I've written before about how thankful I am that our blended family gets along. Michael and some friends came home this weekend and Little Maeg and her boyfriend Zach hosted all of us at the new home they're renting. It was the Beck family, Mike's ex wife and her side, and a bunch of friends of all ages. We laugh about how completely dysfunctional our family is, but I love that we can spend time together and always have fun. I stole these pictures off Facebook. Thanks Maeg for letting us invade your new home. And Michael...we LOVED seeing you and your wonderful friends.
Mike, our nephew Chandler with his girlfriend Mackenzie and Michael
Cousins: Charli and Ella (do they look alike or what?!)
Mike's brother Dan and our friend Claudette
Maxwell, Michael, Kimmy and Chase
My sister in law Tanya, me, my mother in law, and Michael and Maegann's mom Jennifer
Maeg and Mike
Mike and Michael
The beautiful people: Michael, Jonathan, Chris and Justin
The kids have colds and it's been rainy out. We've been mostly cozy inside the past few days. As I've mentioned before, Maxwell and Ella love the Nick Jr. show Peppa Pig. In this show, darling British piggies adore 'jumping in muddy puddles.' First thing yesterday morning the kids wanted to run out in the eye of the storm with rain boots on. I made them wait until the afternoon calm. Should I have let them out and get wet and chilly when they have colds? Maybe not. Today Ella's coughing. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
I'm late hopping on board to Pinterest, but like everyone else...I love it. I came across two quotes, new to me, that I'm trying to adopt.
~ "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" (I think I repeated this to myself twenty times yesterday).
AND
~ "Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories." (Repeated this one a hundred times. Please let me be this Mom, please let me be this Mom...because really, messes drive me crazy. Not if they're in the middle of it- but if they leave the room and start another one- but I'm kind of uptight about it. Trying to remember: memories, memories, memories...).
I've been kind of down lately. Not a big deal, just...blah. I usually don't have to try to stay positive but it's taken an effort this past week. My everything goes into being a good Mom and sometimes at the end of the day both my marriage and my sanity feel cheated because I'm done. I don't have much of me to give Mike after he's worked hard all day, and if I don't make time for myself, my interests, my time, I get crabby. I really try not to write too much about this stuff here. Not because I don't want to be honest, but because sometimes taking the energy to write about doesn't work as positive venting- it ends up just fueling...whining. I know staying at home is a gift and I don't ever want to look back on this time and wish I appreciated it more. Because I so appreciate it.
I think a lot of this is stemming from Ella no longer napping and me missing that little break in the day. I'm working on making her have 'quiet time' in her room...but between 5 potty breaks and this and that there's always an interruption. For whatever reason, the side off the crib has helped Maxwell stay in bed at night, but my everyday napper is now a usual napper. Meaning, some days, like today, Maxwell isn't napping either. Maybe it's just the age. I don't know.
Anyway, things are looking up :) I typically don't write about a funk until I'm over it. My friend Amy and I took our kids bowling yesterday and we were really excited about it. Mike and I had taken them when they were little, but this is the first time as big kids. Guess what happened? They loved it...for about 12 minutes. Then they (mostly Ella) melted down over taking turns and wanted the arcade games instead. Of course. So we took them to the golf course that Amy's husband runs and drove around a big empty parking lots in golf carts. BINGO! They loved it.
Back to bowling, here was our 12 minute high.
Another of our regular outings is the library, which is much for me as it is for them. I've always loved the library.
Finally, their fascination with the big kids beds. If you've made it
down this far and you're watching the videos, notice how Ella is looking
at me like I'm seriously interrupting her 'camp over.'
Interviews with Maxwell and Ella. Because I want to remember everything.
(My favorite part is around 3:40 when Maxwell gets a brilliant idea. He is SO expressive and animated).
(Favorite part in here is around 2:49 when she's trying to get the interview going, because I'm running out of material. She tells me 'What else? Think. Think...').
New Years Day I turned 31. And I can honestly say, every year just keeps getting better. Mike and I spent NYE with Crystal and Andy. In typical girly style, we happily posed for the camera (meaning we trust it at Andy and said 'Take our picture! Take our picture!') but forgot to take pictures with the guys. They came over for drinks and we went out to yummy dinner. It was just what I wanted.
The next day some girlfriends took me out to lunch. No photos for that, but it sure was fun. The best part of my day? When I was getting dropped off from my girl's day, Maxwell and Ella ran out the front door waving something at me. When they got to the car they proudly showed me the special plates and napkins Daddy let them pick out for my birthday cake. They were so excited. It was my favorite moment of the day. Later, Mike barbequed and we had a mellow family dinner. Just my style.
As far as New Year's resolutions...I've never taken them too seriously. I seem to make new ones all year long. But if I really think about it, I'd like to work on these.
- Join the rest of America and eat better (get skinny). But really stay at a weight I'm comfortale at. And eat better so that my kids see my food choices and we regulalry eat well as a family.
- Set time aside for writing. I really enjoy writing, but blogging is the only writing I do. And as much as I share on here...ther's a lot I don't. I've always dreamed about writing a book (like every other girl) but my best writing comes when I'm honest. So I need a private place to write. And I need to intentinally set time aside to do that. Or another will go by.
- Potty train Maxwell. Ella's using the toilet like a champ now. I need to start spending that time with Maxwell.
I'm sure I have more, but as I wrote that I just heard a scream from the other room. Better check that out. Happy New year, a week late, to you and yours :)
...For a day of sun at the beach. I'll take it any day! My whole body breathed in the salty air and warm sunshine. Gray days can be cozy, but I'm such summer girl. I loved the tease today. And the good company.
So, I'm a little late on the New Year's thing. My birthday was actually January 1st, and I have pictures to post but tonight I'm too lazy to go out to my car to get my camera. So that will come later. But for tonight, I was thinking about 2011 and how much I have to be thankful for. I pulled up 'my photos' on my computer and browsed each month. Here are my favorites. I love each of these pictures because they bring up strong memories. 2011 was so special.
January.
February.
March.
April.
May.
June.
July.
August.
September.
October.
Ok, two for October.
November.
December.
I'm thankful for these special memories and pictures I have to remind me of them.
I don't know what we've been doing, but it feels like we've been really busy. Here's a video of our Christmas morning. Maxwell and Ella were awestruck, excited, and...overwhelmed. Michael, Maegann and Zach were at our house Christmas morning before the kids were even awake (I was so happy they were here early! Thanks Michael and Meg).
We had a really special day of morning presents, lazy naps, and dinner at Grandma Judie's. I loved Christmas 2011.
I had this song playing to my video...but it blocked the video due to copy write laws...which I get...but I love to choose my own music. This song was the best I could come up with in their audio swap. Oh well.
