52 things to do in 2012

I have a hunch that 2012 is going to be a really good year. I haven't felt that way about the last few years, but I think it's going to be exceptional!

I wanted to look over last years "to do" list and see what got done and think of some new things for this year.


1. Do another Kathy Freston Cleanse done
2. Plant a rediculously awesome garden well we did a pretty good garden, I still have more ambitious things to do this year
3. Market my photography business more hmm did a few giveaways, that was it
4. Help Claire learn to read she is reading! I still want to spend more time on this for 2012
5. Appreciate my family more :) this is a work in never-ending progress
6. Do more service-service projects I made a couple quilts for the relief society quilt goal, I could have done much more.
7. Talk to my family more yes
8. Pay off student loan progress, but not finished
9. Pay cash for a new car nope, maybe by February??
10. Play lots of games with my kids I did really well at the beginning of the year,I'm sick of all our games. I think we need some new games!
11. Research what I need to know about school for Claire yes
12. Get pregnant Yes!
13. Start working on finishing my studio in the basement we did start, but not even close to done
14. Live with more confidence I don't know if I have more confidence, or I just care less now. Is that the same??
15. Learn to slim down my budget even more Did it, HARD!
16. Play lots of volleyball Got a bunch in at the first of the year. SO fun!
17. Understand the world of camera RAW not there yet
18. Eat like healthy people do Still trying to figure this out
19. Make a composting bin nope, next year maybe? Trying to figure this one out too, it's more complicated than it looks. I need a physics lesson from padre
20. Recycle more paper yep
21. Figure out how to get shiny hair nope
22. Put more into my calling never-ending :)
23. Write down things I'm grateful for everyday in my journal I forgot about this one, a good one, I think I will put it on the list again
24. Write more lists :) yep
25. Read lots more books on healthy eating, gardening, politics, emergency prep yep:) making a list already for 2012
26. Floss every night getting pretty good at this, still room for improvement, but I noticed my 6 month cleaning was WAY shorter.
27. Set up Jake's twin bed and REALLY decorate his room oh the agony! I am in the process, still need bedding, but on my way, everything is painted, the crib is nearly up.
28. Tame the paper mess wouldn't my husband just love me if I could actually do this
29. Perfect my pizza dough recipe I think we got pretty close once
30. Buy some real snow boots yep and they are toasty warm
31. Make a rain barrel nope
32. Get wheat for food storage yes!
33. Make home ground wheat bread yes!
34. Find some great healthy dessert recipes and actually make them found some, haven't made them
35. Continue with the Daily Docket I've revamped the daily docket. Next year I hope to put it into practice
36. Speak more kindly to my kids still room here for improvement too
37. Rediscover my creativity/crafty side a little bit
38. Find some awesome photog props about 2
39. Make curtains for kitchen yes! Decided to make 2 for the dining room too.
40. Stop what I'm doing and look at my children when they are talking to me :)
41. Put together all of Claire's drawings into a collection I did that at the beginning of the year, now she has started kindergarten and the paper mess is worse than ever, anybody have any good ideas here?
42. Take more baths yes
43. Be nicer to people I don't know yes
44. Make homemade pasta nope still on the list
45. Learn to like Yoga nope, I don't know if I ever will
46. Spend less time on the computer I think I've gotten worse, it's on the list again
47. Get rid of the VOLES I think they are gone! We will see after the winter is over, but we haven't had any since last winter
48. Flirt with my husband more :)
49. Prepare myself for the end of Oprah yes, I cried but I'm okay
50. Work on genealogy Forgot about this one. SO need to do this!
51. Go to the department store and get a makeover done
52. Have fun spending time with family yeah, we did a lot of great stuff.

So about half I can say I actually accomplished, it's been so good to have this to look back on!

So here is my list for 2012 I'm going to put mostly things that I can check off

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
8. Get a deep freezer
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
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
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


Wow that took me like a week to think of 52 things to do for 2012. They are all goals I can check off. Hopefully by the end of the year they will be. I am so excited for this year!!!

Happy New Year's Everyone

A post!

I've been a terrible blogger the last few months, hopefully it's because I'm pregnant and have no energy. I thought I would post a few random pictures of what we've been up to lately.

The kids decorated the christmas tree mostly by themselves. They did a great job! I wrapped a few presents and Jake opened one up the next morning. Hopefully that's all of the peeking we will have! I took a picture of them in their snow stuff, they both looked so cute. We haven't really had much snow but we got a little bit a few weeks back and I let them go out and play. I think they were out there maybe 5 minutes. But I had to document.

I am thankful for...

-healthy kids, all three!
-this time of year I get to spend with family
-a beautiful Christmas tree decorated by the kids, it's crazy but it turned out great.
-the bestest husband who supports me, adores me, and puts up with these pregnancy hormones.
-the BEAUTIFUL weather we've had
-friends
-time and means to develop my talents and hobbies
-modern conveniences that I take for granted everyday, washer and dryer, car, internet!
- all of my blessings both great and small.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We had an unusual Thanksgiving. The handle on the shower broke and we couldn't turn it off, so we had no water for 2 days. That made making thanksgiving food a bit difficult. Chris was able to sort of fix it on Friday until we got a new part for it on Monday. Luckily I wasn't doing the whole dinner. That night we went and did black friday shopping. We got a few good deals, but I'm not sure it was worth staying up the whole night. We met up with Marshall and Tiffany for part of it, which was fun.

Oh and you can see in the picture that Chris has a cast. He broke his hand playing basketball about a month ago and has since gotten the cast removed and is recovering. I'm glad I got at least one picture of it!

Little girl..

Boy, this girl is going to be a heartbreaker!

Halloween!

We had a really great Halloween. In the morning Claire had a Halloween party and parade at school. She was a cowgirl. I made her costume by copying the cowboy outfit Jake had last year. Jake had preschool and then we met over at the library for story time and a parade. He was dressed as a dragon slayer/warrior. When we got home we carved pumpkins. Jake would not put his hand inside the pumpkin! The kids did trick or treating, the weather was pretty good and I made homemade donuts. It was a really good day. Jake is attached to his candy though and had to sleep by it. I went in to check on him and he had fallen asleep under the bed, no doubt he was sneaking candy and hiding from me! Luckily I was able to get his candy away from him for a few minutes this morning to clean it out and left a few pieces and he didn't notice thankfully. He would have eaten the entire pile of candy in one day I'm sure of it. We had our annual Halloween party, it was couples this year. We had a pretty good turn out and of course I didn't take any pictures of the event. We did a few games, mostly socialized and had a costume contest. We had some pretty fun costumes in the group! I went as a farmer (I thought it would be appropriate with the belly) and he was my wife :0 - that was fun! We also went to the Halloween playgroup party and the ward halloween dinner. I won a pedicure at the silent auction. October went SO fast. I still have more house projects to work on ie: the boys room and now I will be able to focus on that and Christmas!!!

Update on us

I need to update everyone on what's going on with us! My sister Jocelyn moved to Idaho in October and has been living with us for a few weeks until she finds an apartment. She is working as a CNA at a nursing home here in Idaho Falls. It's been nice having a live-in babysitter and family member close!





Claire started basketball a few weeks ago. She had her 2nd game on Saturday and he is getting better! She took her first shot, missed, but didn't give up which is what we are most proud of. There is one other girl on her team, and she plays with mostly boys which has been challenging for her, but good. She is loving Kindergarten, we went to her first reading night, it was pirate themed and had a good time. We are supposed to be reading to her 20 minutes a night, and we have been having her read to us the last 5 minutes every night. She is reading so well and still drawing like crazy, it's definitely her favorite pastime. Since Jocelyn has been staying with us, Jake has been sleeping in Claire's room and they have gotten closer because of it. Claire wants to put bunk beds in her room and have Jake stay :)



Jake is doing well. His vocabulary seems to be growing because I am noticing more and more words that he cannot pronounce correctly. I wish I would write them down! They are so cute! He is doing preschool and enjoying being with friends. Preschool has been a little dramatic so far. We lost 3 kids, added one, had a bout of chicken pox and plenty of sniffles to keep us on our toes. Hopefully it will calm down! But he likes it. He is obsessed with naming the baby. Charmsformer and Walle (insert disney voice here) are his top names so far. He LOVES playing outside-well they both do, they spend the majority of their time outside riding bikes and playing with all the neighborhood kids, specifically Emma and Aiden who live just a few houses down. I got a picture of the crew last week. They sure do have fun! He is still a crazy eater. He doesn't really care for meals, but snacks constantly and probably eats about at least a pound of apples every week all by himself. Good thing he likes fruit, bad thing he likes candy and can sniff it out.



This is the belly at 25 weeks. I have really popped out. I feel big, and I am measuring 3 weeks ahead. It can't have anything to do with all the Halloween candy lying around I'm sure! I have had lots of fun with my veins bugging me, which is a family trait, and fun leg cramps at night. I've gained 10 pounds so far and can still fit in to a couple pairs of pants. I have pretty much been craving sweets, this poor baby! I ate sweets with Jake and now he has no control! I'm pretty much uncomfortable already and I can tell I've gotten older, my body just isn't keeping up as well as before. I have been busy with our annual Halloween party, house projects, couponing and photog. It's finally getting chilly out and I'm gearing up for the Holidays, already have a few presents bought.

Chris is working hard. He has been really busy with work, they are doing some merger/acquisitions which means he will just be getting busier. He's playing basketball again on Saturday mornings and is busy in the Elder's quorum.

We got rid of our dish a few weeks ago and our dvd player is not working too well so we have really cut down our tv watching. It will be interesting once it starts snowing and we aren't going out as much! The kids have been playing games on the ipod and computer.

Anyways there's a bit of an update on us!