January Update and Febraury's goals

   We are coming up on the end of the month and I think I did pretty good with my goals.  They were to only eat out twice this month, only purchase groceries and household necessities, and to organize our bedroom.  OK, we only ate out when we went to Disneyland which fit into my only twice rule.  The boys each got an evening treat with their dad so there were those three times but  I am not counting them since it was not a whole meal.  I stuck to my spending goal but my mom did purchase some stuff for the kids during this time so I feel like I cheated a little.  Even though it wasn't my money I didn't really need all the things she purchased, but I absolutely appreciate them.  I also organized and completely rearranged our bedroom.  It looks a little nicer and we have been able to keep some of the surfaces cleared off a little better.  We are not perfect but we are getting better.

Switched some dressers around, this one was in Lilly room.  And yes that is a light saber lamp.

Surfaces clean enough to put my pictures back up

February goals
   Organization:   This time I am going to take on two rooms.  I am going to fix up Lilly's bedroom and our extra patio room.  Lilly's room has become the place to store a bunch of crap and sometimes use the guest bed.  Since she is in a crib she can't get into trouble in there but if she takes after her brothers a toddler bed will not be in the far future.  I am really excited about this because I never really made up a fancy nursery for her.  I bought one Valance and the crib set but never made it her room.  Now I feel like I get to do some fun DIY projects for her .  I will reveal all my plans at the end of February.  I am pretty sure my sister is going to be jealous of my craftiness and want me to make some stuff for her daughter so I need to get ready for that.

I have big plans for this empty corner now that we took the guest bed out

  The other room is a small section of our enclosed patio.  I had grand plans for it to be used as a craft room for the kids but in the year and a half we have been in this house I have yet to use it for that purpose.  We have decided to turn it into a guest room.  We will have some work to do and I don't know if we can afford all the changes but we are going to start.  Since its not connected to the house it has no air or heat so we will have to figure that out.  It also needs a door instead of just a baby gate.  I will also have to figure out where to put all the stuff we have stored in there.
    These two rooms might take me until March because we have a lot of weekend plans in February so we will see how these project goes.

Nutrition:  I am going to make all our own bread products with 100% whole wheat.  I have tried a few recipes and I think I can manage.  The parts I am a little worried about are buns and pizza dough but I think I can find some recipes in time.  We are going to maintain our not eating out during the weeks but we have two weekend trips coming up so there will have to be more eating out this month.  But during the week when we are home I will cook and make all bread products.

I should say that cooking all three meals every day for a months as completely tired me out and there really are times when I just want someone to make me a meal and clean up afterwards but I think for the health of my family it is worth it.

Financial:  There are two things this months that normally I wouldn't think twice about the money and in general spend too much.  The first is Valentines day.  I love to make holidays special for my kids, usually I get fun decorations and little trinkets to play with but this year I am only going to make decorations from craft products we already have and I am not going to purchase them a gift.  I think I can make the day special without having to buy presents.  I am going to prepare special meals and have fun projects during the day but that's it.

The second event is our grown up weekend away.  We are going to Solvang for a weekend for wine tasting.  This can notoriously costs a lot of money.  Ray and I are going to discuss our purchasing before hand and come up with a spending plan.  I'm not sure exactly what that would look like but we are going to limit wine purchases and gifts for people back home.  We never leave all the kids so I would like to bring back a small something special for each of them.  Even if its one special chocolate or candy instead of yet another toy we don't need.  We also like to get something for the generous grandparents who work so hard at watching our kids so we can go.  Before we head out we will come up with a Solid budget for the trip.

Ok so there are our new plans for February.  I had pretty good success this first month I hope February goes as well.  It's a shorter month and we have more plans.  I am going to work really hard to not let it fall apart.

Project 365 First and Second Week

This year I really wanted to work on my photography. I figured the best way to do that was to take lots of pictures. So I have been attempting to do p365. I want to take at least one picture a day to look back at the year and see the changes in our lives. So here is week one and two.

January 1, Flying supermans

January 2, Watching her brother play swords

January 3, life is tough on a little girl with three brothers sometimes you just have to curl up and take a break

January 4, my might fighting Jedi

January 5, A Day at hart park, these two were reading the map to find out where to go next

January 6, She loves the buffalo hat from Aunt Jackie

January 7,  It warms my heart to see them play together

January 8, Nick playing in grandmas front yard.  I can't get enough of their smiles

January 9, Ray wrestling with James while still taking care of his little girl

January 10, making a cake for Papa

January 11,Nick and a  milkshake mustache

January 12,  Mommy and Daughter. 

January 13, Joe takes on the Dark Side at Disneyland

January 14, I think they are so sweet when they are sleeping. Plus I forgot to take a picture that day until they were already asleep

 We will see if I can keep it up. I have managed to make it through two weeks.  I never thought it would be this hard to take a picture a day but it really is.

 

Movie night at Grandmas

    Friday Night Movie Nights are the Best!  Although it is important for us to keep a routine with our kids (if we don't the chaos that would occur would be maddening) we find the need to throw in some fun changes every now and then.  So on Friday night we had a movie night.  We have done this at our house before.  We let the kids pick a movie they either haven't seen or at least haven't seen in awhile.  I make popcorn and "milkshakes."  I say that in quotations because really they are not milkshakes.  They are yogurt, milk, strawberries and some honey.  The kids love them and I don't have to feel guilty about feeding them as much junk food.

The love their snacks, but the movie I think concerned her a bit.

milkshake mustache

    What made this movie night special was its location.   After bath time we all went over to Grandma and Papa's house for a fun evening out of the house.  What really makes it special is Papa will put a fire on in their fireplace.  The kids absolutely love it.  Our fireplace at home isn't really kid friendly right now so I never have a fire at our house.  They love to sit on the hearth and warm up.   It also give them time to snuggle up with grandma in her favorite blankets. 

I love a fire in the fireplace.  It seems so cozy.

  This Friday we picked Cinderella.  We have been playing just dance Disney for exercise and the kids really wanted to see the fairy godmother and her magic wand.  I think they may have been thinking it would be a little more exciting but they did watch the beginning of it while they had their snacks. They ran around a little bit looking for the cat but they came back to Grandma's lap for the end.  They wanted to see Cinderella get married.  Since attending a cousins wedding a few weeks ago they are very interested in weddings and brides.

Snuggle time.

   While the kids are resting and enjoying their snacks it sometimes gives us a chance to relax too.  How did Ray spend the evening?  Drinking Scotch that my dad got for Christmas and then reading about it in the Whiskey encyclopedia.  Even Daddy's get to enjoy movie night!

    I love doing little extra things for my kids.  I hope that when they grow up they have found memories of Friday night movie nights and remember the times we spent as a family.  I hope they remember the little twists we put in like going to Grandma's house for a fire.