2009 Goals

I was thinking today about the things I'd like to accomplish or do in 2009 and decided to write my list down to see if I get them done. I hope I can accomplish most if not all of these. I'm sure there are many more but these are what came to mind.

1. Of course, lose weight - especially baby weight.
2. Paint my family room
3. Go to the beach to visit w/ my brother
4. Go to Atlanta to visit friends/family
5. Go to NJ to visit John's family
6. Get in a better financial position by cutting back which we have already begun to do. We are also planning to start attending the Dave Ramsey "financial peace" classes which I"m really excited about.
7. Enjoy my husband & children more.
8. Read my chronological bible from start to finish - this one will be a toughy.
9. Worry less & simplify my life.
10. Be content.

What are your goals for 2009?

Caleb Video

Christmas

We had a very merry Christmas. Joshua was really great not being too overly excited...i.e. ripping through all the presents...but instead took his time and enjoyed each present. I don't think he got a single present that he hasn't played with. He is continuing to rotate them all and has even continually thanked everyone. I'm so proud of my little guy. Caleb slept through 1/2 of his presents being opened but was also blessed with many wonderful gifts. This year we pared Christmas down but yet it seemed fuller and more joyful than years past. I am so thankful for my dear husband, children and being able to share this Christmas with my in-laws and family.

Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I apologize for the lack of posts lately - a cold bug hit me last week and this week is well, all about Christmas! So I wish you all the best and look forward to posting updates about our holiday soon!

Holding Hands

Joshua loves to hold Caleb's hand but today he decided to make Caleb hold the glow worm's hand. So cute. Caleb is also starting to babble quite a bit so today I asked Joshua what he thought Caleb was saying and he said, "Maybe something about dinosaurs." Well, of course!

A Gift for Joshua

I happened to have a canvas in my garage that I was going to use eventually and so I decided to paint this for Joshua's room. I had so much fun painting it so I hope he likes it. I mimicked the dinosaur after some clip-art.

A Typical Saturday Night

We were given this ball pit recently for free which has meant that we have balls ALL over our house. It has been lots of fun for everyone - Caleb & John included! This is pretty much a typical Saturday night at our house...it seems there is always a fort being built, a ball pit party, or some other silly thing happening. My oh my how my life has changed.

Santa

Walk Thru Bethlehem

On Saturday we went to a local church for their "Walk thru Bethlehem". They did an incredible job. They started out by giving us all gold coins to pay our taxes. Then you walk as if really how Mary & Joseph would have gone through town looking for a place to stay. You must pay taxes to the Roman guards and there were beggars looking for money. THere were shepherd's tending their sheep. We went through a town where you received a bread offering. All the way our guides kept asking if people had heard of the Messiah being born and no one knew. Along the way we did run into the 3 wise men traveling to see our newborn King and of course near the end we found the stable where the King of Kings had been born. It was really neat to see how Mary's journey may have been and a great reminder about what this time of year is really about. My pictures aren't great cause my flash no longer works and I need a new camera but it will have to wait.

Advent

I've been meaning to post and have been behind. Our church does a wonderful advent devotional book each year with ideas to get your kids involved...so we started that on Nov 30th but I have yet to make an advent wreath. So I found this fun craft/kid advent wreath to make for this year. It works well cause no real candles...yay!

Thanksgiving Recap

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!! We had a really great Thanksgiving that was full of activity! My brother and three nieces came on Wednesday. They were so great with the boys. They kept Joshua very busy playing and loved holding the baby. We had a nice traditional meal on Thursday. On Friday we were joined by my younger brother, his girlfriend, my nephew, and my sister and then were surprised by a visit from four of my cousins that live in California, D.C, and Georgia. So the house was really wonderfully full. The highlight was when Joshua got eight adults & three teenagers to play ring around the rosie with him in the middle of my family room. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that! It was really so wonderful visiting with everyone. Saturday we worked on getting the Christmas decorations out and the tree up. Joshua has been so excited about the tree and the ornaments. He loved helping put the ornaments up. We have our big family tree and then Joshua has his own little tree that he is allowed to play with. What a fun Christmas season this will be!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!

Thankful ABCs

I wish I took the opportunity more every day to remember all my blessings and all I'm thankful for. Here is my ABC list of items I'm thankful for:

A - Apples, Advent
B- Bible study group
C - Caleb
D - Dinosaurs and all the joy they bring in my house
E - Evenings at home each night with my family
F - Friends & family who make my life so complete
G - Grace, Good Health
H - Heat during the cold winter, Hot Chocolate
I - Ice cream
J - Joshua & John
K - Kindness of strangers
L - Love
M- Miracle pregnancy this year, Music
N - New friends
O - Old friends, Other moms who keep me sane
P - Preschool - Joshua just loves it! & Pumpkin pie that he made in class today that he was so proud of , Pacifiers
Q - Questions from a 2 year old
R- Roof over my head each night
S - Snow
T - Tiny toes
U - Unexpected blessings
V - Visitors
W - Weekends
X - X-tra time I get to spend with my family during the holidays
Y - Yummy food that we are blessed with every day
Z - ZZZZ's - Caleb has been sleeping through the night the last few nights! Yay!

What are you thankful for?

Good Job Joshua!

Joshua has been going through a bit of the terrible twos so we have been trying new things to try to encourage good behavior. I think most of his outburst come because he is either hungry, tired, or hasn't been given enough attention. So obviously keeping snacks available and encouraging sleep is something we are naturally doing. However, since Caleb has arrived it's hard to always give him all the attention he wants so I've been trying to make sure to fill his "attention meter" with a little one on one time before I have to do things like nurse, bath, clean, etc. It's really working out great but we still have other times that we need better behavior.

So I decided to try a good behavior chart and am focusing on 3 key things at a time. I added one item (cleaning up toys) that he already does pretty well so that he could see the benefits of the chart. The other 2 items we definitely need him to work on. He is proud of his chart and already thrilled to get his dinosaur sticker. He gets to put one sticker on the chart and one on himself for accomplishing anything on the chart.

Do you guys do anything similar? I'd love to hear about it!

Rub a dub dub!

Thanksgiving Menu & recipes.

This year my brother and 3 nieces will be staying with us over Thanksgiving. Here is my Thanksgiving Menu and some recipes.

I will probably have a Pecan Coffee Cake already made for snacking in the morning.

For our meal:
Turkey

Cornbread stuffing in the bird

Gravy

Sweet Potato Casserole (recipe below)

Green Bean Casserole (suggested by my sister-in-law - it sounds pretty good)

Rolls

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie (recipe below)

Sweet Potato Casserole: (Anne's recipe w/ some tweaks)

3 c mashed sweet potatoes

1/2 c milk

1/2 stick butter/marg

1 tsp vanilla

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c coconut

1/2 c pecans

1/3 c flour

1/2 stick butter/marg

Mix together, put in 8 x 10 casserole dish. Top with pecan topping in diagonal lines leaving 1 inch space for marshmallows. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Remove and place marshmallows on top - cook for an additional 5-10 (watch to make sure it doesn't burn)

Chocolate Pecan Pie: (my mom's recipe)

1/2 c semi-sweet choc chips

3 tbsp butter

2/3 c sugar

1 c corn syrup

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 c pecans

1 pie crust

Melt choc & butter in a double broiler. Combine sugar and syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix eggs, stir in chocolate, butter and whisk in syrup. (I often do this in my mixer cause you have to do it fast to keep it from cooking the eggs.) Stir in vanilla & pecans. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes then 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Snow!

What a surprise to wake up this morning to a blanket of snow. So we were out at 6:45am playing in the snow as I was afraid it would melt and I had to get Caleb to a 9:30am doctors appointment. Joshua had a blast but thought that snow meant that Santa was coming tonight. He also HAD to make a snowman - so we made a very tiny one. He was very proud but afraid to hold it - so that is why my hand is holding it in the picture. Silly boy.

Sweet Treat Ceramics

This is a plate I painted last week which will be used for our cookie plate for Santa. I did this at my friends house who has a pottery studio in her home where she hosts painting parties and she also does custom orders. She totally helps with the design and I just painted. Her stuff is super cute! So if you are looking for some great Christmas gifts go check out her site: Sweet Treat Ceramics

Harvest Swap

I enjoyed another fun swap hosted by Carrie & Monica. My great partner Hayley from Happy Hawkeye Homeschool House sent me all this lovely stuff. And she was so on top of it we got the package like a week early! Joshua especially enjoyed gluing all those leaves to some paper as a fun activity one afternoon. Thank you Hayley!

Turkey Wreath

Joshua and I did this cute little Turkey Wreath pattern craft today. It was lots of fun and super cute!