ready to make 2014 awesome...ps...happy new year's eve!!

After finding this blogger and looking back on her goals for 2013, it has inspired me to actually put in some time and thought on what I'd like to accomplish this year and hopefully writing these things down will help to hold me accountable. We'll see!

Below I've listed the areas that I'd like to focus on and I'm going to "list" my goals out in a crazy little jumbled mess. That's usually how my thoughts work so as I put my thoughts "on to paper" it may look like a mess. But that's life my friends!

Home

Family

Health/Fitness

Personal

Spiritual

Try going back to Grace.  I miss that place so much.

Wipe the dust off the sewing machine?

Train for and complete the mini marathon - I'm tired just thinking about it....and I cannot wait at the same time! 

Maybe find a later summer/fall race to sign up for? The Monumental half in October?

Get in shape.  2013 was good to me as far as exercising goes. I was NEVER one to like exercise. Hated it. And in 2013 I've been in my best shape yet. And I want to do even.better.

Think about expanding our family...already? Time has flown...

Sell our house and Buy/Build a new house?! AH!

SAVE MONEY. Spend less.

Clean.This.House.  Get rid of things we don't need.  We are basically hoarders. Not really... but sometimes it really feels like it!!

Put.The.Phone.Down. Need I say more?

Make family year books. And continue with (at least) yearly videos for Jackson.

Make an effort to DO SOMETHING with my photos AND videos. We all know I take photos every day of our lives but where do they end up?  Other than taking up all the room on my computer and external hard drive...

Keep up this blog.  Writing feels good. The documentation feels good. And I'd love to Make some friends and connect with others this way.  I like this "me" time!

Make good and healthy food choices for me and for my family.

Budget, budget, budget.  there is no reason that we shouldn't be more aware of our spending.

Date my husband.  We both could use more time together. It makes us better for each other and better for our boy.

Stay positive.

And...

This is probably the worst "list" of goals for 2014 that you've ever read. However, this is how my mind works and if I think about it, I'm writing it down.  I'm really feeling motivated so I'm really, really, really going to do my best to make stuff happen in 2014. 

What is your biggest goal for 2014?  I'd love to hear about it and I would love to help encourage you to make great things happen this coming year!  The blog community can be pretty great (from what I hear...) so let's be friends.  

And just for fun... a look back at 2013 that I shared via Instagram.  Because it is the best place ever.  This will make me smile. Forever.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love, Me.

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rewind : 2013

It is currently Sunday afternoon.  Jackson is in the other room napping, Todd is playing games on his iPad and Kris is currently sitting next to me watching football (asleep sitting up).  Mom is in the other room taking a nap and so is Granny.  Ally should be pretty close to getting home and here I sit in the quiet.  Enjoying the couch and the view of the Tennessee hills. Life is pretty good, huh?  We've really, really enjoyed these last couple of days here and look forward to a sunny afternoon that hopefully will involve fresh air and visiting baby cows down the road.  Soaking in these last precious moments before we make our way home tomorrow.  

As I sit here in the quiet, I'm reliving the memories of the last 365 days.  I cannot believe that yet another year has passed.  Each faster than the last. We've had so much fun and have made so.many.memories.  Here's just a small recap of the last year.  We all know that this is only a small percentage of photos but I think they do a pretty good job of explaining what we've been up to.  And to look and see how much our little man has grown.  It is pretty incredible.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have just documenting. I hope that this blog will make a pretty neat little book for our family some day!

2013: In Pictures.

January:

As a family, we rung in the new year with our favorite Mexican food...and of course a tiny bit of bubbly.  And I may or may not have fallen asleep right before midnight. I honestly do not remember.  Sad.  Being a grown up is kind of exhausting!

February:

Jackson has surgery to repair the fingers on his left hand.  Hopefully his first and last plastic surgery.  (fingers crossed!) He was incredible.  I've talked more about the experience and you can read about it here.   

March:
We celebrated Easter with cousins. We also spent some special time together just as our small family.  Are my boys just about the most handsome boys you've ever seen?  I don't think you can argue with me on that!  I'm a pretty lucky girl!

We were also able to enjoy some pretty nice spring weather. We spent as much time outside as possible to soak up the warmth after a cold winter.  Lots of walks up and down the street and also lots of neighborhood exploring.  Flower picking, running, scraped knees...all of the good stuff!

April:

Todd and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. 5 years of marriage already? Pretty amazing.  I'm not mad about being married to my best friends. These have been the best years of my life so far and year 6 has been even better.  Our 6 year celebration is honestly just around the corner.  Amazing.  Like I've mentioned before, next year is looking to be a pretty good one!

May:

Mom, Ally, Meagan and I ran/walked/completed the Mini Marathon.  We had such a good time that I'm signed up again for 2014.  Either that, or something might be wrong with me. ;)

We also celebrated Mother's Day.

And for Memorial Day weekend, we made a little trip down south to Gatlinburg, Tennessee with my side of the family and had a wonderful time.  We have SO many photos, I could do a recap post of its own.  And maybe next year (sooner than it might seem!) I will!

June:


Jackson had his last visit to Riley.  He is good to go... his hand looks better than ever and it is seriously so hard to believe that his fingers used to be connected.  The world of medicine is pretty amazing.

We finally used our YMCA membership and visited the pool. This little boy loves the water so much.

We spent many late afternoons afters school and work playing on the patio with the hose or water table.  He just cannot get enough. (Man. I miss summer.)

Oh. And who could forget our first visit to the emergency room?!  Luckily it was just a false alarm.  No major injuries and he got a pretty tasty popsicle out of the deal.  He wasn't really upset by the experience at all.  He made many friends!

July:

We celebrated. We played. We traveled. We had fun. And lots of it.

Jackson and I met up with some friends that I've had since middle and high school.  It is pretty cool that we're all grown up now with kids of our own. I'm so glad we have these opportunities once in awhile and get to catch up (those precious few moments that are spent chasing one of the toddlers, lol).

In July we also made our yearly family vacation trip to South Haven, Michigan.  We did lots of eating, playing in the water and sand and visiting with family.  We love this yearly trip so much.

August:

We celebrated my 30th birthday.  But not before making our second visit to the emergency room.  And again, luckily, no major injuries.  Nothing that a little bit of skin glue couldn't fix!  Skin glue and another popsicle.

Our visit to Nashville is when the obsession with dinosaurs really began. And as of today...the obsession has not let up one little bit.  If anything, it has only grown.  And if you saw how many dinosaurs there are in our house, you would agree!

We celebrated John's first birthday.  That was one of the cutest cakes I've ever seen! So clever!

September:

We soaked up the heat and sun as much as possible...since Fall was just around the corner.  We spent time with friends and had a pretty great time.  September was good to us.

October:

So many fun things happened in October!  Meagan, Marcie and I made a trip to IKEA.  Still one of my favorite things this year!  That place will never get old!

My Jackson Quincy turned two years old.  Time should really do me a favor and slow down for a second.  My boy is growing up too fast. Too fast.  Is it possible that every single day gets better?  Because that's what it feels like.  I love him so.

Our little firefighter did a little trick-or-treating. 

And he might have helped us with a craft or two.

November:

Oh November. Another pretty great month for us.  The best part of November?  So much time spent with families.  That's probably the main reason why I love the holidays so much.  Being surrounded by the ones we love and love us.  Jackson has so many best friends.

December:

I cannot believe that in a couple of days December will be over. It came and went in a flash.  What?!

We had our first really good snow.  We went to the circus.  We traveled and we celebrated the holidays. Goodness. We've been busy.

I know I still have a Christmas recap to come...but...I still cannot believe I'm already recapping the year and moving full speed ahead to 2014.  We have had such a great year and have all grown. I am amazed and so very excited to just imagine what next year will be like.  I hope that stared Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that we'll get it off to the right start.

Thinking about the last year has left me speechless. I honestly feel like I might be the luckiest girl alive. I have the best family, the best friends and we all are happy and healthy.  We have a great little life here in Indiana.  I'm so very happy with how things are turning out.  2013, thank you for being so kind to us and please tell 2014 to do the same. We promise, we'll do our best!!

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