Two Thousand Nineteen.

I just love a sweet, sleepy baby first thing in the morning. She’s got crazy bedhead hair, she smells like sleep, and she’s so warm & cuddly. I’m gonna miss slow, sleepy mornings now that all these extra days off work are done…

Since I made a billion pancakes for an army yesterday (I honestly don’t know why I made so many), we still had plenty of leftovers for breakfast today, without actually having to cook anything. We also used paper plates, so that made things even easier!

Emerson was absolutely enthralled with this music video on YouTube with Yoda & Luke Skywalker.

Then she watched her first episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, and loved the signing & dancing. (Although I found the voice of the red guy with one eyeball super annoying.) We also watched a little bit of The Wiggles, and that bothered me less.

Random intersection – look at my cute, pregnant sissy! The girls are each the size of a canteloupe! We’re all excited because THIS YEAR we will meet the triplets!!!

Back to today… Jeff and the boys went to another movie this morning (this time with Nana), to see the new animated Spiderman. So after we played for a bit, Emmie went down for her nap shortly after 11am. I then washed dishes (the ones I was too lazy to deal with last night), and took a shower. After Emmie’s nap, we met the family for lunch at BJ’s.

After lunch, we went back to my parents’ house for just a bit, and got Emmie to ride in her Jeep again. Just like the first time, she was a little scared in the beginning, but once she was moving, she was happy & laughing!

These are the little Lego BrickHeadz we made last night. From Left to Right: I made Hermione (from Harry Potter), Jeff made Luke Skywalker & Yoda (from Star Wars), Gabe made Cyborg & Ryan made Aquaman (both from DC Comics).

While Emmie took a short, late afternoon nap, Jeff set up the boys’ new hammocks they got for Christmas in our front yard. Emmie only slept for about 30 minutes, so we went out and joined the boys once she woke up. And when it was my turn to get in one of the hammocks, I just totally ate it, and flipped out backwards! The scary part was, these are right on the edge of our yard, at the top of a large hill/slope down to the ditch. I was so scared I was gonna slide down the hill backwards, head first! I was dying laughing, and hollering for Jeff to come save me. Luckily I didn’t slide down the hill, and Jeff came over and rescued me. I was able to successfully get in after that first incident.

While we were in our hammocks, Jeff’s parents drove up. They were coming over to join us for our traditional New Year’s Day meal, that I grew up eating (at least some variation of) with my family. I made pork chops (in my grill pan on the stove top), white rice, black eyed peas, and green beans, with Hawaiian rolls. (Jeff and I don’t like greens.) And they brought cookies, cupcakes, and ice cream for dessert. It was all delicious!

We had some fun play time after dinner, and then got Emmie dressed in some cute new jammies.

My MIL Nita generously offered & washed all the dishes, while I got Emmie to bed (only a little past her usual 7:30 bedtime, at 8:10), and they stayed until about 8:15. After they headed home, I took all the ornaments off the tree, and called over Jeff at the last minute to get the stuff off the very top. I then decided to give up (even though I had wanted to get it completely taken down tonight), when I realized it was already 8:45, and I was exhausted!

The boys are playing video games, so I’m now in our bedroom. I’ll either read my book, or watch something calm on Netflix, because I need some quiet, down time for my introverted self to relax & recharge, after almost an entire day with other people. (Even though those people are my family and I love them, I still need some quiet time to unwind, and 12-year-old twin boys, playing video games, is the opposite of relaxing.)

One last thing before I go, I want to share some goals for the upcoming years. They’re not exactly resolutions, but close enough I guess.

2019 Goals:

1. Paint kitchen cabinets. (We painted the dark wood paneling in our living room almost 2 years ago, and never finished up the room by doing the cabinets. Have any of y’all done your own kitchen cabinets? I’m a little terrified of this project for some reason, which is why we’ve procrastinated on it for so long. I would love to know how it went for you, or if you have any tips & tricks!?)
2. Clean up front bedroom & turn into guest room. (It’s currently a catch-all/dumping ground for anything that doesn’t really have a place in the house. There are also boxes in there that we never unpack when we moved in the house in August 2016. I’d say it’s finally time to deal with that disaster! when we start working on it, I’ll share some pics of the craziness that’s going on in there now.)
3. Lose 30 pounds. (I know, I know, so cliche to have a weight loss goal for the new year. But for real, I need to get on it.I’ve lost weight before, and I know I can do it again, it’s just finding the motivation and determination to stay on track!)
4. Read 100 books. (My Goodreads book goal last year was 75 books, and I ended up reading 103. so I figured I’d go ahead and set the bar high at 100 this year! I wrote a whole post the other day all about my reading life, so click here if you missed it.)
5. Hang up photos & decor around the house. (when we painted the living room a few years ago, we hung up pictures and decor in that room, and then just kind of stopped and didn’t hang up anything else in the house. Then we did Emerson’s room before she was born, and her room is completely finished. But nothing else is! So I really want to continue making our house a home, and hanging up cute things on the walls. We have a bunch of stuff still boxed away, we just need to get it out and decide where it all should go.)

I wanted to have a list of 10 or 12 goals for the year (I thought 10 sounded like a nice round number, or 12 goals for 12 months), but then I couldn’t think of any more than this. So we’ll leave it at 5 for now, but give myself the freedom to come back and add more if I think of some as we go. do you guys make any New Year’s resolutions or goals or less? I’d love to hear them!

Here’s to a happy & healthy 2019!