101 Update

Here's the latest update on my 101 project...

42. Be less dependent on paper towels (I use them for everything!)

Done!  I recently got some Norwex products and I am loving them!

49. Have 6 months of expenses saved up in our emergency fund

Also done!  It's actually more like a "comfortable" 8 months, and it could maybe be stretched to almost a year if we really tried.  This was a really hard one and took a lot of dedication but it feels great to have.

74. Take a trip to Target and only buy things on my list

Did this last week.  I took the girls to Target so that we could peruse the toy aisles and Abby could tell me what she wanted for her birthday (I didn't just want to buy for the sake of buying something - I wanted to get her something she actually wanted).  So, I had nothing on my list to buy that day and we walked out with nothing... just a phone full of pictures. ;)  (We ended up buying her a music box with a ballerina on the top - she loves it)

Up next...

17. Give up soda for good - I don't drink much of the stuff anyway, but I really just need to stop altogether.  Everything I've read about it just sounds disgusting.  I haven't had any for a few weeks now so maybe at the one month mark I'll consider that as long enough to mark it off as "done"...
24. Create a will with Garrett - it's just plain irresponsible that we don't have one.  Not that we have much stuff to leave to anyone, but we do have 3 cute kids that would need to be taken care of.
66. Start recycling more - for some reason recycling confuses me.  What can be recycled?  Do I have to wash it? Which bin does it go in?  I just need to read up on FL's rules and get going on this.  We already have two bins for crying out loud.
72. Buy a five year journal and keep up with it - I am going to buy myself one for Valentine's Day.  I know I could just use a cute notebook but none have enough pages, or they have way too many.  I'll probably just buy this one... I saw it in person at a bookstore and it looks good.

Remember...

...remember last week when I blogged about feeling overwhelmed?

Well.... now Garrett has a head cold, I have a head cold, Abby & Ellie got lice, and Olivia has RSV.

WHO WANTS TO COME VISIT???

;)

Blessing Day

Since we were with so many family members for Christmas, we took the opportunity to bless Olivia while we were together.

In our church, children are not baptized until they are eight years old.  When they are a baby, though, their father gives them a special blessing, after which their name gets added to the official church records.  Garrett has the Priesthood just as Christ had when He was on the earth, and he used the Priesthood to give her the blessing.

Most people bless their babies during a church meeting; we have always chosen to do ours at home.  I like having it on our schedule and it just seems a lot more special and intimate.

All the girls.... our family certainly has grown since we blessed Abby!

Four generations:

Awkward:

Garrett and Olivia:

And here's another one we took while we were out taking family pictures later that afternoon.  She's such a sweetheart:

I blogged about Ellie's blessing here and Abby's blessing here.

Overwhelmed

Life has been a little overwhelming lately.  I am a pretty easygoing person and I don't stress out too easily, but things have just been piling up it seems like.

The past few weeks have brought: a death in the family (followed by more heartbreaking circumstances), the stress of planning some church activities practically by myself, sick baby and a really sick husband, being frustrated/depressed/helpless about politics, a broken phone (I wasn't too upset about this one, it's just the process of replacing it that was so annoying and time-consuming.  I literally spent 4 hours one day on the phone with Apple).  I also just found out that something I said at Church on Sunday (to about 40 people) was misconstrued by a couple people so that's been a bit upsetting.

And finally... Garrett's best friend is getting married in June. We are so excited for him!  Garrett has known him since middle school-ish age.  Garrett's supposed to be in the wedding party.  We found out the wedding dates last October, and Garrett put in for the time off right away (you know, eight months in advance).  And... they turned him down.  Garrett won't be able to attend his best friend's wedding.  We've known this for a few weeks now but for some reason it's really been getting me down lately.  Sometimes it's really hard to be married to a resident/doctor (I'm sure anyone who has a husband with a demanding career knows what I mean.) (And obviously I'm not talking about Garrett... just his career choice, ha).  Anyway, I was going to fly my mom down here and leave the kids with her and make a little trip of it with Garrett (the wedding is in San Diego).  Oh well.

And along those same lines, I'm trying to plan a time to go see Garrett's parents in St. George in late July-ish (Garrett's dad/uncles/cousins/grandpa do a dirt bike trip every summer in that area, and Garrett hasn't been able to go for the last 6 years), but since Garrett won't know his July schedule until, oh, May probably, he doesn't know if he'll be on a rotation that allows for time off.  And his program just started a new rule that only 4 residents (out of 42) can be on vacation at a time anyway.  I'm a planner... I want to know where we are going, when we are going, for how long, etc.  I don't want to wait until May to know if we are going! I'm so jealous when wives have husbands who can take time off based on family events, rather than having to base family events on their assigned time off.

Written down, some of these don't really seem like they are too stressful (they probably shouldn't be, anyway) but I'm feeling the weight of most of it still.  Certainly, my problems could be a lot worse and I realize that.

Things I am grateful for.... because there is always so much:

-Google video chat.  Twice in the last two weeks I've done video chats with people I love and it's been so fun.  First chat was 5 hours, second was 3.5 hours.  We talked, laughed, folded laundry, ate dinner "together", joked around, cried (yep), made faces, and just had a grand old time.  I love technology.

-Abby never seemed to say those crazy funny things that you always hear about kids saying, but Ellie is making up for it.  Last Sunday after I loaded the kids in the car and was driving out of the parking lot, Ellie let out a big, exhausted sigh and said in a tired voice, "I'm ready for Chinese New Year."    ???

-Abby is about to lose her first tooth!  Do I really have a child that old??

-Olivia is darling, as always.  I just cannot get enough of this baby.  I always thought I wasn't  "baby" person (age 1-2 is just so fun that I usually look forward to that), but I'm just loving having a little baby right now.  I think that a big part of it is that I never felt exhausted with her like I did with the other two.  Abby was hard because she was my first and I didn't know what I was doing.  Ellie was hard because she screamed all the time.  With Olivia, I never got that "I'm-shaking-because-I'm-so-exhausted" feeling (oh how I hate that feeling).

-I just started a new diet game thing with 11 people I love (mom, all my siblings, a sister-in-law, her mom and sister (who I grew up with), and two best friends from high school (we were all in the same ward growing up).  There's a big points system and we have teams and we're all competing against each other... it's been fun so far!  Part of the points are based on communication so I've been in contact with people more which has been a lot of fun.

-Garrett is finally working a normal schedule again.  The other night as we were climbing into bed I realized that we had not gone to bed at the same time since before Christmas.  So grateful to have him home during the evenings this month, and he has MLK Day off!!  I'm trying to enjoy it all while I can because in February he starts another 6 weeks of nights. (Netflix recommendations, anyone?)

Sorry for a long-winded post with no pictures.  I promise the next one will have some!

Bittersweet

Our Christmas trip to Savannah was definitely bittersweet.

Garrett's parents moved to St. George, UT just three days after Christmas.  His dad was offered a job there that was just too good to pass up.

We are happy for them, but really sad for us.  Having them in Savannah was such a huge blessing.  They lived in a central location that allowed all of us to come be together pretty frequently over the last couple of years.  It was a huge reason we decided to go to Florida for Garrett's residency and we have loved being near them.

It will be a hard adjustment to be sure.  Thankfully, between FaceTime and Google Video chat and all that fun stuff, we can still see them from time to time.  It just won't be the same.

We attempted to take a nice family picture on Sunday afternoon before Christmas.  Unfortunately, whenever the weather is nice enough to enjoy being outdoors, the gnats want to be out too and they are everywhere.  This particular afternoon was the worst I had ever seen in Savannah.  There were thousands and they were just terrible.  In fact, I'm shocked that there aren't tons of little black dots all over the picture; I felt like we were standing in a cloud of gnats. And they don't just fly around being annoying... they bite!  Ugh I hate those things.

We framed this picture and gave it to Garrett's parents for Christmas so they can hang it in their new house in Utah.  We know that they will miss all their kids and grandkids here, but we know they will definitely not miss all the darn bugs here in the South.  Yuck.

More Christmas

The kids waiting to open their new jammies on Christmas Eve:

Thank-you hugs for Grandma:

Olivia:

Abby loved her footsie pajamas:

Thankfully the kids slept as if it was a normal morning, and we headed downstairs around 7:30 or so.  I just had to post this picture... check out Rylan's face.  I'm pretty sure this is the moment that he saw what Santa brought him - night goggles.

He "needed" them so that he can go Bigfoot-hunting at night.  Bigfoot/Sasquatch was definitely a running theme for him on Christmas morning:

There were 20 people at the house, so frequent grocery shopping trips were a necessity:

"Mom, look at this giant toilet paper!"

Wrestling with Uncle Jared

Many hands make light work:

Mexican Train - a favorite of mine and Garrett's, and fortunately a couple other people as well.  We had some good times with Garrett's grandparents and a few others.  But please take a moment and look at this hand I got.  Crazy high points, not to mention the doubles (although, one round I got EIGHT doubles, out of 10 tiles that I drew).  I later found out that there was some cheating going on.  When I was adding up points between rounds, Jared was finding terrible tiles and putting them where he knew I would draw from.  I still can't believe I didn't catch on.  I just thought I was having an unlucky night.

Grandpa drew a picture of Santa, and Abby decided to copy it.  Not sure when Santa got sketchy whiskers and a cigarette, but... there it is.

Ellie snuggling with Grandpa

We all had cups with our names on them to keep the dish-washing needs under control.  Guess whose cup this was?

Poor Abby had a huge canker sore on the inside of her right cheek, which is why her face looks so swollen in most of the pictures from vacation.

Olivia napping with Aunt Katie:

It was a really nice Christmas and we made some great memories.  Played a lot of Catch Phrase and Mexican Train, spent lots of time talking, made (& ate) lots of food, went for walks, played outside, took pictures, exercised, had some nice heart-to-hearts, stayed up late, slept in, made a lot of messes, and cleaned a lot.

Garrett and I didn't give each other gifts this year, but Santa brought the girls what they asked for.  Abby got a bell and basket for her bike, and Ellie got a pink bike horn that wanted (no, she doesn't have a bike, haha.  She just loves to make noise).

Christmas with the Greats

Great Grandpa & Great Grandma with the Great grandkids

We were met with a wonderful surprise when we pulled up to Garrett's parents house in Savannah for Christmas.  Garrett's grandparents were visiting from Phoenix!  They came to surprise all of us.  It was so much fun.  We hadn't seen them since Garrett's medical school graduation 2.5 years ago.

Merrill and Judy are a huge inspiration to me.  Merrill's wife died from lupus when Garrett's dad was 9 years old, and she left 4 kids.  Judy's husband died in a boating accident when she was 27 years old and pregnant with her fifth boy.  Merrill and Judy met and married a few years later and have two children together, so that's 11 kids total.  I have a hard time keeping everyone straight (especially since I don't think I've even met them all...) but it's a big, fun family.  It was so nice to spend some quality time with Garrett's grandparents and get to know them a bit better.  After the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve, we had a very nice discussion/testimony meeting with them and it was wonderful.  I got to hear some stories of Garrett's ancestors (there's some great pioneer heritage there) and that was really inspirational.

And I was so grateful that they could get to know Abby, Ellie, & Olivia.  Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for coming to see us!  Hopefully someday we'll be able to make the trek out to Arizona to come see all the family there.