Resolution Updates

Since I said at the beginning of January that I put my resolutions on my blog so that I would feel more accountable, I thought I would write an update on how those goals are going. Also, I wanted to share what's helped me for anyone who has similar goals.

Get in shape...I am happy to say that I have been sticking to working out at least 3 to 4 times a week if not more since I wrote that goal down. My new best friend and personal trainer is Jillian Michaels...

These are my favorite videos, but I do other's of hers as well. I own these ones, but you can find some of her videos On Demand if you have Comcast. I love her because she pushes me and I'm working muscles I know I haven't worked in years! I've also been trying to throw in extra cardio after each video workout. I feel so good and have been staying a lot healthier!

Get Organized...we've got a lot of things planned to help us with this. It'll take some time, but we are determined! We also started a chore chart, which will hopefully help the kids to be more responsible for picking up after themselves and helping around the house. We have this in the kids' bedroom...they have these at Target and they just stick on the wall. It's nice because it's dry erase so you can keep reusing it. It also comes with little stickers you can use to mark off what they do, but my kids like just drawing X's because it's faster. We've only had it since Friday, but so far the kids seem pretty into following it. If they can get all of the boxes checked off, they get a special surprise at the end of the week. We'll see if they can keep it up!

Get back to the temple...we finally renewed our recommends last week and plan on going this weekend! I'm really excited to start going again regularly. It feels good to be at that point again. And, it's a nice reason to get away with Mike and make a date out of it. That leads into my other goal of dating my husband...we've been doing pretty well at that. I think we've gone on more dates in the past 2 months than we would normally average the whole year each year since we started having kids!

Spend better quality time with the kids...I try to plan at least one extra fun thing to do with the kids each week. I've also been trying to be a better listener. Sometimes it's hard because I feel like I have a million things going on, but I've been catching myself when I start to just say "Uh huh" only half-listening, and I realize that to my kids, what they have to say is important, and I want to show them that I care and think that what they have to say is important too. I always want them to feel like they can come to me to tell me anything.

My goals to be patient and be myself are ones that I am conscious of and work on every day. I've realized that my impatientness and self-consciousness are both selfish traits. Being impatient means that someone is somehow inconveniencing me making my life harder. Being self-conscious is me thinking everyone is thinking about and analyzing me and everything I do, when that is definitely not the case. Both become easier when I stop thinking about myself and think of others. To be patient, I have to think about how important is the situation that is frusterating me versus the person/people involved, and how my possible reaction will affect them. As far as being myself, I've noticed that I can more easily do that when I stop thinking about myself and saying or doing the right things and think about others and put the attention and interest on them instead.

One goal that I need to add...Be on time to church! I thought that having 11:00 church this year would make it easier to make it on time, but it doesn't seem to matter what time church is, something ALWAYS seems to happen! We are seriously usually on time, if not early, to most things. I don't know why church is such a struggle! It's always something...the last few weeks Ashton has been deciding he has to "poo" (as he says it) when we are ready to walk out the door! What can you do? It's not like we can get around that one! And somehow shoes or something we need for church is always missing on Sundays. Every other day we can find things just fine. It's crazy. So, as much as Mike and I hate the "Saturday" Primary song about how we need to spend Saturday getting ready for Sunday, I'm thinking we're really going to have to do that! Although, the whole Ashton pooping thing...I'm not sure there's much we can do about that! Maybe we just shouldn't feed him too much on Saturday! :)

NeW cLuBhOuSe!!!

In our basement, there is this area under the stairs that we've wanted to use for a little playroom for the kids, but we somehow forgot to mention to our basement builders that we wanted a light in there (4 1/2 years ago!). After the basement was finished we just used a plug-in light which was a pain and wasn't at all bright enough. Since the kids couldn't really play in there, it ended up being just a messy storage room for the kids' toys. A few weeks ago, Mike's brother Nate helped Mike put in a couple of can lights in there, and finally this week Mike patched up the holes from doing the wiring and everything, and then Brayden and I painted!

I have to say, Brayden did such a great job, especially being her very first time painting like this! We actually had fun doing it, talking and listening to music!

This morning the kids couldn't wait to go down and take the tape off and put up some wall stickers we had gotten. They loved decorating their little clubhouse (as they call it!)! It's a little girly, but Ashton didn't seem to care, lucky for Brayden! I think it turned out cute.

Now I just hope they actually use it!

Jungle Fun!

I love it when I find new places to take the kids! Even as long as we have lived here, I still continue to find more and more fun places to go. Recently, I discovered a place called Jungle Jim's Playland. I don't think it's a new place, but it's new to us. They have indoor rides, video games, and a big playland thing with slides. Very inexpensive too. It's similar to Hollywood Connection but smaller with more rides. We checked it out for the first time last week. The kids had so much fun! They loved this place!

~Valentine's Day Escape!~

To celebrate Valentine's Day this year, Mike and I took a little 3 day trip to
Las Vegas!

We stayed at The Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa in Henderson. We LOVED it there and plan on staying there many more times! We had gotten an amazing deal, and felt a little guilty not paying very much because we were absolutely spoiled there! This was the view from our hotel room. It overlooked the pool area and you could see downtown Las Vegas.

They had several pools and hot tubs. We hung out at the hot tub inside of the spa. It was so peaceful and relaxing, and we were the only ones there! We were offered free waters, and also robes and slippers to relax in after we were done in the hot tub.

Feeling pampered!

On Valentine's Day, we spent the day shopping at the shopping center next to the hotel and saw a movie at the theater in our resort. Later, we headed to the Las Vegas Strip to see Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Island. While we were waiting for the show, Mike suggested that we go to the oxygen bar right by the Cirque du Soleil theatre. We had never done that, so thought we'd try it out! At this place, not only do you get to inhale the flavored oxygen for 15 minutes, but you also get a head and back massage! VERY worth it! But we were almost too relaxed for the show!

The Cirque du Soleil show was amazing! We saw "Mystere" which is supposedly their original show. I can't wait to see the other ones someday too! We loved it!

The last day before we had to leave we spent some time outside in the pool area. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees the whole time we were there. We had fun relaxing and soaking up some sun before having to come back to cold Utah. It was really hard to leave!

We had such a fun time relaxing together and having a break from everything. I already can't wait to go back!

One Simple Question

Yesterday I came home pretty stressed out from a day of shopping with the crazy kids all day, so I told them when we pulled into the garage that I was going to need some down time in my room to take a breather for a little bit. The kids told me to wait there in the car for a minute, they wanted to do a surprise. When I was allowed in the house, Brayden told me to make sure to bring some milk up to my room. When I got to my room I found this on my bed...

They left me an M&M cookie we made the night before and a note that said "What do you want us to do for you..." Then both kids came in, Ashton handed me a little card he made for me, and they said I had to tell them 3 things that I wanted them to do for me. I told them I wanted them to clean up some messes they had made earlier, and that was all I wanted, but they made me tell them 2 more things. I said "Okay, a big hug from both of you first thing in the morning", and then they both decided they wanted to bring me breakfast in bed this morning as the 3rd thing, which turned out to be more cookies, ha ha!

I love my kiddos. They can be so thoughtful! That was the sweetest, most perfect thing anyone could have given me at that moment! Just them asking the question "What do you want us to do for you?" took some stress off of me and I felt like they really cared about how I was feeling. I realized that that is something that Mike and I need to ask each other more often. It's such a simple question, but it feels so good to know that the person asking actually wants to help and cares about you. I once saw a show where there was an old couple who had been married for 50+ years talking about their secrets to a happy marriage. They said one thing that really helped them was that every single day they asked each other, "What can I do for you today?" I remember when I saw that I thought, "How simple is that?" and I really wanted to implement it into my marriage. I obviously forgot about it, but I really want to start doing that daily. I can see how it would really benefit any type of relationship, especially after how good it made me feel yesterday to have the kids ask me that one simple question.

I never knew when first becoming a parent how often our kids would be examples to us. It always amazes Mike and I. I am so grateful for what I learn from them everyday!

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!~

Yesterday was Mike's birthday! We had a couple of different plans to help celebrate...unfortunately some plans had to change, but all in all I think he enjoyed what he did get to do...so far!

Monica and I had planned a big dinner get together with all of Mike and Nate's family for Sunday night to celebrate their birthdays together at Nate and Monica's house. Sadly, Brayden had a high fever all weekend. We hoped it would be better by Sunday, but it wasn't, so I got all of the food ready and sent Mike and Ashton on their way to celebrate without us. The boys had fun, and Brayden and I tried to make the most fun we could out of the situation - wrapping Mike's presents, making him cards, and watching a movie together.

Early Monday morning, Ashton woke up and it turned out that he now had the high fever that Brayden had. I gave him medicine and got him back to bed. A little later but still really early in the morning, both kids came bounding into our bedroom asking me for all of daddy's birthday stuff so they could lay it out of the kitchen table to surprise him. Too bad they didn't realize the best gift they could have given him was NOT to wake both of us up so early! It was still cute how excited they were. This is what Mike came downstairs to...