My feb-olutions...

About 3 weeks ago I was complaining about my procrastination issue...problem more like it! :) Well, I had decided that I would write out some february resloutions...since I missed the boat on New Years...but I have forgotten about it pretty much all month long. 

Its FUNNY how you can so easily forget things that are tough to do, like reading your scriptures, praying, writing resolutions, LOL, exersicing, feeding your kids (JK!)....yet its SO easy to remember to do the easy things...like sleeping, eating yummy not-good-for-you snacks, hanging out with friends, READING great books, watching endless ridiculous TV shows/movies, playing board games...ha ha...the list could go on. 

Regardless, my procrastination is ENDING NOW!! ha ha...at least for this...here is my list:

Spiritual:

-make scripture study more meaningful and regular. This includes reading a few pages each day (at least 2), studying one verse or phrase in depth, and studying characters and words from the index (I started at A, I'm still on A, ha ha).

-more frequent dedicated and meaningful personal prayer (pretty much, just DON'T fall asleep before you finish, lol)

-Help the family remember Family Home Evening ( click HERE to learn more about it and read the resource manual). 

-Family Prayers and scriptures (3 vs per day with the kids...I know, HUGE goal, hey?) You gotta start little...it may just take us 5 years to finish the Book of Mormon, ha ha.

-Be more patient and kind, specifically with my kids. Do this by finding ways to serve them everyday, taking time to spend special time with them every day, and staying calm in frusturating situations. Find better and more consistent ways to work with disciplining A.

-Potty train R (???...should I take this one back? ha ha...no one hold me to it, K?)

Physical

-exersice (daily hopfeully, but 3 day a week minimum....lose at least 10 pounds...try for one pound a week)

-Continue organzing daily, weekly and monthly. Including meal planning at least one week in advance.

-Straighten things every day, and clean one room well each day.

-start reading some good books (maybe a series?)

-have a snack ready for when A and daddy get home

There is ONE more thing....but I'm not going to list it, because I have no control over it...but it MAY have something to do with babies....lol...

Well, thats my list. Hopefully I can stick to it all year! Well, I think I should plan a month at a time, thats more realisitic. So, scratch that, hopefully I can stick to it all MONTH!! LOL

so I am alive...

I just haven't been writing as regularily as I would like too. R has been really sick...just a bad chest cold, that he probably caught from A being in preschool or something. 

In other R news...he has been learning more and more colors, and commonly gets blue, red, green and yellow right now. We are attempting potty training, just for a week or two, to see if he is ready. He is the one who instigated it, and he definitely seems ready, so we will see. He just seems so young! I woulnd't have started, but he keeps asking...so we shall see how it goes. So far, so good...he's been doing really well, and LOVES his Buzz Lightyear pull-ups. 

With A, it took quite a while, and we had to bribe him with fancy underwear, snacks, sticker charts...anything and everything you could imagine. With R, he just loves positive attention so much that all we have to do is clap for him! Its hilarious...he just loves it when we clap after he goes...ha ha...but everyone in the house has to be clapping too, no matter where you are. 

R is also SO polite. Even in the middle of the night, he'll wake up, and if we get him water or a pillow, or whatever he needs he always says "thankyou mom, thankyou dad...night night". He says "thankyou" more frequently than any other word. 

He loves his brother, A...and does and says everything that A does. 

We rearranged their rooms, so they sleep in bunkbeds, and share one room. The other room is now a toy room, which they LOVE and play in all day.

A is REALLY loveing his preschool, and learning a ton. Way more than  I could teach him. I could only hold his attention for so long...so it was hard doing "learning time" with him too often. But as his new preschool he has been learning SO much. He always comes home and tells us teh wonderful things he's been learning. 

This month they are learning about community service workers...and he told me that he got to meet a REAL nurse last time...ha ha..he was pretty excited. I guess he didn't realize that he's met several REAL nurses, as we have quite a few nurse friends, ha ha. I guess he's never seen them in uniform, so it doesn't count. LOL.

In other news...we have cleaned out and rearraranged the basement, so there are NO toys down there at all. We got some weights and a rebounder and stuff set up, so I plan on working out while watchign TV now. Hopefully that works, because nothing else has yet, ha ha.

There are some good and exciting things going on with us too, and when they are more official I'll anounce it to the blogosphere, lol. 

Daddy is enjoying work, and we are really enjoying having exchange students, and how much money we've been able to save. Daddy mentioned the other day that maybe it would be good for us to stay in lethbridge, because of everything we have here. 

We really are blessed....we have super cheap rent, a beautiful home, good jobs...we have been saving a TON of money lately...so it would be difficult to find such a sweet deal somewhere else. So we are thinking about how to make that work...because this job definitely isn't it....but another position within this company might work. 

Anyways...a lot to think about..and a LOT of exciting desicions to make. I know that if we keep praying, that things will keep working out for us, and we will blessed in whatever it is we are supposed to be doing. 

R's longest sentence yet! well at least one of them....:)

after A passed R a piece of orange he said: "thank you A pass it oranges to me"....SO cute to watch him learn and grow...

HOPE

I'm sitting here listening to the sound of my children not sleeping....lol....reading other mom-blogs. I feel very lucky, well...luck has nothing to do with it really. I am blessed, truly blessed,for the life that I have had, and continue to have. 
I think that everyone has trials along the way, as have we....but as I have learned to lean on the Lord more and more, life seems to get easier and more manageable. 


My #1 blessing is my wonderful husband. When I got married, young, happy and in love....I knew that I had found everything I wanted in a man. 


Truly. I wrote a list of all of the things that I felt would encompass the perfect husband, and he was only missing one small point, well half of a point, having a love of music and being musically talented (can anyone guess which half he didn't have? :) Well...5 years later after seeing innumerable divorces, tragic divorces....many of close friends, even family....it saddens my heart to see it all, but increases my gratitude in knowing that the Lord sent such a wonderful man to me. 


Many times I think back our life together, and how it all started out...me a stubborn 16-year old girl....falling in love at such a young age. I definitely regret many of the mistakes I made, although they did make me stronger...but through all of my mistakes, I wonder how I ended up with this man. 
Out of all of the men, well boys really, that I dated....how I dodge SO many bad bullets...and ended up with THIS man. The man of my dreams....the perfect man for me.


My dad would sometimes call my life "charmed", everything good would happen to me. But maybe thats not the case, maybe its that I try and focus on the good...and am blessed in return. I do have  a lot of blessings. Too many to count, or name....but some big ones would be: 


-my 2 wonderful boys whom I LOVE to watch learn and grow


-our church, the people, our callings...how close it is, the Gospel, those new mormon messages videos (LOVE!)....pretty much everything really.


-our home, and my wonderful in-laws for making it happen (wonderful in-laws in general too, they are amazing)


-my family....whom I love conversing with on a continua basis. There are so many fun things that we do together, playing games, singing, lazer-tagging (lol, but true!)....but my favorite thing by far is the visiting. I hate to go to sleep when I'm there, I just want to stay up and talk all night! We have the most stimulating and interesting conversations....oh, and I also love long distance plans, for the same reason, ha ha.


-We have always been blessed financially....never overly wealthy, but we've never had to worry too much about money. This is also in part by my wonderful husband who is amazing with money, and has taught me a LOT about it. I've come a long ways from the 18-year old girl who would spend all of her money and just a mere few months....


There are SO many things that I love....and am eternally grateful for. These blessings are what keep me going, and always assure me that the Lord is with me every step of the way...even in the hard times. 


 I love many of the videos found on lds.org....but this one touched me today...

on a happy side note....R was in the tub this evening and told me that he needed to go potty...and he went! Happy Day! looks like potty training might start early with this one.

quick morning note

I love listening to A's prayers, he says such cute and hilarious things, they always make me laugh. So as part of his prayer this morning:

"...thank you for my wonderful family. My heart is filled with love. Thank you that I have so many toys and that Christmas is not about gifts but about sharing and serving others...."

ha ha....awww....he's a sweet spirit for sure!

My children are geniuses....

so.....2 amazing things today from my two AMAZING boys.
I just have to say, my children are geniuses....seriously....ha ha. 
I have been trying to teach A spelling, and writing and what not for ages. Of course, he never really payed attention, and was not learning a thing from me. 
I felt like preschool would be a good idea for him, for one, because he was BEGGING me to go ("MOM, all of my friends go....I don't want to go to the school that you just do at home with me, I want to GO to school"), and for two, so that he could start to learn these sorts of things, in case I decide to start him in kindergarten in the fall(which I'm currently very undecided about). 
So....back to the beginning again, he has not learned a THING from me...but he has tried, sometimes. One of my friends kids had gone to preschool and learned a ton about letter recognition, and he could even spell his own name. 
My goal at the end of this preschool semester was that he would learn to spell his own name. And lo and behold....he learned in the FIRST day!! No joke. It was wobbly for sure, and not all on one line....but CRAZY! He learned that all in one day? Then he comes home telling us all about polar bears, where they live, how they sleep etc. 
And todays amazing thing? He drew a rocket ship. An amazing rocket ship....the right shape and size, with fire coming out the bottom, a door with a knob, and a window. And just a week ago, he would try and draw one, and it would look like chicken scratch. He's a genius. Period. ha ha.


Okay....so amazing number 2?? 


Every once in a while R would be holding something and say "red", or "blue" or "green". Lately it seemed like he would even get the colors right too, but I just shrugged that off, thinking that he just lucked out somehow. 
Well, today in church, someone hands him 2 dinosaurs, a red one and a green one...and he turns to me and says "red" showing me the red one, and "green" showing me the green one!!!! He turned to his daddy, and did the same thing! I was sooooo.... SURPRISED! 
Thinking again that this is the craziest thing ever, as most kids his age don't even speak that much yet....I tested him when we got home...on a TON of stuff...and sure enough, he's a GENIUS! ha ha ha ha ha
I Love my kids. 
Oh, and I know, I haven't new years resolved yet, but don't worry...its Coming....before february...I promise...what's that word again? procrasti- what? ha ha...not me, not me at all.

Blog out!
p.s. I just read this a loud to daddy and he said it sounded rather "gloaty", not that thats even a word....lol...so sorry, I'm not trying to gloat, I just LOVE to talk about my kiddos....what else is there to talk about really? LOL

Okay...so maybe I'll start some february resolutions...

I've thought a lot about resolutions....what things I wanted to change spiritually, emotionally, physically...and I've come up with a lot. 
BUT it ended there. ha ha...thats all I did, just think about it, not stat anything...not write anything down, just think about it. I've never been big into new years resolutions anyways, only because I feel like we should always be looking at out life and revamping things, and working towards being better in all aspects of our lives all year round. But January is a good time to start, and its been a few months since I've really sat down and re-written goals I have for the future. 
So, I guess what I'm saying is, by the time I'm done actually deciding what I want to do, and writing out how to accomplish it...they are going to have to me my "February resolutions"...ha ha, but thats okay, because I'm sure I'll so this again in a few months.
I think if I blog about it, it will help me be responsible for those goals, and kind of keep me on track all year. So, give me a few days to do some more "thinking" ha ha, and I'll write down all my new goals. 
On New Years eve, some friends of ours went out with us for a wonderful dinner, and what was supposed to be a fun-filled evening of dancing. It ended with a LOT of fun-filled-ness, and a LOT less dancing. We went to an adult dance here in town, that ended up being more of a senior-adult dance. No joke. I was the youngest there by at least 40 years...and everyone there dance EVERY single song either with the 2-step or some form of "quicker" slow-dancing. It was hilarious. 
After a few akward songs, we moved on to the youth dance to surprise and embarass my friend D's teenage son. It worked like a charm! LOL...and I fit in way better there...heck, I pretty much look that age still, ha ha. It was a lot of FUN!
Well, BLOG OUT....and I promise to have my goals written by wednesday, not thursday, no friday...ha ha...maybe one of my goald should be to not be no procastinating. NOT! Only attainable goals here, ha ha.

OUR CHRISTMAS...in a nutshell, a very small one...

 OUR TREE!!!I LOVE it....it smelled good the ENTIRE month of December...and was SO full....it took me almost a full week to finish decorating it. I would keep changing my mind about what I wanted, or how much of one color or whatever...so it took ages to actually finish it. Not to mention the hours it took to get it to stand up semi-straight, thanks to a boatload of fishing line, ha ha.

This may have been my FAVE tree yet....I haven't the heart to take it down, because its so cute...but very dead. So it needs to be done! Maybe this week, if I keep feeling better.

Here is a great close up of a few of my FAVE decorations: 

Since we don't have a mantle, I got the GENIUS idea to hang them over the window, it worked out pretty well, I think.!

It looks much better when its lit up, but the close up pictures didn't work out so well

Our Christmas consisted of 18 (I think?) people all stuck in one house...ha ha...needless to say it was FULL of FUN, food, presents, and always at least a little side dish of DRAMA, ha ha. It was a wonderful time though, I love visiting and eating and playing board games, in fact, I think those are my 3 favorite things to do, besides sleeping, but that never happens anyways.

The kids LOVED being with family, A has a little man-crush on his uncle, well, more like a HUGE one, ha ha. He wouldn't let Uncle J out of his sight the whole time...I feel like a barely saw A the whole time! He was stinkin' hilarious while opening gifts too....he's just so picky, and has a great memory. Like when opening his new Toy Story 3 bike he said "But remember I asked santa for a Spiderman one! Not a toy story one!" ha ha....or "mom I didn't get anything I wanted from santa...all I wanted was a transformers costume" lol...after he opened 6 gifts that we're on his LIST to santa....maybe next year we'll just stick to getting him one thing, lol.

 R was super happy to play with ALL of the toys his little cousins got, and NONE of his, lol...he loved the little horsey that baby B got....he rode on it all day, it was pretty cute. Daddy loved all of his presents, which made me happy. I pride myself in being a good gift-giver, I really try and think of things that people would really enjoy, and I love to watch them open something they really wanted. Daddy also opened his birthday presents, because it was easier that way....oh, and we're still waiting to open all of the Haitsma family gifts, as some are still coming in the mail. Thats the fun with having family spread all over the globe....Christmas lasts a whole month!!!

Over the holidays we also enjoyed our 5TH WEDDING anniversary. It was wonderful. I have to say that I feel more than blessed to have married such a wonderful man. He is funny, smart, driven, ridiculously handsome...and he loves me. So he'd pretty much perfect I think, ha ha. The last 5 years have been wonderful and I'm looking forward to what is in store for us in the upcoming years....LOVE you babe!!

On a side note, we spent our anniversary night up with reuben, getting NO sleep at all...literally none...by far one of the top 3 worst nights in our marriage history. Fun, fun! ha ha...

I'll have to talk about my new years next post, because this is getting way too long, ha ha....so I'll just end with  a funny story from primary today. A new mom was introducing her son to the junior primary classes, and explaining to them that he has autism. She was talking about the similarities and differences between them and him, and she mentioned that one was talking. "Like your younger brothers and sisters at home, you know, they might not talk yet either. Thats just like A, he is just learning to talk." One child, M, blurts out "OH! My brother has autism, he doesn't talk either!" which starts a wild rampage of all children saying " oh ya, so does mine!" or "we have a baby in our house, she doesn't talk, she must have autism too!"....it was SO CUTE and hilarious!! They just associated not speaking with autism....kids say the darndest things!