Happy New Year! (again already???)

For a few years now, "2012" has been a mantra:

• "My food processor has holes that I have to hold my hand over when I chop food in it.... 2012!!!"  
• "I really miss that guy who I married.... 2012!!!!"   
• "I would love to get a babysitter so I can join the PTO...  2012!!!!"  

And now that 2012 is here (hooray!) my new mantra can be "June, June, June."  We can do it :)  

2011 has been a good year, I feel like I am starting this new year feeling great.  Some of the highlights have been:

• Fun trips to Northern Michigan, Myrtle Beach, and NYC with the kiddos
• A nice hot summer full of swimming lessons (only in Michigan would I consider 80 degrees "hot")
• I can take the kids to the mall and not want to pull my hair out by the time we leave!
• Grace having a good year in 1st grade
• Vivian graduated from speech therapy in record time
• Vivian got glasses
• Sam potty trained himself.  Awesomest thing ever.
• I amazed myself by sticking to an eating/exercise program (Live the Life) pretty faithfully for 6 months and started swimsuit season feeling good.
• Rob started his chief year of residency!
• We get to have Rob sitting with us during church again, so the kids don't have to stand on the benches and whisper-yell "Hi Daddy" anymore. :)  
• Got new carpet, yay!
• Kids all started gymnastics and they love it.

And just to keep it real, some "lowlights" of 2011:

• I fell off the Live the Life wagon (and then some!) once summer started.
• Sam has stopped sleeping.  No naps, up late, crawls into my side of the bed in the middle of the night.
• Can't keep the house clean to save my life.
• Didn't make any freezer jam this year since I thought we'd have enough to last until we moved.  Now we have to eat store-bought jam.  Serious bummer.
• Grace's bus is scheduled to come at 8:23, but often comes at 8:17, so she often misses the bus.  We really need those 6 minutes in the morning.

Goals for 2012 mainly revolve around Living the Life again, decluttering, organizing, cleaning, fixing, staging, and figuring out what will be happening after June. 

June, June, June, June.

What our future holds

The lucky city whose citizens Rob will be saving from incontinence, impotence, and infertility is.....

 Boise, ID! 

I never thought I would say these words, but I am completely thrilled to be moving to Boise. I went with Rob for his interview and fell in love with the town instantly.  I felt like I had come home (strange, because I've never been there).  Boise is like if Salt Lake and Ann Arbor--two of our favorite places--had a child.  I love it.  Love. it.

Tiny Prints

It's time for Christmas cards again!  This year I am thrilled that Tiny Prints is offering free prints for bloggers.  I have often drooled over their designs!  Some of my favorites from their Christmas collection are (I haven't picked mine yet...):

Love the bold stripes

How fun are these little ornaments?

Tri-fold. Love.

I would love to do a square card. But let's be honest, I don't want to pay extra for postage.

I think my favorite thing about Tiny Prints is that if you find a card you like, for many designs you can select from a couple of color and card shapes.  It's awesome.  I don't know how I'll pick just one.  And I'm not just saying that for the free cards :)  Here's the link to shop for your own:

While we're talking about Vivian...

1. The teeth. We got these trick-or-treating. The other 2 kids were bored of them in about 20 seconds. Viv's obsession lasted for days.

2. The outfit. Most of these items of clothing are parts of matching sets. No 2 matching pieces made it into the outift. You can tell she's TRYING to match.

Also, I just put a boatload of pictures up on Flickr from our trip to Northern Michigan in October.

Little Miss Sunshine

Oh Vivian. How do I begin to describe her? She is such a character. This is a collage of her while we were taking her 4-yr pictures, I think a lot of the shots capture her pretty accurately with her funny little attitude. She really is a ray of sunshine, she is constantly cracking me up. She is also very sweet and kind, always taking care of others. Today we were riding in the car, and she randomly said, "I'm thinking of Daddy. I'm telling him I love him in my mind." Then a few minutes later, she said, "I'm Sweaty Tomato. Start calling me Sweaty Tomato."
A few nights ago, Sam woke up crying with a fever at 3 a.m., and the crying woke Viv up, too. She was so caring with him. He said he was thirsty, so she went and got him some water, even put ice cubes in it. He was upset and didn't want ice cubes, so she cheerfully volunteered to go take them out. I was still trying to calm him down, and I asked her to get the thermometer, and she went right away and got it. Very sweet. She is pretty fascinated with blood, and likes to watch surgery videos with Rob, so we think she might be destined for a career in health care.
One of her new favorite lines is, "You're my best friend." She and Sam say this to each other all the time, especially when they want something the other person has. The other day she cracked me up by adding (ever so honestly), "You're my best friend.... today."
Viv is the one who will say what's on her mind, including asking "Why does that boy (a man, really) have strange hair?" or ask very loudly of the 80-yr old lady at the gym in a tank top, "Why do you have such crazy arms?" Twice. Did I mention loudly?
We've had a number of repairmen at the house lately, and she follows them around asking questions about everything they are doing.
Miss Viv is just herself, and I doubt that will ever change. And I love her.

Little Miss Toothless

Goodness, does she look grown up or what? The bottom tooth has been gone for a long time. The first top tooth came out in some taffy and was swallowed before Grace realized it was gone! The other one came out the next day with some help from Dad and dental floss.

Grace is becoming quite the writer and likes to surprise us with little notes that she leaves in our shoes or under our pillows. This one is my favorite. "I love you because you make pizza."

No DNA test needed

We showed Sam the picture on the left and asked him who it was. He said "Me!" We told him it was actually his dad, and he got very confused :) Eventually he figured it out, but you can certainly see how he would make that mistake!