It's a New Year...and already so much to celebrate!!!

Wow! I cannot believe it is already 2010. It seems like it just changed to the year 2000, before I knew it I was getting married in 2003, having Rylee in 2005, having Dax in 2009 and now here it is 2010. Where do the days go?

This year we decided we wanted to stay home and bring in a New Year with the kids and each other. I made lots of good food and we invited Rick & Judi over for food, fun, and games. Of course my little monkey Dax was in bed by about 8:30pm. After that we all just hung out until 10pm, which was when we let Rylee celebrate the New Year. She had picked out hats, blowers, and necklaces for us all to wear. We watched the eastcoast celebrate at 10pm our time, and then Rylee went to bed and Rick & Judi headed home. Brett and I relaxed with some food, wine, and a great movie...The Hangover. It was a great New Year!!!

Of course I had to make some New Year's resolutions(goals)....and this year I wanted to make a few. So here they are:
1. Lose weight and get in shape. Not only by exercising but also by eating more healthy. My goal for this year is to lose 20 lbs by mid-June.
2. Excercise every morning.
3. Clean my house immediately after exercising, before doing anything else.
4. Have more patience.
5. Save enough money to go on a cruise or vacation, just me and Brett.
6. Get caught up and stay caught up on scrapbooking.
7. Take the kids to the Zoo.
8. Go camping in the mountains as a family. (I loved camping as a kid and would love to take the kids).
9. Make sure to have plenty of mommy/daughter dates.
10. Take a dance class. (I think it would be a blast to take a dance class...something like Hip Hop. In this small town I am not so sure I will be able to find that?!)
11. Drink more water...I am bad at this. I go some days and do not drink and ounce of water all day...sometimes for days. My goal is to drink 1.5-2 liters of water a day.

So those are some goals I have made for this year and I hope to accomplish each and every one of them. As for my #1 goal of losing weight and getting in shape, I figured what better way to motivate myself than to have goal pictures. I decided that having goal pics and even posting a few might just help me to be more motivated and to be held to the goal more. So I have posted a few pics I have of me about a year after I had Rylee. I know it might be closer to a year and a half after Dax that I accomplish it, but I am determined. So here are some goal pics....

Already this year I have celebrated my birhday! I am now 28!!! It seems so crazy to think I am already 28. I don't feel any older than when I was 25, so being 28 doesn't bother me, it just seems weird to think back at memories that seem like yesterday and really they were 5-10 years ago. For my birthday Brett brought home cake and ice cream the night before so we could all have some together. Rylee LOVES birthday cakes and blowing out candles, so we do it just for her! On my birthday my wonderful mom, sisters, sister-in-law and all my nieces and nephews surprised me by showing up at my house with a cake and ice cream also. We all had cake and ice cream and hung out for a while. They are great! Then Brett got off work early and took me to dinner. Before dinner he took me to pick out an outfit...I love clothes. Really I didn't even expect that since I knew we were going to Mesquite on the 16th to celebrate my birthday.

On the 16th we got up early, got ready and took the kids to their grandma & papa's house for the night. Then we headed to Mesquite with Jenny and Jaron. Just the ride there was a blast; we laughed the whole way. Once we arrived in Mesquite we checked in, fixed ourselves a little, then went bowling. Brett won the first game and I won the second game. After bowling we headed over to the CasaBlanca for the comedy show. It was great! Afterward we headed back to Virgin River for some good ol' Prime Rib dinner. The rest the night we gambled, gambled, and gambled some more. I sat at the blackjack table from about 11pm-3am. It was a lot of fun. And even better, I left the table about $2 ahead. I think that is pretty good after tipping for every drink and playing for that long. The next morning we got ready, checked out, ate breakfast, gambled, went to the car show and headed for home. It was a GREAT weekend!!!

Another milestone....my little bubbas is 10 months old. I really cannot believe that he will be one year old before I know it. He has the cutest personality. He always tries to play with Rylee and it is so cute. He will get so excited and climb right over the top of her trying to get her to play. He loves chasing her around and trying to take stuff away from her. She gets mad and he laughs and tries again. He LOVES to eat. The second dinner is done and we start to sit at the table he is frantically chasing us around so we won't forget to feed him. We always tease...because I will say "he loves spaghetti" and Brett will say "he loves anything, we could feed that kid a piece of paper and he would eat it." He does love to eat. I think his favorite is spaghetti. He also loves mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh and he loves ice cream! Really it seems like he will eat just about anything I cut up and feed to him. He ate his 1st Oreo cookie just a few days ago. Suprisingly it wasn't near as messy as when Rylee had her first Oreo. He does great at feeding himself too. Its so cute to watch. His 4th tooth just recently broke through the skin and it looks like his two front teeth (on top) will poke through within a week or so. He babbles all the time. He says mama, dada, baba, kucka, yes, and shakes his head yes and no all the time. And he loves to dance. If a song starts playing, Dax starts dancing. He is such a cute boy!

He is getting so BIG. He weighs in at 20.5 lbs and 30 inches long now. He always stands without holding onto anything. He has even taken a few steps from an object to me. He will stand alone for a very long time if he doesn't realize he is doing it. Once he realizes, he will grab a hold of something. He climbs grandma & papa's stairs all the time. We are just trying to master coming down backwards now since he always tries to go forward.

He loves bathtime! Every time he hears the bath water running, even if its not for him, he zooms in there to play. The other day Rylee was bathing and I took his shirt off so he could splash in it. Well, he went over the side and into the tub...in his clothes. He did it very gracefully and didn't bump his head, but it was still too fast for me to catch him. He is off the binky too...such a big boy! We all just love him to pieces. Rylee & Dax are truly the lights of our lives and are both such smart and sweet kids.

Happy 10 month Monkey we LOVE you!!!

And in between all the celebrating we have spent time together bowling and playing in the snow. Rylee loves the snow and cannot get enough.

"Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold."