In Mourning...

Santa brought Logan a small fish tank for Christmas. After which we promptly purchased 2 fish and 2 snails. The fish were named Nemo and Dorothy. (I know Doree was in Finding Nemo, but Logan insisted it was Dorothy.) The snails are Garey and Goldey.

Maybe it was my pessimistic nature, but I have been waiting for a fish to die. I am not lucky with fish and I just knew it would happen.

Today was the day. Nemo is no longer with us. After Nemo was out of the tank and gone, it was time to tell the kids. Logan asked to see Nemo. I had to explain tht he was already gone. But he was pretty accepting. He would say Nemo died and is gone.

However Ally was heartbroken! Tears, tears and more tears came from Ally. She told me that we hadn't had Nemo very long. She cried that she missed Nemo so much!

Ally has finally calmed down. Time for bed. We loved you Nemo!

What Happens After Bedtime...

Ally and Logan were supposed to be going to sleep. But somehow Ally got a toy screwdriver stuck in her hair. What more can I say?

Spelling, Reading and a Puzzle

How can we make spelling practice less miserable?? I hate that there are tears when a word is spelled wrong. Jacob and I still have work to do to make spelling time better.


It doesn't help that his little sister thinks its fun to try to spell with her brother. She sits and writes random letters while Jacob is spelling. She smiles and laughs and asks what we are going to spell next.



Tonight spelling time was hard. But we recovered, after some tears, and we read together. Reading was fun tonight. I am so thankful for fun books.
And while we were going through our spelling and reading time, Logan started a puzzle. We all helped him finish...but he really did most of it. He didn't need us. I was just trying to speed it up; it was bedtime. However once the puzzle was complete, we had to shut off all the lights...becuase this puzzle glows in the dark.

We enjoyed looking at the fireworks and lights glowing. But seriously, a glow in the dark puzzle? Why? How often are you in the dark with your puzzle?

Bowling, Bowling, Bowling...

Last month we went to my work Christmas party, which was a family bowling party. We had lots of fun and I discovered that Logan loves bowling. Even after Jacob, Ally and I were done, Logan was still bowling. So I have been considering a bowling party for Logan's birthday in a couple of weeks.
Today we decided to go check out the bowling alley near GG's house and make sure Logan really does love bowling. That was a really great way to spend our Sunday afternoon! And I think Logan may be a true bowler.

Back to work for me tomorrow. And back to school for the kids this week. The holidays are done for now. I plan to start keeping a log of my food and exercise tomorrow. I also intend to continue blogging regularly. I just want to make sure I write those things down so anyone reading this can hold me accountable.

Our New Year

We did it...my kids and I made it until midnight and rang in 2010 together! We went outside and the kids banged pots and pans. And then some neighbors started setting off fireworks. It was a fun way to begin our year.

Logan had so much fun staying up for the New Year. But at 11:30 he looked at me and asked if it was time for bed. If he would have asked earlier, I would have just let him go to bed. But it was so close to midnight so I told him he needed to stay up. I think he was glad he didn't go to bed.

On New Years Day it took us a long time to get up and going. But we finally got going and headed over to Grandma's house for tacos. Tacos are my mom's specialty. We watched the Rose Bowl. It was bittersweet since our Beavers were 1 win away from being there (for the second year in a row). But it was fun to eat tacos, watch football and spend time with family.

After football my kids headed to their dad's house and I got to go have a girl's night with my grandma. We watched movies and stayed up late. It's always fun to have grown up time! We watched Julie and Julia. This was such a cute movie!

Today I had to get some work done. I finally got the Christmas tree down and decorations put away. It is so hard to keep all of the things that 3 kids receive as gifts organized. But it feels good; my living room is mine again! I even hung up new pictures and calendars that I had from Christmas. And I was able to rearrange the top of my entertainment center. I am really happy to have it all done.

Here is the rearranged top of my entertainment center. I did have some ugly speakers on it. I realized that I never used them, so here is what I did. (Please ignore the tape...I was using that...its not part of the decor.)

I tried to take a picture of our new family portrait. Unfortunately my house was dark, so I needed to use the flash. This caused a huge glare. Logan is under the glare; just try to imagine it!

Here is my Christmas present from Jacob. I love this calendar. I feel bad putting up the picture of January because Jacob told me he was sick the day they did this page, so his wasn't as good. I will have to post a picture every month.

And here is my other calendar. GG made this for us and I love it. Look at all those birthdays we have coming up this month!

I hope everyone else's new year has been as wonderful as mine!

2010...Here We Come

Can you believe it? Here I am on my blog. I am hanging out with my kids...playing video games, eating junk food and trying to stay awake to ring in the new year.

I have been thinking about all the things I would like to do better this year. But I have also been thinking that I am pretty pleased with the year 2009. Jacob, Ally. Logan and I have all grown up a lot and we have had a great deal of fun in the process. Here's a couple pictures to show how we have grown...

Christmas Tree, 2008

Christmas Tree, 2009

It's amazing the difference a year can make. I look at my blog and wish that I would have documented all the growth this year. So in 2010, I am going to really try to document our life. My goal is that next year at this time, I can create a hard copy of what I posted in 2010 and it will be a kind of scrapbook of our year.

We have much more growing to do this year and I hope that you can watch it on my blog. Here are just a few of the many things that our family will work on this year...

I would like to develop more healthy habits. I spent a few months in 2009 working on healthy eating and exercise habits. I wish I could say I was diligent and didn't fall off the wagon. But I have gotten lazy and I eat too much junk. So this year I have to really work on making these changes my way of life, rather than a "diet".

I'm excited to watch Jacob keep growing into a young man. I really want Jacob and I to work on our patience with reading and spelling. Jacob is at such an important age. He is soaking in everything and really growing up. He has been struggling because reading and spelling don't come easy to him. Jacob is going to need to do a lot of reading and I need to work on finding ways to make him realize it isn't work.

Ally is such a fun girl. But this year I hope that she can work on controlling her emotions. We will start by working on tears. She is very dramatic and crying is something she does often. When Ally is crying, she is going to need to find a spot to sit and calm down until she can talk about what is wrong.

My big 2010 goal for Logan is (drumroll please) NO MORE DIAPERS. I know we will get there when he is ready. But I'm really hoping he will be ready sooner, rather than later.

I'm so thankful for the year my kids and I have had and I am so excited for this year to come. Happy New Year! Yay for 2010!

What Happened?

I sit here pondering what has happened to my kids. I found this picture. It's not the best picture but it really portrays the 3 of them and I remember having so much fun taking them through Storybook Land that day.
But I've looked all over my house and I don't know what happened. The kids in my house are much too big. They look like this...

And like this...
And like this...

How could there be a 2nd grader and a preschooler in my house? Along with another little boy who is old enough and smart enough to put together a 100 piece puzzle. They are such special kids and my time with them is so precious. Just wanted a little reminder!