Organization

My New Year's resolution is to be more organized.....which I'm hoping will lead to a cleaner house! I even went so far as to hire a girl from church to watch my kids for a few hours, 2 days a week so I can clean and organize. A major motivation for this is that my husband's family will be visiting us for Ally's birthday party this month and I reall would like my house to look nice. I just don't seem to be able to find the time! As I complain about not being able to clean enough, I think about Kate Gosselin, from John and KatePlus Eight....how does she do it?? I know that if she weren't organized her house would fall apart, but I'd love to have half of the organizational skills that she does. So, even though I feel guilty about complaining, since I only have two kids (and not 8) I'm still going to do it.

Here are some of my flaws when it comes to organization:
1. I don't put things back where they belong after I use something.
This is by far the biggest problem
2. I procastinate.
3. I forget how good it feels to know that I've finished a task and don't have to do it later on.
Prime example: laundry. I hate folding clothes and putting them away. But when I
fold them and get the work done, it feels so good to know that that task is done.
4. I watch tv when I could be cleaning.

Now, I'm not aiming for a spotless house -- I am not willing to miss playing with my kids or taking them places just so I can have a clean house. But we all need clean clothes to wear and dishes to eat off of. Hopefully, I'll be able to develop some better habits this year. Any suggestions?

Christmas Pictures

My sister Jessica took the kids Christmas pictures today. I swear she should be a photographer. They turned out so well! Here are just a few.

Some new pics of my kids. They are sort of random, just ones that I think are cute. Enjoy!

Fall 2008

Evan loves me to lift him with my legs.




















He loves to be read to.















Allyson poses whenever she sees the camera. I am not kidding.
















See what I mean?

We've been really busy this fall already! We've been to Pumpkin Festivals, Philadelphia, aquariums, and other things I'm sure I've forgotten. Mostly though, we've just been visiting family and playing at home. Ally's getting so big! She has 6 teeth now. This morning, I gave her scrambled eggs for the first time. She tried them, but she wasn't sure about the taste. She also likes to eat bread so we're slowly working more table food into her diet. I'll be glad when I don't have to buy or make baby food anymore.

Evan went to his first 'non relative' birthday party today. It was a swimming party and he had so much fun! He has no fear. He ate pizza and cake, and sang 'Happy Birthday' to the birthday boy. It was a good time for him. I'm sure he'll be talking about it for days.

Women of Purpose

I am going to Women of Purpose tomorrow. I am leaving my kids with my husband. I am nervous about this, not because he won't do a great job, but because I've never left my family and done something just for me. Pray that I come back refreshed and ready to take on the world again!

I went to my women's bible study this morning. I have to tell you how much I look forward to Tuesday's. Our study is a book called Make Over but Jen Hatmaker. It all about how to manage and maintain the many roles we play as women such as wife, mother, housekeeper, friend,etc. She's funny and insightful and she really challenges us to study to word of God and to learn and make changes where needed. Last week's topic was the role of wife, with scripture coming from Song of Songs, and let me tell you, it was some interesting reading and even more interesting conversations. Well anyway, this week's topic was on our role of Mother. Scripture was from Ruth, and was the story of Naomi and her husband and how they moved to Moab, a place of Godlessness, when famine struck their home. They knew that Moab was spiritually not the place to raise a family, but they chose to move there anyway. As we studied God's word, Jen asked the question, is our home a Moab (driven by pleasure) or driven by God? There is no in between. Of course, right away I answered, "of course my home, the place where I am raising my children, is on God's holy ground." In fact, I felt rather smug about it. But the more I read, the more I realized that I was thinking there was a neutral ground. I could be doing more to show my faith to my kids. Now I realize that my kids are 2 1/2 and 9 months so there is only so much I can do right now. We pray with Evan before he goes to sleep. We pray before meals. We take him to Sunday, church and AWANA. But am I showingmy kids who Jesus is to me? That's where they will form most of their opinions on the subject of God. By watching my husband and myself. I know I can do a better job.

Halloween 2008

As you can probably tell by the date, we didn't ge to do Halloween on October 31 this year. We were in Philly on Halloween so we took the kids to Mom and Dad's in their costumes the next night. This was Allyson's first Halloween and I'm not sure she enjoyed herself.

Evan was a veterinarian and Ally was a cat. Appriate, right? Evan likes to take care of Ally by giving her hugs and saying, "she's so cute!" so we made her costume something that his character would take care of. They both looked so cute and Evan kept taking out his 'tools' and playing with them. He used the play scissors to cut Poppy's toes off. And He listened to heart beats and just had a good time.

This is Evan. He is laughing so hard at something (I can't remember what). Once he realized that we thought this was hysterical, he kept doing it to make us laugh more. What a cute little ham!

Evan is growing up so fast. All of the sudden he's talking all the time....I mean, he never shuts up! He tells jokes, sings songs, makes up his own songs. He is so creative and I can tell that he is super smart. He has known his numbers since he was 18 months old and his letters since he was just under 2. He can even recognize all the upper and lower case letters. He can even recognize his name. I don't know where he gots his brains from! Certainly it wasn't from me.

He is the sweetest little boy. He's got me wrapped around his little finger. Just when he's about to drive me crazy doing things he shouldn't, he comes up to me and wraps his little arms around my neck, gives me a kiss and says, I love
you." Who's heart wouldn't melt?



This is my Allyson. She just learned to crawl and she's making a break for it here. Isn't she the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?

Two days ago she started saying the word 'ball.' I couldn't believe it! She loves to play and smile and laugh. She doesn't cry very often, only when I leave the room....haha It's a great feeling to know that your baby loves you.




I don't know if I want Evan to be a doctor when he grows up. It's hard work! But he enjoys being Doctor Evan (which is what he calls himself) right now. He can do whatever he wants when he grows up...I just want him to always be happy.