Baby Boy McCann

I have reached the stage when we do ultrasounds once a week. The first ultrasound we found out our little guy has pudgy pudgy cheeks. The ultrasound tech fell in love with them.

Last week we were getting a 3D look at his face and he decided to smile for us. He was so cute. I think it was a Lewis smile.

I love looking at that smile and seeing personality already. I think he's a real cutie. I can't wait for him to get here!

Gratitude Catch up

November 20 - I am thankful for my family. Elijah has been pretty silly lately in some of the things he says. It just makes Brian and I laugh.

November 21 - I am thankful for the opportunity that we had to take Quianna with us to Thanksgiving even though it's not our year.

November 22 - I am thankful for my extended family. Inlaws and siblings, parents, and grandparents, nieces and nephews.  Last night started a fun weekend of spending time with them. We also got our van from my parents this morning! Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23 - I am thankful for the pork twists (that I forgot) I never new what a difference they could make with Allie when going to the Tri-Cities.

November 24 - I am thankful for lazy mornings at my parents house.

November 25 - I am thankful for Jamie Gilson for subbing in Primary for me so I could stay in the Tri-Cities for me.

November 26 - I am thankful for Brian's nights off.

November 27 - I am thankful for the time I got to go shopping while Quianna was in her appointment.

November 28 - I am thankful for days when Brian is gone so I can get some stuff done - including his christmas present.

November 29 - I am thankful for my children and the hard work they do on their chores.

November 30 - I am thankful for modern technology. I got to see our little baby and cute pudgy little cheeks.

Day 30

I will catch up later, but I just wanted to add this:

I am thankful for the peaceful moments that Allie curls up beside me and sleeps so soundly.

Day 19

November 19 - I am thankful for the opportunity to watch Claire. She's lots of fun with all the things she says. Allie was licking the bag of frozen bread I had set on the coffee table while I was fixing the fire and Claire said, "Is she cookoo!?!"

Then she started saying things that started with "L". We picked some other letters and naming things that started with those letters. I asked her, "How'd you get so smart?" she said, "I was just made that way!"

Gratitude Catch up

November 15
This may sound weird, but I am thankful we were in an accident. Yes, I definitely miss the Prius, and it would sure be nice to have it, but with it being totaled, we were able to pay off our car loan, buy a great van (or so I have heard it's great - can't wait to see it this week), AND I just found out today that Quianna and I are getting a total of $600 for "settlement" money so we don't go after Brian for our "injuries" in the future. This helps us put money away for our family vacations we had planned this year.  After the accident happened, Quianna had said, "These things happen for a reason." I totally shrugged that off and kept looking at our sad little car in the middle of the road. Now I see Heavenly Father had a plan, and we are doing just fine. (just can't wait to pay off our debt so we can save up for another Stella)

November 16
I am thankful for friends for planning a baby shower for me. They are doing such a fun job with it using my theme of a nursery and making special scratch to reveal the gender invitations. They are so cool!

November 17
I am grateful for all the knowledge I have learned this weekend about labor and childbirth and everything! I am also grateful for my husband sitting through 10 hours this weekend and actually being interested and participating well. We had a "mock" labor with a piece of ice and it gave me hope that we are going to be able to do this. It might be the toughest thing I do in life, but it will be over eventually and we will have a baby in our arms.

November 18
I am thankful for my Savior. I have been bearing my testimony every week to the kids in primary because we are learning "I know that my redeemer lives". I know that he does lives and loves each of us. He is there to help us everyday. I am thankful for the atonement and the opportunity to return back to Him and my Heavenly Father

yesterday - Day 15

I am thankful for leftovers! It sure was easy to put dinner together last night! And everybody was happy!

Day 14

I am thankful for a "pushy" husband that doesn't accept less than what I can produce. He pushes me to my potential for a better outcome and doesn't let me be lazy. :-)

I am also thankful for a fun boss who "defends" me against Brian's "pushiness."

Day 13

Today I am grateful for an endocrinologist who works with me and helps me adjust my insulin as my pregnancy goes. He is very understanding and keeps telling me to not get frustrated. He's a big help and a big reason why we can get through this pregnancy healthily.

Thankful for...

The past week and a half I have seen friends post what they are thankful for each day. Each time I see it, I wonder, "Could I make it through the month of November?" So I thought I would back track a little and start for November 1 and then keep posting what I am thankful for. Basically I'm going to write a gratitude journal here on my blog. You are welcome to read it, or ignore it, it doesn't matter because I'm just trying to get it down for prosperity.

Nov 1 - I am thankful for the fun times I get to have with my husband. We had a wonderful date that night.

Nov 2 - I am thankful for my husband that works so hard for us - even when it means leaving early in the morning and coming home late at night.

Nov 3 - I am thankful for my family who I spent all day with being lazy, eating good food, watching movies, and playing games.

Nov 4 - I am thankful for Day light Savings time, which helped me have some extra sleep and extra time to get ready for church today.

Nov 5 - I am grateful for my pump that allows me to make small or big changes to my diabetes, especially with my insulin needs changing so much in my third tri-mester.

Nov 6 - I am thankful for the right to vote AND for good people to get together with for a fun, light hearted election party.

Nov 7 - I am thankful for such great Young Women leaders in our ward who help guide and lead my daughter in a fun way. They had a Personal Progress Pageant tonight, with special guest starts - The Young Men who did a music video "That's What Makes You Beautiful!" It was a blast!

Nov 8 - I am thankful for Dave Ramsey in pushing us to set up a defense plan and get insurance for us. Brian had two exams/interviews for Life Insurance and Disability insurance. I was also reminded on how we increased our auto coverage just in time for our accident.

Nov 9 - I am thankful for my Dad and his knowledge in cars and the service he did the day before to go look at a van and proxy buy it for us.

Nov 10 - I am thankful for Jamie and Glen Gilson for 1) being such great neighbors, 2) wonderful friends, and 3) letting us borrow their second car so I can get to all the appointments I need to during the day while we have been without the Prius.

Nov 11 - I am thankful for the soldiers who fight and fought to protect our rights and liberties, and help others gain the same benefits that we have.

Nov 12 - I am thankful for laughter and how it helps change moments and relationships.

Wow, that wasn't hard at all. I don't think it will be too hard to get through the month.

Grieving for Stella

Last weekend we were in a car accident and today we found out our poor Stealthy Stella can not be saved. It's really sad and I have to be honest, though it seems silly and such a materialist thing, I don't know if it will ever be the same. Though we really want to buy another Prius, I don't know if I am ready to. I think I need some grieving time before we replace her. It was the perfect car! JBL speakers, Bluetooth connect ability, navagation, and we got it for the perfect price! When we first bought it, we didn't like the white color. Now as I see other priuses around I don't like any other color.

I have started looking to see if it is an option to buy another prius, but it's just so sad when I see stuff on the websites. This is pretty pathetic! It's just a car! But it felt like a member of the family.


Later edit: Brian came home today from Emptying it out. He was really sad too and we hugged each other for a long time. It was good to know that I wasn't the only one feeling this way.

Good bye Stella! It was way too short and you will be deeply missed!

A Post of pictures

Things have been happening quickly around here. I'll start from the beginning of September.

September 4 - Elijah's first day of school

(look at those glasses! doesn't he look handsome!?!)

Elijah is at Hamblen this year. He went to Kindergarten and first grade so he is excited to go back to "his roots" and see old friends and meet new. I have been so scared for him to go back to school because he had such a hard time getting a long with others (more like, he didn't like to be teased) when he was going to school, but the first day he came home and said, "Best day ever!" Since school has started there has been a few times when he has said when I tuck him in at night that school was the best part of the day. So then I say when he asks me what was the bets part of my day - "Hearing that school was the best party of your day" It is such a relief. I just hope it lasts. I know I shouldn't be, but I'm somewhat just waiting for the ball to drop, but he has a good teacher and I have let her know my concerns and we can stay in contact with each other if needed.

Elijah is now in the 5th grade which means he gets to be in orchestra or band. He has chosen to play the bass in orchestra. He is very excited.

Sept 13 - Quianna's first day at Bryant TEC

(The Enrichment Cooperative - for homeschoolers)

I know she doesn't look too excited, but she really was - she just wasn't excited for me to take her picture "in front" of everybody at school. So the look on her face is because she is humoring me.

Quianna is taking drama, sketching, and choir for her electives and World Mythology, Pre-Algebra, and Washington State History for her core classes at Bryant. She has already made friends there and (I think) likes it. At home she is doing Language Arts, Science (through Spokane Virtual Learning), and technology. She wants to learn some french so while I am looking and waiting to order some curriculum for her, she is googling how to say certain words. So far she has learned "I love you" and "Goodnight." I am very excited for her.

I am very fortunate to have the Gilsons across the street because they go to Bryant too (a 12-15 minute drive one way). Jamie takes them in the morning and I pick them up in the afternoon. We will might need to figure out something different once I have the baby, but for now it's working quite well. I told Jamie that when the baby is born, she can just hold my baby while I go in the afternoon so it doesn't have to go out in the cold. She liked that idea.

Sept 14 - 21 Week UltrasoundOur healthy baby ___(insert gender here)____. We still haven't found out the gender yet. I would like to keep it a surprise, but the kids are begging for me to find out. The doctor said we have a cooperative baby because it let us see all the different organs that we needed to check out and get all the right measurements. He also said it is doing well and the perfect size for how far along I am. He was thrilled to hear that my last A1c was 5.5. If I can keep that up, then I should be able to avoid problems with the rest of the pregnancy or baby.

I just noticed that I have a picture of all three of our kids on this post! How fun!

Lets see, what else do we have in the way of news. We finished dog training with Allie last week. She is a good dog, but very territorial (its the shepherd in her) and gets jealous easily. We are working on those traits so we can avoid problems when the baby is born. Allie has started sleeping with us and we only have a full bed. She only comes into bed if she is invited but Brian invites her every night so it has become routine. We enjoyed the cuddling for the first couple of nights, but now she is taking my space. After Brian noticed I ended up on the couch this morning (and I had said, "That was the best sleep I had in a week") he said, "Why don't you check around see how much a queen bed." We have been discussing getting a larger bed for when the baby comes but I think we are pushing up that date.

Brian and I are taking the Financial Peace University class from Dave Ramsey. We are in the mind frame of paying off all our debt no matter how long it takes. We have had one class so far and are very excited to become debt free and start building wealth. We would love to be able to go on a mission some day and are working towards that goal financially.

Ok, it is now 10am and I need to get started on my ToDo List.

The McCann 5!

We found out in May that we are expecting a little McCann in January. We heard the heart beat a couple of weeks ago. I am 14 weeks and feeling great. I have been very blessed to have such an easy first trimester. My diabetes has been somewhat of a challenge to keep in line, but I'm working on it with my doctor and it's nothin' I can't handle.

The kids are super excited. We told them by having a special dinner in the beginning of June. We had a dinner with baby red potatoes, baby spinach salad, baby pork bits, and baby muffins. The kids just thought it was funny that everything was "baby," they didn't think anything of it after that. We had our dinner and Brian kept saying, "how did you like the baby...?" The kids still didn't catch on. So then Brian said, "Well, we already told Quianna, but we thought we would tell you together. About a baby... we have decided... that we... are... not getting a baby dog." So then the kids were like, "ok..." So I said, "should we tell them what we are going to get?" and I handed them the ultrasound picture to see if they could figure it out. Before Quianna even saw what it was, she ran up and started hugging Brian, jumping up and down. Elijah was looking at the picture for a while trying to figure out what he was holding. I explained to them what it was. It was tons of fun!

To read more past stories from my pregnancy, go here. I don't know now that it's out if I'll keep posting there or here - so you'll just have to keep looking.

The weekend of the move

It finally happened. We are officially moved out of our old house and into the new. Well, working on moving into the new. Each room is still a wreck with either boxes or furniture to be stored or sold.

Tonight Brian is at a gig and I was going to spend the time unpacking and setting up our room, but instead I watch The Andy Griffith Show and folded laundry.

The last week and a half has been a whirlwind. It started with last Monday, me coming down with something - it was either the stomach flu or food poisoning. It put me completely out of commission until Wednesday; however, I wasn't feeling my best and got into full working mode until Friday morning/afternoon.

My friend, Jamie, came over to help me clean my house on Friday since I wasn't able to do much that week and then we moved on Saturday morning. Sunday, after church, we unpacked the living room. Brian started to not feel well after dinner. He ended up on the floor of the bathroom crying out in pain for a few hours. He wouldn't let me take him to the emergency room because he doesn't have insurance. (Ironically, we have been researching that the last month or so and plan to afford/obtain insurance in the next month or so.) I finally convinced him, through my tears, around 8:30 that Glen (Jamie's husband, and now our across the street neighbors) and Brother Thumstetter were coming over to give him a blessing and get him in the car so I could take him to the ER. Glen stayed with me to help him get checked in and to make sure I was going to be OK with him and then went home around 10:15pm. Brian had a CT scan (we are scared about getting the bill for that one), and we found out it was kidney stones. I told Brian in jest, that Heavenly Father wanted him to go through this so he knows what I will go through when I have a baby.

Anyway, we got home at 2:30am after going to Walgreen's and getting his pain prescription. Needless to say, I have been sleeping in the last couple of days to try and catch up from all of what has been happening in our life.

Because of the whirlwind, I have had a chance to count my blessings in my life. I am so grateful that the incident with Brian happened after we moved so I was able to rely on the Gilsons to watch the kids and keep me calm through out the night. It was easier to be in the ER knowing that Elijah was at Jamie's sleeping on the couch and that Quianna had someone to call if she needed anything while she was at home. My parents and Carrie came to help us with the move, and they were such a great help and support! Heavenly Father gave me the last week's trials to realize the wonderful people in my life he has blessed me with. (see the previous post for more details).

Family Pictures

Last month, we had a friend of ours take family pictures. Here are some of them. I can't wait to move into our house and decide which ones we will put on the wall.

An amazing family - related and unrelated

Preface- yesterday morning I woke up with the flu. Since it was so intense, so quickly and it wasn't just throwing up that caused me to go to the bathroom quickly, I am wondering if it could have been food poisoning perhaps since no one else has felt sick.

Now for some of the amazing people in my life:

I will first start with my mom, at 7:00am she took a phone call and helped me figure out my game plan. I was worried about my diabetes and needed a sounding board. She also put up with my phone calls through out the day when I just said, i still feel horrible, I am still throwing up.

At 7:15 my sister Carrie called asking if I will need help moving/cleaning this weekend since being sick put me behind schedule.

Then at about 8, I realized I am going to need some propel and gatorade so I didn't get dehydrated. I also realized that I was not going to feel well enough to go down to Fred Meyer and get some - even a quick trip. So I called Amy Heppler who was right over with stuff. I love her! She is someone that I know I can count on when I am in need.

Quianna did a couple hours of cleaning the house. She was a rock star and only complained when she had to keep wiping boogers off Elijah's wall (I think they were probably spider guts because they were way too high for anyone to reach without standing on a chair to wipe their boogers - but she has a phobia of bugs and boogers so I cut her some slack)

Jamie Gilson picked Elijah up from scout camp and let him stay there over night so that he didn't get sick, I didn't have to worry about entertaining or feeding him, and I wouldn't have to get him ready or take him to scouts. That was a huge relief.

Elijah woke himself up on time with his alarm clock yesterday morning and got ready without being asked - and when he found out I was sick, he made his own sandwich! He called last night to say goodnight to us and he wanted to see how I was doing. He is growing up so fast!

Last but definitely not least, my wonderful husband. I am so fortunate to be married to an amazing man. The last couple of weeks he has been helping out so much and getting the kids to work too. I noticed on Sunday that recently if there is something I need, he'll do it - with no hesitation. Yesterday he put up with my texting him the number of times I puked though out the day, :-P He also came home, went and took Elijah some clothes, went to a rehearsal, bought some toilet paper, then kept asking what I needed when he got home. He gave me a blessing and went to bed after making sure I was all set up to sleep on the couch (that was my choice). Once he went to bed I realized I wanted my own pillow, so I texted him and he brought it up right away. He asked me if there was anything else I needed. I didn't want to ask but he must have sensed it because he asked if I wanted him to sit with me up here for a while. It was exactly what I needed! So he sat on the floor by the couch rubbing my head and holding my hand until I was relaxed enough to go to sleep. He is an incredible man and I love and appreciate him deeply!

So the point of this post is for me to say how grateful I am for the people I have in my life. I was talking to Jamie yesterday while she was asking what I needed, and I told her she and Amy have helped a lot. She mentioned how people ask her what she needs when her husband will be in Afghanistan for 7 months and she'll say, "I've got Kim and Amy, that's all I need." It is totally true, here in Spokane I miss my family, but Heavenly Father has blessed me with some sisters in Christ that I know I can count on. It's like having a family I can rely on while I am away from my actual family. I am very blessed to have such wonderful caring people in my life - both related and non related.

Pictures Post

Smokin' Stella

The expansion of our family March 30, 2012 - Smokin' Stealthy Stella. She's a 2004 Toyota Prius. With averaging 45mph, we love her lots!

Leavenworth - April 2

Jason and Elijah were walking ahead of us and we saw that they were walking exactly the same.

Brian owed his mom a Licorice ice cream, and part of the deal was that he had to walk down the street with her and her black teethed smile.

Easter

Quianna's Birthday

Timber, Quiana, Brooklyn, and Amber

This how they skated for most of the day.

"Happy Birthday!"

Do the hokey pokey!

Pinewood Derby

Elijah was always in the lead, but it comes down to time, not place, in the races. He improved from last year! Next year, we'll rock!

Elijah's Birthday

We went to a buffalo ranch for a field trip on Elijah's birthday.

This was Elijah's prized present - Legend of Zelda the Skyward Sword

Elijah's Birthday Party

They chose to play musical chairs.

He wanted a video game party, so he got one.

The Summer is almost here!

And things are coming to an end for me.

1. I have begun packing up my house... well at least going through and decluttering - the pre-step to packing. 
2. Homeschool will end either the last week of May, or first week of June. We are going to finish our research report and do another book report and then we'll be done. I could really use some extra time to get our house ready since we are moving June 30.
3. All-City - Earlier this year I turned in my resignation letter for All-City. I said that I would not be here next year. I had gone back and forth whether or not I wanted to stay when I found out Brian was going to be the artistic director, but I decided it would be better for me, the program, and our family if I let it go. I am glad. They found someone perfect for the job - a good friend of mine.

I am excited for a new chapter in life.

Pictureless Update

That title sounds funny because my updates very rarely have pictures, but I have pictures to post - I just don't have the camera with me right now.

Honestly, I am avoiding school and work right now. It is Friday and it has been a long week with work, school, appointments, and lots of praying and asking for some answers to our questions in life right now. I'll share with you a few of our questions to enlighten you to our situation.

Last week we found out that a friend of ours is moving. They just bought a house and are interested in selling/renting their current house. It is a 3 (technically 4 - one without a closet) bedroom house the same square footage as our current house but with a different layout. Before we saw it, Brian and I said no. Then I went and saw it... I still wasn't sure, but wanted Brian to take a look at it. After he saw it, it became more of an option that was appealing to us - even with the thought of having to move all our crud out of this house and into the new.

I have seen it 3 times now and we went to the temple last night to get some extra guidance. After feeling like the answer was up to us, we felt that it would be the best for our family to move. The kids are so excited! We will be 2 minutes away from the church (yay), we get to paint (yeah), there's a possibility of us getting a dog (sarcastic yay from me*), AND we'll be across the street from the Gilsons, family friends of ours (woohoo!).  Brian and I are very excited to have our own bed and bath with a separate laundry room. There is a garden already set up and a large fenced back yard. There is a deck with a spot for our BBQ and our patio furniture. There is a place for our Fire pit to be set up (yay!). It has a two car garage which is needed now that we are a 2-car-family (pictures of Stella coming soon). AND if the kids go to public school next year, the bus stop is right outside our front door.

*It's not that I don't like dogs, its just I am not too thrilled of having that constant responsibility. Being the youngest of 6 kids, I have been on the kids side of the argument "We will take care of it... honest, we WILL!" and seen my mom's side of the work. Yes, my kids love animals, but they said they would take care of Skitter, our hamster and I ended up being the one who cleaned its cage. A dog may be different, but I don't know if I am ready for that extra work and extra financial obligation.

The scary thing about moving is that it will be more money - not actually in rent, but in extra gas that it will take to get there from work and back, and the extra heating expenses (its base board heaters instead of gas central air). When we went to the temple last night we were really worried about financial circumstances. When we left we both felt that no matter what we do, we'll be taken care of.

We feel like if we do move, a big pro is that we can help Jamie (Gilson) while Glen is deployed for 6 months. We can also spend our last year with them here closer to them than ever before! It will be so much fun living right across the street from them! Another huge thing that will be nice is that the lease is flexible since we are renting from friends verses being stuck on a year lease. We are starting to look at houses since the market is so good right now and we want the option to buy if the right one comes along with out a lease holding us back.

-gotta get school ready, i'll be right back-

Ok, So that was Decision #1.

Decision #2 - Homeschool. I don't want to homeschool next year. Elijah has been going back and forth between public school and Bryan Tec, a parent partnership with District 81 that has classes twice a week for homeschooled kids. The Gilson's are doing it next year and all year long I have thought if we do homeschool next year I would do Bryan Tec.  I think it would be better if Elijah went to public school. I have a really hard time getting Elijah to focus. He has made such progress in this, but some days are just rough. I also am getting tired of not having a schedule. Every day is different because we go to work with Brian at least once a week. This week we went 3 times. When I think of homeschool next year (especially homeschooling both kids) I get overwhelmed. Right now I have two part time jobs, Sierra and All-City. Thankfully I resigned from All-City for next year. There were a couple weeks where I thought about asking for the job back, but after this week I have realized, I don't want it.

Quianna really wants to be homeschooled next year. So as far as her being homeschooled, I think that I can't help her as much as school can. However, I think that Bryan Tec could help her more than public school can. If we can get her in the right classes, I think it might work out. She could really use more preparation in writing before she goes into High School. She has excelled so much in math this year but I think we could make more progress - especially if I spent some time with her each day. What I worry is that I won't have time. However, if there is just one child home (and no offense to Elijah) but that one child is the low maintenance one, there would be more time and I can manage it differently.

I worry about Quianna though, because she isn't a morning person, and when she is in 9th grade she will be doing early morning seminary (basically a sunday school class for high schoolers every morning at 6:00 maybe even earlier) and I would like to get her in the habit of waking up early. Right now we are waking up at 8:00 and that is even hard to get her up. So I think even if we do homeschool next year, I am going to wake her up at 7 to help her get use to it.
__________________________________________

Anyway, that's a little bit of what's going on in our life right now.

I have been going to a chiropractor 3 times a week the last couple weeks and I have lots of weeks ahead of me of twice a week visits and such. I have a messed up pelvic bone that is malformed (for all my life) and twisted, along with the curve in my spine is basically gone. Therefore, my chiropractor and I have a plan to get me fixed so I won't be going through daily pain. Since the car accident I was in when I was 14, I have had tons of stress on my muscles trying to keep me upright and so they fatigue very easily through out the day. This week I have felt so much progress. I am so excited to get better! However, I won't be done with appointments until the middle of July, which takes a lot out of our family because my appointments are in Liberty Lake. I am very fortunate that the kids are willing to help me out with going to work with Brian a couple of times a week so that it is less on gas. The appointments are 7 minutes away from Brian's work. I am also very fortunate to have a husband that is willing to pay the bills to help me feel better and function better. I am also fortunate that there is hope through chiropractics and that I am not facing back surgery.

So needless to say, life has been quite hectic lately. It has been nice to get all this stuff out and explained. It has been pretty overwhelming, because sadly enough this is only part of what has been going on. I am very thankful that I have my Lord to lean on during these stressful times. With all this being said, life and love is wonderful!

Great Minds...

Brian and I have been talking about going to a place in Sandpoint. It's called the Waterhouse. It has a hottub outside, a two person jacuzi in the bathroom, and an awesome shower. Here's the thing, I was going to try and surprise Brian by booking it for us during the kids' spring break, while they were in the Tri-Citites. I emailed the place to ask how much it was (it is extremely reasonable). He emailed back and said, "I believe I emailed your husband, Brian, right? Unless its a coincendence that it's the same last name." I was thinking about the time before we had emailed him so I thought, "Wow! He remembered Brian."

This morning, Brian and I were on our way to work and I said, "Our getaway for April, would you mind if I took money from my All-City checks to pay for it. Because I want it to take care of it." He hemmed and hawed and I asked, "What are you thinking?" he said, "Well, I was already planning a getaway for us." So I said, "Was it the Waterhouse?" and he said, "Yes!"

We laughed and he said, "You ruined my surprise!" and I said, "So did You!"

Then I said, "Great minds..." to which he replied, "Sabotage each other?"

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

This the Chinese dragon cake that I made. I was going to make it look fierce, but since I couldn't get a red color for the frosting, I decided to make it look fun and festive!

We had Joe and Chris (newly baptized members of our church) and Chris's girlfriend and her son, along with the missionaries over for a Chinese dinner and Family Home Evening. Brian gave a great lesson about holding onto the scriptures to help us guide our lives. Then we did some activities as groups - the group with most points at the end got to the cake first :-)

Quianna, Joe, Elder Petersen (back), Elder John, and Elijah.

Warren, Chris, Amy, and Brian. Brian was a helper from the other team.

This the beginning of the cake. I think it would make a cool snake cake. I love the slits that look like eyes.

School started today!

Yesterday the kids stayed in bed until 12:45 pm trying to fool me that they were still asleep so I wouldn't start school. Boy were they shocked when they got out of their rooms and I told them that we were having a day off!

Off to a great start!

So I have been thinking about all the goals I want to be meeting and then things I want to do to change my life. Right now things are a disaster and for a while now I have been feeling like I am just fighting to keep my mouth above water (not my head, just my mouth - that's how much I have been drowning in CHAOS). So since it is the new year, I guess I could call these goals New Year Resolutions - however, they are more like Life Resolutions. Brian and I have been talking about the goals we want to meet individually, and most of them match, so we had a talk yesterday about how we can meet those goals.

I went to my sister's blog and she had written her resolutions down, and I thought that would be a great idea so I can keep track of them all.

1. Read the scriptures and pray daily - individually, as a family, and as a couple. Things have been so hectic that we just lose the momentum of working on our spiritual health. We are really good at family prayer but we haven't done family scripture study for a while. Now that the kids are old enough and own their own set of scriptures we are going to start in a book and read a chapter each night with all of us taking turns reading 5 verses. We started last night.

Since Brian and I both have callings that make it so we can't go to Sunday School (I'm in the Primary working with the kids, and Brian is the Ward Clerk so he is usually doing stuff for the Bishop), we decided that for our Couple scripture study we would go through the Sunday School study guide discussion questions. We were going to read the scriptures together after the kids went to bed, but we felt like we had just read the scriptures 10 minutes ago... oh wait we did! We have family scriptures study at 8 so then we get done and put the kids to bed, so we decided we will read the sunday school assigned scriptures for our individual study, then discuss them after the kids go to bed for our couple scripture study.

Since we are studying the Book of Mormon this year for Sunday School, I want to read the whole thing this year, so I have a chart that will help me read it completely but keep me on schedule for reading the assigned scriptures.

2. FHE - now that Brian is cutting back on his Monday gigs we can have a regular night again for Family Home Evening. We were doing well when Tuesdays were always free and that was our night. Then Tuesdays became all-city day fro Brian, so we potentially moved it to Thursdays, but now with Quianna in Mutualy (Youth Group) on Wednesdays and Brian teaching All-City on Tuesdays, Thursdays became the day that Brian could do meetings, go out with the missionaries, have gigs, or filled up with other stuff and we never made the switch to Thursdays official. Now, we are going to do Mondays. We are starting are first Monday FHE off with going over to the Holmes. They invited us and the Christensens over (people in our ward that have kids Quianna and Elijah's age).

3. Exercise - Both Brian and I are doing the 100 Push ups Challenge, and the 200 Sit Ups Challenge. We are also doing the couch to 5k. The plan is we are doing the sit ups and pushups on our own, but when he gets home for work, we go for a jog. Hopefully doing this with someone will help me stay accountable. Also, it will help to not have to go jogging in the morning.

4. Get my life and our house decluttered, organized, and keep it that way! Today I reorganized my control journal along with routines for keeping my Homeschool, All-city Work, Sierra Work, and House work straight. I also downloaded and printed the 2011 and 2012 Declutter Calendars.

I want to declutter and organize the garage especially. That is the biggest problem in our house. I want a spot for each holiday's decoration (and wrapping paper/supplies). I want a spot for our food - since we don't have a lot of room upstairs for one. I want spots for outdoor games, gardening, camping, my boxes of fabric and craft stuff, Halloween costumes, snow clothes. My dream is to line the walls with shelves and then have storage tubs and drawers with everything. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a place for everything so when I need something, I know exactly where it is and it is easy to grab? Then when I need to put it away, I can take it to its place. Oh, that would be amazing. First step is to declutter, and do one section at a time. I think I'll start with the Christmas stuff since it is already out. Then move to the food section.

The biggest thing about all these goals is self discipline and not to procrastinate. That will be the Master Challenge - my Master Resolution! Wish me luck!