Reflections and Resolutions

I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions but this year I decided I would.  A good friend of mine said she has a word for the year.  I'm going to borrow her idea and make my word for next year:

nour•ish

Pronunciation: (nûr'ish, nur'-)
—v.t.
1. to sustain with food or nutriment; supply with what is necessary for life, health, and growth.
2. to cherish, foster, keep alive, etc.: He had long nourished the dream of living abroad.
3. to strengthen, build up, or promote: to nourish discontent among the workers; to nourish the arts in one's community.


I'm going with #3 in case you're wondering.  There are a number of areas of my life I plan to utilize that word.

As Mom: I need to nourish my knowledge in child development and parenting issues.   The process of potty training threw me off as I discovered, at least in Lainey's case, that  could read all the theories on potty training I wanted and they were not going to help. I had to trust my gut and find her "currency."  Now it's back to reality. I have a stack of parenting books that I hope and plan to read, well before the end of 2010.  My ultimate goal isn't to just read the books but to become a better, more patient parent in the process.  I used to be fairly well read on child development but once Beau arrived, life got four times as busy and I've let myself get lazy in this regard.

As a wife:  Robert and I managed to take a couple of trips, minus the kids this year.  Time alone with each other was very infrequent and I hope to make date night a more regular occurrence in 2010 so we can nourish our relationship.  Although...I'll trade a few date nights for a trip to Hawaii without the kids any day!

As a friend: I have quite a few friends I have not seen or made time for in quite some time. I really need my friends and enjoy being around other people.  Once you have kids it's hard to make time for your friends but I love and miss getting together with my girlfriends and know it's something I need in my life.

As a woman:  I have also not done well in the "self care" department.  I need to take more time for myself and do things that make me happy.  I realized this when I was making Christmas gifts and cards. The rush I got from crafting felt great and really nourished my soul.

As one of God's children:  I have not been to church in quite some time and one of our family goal's to change that.  But going to church does not make your relationship with God.  I need to nourish that relationship and all the other stuff will fall into place.

2009 was a bad year for a lot of people. Fortunately, we had a good year.  A great year in a lot of respects.  We are very very blessed.  2009 brought us Beau, the sweetest, happiest little guy I've ever met.  He stole my heart the minute he entered this world and after a rocky first couple of months, it has been smooth sailing ever since.  He makes me laugh 100 times every day.   It was another year of baby "firsts," most of which were the exact opposite of how his sister did things, but we had a lot of experiences that were firsts for us as a complete family.  Watching Lainey change from a baby to a little girl has been amazing, exhausting and rewarding.  To see her personality coming to life, her sense of humor emerging and hearing that sweet voice say, "Mommy" make my days complete.   The two of them are my life. I can't imagine my life without them. Hmmmm, well maybe I can imagine it:  calm, quiet, clean, but empty.  Being a mother is a hard job but one that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Happy New Year to you and I pray you have a happy, healthy, blessed 2010.

Nicole

11

Happy Smurf Day Beau! You are 11 months old today!  Where has the time gone? I swear you were just 10 months old yesterday!  You are such a sweet, happy little boy.  In just  a week you'll be taking your first plane ride. To Maui!  I'm so excited to see you play in the sand and in the pool with Grammy and Grandpa.  I just know you're going to look so cute in your little swim trunks too.  We thought you might be walking by now but you seem to be a bit hesitant about it.  You've taken a couple of steps and love to walk with us holding your hand but so far, you're taking your sweet time doing it on your own and that is just fine with me! You are very good at signing and let us know when you want milk, are all done and when you want more.  You also say, "yummy, banana, Mama, Dada, Lainey (usually you yell that one!), and Grandpa."

In what will feel like a blink of an eye, you're going to be one soon. Mommy's busy planning your birthday party. I want it to be extra special for my sweet boy!

I love you so much sweetpea!

Mommy

Christmas Day

6:30am waking up to Lainey halfway down the stairs saying, "I gotta go see Christmas!"

Santa left an unwrapped present for Beau by the door. Lainey's reaction: "Oh my!"

Lainey didn't quite get the concept of opening presents all at once. She opened one, played with it for awhile, took a break, then yelled, "Let's go open another one!"

Beau just wanted to chew on the wrapping paper and pull ornaments off the tree.

Until he got a package of four bouncy balls.  That's all it took to make him happy.

Mommy just about smoked us all out of the house for the second holiday in a row. That makes her 0-2 for cooking holiday dinners. She is seriously considering never cooking another dinner for her in-laws again.

Seeing my two babies sitting at the table eating dinner with all of us was my favorite part of the day.

"Paper" dolls were a big hit as was Elefun

2009's Best Gift

My favorite pics

The Night Before Christmas

Today was a very good day.  After a quick trip to the grocery store for supplies to make cookies, we spent the whole day just hanging out together, playing with Lainey while Beau napped and playing with Beau while Lainey napped. Yep, Lainey took a nap today. I told you it was a good day!  We tracked Santa on Norad a few times, made cookies and my world famous crab and artichoke dip.  It might be a stretch to call it world famous but  hey, it's MY blog, I'll call it whatever I want!

Lainey thought she heard Santa's reindeer bells and a faint, "Ho Ho Ho."  That was all it took for her to fly into bed for the night. She's hoping Santa will bring her a "little camera" and a computer.

This is our first Christmas as a complete family. Robert and I spent 9 Christmases where it was just the two of us. They were very nice, but none of them except our first as a married couple (we were in Mexico listening to Feliz Navidad over and over), sticks out in my mind.   Then Lainey arrived.  Life has never been the same and Christmas is no exception.   My parents made a huge deal out of Christmas, getting us all excited, making sure we wrote our lists, teasing us about what we were getting, tracking Santa (back then it was on tv since there wasn't internet).  I want Lainey and Beau to have those same memories.

This is just the start of some wonderful family traditions and great memories that we'll talk about for years to come.  Mewwwy Qwistmas!

Christmas Eve Eve

We just couldn't wait and let the kids open one present each from Grandma and Grandpa Davis. Lainey of course, took control of both presents and left Beau to play with the old toys.

Shhh...don't tell Grandpa we opened one!

Well Hi there!

P.S. Beau took two steps last night!

Excited for Santa

I thought for sure she was going to fall into the tree.  Thankfully, she didn't. Beau likes showing off all 7 1/2 of his teeth these days.

RIP Sweet Puppies

Hunter and Bella,

I never got to meet you but thought you were beautiful creatures that I would've loved to snuggle up with.  My aunt and uncle thought the world of you and loved you very much.  Somehow extra special animals seem to find their way into Jeff and Jean's lives and you two were no exception.   Thank you for bringing such joy into their lives.  You will be missed dearly. 

Crunch Time

Mommy said Santa is coming next week. So just sit still and let me hug you Beau!

Sugar and Spice

Isn't she sweet? You'd never guess a couple hours after this shot was taken, she slapped me across the face TWICE huh? And hard I might add.

Best part of preschool

I think the best part about Lainey going to preschool is the art projects that she brings home.  They often use their handprints to make something and it freezes these precious moments in time.  I will have them to look back on years from now and remember how little she was.

Seriously, how cute is this angel she made using her hands and foot?

Spike and the Impalers

Friday night some good friends  invited us to KZOK's Twisted Christmas show at Snoqualmie Casino.  Spike and the Impalers were playing and although Robert had seen them before, I hadn't.  A comedian opened and explained how Michael Jackson had been giving us clues about his mental state through the titles and lyrics to his songs.  Very entertaining.  Oh, and did I mention how cute he is? Very nice show indeed!  During the Spike and Impalers set Hal came out and even sang a song. I can't remember the name of it though, something a little heavier than I'm used to listening to but great nonetheless.  Anyway.....I took a few pics with my new camera.  I was quite pleased with how it performed in such low light.

This is so NOT how I pictured Bob Rivers looking.  Or Spike, or Joe, who wore sweatpants by the way. I didn't get a picture of Joe though.  Spike is the one singing and Bob is playing the keyboard in the background.

I don't think Bob is pointing at me but I was standing on my chair so I guess it's possible.  Hal Sparks is the guy in the blue t-shirt. Not a great pic of him.

Overall, a GREAT night out for this girl!

There's hope yet

I've been known to make fun of Robert for the pictures he takes and how sometimes half of my head is missing.  It's not fair of me to make fun of him and I will no longer do so.  He has after all, captured some of my favorite pictures EVER and it's just not nice to poke at someone.  He took this photo with his Blackberry from his office window.  I just have a couple of things to say about it:

1. Great use of the Rule of Thirds
2. I wish he'd let me get him a "real" camera to keep at work for moments like this
3. I'm just glad he's taking a moment from his stressful day to look out the window!
4. Keep taking pics!

Love ya baby!

Hunting for a tree

I say hunting for a tree because it's about as far from hunting as one can get. We drove about 5 minutes from our house, unloaded the kids at Donna's and walked around til we found our tree.  With tying it to the top of the car, in all we were gone about 20 minutes.  The Griswold's we are not. In that regard anyway.

Lainey had fun "helping" me test the lights and put them on the tree.

Sitting on the couch next to the tree is a favored spot of Lainey's.  She figured out she can reach the "Candy Lands" and make off with them. I can appreciate her ingenuity. I used to steal the candy canes off my mom's tree and rearrange them so she wouldn't notice.  I got busted every time because I never knew when to stop (or couldn't stop more like.)

The gate isn't pretty but it's necessary these days

Beau woke up from his nap to a great surprise and was determined to get his hands on the tree.  So Daddy did what anyone would do: gave him a birdseye view!

All in all, I think this is my favorite tree ever.  It's Beau's first Christmas, Lainey is really starting to get into the whole thing and it's our first Christmas as a family of four. Last year we were anxiously awaiting Beau's arrival and we didn't feel complete yet.

Photo Challenge "Sweet Dreams"

I finally captured a photo of Lainey asleep in her bed. These seem to be the only times lately where I can still see the baby in her.  She's growing up too fast.

Great night for a football game

Tonight was the Huskies last game of the season.  It was a beautiful night but cooold! Robert's boss gave us the tickets along with a parking pass that was so close I found the car before Robert.  [If you know me at all, you know I get lost leaving my house so you can imagine how close we got to park.]  We also got to go into the Don James Center before and during the game.  Besides great food, great seats, and the ability to escape the cold, it was an awesome game with the Huskies winning 45-10 AND I got some great shots of the sunset and some sun flare.  If you don't know, I LOVE it when I get sun flare in my photos.  Just a little tidbit of useless info about myself.

Now this is the way to see a game!!  Notice that it's December and it's not only not raining but SUNNY?  SO cool!  I am one happy girl tonight.  Now if the Seahawks could pull out a win tomorrow.....

My favorite shot of the night. The sky was gorgeous.

Trial Run with Santa

Going downtown to see the tree at Westlake Center Thanksgiving weekend has become something of a tradition for us.  It started long before we had kids and while it's changed a bit since they arrived, it's something we look forward to doing.  So yesterday, we decided we'd go after Beau woke up from his nap, have dinner at Icon Grill, see the tree, the Macy's star (which will always be the Bon Marche star to me, sorry Macy's), the carousel, and do a little shopping.  Aside from the potty emergency at dinner in which Mommy was caught unprepared but that Daddy handled with ease, the evening went pretty well.  At 7:30pm (close to or after both kids' bedtimes)  I spied with my little eye, that the line to see Santa was pretty short.  After letting Lainey a chance to check him out through the window, she agreed to go in and talk to him.  Amazingly, it all went well. Lainey wasn't too keen on sitting on his lap but loved the rocking horse.  Beau checked him out pretty good and didn't start crying til the very end and that was probably due to him being out past his bedtime.  I predicted that he'd be the kid to pull off Santa's beard and he sure tried!

Unfortunately, I only had one lens with me and it wasn't the one I would have chosen had I known we'd be visiting Santa.

It's been a busy weekend with too much turkey and pie eating, putting up lights, falling down cement stairs, visiting Santa, and photo shoots in Mommy's new favorite location.  Today is all about football, crafting and relaxing!  Next weekend   will probably involve getting  our tree, more photos and possibly Christmas cookies!

I can't help but think sometimes:

This can't be my life.

I never dreamed I'd be this happy.

 I am so very blessed.

Lights

I think this is the earliest we have ever gotten our Christmas lights up.  If we didn't have a couple of elves (aka Grammy and Grandpa) to help us, I don't think we'd have gotten them up for another couple of weeks.  

And to make the day extra memorable, Lainey tripped going down the front stairs and gave herself a fat, bloody lip.  After all the bleeding and crying had stopped, all Mommy could think about, besides that my poor baby girl was bloodied up, was that we were having family pictures done the next day and how fabulous she was going to look.  Oh well, now we have a day after Thanksgiving memory.