The Happy Birthday Boys!

It was a belated party for Silas James but worth the wait for him - he LOVED it!  Kelly and I decided to have a combo party for Silas and Ryan. Their birthdays are less than a month a part and they both wanted one at Pump It Up.  It worked out great!

 They chose an Angry Birds theme.  I made Angry Birds goodie bags.

Kelly made Angry Birds cupcakes :)

Silas grinned from ear to ear the entire time we were there. He was in heaven to have a "real" birthday party with so many friends there!

All the Friends that came to the party!

The Birthday Boys!

6 years old!!

Making a wish!  Probably for more Legos!!

On their throne opening all those presents!!

So happy that he had such a great birthday celebration...even if it was a little late!!

YOSP - 2011 Recap & 2012 Goals (Part One)

So, back at the start of 2011, I posted about having a Year of Significant Progress (YOSP for short). There had been many things sitting for WAY too long on my mental to-do list, or goals that I should have been spending more time working towards. I have a very bad habit of getting easily sidetracked and sometimes don't focus too well (who, ME?).  I thought that by putting these goals out there in writing, it would go a long way to keeping me accountable. 
In a lot of ways, it did. I'm fairly happy with the outcome of the goals below.  I'd give us a C in some areas, A's and B's in others.  We made progress - more significant progress in some, lots less in others.  Time and money...they kinda rule how much can be done in some areas!

So, to recap 2011 and our new or extended goals for 2012:

1. Get in better shape financially.
I wanted to accomplish several things here.  One, to get a better grasp on our spending, pay off some debt and be better with money.  Two, get particulars like our will updated. If I am generous, I will give us a C in this area.  I totally did not get the will updated.  What we did do is stabilize a portion of the income and that has helped budget and planning greatly.  One tool that I found that is fantastic is Mint.com.  Awesome tracking, planning, spending, debt tool and if you have a smart phone, it's all in the palm of your hand.  I can look at what I have in any account at any time right from my phone.  LOVE IT! And CreditKarma.com is another site that I love - track your credit report and score completely FREE!!


2012 goals:
- Get will updated!!!! No later than mid February.  Someone, hold me accountable for getting this done :)
- Pay off a significant chunk of debt.  This means really watching what we spend money on.  We are far from extravagant spenders and shoppers but I definitely get sucked into the Target and Sam's club spending. There is always a way to save and I need to take more time to find them!  Groceries and gas are killing us!

2. Get the house organized. 
The 2011 goal was to get rid of some of the clutter in the house.  To finish the basement and make room for our offices down there plus extra living space, move the laundry room downstairs and create a mud room in the 1st floor laundry area.  I think we get a B in this area.  Maybe even an A considering that this kind of stuff takes a lot of time and a lot of money.  And when you consider our financial goals, both time and money are tricky!  But, the basement is 90% finished.  All that is left right now is to get paint on the walls and flooring down.  We'll then be able to get the laundry room moved down there and most importantly, our offices!!!

This is how it looked in July:

And where we're at now!

We've got a bathroom in the left corner, laundry room and the furnace room.

And then the "living space" that curves around to the left to where there will also be built in storage and bookshelves, room for my wine and a small wine fridge, and then a door leading to our office and back to the crawl space.  No pictures of that space yet - too packed with tools...

I've spent a LOT of time on Pinterest looking at how to do the mudroom area - can't wait!!
My husband is amazing by the way - how he knows how to do all this stuff, and Uncle Tim too...quite incredible!!  Must be all the Natty Light fueling their brains!

2012 goals:
-finish up the basement and move in!
-start working on the kids' bedrooms.  They all need weeded badly and reorganized.
-get the mud room started and completed
-learn the art of clutter control!!
-figure out what we want to do to the front room and do it (Library/sitting area?)

3. Health and fitness...get into better shape!
Okay, this one I rocked (except for getting bike tires...I still haven't done that yet).  I give myself an A+ here.  I went to the Y on January 4th, 2011 as a non-runner (with the exception of 9th grade track because my boyfriend was also in track. I sucked.) and my only goal being to complete the Warrior Dash in June.
I ended up running and completing these races in 2011:

April - the Wilds Ecothon 5k
May - Race for the Cure 5k
June - The Warrior Dash - 3.5 miles with obstacles.  This is the race that started me running!
July - Rotary Club 10k - a little over 6 miles
Sept - Ovarian Cancer 5k in memory and honor of my friend Heather's mom
Oct - Colon Cancer Run - 5k
         Columbus Half Marathon - 13.2 miles!!
Nov - Flying Feather 4 miler on Thanksgiving morning - great run!!
Dec - Jingle Bell 5k with Ella.  So much fun - great run for kids!

I ran about 400 miles in 2011.  That's 400 more than I ran in 2010!  :)

2012 Goals:
-increase my miles and the number of runs that I participate in
-mix in some other exercise, spinning or something different.
-train smarter for the Half in May - I'd like to beat my last time (2:12).
-Check-ups - I need to get all my annual check-ups. I'm way behind!

4. Do more family activities. 
I'll have to  give us a C or B- on this one.  Time flies so fast and it always feels so difficult to get in all that we want to do. Maybe I'm being too hard on us.  We eat dinner together as a family almost every night of the week, we have movies nights, snuggle time (no, Mason doesn't snuggle much anymore!), play games, bake cookies.  I guess I'm thinking things like Indians games, amusement parks, etc.


2012 goals:
in addition to what we currently do I want...

-one trip to Kings Island or Cedar Point
-more family activities like biking and hiking
-family cabin trip to Hocking Hills (or camping finally - that has been on our To Do for 3 years now!)


More later on the rest of 2011 YOSP goals....Part Two coming soon!

Guess How Much I Love You?

 

Usually Justin reads books to Silas at night before bed, while I get Ella to bed.  Last night there was a football game on so I told Silas I'd read him a book.  I pulled this one out of the bookcase - one of my favorites and it's been a long time since we've read it.  Apparently WAY too long.

Me: "Do you remember this book?"

Silas: "Is it the one where the bear and the rabbit are in the woods together and the bear wipes his butt with the rabbit??"

Me:  "uhhh...not quite."

It appears that Justin has been telling some modified jokes to the kids...bad dad.

Happy 2012!!

Happy Happy 2012!!

  

I was feeling kinda guilty about not sending out Christmas cards this year and so on New Years Eve, I decided to do a little New Years card...by text and email (and now blog).  I found this great little app called Red Stamp for the iPhone that allows you to create the cards on your phone, drop in pictures and then text, email or have them send out postcards.  Pretty easy and cool! So consider this your Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's card!

We spent NYE at the Masco's again this year.  I love staying in the neighborhood for it.  I hate to go out and worry about being on the road and I really like (love actually) having the kids with us on New Year's Eve.  I like to ring in the new year with them.  I can't even remember the last time we didn't have them with us.

Miss Boo managed to find a hat that matched her outfit.

The boys looked dapper in their hats too!

We had a fun, fun time with the gang and I was incredibly excited that I had planned absolutely NOTHING on New Year's Day.  I slept in, lounged in my pj's, putzed around the house, read a stack of magazines...I did get dressed to take Mason to Wal-mart for a PS3 game but that was the extent of my efforts for the day.  We got the year off to a proper start with a crockpot full of pork and sauerkraut! It was delicious!!

When I woke up that morning, this is how I found Silas.  He was up late to ring in the new year, got up early apparently, and then decided that was for the birds and he was sacked out on the recliner. I love it because this is the kid that NEVER naps! (I love how his sock is 1/2 off).

The kids ended up with Monday off from school too - a last minute change to the school calendar because of "parent complaints" - wasn't me! The kids' 2 full weeks out of school actually went really fast. We didn't get to do as much as I would have liked but we did get to do our ice skating! Mason had a D&D sleepover with his friends, so he didn't go with us, but really I think he was just afraid of falling down ;)

 Si and I taking a break on the sidelines.  Self-portrait with the phone :)

Both Ella and Silas really like skating with their dad better than me, he is much more stable and goes faster! Silas did make me wipe out once - he fell at my feet and I fell on him.  It wasn't a graceful fall either!
I think we overdid it with a 2-hour skate though. By the end, all of us were hobbling off the ice - feet killing. Silas ended up with a big blister on the back of his heel.  The kids were exhausted by the time we got home, and Justin and I had very achy muscles from trying to hold them up while skating.

Much more to update about our YOSP for 2011.  And what we'd like our YOSP goals to be for 2012.  I kinda gave up updating on the YOSP progress because I feel like I was repeating myself a lot and I felt that we had a few setbacks that impeded progress...but still, I'm happy with what we accomplished. More on that COMING SOON!!

Blessing for the New Year

(an Irish Blessing)
May the New Year bring
The warmth of home and hearth to you.
The cheer and goodwill of friends to you,
The hope of a childlike heart to you.
The joy of a thousand angels to you,
The love of the Son and God's peace to you.

 We wish and pray this for you family and friends...

The OH Youngers

 

Sticky

As I mentioned yesterday, Silas is always a sticky mess.
This morning he said (after a biscuit and honey with breakfast)
"washcloth please, mommy!"
" you have sticky hands bud?"
"yes", with his devious grin. "sticky, but delicious!!"

- Posted on the go from my iPhone

Silas James - The Birthday Boy!

"Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky."

Man, isn't that the truth!  Silas James is one of the messiest, stickiest kids I've ever known :)  Especially after licking the spatula with his chocolate birthday cake icing.  On December 26th my baby boy was 6!  SIX!  It really doesn't seem possible.  After all day on Christmas of unwrapping gifts, eating junk, playing with new toys, it's like the movie Groundhog Day - we get up and do it all over again for Silas.  First thing when his eyes popped open, he was all excited and said I'M 6!! I'm 6!! And I blinked my eyes and held back tears because I want to keep him my baby forever.

He is one ornery kid - he loves to tease, torment, poke and push every button - at home.
He's the complete opposite at school and around most others - super quiet, whispers when talking - I'm sometimes not sure if he's being shy or just cautious. Maybe a little of both.

He is a very, very smart kid.  Mrs. Sherwood has said she is amazed by this math abilities - he gets it.
He is a funny kid - he really has a good sense of humor (though he is still learning to laugh at himself!)
He is a kid that loves to learn.  He always wants to read books, ask questions and now, since he's started kindergarten, he loves to draw, color, paint, do mazes.  I love to see this side of him develop!

He's a junkie:  Wii, candy, DS, candy, movies, candy.  He's got a serious sweet tooth that is hard to derail!

He also is a master gift unwrapper - he looks like Fists of Fury unwrapping below!

Even though he's getting to be a very big boy, I'm lucky because he still likes to snuggle. When he has a hard time falling asleep, he still lets me rock him.  When he falls down and hurts himself (which is often!), he'll still let me kiss it and make it all better.  He's still my baby - my Smiley Siley.  I love you sweet boy.

All Things Christmas

We had a wonderful, though insanely fast, Christmas - the entire month of December just flew by so quickly. I know they say that time goes faster the older you get, but this is getting a bit crazy!    

The week before Christmas, in-between Christmas shopping, cookie baking, holiday parties, etc, I was able to get baby Barrett over for a few pictures.  I had seen a neat idea on Pinterest so I had Ella be my stand-in model so I could try to get the lights right.  

I made the mistake of touching B with my cold hands and that set him off on some crying.  Oops.  He did give some smiles to his mama though even if he was a little cranky at me!

We thought we'd put him in a stocking, but his stocking was too small to put him in, so I found my stocking from the hospital and put him in there.  He didn't seem to mind too much.

He's such a cutie pie - it's fun to have a baby in the family again, especially one that I don't have to get up and feed at all hours of the night ;)

It was neat when we decorated the mantle this year - Silas had brought home his Gingerbread man from school and now we have Mason's kindergarten snowman,  Ella's kindergarten Gingerbread girl and Silas' kindergarten Gingerbread boy. A complete collection  :)

On Christmas Eve we had a nice, non-stressful evening.  Abby and Carson's mom, Jennifer, had taken Ella and Silas to the zoo lights the day before, so Justin and I were able to get EVERY present wrapped, and didn't have to do it at midnight on Christmas Eve. It was wonderful!

Instead, we got to decorate Christmas cookies that Aunt Amanda and the kids had made.  Some of the cookies got a little blobby as they baked, they puffed out quite a bit.  That gave the cookie decorators the idea to get creative with them - kinda like "what's that cloud look like?" only with icing.

Silas had made some reindeer food with a new recipe at school.  So before bed, he and Ella went out and sprinkled it on the lawn. 

After the kids were in bed, Justin and I had our eggnog by the light of the tree.  One of my favorite parts of Christmas :)  We had a wonderful tree this year - from Lowe's again.  The shape was perfect, the size was perfect for the space and it barely lost any needles at all.  I wish we could box this one up and use it again every year!

The last look as I was going up the steps to bed...looking at this picture reminds me of my Christmases as a kid, probably because of the vintage look of the picture. Just the tree lit and everything all quite...I love that.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 8am.  I was pretty impressed!  Especially with Silas because he had been all excited and was bouncing off the walls at bedtime.

Yes, Mason is a grump-butt!

Ella and Silas both got iPod Touches from Santa (now maybe they'll leave my phone alone!!)

Mason got a PlayStation 3 gaming system.

Silas was SOO excited about all the Legos that he got.  He spent HOURS at the table putting them together.

We spent the afternoon with the family at mom's and dad's and managed to get a picture of the kids all together.  Fun stuff!!

 

All three were very happy with their gifts and have played non-stop with the stuff that they've gotten. Mason even smiled a time or two :)  It was a great Christmas.  I hate that I do this, but it was on my mind that we are getting closer and closer to not having all the kids living at home for Christmas. Mason is a Junior now and in just a few years, it's hard to say where he'll be going off to.  I love that we have this time together NOW...maybe something that I need to work on for 2012 - to stop getting ahead of myself!!