Goals and Such

January is a nice time to set goals, although I try to set lots of them throughout the year. Some of the things I have been thinking about lately are spending time doing something spiritual everyday, exercising everyday, acquiring more talents (or getting better at talents I kinda have), and not comparing myself or my family to other people. I have been working on these for awhile, but the new year encourages me to try harder at them=)

 I got two new cookbooks for Christmas and I pulled out one my sister had given me a few years ago that I had never really tried. We have been trying new recipes which is really fun for me and mixes our normal menu up a bit. One of the books is a food storage book and I made a cheesecake with powdered milk the other day-it was delicious! The book my sister gave me a few years ago is called Deceptively Delicious and it uses different fruit and vegetable purees in normal food. We have tried lasagna with sweet potato and cauliflower, macaroni with beans instead of butter, and Hawaiian Kebobs with sweet potatoes and pineapple. They may sound weird, but it is really really yummy! The last book is the Our Best Bites one (you may have seen their blog). I am not kidding when I say every single recipe we have tried has been absolutely wonderful. Baked chicken toquitos, white bean chicken chili, crockpot rotisserie chicken, breadsticks, and several others. So yummy! Sean has been one happy man the last two weeks!

I got a new calling at church! In our church all the members get callings where they have different responsibilities such as teaching or playing the piano. I used to teach the 7-8 year olds in Primary (children’s organization) and now I am in the Young Women’s presidency. I get a chance to interact with all the young ladies in our ward 12-18 and especially with the 14-15 year old girls. I am loving this new calling! There are lots of meeting and many more weekly commitments, but it has brought the spirit so strongly into my life.

 Sean is just finishing up his finals. After he finishes this week he will begin studying for the Step 1 board exam. He will take 5 weeks of endless study and then he will take what feels like the biggest test of his life. We are pretty excited for him to finish up this first phase of medical school (the book learning part) and move on to the clinical rotations. It’s a big and kinda scary step, but it will be so fun and exciting too! Yay Sean for all the hard work you do!!

And now for Mr. Brett. He is growing up so so much. He has recently started clapping and blowing kisses. He loves to dance and goes around in circles whenever there is music playing. He recently learned the sign for more and now communicates if he want more or if he is all done very effectively . He loves to lie on his tummy and be covered with tons of blankets and pillows, then pop up at different intervals. With all this developing, he has been having a hard time getting to sleep at night and getting enough sleep. He is in his room right now playing in his crib when he should be sleeping=) This doesn’t really capture it, but he has loved diving down on his tunny in the bathtub lately and trying to eat the bubbles.
 
I had this little chair when I was little and got it out the other day for Brett, he loved it!
 
We got a little kitchen for Brett as a late Christmas present and he loves the microwave especially.

Funny fake smile! It amazed me how quickly they learn to do this.

So tired in the car, don’t you love the beautiful brown NM scenery in the background?
 
This child has a TON of blankets in his bed, he loves them all!

Christmas is over, yet he still insists on wearing these every time he sees them.

I don’t know what is wrong in this picture, but isn’t this a cute little sweater!

See, he felt so much better like 2 seconds later.
 
Brett got a little echo microphone in his stocking this year and it may be his favorite Christmas present. He loves to talk and laugh and yell into it.