My {Realistic} New Years Goals

This past Monday night my husband took over the weekly Family Home Evening lesson and I loved what he presented. It helped inspire my goals and get me motivated to work on myself.

He talked to our boys (mainly our eldest while our 3 year old colored...) about the importance of the new year, setting goals, and trying to continually work on ourselves. 

He had our son list categories of his life (i.e. academics, spiritual, musical, etc.) and asked him to set one or two goals in each category. 

He talked about how important it is to work on multiple areas of life to help us be more well rounded.

He told our son to also make sub-goals (smaller goals to help build up to complete the bigger goals). I loved this because I feel like it doesn't set him up to be overwhelmed. It gives him almost check points to work up to so he can actually complete things.

So with all of this in mind I set my goals as well and wanted to share them here in hopes that it might help someone else.

Raising Men

"Boys will be boys, or so they say, but I'm raising my boys to be men one day..."

I have 3 boys I get to call my own. 3 boys that my husband and myself are trying to raise in a world full of violence, evil, hatred, lust, and selfishness.
But also a world with hope, kindness, charity, and love.

Hopefully these 3 boys that have been entrusted to us will grow up to be kind-hearted, hard working, loving men one day.
That is my goal.
That is what my life revolves around right now.
Making sure my husband and myself take every opportunity, every small moment, every unspoken action to teach these future men how to be good human beings.
They say behind every good kid is a mom who's sure she is screwing it all up.
I hope that's the case because I feel like I am screwing it up on a daily basis.
This has been weighing on my mind a lot lately.
Our children are growing up in a different world than we did, and I hope and pray daily that we are doing our best to give them the tools and knowledge to make it through successfully.

The Baby Chapter

I've been writing this post in my head over the last few months since our baby was born.

3 months now. 

3 short months ago he came into our lives and completed our family.

Each night when I wake up to feed my little guy these thoughts have been running through my head.

I felt like I finally needed to write them down.

It's anywhere from 2:00-3:30 am when we are up together. Just the two of us.

The house is silent and dark, aside from the soft glow from the lamp on my nightstand, and I sit in my bed staring at this incredibly beautiful face as he is breastfeeding. In these moments I am in awe. In awe that me and my husband created this little being. That he is ours. That these kids of ours have been entrusted to us to be taken care of, loved, and taught. 

I am in love. In love with my life and my family. Yes I am exhausted, and yes part of me wishes I could give in and close my eyes and go back to sleep, but the other part of me is screaming 'No! Stay awake and stare at him as long as you can!' 'Breathe in that baby smell!' 'Memorize this moment!'

You see, this little one is my last baby. 

How to Save Money on Clothing for Kids

We have all been there, your child needs to get dressed and you discover that nothing in their drawers or closet fits them anymore.

I swear this happens to us on a monthly basis.

No joke.

Before you go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, do yourself a favor and be prepared by doing a little research and preparation first.
I mean you already know it's going to happen, why not get the most for your money??

Here are some tips and tricks I've learned when it comes to keeping my kids clothed without breaking the bank!

Preparing for my Hospital stay

I'm one of those people who like to know what's coming.

Mostly because I like to be able to think something through a little bit so I can have a rough plan in my head of how I would handle the situation.
I don't need to always be in-control or have everything figured out, but it's nice to have an idea of what I would like to happen...if that makes sense.

Even though I still have a few weeks until my little guy makes his arrival I've already been keeping a list of the things I want to make sure I grab when we end up heading to the hospital.

I am not going to schedule an induction, I'm planning on just letting my body do it's thing and let me know when our little guy is ready to make his appearance.
The hard thing though, is I obviously have no idea what day, or even time of the day I need to be ready to go.

With my first child, I wasn't really expecting him to come 3 weeks early.
But he did.

Pregnancy Announcement and some advice

I've got some exciting news to share...

That's right!

We are expecting baby #3!!

(I actually started this post last week...so we are already a week behind...better late than never I guess!)

We are beyond thrilled and our little family can't wait to embark on this journey together.

I actually took the pregnancy test on a Saturday while my husband and oldest son were out running errands. I of course wanted to tell them when they got back, and it seemed like it took them FOREVER to get home!

I showed them the test and we all started jumping, screaming, hugging...it was awesome!