New Year Resolutions!

I have decided that this year is going to be a more relaxed and organized year for me. I am determined to reach all of my goals and striving to reach all of my new year's resolutions. I believe that I can be a stronger person and most importantly have more patience with my husband and kids. Since this is the ninth year in the new millennium I have decided to make nine resolutions for myself and family and truely follow all of them.


1. To start going to church every Sunday. This has always been a resolution of mine and this year I am going to really try and commit to going to church not only for me but for the kids as well. I really believe that you can be a better person with God in your life and I want my children to be active in a Sunday School program. I have been going to MOPS twice a month since October and have really felt the need for faith in my life. Coming from a Catholic family, I made all of my sacraments and vowed when I got married to do the same for my children, but I still feel like their is a void there that has not been filled. I believe that bringing God back into my life has made me a better wife, mom, sister, daughter and friend, too. I have definitely learned to stop and pause before over reacting with the kids. I can remember totally losing my patience with Connor and thinking why am I acting like this. I feel that I am totally blessed to have found the MOPs program and hope to learn more in the upcoming year.
2. To organize our bank accounts and install quicken to balance our checking account. For the past few years since we have had Connor and I stopped working full time, we took out some loans to help us upgrade our house and make it so that I could enjoy being home with the kids, not knowing that it would put us into an entire banking nightmare and debt. So I am totally determined to keep a record of all our spending, stop using the debit card and pay down our debt.
3. To never put anything else on a charge card unless we can pay it off at the end of the month. Enough said!
4. To make it a point to do a babysitting swap once a month with a friend so that Don and I can enjoy a date night. I truly believe that this helps to keep your marriage strong and brings back memories of just the two of us together before our children.
5. To make our communication stronger. I can speak for both of us on being at fault for this. We went to a bible study( the one and only one that we made it to) and listen to the pastor tell us that married couples only communicate about 27 minutes a week, this is very true in our life. Don is tired when he gets home from work and I am too after a long day either working or taking care of the kids and the house. We get the kids to bed and maybe talk for 5 mins and then I go and relax to read, scrap or just sleep.
6. To do more family weekend trips and just hang out together. I want to go to longwood gardens, to Washington D.C again, to the Walk in A.C. , to the please touch museum, to a train museum for Connor, Spend more time at the beach this summer, go to Dutch Wonderland, etc. Try to do things that are family oriented with out spending a lot of money.
7. To spend more time with our extended family. Be able to see my sister and brother more. Try to take advantage of a possible cheap flight to see my parents and Don's mom and chandler. Have more weekend dinners or get togethers so that the kids can spend quality time with their cousins. I want our kids to be close and become the best of friends.
8. To get the toys organized and put aside things that we can sell at yard sales, clean out our closet and re organize the desk. I started to put some toys away in the attic, so that we can sell them at the next Woolwich yard sale in the spring. I have tons of clothes to drop off to good will( why can't purple heart make it easy on me and do a pick up in swedesboro), Don and I have a lot of clothes that we never wear and tons of old shoes that we want to donate to needy families. I have tons of paperwork in the desk and need to recycle it to make for a greener world.
9. My final resolution is to keep up on my scrapbooking and baby books for the kids. Since I have started blogging this has taken over my time for journaling in the baby books and scrapping. I am up to Halloween in both the kids books, but still need to do Mara's first bday, christmas and new years. I know most people would say I am pretty up to date, but if I let it go any longer we will be too far behind and then it takes twice as long to get the pics together and organize everything. I also told myself I would never let the second child be slighted in any way with the baby book. I used to run upstairs and immediatley write when things occurred and now I put it in my mind and say okay I will write it down, but I have succommed myself to being a mom that has not done exactly the same for Mara that I did for Connor. Her book is much less elaborate than Connor's. I'm sorry Mara that I have not written every important fact in your life down and I promise to make it up to you by starting to write and add pictures to your baby book.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This year for New Year's Eve we went over to Nick and Jessica's for a get together where we ate tons of food and had a great time. The kids all ran around for a few hours while mom and dad had a couple drinks and chatted with all the adults. It was a great evening and then we came home around ten, put the kids to bed and watched the Dick Clark New Year's special on Abc. We watched the ball go down and I captured some pics of the ball and the spectacular fireworks show on tv. Nothing like seeing it in person, but something great about being in bed at 12:05 and staying warm. It was a blistery 0 degrees here in phila on new years. New Years Day we went to Jess and Daves for the " Day of Dave" for some football fun. We spent some time with Mimi and Poppy and the kids got to wear their hats that I made. We all had a great time eating Jess's famous Chili and watching college football. Too bad for Penn State, maybe next year they will get a chance to play again in the Rose Bowl and win. As Connor says " We are.... Penn State"
" Happy New Year from the Cousins"