Catch up: January

This is a short post...mostly because January was relatively calm, and because I'll be posting an entire post about Paul and my trip to So Cal without the kids :)

My sister Laura lives in Iowa, just 5 hours away, so she and her 5 youngest came to visit during the end of Christmas break and spent New Year's with us. We had a fondue party, played with Legos, and shared the stomach flu among the cousins. 

 It was ridiculously cold. Paul and his buddy Dan decided to run around outside when it was -40 degrees just to see what it felt like. I think school was cancelled 4 or 5 times due to cold temps, not snowfall (even though there was plenty of that too).

 The girls brought me breakfast in bed again...

 ...and I flew out west (without kids) for a quick trip to Idaho Falls for my brother Spencer's wedding. So happy for him and Keeley, and happy to be together with all my siblings for a quick weekend.

Why are resolutions hard to keep?

Is it just their nature? Is there some cosmic being out there whose purpose it to ensure that we all fail? Or do we just completely lack self-discipline? Paul is sure there's a cosmic being. I mean, every year we essentially set the same resolutions, something along the lines of loosing weight, exercising, saving money, reading scriptures...occasionally there are some that are more original, but each year we are back to the same ones. Maybe it's just me, but history seems to repeat itself every year. I would call for us to unite and dedicate ourselves to being more committed, but I'm sure I'd be one of the first ones to fall out. So I'm just striving to do my best again, and gratefully I have a wonderful husband who reminds me of my goals, so they can last a little longer this year.

Speaking of Paul, he has another interview (#4) this Saturday at Southwestern in Dallas...it's ranked #19 in the nation, so we are pretty thrilled. And Hattie and I are going along too! We figure it's worth paying the standby rate for a long weekend at his parents house. But unless he absolutely LOVES Southwestern, we'll probably be at Texas Tech in Lubbock, since he's been offered a scholarship there.

Welcome the New Year

I suppose it's time I catch up a bit...the holidays seem to slow everything down a bit. We got to spend 6 days up in Ontario with my side of the family, and gratefully didn't have horrible roads. I must say I felt spoiled by Mom's wonderful cooking and many willing hands to hold Hattie. It seems like some days my interaction with her consisted of nursing! And even now, back in Spanish Fork, Paul has stayed home the last few days, so I'm still spoiled by splitting the daytime responsibilities with him.

Christmas was great...we were still able to fit in a bit of caroling with Val, Lisa, and Natali, and of course get some quality time with nieces and nephews. It was a white Christmas after all.





Other developments: Hattie has starting sucking her thumb pretty consistently! I think it's adorable and now she needs the pacifier less.

Another accomplishment of December was that I finished another quilt, one that I started in July as a Christmas gift for Mark and Kerri. Of course it was pretty slow going with being very pregnant and then having a newborn, so it's a good thing I started early! I finished the binding on Christmas Eve :) Here are some pictures of when we quilted it....Paul actually did ALL of the quilting...I just watched to make sure the bobbin didn't break. Paul's aunt has a machine quilter, and I've tried to explain how it works to some of you before, but always unsuccessfully....so check it out. He just had to keep the stylus in the grove, and the needle created a nice pattern for us.

We also went out for our anniversary, and got our first babysitter. It was a success, especially since Hattie is getting much easier to take care of.