Happy New Year!

This is my 100th post, and it seems fitting that it falls on New Year's Day.

It's that time of year where we feel like we can wipe the slate clean and have a fresh start.

This year I want to celebrate the small things, and really LIVE my life. No more excuses. I want to be my best self and stop worrying so much. If there are things that are bothering me, I want to change them. I'm going to stop being so hard on myself. I want to be more relaxed and a bit more spontaneous. I want to wake up every morning and say to myself, "life is good".

2007 was a good year for me and my family. I'm glad to say our "ups" outnumbered the "downs" and I feel like we grew a lot together (and grew in number as we added another Dodson to our clan). We are going to set some family goals this year and I will be optimistic that we can accomplish them.

So here's to a great 2008!

Also, today is my oldest brother Jeremy's birthday! What an old man you are Jer, but one cool fella! Wish we were there to celebrate with you.

Flabergasted

Could anyone tell me what would inspire a 5 year old to take a load of gold fish crackers, stuff them in a sock, crush them up, and then twirl and shake said sock around the living room?

My only guess would be that the freshly vacuumed carpet looked too clean?

This is my life.

December In Pictures

I took down my Christmas decorations today, which is always a sad day for me, but refreshing to have things cleaned and packed away again. I always think of the song from "The Forgotten Carols" by Michael McLean, "I cry the day that I take the tree down". I feel like there is an empty space in my heart for a few days.

We had a very nice, low key Christmas, and as I was uploading some pictures from that morning I had others from earlier this month as well. So here is a little bit of our (or the kids anyways) December in pictures:

-Snow Day!!!!-

-The Morgster relishing his new found balance-

-Kendle may have a future in architecture-

-Who knew licorice was this good?-

-Really Santa, I've been good this year I swear!"

-Santa's little helper-

-Christmas morning-

I always kick myself that I don't take more pictures of the fun things we do as a family. Watching Morgan on Christmas morning was like revisiting Kendle at that age. It is such a delight to watch the happiness in their eyes and the fun this time of year brings. It has been an amazing year and I'm sad to see this month coming to a close so soon. December always leaves us much too quickly.

Does Santa still make house calls for sick kids?

Since early yesterday morning we've been dealing with the flu. I'm hoping it's just a 24 hour bug since Kendle seems to be feeling better and hasn't had anything come up since around 2:00 this morning. She woke up wanting to eat some toast which is a good sign. I'm sure the fact that it's Christmas tomorrow has sped up her recovery quite a bit. I'm just hoping the same fate isn't in store for the rest of us. I don't think I would be able to cope with being sick two Christmases in a row. We will probably not be having Riley's family over tonight because his sister has a two week old baby and I don't want to be responsible for getting anyone else sick. So we will be having a quiet Christmas Eve (which I don't mind) and getting our things ready for tomorrow. Our Christmas tradition is that we get up early (umm, early might be an understatement) and do our stockings and presents and then jump in the car in our pj's and drive down to my parents to do gifts with them. It is really fun. We have the car all loaded up the night before with our bags to stay the night there, and all of the gifts we are taking down. It's only about a 45 minute drive to Irrigon and they are usually just getting up and around by the time we get there. My mom always makes a yummy breakfast and we lounge around and watch the kids play with their toys.

So hopefully Santa doesn't catch the flu bug too, and all will be well come Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas to all!