Christmas tree mayhem...

  About 5 years ago I bought a beautiful Christmas tree, unlit.  The reason I bought an unlit one is because Jason and I couldn't agree on what type of lights a Christmas tree should have, I said clear, he wanted multi-colored.  For years I set the tree up by myself, branch by branch, layer by layer, then I meticulously strewn 1200-1600 lights (colored of course, I give in too easily).   Four hours later, we had a beautiful tree with tons of COLORED lights, that I actually grew to love.  The 4 hours however, didn't include actually decorating the tree or the rest of the house for that matter.  This year I wasn't having it.  I did it by myself all those years and if I am going to be the one putting up the tree every year I decided this was the year I would simplify and buy a pre-lit tree.  I went on my shopping quest starting with KSL classifieds.  I found one for what I thought was a GREAT deal.  I brought the unopened box home then set out to get a few new ornaments to put on the 7.5 foot tree.  When I got to Hobby Lobby I decided to see how smokin of a deal I got and checked out the prices on their 7.5 foot trees.  I got a SMOKIN deal alright, on a tree that was at least 2 feet shorter than I had envisioned!  I was SO BUMMED!  I didn't want to call the people I bought the tree from and tell them I was an idiot and thought 7.5 feet looked more like 9 feet so I kept the tree.  Totally irritated I went to Sam's Club to get a big container of ornaments to make my own wreath.  I found my way over to the Christmas section and there it was.....the PERFECT Christmas tree.  Sure it was 12 feet tall, but hey my ceilings are 20 feet tall in the entryway where the tree would go.  I decided to get it.  Now rarely...ok, never, do I make a purchase like that without running it past Jason first.  I thought about calling him but I knew he'd surely say no.  So I decided to get it without his permission or opinion.  If I hurried, I could get it home, set it up and have it decorated by the time he got home anyway, then what would he do, make me take it down and take it back???   I grabbed the boxes (actually the kind worker's at Sam's Club grabbed them for me, who wants to see a pregnant girl try to lift awkward boxes when she is already so awkward looking??) paid for the tree and went home.  Now a tree this big would HAVE to have a lot of ornaments, something I didn't have.  I went a few different places and found the perfect ornaments to adorn my new tree with.  I hurried back with my ornaments and started setting up the tree.  HOLY CRAP that tree is tall, it looks a lot bigger in my house than it did at Sam's Club!  I risked mine and my unborn child's life just trying to put the top tier on the thing!  I hustled about putting the ornaments on and then dun, dun, dun,  JASON walks in.  He looks at me (I'm just smiling at him) and says, "WHAT is THAT"?????  I looked at him laughing and said, "Uh a CHRISTMAS TREE, duh, what does it look like?"  Then of course the very next question is, "How much was it?"  My response, "Isn't it beautiful?"  He just laughed.  I could tell he really liked the tree, I was relieved. You see Jason is a guy that appreciates nice things, even Christmas trees, but he doesn't like spending money for nice things.  Long story short, we had a beautiful tree this year and I am looking forward to putting it up every year (not pregnant).   The other tree????  Well, we decided to use that one too.  We put it in our living room and put all of our fun ornaments on it.  Our house was cozy this Christmas and I was sad to take it all down (ok, just a little sad, I got sick of redecorating the trees because my almost 3 year old thinks the ornaments are toys).

New Year's Resolutions....

   I've never really been a "long term" goal setting person.   I always set small goals, goals that aren't life changing or make me a better person.  For example, I will put a load of laundry in the washer and set a goal to have certain stuff done around the house before it's time to put it in the dryer.  That is about as good as my goal setting gets. 
    I have decided to teach my lesson in Relief Society, which is on January second, about the importance of goal setting and including spiritual goals into your resolutions.  Most would say I am not fit to teach this lesson because I have never done this.  Maybe this is true, and maybe the only person that will get anything out of what I say will be me.  Regardless, my personal goals have been weighing HEAVILY on my mind.  What the goals should be, who I want to be, and how I can set and achieve realistic, manageable goals.  So far my list of goals are:

1. Read the Book of Mormon ALL the way through once, then ponder and study it a second time beginning to end.

2. Start reading and learning more out of the Bible.

3.  Read at least 5 non-fiction books throughout the year about various subjects.

4.  Organize my house, and keep it that way.

5.  Organize my schedule and stick to it.

6.  Pray more both personally and with my kids.

7.  Make family home evening something that isn't "optional" depending on my mood or if Jason can't be there.

8.  Think less about myself and more about others.

9.  Recognize the needs of friends and family and be more charitable to them.

10. Plant a garden.

11.  Learn how to preserve that garden come fall with canning and freezing.

12.  Spend less money on "things".

13.  Spend more time with people that I love.

14.  Saying I love you more to my husband and children.

15.  Learn to understand my husband and children's needs, setting my own aside when the time requires me to.

16.  Learn more about myself to separate the 'wants' from the 'needs'.

17.  Be a better friend, not only to neighbors, but to my husband and children.

18.  Spend less time on facebook and the computer in general.

19.  Count my blessings when I'm feeling down instead of focusing on what I don't have.

20.  Learn and master the skill of patience.  I don't expect to be perfectly patient all the time, but I would like to learn be patient perfectly when things are small and not life altering.

21.  Start limiting TV time and game time not only for the kids, but for myself.

22.  Eat out less, cook more.

23.  Learn to eat healthy and teach my family the same.

24.  Start 2 new family traditions that can carry on year after year.

25.  Find good in people.  Especially those whose 'good' isn't their first recognizable quality.

26.  Run 4, 5k races, 2-3 6k races and finish the year off with the Layton half marathon in October.

27.  Learn to be more punctual.

28.  Be more reliable.

29.  Spend QUALITY time with my husband and children, both individually and together.

Realistic?  Achievable? Too few?  Too Many?  I'm not sure.  I do know that all of these things are so important to me and the first thing I need to do is prioritize.  I will learn as I go too (I hope).   In the meantime I will prepare my lesson and learn so much about myself and the things I 'need' to set, and set aside the ones I 'want'.  Afterall, isn't that one of my goals??



  

Kaysia's Surgery...

Over a year ago Kaysia started complaining that her neck hurt.  She showed me where it hurt and I felt her neck and felt a big lump.  I FREAKED out and took her to instacare right away.  The doctor was concerned it was her thyroid and he had me even more freaked out than I was when I went in.  He ran some blood work and her thyroid came back normal.  The doctor then referred me to an E.N.T. doctor to see the next day.  The doctor said it could be one of two things a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst or a Dermoid Cyst.  He said either way it needed to come out and he seemed too anxious to cut into my little girls throat.  I decided to get a second opinion and the next E.N.T. I saw actually ordered an ultra sound of the lump to determine what it was.  It was in fact a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst.  Both doctors said that it wasn't something that HAD to come out right away but told me the sooner we can get it done the better.  Having my beautiful daughter have a scar on her neck and the invasive procedure was unsettling so I put it off.  Well her cyst got infected and the doctor said it HAD to come out soon.  So we scheduled the surgery.  Kaysia was so excited to have her surgery.  The day before she was drawing pictures of the hospital and her cyst and the doctor.  I feel like I did my best to prepare her and not scare her but apparently I failed.  After they brought her out of the recovery room she was crying and said, "This is not what I had imagined at all"!   A few hours later she started perking up and wanted to color and do puzzles.  I was so relieved that she was getting her spunk back!  She was so hungry but could only be on a clear liquid diet, then later that day she got moved to a full liquid diet which meant she could have ICE CREAM.  I asked her who she wanted to stay in the hospital that night with her and she pointed to Jason.  At first I was sad that she didn't want me, but then I saw the bed Jason had to sleep on and I was secretly thankful that I got to go home to my AMAZING bed!  The next morning she was put back on a normal diet and she ordered bacon, sausage and potatoes for breakfast with chocolate milk.  She was so excited to eat!  We are home now and doing great, she is really bored and hasn't needed any pain medication.  She is such a trooper.  I'm so thankful that everything went well and that this adventure is behind us.

Look at her BEAMING with excitement!!

Her incision with the drain.  The drain had to stay in all day and night.

Watching TV doped up on Lori tab, not happy that it wasn't what she "imagined".

What a difference a few hours makes!!!

Her first meal in almost 40 hours.

She ate the entire plate!!

I do have to make note that the night before Jason gave her a really neat blessing in which he got a little emotional in parts.  When the blessing over Kaysia asked him why he was sad and we explained to her what exactly a blessing was and that it is so powerful it sometimes brings tears to your eyes.  We told her that when you get a blessing it is heavenly father speaking through the man giving you the blessing telling him what to tell you.  We told her that when daddy said, "Heavenly Father wants you to know he loves you so much" it was Him telling her that, not daddy.  The smile on her face was priceless!  She said, "When you were giving me a blessing my legs and arms got really tingly".  It was really neat to hear her explain how she felt the spirit. 

Playing Catch up (once again)...

This blogging pattern really is the pattern of everything in my life.  Get WAY behind, let it build up and build up and then FINALLY get to it.  My house, my car, the laundry and everything else in my life seems to build up before I get to it.  There are so many things I should have blogged about over the past few months but decided in this catch up session I would hit some key points in the past few months.  Enjoy the catch up because I'm sure you will be hearing about our Christmas this summer!!

Kaysia turns 7...

Last month Kaysia turned the big SEVEN!  I can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing up.  Not only is she 7 but she is 7 going on 17!  She is into music and loves watching movies.  She is great at playing the piano and LOVES to put on make-up.  This year her birthday landed on the Saturday we celebrate Thanksgiving with my extended side of the family and the Friday before her birthday was a big relief society activity I couldn't miss.  I felt so bad that I couldn't give her a birthday party like I did Kyson, but I think it worked out great in the end.  I took her and two friends to go get pedicures and ice cream.  She thanked me for the best birthday ever and asked if we could do it again next year.  One of her little friends that was with us said, "This is the best day of my life, thanks Mellisa!"  Who knew pedicures were so great, even for 7 year olds!

At Dairy Queen.

We (when I say we, I ultimately mean me) made these flip flops during our pedicures to show their pretty tootsies off.

Halloween...

Halloween was a busy time for me.  My grandfather passed away just before and Jason was working on a big project at work all week.  Mother of the year didn't take any pictures!  I did however take pictures of the kids when I told them about their new sister we will be welcoming into our family in March.  They got home from school that day and waiting for them was a cup and hiding in the cup was a cupcake frosted with pink frosting.  This year the kids decided they would be Woody, Jessy and Buzz.  I also bought Jason and I Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head costomes to go with the theme.  Unfortunately we didn't get to wear them and I took them back : (

Kyson turns 5...

Kyson turned 5 this year.  I can't believe how big my kids are getting.  This year we did a friend party after school one day and then had our usual family party.  He wanted a Transformers cake (which I didn't attempt to make, unlike years past).  He had a lot of fun.  I love having him in our family.  He loves being around people, playing games and building stuff with his Trio blocks.  He is such a good big and little brother (when he wants to be) and can be so helpful.  I just love this kid!