Already eating.

My baby is 8 months old today...
(Post with 8 month pictures to come later)
He has lately been feeding himself more and more food.
His favorite is a banana.

He also loves roasted sweet potatoes.
And I sure do love him!

Playing

We got to spend time with some of our favorite people yesterday.
Robert and Daisy got to play, and they really seemed to enjoy it. (Aside from it being both of their nap time.)
They are just 2 months apart, and it has always been so fun to see them together.
It's getting really fun now to see them play together and talk to one another.
I just love it.
We had a great time!

 How did these babies grow up so fast?!?!?!?

Goals

It seems so cliche to write down New Years Resolutions.
I've never actually done it before (that I can remember).
I always figured that people that have New Years Resolutions are bound to fail.
This year just feels different for me for some reason. I feel like it's a brand new start, and a fresh year to reinvent myself and my life. I have a good feeling about this year, and I hope it goes well.
I don't have any high, unrealistic hopes for magically transforming myself or my body this year.
I have some (hopefully) attainable goals that I hope to achieve before this time next year.
I want to keep myself accountable, and by having them here I can easily refer back to them. Although, I am considering writing them down in my awesome planner that I have started for this year. That will make it easier for me to see them and refer back to them.

Here they are:

• Read the entire Bible front to back. (I actually started the "Read the Bible in 90 days" back in December and hope to finish that in the next 2 months.)
• Be a better steward of our money the Lord has entrusted us with. (I've laid out a budget for this year, and I hope to stick to it every month)
• Document this year in a scrapbook (I've started Project Life for this year and have already gotten the first week, including a special insert of our anniversary trip, documented)
• Finish Paul's baby book (I can't believe there is only 4 more months to go before he is a year old!!)
• Make smarter food choices (I'm not going to set myself up for failure by following some strict diet that will only last me a week. I want to make better choices everyday for my overall health and for my children so they will be making healthy choices in food as well.)
• Lose 25 lbs. (This is my only goal that I am hesitant to write down. I need to lose a significant amount more than that. But, I know that if I could lose 25 lbs by this time next year, I would feel a lot better about myself.)
• Do a load of laundry at least once every other day (This includes putting away. I can wash and dry clothes every day. But I always wait until it's a mountain full of laundry to put away before I fold anything. This leads to being overwhelmed and it gets put on the back burner. In fact, today I have a mountain of clothes I need to fold....)
• Go on a date with my husband at least once a month (It's easy to let our relationship as a couple fall by the wayside when we are so busy with raising Children. I do not want us to end up like the couples who raise their children and sit across from the table at one another and see a stranger. I married my best friend and I have to always remember that we need time ALONE. I would really like to have a date night once a week, but for right now I am setting a more reachable goal for myself in an attempt to avoid failure.)
• Go to bed with a clean kitchen (I won't say how often, because I know that it won't be all the time. But I want to make a more conscious effort to clean the kitchen and pick up the toys from the living room BEFORE I go to bed. I find that my day just goes better if I enjoy a cup of coffee in a clean kitchen)
• Make up my bed every day (During the week, I normally make the bed everyday. This also helps to make my day smoother and helps me be motivated to clean the house. I rarely, if ever, make up the bed on the weekends. I usually don't do much of any housework on the weekends in order to spend time with my hubby when he is home. I want to start making up the bed every day and being motivated to keep a more tidy house.)
• Be more hospitable (I want to invite more people over to our home to share a meal, dessert, or coffee. I just want to be more hospitable, and my husband wants us to have more people over as well.)
• Stay at home often (This helps with our budget big time. I know that when I drive around a lot it costs us a huge chunk of change in gas money. Not including the fact that when I drive places, I tend to spend more money whether it be on fast food, or just shopping. If I stay home, I save money and my sanity)
• Organize at least one thing a month (I've got a list of areas of the house that need organizing, and that need new methods of organizing. I hope to complete one task every month. I also hope to blog about this with before and after pictures.)
• Utilize my planner (I wrote in my planner every day, only missing a few, for last year. It is so neat to be able to go back and see what we were doing last year and all the little details. I ordered me a personalized planner to use for this year and I hope to use it as well as I did last year, and even better. I am a list maker, and it's great for listing weekly goals and such.)
• Journal about life (I have been better about blogging the last few months. I hope to continue this trend. It's so neat for me personally to go back and read my old posts. I purchased a five-year journal from Amazon and I hope to use that to record life everyday, along with my scrapbook. I started the boys a journal about 6 months ago, and I hope to write in it at least a few times this year. It will be something that I will hopefully be able to keep up and give to them when they move away from home.)
• Maintain a tidy home (I want to be better about picking things up off the floor than I have in the past. I tend to let toys pile up till I can't stand it anymore. Or clothes.... laundry anyone?)

This all reminds me that I've got a mountain of laundry awaiting me and boys that are both napping. So, I'm off.
Till next time,
Me

3 Years

I can't believe we celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary last week.

It seems like we've been married longer, but at the same time it feels like yesterday.

We decided that we needed a trip away without the children.

It was so nice.

We missed the kids, but it helped me to put a lot into perspective.

I love my husband more than I love my children.

I love my boys very, very much.

But, they will not be the ones standing beside me hand in hand as I grow old. 

They will not be there for the ups and downs along the way.

My wonderful husband will be.

Staying at home with my children, it's easy to think they come first. 

It's easy to forget who is really the most important.

And for that, I am not proud.

He is my most favorite person.

I love him so much.

It was nice to get away for a few days and just be with him.

It was peaceful.

We were silly.

We drank A LOT of coffee.

It was nice to have a few days of no cleaning, no cooking, and no worrying about what we needed to do.

We found ourselves many times wondering, "What should we do now?."

But we never got bored.

It was wonderful to enjoy each others company.

I hope we can find the opportunity to do this more often.

 Driving to Gatlinburg

 Visiting our cabin we stayed in on our honeymoon 3 years ago.

 Luckily no one was there at the time, or it would have been weird.

 Eating delicious food at the Old Mill.

 Mmmmm delicious food.

 We waited for 10 minutes for the people to move their car so we could park at the hotel.

 Outside our room, in the SNOW.

 Hotel lobby.

 Hubby in the snow.

 Warming up with some delicious coffee in the lobby. We had A LOT of the free coffee.

 Relaxing.

 Eating delicious pizza for lunch at Gondolier's.

 Our cheapest meal. It was so delicious!

 Mountain view on the drive to Gatlinburg.

 I had a WONDERFUL trip.

It was EXACTLY what I needed.

It was a reviving of the wonderful relationship with my husband. 

And just the right way to start the new year.

We are now home and enjoying our newly cleaned living room (With no Christmas decorations).

I am enjoying listening to the sound of the dishwasher as both boys have been asleep and it is quiet here.

They were definitely happy for us to be home.

And we were happy to be reunited.

Now it's time to work on my New Year GOALS, Not resolutions, but hopefully attainable goals.

I've got a list, and it will probably be a post for later.

But for now, I will leave with wishes for a Happy New Year and may God continue to bless us as we serve Him in 2014!