New Year's Motivation

Here's a little motivation for all your New Year's resolutions....

Steele and I reviewing our Jazzercise moves for the week.
Note Steele is eating and Jazzercisin' at the same time...
I wonder if that burns more calories?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and All That Good Stuff

As I sit down to write this morning, the snow is falling again outside my window. And I love it. I purposely try not to turn many lights on - and I enjoy the slowness and the stillness. I know this will probably not last much further than today and I want to savor it. Not at all like the snow we've had over the last few weeks... but I'll get to that in another post. I know there are people out there who grump around about snow - I have a theory about them. You see, when it snows at my house, I jump around doing the happy dance shouting, "It's snowing! It's snowing! It's snowing!" I grab my children and we hop around a little more. Then later in the day we go sledding, we drink cocoa, we eat soup, build snow men, whatever. I do this every time. I love it every time. My mom loved it every time - even when she was a single mom and had to get up and turn on the radio and listen to the snow report to see if she could make it to school to teach. I loved waking up in the morning with the dim light coming from the bathroom, memories of my mom doing her hair and putting on her make-up with the radio softly reporting in the background. It was exciting. So my theory about the snow haters? Their parents messed them up. There is no way on earth my kids will hate snow.... but watch me eat my words.

So today... I'll make some split pea soup, my parents might bring Abbey and Gabe over to go sledding. Skiing plans were put on hold - Justin thinks it will be a blizzard up at the mountain. We're going to enjoy every minute of being together. And since it's a new year - I think it's a great way to start.

Speaking of a new year - I'm not generally one to make New Year's resolutions. Over the last few days I've thought about the possibilities in 2009, I've thought about some things I'd like to change, some things I'm looking forward to - but nothing official. I don't beat myself up over stuff like that - finished or unfinished. Things tend to be accomplished in their own time anyway- and I kind of like that. But I can't very well move on to 2009 without at least sharing the last bit of 2008 with you.

It was the best Christmas yet for me. Wouldn't you agree that there is this time between moving out of your parents house and having children of your own when Christmases are well, just a little boring? I've always loved Christmas - but this year was exponentially more fun. Maybe it was the snow, maybe it was the simplicity, maybe it was the abundance of time I had to prepare, maybe it was every single snuggly, sweet, fun, smiley moment I had with my children and Justin - whatever it was - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So here it is, in pictures (and a few words):

At the local Olde Fashioned Christmas


On our way to get the tree... in the freezing cold.
Have I ever shared with you the great internal debate I have about where picture captions should go? Above or below?

It was too much excitement for Steele

Baking

Crazy Cousins

Drunken Grandmas
(not really, she'd kill me if she knew I wrote that)

Great food a la Aunt Terri Jo
That's her in the background on the left - people who have hippy suns and crosses and a bazillion orchids adorning their houses always make the best food.

Adia Moon and Groompa Charlie
My favorite picture of Adia ever...

The little ones ready to open presents

My Uncle Mike pretty much rocks when it comes to kids - they love him... 'cause he plays toys with them.

Us.

Me and my big foot

I love that our Christmas mornings aren't completely chaotic.
I have no idea how we accomplish that - but I appreciate it.
Love

My mom opening her new coffee grinder from us

The new bike - hasn't been ridden yet due to snow. But soon.

My grandma playing Wii. Might have been my favorite moment of Christmas.

Humorously, her Mii looked way more lifelike after the kids added a double chin.
She's still complaining about that.

Post Wii

Well, I'm off to a beautiful snowy day! Justin just came out, leaned down to Steele and asked him the question he asks him almost every morning....

Want some coffee?

And Steele answered with the same thing he says every morning when Justin asks him that...

Papa! Kids don't drink coffee!

Ohhhh.... Ok. Justin said.

Christmas Eve Eve Holiday House Tour

Keep in mind I'm under-slept, under-make-upped and over-dried from the cold weather.

And I'm a crazy lady...

Wow. Such an attractive still shot of me.

This crazy girl takes after her mama...


Ok - enough with the funny stuff. I gotta get back to work.

Thoughts on Snow Days

There is really not much one has to do outside of the house.

A person could easily stay inside for days on end and be perfectly content.
Especially at Christmas time.


It's amazing how much knitting I can get done while sitting in the front window watching my kids play in the snow.
It's also amazing how much I can get done when I stay up until 3 am...


Who needs Jazzercise when I can take a two hour walk to the
grocery store pulling 55 lbs worth of kids on the sled?


The fact that my husband will be stuck at work for 6 days is a lot easier to take
with the promise of overtime pay.

(He got to come home for a while today!)

I'm considering entering myself in the snow-suit bundling olympics.
I've gotten my time down to 1/2 an hour for two kids and a mama.


I will pay top price for 3-D Polar Express when I'm desperate enough.
Just so we can be as cool as these people.


Singing Christmas carols while making paper chains is my new favorite hobby.



During sleepovers next to the Christmas tree
don't be surprised when you find your 2 year old sitting in the dark looking at books at 11 pm.


The cold outside has brought warm, snuggly winter and Christmas book reading inside.

Chicken water can be filled and frozen again several times a day.

Laundry piles still manage to remain unfolded even when I have "extra" time.
And I'm ok with that.

There is nothing this mama loves more than simply being with my family.
Singing, laughing, crafting, dancing, baking, reading, eating, playing, snuggling, relaxing.


Thank you Lord, for the blessing of snow days.

Steele Says

Steele was marching around the living room just now when all of a sudden he stopped right in front of me and yelled:

MAMA!!!

What? I said to him.

Then in the sweetest little voice:

I'm sorry..I lost my temperature. I'm very sorry mama. Please forgive me.

And then he marched off again.

Silly kid.

Finished!

So I can't believe it.

I've been feeling happier and happier about it as the evening has gone on.

I finally became a lifetime member at Weight Watchers. It seriously is one of the only things I have completely finished in my life. I think I'm in shock. College? 2 quarters left. Paint in the living room? Ceiling still needs to be finished. Magnetic paint in the kitchen? Still needs one more coat. Red duvet for my bed that I started 7 years ago? Needs to be hemmed and ties put on it. But Weight Watchers? I can check that one off my to-do list. (College got removed from the to-do list a long time ago) Yahoo! I'm still not completely where I would like to be weight-wise, or body-wise, but I reached my goal - stayed there for six weeks and I'm in. Lifetime member. It feels pretty good.

A few updates for you:

• For some reason I am not getting e-mail notifications for all your comments. Hmph. So that means I have to check my blog all the time. Not that I'm a great blogging buddy and get back to every one of you - but still, I do want you to know that I always read them and love every one.
  

• The girls have been rockin' the hen house lately. Three eggs a day! Seriously. That is some major egg layin' goin' on. Kind of a funny side note on the chickens - remember the wreaths Justin was making? He ended up selling 41 of them but left his signs out around town a little too long. The codes officer came and left us his card. Then he noticed we had a dog - um, not licensed. Then he noticed we have chickens. Well, I guess technically you can't have chickens in town unless you live on a quarter of an acre. Fortunately for us, he just told us to get Finney a license and not to worry about the chickens, as long as our neighbors don't mind. I had to chuckle a bit at myself. I'm a true Republican - too much legislation for me. I balk a bit at people telling me what I can do on my property. And don't start in on me - I know perfectly well why we have to have these rules. I don't want my neighborhood turning into hicksville with broken down trucks and rabies infested dogs roaming the neighborhood either, but still....

• We had a meeting with our adoption agency the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our homestudy update will be finished this month and then they'll start showing our profile to birth mothers. Could happen any time after that. Yippee!

• And finally, more on the bird story. I'll see if I have time to post more pictures of it tomorrow. There were these really pretty birds outside our condo in Whistler. They were hanging around so close and Justin was like, "I'll bet these birds will eat out of your hand." So he tried it, and they did. Then he let Steele feed a couple. Then he had the grand idea of putting chips on Adia's head and holding her up in the air. You know - 'cause that's a normal thing to do with 2 year olds I guess. It worked a couple times and then she got freaked out. So he stopped. Ok, ok.... he may have done it one more time after that. But then he stopped. I swear.
  

No!! No!! Please Noooo!!!!

That's me kicking and screaming all the way home from Whistler.

I did not want to come home last night. Not one single bit. In fact, I stayed in my chair in the condo reading until the last possible moment, drinking my candy cane tea. I stayed there so long that we didn't pull out of the driveway until almost half an hour past check-out. Justin said he heard someone say, "Is 104 cleared out yet?" oops. But it was just so calm and cozy. So carefree and void of reality. And my reality, as much as I hate to admit it, is pretty stressful for me right now. I mean, what's a girl to do when she hasn't had her face waxed in weeks? Too much stress!!

Anyway, Whistler was glorious. No snow, but glorious nonetheless. We were bad at taking pictures - but to be honest, we didn't really have many picture worthy moments. We ate, we hung out, we window shopped, I knitted (knat?), I read, the kids played, we went swimming at a cool pool with a death trap whirlpool feature - luckily everyone came out alive, we ate simply, dressed simply - isn't that one of the best parts of vacation? I think it is. It was wonderful and much needed. (I see now that the death trap is called the "Vortex" - no wonder)

We also stopped at a couple stores on the way home. We got this doll bed at Ikea for Adia for Christmas. I think I might paint it and sew a little quilt for it beforehand. We also stopped, for the first time, at Real Canadian Superstore - where people were unfriendly but the prices are crazy good. Ok - maybe not crazy good, but pretty darn good. We got a much needed winter coat for Adia and a few Christmas items. I'll definitely be heading back to the Real Canadian Superstore sometime soon. Isn't that a funny name - I mean, as opposed to what? The fake Canadian Superstore? I think about things like that.

I was going to do a Friday Fill-In for you but this is getting long enough. It doesn't feel like Friday anyway.

Steele and I did a lot of this.

Adia was her usual silly self.

Justin was his normal crazy self - feeding birds off Adia's head.

Of course, no trip would be complete without a visit to the local fire department.

Local Scenery