New Years

I LOVE New Years!! I don't necessarily love the stay out past midnight and share the road with all the drunks and crazies, but I love the freshness of the new year. I love thinking about the past year and what goals I was able to accomplish and I LOVE setting new goals for the next year.

A couple of years ago I started choosing a word for the year. Something I wanted to focus on that year. One year I did Intention (such a good word). This year I am doing Patience. I really need a little more patience in my life and with a third baby joining the madness, patience is going to be a must or I will loose my brains. So, patience it is :) Let's hope I can really focus on it and be patient with myself while I do so ;)

I also read this quote and I would love for it to be my motivation for the year 2016. It just has so much goodness in it. So I'm going to take out the word Christmas and replace it with year.

"This Christmas year, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love, and then speak it again." -President Howard W Hunter

Yay for New Years!

We spent New Years Eve at my parents house. Tim worked until 9, so the boys and I were without him for most of the evening and were happy to have a place to go. We got there early to cruise around my parents cul de sac on bikes and scooters. Their street is the perfect place for this.

Peter cruisin' on the new quad my parents gave him for Christmas.

Oliver on his new "R2D2 bike". 

I sat in the grass and watched. The weather was perfection and I secretly wished that I didn't have to watch the boys so I could take a nap in the perfect weather. 

My Aunt Carson and her family were in town for the week, so we got to spend the evening with them. We had a delicious dinner and played games. My dad got the kids fireworks for Christmas and he and Cody set them all off on New Years Eve. The kids LOVED watching them. I was actually pretty impressed.

Mesmerized!

My reindeer.

Five of the six boys staring at the magic.

We may not have stayed awake 'till midnight, but we had a great night and my boys stayed up later than they ever have.

Friday night my mom hosted a dinner with all of us! All of her family and Carson's family and my Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle. There were a lot of us, but it was fun and delicious! Two of my cousins had their first babies this last year so it was fun to get to hold them and snuggle on them.

18 adults, 8 kids and 2 babies 

As much as I love the holidays, and I love the holidays, it's kind of fun to get things put away and move on to the next adventure. I had a realization that I have about 14 weeks (if I'm lucky) left of feeling good before I get real uncomfortable before this baby comes, which means I need to get a few things done. We decided to a few more pieces of furniture. We got a chaise lounge (that matches our couch) for our family room. I have been super on the fence about it because I think a chair would look better, but the lounge is much more comfortable and practical with the kids and add a lot more seating in the room which is nice.

It looks longer than the couch, but it's actually a little shorter.

 It closes off the room slightly, but the open side helps it feel not as closed in.

And finally, after almost 8 years of marriage and two babies we decided to make the plunge and get a king size bed. And WOWZA is it big (the mattress hasn't come yet)! Every time I'm pregnant I get so uncomfortable and I complain about how small our bed feels and so we finally did something about it. I'll let you know, once we get a mattress and some bedding, how fantastic it is or how lonely it is....I'm thinking it will be great (but I still love you Tim, even if we aren't touching while we sleep).