How about those pajamas!

I love how Christmas is a merge of traditions. Some traditions we say "goodbye" to and other we warmly welcome into our homes.

One tradition that we have kept from my childhood was getting to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas. I do remember as a child not likely this and wanting to open a real gift, but as an adult I feel like those simple things are what ties us together.

This Christmas was no exception.

Livy opening her "monkey" pajamas.

Trying to put them on. She was able to get one leg in and then said, "stuck! stuck!"

In our pajamas on Christmas Eve.

New house, new me?

It's that time of year when we ponder about what we want to change about ourselves. I, like most people create New Year's resolutions and completely fail at them by January 3rd. Why is that? Perhaps I am making unrealistic goals that simply won't work for me. Or maybe the way we think of goals.

Why do we spend time thinking that on January 1st we will be better people by working out, reading more, spending more time with our kids? Shouldn't we decide that starting today (any day) I can make this change and this is how I am going to live my life?

When we moved into our new house a month ago, I decided that with a new house there will be a new me. I have set goals and decided that today (everyday I must decide this) I will work on a few things. Somethings are unrealistic to do until the New Year, some I have completed and working strongly on.

One thing that helps me is to create a schedule. When I did this, I tried to figure out how can I spend my time more wisely, and I found many areas that I needed to improve on. I spent a few weeks (one thing I did at the in-laws) about what I wanted to accomplish each day. I knew that I wanted to have time to cook (yuck, but necessary), clean house (fun, really!), play with Livy, workout, do craft projects, run errands, family time, and read. I have the time and I didn't want to find myself at the end of the day wondering what I did all day. (Oh yeah, I sat behind the computer all day!)

My new start:

* Lose some weight. I know that this is probably something on every one's list. During this move I put on some weight and I want to get rid of it. Just like having a baby and wanting to get to your pre-pregnancy weight, I want to get to my pre-move weight. Status--waiting to get through the holidays, New Year's here we come.

* Cook. This is one thing that I don't like to do and fortunately for me I have been forced to cook more at home. We used to eat out nearly every night and considering that the nearest anything is 9 miles, it is easier to say home. --doing this!

* Move Livy to a big girl bed. She is ready and we figure, new house, new room, new bed. --complete!

(I will have a post soon with her bedroom remodel. I can't get over how nice it has turned out. Still need to get pictures hung before you can fully see it.)

* Potty Train Livy. She is ready and I have been putting it off. I didn't want to do it while we were selling our house, living with the in-laws or during the holidays. --This week we are going to do this!

* Spend less time in front of the computer. This one has been hard for me. I love having this connection to outside world, especially now that I know no one and live in Rural USA, but I have been a bad mommy. --currently working on this one. So far, so good!

* Get our Food Storage. This has been recommended for us to obtain and we are working hard on this. With the way how the economy is, I don't want to be left without food if things get bad. --working hard!

(Small, but never the less, we have some for an emergency!)

What are your goals for the New Year?

Merry Christmas

We have been super busy with parties, remodeling some rooms (will be featured in future posts) and a sick child. So no time for an actual post.

I would like to wish you and your family a Christmas filled with all that you love and a New Year full of your hearts desires!

Merry Christmas!

Just look at those curls!

I finally decided that today would be that day that Livy would get a haircut. I have been putting it off for sometime with the fear that her beautiful curls would disappear. Of course, most days like in the picture above, the curls are very hard to find.

So off to Cookie Cutters where Livy "zoned out" in front of Tinker Bell, for her first official hair cut. (Trimming her bangs don't count)

The after! And take a look at those curls now!

While we are on the subject of hair, I decided that my child needed more hair bows. So I got crafty making holiday bows. A girl can never have too many!

A small sampling.

Wordless Wednesday: Santa Baby!

I thought that this would be the year that Livy would cry when she sat on Santa's knee. Boy! Was I wrong! Livy is totally in LOVE with Santa. I hear about Santa frequently through out the day, especially that he is coming to our house. She even tells me that she dreams about him! Now that's something for a 21 month old. What did she ask for? A kitchen.



At the party we attended, where she got to see Santa, Livy only left his side when it was time for him to return to the North Pole.

Crazy Holidays!

It's that time of year when I update my planner with the events and such for the coming year. This year I have gone completely digital by using Outlook that syncs to my Blackberry. Much better then the paper version that gets beat up by July!

I did a search on wikipedia for various holidays and found some very interesting holidays that I might include. It might be fun for Livy, in the future, to participate in non-offical holidays like International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Here are some of the odd and not so odd holidays that I found:
Bubble Gum Day--Feb 1
Friendship Day--first Sunday in August
International Talk like a Pirate Day--Sept 19
International Yak Day--April 29
Mole day (not the animal, this has to do with Chemistry)--Oct 23
Monkey Day--Dec 14
National Gorilla Suit Day--Jan 31
National Hugging Day--Jan 21
No Pants Day--first Friday in May (wearing a skirt would count, right?)
Opposite Day--Jan 25
Sweetest Day--3rd Sat in Oct

What other odd holidays do you celebrate or know about?

What is wrong with this picture?

Let's just say that Livy felt that the Nutcracker was hungry. (This is exactly how I found him today.)

Moving in and getting ready for the holidays

I am happy to announce that we have finally moved into our new house a little over a week ago. Although I am still busy unpacking boxes, I'm sure you understand how long of a process this can be, I am trying to get ready for the holidays.

Two holidays projects have been completed which I will feature here later this week and ALL of my shopping has been completed. You may think that is pretty impressive, but I had to do something while living with my in-laws.

We have also started some home-improvement projects on our new house. The house is in great shape but I feel that it is important for me to leave my mark on the house or to simply make it my own. I am very excited to share those improvements soon including the one that my dh slaved away all weekend.

Do you want to see a picture of my house? I am typing this on my husband's laptop since mine has decided to get sick (a stupid virus) and will not let me get on the Internet. (The thought makes me get stressed out....how am I supposed to communicate with the outside world!!) Did I not mention that we have moved somewhere rural where we are surrounded by fields of sagebrush and it is 10 miles to the nearest grocery store?

Back to the house. The only picture of our new house on dh's laptop is horrible in my opinion. One that we took when we first looked at the house. (For those who have shopped for houses recently, do you take pictures of the houses too. We found it easier to review at the end of day.) I have some better ones that I will post once we find a vaccine or an anti-virus for my laptop.

You want details you may ask. Going from our old house with only 1000 sq ft, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and no room for growth (basement was dirt), we feel a little out of place in a house as large as we purchased. We weren't going for a huge house, after 8 failed offers we simply wanted anything in our price range! Our new house has 6 bedrooms with a separate office, 4 bathrooms, fireplace, jetted tub and has a large yard for the area. Plenty of room for growth and an extra bedroom to use as a craft room. That will be a future project.