Now...Where Were We??

Oh yes, I was playing the part of the blogging slacker and you were the annoyed reader :-)

Hope you all had a great holiday season. Ours was great. Actually, it was one of the best we've had in a while. I'm not even sure why, I just felt so relaxed and calm and happy during all of it....and I can't even remember the last time I felt that way during the holidays. Usually I'm completely stressed out. It was so nice to really enjoy it this year. It probably also helps that the weather this winter has been AMAZING!!! I know it's supposedly global warming and that's a bad thing blah, blah, blah. But when the average temps this time of year are normally around freezing and this year the entire month of January has been between 45 and 60 (until today....it's currently 7...I'm wearing my coat and scarf right now...in the house.) it's pretty hard to complain.

Here is a nice little family pic from Christmas..

Hmm, let's see, what else is new. Oh, we have a new niece!! Greg's brother Matt and our sister-in-law Kelly had their second child in late December. Her name is Mallory (love that name). We were hoping Kelly would have her when we were home visiting, but we just missed it by a few days. I can't wait to meet her. The pictures of her are so precious!!

The whole new year's resolution hoopla has begun around here. I have several resolutions, some of which I'm doing well on and others not so much. I decided to give up all soft drinks...even diet. I used to drink 1-2 Coke Zeros a day, so I've started brewing a pitcher of green tea every couple of days and just drink iced green tea instead of soda. I've done fairly well. I've cheated a couple of times, but for the most part, I'm off the sauce (cola).

I'm also cooking a lot more....meaning I don't just microwave things or get them out of a can :-) This one I go in waves on. I'll cook up a storm for a few days in a row, but then I just get so tired of it. When I'm on a cooking spree, I wind up feeing like my whole existence is spent cooking or cleaning up the mess I made from cooking. I bought a grain mill too, so I've been grinding my own wheat flour. I made blueberry pancakes from scratch last weekend with my freshly milled wheat flour. The pancakes were delicious if I do say so myself :-) I've also been making daily smoothies. I have an app on my phone with a bunch of healthy smoothie recipies. Very yummy. Ben loves them too.

My other main resolution is to get back to attending church on a regular basis again. We went a long period of time where we just weren't going at all. This is partially due to getting a new pastor (we loved our old pastor) and partly because Ben would throw such a fit in his Sunday school class that it became super stressful to go. Anyway, we need to start going again.

Ben turned 3 last month!!! I can't believe he is 3. He is really growing and developing so quickly now. He has made leaps and bounds with his speech and is really becoming a big boy. His speech therapist is thrilled with how much he is progressing. Also, he can go to the bathroom all by himself now (except #2...we're still struggling a bit with that). He goes to daycare once a week and doesn't even cry when I drop him off anymore. We also have a weekly playdate with a couple of ladies from my MOPS group. So things are really going well with Mr. Ben.

I'll be doing the Lincoln half-marathon again this year. I'm excited because I didn't get to do it last year because I was out of town. The race keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. The first year I did it, the cap was 6500 runners, then they raised it to 8,000, then to 10,000 and it kept selling out every year. This year, it sold out within a couple of weeks. Crazy!!! I'm glad I signed up right away! It looks like they will have to raise the cap again next year. I love how active this community is. Lincoln only has a population of 250,000 and the fact that the marathon consistently sells out says a lot.

And last but certainly not least.....My brother came home from Afghanistan in September!!!!!! We went back for his welcome home celebration and it was wonderful. We are all so incredibly proud of him and grateful for service to our country. But most of all, we are so glad he is finally home!!! Love you Jimmy!

Brooke