What I love about January...

I love lots about January...

This might only be the second year that I can say that...

But last year with a brand new baby at home, I decided that hibernating wasn't so bad!

I mean yes I have the 3-4 lessons per day to get my children to...

During which time I run all necessary errands...

but I cut out all the unnecessary ones...

stay in my warm comfy pajamas WAY too long each day...

turn on the fireplace...

don't answer the phone when I know it's someone for vinyl...

(Should I admit that??  Sorry people but I PROMISE to call you back!) 

Get caught up on all the projects that I can't do when life gets crazy again...

Have children who are not at said lessons ask me if they can shower and get in their pj's at 6 PM...

Do all the night time stuff that takes forever...

Get kids to bed...

Work on stuff like this on my trusty laptop...

 

It's been a very productive month... I've finished 60 pages in the last 4 weeks!!

Which is very exciting for me... but a little scary when I just checked my 2010 file of pictures and saw that it contains 10,564 pictures from ONE year... !!  Which means I'm going to have to step it up if I'm going to ever get fully caught up!!

.................

January is also a month of new beginnings and a resolve to do better.  Along with the usual resolutions I decided this year that we needed a family theme... I decided on the word "remember".

(It was basically just a family night lesson... but somehow calling it a "theme" makes me feel like a better mom... :) )

I took it from this talk... and created this to print for each of the kids to hang in their lockers and rooms...

The talk was about "Remember" being the most important word in the dictionary...

He said, “If you remember,”  “you won’t forget to pray. You won’t forget to serve or love. You will remember to read the scriptures. You will not forget your family and friends. You will remember to obey the prophet. You’ll keep in your heart the knowledge that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for us, and you will love him as he loves you. You will remember why you came to this earth. And you will remember you are sons and daughters of God. You can return home to him if you remember to keep his commandments and live your lives the way he has asked.”

I think it will be a perfect family theme for 2011...

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I've loved January... yes it is filled with all of the not so great stuff like freezing temperatures and inversion.  But I'm embracing it... because it seems to be the one month where I don't say, "When life slows down a little I'll get to that".

Yahoo for January...  When I get frusterated with the winter wonderland outside I just go to my "happy place"...  my happy place involves palm trees, cool ocean breezes, cold drinks (lemonade :)) and hammocks...   ahhhhh

O deer...

Anybody else in my neck of the woods have a love/hate relationship with these animals???

On the one hand it's pretty awesome that we have right in our backyard what many people travel to Yellowstone see...

but on the other hand... they keep eating my poor sad little pine trees...

(We've already replaced two of the above trees!)

I sent Saige out to see how close she could get to them. :)  She stopped here, and then hurried back...  because in her words, "they were staring at me... and totally creeping me out!"

They don't scare easily... and although I don't like them eating my "stuff"... I'm also not inviting my hunting brothers over to get a look at the 4 bucks in this herd.

Grrrrr....

New Years Eve...

What better way to welcome in the new year than with 22 of our closest friends...

... who were all very glad that I didn't burst out bawling at random times like last New Years...

(In my defense Lydia was 48 hours old... and I was a little hormonal!)

Here's hoping 2011 is as great as 2010 was!!

Out of the mouth of babes... Nov/Dec

Back in July I saw this book...

on my niece Corynn's blog.

I immediately bought it from Amazon and have not regretted it.

Kids say the cutest things... and we forget... and although I wasn't TERRIBLE at writing really funny things down, I missed a LOT of fun stuff in my girls lives.

But now everyday (or let's be honest I  have to catch up for the last week quite often), but I write a little something that happened that day.  Sometimes they are funny, some just regular, but looking back I've already forgotten some of the fun stuff that I wrote down in just the last few months.

So...  Each month I will share some of the fun ones...  Which usually involve Jadyn... she's just at that age.

Here they are for Nov/Dec...

*I don't remember what we were talking about, but I asked Shane what he was waiting for...

he jokingly said, "Christmas."

Jadyn piped right in with... "ME TOO!"

*We all adore our little Lydia.

Tonight Tayler said, "Oh, Lydia you are the cutest girl ever."

Jadyn piped in, "Tay, is I cute?"

Of course Tayler assured her that she was. :)

*Tonight for dinner Shane was using ketchup,

 Jadyn is obsessed with having corn dogs for lunch,

cut up in small bites and then dipped in ketchup with the stick.

So she said, "is that MY ketchup???"

Completely concerned that Shane was using hers.

corn dogs EVERYDAY... that's what makes Jadyn  happy!

 (Once I was in the store putting them in my cart when this guy came up to me and said, "you feed those to your kids???"  I said, actually I do... he went off about how they shouldn't even allow those to be on the market... after all there isn't even any "corn" in them...  It was an awkward moment, but I put an extra box in my cart just to disgust him!!"

*For family night we had oreos and milk.

The kind of oreos with the chocolate filling.

Jadyn looked at them, and then got a little closer and said, "O GROSS, do those oreos have worms in their middles???"

* Jadyn was sitting by Lisa and Joe @ Church.

Shane was conducting the meeting and he bore his Testimony.

Lisa said, "Do you see your Dad up there?"

Jadyn without looking up said, "Ya, he really likes to talk up there... a LOT!"

*Jadyn was doing puzzles which she is AMAZING at!

She was sitting @ the table and she says, "I am dang good @ puzzles... I mean DANG good!"

And there you have it... there's no way to deny it, she's DANG good!!

(This is Jadyn doing a 100 piece puzzle that I told her was too hard for her... she said, "no it's not" and did every piece herself!  I hope that corn dog Nazi reads this post... )

*Jadyn and Kenna asked what was for dinner.

Shane told them we were thinking about having a picnic in the snow.

At first Jadyn said, "No way, there is way too much snow."

Then she thought about it for a minute and said, "Well I guess it will be OK if we put a blanket down first."

*Saige kissed Jadyn.  Jadyn said, "Oh, gross Saige, You can't kiss me unless we are married... and I don't think we are married."

*We heard a loud crash in the bathroom.

Shane found Jadyn hanging from the knob on the drawer by her underwear.

(She was wearing a nightgown)

 Talk about a  wedgie

 She was very upset, especially since Shane and I were laughing so hard.

And she didn't like that we threw her torn unders right in the garbage.

*Today at church the closing song was "Silent Night,"

I said, "Oh Jady you know this one."

She looked at me and said, "Is I going up there??"

Meaning do I have to go sing on the stand.

When I assured her that she didn't... she sang right out.

and my favorite...

*Today was snowy, the sidewalks were icy.

After leaving from getting our haircut, I asked Saige to hold Jadyn's hand.

Jadyn said, "I want to hold your hand mom."  So I did..

 then she looked up and said, "I'm glad I'm holding your hand...

because you weigh a lot."  

...out of the mouths of babes... :)

Things I missed in December...

How did I post 12 times in December and still miss all this stuff??

It was a BUSY month... that's how!

I took my girls to the Nutcracker... just like every year... it's tradition.  Shane comes with us about every 3rd year... but uses the "someone need to stay home with the baby" excuse as much as he can.  It's just not his favorite...

And this year... I learned that Saige feels the same way...  She pretty much let me know that she HATES going to the nutcracker... who knew???

We read lots of Christmas stories... I wrapped one up to open everyday from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  We made it most days, but had to play "catch up" several nights.

We had Joe and Lisa over for Sunday lunch once again...  It's always breakfast foods... and they are probably sick of that...  and wonder if we ever eat anything else!

We love those guys!

We had 4 dance Christmas parties...

Jadyn had her preschool Christmas Program...

Aren't 4 year olds the cutest?

I helped with Kenna's class party...

and Tayler had her YW's party...

Also had a bunch of friends over for a "Grinch Party"...

(they all have grapes in their lips... in order to "look" like the Grinch)

They watched the movie like that.  And sure had a good time!

We had a party with the Olson's...

(I'm posting this pic to show an example of a REALLY bad photoshop job. :))

Then I forgot my camera at...

a party with the Carlsen's...

Our Ward Party...

(which was a big deal since I was in charge of that as activities Chairman - after which I was released... it's been almost 5 years... I shed no tears. :))

The Falslev Family Christmas Party...  Shane's immediate family... held at a church... 

(it was ours and the Davis's turn to be in charge of this one.)

The kids had fun... and loved that Santa came and brought them an early present...

We went sledding at my parents house...

Then there was our friend party...

Filled with yummy food at Firehouse, and serious laughs during the White Elephant exchange!

And a late night playing games with Kimi and Jeff...

their little guy is adorable... and although Lydia has 2 1/2 months on him, I bet you can't tell. :)

Add in all of the Aggie Games...
A dance performance night...

and regular activities like dance, piano and gymnastics lessons...

then Bishopric and Tithing Settlement...

and we had NOT ONE free night from the 1st - 22nd.

So on the 23rd we bailed on the Aggie Game and had a night at home.  With pizza, books, a movie, and the whole family slept under the Christmas tree.  (Shane and I got the couches, and Lydia stayed in her crib... but the girls actually moved the presents in order to be UNDER the tree.) 

It was definitely busy... like I'm sure your holidays were...  but it was magical and perfect, and I wouldn't have changed any of it!

Hope your December was just as fabulous.

Christmas Fun...

So it's a new year, with new goals, and a new start.

I've exercised the last two mornings...

(I had been putting that off for months because I thought it would make a fabulous New Year's Resolution.)

I'm hurting, but I think I might even do it again tomorrow... so I'm off to a good start,

Kenna exercised with me before school... she is tough!

Like a rock really...

she did all her push-ups in REAL push-up style with her body straight as an arrow, and she touched her nose every time... and then asked, "can't you do that mom?"

 So I'm feeling a little behind in the exercise department and in my blogging because I was having so much fun enjoying all the Christmas Stuff that I never got around to posting about it...

Oh, and I spent the entire month eating WAY too much food!

Which is why I am going to exercise 4 days a week for the next year...

I'll let you know when I can do awesome push-ups like Kenna!!

(Don't hold your breath...)

But anyway...

Christmas Eve Lunch was at our house.  We had about 18 which is a small crowd for our family now.

Normally we do a dinner, but it worked out better for some of the families to do it early...

and I quite enjoyed it.

We had a great meal, spent time with the family...

and then had time to do stuff with our little family that night.

We've loved having Jeff, Kimi and Trey here for Christmas...

Lydia pretty much likes her cousin Trey too...

yep... she's forward...

After all the fun was done, 

the girls performed their "annual Christmas Dance" for us.

Then since it was only our immediate family we played "chimes"...  We did pretty good, but might have done better with a bigger group. ( Chimes is a a family tradition that my siblings and I recall with mixed emotions.. :)  This year I offered to pull them out before everyone went home... and everyone pretty much ignored me... So we didn't play as a "group" :))

Then... I had a lot of fun and pulled both Kenna's and Tayler's teeth out...

Kenna's because it was Christmas Eve and we wanted to sing her "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"... and mainly because it was so loose that she wouldn't brush it... and it was gross!

Tayler's... because the orthodontist has been telling us for over a year to get it out or we would need it pulled... and I'm cheap like that!!

Tayler was in agreement...  Kenna WAS NOT... but they both look happy here, and the tooth fairy and Santa got to come the same night!!!  :)

We played games, read Christmas stories, and read THE Christmas story from Luke...

 and then opened one present before bed.

This year it was Tayler's present...

She MADE all of these PJ bottoms by herself...

one pair in school... and then she did a YW value project by finishing the rest.

They looked ADORABLE!

It was only 8... but they were all anxious to get to bed... so we didn't complain.  We set out the milk and cookies, left "reindeer snacks" on the front walk and they were off for giggles and fun in Tayler's room.

...

Christmas morning the girls called Shane's cell phone to wake us up @ 7...

Sure enough when we checked Santa had been there and they were pretty excited to get downstairs to see what he had brought...

.

After checking out all of the Santa stuff, we had breakfast, got ready for the day and then opened presents...

one at a time in our house.  It takes lots longer and I love it that way.

It gives us time for everyone to see what we got and give thanks for each others thoughtfulness and hard work.

Oh, and I don't save one piece of paper!!

We had lunch at my parents later, opened more presents there and had a fabulous day!  My favorite gifts "to give" of the day were the 2 blog book that I had printed.  One of Tayler's blog for the last couple years and one of mine.  I wasn't sure that the price would be worth it at first, but I was pleasantly surprised... totally love those books and they will be  a forever keepsake.  (I used blog-2-print, if you live close and want to see them I will be happy to share them with you. :)

It was pretty fun giving Tayler her 1st cell phone too...  I guess she was "suspicious" that she might be getting one... but the look on her face when her present started ringing under the tree was pretty priceless. 

Lydia's stuff...

Jadyn's...

 Kenna's...

Saige's...

Tayler's...

Shane got an awesome Brookstone massager, lots of ties, gift cards etc.

I got "Lightroom", new pyrex dishes, a snuggie :) (because I've never made fun of those before), games, scarfs,and way too much more stuff.

It was a fabulous day.

It was a fabulous Christmas Season...

One that we will remember and cherish for many years to come.

I'm sad it came and went so fast...