Bringing in the New Year {2014}

As per tradition, we caravan'd to the ice rink and had nothing but fun!!  We were the first on the ice, and were pleasantly surprised by being one of about 4 families skating....it was fantastic!

Keetley and Grandpa made a good duo while I helped the boys get their gear on.

Hey!  A family picture!!!

She has so much fun, giggling when we'd call out her name as we'd skate along, and smile through her binky.

and then she decided it was time for a nap.  Is there anything sweeter?

After grabbing lunch, we all filed into the theater to see FROZEN...such a cute movie!



So thankful for an amazing family, and fun traditions!

We WILL get along!

New Year's Eve...and we're all itching to be in our own space!

The trouble with that is, it's harder to keep your hands to yourself, and you're likely to be a little more irritable than normal, and well, when mom doesn't come to the rescue as you're duke-ing it out, you'd better resolve the issue at hand before....

...you get to wear the "WE WILL GET ALONG" shirt!

Thank you, Pinterest!

Did I mention the fighting, arguing, and general contention started well before 6 am this morning???  No???  Oh, I must have been tired and forgot to mention that this 'incident' was ongoing for just under 3 hours.

Let me paraphrase:  Kids woke up, fought over something, squabbled over something else, and finally got yelled at around 6 am.  While I finished feeding the baby in my warm bed, they settled down briefly, before I was yet again woken up by contention in the living room.  After breakfast and making quite an effort to keep a happy disposition, the fighting would.not.cease.  They got time out.  Had to say 10 nice things to each other, while facing each other as I listened at the kitchen sink....they had to say 10 nice things multiple times....coming up with a new list each time.  When time out didn't sink in, they got to wear THE SHIRT, and when they ripped down the middle, they returned to time out.  Boy, did I have a clean kitchen when I was finished with them!!!  They were not allowed out of time out till Ryan came home from his first shift...around 10am....and luckily for them, they were getting along, playing a made up game at the kitchen table at 9:45...so I let them continue to play PEACEFULLY!

What a morning!!!

We spent some time in the afternoon running errands and stopping for a quick and brisk walk along the greenbelt downtown.  I insisted they wear their hats, they insisted they sit on the horse....WIN-WIN.

As one of my sister's pointed out, I'm SO glad Pinterest wasn't around when my mom was mothering us as young children.  LOL!  We would have killed each other.  Ha!

Me Being Absent

...it's mostly because my external hard drive, the one with 10 years worth of pictures, is getting a "DATA TRANSFER".  It died.  And with it, my enthusiasm for taking pictures and SAVING them on my computer....It's a sad, sad day.  I've been waiting for FOUR HOURS to hear if there were any "DATA ERRORS", which would mean three times the amount of $$$ to get my beloved information and pictures back, and also a chance that I'd never get them back.  Sad.  Crossing my fingers, and my toes.

....Attribute the rest of my absence to some ah-ha moments I've had which undoubtedly resulted in some small home improvements.  And not really the kind that involve drills, saws, cans of paint or even money.  The improvements I'm working on involve time and energy.

A few things I'm aiming for as the new year has started include trivial things that I'd rather put off in order to accomplish more 'noteworthy' things.

I used to put off doing my dishes in order to edit pictures, or put off playing with the kids so I can get some more pinning done on virtual cork boards.  I used to go to bed exhausted at 2 am after blogging and facebooking, and social-media-ing instead of retiring at a reasonable hour (and the same time as my sweetheart).  I used to live a charmed, yet pathetic life, filled with lots of good, but I know I can do better.

With some minor adjustments to my crazy lifestyle, which now includes growing another human, and really CARING and NURTURING the humans currently in the four walls of my home, I've become happier.  Not that I've left ya'll behind, but I feel like I'm doing MORE NOTEWORTHY things than receiving praise for a fun photo shoot, or a beautiful dress I've made, or the awesome job teaching preschool, or any other number of things that I DO enjoy doing, but am finding they need to take a back seat to the children who are frequently buckled into the back seat of the car while I run errands and 'be successful'.

Trying out a new system, if you will.  Please excuse my absence while I...

Go sledding:

Paint Bird houses:

And live each day with Simple Joys.

This Year {2012}

"This year, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.”

-Howard W. Hunter

I Love this.  And I can love 2012, too.  It can be a wonderful year if I want it to be.

Ryan asked me what my resolutions were for this year, and I replied with a laundry list of things and then realized that if I work on ME, and try to be a better ME, then everything around me can be better, too, or at least appear to be.  So "be-gone" laundry list, and just BE BETTER, Deanna.

Ice Skating

Cue Tevye singning "Tradition!!!!!"

"Every year we miss out on a fun day of snowmobiling for an afternoon of ice skating."  Says our family book of pictures and quotes.  LOL!

It's true...every New Year's Eve, our family goes skating...it started at Utah Lake, progressed to Seven Peaks, moved to Logan, and this year we switched things up and went to the Ice Skating rink in Idaho Falls.

My dad and Clay (tore a muscle in his knee?) were gracious to watch our littlest pip-squeak, Kortlen, while the rest of us hit the rink.

Please forgive me for posting all the blurry pictures...I'm learning how to use my camera.  Still. Bwahahaha!

Afterwards we headed to Pizza Hut for pizza then home for band aids (me) and baths before bed.

10 for 2010

"Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits."  ~Author Unknown

I usually find myself in this situation....but I am determined to make some goals that are attainable... reasonable... and something I'd have to try hard at to fail.  :)

Saw this splendid idea, and thought I'd share ten goals for two-thousand-ten... in no specific order:


Goal #1  Read from The Book of Mormon...for more time than I spend on Facebook.

Goal #2  Not grumble about something trivial or which I have no control over.

Goal #3  Read one book each day to my children.

Goal #4  Balance my checkbook after every transaction.

Goal #5  Not let a moment go by where I feel prompted to do something nice for somebody else, even if it's not on my agenda.

Goal #6  Love my calling in scouts, and each boy for who they are.

Goal #7  Take two classes to maintain my teaching certificate.

Goal #8  Put more time and effort into prayer than on my hair.

Goal #9  I will not turn on the computer until my family and spiritual needs are taken care of.

Goal #10  Promptly put away the laundry after it is folded. 

Some of these are very measurable, some are not, but all of them are things I am re-committing to accomplish.

May your goals be accomplished as well!

__________

"When I was a Boy Scout, we played a game when new Scouts joined the troop.  We lined up chairs in a pattern, creating an obstacle course through which the new Scouts, blindfolded, were supposed to maneuver.  The Scoutmaster gave them a few moments to study the pattern before our adventure began.  But as soon as the victims were blindfolded, the rest of us quietly removed the chairs.  I think life is like this game.  Perhaps we spend our lives avoiding obstacles we have created for ourselves and in reality exist only in our minds.  We're afraid to apply for that job, take violin lessons, learn a foreign language, call an old friend, write our Congressman - whatever it is that we would really like to do but don't because of personal obstacles.  Don't avoid any chairs until you run smack into one.  And if you do, at least you'll have a place to sit down."  

~Pierce Vincent Eckhart