I SUCK!

AHHHH I just realized that ALL my pictures are missing with the exception of the photos from my last post! Here I thought I didn't need an album on my phone with the pictures that appear here on my blog (my phone is linked to my google account) I had NO idea it would remove allllll the pictures from my blog at the same time!!! AHHHHHHHH Seriously, not how I wanted to start 2013 ;) Please 'Bear' ;) with me while I try to reload them, this may take a few days.

CRAP lol Happy New Year by the way :)

New Years Resolutions 2013

I'm a bit of a pinoholic. It's okay, admitting is the first step, right? Anywho! My goal for 2013 is to do more projects that I pin. I mean we all pin everything with the best of intentions *sometimes* but how often do we follow through with them? Rarely, right? Whether it be something for around the house, something with the kids, or something to eat, I'm going to plan to do a pin project once a week and post about it. 

I also want to get my family, life and home organized! I'm going to be 30 this year and I feel like it's time to grow up and get myself together. My kids, as darling as they are, are picking up all my bad habits and it's driving me crazy cakes! I need to lead by example. I can't expect them to want to be organized and have clean bedrooms if they see me not cleaning mine. 

I also want to journal more for my kids and try to set time aside every week to scrapbook a little more. Family memories are so important to me, I want them to be able to look back and relive those moments. 

What are you going to strive for 2013? 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season this year! It's hard to believe in 1 day it's gone. So much excitement, work, and thought for less then 24 hours! But I think any mom will tell you, those little faces make it all worth while! I've been away from the blog for a bit, mostly enjoying my kids and being busy getting ready for Christmas! Over the next few days I'll be doing recaps of some of our fun times over the past few weeks!

Today I'm going to start with bittersweet moment. Saying good-bye to 'Chippy', our Elf on the Shelf. If you've ever skipped around Pinterest, odds are you've seen a pin about these elves. For those of you who don't know, your elf comes to stay with you leading up to Christmas. Your family has to name the elf. At night your elf flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa. But you're not allowed to touch the elf or s/he loses their magic and they can't go back to tell Santa how good you've been. It's a great bribery for kids when they're at their wildest! 'Oh no! Did I just see Chippy move?' Works every time ;)

Every Christmas Eve we go to my parents house, where my Dad reads Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. This is a family tradition that goes back as long as I can remember. This year, when we got home from Grandma and Poppa's Chippy had left a Note for our kiddos. The letter told them that they cut it close, but they made it to the 'Nice List' He also told them that they each were allowed to hug and kiss him once! This was huge! We've had Chippy since I was pregnant with Monkey, so Christmas 2009 and they've been very good and never touched him. Needless to say they were very happy to be able to hug and kiss him good-bye.

Bear was soooo happy to be able to touch him, but was really nervous! He kept looking at me and then looking at Chippy. Finally he was said 'Well, if you say it's okay, then here we go!' He went in slowly and then once he touched him he was pretty quick to give him a hug, and a kiss. As he was putting him back, he patted his head and told him how much he was going to miss him and told him to have fun with Santa. Seriously, these kids melt my heart!

Monkey was equally as happy! I was very surprised just how gentle he was with him. He picked him up, very slowly, gave him a very gentle hug, gave him a small little kiss through his soother, looked at him for a little bit and then put him back. Sorry for the blurry middle picture, my camera thought it knew where I wanted it to focus more then I did ;)