Charlie is 3

Where do I start with talking about our little man.  He is joyful and mischievous.  He is a great dancer, a love, a wonderful little boy.  He is totally in love with his sister.  Although sometimes he likes to egg her on, he thinks she hung the moon.  I hope it's always like that for them.  As their mom it is so amazing to see these two little people I created....playing, laughing, crying together.  They will always have each other.  They were in the trenches together....when things get tough they've got each others back!  I LOVE being Charlie's mom.  I love watching him grow and change.  I love his kisses and hugs and cuddles.  I love how he lays his head on my shoulder and holds me tight.  I love watching him play with his dad and how his eyes shine when he's laughing.  We are very blessed to have this little man in our lives.

Happy Birthday Charlie Bear!

How those goals coming?

Hello internet friends (and some actual live friends as well)

How are those goals coming you ask, well very good!!! Despite the fact that I blinked and January was over...then I blinked again and it's the second week in February!

But I'm happy to report that we have been keeping our momentum for change this year!

Budget-We've been doing pretty good. not as good as I would like, but this is a process. a marathon. a journey...you get the idea. We continue to reign in our spending and use more of what we have.

Patience-I'm very proud of myself. I've really been keeping my cool. Not to say I haven't lost my sh** in the last 6 weeks, but not nearly as often and I'm much quicker to cool down. I've really noticed a change in the kids. They calm down faster and are more cooperative when I'm calm (duh)

Spend more time with hubby-This has been great! Even though it isn't so great for our budget....budgeting time and money for ourselves is a MUST. The time away each week has been so valuable and I really really like my hubby. sometimes it's dinner and trip around the bookstore, sometimes a movie-we are crazy!

spend more time with me- This also has been going really well. I've managed to do a yoga class once a week. I've fallen in love with it and just love that time. The great support from Jeff is what really makes this possible....with out his commitment to this I couldn't do it.

Simplify-We started out strong on this one, but as life has gotten busy, I've gotten lazy. buying lunches more often (bad for budget) buying snacks (bad for waistline) But like everything this too can and will improve.

I will keep you all updated (cause I know you're on the edge of your seats) and we have some fun mini adventures coming up so stay tuned.

How are your goals going for the year? What are you finding difficult to stick with? What has been going really well?

Till next time Friends

New Year!

Happy New Year!! 2012 wow!

Since it's been a while since my last update...here are some exciting things from December.

First bit of excitement was Kitties. We finally got kitties!!! After a lot of begging and a hefty deposit I convinced the landlord to let us have kitties. Lilly has not put them down since we got them.

The next exciting thing was SANTA. He came and was very good to us. Kids had a blast and made out like bandits....I guess they were very good in 2011.

Looking ahead to the coming year I'm so excited for all that lay ahead. I think this year holds really great things for our family and our future. Here some of my goals for 2012...I'm ambitious what can I say.

1. Stick to our budget- This is a biggie! I usually have a budget, but somehow something comes up and I go over. This year I'm vowing to stick to my budget! We have some big financial goals in 2012 so this is a MUST. A couple ways I plan to do this is...write out my budget monthly, plan for birthdays/gifts/travel well in advance, eat at home 6 nights a week, Target trips once a Quarter...this one will be hard. Reaching our financial goals will not only feel GREAT, but we want to instill sound money principals to our kids.

2. Be more patient- I have a full time job, a husband and two young kids...patience is hard to find sometimes. Yet from my experience the calmer I am the calmer the kids are. 6 days in I'm doing good :) Let's talk again in February, HA

3. Spend more time with my hubby- I like him, but as a working family....time is limited. But this year I want to spend some quality time each week with my husband. Not as a mommy/daddy, but as husband/wife. Dinner, Movie...something that gets us out being adults.

4. Spend more time with myself- I like me too. And I think I'm a better mommy/wife when I feel balanced and centered. So my goal is to do Yoga 1x a week and find time to visit with friends at least 1x a month-so call me!

5. Simplify- Simple eating/simple living. I think this will help a lot with #4. I go crazy when there is too much stuff everywhere. And we have a lot of stuff. simplifying is important. Also eating clean, healthy food is a very big goal of mine this year. cutting out processed food is only going to help me feel better and help teach my kids about treating their bodies right. Living simply is a little harder, but less trips to Target will help.

As the kids get bigger and their activities get more and more setting goals is important. Self discipline is not really my thing, but writing it down helps as does putting it out in the world for all one of you to see.

Here's to a GREAT 2012!