Update/Household Changes.

I looked at the last time I posted on this blog and realized it's been too long. A bunch has changed around here since my last post, mostly in the house. We turned the office into our bedroom, bought a new bed and all that. Made our old room the spare room/guest room/Mariah's room. Moved Jon's work space into a spot in the hallway which kinds of separates him from the chaos that goes on downstairs most of the day. We have Kaylee to thank for that :). 


Tyler attended his first semi-formal dance last week. He looked so handsome. He will also be attending the district music festival at the end of March. I'm very proud of him. 


Julie is still doing ballet, and is off and on enjoying it. I think she is bored with it for right now, and keeps saying she won't do it next year. I told her to wait and see how she feels when it starts up again in the fall. I'm very proud of her for sticking with it even though lately she hasn't been feeling it. 


Both kids are doing soccer this year. Julie has been asking to do soccer for a couple of seasons now, and the school soccer is a joke, so we figured we would put her in voltage to see how she likes it. 


We have made our reservations for camping at the end of July. We did this last year, but now it's becoming a traditional big family camping trip. Camping is about the cheapest family vacation we can do, and it's great that we get to go with my family. Kids get to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa, and everyone gets to relax away from home. 


I already have the kids birthday present planned. I'm going to do a large gift for all three of them, and just get them something small on their actual birthday. I really can't wait to give them this years gift, because I think they are going to love it. It's something they've never had, but always wanted. 


The lifestyle changes that I've made are a keeper. I feel a TON better. I have more energy, and my heartburn is gone. Yup you heard me right, no more medication for acid reflux. The kids when they are home eat this way as well, and a good portion of the things I make they eat. When I make something they don't like they always have the option to make a sandwich, or I can make them something else. They both still eat lunch at school, so have the option to eat whatever they want there, but they eat healthy at home. Tyler's weight has dropped by 6lbs since we've made these changes at home, and because he fills up faster he takes in less food. We all do which means our grocery bill is less. Anyone who says eating this way is more expensive hasn't ever tried it long enough to see the benefits. We went from spending 1,200 a month on food to between $500-$700 a month. And no we are not hungry all the time, quite the opposite actually. Goodbye afternoon slump, goodbye being tired all the time, hello ENERGY!!

Family Resolutions?

Is it practical to make resolutions as a family? I've made only a very few, but I'm doing a new small change each week of 2012. All in hopes of being a happier healthier me at the end of 2012. I'm making this year my year of change. I made quite a few changes at the end of 2011, but I just feel like always things could be better. So I'm making it happen. Is it hopefully that as a family we make some changes? One change that everyone really doesn't have much control over is the type of food that's in the house. We will eat healthier in 2012, no questions asked. I've already radically changed my diet, and gradually started changing how and what the kids eat. Baby steps since old habits are hard to break. I'm confident we will get there though. The kids have started taking vitamins. I would start taking mine if they would ever show up. I've started exercising again, after a long time of doing nothing. Getting up and going again felt wonderful. I'm hoping to get the whole family into exercising or at least being more active in 2012. The winter months are always the hardest for the kids to stay active in. 


As for updates around this house, not much is new. The baby is a regular tornado with legs. Destruction and chaos are found where she has last been, so keeping the house picked up is a constant battle. I go back to school in 10 days. A couple of upper level classes this time writing and speech, should be a challenging semester. Then I'll finish out the year with a behavioral science class and be on summer break from May till Sept. Another exciting thing coming up? tax season. Last year I not only did my own taxes but I did my mother in laws and my Mom and Dad's. I don't mind doing it, and it saves them a bunch of money. 


So as a family we will make small changes in hopes of them accumulating to a big one. Going to make 2012 a great year.  

Christmas Over for Another Year.

Even though it's the 30th today, we did Christmas at our house today. I loved spending Christmas day with my family, and then going around and visiting everyone. I missed home and it was great to be back. Back in our own beds, cooking in our kitchen and just being. The kids haven't watched TV all day it's been great. They are actively playing with their toys which is awesome, and I think they got most of what they wanted. If there was something they didn't get they really wanted neither has spoke up about it. Shortly after we did Christmas the hard reality of lack of storage sunk in. Thank you amazon.com for being just a click away. We should be fully equipped with toy storage no later then the 9th of January. 


Thankfully it's over for another year. Back to just birthdays and small holidays, and sadly, soon, back to school. In a couple months the quest to save for Christmas will begin again. 2012 will be a year of saving since the kids are getting just one big birthday gift. So we begin saving for that in March, and then after that we put it in the Christmas fund. 


I'm just glad it's done with with another year!

Here Comes Christmas....

Yup it's that time of year again. Trim the tree, hang the lights and cover your house with Christmas odds and ends. For those of you that don't know we won't be home for Christmas. We leave on the 23rd to head to my Mom's. We will leaver her place on the morning of the 27th to spend 2 nights in Springfield to make the Christmas rounds to the rest of the family. On the 29th we will finally head home, and on the 30th we will do our Christmas here at the house. So this coming week is a week of prepping to leave, finishing wrapping, cleaning the house and loading the car. That sentence leaves out the details doing laundry, packing the babies cloth diapers (and stuff), and making sure we don't forget someones Christmas gifts as all those need to be packed as well. Not to mention I have been a bit of a slacker and Christmas cards have yet to be ordered. I'm seriously hoping they get here in time, as I plan on ordering them tonight. 


The downside to traveling for Christmas, is the lack of drive to put up all the decorations here at the house. We won't be here, why put up the tree? Well for the kids of course. Though, they don't really seem that into it this year either. We did it anyway, we put up the tree night before last. Though I refuse to put up all the rest of the odd and end around the house decorations. Why put them all up to be here to see them a week (which I probably won't have time to sit down and enjoy anyway) only to come home do our Christmas and take them all down again. Next year I plan to put our decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving, that way we have more time to enjoy them and there is more chance of being able to actually enjoy looking at them. 


I also intend to do saving for Christmas a little different next year. We did okay this year. I saved everything for our travel, and only came up a few hundred short of what I intended to save. The expenses for the kids birthdays, Halloween and Thanksgiving were forgotten about when the savings plan was devised. We got everyone bought for no problem, and we have the money set aside for our holiday traveling, but we have some to pay back in January (which doesn't bother me any). Getting rid of some of the financial stress this time of year just about always brings might put me a little more in the Christmas spirit, or at least I'm hoping. 


Off the subject of Christmas, I go back to school January 17th. I am kind of looking forward to it. Even though as I write that I can't believe that I'm saying that. It helps to look at my degree progress and see that I'm over half way done now, with a GPA of 3.3 something something. That's with a semester withdrawn and a semester I was so stressed I didn't attend my finals (so they were marked as F's). Next Fall I will be starting the year with pre-calculus, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about that. I have to take that math, plus calculus 1 and 2. Trust me when I say if I could put it off longer I would. I'm at the point in my degree progress where the rest of my classes require me to have these math classes done. So I figured I'll get the math and the rest of my writing and core GE's done next year. Then the following year I get to work on the remaining meat of my degree plan. 


It's been a minute since I have updated how the kids are doing, so I guess it's about time. Tyler is doing awesome in school. Better this year then he has since he's started school. Seeing mostly 3's and 4's and lots lots less 2's, which I'll take. He's also just joined jazz band, he was already in the schools concert band, but his teacher raves that he's ready for the additional challenge. Julie is still active in ballet, though she is looking for something different to do next year. I keep telling her that end of summer next year we will find her something different if that's what she wants. She is also doing great in school not as well as she did last year because it's getting harder, but she is still doing her very best and that's all I ask for. Kaylee is walking all over the place. She says please (eese), thank you, bye and a bunch of other things. She does some funny stuff like lick the kids faces instead of giving a kiss sometimes. I don't know where she gets it from ;). I'm amazed at how they are growing, and changing. I'm also very proud. 


I guess that's about all I have for now. Time to start planning out how next week is going to play out. I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season. 

When to put up the decorations?

It has always felt right to have the tree and everything up before December 1st. I say this because December 1st is when we start the count down to Christmas with the advent calendar. It doesn't seem right to start counting down to Christmas is we don't have the tree or anything up. I don't think that we are feeling the holiday season yet, which tempts me to wait, but also tempts me to put them up. Maybe a little bit of lights, and a sparkling tree will put everyone in the holiday spirit. Then again, maybe it will be just one more thing to keep the baby from touching. 

Holiday's

Holidays are always so much work. That's not saying that I don't love them, but think about it for a minute. Halloween, we spend the money on the kids costumes, make up and accessories. All of that so they can go out for one night and get candy to hype them up till the end of the year. I doubt this holiday is really necessary, but the kids love it. So I guess Halloween is just for the fun of dressing up to get candy. Though it still costs money. Then comes Thanksgiving we go out and fight the crowds to buy the things we need to make the yummy traditional dishes for a single day of eating so much food we feel like exploding. The Moses family was lucky this year. We got two Thanksgivings. One at my parents house the Sunday before we left after my sisters birthday party, and one yesterday that we worked to prepare. The good thing about Sunday's is we it was delicious and we didn't have to do a lot of work to get it prepared. Yesterdays was an accumulation of 2 days worth of baking and cooking. All this prep so we could sit down for 20 minutes and gorge ourselves to the point of not moving, and then spend over an hour trying to put everything away. Though one good thing comes of all this cooking and baking, all the leftovers. I won't have to cook now for at least 3 or 4 days, and after that there is frozen beef stew from Wednesday that I made. Like always, after Thanksgiving comes Christmas, the most overly commercialize holiday yet. People spend so much money buying gifts for people. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the giving. I'm just not feeling the buying this year, and like always money is tight. I'll be happy when January comes around. Then it's back to buying for birthdays, and trying to find storage for all the stuff the kids got for Christmas. Though this year for my family is going to be special, we will be spending Christmas with my family and not at home. We will be traveling till almost New Years, and then we will be home to do our Christmas.

This time of year it's all about spending. Today is Black Friday, the biggest retail shopping day of the year. I still have stuff to buy, but you couldn't pay me enough to go out and battle the crowds today. As a matter of fact, I'm still in my jammies and I didn't get up until almost 10am, it was glorious.

It's quiet here, except for the sound of Halo(Tyler is playing). Jon is working a little bit. Julie went to Grandpa Moses's for the weekend. Kaylee is napping, and I'm really just sitting here. I wouldn't have it any other way today. After two days of cooking and baking, doing nothing sounds fantastic.

Oh the Joys of being a kid.

The birthday party was a success. A few of Julie's friends were unable to make it, but the kids still had a good time. Was nice to not have to clean up after everything was all over. The cake made it too, which was a nice surprise.

I watched the kids bowl, and then play in the arcade. They ate pizza and cake, and had a blast. 

This year I have more patience for other kids parents. Last year, I had very little I wonder if that has something to do with the lack of sleep I was experiencing due to a new baby. Lack of sleep makes me kind of cranky. The kind of cranky that spills out into most other aspects of my life, without fail.

This year there was little to no stress about the party, though I struggled with making the cake more then I did last year. Birthdays are always a good time to reflect on the previous year. Kids don't get that, the only thing they think about is presents and cake.

Oh to be a kid again.