Happy Valentine's Day

My sweet, little Valentine

And some 3 month pictures

(deer in the headlights look)

All dressed and ready for church

Month 4: Improving a Talent

As part of my year-long happiness project for the month of January, I worked on practicing the piano every day for an hour. I loved this goal, and it did indeed make me happy!  It was so nice to have an excuse to play the piano every day when I otherwise would have found more "productive" things to do.  It was difficult some days to fit an hour in, and there were two Saturdays where the day was so busy that I didn't get a chance to practice at all.  There were also a handful of days where I practiced longer than my allotted time because I was enjoying myself so much!  If I couldn't fit it in during the day, I would practice after the kids went to bed when I normally would have watched TV or read a book to wind down the day.  Over the course of the month, I worked up a piano solo which I'm going to play in church, I enjoyed playing through several Broadway musical piano books, and I played through several classical pieces.  This month I relearned just how much I love playing the piano and that making the effort to practice every day lifted my spirits.  I can do with less TV and more piano-playing in my life!  I'm so grateful to my aunt for teaching me how to play and to my mom for pushing me to practice.

Last month I also indexed almost 400 names, I got over halfway through James L. Ferrell's book, The Holy Secret, and I continued to train for my half marathon race on March 2nd.

This month I'm going to work on positive thoughts about other people--no judging, giving the benefit of the doubt, and in general just being more loving.  I also want to finish another year of my blog book. We'll see how it goes. :o)

Sunday Afternoon Nap

We're enjoying our new church time of 10:30am instead of 8:30, which allows us to enjoy a nice breakfast together in the morning and still have time for an afternoon nap after church.

This picture below is a rare event because Caleb hardly ever naps, even if he didn't get as much sleep the night before for whatever reason.  Carter generally will take a nap Sunday afternoon (3 hours of church seems to wear him out each week!), and occasionally during the week.  Anyway, catching all my boys sleeping at the same time in the same location was a picture worth documenting.  While they napped, I enjoyed some coveted time to myself to read my scriptures and practice the piano :o).

Another recent nap picture of Matt and Bryson.  With each baby, I have pictures of Matt + baby napping together.  Matt has such a warm body temperature which serves well to put babies to sleep and to keep me warm in the winter!

Yearly Aquarium Trip

Here are some pictures from our yearly Aquarium visit.  Even though I'm not teaching preschool this year, we got in on a preschool field trip and got a super great discount!  I'm so glad Matt was able to get off work for a few hours.  I knew it would be tricky watching two active boys with a nursing baby.

Caleb on the carousel

Carter's water animal of choice

Ferris wheel ride with friends

Bryson and I didn't get in on any of the picture fun this time, but he did great sleeping for most of the outing.

2 months

Bryson turned 2 months old at the beginning of the month!

My little sweetheart!

We went to the doctor for his check-up, and after he was weighed in, I had to ask if he was really my son.  He only weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz. which put him in the 61st percentile.  At the 2 month mark, Caleb was in the 90th percentile and Carter was in the 98th percentile!  And Bryson weighed more at birth than the other two.  Carter and Caleb were both chunky, chunky babies with lots of rolls.  It's actually kind of fun to have an average-sized baby.

Caleb feeding Bryson a bottle.  Caleb loved it!

Caleb at 2 months

Carter at 2 months

Bryson received a baby's blessing at church on December 23rd.

Caleb on his blessing day

Carter

It's kind of fun to compare pictures of all three boys at the same age.  I think that Bryson tends to look more like Caleb than Carter.  We'll see as he gets older.

Month 3: Staying Calm

Month 3 of my year-long happiness project was very enlightening.  I focused on staying calm all month whenever I felt my temper flaring, and what I learned was just how often I let myself get angry, often over little things.  The very first day of the month, I lost my temper and yelled about something Carter did and then thought to myself that it was going to be a long month if I already failed on day 1!  But each day got easier and easier the more I focused on it and prayed for help.  Reflecting on the month, I realize I rarely raise my voice now; let's hope this new habit is here to stay!  As I knew it would, the whole atmosphere in the home changed as I changed my attitude and perspective.  I still made mistakes throughout the month, but each day it was worth the effort as it truly did make me happier (and the rest of my family!).

I originally set the goal because Carter could be too rough with the baby and my Mama Bear side came out in order to protect my baby.  Looking back over the month of December, Carter made some huge strides as well and is now very careful around Bryson.

The religious book I read this month was a Christmas one called the 13th Day of Christmas.  The overall message of the book was an important reminder for Christmas.  Sometimes we focus on Christ leading up to Christmas and on Christmas day, but this book was a reminder that we need to have faith and remember Christ the day after Christmas and throughout the rest of the year.

I got back into indexing this month and completed my goal of 200 names.

For Christmas, I got 4 new piano books from my mom that I'm super excited about.  This next month's main goal is going to be setting aside an hour a day to practice the piano and learn several new songs.  I realize that the hour most likely won't be in one sitting and that some days I won't quite make it.  So far I've really enjoyed this goal of improving on one of my talents for the month of January.

Christmas 2012

My favorite thing about holidays is spending time with family!  Christmas Eve is the night my mom likes to have all the family together if possible.  This year it involved a yummy ham dinner, acting out the Nativity story, chimes, present exchange, and a white elephant game.

Carter was a shepherd

Caleb was a sheep.  When choosing parts, my mom asked him what part he wanted to be.  She asked if he wanted to be a king (as in a wise man).  He said he didn't want to be a king because then he'd have to kill baby Jesus.  He's such a sweet boy.

Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus

The shepherds and sheep joined the scene.  

Jared and Kari were able to leave their home in The Netherlands to join us for Christmas.  Kari holding baby Bryson.

Lindsey and Derrick made the lengthy drive to join us for Christmas.  We missed Clayton, Kara and Ellery this year!

Christmas morning:

Carter and Caleb opening their stockings

My stocking was filled with my favorite chocolates!  Yum!

Matt's stocking had a new toothbrush, M&Ms and Gushers.

Carter with his presents:

Caleb with his presents:

We've had a lot of fun with his bowling set.

My presents:

Matt opened very few presents compared to the rest of us, but he got most of his presents before Christmas: new work shirts and some new ties (he helped me pick them out so I didn't bother wrapping them up).

And one more present for the boys!  Some tennis rackets.  It's time the boys learned one of Mommy and Daddy's favorite sports!

Matt's family came over to our house on Christmas day.  Cousin Hunter holding baby Bryson.

MeeMaw with all the boys and their presents.  Caleb and Carter love their Dream Lights, and Bryson's giraffe makes some soothing noises to help him sleep.

We're so grateful for family and love spending time with them!