Well here we are at the end of the year with the New Year just around the corner. I don’t know about you but I love this time of year. The craziness of the holiday season is over, it’s time to put all the decorations away and take down the tree and get the house back to normal. Each year I take time to think about what I have accomplished and what goals I want to make for myself for the year to come.

I’m like my husband and don’t like using the word “resolutions” rarely work. These are realistic goals that I want to hit and I put them in a spot that I can look at them frequently. It reminds me to keep at them. It’s amazing how many goals you’ll reach just by writing them down. If you don’t believe me, try it this year. Write down 5 things you want to improve in your life and look back next year at this time. You’ll be proud I promise.

Here are my personal goals for 2012, maybe reading this will spark some ideas for your personal goals.

• Get back into working out and hitting the gym at least 2x a week.*
• Getting more involved in our Church. (serving, life groups)
• Develop a better relationship with god and members of the church
• Swim lessons with Caden to get him ready for the pool and lake this summer
• Spend more time with Nate, date night 2x a month
• Cook at least 2x a week
• Start taking every Sunday to get organized for the week
• Get our house organized (attic, kitchen, baby stuff, Christmas stuff and Pictures on my computer)
• Join Gymboree or something to keep Caden occupied this winter
• Fix up our boat for Spring
• Get Pregnant
• Wean CK
• Take a writing course
• Attend a blog conference
• Be a Guest Blogger
• Become more involved with the community
• Give CK as many different experiences as I can
• Finish my pregnancy book
• Keep Baby book updated
• Do a Juice fast

It may seem like a lot but I’m ready to start getting these knocked out. In fact, today I’m getting a jump start …

The Christmas decorations are coming down and I’m getting organized!

And taking Caden to Gymboree class to check it out. I’ve got to do something with this boy, he’s all over the place. Speaking of which, Caden just almost fell on his face. He still hasn’t mastered the “getting down” part. Got to run! Have a great weekend and Happy New Year!!

What is your main goal for 2012?

Mine is to get my butt in the gym and start eating healthy again!

7, 8, 9, 1, 4, 8

No those aren’t my lucky lottery ticket numbers.

Those are the times that I have to get up every night with a certain someone. Not going to mention any names but begins with a C and ends with a den.  Which is why I’ve been a little absent these last couple days in the blog world. Instead of writing blog posts I opted for sleep. Between naps, keeping up with the housework, hanging out with family and watching the little guy there hasn’t been room for much else. He is everywhere and into everything these days and in need of constant supervision. I mean constant. Like every second.

So Let’s back track to Christmas:

Nana, Papa Joe and my brothers came here for Christmas Eve. We usually head up north to Ohio every year but it was so nice to not have to travel for Caden’s 1st Christmas.

We went up to our church for their Christmas Eve service. They had a live manger, camels, donkeys and sheep.

They even had fire pits for roasting marshmallows, kettle popcorn and apple cider. It was so cute for the kids … and me. I’m not going to lie I roasted a couple marshmallows right in between all the kiddos.

We then came home to have a delicious Christmas Eve dinner which Nate cooked and opened up some presents. Caden loved opening presents. He loved it so much that he felt the needed to get on top of the presents and bite them.

After the first couple ones he started getting really good at it and decided opening up one present at a time was for chumps. He thought using his feet and hands would work much better. And once again his technique was to get on top of the present.

He’s a trip, he had us all laughing.

It makes me even more excited for next year when he can really understand Christmas and “Santa”.

That afternoon we headed off to my grandparents house where my dad, all my aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for Christmas dinner. It was nice seeing all of them especially since they all hadn’t seen Caden in a while.

So in short.

Christmas was fantastic. And although we didn’t get to see all our family it was really nice to spend the time with the ones we did.

Nate and I did Christmas 2 different ways growing up and we’re trying to figure out what we are going to do with CK. Do you open up presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? And when does Santa come?

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

 Hope you all have a fantastic holiday and remember the reason for the season

Well Christmas Eve is tomorrow and here I am .. I still need to go shopping for dinner tomorrow night, wrap the last bit of presents and clean our house. But before any of that I wanted to make this Christmas ornament with Caden. I’ve had my eye on this Pinterest project for a while but just haven’t gotten around to it.  So I figured what better time then now to get it going.

I mean how cute is that?

So I cranked my Christmas music, got my paint and ornaments and got down to business.

Oh and I grabbed my baby …

…. I mean how hard could it be to take his little hand and place it on an ornament??

Um, yeah

A little harder then I thought. First Caden put his hand in the paint and started spreading it all over the place because he was so curious on what it was.  Then as soon as I put his hand on the ornament he started trying to grab it and moving his fingers all around which resulted in this ….

And This …

Note to self: Save this project for a little later in life!

But I ended up putting his initials on it and hanging it on the tree anyways ..

I mean it is his first craft, even if it didn’t come out perfect

Let the holiday festivities begin!! … Is it too early for a drink?

I am not healthy.

There I said it.

OK, Maybe that is a little exaggerated but I don’t feel healthy. You would think I would feel awesome since I’m 5 lbs down past my pre-pregnancy weight and that all my clothes fit me. But I don’t.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been cooped up in a house with a sick child who constantly wipes his snotty nose on me and coughs in my face.

Or that I have been living off of cookies since the cookie exchange. (You think I’m kidding … I’m not)

Or the fact that I’m sleep deprived and my only source of exercise is picking up our 17 lb. baby and running errands.

Whatever it is … it sucks. I don’t feel like my normal self and I just feel blah. I am constantly tired and dragging ass. My joints and muscles literally ache all the time and I can not seem to get hydrated for the life of me. Overall, I just feel weak. Which is not cool, I’ve never felt this way. So I’m not sure what is up with me but something needs to change and it needs to change asap.

Around this time of year I look forward to writing down my goals and looking back on all my goals that I accomplished. I’m glad it’s that time again because boy do I need it. When I became a mom, my life has been put on the back burner to take care of little man. Which is totally fine, I mean that is my job. But I need to find a balance so I can take care of myself AND my family and house. I consider myself lucky if I get in 3 meals and a shower. I’m not sure how I’m going to figure out how to balance everything but my first main goal for 2012 is taking care of myself. Selfish? Maybe but  I want to feel healthy and strong again. Now the question is … how do I go about doing this without letting all my other “duties” go.

What is your Main goal for 2012 … Is it to get Healthy too?

Bah Humbug!

Caden just got over being sick like a week ago and then Friday morning the sickness bug hit us again, this time with a nice big ole nasty cold. I mean running nose, cough and all.Which resulted in co-sleeping which equaled no sleep for this girl. And to put a nice little cherry on top, Nate was out of town all weekend. It was just me and the little guy.

Having a baby wake up in the middle of the night not being able to breath is probably the most heart breaking thing ever. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do for them besides a humidifier and giving them cuddles. After going through this and seeing how miserable he is at night it makes me want to put him in a bubble until summer.

I’ve never been anal about germs, I’ve always heard and agree with to some level that it helps build their immune system. However, never did I think my 6 month old would be sick 3 times already. After doing a little research (goggling) I found out that babies can get 6 – 10 colds per year! YIKES! That’s complete hell to me.

I can’t but help think where he might have picked this cold up. But as I sit here and rack my brain, he could have gotten it from a million places. Other kids, restaurant tables, grocery shopping carts, I could have got it and gave it to him, Nate could have picked it up at the gym. As much as I would love to keep him in a bubble, it’s not going to happen. So, I need to step up my washing hands game and steer clear of anyone who is sick.

You hear that? If your sick, stay away.

Along with taking care of a sick child, did get some baby proofing done.

We still have a lot to do but at least it’s a start. While CK has been sick he has managed to learn how to open drawers and pull up on everything including toys, couches and his crib rails.

He’s now even starting to furniture walk. The only problem with that is he gets so proud of himself that he forgets to hold on and ends up falling. The foam mats I ordered can’t come soon enough. I will say that this boy is one determined baby. I give him a couple months tops before he starts walking.

Well I’m off to start sanitizing our entire house from top to bottom. I need this house germ free before Christmas!

How do you clean stuff animals that can’t be put in the washer?

And do you really need to do the whole bleaching thing on the toys or will a Lysol wipe work?

OK … seriously who is fast forwarding my life. I can not believe it’s Monday already and the weekend is gone and we have only 2 weeks left till Christmas!

First I want to say thank you for all your comments on the Never would I ever post, I’m glad I’m not the only one who goes against what I say. This past weekend I came across yet another Never would I ever. Never would I ever tiptoe around my house when the baby is sleeping! I find myself doing this more and more.

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 With only 2 weeks till Christmas I’ve realized I still have a lot to do. No matter how early I start doing all the Christmas things, shopping, cards etc. I always find myself doing things last minute. I still need to get our Christmas cards out and finish up our Christmas shopping and make lots of cookies. 9 dozen to be exact.

We did however get a couple things checked off my list this weekend.

We got around to decorating our Christmas tree again … yes, again. About a week ago our tree did this.

The lights were all jacked up, the star fell down, some ornaments broke. Luckily this one did not. Caden got this from his Sito, isn’t it cute!

There was water all over the floor which soaked our carpet, pine needles everywhere, it was a disaster to say the least. So after a week of me pestering the hubby we got around to it and now it’s back to looking normal.

It still needs a few more ornaments but at least no one got hurt. After we got the tree back together again I did some cleaning and finished putting up the rest of our Christmas decorations. Finally.

Sunday night we decided to grab some dinner and check out the Christmas scenery in our neighborhood!

We even got to see the Big Guy! Yep … Good ‘old Saint Nick himself!

We got the most adorable picture of Caden and Santa but I can’t reveal it just yet. I’m still deciding if I’m going to use it for our Christmas cards.

After we got home, I caught Caden opening up one of his presents under the tree!! Little sneaker! I seriously thought Nate and I would be opening his gifts at Christmas for him but after seeing this, he’s fully capable doing it himself!

Overall we had a great weekend and I hope you did too!  Thank goodness CK is feeling better, we have quite the week coming up. Starting off with a doctors visit for his 6 month shots then a couple play dates and cookie exchanges. Tis the season!

So have you met the big guy yet?

I would love to see some pictures … leave me a link below!