365 grateful day 5

Today I'm grateful for how much Jonathan thinks about me first. Tonight he asked me which kid I wanted to help with bedtime. There is usually someone who is much easier to help... give him a bottle, change his bum, and put his jammies on.
Jonathan doesn't just say he wants to take Corbin, but he always asks me first. He does that with everything, and I appreciate it!

What a guy! He's great!

365 grateful day 4

I'm grateful for friends! I had a friend come over. She is the first friend I've had over in a very long time... I actually can't remember the last time I had just one friend over just because we all needed some socialization... maybe in September? It's been a long long time.
Today was a perfect day to have someone over, it was a very overwhelming day (aside from the hour she was over).

Gratitude 365 day 3

Here is a cool story for you! Goes to show the power of compliments :)

https://goo.gl/photos/asTmzToCg9gbTvYVA

365 gratitude day 2

I wanted to do a vlog today, to see if that would be more sustainable. Check it out if you want.

https://goo.gl/photos/rpsfmBYgzvGPTRUf6

Gratitude 365

I saw a YouTube video about a lady who was feeling depressed and went to a psychologist and they said that gratitude will change the way you see life. So she started a project, gratitude 365, where she finds something to be grateful for every day for a year.

I felt inspired, I kind of did that last year, but it didn't last all year. I have been feeling like I need a pick-me-up, so I'm going to try it. I was planning on starting at the new year, but after saying that my gift to the Savior was to be more grateful, it only makes sense to start it now.

December 26: I'm grateful for days that Jonathan and I work together. Today we cracked down and organized our toys, and it feels so much better! I also feel so much more connected to him when we do stuff like that.

Our First Christmas - Part 2

Christmas day was perfect! Cambria slept in until quarter to 8! It was awesome!

Here is a video of her waking up. I don't know if I mentioned that Cambria saw a little broom that I was wrapping, but that was the first thing she asked for (you can see it in the video).

We opened up our stockings and the kids were so excited about the snacks that Santa brought, that they didn't care about the mountain of gifts under the tree.

 

(I love the pic of Corbin... two hands in his fishy crackers!)

I felt a little bit like I was 10... I just wanted to start opening presents! Finally, I convinced Jonathan to open a gift. Then I did, and then the kids were interested in opening theirs.

We just took our time opening presents. They loved all of them! Even a temple plaque that I made them. I was worried that after all the toys, that Cambria would be a little underwhelmed, but she was just as excited about it as anything else. We finished opening all of our presents around 2:00. It was about 55 degrees, so we took a walk! It was so pleasant!

The rest of the day was full of snacking, playing and lots of "It's Christmas!" from dad, whenever Cambria asked for more candy or other things. We figured one day of absolutely no structure a year wouldn't kill them. It probably would do them some good :)

We talked to so many of our family members, I really love my family (both sides) and I was so glad to hear from a lot of them!

I have been surprised with how Cambria has taken to the cars and Corbin has taken to the music toys. Jonathan was right when he said "it doesn't matter what we get Corbin, Cambria will just take it and play with it", but I was pleasantly surprised that Corbin was excited about her gifts too.

Jonathan was super thoughtful and made me a gift that wasn't even close on my radar. He made me a height board. I told him ONCE that I thought it would be fun to have one. I think my exact words were "when we make one, I want one exactly like that" (when I saw the one that Sadie made). It's perfect, and very professional. I love it!

Overwhelmed

As I said in my last post, I'm sitting here admiring our tree and ALL THE PRESENTS under it. With us being in grad school, I knew we wouldn't provide many presents. For some reason I was gearing up for about two presents per person under the tree. I had forgotten about our families help with presents.

Let me tell you what! I'm so grateful for how generous our families are! We are literally overflowing with gifts! I'm so grateful! I can't wait to see Cambria's face when she sees this!

Our First Christmas - part 1

**please note that I know this isn't our first Christmas together...**

This is the first year we have stayed home for Christmas, and in many ways it feels like our first. Just because when we have gone elsewhere there is often so many mini "Christmas mornings" (times to open presents) that there never is the excitement and the awe that comes with Christmas morning.

Yesterday, we had an awesome Christmas eve. It was as perfect as it could be with two toddlers. Jonathan went to work early (he had some stuff he needed to do in the lab etc). I slept through my alarm and woke up when the kids woke up! They even slept in til 7:30! That was nice to get some good, solid sleep. We did our normal thing, until noon when daddy came home. We ate lunch, and Jonathan played with both kids while I got ready for the day (don't judge). We all played for a bit and then Corbin went down for a nap and we made dinner!

We had chicken cordon bleu, steamed broccoli, and Parmesan rice. I also made breakfast for today (breakfast casserole), Cambria helped, so I'm hoping that she will try it since she helped me. While Jonathan was finishing up with making dinner, I decided last minute that I wanted to add a center piece in hopes to make the meal feel a little fancier.

Not bad for a last minute, thrown together, used what we have, center piece, eh? I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it really did make the meal feel fancier. Cambria kept admiring it during dinner, that made me feel good.

Oh, and we had slushy punch, it was delicious. When I grew up, a nice meal wasn't a nice meal without some fancy drink. When Jonathan grew up, a nice meal was served with water (every other meal was served with milk). I think it was done that way intentionally, "fill up on the good food that we made". My family's thought process was "the meal needs to be complete, everything needs to taste good, including the drink". I may be putting words in people's mouths, but that's what we thought was the reason behind it.

Anyway...

After dinner, we talked about Jesus, and got ready to act out the nativity. We grabbed blankets, scarves, and my one bath robe...

again... not bad eh? Corbin wouldn't hold still long enough to do anything besides throw a sheet over his shoulder. But it still made me giggle with how cute he was when he tried to walk or crawl with his big poof. We talked about the Christmas story, and tried to act it out with not enough actors, and certainly not enough actors that knew what they were doing.

We talked about how Heavenly Father gave us Jesus Christ, and what can we give back. I said that I was going to give the gift of being more grateful (more on that later). I felt the Spirit, and I'm grateful that through the craziness, the Spirit was still there.

Then we watched some Christmas videos and got ready for bed.

oh man, what a power struggle bedtime was! Cambria knows what comes after Christmas eve... and she was so excited for presents! We got her down easily enough, but then she closed her eyes for a few seconds, opened them up and said "I see the 7!" (We told her that she needed to wait till she saw the 7 before she came out). She then came out of her bed and was convinced that she was done with the night. I tried talking to her for a minute, but it was no use. Corbin was having a hard time too, so I went into the room and picked him up and tried to calm him down. I don't know what all was said, but it probably took about 10 minutes for Jonathan to convince Cambria that she needed to sleep. She climbed into our bed (the only way he could get her to lay down) and quickly fell asleep.

We thought that was the end of it, nope. She got up at midnight, and at 4:00, both times needing some serious convincing to climb back into bed. Thankfully we didn't put the presents out until 6:00 this morning. Now, here we sit with our tree on, and the overflowing presents under it, just waiting for her to wake up. I'm not complaining though, she needs the rest!

My big sister

Amy's birthday was yesterday and all day I have been thinking about her, and her good qualities.

Let me tell you about my big sister, from my little sister perspective.

Growing up, we were roommates, I remember late night giggling (for various reasons), her example to stay up all night on Christmas eve so we could be the first one to get to the coveted "wake-up bell" right at 6:00 (although I was never able to make it all night). As we got older, I remember notes passed on each others pillows with much needed advice about how to solve/survive junior high woes. I remember so many times going out to eat, her treat, and having girl talks. And oh, let's not forget all the shopping trips! She is still one of my favorite shopping buddies (her and my other sister, Holly are my favorite).

Amy is fiercely loyal. And doesn't mind pulling out momma-bear to defend those she loves. I wouldn't want to be one of her kids futures ex's... ;)

Amy is one of the most generous people I know! She will give you the shirt off her back, or open her home until there's no more places to put people. Literally... every single sibling has lived with her (except Matt and Ash) at some point. Some of us have lived there multiple times.

Amy cares deeply. Her love runs deep, although she sometimes doesn't like to show it. She is the first to respond when one of us is in need, and we can count on her to know what's going on in moments of crisis because she is right there, beside them doing what she can to help.

I could go on, but it suffices to say, I love my big sister, and I'm so glad she's mine!

Baby steps

Sometimes I have strikes if inspiration, when I do, I feel so grateful for them! After two really bad mommy days, I had a good one! I needed to get my Christmas presents wrapped and shipped. Usually, I would wait till quiet time, so I could do this without help, but I had the brilliant idea to let Cambria help. So when I put Corbin down for a nap, she and I helped each other and spent a good long time just hanging out. It was good for both of us. She was excited to help, and I felt good spending some quality, positive, time with her.

She also helped me make chex mix last night.

She is starting to be old enough to help, and we both like it!

My little helper

Today we were on our way out. Cambria was being super toddler and was ready to go before anyone else. She was playing around, going in and out of the door, then I asked her if she could help put Corbin's coat on. She excitedly said "yes!" And then matter-of-factly walked over to the coat track, grabbed his coat, opened it up, put it over his head and said "boo!" And then proceeded to help him put it on.

She couldn't quite figure out how to do it, but I think she felt good that I needed her help. I felt good watching her help (and it was adorable setting her do things daddy does with her), and Corbin felt good getting some positive attention from her.

Triple win!

Oh media

I have a love-hate relationship with media. Mostly I love it too much which makes me hate it.

My Facebook addiction got out of hand, so I took some drastic measures, and created a whole separate account for anyone who is not a sibling or my bff. It has been surprising how much less I look at it when I only have like 10 friends.

I'm still trying to curb my screen addiction. I have realized that it's not uncommon for me to get off my phone, remember that I want to send an email (or whatever) and immediately grab my tablet, and then go straight back to my phone. It's bad.

Some days are better than others. I love it when I don't pick up my phone till quiet time, but the last few days have not been like that.

I'm starting to realize that this is a problem, which is the first step to change. And I'm putting it out in blog land, which makes it feel more real (how pathetic, I have to post it to media to make it feel real... no this is my journal. So that's what makes it feel real)