Our Own Little Christmas- January 1st

Nate gave me a few of my favorite new movies. I love to watch movies!! The Ultimate Gift is my new favorite. It has such a good message.
Abigail got used to opening presents in Utah and she was wasting no time opening what was rightfully hers (instead of helping everyone else).

Nate received a TV Guardian, a random assortment of old CDs from our high school years, and a 500 piece puzzle of the United States (which we just put together last week).

Lily was excited about her Mr. Potato Head set and was jumping with joy. Kaylie is eyeing her new keyboard with a microphone.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a childhood must have!

Abby got a puzzle with colors and shapes, that Lily had confiscated and claimed as her favorite new thing to play with.

Kaylie got a new bike!

Carter got a basketball hoop that goes even higher than 6 feet!

It was nice to be home and we were anxious to get the kids there Christmas gifts. Santa was kind enough to drop them off at our friends' house while we were away, so we got them and gave them to the kids the first morning we were home. It was a Saturday and we had church early the next morning followed by Kaylie going back to school and Nathan going to work on Monday.

Vacation is always awesome and fun to get away, but there is always a sense of release and peace coming back home again. I love getting back into the routine of things and making new goals to get our home in order and running again. My major decision of the new year was to give up Jazzercise and to use that time to more fully prepare Carter for Kindergarden, which he will be starting in the Fall. I have been working hard on our home preschool and he is showing great progress. He can now name all but 3 letters of the alphabet (just by looking at them). He will be ready by August, which is not something that I could've said with confidence a few weeks ago. I feel so much better about life now that I am a complete stay-at-home mom.

I absolutely loved Jazzercise and feel that it was exactly what I needed last year. But for some reason I feel so much peace and happiness now having left it behind me. I started a new work-out video called "the 30 day shred" by Jillian Michaels (one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser). I have been getting up around 6am 3 days a week to do this 20 minute video and I feel like it works me harder than any hour Jazzercise ever did! I can do 20 minutes and have been doing it now for about 5 weeks. I have been working on staying fit but now spending 2 hours a day on it like I did with going to and from Jazz. The kids are doing a lot better now too and I am determined to spend quality time with each of them on a daily basis. I have found that by spreading out my chores better throughout the week I am a better mom and haven't been yelling as much. I look forward to the day when I don't yell at all, but I think it might be a while!

Hooray, I am officially finished with writing about Christmas! It is about time!