Dear 2012, be good to us.....

It's New Years Eve. Christmas has come and gone and that is always bitter sweet. It is such a wonderful time of year, but dang does it involve lots of work and clean up.

Of course it is all worth it for these two peanuts:

                                                    Reading with daddy on Christmas Eve

                                                      The loot on Christmas morning

                                              The Village Green all decorated for Christmas.                  

                                           Charlotte is proud that she can explore on her own.

And of course, Mama and her babies dreaming about Santa.

So we say goodbye to Christmas. We also said goodbye to our family who came to stay with us. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and it was fun to have a house full of craziness.

Now I have a few days to relax, even though it is oddly quiet around here.

Tonight we will have a New Years Eve pajama party with some close friends who have kiddos who are the same age as ours. It is perfect for us. We make lots of good food, let the kiddos play, and usually don't make it even close to midnight. It is nice to hang out with people who get the fact that having little ones is not conducive to staying up late and partying.

In the spirit of New Year, I need to make my resolutions.

Here is my resolution from last year: NYE

We did pretty damn good with this one until about 2 months ago. As the pregnancy exhaustion set in, clean eating suddenly became less clean, I was easily tempted by Dunkin Donuts trips and pizza takeout sounded so easy and tempting.

This vacation is helping me get back on track and is a great time for resolutions. I do feel like I should give myself positive credit. I started this blog in December of last year, 6 months post baby and 154 lbs. I weigh less than that now at 21 weeks pregnant but more importantly I feel much better about how I am living my life. I still make exercise and eating healthy and priority and although staying healthy while pregnant is not easy, and I have my slip ups, I do feel like I have made some very positive, permanent changes in my life.

I am looking forward to going back to using myfitnesspal.com, working out harder and getting back to my best shape (135 lbs and muscular) after the baby is born.

So with all of that in mind, here are my resolutions for 2012:

No dunkin donuts coffee (unless we are on a road trip or someone brings it to me) and using the Kuerig instead.

Try more clean eating recipes

Get the kids to eat healthier and make better food choices on their own

Spend more time on simple pleasures that don't cost (knitting, long walks, etc)

Flirt with my husband more: It is really hard to keep the spark alive when you have a honeymoon baby followed by two more babies, all in a less than 5 years. As our 5 year anniversary approaches and I am finally done with pregnancy and eventually nursing, we need to work on that spark.

Go back to following New Rules of Lifting for Women

Start working out (slowly) 2-3 weeks after baby as long as I have a normal delivery.

Start to really accept and enjoy where I live and stop investigating moves to other places

Get to the beach on almost every nice day this summer, even though it will be next to impossible with 3 kids

Have a better garden with more variety

Get more chicks and merge them successfully with the rest of the flock

Actually finish some knitting projects.

Happy New Year. I wish you all great joy, health and lots of love in 2012!