New Years Goals

I know its February already, but I wasn't in the mood to have goals in January. So, here are my 2012 goals!

• Keep on top of my laundry. I hate it so much, but it is never going away. Anyone have a good laundry routine that works for them, that they don't mind sharing? I'm thinking of having 2 set days a week that I wash and fold.
• Keep my room clean. I can't expect my kids to do this, if I don't do it myself. Besides, I love my room when it is clean. If I can tackle the laundry, this will be easy. The only messy thing about my room is all the laundry I'm going to be putting away "later".
• Try and get out of the house with the kiddos once a day or once every other day.
• Blog at least once a week.
• Cook more. I am planning on making a bunch of frozen meals, and I think this will help.
• Try not to stress about things I have no control over.
• Make sure my kids know how much I love them.
• Better at daily scripture reading
• Better at reading overall! I have a hard time picking up a book lately. I feel when I have a few moments to myself, I'd rather just veg out. Goal=less vegin, more readin.
• Try and have a tidy house when I get to bed each night. It makes me so much happier in the morning. Key word=tidy. :)
• Get back in shape.

These goals make me exhausted. But, I think they are good.

Halloween Time

For Halloween, Harper was a glow in the dark pink skeleton, Jackson was a dragon (or "gradon" as he calls it) and Jasper was Donatello, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  

Posing before I take Jackson out to get all his candy.  Jasper went and had fun with his friends. As you'll see below, Jasper thinks he's pretty cool.

I took Jackson out in his new wagon. It turned out to be a smart idea! He made out like a bandit, although I've eaten most of it already.

Happy Halloween!!

Cowboy Boots!

Aunt Staci found Jackson these adorable cowboy boots at the local thrift store (D.I.) for $4.





She gave them to him at Aunt Heather's, where we had a wonderful 24th of July dinner.

Best $4 gift EVER! :)

Easter Preview

We won't be in Utah for Easter, so my sister-in-law Michele planned
an Easter Preview for Jackson and his cousin Austin.

Jackson loves peeps, just like his mama.

Jasper, not so much. But he was wonderful at helping Jackson find the hidden eggs.

We had so much fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was Jasper’s last year to give out Valentine’s day cards at school. I honestly hate buying them and getting them ready, but I tried to have fun with it this year.

I got him NBA valentines to pass out, which came with washable tattoos instead of gross candy hearts. So the evening before he had to pass them out, David, Jasper and I got them all ready, folded and addressed. I then told him to immediately go and put them in a bag, and put them in his backpack so he wouldn’t forget them. I then headed out the door for my nightly run (I’ve been going to the gym consistently, yeah me!).

In the morning as I was getting Jackson ready and yelling out reminders for Jasper to brush his teeth, I made sure he had his valentines. He hadn’t put them in his backpack immediately the night before (of course) but he did have them in a bag, so he quickly grabbed that bag and we headed out.


When I asked him how Valentine’s day went – and If he passed out his cards, he avoided eye contact and mumbled “It was fine.” I asked again – did you pass out the valentines?

He then went on to explain that when he went to grab his sack of Valentines that morning, he accidently grabbed the wrong sack. Once at school, when it was time to pass them out, he reached into his bag, only to find a bag of dirty diapers!!


I’m sure his class was glad he decided not to pass out what was in his bag.



I wondered why he didn’t question anything before, you know - when his bag was really heavy and smelled like poop!!

In his defense, our house has been a complete mess/disaster area since our water main broke and our basement flooded. Yes, that basement that hasn’t even been finished for 1 whole year.

Happy Valentine’s day! Here’s to a less stinky one next year.

Christmas Favorites

Since I can't sleep at all, I've been up since 3:30 am trying to figure out the new camcorder my wonderful husband got me for Christmas.

Below are two videos of two of my boys opening presents.

I'm getting better at using my new camcorder, and promise the next ones will be better in quality!

Feeling Grateful

I'm feeling so grateful this Thanksgiving. Our family is truly blessed.

Sometimes I feel that our little family has had more than its fair share of trials, and David's recent 6 month stint of unemployment was probably one of the hardest, but in the end everything seems to work out just fine and I know that is not by chance.

Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for us!

We now have a major plumbing problem and so instead of looking at this new trial, I'm going to count some blessings! I'm thankful for:

• My baby Jackson
• My big boy Jasper
• My sweet understanding husband
• Adoption
• A roof that does not leak
• A wonderful basement
• A heater that works
• Our health
• David's new job
• My job
• Family
• My Savior

Oh, and I'm also thankful for these sweet family pictures! My sister's roommate takes pictures and did ours for free. Not bad!

Click here for her info.

Christmas List

I found this Christmas list of Jasper's placed slyly on the kitchen table today.

If you came upon this list not knowing anything about Jasper or his home life, you would think that he was very deprived(see # 12), a warmonger (see #2 and #11) and had rich parents (see #17).

click to enlarge

Santa may be able to swing #13, #14 (and #24, just for fun)!

It was Halloween!

Jackson was a leopard.

Jasper was a banana - temporarily a pregnant banana.

It was a fun and successfully halloween.

A wig is the most costume you are getting out of me!

Kwanzaa

A few weeks before Christmas Jasper came home from school and said "We need to celebrate Kwanzaa. Can we do Kwanzaa this year?"

I had to admit that I knew very little about Kwanzaa. He said "I learned about it at school. Its for African Americans.  So we need to celebrate it." David and I said we would do some research about it first and then we'd talk about it.

We learned that Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring African heritage and culture. There is quite a bit to it really. I was initially worried that it was a celebration to replace Christmas, but actually (according to the Kwanzaa official website) "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture...Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything."

Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles.  This year as our first year of celebration (and kind of a last minute decision) we decided to focus on just one of the principles, Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

We also decided to learn more about Jasper's father's country, Central African Republic . David taught us all about its history, and I showed us where it

was on the Map. 

 

 

Jasper was in charge of a family night.

 

Next year will do more and learn more. It is an exciting new tradition!

2010 Goals

• Get organized
• Have a finished basement (by March, by March by March - power of positive thinking).
• Get more food storage
• Follow a budget better
• Get in shape. This is a must since I will be doing the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay in June. Basically me and 11 other teammates will run from Logan to Park city in 24 hours (188 miles).Yep, I'm that crazy.
• Do more with friends
• Get this guy to like the snow:

 

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was quite the party - we stayed up and watched 2 movies, all the way until midnight. Jasper took some pictures,

Midnight!

David!

Me in my Snuggie!

and we yelled out the door, "Happy New Year!"

It was the party of parties, I bet none of you could top!

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was so much fun. We even got to have Jasper's mom spend 3 days with us at our house, and we all had such a nice time.

Christmas Eve was spent at the Bennett's house, then we opened presents Christmas morning at our own house, then headed off to the McKinnon household. Here is a sample of pictures.

I dyed my hair brown

I love him in this hat Christmas morning!

He looks like a balding old man from the back.

A lovely photo album from Mark and Anna.

Jackson modeling the perfectly sized scarf that Aunt Lori made.

Jasper and the newest book from his favorite series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"

Jasper's mom Lori and the blanket I mad her. It was my first attempt at a fleece pocket blanket. Lori doesn't like her picture taken, so I hope she won't object to this partial picture of her on my blog.

Christmas bumps and bruises

A Christmas list of Jackson's bumps and bruises:

1. Christmas Eve before we headed over to Grandma Bennett's, Jackson was having so much fun at home that he refused to eat or take ANY naps. We tried to make him take a nap by sticking him in his crib in our room, and shutting the door. I should have realized before doing that, that we hadn't moved the crib down to its lowest level. Jackson decided he'd had enough of nap time and jumped out of the crib onto our hard wood floor. I heard the THUD from the kitchen and ran in to find him crying and with a huge bump on his head.

2. So tired from not napping, and excited at seeing a kitty, Jackson fell of the very bottom stair at Grandma's house and hit his head on the wall.

3. Christmas day he fell numerous times from tiredness - yes still refusing to take any nap. He refused to eat at Grandma McKinnon's house and threw a tantrum right in his highchair. Grandpa McKinnon took him and sat him down beside him in the chair, where he finally fell asleep.

4. The Sunday after Christmas at Grandma Bennett's house, Jackson was drawn to the top of her stairs like a magnet every time I turned around. He would run to the top of the stairs and stop just short of falling over the edge, carefully turn himself around and slide on his belly to the bottom, with me right behind him.

After dinner Jackson was done not eating and playing around on the ground. We had set a chair in front of the stairs to prevent him from falling. I saw him head toward the stairs and I followed him to the chair.

He started leaning over the chair, and was about to throw himself over the top of it. I pulled the chair back, trying to move him out of the way at the same time. Instead, Jackson threw himself over the chair and tumbled all the way to the bottom, as I screamed a blood curdling scream that frightened all the children. As I screamed my sister in law Anna used her head and ran to down the stairs as he fell somersault after somersault all the way to the bottom. I ran right after her and took him and cried more than him. That was the scariest most horrible thing ever!

5. Numerous other bumps and bruises. David's brother is in medical school and looked him over - so far no signs of any permanent damage or concussion. Thank goodness.

More Christmas pictures to come...

Pajama Christmas

Staci had the idea this year to have a Pajama exchange Christmas party, the Sunday before Christmas. Just for fun, to start a new tradition. Next year it might be some other exchange, but the new tradition is a family Christmas party the Sunday before the 25th. This is an easy enough concept to understand but I think I explained it to David like 18 times.

David: A pajama exchange? Huh?

Me: yes

David: Why?

Me: for fun.

David: But, are we supposed to wear the pajamas?

Me: If you want I guess.

David: What is the point. I don't want to wear pajamas in front of your dad.

Me: It is just for fun. You don't have to wear pajamas.

And on and on.

It was fun.

Staci bought a house recently and this was her chance to show of her new pad.

This is a week ago - Dad's saw is there that he used to cut the floors boards for her living room.

Everyone is watching the last few minutes of the broncos game. Jasper is a huge fan.

David did have a good time, can't you tell?

Her garbage bag window treatments are just temporary.

If I had audio, this picture above would say "squeak, squeak" because Jackson got some new squeak shoes from his Aunt Heather. Every time he takes a step he squeaks. It is annoying and adorable at the same time.

Staci's boyfriend got me a tweety bird nightgown. It was meant as a joke - but I think I look marvelous. Anne-Marie crocheted the scarf. I'm so stylin'.

Over all, good times were had by all.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Jackson gives Santa a thumbs up.

Christmastime

It finally feels like Christmas now that I have the tree up!

Jackson LOVES the Christmas tree.

Jasper put up all the ornaments, and I think he did a good job.

Happy Halloween!