Crazy, Crazy

It is 8:45 on Sunday night. It is the first time all day I have had some peace and quiet and a chance to sit down and relax. Days like today are crazy, crazy. Not just plain crazy. Crazy, crazy. Riley left for a work convention in Portland this morning and will be gone until Tuesday and my thread of sanity is slowly coming unwound. It is so contradictory and at odds that I can love my children SO much, yet at times like this I just want to lock myself in my room and never come out. I adore them, I really do. But for some reason whether it's the stage of life they are all in, just being tired and cranky, the cycle of the moon - I don't know! They have just been absolute little monsters and I don't feel one bit guilty about putting that down on my blog. It is a miserable feeling when everyone is grumpy and crying and you just want them to be happy and play and get along. I don't want to have to be chasing the twins out of the bathroom and my bedroom and the fridge and the kitchen pantry and the dishwasher every five seconds. I don't want to have to constantly be reprimanding Kendle and Morgan for fighting and threatening them that they better get along "or else". Having patience is just not cutting it. I finally had to put the three boys all down for bed super early because there was no other solution to the chaos. After I could tell they had fallen asleep and I was feeling  a bit guilty, I went in to make sure they were tucked in and comfortable for the night. They have the most angelic cherubic little faces that just look so adorably peaceful when they are asleep. It almost makes me forget about the twins climbing out of the bath this morning and getting their toothbrushes and toothpaste and squirting toothpaste all over inside the bathtub. And I can almost forget that they both dipped their hands into their pudding I gave them for dessert and then ran their hands through their hair as if it were hair gel. And I suppose I can almost laugh about the fact that they squirted lotion all over my bedroom carpet this morning, because at least they were following my example of not wanting to have dry flaky winter skin. I honestly don't know if they are doing these things to be naughty or if in their little minds it just makes sense to try and do those things.

So I'm going to bed early tonight under no illusions that I will get a good night sleep because I'm sure someone will come in and wake me up. I hope my love for my kids can supersede the frustration and the crankiness that threatens to take over and that I can keep trying to be the mom I want to be. Good night.

The 12 Days of Christmas

So back tracking a bit back to early December and one day my mom came up and delivered a whole big box full of presents for our family. One to open each day until Christmas. This had to be so much work for her to put together for our family and all of my siblings as well. She said although it did take a big effort it was lots and lots of fun planning and shopping for everything. All of the gifts were centered around the family and she accompanied it with a nice letter with instructions and some heartfelt words about how much her and my dad love all of us and how family is the most important thing and how they wanted us all to feel that this holiday season.

The kids were seriously over the moon excited to open something up each day. We opted to open the gift in the morning before everyone went on their respective ways. Each individual gift was also labeled with a nice little thought and instructions or ideas for what to do with it.

Some of the gifts included:
-Christmas CD and fudge
-Christmas coloring and activity books
-Cookie mixes, recipes, and cookie cutters
-ornaments
-Christmas movies
-Pancake mix, syrup, and Spam - yes my family (minus me) loves spam
-Cute Christmas bowl filled with candy
-Christmas books (My mom bought the Night Before Christmas where you can record yourself telling the story. Our kids love listening to grandma's voice.)
-Hot cocoa and candy canes
-Money (to use to do a good deed with)
-Money (just for us to use for something fun)
-Pajamas for all the kids

The pajamas were the very last gift the kids got to open on Christmas Eve when their grandma and grandpa were here. I got them some slippers too to open with them.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the kids opening these gifts every day. It was seriously so fun and gave them something to look forward to. It added lots of extra Christmas spirit around our house and a few of the things coincidentally coincided with things we were doing with our service advent. Pretty neat!

Here are the kids in their new pj's on Christmas Eve:

We really appreciated the effort by my parents and for making our holidays merrier and brighter!

This Year

We sat down as a family on Monday night for FHE and wrote down some personal goals and also some family goals we wanted to try and accomplish during 2012.

*Family Goal:
Across the board one of our big family goals we agreed on was to read the Book of Mormon as a family this year. So far it has been quite a challenge to get everyone to sit down together, but we have made it 4 nights in a row so far and hopefully we can keep it up. I know it will be crazy once Kendle starts basketball and Riley gets into soccer season so we might have to read during breakfast or whenever we can squeeze it in if there are nights that don't work. I saw this cute idea on pinterest for some fun rewards when a chapter is completed.

Hopefully throwing some of these fun rewards in

will keep us motivated and having fun together.

*Fitness Goals:

Riley and I both set some fitness goals for ourselves and really want to go on a cruise or other vacation if we can accomplish them. (For privacy sake I won't put down what they were, but I'll just say we are aiming high.) I think that is some pretty good incentive to think about on the days I don't want to work out.

*Financial Goal:

We set a goal to pay off our cars. We are really close - so I think it is pretty attainable if we buckle down.

*Some places that the kids said they would like to visit for a family vacation:

Morgan said an indoor water park and Kendle said the Grand Canyon. I think the Grand Canyon might be a stretch, but who knows?

*Some things we'd like to learn or be better at:

Sarah - photography (taking more and better pictures and documenting them better in general)

post edit: I'm also adding that I want to practice shooting my gun more and get more comfortable with it.

Riley - Handy man skills

Kendle - Baking

Morgan - Fishing

Cooper and Kale - They obviously didn't make a goal, but I'll put down getting potty trained for them!

Some bad habits we'd like to break:

Sarah - skipping breakfast

Riley - losing temper

Kendle - talking back to mom and dad

Morgan - yelling at mom and dad

Some good deeds we'd like to do:

Sarah: Babysit for friends so they can go out without having to pay a babysitter

Riley: Help a stranded motorist

Kendle: Help an elderly person clean their house

Morgan: Take cookies to friends

And to help us with all of these great things we want to accomplish day by day, here is our new family motto that I framed and hung by our front door:

I hope this year brings our family closer together, that we learn to be more patient and kind to one another, that we grow wiser and learn from our mistakes, and most of all that we have lots of fun and make memories to last a lifetime.

2011 Highlights

I am really pumped for a new year of fresh starts, new goals, and new memories to be made. 2012 came faster than I anticipated, creeping quietly in as Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye. Before I get to some of my personal goals and also some of our family goals for the year, I thought I would first give some props to 2011 and list some of the higher points for our family:

*2011*

Sarah:

20 pounds lost and going strong

Celebrated 9 years of marriage

Treated myself to a new treadmill

Attended her first ever professional soccer match

Went to see Wicked for the 2nd time and loved it even more

Harry Potter

Turned 31 and feeling fabulous.

Riley:

High school boys soccer team won first ever league and regional titles and capped it off with a 4th place finish at state.

Landed a huge account at work that his company has been trying to get for years.

Took his girls club team to a college showcase tournament in Las Vegas.

Said goodbye to coaching club soccer. (for now)

Turned the big 3-0

Got to see one of his favorite soccer players of all time, Wayne Rooney score a hat trick in person.

Kendle:

Played her first season of basketball and loved it. Dad bought her a basketball hoop.

Played softball for the 2nd year in a row and her team took 4th in the end of the year tournament.

Fell in love with all things Wicked

Was the only 3rd grader in her school to receive 3 awards at the end of year assembly -- 2nd place in AR, Student Council, and an excellence in academics award from her teacher.

Got her ears pierced

Turned 9 with a fabulous girly bubble gum themed party

Rollerblades

Undefeated soccer season

Got to do some shooting practice for the first time on Thanksgiving

Mindy Gledhill concert

Santa bringing her a new ipod

Morgan:

First year of swim lessons and loved it

Turned 4 years old and couldn't be sweeter

Planted his own garden and actually got some peas and potatoes to grow

Got to go on a solo trip with dad to a soccer tournament in Seattle and get really spoiled

First set of stitches right between his eyes

Riding a big boy bike and almost ready to take off the training wheels

Taught himself how to do flips on the trampoline

Was the ring leader for sitting around the fire pit and making smores every night during the summer

Fell in love with all things Star Wars

Got to go hunting for the first time with dad and was a trooper

Cooper and Kale:

No more bottles!

Kale got stitches

Went swimming for the first time

Got to start going to nursery at church (not big fans)

Were my tomato pickers during the summer months

Loved the ocean

Learned how to jump on the trampoline and ride their little bikes

Ate 2000+ popsicles

Loved trick-or-treating

Turned 2 years old and devoured their cupcakes

Played in the snow for the first time

Cooper loved Santa, Kale not so much

Started potty training (yay!)

Family:

4th of July parade and BBQ

Beach vacation

New trampoline

Fire pit and smores summer nights

Family pictures

Christmas carriage ride to look at the lights

It was a great year, and I can't wait to see what's in store next!

*Tomorrow I'll be posting my personal and family goals for the year.*

The rest of the week I hope to do some backtracking and catch up on the month of December and all of our Christmas fun. I have lots and lots of pictures to put on here and get caught up.