Sweet Sister Moments

I have loved watching the girls' friendship and bond deepen this past year.  They've started really playing well together and have become so close.  It's very sweet.  Of course, every moment isn't super sweet, but I want to be sure that I do remember those that are. 

Some special words and conversations I want to remember:

Olivia calls Naomi, "My Naomi" and follows her around and wants to do whatever big sister does. Naomi is happy to tell her exactly how to play.  

They love to hug and sometimes hug each other so much that they fall on the floor together and erupt into giggles.  This has caused us to have a hug on carpet rule so we can stick with giggles and not tears.

Naomi gets so excited to go pick sister up from class at the end of their "school"/MDO day.  One day she said, "I miss Olivia when she is in her class".  

Last night in the car on the way home from church - 

N: Hey Olivia, Olivia, Olivia...

O: Yes, Naomi.  

N: I love you.  

O: I love you too Naomi.  

and then both girls blew each other kisses!  

Melt our hearts!!!!!

Recap 2014 Goals

Here it is...

2014 Goals

Here is a recap of my 2014 goals:

1.  Do the Infuse daily devotional through The Heights app and learn the memory verses throughout the year. 

SUCCESS!  We actually kept up with it this year!

2.  Lose 20-40 lbs.  I left this as a range because my plan was to lose the other half of the "baby" weight which would have been 30 lbs but since I fell short last year, I still have 40 to go.  So, there you have it - realistic and dreamy.  

SUCCESS! Lost 25 lbs and feeling great!  Just 15 to go!  

3.  Finish settling into the house - Get stuff hung on the walls, unpack all boxes, purge as necessary and ultimately get both cars parked in the garage by the end of the year.  

PARTIAL SUCCESS!  Still don't have a lot hung on the walls and I still have some things left to unpack, BUT we did purge and there are two cars in the garage as I type this so, yes!

4.  Read a book this year.  Apparently four was too lofty a goal, so I'll start small this time.

UM... I read the first few chapters of several books so does that count?  Well, better luck next year, huh? I put the Kindle app on my phone so we'll see if that helps. 

5.  Nurture our girls - Continue to do crafts with the girls.  Hopefully start teaching Naomi to write some letters.  Potty train Olivia.  Go over the memory verses with them as well.  Continue praying with them and enriching their prayer life.  

SUCCESS (I think anyway)!  Both of my kids can say some memory verses.  Olivia is technically potty trained and we are working through some little toileting issues.  Both kids can and do pray with us and remind us to pray.  The crafts may not have been "Pinterest-worthy", but they did happen and Naomi is working on her letters.   

6.  Be a better friend.  I'm an introvert who has trouble making new friends (some of you are surprised which means that I clearly missed my calling to be an actress).  I also don't have a lot of really close friendships (I really treasure the few I have).  I haven't had a "BFF", other than Brian of course, in well over a decade.  It's my own fault.  I'm not really a great friend - I don't initiate plans often and I'm not really that thoughtful.  (One of those silly little quizzes said my Big Bang Theory character is Sheldon which should give some of you a fair glimpse into my personality.)  So I'm going to make an effort to initiate plans and try to really be there for my friends in deeds as well as words.  

NO CLUE?  I know I tried, sometimes more than others, but not sure how well I did on this one. 

7.   Say yes more.  I know a lot of women who probably have saying no more as a goal.  They over-book themselves and feel strained by it.  I, however, need to say yes more.  

I feel the need to say "no" more now, so I guess I did okay with that.  

8.  Keep up with my blog which has turned into a family scrapbook for us.  

Um, nope - It's January 3rd and I'm going back and backdating a lot of old posts to get caught up.  Maybe next year, huh?

9. and 10.  Mmmm... to be determined.  :)  Gotta leave one or two slots open for whatever life throws my way this year.   

I would say that life threw Plexus in my lap this year!  I didn't start off having any particular goals for the business part of it, but that changed.  

I got a Silver ranking and I am super close to achieving a Gold ranking.  I will definitely have goals for that next year.  

We also finally completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University this year.  We have followed a lot of his principals for a long time and have seen him live, but hadn't ever taken the class.  It was a good experience.  

Both of us did some bible studies over the summer as well.  That was a pretty big deal for me because I generally don't care much for group bible studies.  

Well, guess that concludes 2014!  

On to 2015 Goals!  

Some of these goals will definitely be repeated!  

Playdates

We had a couple of fun special playdates this fall.  

We went to BounceU in Plano with a group from MOPS.  Honestly, I don't think the girls were that into it.  It may have been because the music in there was way too loud.  Naomi kind of warmed up to it a bit.  Olivia mostly clung to me and barely got into it.  Neither one of them was terribly sad to go.  Lots of the kids seemed to love it though, so we'll definitely try it again some other time.  

We also went to the Watermark Tree Fort with a group of moms from my church group.  It was really cool.  They kind of liked the top area, but Naomi was acting a bit weird about it that day.  They both seemed to like the little area geared toward toddlers.  BUT, what did they like the best?  The grid of rectangles outside the building.  Go figure!  It just tells me that sometimes we try to hard to entertain kids who have fabulous imaginations and are quite capable of entertaining themselves with the simple stuff.  In my girls' minds, they were bunny hopping, hop-scotching rectangles and they had a grand time hopping to things and hopping away from things.  

Lastly, we had a little Holiday Playdate / Party with the girls from Ballet.  The girls loved getting a juice box and running around outside playing.  Confession - I didn't take a lot of photos - mostly just enjoyed the time. 

Halloween Fun

Here is a summary of all of our Halloween fun!  

The pumpkin Brian and I carved at our ABF's small group night.  It was actually the first time we had ever carved a pumpkin together and it turned out pretty well - maybe we'll do it again next year. 

The girls got all dressed up in costume for Ballet class!

We had a fun trip to the park - I got in a good 3 mile round-trip walk/run with the jogging stroller and the girls enjoyed the playground and just running around in general. 

Naomi said several times that she wanted to dress up as a helicopter for Halloween, so I found an online idea for making a helicopter costume and set to work.  One bankers box, 4 rolls of duct tape, one reusable shopping bag, one paperclip, one beanie hat, and one nut/bolt = 1 Happy Little Helicopter Girl with working propellers and rotors!  I love her independent spirit and uniqueness!

Olivia loved dressing up as Minnie Mouse, but couldn't resist trying on big sisters costume after we were done trick or treating on a couple of little cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood.  

Pumpkin Patch

 Typically we have gone to the Owens Pumpkin Patch with my MOPS group, but, aside from it closing, it didn't work out with our schedule to go with the MOPS group this year.  So, one Friday afternoon, we just took the kids to a little pumpkin patch at a local church.  

They loved it!  It was a wonderful reminder that they don't necessarily need some big broohaha of a pumpkin patch.  They just loved running around and picking up pumpkins and putting them in the cart.  We left with way too many pumpkins, but very happy kiddos!  

 

 

Trampolines!

Brian took off on a Friday so that he could go to the trampoline park with us because it is super fun and honestly Brian and I probably wanted to jump on the trampolines more than the kids did.  :)  

Yep, most of the pics are blurry... 

Yes, if you are the fun parents jumping on the trampolines, all the kids in the place gravitate toward you and want to jump with you.  I had a few random kid stalkers that would follow me around the trampoline park.  So, parents, jump with your kids!  

Naomi grabbed some water and pulled up a bench to watch the tv that they have.  

First Day of MDO 2014

After much debate we decided to do one more year of Mother's Day Out before moving to a more formal "preschool" program.  The girls love their MDO program and drop offs were a breeze with both kids and everyone had a great day.  Newly potty trained Olivia actually came home in her same clothes so that was a win (we haven't been 100% on that since, but you take a win when you get one). PS. Thanks Aunt Terah for the cute outfits!  :)

Both girls all grins for their first day: