New Year's Eve

This sums up our New Year's.

 



February

Where did February go? I don't even know!

 

Jayden participated in his first Pinewood Derby. His car was awesome. He won every race except his final one, because his car came off the track-still a mystery as to why. He would have ended up in second, because we raced his car for fun afterwards a few times, against the winning car and a few others, and he was a very close second every time. Such a bummer, he ended up not placing, but there's always next year. He worked hard on his car. Josh wasn't one of those dads who took over. They enjoyed working on it together. I should have gotten a final photo. We also had the Blue and Gold Banquet in February. Scouts is keeping us so busy. Josh and I are Jayden's leaders. It's been an adventure, let's just put it that way.

  

Tanner continues to be as cute as ever. He says ball, mom, and dad. He loves balls! He is getting his molars in, but he really isn't that fussy. Love him!

 

Sidney loves to wear my clothes. She'll pull out a sweater or something and wear it all day. She's growing up so much. So cute.

 

 Brothers.

 

Winter weather here is nuts. 80 degrees one day, an ice storm the next. One thing I've come to realize after living in a few different places, is that the weather is unpredictable and always changing from one day to the next everywhere. But this is the place where they are terrible at predicting the weather. They'll say 100% chance rain, then it will be sunny all day. Or vice versa. We had 2 snow days with about a half a minute of the smallest snowflakes (it really is snowing in the below photo) I've ever seen, and no ice on the roads. School was cancelled. Then we woke up to ice covering everything a couple days ago, yet school wasn't cancelled. Go figure.

 

Playtime.

 

Sidney made a New Year's resolution to learn how to make chicken nuggets. She helped every step of the way. 

 

Tanner and I stayed home while Josh and the older kids went somewhere. He just stood at the door looking out for a couple of minutes. No tears, just a sad little look on his face.

 

Josh picked out this shirt for Sidney. She loves clothes way more when he picks them out. She wears it all the time now. She thinks it's the craziest thing ever a shirt has a hood on it.

 

If I've ever glared at you, you'll see the resemblance in Jayden's face. Scary how much he is like me.

 

Pants are optional around here.

Did I mention she loves to dress up in my clothes? And strikes this pose every time I take a picture of her.

 

Bragging moment: My cake for the scout auction brought the highest bid. Peanut. Butter. Heaven. I'm already researching a cake for next year.

 

The kids made potions one day. They pulled out all the liquids they could find from the pantry. They are creative, I'll give them that, though it smelled way too strongly of vinegar. And it made me laugh when they added peanut butter because they weren't sure if it was a liquid or a solid.

 

Oh, scouts. What do I even say? I also teach Sunbeams and would you believe me if I told you the Sunbeams listen better and sit better in class? Ok, so the Sunbeams barely sit still and talk a lot, but at least they don't jump from chair to chair, crawl around on the floor with chairs on their back, or climb the wall. These boys literally never stop talking. Never. Last night we had a photo scavenger hunt, that's why I have this picture. They are wild, let me tell you! We even lost our wildest one, who turned 9 and moved on. Why I have two callings dealing with kids, I don't know. I guess someone is trying to turn me into a kid person. Well, it's not really working.



Simplify

My New Year's Goal: Simplify

The word has been in my head for a while. I love a simple life. I love a clean home, and doing simple things with my family. Our lazy Christmas break has left me wanting nothing more than to spend Saturdays at home, just being together, and not feeling the need to always be doing something. For years, I feel like at the end of each week, Josh and I fall onto the couch and say, That was a busy week! Work is crazy for Josh, running the house and the kids around wears me out, our callings are keeping us really busy right now, and just living in a city that has crazy traffic and where stores are always packed just wears me out. I want simple! I want to live in the country. Two years ago I had a goal to fulfill our dreams, and we sure did. So here's to a Simple Year.

I feel like there is so much clutter in my life in so many areas. Not just junk that's junking up my house, but other things as well.  Today, though, I've been getting rid of clutter in my house. I periodically go through and throw stuff away, but things fall through the cracks, especially stuff in the kid's rooms.  Somehow, even though I think I find it all, papers and things from years ago are still lurking around.  Today I found a book from 2 summers ago that Jayden had written.  It's really cute.

Title: The First Cheese Was the Smelly Cheese
By: Jayden Croke

The first cheese made was smelly cheese.
The second cheese made was cheddar cheese.
The third cheese made was Swiss cheese.
The fourth cheese made was string cheese.
The fifth cheese made was bleu cheese.
The sixth cheese made was mozzarella cheese.
The seventh cheese made was Monterey jack cheese.
The eighth cheese made was light cheese with a light switch.
The ninth cheese made was fire cheese that burned your mouth when you ate it.
The tenth cheese made was lightning cheese that goes lightning fast in your mouth.
The eleventh cheese made was sir cheese. If you let go it floats away.
The twelfth cheese made was mystery flavored cheese. You  never know what it tastes like.
The thirteenth cheese was electricity cheese. If you hold it too long it will electrocute your hand.
The fourteenth cheese was heavy cheese. The more you move the heavier it gets.

I love it. And then I found his workout schedule he used to have taped to his wall.

Sunday=Lift whates (weights)
Monday=Run
Tuesday=Run on treadmill
Wednesday=Run around house
Thursday=Lift whates
Friday=Run
Saturday=Lift whates

Fulfilling Dreams

I decided that 2012 will be a year of fulfilling dreams.  It started when we took the kid's ice skating for the first time right after New Year's.  They have been wanting to go for the longest time, so we have been able to fulfill that dream of theirs.  They both LOVED it!  Sidney cried every time she had to get off the ice.  Ever since she read one of the Pinkalicious books where she goes ice skating, she has been talking about it.  We also have a few things in store for the year that we are looking forward to that are other dreams we have had.  I'm trying to have a positive outlook on the year, so here goes!

Sidney was a pro and so cute in her little skates.  The kids wanted to have nothing to do with me on the ice after my disastrous attempts at helping them.  It's been about 10 years since I set foot on the ice.  I used to go all the time, but it's definitely not like riding a bike for me.  Josh is a great skater and was great with helping the kids.

Jayden did great too.  Bigger coat next time!