Happy New Year Ramblings

Happy Happy New Year Beloved Reader! I sure hope your holidays were filled with love and laughter.  Mine were filled with love, laughter and a whole lotta busy! I feel like I have been running full speed ahead since middle of November and let me remind you this girl doesn't like to run. In fact my New Years word is Balance due to the fact that I feel I need to balance all this busy in my life that 9 times out of 10 isn't even my own busy.  Ya know what I'm saying? Any momma of more than a couple kids gets it. I feel like I'm constantly running everywhere for everyone but ME, and most days I don't mind that. I'm thankful my life is full of busy, because that means it's full of beloved people, but I also know that running all the time is not good. I don't know how I know this since like I said I'm not a runner, but I just know it in my knower. So part of finding balance for me in this New Year I think is going to look like planning to do things that I want to do.  Things that feed my soul. Things that make my heart sing. Things like NOT running. Although this girl doesn't like running..

She does however like to write and today feels like a good day to check in and write a few things here with you.  Where should we start? Let's have a conversation about the aftermath of Christmas decor.  Am I the only one who feels a tad bit resentful about the after clean up process of Christmas? I feel as though decorating for Christmas is a task that primarily falls on the woman and the aftermath of Christmas (aka what to do with the Christmas tree) should fall on the man. Call me old fashioned, but I'm so glad my Giant takes care of getting rid of that big gianormous tree that is now dropping pine needles left and right.  But I have to say that after the tree is gone and I take a look around,  I'm a tad bit overwhelmed by all the fun I had putting tinsel on everything and ornaments everywhere. Every year when I bring out the ahem... 8 or 9 boxes of Christmas decor I think to myself... "Self... ya know this is going to take all of January to clean up." But I put it all out anyways because the kids love it and well... I guess I must too.  How do you feel about it all?

Well ... so Christmas clean up, not my favorite, but in the end I feel only slightly resentful about it for a minute until I remember how nice it is to have a nice clean, crisp, streamline, simplified looking house.  Psh.... that's funny! I don't think my house and simplified are two words that would ever go together. No, because after December comes January. And we all know what that means decor wise...  I bring out the snowmen ;)  Yes, I decorate with snowmen in January. Doesn't everyone? I suppose I just can't say goodbye to all the fun so quickly and so I prolong it with cute little snowmen. Speaking of cute little things my niece Sophia just turned two.  She's aka Last Minute Biscuit (to me) because her birthday falls on December 31st .   She's the cootie pa tootie in the Minnie Mouse ears! Ugh... isn't she just scrum diddly ump tious? I get cuteness overload every time I see her sweet little face.

We had her party here right after Christmas. It was such a treat to be here and not be a part of this event via Skype. We had all the cousins together again which was a real treat. These two young men were babies just like yesterday! Now they are only months away from entering the teen years, and I have to say my heart just about skipped a beat when I saw this picture. This is cousin Jaydn and my son Solomon. Gah... cuteness overload again!

I'm in for a world of hurt when these Fab 4 kids of mine start flying from this nest. Lemme, just go on record now and say, that nothing will ever prepare this momma for something like the ugly words;  EMPTY NEST, BUT when I read things like this;  Geocashing with The Grandkids well it makes me smile. Stephanie is the bomb diggity! If you haven't discovered Honey(that's what her grandkids call her) well then your life is just not fully, full yet!! She is handling the empty nest phase of life, like a champ! And every now and then I need to go read her stuff to remind myself that there is life after the nest is empty. She has three grown daughters that are Be You Tee Full! And this reminds me that when I'm finished raising these beauties they WILL come back to me ;) This is a picture of cousin Brenna, cousin Breezy, and my oldest Daughter Emma. Did I mention these beautiful young ladies were babies just yesterday?  Sigh... cuteness beauty overload!

I'm not sure why Chloe wasn't in this pic, maybe??  Oh yea that's right.. not only did we have the party here, but my 13 year old Chloe made niece Sophia's Minnie cake. Can I just brag for a minute? My Sweet Lo lo is an aspiring baker.  I think she has proven time and again that she is quite the artist when it comes to all things pastry. I'm so very proud of her.

Oh, and Did I mention that not only does she make beautiful cakes she is an amazingly, stunning 13 year old girl that has legs for days and isn't even in High School yet? Eye cahrumba !! I'm in trouble! I mean would look at those two beauties below!!! Cuteness, Beauty, LEGS overload! Ok, I'll calm down now.  Deep breaths.  I do take comfort in the fact that their dad is a ... well you know I don't call him My Giant cause he's teeny. So at least there is that.

Well now that I have done my fair share of allotted bragging for the month of January I should probably go so you don't start to tune me out. I have missed you beloved reader. I'm hoping to be back into a better blogging swing soon, but in the meantime know that there is ... For YOU!!