My 2014 New Year's Resolutions--How did I do?

Last year I posted my goals for 2014 on my blog.  It is important to write down your goals--it makes them more "real," and makes me accountable to (5 or so) people that read this blog.  I wanted to look at those goals and see how I did.

So on that note, here are some of my (Colleen's) goals for 2014:

1)  Write on my blog! My goal is to write on my blog at least 2-3 times a week.  Well, I have documented the highlights of the year on my blog, but it usually happens in gluts--nothing for a while, then 3 or 4 updates in one night.  I can't really use my laptop when the kids are awake, as they come push buttons non-stop.  And at night I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, plus it is my only chance to see my husband.  And for most of this year, bedtime has not been fun.  

2)  Cook more food from scratch!  I already try to do this a lot, but also rely on a number of staple processed foods: among others, "cream of" soups, chicken stock, and my favorite food ever, cereal.  I want to make more of those staples from scratch, and reduce my personal reliance on cereal...I love cereal.  It's my favorite.  I am no longer eating cereal for breakfast!  I buy some cereal for the kids to munch on, but I now eat eggs or homemade granola on yogurt for breakfast.  And I have switched out "cream of" soups, taco seasoning, waffles/pancakes, and many other things to homemade foods.  I'm still working on this, but I'd say it was a success.

2.5)  Stay within the grocery budget!  I feel like our grocery budget it pretty generous--we give ourselves $300/month, plus additional money for dining out.  I want to buy fresh produce, which isn't horribly more expensive than other options.  But I also try to cook different kinds of meat, and meat is expensive!  And then if we also have a holiday meal or invite people over, the grocery budget seems to disappear quickly.  I was mostly successful at this goal.  It helped that we joined a CSA.  We had to pay money our of our regular budget (not the grocery budget) for that, but it really saved me a lot of money on produce.

3)  Family devotion time!  With our schedules, the best time for us to do a family devotion/prayer time is after supper.  There are some nights a week where this will be tough because we have other scheduled weekly events, but we want to spend time teaching our children about God, praying together, and growing closer as a family through devotions.  We have not really accomplished this!  Scott's work schedule has become very grueling in the last year, and no effort was made to do devotions after supper.  I have done an advent calendar and other devotional stuff with the kids, but we did not succeed on a family devotion time.

4)  Accept and give love!  Have you read the book "The 5 Love Languages."  I think about the ideas in that book a lot because Scott and I have quite different love languages.  I am working hard to show love to him in the way he feels loved (acts of service--he loves it when the house is clean and tidy...not my greatest attribute!).  He is working to show love to me also in the way I feel loved (words of affirmation), but that is not his greatest attribute...isn't it amazing how that works.  My goal is to accept the love that Scott gives in the way he gives it.  I'm getting better at this.  I did a small group and we read the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thompson, and that has really made a difference...which will lead into one of my goals for 2015...coming soon.

5)  Survive two children!  I will be having this baby by the end of February, and will be home taking care of an infant and a two year old.  I will be tired, I will be nursing a baby while keeping a toddler out of trouble, and I still want to be able to keep the house in order, cook meals, and sleep.  Oh, and keep up a strong relationship with my husband.  Did I mention I will be having a c-section, so will also be recovering from surgery?  March and April will be crazy, but I will maintain a positive attitude and God will give me the strength to still be loving.  We made it.  Still sane, still loving each other.  

6)  Get ready for the baby!  We're doing pretty well on this.  I have about 4 meals in the freezer, but would like to get a lot more in there.  Still need to decide on a name, get some diapers, pack hospital bags, etc.  Also a success, obviously.  The baby has a name, I didn't have to cook for a month thanks to the generosity of the ladies in my church and Mom2Mom group.  Now I just have to worry about keeping up with the 10 month old!

10 Month Baby Comparison

Nicolas at 10 months old

Laurel at 10 months old

It is crazy how much our children look alike!!!!

Nicolas just turned 10 months old.  At that age, Laurel was content to sit and play with toys, and also did some crawling.  Nicolas, on the other hand, is already crawling like crazy, standing next to things, climbing, standing for short periods of time without holding anything, and I'm guessing will be walking soon!  He also likes to eat real food, especially cereal, puffy snacks, and other crunchy things.  So even though they look a lot alike, you know they are different kids based on their eating preferences (at that age, Laurel wanted to eat...nothing).

Last weekend Nicolas climbed up the entire flight of stairs at Grandma's house by himself.  

Christmas 2014

The Evenhouse side of the family celebrated Christmas the weekend before the actual holiday.  We got together for breakfast--we had breakfast casserole, bacon, and I volunteered to make waffles.  I made regular waffle mix from scratch, as well as sweet potato waffles, and we had 2 waffle makers going.  I discovered that many of my extended family members do not get waffles very often, and they ate them like crazy!  I had to make another batch!

After breakfast we opened presents.  When the Evenhouses get together for Christmas, we open presents in order from youngest to oldest, and whoever is playing Santa hands out one present at a time, and everyone watches that person open their present before we move on to the next person.  We then had lunch, at cookies, cupcakes, chips, popcorn, and other food all afternoon, had pizza for supper, and then watched Guardians of the Galaxy.  I wanted to watch the NCAA Div I Volleyball Championships, but I was voted down!

Laurel found her present under my parent's bed about 2 minutes after we walked into the house.

I had put a bunch of books on my Amazon wish list, and Scott got me a couple from my favorite author for Christmas.  Scott is not a reader and doesn't understand my love for books, but I am thankful that he is still willing to buy them for me!

Tim showing off his new Chicago Bears snuggie.  I hope this is not Jay Cutler's number!

Laurel received a red sled, and her cousin Kendall got a purple sled.  This is Laurel having a bit of a tantrum because she liked the purple sled better.

Laurel's new snowman slippers.

Scott had to work during the day on Christmas Eve, so it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  We had our Christmas Eve candlelight service at church that night, and since nursery was not provided, my parent's came over and watched the kids while Scott and I went to church (we are both on the praise team, so it is difficult to watch kids while we are playing instruments!).  After church we opened our presents to each other before going to bed.

We dressed in our Christmas finery for church

What a dapper little gentleman!

What a pretty girl...who refused to put down her banana.

On Christmas morning we opened out stockings, then packed into the van for Road Trip #4 to Grandma and Grandpa Fender's house.  We made it in time for lunch, spent some time at the park, then opened presents in the evening.  Present opening procedure is very different with Scott's family--they handed out all the gifts at once, then it was a wrapping-paper ripping free for all.

The day after Christmas I persuaded Scott and Melanie to go watch the movie Into the Woods in Council Bluffs with me while Grandma watched the little kids.  What a great movie!  However, I learned that I should have bought tickets in advance, since at fancy movie theatres these days the seats (which are super comfy recliners) are reserved...we got the last 3 available seats for the showing, and they were not next to each other.

Christmas morning cheeriness from Nicolas!

Laurel did not even want to wake up to open stockings!

Hi Grandma!

I'm helping Grandma in the kitchen!

Melanie and Nate were really excited to get Just Dance 2015 for the wii.

The nice Hawkeye onesie Melanie bought for Nicolas

Nicolas had fun with his cousin Wesley

We tried to get a nice picture of Grandma with all the grandkids.  Laurel was not amused.

Scott, Grandma Fender, and Lance

We are now home, and don't have any road trips planned for a while.  The kids traveled really well, and Laurel has enjoyed watching a whole bunch of cartoons in the van.  However, all this traveling and being out of routine has made the children crazy!!  Laurel has been having tantrums, Nicolas is hardly napping, and neither kid is sleeping well at night.  I love being with family for the holidays, but I am now thankful for a few quiet days at home.

Play, Retirement Ceremony, and Volleyball

Road Trip #2:  Western Iowa

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Melanie was performing in a Christmas play in Macedonia, IA.  We asked Scott's mom if she would babysit the little kids so we could go to the show.  Friday morning we headed to Des Moines and did all of our Christmas shopping.  In the afternoon we drove the remaining 2 hours to Scott's Mom's place, ate a quick supper, then said good-bye to the kids and drove to Macedonia to the play.  It was a variety show with puppets, singing, dancing, and a lot of silliness.  We enjoyed it a lot, and enjoyed Melanie's solo and stage antics as well.  I am glad that Melanie is involved in her local theatre, because it means that Scott will willingly go to theatre events with me!  Saturday morning we headed back home.  Saturday night, Lance and Cousin N made a road trip our way, picked up Scott, and headed to Iowa City to go to a Hawkeye wrestling duel.

Road Trip #3:  Kansas, again.

The next week, we headed to Kansas once again.  Scott's brother, Lance, is retiring from the military, and we went down to attend his retirement ceremony.  Grandma and Grandpa Fender were also there, as well as Audrey and Seth--it was great to see them for the third time in 3 weeks!  One of Dorothy's friends volunteered to come over and watch Laurel and Nicolas while the rest of us went to the retirement ceremony, and we were very thankful for that, as keeping the littles quiet the whole time would have been a hopeless task.  :)

Lance and family receiving certificates, etc., at the retirement ceremony.

We returned home on Friday, then on Saturday morning I attended play practice at church for our Christmas program.  NCAA Div I Volleyball Regional finals were taking place that weekend, and Iowa State University was one of the host schools.  My dad had gotten a number of free tickets to the Saturday finals, so I headed out Saturday afternoon with my dad and brother, picked up one of my former co-workers in Des Moines, and went to a volleyball match in Ames!  Stanford was playing Florida, and I think this was one of the better volleyball matches I have ever seen!

Karch Kiraly, my volleyball hero, was the tv announcer for the match.  In all my years working in the volleyball world, I have never yet met him in person.  This is the closest I have ever gotten to having my picture taken with him!

I bought an enormous 'Clone Cone.  My brother ate at least half of it, and I still had a bit of ice cream gut.  :)

Thanksgiving 2014

Today is December 28. and here I am, just getting around to updating my blog for Thanksgiving!  I will say, it is difficult to use my laptop while the kids are awake, as they are immediately drawn to it and press buttons.  And they go through streaks where they do not go to sleep well, so I spend a couple hours in the evenings putting children to bed, before going to bed myself because I am tired!!!!  The kids keep me on my toes, plus Nicolas usually gets up around 6:15am, so I am getting up early, not getting any down time during the day, and up late.  I know, excuses, excuses. 

The other reason I'm just getting around to posting is that we have been doing a lot of traveling!  We made 3 road trips in 3 weeks, spend the next weekend celebrating Christmas with my family, then took another road trip this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with Scott's family.  I am glad we now have a minivan with a dvd player!  I am grateful that our children are pretty good travelers!  I am grateful that we now have some time at home!  

We got in the car early in the morning on Thanksgiving day and made the 4 hour trip to Kansas to spend a couple days at Scott's brother's house.  Grandma and Grandpa Fender were there, as well as other friends and relatives.  We had a delicious meal, a great trombone/clarinet concert from our nieces, and fun times with family and friends.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving the men took the kids (except Nicolas) to a friends house to watch the Iowa vs Nebraska football game, and Dorothy, Nicolas and I walked around historic downtown Leavenworth shopping at the small shops and antique malls, ate lunch at a Korean restaurant where I used chopsticks for the first time in my life and fed Nicolas some sort of Korean crunchy banana snacks, then hung out at the local knitting shop for a couple hours.

Laurel and Cousin N watching Baby Einstein

Cousin H loves hanging out with Nicolas

Dorothy has some mad turkey making skills.

We returned home on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, then on Sunday went to church and then to Pella for Thanksgiving with the Evenhouse clan.  Our friends Jacob and Elaina also joined us--Jake has spent multiple holidays with my family, and even Elaina had an Easter with us once, but this was about the first time we've spent multiple hours with them since they got married!

The kids made turkey placecards for everyone, and the table looked nice!  Once we started putting out chairs we realized that we would be too crowded, so we ended up throwing another table on the end at the last second.

We wanted to get a nice picture of all the grandkids.  Just as we were about to take this picture, Laurel announced "I pooped!"  

Laurel and her cousin Kendall.  When they are together, we call them the wrong name all the time.  They were even wearing matching skirts!

Doug complained that we always want pictures of the kids, but we never want pictures of the sons or the in-laws.  So we took a picture of the "boys."  And this is why we don't take pictures of the sons.

Nicolas and Jacob

Nicolas and Aunt Carrie

We played some Just Dance on the wii.

First Snow 2014

Both Laurel and Nicolas came down with a cold about a week and a half ago.  Laurel was about 12 hours ahead of Nicolas--she would get a high temp right before bed, and then Nicolas would get it the next morning.  After a week of continuously running noses and coughs, Laurel was doing better, but Nicolas was still crying, not sleeping well, needing extra snuggles, rubbing his ears, and running a slight temperature.  I took him to the doctor, and he had an infection in one ear, and too much wax in the other ear to see the ear drum.  This is the first ear infection we've had for either kid!

A couple days later, we had our first snow of the year.  It came down slowly all afternoon and wasn't too cold, so I took Laurel outside for a few minutes to enjoy the snow and take some pictures.  She was a little disturbed by the sound she made walking on fresh snow at first, but then really enjoyed making footprints!

First Prints!

I'm catching the snow!

I'm catching it on my tongue!

Autumn Leaves

A couple weeks ago while Scott was out of town for a few days, we had a run of really nice weather.  I decided to go outside and rake up leaves.  I put Nicolas in the sling on my back, and gave Laurel a rake to play with.  Over the course of two days, we managed to rake up almost all of the front yard and put all the leaves into the back of the truck to be taken away eventually (I didn't want to move the car seats into the truck, so I figured that job could wait until Scott got home).  I brought out the camera and did a photo shoot in the leaf pile.

Laurel told me she was taking a nap.  This is her "I'm pretending to sleep" face.

When Laurel was a baby, she was very uncertain about sitting in the leaves.  Nicolas had no problem, and even picked up a few and ate them!