Monday, November 28, 2011

Twenty Eight

Source: flickr.com via Tirajeh on Pinterest


This year I want to:

enjoy the sweetest moments of each day with my family.
give loving care to my family.
have more dance parties.
play the piano for my children.
write more.
draw more.
create. I feel like I'm just bursting these days with wanting to create in so many ways.
do the things I ought to do every day and let go of things that aren't important.
set aside time to think, focus.
connect and stay connected to friends.
start a business?
sleep through the night.
find a solution to my ever increasing gray hairs :)
read to my children.
eat lots of vegetables and other healthy foods.
do yoga. run. bike. snowshoe. adventure.
make my children smile. make Jordan smile.
be grateful.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Celebrations





Jordan and the kids surprised me with a sweet and wonderful birthday party yesterday. Matching plates and cups and napkins, a house filled with balloons and streamers, party popper confetti toys, birthday cards (including a singing one!), pink flower wrapped presents with pink ribbons, and a pink pony birthday cake. (Landon helped with the party planning :) Jenny and April (and Kathie and Winslow via skype) celebrated with us too.

Such a wonderful day. I felt so loved by my dear family.


Also, Jordan's gift for me was drawing supplies. Wonderful because I'm excited to try them out, but even more wonderful because he thinks I am good at this. And wants me to keep doing it and getting better and sharing my happiness in this newfound talent.

On Thanksgiving evening, April asked if she could color one of my pictures. I just felt bursting with happiness. She and Jenny and I sat on the floor in the front room and I wrapped a few Christmas presents while they colored.




And other Thanksgiving break fun -

A carefree out-to-eat Thanksgiving dinner, lots of pies, a great visit from Jenny, a shopping trip to Park City (Jen and I), fun time with April, a crawling Owen, sick children :( wig and mustache shopping (for an upcoming Animoto party!) warm and beautifully blue-sky sunny days, melting snow, leaf raking...

Such happy moments in these days.

Twenty Eight





This year I want to:

enjoy the sweetest moments of each day with my family.
give loving care to my family.
have more dance parties.
play the piano for my children.
write more.
draw more.
create. I feel like I'm just bursting these days with wanting to create in so many ways.
do the things I ought to do every day and let go of things that aren't important.
set aside time to think, focus.
connect and stay connected to friends.
start a business. (make something that someone thinks is so great that they'd want to buy it)
sleep through the night.
find a solution to my ever increasing gray hairs :)
read to my children.
eat lots of vegetables and other healthy foods.
do yoga. run. bike. snowshoe. adventure.
make my children smile. make Jordan smile.
be grateful.




Thursday, November 24, 2011

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

My cup runneth over

Loving baby Owen

I was sitting by Jordan on our little couch for a minute today - soon he had Owen in his arms, Ellie climbed up into my lap, Landon squeezed in between us... It was a moment like sitting at the dinner table when Ellie shared her high chair with Owen for the first time and our table was so full. It almost seems unbelievable that this little family is my own. I'm so grateful for them. I love them so.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

A spark...

Things have been changing at our house. Nothing huge, but little hints are starting to pop up all around. An organized craft room. Clean bedrooms. Dinners in the freezer. Full dresser drawers instead of full laundry baskets. Kid arts and crafts activities... what could it all mean?

I'm learning to sleep! (And crawl -- watch out!)

I am getting some sleep! This little guy is finally sleeping consistently in 3 hour stretches (and sometimes more!) And, oh what a difference it makes. I'm so grateful.

Also, with a little more sanity that sleep has brought, we've had more time to focus and plan and more intentionally simplify our lives. I've been realizing lately that right now in our lives, things are going to be a little hectic. (Right after our weekend of wedding travels I was talking to Landon about our upcoming plans - Thanksgiving and company, my birthday, a trip to New York, Christmas, Ellie's birthday, Grammie and Grandpa visiting, our trip to California...) So my new goal is to make all the days in between simple. To just do the things we need to do and have peaceful and happy and simple days.

Tonight we cleaned the house and then had a Christmas decorating party. We decided if we wanted to enjoy this Christmas time, we needed to get a head start :) Judging from this year's history, we knew if we didn't start now, we would probably still have Halloween decorations up in January and then be left wondering 'what happened to Christmas? How did we miss it?' Also, we are having Thanksgiving at Elements restaurant. It was such a nice feeling to walk past the turkeys and on-sale Thanksgiving items and not have my mind racing to remember what I might still need.

We'll see how we do at enjoying and keeping our days simple. But oh what a blessing to have some sleep to help us do it!

And remember when it was Fall?

favorite fall time activity for Landon
brothers!
my boys :)
playing go fish with my kiddos
a cute smores face
happy guy!
soccer in the front yard

Snow Season

(the scene over our back fence -- I took this yesterday, today we have 8-10 inches or so)

Last year, it snowed all Thanksgiving weekend -- a happy festive beautiful snow. We loved it. But, then it didn't melt and didn't melt and didn't melt... until the end of May. (I'm not sure if it would be an exaggeration to say that we didn't see our grass from Thanksgiving to Memorial Day) I feel a little anxious about all of this...

But, we've enjoyed a beautiful weekend of snow. Snowman building, snowshoeing, snow shoveling and raking and sweeping. And today was such a clear blue day with all the glistening snow, it was unbelievably beautiful. We're doing our best to prep ourselves to enjoy the next 6 months of snow! :)




Sunday, November 13, 2011

I love my Ellie


From Ellie today -

I love my mother! She is so cute! Her name is Mommy!


Saturday, November 12, 2011

A Sunday Afternoon


The boys, playing Risk on the front porch.

Snow Day

Landon couldn't be happier about the snow. He had an afternoon of shoveling, sledding, snow ball throwing... he is one happy winter-loving boy.

"This is my snow rake!" says Ellie


Things have been pretty crazy for us lately. And so, so busy. (Last weekend for example with two brothers getting married in two different states...) It was pretty nice to have just a regular day today. A trip to Costco, shoveling snow, Landon and Daddy play time, house cleaning and organizing, pumpkin pie for dessert... With all the snow, the Costco Christmas decorations :) and a day to recuperate and enjoy our family - we're feeling excited again about the holidays, even with the busyness this season brings.