A new chapter...or maybe an old one.

Well, after moving to Huntley, I quit doing daycare, because I didnt' think people would drive out here for me to watch their kids.



after a few months I got the opportunity to go to work at the Telegram. I loved it. I love the job, and the co workers.



I hate leaving my house every day and taking my children to someone elses house to be babysat.



I also hate trying to find reliable daycare.



So I made the decision to quit working and come back home to stay with my kids. I also made the decision to start watching kids again.



And I couldn't be happier about my choice. I can not wait to wake up in the morning again and know that the most I have to do it pull my hair up, brush my teeth and put some sweats on.



I don't have to rush to get 4 kids ready, myself ready and get out the door my 715 so everyone can go where they need to and I can get to work on time.



I also can not wait to tell my kids that mommy is staying home today and that they don't have to go anywhere else!



I have a couple kids ready to start daycare whenever I am done at work, and with just 2 kids, I will honestly make more than I do at work every week.



So I don't know if I should say I am starting a new chapter or re opening the chapter I closed a while ago, kind of like a good book, when a chapter is good you just keep opening it to read it again...I guess this is my life chapter I need to live again!

Remembering spontaneity

Wednesday, Apr 7th, 2010
By Rochelle Stitt

This is my column from the opinion page in the Torrington Telegram.


As a young mother of four, life doesn’t always go according to plan. In fact, it seldom does. When you look at the whole scheme of things, does it really need to?Have you ever sat and listened to an elderly person tell their life stories – maybe your grandparents as a child or parents as an adult or maybe just someone you stumbled across? Their stories of childhood are the greatest. They are always in depth and full of emotion and joy from the “good old days.”My grandparents used to tell stories from their childhood and I remember laughing and just listening with a huge smile on my face. I remember thinking, their lives were so happy and full of joy, and they had so much fun. They have memories from years and years ago. Nothing from the last few decades erased those memories from their minds. While other things slip, the important memories remain. I am sure the lingering stories, the ones passed down for generations, didn’t happen according to plan. The memories that stick are spontaneous life events – the ones that weren’t supposed to happen. Now I wonder if they were smiling or cursing while the events they tell stories about were actually happening? I wonder how long had to pass before the story went from a mishap to a great memory and something they wanted to share for decades? When I am elderly and all I have left are the memories of my past, I want to remember the times I stopped and appreciated my life and its spontaneity. The times I laughed instead of cried when something went wrong.My mom has always said to me, “Don’t sweat the small stuff, it’s all just small stuff.” As I get older, the annoying saying starts to make more sense then ever. As you go through your daily schedule, remember being spontaneous isn’t always bad. Breaking out of the routine can bring you happiness and lasting memories to share later in your life. As a mother, these are the things that bring joy to my children’s faces and put the sparkle in their eyes.The next time your child misses the school bus, your car gets a flat tire on the way to an appointment or your boss throws something at you that wasn’t expected, don’t let yourself get angry, try to remember to smile and make the best of it. Life is what you make it. Happy-go-lucky people don’t have better or easier lives than the rest of us, they have a better outlook on life. They smile when things go right and laugh, shrug their shoulders and carry on when they go wrong. Their lives are not without stress or mishaps, they don’t get lucky and never have bad things happen, they just remember to deal with them positively and make the best of a bad situation. When you let yourself get down and dwell on the negative, bad things always seem to show up. The opposite has the same effect. When you dwell on the positive, you will notice your life is full of it. Always remember to frame every so-called disaster with these words, “in five years will this matter?” Just keep taking that next small step, because life isn’t fair, but it is still good.

Wyoming State Folkstyle Tournament...

Half way!

We are officially half way through wrestling season.

The boys wrestle two styles, Folkstyle and Freestyle. Freestyle will continue until the beginning of May. Folkstyle is what we have been doing and this weekend was state folkstyle. It was held in Casper Wyo. and there were (as always) a TON of kids. We have a great team, and a lot of participants from Torrington. 34 kids from our club went to state this year, 16 of them went on to the championship rounds. We had 4 1st place medals and several 2nd and 3rd place. Overall Torrington Wrestling Club did excellent and we are all so proud of our team kids.

Jaysen had 25 kids in his 8 and under 60 pound bracket. He wrestled 5 times saturday and won 3 lost 2. That put him out for sunday with no place, but he has improved so much over the last couple weeks, he wrestled better than I have ever seen him wrestle and he was also very proud of himself.

Brock had 29 kids in his bracket, 8 and under, 45 pounds. He wrestled 6 times on sunday and lost once, which put him in the championship rounds on sunday for 3-4th place. Sunday he wrestled once and lost leaving him in 4th place of 29 kids!!! He was pretty disappointed that he lost since thus far in the season he has not been beat, and only been taken through 3 periods a couple times, but it is a good lesson learned... no matter how good you think you are, there is always someone better, and that in every match there is a winner and a loser, and you have to know how to deal with being both.

We had a great weekend, and I am looking forward to seeing how the kids do in freestyle! Jaysen likes freestyle a lot better, so he is also excited!

If you are interested in seeing more pictures from State Folkstyle, there is an entire album on my facebook of all the kids in our club wrestling. Check it out :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful spring like weather!

Life on the Farm...

Sometimes I get so frusterated with living so far out in the country, driving back and forth to work, needing to get something from the store, taking the kids to school. With gas prices high it seems almost more reasonable to just move closer to town.
However, I really enjoy living in the country, no neighbors, no trains, no noise. Its relaxing, peaceful and nice, not to mention the great sunrises and sunsets, wildlife in the yard and beautiful landcapes.
Sunday the kids and I got to go check cows with Casey, its calving season, and the cows have to be checked every few hours throughout the day. The kids loved it, as did I, we laughed at the babys, commented on all the different cows, got to watch Casey feed them. It was another reminder why country living has such an appeal. The kids are still talking about checking the cows and taking pictures of them. I really do think that kids that live on the farm get so many great experiences that "city kids" just miss out on.
I definately enjoyed myself just as much as the kids did. I love baby animals and little calves have to be close to my favorite. They are so cute and sweet. Watching them jump and play is just about as sweet as watching my own kiddos in the yard.

On a different note,
The boys wrestled in Mitchell, Neb. two weeks ago, Jaysen got 3rd place and Brock 1st and Wheatland, Wyo. last weekend, Brock got first place after pinning 3 kids. Jaysen also got first for the first time! He was so happy and we were so proud of him. He pinned 2 of the 3 kids he wrestled and won the other match by points. Both kids wrestled great and we couldn't be prouder of them!

Laramie, WY Torunament-2-20-2010

Here are some pictures of the wrestling tournament this weekend. Brock got 1st place and Jaysen got 4th. Brock wrestled in teh 45# weight class and had a couple of his hardest matches yet. He wrestled great and won them all but had to work hard for a couple of them. Jaysen wrestled in the 60# weight class and wrestled better than he ever has, he went out and did the moves he has been practicing and worked hard the whole match. He had a few minor mistakes that cost him the win, but knowing he wrestled his best was more than enough to make him proud of himself. He went all 4 matches without getting pinned and lost by 1 point in each of the matches he lost. Both boys were great and I am (as always) so very proud of my kiddos!

What is the "Bah Humbug" of Valentines day?

Whatever a Valentines day "bah humbug' is really called, its me. I think Valentines day is the most ridiculous holiday ever. I mean, sure getting chocolate or flowers is sweet, but wouldn't it be SO much better if your significant other just wanted to suprise you an some random day rather than over pay and race around to make sure you got your yearly valentines day gift? GAG.

It seems to me like such a "high school" holiday. Something for little silly teenagers to prove who has the most considerate boyfriend. Its a status show, who gets the biggest prettiest flower arrangement from their "love." And the poor guys who either cant afford a dozen roses in high school, or who agree with me and think its a big joke and don't get anything. They get the short end of the stick because their lady will probably either leave them and steal away her best friends man who got 2 dozen roses for his "love." or she is going to be pouting and mad at him for the rest of the week. Arent girls silly?

Casey has always got me a pretty boquet of flowers for valentines day. From the first year until now, and he is always good at suprising me with them. They are usually Pink roses, considering pink is my favorite color. This year I think I have convinced him that I don't need flowers, or chocolates or a silly stuffed bear. All I need if for him to come home after work every day, and do all the things that he does ever day that make me know that he is happy to come home to us, that he appreciates me daily, not just on valentines day. Needless to say, to me, today is nothing more than another sunday - which means tomorrow is the dreaded monday. Where do the weekends go...and why do they go so stinkin fast?!

To all you Valentines day advocates....Happy Valentines Day! To the rest of you , Have a good sunday!

Ill? Colo.? Minn.? Who are all you people?

I have been looking at my blog "visitors map" and noticing that there are people viewing my blog from all over the place! Which makes me wonder, how did you come across it? What do you think? and most of all, Who are you? Not that I mind, I am glad Beautiful Chaos is drawing so much attention, it makes me smile!

To everyone viewing my blog, please leave me a quick comment...let me know your thoughts, how you found it, and so on...
and if you also have a blog, leave me your blog address, I would love to check yours out!

I am very interested!

isn't it strange...

We have officially been without a dryer at our house for one month. Its the middle of winter, so hanging the cloths out on the line is out of the question, and I really don't have a place in my house to hang dry them either. For the last month, we have been collecting our weeks worth of laundry in totes and hauling them to Casey's parents to wash them all on the weekend. Convenient? Absolutely not.

Casey's parents have been very kind and patient letting us invade their home for the weekend, usually by the time our laundry piles up for a week, there are a good 3-4 huge totes full. (yeah, 6 people go through a lot of laundry in a week) It takes a good day and a half to finish it all and then we get to lug it all back home. The worst part is yet to come. Yep, putting everything away. YIKES!

Next weekend we are planning on going to purchase our new washer and dryer. Large capacity, front loader, energy star, short time washes. I am so stinkin excited.

Isn't it funny how we all complain and whine when we have to do laundry every day. Its such a pain, and so repetitive. However, take that away for a month, and a new washer and dryer is the most exciting purchase ever! I can not wait to do laundry at home again! I remember thinking the same thing when Casey got me a new vacuume for christmas one year. I was SO excited to get it home and vacuum my house!

My mom always used to say "its the simple things in life..." I guess this would be one of those things. Something as simple as doing laundry or vacuuming after you haven't been able to for a while seems so much more appealing then it does when you have to do it every day.

I wish there was some way to keep that excitement alive after doing laundry everyday, I wish in a month or two I was still going to be happy to come home and be able to start laundry, im sure by then though, it will once again be just a dreaded chore again.

I love getting off work early. Even more than that I love spending time with my great friends and children. The other day I had an opportunity to do both! Lindsey, me, Jaysen, Carter and Kennedi. Monroe, Maggie, Max and Tucker(Lindseys 2 dogs) decided we should go for a walk.

We walk often, usually late at night, without the kids since it is so cold after dark.

We pack the double stroller with water for the kids, a blanket incase fingers get cold, some misc things to occupy the kids if they get bored. We bundle the kids with snowboots, coats, hats and mittens. Jaysen gets his bike out of storage from the winter, and finally we are ready. Mind you, we usually take a leash for the dogs...just incase, today we did not. It really isn't the issue of the dogs running away, but more the issue of a car coming and them not staying out of the way.

Finally, we are ready to walk. We start off, all 3 dogs running in front of the stroller, which Carter and Kennedi are in, Jaysen trying to keep up with the 3 dogs ahead of us, Monroe doesn't run with the rest of the dogs, he is to paranoid that something may happen to me. He does about a 3 foot circle around me, lindsey and the stroller the entire walk.

As we get to the next county road, Casey and all the guys he works with are getting off work, which means about 5 trucks speeding our way...yikes. Lucky for us we are just turning onto the next road out of the way. 4 trucks pass..and here comes a tractor? and just our luck, it turns our direction...GREAT! 4 dogs and 1 boy on a bike to try to yell at to come back to us FAST. It is Casey. He is taking the tractor to clear the ditches in front of our house so they will drain more effeciently, and he just thought he would come see what we were doing.

Kennedi decided she would much rather go with dad in the tractor than walk with us, so after talking to Casey, he is off, with Kennedi and we are back walking one passenger lighter.

After another mile or so, Casey is calling asking where we were...of course, Kennedi is done in the tractor. He drove the car over to us to bring Kennedi back to her place in the stroller.

As we near county road 49 (and my house) we notice yet another tractor, and as we watch, the other (smaller) tractor is attempting to pull Caseys tractor out of the ditch. Without much luck I might add.

We continue on our way, laughing about the fact that Casey got a big huge tractor stuck in the ditch. Turns out, the melting snow and mud was a little muddier and softer than he had thought. It took about 30 minutes of trying, another Tractor and a lot of effort to get the stuck machine out.

As you can see in the pictures, it is well after dark at this point and Casey wasn't just a little stuck, he was a lot stuck. Which he may not have thought was funny at all, however I thought it was hilarious. The kids and I watched out the window and laughed.

What a great night!

Gering Nebraska Wrestling Tournament...

The boys had thier first tournament of the year this weekend. It was in Gering Nebraska. Brock wrestled at the 45 pound weight, he wrestled 3 times and won all of them, winning 1st place. He also was super close to getting a quick pin award, he missed it by 2/10ths of a second...darn!

Jaysen wrestled 55 pound weight, and wrestled 4 times, losing 2 of the matches (to the same kid - dangit! ). He got 4th place. They both had a great time and were very proud of themselves!

Next weekend we go to Newcastle.

Sorry if I am not keeping this quite as up to date as I should be. Wrestling season is hectic, time consuming and just plain tiring. I will update at least once a week after the tournaments and let you know the outcome. Sometimes its just too hard to keep up with everything!

Love it or Hate it, wrestling season is here.....

The kids watch as the Coach demonstrates...

Brock has decided he is the champ at the monkey bars...

Casey also coaches the team, here he is giving a few words of wisdom to Brock.

Every year I whine and complain. Wrestling take up so much time, we never have family time during wrestling season. Its SO expensive, the practices are too long, its too hard on the kids...the reasons to hate it are endless...

Every year Jaysen wins his first match and the smile on his face is priceless. Brock takes home another trophy and his pride in himself grows. Those moments are life long experiences and remind me why we do this every year.

The kids started wrestling when they were 4 years old, this is the 4th year they have competed. We travel to Bayard NE, Casper WY, Sheridan WY and several others that are hours away from home. We get up before dawn to be to the tournaments before weigh-ins, and often dont get home until well after night fall. Other times we stay in a hotel for a night or two to cut down on road time. Wrestling starts in late January and goes on until early May. Four months of the four day a week practices with 2 day tournaments on almost every weekend.

Yes the sport is extreamly demanding. Yes it takes a lot of dedication from the kids and the families. Sometimes I find myself wondering who it is harder on, us or the kids.

Brock is last years State Champion. He fought hard all season and won at the state tournament. That is something he will NEVER forget, He went undefeated the first year he wrestled, he won't forget how that felt either.

Jaysen has always struggled, he has to fight hard for ever win, and occasionally gets a bronze medal. Last year he got 3rd at the Torrington Tournament-he got a trophy and was so proud of himself. He will have that to look at and remind him of how that felt forever.

I am so proud of my boys for dedicating themselves to something so challenging, something so demanding, and something that takes more inner strength than it does actual strength.

It teaches them so many life lessons about sportsmenship, losing and winning, working to get what you want and making life long friendships.

In the end, its hard to say if I really enjoy wrestling season, but I know that my kids do, and I know that what they get from it is worth more than my happiness. I know that there isn't a moment that I am prouder than my kids then when they are out there giving their all at something whether they win OR lose. It makes me so proud to see them win, but honestly even prouder to see them give their opponent a hug or high five and tell them "good job" when they lose.

They are both wrestling Bantam(7-8 year old) and Brock is weighin in at around 45lbs, Jaysen will wrestle probably 60lbs. I look forward to seeing what this season brings and what new memories we can make...there will be many more pictures to follow!

AAAHHHH-CHO

I have 2 sick kids...not awful sick, but the typical stuffy nose, cough and sneeze, watery eyes kind of sick. Kennedi is (as always) worse than Carter. She looks like a big walking snot ball. Poor girl. Carter is just coughing and has a never ending drip at the end of his nose...UGH. I should really buy stock in Kleenex. Anyhow, as any mother with sick kids knows, once they figure out the kleenex routine, its a fight. Carter does pretty good, he at least doesn't run or turn his head away from your attempts to wipe the drip. He does not however like to "blow."

"Carter, blow your nose"
"I can't mom..."
"Carter, just blow all the air out of your nose"
"ok...like this...AHHH CHO"

This is what I get today. Instead of him blowing he thinks the right thing to do is sneeze. and not a real sneeze and fake drawn out AHHH CHO. now EVERY time we get a kleenex close to his nose, he "sneezes" into it, and thinks it is OH SO FUNNY!! (which it really kind of is!)

He really is just at such a funny age, you can't help but just laugh and laugh.

Ah...Monday

No. 1 priority - So our dryer has been going out. I mean, I has slowly been dying, one day it works, the next it has no heat, the next it just wont start...whatever. It DIED. Now it runs but with no heat, and will randomly turn on and not turn off. Ever. It is officially retired and out of comission. We spent the weekend at Casey's parents...doing laundry. Normal families do not have to spend an entire weekend doing laundry, but after 6 people go through a full week without being able to wash any, it takes a while to get cought up...you do the math. No. 1 priority...Save for Washer and Dryer. Don't get me wrong, i don't mind spending the weekend at the Blevins household, but lugging all of the laundry over, making room for 4 totes of laundry, 4 children, 2 adults and the Dogs in one tahoe, makes the trip less than enjoyable.

No.2 Priority - Our fridge keeps blowing the breaker. It happened about a month ago the first time. Continued to blow every 30-45 minutes all day. Casey took it all apart and cleaned inside, worked fine. (its only a few months old...so really there was no way it was that dirty...but aparently it needed vaccumed.) guess what, woke up yesterday to the distinct sound of the breaker clicking off. UGH. Fought and fought all day, it wouldn't even stay on 5 stinkin minutes. turned off the Ice maker...stupid thing has been on since without any problem. Priority #2...call the GE Appliance center and tell them to fix my stupid Refrigerator.

No.3 Priority - TAHOE! It needs new Tires, and the engine light comes on, all of the time. With Wrestling starting, I really do want to have my tahoe in tip top condition considering all the traveling I have to do during wrestling.

all in all everything always happens at once. ALWAYS

we had planned on using our Tax Returns for some fun house stuff (ie...finishing basement, buying the kids new beds for their OWN rooms, starting landscaping on the yard...) guess this year it will go towards repairing and replacing all of our crap! (not fun)

on a Positive note...GO SAINTS!!! We are going to the superbowl! WOO HOO! I think we will have a superbowl party, My team is the saints and my Nephew LOVES the colts. This should be fun, and I love entertaining friends...so anyone interested, bring a snack, and come join the fun!

You are not a Triceratops

This is Carters Dinosaur face. ha ha ha

My friend started my day off by telling me "Chelle, you just have to find the little things that make your day different than every other"

I blew off the statement thinking, my life is so repititious, everyday is the same. I wake up at 6am, start coffee, wake Jaysen to get up for school, 7am he gets on the bus and I make breakfast for Carter and Kennedi, from that point on its housework, pets, work, more housework, and when I am lucky a few hours in the evening with Casey.

But then I thought about it. My kids are young, they do funny, cute, exciting, annoying things every single day, all of the time. Why is it that I have compleatly failed to give that any thought before. My life is far from boring like I always assume it is, I have the best entertainment anyone could ask for, and it is free!

Today Carter didn't want to go to school. He wanted to stay home with me. After having a short arguement with him about how he had to go to school today, he calmly and seriously informed me that Triceratops did NOT go to school. WHAT?!? Talk about random and totally out of the blue.
"Carter what are you talking about?"
"Mom, Triceratops don't go to school"
"you are probably right, I don't think they probabley went to school"
"no mom, They don't. And I dont' want to either"
"you aren't a triceratops and you have to go to school today"
the conversation ended there. Nothing more was said about not going to school or whether or not Triceratops went to school. However when we arrived at his classroom, he told his teacher that he was at school today, and that he was a T-rex today because they are the only dinosaurs that can go to school. He, just as serious as before, told her that Triceratops didn't go to school and that he only could be Triceratops when he was at home, but could be T-rex while he was in class.

Oh the minds of three year old boys. That was my happy memory for today, I am so thankful for my kids and even when they are quirky and goofy and a little bit odd, they are always what make my world turn.

Whats so NEW about it?

So I have been doing some thinkin, and I don't understand that HUGE deal about new years...sure its the end of one year and the start of the next. But why is it that people think that because its a new year they are going to change anything!?!

I made the silly resolutions and goals for the new year, but in all reality, you need a much better reason for doing the things you what to change then a "new year." it has to be within you, for more than that day. For more than the week before new years and probably even for more than the previous year.

I know it is super common for people to make a New Years Resolution, and within the next week or month it is long gone...why is that? What do you have to do to keep your New YEars resolutions?

To me there is nothing new about this year, I am the same, nothing has changed, nothin is going to change...I want to make all my resolutions come true, but heck I wanted all of those things last year too...so tell me, what is it that needs to happen????

Its my party...

Kennedi turned 2 on Dec 30th. Talk about getting to much all at the same time...SPOILED LITTLE GIRL! Dec 25 we did Christmas(obviously) and she got a ton of toys/cloths/junk/etc, on Dec 27th we did xmas gift exchange with my brothers family, again, more stuff for her, and then we waited until Jan 1 to celebrate her birthday; yep you guessed it, lots more STUFF!!!

Unfortunately our basement is still totally unfinished(soon to change...hopefully) and she is still sharing a room with Casey and I. The reason I say unfortunately is because i have NO WHERE to go with all of her toys! As of right now she has one huge pink tote that everything of hers gets thrown in and stuffed under the boys bunk beds, well, it is totally overflowing and doesn't really fit under the bed... :( Hopefully within the next month we will be able to start finishing the basement and we will have enough room for her things along with everyone elses!!

The party we had was small and simple, Grandparents, cousins and brothers...but she had a great time, she enjoyed dumping the bagged giftes and ripping (more) wrapping paper. and everything she got was true blue Kennedi. Her family knows her well and she didn't get a gift she didn't love (except maybe the cloths that we got her, she didn't get to excited about them!)

The party we extreme last minute so I feel a little bad about the cake, talk about simply and embarrassing! usually I make these awesome great cakes for everyone, and poor kennedi got a simple white heart with pink letters, looking at the pictures though, she didn't seem to notice as she shoved it into her mouth!

Overall her birthday was great and she is healthy which is what I am most thankful for...It has been almost a year without any health problems...Im hoping that it continues and next year I can say "its been almost 2 Years" I am glad that she had such a great time, but I have to say I am thankful that its all over and we have a few months to recouperate now before any big events in our family.

The newest addition to the family...yep officially I am crazy!

This is Maggie. Something in my mind made me believe that our existing family of 6 people, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 fish and 1 ferrett just wasn't quite enough. So we got Maggie. A Beagel-Bassett hound cross, super cute, super sweet and yeah super dumb. I shouldn't say that, she isn't really dumb, she just really doesnt listen...at all. not the annoying doesn't obey commands, she doesn't listen to anything at all...if it werent for the fact that occasionally she responds I may think she was deaf... but im quite sure its just pure stubbornness and not caring that she doesn't listen. Its a good think she is so sweet, because we all love her anyway!

Happy 2010

Nathan, playing the Wii around midnight...him and Casey challenged eachother on Wii Resort most of the nightBrock and Kennedi enjoying the last few hours of 2009 with eachother

All of the kiddos playing, dancing, and being crazy to "who let the dogs out" what is it about that song that kids like so much?

Jaysen and Josh watching and waiting for their turn on the Wii

everyone again, enjoying eachother and the last of the year!

Well, even though its the most generic blog post ever, you still gotta do it! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Its crazy that it is already 2010! another year gone, another year older, another year wiser. Another year to look forward to, another to make memories in and another to try to improve yourself!

Typically people go out, bring in the new year with Friends or random people at the bar, drink entirely too much alcohol, try to drive home and hope not to get caught. People give those Officers a reason to work on new years...

Well, we chose a different (probably much smarter) way to spend our last day of the year. We had our neices and nephews out to our house, stayed home and had a party with the kiddos. It was SO fun! We had frozen pizza, junk food, soda and misc snacks. Stayed up all night playing board games, Wii, computer games, listening to music, and laughing hystarically at the kids. The kids had a blast and we all made some great memories(along with getting some great photos!)

We had such a good year, We moved into our house in the country, its been great living out here, had our first "real" garden, my first custom kitchen, made just for me, Casey is close to his job which saves us lots of gas money, Brock won 1st place at State Wrestling, the kids have all been overall healthy, I started a new job that I really enjoy, made and Re-united with great friends. yeah, there have been the ups and of course the downs, but overall its been a good year!

TOP TEN NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS:

~10...I hope this year to spend more quality time together as a Family...so my goal...Family night once a week, games, projects, mini-vacations, anything as long as it is all of us together once a week.

~9...I want to spend more time alone with Casey, so I am shooting for a mommy and daddy DATE night at least twice a month. Even if we just stay home I think it is important to have a few nights a month with just adults, NO KIDS!

~8...Seriously!!! SAVE MONEY! my goal for the year is to pay off all the Dr bills, debts and IOU's and really truely start being smart with our money.

~7...I need to spend the time to organize my house, my kitchen, bedrooms, everything! Also included in this I am hoping to finish the flooring in the bedrooms and all of the basement. our plan is to use our Tax Returns to finish the basement so that all the kids have their own rooms and our house is really truely big enough for our family of 6!

~6...I am trying really hard to be positive and not be so grumpy all of the time, my goal for the year is to improve my temper and overall mood!

~5...I want to find an activity for each of the kids, Jaysen wants to continue lessons and learn to play his Guitar, so my goal for him is to continually and regularly go to guitar lessons, and for the other kids, to find something they are passionate about and keep them doing it!

~4...Kennedi is offically cut off of the bottle. My goal is to not fall into her demands for giving it too her and keep her off of the bottle and on her big girl cups.

~3...I am going to try to make it to Bible study and church at least a couple times a month, I haven' t been going at all and think that if I start with a couple times a month this year it would help my overall outlook on life.

~2...I try really hard to keep healthy snacks in the house for the kids and us, I want to work harder on always having snacks and meals ready and planned that are healthy and cover they food groups that the kids need to be healthey!

~1...my number one goal for the year is the same as probably 90% of everyone elses...to lose weight and get healthier, exercise daily, eat healthier and lose this weight I keep blaming on having Carter and Kennedi so close together...Kennedi is now 2, no need for babyfat anymore!!!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all have a great year filled with love, happiness and great memories...now that I have shared with you my resolutions, i would love to hear all about yours...post me a message telling me your goals for the new year!