New Year, New Me

If you know me at all, you know I love being a Mom. However, my love of motherhood does not preclude my frustration with the lack of structure that happens when you have two kids two and under. I have always done well with a system--schedules and deadlines and lists. So since I've become a stay-at-home mom, I've struggled, to say the least. I am often "busy" all day, yet somehow at the end of the day I feel like the house is a wreck, I haven't gotten any real exercise or spent any quality time with my kids. It doesn't seem like I should have these problems without a job to worry about, but yet, here I am.

So this year I decided to at least attempt to do something about it. I came up with a general schedule for each day that allows time for me to go to the gym (which, by the way, the kids love), time to just play with the kids, and time for housework. I also came up with a list of things I want to accomplish in terms of housework every day. This way, once those things are done, I don't have to feel guilty about sitting down and reading the kids a book, or heaven forbid, reading a book myself. I have come to accept the fact that I will probably not ever have my entire house completely spotless at the same time (at least until my kids are in school or I get a housekeeper again, the latter of which is not likely), and I am OK with that.

This chapter of my life, with little ones home, is already going by far too quickly for me. I don't want to look back later and feel like I didn't fully take advantage of the blessing it is to be able to spend every day with my kids. So we'll see how this new system works. Wish me luck!

Insight Bowl

Every year Bryan's company gets a sponsorship package for the Fiesta Bowl. As part of that package we end up with tickets to the lesser-known Insight Bowl. This was the first year I was able to go (since I didn't have a new baby!) so we decided to pack up the kiddos and make it a family outing.

Our seats were in the Loge section so we had lots of room for the kids to get up and walk around when they needed a change of scenery. The weather was really, really nice and it was a descent football game. We ended up packing up at the beginning of the 4th quarter to head home, but it was a fun day and we enjoyed getting to spend the day together.

Christmas!

The flag cake for Jesus' birthday (at Ryan's request)

Uncle Perry reading "Red Ranger Came Calling" on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning in our matching PJ's

A few days before Christmas, I asked Ryan if he remembered why we have Christmas. His response? "For bicycles?" "No honey," I reminded him, "we have Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday." "Mommy, Jesus needs a birthday cake," he replied. "What kind of cake?" I asked. "A flag cake." I have no idea where he got that idea, except that he loves flags and always points them out. Anyway, a couple of days later we were talking about baby Jesus and Ryan again brought up the flag cake. At his age, it's hard to know exactly what he understands but he obviously associates birthdays with birthday cakes, so I decided we'd go with the whole flag cake thing.

Christmas Eve was really fun. We invited our friends the Kastanis' and the Albertsen's over for lasagna and we read "Red Ranger Came Calling" and watched A Wish for Wings that Work. These are both Kastanis family traditions that they shared with us a few years ago, and they have become part of our tradition now as well. That night we opened our Christmas PJ's before heading to bed. Christmas morning the kids let us sleep until 8:30. We got up and Ryan was SO excited to find the bicycle he had asked for from Santa. Annie fell in love with her wagon and stayed in it all morning. I'd help her open a gift then she'd sit in the wagon and play with it for a while. It was really cute. Later that afternoon we headed to Bryan's parents for steak and crab legs with the whole Colby clan, and later headed home for a relaxing evening.

Overall it was a wonderful Christmas, definitely our best yet. We hope you had a very Merry Christmas as well!