Christmas break is almost over!

There has been some long, lazy days this week. I am ready to get back on schedule. I am trying to set up some organization for my weightloss, homeschooling, menu planning, and just about everything! I am hoping to make a binder for each one. I am also in the process of trying to find a label maker I like. I will be a labeling fool!
As for resolutions, I guess I should post some of mine.

2010 Resolutions

1. Lose atleast 20 pounds

2. Run a half marathon (or atleast train for it)

3. Complete several home projects

4. Save money from every pay

5. Get more organized

6. Take the kids on more field trips

7. Live a healthy lifestyle

8. Read the Bible and join a small group

9. Mail more letters

10. Spend more time with the family, playing games

I am sure I could go on and on, but this year is going to be one of the best! I can feel it. I am so anxious for the year to change. 2009 was a good year, though. We lost our beloved Maddy, but she is in a better place now. And, we are all at peace over it.

So begins a new year. Jaden will be starting 2nd grade this Fall! That is unbelievable! I will only have one year left until Cassidy begins Kindergarten. These kids are growing too fast. I am going to be busy this week planning out field trips and fun days for the year. Some of these include: the Creation museum, library, Children's museum, Newport Aquarium, Zoo, Playdates, Summer vacation, Date day, and many more!

After Christmas

The days after Christmas are always so fun. The kids are busy playing and I am preparing for a new year. It is always exciting to think of new things to come! It helps that my Christmas gift from Jeff was a box full of promises! Literally! He marked off a calendar with home improvements we will be doing all year long. He also included samples! I am so excited. The first on the list is a new countertop! I have been looking and I think I have narrowed it down to the color I want. We should begin on that towards the end of January or beginning of February. I would love to make Valentine's day cookies on a new countertop!
I will be making a list of my New Year's resolutions soon. I have already started writing them down. As for now, I will leave you with some pictures of what has been going on around here!





Oh yeah, our Christmas decorations are all down. But, we should not stop celebrating the birth of our Savior!

Our Christmas in pictures

Christmas, dog stress, and sleepovers

I am so excited for Christmas to get here. I get this way every year. It seems like I wish for it to be here and then it is over in a blink of an eye. I have a few more things to wrap and then I am finished. It feels so good to be done and to wait for the day to get here. I have also been baking cookies like crazy! Today, I am baking more biscotti for Christmas Day. I think my mom is going to love it! Here are some of the things my kids are going to be opening this year!

They are going to be so thrilled. Santa is also bringing a big surprise! I can't wait!
Nacho has been very stressful since last night. I guess he is getting comfortable now and all he wants to do is bite and eat everything. He also has to pee every hour! It is crazy! He does very well as long as we remember to take him out constantly. If not, he will go to the door and start peeing! But, he is doing so well for a 9 week old pup!
Jaden is planning on spending the night at a friend's house. This will be his first sleepover. He has been warned several times today that he is not going to go if he doesn't start behaving. He acts very much like the dog, besides the peeing part! LOL
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! Enjoy and slow down. (I am telling myself this also!)

Jaden's beatboxing

Jaden's favorite thing to do right now is beatbox! Who knew? It is quite funny but he thinks he rocks! enjoy!

Nacho's new sweater

Ok, as you can expect, I will be posting on Nacho quite a bit. He is filling up a lot of our days! I can't believe how good he is! Really! He is already learning to potty outside and he knows his name! He is such a good dog. He is even sleeping through the night without going out! It's really amazing! It makes loving him so easy!

He got a new Christmas sweater. He keeps scratching at it, but I think he is getting used to it. He really needs it on when he goes outside. The poor thing shivers so bad without it!

It didn't last long....

Our house was petless for all of two weeks! It just felt so empty without Maddy here. I really miss her. I was starting to think that having another dog would keep me from missing Maddy so much. Jaden has been wanting a chihuahua and we were on the lookout for one. There is a long story involved, but let's just say that it was meant to be. We found this little guy:

Now, I do have some reservations about this. I have never liked little dogs. I do not care for the yappy, hyper, toe biting dogs! We held one at a pet store and I thought that I could do a chihuahua. Also, I wanted a female. I have never really cared for male dogs. There are also several reasons for this, which I am sure I do not need to go into. When we picked him up, there was also a female one. I said I would be happy with the female, but our son had to have the one with the spot on his head. So, we brought him home. He has been so sweet. He is even paper trained, and is learning fast to go potty outside. He seems very smart and loving. But, as I said to my husband today, I could still trade him for the girl. I just hope I can get past that and love this dog. I know it sounds so awful!!!! We'll see.....
For now, I will leave you with some cute pictures of Nacho!

It' been a busy month!

I feel so bad for not posting in such a long time! But, there has been so much going on! I am trying to keep from feeling overwhelmed.
Today is going to be baking and cleaning day. I am going to have Jaden write my grocery list, find the items at the store, and help me bake! What a school day for him. I think all boys should have to do that for school. Men seem so helpless when it comes to the kitchen! I have decided to make buckeye bars, spinach dip, and chocolate mint bars. I also need to make a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread for our MOPS dinner next week.
I have had packages coming to our door everyday! I have also been wrapping them as I get them. This way, I do not have a huge chore ahead of me. We are keeping up with school work, and I am back to running again. I have been trying to run everyday. Next week, I will cut back to every other day but with longer distances.
Sorry, no pictures today. But, I hope to post pictures of the food and the recipes!

Thanksgiving recipes

After much debating, I have finally figured out what I am making for Thanksgiving. I decided on these spinach balls:

I have been feeling overwhelmed and these didn't sound too hard. I am also making my husband's grandmother's recipe for kolaches. I hope they turn out okay. I am always nervous that they will taste nothing like hers. We'll see. I will finish them up in the morning before we leave.

Today, we did several Thanksgiving worksheets and talked about he pilgrims. I am sure Jaden didn't quite get it, but I am glad we went over it. He also did some math problems he has never done! Cassidy is beginning to write her letters. She can write a perfect S and that is still one of Jaden's hardest letters!

I have been keeping busy making crafts, cards, and school projects. I just don't know how to find the time to do anything else. I haven't been exercising regularly and it is catching up with me. I have to make this a priority!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and be sure not to forget who we are thanking!

~Maddy~

As I sit here typing this, I am missing my dalmatian, Maddy. She passed away yesterday. I remember the first time I saw her and I will never forget the last time. She was diagnosed with cancer on her 9th birthday this year (June 2nd). We had to have her leg amputated and we prayed for a miracle. She was doing so well until the end of September, when I noticed she was coughing up blood. Ever since then, we knew she was going downhill. But, these last two weeks have been brutal. She stopped eating all food. She wanted nothing to do with it! But, she drank water all day. She peed constantly and she could barely hold it in. She has had very few accidents in her life, so I knew it was bad when she was going in the house. She began to lose weight rapidly and would throw up the water she drank. Little did I know, that would be the last thing she did. Yesterday, she was laying by her water dish trying to drink. She threw up and then gave in. Jeff and I sat with her until the end. I told her bye and Jaden even came in to say bye. What a strong and brave boy I have! I am so proud of him. I watched Maddy leave us. What a powerful thing I witnessed. I cried, Jeff cried, but the kids have yet to shed a tear. I believe I had prepared them well the past 6 months. They knew it was going to happen. Jaden said he wasn't sad because she is in heaven! He even helped lay her body to rest.
Tonight, we made a spotted cake and shared some memories of her. I loved her so much. She was my first kid! The house has such an obvious absence.

Gymnastics and Shiners!

Jaden got his first black eye this week. On Sunday, we woke up and hurried around to get ready for church. As Jeff was putting away his computer, Jaden ran into it. Unfortunately, the black eye looks worse every day! I hope it starts going away soon! My poor baby!

This picture doesn't show how bad it looks now!
We put up our CHRISTmas tree on Sunday. Actually, we put up 2! We now have 2 trees we are decorating! I also have several little trees to put up around the house! Hopefully, I will find time to get all of the CHRISTmas decorations up!



Cassidy has been doing very well at gymnastics! I am so proud of her.


Yeah, here I caught her with her hands in her pants! LOL

Jaden continues to amaze me with school! He is so smart. We get through our school days so fast. It is unbelievable! He reads very well and even does his math with no hands! That is a big one for me, because I have always used my hands! ;)

As for Maddy, she is slowly fading away. She hasn't eaten in a week and she doesn't like to get up anymore. It has made me an emotional mess. We will miss her, but we are praying that God takes her soon.

Cassidy's bed is complete! *UPDATE*

Cassidy's princess bedding came this morning! We were all very excited!!! Here are some pictures of her and her new bed! What a big girl!

She loves her bed and I am so happy that she loves it!

UPDATE: She already ripped one of the roses off. That didn't take long.

Maddy

Our dog of 9 years is slowly dying of cancer. She had her leg amputated in June due to Osteosarcoma in her leg. We knew that the cancer had probably spread, but we were hoping and praying for a miracle. Well, she has gone downhill in the last month. There are so many things we began noticing. The first one is that she is not eating very much. She hardly eats one bowl a day. I started noticing she was getting very skinny! Now, things have just gotten worse! She had diarrhea in the house and her breathing is very short. She coughs everytime she gets up and walks around. She tries to run, but she just starts coughing.

This morning, she seems even worse. She is shaking and has a sadness in her eyes. She can no longer hide that she is in pain. This makes me very sad. I have had her since she was just 6 weeks old. What a sweet dog she has been!

I hate the thought of the decision we are going to have to make soon. But, I know that watching her in pain is unbearable. I pray that she leaves us peacefully and the kids recover well. (and me, for that matter!)

Craigslist and Princesses!

So, last night I found the perfect bed on Craigslist! I am so thrilled. Just as I was about to pay over $300 for Cassidy's bed, there was one on Craigslist! It had stickers on it, so I had to get those off. It still has a mark from where I had to scrub, but I am hoping you won't be able to tell in the room. If so, I guess I will be painting! ;)

About the bedding......

Well, Cassidy has discovered there is princess bedding! I was hoping she wouldn't. Most people who know me, know that I can't stand character bedding! I was so happy to find the cute owl bedding and Cassidy liked it too. Until the princesses came along. How can I deny her??? So, I think we have settled on one. It has a little bit of what I like, and it has the princesses.

I hope this makes MY princess happy! I will be ordering it today. Hopefully, we can pick up the mattresses soon! As soon as it is done, I will post a picture!

another bed....

Here are two more beds I am thinking of. I am just not sure which one to go with. The other one I posted would take a mattress and box spring. These would just take an xl twin mattress. We could still get the owl bedding, but would need to get xl twin sheets. I am just not sure yet.....

I really can't decide. I plan on ordering it tomorrow. This really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I want this bed to last her for a long time!!!

Cassidy's Big Girl Bedding

We have decided it is time to get Cassidy her Big Girl bed. I think I know what I want for the bed, but I have officially decided on the bedding. She loves it and we are so excited to go get it!

I am so excited to see it in her room. But, first we have to get the bed and mattresses. I have a friend who has a white metal bed and then there is this bed:

I am really leaning toward the wood bed. It looks supercute! I could even get the matching furniture in the future! I think Cassidy would love this. She wanted a princess carriage bed, but I know how impractical that is!

So, today I am getting pictures taken of the kids and I might go ahead and pick up the bedding. Afterward, Cassidy has gymnastics. I will try to get some pictures of her today!