Goals aka Resolutions

This year I am going to call my Resolutions, Goals. I think it has a nicer sound to it. We'll see if it helps me accomplish more!

Goal #1: Post on this blog twice a week. This was a resolution last year (my hopes were to post more frequently than once a month), which in the beginning of the year I failed miserably at. I've gotten better in the last months of the year. So it will once again be something that I attempt to better myself at!

Goal #2: Live up my last year in my twenty's. Like I mentioned yesterday, this will either have me getting more sleep or less. I'm still trying to decide.

More sleep means less done around the house when I don't have small hands helping me to undo all that is right. It also means more energy the next day to right the wrong of the house. (I hate double edged swords!)

Less sleep means more ME or Me and Chris time, which currently is pretty much nonexistent. I could really use this, along with the cleaning of the home front thing!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on ways I find to Live It Up!

Goal #3: That whole dress for the job you want, not the job you have thing. Although I am quite pleased with my current position, the saying seemed to fit what I want to attain, not the reality of it! A lot of blogs I have found will post "What I Wore Wednesdays." In general these people are beyond adorable and always seem to be put together. So my goal is to attempt to dress nice (not just in jeans and a t-shirt, which is my usual attire) on Wednesdays. I'm thinking baby steps here people. Hopefully this will grow to more like 5 out of 7 days, but we'll start with one, so as to not scare the crap out of the people who know me!

Goal #4: Get Big to go to sleep at a normal 3 year old hour, I'm thinking 9 PM to start with. Again as Dr. Leo Marvin writes, Baby Steps! Eventually I would like to see bedtime be 8 PM for him, but at this point I will take what I can get. As previously mentioned, Big stays up far to late for a 3 year old, so in the year of 2012 we are going to right this. I'm just not sure how I plan on accomplishing this monstrous task. We may have to cut nap time down to 1 hour or maybe even do away with it (*gasp* did I just really put that in writing? I can accomplish so much during nap time!) So here's to 2012 being the year of sleep, or lack there off!

Goal #5: Do a Mommy craft project once a month. I have found so many adorable crafts and home decor items on some of my favorite blogs this past year. Not to mention the addition of Pinterest into my life, that alone has put the "I would like to make this" number into the thousands and counting. So once a month, I am going to set aside some time to make a Mommy craft project! I'm not sure how potentially cutting out naps and me going to bed sooner will play into this. I may have to scrap those, we'll see!

So there you have it, 5 Goals that I will attempt to accomplish in 2012. Be sure to tune in and see if I am able to obtain these! It's going to be a GREAT year!

Just for fun, here's the boys in front of our Christmas tree before we celebrated our families Christmas!

Happy 2012

First of all Happy 2012 to everyone!

It's hard to believe that another year has passed us by. We had a wonderful Christmas and I had an equally wonderful birthday! This is my last year in my twenty's, so I think I should live it up and make it a really great one! (Living it up for me, will most likely consist of staying up past 11 PM. Although on that same note, getting more sleep would maybe be a better way to live it up? I'll get back to you on this!)

New Years Eve for us was spent at home just the four of us. Chris and I had plans to head into the Twin Cities for the Bears vs. Viks game, but Chris has been sick this past week and still not feeling great, so we opted to stay home and hang out with the boys. All who know Chris assume he is probably on his death bed to be giving up watching the Bears play in person. I assure you he'll be okay!

With Big being a night owl (he stays up until well after 10 most nights, this is one of my resolutions, post coming soon, so if you have any tips I will gladly listen) he stayed up with Chris and I until the very end. About 12:45 to be exact! Needless to same he is still sleeping now.

It snowed in the morning here yesterday, but the temps were warm enough that it wasn't long after that it also melted. We do have snow on the lawn (or what will be our lawn if we don't shovel it up this winter) but the drive way is clear. The boys loved being outside yesterday and playing in the snow. Little was far happier sitting on the steps in the garage than in the snow. He still needs to learn how to walk in all of his snow gear!

Elf on the Shelf

This December an elf came to visit our house and watch what the boys were up to and then report back to Santa each night. When he arrived, Big was given the job of picking out a name for him. Although he really wanted to call him caca (which is his answer to most everything these days, and thinks it hilarious when I ask him not to say it as it means poo), he finally settled on Ki Ki (which I have been informed that in other cultures, means something that would be worse than calling our elf poo, but I'm not about to go there with Big!)

The boys aren't allowed to touch him or his magic will go away, so he watched from above the TV the first evening.


When we awoke the next day, we found he had caught a ride in Santas sleigh back to our house!

Finally!

The stockings are hung on the wall with care, as we don't have a fire place with St. Nick to share!

The house is finally decorated for Christmas! I now realize that I will need to acquire a few more Christmas decorations to fill the new house! The boys helped me decorate the tree, while we listened to Christmas Carols! With that being said only one ornament got broken and it was done by me! Now I just need to get some shopping done and presents wrapped!

The Windy City.

Recently Chris and I were able to take a trip to Chicago, just the two of us! It was a very relaxing 4 days. We had things that we would like to do, but no really agenda in which to do them. We slept in until 8 to 8:30 each day and then lazily got ready and headed out the door. We stayed on Michigan Ave, so we were able to easily shop and see the sites. Michigan Ave at Christmas is B-E-A-utiful!

My favorite display (and not just because it's Disney's), it was just to clever! In case you can't read it, it says "Not a creature was stirring except for the (mickey's head here)"

The famous Garrett Popcorn! This stuff is amazing, and so worth the block long line you have to stand in to get it.

Night view from the top of the Hancock Observatory.

I think the highlight of Chris' trip came on the 2nd day when he got to go inside the Cadillac Studios/ESPN and meet Waddle and Silvy (They are the hosts of a Bears Radio Show, Waddle is also a former Bear) We made a sign that said "Tom Waddle made me cry!" and he held it outside the studio windows. And then his dreams were granted, they noticed it and invited him in for a photo! If you don't know why Waddle made him cry, you'll have to ask him. And trust me, he will be more than happy to share it with you!


After exhausting our shopping on Michigan Ave, we spent a day at the Field Museum. We probably could have spent several days there. It was filled with lots of very interesting exhibits and fun things to see. The Field Museum is also home to Sue, the most complete T-Rex skeleton they have found to date.


On our last day of the trip we took in a (you guessed it) Bears game. We were not originally planning on doing this, as tickets are pretty much outrageously priced! But with some advice from a friend we waited until the day of the game and jumped online to see what was left. Turns out we were able to get some great seats for a fraction of the price that they originally wanted! Merry Christmas Chris! (This definitely made shopping for him a whole lot easier this year!

Santa Baby

I recently ran across an internet advertisement for Huggies Santa diapers. I was pumped! When you have to change poopy diapers, it's best to add some variety to your day! I searched all the big box stores for these, as well as a few of the smaller ones. No luck. I had come to the conclusion that if I wanted these before Christmas was over I was going to have to order them online.

Then to my amazement, we were walking through Sams Club, picking up a few necessities, and what do I stumble upon! You guessed it, Santa Diapers! I think my eyes lite up like a kid in a candy store. I was stoked!

So now until Christmas our Little man will be believing! One diaper at a time!

With that face, you can guarantee that Little will make Santa's Naughty, I mean Nice list!

Puppy Party

Big was recently invited to a puppy birthday party for an adorable 3 year old. The whole family was able to go and help her celebrate!

There was yummy food and some very fun games! The kids played pass the puppy, had a barking contest, and pinned the nose on the puppy. There was even a pinata, which I must say these kids have finally figured out. (See last years pinata photo!) This year they got that you should go after the candy.

Last year they all just kind of looked at it and would take a piece at a time!


Little had the most fun clapping when the music stopped in the pass the puppy game!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, with a new do!

When I picked big up from daycare today, he informed me that he needed a hair cut. I tried to tell him that time was limited and that we weren't going to be able to get it cut today, much less this week. He was very insistent that we get this done TODAY!

So I called our normal spot and they had one opening left for the evening. Little badly needs at least his bangs trimmed, but he will have to wait for another day (which I don't think he minds much)! We also got our tree up last night. No decorations on it yet, I'm waiting till we can all do this together. Hopefully tomorrow, it's looking too bare!

Monster Bash Party

Big was invited to a Monster themed 3rd birthday. We couldn't wait to go. Chris was home and able to watch Little, so it was a bit easier to enjoy the party. There were lots of fun things to do.

They had a monster bean bag toss, although all the kids really liked having their photo taken with their head in the monsters mouth.

There was a Build your own monster station. Big liked this so much, he wanted to make a few of them.

A put the eyes on the monster game.

Then all the little monsters got to decorate a cookie.

They had snacks, cupcakes and don't forget about the cute monster party hats! The cups even had eyes on them!

Here are all of the kiddos with their goody bags. What a fun group of kids! I can't wait to pull these photos out when they are all seniors!

Daily Entertainment

When Chris has drill on the weekends, I have to find things to help occupy 2 small boys, so that I get a chance to breath! So this past weekend we broke out some arts and crafts to entertain.

I had just unpacked a box and thought it might be fun for Big to paint it like Rocket from Little Einsteins. We of course had no paint brushes, so before we could even begin this project we had to take a little trip to JoAnns. Which I am never apposed to! An hour later, we were painting rocket. I think I may need to invest in a paint smock soon.

Little wasn't very happy that he didn't get to paint the box too, so we gave him a brush and I got him to "paint" the tent we had set up.

Big thought this looked like far more fun than actually painting, so he ditched Rocket and helped "paint" the tent.

While on our shopping errand, Big found a bucket of Perler Beads (and who can really resist them right!) He has had more fun with those than I would have imagined. Again something Little can't play with, which royally ticks him off.

On a side note:

When you have two small boys in your house, they are both awake, and it is quiet...always ask yourself what have they gotten into. Today was no exception to this rule! Little likes to pull everything out of the bathroom cupboard as a daily routine, today I found he had then put himself back into it. Whatever makes you happy buddy!

Little also LOVES to help with the wash. He likes to put the clothes in the washing machine and then when they're done, take them out and hand them to me to put into the dryer. I had run upstairs to grab another load of laundry and came back down to find this. He had emptied half the box of dryer sheets out. My hands smelt like fresh air for quite awhile after putting all of those back.

Wedding

We had the pleasure of enjoying some good friends wedding reception this weekend. Chris was gone, but the boys and I dressed up and enjoyed the event. The dance floor was the best part for both boys. Little normally goes to bed at the latest 7:30, but tonight he has up until 9:30 cutting a rug. He crashed on the ride home.

It was so fun to see both boys dancing and having a good time. Big told me he wasn't going to do any dancing on our way there. I guess he changed his mind.


Little also really enjoyed holding on to the light bulbs that were surrounding the windows. I can't wait to see what he does with the Christmas tree.

Happy Halloween

It's hard to believe that it's November and Halloween has come and gone. I'm sure soon enough the snow will start to fly. (the forecast claims this weekend) The boys had fun Trick or Treating last night. Big dressed as a Lighting McQueen race car driver and little was Nemo. Little only went out for a short time and then was done and Big didn't want to stay out much later than that.

They got a boat load of candy, and have hardly made a dent in it. Last night was quite crazy and so I had to have the boys get into their costumes today to get a few photos.

Back to the Pumpkin Patch

The first time that went to the Pumpkin Patch this fall we got there kind of late and we were only able to pick out a pumpkin and explore the corn mazes. They also have lots of photo cut outs, a playground and a barrel train for the kids. Big really wanted to go on the train, but by the time we got back from picking out a pumpkin, the train had stopped running. So we promised him that we would bring him back to ride the train.

Once I got back from my trip I decided to venture out with the boys and experience the rest of the pumpkin patch with them.

The first stop, was of course the barrel train ride, and even Little got to go. I wasn't 100% positive that he would stay sitting, but once he saw Big get it, he wasn't taking no for an answer. In the end he did wonderful and I think would have stayed in it all day.


They also played in the corn box, played in the stage coach and Big was in heaven when he found out that they had a large "button game". (That is what he calls Connect Four)

Philadelphia

For work, we had training in Philadelphia this past week. (Actually Conshohocken, but I'm not sure anybody really knows where that is.) One of the days we had a group scavenger hunt in downtown Philly! I had a blast with this, A: I am extremely competitive, and B: I got to take in some sights! A few of the things that I got to see were: the Liberty Bell, Benjamin Franklin's House Structure and where his print shop was, plus I got to eat an authentic philly cheese steak.

(I listened to the lady in front of me and ordered my cheese steak with provolone cheese, when I really should have had the cheese whiz. Next time.)

Plus it doesn't get any better than when your boss puts on some grungy man from the streets vest and poses for a photo! (In case you can't tell, there0 are rocks and coins glued all over the vest and hat.)


I also finally got to see a Take Care Clinic in person. After 2 years, it was probably about time.