New Year's Resolutions

Usually the few days after Christmas are a bit hard for me.  Visitors have left (or if we were visiting, we're headed home), Christmas decorations come down, and mounds and mounds of laundry needs to be done.  It's the let down after the fun holiday season.

This year, my husband planned a short getaway for the 2 of us after Christmas which was such a wonderful idea for a couple of reasons.  One, it was nice to have something fun to look forward to after the Christmas festivities ended, and two, it was such a GREAT way for the two of us to recap 2010, plan for the upcoming year, and discuss things we want to work on, etc.  It was GREAT!

One of our resolutions is to do a better job of leaving work at work when we get home.  In this age of email and smart phones there is the potential to work 24/7 from anywhere at anytime.  While this is a perk in some ways, it's a detriment in others.  He and I are both guilty of working during what should be our family time in the evenings.  When you only have about 3 hours with the kids in the evenings between coming home from work & bedtime, every minute counts.

Another thing he and I are working on as a couple is joint teaching an adult Bible class.  He and I have different skills sets when it comes to teaching - he is far more of a didactic, lecture type instructor while I am much application focused.   We want to develop a Bible class with a didactic and application component.  We are working on developing the curriculum and hope to teach it next fall.

As for me, I am always looking for better ways to organize and become more efficient.  Two of my biggest struggles are meals and exercise.  For me, I have to exercise 5 days a week to manage stress - if I don't I can't sleep at night and I start feeling down.  I really need to do a better job getting it in before 6AM in order to maintain productivity over the rest of the day.  This is such a challenge for me b/c even though I'm an early riser I have a hard time jumping up out of bed and immediately hitting the treadmill.  I hope to get better at this over the next year - starting Monday (I'm on vacation until then)!

As far as meals, it's really really hard to plan and make healthy meals for my family with a busy work & family schedule.  I'm using the next few weeks to do a lot of reading on different eating styles, child nutrition, and meal planning techniques to hopefully improve this over the next year.  I'll share some of the things I find that work for us.

My resolution list continues with things like putting more time into my BSF study so that I can dive deeper into God's Word, and completing an Olympic distance triathlon this year just to name two.  With training and racing, I'm going to limit my training time to summer b/c that is when I have the most time. Trying to train during the semesters just adds stress to our already busy lives and eats into family time.  So, I've set my sights on an Olympic tri in Sept and will hit the training hard at the end of May.

So much to think about for 2011!  Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010 - Last Post!

Christmas for my 16 month old was wonderful because of one thing...the food.  Although he enjoyed ripping the paper off his presents, he was vastly more interested in the cookies, pies, and festive holiday foods.  This is no surprise given that this kid can EAT!  In addition to the food, my little ham reveled in all the attention he received from his aunt & J (and everyone else).  

Dad got some new warm running pants, a couple of West Wing DVD's, a certificate to pick out a new blue ray player, and the biggest shared gift for both he & I was a brand new LED TV for our room! In the past, I was adamantly against having a TV in the bedroom, but after 3 kids and a dog, my views on that have changed.

As for me, I got a new camera, a cheese grater (my old one was shot), a beautiful new fry pan (I LOVE cooking and cookware), the TV, some gift cards for clothes & Starbuck, and then from my husband - a night away for the 2 of us at a nearby resort.  He arranged for overnight childcare and everything!  We're going tonight!  Yippee!

The day after Christmas my mom, sister, and I braved the crowds for a girls shopping day.  Although the crowds were evident so were the sales and we were all thrilled with what we found!  The next day, my sister & J left and my parents went looking for rental condos and properties since they are considering spending several months of the year out here.  We would absolutely LOVE that!  Hope your Christmas 2010 was wonderful.  Have a Happy New Year!

Lastly, I wanted to share the best recipe from our Christmas.  It was for a fried turkey.  While we fried a turkey for Thanksgiving, my sister & J & my parents wanted to do another one for Christmas so they could take part in the fun.  I didn't mind at all!  So, for our fried turkey here is what we did - it was DELICIOUS!!!

Fried Turkey
large turkey - thawed
brine: heavily salted water
spice injector kit for turkey (found in sauce/rub section)

Brine turkey overnight in heavily salted water (it should be pretty salty - only a little less than sea water). Remove turkey from brine and inject with spice kit.  Set up fryer outside in a safe area.  You'll need plenty of propane (we had to make a propane run at 8:00 Christmas eve!  Not great planning!)  Make sure turkey is COMPLETELY dry (our wasn't this time - we had some fireworks) and then fry for 3-5 mins per pound in a hot oil (between 325-350 degrees).  Let bird sit for 15-30 mins before carving.  This was the  best turkey we've ever had!

Christmas 2010 - 4yr old perspective

My oldest son had a good Christmas.   This was the first year that he had a hard time waiting until Christmas to open the presents under the tree.  He only had one request from Santa - and that was for a new Leapster game.  His Aunt L actually came through for that one while Santa brought him a new bike.  In addition, he received a couple of new games, several new toys, some cool Spiderman slippers, new clothes, and a guitar.  We have so many people to thank for making this a special Christmas for him!  Thanks Grammy, Papa, Aunt L, Aunt D., Nanima, Dadaji, my sister & J., and of course...Santa! :)

Christmas 2011

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was special for several reasons.  First, it was the first Christmas in a couple of years that my family came to spend Christmas here.  We have been blessed this year not to have to travel on any of the major holidays.  The second reason is that my sister brought her boyfriend with her - he is such a great guy and he made this Christmas even more fun!  My kids are going to be heartbroken when they leave tomorrow - they had so much fun with them.  Aren't they a cute couple?!?

We kicked off Christmas eve day with my husband and I being able to go on a run...together...with no baby joggers - it was as good as a date!  We ran a little longer than we normally would have just b/c it was so nice to be able to talk uninterrupted!  After the run, my mom, sister, and I took the big kids to the movies while the boys stayed at home and prepped some items for the following day.  We saw Tangled and it is a really cute movie!

After the movies, we can home and decorated cookies for Santa.  I had intended to do our big family meal that evening, but we had a couple of setbacks with the turkey (we did turkey instead of ham...SO glad we did - I'll share the recipe later - it was AWESOME!) so I decided we'd have the big meal on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning was a little chaotic since my early bird 4 yr old came downstairs before anyone else was awake and got into one of his presents.  We ended up opening presents in shifts.  We opened for a while and then when the kids got overwhelmed we took a break, then resumed opening, etc.  It worked out wonderfully and made the day very enjoyable and meltdown free.  As you can see from below, the kids were good this year so Santa came!

Below are a few of the pictures from Christmas morning.  I'll share more in the next few days.  My daughter was thrilled to get a Lalaloopsy doll from my parents.  My husband's parents got her a MSU cheerleader dress which she liked some that day, but since it was one of the last that she opened was not nearly as excited about it as she was today when she "re-discovered" it.  She can't wait to wear it and her big new matching hair bow!  She also loved her Barbie Car from her Aunt L (her baby brother did too, and several fights ensued as a result!) and her hair bows & interactive books from Aunt D.  She also got several movies and some play makeup, and a princess purse.  My little athletic girly girl was thrilled with her bike from Santa (she took to it like a pro!) and all the dolls, princess things, and girly items she got for Christmas.  Thank you so much grandparents, aunts, and of course, Santa!

An Exciting Morning!

Today is my first day off work for the holidays!  I'm off until Jan 4th!  Hooray!  My parents arrived last evening and we had planned a day of Christmas shopping and holiday baking while the kids were at school.  That all changed with a phone call at 5:30AM!  Some of our dear friends were expecting their 4th and it was TIME!  So, my husband left in his PJ's to go get their 3 kids while our friends dashed to the hospital.  Our plans immediately changed and instead of day with no kids, we've had 6!!!  It has been a blast!  Since everyone was awake super early, my husband went out for provisions and brought back some donuts.   Below is breakfast for 5 (my daughter was still asleep).

We spent the morning playing, baking cookies, and building spaceships and robots.  Right now, the 4 big kids are outside playing while the 2 babies are napping.  After lunch, we'll have movie time until their Dad comes to get them.  Baby Jacob was born very quickly after they got to the hospital and grandparents arrive this afternoon.  I'm so happy and excited for them!  It was a wonderful exciting morning!  Soooo fun to have a house full of kiddos!

Merry Christmas! How much they grow in a year!

How much they grow in a year!!!  They're getting so big!  Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last year....

Now....

Girl's Night Out, Snow, and the "Paper-News"

Last night was fun in several different ways.  First, last night was a pre-Christmas girl's night out.  We shopped and then ate dinner and chatted.  Love these nights out w/my friends - they are such a blessing to me!

The weather yesterday finally turned Christmasy!  We had snow on Thanksgiving, but then a warm snap had taken over.  Finally yesterday it turned cold & snowy!  It was snowing buckets when I was driving home from dinner last night.  Although not much accumulated, the beautiful snow really enhanced the holiday spirit!

My daughter is a night owl, so my husband let her stay up until I got home last night.  We have been letting her stay up a bit later than her brothers so we can get some one-on-one time with her (my boys are early to bed, early to rise kind of kids so they hit the hay a little after 7!).  Anyway so last night after I got home, she helped me open the Christmas cards we had received that day and asked to keep one of the letters.  She kept folding it and saying, "Look mommy!  It's a paypoo noose!".  My husband and I kept looking at each other wondering what in the world she was talking about until I asked, "Who else has one?".  She immediately grinned and said, "Papa!".  It was then that I realized she was saying "paper-news" and what she meant was a newspaper! She slept with her "paper-news" under her pillow and still had it with her at breakfast this morning. :)