I started this a long time ago...

Month ago I started a catch up post and I just found it today so here is two months of catch up from March and April. 

MARCH

I love that they are small enough to ride around together. Lila loves this car and Cedric is very willing to be the driver

St. Patrick's Day is a big deal around here.  We decorate leprechaun boxes the day before at at midnight when the moon shines on their box the leprechauns come fill it.  C got some growing dinosaurs

St. Patrick's Day is a big deal around here. We decorate leprechaun boxes the day before at at midnight when the moon shines on their box the leprechauns come fill it. C got some growing dinosaurs

Lila got some socks and a new shirt

Here they are in their new outfits.

Also in March we met my sister in Monterrey and went to the aquarium.  It was amazing (and way expensive).  The kids enjoyed seeing the sea otters and penguins.  We only lost one kid for a minute so in all it turned out great

At the beach, the waves were so loud C was scared and hid behind his cousin.

My beautiful sister and baby B

People who say there is not a difference between boys and girls have never had a boy and a girl.

Cousins in a Clam shell

(sung to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme song)

                             

This was at a park near the aquarium.  It had an old train that had a sign stating that it was not a playground.  Funny how they put it right next to the playground.

I love to craft and sew although I am not a very good seamstress. I did make these suspenders for Easter and a bow tie to match. The problem with me crafting is that laundry (or anything else) doesn't get done which is why the suspenders are holding up liners to our cloth diapers which my potty-trained-for-a-year son is wearing.

APRIL

My friend and I went to Davis to the arboretum and went for a walk with our kiddos. C loves C (my friend) and her baby. 

Here is the other C. She just moved away and we miss her so much!

                                            

The joy of having small children.

We also took a family trip to Utah in April.  Here are some of the highlights

Neal rode the Salt Lake City Marathon route on his bike and I ran the 1/2 Marathon.

We bought a new van, our little wagon died on us.  We bought a Toyota Sienna 8 passenger.  It rocks!

Spent lots of time with family.

We visited the pioneer museum while in Utah.  They had cute little kids areas, this was inside the tepee.

There was a car mat that had the original roads of SLC for the kids to drive on.

Little antique car for them to drive.

On our trip home I asked C what his favorite thing was that we did at Grandma's and he said it was watching the diggers outside.

Easter bow-tie

Hair clip to match Cedric's bow-tie

Thats it.  So much for my monthly post.  Maybe next year :)

Joyschool Day 1

Cedric started Joyschool today (a preschool curriculum based more on values than academics).

Today they had sharing time and Cedric wanted to share his train James

He got his train and said "This is James he is black and red and is the number 5 engine.  He says choo choo"

He has always like trains and cars but lately he has become obsessed. He doesn't even want to go outside to play, all he wants to do is play with his cars and trains.

A day in Roseville

We took a trip to Roseville a whole 20 minutes away and checked out the HomeTrends store (love)
Ate at the Squeeze Inn using our Groupon
Played at the park. The reason there are not many pictures of Cedric is because he was off running around with his new friends.
It was a wonderful warm day to spend with family.

But before we got out of the house this happened









Cedric tripped in the bathroom and flew right into the door. We got him an ice pack and gave him some Tylenol.

After the trauma

This afternoon we took the in-laws to a Tepanyaki style restaurant (where they cook your food right in front of you). Both Neal and I thought Cedric would love this. He loves fireworks and he loves cooking. We all sat down and I explained to Cedric what would happen and I pushed his chair back, the chef put the oil down on the grill and started the fire. I was covering Lila's eyes because I knew it would scare her, then I looked over at Cedric and he was so scared. As soon as it was out he sat on Neal's lap for awhile hiding his face and then he got down on the ground and hid under his highchair. When I asked if he wanted to come out he said "No I want to hid" As long as he was on the ground he was perfectly happy. We eventually got him to sit in his highchair but I had to hold my hands over his eyes and feed him. He loved the food, rice and calamari. He soon let us put our hand down and was doing good until he saw fire a few tables away. This did not scare him as bad but he still wanted to cover his eyes. After Grandma was done with her meal she held him and read him a book we had brought in. My favorite things Cedric said there were

Neal: Cedric is our chef good?
Cedric: No he is a "bad guy" (he is into good guys and bad guys right now)

Alanna: Cedric, please come sit in your chair and eat this yummy rice.
Cedric: No thank you Mommy, I go home and eat

He also has become quite good with chopsticks. He is able to pick up cheerios and eat them (they do have the kid helpers on top)

So after our adventure out we come home took naps and made sugar cookies.
A very low stress activity.

Our Christmas thank you

I know we are really late but never late than never.

This is what we will be sending out as soon as I get it printed to say thanks for the wonderful Christmas gifts we got this year. We were really spoiled

Happy Belated Valentines Day

Jesus says what?

 As we were getting ready to go to playgroup today I explained to Cedric that we were going to a Three Kings Day party. I told him we were celebrating when the wise men came to Jesus. To which he responded “Jesus says 'Ho Ho Merry Christmas'!” “No” I say “Jesus says 'Love everyone'” “No” says Cedric with a devious smile “Jesus says 'Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas'” At least he has connected Christ with Chrismas right? Right? Okay we'll work on in.

2011 Here I Come

My New Year goals for 2011


Some/many of the goals will remain the same. It seems that it takes me longer to make a habit than most.

1. Post on my blog at least once a week

I really want to be better at this. I really like looking back and seeing what we have done during the year. It is nice to know that we actually do stuff as a family since I often feel like a failure in this area.

2. Take a picture every day.

Yes again I am going to try this. I got a Canon Powershot S95 for Christmas (awesome point and shoot) and I am loving the pictures. I am on day 3 and I am going strong :)

3. Plan more activities for my family.

When Neal is home after work or on the weekends (which has not happened often this year) I feel like we do a lot of lazing around and watching TV. I know Neal wants some down time after working but Cedric and I enjoy getting out and we both be stir crazy when we stay home for so long. I will try to find some good activities for at home. Cedric is getting old enough to play a few games and he is crazy good at puzzles.

4. Start doing Preschool with Cedric

I just purchased the ABC fun 123 curriculum and I think it will be good. I will want to add a few things I am sure but it is a good start.


5. Dinner on the table at 6:00pm

Last year it was to cook 3 meals a week and that didn't work. So this year dinner at 6:00 whether it is homemade or not :) Lets keep these realistic now.

I did purchase a book called “The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner” I am hoping with will help.

I also plan to make 8 weeks worth of menus with shopping lists so I can pull one out of the file if I do not have time to plan for the week

I also really want to start the freezer meal group.

6. Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) Between Christmas and Easter.

I know this is not real original but I have been wanting to do this for the last several years and never get it done.

7. Lose 25lbs.

I have 2.5 months to lose 10 lbs. This will get me down to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time Lila is 9 months (9 months on 9 months off) I had lost a decent amount of weight after Cedric but during our move to CA I put on 10 lbs so the extra 15 is really doable with a bit of work. I would also like to do a triathlon but every time I say I am going to do one I get pregnant so I am not going to put it as a goal.

8. Read 25 books from the BBC book list

I am sure you have all seem the BBC book list http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml and they believe most people have only read 6 of the books. I have read 20 of them. I do feel that they have copped out on some of the list like “Complete work of Shakespeare” counts as one.

9. Take at least one community education class

The Photoshop class starts in March.

10. Earn my Young Woman medallion.

As YW Pres I get the chance to earn my medallion again and I really want to do it. However we will most likely be moving this year which means I need to pick up the pace to get it done. If you have not looked at the new program you should. It is wonderful, and the awards are much more frequent and pretty. (I also think it is easier than it was when I was in YW. Does that make me sound old?)

11. Finish our three month security fund

Also known as a freedom fund or many other names. We have been following Dave Ramsey's money makeover. We became debt free this year, we have our little emergency fund and we are now working on our three months supply. It is not going as fast as I want it to go. I will be much stricter with our money and we will get this done!

12. Be more attentive during meals

I find myself using Breakfast and Lunch as a time to keep kids occupied while I do other things, sometimes it is cleaning, sometimes it is checking my emails but whether they are good things or not I need to take time to sit down and visit with the kiddos.  I think I could read scriptures in the morning to them as they eat and then visit during lunch.  Cedric is becoming very interesting and it is so fun to have conversations with.  He says the funniest things.

On a side note

I took down my Christmas decorations yesterday (tree still in corner until green waste day). Most years I am sad to take it down and the house feel so empty. This year I was so anxious to get them put away and I am loving the empty house. What do you suppose this means?

Just to document

Since I am starting my sidebar fresh for the year this is just to document the books I read during 2010

Books Read

The Hiding Place

The Book of Mormon

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Meyer)

Mocking Jay (Collins)

The Midnighters 2 Touching Darkness

Catching Fire

The Hunger Games

Forever

Fablehaven 5 Keys of the Demon Prison (Mull)

Penelope

The Friday Night Kitting Club

PJ and the Os The Last Olympian

The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society (Shaffer & Barrows)

Pieces of Happily Ever After (Zutell)

Dear John (Sparks)

PJ and the Os the Battle of the Labyrinth (Riordan)

PJ and the Os The Titan's Curse (Riordan)

PJ and the Os The Sea of Monsters (Riordan)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lighting Thief (Riordan)

Extras (Westerfeld)

Specials (Westerfeld)

Pretties (Westerfeld)

Just Listen (Dessen)

Midnighers 1 (Westerfeld)

The last few months of the year I did not read much at all.  I got into crocheting and that took up my evening time.  oops!

Weight loss
35 lbs from highest point of pregnancy

Babies Born
One sweet Lila June

2010 Goals Reviewed

1. Post on my blog at least once a week

Did not happen. I had good intentions but I was never able to get it all together. However we bought me a laptop just a bit ago so I am going to try this again and I think I will be able to do better. I am going to have to think about how often I can set my self for.

2. Take a picture every day.

HA HA HA

3. Get out of the house more / Plan more activities for my family.

I think we did alright this year. Neal was either biking, working or catching up with the house every weekend it seemed so I did a lot of weekend activities with just the kiddos and me. I hope we will be able to do more as a family as things settle at work.
4. Plan more activities for C

a. Put C into survival swimming (that is 2 times a week for 4-6 weeks

Did not happen, I taught him myself for a few weeks but then we went on vacation and then I had a baby.

b. Continue going to play group once a week
We actually went to play group twice a week most of the time since they changed times around.

c. Plan a specific story/activity/craft time twice a week. This would include outings to places we have read about.

Since we were going to playgroup twice a week I didn't feel a need as much but lately with Neal working so late I think I am back in to having more structure to help keep me going during the day. I think I will purchase ABC 124 curriculum and give it a try

5. cook dinner at least 3 times a week
This lasted for a few weeks but I have realized I really really really hate cooking dinner. If we ever get rich we will hire cook. I stayed at my sister's over thanksgiving and she had some yummy simple dinners that I think I can do.

6. Read Scriptures
Well, I got called as YW president right quick after this so my Sunday mornings were changed up a bit. I did not read the lessons but we did do a book a mormon read-a-thon and we read the book of mormon in two days. I took longer (give me a break I had just had a baby a week earlier)

7. Write in my Journal
I wrote a bit better than I have but still need to improve I will continue with this. The hard thing is having the journal where I am in the evening so I can write. My sister writes on the computer so I may do that since if I am doing blog stuff I can just step over to my journal.

8. Read a Church/inspirational/help book for every three fun books I read.
Didn't do this one either. I enjoy my break of life too much.

9. Have a baby
Yup did this and I did a great job!!!

10. Decorate my house.

I got all my pictures up really quick after this and any decorating things I had but I realized I do not have much. I still need help on the decorating portion.

11. Take at least one community education class

Still working on this one. Every time I plan to start up something happens. YW calling, A baby, crazy work schedule, holidays, but I will do it this year.
 
I would say I got 5 out of 11which if this were a class this would never be acceptable to me, since it is life I would say it is pretty darn good!
 
I am excited to set new goals for this year and see how many I can complete.