Resolutions

I have been thinking about New Year's resolutions a lot lately. Every year I make the typical ones: lose weight, exercise more, etc. This year I am very much more aware of things that not only I need to work on, but things that we need to work on as a family. So here we go:

Aidan:

1) Exercise more. This means more this year than in the past. I'm not just saying it to say it. I need and want to exercise more. In order to do that I am going to have to get a handle on my health. I was doing well with the treadmill until I started getting horrible migraines every time I ran. Even just 2 miles. I have been working with the doctor to get my iron and vitamin D levels back into a normal range. I need to go back to the neurologist for a follow up MRI. So, that is my goal. Be able to exercise without getting a migraine. Maybe even try the half marathon with Jeremy.

2) Take a photography class. Jeremy got me a digital SLR camera for Christmas. This is something I have been wanting for a really, really long time. So now I really, really want to learn everything about it.

3) Try at least one new recipe a week. I love to cook. I love to read cookbooks, cooking blogs, and watch cooking shows. So finding new recipes to try should not be a problem, it will be finding energy.

4) Get up early each morning and shower before work. If you didn't know I worked from home that might sound gross. Heck, even if you do know I work from home that might sound gross to you. Most days I don't take a shower til Jeremy gets home. This means if anyone stops by during the middle of the day I am caught looking pretty rough. So, my goal is to wake up early and get ready, that way I will be prepared for anyone or to run out if needed and not have to worry.

5) Drink more water. There was a point in time when people were worried I was going to drown myself because the amount of water I consumed. I aim to get back to that point. I just felt so much healthier then.

Jeremy:

1) Exercise more and train for the Texas Half Marathon in April.
2) Complete the Texas Half Marathon.
3) Magnify my calling.
4) Read my scriptures on my own as well as with the family.
5) Decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Joey:

1) Learn how to walk
2) Wean to soy milk/milk
3) Sprout some teeth
4) Graduate to big girl foods
5) Remain the smiliest baby ever

Shelby:

1) Work on letter and number recognition
2) Start sleeping in my own bed
3) Begin reading
4) Learn how to do a cartwheel in gymnastics
5) Be a good big sister to Joey

(Ok, so Joey and Shelby didn't have much say in their resolutions. But they are still good things they need to work on/keep up.)

Family:

1) Read scriptures together daily.
2) Say family prayer every day. (Not just mealtime prayers.)
3) Hold FHE every week. It doesn't have to be on Monday.
4) Work on being a quieter family. I feel like we ALL yell a little too much sometimes.
5) Be on time for church.

I think these are all pretty good goals we can work on this year. This morning already started off pretty great- Jeremy and Shelby played Candyland while I cooked breakfast and then we ate bananas foster French toast. Later we are having the traditional New Year's foods: greens and blackeye peas, along with ribs and cornbread. We'll definitely need to keep our resolutions about working out after these meals!

Christmas

Christmas was bittersweet for us this year. It was the first time in 10 years that we (as a married couple; first time in Jeremy's life) have not been in Hattiesburg for Christmas. There were the selfish reasons: we didn't want to travel 16 hours round trip only to be there for two days, and we didn't want to have to lug all the presents in an already cramped car, nor did we want to have to wait for Shelby and Joey to get their Santa Claus presents until we got home like we had to do last year. There were the other reasons as well: for one thing, I CAN'T take off of work this time of year (thus the reason we'd only have been able to be there for two days), and we didn't want to add to the chaos while Mamaw is not feeling well. So, it just made better sense for us to stay home and enjoy Christmas with just our little family, though we did miss visiting with everyone. (Side note- next year, if anyone wants to do the traveling, our door is always open.) Shelby and Joey fell asleep pretty quickly Friday night, and we didn't have too much wrapping to do, so we had everything out pretty quickly. Shelby woke up Saturday morning at about 7:30 and the first thing she did was look out her window to look for snow. (She asked for two things, a ballet bar and snow. At least Santa delivered on the first one.)

Even though I thought this was so lame growing up, I want to keep the tradition of lining up at the top of the stairs and singing Christmas carols on the way down. Here is video of Shelby (and Joey) when they first came down and saw their presents.


I love that she just threw her cup down so she could grab her pillow pet who, by the way, she has named "Halfy". Don't know where she got that one!

The missionaries came over for lunch and we had honey glazed ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and pumpkin pie. So good. The rest of the day we just played. It was very nice and relaxing. I love that we have gotten to spend so much time with Jeremy this week- not sure what we are going to do when he has to go back to work tomorrow! At least it's a short week!

Christmas Eve

Today we decided to head over to the Gaylord Texan to see the Ice! exhibit. We thought it would be something fun and Christmas-y to do. The hotel is beautiful and there were lots of fun decorations to look at. This year the theme was Charlie Brown, and the artists outdid themselves. It was pretty cool to see the things they carved out of those huge blocks of ice.








Joey was super tired and I think she would have just fallen asleep inside except that I think the extreme cold was hurting her eczema, as well as her coat was too big for her so she couldn't move around, so she was just all around uncomfortable and fussy. I ended up just walking quickly through the whole thing and took her to the lobby. THEN she fell asleep. Silly girl.



Since today was Buddy the Elf's last day here until next year, he left Shelby and Joey a letter this morning. It read:

"Dear Shelby and Joey,

I have had such fun watching over you this Christmas season. You have had a few slip ups here and there, but overall I am happy to say that I will be giving Santa a good report.

Shelby, you have gone through some big changes this year. You are now a big sister! You are doing great with sharing and making Joey laugh. Keep up the good work! Remember to help out your mom and dad and use your listening ears!

Joey, what a big girl you are! Already pulling up? You'll be walking in no time! You are a delight to be around and I can't wait to see you next year when you'll be running around the house!

In preparation for Christmas I left you girls a couple goodies. First, there are a couple presents under the tree for you. Make sure you open them tonight before you go to bed. Second, I brought you this reindeer food. Those guys sure work up an appetite flying Santa's sleigh around the world. This is Rudolph's favorite treat!

Remember girls, that when I fly up to the North Pole tonight my work is done for the year. All this flying back-and-forth has made me tired, and I am looking forward to a long vacation! Maybe I'll head to the beach. I hear Galveston is nice!

Remember that even though you might not see me, I can still hear you...so be sure to stay nice all year long!

Love,
Buddy the Elf"

So, tonight we opened up our gifts that Buddy brought- Christmas jammies! The difference in Shelby's and Joey's reactions CRACKED ME UP. Shelby was so excited to get some new Ariel pajamas.




Joey on the other hand...

"Ooh! A present for me?!"

"Are you kidding?"

"Gee, thanks Buddy."

Everybody else was pretty happy with their jammies though.





Before bed we went out and sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn. (It was much cuter before Shelby shook up the jar. It had layers of oats, sugar, and red and green sprinkles.) On our way back inside Shelby yelled to the reindeer, "Come and get it!".





I can't wait for the morning.

McGreggor

Last night we were privileged enough to have Tristan (my brother) and Ana stay the night. They are on their way to Venezuela to visit Ana's family and had an overnight layover in Dallas. That is one of the good things about being in the DFW area- lots of flights come through here, so on occasion we are lucky enough to get to see people when they fly through.

Anyway, so Jeremy picked them up from the airport on his way home from work. We visited for a little, ate dinner, and then we made gingerbread houses (With graham crackers though. I hate gingerbread.) I let Shelby go wild with the candy and the icing.


{In sugar heaven}

{I'm not sure if she was playing with the icing on her hands or praying that her house would stay standing}

Jeremy and Tristan soon went into competitive mode and wanted to see who could build the best house. In the end, Tristan and Ana won, but Jeremy claims it was only because Ana fixed all of Tristan's mistakes. ;)



After gingerbread houses we burned off some of the sugar by playing soccer, Wii, and hide-and-go-seek. Shelby LOVES Tristan and Ana. The first thing she did when she woke up this morning was run up the stairs calling Tristan's name. When I told her Jeremy had already taken them to the airport she burst into tears. It took me a good 10 minutes and some bribing to calm her down. We were so glad to see them, even if only for a short visit!

8 Months

Joey turns 8 months old tomorrow! I was working on a project last night and saw some pictures of Joey as a newborn. It was hard to remember her so tiny and looking so small in her car seat. Now she barely fits in the thing! I can't believe how quickly time goes by. Really, it's not fair.

Joey is still army crawling, but the past few days she has been crawling more and more on all fours, and has even been getting into the "downward facing dog" pose and crawling a bit. She is pulling up and standing, and is even letting go a little. Right now her favorite food is avocado. She is my child. :)

Poor Joey is going through a rough patch...literally. The dry, cold weather has caused eczema...ALL OVER. She has patches all over...face, belly, arms, legs. She has some spots on her hands that are so bad they almost look like burns. I took her to the doctor and he said that because it is all over he didn't want to use a steroid cream. So he gave us a prescription for this non steroidal cream ($45 a tube...and that's with insurance!) that we use on her twice a day. It is gross and smells like a Sharpie. We've used it for about a week now and have seen some improvement, but not as much as I would like, so I think we will have to go back to the doctor and figure something else out. I feel bad for her because I know it can't be comfortable, but she is such a sweet girl- she would never let on that anything was wrong.

These days Joey loves to just play and explore. She usually starts off in the office in the mornings...





...and ends up with Shelby in the playroom later on.







I love this age. I can't wait for Christmas in a couple of weeks. I know Joey is still too young to understand, but I am pretty sure it is going to be great just seeing her and Shelby with their presents and playing together. We heart our girls.

Thanksgiving #2

Traveling with kids is not #1 on my list of fun things to do. Shelby is not so bad, just give her the DVD player and she's pretty much good to go. Joey on the other hand just wants to be out and crawling or climbing, and of course is too young to understand why she can't. So we decided to try a night drive on the way down to Hattiesburg this time. It was great. Jeremy stayed up all night on Tuesday, helped watch the girls on Wednesday while I worked, and then when I got off at 2 he went to bed and slept until about 9:30. When he woke up we loaded the car, put the girls in, and left. It was great. They slept and we only had to stop one time. We rolled into Hattiesburg at about 7:15 am, just as the girls were waking up. I think it's definitely the way we'll do it from now on.

Thanksgiving was great, of course. Lots of good food and visiting with family. Shelby had a blast playing with Peyton and Brock (Thanks for being a good sport, Brock!). Joey loves everyone and is such a happy, easygoing baby (except in the car). And we loved getting to meet baby Leti.










We left Hattiesburg Saturday night and went to Bastrop to visit with Mamaw and Papaw Jordan and Daddypaw. Another great visit! Shelby loves to show off to her great grandparents and grandparents. She was doing her gymnastics in the hallway at the nursing home, showing how she can do splits and backbends. It was cute. Joey adores Mamaw, Papaw, and Daddypaw and was all smiles. I think Shelby messed with the camera because the settings kept changing, so I never did get a good picture of Daddypaw with the girls. Next time.





Tonight we got to spend a few hours with Kym and Randy (and Ripley and Orion!). They drove from Seattle and stopped through on their way to Hattiesburg. They are leaving for Germany soon, and will be there for a long time, so we were so happy to be able to see them! Good luck in Germany Colonel and Mrs. Jones! (Not sure if that is how you would properly address them. You get the point.)

Thanksgiving #1

Since we are going to be in Hattiesburg for Thanksgiving I wanted to have our own family Thanksgiving here. I made a turkey breast in the crockpot (This is the 3rd or 4th time I've done this. It's so easy and so yummy!), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, and cranberry sauce. (Yes, that IS sparkling white grape juice in the glasses.)





I did not make sweet potato casserole. For one, I cannot stand the taste of sweet potatoes. And two, I had just made this for Jeremy's work party on Friday and dumped half of it in the oven.



I then spent 2 hours scrubbing the oven on Saturday, so I still had a bitter taste in my mouth.

I asked everyone during dinner what they were thankful for. Please note that at the end of my turn I said, "That's it". Obviously I am thankful for so much more, but I looked pretty rough, and I just wanted Jeremy to take the camera off of me.



Tonight for FHE we taught Shelby about Pilgrims and Indians and the first Thanksgiving. We have also been teaching her that she should thank Heavenly Father for everything. So now her prayers tend to be super long and we have to sometimes cut her off and get her to end the prayer. I love our little family and am so thankful for them. To cap off the post, here is some video of Joey learning to pull up on the stairs, and Shelby being crazy. Please excuse the boxes, I was putting up the fall decorations and getting the Christmas decorations out.