Happy New Year

I have two New Year's Resolutions.

1. Work on my self esteem and body image of myself

2. Get back to blogging (and finally print off the books i have made of my posts)

I am going to post about Christmas and our new house etc. I just need to kick the kids off of our computer long enough to download the pictures and post. We have been so blessed in how 2010 ended. It was a long journey this year and I am amazed with how the year turned out. I am so blessed with supportive family and friends. A man who loves me and his children and supports me in my craziness. We are not perfect by a long shot but we are happy. We have made some great friends here. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that they are our friends but I think that is my low self esteem, co dependent personality kicking in. :) Thank-you to all of you who prayed for us and sent positive thoughts our way this year. We are so grateful for you. I want to leave you with a few funny things my kids have done and my newest obsession.

First: the new obsession

We all know I like to read. Yes, I am a readaholic. Now I am not as good as many of my friends who read uplifting, soul changing and searching books. I read them from time to time but I find that my job requires me to read so much nonfiction and deal with the more sad part of life. So when I read it is to disappear into a story that is full of adventure, a little romance and life is good at the end type stories. I am definitely a fan of Hunger Games series (though I still have not been able to procure a copy of MockingJay so I don't know how it ends), Twilight series, Septemius Heap series, The Alchymist series by Michael Scott, Inkheart series, Inheritence Cycle (ie Eragon), Harry Potter, the list is probably endless but you can probably tell from this list the books are mostly found in the Young Adult section of the library. I find the books in this section are really well written but don't feel the need to expound on the violence, swearing and steamy romance scenes found in adult fiction. I had found a new series (the Immortal series) that I was enjoying until the fourth book. Hated it. Didn't actually finish reading it (which never happens). I had brought the book to read over Christmas. Quite sad when I couldn't read it. We were in Target just after Christmas and saw a book that had received good reviews from a couple of book sites I follow. Its called Clockwork Angel. But it was $20 and I didn't feel like spending $20 on a book I wouldn't know if I liked. Now Clockwork Angel is a prequel to a series she had already written. "The Mortal Instruments series" Book 1 was on the shelf for $9. I read the back and it sounded interesting so I grabbed it. When I showed it to my mother in law she asked, "What is with all these vampire and werewolf books?" I just shrugged my shoulders and said something about it being a fad. Just so you know these book are AWESOME! They are not just about vampires and werewolves. It quote Dante's Inferno which I actually enjoyed reading in college. They are face paced and COULD NOT put the first one down. Read it two days. The book is 485 pages. And mom I did not stay up all night, dinner was on the table, and I did spend some time with my kids. I just didn't check email, call anyone and sent my husband out on errands instead of doing them myself. Actually one of the errands was to send him out to find the second book for me since the library didn't have any copies in of book 2 or 3. I purchased book 3 online but since I was trying to save money I went with the cheapest shipping option. Not smart. The email I got yesterday was to expect the book on January 10th. So I think I am going to re read the first two again.

On to funny things my kids said:

Collin: Last night Collin was sitting on my bed and farted really really loudly. The only people in the room were Emily and I and Emily was sleeping. Collin gets this huge grin on his face and says, "Daddy!" then he laughs and says, "Daddy farted." and then laughed so hard he fell over. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Collin thinks that he is such a big kid and he talks in short sentences. My baby is growing up.

Emily: Emily has requested a Dora birthday party. She has already informed me that Swiper stole the stars and she and her friends are going to find them using their backpacks. Onto the internet I went looking for ideas. Nickjr.com is an awesome site with loads of free printables. I decided that the "goodie bag" is going to be either a Dora or Diego backpack with the supplies needed for an adventure (ie flashlight, map, treat, log book, etc) Since Emily lost my power cord for my sewing machine I decided to hand sew a Dora and a Diego backpack together out of fleece to see if it would work. Only took 30 minutes a bag and I thought they were pretty cute. Emily sat next to me the WHOLE time giving me advice on how to sew. I just kept rolling my eyes. When I was done she opened her eyes wide and said, "Thank-you mom for my Dora back pack that I always wanted. Can I put my lunch in it?" So we made a bag lunch and she went off in her backpack. Warmed my heart. That is what she said about everything in her stocking at Christmas. "Oh My frog game I always wanted (even though she had never seen it before), oh my chocolate I always wanted, Thanks Santa." It was cute.