I Hereby Resolve...

Wow! Making goals to last an entire year is tough! First, you have to think of things that you really want to change, improve upon or start doing. Second, you have to choose goals that are reachable within the time frame of a year. And finally, you have to DO them!

I hereby resolve to:

1. Be more patient with these individuals.

2. Become more physically fit. (Lose pregnancy weight BEFORE Hawaii.)

3. Learn how to use more of the snazzy features on my camera.

4. Replenish/Rotate our food storage.

5. Organize/purge garage.

6. Save for new couches/furniture in living room.

7. Teach myself to use Photoshop.
8. Get my Christmas cards done in July.
9. Improve my daily spiritual feasting.
10. Try something or go somewhere new!

A New Decade: Welcoming in 2010

With all the other craziness of this year's holiday season, I completely forgot (until New Year's Eve)the significance of this year's New Year's Eve. Welcoming in a new decade only comes every 10 years. Normally, we would have thrown a big party at our house, but with company in town and many other signficant events we gladly accepted Mom and Dad Price's invitation to have a low-key New Year's at their home.
Mom whipped up one of her amazing dinners (my favorite): Chicken picata & mushroom gravy, brown rice, fresh steamed green beans, raspberry jello salad, and rolls, followed by a dessert and appetizer smorgasboard.

We watched various countdowns across the nation, played U-NO and Yahtzee and tried our hardest to tire out our rambunctious kidlets. Finally, at 11 p.m. our time, our kids were beat. We cheated, claiming that we were celebrating the New Year on the Mountain Time Zone since Grandma and Grandpa Carver were visiting with us from Utah. We counted down, raised our plastic cups full of Martinellis Sparkling Cider and called it a night.

A Magical Christmas

There's something so magical about Christmas morning. I remember the absolute thrill of waking up in the early morning hours to tap on each of my brothers and sister until they awoke. We always slept in the same bedroom, snuggled together so that none of us would be the last to know when Santa came. As I peeked in on my two oldest children this year, it was so fun to see them snuggled by one another, knowing they did not want to miss out on the excitement of Santa coming either.

It was around 7:00 a.m. when we heard them stirring. They quietly tip-toed in our room whispering the announcement that it was time to go downstairs to see if Santa had made a stop at our home. Somehow, we convinced them to make their beds and brush their teeth, buying ourselves some sorely needed extra minutes of sleep. About 20 minutes later, we led the kid crew downstairs, pausing to get a quick picture on the stairs. Then, one by one, we led them into the family room. Wrapping paper chaos soon ensued.


(Landon's loot from Santa.)
(Jacob was thrilled to see what Santa had left for him--especially the Pokemon DS game!)
(Kaylee's surprises from Santa.)

We had a wonderful day! Santa spoiled us rotten, as usual!