New Years Goals

This year I really don't have many resolutions, rather, I think they'd best be described as "goals". 
As with most people, I do have the goal of losing some weight.  I do want to get those last 10 lbs off that I've been trying to lose for a while.  More than that, though, I want to become a more healthy person.  I'm not incredibly unhealthy but there's definitely room for improvement. 
-I've noticed that when I am stressed, angry, or upset, my first impulse is to eat.  And to eat junk.  I don't know why that is because it really doesn't make me feel any better, nor does it solve any of the problems that made me stressed, angry, or upset in the first place.  I really need to work on that and finding better ways to relieve my stress or calm me down.  I have definitely noticed that when I eat healthy I feel better, not only because healthy for me, but also because I am proud of myself for eating something healthy ;)  It's ironic that I still crave junk when it doesn't make me feel as good as healthy food does...There must be crack in that junk food...
-I also want to run a 5K.  I enjoy working out on the treadmill but generally I just walk at a steep incline.  That is a great workout but I didn't know if I could honestly run outside very well.  I almost ran a 5K on Thanksgiving so I had started training for that early in November.  I did better than I thought I would and I think it's very doable.  I am aiming to run my first one in the Spring or Early summer when it's not 6 degrees outside. 
-I definitely want to improve how my family eats as well as how I eat.  I am responsible for how and what my kids eat so I should really be feeding them good food.  For a while I didn't push healthy stuff on Steven but I am going to be doing much more of that this year.  I would much rather have him asking for fruits and veggies than candy (a girl can dream, can't she? ;) ).  In an effort to get Steven to branch out in his diet, Josh came up with what I think is a rather ingenious plan.  Josh got out a bag of chocolate chips one night at dinner and told Steven, "If you eat [whatever it was we were trying to get him to eat], then you can have a chocolate chip."  Steven didn't believe us at first but after a few times of explaining this concept, he ate what we were asking him to eat and he got one chocolate chip.  I'm sure this would be described as bribery but a. He is eating a lot more variety now and I don't think that 4 or 5 chocolate chips are really going to offset that healthiness too much and b. My boy is skinny so I'm fine with him getting some extra calories ;)  The goal is to get him to the point where he realizes, "Hey, theses veggies are good!" and doesn't need the chocolate as an incentive.  He already does that to a point...sometimes he will eat several bites of whatever before asking for a chocolate chip.  Maybe it's not the best trick in the book, but it's working for us, because he will readily try just about anything we ask him to now.  Yay for that! :)
I also want to expand my horizons a bit as far as reading is concerned.  I love to read but generally stick with the same genre and will even re-read books that I really like.  So this year I am going to attempt to read (at least) one new book a month this year.  I'm going to change it up every month so that I'm reading non-fiction as well as fiction, spiritual as well as classics and biographies.  I'm pretty excited about this goal.  :)  If anyone has any favorites they'd like to suggest, I'm all ears.  I will also probably be getting a lot of ideas from my good friend Jen as well as this blog.  The link is to a blog that reviews all kinds of books.  I like it because the blogger reads books that are outside his "comfort zone" I guess you could say and that's what I'm trying to do.  Thanks to Dr. Tanner for introducing it to me! :)
Lastly, I'm going to be trying to be much better about reading my scriptures daily, praying more, going to the temple once a month, all that good stuff. 
I'm trying not to do anything too outrageous as for as goals this year because 2011 is going to be full of crazy, crazy changes as it is!  (But that's a whole other post)

Christmas - New Years

I don't actually have any pictures for this post, sorry!
On Christmas Eve morning we went to my sister's house & had a brunch.  We did this last year & decided to continue it whenever we can.  My brother & sister-in-law were also there with their family.  I'm not sure where Ginelle got the idea, but the main part of brunch is awesome.  She gets a pizza from Papa Murphy's without any sauce on it.  Just cheese & veggies.  Then, the morning of, she scrambles up some eggs, pours them on the pizza & bakes it that way.  It's a way easy, & way yummy, pizza quiche! After the food we were able to talk to my younger brother, Marc, via Skype.  It was such a great idea & so fun to talk to him!  He's in Hawaii going to school so we don't see him often obviously.  I love technology. :)
When we got home, Josh's body decided that it wanted to be sick.  He was throwing up & feeling miserable.  His brother & wife were hosting a Christmas Eve dinner that Josh didn't get to go to, unfortunately.  I took the kids, though, & we had a good time.  Chirin made awesome traditional German food, it was very yummy!  Being there without Josh made me realize that I am so glad that I am not a single parent!  Handling two kids, even if well-behaved, is not so much fun.
Christmas morning Josh was feeling better so we were able to go to his parents for presents & a family brunch.  I didn't want to wake the kids up early & I didn't want to rush through opening presents, so we just did stockings  & then went to Josh's parents' house.  We did presents & then his mom's side of the family came over for brunch.  It was really good & lots of fun :)
When we got home, the kids went down for a nap so we didn't start opening our own presents until about 5 pm.  I don't think we'd be able to get away with that when our kids are older... Josh had been thinking that he may have eaten something bad the day before & that's why he had been sick, but half way through opening presents, my body decided it wanted to be sick.  I don't think I've ever thrown up so much in one day before!  I am so glad I don't have bad morning sickness when I'm pregnant!
The Monday following Christmas, we headed up to a family reunion for Josh's Dad's family in a place called Altamont, Utah.  Never heard of it, you say?  Neither had I.  It's near Duschene.  Don't know where that is, either?  Neither did I.  I had heard of that one, though.  It's about an hour and a half east of Heber.  (Honestly, my first thought was "There's something in Utah that's an hour and a half east Heber??" I guess I was thinking that Heber was a lot further east than it is...) All of Josh's immediate family (his Dad & brothers), along with a few other families, stayed in one lodge while the rest of the ginormous clan stayed at a bigger lodge about 15 minutes away.  The place where we stayed was really nice & we had free yummy breakfast every morning, but it would've been nice to not have to drive 15 minutes one way every day to go to the other place.  There is just no way to get a group that size in one place, though, so we made due.  It was a lot of fun.  Most of our little group (Josh's immediate family) got sick while there or were already sick so that made things a little interesting.  I had thrown up on Christmas and then, lucky me, I got a cold while we were there.  It wasn't that bad but I still haven't quite thrown it.  Although, come to think of it, I probably no longer have a cold, it's probably just this thing they like to call "air" that I'm breathing around here that's messing me up. (Oh, yes, Salt Lake City was ranked NUMBER 1 on the Nation's Cities with the Dirtiest Air list - yay us)  Anyway, sorry for the tangent.  Our Christmas and New Years were both great and I'm so glad we got to spend time with our familes!  I hope everyone enjoyed theirs as well :)

Christmastime Festivities

We haven't started doing a ton of yearly traditions yet because our family's still small and our kids are still young, but Christmas is still one of my favorite times of the year.

Growing up, we always had a freshly cut tree in our home. Most years, my family would get a tree cutting permit and would go tromping through the snow and wilderness to find out perfect tree. It was always a lot of fun and I have some fond memories of that. I've realized as I've bought my own tree that a fake tree is, over the years, cheaper and involves much less clean up in the form of dead pine needles. Last year we decided to get another real tree and then get a fake one the day or so after Christmas when they were on sale for a good price. Someone in our ward had one they were getting rid of, though, so we took that one (you have to love free!) and we've used it for the past two years. I do love the real ones, though, and I'm sure throughout the years will have real as well as fake ones. One of my good friends goes Christmas tree hunting with her family so I think maybe we'll do that with her next year. :)

This year we put our tree up at the beginning of this month but we didn't actually decorate it until about a week & a half into the month. Steven was pretty excited about it this year and really enjoyed helping us decorate. We showed him some of Josh's ornaments he'd gotten throughout the years and also Steven's that we've gotten him. He thought that was really cool and you can defintely tell he helped us because there are quite a few ornaments on the lowest branches.

Every year throughout my childhood, my mom would bake gingerbread and we would make gingerbread houses. My mother, being the artist that she is, made pretty elaborate houses & the process would take several hours. She had a few different patterns to make different sized houses, including one for a cathedral. Before baking the gingerbread, she would cut out the windows. After baking them, she would put crushed up jolly ranchers in the windows and put it back in the oven to melt them and voila! stained glass windows! She would even melt sugar to use as glue to hold the houses together. My mother was not fooling around with these things ;) Last year my mom made a bunch of gingerbread houses and sent them to all her kids for Christmas. It was really cool to get that! We didn't end up making ours last year, and it just so happened that my sister, Ginelle, hadn't either, so we got together to make them this year. We didn't get crazy and use melted sugar, though. We ended up using a glue gun which is way faster and not quite so dangerous. Plus, really, who eats those gingerbread houses when Christmas is over?? It was lots of fun to be together and the kids had a great time. Steven didn't even need any direction on what to do! I just had him come in the room, he got up on the chair and started putting candy on the roof. It must be innate...You see a frosted roof, you put candy on it ;)

Yesterday Josh and I took the kids up to Temple Square for the first time since Steven was born. We met up with my brother, Dave, and his wife as well as my sister-in-law's brother and family. Some of our friends from our ward met us up there a little later. It was really fun to go out and see the lights. There weren't as many as I remember but it was still really pretty. It wasn't very cold, either (except when the wind picked up), so that made it even better!
I put Sofia under the tree so she could see all the lights & ornaments

Josh helping Steven decorate the tree

Sofia wearing anters.  How cute is she?!

Dave & I decorating gingerbread houses.  Yes, we did use a hot glue gun :)

Ginelle's house had been pretty crushed in the mail so Dave was nice enough to put it back together

Sofia & Emily playing together

Ashley, Anna, & Ethan

Ethan decorating his tree

Steven decorating our house

Everyone decorating

Mary & Emily

Ginelle & I

Ginelle & Mandy

Dave finishing up his house

Mandy with olive fingers

Our houses with the lights on.  (Ours didn't have lights inside)

Mary, Dave, Ginelle, & Ashley

This was when we were at Temple Square.  Steven wasn't feeling very well so he just stayed in the stroller most of the time.

Josh had Sofia in a carrier to keep her warm.  So cute! :)

Sofia, Josh, & I.  Josh actually smiled!

Sushi

Last night after my chemistry final (woo!  I'm done!), my mother-in-law was awesome enough to invite us out for dinner.  There's a great sushi place (I can't believe that the words "great sushi place" are coming out of my mouth & that I am actually the one thinking it...) near my in-laws that they frequent quite regularly.  (They have a 50% off special Tuesday & Wednesday nights so that makes it even sweeter.)  We met there and ordered.  I wasn't sure if Steven was going to eat much because he's not a super big eater in general and what is a 2-year old going to eat at a sushi place anyway?  We ordered him a kid's meal but it didn't arrive until after the sushi did.  Josh gave Steven a piece of sushi that had been fried in tempura just to see if he'd try it.  That kid of mine ate the whole piece!  We didn't have to coax him or bribe him or anything!  He probably would have eaten more if his meal hadn't arrived then.  My mother-in-law said, "Josh, you're raising that boy right!"  I was shocked that he ate it and how much else he ate!  Steven is constantly surprising me :)

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we spent with Josh's family again.  And yes, we did go to the Grand America brunch again.  It's so good, what can I say?  This was a little different, though.

Apparently there are two events on Thanksgiving day at the Grand America.  One is a buffet & one is a brunch.  Apparently the brunch is the one we usually go to & the one that has more variety.  No one told this to my mother-in-law when she set up the reservations (nor did they mention it the several subsequent times that they called to confirm) & we mistakenly signed up for the buffet.  It had a lot of the same food, and the food was great, there just wasn't as much variety as the one we usually go to.  The atmosphere was much better this year, though, because it was much quiter, more intimate, and a lot less crowded.  However, I'm pretty sure we'll be going to the bigger one next year...the variety just can't be beat. 

After we ate, Josh & his younger brother went over to their brother, Jeremy's, and played Halo for a while.  That evening, Chirin, my mother-in-law, & I continued our tradtion of a Thanksgiving Day movie & saw  Morning Glory.  (If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it.  It's pretty darn funny.) 

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing.  I don't really enjoy shopping in general so I didn't join the masses for Black Friday shopping.  I did, however, go shopping on Saturday with a good friend of mine...but that was more about spending time together than anything.  Also on Saturday we had some friends over for game night which was a ton of fun. :)

I was only able to upload a few pictures this morning before work so I will be adding more hopefully today.

This is Sofia & I in front of a Christmas tree at the Grand America after we ate.

The guys were playing nerf wars & Sofia got caught in the crossfire ;)

Okay, so this actually wasn't on Thanksgiving...it was when we got together for my birthday the Sunday before.  Close enough ;)

Halloween

A bit late, I know. I think I've mentioned this before, but although I do have time at work to blog, I don't have access to my pictures so I hate posting things without pictures. Therefore, I put things off until they are late. Anyway, this Halloween was pretty fun! Last year I invited my siblings that live here over to my house to carve pumpkins the week of Halloween. I decided to continue that tradition this year. My family came over the Sunday before Halloween & we had dinner before carving the pumpkins. (Thanks, Ginelle, for the yummy soup!) I also associate donuts with Halloween (I'm not sure why...it probably comes from my mom) but since it was Sunday I didn't really want to go buy some & I didn't want to buy them a day early & then be stale. So...I decided to make my own! Let me tell you what...they were pretty good, but not really worth the effort in my opinion. It took quite a long time to make the dough, roll it out & fry it. I didn't even get to carve my own pumpkin! :( Bummer. So next year, I'm buying them or we're not having them at all.
The Tuesday before Halloween, Steven had a party at the babysitter's. They were able to dress up in their costumes & they even trick-or-treated from each other. I think they had a pretty good time. :) Steven was a frog (inspired by his occastional hopping on the floor & saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!" & Sofia was a "Halloween ballerina" I guess you could say. I didn't really have a specific idea in mind, I just kind of threw some things together. I wanted to get her a cute black tutu & decided to make one instead. It was pretty easy (although time-consuming) & WAY cheap. I also found some cute orange leggings in Target's $1 section so I used those as well.
On Halloween (well Utah's Halloween [Saturday] because Halloween actually fell on Sunday) we went to my sister's house in Sandy. She made really yummy chilli & cornbread (the delicious form that is a mix of yellow cake mix & corn meal) so we ate dinner before we took the kids trick-or-treating. It was SUPER cold & really windy that night so we didn't stay out that long. I was a little bummed for Steven that he didn't get to go out more but then I remembered that he's TWO & doesn't know the difference & that meant less candy he tried to eat. He was super cute in his frog costume & he had a lot of fun going out. He definitely caught on to the whole idea of Halloween!

Sofia hanging out while everyone carves pumpkins

 Steven & Josh carving a pumpkin

 I love how concentrated my niece, Anna, is

 Steven showing off his pumpkin

 Steven in his frog costume at his daycare Halloween party

 The princess & the frog ;)

 Steven & Sofia

 Sofia in her cute Halloween costume :)

 I LOVE the faces she makes!

Random Funnies

-Last weekend Josh & I went out to celebrate both of our birthdays.  Both of our birthdays are in November & we got a bunch of free meal coupons so we decided to take advantage of one of those offers.  One of my co-workers' daughters babysat the kids for us that night.  Steven asked to play with Josh's iPad (which he actually calls "Steven's iPad" ;) ) but the babysitter told him no.  Steven didn't like this so he put her in time-out.  I laughed pretty hard when I found this out.  :)
-Steven likes to put just about anything & everything in time-out these days.  He'll put his toys or his juice or even movies in time-out & sometimes will even set the same timer we use for his time-outs.  We don't even put him in time-out all that much (maybe once or twice a day on average) but it must be making an impact on him if he's putting other things in time-out.  ;)
-A week or two after Halloween Steven randomly started knocking on things (the door, the wall next to the bathtub) & saying "Treat!".  One night we were sitting at the table for dinner & Steven said, "Go bye-bye" & pointed to the door.  Josh opened the door for him & Steven walked right out into the hall.  Josh closed the door & watched him through the peep-hole.  Steven was talking & walking around the hall a bit.  After about a minute, Steven knocked on the door & said, "Treat!  Candy, please!"  Josh opened the door & said, "Yes?  Can I help you?" & Steven responded with "Treat!  Candy, please!"  I gave him a little cereal puff thing & he proceeded to go back outside.  He repeated this a few times before we finally had him stop.  It was so funny! :)