Just for fun

Last weekend, Colby had to work all weekend (literally ALL weekend, as in 53 of the 72 hours). The kids and I decided we needed to do something FUN to entertain ourselves while we were home alone. We started by having a campout in the playroom on Friday night.

Saturday we made homemade Kool-Aid playdough. This stuff kept my kids entertained for HOURS.

I love this stuff! It is easy to make, nice and soft and it smells good. Plus, I don't worry much if one of my kids eats it. If you want to try it here's the recipe:

Kool Aid Playdough

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 pkg Kool Aid

3 T oil

2 cups boiling water

Mix flour, salt and Kool Aid together. Add the oil and boiling water and mix well.

Encouraged

Today I came to the realization that I will never actually be "done" with my housework. It seems like just as I get the dishes and laundry done, floor swept, moped and/or vacuumed and bathrooms cleaned, I find another mess in need of cleaning.

Someone gets hungry and pours and entire box of cereal for herself, or someone climbs onto the counter to get an after school snack and leaves footprints on the counter top and cracker crumbs on the floor. Someone gets home from school and empties the entire contents of his backpack onto the living room floor (including rocks and pieces of eraser that have been fashioned into "very special" figurines.) Someone uses the bathroom and has incredibly bad aim. There is always another meal to prepare, and more dirty laundry at the end of every day.

After spending much of the day cleaning today, and I finally had the kids settled in bed, I looked around the house and found that it looked like a tornado had blown through my living room. Needless to say, I felt rather discouraged. And then I remembered this from one of my favorite conference talks:

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows. President Thomas S. Monson (Oct 08)

After re-reading this message from President Monson, not only did I feel encouraged, I felt very blessed. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life that provides upliftment when I most need it. And so grateful for my husband and kids, and all of the messes that come with them.

A little NEW for our New Year

After welcoming in a New Year with nothing NEW on the horizon- we decided to make a few changes to spice up 2011.

We started with a new haircut for Abbi. This was also Abbi's first haircut. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing so I just cut a little off the bottom, just enough to get rid of that baby fuzz. (Go ahead and ignore by 10 year old sweatshirt and pajama pants).

Ta-Da! Like most two year olds, Abbi moves her head a lot. I still haven't been able to get her to sit still enough to decide if her hair is even.... I think it's pretty close.

I couldn't think of a better way to start a new year than with new paint. I started with the entryway/hallway.

Before (or I guess more accurately, during)

After

I love, love, love my new paint color. Even though I've been told that it looks like mustard, and diarrhea. I think it looks more like Hathaway Gold. :) It really brightens up my house, and the best part is, I can actually wash it.

Last, but certainly not least, Colby got some new boots. Cowboy boots to be exact.

The good news is we now have another career option should podiatry not work out. Boot model. I'll just add it to the list with Chef, Professinal soccer player and Rockstar.

New Year, New ???

We had a fantastic year in 2010, it was filled with lots of excitement and lots of change. I loved the idea of doing a photo recap and I didn't realize how busy we had been until I started trying to pick ONE picture per month.... and some months I just couldn't narrow it down. But here you have it, our year in pictures.

January

Ice Storms

February

Reunited after 5 1/2 months

March

Residency Match

Washington D.C.

April

Bought a house in Texas

May

Chicago Trip

Colby's graduation

June

Moved to Temple, Texas

Cancun

Ragnar Relay

July

Visited family in Utah

August

Back to School

September

Finished first painting project

visited family in San Antonio

October

Grandma & Grandpa Stewart came for a visit

Grandma & Grandpa Frost came for a visit

I had my appendix removed

November

We said, "goodbye" to diapers!

Hosted our first Texas Thanksgiving

December

Colby took primary/holiday call for the first time

Honestly, now that it is 2011 and I realized that I don't have ANYTHING planned this year (really, not a single vacation, move, graduation, long distance race- nothing!) I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next 12 months. I'm excited to see what adventures this new year brings for us, but in the meantime I am going to just enjoy day to day life and be glad that I'm not constantly packing, unpacking, training, stressing, etc.