January Blues

I just have to say I hate January's, it is a rough month for me.  I know most people get so excited with organizing and making resolutions for the new year, I may try and do that also but it only last for a day or two then I am back in this mini depression I get every January.  I can't wait till the month is over, I know it sounds unreasonable but once February hits I start to feel like my old self again.  I can once again get up in the morning and get going, I can get dressed for the day, and plan activities for the boys so they don't drive me crazy.   

Even though I am struggling life still goes on around me, Noah has been loving helping me make cookies lately.  I don't know if I should admit how often we have been making them lately, but in my defense the batches are really small and don't even make two dozen cookies.  I found a great peanut butter cookie recipe that Jason can eat that doesn't have any flour in them.  They are really good and if I didn't say anything about them not having any flour you would never know.

Last night we had some more snow Ashton wanted to go outside and play so we headed out, he was playing I was shoveling.  Noah had fallen asleep on the couch so when he woke up he came out with us to.  The boys wanted to make a snowman, which meant they wanted me to make a snow man for them.  So I did, we found some arms for it and I got a quick picture of Noah with it then a few minutes later it fell over, I guess I am not the best snowman maker. 

On Sunday we went to my Dad's house to have a welcome to Utah dinner for my grandma, she has moved in with my Dad and Val, she can't be on her own anymore so it will be nice to have her closer so we can see her more often.  She will have to adjust to our weather though, she is use to living in Mesa. She has to be on oxygen all the time now so she has this long tubing that follows her around the house.  Its kind of funny, but I know she hates to feel so tied down she is use to doing and going where she wants.  I thought it was cute we were all sitting in the living room and Grandma wanted to hold Ashton, she said she wanted to see if she could hold a big boy like him.  Ashton is such a good kid he willing went on her lap and let me take a picture. 

Jason is so so so busy with work he is working 50-60 hours a week and then on top of that he has school 3 nights a week, so needless to say we don't get to see him much and when he is home, like on the weekends he has to spend his time doing homework, this semester is going to be a rough one I think.  He has even had nights where he leaves work heads to school, then goes back to the office.  The boys are definitely missing having daddy around, especially Ashton he gets sad if he can't say goodbye in the mornings if Jason has to leave before he is awake.  Noah on the other hand one can never tell, one minute he wants daddy the next he wants nothing to do with him.  One night Jason was reading on the couch and I went to find him to go to bed and he was passed out, cuddling with one of the boys stuffed animals.  I actually woke him up with taking this picture.  I  am so proud of Jason and what he is doing for our family, he works so hard to provide a very good living for us and also is going to school so that he can be a good example to the boys.  I know it is hard and he misses being with the family but, he is doing what he has to and we love him for all the hard work that he does.  He is getting so close to being done, he has a year and he should be done by December so we are all so excited by that news.

Most night once the boys are in bed and while I am waiting for Jason to get home I curl up on the couch and try to catch up on some TV, some nights I have more company than others.

January Happenings

So there really hasn't been to much going on around here lately.  Jason has started the semester again so he is gone 3 nights a week for school, so it is just me and the boys a lot of the time.  Some days I am okay with that and some days bedtime can't come fast enough.  One night Noah was being particularly awful and he fell asleep around dinner time.  I let him sleep for about an hour, but I couldn't get him to wake up, I finally put him to bed at 7:00, I can't lie I was pretty excited to have him asleep, but in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't going to be a good thing.  Sure enough he woke up about 4am and kept getting up every 15 mins.  There was no way I was letting him stay awake, finally he fell asleep again around 5:30 and slept till the much more reasonable hour of 7:00am.  Never again am I putting a child to bed at 7:00pm. 

We got Noah a Thomas the train potty, so let the potty training begin.  I am so not looking forward to this, nothing with Noah has been easy so I can't expect this to be.  I am hoping with the right amount of Thomas the train bribery I can make it through. 

As you can see both boys were pretty excited to open the box

I realize that one day Noah is going to hate me for taking this picture, but oh well I will deal with it when the time comes.  He will sit on the potty but that is all nothing happens, right after this he wanted Thomas underwear on so I went and dug out Ashton's old underwear and put a pair on him. It only took him 3 mins before he peed his pants.  This potty training is going to take a long time!

Noah has been my little cookie helper, he actually was quite cute about it.  He sat on the counter and dumped in all the ingredients while I did the actual mixing.  I found a peanut butter cookie recipe for Jason that is gluten free, he has been in cookie heaven since. 

I have a new favorite salad, I guess it isn't new I have been making it for months now but I think it is saying something that I can eat it as often as I do and I am not sick of it yet.

We woke up to snow this morning and the boys friend from across the street came over and the boys spent about 2 hours outside sledding and playing in the snow.  At one point they pulled out the scooters and bikes but then they quickly realized why they aren't so much fun in the snow, they don't move well. 

The boys got a new tube for Christmas and this is the first chance they have had to get it out and use it.  I think it looks like a lot of fun, I want to take it to a larger hill and try it out for myself. 

House projects

Resolutions and house projects are two things that many people start to think about each new year.  For me I tend not to do the resolution thing, I don't need one more thing that I haven't accomplished to be hanging over my head.  But house projects are definitely something that sparks my interest and every year after Christmas has been taken down and the house is fresh and clean and uncluttered from the holidays, I start to dream about all the things I would like to do to the house.  Some of my projects are small things that I can tackle on my own with no help from Jason, others are bigger and need his help and also input. 

So I went through my house tonight and took pictures of all the rooms that I want to make some changes in.  I stopped my urge to clean everything up before I took the pictures because lets face it I have two little boys who think that it is there job to make a mess in every room of this house every single day.  It is exhausting keeping up with it so some days I just let it go. 

I can't believe that I am going to post this picture, this room has been a "work in progress for 2 years now"  it is also a dumping ground for misc things that I can't decide where to put them or I am going to need them again soon. We really don't use this room much, so I tend to forget about it a lot.

As you can see this room is such an embarrassment, I try not to let most people see it.  We come in through the garage and our shoes come off and get kicked in here.  See the pile of stuff in the corner, paint stuff, stuff to go to DI it is a mess.  I took the hideous wall paper off two years ago and started to patch the holes and things and that was as far as I got.  I did paint a couple of swatches of colors on the wall.  I don't even think I would choose any of them now. 

You can kind of see the ceiling, in this one I did manage to get one coat of white paint on it while I was painting something else last year and had a little left over and decided it couldn't be worse than the creamy color it had.  This will be the most expensive project out of all of them.

Family room, again I just took the picture so you can all see what a mess the boys have made this afternoon.  Actually it could be a lot worse so I guess I can be thankful.  We rearranged it last fall and I am loving how it is set up, now I just need to finish it with some pictures on the walls.  We had our family pictures taken and I want to blow them up and hang them above the couch.  I taped up some paper for a template to play around with them to find what I like the best.  I also want to frame out both the windows. 

We bought these chairs and I can't wait to recover them, I can't quite decide what kind of fabric I want to use, although I am thinking of going kind of neutral and some kind of stripe so I can use pillows as a punch of color.

The Hallway upstairs, I am dying to cover the whole thing with Board and Batten and then paint it the same color as the family room.  Oh and that also reminds me I would love to have the living room painted the same color also.  But I refuse to paint it again, we had to rent scaffolding and it was not fun, so I totally want to hire someone for that room. I guess as long as we are dreaming here I would also love to have the hallway and stairway carpet ripped up and hardwood floors put down.  We had the whole house re carpeted about 5 years ago and it has not held up well, we are not happy about it because we didn't choose cheap carpet we got a good quality and we don't usually wear shoes in the house so we figured it should of lasted better than it has. 

Boys room, I want to get a set of bunk beds for them and then I can rearrange the pictures on the walls.  I also need to finish hanging up Noah's name.

Playroom, I am still loving the decision to put the boys in the same room and make a playroom, best choice ever.  But now I want to paint it and take down all the baby stuff I had in there when it was Noah's nursery.  Oh yeah I also need to hang up the new curtain rod we have the one up is bending from the boys pulling on the curtains.

Master Bedroom, as you can see I guess I interrupted nap time for the cats.  So this room has been very sadly neglected I am happy with my bedding and the colors in here but I would love to have a headboard and maybe some kind of board and batten on the wall behind the bed.  Then there is the slight problem with curtains, I want them but nothing I have tried had been right.  I would love to cover up that half circle window, it sure lets in a lot of light in the morning, but with the ceiling sloping the way it does I don't know how good it would look to have curtains at different heights.  Then there is that awful corner with the two windows, I have no idea how to hang a curtain rod for that.  What I did before was pathetic I wont even talk about it. 
I have also toyed with the idea to have our dresser painted, they are in great shape and there is nothing wrong with them I would just like something lighter, I think.

Those are the main projects that I would love to get done this year, but I am also realistic in knowing that most likely they won't all get done.  But who knows maybe I will surprise myself and be real ambitious this year.  Jason hates when I get on these kicks because he sees all his hard earned money going away along with all his free time helping me get them done :) and besides free time is something he doesn't have much of these days.

Funny

Maybe no one else is going to find this funny, but Jason does this to me on a regular basis so I can totally relate. 
This is a blog that I can usually get a laugh out of rantsfrommommyland

It just makes me fell a little better that I am not alone in how I act.

Welcome 2012

So we rang in the new year with our friends the Bellamys. We headed to their house and had lots of yummy food and played the new game that Jason gave me for Christmas. While we were playing 7 Wonders, the boys (we have 5 of them between the 2 families) were watching movies, and playing. Korie had said she was going to put her boys to bed at 9:00 which I was okay with, my boys will sleep almost anywhere as long as they have their blankets. But they were being so good, we had two little incidents with Noah pushing people but other than that they were all happy and got along. So we didn't make anyone go to bed, well the baby did go to bed and so did Mason but the other 3 stayed up and rang in the new year with us.

The boys were watching Star Wars

It usually takes about three or four tries for a good picture with Jason he is always making a funny face.  I guess he should cooperate or else he is going to look funny on the blog!!

Boys watching a movie all cozy with their blankets

We loved the new game we ended up playing it all night and not playing anything else.

The traditional kissing midnight picture.  I am usually pretty good with this kind of picture, but I cut us off a little this time.

We tried to get the first family picture of 2012, but Noah wasn't being very cooperative, at least he isn't screaming in this one.  And yes I am in my pj's I needed to be comfortable.

I still can't believe that these three made it till midnight.  I knew that Sunday was going to be a little rough with two tired boys.  Ashton did awesome all day then fell asleep almost the minute his head hit the pillow.  Noah on the other hand had a tough day, he threw lots of fits, and ended up having a nap which he had to be woken up from so he would go to bed that night.  He was then awful the rest of the night and then wouldn't go to bed until almost 10:00.  Next year they aren't staying up!