Rewind to Christmas 2012

I was not much in the Christmas spirit last Christmas. Mainly health and mental reasons but I still made the best of it. Sophia of course was undeniably cute as a button as always. Excited about the entire process from start to finish. She loved the thought of Santa coming and talked about it daily. Next year we are completely changing it up and going to Kauai! I can't freaking wait. Not that I don't love Christmas at home but I think it's time to break the every year tradition. I am still planning to do Santa but it will be on a MUCH smaller scale. Enjoy!

Getting Ready For Santa

Santa loves his cookies

Christmas Morning

Most Cookies eaten

Daddy getting Sophia Princess ready

She named all her new Disney Barbies

The guys dressing Sophia! It was so cute.

Tea for 2 or 4?

Getting a little sleepy

Opening Paw Paw and Grandma Norma gift

Break Time

Then Sledding in the snow

Chinese Lantern Festival

I had originally purchased a Groupon for a  4 pack for a double date with my BIL (brother in law) but we kept dodging the weekend because of Holiday activities and out of town guests. (And that fact that it was BLISTERING cold outside.) Finally we got the opportunity to go but it was the last weekend and BIL was out of town so we took Sophia and MIL. I think many people had the the same idea since they too were holding their Groupon voucher waiting in line. The line was instantly. I felt really bad for the guy because it seemed to be the only one person who was able to scan the Groupon and he was doing it all himself. In addition there was a lot of people who would skip the line entirely then merge right at the end leaving everyone waiting behind them. It's just like Dallas traffic. I think we spent more time in line then we actually did looking at the beautiful lanterns. Having said that, it was totally worth the wait. Sophia was in awe the entire time. She just could not believe how beautiful everything was. It was fun just watching her run around and look at everything. 

The line getting in. We where standing in for a hour.

Entrance

By the time we left the line was twice as long. It was almost 2 full blocks. :) 

New Years Resolutions 2013

So this year was pretty successful when it comes resolutions. Lets do a quick review of what was accomplished. 

1) Write in my blog at the minimal of 2 times a week - Over the last year I got lazy. Distracted with stupid stuff. I can take 30 mins out of my day twice a week. Even if it's just tell a funny Sophia story or vent about life in general.

Was not accomplished. This year I will change it up to at least once a month. I think 2 times a week is way to  big of a goal. If I can just do a quick month review it will help me some. :)

2) Lose 15 pounds and maintain my already 50 pound weight loss. I would like to be at 165 before TTC another baby. Currently I am about 185 ish. Not terrible. Within a healthy weight range for my height but I really could do better if I just stay focused and stop eating "the junk" and continuing on with my exercise routine.

Did this but gained some back during Christmas  I will go back to my low carb eating and will begin to take my favorite kickbox cardio class again. I need to get back down to 175 and stay there for a little while. I am still at a healthy weight now but I must stay motivated to keep it there. All my sweets is going to my work via Monday.

3) Sandro returns to school to begin working on this masters. He already enrolled in community college so that he can obtain more math credits so he can apply for admissions to start his masters.

Sandro had a excellent year. He took 3 classes. Trig - B, Pre-Calculus-A, and Calculus 1 - B. Now on to this year will be Calculus 2 and Linear Algebra. He will probably be taken a GRE review class if possible so he can apply to UT @ Dallas for the Masters program.

4) To both get raises this year. No explanation needed on this. But it will be a requirement so we can do #5 of resolution on a more timely basis.

Done. Of course we hope to get this again this year. :) 

5) Pay off truck and start saving for baby #2. This is a big one for me. The only thing holding us back from having #2 at this point is all financial. My goal is to dump all extra money towards this truck. Current truck payment is $356 a month. Plan to put $400 a additional per month. $756 is what daycare will cost us for a second child not including Sophia. Total daycare is $1450 a month. Holy crap that is a lot. Plan to have this paid off in 15 months. (750*15 = $11,250)

We about 5 months away from achieving this goal. We have made double payments all of 2012. This year will be pay it off by May 2013. 

6) If we stay on plan that means we will TTC #2 by October 2012. Or at least begin. Hopefully get PG before February 2013. 

For personal and health reasons we have decided to put this on hold for at least 6 months. We hope to TTC again during the summer after we take our vacation. 

7) To keep myself motivated I just have to be more positive. I have learned that I am all about routine and either I need to embrace this about myself or learn to get the F over it. Being positive is essential to reaching our goals 15 years from now.

I think I did alright on this. But I am going to try to do better in 2013. 

8) Run a 5k competitively. I have been running now for about 6 months. I need to find a few races and actually run one for real.

I ran in 3 competitive 5k's this year. My best time was around 36:00 mins. Goal this year is to get it to be around 30 mins (or less) or course. Already signed up for my first race in January. So looking forward to the hotcake hustle. 

So our new resolutions for 2013:

1) Two vacations this year. One as a family. We are considering going to Yellow Stone National Park. The second will be a romantic vacation for me and Sandro to St. Lucia. Super excited about this one. 

2) Finish savings and paying off consumer debt. I would like to tackle our other car after we are done with the truck. Maybe 3x the payment amount. Then we plan to buy a full electric car in 2014.. I am eyeing the Nission Leaf hardcore. 

3) I would like to get my project management certification. I am considering going back to school to do this. DCCD has a good program. I just need to get myself motivated. 

Overall I am looking forward to 2013. I love the feeling of starting fresh and setting goals. Hopefully I will keep them up this year. 

Here are some pictures from our 2012 photo shoot with Stefani Marcus Photography. 

Just a few from our Fl Vacation

2012 Bluebonnets

Big Girl Potty

Lets just say I am super proud of my little princess Sophia. She is less than 2.5 years old and she has just about mastered the whole potty thing. She tells us when she needs to pee and poo-poo and the accidents are very rare. I haven't had to ask her if she needs to pee. Even at night I put her in a diaper she never uses it. She has had a dry diaper for almost 2 weeks straight. Even on the weekends where she sleeps in. So I knew it was time to celebrate. My mother had given me some ladybug themed stuff for her bathroom almost 2 years ago. I been somewhat lazy and I finally decided to put it up.

Sophia was so excited. We went to Target together and found rugs, towels and a toothbrush holder. She was so excited to have a big girl bathroom to call her very own. I even got her a towel holder. We put at her level so she can reach it. I tried to convince her to go with red rugs but she was determined to get hot pink. Lets just say it's the boldest pink ever and she loves it that way. She shows everyone her restroom. Some times she has to take towels everywhere with her. I try to tell her to keep them in the bathroom. She is such a cutie pie.

Weekend in Oklahoma

This past weekend we went to Oklahoma to visit my dad, my stepmother, my Auntie Terri, my cousins Maria and Michael, my Auntie Marilyn, my cousin Ryan, Grandma and Grandpa, and little baby Ethan. While it was a brief visit we really did enjoy seeing everyone. It's very rare for me to get to visit with my cousins since they are all the way on the West Coast. It's the same for my Auntie Terri who is all the way on the East Coast. It is extremely hard to get everyone together at the same time. (not to mention a tad bit stressful)

The trip went with out a hitch. However, of course Miss Sophia got sick the night before. She did that at Thanksgiving as well. At least time it wasn't strep. Just a simple cold with a fever. We went to the minute clinic to get her ears, lungs and throat checked out just in case. The next day Tata took off so that he could keep her out of daycare in case the fever came back. It never did. Then we left Dallas around 1:00 p.m. Sophia surprised us and did well. We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way up there. Luckily they had Tutu dresses for sale. She was so happy to get a new dress that it pretty much kept her content the entire day.

It was a great visit. Of course Sophia was in the mood to test us as like she had done all week. Only in a entirely different element. She REFUSED nap time on Saturday. We had to basically force her to rest. She was way to over stimulated. She started to have tantrum after tantrum and just would not go down. Finally about 3:00 p.m. she went down. She slept until 5. Just in time for us to go to dinner at my Grandma's house. She actually did great the rest of the night. With the exception of a time out that was necessary for hitting mama after being warned. The the next morning at breakfast she had yet another meltdown at IHop. I am not sure why on this one. I think she did it because she wanted attention or maybe it was the food. Who knows. All I know was that I was worn out by this point.

It was great seeing everyone and I really enjoyed the trip with the exception of the meltdowns. I think anything that gets Sophia off her normal routine puts her in a mood. As soon as we got home she was happy again. I do think the timeouts are increasing over all and she still continues to test us. But it so much easier to discipline at home than it is in public. Maybe it was this aspect that was stressing me out.