Post-Christmas & 2010

Although our Christmas wasn't exactly ideal, the kids had such a blast. We took lots of video but not a lot of pictures! They were so busy opening presents and being overwhelmed that I never stopped to take pictures. Lily was such a doll - she told me that she "didn't see Santa" and I tried to explain in two-year-old terms that you don't see him when he comes to your house. "I'll go see him tomorrow," she said. I let her think that...

Landon enjoyed everything, too! His face looked like a deer in headlights most of Christmas morning. When he got tired of opening presents, Lily would do it for him and say "Oh, Landon...it's a truck for you! That's fun!" She seriously is the best big sister ever and I am SO thankful for them. They love each other like I prayed they would and it's just the sweetest thing. They certainly don't go far without each other!

I'm looking forward to 2010 and although I don't have a tangible new year's resolution, I did make a list of all the things I would like to accomplish this year:

• Worry less: I spend a lot of time worried about unknowns, other people, and things that won't mean anything in 5 minutes, much less 5 years. I've learned that you can't change people and you can help them, but they don't always accept it. My Mom told me when I was little that I couldn't save the world. I never believed her until now.



• Love more: I love my life, my husband, my children. But, after the past few months, I love them even more. I kiss and hug them more. I hold them tight. We sing songs and dance around the house. We "cook" dinner together. We make animals out of playdoh. We tickle each other. To me, love is about giving yourself completely to someone else, including your children. I have done that, but I hope to do that even more in 2010.



• Spend less: I hope to gain some of my husband's views about buying "things". He never buys anything (I take that back, he does...he just doesn't buy a lot of small things...he buys one big thing after he has thought about it for 5 years!)...I've grown up in a society/lifestyle that anything I've ever wanted ("things"), I could go to the store and buy it. And although I strongly believe I "need" those things to survive, I don't. And I want to try SO hard to realize that the things I've wanted and needed all along are right here beside me: a husband that loves me more than anything, two healthy children who I could not be more proud of, and a house to call home.
  


• Live in the moment: I sometimes catch myself singing the country song "This could be one of those memories..." I think of that song whenever I am in a situation or place that I would like to freeze. You know, like rolling around on the floor with your kids while they wallow all over you laughing and jumping. It's time like that that I think of nothing else but that moment and what it means to me to be able to do that. On a bad day, I catch myself begging for night to fall and for me to crawl in bed asleep so I can try again tomorrow. But, bad days are just that: days. They come, they go...most of the time I don't have two in a row and they are over before I even have time to complain about them. Reminds me of a quote that I love: "No one ever said it would be easy. They just said it would be worth it." It is SO worth it!



• Spend quality time with the kids: Let's face it. I spend a lot of time with my children. But, not all of it is quality time. I have so many other things to do (besides be a parent) that my focus sometimes gets shifted to making dinner or grocery shopping or folding the laundry or checking my email. When I'm with them, I want them to be my focus. And it's SO hard to do that all of the time, but I want to have a goal to do it most of the time. I want the moments of them pulling at my pants leg to be few and far between because it means that I'm already engaged with them so they don't have to come ask for my attention. I want to spend more quality time with them doing what they want to do when they want to do it. Life is so much happier that way...

I have a few pictures of the kids over the last few weeks that I'll post as soon as I get a minute! :)