2010...Resolute.

res·o·lute [ rézzə lt ]

adjective

Definition:

1. having determination: possessing determination and purposefulness

2. characterized by determination: motivated by or displaying determination and purposefulness

I love this definition. (Motivation, determination, purpose!! the I CAN DO IT attitude! )

This year I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish to better myself and my general well-being as a person.
This year will be a changing one for our family. Clay will completing his therapy program, I've told him that I want to be the one to stay home with the kid (s) and he agrees, it's where I need to be. Once he's done with school - whether he gets a job in his field or not, its my turn. At least let's hope!! :) You never know in this market... with so many people out of work. It's so sad ... I know I'm lucky to be working, and really need to be more greatful for that, but it's been a hard transition at times juggling full time work and trying to be a good mother / wife... sometimes failing in that department...
What will be will be and I know that.  Anyways, we are also thinking about expanding our family by another child. 2 HUGE changes. So, with them I've been thinking about goals and plans to make mine and my families little world a better place.

This is what I've come up with so far:

1. Exercise at least 10 minutes daily - Pregnant or not!

2. Keep the house clean  - ( by this I mean our bedroom. :) ) - in particularly ( do not hve a pile of clean laundry sitting for more than a day or 2! because it grows to a HUGE pile of laundry, then takes hours to overcome! trust me, I know from experience... he hee) http://www.flylady.com/ ROCKS!!

3. Make dinner for my family at least 3 times a week.  ( Planning a menu at the beginning of the week with grocery shopping included... this includes learning new recipes and trying new kinds of foods - healthy foods! )

4. Have Faith and Exercise it daily - (scripture study - even if its only 1 verse, and  sincere prayer) Strengthening my relationship with the Lord, and testimony of Jesus Christ. 

5. Run a 1/2 marathon. - ( this means February or sooner!! Better get my booty in gear starting with signing up! )

6. Run / Walk 365 miles this year.  - (Thats only 1 mile a day if I ran every day.  Since I don't run every day - I'm calculating around 3 times a week - thats about 3 miles a run... I can do that!! Plus the runs will be longer in the beginning of the year due to 1/2 marathon training... which means they can be shorter after the race)

7. Make new friends. - (getting out of my comfort zone and hanging out with girls at least one - two nights a month ... by this I mean girls other than my sisters)

8. Learn to sew. - ( I have a really nice sewing machine and all I've ever done is sew scrunchis as a teenager... time to learn and then I can become a domestic godess! )

9. Be a kinder, more loving and patient mother and wife to my dear husband and my sweet sweet daughter. - ( date night twice a month with the hubs, mommy daughter dates with my daughter, put myself in time-out when needed, don't sweat the small stuff )

10. Serve others. - ( actively try to serve others in various ways with more of a conscious effort. )

Pretty simple goals, and I'm actually already doing most of them, but need to improve on them and make each of them into HABITS. I don't want to be the person to overcommit myself - then face failure.

I'm so excited for 2010 and the changes that will come in my life. It will be challenging, but good! Fresh starts are the best, but this year, I'm going to try to keep it simple and just expand a little bit on some things that I want / need to improve to make my life better and the lives of those around me better... isn't that what its all about?


Anyone else wanna share?

Celebrate 2010

From our Family to yours - Happy New Year!

These are a few of my Favorite things!

What an awesome Christmas this year!!

FAVORITES:


Gift

Taryn - trip to Las Vegas to see Cirque de Soleil with Adam and Brett!
Clay - ditto
Maizyn - pack of 8 Disney Princess lipgloss (that only cost Santa $2.99  - of course! )


Things

Taryn -  Having a week off work!!  ( and Spending time with Family on Christmas Eve (both sides) )
Clay - All the yummy food! ( and spending time with family )
Maizyn - Waking up to all the gifts Santa left for her! ( and spending time with Family )

Many Favorite Moments:

Maizyn nightly prayers " thank you for baby Jesus, Joseph, and Mary and the little lamb "

The excitement on Maizyn's face when she walked into the living room Christmas morning to see what Santa left her.

When Maizyn got her beautiful Red dress from Grandma Glauser and laid it out on the ground in the middle of all the chaos with her headband on top saying " Yeah, that works "

Clay actually NOT knowing about one of his gifts from Santa for once!

That Maizyn's favorite gift was $2.99 lipgloss.

Maizyn playing the wisemen during the live nativity at Grandma Glauser's Christmas Eve program.

Holding Baby Isaac and Baby Stevie on Christmas Eve and feeling the pure peace of a newborn... thinking of Baby Jesus.

How peaceful this year was.

Maizyn spending 2 hours just opening her gifts one by one on Christmas morning and actually enjoying playing with them.

Sleeping in until 9:45 on Chirstmas morning. ( Maizyn was tuckered out from all the parties the day before )

Maizyn caroling EVERY time we went to someone's door during the month of December.

Maizyn learning all the Christmas songs this year.

Grandpa Byron Surprising us the day after Christmas with a gift for Maizyn ( A Leapfrog Didj! - close enought o a DS which is what Maizyn wanted but Mom told her she couldn't ask for until she was 6 or 7 )

After Making a huge Christmas Morning Breakfast and setting the table nice - Maizyn "Wow Mom, why is it so fancy"

Maizyn twirling in her new beautiful Christmas dress from Grandma in the halls at Church.

Alex being a Mexican Ranchero with his new Machete.

Playing the angry elf part of "my Suit is Red"

Playing Family Fued with the Ross side of the Family and the boys (Aaron) doing their victory dance.

All the generosity of everyone - what a wonderful year!  


Enjoying the peaceful moments while thinking of the birth of our Savior and the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

( Courtesy of designedphotography.com ) - my sister Kailey is so talented! Love you all and hope you have a Very Merry Christmas!

JOY!

We hope you find JOY and happiness this Christmas! Our motto this year has been JOY in the Journey as we have been going about our daily lives. It's been a busy year for us as we progress in our journey of life and we've found that enJOYing every moment has been the best attitude we could have... We've been blessed in so many ways with great friends and wonderful family that we love and Cherish. This season has brought us much Joy with Maizyn being old enough to really get into the Christmas festivities and learning and understanding the true meaning of Christmas. Every night she thanks God for Jesus, Mary and the little lamb in her prayers. :) so cute! Her favorite thing is the nativity set we have up and she always wants to hold Baby Jesus.
She is at such a fun age and we love her sweet spirit so much to remind us what it's all about. Having the special Spirit of Christ in our home this season has brought us the most Joy. Merry Christmas Everyone!  

Happy Birthday!

Wow! I'm 28! I seriously can't beleive I'm that much closer to 30. Weird! For my birthday I got the day off from work and got to pamper myself in the morning with a pedicure. It was a great day / week. I went down to see my cute sister Kailey and we went to the Victorian Country Christmas where my Mom was working... then came home to dinner at PF Changs and hanging out with my sweet amazing husband. I am so blessed to have the greatest family! It was one of the better birthdays for me and I'm very happy about that!

November

Ok, so November was crazy busy! It has been the busiest time at work - and needless to say I've been a little overwhelmed. but in between all the stress and madness at work, I've managed to have some great times as well. I did some wedding flowers for my friend Cindi - ALL BY MYSELF! - well not entirely, Kailey and Dad helped out a lot and Mom did the designing - but My Mom was out of town that weekend end put me in charge of this one. I was a lot more stressed than I  needed to be about it because it wasn't that bad and I think the flowers turned out really pretty. I was proud of myself. I think I'd like to take on a little more responsibility with helping my Mom out ( at least when I have the time )

Other than that, we have been having a great time celebrating our 5th anniversary!! Whoa! where did time go?? And Celebrating Thanksgiving with the Family as well as Twilight with my sisters, and the beginning of Christmastime!

November all in all, as busy as it was, was a good month...

Halloween

a little late I know... We decided to be the Phantom of The Opera at the Masquerade ball. We went Trunk or Treating at our church and it was a great night. I felt like a princess. I usually don't dress up but we found this sweet costume at Target on Halloween morning on sale... we decided to go all out. Fun night! Maizyn got WAY too much candy, but we all enjoyed through out the month of November.

Camping in October...brrr

This past weekend we went camping with Clay's parents. Granted it was RV Camping which people would argue isn't REALLY camping, but I disagree. It was a great time for all of us, especially Maizyn. She loves Grandma and Papa Carpenter and didn't want to leave. We rode the Ferry over to Bainbridge Island then drove down to Hood Canal area. It was a beautiful drive and the weekend turned out to be nice weather. It was really cold (being October) but we were in the RV at night, so it wasn't too bad.

I love how these pictures from the Ferry turned out!

Reading bedtime stories with Grandma.

Playing games! (I think Maizyn won!)

Early Morning walk to the beach.

Riding the mopeds!!

and the Ferry Ride home... it was FREEZING!

We had a great weekend and it was fun to get away, but made me realize just how cold it is getting so quickly!! I can't beleive it!

Chopped

I got my hair cut again... this time it was a little shorter than I wanted. I'm not quite sure if I love it or not, but I can't get any more length cut off cuz I DON'T want it any shorter. I'll just wait another month, then it should be exactly where I want it.

(Maizyn's attempt at taking a picture of my new cut! I thought it was funny, the only thing she missed was my actual hair! )

Salmon Days!

We had a great day at Salmon Days yesterday. I've grown up going to this festival since I was 9 years old. Clay always says its more for me than for Maizyn because I get so excited about it. In the morning Clay, Maizyn and I went to the parade, then walked around a bit... since we live so close we are able to walk as it is pretty much in our backyard. I love living downtown. Anyways, later in the afternoon Maizyn and I ventured out again with My Mom, Heather and the kids. Kailey is in Hawaii right now so we have Reilyn and Kedric with us too. Reilyn and Maizyn wanted me to take their pictures everywhere, as you can see. They were cute.

This guy made a necklace charm for Maizyn with his foot whittling it, he was so sweet with her, gave he a kiss on her forehead and she loved it. It was amazing to watch!

Then there was the duck dogs... its like a longjump for dogs juping into the pool. Pretty cute to watch!

Clay and Maizyn at the parade! It was a fun day. I'll always remember growing up going to Salmon Days each year, and I hope Maizyn can too... at least for now while we live her. It's a fun tradition.

1st Day of Preschool!

My little girl is growing up!! I still can't beleive she is in preschool. Shes a little sweetheart and I think she likes it!! :)

Pettiskirt

This perfect Pettiskirt was made by my dear friend Sara ... Check out her website! She also has a store "Little Pretties" on Etsy. She is seriously so amazing and talented. Thank you Sara, for helping make Maizyn's birthday perfect!

Proud Momma

We made eachother necklaces from a kit Maizyn got from her birthday. I even wore it to church as a proud Mom and got a few compliments! I really like how this picture turned out.

Darling, It's a Fancy Nancy Birthday Party!

Bonjour, Darlings. Welcome to the Fancy Nancy Birthday Party for Maizyn's 4th Birthday!

Tea Party with Pinkies up!
Soo, Fancy!
It's a Makeove Boutique!
Complete with yummy perfume, make-up, and glitter!

Getting all glammed up!

Cute little Zane

Time for the glamourous and fabulous Fashion Show!! Twirl that pretty skirt, darling!

All the models posing for the photoshoot! (The girls were actually a bit shy for this part, but I still think they liked it!)

Graceful Gift opening!

Tea Cups were decorated to perfection for the craft.

The Ross girls, hard at work to make their tea cups so lovely!

Such attitude, with her legs crossed and all! Such a little lady!

The line-up for Personalized Parfaits! Pretty girls all dressed in their most exquisite attire!

Don't forget the "little pretties"

Time for the Birthday girl to blow out her candles... hey Kedric blew them out before she could! "hey, its MY birthday!" (this was hilarious)

Let's Try again! Make a wish my sweet little pumpkin!

Daddy even got in on it and helped color Princess dresses for her new paper doll! What a guy!

SOO Happy!

It really was a great day! She loved every moment of it and I'm so glad. I'm also glad its over! :) Merci Everyone! Thank you for making it such a great party!