Still thinking...

I'm still working on my resolutions.  I'm going back and forth between making a long list of things (big and small) that I want to accomplish in 2011.  Or, maybe I will focus on one different thing per month, hoping that by the end of each month that thing (or trait) will become a habit.  Or maybe I'll just focus on one BIG thing all year and break it up into 12 smaller steps.  We'll see.  I have some ideas but nothing is set yet.

In the meantime.... here are some pictures we've taken over the last few days.

Movin' on up!

Today was a big day at our house: Abby moved up into the "Primary" program at Church - basically that means that she goes to a Sunday School-type class instead of the nursery (where all the toys are).  And it just so happens that Ellie turned 18 months old yesterday, so she is now old enough to go to nursery!  Didn't I plan that well? :)

It was so nice to be able to do music time in the Primary without Ellie hanging onto me or screaming that she wants me (I used to have to keep Ellie with me during the second hour since Garrett teaches a teenage Sunday School class, then he would take her during third hour).  Garrett had to work today so he didn't get to see the girls in their new classes, but it was so cute to see them experiencing something new.  Ellie did just fine in the nursery, probably because there was only one other kid in there (which I am so thankful for... I hate when the nursery has a ton of kids).  Abby seemed a bit tentative about coming into the Primary (there were a lot of screaming kids at the beginning), but she did well and enjoyed herself in her class, too.

I can't believe I have a kid in Primary.  Where does the time go?

1.1.11

New beginnings!

To be honest, I've never really been big into making New Year's resolutions but I do it anyway because it feels like something I should do.  But this year, rather than making a list of resolutions for the year, I want to focus on certain qualities/traits that I want to learn (or perfect), and focus on one of those per month.  I haven't had much of a chance to think about them yet but once I have them set in stone I will share them with you.

Now I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and share some of the things we did in 2010, just in case you missed it!

January:
Garrett was still really busy with residency interviews.  I was a single parent a lot during that month (and the month before that)
Abby turned three

February:
We watched a ton of Olympics
Garrett submitted his rank list for residency programs

March:
I ran my first official 5k
A huge sigh of relief when we found out that Garrett matched!
MATCH DAY!

April:
We spent a weekend in Washington D.C.
We went to Utah
We went to California

May:
Garrett graduated from medical school!

June:
We moved to Virginia

July:
Ellie turned one

August:
I hit a blogging bump so I started (and completed) the 50-day Challenge

September:
We spent a week in Pennsylvania with my family
We bought a second car

October:
Beach camping at the Outer Banks

November:
Ellie screeches.  A lot.

December:
Garrett actually let me interview him here on the blog
Christmas in Savannah

Whew, it's been quite a year.  2011 is already shaping up to be a busy year

January: Abby turns 4
February: ?? Not really sure but I do know that Garrett has a good schedule - 4 days on, 4 days off.
March: Garrett will take a week-long vacation and we'll either go house hunting in FL, or to PA to visit my parents
April: Garrett will take another week-long vacation and we'll do whatever we didn't do in March
May: pack up
June: move to Florida
July: Garrett starts radiology!
August: we'll suffer the humidity of Florida
September: Abby starts preschool (maybe)
October: let's face it, we'll probably be suffering of heat still
November: ??
December: ??

Christmas pictures

We spent Christmas in Savannah this year -- Garrett's parents actually just bought a house in Richmond Hill, just outside of Savannah.  It's a really great house and it fits everyone comfortably, which is nice.

Rylan (Garrett's little bro) and Abby decorating the "kids" Christmas tree.

Christmas morning, waiting to open presents (or, if you're Ellie, eating toys).  Like my new pajamas?  They were comfy.  My hair looks really dark in this picture, but it's the same color in all the pictures - and yes, this is finally, 100% my natural color - all the color is cut out.  It's okay, but... I'll be honest, I'd still rather be a blonde, I think.

Santa brought Abby a Tinkerbell watch - just what she asked for!  

She also got a new toothbrush and now brushes her teeth about 4x a day.

Mess-free paint - the paint only shows up where it should on the picture.  It came with three poster-sized pictures of Disney princesses.  She did them all within two days of coming home, and then today (after completing the last one), informed me that "Mommy, you need to go to the store and buy me more paint and paper."  Umm... sure.

The aftermath

One of the best parts of the day was when Rylan came out of his room dressed in his Wall-E costume.  According to Garrett's mom, he had been working on this costume for weeks and did the whole thing by himself.  He even came out walking all crouched down like that and talking in a weird robot voice.  It was so awesome.  He did a great job and he had been planning this moment for a long time too (coming out on Christmas morning to surprise the little kids).

Watching Garrett's mom carve the turkey.  She always cooks her turkey in the crock pot so that her oven stays free for everything else.  It tasted great.  And yes, that's a HUGE side-by-side fridge and freezer back there... amazing.  But necessary with so many people in the house!

Abby got the cutest little ballerina dress from Garrett's grandma.

That's my signature "making a face at the camera" look. Cute huh?  I got it from my sister Emma.

Sitting around after Church on Sunday.

Jared blessed baby Gavin since everyone was in town.  Gavin is the fifth grandbaby on the Woodbury side and he's so cute.

The ladies

We did a little family photo shoot down by the dock.  I'll share more pics when Garrett gets a chance to edit them. (for some reason this pic might look grainy and Garrett's not home to fix it, so... just click on it to enlarge it and it will look better).  And don't let the picture fool you... it was pretty chilly outside!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, too!  I really missed being with my family but we usually all meet up another time of the year, when it's less chaotic and when traveling is easier.

As nice as it is to come home to the peace and quiet again, it's always a little bit hard to come home from a vacation and settle into real life.

Virginia welcomed us home a few days after with a foot of snow.  I am a little sad that we missed the snow storm (I really love to see snow falling, it's so magical), but I'm glad that Garrett didn't have to be driving to and from work in it.  They also cancelled Church while we were gone, which I was bummed to miss out on (I mean... thankfully we were able to go in Savannah, haha).  (Oh come on, who doesn't like a Sunday off every now and again).  I also discovered that our apartment complex does absolutely nothing to keep people from slipping on the sidewalks leading up to our buildings... no sand, no salt, lots of ice.  Good one.

The girls also got really bad colds as soon as we got home, which has been lovely.  Abby in general seems to get sick (coughing) really easily and it drives me nuts! (I hate sending her to nursery, every single week I hate it).  It's scary too when she gets sick because she breathes so heavily and I just hate dealing with all that stress and worry.  And, this time they were both coughing like crazy... so badly that they each even threw up a couple times.  Yes, it's been so nice around here.  And Garrett hasn't even been around to ease the burden.

Another thing to welcome us back to Virginia was problems with Garrett's work schedule.  Since it's holiday scheduling, he has to cover some call shifts for people on vacation, besides his normal ER shifts.  Unfortunately, someone messed up the scheduling and double booked him twice this week.  And rather than telling him to just skip some ER shifts, they are going to make him make them up, which means Garrett has been working every day this week.  Last night his ER shift ended at midnight, then he had to go back into the ER early this morning and work all day before taking over someone's medicine call tonight and into tomorrow sometime (he was originally supposed to be in the ER from 2-midnight again, but since he had to do call tonight, they made him go into the ER early today.  ::sigh::

Okay, rant over.  I just feel so bad for Garrett sometimes.  I actually had a dream a few weeks ago that the hospital scheduled me to work some ER shifts, because they figured that since I was married to a doctor, I must know the sames things that he knows.  It was truly a nightmare - the kind where you wake up feeling so anxious and you want to cry with relief when you realize it was just a dream.  I can't even imagine the kind of stress that Garrett (and all doctors) feel and it's a burden that I would never want to carry.  And so frustrating, too.  Garrett estimates that about half of the people in the hospital wouldn't be there if they actually took care of themselves.

One of Garrett's fellow interns got stuck at the an airport and we found out that Rob had to take over one of his medicine shifts.  I half-jokingly told Garrett to avoid his phone and email so that he wouldn't get called in, too (because I'm sure he would have had to make up any missed ER shifts!).  Anyway, Garrett was commenting on how lucky this guy was to miss a shift, and I said to Garrett, "Would you rather be stuck in an airport for 2 days, or work a medicine shift?" I barely had the words out before he was saying "airport, easily".

"Umm... what about, stuck in an airport for 2 days with 2 kids, or work a medicine shift?"

"Definitely airport."

And this coming from the guy who starts another month of medicine on Monday.  Let the good times roll!

Well, this has gone from a nice Christmas post to a "whining" post.  Sorry! :) Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.  Like I said, I'll post a few more when (if?) Garrett ever comes home to edit them!

Christmas gifts, part 3

I made a quiet book for the girls this year.

Learning snaps:

Tic tac toe:

Learning buttons:

There's a little toy car in the purple pocket on the top of the right page.  On the left page, the red, yellow and green circles have velcro on the back.

Baking cupcakes.

Counting beads, and a purse.  I'm going to put a little comb and mirror and maybe some chapstick and other fun things in the purse.

Sending mail.  The mailbox has a little pocket on the top to put drawings and letters on.

Learning math (addition & subtraction), and learning zippers.

Matching colors, and weaving

The "gumballs" have velcro on the backs

Learning to tie a bow.

This book was really fun to make.  Before October I had never really worked with felt much, but between this quiet book and my advent calendar, I feel like a pro now.  Felt is really nice to work with because it's stiffer than cotton and it holds up pretty well if you get the nice kind.  Many people online recommend using wool felt but that's really expensive.  I used mostly Rainbow felt.  My mom gave me a big stack of it a couple years ago, and I also bought some on Fabric.com so that I could have more colors and variety.  (If you go that route, just be sure that you order the right amount!  I bought mostly squares (which were about 30 cents each), but I also bought 1 yard of white.  Oh, and I also accidentally bought 2 YARDS of yellow instead of two SQUARES of yellow.  Whoops.  Guess I'll have to find a project for that.

I only made about half the pages I had planned on making because I ran out of book space and time.  Hopefully I'll make a second book in the next year or two.

Christmas gifts, part 2

I originally made this quilt to give my mother-in-law for Christmas, but decided to have it be a birthday present since the kids usually all go in on the Christmas gift for their parents (her birthday is in January).

When my mother-in-law and I were in a fabric store together a few years ago, I asked her to show me some of her favorite fabrics so that I could get an idea of her style.  She pointed out a lot of pretty, bright Fall-ish colors.  Luckily, I already had a big stack of fat quarters in a similar style so I got to work.  I actually started this quilt a couple of years ago.  I wanted to do the whole thing in that triangle pattern, but eventually I gave up and just did a square border.  I was getting really tired of trying (and failing) to match corners.

I finished this quilt last July and almost forgot about it as we were packing for our Christmas trip.  So glad I remembered it since I hate shipping my projects... I'm always so scared they will get lost.

The backing is a vintage sheet that used to belong to my grandma.

I love how this quilt turned out and I hope my mother-in-law likes it!

If you want to see the other quilts I've made for Christmas, click on the links:

Quilts for my sisters and mom, Christmas 2009 (these are probably my favorite)
Quilts for my sisters-in-law, Christmas 2008

Christmas gifts, part 1

I already showed you the Advent Calendar I made for my brother and his family.

On Garrett's side, we had his younger sister and her husband.  They just got married last April, and since they are newlyweds I figured they would enjoy some pictures for their wall.

I got this idea from an etsy shop that I found.  Garrett's sister is from Georgia (obviously) and her husband is from California, and the hearts on the maps are where their cities are.  Garrett actually made them, and I printed them up and framed them.  I really like how they turned out!