Goals

We are just back from a week long trip to California. We arrived home Sunday night, back to work for my busiest week of the month on Monday, Cade's birthday on Monday as well, had a meeting with our designer to get 1 step closer to actual construction on the mudroom, and my parents fly in town this afternoon for Cade's birthday party on Saturday. To say that we landed back from vacation to hit the ground running would be an understatement. So, until I have a chance to post cute pictures of the kiddos from our vacation fun and put up a Cade 2 year old post, I have the below for your reading enjoyment.

I decided I would definitely not do New Years Resolutions this year. Mostly because I find them irritating to come up with and depressing as they rarely get accomplished. However, I've been inspired by others posting lists via Facebook and blogs. I think of resolutions as the usual "lose weight" or "save more money" type of statement that is vague and difficult to determine whether or not you can check it off your to do list. What I've been seeing lately that I find much more desirable is thinking of new things you'd like to do in life. I can get into that. So here's what I've come with for myself:

1) Project time. I've been trying to do this for a while and have been mostly successful with it. Mainly, since the kids are on a pretty regular bed time schedule these days, I force myself (no matter how tired) to do 1 hour of "projects" after their bedtime before I consider doing more mindless tasks (like catching up on whatever stupid reality tv show I've dvr'd). While a lot of the time this ends up being time to log some miles on the treadmill, pay bills or do other household tasks, I have been able to slip in an actual out of the norm project on these nights. I'm looking forward to a return of having this "normal" project time as, since Halloween pretty much, this time has mostly been devoted to making costumes, planning holiday and post holiday travel, doing holiday shopping and decorating\de-decorating. After Cade's party this weekend, I will hopefully return back to out of the norm projects again.

2) Organize the basement. This has been an ongoing headache. I've finally gotten my workshop mostly organized and have a plan for moving around some other big stacks of stuff (cabinetry, shelves, furniture to store) into a better spot for a nicer looking basement. It will still be a big task I don't think we'll be able to complete in a small amount of time (given that it will take 2 people and the amount of time Mike and I have with one of us not juggling kids' needs is rare) but I'm confident we can get that space a lot prettier then it is now. The harder part will be getting my lovely, organized challenged husband on board with actually keeping it pretty.

3) Take a welding class. Just under 3 years ago, I bought a Groupon for a day long welding class. I've always thought it would be a great skill to learn as there are art and construction projects in my head that require melting metal together. Pretty soon after purchasing the Groupon, I found out I was pregnant. Somehow I didn't think it was a good environment for a preggo so I delayed taking the class. Then there was the last 2 years of having little to zero time for myself. Mike and I are in a much better place (somedays) in regards to being able to balance the kiddos and other things in our lives. I think within the next 6 months or so I'll be able to figure out a time to cash in that class certificate.

4) Get the mudroom revamp done. This was on our list for last year. We wanted to have it done before winter arrived so that we could have an organized space to stash all that winter gear we constantly use. Unfortunately, not being able to see our old NH condo put a kink in that plan. With a new year comes new money (due to my odd payment structure), so we can now move forward with our plans. Our cabinetry order might be completed by the end of February. We still have some work to do hiring folks to get the other facets of the project done (demo, tile, finish work, electric rough in and finish) but this one will hopefully be checked off the list early in the year. One more room in our house that will be nicely organized. I love it!

5) And in regards to that NH condo, we need to get it sold! We've had bad luck in this area. At the beginning of our last 2 vacations (NH in September and CA last week), we found out that the contracts we had on the place fell through. Now we're trying to figure out our next steps as our relationship with our realtor took a bit of hit with how the last contract fall through was handled last week and our listing contract has expired. I suspect there will be some talk of how to handle this over the weekend when my expert realtor Dad is in the house.

Between working, kids and life in general. I think these extra projects and project goals will keep me quite busy and out of trouble, don't ya think?

Whirlwind of Family

When we initially planned our trip to Dallas for Christmas, we purposefully planned it for a fairly succinct amount of time. Reason being was that my parents would be at our place just a month later for Cade's birthday and my brothers and their families would only be there for a short window of time as well. Since the reason to go was for the whole family to be together, we went when they were going to be there and I didn't have to burn through much vacation time. I think I gave some thought to that quick of a trip being hard traveling with kids, but I honestly was more worried in general about the flight part itself and not the impact of packing that much into such a short amount of time. While it was a great trip in general, it was also tough in some ways.

First tough part was the plane trip. Our trip to CA in June for my cousin's wedding scarred us fairly badly in regards to flying with Cade. We hoped that a good 6 months later he would be at a an age where he'd be able to handle it better. And, while he was definitely markedly better than our previous flying experience, he was still far from easy. I sat with the boys on one side of the plane and Mike sat on the other side of the aisle so I was a busy girl. They actually did a great job of hanging out and watching movies\playing games on the ipad but neither of them slept a wink. And our 4 hour flight started at 6pm. There was a small window where I got some calm snuggles but there was no sleeping which made for exhausted kids when we got there. Dylan took a trip to the bathroom on the plane with Dad and announced to me when he got back that flushing the potty scared him a little. Soon after he looked a little pale and said the bathroom made him sick. We didn't know it at the time, but that was the beginning of a stomach bug that he had all weekend (we're still trying to convince him it wasn't the bathroom that made him sick though we all agree plane bathrooms are pretty gross).

Dylan woke during the night and threw up...in the same room he was sharing with Cade. So after getting to bed 4 hours later than usual, both the boys were up multiple times during the night. Dylan has a history with vomiting so while we were concerned, he seemed fine the next morning so life carried on. He had a great time playing with his cousins but didn't eat very much and did throw up again after seeing food on Mike's shirt (not unusual for him to do). It wasn't until we got home and he had diarrhea all the next day that we realized this was a bug. Unfortunately my sweet nephew Ryker caught the bug and had an unpleasant New Years Eve. Luckily, the rest of the family escaped it.

As for the family events, Saturday was the big day. The whole gang was there and the house was full and chaotic. We did a present swap, ate a lot (except for Dylan) and hung out. It was a nice day.

Sweet Bryson

Payton and Ryker on an Uncle Jody Roller Coaster Ride

Dylan Playing Outside

Cute Ginger

Cade and I Reading His New Book, Marcy, Reece and Mom Behind Us

The Whole Gang!
Back Row - Dad, Aunt Pam, Uncle Kerryn, Presley, Marchy, Mike, Bryson, Jody, Reece, Sarah, Jamie
On the Couch - Payton, Mom, Ryker, Dylan, Me, Cade and Blanche

Between juggling visiting with everyone, sick kid, tired kids and just the rigors of quick travel, we somehow didn't get any more pictures then what we took with the family on Saturday. Sunday we spent at church, eating Mexican food, watching sports and hanging out. On Monday, just about 60 hours after arriving, it was back to the airport and back to Boston. Mike and I did weekend trips all the time pre kids and it was no biggie. With kids....major biggie. I'm not sure we'll be doing any kind of trips of that size for so short of a time for a while. Lesson learned.

It's always good to spend some face to face time with all of them but I think we all felt that it was especially great to see Mom. After her health scare just 2 weeks earlier, I was really happy to give her a big squeeze. I was also proud of her. She, like myself, is definitely the ruler of the home roost and likes things done a particular way. I thought it would be difficult for her to sit around and let us cook and clean up so that she could give her body the healing rest she needed. It may have been hard for her, but she sure was great about letting us to the heavy work. Hmmmm....maybe it was all a big ruse to get out of housework? (Just kidding, Mom!)

Tomorrow we are off for our next adventure - a week in the San Francisco area to visit friends and go to a wedding. Even though the boys did fairly well on our last flight, the almost 7 hour flight to San Fran is gives me a minor panic attack every time I think about it. I picked up a lot of supplies to arm myself with kid entertainment so I'm hoping for the best. Wish us luck! I'll be posting our California adventures here soon. Stay tuned.

Wrangling the Herd

Before I blog about our trip to Dallas, I had to share the full timeline of pictures of trying to get the cousins couch picture. I laughed watching the tale unfold (on camera....in person trying to get Cade to cooperate was not nearly as funny until after the fact). Let's just premise it by saying, 1) it's impossible to get that many young kids cooperating at once 2) especially kids that are beyond exhausted from traveling and lack of sleep and 3) on a couch that's just not big enough for all of them. Put those 3 together and here's what you get:

Technical Difficulties

Technical Difficulties and Wiggles

Ryker and Dylan's faces make me laugh!

Major Wiggles

Ryker's silly face, Cade not having it and Bryson wondering why this kid beside him is crying

One Missing

Cade still not having it....Bryson saying "someone get me out of here"

Cade making an escape

And then crumbling in a tantrum heap on the floor

I held Cade, tried to keep him happy then plopped him on the back of the couch - instant crying.

Tried again. Still crying but at least looks less so.

Now Cade's crying and not looking. Bryson still doesn't seem to be impressed by this situation

Not bad....Bryson still not impressed.

Another pretty good one.

I popped up to try and get Cade to actually sit with the gang for another try.

Yep, that didn't go so well.

There you have it folks. In pictures, that's about 1-2 minutes of trying to wrangle these kids to all look happy and in the same direction for 1 picture. At least we got 1 or 2 candidates that Mimaw and Pipaw can frame on their wall.

Christmas Day 2013

Well, it's a rainy\icey day in NH. I had planned to try and teach Dylan to ski this morning but the weather actually followed the forecasted plan (which it rarely does up in the mountains) and is really nasty. We tried to run some errands but if you saw my Facebook post, that excursion didn't go well. So, now the fire's roaring and the boys are all napping. With 2 hours to myself, I decided it was high time I look back at the pictures we took from Christmas to New Years. And what better time than looking through pictures to put some aside and blog about them. Lucky for you, the weather is crappy and I have some moments to blog. Let's cover Christmas.

Christmas Day was spent at our house in the morning and then we moved our party to my sister in laws for the afternoon with the rest of Mike's family (who are all local). Our morning discovering Santa's gift, and unwrapping our gifts was really pleasant. Dylan loved helping to hand out presents and Cade loved unwrapping them. Once they were all unwrapped, they hung out and played while I made breakfast. After more play we headed up to shower and get pretty to head over to Maureen's. Here's our morning in pictures:

Ok, this one's from a couple nights before when Dylan and I were making cookies for Santa.

The Boys and Our Lovely Tree

Santa loved the cookies we made!

The Stacks of Presents from Santa

Anyone who knows Dylan wouldn't be surprised that pretty much everything on his wish list
was Sylanders related. It was definitely a Sylanders Christmas for him.

Cade Roaring Back at His Dinosaur

And Admiring His Bear Paw Slippers

Riding on His New Scooter

Dylan Playing with His Skylanders
This is how you'll find him at our house at many points in any given day.

Reindeer Pancakes!

My favorite gift was framed hand prints from the boys.

Putting Dylan's Skeleton Obsession to Educational Means - a Book About Bones
He also got a toy brain with labeled parts, a human body book about our systems and a floor skeleton puzzle with the names of the major bones.

Flynn's Ship! (Skylander thing of course)

Daniel Tiger's Tree House
For those of you that don't know Daniel Tiger, it's a cartoon based on Mr. Rogers land of make believe. My kids love it.

At Maureen's house that afternoon, it was the usual chaos it is there - lots of kids running around, a couple of dogs running around and barking as well, and lots of us loud adults (our family and Maureen's in laws). There was also lots of great food, conversation and fun. And, of course, more presents for the kiddos. Amidst the craziness, we did manage to get a picture of the Hines\Hickey\Almo cousins.

My Handsome Boys

Corwin, Dylan, Emily, Cade, Jacob and Patrick
Pretty good lookin' crew, huh?

Without anyone having had naps, we called it a day pretty early and headed home. That was a lot of excitement for one day. It was a great Christmas! But I gotta admit, with all the new clutter in the house, I was ready to get all of our Christmas decorations down. However, with only 2 days left in town (in which I spent working), that didn't happen until we got back from our Christmas festivities in Dallas. And unfortunately, I'm still working to get it all packed up and put away. It's like the holiday that just won't stop giving.