Happy New Year! 2009

Oh, boy! So how was your new year's eve? Our's was great! It's only taken me 4 days to recover! We spend most of the day getting ready for the night ahead. Joe called me about 45 minutes before we were supposed to be at our friends house to come bring some gas to our friend who was stranded on the side of the road. So I tucked all the kids into the car and headed up toward Joe's work and found them sitting on the side of the road waiting so patiently for me. Now for those of you who don't know, Joe works about and hour away and they were stranded about 20 minutes away from our place. So we got the gas and helped our buddy. What a way to end the year...in service to others. After that we drove over to our friends house and played games and ate Pizza and wings. We ended up staying there until 4 am. I don't think we've ever stayed out that late before. It was AWESOME!!!! We played three or four rounds of Settler's of Catan. I loved it! The kids had fun and they almost got to sleep over, but we had to get home before sunrise and get a little bit of sleep before Ian woke up. He did great! I think he woke up around 9 so we had about 4 hours of sleep. Now of course his schedule is a little messed up but we are doing okay with it. We sat down on friday afternoon and talked about things we want to do with the boys and they set some goals. I am still working on mine. I would like to share some of my goals with you though so that you can ask me about them from time to time and check in on my progress! (if you want to that is)

1. Lose 10 lbs (or more) by May 1 by exercising regularly. (my birthday)
2. Be able to stay within the budget. (i did okay last year)
3. Be a nicer mom. (not a push over, but kinder to my children)
4. Read more good books. (I already read a lot, but I want to expand out of my norm and find joy in just about any book)
5. Be a better housekeeper/homemaker. (I think we all know I need a lot of work on that one!)
6. Be a kinder and more friendly person all around. (I want to be able to have many people I can call "Friend")
7. Watch less TV (Not that I watch a lot, but I can always do better, right?)
8. Learn to be okay with Joe watching Football. ( I really hate football)
9. Find someone to serve each month. (I love helping other, I need to do it more)
10. Be better at writing in a Journal. (I want my posterity to know me and remember our adventures)

There you have it. 10 of my goals in no particular order. I am so excited for this new year and all that is ahead of our family. It is AWESOME to be where I am at and doing all the things we are doing.

Christmas Eve

We woke the kids this morning for our family devotional and we have been singing Christmas hymns this whole month. Well, we try to get matt to sing but he just sits there sucking his thumb, (yes he is still doing that) and I asked him to day why he won't sing with us. His response..."it hurts to sing mom! I don't sing good and so it makes my throat hurt!" Joe of course being loving and kind said, "If you sing more, it won't hurt." Then we proceeded to read from Alma chapter 60. Landon read vs. 1-3 and Matthew read vs 4, then Mommy read the next three verses and then Daddy read the next three verses. We don't read a whole lot because of attention spans, but everyday we go through the same hassle. Matthew won't read unless it's the shortest verse and Landon gets mad if he doesn't get to read the longest verses. Trying to figure out who should read and when is a tricky business. Today it all worked out though. After scriptures we ask them what happened and before we get the question out Landon is answering it. (Matt is sitting there trying to sleep and sucking his thumb) then we kneel down and say our family prayer in which Matthew wakes up (miraculously) and demands to say the prayer. Landon willingly enough consents and we get a short but sincere and sweet prayer. Then the hugs and kisses go around and the wrestling and tickle torture begins. Then the ever forboding question comes out of Matt's mouth..."Can I play computer now?" to which we answer "No. You need to eat breakfast, get dressed and clean up your room." to which Matt starts in on his little temper tantrum and Landon says, "Yeah Matt. If you do what Mom says, you get your way!" and that my friends is the beginning of our day! Matthew is such a cute little stinker and Landon is so funny and all knowing. We have a great time with our daily banter I think it will be this way for years to come. I did happen to ask the kids what today was and Landon answered "It's Wednesday Mom." and then I asked them what was so cool about today and they just stared at me. I prompted them by asking what was happening tomorrow and then the light's turned on the wheels started working in their cute little heads. In unison they yelled, not very softly might I add, "IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!" Then all sorts of craziness happened. It was awesome! We are getting excited and we hope everyone else is too. I get to finish my cookie making and goodie concocting to deliver to our friends tonight. We love you all and hope you have a very merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Corner

Okay, so with having a new baby and two rambunctious big kids and a husband who is super busy we didn't get too much of our Christmas up this year so here is the extent of our holiday decor! (oh, and the lack of space to do much with adds to the lack luster appearance)

Just a quick thankful note:

I am so grateful to my hunny. He had an EQ Football game today and he woke up the two older boys and took them with him so I could get some alone time while Ian slept. It's been a grat moring! I feel so blessed to have him. He is so thoughtful and helpful. (It could be he's trying to get on Santa's Nice List, or it could be just that he love me!)

Christmas is Coming!!

So with Christmas just around the corner, things are getting busy. Tonight is our branch party!!! The boys are going to sing and so am I. I felt bad that no one wanted to participate when the committee chair cornered me. I love to sing ... at home. We'll see what happens since I was asked this morning. But it will be fun. This next week we have two polar express parties for the boys and we are going to be making our neighborhood goodie plates! (cookies for everyone!) Our tree is up and no presents yet, since when we put them there, they get opened before the big day. We love having wonderful feelings of helping others and spreading joy. All is well in Okinawa!!!

only a few more hours

Joe is in Taiwan!!! He will be arriving home in just a short time. We are so excited to have him back. Things are looking great! All will be perfect as soon as we have him home with us! Happy Day!!!!!!!

there goes the savings!

So Joe has been off to the states for his youngest brother's wedding. (Congrats to Max and Natalie) He had no problem taking the "Freedom Bird" or "Patriot Express" (free flight for military) there, but he was one person away from making on the flight back!!!! I stayed up until 3:45 am to get him a flight home. It used up a HUGE chunk of our savings to do so, but he will be home tomorrow night. Even though we had to pay for a flight home, it is worth it to have him here with us as soon as possible! We love him and are happy to see him come back!!!

Itchy

Have you ever had a mental itch? Something nagging at your brain that you just can't figure out? Over the passed few months I have felt like there is just something I need to do that I couldn't figure out. Well, I finally figured it out. But before I let you in on what it is, I have to tell you about my little quirk. I would love to be an interior designer! Not that I think I am great at decorating or anything, but I love to fix things up and make old things new. Okay, now we get to my quirk. When I finally figured out what my itch was Joe was already out of town. I just had to re-arrange! So we live in military housing and we can't do a whole lot of house hold fixing up like laying tile or knocking down walls and things get old when you can't make things better. I don't know why but every time Joe leaves I end up re-arranging. All day I have been trying to figure out the best way to make our little house look new and better. I don't know how much better it looks but it's different and that makes it feel a little better. With Christmas fastly aproaching, and decorations needing to go up, I also had to plan for that. I don't know if Joe will like it, or if when he gets back he will change it all up or put it back to the way it was. But oh well, I got the itch out of my brain, and felt accomplished by dinner-time.

Fun Fun Fun

Here are some more pictures.

Family Pics

So over the weekend we were able to have a friend take some family pictures for us. She got some really good ones. We will of course save the best for our Christmas cards but we will share with you just a few. Enjoy!

We tried to keep them out of the water without much success

Ya I know, He's a keeper

Don't they look so cute!

Before the beach

Before the beach