ups and downs" but really doesn't every year? Some years it seems the bad outweigh the good, others good outweighs the bad and some just seem to break even.
This year has had many challenges with Colin's health, my step mom's surgery going wrong, the dog being really sick and all the other small annoying things that happened along the way.

This year has also had its many blessings, my business has grown, the kids are becoming better friends, people are helping to figure out how to best help Colin, we had gotten many visits from and to see family. Chris and I are both skinnier and healthier than either of us have been in our adult lives.

This year over all is a success in my book. Are there things that I would like to change? Sure, but if every year was perfect and all happy then we really couldn't appreciate the small good things that happen.

I am not sad to see 2012 go, I am excited to see what 2013 brings. I know that it will have good and bad, but with my family and God on my side I'm ready!

Conversation

This conversation just happened.

A-"Mommy I want to buy you and Daddy a gift"

M-"What are you going to get us?"

A-"Stickers to decorate your room. I will get Daddy trucks and you Tangled. Then I will help you put them on your wall"

M-"that is very nice of you. Where are you going to get the money?"

A-"I can use my fake money from my cash register"

-M-"No stores won't take that money"

A- "hmmm, then maybe from your purse"

M-"But that is my money, shouldn't you use your money for a gift?"

A-"But I don't have a purse"

M- "You can use your piggy bank money"

A-"Okay but someone has to take me, I'm too little to go to the store by myself"

She is so cute the conversation continued that she would need to get pants and that she loves me and I'm her favorite Mommy with a hug to end the conversation. She can be so cute and adorable when she wants to be.

New Years Resolutions 2012

Here were my resolutions for 2012, lets see how I did.

1. Be 145 lbs by my birthday.- Well I was 145 by my birthday, in fact I was skinnier. Then the summer came, things got crazy and I gained some. I'm about 5 lbs average over this. I would like to get back down to this weight.

2. Tone up my body (by doing ab exercises and then walk/running when the weather gets nicer). -I do notice a difference in my body. Clothes that fit nicely last December are too big and don't fit as nice now, so I think this one I did.

3. Spend 7 hours a week with just my kids, no distractions.- I did this one. The kids get a lot of one on one time with both Chris and I, some weeks are crazy, others are nothing but family time but this was an easy resolution to keep.

4. Go on a date night with my husband every other month- This one was kept. In fact most months I got a date night. I think in the span of the 12 months there might of been only 2 that we didn't have at least one date night and there were a few months were we got two. 

5. Have my business see a profit- The official numbers aren't in, but my business did very well in 2012 with even bigger changes coming in 2013. I am very happy with what has transpired this last year.

6. Send out birthday cards on time to all family members- This one was a total fail! I did worse this year than any year in the past to send out cards. This was one I can't even say I did a fair job at. 

7. Get the basement organized and looking nice- This one is really funny. In January last year Chris and I spent about two weeks getting the basement looking awesome. Everything had a spot, papers were organized it was great. Then I started collecting items so that I could open a daycare center and now our basement looks worse than it ever has. You can barely walk anywhere down there. There is stuff EVERYWHERE and it is only going to get worse before it gets better, so this one will have to be a resolution again, but won't be able to be started until probably July. 

8. Have one month where neither kid goes to the doctor. I don't think this one ever happened. I think every month there was at least one doctor's visit. Some of them might of been re-checks or well checks, but we had at least one appointment every month and most months more than one. I am not going to make this resolution again this year. Maybe if it isn't a goal we can have a better health year.

So I would say there was success on 5 of the 8. That isn't bad as far as new years resolutions go. I haven't decided if I'm going to do any for 2013. I guess I better decide in the next 3 days. :) 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day I was sure that the kids would be up very early. Their normal waking time is about 6, so I thought for sure with all the excitement that Alyssa would be up closer to 5. I woke up at 5:35 and was shocked that no one else was awake. Of course in my excitement I wasn't able to go back to sleep.

Colin woke up at 6:15 and came to bed with us. At about 6:45 Alyssa came into our room exclaiming that Santa had come. At that point we got up and went to look at the tree. I told Alyssa she should go tell Daddy that Santa came, she told me she can't because he was at work. I told her no that he was in bed. That made her day, she went running back into our room to get Chris.

We came downstairs and let both the kids open their stockings. They both were super excited. We then cooked some cinnamon rolls and waited for Grandma and Papa to show up and Michael to wake up.

We went upstairs about 7:45 to start opening presents. After Colin had opened about 5 presents he was done. He was excited to play with the ones he had gotten. We would ask him if he wanted to open another present and he would say "no" After everyone was finished opening Colin still had about 5 presents left that he hadn't opened, so Alyssa and I helped him open them.

After all the presents were opened we had 4 adults helping to get all the kids toys out of packages and ready for play. The kids had a blast playing with all their new toys. The hits of Christmas were Alyssa got a barbie house, and Colin got a new train.

Chris and I both got Kindle Fires from my mom and Step Dad. We were excited to get to play with ours, yet that had to wait until the kids were settled.

After lunch and a nap for Colin we headed to Chris' parents house for round two of opening presents. The kids were once again spoiled rotten and got many wonderful gifts. Chris and I also received many nice things.

Michael went with us and kept Colin entertained while the adults were opening presents. This was super nice that once again Chris and I would relax a little knowing our kids weren't getting into too much trouble and were taken care of.




It was a good Christmas for all and the kids are still really enjoying all their new toys.

Christmas Eve

The night before Christmas Eve we drove to my Grandpa's house and spent a few hours with him, my mom, step dad, and brother. The kids had a blast with so many people to pay attention to them, and Chris and I actually had a few minutes to sit down and talk to people.
We spent the night at a hotel and Alyssa thought that was fantastic. All day Sunday she was asking all kinds of questions about hotels and what was in them. So she was excited to see the hotel and explore. We tried to take the kids swimming on Sunday night at the hotel, the pool was heated but the air temperature wasn't warm, so the kids (and us) got cold really quickly. After about 15 minutes Colin's lips were blue and he was shaking so we had to get out.
 After a warm shower we put on pj's and watched a movie before bed.

On Christmas Eve morning we got up to find that Santa had paid for our hotel room. I don't know who the kind soul was that paid for our room but it was greatly appreciated. We then met my mom and step dad in the lobby for breakfast. The kids had were excited to see them and went to their room after breakfast to help pick out ear rings for my mom and check out their room.

After hanging out at the hotel for a bit we decided to go walk around Wal-Mart before heading back to grandpa's house. While at Wal-Mart Alyssa decided that everyone needed presents. I told her I had gotten them presents and they were at Grandpa's house. She wanted to pick out more presents for them. So we picked out a pretty little church for Grandpa, a blanket for Uncle Steve, a Santa's hat for Michael Michael, a necklace and earrings for Grandma Patti and a teddy bear for Papa. The gifts were super special because Alyssa picked them out with minimal help from me. She put a lot of thought into the gifts and was really proud of them.

We then headed back to Grandpa's house. I helped my mom in the kitchen getting the meal ready, while the kids enjoyed playing with Papa, Daddy and Michael. Papa spent most of the time snapping pictures and so I don't have a single picture from that day, but lots of good memories.

After a delicious meal, we sat down and opened a few presents. We then had some more yummy food with dessert.

After dessert was over, the kids, my brother and us packed up to head home to get ready for Santa.

It was a great day. The kids had a blast and were the best they have ever been at my Grandpa's house and I enjoyed spending time with my family.

Christmas

Alyssa has decided this year she wanted to leave Santa some Cheerios and milk. She also wrote a note and drew a picture of flowers and Chris.

Ct Shooting

Since Friday almost every other post on Facebook has been something about this horrible, senseless, and tragic shooting that happened on Friday. I understand it, my heart is heavy, I am sad. But I'm starting to get annoyed with all the people that have already started to place the blame everywhere but on where it should be. This should be about helping the families grieve, helping the first responders as they deal with what they saw.
I was a teacher for 5 years, my last two years I taught 1st grade. I remember how hard it was to make sure I was doing everything in my power for the minds of my students to grow. I spent more waking hours a day with most of them than their parents did. I knew about loose teeth, trips to the zoo, and what they ate for dinner last night. They looked to me for guidance and wisdom. I truly hope at most got it from me. I also know that I would have done everything in my power to protect those kids had I been in that situation.

My last year teaching a parent brought a gun into the school. It was later found out he was doing it to intimidate some students he felt were bulling his kid. The day he brought it in construction was going on in our building. So they had moved the entrance for people to enter the building. The door that people came in was right across from my classroom. Had that Dad wanted to harm children my classroom would have been the first one hit. I wouldn't of had time to lock my door, or any of my other lock down procedures.

As I sit here tonight counting my blessings of my two children and that nothing like this ever happened to me while I was teaching, it is hard to try to move past it knowing how scared, those kids and teachers must of been. It hits a little too close to home for me.

Dance Recital

Today was the day of Alyssa's dance recital. She has been practicing for 2 months for this big day. Well she woke up pretty sick this morning. I told her she probably wasn't going to get to go to dance. She told me that she was okay and she could still dance.
 I took her to the doctor and he said it was just a nasty virus and she probably shouldn't go to the dance but since she didn't have a high fever it was my choice.
  I kept going back and forth and finally decided that she could do it. I knew it was only going to be a half hour long and she was so looking forward to it.
   Her class performed two songs. There are only 4 kids in her class, which is the smallest by far of all the classes. The whole recital was super cute to watch and Alyssa seemed to have fun. She didn't do every move but she did GREAT! I was/am so proud of her.

Afterwards we asked her if she was nervous and she said "No".

I'm so glad she got to go.

Christmas Lights

Tonight's plan was to go drive around and see some Christmas lights. There is a nice park by our house and drive through a few neighborhoods that are known for awesome lights.

At dinner Alyssa ate and ate and then she said her stomach hurt and didn't want to see the lights. We told her she was fine and we were going to go see lights. We pulled into the park to see the lights and before we got more than 100 yards into the park she started to throw up. We threw the car in to reverse and started to back up. The people directing traffic started to yell at us. Chris rolled down his window and said his kid was throwing up. They stopped traffic so that we could get out.

We got home and got her and the car cleaned up and she asked for us to go back out to see lights. We told her no.
She acted fine the rest of the evening and went to bed just fine, so hopefully she just ate too much. Because cleaning up tonight was enough fun to last a year.

Colin's First Date

Tonight Colin went on his first date and didn't even know it. Too bad he took his sister, mom, Jenni, Jeff and her parents out with him.
There is a little girl in the daycare that we will call "A". Colin and her have been together since he was like 4 and a half weeks old and she was about 12 weeks old. They have taken to calling each other "ya ya". They both know how to say each other's real names but for some reason "ya ya" it what they call each other.

Tonight I was going to take the kids to a park that was having a festival with a fire truck, Santa, reindeer, a movie and hot chocolate. I invited Jenni to come along and also "A's" family. Everyone agreed. So we met at McDonald's for some food and play first. The kids were shocked to see each other outside of the daycare. So they ate their food and then went to play for about 15 minutes. Both Colin and A weren't able to really get up into the climber so they just chased each other around while Alyssa and another little boy (also from the daycare that just happened to be there) played inside the climber.
Then we all met up at the park and saw the fire truck. Any time we would get to far away from A, Colin would call out "ya ya" come here. And she would come over.
After some walking around we ended up splitting up and going our own ways, but until we got back in the car Colin kept wanting to know where she went.

Hopefully his first real date will be as uneventful and have as many extra people involved as this date did.

Silly Times

Tonight after bath time, both kids were sitting on the counter. Colin was brushing his teeth and Alyssa was getting her hair combed and dried.

Alyssa started to make faces and tell us what they were. "This is my sad face" then she would pout. "This is my mad face" and then she would scrunch up her face and look out the top of her eyes. Well after she had gone through them a few times we asked Colin to show us his sad face. So with a smile peaking out from behind his pout lip he pouted. It was so cute and funny that everyone started laughing. This made him want to do it again. As he pouted this time I saw his dimples come out stronger than ever and the twinkle in his eye shine so bright. We then asked him to do a mad face. Once again trying to hide a smile he scrunched up his face, held it for about 2 seconds then started laughing.

At night bath time is usually a fun time to spend with the kids. At times it can be very trying and more of a horrible chore to do, but most of the time the kids come up with the funniest things to say and the interaction they have with each other and us is a lot of fun. I will be sad as the kids get older and bath time becomes a thing of the past.

Daycare vs. House

This is the time of year I really really dislike having my business in my home. For the past two weekends I have spent time moving furniture up and down the basement steps so that I could host parties. When hosting a party I have to remove all the daycare big items such as cribs, swings, jumperoos, and high chairs so that people of normal height have a place to sit and move around.

Then comes decorating for Christmas. I can't put my tree downstairs, I cannot put any decorations on a low shelf and forget the floor. I also have to be careful of any hanging or noisy decorations as that could scare or hurt a kid.

I think next Christmas I will put every decoration I have on a super low shelf or floor just because I can. (Really I know I wouldn't do that, but the option will be AWESOME.)

It is funny some of the downfalls you find of having a business in your home that you would have never considered before.

Colin's Train Party

Today was Colin's actual party. I decided in about October I wanted to have a train theme for his party and decided I wanted to go all out. So I started finding ideas for train kids parties on line. So it started with the invite that looked like a train ticket.

Most of the people that came to the party today could have cared less if I had one decoration up or not, however I really enjoyed finding the ideas, making the stuff and seeing the look on Colin's face and he walked around the house and yard taking it all in.

We had railroad crossings on all the doors. The front door I did up the most since that was the first thing people saw.

I also used diaper boxes and made a big train that went across the front yard with tracks that lead to the front door. The tracks didn't turn out too well. It was winding and I had a hard time finding any kind of tape that would stick to the cement. 

Once you walked in the front door I took the cribs and decorated them with paper, making it look like a crib with a sign for presents.

Then we had a train holding all the snack items and a drink and sweet station set up. The cake was made by a friend who worked super hard to make sure it was perfect. She did an amazing job and the cake got more compliments than my decorating.

I had a friend make his shirt to match the decorations used by the plates and balloons.

I think a good time was had by all and hopefully some day Colin will look back at the pictures and think his mom did a good job.

He had a blast at the party, and got to enjoy playing with friends and cousins. He enjoyed opening and playing with all of his new presents. He was asleep within 10 minutes of being in bed which is a record for him this week.