Welcome to the New Year

So, last year was full of surprises and a little crazy... this year will, hopefully, be much less stressful... of course, we have no idea where we will be by December, but we can figure that out later. :) There are several things that have happened in the past few weeks that I would like to discuss... I could make these several different blog posts... but I'm just going to join them all together.

Item 1 - New Year's Resolutions

I decided to make a few New Year's Resolutions, but I'm not planning to keep these all year. I figure that it only takes 21 days to make a habit, so if I work on one thing each month, I should have 12 new habits by the end of the year. For the month of January my "theme" is "Good, Better, Best." I'm going to focus on keeping my priorities straight and specifically, spending more time with my kids. So, for the month of January, I will not be visiting or reading any forums. I have found that they simply take too much of my time and I have more important things to focus on. I may try to get back to some forums in February, if time allows.

Item 2 - Lava Monsters

I've decided that the older girls need to have some "quiet time" in the afternoon, while the younger ones are napping... both for their own good, and for my own sanity. The only problem is that I have had a hard time enforcing this quiet time and keeping the girls one their own beds while I put little ones to sleep. This week I had a brilliant idea.

*now, some of my friends will argue that this idea is totally horrific and that I'm damaging my children forever... but I say, it works and they think it's a game...

My girls have wonderful imaginations and LOVE to play pretend. Often the carpet in my bedroom (because it's blue) is turned into a lake, and various blankets are the boats that allow them to get through the lake, and pillows are often stepping stones. So, I took their ideas and tweaked them slightly. I told them that the carpet in their room was lava. But it was a special lava... mommy can turn it on and off (the switch is on top of the door where only mommy can reach it). Mommy also has special mommy shoes so that she can walk on the lava. But if little girls try to walk on the lava, they will get burned. Furthermore... there are monsters that live in the lava and they are looking for little children... they can't see anything, but they can hear really well.

So, while the lava is "on" the girls have to stay on their beds and be very quiet. Don't judge me, because it works... (this method also works well for time outs)

Item 3 - Reading Material

This section just includes some fun pictures and a video of my girls recently.

And Finally

Item 4 - Mobility

You may have noticed in the previous video that J1 was on his tummy... but you may not have realized that he got there by himself. Here's a video from Monday night that proves he can do it. :)

*Note - this is my first attempt at uploading video... so I hope it works. These videos were taken with my new iPod nano (YAY!!).