New Years Resolutions Past and Present

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This is me right now, typing about my non fifty two pictures of myself this year. I am sitting here in my red sweater searching for pictures of myself on this computer, that I didn't post this year. Wish me luck.

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FAILED- FAILURE - Incompetent - PROCRASTINATOR - DISAPPOINTING - LOSER - WEAK SAUCE -
I did not make it to 52 pictures, I didn't even come close. So this was my last ditch effort to get some pictures of me in before the years end. Maybe I'll try it again next year but with a more achievable goal of 24 pictures. Two a month sounds do-able right?

On the other hand, I think that I was quite successful on my effort to "Lift Where You Stand". I made a conscious effort each week to help someone out in some little way. There were weeks that I would be able to help one or three or four mothers. I did a lot of babysitting and tried to help where I could. On that note, I'm a little burned out. I am trying to schedule nothing and do nothing for a while.
I have two new goals for this next year.
First is to stay sane. You might think this is a funny goal but I think it's entirely necessary. I'm slowly going crazy and so I'm going to slow things down a bit and try to sleep more and make sure that my husband sleeps more. (He's losing it too. ) I want to enjoy the moment more. My kids are at the most adorable ages and I plan on loving on them a little more this year.
Second I need to lose 20 more pounds.

Snow Fun

Here are some pictures from different days of our snow excitement. We didn't build a single snowman. It was all about sledding and building forts.

Maggie, Mr. Richard and Bernie

The neighbors built tunnels in their yard. We've been informed by Charlie that this is a must for next snow fall.

Charlie, Ben, Jane & Rachel

Mags, all geared up.

Christmas Catch Up

Mike and I played Mary and Joseph at the Ward Party. I had to sing the Lullaby, Out Loud. It wasn't good. I tried to get out of it by letting them know that I was certain that Mary and Joseph weren't chubby. They didn't care. I call it desperation.
This little orphan girl pretended to be Mary all month long. She always had something on her head and she was often found singing to her baby Jesus, which this day happened to be a pink dragonfly.

We had a great Christmas week. Life has been so busy and fun. We spent Christmas Eve with several families and then had a nice quiet Christmas Day with our little family. We were spoiled by Santa and family. We're still trying to recover from all of the excitement. Here are some pictures of our week.

Lindsey and Josh at the Jensens Christmas Eve party.
The Jensens were great hosts and I don't have a single picture of them but we had fun with all of the families.

Tami and Scott

Jane and Maggie

Richard and Sumer

Christmas Eve when we got home we opened up our pajamas. The girls had matching owl jammies. (35-52)

The boys and huge fluffy fleece polar bear pajamas. The fleece is Mike's worst sweating nightmare but he was a good sport.

Christmas morning after gift opening the boys spent most of the day like this.. new wii game.

Mags, Bernie and Kimber (36 -52)

Mags and her Santa gift. She was very aware that this was hers and she would scream if Charlie or Jane tried to take it for a ride.

Mike with his helicopter that broke later that day. Ha.

Jane got spoiled this Christmas, Grandma sent fluffy skirts, Cousin Amie sent a crazy pattern outfit that she put on that same day and Aunt Debi went hog wild making doll clothes for her new baby doll.

Jane and Moe

I missed a picture of Charlie because he was upstairs spiking his hair. So high maintenance.

Backfire

I totally made a wrong decision here.....

Mom: "Hey Charlie, sometime soon I'm going to take the wallpaper out of your bathroom and then we can paint it. What color would you like?"
Charlie: "Mmmm, I want pink."
Mom: (back pedalling) "Oh, how about blue or green?"
Charlie: "No, I want pink."
Mom: "Yellow? Yellow is a good color. I'll think about it, let's not decide yet. I'll get some color samples and then we can decide."
Charlie: " No, I already did decide, IT'S PINK!"

I was thinking that it would be nice and kind for me to include him and have him be a part of it. Yikes. What do I do now? Paint it pink?

Dumped

What fun and excitement we had when the snow decided to really fall down on us here. Mike and I had a date on Friday night, the forecast said there would be a big snow storm starting at midnight. Our plan was to go to dinner with some friends and then stop by the grocery store just because.
Well the snow started to fall while we were at dinner and by 8:00 p.m. it was sticking. We cruised on over to the store and the place had been cleared out. No milk, no flour, no sugar, no turkey lunch meat, and they were low on cheese, eggs, bread. So of course I just stocked up on chocolate chips. All we really need when we are snowed in is a nice warm batch of cookies. It's all so funny to me. I guess they had been out of milk since noon that day.

-Mike-
The snow came down for a full 24 hours leaving two feet for us to play in. We haven't left the house.

Mike was just going to stay in all day but he gave into peer pressure as he saw all of our neighbors trying to dig out.

Church is cancelled and we are enjoying all of the fun.

Toilet Protection

This is the look Janey gave me when I opened the bathroom door and said, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" That's when I went to get the camera for documentation purposes. I returned and she was still standing there glaring at me for the tone that I had used.

So the second time I smiled and said, " oh how creative, what is it?"

"I put these here so the toilet wouldn't get any drops on it."

Potty Talk

Here's the note that I put on the outside of the garage door that leads into our house.
I figured Mike deserved a warning.

Let's talk about how my day has gone. Bernie was whaling bright and early as I was taking a shower. I could hear her but just kept thinking, she can hold it a few more minutes. That turned out to be a bad decision. When I made it to her crate I was too late. She was covered in all of it. So I carried her outside and tied her up while I cleaned out her crate. Yes, all my fault.
The girls woke up and I gave them breakfast. Charlie happened to sleep in today (which never happens). So he managed to soak himself and his bed. I got him in the shower cleaned off his bed and went downstairs to push the laundry through. Finally I made it to the dog and managed to get her bath going.
Jane's girlfriend came over to play and they were having so much fun that Jane didn't want to take the time to go and use the potty so she wet herself. Two different times through two different outfits. Bernie escaped to the front dining room and I heard Jane say "Mom, Bernie just pooped." As I head that direction I hear Jane..."Eewww, Mom!! Bernie is eating her poop!" Totally gross, all of it, every bit.
Maggie and I have the runs.
This all happened before lunch time.
I love good days.

Bernice

Well the jar didn't fill up before the puppy got here. Frankly I'm surprised that my husband lasted as long as he did. Mike and I had many of debates on the kind of dog we wanted. Every idea he threw out was ten feet tall and hairy. Bernese Mountain dog, Newfoundland, Bull Mastiff. I just kept begging for an already trained mild, small, less hairy dog. Apparently that was asking too much. I think that Bernie will be big, but she is a doodle (my mother would be so proud) so hopefully not too much hair.
So far she is a joy to have around. Very great with the kids, in fact she is really taking to the abuse rather well. She gets carried, mauled, smushed, and doesn't seem to mind. Strange right? House training is still in the works and I've discovered it's much like potty training. I'm really the only one who is being trained here.... watching the clock, going in and out of the back door, you know the drill. But alas, we all love her.

This picture was the first time that the kids were able to get her excited enough to chase them. Charlie and Jane were both so happy. Jane yelled, "she loves us now" and Charlie said, " she knows we are her family". On the first full day Charlie was holding and loving her and I saw him lean down into her face and say "don't die, okay."

So far, I'm still saying that it was a great decision.