Book Hangover

When's the last time you stayed up way too late

finishing a book you just couldn't put down?

I recently neglected the piles of dishes in my kitchen

and the toys scattered all over the living room floor

because I was sucked into this book -

I was tired the next day, 

but it was a great read and coffee is a fabulous cure.

Also, this book is the first in a trilogy, 

so hopefully there are two more great reads ahead!

What's the last book you couldn't put down?

Gingerbread Fun

Here is one last post about Christmas 

because the pics are too cute not to share.

This is Walter and his auntie Melissa 

getting ready to make his first ever gingerbread house.

  

She brought all of the supplies and helped Walt 

and his cousins Ally & Emma

 make some beautiful masterpieces.

 

Here he is assembling the basic structure -

 and then it was time to decorate!

   Walt went with colored marshmallows for the roof -

 

but I often found him doing more of this than decorating.

But we kept building -

while Ruby cheered us on!

After tons of fun and hard work -

 and opening a zillion peppermint candies to cover the ground -

Walter threw his hands up and announced he was "all done!!"

He's pretty proud of his first gingerbread house.

It's still sitting on our dining room table.

It might still be there next Christmas : )

A Little More Christmas

Here are my babies in their jammies

ready to open presents at home -

 and here they are ripping into things -

 

and showing off some of their gifts -

Christmas was so much fun.

The new year is off and running - literally!

Yep. I hit the streets tonight for
my first official run of the new year.
It was awesome.
I survived about 3 miles with the help of a friend.
Fargo half marathon here I come!

 And seriously - the weather couldn't have been better.
It was a record breaking 55 degrees here today,
which is absolutely unheard of at this time of year.

I swiped these pics from today's paper because they show
just how different the weather has been this winter, than last.

Here's a photo on Jan. 5, 2011:

And here is that same street today on Jan.5, 2012:

Crazy, huh?
Never would've thought I'd be out
running on dry pavement on January 5.
I even got so hot I had to take off my sweatshirt!
If this is global warming, I'm a huge fan.

Happy 2012!

I LOVE a new year.
The weekend before it is generally spent putting away
all of the decorations and clutter that Christmas can bring
and the extra day off is generally spent scaling back, cleaning up, organizing, and gearing up for a fresh start.

I also enjoy making new year's resolutions.
Last year I posted a few of my goals here and here
and showed you a ton of unfinished projects
that are piled up in my garage.
I'll tell you what -
after reviewing all of those projects and my 2 goals,
the ONLY thing I managed to complete
was baking my baby Ruby! Ha ha.

Even though I didn't accomplish many 

of the projects I had set out to, 

we still got a lot done around here in 2011.

Like painting the walls and ceiling of the master bedroom -

 

Like becoming a family of four -

 

 Thanks to the addition of Miss Ruby -

We also transitioned Walter to a toddler bed, so that Ruby could have the crib -

 We redid a dresser -

And set up and painted a big boy room for Walt downstairs -

So it isn't that nothing got accomplished. 

Just none of the things I blogged about. 

I could hang my head in shame
for all the things I failed to accomplish last year,
or I can be inspired to give it all another go
and add a few more things to the list.

I'm going with the second option and like last year,
I'm listing two of my goals for the year right here:
#1: I am hoping to accomplish this in May -

  

It's been a LONG time since I've run a race longer than a 5K, so we will see how this pans out.

 #2: I am also hoping to decorate Ruby's bedroom. Once Walt moved downstairs in September, her room got stripped down from everything that was Walt's. It's pretty bare and needs a little girling up. I'm excited to tackle this project.

Anyone else got some goals for 2012?!

I won't hold you to them because sometimes you just can't get it all done (or any of them done) but it's always fun to be inspired and have things to work on and look forward to.

I hope you stick around in 2012. 

We'll see if I manage to pull any of these things off!