Thursday, December 31, 2009

2009: Our Year in Pictures

Just three of my favorite pictures of our family's adventures during each month of 2009 ...


January:


 

February:


 

March:


 

April:


 

May:



June:


 

July:


 

August:


 

September:

 
 

October:


 

November:


 

December:


 


What a wonderful year!

Last Year's Resolutions ... Revisited

So, time for a little reflection on how my last year's resolutions went.  Here's a refresher on my ideas from last year...

In the New Year, I will…
  1. I will be more physically active.
  2. I will walk the dogs more often.
  3. I will set up a new filing system to keep our home office more organized.
  4. I will uphold Tuesday Night Chore Night.
  5. I will get the playroom finished.

Number 1 ... Being more physically active.  Yes!
Although I definitely stopped being as physically active this fall, I did a good job keeping this resolution all the way through August.  And, let's face it ... this was all about trying to lose weight.  I did accomplish that goal this year by losing more than 60 pounds since March.  So, I am happy with my progress on this resolution!
January 2009:

December 2009:

January 2009:

December 2009:



Number 2 ... Walking the dogs more often.  No.
Sigh- I wish I had done better on this resolution, but I haven't.  As is the case with so many resolutions, I started strong, but failed quickly.  I walked the dogs with regularity in the spring- I even bought a special skinny baseball bat to beat off the other dogs in our neighborhood who don't follow the leash law and try to get us when we walk.  I got up early many mornings before work (I averaged 3 days a week) and walked them before getting ready for work for almost two months.  However, I fell off the wagon as school got more tiring toward the end of the year.  I tried to revive it this summer, but I'll let Katie Anne take the fall on this one - she hates riding in the stroller around the neighborhood, so that really limited how much I could walk them.  This fall, I've made absolutely no effort.  Both dogs need to be walked - they've both gained a few pounds each in 2009.  Hopefully, we can make this a family resolution to walk the dogs after dinner when the weather warms up.


Number 3 ... Setting up a new filing system.  Jury's still out ...
Well, I completely turned over this job to Saunders not long after the new year.  Since then, I've been blissfully unaware of what's going on with the filing of our bills and paperwork.  He does this kind of thing for a living, so I've just been trusting him with it.  So, it could be a hit or a miss - I'll check in with him at tax time!

Number 4 ... Tuesday Night Chore Night.  Major, epic fail.
I think I did Tuesday Night Chore Night about three times.  And, that wasn't even three consecutive Tuesdays.  In my defense, I did have mono when the year started!  So, I spent a lot of Tuesday evenings (and other weekday evenings) just vegging on the couch.  Oops!

Number 5 ... Finish the playroom.  Yes!
We did finish the playroom this year!  We also finished the bathroom in the basement as well, so that's been awesome.  The playroom is not 100% done... there's a few more decorative things that I need to do, the reading room in the closet needs to be completed, and my craft area needs to be finished.  However, all the hard work is finished.  Thanks to a ton of help from my dad, this project moved along this spring - he and Saunders did all the electrical and plumbing themselves.  We hired out the sheetrock and drop ceiling installation, and then I did the bulk of the painting myself.  Then, we had carpet installed, and all it took was furniture and toys!  It is great to have that space for Katie Anne to play and to store her toys, and I can't wait for the craft area to be finished for me so I'll have a home for my sewing and painting things.  I haven't taken official "after" pictures because we're not officially done, but here are some pictures from the playroom and bathroom!
 
 
 

So, I kind of feel like I scored a 2.5 out of 5 resolutions last year.  Here's hoping 2010 brings more "resolution" to my resolutions!


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Dress Up Time!

For Christmas this year, Katie Anne got some awesome dress up things.  Trisha had a great time picking out lots of cool dress up goodies for Katie Anne this year (click here to read her cute blog post all about it), and my parents gave Katie Anne a basket full of princess dresses to play dress up with, too.  So, we busted out all the dress up goodies and had a fashion show today!

Fly Eyes ... very Elton John:


Superhero Mask:


Putting on her cape:


Getting dressed up:


Princess Tiana:
 

Cinderella:


Doing a "princess walk" which is basically just a twisty little walking move:


And, she wanted to take a picture of Mommy, who obviously was not playing dress up.  However, I was impressed with her all-by-herself photography skills, so here I am in all my glasses glory:



*One note ... Do you notice what's on the tv behind Katie Anne?  Yep, my favorite new show - Hoarders on A&E.  We were watching it while playing dress up. If you're not watching Hoarders, I strongly suggest you do.  It will a) help you gain some perspective that your house really isn't THAT dirty and b) inspire you to run through the house, grabbing random stuff and throwing it away.  Just a disclaimer, though:  If your husband is like mine, he may not enjoying watching Hoarders.  It creeps him out.  He always likes outcome a (that I stop stressing about the house), but does not always like outcome b (that I throw random stuff away ... which sometimes winds up being his stuff).  So, forewarned is forearmed.  Watch the show - you'll love it!