Goals

I normally don't make new year resolutions, I find themes for the year. My favorite was a few years ago that my little neighbor (at the time) had given me. "Say Jesus Loves Me! Now say it like you mean it!" This year I have really struggled with a theme.
The past few months I have really struggled with trying to get approval from people that for all of my life, I thought I needed. After a really great talk with my sister, the realization has been like an AAAAHHHHHAAAA moment. Then in Sacrament meeting today, fast and testimony meeting seemed to be about getting on a good path and sticking to it.
I need to find a good path that I can "stick to". I think this needs to cover all areas of my life.
A dear friend of mine says that one needs to re-invent ones self every couple of years. I guess it is like looking at yourself and asking if this is the person you want to be? Do I like myself? Are there areas that I feel that I can REALLY improve? (Not just try for a week and then slip back into old habits..)
This year I want to get Healthy! I am not talking the , start exercising this week and then stop...
I am thinking Healthy Spirit, Healthy Mind, Healthy Relationships.
I want to make list for each month of things I want to work on for THAT month. I think it will be easier to stick with it, like the concept of how do you eat an elephant...one bite at a time.

For January, (I have a yucky cough and I really don't feel good... the only thing I want to drink...)
Jeff says that we drink too much soda. My name is Janey and I am a sodaholic! (HI Janey!) I love Dr. Pepper. It goes with EVERYTHING! Breakfast, Lunch AND Dinner. Not to mention dessert! I start my morning with a can! Breakfast of champions! We try-ed backing off by getting Decaff. Dr. Pepper. Not as good, but a close 2nd. But, it really didn't slow me down. I know it is not good for me. I KNOW IT! So, this month...it is about the soda.
To Be Continued!

New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve was so much fun! My friend, DaNae, called and said that her family was going to have a little get-together and we were welcome to come. They were going to make some Chinese food and play games. Nothing too big.
Well, make food we did! I made egg rolls and her family made Gyosa, Rice, and Sushi. It was a hit! Yes, I tried the Sushi, and NO, I don't like it.
Then we made a game called, "Who, Where, How". It is a charade version of the game "Clue" and "Telephone"but nothing has to go together. You have 3 people leave the room. Then as a group you choose Who died, Where they died and How they died. Then one person comes back in the room and can choose anyone to act out the different parts. (one person per part) Then they have to act it out for the 2nd person who has to then act it out for the 3rd who has to figure out what is going on. This we played for 3 rounds and then played a game called "How's Yours". Wont tell you all the parts to that one, but fun game. Then we rang in the new year with non-alcoholic bubbly. Of course I didn't even think to take pictures until everyone is drinkin it up.

The best part is watching the prego lady drinkin it up! Jen is so much fun!


At the end of the night, DaNae had all of us open a fortune cookie. (Great new tradition!) I love what mine said. I am holding on to this one! I need to remind myself when I am feeling a bit unsure of myself with some of the things I have lined up already for this year...I can do it! We look forward to this new year and all that it brings!

New Year's Day

It has been our tradition on Thanksgiving (when we have a pool) that our kids can make $20 by taking a little dip in the pool after dinner. This year we were in Utah for Gobble Day so Jeff let the kids carry the tradition by taking the dip on New Year's day. Oh, and its about 40 degrees outside..you can just imagine how cold the water is...This is a bit long, but it is funny to watch...well for us it is...

Christmas 2009

Christmas at home this year! I am so blessed to have had the family together this year!Christmas was spent caroling with friends, making egg rolls and watching movies with my family! LOVED IT! (It was really hard to get these pictures and these were the only pictures I was able to get!)
This year I made blankets for everyone. Well, Klaira made her's back at Thanksgiving and it gave me the idea to put one together for everyone so we could all be warm on Christmas morning. (Colton was being a stinker!)
Ok, lets try it again! Come on Colton! Mommy wants a nice picture! Oh well....
So this year has been big changes for Coqui. After 3 1/2 years of being married to Derek, she found that he was not the eternal companion that she needed him to be. She filed for divorce (it will be final next month) got a new place to live, a new job and now is finding out who she wants to be. She says that she is happy now!

Keana and AJ are living in Merced which is only an hour from us! AJ is now working for a lumber group, but he has a weird schedule. Kea is still looking for a job and has learned that it is hard to find a job in a college town. All the college kids have the jobs. They had to give up their animals to be able to live in the new apartment. This has been really hard on Kea since she really loves animals.

Colton doesn't like having his picture taken by me for some reason...Colton is a student at ITT focusing on Drafting and Design. He just got a job with U-haul and is really busy with friends and dirt bike riding. He has a really cute girl friend this year that we all like! (Yea Jody!)

Klaira is so incredibly busy with 2 choirs, drama, school and church! She is really looking forward to getting her drivers licence this year so she doesn't have to wait for me to pick her up for all her activities. She has found that she loves ATV's and can't wait to get back up to the Ranch in Idaho!

Silly Jeff! It is hard to get a picture of this guy without him crackin up! Jeff is unemployed! NOOOOO! Well, this has been a good and bad thing. I am LOVING having him home. He has been such a great support with everything that I have been busy with the past few weeks! The bad part is that no money is coming in! The good part is that he is doing some things that he has wanted to do but has not had the time. (Yep, he is finally taking flying lessons!!!!)

Sorry, no pictures of me...(Which is really ok with me since I am growing my hair out and look like a left over of the group Wilson Phillips!)

I am so busy with so many different things(work, wood signs, nursery, chasing Klair...) that I am thinking that it is time to start clearing off my plate. I want to take some classes this year, try some different things. I will just have to see what this new year brings.

We have been blessed to have been able to stay in the same house for 2 years now! Amazing! We love where we are and love the people in our lives! We are blessed with good friends and great family! We miss having family so far but love the updates we get in emails and facebook!

Ok...here is my serious face...

New Tree

For almost 20 years we have had a little tree that has had special meaning for us. Unfortunally that tree has started looking like a Charlie Brown tree. It is falling apart. It just wasn't feeling much like Christmas and I really did not feel like decorating. It took about 2 weeks of Jeff telling me it is time to get a new tree to convince me it was time to go shopping. After running back and forth between two stores looking at the selection, we finally found one we both agreed on. The only thing missing was the wonderful smell. We found a live wreath that smells like Christmas. We brought the tree and wreath home and started decorating the tree. It took me a bit of time since I am so use to decorating a two foot tall tree. This one is over 6 feet! Even then, I had it almost finished when we though something was missing. It just was not working. So I added other colors. Nope, still not right. Then another color. Ooops, now it looks like a patriotic tree. OK, take all the blue off! THATS IT! ( NO Colton, take the blue off! I understand that you love the blue ornaments but they don't work on this tree. Go put the blue ones on a little tree for your room.)
Then I felt like decorating the rest of the house. Now it feels like Christmas. I am looking forward to this week when we will have all of our kids home!

Past Few Days

So much has been going on that I thought it would just be easier to blog it all at one time.
Across the street from me is this house. I got a kick out of the fact that the polar bear has flowers blooming behind it. At night time their lights give off a soft glow that reflects to our yard. I will be sad when they take the lights down.

The other day we actually had fog. I love how it makes the trees look. It is interesting how people here can not drive in fog! I get frustrated getting behind people going 20 mph when you can see at least a half mile ahead of you.
Today in church we had our Christmas program and we had many visitors. We had 19 kids in nursery with 4 more popping in and out. It is fun to see just how much of a schedule these kids are use to when I changed it up today since classes were shortened so we could get out early for a ward social. We didn't have snack time since the ward was serving cinnamon rolls for the social. Several of the kids let me know that we were doing it wrong. We were missing snack! We finally were able to convince them that they would not miss snack, but that they were going to have snack with Mom and Dad today. What a great group of kids we had today! I love it! Yes, this is a picture of 18 kids ,ages 3 and under, sitting and coloring while we gave the lesson. Amazing!

This is one of my buds! He insisted on having me take his picture today and wanted to see it. I am going to miss having him in my class. Next week is the last week for several of my kids since at the beginning of the new year the 3 year olds will be moving up to the next class, the Sunbeams. About 7 of our kids will be moving up. They are such good helpers and have the BEST stories. (Not to mention, they CAN talk and I can understand them.) Our little ones that will be with us for another year to 2 years are just learning how to talk. I am so Thanful for the helpers that I have in nursery. I could never do this job without them. This many kids on my own? Makes me shiver just thinking about it. (I truely enjoy this calling, but go home every week so wiped!)

Open House Fun

This past week was a fun, exciting, time consuming, stressful, and more! Loved it! My friend Laura opened her house with a little boutique for several of us to bring and sell our crafts that we had been working on all year. One gals had home made glass beads that she had made and made it into beautiful jewelry. Another gal had made headbands for babies. Another one had candles that smelled soooo yummy! I had put together several fun new projects and most of them sold! Then Susie had an open house for just vinyl lettering. It was a crazy day! Susie got several orders off of her open house and so we are going to be busy for the next several weeks! Here are some of the our favorite projects!