Happy 2012!!!

Wow! I didn't get a chance to blog over the course of our four Christmas celebrations, but we had a great Christmas! Dennis has some time off, which has been wonderful for all of us and the boys are so much fun!! Kids really help you remember the joy of Christmas and it is amazing! Cooper is really understanding that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and he loved playing with the little nativity dolls and telling me the story, as well as having a little Santa fun, too. Clayton just wanted to touch all the presents and stare at the lights. Luckily, he didn't learn to army crawl really good until just a few days ago or the tree might be in jeopardy.

We had Christmas with our friends, the Stotts family first, then with Dennis' family, then our house with some of my family, and our last one this past Saturday with more of my family.....what a whirlwind! We are so amazingly blessed to be able to celebrate with our friends and family and we are so thankful or each and every one of them.

2011 was a little bit crazy but also wonderful with the birth of our second child! For me, personally, I was not physically well for a majority of it between recovering from giving birth and turning around and having gall bladder surgery, and part of it, I thought I would literally go insane. But it ended wonderfully and 2012 will be awesome!

Clayton hanging out

Cooper, David, and Grace

Dennis and his new hunting gear

All the Rains cousins!

Mommy helping Coop with his Bat Cave

Adorable!

Santa's goodies- Coop insisted we leave coffee, too

Trucks on Christmas morning

Santa has been here!

Santa left us a letter

...and the reindeer ate their food, but Dancer left a little something

Dennis and his new chair blind....what was I thinking!?!? I created a monster!

My sister, Sasha & niece, Chloe

Mamaw, the boys, and Dennis

Papaw with his sign that Chris (next to him-sister's boyfirend) made...I got one, too....way cool!

Chris, Sasha, Chloe, Cooper, Marie, and Poppy

Uncle Ryan and Clayton

I just loved this one....a boy and hid dog

My little party animal

Goals for 2011

I have been challenged by my friend, Traci, to post my goals for the year. I thought this was a great idea to help me be more accountable....I just have to put it where I will see it, too, so I am going to put a copy in a sheet protector and put it in the front of my planner to remind me! I just set goals for the things that have a deadline, or that I can measure weekly or monthly, not for things that will be ongoing for us. These are also just things for our family and home...I have a few more for business stuff and finances that are in the works (not to mention not real exciting) so I am just sharing the family stuff and things that I personally plan to do this year. So, here you go:

2011 GOALS

OPERATION BABY PREP--- I have a lot to get done before the May 21st due date!

Deadline March 1^st--

Order small dresser- will need to do this by the first of March to be sure it’s here on time…only piece of furniture that we need and it’s a hard size to find!

Deadline April 1^st--

Sort through baby clothes from attic   Yay!! DONE!  1/8/11

Bring in and clean up baby gear from attic

Arrange furniture in kids’ room

Organize kids’ closet   DONE! Think I actually did this sooner, but finished 1/8/11

Finish list of what we still need to get   After going through all the stuff we have, it was easy to make this list 1/23/11

Deadline May 1^st--

Make some prepared food that I can freeze for easy meals in May/June

Begin “nesting”…will probably have already started this anyway!

Take a spring vacation or extended camping trip 

HOUSE & GARDENING

Deadline April 24th (Easter)--

Plant flower bed in corner of yard—sunflowers and some easy to grow perennials because I’m lazy like that

Mulch around roses

Make beds for perennial fruits and veggies

Plant corn and okra….maybe a few other things….this will not be as much as last year, since I probably won't be up for doing a lot of weeding when it's 200 degrees with a newborn on my hip!

FOR MYSELF:

PHOTOGRAPHY—Deadline May 1st

Get someone to give me lessons with new camera (You Tube!)

Set up software to edit photos  Done in January, can't remember what date!

READING---

I am stealing an idea from Traci--to read one good book per month….that will be a stretch probably, but I have plenty of books to read, re-read, or that I can borrow
                 January---ALMOST finished one

SPIRITUAL---

Spend at least 15 minutes every day in the Word, devotional, prayer, listening to sermons, etc--some days I will have much more time, but I have slacked and want to be more consistent this year
                 January---Not been as consistent about it as I'd like....February will be better

Keep my “Grace” journal with entries at least 3 times a week recording where I saw God’s grace at work in my life and around me
                January---I did it at least twice a week

Thursday morning Bible Study---This is a MUST! I look forward to Thursdays for this! 

Happy New Year!

Ok, I kind of missed posting on Christmas....we've been all over the place with family get togethers! The weekend before Christmas, we had a gathering at our house with immediate Ashcroft family and Mamaw and Papaw. Then, on the 23rd, we did Rains Christmas with sleepover at Darian's house in Pryor, then to Claremore to Kristine's house....whew! We did get to spend all day Christmas day at home just the three of us and had fun relaxing and playing with Cooper's toys. We finished up our events yesterday with the rest of the Ashcroft clan in Bella Vista. It was great to see lots of family that we don't see often and visit with everyone!

So, Happy New Year!! We have been so blessed in 2010 and we look forward to lots of good changes in 2011 with the arrival of baby #2 and changes with my job. I am no longer youth director as of  yesterday, so I am settling in to take care of Coop and get ready for the baby on top of learning to do some bookkeeping for Dennis's business and continuing to volunteer at the church, so I'm pretty sure I won't be bored! I'm also hoping to learn to take some awesome pictures with my new camera this year, do a few more sewing projects, and a plant flowers this spring before baby gets here.

We're hoping to find out if baby #2 is a boy or a girl this week, so I will keep you posted!!

Happy New Year!

It's 2010!!! The last year has been pretty eventful for us, in mostly good ways and we're looking forward to seeing what this year has in store for us. We wish everyone every blessing this new year has for you!