New Year's Resolutions 2010

With it being a new year, I try to take advantage of accomplishing some goals. I had them all written up a week before the big day of Jan 1st so I could pump myself up to start working on them. There are quite a few, but they're GOALS, not MUSTS. And, I have an entire year to work on them!

Here are some of them:

Mommy goals:

* Potty train Dax

* Get prego with our 2nd child

* Spend more one on one time with Dax.

* Plan entertaining as well as educational activities for Dax.

* Become better at planning out and preparing meals.

Wife goals:

* Keep up on our blog (try to keep it fairly up-to-date).

* Send out Christmas cards/letters this year.

* Go on weekly date nights.

Physical goals:

* Exercise at least 3 times a week.

* Run 2-3 short races, each 5 miles or less.

* Get more sleep...get to bed earlier!

Intellectual:

* Read at least 3 books.

* Learn a new skill.

* Become a better cook.

Spiritual:

* Read the entire Book of Mormon on my own.

* Start and keep a journal again (I used to be so good at this up until I met Greg...shame on me).

* Attend the temple at least once a month.

Creative:

* Finish Daxton's baby scrapbook.

* Start teaching scrapbooking workshops again.

* Finish Guatemala scrapbook.

* Make crafts for 3 different holidays.

So there ya have it. I'm doing this for myself cause I wanna look back at the end of the year and see how well I've done at accomplishing them. Some goals are more private, so I haven't posted them, but this is most of them. You can do it, Brit!

Ringing in the New Year

On New Year's Eve we (Greg, Dax and I) went up to a friend's family cabin in Oakley. We played games, the boys played in the snow, and we munched prior to ringing in the New Year. Dax loved playing in the snow and riding on the snow mobiles. Early in the day the boys rigged up a home-made rowboat to the snowmobiles in attempt to make it into a sled. So from then on, Dax called the snow mobiles "boats".

Greg trying to make a cover for the boat out of plastic while Dax and I watched from inside where it was warm :)
The gang we partied with

Just after ringing in the New Year :)

We went to bed about 1:00 am (or I should say we retired to our rooms at that time) and then were up for at least another hour talking, joking, and laughing with friends. Good times!

The Party after The Party

Chantel and Carl came into town late on Christmas night. So we celebrated with our family all together on Sunday. We went to church at my parents ward and and then began the festivities at my parents house afterward which included a nice ham dinner and then exchanging gifts.

Chantel and Carl

Court with her sleeping angel.


Dax got even more trains from Aunt Court and Uncle Joe!

Jax and Crew

Me opening my fabulous coat from Ashley.


Ashley helping Dax put together his train. (Ryan is to the left of her...he managed to stay out of every picture this year! So this is as good of a picture of him as I have, darnit!)

Chantel and sleepy Milo

Grandma B came over too. Jax is so funny and asked her why she has tubes in her nose (she's on oxygen) and Grandma B said that they help her to breathe. Jax replied, "I don't need tubes in my nose cause I can breathe good. See?" and then he took a big deep breath in through his nose. Ha! It was so much fun to be together and to have Chantel and Carl in town. Dax really loved having Milo follow him around and making him laugh. What a cutie he is! Our family sure is growing! I remember talking about the day when we'd all be married with kids and how big our family would be. It's already here...well only partially, and it's already so big!

I love spending the holidays with family.

Whoa...

Greg and Dax built a giant tower with his new blocks. They used every single block and built it as tall as they could while keeping it standing.

Dax had to put some finishing touches on it...

Then, Ta-Da! All finished. At least we know if Dax didn't care for his blocks, his daddy would make good use of them and enjoy them :)

Christmas Day 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS! We started the morning off by opening presents at the in-laws.



Dax opened and loved the blocks that we had spent the past couple days (all day long) making for him.

First set of tools!

Then we headed over to my parents' house to spend the rest of the day.

What a cheesy grin...

Dax got a magnetic Thomas train from Nana and Papa in his stocking!

And some more blocks from Nana and Papa.

Had to try 'em out :)

My parents


Court, Joe, and my cute niece Peyton.

Our little family.

(Notice Dax is in his jammies again...his new pants were chafing his legs.)

What a wonderful Christmas it was! We were sure spoiled by our families this year. Dax has more toys than he knows what to do with and his birthday is just around the corner! Guess you know what that means...he'll be getting lots of clothes ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

Twas the Night Before Christmas (2009)

We spent Christmas Eve this year with Greg's family. It all began with their traditional "finger food dinner in the living room." Which, although it was pretty squishy this year, was really good.

Then, next came "family planning" for the following year and planning our next family vacation. Then, onto opening presents! Everyone would be in and out at different times on Christmas day this year, so all the married families opened their gifts from Don and Marianne and then we did the sibling exchange.
Daxton opening a gift from Kyleena...a bowling set!

This was the first year in quite some time that the entire family was able to be there together.

This year for the parents' present, each of us got our family's pictures taken and Alyssa made picture frames in her woods class at school. We put together a collage of all the pictures onto a big piece of plywood and wrapped it. They loved it!

Greg and I opening our gift from the siblings...Super Mario Bros for the Wii!!

(Sorry, this picture is a little blurry.) Daxton LOVES having other kids his age around and to play with. He was crazy about his cousin Kyleena (who he hasn't seen since they were both infants) the minute she walked in the door and kept trying to hug her and play with her. She didn't want much to do with poor Dax...

But she warmed up to him really quickly :) Kissing cousins.

(No prompting, whatsoever, was done for this picture! Cute!)

One of my favorite family traditions growing up was to open pajamas on Christmas Eve. So I've brought this tradition into my own little family.

Now off to bed to await Santa's arrival!

Santa's Workshop

Santa's busy making Daxton some blocks for Christmas this year. Cutting it close, I know. Hopefully we can get them done in time for the big day! The sleigh's gonna be extra heavy this year.

My job is to stain the blocks after the edges have been rounded. Hopefully we can stay warm long enough to finish. Wish us luck!