New Years Resolutions

I tried hard this year to be reasonable with my new years resolutions.  I really want to be able to follow through with them instead of just getting overwhelmed and giving up.  I have decided to dedicate each month to working extra on a specific goal while still working on the others.

January- Junk month,  I have successfully cleaned out my storage room including 8 boxes of "stuff" to take to DI and 8 garbage bags full of shredded files.  It feels sooooo good to get that to a manageable place.  We still need to do the garage but that will have to wait till it gets warmer outside!!

February- Fitness.  I've spent the last month walking on the treadmill everyday except for Sundays and the few days while I had the flu.  This month I want to diversify my fitness routine and take some fitness classes.

March- Money Management.  We've been working hard on our budget and saving more money.  In March I want to review the past 2 months spending and see what changes we need to make to our budget.
 
April-April showers bring May flowers.  Well at our house there aren't many flowers, so in April we will be planning our yard and garden projects for the summer.  And hopefully get the garage organized by now.

That's as far as I've planned.  As each month ends I will re evalute my plans and see what changes need to be made :)

A few pics taken of us at Disneyland and San Diego

California Trip

It seems our only vacation spot is Southern California :)  This trip we spent 2 days in San Diego and 2 Days at Disneyland.  It was great to spend some time with family and friends in Utah on either end of the trip.  Some of my pictures are still on my phone so I'm just adding some highlights now.

More home pictures

I decided to take some more pictures of the house since no one has seen it yet :)  These pictures are the kitchen, guest room and the wall between the craft room and master bedroom.  When I get other rooms decorated like I want I will post more pictures.  Silly Aspen jumps on that bed everytime I go in there!!

Craft Room

Well it took me almost 2 months but I finally have a craft/sewing room that I can work in.  Now I just need to make some curtains and find places for the last few items and I will be good to go.  The good thing is that in my cleaning and organizing I also found time to fix some clothes and pillows that needed small sewing fixes that I had been putting off since before we moved.  It feels so good to have a place to do my hobbies :)

Elder Bricco

Well, it's been a long time since I sat down at my computer, I actually had to clean off a space on my desk so I could even type this :)  Just wanted to show some pictures of Keiler and his time in the MTC.  He entered there on May 15th and left for South Korea at the end of July.  He seems to be enjoying his time there, but as is typical he doesn't have much to say in his emails.  He is enjoying the ward he is serving in and currently has a companion from Sandy, Utah. 

A few wedding photos

Enjoy the Journey

I wasn't going to post anything till after the wedding but this thought keeps coming to my mind so I thought I'd better write it down. I remember when my kids were babies and I thought "I can't wait till they can smile, crawl, walk, talk, etc. " Then its I can't wait till my kids start school. And I can't wait till summer when we don't have homework. It goes on and on. I sometimes feel like the kids when we drive in the car on a trip and they say "are we there yet?" The only way they seem to enjoy the journey is to watch a movie or color or play games, but whatever the entertainment they do finally enjoy the journey. I think I need to find my "movie" or "games" or pictures to "color" during my journey. I really enjoy life, I've enjoyed being a mother and I love being around kids so it isn't like I don't enjoy the journey everyday but sometimes I just feel a little overwhelmed at the task ahead. One of my new years goals is to take time for myself, to do things like study the scriptures more, attend the temple more, work on my sewing projects more... I think taking time for those things will help me feel more organized and happy with the other parts of my life. I also want to make sure that everyday my kids know how much I love them. They grow up so fast !!!! Enough of the rambling- time to get back to wedding preparations :)

Cousins

The girls.

The boys.

All 10.

Early this fall we decided that we needed a cousin picture, before all these kids go different ways. These are my parents 10 grandchildren- 5 girls and 5 boys !! 5 of them are mine, 2 are my sister Karen's, 1 my brother Aaron's, and 2 are my brother Colin's. (We're still waiting on Pat :) ) I'm so glad that they all get along so well and have made lots of memories together. It wont be long and some of them will be spread all over the world (possibly). Keiler will be leaving on a mission soon and Alex wont be far behind him. I'm so excited for both of them and the adventures awaiting them. Jordan is getting married in January and Ashley is only 1 1/2 years younger so who knows when the time will come for her :)

Thankful Thursday

For this month of Thanksgiving, I thought I would list 10 things I'm thankful for. They will be in no particular order :)
1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
2. My wonderful parents who taught me so much and continue to teach me.
3. My awesome husband Greg who puts up with me.
4. Jordan, Keiler, Max, Dallin and Lauren- the best kids in the whole world!!
5. My Grandparents who are such an influence in my life.
6. Karen, Aaron, Patrick, and Colin- the best siblings anyone could ask for.
7. Rick, Melissa and Katrina- thanks for becoming part of our family :)
8. My house (and especially my craft room)
9. Greg's job !!
10. The best neighbors and friends I could ask for.

My Cousin David

Yesterday, my cousin David A. passed away from injuries suffered in a car accident. This is his beautiful family from last year (their youngest was not in the picture she turned 1 this summer). I don't have very many cousins, but spent my childhood living close to most of them. I have so many fun and silly memories of David. My favorite thing about him has always been his smile. It seems like everytime I ever saw him as a child or as an adult he had this big smile on his face. He will truly be missed.

Why Am I Doing This?

Last Saturday at Weight Watchers our leader challenged us to come up with 10 reasons why joined WW. She said to post our list somewhere where we would not forget so I decided to make it a blog post :)
These are in no particular order and it was way harder that I thought to come up with 10 reasons!!!

1. Jordan is getting married.
2. I want to coach Lauren's soccer team next fall.
3. I want to buy cute clothes.
4. I want to feel healthy.
5. I want my family to be healthy.
6. I want to feel better about myself.
7. I want to prove to myself that I CAN accomplish a goal.
8. I want to avoid health problems.
9. I want to go to Hawaii.
10. ??????

Simply Monday- Today

I'm not sure if my Monday was exactly SIMPLE and I know I didn't do any organizing or much cleaning but I did have lots of fun. Thanks Cassie and Tim for letting me be a part of your girls lives. They are so precious and I truly enjoy spending time with them.

Simply Monday- Homework Box

Having kids in Elementary school means lots of creative homework!! I've tried different things over the years to help my kids have an easier time getting their homework done. This year I have set up a homework area at our dining room table that never gets used for anything else. I also started the Homework Box that stores all the needed supplies for a variety of homework projects. I've added a few things already and have thought of a few more we need but overall it has made doing homework and cleaning up afterwards EASY!! On the dining room table is also a basket for each of them to put their reading books and paperwork on upcoming projects in. That way there is no missing assignments and no searching for books. I'm so hopeful that this will be a Simple way to keep my kids organized (at least for school!!)

Simply Monday (?????)

So earlier in the year I started Simple Monday as part of my simplifying strategy, has it worked? I've fallen behind in all my plans to organize my home and my life. Do I have an excuse? Not really, I just start to many projects before finishing the last one :) I'm hoping to use the next few weeks to finish some of the things I started this summer and I'm going to do them one at a time!!! Today though I will be doing- Carpool, t-shirt dyeing at Cub Scouts, Orthodontist Appt for Dallin, Sewing a quilt together for Relief Society (it was supposed to be done last Wednesday), Cleaning the kitchen, catch up on laundry, planning camping trip for next weekend, soccer practice, and FHE. So I guess I will start the other projects tomorrow......

Simply Monday- Back to School (Clothes)

Well, it's time to start thinking of back to school issues :( I love summer and am not looking forward to school starting. The kids on the other hand are already talking about who their teachers could be and which friends will end up in their classes. All the back to school advertising has also inspired me to get started on making our morning SIMPLE. The first thing that I have to work on is helping Lauren with her wardrobe issues. She is always asking me to help her pick out clothes but never wants to wear what I pick. This is my new strategy- I bought a low hanging clothes hanger for her closet which will have outfits sorted for easy choices in the mornings. She prefers to wear skirts so I have them sorted with matching shirts and all her knit shorts and leggings stay in one drawer so she can easily choose what to wear under the skirt. It has worked well this summer and I'm hoping for the same results as school starts ;)

Cat Nap

We love our cat Sebastian, he is almost 12 years old but usually still acts like he's young. I didn't want to leave his adventures out of our blog, so I've been snapping pictures of him whenever I find him in a funny place. He's been in our family so long I don't know what we would do without him.

His favorite nap place is freshly dried laundry, he climbs into the middle of it and falls asleep :)

He loves boxes of all types and whenever there is an empty one around he finds it.

His favorite chair. (Even when Lauren's doll is there)

He's not supposed to be on the table but when the sun shines through he just can't help it. (Or maybe he just wanted to play with Dallin's legos)

This is where we find him most of the time. Especially in the morning when I'm trying to make the bed. He lets us know at night when he's ready for us to come to bed and curls up at my feet as soon as I'm in bed.

Simply Monday- Family Calendar

I have this white board weekly calendar on the wall in the laundry room to help us remember all the daily activities we have. Normally I update this on Sunday from my planner and then on Monday night we go over it at Family Home Evening. Somehow though I haven't done much updating this summer and have forgotten a few activities till the last minute. Like this morning at 9:45 when I realized that it was Monday and cubscouts starts at 10:00. Luckily it wasn't at my house today so I made it to Lori's on time but with wet hair and no make-up :) I don't think the boys noticed. I love having this calendar where everyone can see it so that when someone asks me if they can do something, I just have them check the calendar to see what's going on. Hopefully my Simply Monday posts will help me this summer since I feel like I've lost my simplifying attitude in the last few weeks.

Summer Camping

Last year we bought a camping trailer and LOVED it!!! It made it so much better and easier to enjoy the experience of family camping. This year we decided to upgrade a little so that we could have more room. It's amazing how much better I sleep knowing that Lauren can't fall off the top bunk onto me (it did happen once last year). Although last weekend she tried to get off the top bunk by herself and landed on the floor and kicked Dallin in the head, just glad it wasn't me :) So far this year we've been to Deer Creek Resevoir (above pictures) and Palisade State Park. We did just a quick trip to Palisade so we could see the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, which was really fun. This coming weekend will be our longest trip of the year since Monday is a holiday so we can stay an extra day without Greg taking time off work. We are going to Bear Lake with my brother Aaron and his family.

Simply Monday, Notebooks

I love notebooks, pads of paper, or anything easy to write notes on. I usually keep one on the kitchen table during the day and if I think of something I need to do, I write it down. I'm sure its partly an age thing, but I seem to easily forget what I need to be doing :) I also keep one in my purse for shopping lists or when I see something I really like I write it down so I don't forget where I saw it, what size it is or what I wanted it for. I also write extra chores on it for the kids and they know where to look if I say there are a few things they need to do. I usually buy a bunch of these after school starts when Target marks down all the back to school items then I don't need to buy them so often during the year (unless I see a really cute one at the store.)