Woah Now!

Woah, Woah, Woah... 2 posts in one day?! Something's going on! lol. Better watch out before I burn out or get carpal tunnel or something lol

So, it's January 2nd... a new year... and what does that mean everyone's talking about? Yup... New Year's Resolutions. So... here's mine.

My New Year's Resolution is simply this... to do my best.
I'm not going to make some unattainable goals that will just depress me when I don't get em done... I just want to do the best that I can, in all that I do. That means realizing and accepting that today's best may not be the same as tomorrow's best... and that's OK!

It means being the best mom I can be, being the best wife I can be... being the best friend... whatever I do... giving it my all. And like I said earlier, because of time constraints, amounts of sleep had, and just general situations that arise in life... my best probably won't ever be the same two days in a row... and that's just fine. I resolve to take each day one step, one minute, one second at a time... and while doing so, thinking, "am I doing my best"?

That means not apologizing for falling short, because I'm human and that was the best I could do at the time. It means not making excuses, and not beating myself up... because how can I expect any more of myself? Or even... any less?

I hope that this resolution helps me to think more about each and everything that I do... and helps me to enjoy life more fully. Because... that's truly the best that I can do!

A Thankful Thursday

Well, thanksgiving was on Monday and all weekend/week I've been filled with gratitude. You all saw my last post on one particular friend who's just been amazing to me, and I am very blessed to have many others whom are just amazing and have helped me in so many ways. I'm also especially grateful for my wonderful husband. Saturday marked 6 incredible years of marriage for us. Sometimes I can't believe it's been that long, others I think "that's it?!". But yes, Canadian thanksgiving always marks another anniversary for us and I get my two favorite things (time with my hubby and turkey dinner!). (We also had turkey dinner at our wedding... and let me tell ya, those Hutterites know how it's done!)

Lately, I've just been looking at how blessed we are and how it's not fair that others seem to struggle so much, I mean we definitely have our trials and in just about every aspect of our lives... health, finances.. you name it it's been an up and down kinda journey, but when I look at where we are now, so young with so much, I just know the Lord is wanting us to share. I mean how can we not? Everything in this life is given to us from our Heavenly Father and we have a choice with what we do with it, but how can we not express such gratitude and humility by not giving back?

"Where much is given, much is required"

Ok, I'm totally being random with this post, I started out with the complete intention of just expressing my gratitude in this time of thanksgiving period. A little mush (sincere mush but mush nonetheless) about my family, friends, my husband, and all we are blessed with. Instead I find myself quoting scripture and feeling this intense desire to do more.

I know many of you may be thinking "well don't you own a charity?" Well... yes, BUT I've been really lazy lately. I've been tired (exhausted) and just not feeling quite like myself for the past little while, but is that really an excuse? There is so much to be done in the world, so very much to be done... how can I afford to be lazy? I mean, I've hardly done much work, hardly done much with the charity (the occasional tweet here and there and/or blog post.) I've hardly done much spiritual-wise. So how can I really be thankful? I know all well that all we have is from the Lord, but do I thank Him near enough? I thank Him for my "blessings" but that's like a catch-all. And why do we wait until Thanksgiving when the calendar tells us to give thanks before we do? Once I heard a talk where someone talked about a gratitude journal, where everyday they'd write what they were grateful for and they'd do all they could not to repeat themselves, thus causing them to become very specific in their thanks and causing them to see so many more blessings in their lives. Maybe I'll start that, end each post with an expression of gratitude... of course it would probably be more useful if I wrote more... (this is the third time in a week though!)

Also, I think I'm going to try each day to do one thing to make the world better. Whether it be bringing a special treat to a friend (that was today's) or actively furthering the progress of Child Rescue. I mean, what if God had said "I'm too tired today to answer your prayers... I'll get around to it someday"... I know I'm not as our Heavenly Father and that I am Human and we all have our shortcomings and that there is a time and a season for all things, but maybe if I push just a little harder, maybe if we all push just a little harder the world, or at least our tiny portion of it may be just that much better.

seee... I'm blogging again!

Just thought I'd prove that I'm serious about my return to the world of the bloggers!

So it's been a fun week... two of my nieces came to visit last Wednesday and will be here until this Thursday. I've really enjoyed having them around. They're my oldest brother's kids and they're teenagers. I was slightly worried at first just 'cause I've never had teenaged girls stay with me... just Tess but she's more like a little sister/best friend. But it's been super fun, we went boating, and to West Ed and we've done some shopping and played more than a few rounds of Uno haha. I love that I'm getting close to them again as I haven't seem them in over 6 years, and this is Nick's first time meeting them.
We also had Liv's Bday! It was fun! We had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party! Good times! We played golfish croquet with flamingos and hat hat hatter and of course... had cake! It was fun and I will get pictures up soon! Well, I'm tired and need to get some other work done but thought I'd post a quick update!

Until I blog again (which will be soon)

Here we go again!

Ok, so I'm not even gonna mention how long it's been since I last posted (I'm sure you are all aware of my summer slacking) or how crappy of a blogger I am. I'm just gonna go ahead and start again and as I do the song from "OK GO" seems to come to mind... so "here we go, here we go, here we go again"!!!! (funny story about that song to come in a future post).

I don't even know where to start.. so how about at the top of my picture list! So here are some pictures I took months ago of the kids playing in our bookshelves. They're so funny, they both just love small spaces and hiding anywhere they can find. So often I'll go upstairs and hear giggling coming out of either the linen closet or liv's closet. sooo funny! I do love how much they're starting to play together though. They're definitely falling into the brother/sister role and one minute they're the best of friends and the next they're ready to rip each other's hair out... literally! But they've been so much fun and even though there are many trying times, I've had so much fun watching them grow into little people with their own likes and dislikes and interests and crazy reasoning for all sorts of things. Those kids brighten my days and just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I may complain and stress a lot, but I love being a mom, and I just adore my sweet little babies!

A house full of sickies

So, we're all sick! (hence all the work on my blog). Right now, I'm in bed with watery eyes, blowing my nose every two minutes and a headache while Nick is out cold and I can hear at least one of my kids coughing while trying to sleep. Poor Sickies! Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining right? On the moments I feel somewhat Ok, I've been cleaning, working and BLOGGING! I do want to express a formal apology to all my faithful blog readers out there (I'm quickly learning that there are many more than I thought) about my lack of blogging the past oh... 6ish months. So once again, I'm sorry. I will try to continue writing as for some reason you seem to be enjoying my random musings, rantings and ravings! So... we're sick.. and I think Livi has Roseola again... poor kid! But somehow Nixon's managed to avoid getting the baby measels.... but we'll just wait and see... he has been warmish and the poor kid has such a runny nose and HATES it when I even look at him with a kleenex in my hand! But, like I said, I've had more time to slave away on my computer and play with the kids. So, since it's been so long, here's an update of what has happened in our lives since July 29th 2008:

Well, August 2nd we had a birthday party for Liv who turned 2 on August 3rd. My buddy Tess was such a help! We made a homemade piñata and everything! Here are some pics from the awesome event;

Yummy hotdogs! Liv, Ky and Bailey/Lincoln lol! She thinks of them as a package deal! The Fancy Cake! It had awesome pink polkadots but it was too hot and they slid off! I still think it's pretty awesome for my first attempt at a fancy Birthday Cake... and Ingrid, you're right... an awesome toy on top and you're good to go! lol!

The Piñata -it's all in the details!
My little man and his Mohawk! lol! He had no hair on the sides and a bunch on top and at the nape of his neck... what did you expect me to do?
Blowing out the cake, Tess & Nixon

All our hard work! But it was fun!
Tinkerbell dress & shoes from the H's

PRESENTS!

More party pics:


Well, that took much longer than I anticipated so I will continue with updates tomorrow!
Goodnight! And hopefully the I will no longer have a house full of sickies!