This one is for my parents (and anyone else who is interested)

Soooo, I've been neglecting this blog lately.  I've really liked how easy my smartphone makes it to share pictures via instagram and facebook.  I'm kind of like, "oh I could write a whole post about this, but instead I'll just share a pic really fast."  But I still feel like I need this blog.  For one, over the past 7 years this blog has acted as my journal and I just can't imagine stopping now.  

The second reason is that my parents are on their mission in Brazil now, and they don't have access to instagram and I'm pretty certain they can't get on Facebook that much.  They do have access my blog which means I have a reason to keep updating this blog.  So a lot of these pictures will be ones that have already shown up on instagram and facebook, but keep in mind that my parents are seeing them for the first time.  

So lets dive back into the past three or so weeks.  

Here's a picture of they girls playing with playdough.  They all have so much fun with that. 

Derrick transitioned from our church's nursery program for children 18 months to 3 years old and now he's in the Sunbeam class for 3 year olds.  It was a ROUGH transition.  I went with him and witnessed the whole thing. Problems included: he didn't understand why he couldn't play with toys anymore, his teacher wasn't there, the piano was too loud, everything was new, etc.  He spent most of the time crying and screaming. It was terrible.  By the end of the day I said, "we now have a level zero."   

The good news was that we are pretty used to Derrick reacting that way to new stuff.  We've discovered that with a few exceptions he usually just has to be exposed to new things about 3 or 4 times before he feels comfortable.  So we hoped we only had to deal with the crying and screaming for about 4 weeks. 

The next week Brandon went with Derrick.  Things went a little bit better. (Derrick is more used to Brandon making him do things he hates.)  My friend Mariah was assigned to help with Derrick.  She'd been there the first week, but he didn't want anything to do with her.  This time he was willing to take stickers from her during the little class part.  After class he came up to me with this picture and told me "Happy, Happy, So Fun!"

 Last week we had Stake Conference so we didn't have Primary.  This week Brandon was all ready to go to Primary with Derrick again.  But while Brandon was dropping Veronica off at nursery Derrick saw Mariah.  She said hi and Derrick replied with "Hey you!"  She asked if he wanted to go to Primary and he said "Yes!" and went into primary with her.  He did just fine the rest of the day!  Thank goodness!

It's been cold here.  So the kids have actually had to wear their winter coats to the bus stop.  Winter only lasts about a month here so I buy the kids coats big and they wear them for several years.  Lydia is currently wearing a 3T coat that she's worn two other winters.  And Charlotte is wearing a size 6 coat that should last a few years.  Here is Veronica showing off her cute coat that is just so adorable.

 I bought a bunch of Lincoln logs for $2 at a yard sale last October.  They ended up being one of Charlotte's favorite Christmas Presents.  She kept telling me that Santa knew exactly what she wanted even though she didn't even know she wanted them.  Some of the logs had little bite marks that were probably from the previous owners.  Charlotte has decided that Santa's reindeer chewed them.

The only problem with the set was that it didn't have enough long logs.  It had plenty of little ones, but not a lot of long ones.  So I when I saw another lincoln log set on a facebook page for $5 I immediately messaged the seller to buy them. Charlotte was so excited.  Now we have lots of long logs and she can build what ever she wants.

One of Lydia's favorite presents was a globe.  She really really wanted one.  Now she loves to ask us about different places on it.  Here's Brandon showing the girls some different countries. 

 I'm getting better at braiding the girls' hair - or maybe they are getting better at staying still.  Here is one of the hair dos.

Here is Brandon walking with mud on his feet. At one point he had two kids on each foot and he was actually able to take a few steps.

Brandon building with Charlotte.  This is the Lincoln log set he always dreamed of.

Brandon's mom sent us some money as a Christmas present with the instructions to spend it on a family outing.  She suggested somewhere like Chucky Cheese.  I knew that wouldn't work. I have mild sensory issues with noise and I consider Chucky Cheese to be one of the 9 circles of Hell.  I knew Derrick would never do well at a place that noisy, colorful, or crowded.  Instead we decided to take the kids miniature golfing at an outdoor place in Dothan.

First we went to the Dothan mall because Brandon was trying to find a Hobby store that was supposed to be there.  We never found the store, but we did find a carousel.

We didn't have any small change to we went to Chick Fil A and bought ice cream for the kids  Brandon and I got lots of licks and it was some of the best ice cream.

Then we were able to purchase tickets to go on the carousel. All the girls wanted to ride. And they had so much fun.

Derrick didn't want to ride so he and I stayed off and watched.

Then we went over to a little ride area and let the kids all sit on those.  (We're too cheap to actually turn on the rides.)  Derrick thought the train was so fun.

By this time we were all getting hungry so we went to Burger King.  I had been taking a little break from my eating program so I was able to enjoy a Whopper.  (So so good)

Then it was finally time to go miniature golfing.  By this time the day had warmed up to a perfect temperature.   It was so fun to be outside and playing together. The game was really crazy, but we had a lot of fun. 

After the game we had some treats at the car.  Brandon took this picture of me and I was so surprised by how good I look.  Check out those skinny legs and that flat tummy.  It's pictures like this that make all my hard work worth it. 

Back at home the fun continued with Brandon making a cave in our guest room.  The girls slept in it that night and pretended they were bears.

Here is a picture of antler that Charlotte wanted me to take.

Here is Lydia modeling an outfit that she put together.

On Martin Luther King Day we had big plans to go up to Montgomery and visit the Civil Rights places up there.  But we were really wishy washy about actually going.  Part of the problem was that it was just really cold.  Finally we decided to go.  Here are the girls all excited to be on our way.  (Derrick is still enjoying his solitude on the third row.)

I already wrote all about our day in Montgomery on the travel blog so check that out here http://www.51centadventures.com/2016/01/our-trip-to-montgomery-for-martin.html.

When we were all done we hung out in the car and ate a little snacky dinner.  I think this was the kids' favorite part.

My box of Medifast meal showed up on Monday and I also started my latest health challenge.  So I'm back on the full program.  It's going really well.  I have officially lost 50 lbs since I started losing weight and I've lost 30 on this program. 

On Tuesday the girls helped me make some art for our garden.

We drew designs onto tinfoil and then cut them out.

Charlotte did a bird and Lydia did a butterfly.

Veronica did a bunch of scribbles that I cut into a kite shape.

On Wednesday the afternoon weather was nice enough that we were able to walk over to the community garden and start working on our plot.  I have some big plans for this garden, but first we had to clear away all the weeds. Charlotte and Lydia both dressed like, "farmer" so they could help.

 Derrick and Veronica mostly just played around.  There is a play ground next to the garden so they would run over there to play.  Charlotte and Lydia helped out a lot.  By the end we'd cleared out all the weeds from around the strawberries that the last people planted.  We also turned over dirt and planted two rows of peas.

When I was about 10 my sisters and I covered my 2 year old sister, Hillary, up with blankets and called her the Queen of Babies.  Here are Charlotte and Lydia creating Queen of Babies 2016.

Here's Derrick playing with his train tracks.  Brandon put this one together for him.  Derrick loves to open and shut the gate and let cars drive through and then let the train drive past.  He's always talking about how the train goes "in da tunnel" or "on da bidge"

 Derrick also likes to look at our family picture from when everyone was here over Christmas.  He thinks that Knoxx, Lindsey, and Emily are all named Knoxx.  He also thinks Hillary, my mom, and Becca are all named Hillary.  And that Joe and Billy are both named Joe.  But he can name, Der-ik, Mom-my, Dad-dy, Naca, EEdia, Char-et, Rok-ond, and Papa every time.

 Veronica doesn't usually take a nap, but the other day she and I were able to take one together.  She's a sweet little girl.

 Our little puff ball motivation jar is working really well.  The kids like doing jobs and getting puff balls.  They love when they earn their ice cream sandwiches.

On Thursday I went to a ladies group at the Wings Chapel.  I wanted to do MOPS again this year, but they don't have a group here.  Instead they have a thing called P-31.  Basically it's like a non-denominational Relief Society.  They have a little spiritual thought and then we do a craft.  I went in November and had a lot of fun so I'd been looking forward to this one. One reason I really wanted to come was because I had a fun time talking to my friend Becca at the November meeting. Becca is one of the first people I met here in Alabama and I love her and I take every chance to hang out with her.  (Brandon's slightly worried I'm going to start stalking her.)  I've had a best friend void in my life ever since I moved away from Ashley in Texas so it's nice to have someone who is starting to feel like a bestie.

Anyway, we talked about kindness and then made these cute little quote boards.

 Oh and I should mention something else I did with another friend, but this happened like two weeks ago and I don't have any pictures.  My neighbor Jessica is another woman that I admire.  She invited me to go to Yoga with her at the Y in Enterprise.  I ran out of excuses after she told me the first class was free, and so was childcare, and there were hardly any people in the class, and that I didn't need to bring a mat, and that no one would judge me.  So I decided to go and try it out I was super nervous because I don't like trying new things.  But I kept thinking about Derrick who I keep forcing to do new things.  He keeps doing new things even though he hates them and then eventually he figures out they aren't that bad and learns to love them.  I should at least try to do the same thing.  So I went to Yoga.

It was actually pretty great.  I've been doing a lot of stretching at home so I was able to keep up for the most part.  And honestly it was such a calming experience.  I almost started crying because it was so calm.  I probably would go back every week except I'm not a fan of the drive.  But who knows, I still might do it.

Brandon's still doing instrument training.  That's where he learns how to fly without being able to see out the window.  He has to rely on what the instruments are telling him.  He's been in the simulators for the past several weeks.  It's hard, but overall a lot less stressful.  He's also had a pretty great schedule for the past week and has been home by 3 every day.

Still he's always happy on Friday when he can turn into "Weekend Brandon."  Weekend Brandon is so relaxed.  For our date this week we decided to work together on an art project for my big picture frame.  And by together I mean Brandon shows me lots of ideas and I tell him, "no that's not what I'm thinking," or "I like it, but can you make it a little bigger on this side."  He loves any chance to be artistic so he doesn't mind.

 On Saturday we were kind of planning on going to a Free science thing in Panama City Beach, but it was just miserably cold outside (I know I have nothing to complain about compared to Washington DC, but still it was cold).  Plus I wasn't feeling that great.  So we just hung around.  For movie night we watched the first Land Before Time movie and the kids liked it.  Then Brandon and I stayed up late watching Jurassic World.

Today I decided that I should try on a skirt that I've hung on to for years.  This skirt hasn't fit me since before I was pregnant with Derrick, but I loved it so much I just couldn't get rid of it.  Well I'm glad I hung on to it because it fits again!!!!!  I am so happy with the results I'm seeing with Take Shape for Life and the Medifast meals.  Six months ago I was worried I would never be under 200lbs again.  And now here I am at 185 and within 20 lbs of my goal weight.  This feels amazing.

Today we had a great day at church (this is the day Derrick went to Primary without any problems), but we were worried about how things would go after church.  We didn't want to sit around at home and get mad at each other.  (Not like that ever happens.)  The weather was nice so Brandon and I decided that in the interest of family happiness we should go on a little adventure.

So we drove down to Dothan and checked out some train tracks in the down town area.

Derrick as in heaven of course.

We had a little picnic dinner.

Then we went on a little walk around some of the buildings.  Dothan is the peanut capitol of the world or maybe just the state, but either way the city has lots of peanut statues all over town.  Most of them are decorated like people, but the only one we walked by was just plain pink.

 The kids had lots of fun on these steps and added another entry on the "reasons we aren't going to Disney list." (Why would we pay all that money when our kids are already so content with the little things?)

 Then we came home, put the kids to bed, and got ready for another week.

That pretty much sums up the past few weeks.  In the future I'll remember to update more often.  I don't want my parents to think that we've forgotten about them.

Oh and if any of you who are reading this are interested in getting updates from my parents, just let me know.  I know they would be happy to let you know about their adventures on their mission in Brazil.

Talk to you later!

Getting Out of Debt - Looking back at 2015

It's that time of year again.  It's time for a little update on how we are doing on our goal to get out of debt. 

(For those of you who are new, here is the quick run down: Brandon got into a lot of student loan debt trying to become a pilot in the civilian world. So now we are putting quite a bit of his income toward getting out of debt as fast as possible.)

We've been making payments on the student loans for a full four years.  And we've managed to make almost 5 1/2 years worth of payments.  We are over 1/3 of the way done! That's pretty exciting.  

Four years ago I made this little debt pay off tracker.  Every square on this tracker equals one monthly payment.  Every time we make a monthly payment we get to take off a square. If we pay extra we get to take off extra papers.  As the squares come off they reveal a picture collage of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.  Our plan is to celebrate being dept free by taking a trip to Reunion.  (After we save up enough money of course.)

2015 was pretty exiting because we were able to pay more on the student loans than we ever have before.  This graph shows how much money we've paid each year.  (But it doesn't have amounts listed because I'm not comfortable sharing that much about our finances.) 

However, we actually paid down more debt in 2014 than in 2015.  Last year I took most of our tax refund and paid off our Honda.  This year most of our tax refund went toward preventative maintenance on the Honda and some other "maintenance-y" things for our family.  Also Brandon was in Korea for most of 2014 and I used a lot of his deployment pay to pay down student loan debt.  

 And here is how much the loans have grown and shrunk over time.  Last year I did a whole post about how mad I am about all the interest that accrued on these loans.  I'm still mad about it, but I'm starting to see some progress with paying down the loans.  In fact, this year we'll cross the invisible line where we will actually owe less than the original amount of all the loans put together.

(A quick note about this chart. I never was able to track down good end of year balances for any year prior to 2011.  I just pieced those numbers together the best I could with original loan info.  So that's why the loans seem to jump in size between years.)

I have big plans for 2016. Brandon makes enough money now that we can pay our usual monthly payment, plus a second payment that we put all on one loan.  I'm hoping that with our tax refund we'll be able to pay off the last two Fedloan Loans.  (Those are the yellow ones on the chart.)  Once those are out of the way we can start putting our double payments to work on paying down the ACS loan (that's the pinkish-purplish one). Hopefully it will be gone by the end of 2016.

With all three of those "little" loans out of the way we will be ready to ATTACK the ginormous AES loans.  (Those evil looking green ones.)  Those are huge, so they will take some time, but baring any big emergencies or car purchases we should be debt free by the end of 2020.

And then what will we do?  Well, what ever the heck we want because we'll be DEBT FREE!

Wish us luck!

10 reasons that life is going really well

I am incredibly excited about this next year.  I have a really good feeling about everything. I have lots of goals and plans for things that I want to accomplish. Actually the fact that I want to accomplish anything is a big deal in and of itself.  For the past several years I've just been trying to figure out how to get through the day/week/month/year with my sanity still intact.  But this year is different.  This year I feel like I actually can get BIG things done.

I feel like I'm coming alive again.  Like I'm remembering parts of my personality that got lost during the past 6 years.  

There are a lot of reasons for this awakening. Some have a bigger impact than others, but they are all important.  Here are some of the things that are happening.  

1. I'm not pregnant or nursing.  Growing and feeding tiny humans with your body is hard and draining.  I feel like I spent at least part of each of the past six years either pregnant or nursing.  And it took its toll.  I love my kids, and they were cute babies, but I'm so glad that they are more independent now. 

2.  My kids sleep through the night.  Sure a child or two will usually come into bed with Brandon and me during the night.  But they come to us and we have a King sized bed, so it's not that bad.  No longer do I have to fall asleep knowing that I'll be out of bed again in a few hours.  The kids wake up around 6:30 every day - but that's okay because I've had a good nights sleep.

3.  Brandon doesn't have any away from home training coming up in the next 6 - 9 months.  Flight school may be hard and time consuming, but at least I don't have to worry about Brandon being away from home  for the next little while. Just knowing that he's around to help with the house and the kids makes my life so much easier. 

4. Three of my kids are in school.  Derrick was officially admitted to the special needs pre-school program before Thanksgiving.  He could go to school all 5 days of the week, but we decided that since he's three we'll just sent him 3 days of the week.  I love the freedom that comes with only one kid at home in the morning.  Veronica and I are able to run lots of errands together that I never would dream of doing with all four kids.  We also can hang out with friends and I don't feel like I'm bringing  half the party.    

5.  I've lost all my pregnancy weight.  I'm so proud of this.  I've lost over 25 pounds since I started the full Take Shape for Life program at the end of October. (And I've lost over 45 lb since I decided to start losing weight)  I'm now weighing in just under 190 and I still can't believe it every time I get on the scale and see numbers like 188.  I didn't own a scale until last year so I have no idea the last time I was at this weight, but based on pictures and clothing sizes I'm pretty sure it was before I got pregnant with the twins.  

This picture was taken today.  I'm so proud of how I look.  (And I'm able to wear heals again, because I don't have to routinely lift little people anymore!)

Now I'm just working on losing all my desk job weight - because lets face it - I was gaining weight before the kids came in the picture.

In fact, I'm participating in another health challenge this month.  It starts on the 18th and it's only $20 to join.  Let me know if you want to participate too. These challenges are a great way to start learning the habits that will help you be healthier your whole life.  I did my first challenge last year, and it really helped me on my weight loss journey.  

6.  I have crazy amounts of energy.  I'd heard people say that they had more energy after they lost weight, but I didn't expect to have as much energy as I do right now.  I think the two weeks of relaxation over Christmas definitely helped with my current energy levels. I literally skip around my house these days.

7. I'm tackling tons of projects that I've put off.  I'm organizing the files I haven't touched since before we moved, I'm finally doing something with my 401k from the job I left 6 years ago, I'm looking into places where I'd like to submit writing stuff . . . heck I even found the motivation to clean my bathroom. A few months ago things like this made me feel tired every time I even thought about them, but now (with all my new energy) I'm feeling like I'm on top of even the little details in my life.

8. I'm watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix.  Last week I spent 2 evenings binge watching Gilmore Girls while sorting papers.  I still have a lot more organizing to do which is good because I still have a lot more episodes of Gilmore Girls.  I've watched most of the seasons before, but I'm having a lot of fun revisiting my friends in Star's Hollow.  Lorelai's bubbly personality is probably another explanation for all my energy lately.

9.  Things are looking good financially. After Christmas we received a bill for some dental work that our insurance didn't cover. It wasn't a very big bill, but it does throw a little wrench in my budget plans for this month.  I was feeling kind of stressed out about it, until I found an old bill while I was sorting papers.

This bill was from three years ago.  I remember getting this bill when we'd just moved to our house in Texas. Brandon was away at NTC, our furniture hadn't arrived yet, I was days away from finding out I was pregnant with Veronica, we had barely any money in our checking account - and nothing in our savings, and we hardly knew anyone in the state.  Those were stressful days and that little bill added one more stress that I didn't need.

Looking at that bill brought back all sorts of money related memories from the past few years.  We've always had enough money for our needs, but sometimes it's been just barely enough.  Thinking about those stressful times reminded me how truly blessed we are right now.  Brandon has a steady job, we have enough money to pay for our (amazingly huge) house, we have money in savings, we have money to pay our bills, we have money to pay for our food - heck we even have money to pay for my special health food.  So I really shouldn't be upset that we have to pay one little dental bill.  

10. My family is happy. For a while there Brandon wasn't too happy about flight school (which was rather ironic since this was his dream and all) but things have come around so that he's actually enjoying flying again. Its so nice to have a husband who loves his job.

The kids are all doing really well too.  Derrick is especially making a lot of progress and it seems like he has a new word or skill every day.  Part of me really wants to do a post detailing everything that is going on with him, but in some ways I feel like that would be violating his privacy.  I'm just fine telling you about my weight and all, but that's my story.  I'm not so comfortable sharing Derrick's story.  However, I don't mind talking about it one on one.  So if you want details you can talk to me, or  message me, or e-mail me, or call me, or whatever.

The other kids are doing well too.  Veronica is talking a lot and I often here her sing "Cwinkel Cwinkel Little Staw, HowIwonderwhahyouarrrrrr."  She loves to give hugs and kisses.  She's also the most feisty little two year old and you can't make her do anything that she doesn't want to do.  (This is totally something she gets from me.)

Charlotte and Lydia have always been fun, but age 5 is a really special age.  They actually help around the house and it's helpful instead of partially helpful and partially annoying. They can do art projects without supervision.  We can have conversations about all sorts of subjects.  Those two girls are some of my very best friends.    

So those are reasons I'm feeling really excited about this year.  In a lot of ways I feel like I went through something of a refiners fire the last few years.  I've come out feeling a lot stronger- a lot more sure of myself.  I'm very interested to see where I go from here.

New Year New Changes

Happy New Year everyone.  This year is going to be a year of change for me.  Some of the changes will be continuing from ones that started last year (weight loss), some of the changes will be big (we'll probably move again), and I know some will be unexpected (???.)

We are only 6 days into the New Year and already I have several changes that I want to share with you.  

The first one is a really big deal.  I'm no longer the last millennial on the planet to have a flip phone! Honestly, if it was up to me I'd still have a flip phone.  I don't like to change the little things in my life very often.  I think it's because so many big things change all the time that I like to keep my little things the same.  Even when I do have to get new things I like to keep them the same.  That's why my "new" wallet and hair brush look exactly like my old ones.  So even though I knew I really should get with the program and buy a smart phone I just didn't want to think about it. 

Then, amid all the hubbub of arriving family members, Brandon ended up sending his phone through the washer. That was the motivation we needed to get with the smart phone program.  Recently Verizon started offering a wifi plan for only $30 a month. That plan would actually save us $30 a month. So Brandon switched us to that, and ordered new phones.  They arrived on Christmas Eve. 

At first I was a little skeptical, but every day I found something new to love about my phone.  I love how easy it is to listen to my favorite podcast, Radio Ronin, on Spreaker.  I love doing dishes while my phone reads to me from the Howard W Hunter book in the LDS Gospel Library, I love how I can check my e-mail or my bank account in seconds, I love that I can have an Instagram account.   And lets not even start with how easy it is to check in with Facebook/Pinterest.     

So yeah, Smartphone are pretty cool.  I can see why everyone has one. 

Brandon and I had a few plans for how we'd spend the week between my family leaving and when he had to go back to work.  We really wanted to take the kids miniature golfing.  But the almost incessant rain messed with that plan.  Instead we took the kids to a park and let them play in a mud puddle during a break in the rain. The kids had a great time. 

Some maintenance guys saw us as we were walking home with the kids.  They laughed so hard to see our four mud covered children.  One of the men said, "you know they had fun."

We took the kids home and sprayed them off with the hose before we stripped them down and took them to the bathtub.  Thankfully we were able to get the mud out of the clothes with Resolve laundry spray.  That stuff is my secret weapon as a mom.   

On New Years Eve we decided to revive our movie trilogy tradition.  This is something we used to do, but we haven't done it the past few years because we haven't actually celebrated New Years in our own home in over three years.  We choose to watch the Men in Black Trilogy.  The girls were kind of scared of the aliens, but its all done in such a fun way that they really weren't that scary. 

We have the Our Best Bites Savoring the Seasons cook book and there was a really good looking recipe for a cheese ball in it.  So Brandon wanted to try it out.  It ended up being the BIGGEST cheese ball ever!  And over the next two days we ate the whole thing.  

I decided that New Year's Eve is an adult thing, and so in addition to the cheese ball we had "adult food" like shrimp, pirouette cookies, and sparkling cider.  I figured we'd had plenty of kid friendly food the past few weeks so they could just deal with what we were eating.

Brandon says that New Years Eve is the hardest night of the year to stay up until midnight. The girls stayed up until about 9:30.  Derrick and Veronica didn't make it that long.  Brandon and I finished the movies around 11:00 and then struggled to stay awake that last hour.  We read Stealheart and I was seriously fading by the last 10 minutes.  As soon as it was midnight we toasted with sparking cider and then went right to bed.

(By the way, I went off the full plan for my weight loss program for the holidays, but I still lost 2-3 lbs.  I just made sure to make good choices for when I would indulge and I made sure to watch my portions.)

On New Years Day I sat down and made a calendar for the whole year.  I've been making my own calendars for over 10 years.  I like being able to see all the months at once.  Usually I made the calendars at random times throughout the year.  This was the first time I made one for the whole year.  It's exiting to think about all the things that will happen during this next year.

This next change doesn't apply directly to me, but I thought some of you would be interested in it.  My sister Hillary did end up getting a diamond ring from Joe.  He gave it to her on New Years Day. So it's official. The wedding will be in March. 

And here is another big change.  My parents have entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  They will be there for two weeks before flying to Brazil where they will live and work for 2 years.  Unfortunately they will miss Hillary's wedding, but they were able to see her get fall in love and get engaged so at least they have that. 

Brandon was able to finish up our new dining room table.  We were both really happy when it was dry enough to move it into the dinning room.  Here it is with the leaf in it. It's 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. 

This is what the part with the leaf looks like.

This is what the new table looks like compared to our old table.  Our old table was so small.  But our family grew so fast that we just never had a chance to get a larger one.  After Veronica was born Brandon went to Korea so we didn't need a large table while he was gone.  And after he came home we knew we'd be moving so buying a new table wasn't a priority.

I've spent the last several months hoping I'd find a table from one of my facebook sites or at a thrift store.  There were several prospects but most of them were too small.  The ones that were big enough came with chairs.  We didn't need new chairs, just a new table.

Finally Brandon told me that he could make me a new table for less money than we could buy a used one for.  And he delivered on that.  This table cost less than $200 for supplies and a tool rental.

Brandon made it huge so that we could use it for parties.  But he also made it so it can get (relatively) smaller.

Here it is with the leaf out.  It's still really big, but maybe that's just because we had such a small table for so long.

Here are the kids sitting at the table.  It's so strange to have room for our plates AND our food. 

Another change that happened is that we turned Veronica's crib into a bed.  My philosophy with when it's time to move toddlers into beds is to wait as long as possible to do it.  I've always really appreciated the cage-like features of cribs.  So I don't move my kids to beds until they can climb out of their cribs.  (Which is why Derrick was still in a crib when he turned 3 years old.)  Well Veronica learned how to climb out of her crib so it was time to face the music and take the side off.

This really hasn't affected our lives that much.  She was already skipping naps most days anyway, and she goes to bed really easily at 7:00 every night.  (That's mostly due to the skipped naps.)  If anything it's made our lives better because now Veronica can get out of her bed and come to us in the morning instead of yelling for us to come get her out.  Here she is snuggling with all her bears.

Brandon took down the Christmas Tree on New Years Day.  About two and a half years ago, when we were in Texas, Brandon and I were talking about where we would put up the Christmas Tree.  I was trying to figure out where it would go best in the living room.  Brandon said, "how about we put it up in Alabama?"  At the time living in Alabama and going to flight school was just a vague dream.  But now it's reality where we did get to put our tree up in Alabama.  Who knows where we will put it up next year.

Anyway, even though it was great and all to have the tree up in Alabama, I was pretty happy to have it out of the living room.  We'd moved the desk into my room to make room for the tree and we liked it in there so much that we decided to leave it.  That gave me an excuse to re-arrange the living room.
I had Brandon move one of the book cases to the corner, we also kept the green chairs in the livingroom instead of returning them to the bedrooms where they'd been hiding. I really like how this side of the room looks now.

This little corner is my favorite spot in the house.  (Derrick wanted to be in the picture and I just couldn't say no.)

The other side of the room is still a work in progress.  At first there weren't any pictures on the walls and it looked like we'd just moved it.  Finally I decided to put up some large pieces of art to balance the tall book cases on the other side of the room.  I'd saved the large frame from someones garbage pile and I was excited to have somewhere to put it.

Now I'm just trying to figure out what to put in the frame.  (The green piece of paper has a quote that I'm testing out to see if I want to read it ever single time I look in the room.)  I also need to work in some other colors besides brown.  I want to find a plant or something  for the corner.

Here's the room from another angle.  I really like our patio, but I wish the doors weren't located in the middle of the room.  It's been really hard to figure out the arrangement.

Here's what the living room looks like from the kitchen.  Overall I really like it.

So anyway, those are all the changes and stuff that's already happened this year.  And there are plenty more coming. I have three big goals/resolutions for the new year. 

1. I'm hoping to get a pretty good supply of food storage built up.  (Enough that we have enough food to last us a while, but not so much that it will be insane to move.)

2. I'm also hoping that we'll be able to pay off a good chunk of Brandon's student loans.  Baring any major catastrophes we should be able to pass the half way point this year.

3. My last big goal is the one that I should be able to accomplish first.  I'm getting back onto my eating program and making one final push to my goal weight.  Within the next two months I'm hoping to loose another 20 lbs and be a size 10.

I'll keep you posted on how all those things are going as well as all the other changes that happen this year.

It's going to be a great year!