Lists...

I don't know why but I have always loved making lists and checking stuff off the lists. Weird, I know. In 2011 I made a list of 52 things to do in 2011. It went well, but a lot of the things weren't things you could "check off" perse. So for 2012 I tried to pick all things that I could check off. Since we are to the end of March and a quarter of the way through the year, I thought I would see how I'm doing on THE LIST!

1. Organize the daily docket into an actual book that I can carry with me
2. Finish decorating the boys room
3. Read at least 1 book a month
4. Make some cool HDR prints
5. Make homemade pasta
6. Give myself/get a pedicure once a month
7. Finish my wedding book - It's coming in the mail any day!!
8. Get a deep freezer My husband is excited for all the food I'm going to fill it with!
9. Save for our family trip to Disneyland in December
10. Make curtains for the dining room
11. Do indexing once per month
12. Make Jacob a big boy blanket
13. Lose 5-8 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight (I'm down 2 lbs!)
14. Get new family pictures taken in the fall
15. Get/make a new apron
16. Read the Bible all the way through
17. Set up blocks on the computer to limit internet use
18. Set up a reward/chore chart for the kids
19. Try 6 new vegan recipes
20. Do a newborn photo shoot with the baby
21. Take hand prints of the kids
22. Hang a decoration on the wall above our bed
23. Set up a hanging system for my backdrops
24. Make a composting bin!
25. Grow my own flowers from seed They are planted!
26. De-clutter the basement
27. Make five crafts I've pinned from pinterest
28. Do 3 service projects
29. Get out my camera and take a picture and video of my kids at least weekly
30. Back up all my files
31. Make a blurb book for 2011
32. Make a list of family activities for 2012 and do them all
33. Find some cute decorations to put by my front door
34. Deep clean once a month
35. Help the kids set and accomplish goals for the New Year
36. Increase food storage
37. Plant grape vines in the garden
38. Make a Christmas calendar of all the things that need to be done before Christmas that I can use every year
39. Use the cash envelope system
40. Try 3 recipes from my Babycakes cookbook
41. Do a Jillian Michael's 30 day shred after the baby
42. Teach Jake all the letter sounds
43. Freeze leftover foods/veggies and turn them into soup
44. Go to Yellowstone Park
45. Make my husband feel special
46. Get a swing set for the backyard
47. Fix the paint in Claire's room
48. Stretch the carpet in the living room
49. Make freezer meals
50. Get a new plate/cup set
51. Think of something awesome to celebrate our 10 year anniversary
52. Do something I've never done before

There are several I am close to finishing. I will be posting a lot of my projects on here.

20 things to do at Christmas

This is number 38. on my "52 things to do in 2012" list. I seem to ALWAYS forget something at Christmas time. Last year I forgot to have the kids decorate gingerbread houses. I have the worst memory! So I made a list of everything I want to remember to do during Christmas time. Hopefully it will help me plan things out a bit better. And I think I need to just start Christmas in September?! You can download it here.

day four of the cleanse...sugar free desserts

I'm going strong on day four of This cleanse and I found a couple of yummy recipes. Both are pinterest finds...gosh I love pinterest!


These blueberry bars were nice for something sweet, but
I wouldn't say the texture is right on.Still yummy.



But boy oh boy were these fudgesicles a huge hit. Jake at this moment is pinching my nose saying chocolate popsicle over and over, unfortunately I only made three. These are SO easy just cocoa, banana and coconut(or other nut) milk. I was thinking I might even freeze some coconut milk in cubes so I could throw it all in the blender to make a smoothie. No sugar, super easy and my kids love it makes them a MUST TRY.

Bless my soul...

I'm doing another one of these cleanses again. No sugar, dairy, meat, or gluten. Which pretty much leaves fruits and veggies! I really want to get below my pre-pregnancy weight and get back in shape!



I'm also doing Jillian Michael's work-out video. I'm on week four of Ripped in 30. I'm definitely seeing a difference, but I have so far to go. I've been doing double workouts. I really need to set a specific deadline to get me really motivated. At this point it's just so I can be presentable and maybe even look GOOD in a bathing suit this summer.

February Pictures

Here is the baby quilt I made to match the boys room. I still need to post pictures of their room, but it's still not exactly how I want it. Will it ever be? But here is the color scheme. It's supposed to have a mid-evil dragon feel, hence the green, but it totally has not turned out like that at all!


I love this picture of the kids. Chris took it while we were sledding. Love those kids, despite how much they can go at it, they sure are good buddies. Claire was praying last night and said please bless that I can be a good example to my two little brothers. Her prayers have been so heart felt lately and they melt my heart. It gives me a quick feeling, and I mean quick that maybe we are doing alright as parents.



And finally the Chevron wall. I love the way this turned out in Claire's room, I mixed the blue/grey color myself.

Updating!

Things are changing around here. First off I have a 6 year old who has got one seriously loose tooth! Strike that! In the last 12 hours when I started this post, she lost it! She was biting into a piece of sausage at breakfast. She is SO excited and already has it under her pillow. I will miss her little perfect smile as she starts to grow into that awkward phase when your grownup teeth are just a bit too big for your face. But she is so excited. We took her 6 year pictures and are finally getting around to posting them because of change number 2.



I got a new computer. FINALLY! Our MAC crashed before Christmas, then we got a new IMAC that came with a broken drive so we had to return that. And it's finally taken me until now to get a new one. Mainly because I had to do some serious soul searching. I love macs. I grew up on macs, I've even converted a few people to macs. But after having SO much trouble to repair/replace those two, plus the fact that we couldn't get hardly any money out of our old mac even if we fixed it, I realized I wanted to try something different.
So now I have a windows laptop. Weird. But it's oh so nice. Plus it has more memory than the Imac AND it was about HALF the cost! It's nice to be back to editing. I have been going through withdrawls because I haven't had photoshop since December.
So with my new computer I feel like I can do all sorts of new things, one of which includes updating my blog. I'm going to go public again. I don't know, there's the whole safety issue, but I kind of feel like if someone really wanted to stalk me, there are plenty of ways they could find out about me or my kids other than the blog. I just feel like my blog hasn't been as much of an outlet as it used to be because I feel like no one reads it, and I want to combine my photography blog with my family blog to make it easier. I want it to be a fun outlet like it used to be. I have always loved writing so there you go. (Plus I might be changing up things with my photography biz)Changes all over the place! Which brings me to this little guy...



Isn't he big! He's huge and so alert and smiling. He ADORES Claire. It's so cute. He is already wanting to use his legs to jump, and he hates to have his carseat covered, he wants to see everything. He is such a sweetheart, he's on a really good schedule right now, sleeping great and happy. Poor thing has the worst excema! I've tried everything and it's still bad I might have to take him in to the Dr.

I'm Back!

I am off of maternity leave and booking appointments for April. Contact me if you need anything!

She's a rock star

When I ask Claire what she wants to be when she grows up, she says Rockstar..every time. She looks up to her auntie Kimberly so much. She told me the other day she wants to be like her so she can sing on the radio (she thinks Kimberly is on the radio). She had a pair of PJ's that said "I want to be a rock star when I grow up" and she was talking to Papa Ray, he read what it said out loud and she said (thinking he was just telling her this) "hey, I want to be a rock star too!

So she has had two school singing programs, one which was just in her class, where she got to be in the front and help with the props for one of the songs, and the other was the entire school. She really gets into it and I love watching her. I couldn't stop smiling after one part of the song where they have to lean over and wiggle their "tails" she leaned so far over she was leaning into the kid next to her and he almost fell off the riser! They were on the top too, it would not have been good. I wish I had gotten that on video.

I'm sure every girl at one time in their childhood wants to be a rockstar, but in case some day she really does become a rockstar, her fans will really want this footage, so here are a few videos of her singing her heart out! Don't mind the fact that she doesn't have her Westside shirt on, very bad mommy moment for me (a post for another day). I was just SO glad at least she was wearing a white shirt and not a bright red one or something.

February in review..a little late

Here were my goals for February:

*Read 2 books- Check I read Organized Simplicity, The Davinci Code, and Food Matters

*Pedicure Check
*Temple/indexing Check
*Family activity -sledding check
*Deep clean check
*Increase food storage check
*Work on kids goals and chore chart We've been working with Claire in helping her read the book of Mormon, Jake has accomplished his goal of learning all his letter sounds! yeah! Next is learning to write his name. Chore chart is working well-when I remember.
*Savings goal - I sat down with Chris and we wrote out a savings priority list. First is to pay off hospital bills!
*Read Bible assignments for the month check
*Take Pictures/video of the kids check
*Do something special for Chris I made him a book of reasons why
i love him for Valentines day
*Do Newborn photoshoot of baby check--I need to post pictures!
*Make hand prints of all the kids -ugh, after 3 failed attempts I've decided to take them to an actual pottery place in SLC when we go at the end of March.
*Make curtains for the kitchen A little late but
i just finished them!
*Fix up paint in Claire's room check, it looks great! I need to post a picture of that too.


March Goals

*Read 2 books
*Pedicure
*Temple/index
*Family activity-Museum
*Deep Clean
*Increase food storage
*Take pictures and video of the kids
*Make a wedding photo book
*Start Flower seeds
*Decorate the front door
*Do the Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30
*Make ruffle bedding as one of my pinterest projects
*Get carpet stretched
*Finish quilt
*Write up a Christmas Calendar that has all the Christmas activities on it so I don't forget anything next year!

Blessing Day

We blessed Sam on Sunday. It was a great day, the sun was shining, we had so much family come to support us and the blessing was beautiful. He was wide awake for the blessing and he didn't fuss a bit. When they brought him into the circle I could see all the men smiling at him :) It made my heart so happy. It was very symbolic to me of the Saviors enveloping arms, as the priesthood is His power on the earth. I can't seem to remember anything specific of what was said, I guess I was too wrapped up in everything but it was so beautiful! Chris wrote some of it down, so I will have to get his copy. We had about 40 family/friends come to the blessing. We had a nice get together at our home afterwards. Sam blew out of his outfit about 10 minutes after they blessed him, so I didn't get any pictures of him in his blessing outfit except for the one of me and him. But I did stick him in his outfit yesterday and took a few more. I caught a smile too! It was so fun to have family around for the weekend, it's making us want to finish our basement so we have better accommodations! Thank you to everyone who came and supported us and Sam!