An awesome and amazing 2010 to you.

It's time for the customary New Years resolution post! Aren't you excited?! I know I am! I can't believe that we are finding ourselves at the end of a decade, I mean, where in the h e double hockey sticks have the last 10 years gone! I remember sitting around 10 years ago waiting for the world to end with all of the technology on earth shutting down because our computers couldn't handle a silly 20 instead of the former 19. Man, how things can change in 10 years and now I sit here at 26 years old (26 really, is that even possible?) with my life having gone in a completely different direction than I would have ever anticipated. And the crazy thing is, I can't imagine being any happier than I am right now!! Okay, so having a little extra money would be nice, but really I don't think that money ever makes you happier, and living with less makes you appreciate so much more. Looking back on last years resolution list, I was thoroughly impressed with how many goals I have actually accomplished this year!! I have worked really hard on my emotional and spiritual side and the results have paid off immensely. My marriage is the best it's ever been, I'm truly happy and more in love with my life than I would have ever expected. I made it back to school after an 8 year hiatus and achieved A's in my first 4 classes. I am truly blessed and have taken up the mantra that I am surrounded by so much love that I always have a reason to be happy. Of course, we all have our bad days but I have learned not to let those things bother me anymore. Of the 10 resolutions that I set last year (you can find that list here, I would say that I have accomplished about 8. And in terms of resolutions, I think that's pretty successful! So for this year, I'm sticking with the 2 resolutions that I wasn't able to achieve last year. Those are concerning my health/weight and finances. I know they're cliche, but I think that the reason they are is because they are the most difficult to achieve. Last year, the 2 resolutions were worded a little differently then this years will be though.
Previous resolution:
*To keep up with bills and get completely out of debt by 2010.
*To lose my last 10 lbs and then maintain (healthfully of course).
New Resolutions:
*Stop eating out so much, keep a budget more consistently and build up our savings account.
*Start working out and take up a vegetarian lifestyle again. Drink more water and get into shape.
Its time for the outside to reflect the happiness on the inside. 2010 will be our year!!
To all of my wonderful friends and family reading this blog, I can't thank you enough for being there and I love you and appreciate you more than I can say. You are the best in the world and I can't imagine my life without you all in it. I hope that your 2010 is amazing and that you can accomplish everything you wish for. I can't wait to see where this year takes us!!

can I get a whoop whoop.

I just realized that the last time I posted was the Friday before my first full college semester began. If the fact that it's taken me nearly 4 months to update isn't any indication as to how crazy my life has been, well then I don't know what is. What I do know is that my absence from the blog-o-sphere has completely paid off and I finished my first actual college semester with straight A's... With that news, I figured that a celebratory blog post was in order, because lets face it, you can only brag so much on facebook before people start rolling their eyes at you. Let me just say... I'M SO FREAKIN' STOKED.
Okay, now that that's out of my system, we can move on to more pressing issues...
I'm hoping that with my 4 month absence, I might still have a few readers. If you're still with me, humor me and let me know.
So, whats going on with us otherwise? Well, Austyn is nearly halfway through second grade. Still loving school. Struggling a little with reading, still. But otherwise a "delightful student" in the words of her teachers. Begging for a Nintendo DS for Christmas, thank God its not a cellphone instead.
Peyton is starting to talk all the time. Mostly being a little parrot, copying everything you say... its too stinkin' cute, even tho I'm a little biased. He is BADLY in need of a haircut right now. Totally rocking the little 21 month old mullet. I'll try to post the before and after pics this weekend after we take him to get all beautified for the plethora of Christmas pictures that are sure to follow in a mere 9 days.
Hmmm...
What Else...
Wes is busy doing what he always does... work. Nothing new, but he is still enjoying what he does and really enjoys the other people that he works with so there are no complaints.
And for me, well, my daycare is still going strong, right now I have 2 full-time kids and 2 part-timers. While I've had the opportunity to take on more children recently, I'm perfectly happy with the ones that I have right now and I'm just at the right number for my tiny house. I'm also working at Hey Baby, part-time for those of you that didn't know, mainly to give me a reason to get up, shower and put on decent clothes(any of you SAHM's can probably relate with that. Either that or I'm just very lazy, which is a likely possibility as well). The people that I work with are awesome and I love the atmosphere. What more could you ask for?! So as you can see, with all of the different hats (as my 6th grade teacher would have called them) that I have been wearing lately, I've been a little bit pulled in 50,000,000 different directions these past few months. But I can at least take off the student hat for a month and can hopefully replace it with a more diligent blogger hat to entertain all of you that have stuck by my side.
Oh and the Christmas cards will be in the mail shortly...
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. XOXO

A new day.

I'm feeling completely stumped with my words tonight so instead of rambling through a post, I'll just delight you with a few new kiddo pictures. Included are a couple shots of Austyn's first day of school and birthday party and Peyton at the 4H parade! More later, thanks for the patience :)

My baby is growing up.

Last week Austyn was in our friends Dan and Alisa's wedding. I had to share a couple pics that I snapped after I got her ready. She's growing up so quickly, it makes me sad.

Ode to the greatest friends in the history of the world.

Last night I couldn't sleep. As we all know, when that happens your brain starts spinning. I got to thinking about the sad fact that by the end of this summer most of my closest friends will have moved on to other cities. I know that as we grow up and move on in life, it happens. But that doesn't make it any easier. So anyway, I just wanted to make sure that all of my best-ies know just how awesome I think they are and say Thanks for being so totally amazing.
I think that you are truly blessed if you get one friend that you are close to for your entire life (or as much of your life as you can remember). I am lucky enough to have two. I don't know what I would've done growing up without Amanda and Nicole. We've been through so much together and just because Manda is living in Nashville now and Nicole will be moving to Kansas City with her adorable little family in August, I don't expect to ever lose touch with them. They are the epitome of true friendship and I love them both dearly.
Then you have the friends that come into your life through another friend and you instantly bond with and grow to become unexpectedly close to. Amber, whom I met through Wes' friend Ryan has become a very close confidant to me and I'm so thankful for her amazing listening skills and her ability to relate to my current situation. And Lindsey, who is the wife to our friend Mike, is incredibly caring and loves my children (for both her and Mike to embrace our kids without having any children of their own yet, means sooo much to me). And Alisa, who was married this last weekend to our close friend, Dan. I'm so sad that they are getting ready to move all the way to Wisconsin in the fall, but know that we will always be there for one another.
I am lucky enough to be in touch with many of my friends from elementary, middle and high school as well. I love the moments, tho not as frequent as I'd like because we're all so busy, that we still get spend time together, catching up and reverting back to our silly school days selves. Lizzy, Sarah, Liz, Laura, Casie,Stephanie, Amy and Anne, you guys are the greatest. Janine, you are the awesome "cool girl" that I've always envied and I so appreciate you always being there for me. Thanks for welcoming me into your circle and introducing me to your girls, Jaime and Megan are amazing! Abby, I appreciate all of your help when we were working at Dara's together and I'm so glad that we have gotten to continue our friendship since then. Its nice to have someone that I completely trust to stay with my kids and I wish you all the happiness in the world. And I can't forget the boys, Brandon, who is a great advice-giver and will always be my big brother. Dan, who knows me better than almost anyone and still likes me anyway. And Wes, who even tho is my husband too, is my best friend and I can't imagine facing this crazy journey without him.
I wouldn't be who I am without all of you, Thank You for being the greatest friends that anyone could ask for!

8x8

Okay, since I got tagged twice today by both : Anne and Casie I suppose I'll humor you all and fill it out :)

EIGHT Things I Am Looking Forward to:
1. My Birthday tomorrow!! Woot! :)
2. The sun coming out and it getting warm again so we can resume our visits to the pool.
3. Taking Austyn to see Up this weekend.
4. All of my kiddos being healthy again. All 5 kids are sick with one ailment or another and I'm just ready for everyone to feel 100% again!
5. Dan and Alisa's nuptials this weekend and getting to see my girl her beautiful flower girl dress!
6. Going to eat lunch tomorrow with grandma and my kiddos tomorrow!
7. Working on my class... I know, kinda weird but I'm looking forward to being done with it :)
8. Enrolling in my full time fall classes.

EIGHT Things I Did Yesterday:
Here's my typical mom list :):
1. Woke up and straightened up the living room.
2. Made breakfast for the kids.
3. Cleaned, laundry, studied and took a quiz for my class.
4. Made lunch for the kids.
5. Ate waffles with PB for lunch after I got all the kids fed.
6. Watched Twilight with the girls for like the 2,000,000th time. On Eadon's movie pick day we usually watch Twilight :)
7. Went to Grandma's to help her fix PeeWee's phone.
8. Brought home Chipotle for dinner, got kids bathed and put to bed, and watched Deadliest Catch with the husband. Went to bed.

EIGHT Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Show my family and friends how much I appreciate them. I feel like I don't say Thank You enough.
2. Have more patience.
3. Be able to read people's minds. (Maybe this is why I'm going to major in Psychology :))
4. Be more creative. Trying to entertain 2 six year old girls this summer, I realize how boring I really am!
5. Play guitar. Its on my top 50 things to do before I die list.
6. Be a great decorator. I think this goes along with number 4.
7. I wish I could budget better and be a better saver.
8. Be more concerned about my appearance... I tend to put my hair, makeup and clothes behind everyone else and often look like I just rolled out of bed :)

EIGHT Shows We Watch:
1. CSI: LV, Miami and NY
2. Chuck
3. The Biggest Loser
4. Scrubs
5. Nip/Tuck
6. Hannah Montana
7. ICarly
8. Phineas and Ferb (Ya, I have 5 kids here all day, we watch a lot of kids shows :))

EIGHT Favorite Movies/Books:
Movies:
1. The Illusionist
2. Twilight (even tho I can't fathom seeing it again after watching it 2000000 times in the last 3 weeks.) :)
3. V for Vendetta
4. Meet the Robinson's... Best Disney movie ever :)
Books:
5. Twilight Saga
6. DaVinci Code/ Angels & Demons
7. Jemima J
8. The Host

EIGHT Places I’d Like to Travel to:
1. Ireland
2. Rome
3. The Bahama's (on a cruise)
4. Hawaii
5. New York
6. Disney World in FL
7. Boston
8. Brazil


EIGHT Places I’ve Lived:
1-8. Manhattan, Sad isn't it :)

EIGHT Others that may or may not care to participate in the EIGHT X EIGHT thingy:
Amber
Laura
Nicole

New Kid Pics :)

School.

This will be a fast post because my babies are being extra destructive today! So I got officially enrolled at Barton yesterday!! I am taking one class this summer and then will start full time with the fall semester. I am communicating with my adviser now to get all of my classes lined up and complete my associates of science. All classes will be taken online and with 61 hours for completion I am hoping to be done in 2 years. Then onto KSU or another university to complete my Bachelors and possibly graduate degree(still tossing around the ideas for majors). So anxious to get rolling and I keep you updated on my progress :)

I'm Back!

Hey everybody!! So sorry for the horribly long break since my last post, my laptop cord broke about 3 months ago and i didn't have the patience to type on my iPod. :)
So anyway, I guess I'll just update whats been going on in our little corner of the world, even though things are pretty much the same as they were 4 months ago when I last posted.
Austyn is wrapping up her last month of first grade and I absolutely don't have a clue where this last year has gone. She is anxious for summer and has decided that she is going to play soccer and take dance and swimming lessons. I'm thinking that its going to be a busy summer!
Peyton turned one on April 11th and is walking all over the place, terrorizing anything that is under 3.5 feet high. He loves having "conversations", rambling on and on in his baby gibberish. He and his BFF Lilly keep my life busy, constantly fishing random things out of their mouths and saving them from all kinds of horribly near traumatic events (ex. running out of apple juice or dropping toys to the extreme depths of the trashcan.) :)
Wes is staying really busy, working a ton building his bosses house and helping another guys build his house on the side. Maybe one of these days I will be lucky enough to have his fine craftsmanship on a house of our very own :)
I am just doing good as usual, still loving running my daycare and keeping up our home. I am starting online classes the end of this month and I am so excited to get back into it again. Hopefully when Peyton starts school, I will be done with my degree and be back into the workforce. I'm so blessed to be able to stay home with the kids and I wouldn't have things any other way right now!
Okay so now that this post is starting to feel like a bad Christmas letter (not to mention a ridiculous number of smiley faces), I will sign off and try to do a better job at keeping you updated!

I pledge...

Maybe you saw this on Oprah or the MTV inaugural ball, but everytime I watch it, I get emotional.
I pledge to stand behind what I believe and stop allowing people to make me question myself. And to worry less and ACT more.
What do you pledge?

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Happy Inauguration Day.

I promise that this whole post isn't going to be political. I just realized that its been way too long time since I updated and thought that this morning would be a good time to do it! What a great day, not only b/c the weather is supposed to be a balmy 41* and sunny, but because we have a NEW PRESIDENT, people! Now, I'm not being boastful because the candidate that I supported won, because honestly even if John McCain were accepting the task today, I would still be just as elated. The key here is that our dear Pres. Bush is adios. I honestly contemplated buying one of the "Jan. 20, 2009: End of an Error" bumper stickers, but didn't because I decided that my silly Bush-loving husband would probably refuse to ride in my car. President Obama most definitely has his hands full stepping into his new role, but my hope is that he can prove all of the cynics wrong and come thru with flying colors. I know that all of the foul ups caused by our previous pres will take a long time to correct, maybe even longer than Obama's first term. But if he stands behind his word, I believe that we can make major strides in these next 4 years.
Okay, enough, I promised that it wouldn't be all political. But, to be completely honest, there's really not that much to report on the home front :) The kids are doing wonderful, Peyton is growing like CRAZY and Austyn is doing really well in school, learning how to read more everyday. I can't believe how close Peyton is inching to his one year mark. It seems like just yesterday that he was born! Alright, Peyton just started yelling from his crib that he is ready to start his day so, I guess that's my cue. Enjoy this momentous day, if you want to come celebrate with me I will be staked out close to the television all morning :)

Happiest 2009.

Happy, happy New Year! To all of my friends and family, thank you for a wonderful 2008 and all of my best wishes in 2009. I love you all and deeply appreciate everyone who has been supportive of me this year. Cheers to the next 365 days :)