A special birthday message for Isabel

Love you!

Happy 4th birthday, Isabel!

Happy birthday to you, big girl! We love you SO much and wish we could be there to help blow out your birthday candles!

xoxo,
Nate, Anna, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Marc

What a pain in the a**!

Quite literally for me! About a week ago, I was walking down the stairs in our house when my feet flew out from under me and I landed hard on my bum. When I finally dragged myself to the doctor because the pain was not going away, I found out that I fractured my tail bone. Who needs a tail bone anyway? I am not a monkey!! Anyway, I am still in great pain but the medicine the doctor gave me helps out a lot. You might also notice that I am blogging during the day on Monday. Nate got diagnosed with strep this morning so I'm home with a *very* grumpy little guy. I just hope that he doesn't fight me at nap time. Now more than ever he needs to rest, but he has always resisted sleeping. Even when he was a baby. Despite all the sickness and injuries, we had a really nice weekend. Playdates, visits with Grandpa & Grandma, and even a monster truck show for Marc & Nate. I took some pictures of Anna while the boys were away. She is getting so big!

Happy New Year!

A bit belated, but better late than never! I hope that everyone had a great holiday season. Has anyone set any resolutions yet? I can't believe that it is 2009, the year I turn 35. In many ways I feel like the same schmuck I was in high school. I am not big on new year resolutions. I usually work on them through January (oops, half this month is already gone!) and then they are all forgotten. So this time, I have no goals set... yet. But I am working on my list and am trying to narrow down the many improvements I could. no strike that, will make in my life. You see, I am already so self-defeating. But really, I have so many thing to work on. The problem is narrowing it down and feeling motivated to really go for it.

Some floating ideas of things I want to do in 2009 are:
* Do a garden with the kids (hopefully they'll eat more veggies if they grow them!)
* Be more patient & outwardly loving.
* Tell my husband and kids I love them at least 2 times a day.
* Be more thoughtful.
* Have a continual supply of good books for my children to read and to get excited about - make more trips to the library
* Exercise at least twice during the week and once on the weekend (isn't that always on the list?)
* Simplify my life.
* Focus on the things that matter, i.e., relationships rather than things.
* Reconnect with friends.
* Lose the last 10 pounds I need to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight (when I thought I was a cow). Maybe lose 5 to 10 more.
* Leave the dishes in the sink & the floor dirty so that I can play with the kids more.
* Do more weekend traveling & adventuring now that the kids are a bit older.
* Watch less tv. Find other things to do.

What sorts of things do YOU want to focus on in '09?

Here are some photos from the holidays to end this post. Talk to you all soon! XOXO


Nate and Anna in their basement playroom. Marc and I actually cleaned it out over the weekend (mainly to make room for the big bounce thingy.)


Poor Anna. Now that her hair is finally growing, I can't resist putting it up and doing fancy things with it! Her eyes are starting to change from blue to gray. We have no idea what their final color will be.


In the U.S. Botanical Gardens. They had an AWESOME train display up that ran through different fairy tales and was made only with natural items. Even for us jaded people, it was cool!


Nate and Anna in front of our Christmas tree.


Our messy living room on Christmas morning. I am totally digging the wide angle lens Marc gave me!