Hello 2013!

Here are our Plans, Hopes and Dreams for 2013!

• Adopt a baby. Yes, this was at the top of the list last year too. This is going to be our year though, right?!?
• Finish the basement. Yes, finish. As in completion. We are well underway and the basement will be done. Stay tuned…
• Hubby will finish a full marathon. He can totally do this! The race is in June so he is not officially training yet, but he has really worked hard to continue the momentum after running a half-marathon last year.
• Re-organize and purge unnecessary items from our home. When we started working on the basement, we purged. Then everything left to be stored in the basement was shoved into closets, the garage and our shed so that the construction could begin. After living with everything jam-packed for almost a year, things must go. I’m not sure I should admit it, but I might even pare down our Christmas decorations. (I love decorating for Christmas!)
• Continue working on healthy eating for our family. I would like to try and develop a meal planning/grocery shopping system that will help us become more efficient with grocery shopping and meals that we prepare.
• Take a family vacation. This has been tricky the past year because we are paying for the basement as we go, and it certainly hasn’t been cheap!
  
  

Anthony wrote out his New Years Resolutions (using a template from Uncommon Designs)

This year I really want to: have fun
I really need to: exersise
I want to be better at: bascitball
I want to learn how to: do a backflip

We are ready - Bring on 2013!

Goodbye 2012!

It’s hard to believe the last day of 2012 is here!  How did that happen so fast?!?  Yes, I am definitely getting older…

Here are our Top 5 Family Happenings of 2012!  (Here are the Top 5 for 2011)

• Basement. If you have been reading for awhile, you already know that we have been spending a significant amount of time (and money!) working on our basement. You can read about basement happenings here.

• Piano Lessons. Anthony began taking piano lessons last summer and it’s been really fun to see the progress he has made. He has been playing Jingle Bells and O Christmas Tree – I love it!

Here he is last summer – can you tell he is excited?!?

• Kayaks. We made a pretty quick decision this summer to buy kayaks and enjoyed using them into the fall.  We are ready for spring to return so we can take them out again!

• T-Ball. Anthony played his first official season of T-Ball – two games per week all summer! It was fun to watch the soon-to-be 1st graders play ball. As a bonus, we met some great friends through T-Ball!

• Wisconsin Dells. At the end of July we made a quick trip to Wisconsin Dells for some fun before school started (Anthony’s school starts at the end of a July – it’s a year-round school).

2012 Goal Update

On the first day of 2012, I posted about our family's hopes and dreams for 2012.  Here they are, with an update on what we have accomplished.

• Adopt a baby! We have now been waiting to adopt #2 for nearly 3 years – this is longer than the average wait time at our adoption agency, so we are really hoping to be chosen soon. We are ready! If you know of a potential situation, please let me know.
• Make changes to my work schedule to allow for more family time. Starting July 1st, I began working half-time. It’s been so great to have more time at home for our family!
• Start working on finishing the basement. As you saw above, we have definitely been working on the basement! Our new estimated completion date is the end of April. Think we will make it? 
• Hubby has a goal to run a half marathon. Hubby ran a half-marathon in May and is now signed up for a FULL MARATHON in June! Craziness!

• Eat less, exercise more! Honestly, I have been stepping up on my exercise all year and made a small effort to eat less.  I have been getting more serious about this over the last few weeks though. We have definitely been eating more healthy at home, as well as many more meals at home. (It’s amazing what working part-time can do to your ability to put hot meals on the table!)
• Learn how to use our new Canon 60D! This is another work in progress, but I can say that I am definitely making progress! I still have a TON to learn about our camera, but I have been playing more and more with Photoshop. It helps that I have a friend from work who has started a “Photoshop Club”!
  
  

All in all, it’s been a great year and we are looking forward to 2013!

Hello 2012!

Here are our Plans, Hopes and Dreams for 2012 -

• Adopt a baby! We have been waiting to adopt #2 for nearly 2 years – this is the average wait time at our adoption agency, so we are hoping to be chosen soon. Keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen sooner than later!
• I am working on making some changes to my work schedule to allow for more family time. No changes will happen for months, but our fingers are crossed that there will be a good option that will work for our family.
• Start working on finishing the basement. Our basement is currently the catch-all for storing anything and everything that we are not currently using. We have spent the morning working on re-organizing some closets to make room to store some of the things from the basement. Hubby is also working on a storage option in the “attic” above our garage. The basement needs to be pretty much cleared out before we can get started.
• Hubby has a goal to run a half marathon – I’m sure he will, I just wonder when??
• Eat less, exercise more! This is your goal too, right?!?
• Learn how to use our new Canon 60D! I LOVE taking pictures, especially of children playing outside. Along with this goal – spend more time learning how to use Photoshop.

(We celebrated at home with some NA sparkling grape for Anthony)

Happy New Year!