It's New Years Eve

Wishing you a wonderful New Year filled with good health, lots of love, much happiness and good cheer. Make the best out of 2009.

XO,

Amanda

Brody's 2009 Resolutions

It is really adorable not only trying to explain to a 3.5 year old what a resolution is, let alone hearing what he comes up with. My hope is that as we do these every year, it will help build a positive identity in himself and help him create goals and dreams. I plan on printing them out and saving them all!

Brody's 2009 Resolutions

1. Build a rocket ship out of blocks.

2. Not be naughty.

3. Fly like a bird in an airplane or helicopter.

4. Play a real guitar or drums.

5. Pick up people's candy for them when they drop it.

6. Help the baby practice going down the stairs (I had to stress many times that an adult had to be around for this one).

Okay so if you have been reading every day you now know our resolutions, time to get yours done!

Mark's 2009 Resolutions

Here are Mark's resolutions for 2009. What a trooper for letting me post them! I'm hoping that by posting all of our resolutions it will help you start to build your own.

Mark's 2009 Resolutions

1. Increase income

2. Maintain an extracurricular activity all year.

3. Take more interest in my health and be willing to make an extra effort.

4. Cook more.

5. Bring the two families together more.

6. More date nights.

7. Spend more time with the family outdoors trying new things.

8. Make a better effort to help others with handyman chores.

9. Try the Catholic Church in our area.

10. Spend more time with our dogs.

Tomorrow...Brody's resolutions!

My 2009 Resolutions

One of my favorite things to do is make my New Year's Resolutions at the end of every year. Not only does it give you some time to reflect on where you are in your life, but it helps you remind yourself where you want to go. I honestly believe that everyone should make their resolutions yearly. This year I started a new tradition where my whole family (not just me) makes their own resolutions and we help each other and/or share with each other. I will be sharing my resolutions today, Mark's tomorrow, and Brody's (so cute) on Tuesday. 

I believe resolutions need to be done correctly. Personally I think they need to be SHARED so that we are held accountable, they need to be REALISTIC,  and the need to be SPECIFIC. I made 15 this year, make how many you think you need. I know I can handle 15 because I will follow them all (I always do). Some areas I think that your resolutions need to be based on are SELF, FAMILY, SPIRITUALITY, APPEARANCE, and OTHERS. I hope that by reading mine you can start to build your own list.

Amanda's 2009 Resolutions

1. Continue to find healthy options for my family in food and recreation (organics, vegetarian meals, new foods).

2. Make my own health a priority and find time for diet and exercise. Maintain the same weight for a whole year.

3. Move away from the things I flock to when things get hard (coca-cola, sweets & shopping).

4. Get at least one full night's sleep a week (a full 8 hours).

5. Take my business up one level through marketing, website changes and cost solutions.

6. Make decisions based on what is best for my family, not others.

7. Date night at least once a month!

8. Create at least one fundraiser in 2009.

9. Find small pockets of "me" time to decompress and be creative.

10. Make fashion a priority, well at least anytime not Mon-Fri from 8am to 5pm, meaning dress up on the weekends and any outing.

11. Change someone's life in 2009, make a lasting difference.

12. Remind my friends' how amazing they are and compliment a stranger at least once a week.

13. Help my husband reach a dream of his. 

14. Actually begin to write down the words in my book, get it on paper.

15. Pray more.

Those are mine so start thinking of yours and if you want you can post them in the comment section or email them to me and I can post them on my blog. Or at least print them out and tape them on your computer so you are reminded of them every day.

Heading towards the New Year

One thing I'm not very big on, as we head towards the New Year, is the recap. Every darn magazine or TV show likes to recap 2008. We all know what happened, we were paying attention the whole year. We want to look forward as we get closer, not look back.  So there will be no recapping on this blog, only introspective as we move towards a new year.

One thing I think that is important to do is take a minute and look at ourselves. Especially in hard times it's important to be positive about everything that we do have and all of our strengths. So today (or whichever day you read this) I would love it if you would post a comment about one of your strengths, something that you like about yourself. I know a lot of you read my blog (because you tell me) but you never comment. Please sign in, or comment as anonymous. It's good for all of us to remind ourselves how great we are. I'll go first.

My favorite attribute about myself is that I am fearless. Not the jumping off the cliff kind of fearless, but the not afraid to take a risk and put myself out there fearless (getting my MBA, starting a non profit walk, starting a blog, doing a job I was under qualified for, starting my own business, etc). I know people are afraid of failure so they hold back, but I have found that I have never failed myself and I have always taken the harder road where I do things that might be difficult. Trust me the rewards are amazing and I will never have regrets in old age.

Now your turn.

(Check back for the next few days as I post about an end of the year favorite- the New Years Resolution.)

My fav Christmas pictures and my fav presents

I hope you had a great Christmas...here are some of my fav photos from our celebration!

Family photo on Xmas Eve

Brody seeing Santa's presents Christmas morning

Piper and her $14.95 wooden doll house

Brody trying to lovingly put his arm around his sister Christmas morning.

Below are the fav gifts we received this year, you never really know until you open them and try them out!

Dancing Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba! We expected this to be our least favorite.

Abby doll from Pottery Barn Kids, it's as big as Piper though

Williams Sonoma's Peppermint Bark, Mark's favorite

Play Town wooden doll house, got it at Toys R Us on clearance for $14.95. I love it!

Gingher sewing scissors from my mom, the Cadillac of scissors

Joseph Abboud men's socks from Mark's mom found at Nordstroms Rack

Horton Hears a Who! DVD- we had such a good time watching on Christmas and it kept Brody's attention the whole time. A tough feat!

Merry Christmas

The Tea House on Los Rios

The girls in my family just had our 1st Annual Christmas Tea at The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano. I have been to this tea house on a few other occasions, including my baby shower, and loved it. It was nice to get together and we took Josephine (3 years old). The food and of course the tea were great (their tomato basil soup is to die for). It's just a great way to spend time with the women in your family and especially right before Christmas. If you haven't been there, get the girls together and make a date. And thanks to my mom for a wonderful afternoon!

Christmas traditions

One of the best parts of being a new family is that you get to start making your own traditions. On Brody's first Christmas I bought a cute gift box at Target that said it was from Santa. Well every year I put something in it for him as if Santa put it in the box that night. Well I loved doing this so much, I bought Piper a box this year and put a to and a from on it as well. I couldn't find a box as great as Brody's but it's still cute. I'm looking forward to the kids being excited about what Santa put in their box every year, especially since all of Santa's other gifts aren't wrapped.

Another Christmas tradition is that I keep all the photo cards that we receive from friends and family and I put them in an ongoing scrapbook. It's cute because ever year we take out the scrapbook and look through all the cards to see how much all of our friends' kids have grown. I also put our yearly card in there as well as a picture with Santa. It's so easy, I make all the cards fit so there isn't any extra decorating and I just store it away after Christmas with all the decorations.

Sometimes.....

I have been feeling a little down in the dumps every now and then lately. But late at night, when I'm at my computer and the whole house is sleeping, I stay up just a little bit later so that I can read some blogs. I have bookmarked a lot of blogs, but here are two that kinda of make me feel a little better. We can call them favs and here they are:

1. c jane enjoy it- I started reading her blog when her sister Stephanie was in a plane crash. But I still read it when I can. I like to check into the world of Stephanie and Christian to see how they are doing. It humbles me and makes me appreciative. And knowing that they are healing makes me feel better. It really does. I also like to see what Jane is up to as she has all the kids with her and has a great sense of humor. This is the first blog I always check.

2. Snippet & Ink- I'm happily married but I love going to this blog with wedding pictures and inspiration. Some of my enjoyment is as an event planner, I get great ideas. But mostly, wedding pictures make me happy. Seeing how people put such beautiful touches into their own day makes me smile.

Just a little enjoyment.

xo