Monday, December 30, 2013

A 2014 Goal

During 2013, I didn't blog as much as I liked, let Facebook do a lot of my talking for me. I am placing a goal in for 2014 to try to blog 2 to 4 times a week. I know I post the same pictures I do on facebook, but I want to start storytelling again. Telling of what the girls are doing, what they are saying, and why that picture was taken. We have big things coming in 2014, we have 2 big girls, we want to take vacations, we want to remodel our house, we would love to sell and build a new house, we are looking at other vehicles --so I can carry around my nieces and nephews comfortably, we are growing together as a family, we are growing in our faith, we are learning, Ava will be busy with her activities, and I am hoping Hailey begins a few of her own.

To finish out 2013, the girls are doing great, Ava is learning starting to become interested in the days of the week, her letters/numbers, and learning different things. She is becoming more interested in trying to read and being read to. She is finding her faith at church with her little friends and loves reading her bible. Her kindle is full of sight letters/words, connect the dots, memory games and other learning games. Hailey is speaking!!! She barely said 6 or so words before November, she is now saying 'almost' sentences and more phrases. She is now saying more and trying to pronounce and copy cat Ava's words. I am happy about this. I didn't know why she wasn't speaking yet but she is now. She is still my silent little booger, only speaking when she feels she needs to but she has her moments of chatter. She is almost potty trained, which is great for the pocketbook.

I turned 30!! It wasn't scary, it didn't hurt, but its official now. I am in my 30s. It came and went fairly easy, Kenny worked through it and I was home with the girls. Kenny and I have a night out courtesy of my sister taking the girls after he turns 30.

I found out that not everyone in your circle of family and friends deserves to stay there, I can do without those that shouldn't be there. 2013 made me jump back and look first before trusting someone that should automatically be trusted in my opinion. Family should be able to take care of each other forever and any time its needed.  I have distanced myself from those that I know will do no good for me and my family. I have formed friendships with people that I think will be in my life for a long time and I don't need a lot of people in my circle, just those that I know I can trust, love, and rely on. I have reconnected with family that I once lost touch with. I have lost touch with family that I don't connect with anymore. As always I am in connection with my sisters at least a handful of times during week, without them sometimes I don't know what I would do.

In 2013, Kenny and I celebrated 9 years together and 5 years of marriage. I feels like I have been with him forever. I had a long term relationship before Kenny and honestly that doesn't hold a light to what I have with Kenny. I believe our marriage has grown, we are friends, we hang out, watch sports, work on projects together, we have our moments but they don't last too long, we talk them out get our differences out of the way accept each other for who we are and move on to the next thing. I have seen so many young marriages just fall apart and I am thankful we work on ours instead of giving up. I am thankful that we don't sit in silence wishing we could talk....I don't think he would have a choice...I would talk whether he wanted to listen or not. I get a feeling that I will explode if I can't tell him something.

In 2013, we finally got to the point of no morning naps, no bottles, and 2 little girls that understand rules so we returned to church. With Hailey over a year old and Ava almost 4, I was confident I could do it on my own. So instead of waiting on Sunday morning if Kenny had a good night at work and could go to help me with the girls, or not going when he was at work we began going together no matter what. Ava began children's church and Hailey began going to the nursery. Kenny and I have been able to sit and enjoy the Sunday sermons and I have learned more about my faith in the last year than I have in my lifetime and it has really helped shape the way I do a lot of things and think about a lot of things now. I take the time to think of what I should be doing and watch what comes out of my mouth, especially with parenting my 2 little girls.

So I think blogging more and sharing the stories of our family will be a good thing for us all to look back and look at all of our memories. I know the girls know how much we love them and how much we love each other but they will one day get to read our family story.

Playroom

So after a month of working slowly on this room, when we are home we have finally moved all the toys to the new playroom. I took the week of Christmas off and we were given enough in gift cards to get them rugs and finished the painting.

      

It is so nice to have our living room back after 4 years of toys everywhere. They are allowed to bring toys down but have to take them back up at the end of the day. So far so good.

Now I have an empty foyer that desperately needs repainted and a small table and some decorations. I believe the next few months I am going to have a lot of time spent in painting and decorating. I have been pining decorating ideas like crazy. I am so excited though over all the possibilities that are coming. I believe in no time we will finally have it the way we want it...minus the 2 story part...still waiting on my rancher. My knees have really been feeling the stairs these past few days, moving items up and going up to play with the girls.


Saturday, December 14, 2013

And we have snow

It's not even officially winter yet and this has been one of the coldest December's I can remember in a long time. The past few December's it has been 60's almost the whole way through. No jackets on Christmas day and easy travel. This year hasn't started off too well if you don't like snow. We are working on our 3rd snow storm and the girls are loving it. 

    

4 years and 2 years

Well they may think that they are 16 and 14 but they are really on 4 and 2. Our babies had a great birthday party and lots of fun with all their friends. The attitude of a 4 year old and the terrible 2's....wow...but we are getting through it. My babies are not babies anymore and trust me it hurts, knowing that no more little ones will be in the house, but we are enjoying our 'big girls' and all the new things that can happen because of no babies in the house. We are doing more activities, going to new places, and able to travel.


 







Swim Lessons....

Our little fish got to enjoy swim lessons this fall and will continue this spring, hoping by summer she is a swimmer. She loves the water and has scared her daddy and I on more than one occasion trying to swim on her own. The swim lessons are indoors and not too far from the house which is great. She loves them, but 4 weeks was not enough just a taste of it. I cannot wait for her to begin again.

    


Update: Potty Trained, kinda

Well you got to love the 2 year old but we are getting there. She has been in pull ups but peeing on the potty. She will go a week do nothing, and then for days will use it. She really loves using public restrooms and using the potty at everyone else's house but our own. So I am just rolling with it. I was hoping by Christmas we are about 80% there but I dont want to pressure her and have her bulk on the idea of it. She treats her pull ups like panties, so that isn't an issue. We are just waiting on her.

Disney Junior Live

We got the girls a big birthday present this year. Disney Junior was doing a tour for Sofia and Jake and we got tickets to watch it. They loved it and I cannot wait to take them to other events. The performance was good, they did a good job lip syncing and dancing. Ava was amazed. Hailey danced.

Before the show we visited the chocolate factory, which we plan to make another trip in the spring there to enjoy a few more moments with our girls. We were watching time before the play so didn't stay too long.

 





Our House

So the house didn't sell, although it got more showings than we could have expected. Not a lot of feedback, so we aren't sure why it didn't sell. We got a lot of 'lovely home, just not for us'

This winter though we are giving it a little bit of a makeover so that we can make it home for us, in case it doesn't sell and we are here for more years than we really want to be. We are in the process of making one of our unused upstairs bedrooms into a playroom for the girls, this will get their toys out of our living room and give them their own space.

       

I think the yellow really brightens it up and they have their own chalkboard. I have pinned so many ideas on how to decorate it, but first I have to get Christmas out of the way. Funds will be easier once I stop spending it on them and all my nieces and nephews, buying for kids is addicting.....

Once the painting is finished, I want to add a few rugs and then move their toys up there, hopefully in time for all the new stuff Santa will be bringing. I can finish decorating once the New Year begins but the most important step is to get all their toys up there and get them into the rhythm of playing mostly in that room.

Next we would like to work on our kitchen, my husband has big plans and I think if we keep having these snow days, they will be worked on soon. We would love to put down tile floor, a nice backsplash behind our stove and new countertops. I think this may help with selling but it will also help us, our kitchen is so outdated, 20 years, and we are looking to bring it up to date and brighten the cabinets.

I am also going to be working on some painting and our master bathroom. Its so plain, white walls and no decor, so I have been pinning some great ideas and hope to put them to play soon.

The girls will be moving upstairs to their own room in the spring acrossed from their playroom so I cannot wait to decorate that for them. It has taken years for us to get to this point. Working hard pays off but it can take so long. I am so thankful we are finally at this point. Now for all these projects to actually happen.