Wait...what happened to Christmas?

Hold up. It's almost January 1?  What in the world?  I think I missed Christmas!  The last thing I remember was visiting TONS of family members and opening gifts...oh....wait a minute.  I know it sounds ridiculous and probably idiotic to some of you, but seriously, Christmas flies by way too quickly every year.  Well, not even just Christmas, the whole YEAR flew by.  My grandma Portell (I miss her dearly) used to tell me and my cousins "Once you turn 16, the years will fly by faster and faster!"  We would all say "yeah right Grandma...whatever"...but she was so right.  Every Christmas and New Years I look back and say to myself "where did this year go?"  Now that I have children it seems like time is flying by even faster.  It makes me really sad to realize that my 'baby' will be 6 in 2011 and my baby baby will be 4...4!!!  Okay, I will not cry while I write this blog (not that you'll ever know).  :)   Even weirder is that fact that I will be turning 30.......


 No resolutions this year, those are silly.  Does anyone actually stick to them?  Here are my goals for 2011;


1. Spend more time with my boys....I mean QUALITY time.
2. Get back to running, I will be training for a 10K
3. Adore my husband and let him know more often how amazing he is and how blessed I am to not only have him in my life, but I get to be married to him!
4. Talk to my family and friends more.  I HATE talking on the phone, but I need to get over that and just make the call!
5. Appreciate MYSELF for who I am and what I look like, not who I wish I was and what I wish I looked like.
6. Allow myself to have "me" time and now feel guilty about it (that's a hard one).
7. Embrace turning 30 (oh good grief...just writing that makes me shutter) this summer and appreciate that I've made it this far!
8. Be more open and honest with myself and others.  
9. Have confidence in myself, even though there are 'features' I want to change...I will get OVER them and stop worrying about it.  At least I will try.




My favorite things that happened this year:


-Spending a few weekends with just the hubs.  I love those weekends!
-KidA learning how to read....I'm so proud of him!
-KidO identifying letters and numbers and being so excited about it!
-My oldest nephew (he has autism and is 4 yrs old) allowing me to hold him and play with him for a bit.  Gah, it was awesome.
-My youngest nephew being just awesome. 
-Watching my youngest brother graduate from high school.  I hope to see him excel at college b/c I know he can and I hope he knows it, too!  Maybe I should tell him....
-Hanging out with Dave and Jessica more.  I love those 2 people so much!  I could not have asked for a better brother in law and future sister in law!
-Getting asked to be Jessica's Matron of Honor.....*cries*
-Going to the Eclipse triple feature with Claire, Mandy and Carrie.  What a night!  And we learned that we are really really old and watching 3 movies in a row is exhausting.
-Visiting our dear friends Rick and Lisa in Pennsylvania.  What a blessing it was to see them!  Rick even took me running one morning...um...do you realize how many hills there are in Pittsburgh?  Yeah, I didn't and I almost died...DIED!  Not really, but never again.  I'll stick to my flat midwest terrain thank you very much.  What a wonderful trip though and we miss those two so much!
-Co-leading my church's MOPS group with my bestie Karen.  She is a huge blessing in my life (as well as the group) and I'm so thankful to her for putting up with me and making MOPS so much fun this year!
-Coming clean about my eating disorder.  Wow...that was rough, but amazing as well.  Thank you all so much for the amazing support!  I have been doing so well for over half the year now!
-Spending an entire day with my bestest friend, Mandy.  I haven't had time with just her in over 7 years...7 years!  We had lots of shenanigans and fun times in the StL.  Great times!!
-Seeing my other "old" high school friends over Christmas.  I love you Abby and Claire!  I miss you Cara!
-Spending more time with Jessica.  She truly is the little sister I never had.  I love you girlie!




Here's to a great 2011!

Updated Hand Print Christmas Trees

So, I decided to try the Hand print Christmas trees again.  This time on actual canvas (which was only like $3 for 2 at Walmart, 11X14 size).  I decided that size was way too small to have the Hubs hand prints on bottom, then mine, then Aidan's and on top Owen's.  So, I went ahead and just decided to let the boys each do one.  They turned out cute with a captial 'C'.  Here are the updated photos.  I cannot wait to get them up on the wall!

Handprint Christmas Trees

Okay, so today I started anew with the home preschool.  I found an awesome website for reading, www.readingeggs.com.  You sign up for it and get a free trail, after that I have no idea how much it costs, but it's amazing. fyi: just looked it up, and the cost for this website is $65 a year.   Aidan took a few tests and scored really well and Owen loved learning about the letter 'M'.  We then spent some time on shapes, counting, and rhyming words with Owen. For Aidan I had him working on addition (which he rocks at!), rhyming words, reading and USA state placement on a map.  My big thing for today was the craft I had planned.  Hand print Christmas Trees.  I had to make homemade finger paint.  Wait, don't be impressed.  I only had to do that because we are out of store bought paint.  I've never made homemade paint before, so I was pretty nervous.  Here is the recipe if you want to try it out;


*2 C flour
*4 C cold water
*Food coloring or dry tempera


Mix flour and water and cook over low heat until thick.
Cool.
Add a pinch of salt.
Add food coloring or tempera paint.
Store in covered jar in refrigerator.


So, that is what I used.  Now the finger paint is pretty gooey....I'm not sure how to change it up to make it abit 'better', but I would recommend store bought or figuring out how to make this recipe more like the consistency of store bought finger paint.  That being said, the trees turned out okay.  They definitely would've looked better with store bought paint, but I still think they are adorable!  Here are the pics;

As you can see, the paint is very gooey.  But still cute!  I am waiting to see how they look once they are dry, my fear is that they won't dry!  LOL!  But still a cute idea, adorable even!  We may have to do it again once I perfect the homemade paint or buy more store bought (I'm aiming for the latter).   

A New Day

Um...today I realized how much I have been slacking on the preschool front.  Yes, I realized this awhile back, but today I REALLY realized it.  Especially when the boys were almost in tears begging me to have preschool soon.  Yes, it's been over a week.  I know, I know.... So, with a renewed vigor and motivation, I plan to start anew tomorrow! I even started planning out the work and learning for tomorrow, TONIGHT!  And that is huge for me.  Then I realized our printer is completely out of paper and I don't want to get out in the 20 degree weather to get more.  shoot!  gah...now I have to be creative.  A friend of mine introduced me to the wonderful world of @Teach_Preschool on twitter...oh my goodness.  The creativity is amazing.  I cannot wait to start making the beautiful crafts she suggests!  So, my friends reading this blog, I promise to make beautiful crafts with the boys, take pictures and post them for you.  Yup, that's what I'm going to do.  There.  Now hold me accountable.  Until then, goodnight and sweet dreams.