New Year's Promise

I hate the word resolution. I feel like it's just setting myself up for failure by making them year after year. 2013 will be different. No more resolutions. Just promises.

In 2013 I promise to:
Yell less
Clean more
Cuddle more
Spend time with my kids, one on one, more
Spend less time on the computer
Eat in more often and out way less
I want to work on eating more whole foods and teaching my children to eat and make healthy choices
I want to decorate my house on the cheap
Read more
Knit more
Craft more
Get better at the things I love
Shoot more (photography that is! I'm kinda anti guns myself but that's a whole 'nother post!)
Be a better friend
Love more
Smile more
Run more ( I have a goal to run a half marathon for my 30th birthday in November. Who's with me?)
I want to get fit and healthy
Support my husband, he works so hard and such long hours. I need to do a better job supporting him and encouraging him
Get out of my shell
Make friends
Get dressed and feel pretty more
Embrace my body, it's gone through a lot, 4 kids yo!
Love my children and encourage them to be just that. Children. Loud. Messy. Crazy. Children.

I'm sure I will think of many more. They're nothing specific, but more just general goals that in the end will make me a better person.

Here's to 2013. A new year full of endless possibilities! Are you a resolution maker? What are your for 2013?

Hairs cut

As you know, I hope, my kids (excluding Emilia for now) have tons of hair. Gabe alone has more hair than the rest of his sunbeams class combined. Well it was time for the Palizzi boys' quarterly haircuts. Gabe asked for hair like Julian's. :( he looks sooooo old!!!

They were really good boys and didn't wiggle a bit. I think they look pretty dang dashing myself!!

Humbled

Today I was feeling pretty good about myself. Not only did I manage to get myself dressed and looking marginally passable, all four kiddos dressed and snacks packed, we left for 9 o'clock church ON TIME. Did I mention Barry was at the hospital so this was all done solo? No? Well he was. Also I didn't really yell this morning, things just went smoothly. I was blessed. We rolled into church at 8:58, early!! (ha!!). We sat down in the front row of the back part, and things were going ok. Emilia started fussing so I got her out of her carseat. I was thinking to myself, man I can do this. Four kids isn't that bad. I got this.
And then I saw it. That familiar yellow stain allllllll over Emilia's leggings and onesie. Blowout. Bummer dude. There's nothing like baby poop to put me back in my place.

Fashion Help Requested

So I need opinions on something super important.

Skinny jeans in color. I know this trend was very popular while I was pregnant and who buys new skinnies while pregnant? (ok I did buy that one pair but I wore them every day!!) is it still going strong? Have I missed the mark completely? ( please say no!).

Is this outfit still passable for mildly trendy? Help!!!!

Merry Christmas

We hope your family is beyond blessed this Christmas season. May 2013 bring happiness and amazing things.

xoxo
C

Holidays

It's Christmas time. The boys are almost finished with school for the hear. 2013 is upon us. I have a hard time believing that 2012 is nearly complete. So many wonderful things have happened to us this year, and we continue to embark in new adventures daily.

Christmas time is a time for tradition. Since moving away four almost give Christmases ago Barry and I have been able to start our own family tradition. One of my favorite traditions, and it's one I'm solely in charge of is Christmas cards. I love writing the envelopes out, sealing them, putting on the stamp and finally mailing them out. I'm behind this year, but I've got a pretty adorable excuse.

Another tradition we do is probably not unique to our family. Every Christmas eve we open one gift. That gift so happens to always be Christmas pajamas. I love new pjs and the boys seem to enjoy this tradition as well. We also open up a new Christmas movie. This year I think it will be Brave. I know not Christmassy but we will watch it as a family nonetheless.

If you have been in our basement you know, without a doubt, that my boys have plenty of toys. Plenty. So we try really hard to limit what comes in at Christmas. We also should probably have the boys go through their toys and donate those they no longer play with, but that's another post. We do four gifts for each person
Want
Wear
Read
Need
We are also instituting a new one: Give. We let the boys pick an ornament off of a giving tree and they pick out the gift, help me wrap if required and we give it to someone that needs it.
None of my traditions are extremely unique, but they are ours and I wouldn't trade them for the world. Do you have Ang Christmas or holiday traditions? Share. I would love to hear what you do to celebrate this time of year.

Time...

It's a funny thing, time. Sometimes it's so slow that you feel as though each day lasts a week. Other times the day is over in the blink of an eye. For instance, the last three weeks of pregnancy took an eternity to pass by. The first three weeks of Emilia's life, however, sped by at lightening speed.

My precious baby girl is 6 weeks tomorrow. 6 weeks! She is no longer a newborn according to everything I have ever been told. Her feet are firmly planted in the infant stage. She is such a good girl. The sweetest baby ever. She loves to shop. I'm being serious. Any time we are out and about she is do wonderfully behaved. She loves to be in the beco. Loves it. Snuggled up all warm and cozy, how could she not? She has three, no four, favorite people. Julian, Gabriel, Owen and her cousin Carter.

We remain fully and utterly in love with this little girl. Completely smitten. We no longer remember life before her, and she has slipped in and fit in better than we could have ever imagined.