False start

 We’re having an interesting start to the new year. I wasn’t feeling well for a couple of days and it turns out that I have COVID! So instead of joining the fun with my family leading up to Sarah’s wedding, we are at home. Thankfully it has been mild.

I asked the kids if they wanted to come up with some goals for the new year, and Millie took the liberty of setting a goal she thought would be good for each of us! I really like mine.

Yesterday was my birthday. As an adult, the most exciting part of a birthday is the food. Unfortunately, I have the telltale COVID symptom - loss of taste and smell! So I am excited to have a redo whenever that comes back. Our families each stopped by with some gifts and now I am all set in the workout clothing department. It was so sweet. Cheers to 32!

Looking forward

Something I’d like to do this year is write a little more on this blog. For the last several years it has turned into a place to dump all my photos and write whatever I happen to remember when I post them, usually way after the fact. Recently Tyler got me an iPad with a keyboard and it is suddenly so much easier to want to blog! 

We’re in that weird, post-holiday but pre-regular routine time. It’s especially weird because poor Max caught the sickness I had last week and it was very gloomy and rainy weather today. So we had a very blah day with a lot more TV than maybe ever. BUT it gave me a lot of time to think about and come up with my 20 for 2020! I’ve had fun with this kind of framework for goal-setting before and am excited about it this year too. Some small things, some larger endeavors. I’m leaving one space open, in part because I want to leave room for whatever life throws at me this year, and in part because I am indecisive and tired from coming up with 19 things already.

It’s going to be a great year!

Musical bedrooms and new year prep

On the last Sunday of the year, we sat down with the kids and had a conversation about goals and routines for the new year. They each set 3 goals for the year and listed out the things they'd need to do to achieve those goals. We also gave them these piggy banks and talked about our family economy system and saving money.

We decided to get some baby prep out of the way too, since Tyler's so busy the first few months of the year. That involved a bit of musical bedrooms. We purchased a bunk bed for the boys to share a room and needed another twin mattress, which was quite the adventure for all of us. 

Luckily, we all made it home just fine, and they were giggling all the way.

Then it was time to set up the bunk beds! The big kids were such eager helpers, and my job was to keep Harvey away haha.

We pretty quickly (well, about halfway through!) discovered that the bunk beds weren't going to work in that bedroom, so Tyler took it apart enough to get through the door and move it to the other room. Then the crib had to come apart to move to that room. Tyler was a trooper.

So the girls will share this room: (soon to be painted)

And the boys are excited to be roommates in here:

Quite the New Year's Eve! We kept it low key that evening with an early bedtime for Harvey, and Martinelli's and games for the rest of us. If anyone is looking for a fun game for kids, the Webbs gave us Outfoxed and we all love it!

Excited for 2019 over here!

26 things to do while I'm 26

I had a birthday! It was a rather uneventful day as far as typical birthdays go, but that's how I wanted it. I felt kind of celebrated out, if that's a thing. I'm thinking maybe I should start celebrating my half birthday instead. But I did get to go grocery by myself, so hooray for that! I took a "I'm in the car alone" selfie to remember the moment.

 Later we had fun playing games with the Juergens crew, including McKenna's family that came to town for their open house. Wits and Wagers is so fun!

Anyway, on to the real reason for this post. I love setting goals and I've been a little experimental in how I do it in the last few years. This year, I decided to embrace my love for to-do lists and come up with 26 things to do while I'm 26. Some are small and silly, others large and important! Hopefully there's a good enough balance and I'll be able to get them all done.

26 THINGS TO DO WHILE I'M 26

1. Go to the Houston Zoo

2. Blue Bell Fun Run (I'm still debating - 5k or 10k??)

3. Decorate the Master bedroom

4. Learn a new skill or hobby - maybe take a class

5. Host a party

6. Read the Book of Mormon

7. Sew 4 items of clothing

8. Go to the beach

9. Complete our 72-hr kits

10. Read _________

11. Read _________

12. Read _________

13. Read _________

14. Read _________

15. Study Preach My Gospel

16. Go to the temple 12 times

17. Try yoga

18. Make or makeover 1 piece of furniture

19. Make fish at home (this is a big one for me)

20. Have 12 dates with Tyler

21. Go to a concert or a play

22. Go somewhere I've never been

23. Print both Millie's and Max's baby books

24. Get the Honor Bee award and buy a new YW medallion

25. Go at least one month without sugar

26. Decorate the living room

It'll be a great year!

Summer Bucket List

We are so excited for summer! Tyler has a lot of vacation/paternity leave he has to use over the next few months, so we plan to live it up. We have the tendency to want to do lots of fun things and then not really do them when it comes down to it. So we're trying to be better and schedule things ahead of time so we're not wondering what we should do each day. We have a calendar for each month of the summer up on our fridge and we're writing things in specific days so we can plan for them! Here's what we plan to do:

1. Houston Zoo

2. Children's Museum

3. Downtown Aquarium

4. Zube Park trains

5. Blue Bell factory tour

6. Sno cones at Bahama Bucks

7. Make s'mores

8. Day at the Woodlands w/Grammy

9. Beach day/Galveston

10. Drive-in movie

11. San Antonio trip for our anniversary

12. 5k race

13. Go fishing

14. Astros game

15. Jellystone Park

Then of course there's lots of parks and swimming- those will happen so often that I didn't give them a place on our list.

It's going to be a great summer!

A February goal

So I made a goal this month to not complain. I just felt like I'd been very negative, always complaining to Tyler especially. "Ain't nobody got time for that!" I spent the first few weeks of this month just being quiet. If you can't say something nice and all that. Inside my mind I kept grumbling and laughing at myself for setting this goal for this month. February is never my favorite month- why is it the shortest but always feels the longest? Tyler's hours have been looooong, I am very pregnant (and all that comes with that), and we have had an unusually cold winter. At least that's how it has felt to me.

But finally the other night I had a little breakthrough. I was writing in my journal and was super-tempted to just vent... no one else would ever know I had complained but maybe I would feel so much better! As I went to write, I suddenly couldn't think of the negative things because my mind was flooded with all of the good things that have happened this month. So I wrote that instead. And you know what? We are so blessed. 

I may be uncomfortable and experiencing all the classic end-of-pregnancy stuff, but baby boy and I are both healthy! And Millie is really self-entertaining when I randomly fall asleep on the couch while reading her books. And, I only have a few weeks left! This will all be a distant memory then. {But please don't let me forget too soon} Plus, as Aunt Sheila reminded me, there is a purpose to the miserable end of pregnancy. Heavenly Father lets it get really bad so you'll do whatever it takes to get that baby out! That made me laugh when she said it but really, I think it's true.

Despite having a colder-than-normal winter, we're coming out of it, and it is glorious. Millie has worn herself out at the park or in the backyard almost every morning and she has been a wonderful napper the last week or so. Which means, I get to nap too! What an awesome chain reaction.

Tyler is still working a lot. In fact, he's working as I type this, at 9:15 on a Friday night. He has worked almost literally nonstop for the last month. But he said to me on the phone the other day how thankful he is for these times, in part because he appreciates normal life so much more than he would otherwise. Yes it's hard, but we're all better for it in the end. {ps I personally love his commute right now- 30+ minutes each way per day that he's not working! Our phone calls are my lifeline.} He is a rockstar and I'm so thankful for him and his strength.

I also just want to mention that we have been so well taken care of by everyone around us. My family was sweet to let Millie and I come stay with them for almost a week. Tyler's parents have let us come over so much too, and kept us busy on the days when it's hardest for me to have Tyler gone. Everyone in our ward has been really sweet, checking on us and asking what we need. Someone in the ward that we hardly know brought Tyler the sacrament last week after he had a feeling that we needed something. Our home teachers have been so helpful also. There's just no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father knows us and what we need, and we have been so blessed by people who followed the Spirit.

So even though this goal made me laugh at first, it's turned out to be a good thing! Funny how that happens.

BHAGs

My dad uses the term BHAG at his job-- it means Big Hairy Audacious Goal. That has been running through my mind lately as I've tried to finish all of the goals I set for 2013. I am proud to say that this year has been my best ever as far as setting and accomplishing goals! Finally at almost 25 years old I think I've got a system down that works for me.

BHAG #1: Read the Old Testament from cover to cover. This took reading 3 pages/day, which I wasn't always perfect at, but I caught up by reading like crazy the last week or so and I will be done today! Hooray!

BHAG #2: Read 24 books. I actually read 13.5 books, but I'm not beating myself up about it. After all, there are a lot of books in the Old Testament, right? I can always count those. And if you're curious, I'm not going to set this goal again for next year. Maybe 12 books (one a month) instead of 24.

BHAG #3: Finish Nana and Botz's quilt. Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but it was their Christmas preset for last year. I partly set it as a goal for this year so that I would be even more hasty to finish it. The top was finished to present to them by last Christmas, but then I had to quilt and bind it, which required a trip to Lufkin {thanks Mom!}, so I think I was finally done around the middle of February.

pic stolen from Aunt Sheila's instagram!

BHAG #4: Open an Etsy shop. This happened in February, and the shop promptly died in June or July when I let all my listings expire. Thank you pregnancy. But I'm thinking about re-opening it in January, because I've still been doing little side jobs, like these lovely boot cuffs below. 9 pair in the last week, thankyouverymuch.

BHAG #5: Well, I can't say much about this one, because it happens to be a Christmas gift for a certain someone who may or may not read this in the next week! But it was a big one. And I finished it yesterday.

BHAG #6: Make Steph's blanket. I wrote about the Ann Perkins Blanket back HERE. That was definitely big, hairy, and audacious for me!

Anyway, hooray for goals. I think the key for me was not setting very many! Ha. But they were mostly attainable and things I was excited about. I had smaller goals for each month until about July- again, when pregnancy sickness hit. But overall, I'm going to count this year as a success!!

Geocaching

Tyler surprised us by coming home a little bit early yesterday. {Have you noticed that all of my blog posts of late start with that sentence? That's when all of our blog-worthy things happen. Anyways....} He has a new app on his phone that finds geocaches near you. So we decided to try it for our FHE activity last night!

Geocache #1:

The geocache was under the ramp up to this lovely place! It was meant to be!

Geocache #2: Fail. Never found it.

Geocache #3:

This one was kinda tricky because of how small it was. Found it in a cement curb at a store. Millie thought it was cute!

We have a new family goal now: make our own geocache!!

Goal reporting

Gotta be held accountable, right??

Camille's goals:

-No Pinterest in February. I did it! And I may or may not have spent an hour on it this morning catching up. This was a good goal for me and I'm glad I did it. Hopefully going forward I can be more moderate in my pinterest-ing!

-Try 4 new recipes. To be honest, I don't really remember if I completed this or not. I know for sure I did at least 2 new recipes though! I made these potatoes and these Rolo bars. The potatoes I loved and the Rolo bars were not such a hit, won't make them again. I don't always make the effort to try something new, so this was a good goal.

-Do something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Since Steph has been waiting for her blanket since before Millie was born, I thought that should go first! But we decided on a different pattern, inspired by Ann Perkins' blanket on Parks and Rec. I'm kind of loving it.

Are you sick of these photobooth pictures yet? I am!

It's much cuter in real life, and when all the different kinds of squares are done {and sewn together and the ends are woven in} it will look much more cohesive. But the colors are so fun and bright!

Tyler's goals:

-Be the best-looking auditor ever. Still is!

-Work 80+ hours/week. Still happening! He is such a trooper.

-No tinkering with the phone while at home. Does it sound like he had time for tinkering? He definitely accomplished this one. 

Millie's goals:

-Eat as many fruit snacks as humanly possible. She did eat her way through a whole box {okay maybe she had some help}, and one day she somehow got to eat two packets. In my defense, it was the only way to keep her quiet at Church! It was a survival technique.

-Escape Mom's grip and run out into the street. Millie is sad that this didn't happen, but I am not!

-Thwart any efforts to be clean and orderly. Done! Not that this was anything new... but she did a great job.

On to March!!

February Goals

Just because it isn't New Years doesn't mean we can't set some goals!

Camille's goals:

-No Pinterest in February. It would be no social media in February, but I recently dropped my phone in water and the internet is my only way of communicating with my husband and the world! Plus, I've got a hankering to decorate our house, and our decorating money is going towards other things right now {like food, clothing, and shelter}, so I'm cutting out Pinterest to help resist that urge.

-Try 4 new recipes. With all that time not on Pinterest, that should be easy right? Riiiiight.

-Do something I've been meaning to do for a long time. {Some options: Finally get my Texas driver's license, finish sewing Millie's dress, crochet that chevron blanket for Steph, etc.}

Tyler's goals:

-Be the best-looking auditor ever. {Check!}

-Work 80+ hours a week. {Check!} Maybe this isn't so much a goal as it is the current circumstance. Not only is he the best-looking auditor ever, he is also the best auditor ever!

-In all seriousness, he did mention to me yesterday not tinkering with his phone when he gets home at night, with the exception of Church calling stuff.

Millie's goals:

-Eat as many fruit snacks as humanly possible.

-Escape Mom's grip and finally run out into the street like she wants to.

-Thwart any and all efforts to be clean and orderly.

Looks like we have our work cut out for us this month! Wish us luck.

Unintended and funny family picture.