A few of our Favorite things

Making cookies with Daddy, but especially helping dispose of excess dough on beaters!

Climbing into the exersaucer, having Mom take me out, then climbing in again!

 Blanky!

 Avoiding looking at the camera.

 Getting into the closet and pulling down the coats. 

 Cooking lunch! With a crown!

 Playing Doc (he made this fun doc stuff in preschool then doctored me and bunny all week)

 Jaden's artwork!

 Running in the church gym at our Friday playdates. 

 Playing hide and seek with Daddy!

 Climbing on EVERYTHING!

These were a few of our favorite things! Hope they're yours too. :)

You said It!

1/5/11
Why is whether the toy box lid open or closed such a huge cause of contention with my children? Bella wants it up, Jaden insists on it being down. They are both having tantrums and I can't even guess on who should give on this one.

1/5/11
My son informed me just before bed that pee pee in the bed smells YUCKY, but pee pee in the potty smells nice. . . well umm if that reminds him go in the potty at night. . . okay!

1/6/11
Jogging with a piece of chocolate in my mouth. Aww the universe is finally in balance.

1/6/11
My kids are playing resturaunt. TOGETHER! Bella (16 mo) pulled the toy crate up to the toy kitchen and is putting food in the microwave, then Jaden (3) takes it out and brings it over to me while Bella puts more food in. :) It won't last but I'm enjoying cooperation for the time being.

1/7/11
Jaden - My eye fell out last night almost, but I puuushed it back in.
Yeah we may have a story teller on our hands.

1/8/11
 My brother and mom taught Jaden Go Jazz! Go Jazz! Which he now recites every time he sees a basketball, football, baseball, or soccer ball. :)

1/17/11
I love it when Jaden is in a sharing caring mood with his little sis. They're happily playing together in the toy box right now.

1/21/11
Jaden just informed me that when Bella grows up she'll be a big boy but now she's just a girl.

1/23/11
Great moment of happiness watching my 3 yr old and his daddy play hide and seek. So cute!!!

Resolutions

So I took a quick glance at last years resolutions to see how I did, umm I did okay I think so lets give it another try. It's funny cause when I was younger I though resolutions were silly. I guess when your a fit happy teen you don't have anything to improve perhaps, but now that I'm a mother and my weaknesses and guilt at not being the perfect EVERYTHING seems to make me think I have room for improvement so lets give it a try again. . . .

1. Since I did great exercising all last year I think I'm going to add 30 jackknifes and yoga to my daily routine of 30 min. low impact exercise. I've lost 10lbs since last year and am rapidly approaching my goal weight of 110. YAY! by the way if your looking at that number in disgust, take a look at me and you'll see I'm not a twig, I'm a super short person where every pound goes right to my hips. I find it unfair to currently be at 112 and still have disgusting tummy roll. :( hoping the jackknifes will help but also coming to grips that having babies has left a TON of excess skin that will never hold my tummy tight ever again. *sigh*

2. Now that Jaden is in preschool it has helped a lot, but he's still bored and the tv has become too easy a "fix" so I'm going to try again for 1 scheduled activity with him a week and 1 geared towards Bella also I'd like to get down to the recommended 2 hour of tv a day, but I'm going to work into it. :) This will also require less computer time for me that I need to work on.

3. Keep up my blog. Last year I did project 365 in scrapbooking which ended up being really fun. I felt that perhaps since I print my blog book every year this was kind of redundant and I could use that precious scrapping time on other layouts. But I love the daily life that was recorded and want that to continue on my blog.

4. Read my scriptures every night. I'll say it, since I've gotten married I've slacked off on my personal spiritual level. I'd like it back since I've discovered improving myself on sheer willpower has not worked and I need some divine help to be the mom I want to be. I felt some guilt after asking though because I realize I'm not doing the things I did when I was younger to stay closer to my Father in Heaven. Even church is less spiritual now that the kids make sacrament meeting a wrestling match. So back to the basics for me. I read every night anyway why not add a chapter or two in the scriptures? I've started this already and decided to start in Moroni and work my way back to the beginning. I've enjoyed this a great deal so far!

5. Speak positive things and keep my tongue bridled. Being an adult has made me oddly self-conscious. I admire so many people but don't tell them and I find myself judging myself against others for the better or worse. BAD BAD RACHEL!!! I want to be one of those people that genuinely love others. I can't stop my brain from thinking things overnight, but I think it will help if I start by controlling my words. I don't want to be a gossip not even in my own home with my own husband. I want people to know I think they are amazing, my children as well and keep anything else to myself until I can stop being so judgmental of myself and others.  I think this is going to be the most difficult of my resolutions, but the road to improvement must start somewhere!

Wish me luck friends! I'm ready for the new year! (good thing since we're 25days into it. :) )

Daily Happenings

 Bella is all over dragging boxes, crates, and stools around so she can get to anything she wants.

 Ahna and Joe stop by everyday as they walk home from school. One day they brought a football! Jaden just HAD to go out and play.

Look at my baby dance! 

Discovery

Jaden discovered a fun new game. He takes the packing peanuts from one of our Christmas presents and puts them over the vent. They fly HIGH into the air! I's really very entertaining!

 Bella discovered how to climb up on the couch, thus enabling her to steal Jaden's snack when he isn't looking.

 Jaden discovered that he LIKES having his picture taken and will often ask me to take a picture. :)

 Bella discovered the afore mentioned packing peanuts are super fun to play in. 

 Jaden discovered the best hiding place!

Salt Lake Trip - Sat.

Saturday, Jan. 1st We headed down to Utah for baby Blake's Blessing. Here's a few pictures of the beautiful view on our drive down.

When we got there we went to visit the Parkers, our friends from when we lived there. Jaden enjoyed playing with Kaleb's new train table.

Bella enjoyed the big tracks.

We really enjoyed seeing them again. Here they are, so much older than a year ago. . .

Bella, Jaden, Sophie, & Kaleb (yes they were super thrilled to have their picture taken. hee)

Jaden got to go to the Jazz game with Grandma and Grandpa! And of course Uncle Jeremy who got the tickets. Jaden had a great time and lasted way better than Ryan and I thought, being how the game started at his bedtime and all. 

Don't worry he's just borrowing Uncle Cory's wheelchair for the fun of it at the hotel. :)

Here's the silly boy at the game!

So the rest of us chilled in the hotel watching TV. We then went to dinner and were going to go swimming but Bella was so tired from missing her 2nd nap we just put her to bed.  

Bella really enjoyed the mirror on the closet door at the hotel. She kept herself entertained for quite awhile.

Salt Lake Trip - Sun.

We started out our Sun. in the middle of the night when Bella starts screaming. Poor thing had a fever. So we stripped her down and brought her in our bed where she continued to whimper It was a long awful night. Luckily Jaden was so tired he slept right through also luckily the only people around us in the hotel were my parents.

See that poor thing. Don't you feel bad for her?

In the morning she was doing much better and we wondered if maybe it was the teething that caused the fever. Anyway it was off to church and of course Blake's Blessing! Which was wonderful. Though my children proved to be the loudest children no matter where we are. They did enjoy playing with cousin Brooklyn and of course Grandma & Grandpa Potter. Bella even spent some time on GGs lap.

After the meeting we heading to Jeremy and Jessica's for lunch and chit chat. Looks fun huh?

There's the sweet baby Blake with his proud grandpa Barlow.

Bella was entertained by talking on the phone. Maybe finding out where Grandma and Grandpa Potter were. They were late.

Jaden went down to his favorite part of Brooklyn's house. The new play area in the basement.

I told Brooklyn I wanted to take her picture. I thought she was running away but really she ran to get to a better posing position. She's a star I tell ya!

My Uncle Harald (aka Harry Potter) was also shooting pictures. Somehow we managed to shoot each other at the same time.

GG Potter brought some Christmas gifts for the kiddos.

They all got great hats! Look how pretty Brooklyn's is. 

Bella's is super sweet too!

Jessica took a quick shot of us with the Baby Blake before heading out the door. (stole this pic from her blog.  :) )

It was super fun but the long night was starting to show in my children's attitudes so we said our goodbye's and were off. In less than 5 min. both kids were out.