Out with the Old in with the New

 

Happy New Year! I went upstairs to go to sleep but Mark who is quite ill (bad flu it seems so you can guess how exciting his New Years Eve was) is snoring and I am feeling wide awake. And, new year new Blog background. I love coming to our blog now. It's so fresh and happy.

We made fondue tonight to celebrate the New Year. I decided it would be a fun tradition to start, having Fondue every New Years Eve but I will need to find a new recipe or just skip the cheese course entirely.  Jared LOVED dipping his food into the cheese pot but the cheese wasn't that good and it was really hard to keep it warm enough. That at least can be fixed easily by not filling it so full next time. I will look up some recipes and maybe try them out before I nix it though.  I will say that I totally rocked the chocolate sauce so much that I am going to post the recipe on here in case you want it or I can't find it next year. (Its from Our Best Bites)

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 a butter stick
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
Mix together and melt on low-medium on stove top.
Perfection. It was amazing. I loved it.

 We dipped ham, broccoli, red potato's, french bread, and zucchini

 

Bananas, Pretzels, Pound cake, Strawberries

 

I have been thinking about New Years Resolutions throughout the week.  I always want to work on being more balanced spiritually, physically and mentally but have narrowed it down a little bit.

Spiritual:
Read my scriptures each day.
At the end of the summer Mark told me that the YM in our ward made a goal to read the Book of Mormon every day and finish it by the end of the year. I decided to jump on their band wagon and read it too. I thought he said you would have to read 5 pages a day when it was 5.7 which is really 6 so I didn't quite make it.  But really I did because I did read each day and by skipping 3rd Nephi since we were reading that as a family I did finish yesterday.  They great thing is that I totally got into the routine of it. The first 15 minutes of bath time I go into our room and read.  It's great. Jared even comes over to me and says "You should read your scriptures now." I think to switch it up I will read topically on the weekends though.
Service:
I want to do more service.  To me service is a way to make others happy and it can be accomplished by a number of things.  One thing I know I can do almost daily is comment on people's blogs.  Weird right?  But if you think about it most everyone who bogs loves comments at least I know I do.  Comments are not why I blog but they make me happy.  So I plan on commenting on people's blogs as often as I can.  Maybe not every time but often.  This won't be the only service but I love that I can do it  almost daily so keep blogging friends.

Health:
Drink more water
Eat less snacks (I love to snack and hate to eat lunch)
Run whenever I can.  So this summer I went running and hated it!  I went every morning (Mon-Sat) and it was such a drag.  This fall I switched it up to Tues, Thurs, and Sat and picked new routes and ended up really enjoying it. Mark also got me an iPod which really helped. I also started using Map My Run which measures distances for and has a calendar you can log the days you ran on. I am bummed that the weather has been too cold (for me) to go out in the morning.  So I have decided that if it is too cold to go in the morning I will go when Mark gets home around 4:30 and the sun is still out.  I totally prefer doing it first thing but need an alternative plan for 4-5 months of the year.

Mental:
Here is where I seem to struggle.  I have read through my previous New Years Resolutions and never (ever) really kept the goals I set in this category.  So I have tried to think of different approaches.
One is this blog: I really love to put pictures up on here so family (especially grandparents) can see our cute kids. It is often hard for me to do a post without pictures but I would like to do that more.  I do not have any aspirations to be a writer but I would like to blog without pictures so I will work on it.
Time with Jared and Lydia:  More specifically with Lydia. I am excited that Lydia is old enough for some structured learning time.  Short and fun, we will still play A LOT.  Jared and I do it each morning after she goes down for her nap and I love that time with him.  I hope I can keep him interested.  There are so many awesome resources out there from people who are so creative and make it fun.  I am going to do it with Lydia right after Jared goes down for his nap. Planning out "lessons" makes me feel like I am using part of my degree and it helps me feel productive while being at home with them.  Like I am making the most of this awesome opportunity I have to be with them.
Be more messy! I can't stand clutter and like messes to be contained.  I hate having dishes in the sink and try to convince Jared and the little boy I watch that when they are done with something to put it away.  "If you aren't using it does it need to be out?" ( I say this a lot) I think teaching kids to clean up is important and teaches responsibility but I could loosen up some.  Its not just with cleaning up though. I want to do more messy activities.  Like I mentioned a few posts ago I will be using lots of the sensory play ideas from the blog:  Growing a Jeweled Rose.
Go outside more: Jared will love this one! Soon Lydia will be down to on nap so I will have more time to do this.  When Jared asks to go to the park I want to say "yes lets!" (Within reason) or if he wants to go out front to play "sure!" This will be hard at times but I think it will benefit us all. We live in a beautiful place and I want to take advantage of it.  It may not seem like it fits here but it does.

 I am so looking forward to another year with my sweet little family!  2012 was a great year for us (we got Lydia!) and we are sure to have lots of good times in 2013.

Snow Fun

We have gotten more snow in the last week then any other year we have lived here. The accumulation totals haven't been that high but it has consistently snowed like every other day.  Its weird and pretty too! Having a white Christmas was so nice.  We tried to go outside and play but we didn't last long. Jared said it was too cold.  So we brought the snow inside which was much more successful.

 

Spray painting the snow

 

 

Water table turned snow table!

 

We have never gotten around to buying real snow clothes but maybe we will actually do it this year.  I am sure it would help us last longer out in the snow.  Although I have a feeling if we did buy snow clothes it wouldn't snow again. It sure is pretty to watch it fall though.

Christmas

Our Christmas was nice and quiet and WHITE.  It started snowing on Christmas Eve right as we were eating dinner. It was so pretty and perfect!  I think Christmas Eve is pretty much the best day for snow.  We ate dinner, read the nativity, sang lots of Christmas songs and each opened one present. Jared was so excited.  Since his birthday he has been pretty interested in presents which is not exactly what we are going for but he will figure out eventually.  I was impressed with how many Christmas songs he knows.  He kept singing right along with us as we read the Nativity.

Christmas Eve

 

Since our kids are still young we had the luxury of taking things nice and slow Christmas morning. We got up and ate breakfast and then opened presents.  We had our traditional orange rolls and delicious hot chocolate. Mark is somewhat of a hot chocolate (and ice cream) connoisseur and he did not disappoint. After we ate we took some pictures then waited while each person opened one present.  Then we let Jared open all his and tried to get Lydia to open hers.  Ever since the presents have been under the tree we have reminded her that we do not touch them.   She loved to take the bows off.  I was impressed that was all she tried to do.  So when we tried to get her to take the bows off Christmas morning she wouldn't do it. Maybe she thought we were trying to trick her and then she would get into trouble.  Eventually we got all her presents open with a little help from Jared.

 

 

 

The boxes and paper were Lydia's favorite. Big Surprise right?

We did start a new tradition this year.  We took one of Jared's presents and hid it upstairs in our room unwrapped and then had him go on a scavenger hunt to find it. We set up clues and had him tell us where he needed to go after we read the clue to him.  It was really fun.  I think he really liked it.  We will do it next year and include Lydia of course.  The rest of the day was spent talking to family and enjoying our new presents.  It snowed again in the afternoon which was so nice. I love a snowy Christmas! Who knows when we will get one again.  We have had snow a few days before Christmas since we have lived here but never on Christmas Eve and Day.

Christmas with a little kid is so fun. They are just so excited about it. All day today Jared has been asking where all the presents went.  I keep telling him they are all over the house, you are playing with them! I love how everything is so special to them and they are just so happy!

In our Christmas Best

We ended up with some great Christmas pictures this year. I love getting pictures of the four of us. Here are some of my favorites of us all dressed up.

Lydia was lucky enough to have two Christmas dresses and she looked adorable in them both.  Sometimes I look at pictures of her and am surprised by how blue her eyes are, like in the above picture.  I keep waiting to see if her eyes will turn green like the rest of us but it looks like they are staying pretty blue.   Mark got us a new camera for Christmas so we will see how the quality of our pictures differ.  I think it will be really helpful when we want to print pictures.  I am most excited about the shutter speed.  It's hard to get pictures of Lydia because she always starts crawling away.  I can't even begin to number how many pictures I have taken of her with half her body or less.  She will be in the perfect spot then by the time the picture is recording she is gone. Now we just have to figure out how to use it.

Christmas Fun around the town

Besides handing out our Christmas lights award we also went to the Downtown Christmas Parade and the Zoo.  I could not believe how many people were at the parade!  It was pretty warm and all the streets were like 10 - 12 people deep from the street.  We ended up in an alley next to a Chipotle that for some reason had this metal bar about a foot off the ground on the exterior wall so we stood on that to watch the parade.  It was fun though and Jared loved it. Lydia was pretty chill about it all. Christmas parades are my favorite.  Last summer (2011) when I was pregnant with Lydia we went to a 4th of July parade and I totally would have passed out if I didn't go sit in the shade of a building. I am much better at Christmas parades.

 

 

Jared always loves the zoo but this time he was even more excited. Not because it was nighttime or because of the cool lights but because of this:

 

 

 

The Zoo recently completed the new elephant exhibit so there were cones all over and "machines!" He did of course like the lights but was really excited he could touch some cones.  Silly kid. He also gets excited when there are the wet floor signs at the grocery store and always wants to touch them. I love how he can take enjoyment in such small and simple things.

The lights were pretty and it was fun to be there and hear Christmas music.