Cheltzi's Funny, What I Found Under the Couch, and a Surprise

This morning as I was helping Cheltzi get her leotard for dance class we had this conversation:

Cheltzi: Hey, that was my job.
Me: What was your job?
Cheltzi: For my shoulder holders.

I had helped her put her arms in her sleeves. I laughed so hard.


And this is what I found under my couch last night when I tipped it over to see if I could fix the cushion. Luckily, I got the cushion fixed without losing an eye. My glasses saved me. There is some change mixed in there too. $1.65!!

And for the Surprise

A Few Pictures That I haven't Posted Yet

I found my camera!! It's amazing the things you'll find cleaning out your car. These pictures are in no particular order.

This is the first year since Cheltzi was born that we didn't get pictures with the Mall Santa.

This Picture was taken at my mom's company party (Good 'ole Walmart).

Cheltzi at Kevin's company Christmas Party acting silly

Dominik at Kevin's company Christmas party. Such a handsome boy.

Pay It Forward

I got this off of my friend, Nykki's blog and thought that it would be fun! It's a fun way to do something nice for someone else! :)This is how it works: Pay It Forward Exchange is based on the concept of the movie "Pay It Forward". I will send a hand made gift to the first three people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join the PIF exchange. All the gifts will be made and posted out 'sometime within the next year'. How exciting to not know when your surprise package will arrive! What you need to do in return, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. This Exchange is only open to those with active websites or blogs. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PROMISE TO POST THIS SAME 'PAY IT FORWARD' MESSAGE ONTO YOUR BLOG, WHICH MUST BE ACTIVE IN ORDER TO PLAY. YOU WILL PAY IT FORWARD TO THREE PEOPLE WHO COMMENT ON YOUR BLOG. I'd love for you to join me! Will you? Other comments are welcome, but only the first three will be my Pay It Forward recipients.

After Commenting please e-mail me your address to maplefam(at)hotmail(dot)com.

Goals

I am not one for "New Year's Resolutions". Sure I have made them in the past, but did I actually resolve what I wanted by the end of the year? NO! So not wanting to make resolutions I decided to make goals. We all have goals. Some days I have a goal to just get out of bed. Let me tell you that sometimes it really is hard for me to do this. Anyways I'm getting off subject. I am hoping that by writing these things down and having easy access to them I will be more inclined to actually make an effort to improve myself, my family, my spirituality, my marriage, and my home.

#1. Spirituality- a) I have never in my whole life (no not even in seminary) read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. I keep hearing people say that we need to "immerse" ourselves in the scriptures and truly study them. How can I truly study them if I don't even know what it is I am supposed to be studying. So my goal on this one is to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover and learn how to study the scriptures. b) Go back to the Temple. This is a big one for me and I want to accomplish this goal within a few months. c) If I ever get a calling, (I'm sure I will) I want to do the best I can and "magnify" it to the best of my ability

#2. Family- a) Relax a little when it comes to the things Cheltzi does. I have had several people in the last few weeks tell me to pick my battles. Which really I need to. Some of the things I get mad about, when I think about it later, really aren't that big of deal. b) I need to take more time to play with my kids. I am getting so sick of T.V. and movies. c) I want to also make more quality family time. d) FAMILY HOME EVENING!!

#3. Marriage- a) Date nights. Kevin and I need so desperately to have date night more often. Not only do we need alone time, but I think it might be good for Cheltzi and Dominik to have a night once in a while without us. b) Pray together more often just the two of us.

#4. Home- a) This is a big one for me. For some reason I always have a hard time keeping our home clean. I have struggled with this since we had our first place. It gets way out of control and gross. I am sick of it and I want a cleaner place for my family. I also believe it will help with bringing the spirit into our home. b) I want to get pictures on the walls. Pictures of my family, my savior, and the Temple. c) Cook more homemade meals. b) This one could possibly be a goal to improve myself because it is something I enjoy, but it also benefits my family. So I am putting it in the home category. I want to continue my new found hobby, sewing. I have never been interested in sewing until this past year and I love it. I want to continue learning and making things. At some point this year I want to get quilt frames and start quilting.

#5. Myself- For some reason this is hard one for me. I am always more concerned about Kevin and the kids that I forget myself. I don't want to become selfish, but I do believe there has to be a happy medium. I don't have any specific goals right now on how I can achieve this, but as I think of ways I will document them.

I will be blogging more. I hope that I will be able to at least once a day blog about what I have done to improve in these areas. I am thinking about making a different blog that will separate my goals and myself from my family blog. I can't decide yet.

Any input is VERY welcome.

I promise there are pictures to come. I need to dig my camera out of my van (that needs a goal category all to itself).